Words are created to pinpoint and express a certain reality. If these words don't exist yet then neither does the reality of it or the understanding...only the artist knows of it and like a shaman has to bridge the gap between these existing and non-existing worlds; conveying the illusive, magical thing into a kind of reality.
I am an artist. I am a shaman. I am that bridge, and not having the words I speak my information with pictures; these imperfect but elegant tools of communication.
Discussing and sharing work can be fun with the right person. I had the right person in the interest of Pauline Adamek, who came to my studio recently to interview me for ArtsBeatLA, her online journal and resource for all things arts-related in Los Angeles. She and her cameraman came to my studio located downtown Los Angeles in the Spring Arts Tower, to see for themselves who I am and what it is I do.
Preparing the studio for this, like any visit, is fraught with a kind of anxiety that goes beyond having a visitor into your personal space. As a working studio, it is filled with work. Work not specifically up for view as it most likely is in various stages of prep and duress, and so you refigure the space to show what you are working on, finished or otherwise, hoping it conveys where you are with ideas. Building an impromptu bridge for this visit and hoping you are understood in some context, and the variety of alchemical items strewn about as any artist will have as items of witness and inspiration, don't distract from the works that are dedicated for the visit. One never knows what a visitor will lock on, and I have had many visitors who find that one odd out of the way piece long forgotten or relegated to a quiet spot, and want to know all about it. Not bearing any relevance to where you are now, the need to find correlation and relationship to the works specifically out for survey takes over and can sidetrack the visit in many ways.
Ever as a teenager had your mom come into you room? This isn't necessarily unlike that. It can be a great visit and chat and lead to great things, or she may want to suddenly move your furniture around out of some unidentifiable boredome and odd desire to connect with you, impossible to understand until you have your own kids one day, and then during this redesign who knows what may pop out from underneath your bed when least expected...
...but I digress.
I shared new works with Pauline. She beautifully created a dialogue that put me at ease and allowed me room to speak of my experience with these works without judgement, but a pure interest and an openness that any artist wishes for when sharing. We discussed the specific paintings I set up in a manner aimed to express the path I have been on in making them, with my alchemical items and witnesses around quietly holding the space and giving of their silent secrets. We talked for 35 minutes, and this was edited down to little over 7. All in all I feel it conveys a good sense of me, my work, how fast I talk, and cracks a light into the ideas that formulate the bridges I make I call paintings.
