Q&A x5 - Influences
What were some early influences on your thinking about your art?
Ideas and philosophy rooted in the Bauhaus and Constructivism influenced me as I learned about art. Artists and theoreticians like Victor Vasarely, Joseph Albers, Wassily Kandinksy, Frank Stella, and Ellsworth Kelly were great sources as I grew my ideas about color interaction, spatial illusion and geometric organization of the picture plane.
Concepts about art-making - like starting from external reality and proceeding, through improvisation and formal composition to images that emerge from the unconscious mind - really resonated with me. Kandinsky's ideas of a “communion between artist and viewer," of art being available to both the visual senses and to the mind, as well as the idea of a connection between what we see and what we hear, were all influential. I also developed a sense that making art has both a social and aesthetic purpose.
Concepts about art-making - like starting from external reality and proceeding, through improvisation and formal composition to images that emerge from the unconscious mind - really resonated with me. Kandinsky's ideas of a “communion between artist and viewer," of art being available to both the visual senses and to the mind, as well as the idea of a connection between what we see and what we hear, were all influential. I also developed a sense that making art has both a social and aesthetic purpose.
How did your thinking evolve and what did you find as you worked on your art and developed these ideas?
As I continued to explore these ideas, I developed a way of working-- a personal style - most often labeled 'geometric abstraction' that was strongly based in process . Both my paintings and paper constructions were well received in New Orleans in the 1980's as I exhibited in three solo shows and numerous group shows.
At this point in my work, I was happy with what I'd accomplished-- but still searching for some "uncharted ground." I was making relatively small geometric paintings and paper constructions "to enter and/or experience," and, as I went to grad school, I expanded the scale and elements of these further by building large, painted wall pieces and making drawings which contained a variety of both illusionary and actual space.
I was fortunate to work with several art faculty at UT Austin that are pretty amazing: painter Richard Thompson, video artist Bill Lundberg, and photographer Nan Standish Blake were most influential for me - Thompson for his powerful storytelling and beautiful color, Lundberg for his creative and seamless combinations of virtual and the non-virtual realities, and Blake for her amazing understanding of design that was reflected in both her photography and photo-collage as well as her teaching.
Unexpectedly, I was also "enlightened" as I tackled art historian Dr. John Clarke's rigorous seminar in 1st century Pompeian fresco painting -- the beautiful effects and spatial illusion these ancient painters achieved was amazing - but I also began to understand how art "fit" into a cultural context.
As I finished grad school, I was working to synthesize the concepts of the “physical space” and illusionary space using installation structures and colored electric light - a situation both challenging and frustrating.
At this point in my work, I was happy with what I'd accomplished-- but still searching for some "uncharted ground." I was making relatively small geometric paintings and paper constructions "to enter and/or experience," and, as I went to grad school, I expanded the scale and elements of these further by building large, painted wall pieces and making drawings which contained a variety of both illusionary and actual space.
I was fortunate to work with several art faculty at UT Austin that are pretty amazing: painter Richard Thompson, video artist Bill Lundberg, and photographer Nan Standish Blake were most influential for me - Thompson for his powerful storytelling and beautiful color, Lundberg for his creative and seamless combinations of virtual and the non-virtual realities, and Blake for her amazing understanding of design that was reflected in both her photography and photo-collage as well as her teaching.
Unexpectedly, I was also "enlightened" as I tackled art historian Dr. John Clarke's rigorous seminar in 1st century Pompeian fresco painting -- the beautiful effects and spatial illusion these ancient painters achieved was amazing - but I also began to understand how art "fit" into a cultural context.
As I finished grad school, I was working to synthesize the concepts of the “physical space” and illusionary space using installation structures and colored electric light - a situation both challenging and frustrating.
You eventually got a job doing computer graphics?
I continued to work on my painting, drawing and constructed pieces, but eventually landed a job doing “computer-graphics” at the Cleveland Clinic (in the days when computers, internet and email were all "uncharted ground") - and this opened several new doors for me.
As I worked to master technical aspects of the novel digital tools, I was fascinated by the possibilities, and I learned to draw, compose with text and photos, create tables, charts, graphs, and pictorial information on-screen. With the shift in focus of my day-to-day work to “graphics” content, I eventually stopped doing traditional drawing and painting.
Searching for meaning in the emerging world of "infographics, " I discovered Edward Tufte who understood early on not only how to present information effectively, but how to do so in the context of art. Separate from my job, I began exploring ways to adapt my fine art ideas and techniques to the use digital tools. Eventually, I began taking digital photos and using my computer to work creatively in transforming them. The more I worked, the more options and possibilities there seemed to be.
Searching for meaning in the emerging world of "infographics, " I discovered Edward Tufte who understood early on not only how to present information effectively, but how to do so in the context of art. Separate from my job, I began exploring ways to adapt my fine art ideas and techniques to the use digital tools. Eventually, I began taking digital photos and using my computer to work creatively in transforming them. The more I worked, the more options and possibilities there seemed to be.
You say you "rediscovered" Joseph Cornell?
As I continued my search for theoretical meaning and possibilities in the digital world, I focused on the process of re-contextualization, i.e. de-contextualizing and re-contextualizing - the transfer-and-transformation of something from one context to another.
And then one day, I rediscovered Joseph Cornell. I'd long appreciated the beauty of Cornell's boxes, the "irrational juxtapositions" and "creations of poetry from the commonplace. " But is was Charles Simic's, referring to Cornell's process that resonated: " Somewhere in the city of New York there are four or five still unknown objects that belong together. Once together, they'll make a work of art." As Cornell worked, he " shuffled a few inconsequential found objects inside his boxes until together they composed an image that pleased him with no clue as to what that image would turn out to be in the end.”
I had evolved my own thinking very much along these lines. This is about the power of the remix - letting chance and intuition be your guide as you find, assemble, or other wise "put-together" objects and images that belong-- that make art.
And then one day, I rediscovered Joseph Cornell. I'd long appreciated the beauty of Cornell's boxes, the "irrational juxtapositions" and "creations of poetry from the commonplace. " But is was Charles Simic's, referring to Cornell's process that resonated: " Somewhere in the city of New York there are four or five still unknown objects that belong together. Once together, they'll make a work of art." As Cornell worked, he " shuffled a few inconsequential found objects inside his boxes until together they composed an image that pleased him with no clue as to what that image would turn out to be in the end.”
I had evolved my own thinking very much along these lines. This is about the power of the remix - letting chance and intuition be your guide as you find, assemble, or other wise "put-together" objects and images that belong-- that make art.
What is your creative process like now?
With my first digital camera in hand in 1999, I began shooting what I saw on the streets as I walked.
Encouraged by friend and colleague Alex Labry (his motto: " Some people walk dogs, I walk my camera" ) and with a growing awareness of social documentary photographers and photojournalists, I began collecting images on public streets, encouraging the camera to "see" and record the world. Organized into an archive, these images provide the raw material for my work.
As I work, I "curate" these images - examining, considering, assembling and re-assembling images. In the process of creating the work - with intuition, "chance, luck, and the universe" as my guides - I am able to make connections, find relationships, consider symbolic and cultural meanings, and transform these representations into something else far beyond where they originated.
More about Process
Encouraged by friend and colleague Alex Labry (his motto: " Some people walk dogs, I walk my camera" ) and with a growing awareness of social documentary photographers and photojournalists, I began collecting images on public streets, encouraging the camera to "see" and record the world. Organized into an archive, these images provide the raw material for my work.
As I work, I "curate" these images - examining, considering, assembling and re-assembling images. In the process of creating the work - with intuition, "chance, luck, and the universe" as my guides - I am able to make connections, find relationships, consider symbolic and cultural meanings, and transform these representations into something else far beyond where they originated.
More about Process