Oh the last post. Kind of like a note taped to a door saying thanks to everyone who I interviewed and to those who stopped by to read, t'was fun, I learned a lot, merci! thank you!

Interview with Jesse Albert - talking about graffiti, street art, and art that isn't just a pretty picture to look at, but something you can actually walk into.

JesseAlbert.ca

How did you get started as an artist?

I was introduced to art early on.  My parents were very unartistic, so any opportunity that I got to see art became a lot more notable.  When an uncle came over who was skilled at drawing, it would blow my mind. It was that mysterious skill which first interested me, then afterwards what really pulled me in was that being an artist seemed like a different kind of lifestyle than an everyday kind of approach to your career and your life - and I wanted to break out of that and do my own thing.  It's still a job, it's still something that you have to work every day at.  In a lot of ways it's really business based, but of course it's about creativity, fun, collaborations...it's great.

Do you think you chose to be an artist? Or do you think you grew into it?

I think I definitely grew into it.  I dabbled in a lot of things before I set out on this path.  I wanted to be a photo-journalist for a long time.  That might be why photography is a big part of my work.  Just the idea of having a profession that you loved and that allowed you to do the things you wanted to do - for me to travel, create, meet new people, and so on.

Your style is really graffiti and urban street culture-influenced.  What is it about this kind of subculture that intrigues you so much?  Is is partly because you grew up in a small town, and coming to live in a city like Toronto had a big impact on you?

Absolutely, of course.  For me, growing up in towns that were sheltered, almost regressive in a way - they wanted to maintain heritage, and keep a slow pace - and that's cool, but for someone who's young and thirsty for some stimulating and colourful knowledge, I got really overwhelmed when I came to the city.  That's why the city itself became the subject matter for a lot of my work.  When I got to Toronto I definitely felt it was something that I wanted to express - my fascination with this thing that was new to me.  Now that I've been here for awhile, I want to grow beyond that and take the next step, which is to integrate.  A lot of the new installations that I'm making are a lot more nature-based; there's trees, animals.

So you're getting back to your roots...

Absolutely, and it happened pretty quick!

So you're very much inspired by your environment.  That's a consistent theme and source of inspiration it seems.

Because I'm not an abstract artist, I don't work formally.  I work as a response to my surroundings, you could say.  Sometimes it's done on canvas and made into an object - as a reflection of how I feel about a situation. Or it could be a vision that I had of a photo that I took.  With my installations and street art it's more about getting my artwork and my intervention into this space that I'm talking about; making it site-specific and a piece of work that will allow the viewer to think about the space that they're in while they're viewing it, and about themselves too.

That's where my work is going.  Once I got out of OCAD and I did my thesis, I had quite an artist's block for awhile.  I had just produced a lot, and there was no impetus after I had done a few shows, to produce anything new.  But I knew that I had to take the next step.  So I started doing more installation work, large-scale sculptures - projects that were more physical.  Pieces that you could actually walk through, or walk around, rather than just be in front of.  And I like that a lot, because today it feels like it's very hard for pictures to hold the power that they used to.  We're just swarmed by images everywhere. 

With your graffiti-inspired art and street art are you also in a way trying to inspire other artists to take more initiative when it comes to public art?

Yeah, totally.  It's really complicated for me, because in a lot of ways I dislike graffiti and I find it offensive, but on the other hand I love it too.  It's just done by so many people in so many ways it's hard to say that you do or don't like graffiti because it's developed into street art, murals, tagging...and even within those subcultures there's different rules and systems of what is or isn't respectable.

In terms of illegal graffiti there's no manual; it's all about people taking the initiative to express themselves beyond the order of law.  Often it's done in a really ugly manner - they'll deface murals, or wreck a bookstore's bathroom - and it sucks.  But if it's done in the right place it can be a really good use of space.  A big ugly, concrete wall that was empty anyway is now full of ridiculously complicated lines and colours and skill.

Proper graffiti - letters, names, tagging, bombing - spawned a lot of different stuff which shows that people are interested in the space that they live in, and how things look, and it says something about the people who live there.   I don't really agree with a lot of the illegal stuff, but that movement has also inspired this new generation of artists that are thinking about the public aspect of their art, and how to make the places that we live in speak to the people about our values.

 Was that your intention with the Norman Rockwell Looking Project - to include citizens in the art?  And why 'Norman Rockwell'?

The figure is from a Rockwell painting called Abstract and Concrete.  There's an old man in a sharp business suit, holding an art magazine, and he's very cleanly rendered.  And there's this wild colourful abstract painting in front of him.  It's a Rockwell joke, a funny little contrast.  I took that figure and put it in front of everything; dirty graffiti walls, everything.   It said something I figured a lot of people thought;  that abandoned walls that are reclaimed when people throw paint on them form this big abstract mess that looks like abstract expressionism.  Like I was saying about integrating people into the art - you become the one looking at the guy looking at the art.  I try to make pieces that get people thinking about their place in the work of art.

Rather than just having a picture to look at...

It's tough, because art has gotten really complicated.  People can't really identify with it because it's made really opaque, it's difficult to understand what it's about, and why it's done a certain way.  Anyone can say whether they like or don't like something off the bat, but a lot of work in the galleries is made to be really thought-provoking and intellectual, and it's alienating people.  People don't want to feel like they're being talked down to by artists. 

So you want to create something on a level that people can easily connect to?

No matter what their interest in art; whether they're a professional artist or curator, or a teacher or bus driver - everyone should be able to talk about it, rather than feeling intimidated by it.

It's like how Andy Warhol's work has that mass appeal - whether you're twelve-year old kid who thinks the colours look super-cool or whether you're an academic who can appreciate it on a more intellectual level...

It's good to have that substance there for people who're looking for it, and to have work that isn't just one-dimensional.  Even if the work just has one obvious statement, it could be really complicated, perhaps.  But it's important for people to be able to enjoy the work and how it's made, but also what it represents, the message it's trying to send.

Is there any media that you haven't yet used that you would like to explore, or work more with?

Hard media like glass and metal.  I've been making paintings and sculptures and I feel like the media themselves send messages which is why I've been making these trees made out of wood that I've been salvaging from around Toronto - and which I hope to make a lot more of.  The aerosol says something about graffiti.  I want to explore media that I want to make more physical work out of.  There's something about steel, aluminum, bronze, glass - and I don't know what they hold for me, I'm not really sure how to use them - but I could learn a lot from it and make something new that I otherwise wouldn't have thought of. 

Do you have any exhibits planned?

It's difficult coming out of art school because they don't teach you art business and how to be an artist in the market.  I think the education should be left open for people who want to create art as a hobby, but also for people who want to pursue an artistic career professionally they need the money to be able to make the work.  Coming out of school, I'm finding that I'm having to pool a lot of resources.  So I have a job to make money so that I can make these applications and proposals for works that could cost me a lot of money to make.  There is better education coming around with residencies, grants, and other funding opportunities in Canada. As an emerging artist who doesn't have a household name or reputation, people are a little timid to invest in you.  Other times, people will take a chance on you.  With the Relative Space Design Competition I was able to create an installation that was unlike anything else I'd ever done.

That was the Wayang Workshop which you won an award for?

The award was to create this proposed on-site installation in the Relative Space gallery which had a furniture store in the back and a gallery space in the front. They're a high-end furniture store, and it got me thinking about what kind of piece would compliment this kind of space.  So I did my piece about the rug makers.  I asked them what their philosophy was and they said they're about conscious consumerism; they want to be able to tell people where all the products in their store come from. And the rugs are very, very expensive -  but there's a reason for that.  I wanted to show that so I made a piece that not only was relevant to the subject matter, but the style it was done in was meant to share their culture with the people of Toronto.  It was done as cut-outs on the window, just like the Wayang style.

What was the material you used?

It's a plastic - I got a lot of that material that toothpaste tubes are made out of from a friend's dad -  a lucky hook-up.  A traditional Hindu mode of story-telling is to do shadow theater, so using that idea the figures were meant to show that part of their culture and to integrate the viewers into the art.  That's actually now part of my process for making new work - I try to think about who's going to be viewing, and where it will be exhibited. 


Can you talk more about your process?

It depends on the project and in what way would be the best to express an idea.  I want to do a painting when I want to share an image with people, where the picture itself communicates everything I want it do.  Sometimes it just starts with a flash in your mind of a feeling, an aesthetic - whatever intrigues you.  In other ways I want to make an experience for people, not just an object. That's how the Forest Tree Project happened, because I knew that I wanted to make something environment-based unlike my entire body of work.  It can take weeks and weeks or months of planning, preparing the materials, salvaging the wood and taking it to the site, getting all the tools ready and the assistance I need. Doing the art is the shortest phase.  With my paintings they can take 30 minutes to an hour, sometimes more, but the cutting of it will take a month.

You're talking about your spray-painting? How do you make those? Were you inspired at all by other artists doing similar work?

I started seeing the work of a lot of street artists like Shepard Fairey, and Banksy.  But it was Logan Hicks who did realistic street scenes using spray paint and stencils that were super super technical, and done with such skill that I had to test myself with doing something like that.  I learned from him by watching online videos of this guy work - finding out how he creates them and makes an efficient stencil.  You have to plan how each layer will lay underneath each other, and how the colours will match up and what connections can be broken and what connections need to be made to make the physical stencil strong enough to withstand the spray paint.  I use Photoshop's layering tools, posterize and cut-out filters to turn the image into just values; then taking each of the different coloured values and printing them all off separately to cut into stencils, then painting one by one onto the same surface to make the picture.  It sounds really really complicated, but anyone could do it.  It's just knowing how, and wanting to do that. 

Do you have a favourite medium?

For a while I would have said charcoal or ink, or acrylic was.  Now wood is definitely my favourite medium.  Because it's not liquid, it's solid,as and with wood you can make it into anything you want.  You can construct it as tall as you want, or as  broad as you want.  You just have to understand architecture and structure.  I'm excited by things that people can actually see, that things that are - rather than just representing something.  

How are you making all these trees?

The major stuff is done on site.  I transport all the materials there, and build it there.  It's often only meant to be there at the site.  With this tree a man asked me if I could make it mobile and to be able to fit through doors.  He wanted me to bring the exact one he'd seen in the pictures from that gallery to another spot.  I had trouble telling him it doesn't work like that because it was nailed and screwed into the floor and the ceiling - so very site-specific, meant only for that space.  

Also a lot of my stuff lately is made from whatever I can salvage at the time.  In a way it's a form of recycling.  But it's also to show people you can make art out of anything, and that you can be creative no matter what means you have at your disposal. 

Where do you see your art going in the future?

I want to be able to think bigger.  I want my art to be effective, to influence people, to maybe share information about the world that I feel is being ignored.  To bring people together and help each other and use art as the locus for that. 

Jessealbert.ca

 

 

A Morning Conversation with Artist Claudio Ghirardo >>> >>> >>> September 10th, 2010

Claudio Ghirardo:  The Portraits
Month of September, 2010
North York Central Library
5120 Yonge Street, 2nd Floor 

www.claudioghirardo.com

last time we spoke you were excited to be involved in Culture Days coming up.  When is it and what will be happening?

we're going to be part of the Arts and Crafts Fair at Mississauga City Hall September 24th, from 5-9pm. There's going to be three different easels setup for collaborative painting, and people will rotate between them. The day after, at Motyka Fine Arts, what we're doing is a smaller version of that, and have one large sheet.

is there a website for the event?

the only way to get information right now is through the MAC (Mississauga Arts Council's) website. 

so now about you..! A running theme that I found in The Portraits series is that the figures all seem to be either self-aware or very much aware of their environment, almost examining themselves or their environment - was this consciously done?

well, yes. What I find interesting with people, is that there seems to be two layers to them.  There's the first layer, which you get to see - how the person looks and talks, how you get to know them.  But when you really spend time with a person, you see all the idiosyncrasies, those little things that are actually there, but you never see them, they're underneath.  I think it's always interesting that that's actually the way you really connect with your environment, or the situation around you.  It's more on a deeper level, than on a superficial one.  Part of it is also because I hang out at coffee shops and sketch people. I'm interested in people's body language, or their facial expressions. You can learn quite a lot about a person from studying that right there.

you did an interview earlier this year when you were nominated for Mississauga's Most Established Artist award - congratulations by the way - where you mentioned that the book Bio-Spirituality was a big influence on you and on this series particularly.  The book is about Neo-Humanism, which I was trying to research, and I couldn't find too much information about it - could you please elaborate on this philosophy?

just to back-track a little bit, the term 'Neo-Humanism' actually came from my friend Peter Larisey, who's an art historian. For people to really grasp something, they have to have either a name or term. He called my work Neo-Humanist based on a lot of the Renaissance figurative works dealing with Humanism. I'm just doing something new with it.  It's really about that the body is a form of intelligence itself.  In Bio-Spirituality, there's a quote I find interesting - "the body has this understanding that the mind can't grasp".  The body's way of communicating is different than the mind's. It communicates through symbols, memories, movements, gestures. That's why I like the idea of distorting, or putting an extra limb, because it is the body now talking and communicating with the environment it's in. 

so there is memory involved in our physical interaction with our environment...

and the memory can be on a very deep level that you may not be able to understand or grasp.  So all of a sudden the physical feeling triggers something that makes you ask "why am I feeling this way?".  For example a friend of mine says she feels like she wants to throw up every time she hears the sound of styrofoam rubbing together.  And she doesn't know why.  All of a sudden the body's reacted to something, maybe it triggered a memory, or some experience.

i think we've all experienced something similar to that at some point...

yes, and we don't grasp it.  One of the terms used in Bio-Spirituality is called 'Focusing'.  It's a meditative quality where you're listening to your body communicate.

every figure in the series has that eye symbol.  Is there any significance to that symbol?  Is it an ancient symbol or was it you simplifying the eye and making it a symbol yourself?

i've learned that I work much better instinctually. When I just let go and just let it happen and unfold, and work with it, then something really wild happens. The eye was the same thing.  It's almost an introspective eye.  It represents something you're seeing within yourself all of a sudden.  Some people have a hard time seeing within themselves.  So that's why I simplified it and broke it down. It's also two-fold, one side is introspective, but it's also a way to communicate to the viewer.  Saying to the viewer: "there's something going on inside of me, and I'm seeing something like this, I'm reacting like this."

could you talk a bit more about your process?

What I try and do a lot when I'm working is to not have everything worked out or figured out ahead of time, to just let it be allowed. There's the practical side, which is the training I've received, but then there's the deeper side, the instinctual side.  I like to call it a dance because both elements are working together, they're flowing together.  Nobody's taking the lead, nobody's in charge.  You dance around, move around, and you just keep playing with it a bit more. Also, I once went to a show on outsider art.  What got to me as soon as I walked in was this absolute freedom in the work.  These people have never been trained as artists, but whatever they're feeling, or thinking about is just put out, they're just letting everything go.  That freedom to me communicated that they were really working on a deeper level.  Sometimes artists don't let themselves go, they want to have that sane control over the work.  I can understand that in some pieces.  I guess with me it just doesn't work well that way.  

Sometimes we can get so bogged down with the idea of concepts, when there's something deeper going on that you're not letting out, because you've got to analyze it.  A friend of mine, who's a therapist, said one of the biggest problems she has to deal with is having very analytical clients. She said when you try to analyze things so strongly, in a way what you're trying to do is control the situation.  She has to teach them to stop analyzing and let go. I like to stand in front of my work, and ask myself things like "why did I do that?".  But to just enjoy the experience of it as well.  It goes back to what I said about bio-spirituality - the experience is really now how your body is taking that knowledge, information, or that feeling in - rather than your head.

this reminds me of an art teacher I had once, who, a few months after he had created a piece, would suddenly realize why he did it, what it meant, or what it taught him about himself.  But it would happen after living with the piece for that length of time. 

i like what one friend said to me.  He said that the journey of life is to connect the heart and the mind.  I was talking to another friend of mine, and we were having a discussion about human beings having duality.  And we thought that human beings are not actually two-in-one, we're three-in-one.  There's the connection between the spirit, the mind, and the body.  He said in a way, you have to balance all three.  Balancing all three of them, you have to work at it.  He said we're really trinitarian beings - there's three aspects to us. 

it's interesting - I just covered the Loop Gallery's Elizabeth Babyn exhibit, and one of her themes was sacred geometry, and the triangle is very apparent in the human body....  But I wanted to ask you, are there any famous or well-known artists that have inspired you?
it's funny because I'm still having a debate with some people about the whole concept of inspiration.  I once heard this interesting talk by Tony Sherman, who said there's no such thing as inspiration.  I  prefer to sometimes use the term influence. The biggest one definitely has to be Picasso.  When I was teaching myself,  I rented this documentary on Picasso.  In one week, I watched that video about five or six times.  On the second day I started doing all these drawings of me and Picasso.  It was the weirdest thing in the world.  I just started doing these drawings for no reason at all.  And in the drawings we were having a sword fight.  To this day I still don't get it.  I had one friend look at it, and she was describing our qualities, how Picasso is more earth-bound, whereas I'm more air-bound.

so it's like the two elements battling?

yeah, she said you're seeing these two elements of you and Picasso.  I think I did about ten drawings in one day of just that theme.  

it seems like you're very much in tune with your right brain, that abstract part of us - you're so in tune with that, it's awesome. 

that's one of the reasons why I say I'm inspired by life, because what I'm saying by that is I try to connect myself to the world around me.  The one thing I don't have is an Ipod, and I never used to have a walkman.  I tried it one time, and I hated it.  I like hearing everything, or feeling the wind.  Right now I'm feeling the sun on this side. The cars going by here, people walking over on this side...

being in the present moment...

yeah, yeah. And it's not something I'm thinking about, because then I close it off.  But if I just let it be, it's like OK, I'm in this thing. Even the main religions talk about the importance of being to connect with everything all around you.

also in the interview you gave, you said that no one chooses to be an artist, but rather you're choosing to accept who you really are.  It seems to have come easily to you, or did you ever have to struggle with this?
oh, I struggled with it immensely.  When I was a kid I wanted to draw comics for a living, and I think so because it just triggered the idea of drawing, of art.  To me, growing up as the son of Italian immigrants, from World War II, the whole focus was to get a job, make a living, to put a roof over your head.  Both my parents had to deal with poverty, and had to help the family before they built a life for themselves. When I talked to them about how I wanted to draw comics of course at first they were like "What?!".   Later when I saw those pieces at the Museum of Modern Art, it triggered something in me, but I didn't know how to deal with it.  Because I was taught to think get a job.  Even when I came out of school, I wanted to get a job doing some kind of comics so I could make a living.  That was the whole focus of illustration, because then I could pay my bills.  Realizing that I had this really strong artistic influence in me, was hard for me to really accept. I was taught that if I do this, I'm not going to be like everybody else.  It wasn't until I realized that maybe I'm trying to live a life that's not really meant for me.  What if I was meant to live this other kind of life, and that's where I'm supposed to fit in.  


that's where your greatest potential lies...
yeah, and so as time went on I came across two influential quotes.  One is by Louise Bourgeois, a well-known contemporary artist who passed away a few months back.  He said: artists are the way they are, there's nothing you can do for them. The other one was from Robert Rauschenberg, he said that you don't choose that you're an artist, you have to accept that you're an artist.  I came to realize more and more that I had to accept who I am and what I am.  Maybe if this is who I am, I can handle this kind of a life - because this is who I am.  That's what's going to make you feel like you belong somewhere, or give you a sense of accomplishment.

in the interview with MAC you were asked what your proudest accomplishment was, and you answered the fact that you're still a practicing artist after 20-some years.  What advice could you give on how to stay motivated throughout it all?

it goes back to what I said about the acceptance part. If you learn to accept that this is who you are, the motivation will always be there, because you come to that acceptance.  And I'm not talking about saying "oh yeah, I'm an artist" - just like that, don't just say it.  Its got to be something deep within you that somebody actually sees that in you where they're like "they don't understand it, they can't grasp it, but it's there."   I've met a lot of people who go "I'm an artist man, and that's the way I am you know, and I do this..."

but it's not an image...

it's funny you mention the image part because I have a friend of mine who does work in self-esteem.  He talks about how we grow up with images, we always put an image on ourselves.  Like we're wearing a mask.  If we don't like this mask we just change this mask for another mask.  So we change that image for another image.  His idea to raise your self-esteem is to get rid of the mask altogether, and just reveal yourself to the world.  And it's hard. You will also struggle, and get pissed off.  I have a musician friend who once said to me, "God, I wish I wasn't a musician!" And I can see why.  But you have to accept that this is your purpose.  The only purpose in life in my opinion, is to be you.  The second purpose of life is to accept people for who they are.  You're right, I'm not going to have a big house, I'm not maybe going to have 2.5 kids, I probably won't have a car, but this is me, and this is what's going to keep me going...

and happy and fulfilled...

well 'happy' is an interesting term.  I always say allow yourself to feel every emotion.  And that's one of the other things as an artist you have to be willing to do.  You've got to be willing to feel happy, to feel depressed, to feel angry, all those feelings.  I've met artists who only ever want everything to be hunky-dory, and it's like give me a fuckin' break.  I'm sorry.  Get angry every once in a while, get upset.

it's all part of the human experience...

That's why sometimes some people have a problem with art, because it gets them on a certain level. Sometimes being a human is not always pretty.  But if you can accept humanity, I think you can find the beauty underneath it all, as long as you're willing to work within that.  There's this attitude, particularly in North American culture, where how you look is very important.  It's pushed very strongly, that if you're not looking a certain way, there's something wrong with you.  I kind of go against that notion.  Even as you get older and everything's going, there's a beauty there.  You have to be willing to go through the changes in life, and your body has to change within that. Otherwise your body becomes rigid, and so does your mind.  

There's an artist by the name of Janine Antoni who taught herself how to walk on a tightrope, for part of a performance piece she was doing in a video.  She said that she realized she wasn't learning how to balance herself, she was learning how to be comfortable being unbalanced.  She said how she just wished she could do that in her day-to-day life.  I guess the bodies in my pieces, being twisted like that, are working within that change.


One book I would highly recommend for an artist who struggles with maybe their culture or accepting themselves with their art, is a book entitled My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok.  About a person growing up in a very Orthodox Jewish family who has to come to terms with the fact that he's an artist.  In one part, he's praying to God and asking him, am I always going to be like this for the rest of my life, living in these two worlds?  That book helped me out, because I realized that I'm like that as well, I have that kind of duality. 

i will definitely check it out, thank you very much...finally I wanted to ask you about your involvement in this year's Nuit Blanche? You'll be drawing on the windows of The Gladstone Hotel, similar to your exhibit with The Projects here in Port Credit...the drawings came about because I wanted to do something different with drawing. It wasn't until I saw the work of Cy Twombly, then later Basquait, that I wanted to apply his scribbles towards figure drawing. The text came naturally: I just started writing something down one day and noticed that the two elements worked well together. It wasn't until I saw the work of Dan Perjovschi (who combines graffiti and editorial cartoons by drawing on walls) at the Biennale di Venezia in 2007 that I realized I wanted to take my drawings in that direction. I started to do window drawings because I came across some markers that are specially designed to use on windows and the rest came about. The drawings are an extension of the paintings: they still deal with the human figure interacting within its present environment so the body is still changing and kinetic but in this case I rely on the text to articulate what is going on within the person as it is in its present environment. The surface is just a different way to present the work that challenges the viewer, instead of a natural gallery setting, it is now in an everyday setting.

www.claudioghirardo.com

A Conversation with Artist Hugh Campbell Bisset

A Dumb Swan installation
July 7 - July 31, 2010
Peak Gallery
 

Can you talk a bit about the paintings you're doing now?

Well, paintings and sculptures...

I got a great piece of advice a while back, from a co-director of one of the galleries here in Toronto. She came in to my studio two years ago and said, "the paintings are good, sculptures are great.  Do you want your paintings to be great?".  She told me that I had to bring the paintings in line with the sculptures, and vice versa, that they had to be cohesive and click.  At first I found that to be extraordinarily difficult because I wanted my paintings to be something completely different from the sculptural work, because I wanted the break.  I wanted different things.  But she could not have been more right.  The paintings have improved my sculptural work and the sculptural work has improved the paintings.  And of course the foundation of everything is my drawings.

A bit of background...

I come from an experimental film background. I started my practice, as a painter, in 1989 and I did my first self financed and self curated exhibit in 1991. I have continued since then, with only one serious break - family reasons. I have slowly developed my drawing and sculpture and have fully incorporated both into my practice over the last five years. Also, I benifited greatly from getting to live in both New York and London for a few years. I spent a lot of time absorbing a lot of great art. Since returning to Toronto, I have been really lucky to meet and get to know a lot of solid artists, like Anna Pantchev and Andrew Morrow. 

Last time we spoke we were talking briefly about artists who create for themselves...

I think it's important to any good gallerist that an artist you create the work, and it is what it is for you, in terms of content, and style. Once your work is done and complete, it has nothing to do with the artist anymore. Nothing. Whatever the work was to the artist, that becomes negated, and of the least importance.  It's like letting go of your ego, in a very real way.

So that the focus is on the art?

But even more importantly the interaction between the person viewing the work, and the art.  That's what the art's there for.  The art is almost immaterial in a sense, it's the viewer that's really the important thing.  I come out of a film background, albeit experimental film, so I'm maybe overly audience or viewer-friendly as an artist but I think that's a strength.  It makes my life easier as well.  It's done, let go of it.  It doesn't mean I don't keep thinking about the work, it doesn't mean I don't continue to have a relationship with the work.  I continue to have a relationship with a piece of work over time myself, but again that's irrelevant, that's just for me.  And then of course you get to the problem of writing an artist statement.  That runs completely contrary and anti-ethical to what I was just saying, yet gallerists and everybody want to see an artist statement.  Yet I don't want to get between the work and the viewer, and that's exactly what an artist statement does.

Your artist statement is pretty ambiguous...

Frankly I just want artist statements to just be a joke.  I think they're funny, so why not make them funny?

The more serious-sounding the are, the funnier they are...

But of course you need it if we're taking about adding monetary value to a work?

That's a consideration, I don't mind admitting that.  It's not cool to talk about this, but I'm pretty mercenary when it comes to trying to sell, when it comes to the politics of various galleries, approaching collectors.  I've put on a lot of my own shows, with money right out of my own pocket, I rented space.  I started my practice in 1989, and then I put on my first show - self produced, self-financed, self-curated.  My sister helped me and some friends helped me with the lighting, but I didn't realize that I could actually approach a gallery.  It did not occur to me that that was possible.  But there were a lot less galleries back then, and there were seemingly a lot less artists.

Can you talk a little about your Plexiglas sculptural work?

These two sculptures here in the studio are on Plexiglas, which is what I work from. Then it's painted with a clear gesso, and then the oil paint is applied very thinly to the surface.  I'm very pleased with them. They were a lot of fun.  When it comes time for the sculptures to be cut in metal, my "laser-jockey" - he's literally a physicist - he tells me what can stay and what has to go.  I have to make the decision of what to let go, or whether to wait until it can be done as a large steel or corian piece.  With corian you can get more detail with the laser.

The sculptural work is especially nature-influenced. 

Especially the sculptural work.  The paintings flit between a certain implication of something man-made versus the implication of something natural, and hopefully a fair bit of grey area.  I think the work is most interesting and best when you have those two different things.  And also when you get into some ambiguity about what's what - where does the man-made start and end, and where does the more natural start and end, which has a lot to do with living in the city.  A lot of artists have these concerns and thoughts, when you live in an urban environment, especially a wonderful city like Toronto, where there is a certain amount of nature.

Who are your influences with the work you're doing now?

I am currently very inspired by both Urs Fischer and Valerie Blass. I admire their particular use of humour, their restlessness and obvious intellect. Urs Fischer does this really adventuresome, open, free and incredibly giving work, and it's often brutally funny to boot too.  And just that rock n' roll spirit of I'm doing this to get myself off, I hope you like it too attitude, that spirit has deeply influenced what I'm doing too. In terms of whom I think of as an influence, I'd say Jean Arp, Sorel Etrog and Roberto Matta. The art produced by ancient and "primitive" cultures means a lot to me as well. It's a very tricky question to answer because influences change by the day and with mood.

No matter what format content is presented in, whether it's film or music, sculpture or a comic book, if the content and visual style catches you, you go with it.  I've actually been thinking about this a lot lately, and I think that format is secondary.  Art is conceptual.  You have certain skill sets and you present your ideas through those skill sets you've acquired.

The format chosen is really just something you grew up with, or your preference...

Something you were exposed to early in life, something you feel comfortable with.  Let's say you're a painter/sculptor and you don't perceive yourself to be particularly musical.  You've produced a lot of solid sculptures and paintings, for 10, 15, or 20 years.  I think an awful lot of those kinds of artists could pull off half-decent music, and vice versa. I think a musician who has written and conceived of some really great music, whether it's rock, chamber music, or jazz - could probably churn out a pretty damn good show of paintings.  It's the mind-set.

When I'm here at the studio more often than not I have music going in my studio. Sometimes I need periods of silence. But I've been listening to a lot of instrumental music.  There's certain things that have lyrics, vocals, that have a certain mood and I want to get somewhere quick.  It's a cheat, in a way, if you want to get somewhere psychologically or emotionally quicker.  I think my work's a little better when it's self-generated, when I really make it myself get there with a limited amount of outside stimulus, when I just pull it out from within myself.

So that you're creating from that intuitive part of you..

Everything, the work becomes purely intuitive, and all technical considerations - colour, form, aerial perspective - those get completely sublimated, they just go to your subconscious.  Funny enough, those intuitive decisions are the best and always better technically.  Almost always.  

The beautiful thing about abstraction is that a piece can be a few different things to me while I'm making it and it can be one thing or many things to you.  I haven't seen a lot of work that does this, but I would love to emulate work that when you see it you think what on Earth is that? And you have to resolve it for yourself.  It's this innate human need to discern pattern.  There's a much deeper psychology to it than just labeling something. We're attuned to finding food, in a natural environment where maybe the food does not want to be found.  We have this deep need to discern pattern and figure out exactly what everything is.  It's deeply tied in with our drive to survive.  So if any artist can tap into that really raw, basic questioning that's genetically ingrained in us - I would really like to have my work get deeper and deeper into that.  To really intrigue, delight people, and even startle them.

 

Kathy Toth - Liquidity - July 15th - July 27th, 2010

Katy Toth
Queen Gallery

382 Queen St. E, Toronto

Can you talk about your experience in art school?

When you're given an assignment you had to do what you were told, but I was already starting to defy the rules.  I didn't like the idea that something had to be done a certain way.  We had illustration class where you were supposed to come up with an original idea but it still had to look like something else.  I just found it really hypocritical even when I was 15.  You're basically taught that everything has to be super-clean, you shouldn't see brush lines.  When I used to paint graffiti in high school it was the same thing - everything had to be super-clean and look almost stenciled.  You weren't allowed to use stencils either.  Now they're accepted, but 15 years ago they weren't.

Do you still do graffiti?

No, and I used to paint murals as well, but I don't paint them anymore either.  I don't really have an interest in doing it anymore because it's not really appreciated.  And the other thing is that you can't sell it, you don't keep it, people can ruin it.  There's a lot of aggression with people ruining your work because they want to take the space you're on.  So there's all these dynamics that you have to work with.  It's the same thing when you're a photographer, but when you're a painter you really paint alone. That's what I like about it.

When did you start to focus on this particular abstract style?

I used to be a realist painter.  But I didn't enjoy doing it so I stopped for about six years and then when I started painting again that's what I felt like doing.  The first one in this style I did was Liquidity 1 - Twilight - like the sunset.  I remember I was on my way somewhere so I mixed it, I put everything on, I lifted it, and tipped it.  And I looked at it and thought, I'm going to do more of these.  It was very simple, the idea just came to me. When I got the idea to do these I just kept doing them and then I kind of felt after I did ten that I would like to do them a bit differently.  With these my motivation was to get back to painting, after a long vacation.  I didn't want it to be dissing the other work I had done before.

How did you create these pieces?

Sometimes I like to pick the colours spontaneously, so the only control you have is the colours that you pick, and how you mix them together.  Some of these are all acrylic, others also have some enamel.  The stuff that looks air-brushed is enamel.  Sometimes I move the paint around with a brush, but when you put the paint on,  it will start moving, so I want to see what happens.  There's some resignation with it. That's why I say the only thing you can do is control the colour, and the mediums all act very differently depending what you put them on. Some of them are layered, they're done over different periods of time, but some I did all at once. You still have some rules with it - you can't put certain colours together, because they look bad, for example. Maybe paint wasn't meant to be poured on and mixed, but I thought it would be an interesting idea. I've seen people do drip paintings but they're usually just horizontal ones.  I haven't seen anyone doing this with just straight drips.

So how they'll turn out is almost like a surprise?  Or do you have some idea?

Some, like Liquidity 6 - Storm, are a complete surprise.  Because I poured it, and it was complete, and then I happened to be outside and this hurricane came and I happened to like how it looked after wards so that was like a happy accident, but the rest were kind of planned.  That's the one that everyone seems to like.

How did you achieve this cracking technique?

I think it depends on the humidity because with some of them I tried to achieve it and it didn't really happen.  When you mix a regular enamel with a paint they will separate but then dry together and bond.   I don't mix oil with acrylic paint but if you do that it actually looks really interesting once it dries but the problem is it falls off.  So if you can get that effect with acrylic it would be nice.

I noticed you're not sealing these with resin?

I thought about it but everybody seems to be doing it.  People have been doing it with photographs and I think it only suits things like this that are very bright and punchy. The problem with it is, if it's not done properly you ruin the piece if it doesn't set.  It's much better if somebody wants to put a simple frame on it, or just leave it, they can be hung as they are.  Also, they're wood so it expands and contracts, so it probably shouldn't have anything on it either.

Could you talk about the only black and white piece here?

This was kind of a joke, because it says "buff me" on it - when people paint graffiti, other people come along and buff it, like city workers will usually paint white on top, and it will never match the wall, so you're left with these patches. Silver, white and black are the most used colours. The black in this piece is actually an ink - it's not a paint and the silver is some oil hybrid that's used on aluminum.

Influences?

I like graffiti art a lot, because of the colours.  I like the band Underworld.  I have another set of paintings that aren't here that are based on songs from their album.  I find their music is really atmospheric and the paintings are cool and mellow like their songs.  I like dramatic music.  I like Jeff Koons, he always uses really bright colours.  You can be very bold I feel more comfortable with them.  They seem to get your attention more.  They speak more loudly.

A lot of these colours seem 80s-inspired...

It's strange because my photography is different - there aren't a lot of bright colours and everything seems to be dark and muted.  I do a lot of black and white photography.  But I just always liked bright colours when painting.  It's funny you mention the 80s.  I wasn't a big fan of pop when I was an art student which is funny now because it does come through.  But the colours come from graffiti because when you look at it there's nothing muted about it so I think that stayed in my head.  It receded to the back of my brain and stayed there!  I like the overlap because both forms - photography and graffiti - have these really rigid rules about what you're supposed to do.  People think that graffiti is this free art form and you get to do what you want - you can't.  You won't be accepted.  I think it's better now than it was ten years ago because a lot of my friends still do it, but you couldn't have drips, although I see everybody doing drips now. Stencils were really looked down upon because you were supposed to have clean lines and you needed to get special caps and special paint.  There's a place for the two to come together.  When I painted realism and then I painted graffiti, they were totally separate.

But now you see a merging of the two styles...

...which is good. I don't think I'm a purist at all.  I like to make hybrids of things and vary them.  I don't like the idea of photographing only one kind of thing, or that you can only paint one kind of way.  I don't like that kind of rigidity. I'm kind of a bold person. I'm not a muted kind of gal.

I hate to bring this up but do you think part of that comes from having been a female graffiti artist?

Oh yeah, people try and push you around all the time.  They try to push you off your own properties that you get.  People will cross out your work and then they'll want to fight with you and they think you're not going to say anything.   I remember I had a problem with somebody once and they were just shouting at the top of their lungs.  It was this guy that was six foot five trying to intimidate me and I was thinking, you gotta be kidding me. There's rules here. You came after me, this place was taken....  There's all these unspoken rules.  But now it's much more diverse.  Before it used to be just hip hop kids and some rockers, but now it seems like everybody's doing it.  You have to be really aggressive and hostile. There's almost like a predator aspect to it.  It's like they can smell it if you're afraid.  But if you can find your own place, it reduces the chances of having problems with people. I installed some paintings on the streets, and I've had them all stolen.  I've gone back the next day or two days or a week later and they're gone.

I notice a running theme of linear vertical or horizontal lines, especially in your photographs of industrial buildings and also of these paintings.  Is this an unconscious thing going on?

Maybe, without being hard-edged about it.  I've always wanted to keep my work looking balanced. With my photographs I'm pretty formal with how I pose them. For example I don't shoot up, and the only reason I don't do that is because I can't stand distortion, so I try and keep everything, including the horizon line, level, and I try to keep the image balanced.  There's just something about it that doesn't look right when there's too much on one side, unless something is receding in the background.  I don't like something being heavy on one side and light on the other. There has to be balance otherwise I just throw it out, I have no patience for something that doesn't work.  I don't have anything here that I don't like.

Where do you see your art taking you? Are you going to explore this technique more?

I think so, I think I'd do it a little differently each time.  And I want to do more landscapes, but I really do like the simplicity of these.  I don't want to do the work that I was doing before.  I thought it was proper and I  learned the proper way to do it but it wasn't real.  That's probably because I'm into photography. If you want something that's reality you have a photograph.  I have a good friend that's a photo realist and he would never do abstract work, so I think it was because of the break I took.  Abstract art isn't anything new, but I think people that still don't understand what it is.  I like it because of its simplicity.  They all have an emotion to them - like a flavor.  There's a certain mood that you capture with it, and if it doesn't work, I just get rid of it; I paint over it or I destroy it.  I'm very fussy about it.
  

Kathy is a visual artist and photographer from Toronto who is largely a self taught.  She has exhibited her work locally for almost a decade in many different types of venues and her work can be found in collections in Canada, the United States and Hungary.

Mississauga's Art Policies - Ongoing Dialogue

This will be part of an ongoing dialogue with artist Stephen Paul Fulton about Mississauga's arts policies.
Check out more of Paul's opinions at stephenpaulfulton.blogspot.com 
 
What are the major problems you see with the city's policies concerning visual arts culture...what do you think should be done compared to what the city is doing?

First, in reference to the city and its policies...  The "city" is not an offending organism.  When i say "Mississauga" I am not talking about the "municipality."  I am talking about the lack of cohesive and accessible services for artists, which in my opinion has a lot to do with current hierarchies and not necessarily cultural policy within the municipality.  The changes the city is making now are a great improvement but comes only after a huge undertaking by city staff and stakeholders combinatively.  Previously I would say the population was as much at fault for the state of the arts in Mississauga or more so than the municipality.  The municipality believed that all our needs were being met by our fine institutions.

So the first step is to talk positively about change and not dig up the past.  I prefer to look forward since that is why we are having these conversations now.  I do believe that using the past to identify trouble areas is useful but it is not a grudge match by any stretch of the imagination (which tends to do no one any good at all).
 
Are there ever opportunities for residents to get involved with the city's policy decisions? Where could people leave their ideas/comments?


Currently there is no one person that is taking feedback from the stakeholders (public at large), however they can contact the culture division directly and let someone know who they are, or what they would like to talk about.  This is an important step to opening a dialogue.

There are also individuals that act as City Liaisons for each Ward.  These individuals work with the public directly on projects and are another good step.  They control a lot of the activities in each area and help to keep things running smoothly between building/renovation projects and the non/profits, BIA, public, etc.

Public Art Coming To Mississauga

Finally we're going to start seeing a lot more public art around the city, among other things.  I really hope they don't limit these to certain areas, such as Port Credit, or around City Hall, as is the case now.
 
The Mississauga News covered it. You can read it here

Mississauga's new Culture Master Plan, which supports the City's new Strategic Plan, was approved June 10, 2009 at Council.  Read about it from the city's website here