CHOSEN

Art Success: Adelaide Damoah in Conversation with Edward Ofosu.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 20 Apr 2017 21:57:00 +0000

I have known Edward Ofosu for a few years now. I was even privileged enough to exhibit with him once in a group show. I can go as far as to boast that he bought one of my paintings once. Ofosu, born in 1973 told me that he knew from as early as eight years old that one day, he was going to be a painter. Having completed his secondary education in the 90's, in Ghana, Ofosu found himself still longing to paint worked long hours in a poultry farm doing finance, while at the same time studying under the tutelage of a local artist who encouraged his natural talent. In 2009, a portrait Ofosu did of his mother caught the attention of a magazine. This gave him the confidence to continue to pursue his dream while working many different jobs to pay the bills including cleaning, construction and care work. At one stage, things started to close in on him as he lost his job and had visa issues. Eternally optimistic, Ofosu told me that it was at this stage that he realised that all of these things had to happen in order for him to establish himself on his journey to becoming a professional artist. Now he is one of the most prolific artists that I know painting every single day. In his own words,

“Through all of these things, I am on fire now!”

Adelaide Damoah (AD): Are you continuing to work to support your art?

Edward Ofosu (EO): I once did a portrait for a friend of mine. It was of his wife. He showed the painting to his friend who was the head master of a school in Norwood, London- for kids who have been excluded from other schools. The man asked if I could teach the kids in his school. So for two hours every Tuesday, I teach the kids art. That job has been sustaining me. It has allowed me to buy all of the art materials that I need to continue my practice. Now the energy and the paintings are just getting bigger! I feel like I am home now. Now I feel like I am open to this process to continue forever. I am not going to stand in the way of the process because once I do that, I am killing myself. People always ask me how I am surviving, but somehow, I am surviving and amazing things are beginning to happen.

AD: Apart from working on Tuesday's, you paint the rest of the time?

EO: I paint every day. Morning and evening.

AD: That's amazing Edward. I remember us exhibiting together in Ladbrook Grove and I know that since then, you have been involved in a number of group shows. Have you had any solo shows since?

EO: Yes, two solo shows.

AD: Did you sell any work?

EO: The first one, I sold one. The second show, I didn't sell any, but most of those pieces have been sold now.

The Queen

20x16 inches

oil on canvas

2011

AD: The art world as you know is run by upper middle class white men for the most part. Naturally, this means that they will have their own leanings in terms of what they deem as important to promote. There are very few black artists who have been accepted so to speak by the art establishment. With that in mind, what is your definition of success?

EO: My definition of success is when you are enjoying what you are doing. When the fulfilment of what you are doing is in the future, then you are not successful. The reason is that unless that future comes, you are not going to be fulfilled. Therefore, when your fulfilment is in what you are doing now, then the future, whatever form it takes, does not really make you or break you. In terms of society, if you then become famous, that is a by product. My work will suffer if my fulfilment is in the future. If that is my focus, I can not be totally what I do because my totality is based on my idea of having success that may come tomorrow. If my fulfilment and success is in what I am doing, then I am total. I am fulfilled. This idea of success that we learn from society and from schools for instance, all those things are things of the past! As you learn something, that thing becomes the past. If you want to be accepted by a society who just lives in the past, then you have to be like them to be accepted. If you want mad people to accept you, then you have to be mad! If I look around our society, all that I see is politicians misleading people. Lots of people are running around trying to do jobs and they are frustrated. We see something wrong and we all follow blindly. Even the education system does not allow us to unfold the deeper dimensions within ourselves. All that the education system does is to allow us to swallow lots of information and just vomit it out without even digesting it because if you digest the information properly, you can not vomit out the same information. I remember a few years ago, I did a painting called Brainwash Education. At the time, I knew of may people who were taking examinations. While some people were writing happily, others were stuck and were unable to get the right information out. Why? In my opinion because the system just helps you to be a photocopier. Yet still, within us is everything. Within us is totality. The whole of life is within us. What I mean by that is that my body can become sick and break down. The same body can be completely healthy and fit. The whole of life exists in every person, so if that totality is not being expressed, then that human being is effectively half of himself. This is why there is so much stress and stress related illnesses. People are looking for something to make them feel whole. These are the things that no body will tell you. They would rather condition you to think in a certain way. With children, it starts young, by the time they are six, they have already been programmed to be a certain way. Some kids have talent and think in a different way, and as a result, get told they are disrespectful or are dismissed from school. These are some of the children that I teach. They have something, they have passion and they are unique. Every body is unique. If you want to put everybody in the same box, it can not work. There is a lack of freedom to express our uniqueness.

AD: By your definition of success, do you consider yourself to be successful?

EO: By my definition, I consider myself to be successful because of where I am. I am doing my work and I am enjoying it. I am totally in the work. I don't even consider myself to be a person! I consider myself to be like a bamboo tree. Or, like a flute! You know, once you surrender to this life, life takes care of itself. It knows what to do with the apple tree, it knows what to do with the banana plant, it knows what to do with the elephant. It is only humans who try to find out what to do with themselves. Once you surrender to life, somehow, life is much more sophisticated than you! Life can take care of you. Those who surrender to life, become life, become the totality. The totality begins to shine through that person. For me, because I have surrendered to the process, I consider myself successful. If I were not to surrender, I would be a struggling artist, even if the world made me famous and gave me lots of money. Why? Because my art would not be authentic, it would not have that power of the whole. It would just be empty from my point of view. It would be without a soul. When you are total, then you know that you are successful.

David Lammy

24x20 inches

oil on canvas

2012

AD: Good answer Edward... Going back to what I was saying about the art world being run by the upper middle classes and us as minorities having difficulties in penetrating that world, is that something that concerns you in your practice?

EO: In the past I saw that. We would talk about art and galleries in London and potential spaces for African artists. But now, I realise that nothing can stop light from shining. I remember one day, I walked past this pond. There were about 20 small trees in the middle of this pond. Then the sun started shining and all of a sudden, all the trees had light on them. You see, light can not be stopped. So when you are shining your light, no one can stop your light from shining. That is why Van Gogh is still considered great today. Even though society may not have given him all of the awards and fame. When you shine a light, it will have an effect on anything that it comes into contact with. Therefore, the idea that someone is stopping you from shining, is the idea that stops you from shining! When you know that everything is within you, then you know that you are the limit of yourself! Whatever you see, is the reality. If you know that you are limitless, then you will rather surrender to the process than go in whatever direction. It might be that you produce some work that helps six people to heal, or it could be channelled toward something else. It does not have to be through galleries. You can share you work with people and they will be uplifted. In that way, your work could still transform the life of some people while ignoring the media. Nothing can stop the light from shining. Darkness exists but when the light shines, it disappears.

AD: What is your ultimate dream for your art?

EO: My ultimate dream is to use my work as a catalyst to help people to get in touch with themselves. When you are not in touch with yourself, you can not be yourself! When you are in touch with yourself, you be yourself and that is where you find fulfilment. I want to use my work to challenge people, to bring out messages and words. I want to make provoking statements through my work that will make people ask questions that will make people find out that they are not who they say they are! For instance, we all have this idea that we are this or that. Are you really that? Because it is the information that makes you what you are. What is it that makes you Adelaide? Your mum could have called you Joanna or Lucy or Mary! Let us check out whether we are this information. If you are the information, then what is it that is within you that is aware of the information? Your age, your country, your date of birth... What is it in you that is aware of the information? Where you not there before the name Adelaide came to your memory?

AD: Now we are getting into the realm of philosophy and the sense of self called qualia!

EO: Well, that is what I am trying to do through my work, to make people get in touch with themselves. Come back home and define something that they can define for themselves.

Chipo

20 x 16 inches

oil on canvas

2012

AD: How do you think this can manifest through your work? Do you think it is possible for that to happen through people looking at paintings?

EO: The first awareness came to me in 2010 when I did my first solo show. I did it in a church. A woman came to the exhibition with her children. The woman came to me and told me that she looked at one of my paintings and something hit her really hard and she was taken aback. She was expressing a feeling that she had when she looked at the painting. When she said that, I realised that it was possible to use the work as a trigger of transformation. Therefore, if I become this transformation, then whatever I touch is being transformed. If I am sick, whatever I do will be full of sickness. If I am empowered, if I am aware, then whatever I touch will be a reflection of that state of being that I already am. The more I experience, the more I can transform through my work. When people look at my work and say wow, you paint from the soul, that is because there is a soul there. You can't say you see a soul when there is nothing but emptiness. Some of the titles can get people thinking as well. I think I have about five paintings with the title “Who am I?” I have a title about religion which says something like “It is that block called religion that stops you from becoming religious.” Once you become something, then you are nothing. But once you are nothing... For instance, once you are a Christian, automatically, you become against Muslims. Automatically, you have to be against the others because you are this thing. If I am nothing, then I can not be against anyone.

What advice would you give to a young man who wanted to follow in your footsteps?

EO: My advice would be that everything is inside you. Call forth that which you want to call forth from within because it is all there. There is a choice to depend upon yourself or to depend upon that which is everything. When you are depending on yourself, then you lose touch with everything. When you lose yourself and surrender to that everything which is within you, then you have got everything and you become everything. Then, you have the whole. When you become you, then you block yourself experiencing everything. Then you become this individual trying to survive, you meet with frustration when people don't buy your work. When you lose yourself in everything, you are so fulfilled and there is this fire burning inside. At that point, the fulfilment can not be put into words. It will be shown through the words that you speak, your actions and the work that you produce. People will be touched in so many ways. The person who is there, becomes the block to experience the all and the person who surrenders to himself disappears, but then he experiences the all. Don't think “how am I going to survive.” How can you know how when you do not know tomorrow? That is a fact. Don't pretend that you know, just accept the fact that you do not know, because you can never know. Because you don' know, you just have to trust and keep believing in what you have and that trust will begin to take care of you. Maybe in the next 20 years, you will have some good money coming into your account. Maybe it will never happen. When you are really putting your totality in and you know you are on a mission, you know you are fulfilling it and you are complete. Then, even in 1000 years, after you are dead and gone, your work could still be touching people, just like Bob Marley’s music still uplifts people every day even though he has been gone for so many years. The person who looks away from his soul and tries to fulfil himself with other things will never be fulfilled because those things will always leave you empty in the end.

Charlotte

20x24 inches

oil on canvas

2009

Edward Ofosu

Keep up to date with Edward's work here: http://www.edwardofosu.com/
An abridged version of this interview will be published in the May edition of Lime Magazine online and in hard copy with thanks to editor Vernia Mengot.

Art Success: Adelaide Damoah in Conversation with Victor Ehikamenor

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 30 Jun 2014 20:41:00 +0000

Victor Ehikhamenor is a Nigerian visual artist, photographer and writer. Born in Udomi-Uwessan, Edo State, Nigeria, Ehikamenor has BA in English and Literary Studies from Ambrose Ali University, an MS in Technology Management and and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University Of Maryland, USA.

Ehikhamenor's art is described in his bio as abstract, symbolic and politically motivated works with ties to his Benin Kingdom background. The work itself is at once striking, colourful and has an unmistakeably African aesthetic. I was lucky enough to attend the opening of his most recent exhibition at the Gallery of African Art in Mayfair London.

Mrs Cooper kindly opened up her space to me so that I could spend some time with the work and the artist himself. Walking around the generous space alone, without the crowds of Ehikamenor admirers from the opening, I felt at home surrounded by the work. I saw hidden shapes and symbols and was able to truly see much more than I had been able to see at the opening. The work felt joyful and looked beautiful. It reminded me of some of the African cloths we have always used in our family home. However, upon closer inspection, it was apparent that the large scale canvases Ehikamenor packs so much detail into have a darker side.

A humorous, passionate, deeply optimistic and well educated man, Ehikamenor took time out of his hectic schedule to talk me through some of the works in the show and to discuss his thoughts on success in the art world.

Image courtesy of Gallery of African Art Mayfair. Art by Victor Ehikamenor

Adelaide Damoah (AD): When were you born? I have looked but can't seem to find your date of birth anywhere!

Victor Ehikamenor (VE): Well, I am not a woman! But if anyone asks I tell them I was born February 19th 1970

AD: Pisces?

VE: I think so. Are you?

AD: No. Scorpio! I read that you have a BA in English and Literary Studies, an MS in Technology Management and an MFA in Creative writing from the University of Maryland! How did you go from literary studies and technology to art and why?

VE: First of all the art has always been there. I think I was born with that based on the environment that I grew up in. My maternal grandfather was a very successful blacksmith and my paternal grandmother was a cloth weaver. This meant I pretty much had all sorts of art forms around growing up. I didn't meet my paternal grandfather. My mum told me about him and the kind of the stuff he made and I saw some of it. Art has always been there. Tthere was no art teacher or anything like that at the school I went to. Without having art at secondary school, you can't go and study it at university, so I went for English and Literature. I don't know why I picked it really, but I just enjoyed reading and writing. It was at the hight of good journalism back in the day. I wanted to write like those journalists.

After my undergrad, my dad sent me to America to complete my masters. When I got there, I realised that if I read English, because of the way things were there, I might not get a job. For a black immigrant with a very thick accent coming from Africa, what kind of job would I have been able to get reading English! So I switched. I knew I did not have to speak English to do well in technology and that was also at the height of the technology boom in the mid nineties. I studied, then got a job. I then got a scholarship to go and do a masters.

After the first scholarship, I decided to go and do technology management. I was a Unix System Administrator. I worked with National Geographic as an engineer, then I moved to US Pharmacopia- they are responsible for certifying certain types of drugs in the USA..

I was always painting and showing my work. People at National Geographic were buying my work. But technology was not interesting for me at all. I mean, I was making good money from it but I was not satisfied at all. I realised that I was not aspiring to be the best engineer or anything so I was just going to work and was not having fun and I hate it when I am not having fun! So in 2006 I applied to do an MFA at the University of Maryland. When I applied, the person I was speaking to informed me that they gave fellowships every year. They advised me to apply and put in all of the work that I had done. So I did that and I was the only student that got the fellowship that year.

AD: Wow

VE: So I went to do my MFA without paying a penny! They paid me to go to school which was interesting. In my second year, I had to do a little bit of work by teaching undergrads, so I taught at the university of Maryland and that was it. When I completed that, I intensified my writing and went to do my first exhibition in Nigeria. I left Nigeria in '94, came to the UK , then left UK in '96 for the US. The first time I went back home to do an exhibition was 2006. I had some of my works that were not sold, so I left them with the person that organised the show and I sold about 90 per cent of the works I bought from the US.

AD: Impressive!

VE: Yes it was crazy. He hung some work in his office I just decided to collect them when I came back after a year or so. Then someone came to start up a newspaper in Nigeria and they brought in consultants from the US. Usually, they will go around the city, so they visited the office and saw my work and were very exited about it and were asking, “Whose work is this?” They wanted to base their colour palette for the newspaper on my work.

They called me in the US and I was like, well I have never worked on a newspaper before, I don't know what it is all about so, they can go ahead! You sort out the modalities and background and if they are going to acquire the work, you let me know.... All the rights and things that need to be signed, send me the contract papers for review. That was how that happened.

I visited Nigeria in 2008 and they were in Nigeria still. They were still working on the background works, setting up the newspaper and I visited them, they started talking and from there the man said, look, are you interested in this project? And I said, I don’t know where I can come in, I am not really a graphic designer, I'm a painter. But I know what it means, I know what good design work looks like, I know how to package things. So he said he wanted me to be the creative director because no one else had spoken to him about putting the paper together from a design perspective in the same way that I had creatively. He said he would talk to the publisher about me. That was how I went to Nigeria for a visit and two weeks later I was permanently placed in Nigeria again. They relocated me so that I could be the creative director for the paper.

AD: Wow.

VE: Yeah, I fell in love again with my country. We won the best designed newspaper the first year. But we were a bit too radical because we went after all the corrupt cases! They were not used to that in Nigeria! The owner of the newspaper is a Pulitzer winner. He is a Nigerian. He moved back from the US. I moved back from the US. The arts and culture editor moved back from the UK. The editor of the news paper, a woman, moved back from the UK. So we weren’t buying into the corrupt idea of not being able to publish a story because of being paid off by someone. We locked ourselves up in the office. I have worked 72 hours in the office before. We felt that we were making a very strong change in Nigeria and we ruffled the feathers of the establishment a bit. They were really scared of us.

AD: What was the newspaper?

VE: NEXT

AD: I think I have heard about it. Is it 234 NEXT?

VE: Yes, 234 NEXT.

AD: Oh yes! I think I have been interviewed by them before!

VE: Thank you! Yes, that is the online version of the paper.

AD: Amazing! OK so it sounds like you had quite a natural transition from working in technology to art. You mentioned that while you were working for US Pharmacopia, that you were painting at that point, before you even went to study and you were selling work then.

VE: Yes! I started selling art at the age of 9.

AD: From the age of 9?

VE: Yes! My uncle is a renowned photographer, so I grew up in an art home. My brother used to get me those plastic cameras you buy for kids as toys and I would line up my friends and pretend as if I was taking photographs, then I would go back and draw them. I gave them the drawings and they would give me money in exchange. I think that is what art sales is all about right!

AD: Wow! Yes! You were an enterprising child! One of my questions was going to be can you remember your first sale and how it felt.

VE: Well it was interesting, I was always doing it for fun. But the thing is that it is not the money aspect that drives me. When I am painting, I am having fun. Because of that I have always had my own business so that I knew that the businesses would take care of me so that I would not have to be desperate about art. When you get desperate, that is when you don’t do what you want to do. And once you don’t do what you want to do, for me, it is problematic. For other artists, I don't know, everybody has their own cup of tea but that is mine. I like doing what I want to do.

AD: Can you remember your first solo show?

VE: My first solo show was at Utopia Gallery 14^th Street New York. I think that was in 2000. I worked for National Geographic between '98 and 2000, and a whole lot of my co workers – who collected my works actually, came to that exhibition.

AD: Were you taken on by the gallery or was that an independent show?

VE: I was taken on by the gallery.

AD: That was after university right?

VE: Yes.

AD: How did you get that gallery representation? Did they find you or did you find them?

AD: I think it was a friends referral. They really liked the work and so we started talking. We kind of agreed on where we wanted to go.

AD: Have you always had gallery representation since then?

AD: Yes. But I am a bit wary about it in certain places because representation can mean a whole lot of things so if I am not too sure of what is going on then I kind of slow down a little bit.

AD: Your bio states that your work is, “...abstract, symbolic and politically motivated work with unmistakeable ties to your old Benin kingdom background and that your works are influenced by the reality of African traditional religion and the interception of Western beliefs, memories and nostalgia.” Your symbols and motifs are said to be “reminiscent of childhood village shrines and art drawn by women.” Would you say that art was a natural progression for you due to your background? How does that translate into this show?

VE: Its a gradual progression, because the more you work, the more you begin to discover what you can do. But memories and nostalgia come into play a lot with my work, whether in writing in painting, even doing photography. If you look at some of the work here, they are like wall drawings. They take up an entire wall. So yes, the people you see, the symbols you see, they can be contemporary, they can be a throw back to the past as well. The Masquerade piece can be a contemporary piece and it can also be... Look if you have a leader that is not telling you the truth, he is masquerading! He is putting on a display that is not supposed to be. Look at this other piece which is called The Delegate. You can send people to go and represent you, but they are representing themselves. So they are kind of like chameleons. They give you different colours depending on what they want you to see- which is quite deceptive. The work can reference the past and therefore how the past bears on the present.

AD: Today is the first time that I have come in since the show and seen the work with no people interrupting the work. I am noticing a lot of things that I did not see at the opening. One of those things is that the work appears to be on cloth. It reminds me of the traditional cloth that I use to tie myself at home.

VE: It is actually canvas, but I prime it to look like cloth. A lot of people keep referring to it as cloth because of the detailed nature of it. The way I primed one is different to the way I primed another because one is bit stiffer, so I can mould it a little bit. But it cant be too stiff because it will start breaking apart. I don’t use ready made cloth, but I create it to have a cloth like feel.

AD: I am also noticing that the symbols and also the fact that the entire canvas is covered in detail. Is there a specific reason for that or is that just your style?

VE: Yes it is my style but it is like taking ABCD to form words. You take letters from the alphabet to form words. You then choose words to form sentences. You form sentences to become stories, so there are layers. When you want to analyse or critique a novel, you don't go after the alphabet. You go after sentences, you go after story structure, you go after plot and characterisation.... Therefore, in the big pieces, it is pretty much like writing a novel. There are bits and pieces of symbols that come together to form a larger picture.

If you want to really drill into it, the symbols are there. The circular symbols represent the circle of life. The symbols that look like the letter W represent Kingship. When you look closely, you can see that what looks like a W is actually a crown. You have to distil yourself inside, to be able to extract the meaning. Then you have people, faces embedded in the work. Hidden. When you stand and look from a distance, you think that you can count the figures in the work. When you get a bit closer, you can see that there are faces embedded even deeper, behind and inside the figures. When you move over to another side, you notice entire figures that you never noticed before. I don't just go about telling people this. I want you to engage with the work. I don’t want you to just look, get out and think that you have encountered Victor Ehikamenor, you have to look at it! You have to look closely at anyone to really know who they are. So that is how it is.

From left to right, myself, Victor Ehikamenot and Eri Otite, gallery manager at GAFRA on opening night

AD: What is the story of this piece entitled “Waiting Along the Hallway of Pleasure.”

VE: This one is about Lagos, about village life. It is about stories, it is about enjoyment. Pretty much Lagos and the way we knew it.

It is also referencing red light districts. When you take that further, you soon realise that there is a lot of human trafficking in there as well- for prostitution abroad. Some prostitutes go, some come back. It cuts across politics, it cuts across social, it cuts across identity... When you look at it, prostitution is the oldest profession there is.

Looking at the current political situation in Africa, they are practically prostitutes. They are political prostitutes. Especially Nigeria where if you are in one political party which is not favourable to your career, you run to another political party which is.

AD: Now this painting entitled, “Lovers of Good Evening Street.”

VE: It is similar to the other one. Look at it deeply. Every one is naked pretty much. But you have to look well to be aware that that is what is happening to everybody. The is a place in Benin City called Ugbague Street. This is the oldest red light district in Benin City. It is a short street, like the length of this gallery. And it was really famous. People talked about it a lot. It was where men went to when they were kids... That was before the whole AIDS thing. You would see people popping their heads out of doors and people drinking beer along the street! It would usually start at around six in the evening- when the prostitutes would start coming out. When they would call out to men to come and patronise them, they would say, “Good evening sir!” That is why this piece is called, “Lovers of Good Evening Street.”

AD: I love the humour, but at the same time there is a dark side. Eri, the gallerry manager mentioned it earlier and I agree with her! It reminds me of Picasso's Guernica!

VE: Yes. The worse thing that has happened to Edo State is that they have had the highest number of young women leaving to Italy to go and prostitute. Ugbague is the only place that had a known red light district! What does that say? It was a particular group of people that were operating there. These were the great grandmothers, grandmothers and mothers of contemporary prostitutes that are there now! When you look at it, people just take things from the top, when they actually don't know the history behind it. They go to Italy and Belgium and all those places. They strut the streets, saying, “Hello, good evening, how are you?” So, again, they bring a lot of money back home to build houses. But some come back dead! Some come back with all kinds of diseases. So I work with satire- but when you look a little closer, you realise that I am not actually joking.

AD: Yes, it is quite serious.

VE: I am trying to tell you something. If you pay attention enough, you realise that I am not kidding here. When you look at it, you actually realise that there is really nobody happy there. There is no person that is happy in the piece. It leaves everybody naked, it leaves everybody sad. Some have their heads bowed. The lines that I leave in there, if you look at them you will see that I hollowed out the people. Whereas in the previous piece, you had objects on the bodies of the people.

AD: The story of the piece has gone from being happy to being sad. What about this piece- “The Scramble for Big Afro Mama?”

VE: This one is all about the raping of Africa by the whites. This is the division of Africa. This is them dividing up Africa. That is why I call it the “Scramble for Big Afro Mama.” If you notice there is a woman and she is being gang raped. That is that. Finished. You can see the men raping her have Caucasian noses. The owner of the woman, an African man is trying to hold onto his Africa. There are people coming from the outside, the river... Everywhere. They are just all over her.

AD: I've got chills now... What would you say has been your biggest challenge to date as an artist?

VE: I grew up in a place where you were not made to see challenges. If someone puts a log of wood in your path, it is telling you to climb atop the log to see beyond where you would have seen rather than seeing it as something which blocks your path.

I know some people might not believe it, but I don't see obstacles! It is just a matter of time for me... I am not trying to be a motivational speaker or anything of that sort! I mean I have had difficulties and everything, but everything I have ever wanted, I have always had. I grew up in a very loving environment. When it was time for my parents to send me to school in the US, I went. When I got there, I realised they didn't even have to send me any money to go to school because of the scholarship.

I mean, why did I leave National Geographic? Because a white boss said that I had an accent. Meanwhile, I had worked there for two years and I had done really well. He could not see past my accent to my engineering work. He would not move me from being a contractor to being permanent staff. He used that as an excuse to move me to another place of work, where they had to pay for my Masters. Should I have been looking at him or should I have been looking at the opportunity that happened later on? He made me go back and read UNIX! I was doing Microsoft before. I moved to Sun Systems and learned how to be a UNIX Systems Engineer!

Some people are ashamed to say that they grew up in the Village because they did not make the best use of their village experience! I grew up in the village. I had more fun! I grew up in a huge compound with cars and anything that we wanted. Books, photography, toys, football... I grew up to realise that my cousins who lived in the cities did not have fun at all. They were caged! So they did not have that experience that moulded them. The best place to go for a university education is the village! You have life experience. You can then draw on those experiences or you can disregard them.

AD: It sounds like for you, where some things may present to another person as a challenge, you see a challenge as an opportunity.

VE: Or just a matter of time. The British Government once wanted to deport me from this country. They asked me to report to Gatwick. But I am here today, going and coming any time I like! If I based everything on people saying you can't go to school here or you cant do certain things, I probably would not have been an artist in London. I probably would have been chasing that elusive thing... Wake up early in the morning, you have to run to this place. The best you can probably do is get a council job or something... When they wanted to deport me, I was like, well no. I know who I am. If you don't want me to stay in this country, I will leave. And I left! Now, I come in at any time I want and I leave whenever I want and they don't bother me.

Once I was complaining to my brother that my aunty would not say hello to me. I would greet her and she would ignore me and she would not return my calls. My brother told me that I had too much time on my hands- worrying about who was greeting me properly and who was not! He said, “Victor, go and read your books!”

AD: What about your biggest success to date as an artist? How did you achieve it?

VE: I don't know what is called success really. Being alive alone is successful for me to be honest with you. A whole lot of my friends have gone. People who did not have the opportunity to go to school. A lot of my friends have never travelled out of their environment. When people see me writing for the New York Times, or they see my articles on CNN or they see me being interviewed, they consider that successful. That is them defining success for me. That is not me defining my success. My success is that I am alive... To be able to have this conversation with you, to be able to have this exhibition. When I was in the US, I had pretty much everything I could ask for. I had my own house and drove a sports car. I got those things with IT money.

But what is success? That you are happy inside you. I am very content with myself and to me, that is my biggest success. To be happy with yourself, to be happy with you you are. To be comfortable in your own skin and be comfortable to laugh! I don’t force my laughter. When I want to laugh, I have a deep belly laugh. I wake up happy to see another beautiful day again and my family are doing well. There are people who rely on drugs to stay alive!

AD: That is beautiful. My next question was going to be whether you consider yourself to be successful by your own definition?

VE: Yes. In Nigeria, people are buying my work, I just had a very successful collaboration with Ituen Basi. That is huge! We showed it to Vogue Italia at a Mercedes Benz show in South Africa. The NEXT newspaper was based on my colours. It is also what else do I do with that creativity around me, so I think that is where people should try to define my success really. Not just looking at painting. I mean, having a show in the Gallery of African Art, you can add that one as a successful feather to my hat. It is a renowned gallery. In its one year of existence they have done some really great stuff. For the space they are in, this is prime real estate in London, so you can say that is a success. I think this is the longest running solo exhibition here. Two months.

AD: Yes! It is a long time.

VE: I think it is Mrs Cooper's belief in the work that she had seen. It is not easy for any gallery to tie down their space to one artist for two months.

AD: How did the relationship with Mrs Cooper and the Gallery of African art come about?

VE: I think she knew me before knowing me actually. She collected my work. She puts her money where her mouth is. Mrs Cooper bought my work last year before deciding to do a show, without even really knowing who I was. A mutual friend of ours suggested a show and one thing lead to the other. I sent in some work and she looked at it. She took her time to decide and after that, she decided to show the work and it was work all the way to make it a successful exhibition.

AD: What about the collaboration with the designer Ituen Basi?

VE: When we started the newspaper, we were profiling fashion designers in Nigeria to look out for. I was the one designing the newspaper. Her images came and she was using a lot of Ankara. When the images came to me, I thought, wow, the colours are like mine! They were so vibrant and her designs were really good. So I just filed it away somewhere in my mind- this idea of doing something with her.

Later on, I had an exhibition in an alternative space where they sell high end goods in Nigeria called Temple Muse. Her clothes were upstairs. It was like one of those shopping places where you have high end perfumes and that kind of thing, with clothes upstairs. A friend who was the fashion editor at NEXT saw the synergy between our work. She called me and made the suggestion. She said, “Victor, I don't know if you would like to work with Ituen. I saw something light up in my head when I saw the way your work flowed into her own garments...” I told her that was interesting because I had always said that one day I would like to work with a decent fashion designer, but it has to be the very best. You have to be careful when you are moving your work in that way so that it does not devalue the work that you are doing. The fashion editor then called Ituen and that was how it came about. We had a meeting and started working.

AD: There seems to be something happening in the Western art world, with reference to this movement toward the African aesthetic. This is in part evidenced by GAFRA being in existence. Then there was the nomination of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye for the Turner prize in 2013. Then of course there was the 1:54 Contemporary Art Fair last year, the Tate show in 2013 and the Bonhams African art auctions. This shift is almost palpable and it seems to be more prevalent now than ever before in my opinion. I think the question is really relevant to you because you have your feet on both sides as you work in the US as well as Nigeria and exhibit internationally. How do you think that this shift is going to impact the careers of African artists in the diaspora and then more specifically your own career?

VE: I would say that it is an interesting development. I would also tell you that there is no way you can light a lamp and expect darkness to suppress that lamp. African art has always been there. The Western world- Picasso for example, has borrowed from Africa. I think that it is time for the Western world to say, OK, we can't suppress these people any more. Suppression in quotes...

We have also said that it is time for us to do big things. We are no longer content with what we were doing before. We want to move up... By being here, Mrs Cooper is saying that she wants to play big time! She is saying, “I am not going to go and set up in Peckham where the bourgeois will not go to. I am going to be right in the middle of you guys here, whether you like it or not, you will walk into my gallery!” It is a bold statement! That is the statement African art is making to the art world. We will no longer be the underdogs. We are ready to play big time. You have the curators, you have the gallery owners, just saying look, we are here. You will play with us. We are going to play on this field together, if it is not level, we will find one way or another to level this field. That is what is happening right now.

The traffic is both ways and the traffic has to be both ways. We are no longer in that time when people could just take what they want and do whatever they liked with it. You take our cocoa, you come back with some expensive chocolate to sell us and we are scrambling for it. You come take the oil and you come back with lubricants that we can’t afford. You take our flowers and give us perfume we can not afford. No! If you want our flowers, lets do it here. That is what is happening in the art world.

You have to realise that you have various movements. You have New York, you have London, you have Asia, you have Indian art.... I think it is Africa's time. I think we are ready for them. As an artist, I think I am ready for them. Wherever they want to go. You want collaboration with high end fashion designers? Here it is from our own end and it is high end. The materials are not your regular Kente that you see. The materials are high end silk made in the best factories in the world.

AD: Do you see this shift only helping your career personally?

VE: No. It is expansive. Everybody has to benefit from it. Whatever happens to one person happens to the other. You see it's like Chimananda Adiche. When she became successful, that is when every publisher started looking for the next Chimananda. When you look at all these other African writers coming after her, they are feeding on her success. The success of one person has an effect on other people.

Mrs Coopers success in this place will make other people look towards Africa. She is not only doing it for herself. Even if that was the original intention, it can not happen like that. Because people will come here and look at what is happening and be inspired. They will see that it is possible. One person has to tell the other people that this is possible.

AD: You mentioned Chimananda. I know that you have illustrated a book for her. How did that come about?

VE: We are good friends. Before the whole world knew who she was, I always regarded her as a very beautiful soul. She is not a selfish person. Once you are not a selfish person, then I get along with you. We have known each other since 2003, which is more than 10 years now. I met her in DC when her book came out. We had coffee together and the next thing I knew, her publisher contacted me and said that she insisted that I was the one who supplied the image for her forthcoming book! She is that great. Recently, she forced the Guardian UK to make sure that I was the one who photographed her. That is the photo downstairs, I will show you later. They commissioned me to photograph her in Nigeria for an article when she won the Book Circle Award in the US. One way or the other, she has always given back to friends and to those who are around her.

AD: Going back to the talking about the “art establishment,” and I have a feeling I know what you are going to say to this question! I have spoken to quite a few black artists who feel somewhat intimidated by the Western art establishment with regards to getting validation in order for them to feel like they can further their careers. Have you have any experiences that would justify that fear?

VE: It is a very emphatic NO! Remember what I told you about my brother and the woman who would not say hello to me? Keep working! They will come for you. And when they come for you, you better be ready! I mean, what are we talking about? Look, Harvard has used my work to illustrate their magazine. The Financial Times has profiled me. I don't even know if I am qualified any more to answer that question. When the museums are ready they will come. And I will be ready for them.

AD: Is that kind of validation important to you?

VE: I mean for any artist, you want to be recognised for the hard work that you are doing, but it doesn’t give e sleepless nights. Again, when the time is right, they will come.

AD: Do you think that having a formal art education is important to having a successful art career or not?

VE: It is a door opener. It is a part of networking. When you look at the MFA programmes in the US, and I am very familiar with that whole academic world, it is networking. Its not like it is going to teach you anything way beyond what you already know. You can not take a carpenter and turn him into a writer. Having said that, when you look at the Iowa MFA, you see that on graduation, they are able to fuse into the publishing world because they already have a name. If you study law at Harvard, you already have a name, so you can practice in Washington DC pretty much straight away. Here in the UK, it would be Goldsmiths for artists...

For me, it is almost like gate crashing a party! I want to go to this party, so I will find a way of getting in there! I was getting ready to go for Yale MFA in Fine Art when Nigeria came calling. That was my next move. Because again, when you go there, it is part of networking. You have Kehinde Wiley, you have Wangechi Mutu. All the African guys go to Yale. They have a say in the world of art. I might still go there. I might go and have some fun!

AD: You have achieved a lot and we have mentioned just a few of those achievements. Do you have any further dreams for your art career?

VE: I don't know. Again, I let things happen. It is when you have those crazy ideas- that is when you put unnecessary pressure on yourself and you start doing all kinds of things that probably would not have come naturally to you. That is not to say that I am ambition-less! I mean, I would like to go to a big museum, I would like to show at the Tate, at MOMA, at the Brooklyn museum, I would like to show in Japan... All the places where artists of my generation are showing, I would like to show there. My dad always said to me, “Whatever your mates are doing well, make sure you are doing it as well.” Again, it doesn’t give me sleepless nights, because I know, if I keep working hard and pushing myself for myself, not for anybody, and stay out of trouble, I will be good!

AD: Finally, what advice would you give to other artists wishing to follow in your footsteps ?

VE: They should keep working. Read as well. Read wide. Consume what others are doing. Visit galleries, pay attention and if they can afford it, get a good education. It is a leveller. Money is not the leveller. Education is the leveller.

Victor Ehikamenor's “Chronicles of the Enchanted World” is on at the Gallery of African Art, Mayfair, London until the 19th July 2014

Art Success. Adelaide Damoah in Conversation with Kelvin Okafor

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 30 May 2014 19:30:00 +0000

Nwanebuni_(Self Portrait II)

At only 28 years old, Kelvin Okafor is one of the best draughtsmen of our generation in my opinion. Born in 1985, Okafor's passion for the pencil started at a very early age. Like many young art world stars, he appears to have come out of nowhere, but Okafor has been quietly perfecting his craft since he was a little boy. When his friends were playing outside, Okafor was inside drawing with his charcoal pencil. His passion for drawing followed him and propelled him to study fine art at Middlesex University from which he graduated in 2009. He has already won awards and had national and international media exposure for his extraordinary talent.

Critic Estelle Lovatt describes the work as “Emotional Realism” in her write up for his exhibition catalogue. She is right. His pencil portraits- some you will recognise and some you will not, leave you feeling... Something... It is like they are alive. They breathe! Okafor's portraits have more of an impact than any photographic portraits I have ever seen, so labelling his work as photo realism seems somehow wrong.

Okafor's début exhibition opened at the Albermarle Gallery in Mayfair at the start of May 2014. I was lucky enough to receive an invite to the opening. The work on display was overwhelming and astonishingly beautiful. So perfectly executed that I could only think that he must have been touched by God himself.

Kelvin, a humble, kind and striking young man, was kind enough to take time out of his hectic schedule in the run up to his début show, to discuss his work and dreams with me. It was an inspiring and surprisingly funny conversation.

Adelaide Damoah: I remember you telling me when you first got taken on by the Albermalre Gallery.

Kelvin Okafor: Yea... Still feels like a dream. Every day I am just incredibly appreciative.

AD: I saw on the website that they are giving you a solo show in May?

KO: Absolutely yeah.

AD: So you are working towards that?

KO: Yes. It is so crazy because it's like, on average it takes 80 to 100 hours to complete a portrait. I am quite surprised that I have been able to keep the work ethic going. With all of the interviews, work shows and shows... It is amazing.

AD: How long did you say it takes you to do one portrait?

KO: On average it is between 80 and 100 hours. Some of my last pieces of work were between 116 and 123 hours.

Mother Teresa

AD: That is a long time wow. To put that into context, how many days is that?

KO: When I have a free day, I do 12 to 14 hours of drawing. I wake up at six, I read for two hours, I work out for two hours and I start at 10 and I finish at two am. It takes like a week and a bit to do a portrait- that is if I have that many days free to draw.

AD: That is serious! Well saying that, it sounds like my typical day, but I don't get to spend that much time on art. It seems to be the way for many creative types- especially staying up late.

KO: I guess the plus side is that I am doing something I love to do. It does not necessarily feel like work. I don't even feel like I am on this planet when I draw. I just zone out and hours pass without eating. My friends tell me that I need to relax and take time out, but for me it is not work.

AD: I completely understand where you are coming from. My record for a painting was 18 hours straight. If it wasn't for people who cared about me reminding me to eat and drink something, I probably would not have because you are just in the zone! You graduated in Fine Art from Middlesex in 2009 right?

KO: That is correct

AD: I read that you used to practice drawing at home when you were little. So cute. How old were you when you decided that making art was what you wanted to do for your life?

KO: I remember first having the love and fascination with pencils at the age of eight. I guess I must have been a bit of an odd child, because I was fascinated by something that was so old and traditional, when I should have been outside playing games. But for me, I was fascinated by the fact that a single piece of lead could create such variations in tone and value, almost creating that illusion of colour. That inspired me, so I have always had that love, but I was 15 when I knew that I could draw. That was only because at school my teachers and peers were praising me and they were impressed with the work. It was after university when I fully said that this was what I wanted to do for a living.I decided after university that I wanted to make a living from drawing. I did not know how I could make it lucrative, but I have always wanted to draw.

Corinne Bailey Rae

AD:When you made the decision to go to university and study fine art, you were not thinking that this was what you wanted to do for a career, but you knew that you wanted to study further?

KO: Absolutely. I wanted to learn the history. I wanted to learn more about my genre of art and also others, so that I could have that strength behind me, to I know why I am doing what I am doing. What it means and who has done it before me. At school- when I was studying for my GCSE's, they didn't tell me how to be a Picasso or how I could be a Da Vinci selling art work. They told us about using it to be a curator or a teacher. I never really had the vision of having my art works in galleries when I was younger.

We had our end of year degree show at the Truman Gallery and that was the first time I had exhibited my art work in a full exhibition. I saw what was happening at the reception and I was shocked. I spoke to a lot of galleries that came down as well and I kind of visualised myself selling my art work. It has always been a labour of love. I never really thought about money and how I could make money out of it.

AD: Obviously studying fine art, you would have studied all sorts of different mediums. Is there a specific reason you stuck with pencils?

KO: After my A Levels, I did a year course- City and guilds at art school. Pencils have been my number one love since I was a child, but I have always loved all mediums. I can paint, I can sculpt, but pencils were always the number one for me. I went to art school because I knew that pencils were my first love, but I wanted to see where other mediums would take me. At art school, I learned how to make stained glass windows, how to work with glass, how to sculpt with clay, how to work with wood and I fell in love! But in the end, pencil was... I just could not get away from it.

After art school I decided that this was what I wanted to make a niche for myself. So I went to university to learn more about the history of art and about my genre. But because it is such a traditional medium, and portraiture in my style is quite traditional and old fashioned, it wasn't really encouraged much. At university I was a bit discouraged. Even though the teachers were supportive in the way they gave lectures and the way they tried to push us to get good grades, I was pushed not to do what I was doing because they wanted me to be more conceptual, more contemporary.Not to be so controlled, so accurate and precise. They wanted me to change my style. But that was my love... I did try to change a bit, but ultimately, I wanted to stick with my own style and so I stuck with it. I found that the more I drew in my style, the more I loved it and after I left university, I just decided that this was what I wanted to do and that this was how I wanted to do it.

AD: I knew being stubborn was a good quality to have! So how come you focused on portraits specifically?

KO: At university, my work was based on the Trafalgar Square Lions, but since I was a child, I was always fascinated with human faces. My parents reminded me that when I was five years old, I would ask people, “When you smile, what do you think of?”

I have always been intrigued and fascinated by expressions and why people make the sort of expressions that they make. Especially when people are day dreaming and they have this blank expression. The way the light reflects on a face, creating a mood or a story, a subject, a space. That inspired me and I have always had that fascination with faces and trying to prompt an emotion and find a message about someone and try to bring that through.

Tinie Tempah

AD: Why celebrities?

KO: The reason I initially did celebrities was because my work is all freehand.... When I was younger, I used to love the fact that I could draw things and people could recognise what I had drawn just from pencil and paper. So for me celebrities- people like Mother Teresa or Nelson Mandela They have had such influence on us as human beings and have performed such noble deeds and I almost wanted to draw them to glorify them. But at the same time, it was also to show people that I could draw because everyone will recognise a famous face. People like Amy Winehouse are instantly recognisable, so it makes me feel like my drawings are accurate and I can draw with precision.

So it was two things- the fact that I was drawing people who had done noble deeds and on the other hand, people could recognise famous faces. This was a good way for my audience to grow and that is what happened.

After university I started drawing celebrities and straight after university, my friends encouraged me to put some work on Facebook. I joined Facebook and I put my Trafalgar Square Lions there and I started to draw portraits. Then I started to draw celebrities because people engage with the celebrities they recognise. It was also a way for me to practice and see how precisely I could draw.

At the same time, it was to show people that at the end of the day, celebrities are human beings. I think that humanises them. So many people feel like they are a different type of person, when we are all human beings. They probably have a little bit more money in their pockets than we do, but we are all human at the end of the day. These days my subjects are predominantly every day people.

AD: I also read that you like to work predominantly from photos purely because of the amount of time that you spend on each piece. How are you then able to capture the expression that you are looking for? Do you photograph them yourself?

KO: Yes, I photograph them myself. To me photography is inspiration and you can only rely so much on your memory. Even though to be honest, I don't think that I have actually got a photographic memory, but I do memorise faces and many of my drawings are memory based. Photography is there for me as proof of a moment. You know, once you take a photograph it is there forever, but when you have it in your memory, it may change based on what you felt or how you were feeling at that moment, so it can be exaggerated.

I take many photographs at different angles and also I might take the eyes and lips from different photographs and put them together to make up the final result. And the wonderful thing about it is- and this is the thing with hyper-realism. You have the chance to alter or to move something because- you can draw inspiration from photographs- with lighting for example. When you photograph a subject it might be too dark, but you have the freedom to exaggerate the light from somewhere else to really convey an essence about someone and bring forward the colour of their eyes or their hair. You know...

Sir Derek Jacobi

AD: Do you use photo-shop to chop stuff up and make it how you want it before you start working from it?

KO: No just the ordinary photographs that I work from, but it helps for me to be able to turn it black and white because when you are working in pencils, it can be very difficult to get the values of greens and reds as they are very similar. But when it is in black and white, you won't know what colour is which. Then I just use how I feel. When I have the photograph there, very literally I can work around the shape and then I have the freedom to change the angle or to bring the light in from somewhere else just by using my imagination.

AD: I have seen your list of exhibitions- which is very impressive considering that you only graduated in 2009! Were any of them solo shows or is this one your first solo show?

KO: Yes, this is my first solo show, which is why I said that this is like a dream. I am ever so grateful... There is just no way that I can express my gratitude because I have always been fed negative comments about struggling artists and only successful once they die. To have this considering where I have come from... It has shown me to really focus during hard times and to go for what you really love and believe in. All of the shows I have had before this one. The Mall Galleries and the National Open art Competition... I am very grateful.

AD: I was at the opening for the National Open art Competition. That was when I first saw your work and I was in complete awe! That was in 2012 wasn't it?

KO: Wow, thank you! Yeah it was.

Kelvin Okafor with Neil Lawson-Baker. Founder of National Open Art Competition and his piece for the competition

AD: Can you remember when you sold your first piece?

KO: The very first piece of work I sold was at my final year show at university at the Truman Gallery. After the show there was some interest in my Trafalgar Square Lions piece. I was not sure how to price it as I was just starting out. I have always been quite humble as an individual. It has never been about money for me, my love for art. But you have to have confidence in your work. The prices of my works are what they are right now because of the value and the demand. But back then, the value was £100 or £200 for a portrait, I didn't mind and that is about what I sold it for.

AD: What did that first sale feel like?

KO: Amazing. For my family, it made them feel like there may be something. Because unfortunately, there was not really much emotional support for me in terms of pursuing a career in art. They have always wanted me to do what I love to do, but they were looking out for me financially and they did not feel like it would be lucrative for me to have a career in art. They thought it was just me being selfish and I felt selfish just doing what I loved to do and not thinking about money. But after selling that drawing, it made them think that this could work out. It made me feel like that as well. I felt like I could actually profit as an artist.

John-Paul_(For Love That is Agape)

AD: Your parents, are they Nigerian?

KO: They are Nigerian yes.

AD: My parents are Ghanaian so I can understand where you are coming from! Traditional African parents are often very much of the mindset that you are not going to make any money doing this type of thing so what is the point. They say things like, “Be a lawyer, a doctor, an accountant! What is this art! What kind of nonsense, you are going to starve and then who is going to support us your parents?”

KO: Oh my God! That is exactly how it is! And it is sad,. But at the same time, I don't really blame them because.. I have two sisters- they are twins, and a younger brother who is only 24 and we were all born here in the UK. They wanted us all to be free financially. It is the academic based careers like being a doctor or lawyer that they feel will provide the best opportunities to make money. But at the end of the day, for I wanted to prove that that is not really the case.

AD: What would you say has been your biggest challenge to date as an artist and how did you overcome it?

KO: That is a good question. My biggest challenge has been financial. After university, especially when my friends and age mates were are renting their own places, buying their own properties, forming relationships and going out and having that freedom of having a job. Me not being able to support my family, you know it was hard. After university, I continued working with celebrity portraiture. I've always been doing portraits but it was only after university that I had a full portfolio. When I joined Facebook between 2009 and 2010, I had this body of work and it was creating quite a big buzz.

I was on different art websites and my name was growing. But I was only 24 at the time and many people thought it was unreal and impossible because of that. I had won no awards and there was nothing of me anywhere so for them, it must be impossible. Then there was an art website that I was a member of and unfortunately, there was a forum made about my work being fake. I don't even want you to mention the name of the site because sadly, artists that I respected and admired, went on this forum and insulted me. It turned racial. It was not just about my work. When that was happening, I asked the staff for help every day. It is an American website so we were in different time zones. This meant that at 4am I was receiving private emails from people being racist.

The wonderful thing about being online is that you can make friends and artists have communities. But then I found that these same people who were saying nice things about my art were slandering me. At first it felt like a compliment when people were saying it could not be real because the work looked so much like photographs, but when it turned racial and I started receiving hateful emails, I just could not understand it. Emotionally I was a bit low. They chased me everywhere, including Facebook and they even called my university.

AD: What?

KO: Yes! I had a call from my university asking if I was OK because they were having people calling them and asking if I attended the university. They were going around to different art websites to get me removed and certain art websites did so because they had received so many complaints about my work.

In 2010, because my work was growing in a good way, I started to receive some commissions from clients and then some of those clients who had already requested work said that they were not sure because they had heard that my works were fraudulent! It was a very difficult time for me, but at the same time it was the biggest blessing, because then, at that moment, I decided to make Evolutions – which were videos of my drawings where I would photograph my drawings from start to finish at each stage. This showed people how I actually create a portrait. That lead to something wonderful because I was able to inspire and encourage other artists. After that, some people came back and confessed to being one of those who said my work was fake and that they could now see that the work was real and genuine.

Emotionally that was very difficult for me. Financially, I was trying to make a living out of something which I thought could only be commission based work. Losing potential clients and then having this bad reputation and people thinking my work was fake- it was a bit difficult to bounce back from that. So that was tough, but it completely changed around in 2011 when I started to document all of the stages of every drawing that I did.

Mia III. Sensitivity

AD: Wow. That sounds so hard. I had no idea that that happened.

KO: Whenever I have been asked that in an interview, I would never want to name the site.. Because I kind of felt like the staff at that website were not very helpful. I was asking for help for ways to block these people so that I could focus. But they just did not give me any help. They just let it go. I took myself off the site and tried to deal with work again. I don't want to mention them because by doing so, I will just be giving them more attention- whatever that means.

AD: And then they were calling you racist names on top of it?

KO: Yea! They were saying things like “Nigerian scam artist with your fake drawings...” It was a bit rough. I was seeing those emails and I was shocked. I believe that you attract whatever it is that you think about. So I don't like to think negative things. I just try to get myself away from it. But when you are receiving those emails you are reminded and then it drops you emotionally. You are trying to focus on the positive and to create new work, but the new work is being slandered by people. But I guess that is the good and the bad of the internet right? You have the plus side where you don't even have to show your face and you can profit or have a business online. But then at the same time, you can have internet bullies who hide behind a screen and try to make peoples lives a living hell by being negative to people.

AD: Wow. Well moving on to something more positive!

KO: Well I actually think it was a very positive time for me looking back at it. I was very accessible online back then. People would ask me questions and I would always be willing to answer. Even though I am still that way now, but at the same time, I was too accessible to the extent where I was not really focusing on my work. I was trying to answer every single persons need when you can't really do that. You have to lay back and just focus on your work. I felt like it was a positive time because it made me create videos where people could see my work from start to finish and I found that it helped so many people. For me that is the biggest positive because as an artist, that is my number one objective. As a person even, my objective is to be of service to someone in a good way. So it was a very positive time for me, but at the same time, it was difficult to deal with because I did not understand what was happening.

AD: But you dealt with it in the best way possible, which was to show people what your process was and that obviously reaped positive results in the end.

KO: Yes!

King Hussein

AD: Excellent. What has been your biggest success to date and how did you achieve it?

KO: Last year, so much happened, both from a personal perspective and in my life as an artist. It is kind of hard to pin point exactly what the biggest success is. I guess looking from the outside in, being on the BBC, such a big broadcast station, I feel that led to recognition for me. I don't think that it is because I have this amazing gift and I am something special. No. I think it is because, unfortunately there are so many incredibly talented people who are far greater than I am skilfully but they just have not been recognise by a big station like the BBC. From then, it lead to me meeting high profile people and people that I never thought I would meet. I have drawn some of the people that I am actually meeting now and it is amazing. I feel like that was a great big achievement for me. But like the greatest success... I don't know... Because I can't really pin point one thing.. The position that I am in today, I can't really say that I am established, as yet. For me, being established, is being established world wide. Although I feel like I have had some recognition worldwide, I would love to have my works be seen in galleries worldwide. But as an artist, I do feel like where I am today, being a part of the Albermarle Gallery, having the solo show.. This is my biggest accomplishment.

AD: How did you get involved with the Albermarle Gallery?

KO: Wonderfully, Katherine Roberts my business manager actually knew and recommended the gallery. I have been around the galleries in Mayfair when I was younger and I went in the Albermarle Gallery once but never could I have imagined being a part of the team. We went into the gallery one day. This was after the whole buzz happened. And I came with some of my works to show Tony the gallery manager. His reaction was just amazing. He obviously sees lots of artists and he was just telling me that he had not seen anything like this and that made me feel very very happy.

Kathryn Roberts with Kelvin Okafor at Albermarle Gallery Mayfair

AD: How did you meet Katherine in the first place?

KO: She was the founder of the Cork Street Open art competition and unfortunately, last summer was the last one. But she had the winter show exhibition and I submitted for it, I got in and I had three of my drawings in there. I won the runners up prize and I was in the exhibition. Funnily enough, it was just before the whole BBC thing happened. How it all started- I don't want to get off subject now, but Middlesex University keep track of the ex students and what they are doing after graduation. The PR lady contacted me for a press release on the phone because they saw that I had been featured in Vanguard newspaper- a big newspaper in Nigeria. They saw the exhibitions that I was in and that I was growing. I gave her the information on the phone and then a few days later, I won the prize at the Cork Street competition. They asked me to do a video interview after winning the prize so we did that. Then she sent it to press outlets everywhere and the BBC caught on. I went back to university to do a master-class and had the interview there. And that is how it kind of took off.

Katherine does business management for artists as well. It was around the end of January 2013 when I was on the BBC. Then after that, my phone just would not stop ringing! It was wild! I started getting hundreds of emails and lots of agents and managers were calling me. I never knew anything about the business side to art so I was a bit confused as to what to do. Thankfully, Katherine was there and she was able to guide me through it.

The prize that I won in Cork Street included a £1000 prize and a part of it was for services- so helping out with promotion and getting you into galleries. She helped me as an agent. So she helped me with emails and getting back to people and I felt comfortable with her. But at the same time, it was so weird, I was being wined and dined by these agents and managers and all these really wealthy people. I am very emotional and am probably too emotional for a guy! I love people and I choose to see the best in them. Having interviews and meetings with these people made me feel extremely uncomfortable, because, looking in their eyes, it felt as though they didn’t see a human being. They saw an asset. They just saw money. I was uncomfortable and I just felt like wow, is this what it is like in the business world. At first with Katherine, I kind of felt the same way, but after getting to know her, I got to trust her as a person. I went along with her and it went from there.

AD: Wow, that must have been scary. I can imagine them with dollar signs in their eyes!

KO: Yea! It was so weird, like I was being invited to the Ritz and all sorts of places. Even going to these places, I was thinking what have I done for you to warrant this- because I didn't know what they wanted. I just thought they were being really nice and they just wanted get to know me. Not knowing that at the end of a £200 meal that they paid for, they were asking me, “What can we do for you and what can you do for us?” I was thinking- what?? That was a big learning curve. Learning about the whole business side to art and seeing how that works.

AD: Well sort of staying on the subject of business, many Western Art world experts have started to focus their attention to discuss, at some length this shift that is happening towards the African art aesthetic- especially African art from the continent. This shift in art world thinking is obviously having an impact because we had the African Art show at the Tate in 2013, the 1:54 show in 2013 and Lynette Yiadom Boackyi being nominated for the Turner prize in 2013. So there is all this stuff happening! What I am interested in is whether you think that this shift will have any impact on African artists or black artists in general going forward? If so why?

KO: I think it will inspire lots of black artists because it will give them the courage and the faith to embrace their culture and what they want to do. At university, because of my heritage, they thought that I should be making African art and encouraged me to look at artists like Chris Offilli. I felt like that was not necessary because for me, art is expression, it could be absolutely anything. It does not have to be about where you are from. I think that this movement that is happening is good because it will bring more African artists forward to embrace their culture and heritage and I think lots of things can manifest from that. It could be the start of something new.

Rochelle

AD: I think so too. Can you see it impacting your career personally? Despite the fact that you would not look at your work and think that the artist is black, do you see the shift impacting your career because of the fact that you happen to be that?

KO: Maybe emotionally. I can see it encouraging me to embrace my heritage, but in terms of my craft, after this solo show, I intend to work in colour and with pastels in oils. I want to build a portfolio for another solo show, hopefully two years after. It is going to be in portraiture, kind of the same thing I am doing right now but in colour. To be honest, I have always felt like my work may change in terms of genre. I do feel that there is a good chance it could affect me and have an impact on my style of work in the future. I am actually seeing it. In Cork Street, there is a gallery called the Gallery of African Art.

AD: I know the gallery.

KO: I went there recently when there was a Ghanaian artist having his exhibition The work there was amazing and I was inspired... You never really know what could happen. When you are inspired, things change and it could impact you in so many different ways. It could be politics or your work ethic or the way you see art or your philosophy behind art. So I think that there is a chance it could, but I can't say that it will happen right now because I have this plan for what I want to do right now.

Toby

AD: Looking at it from a different perspective, but along similar lines, I have spoken to a number of black artists who are intimidated by the so called Western Art establishment because they are afraid that it will not accept them because they are black. At the end of the day, this is a very old school, traditional institution where they will not necessarily block you for being black- however, there are some artists who have felt that in a very real way. Have you had any experiences which would substantiate that fear and if so what were they and how did you deal with them? Obviously we have discussed what happened with the website who shall not be named! But just in terms of the establishment itself, being as close as you are now, have you felt anything like that?

KO: I feel very fortunate that growing up, my peers were of mixed heritages and cultures. My friends range from Asian, to African, Caribbean, American, European to Irish.. I went to St Ignatius College in Enfield. There were lots of different ethnicities. It was funny because in the school playground, you could see the kids start to segregate. You would have the Irish, the Africans, the blacks, the whites. Everyone separated and stuck with what was familiar to them. But I have always been with everyone and I was accepted everywhere because I embraced everywhere. I didn't associate myself solely with just one person.

During university, I was one of the only black students. I feel like that may have had a part to play in why my tutors encouraged me to look at African art and to work in that genre. I could appreciate it but that was not what I wanted to do. When applying for the Mall Galleries and the National Open Art competition, some of my friends were asking, why I was making art, as it is a predominantly white upper class interest! “Are you sure they are going to accept you?” They would ask! I would hear these things, but as I said earlier, I am a believer that what we become what we think about and it is very important for us to focus on the good. To focus on what we want. I hear those things but I do not focus on them because I know that if I do, I will attract them.

So when I entered these competitions, I entered feeling proud of what I do and feeling like my work could inspire. It was more about what my work could do for people and it didn't really have anything to do with race.

But now, I get people asking me if I think this success has come because I am black and because I am from Tottenham... Maybe, maybe not. I don't want to think like that. I just feel like I got blessed with the opportunity to be recognised for what I do and its been appreciated. People ask me how I can have the confidence to put my work in these upper class shows being from Tottenham and they ask me how I feel about it.

The funny thing as well Adelaide, is that when I think about it, I have had interviews with and I have met people who are from that upper class background. Knowing where I am from and that I am a black male the slang terminology comes in! Some interviewers will actually approach me saying, “You aright bruv?”

AD: No!

KO: Yes! Some of my friends speak like that so I can relate, but when they heard that I could articulate myself without using slang, they completely changed! It was almost like they were shocked that I was intelligent and could speak very well! Maybe I speak very well to them because they assume that I will speak a certain way because of where I am from.

AD: Yes.

KO: It is funny but I just laugh and let it go. I don't like to think about race in a negative way- even though I see it! It is there! But I don’t like to think about it. I just like to think solely about the work.

AD: Well its not helpful to dwell on it in those terms anyway because as you say, thoughts become things.

KO: I really do believe that

AD: Good. So how would you define success in the art world? Forget everyone else, I want your personal perspective.

KO: I would define success in the art world as being very proud of what you do and you being confident about what you do. Having that faith and courage to share your work with others and have your work in galleries where other people can see it. I think as an artist, that is success, being able to share your work with all types of people. I have always been very sensitive. When I was younger, I used to just draw and I never shared my work. Whenever I was upset, I would draw. When I was happy I would draw. I drew to express myself, to let go and to purge. To be able to share something so personal and for you to be proud of what you do, I feel like that is success you know. Not necessarily financial... Money is a good thing. It can help yourself and others, but I think emotional and spiritual fulfilment is most important. Having that pride and confidence in what you do.

AD: Yes, agreed. By your definition, would you consider yourself to be successful?

KO: Yes I do!

AD: Good!

KO: But I tend to push myself so I am not where I want to be. Even in terms of skill, I still feel like there is still so much more for me to give, but I am very grateful. I still feel that I am successful in terms of the way I view my work.

Kerry. Glow

AD: Brilliant. So what is the biggest and most ambitious dream you have for your work?

KO: The biggest and most ambitious dream... To have it exhibited worldwide. To have my work physically seen in different countries all over the world, not just online. Also to inspire more people around the world. Last September I had a workshop in Tate Modern and it was sold out in an hour. It was incredible! Giving these talks and teaching the younger ones, I feel like it is a dream come true. Even though teaching young ones was not necessarily my ultimate dream, I feel like it is so important because very often, when you are in your early teens and even sometimes into the mid twenties, you don't really know what you want to do. Believing in your dream can seem so corny and unrealistic. But having someone to encourage your dreams, especially at that age, I think is helpful.

AD: Talking of... What advice would you give to other artists wishing to follow in your footsteps?

KO: Persevere, persevere. If you have something you love to do, do it. It is scary the sacrifices that you have to make to follow your dreams. Friendships, even relationships. Being able to let go is difficult. It was hard for me to let go of a specific relationship. It is also hard for me to sacrifice going out to clubs with friends and having a social life and security- like through having a comfortable nine to five job. But your dream, its not going to be easy to pursue it but... Perseverance is what I would tell any artist. Persevere no matter what.

Okafor signing limited edition prints

Kelvin Okafor's show "Portraits," is on at the Albernarle Gallery Mayfair until the 31st May 2014
Kelvin Okafor Website

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Eugene Ankomah

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 20 Feb 2014 17:00:00 +0000

Born in 1978 in the UK, Eugene Ankomah has already had an impressive art career spanning 18 years. Ankomah's family settled in the UK when he was 13 years old. His love affair with art started at the tender age of five when he was first given the task of copying the image of a monkey at school. Described as a child prodigy even then, Ankomah went on to impress his school teachers enough to make his first sale while at the age of 16 and to win a number of awards and prizes which would later form the basis for his blossoming career. Ankomah kindly took some time out of his busy schedule, which also includes working with young people in art, to discuss his career to date and his thoughts on success in the art world.

Something Inside So strong. 2012

AD: I see a lot of African symbolism in your work. Would you say that your life growing up in Ghana influences your work?

EA: Most definitely yes! Watching all of those dramas on TV and seeing the cultural references that were made by a lot of the characters got me intrigued from an early age- but funnily enough, I did not really show any of it in my work. It was a bit later when I was tying to find a part of my identity through my art, when it occurred to me that there was no stronger way to communicate where I was from than to put a bit of my background into the work. I felt that it was all connected.

AD: What did you study at Central St Martins?

EA: I did a foundation in Fine Art at St Martins.

AD: And then you went on to Westminister university?

EA: Yes.

AD: And what did you study there?

EA: It was illustration. But it was one of those courses where you could express yourself in so many different ways. There were people doing painting, ceramics, sculpture.. All sorts of different things, you know, mixed media... And that to me was just perfect because I did not just want to stick to just one thing and be a painter. But it did give me a chance to develop painting, print making and all sorts.

AD: At what point did you decide to go ahead and become a professional artist?

EA: I don't think I ever decided to become an artist. It was so natural for me from the very beginning. I have never felt like it was a conscious decision. It was as if I had no choice... But I would say that I noticed that I was good at it at about the age of five. The reason I say that is because back in Ghana, I remember a teacher giving us these books with lots of imagery inside. Our task was to choose an image and copy it. At that time, I used to go to the house of a man who had a monkey. I would play with the monkey- so I went straight for the image of the monkey in the book the teacher gave us. I remember that the monkey was in a tree, so I copied the image and I added something to it which I had seen in real life with my monkey friend. It was a chain which was tied to the waist of the monkey and then connected to the tree. The teacher came around, looked at it and was really surprised that I had not only drawn it very well, but that I had also added something to it. I remember a few of the kids coming around to my table and having a look and being very surprised. That was when I thought that I was good at drawing. But I also used to draw stuff at home. My mum would give me paper and I would just sit down passing the time drawing all sorts of things. It has just been a journey from that time that I have never stopped.

Young Daniel. Spray paint, vase and blackened water. 2012

AD: Are you now a full time artist?

EA: Yes I am. I do some other work on the side, but it is all art related.

AD: Excellent. What are some of the other things that you do? You mentioned a project where you are working with young people.

EA: I have been offered projects where I work with young people. It has always been a joy for me, working with young people to be honest. I feel that strong desire to impact their lives. To give something back- to teach them, or to help guide them... To just sort of work together. I have learned a lot from them as well so it is a nice thing to do. I have also had a couple of stints doing artist residencies.

AD: At what point did things start to take off for you after you graduated?

EA: It started to take off when I was 16. Because just like when I was at primary school, I became the person to go to when you needed something to be drawn. After about a year of continuing to draw for other people at school, a teacher approached me and insisted that I do A level art with him. I continued art to A level and when I was 17, I was nominated for a prestigious award called the Peter Evans award. Within a week of entering, I was told I had won £150, which was a huge deal to me at the time. That was when it quickly spread throughout the school. The local press came in, took photographs and did a short interview. From that point, a lot of the work I had made was used for the school brochure and teachers hand books. Everything progressed from there...

AD: Would you say you started making a living from your art straight after graduation from university or was there a latency period?

EA: I was lucky in the sense that right after secondary school, I already started having requests from people who wanted portraits. I also had a couple of commissions from my local council to design some posters, post cards and a couple of paintings here and there. It sort of kicked off from then, but it wasn't consistent.

AD: So it continued and I imagine it snowballed after you left university?

EA: Yes it did. By the time I graduated, I had already participated in a few competitions and had started showing my work from the age of around 16 or 17 at a local gallery. I remember entering a painting by the title of tree into a competition- which you could interpret how you wanted- and I won the second prize. I just kept working hard really and looking for opportunities to show work in as many places as I could.

AD: At what age did you have your very first solo show?

EA: I was 16 or 17. I was still at school. It was arranged by my art teacher at school.

AD: And where did you have that?

EA: In the school in Willesden Green, London.

AD: Did you manage to sell any work there?

EA: No one bought anything at the show, but I did get two commissions for portraits out of it, so it lead to something.

AD: Do you remember when you made your very first sale?

EA: I think I was around 16 and still at school. It was a small drawing I had done which one of my teachers really liked. I did it during one of the lessons when a teacher did not turn up. I remember that my teacher said that if he saw it in a gallery, he would buy it straight away. He later asked me to sell it to him, so I did. Gosh, it is funny, you are bringing back memories!

AD: How much did you sell it to him for?

EA: I think it was around £40.

AD: Well done! I am going to get a little bit political here. I came into the art world pretty late, around 2006. My experience of it so far is partly that it is run by upper middle class white men, which obviously they naturally have their own preferences in terms of what and who they wish to promote. What that means for minorities is that sometimes we get overlooked. As a result, very few minorities have been validated by the establishment. As a black British artist, is that something that concerns you?

EA: Yes, I mean obviously I am starkly aware of it. It is something you can not avoid and I think if you fall into our category, you will have experienced it in one way or another, without a shadow of a doubt. But one of the things that I have always done is to just not pay any attention to the sort of tricks and things they do- lets just leave it at that. One of the things that I learned early on, which I think is a very powerful thing is that galleries obviously exist to sell to the public. So I realised that if my work was shown to the public by my own means- whether it was shown in a local library or a church or whatever, that I could show to the very people that the galleries target. So the moment I started getting attention from the wider community, I focused on exposing my work to them at every single opportunity I had, even if it was something I had designed for someone. So I have always been aware of the politics and things that you are talking about. But I just focus on finding my own means to put the work out there and just focus my energy on unusual ways of getting people to see and buy my work. I have a by any means necessary type of attitude.

Three Little Pigs. Tryptich

AD: It sounds like to an extent, you are creating your own market, rather than trying to rely on an already existing establishment to do it for you.

EA: Exactly. I think that is very similar to what the graffiti artists do. They put the work out there and the public gets to see it and they make their name without a gallery and then galleries all of a sudden become interested. They become popular and people talk about them, then they are suddenly desirable aren't they- which is complete nonsense! It really is. Its so hypocritical.

AD: Western art world experts have discussed at great length a shift towards African art becoming more desirable. This shift in art world thinking seems to me to be almost palpable, especially with the 2013 African art exhibition at the Tate, the 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair in London and the 2013 Turner prize nomination for London based Ghanaian artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. How do you think this shift will affect African artists going forward, including yourself?

EA: In my opinion, African Art has always been super desirable, especially looking back to just before the advent of Cubism and so forth. But it has somehow been seen as a lesser art form. Although fashion in art and tastes have changed and moved back and forth towards African Art, I think world cultural developments, including that in music, namely Hip pop, rap and High Life have obviously reached a point where African culture cannot be ignored any longer, as its so strong and powerful. Equally African art and its artists have been gathering pace and no longer can it be seen as "African Art", but simply art! however, I still feel African artists have to contribute something new, and something that has a fresh take on the world, or work with a distinctively strong voice for them to be taken seriously. In fact, I think it has to teach the world about our culture, so the audience and collectors get to learn something new from it. For me the attention and respect, will hopefully mean that certain doors are not still closed when I knock on them.

AD: You have won a number of awards and I read that you have also been compared to Yinka Shonibare and Chris Offilli- which is pretty good as far as comparisons go! Bearing in mind everything that you have achieved to date, what would you say was your definition of success in the art world?

EA: I think for me, first and foremost it was about getting as many people to see the work as possible. Getting into the position where I could share my work with people. I realised that when people saw the work, a lot of people were affected in one way or another. That gave me so much joy and it meant that I was allowing people to think and feel in a different way through the work. On a personal level, that was my first definition of success. It progressed from there to wanting to sell to people. So those two things... First and foremost, it is about just getting people to see it, because whether your work sells or not, it is a great confidence booster. Doing that allows you also to establish your own objectives before people start trying to make them for you.

AD: So the sense of joy that you get from showing your work to people...

EA: That's it. How it affects them, how they enjoy it, the feedback, how it allows them to think and feel differently, I think that is just brilliant.

AD: By your definition, would you consider yourself to be a successful artist at this point?

EA: In that case, most definitely yes.

AD: have you ever experienced being a “starving artist?” If so, how did you get past it?

EA: I think that the whole idea of the starving artist is blown out of proportion. But I do think that it does exist. But there is something really strange about it for me because I think that the public do seem to enjoy the idea of the starving artist because it seems so mythical and romantic. Its just a bit ridiculous really and so I do think that it exists. I think that many artists do go through patches where they are either starting off so nobody buys your work or nobody knows you and I think we live in modern times where you can get some other job to help sustain you financially. I have personally gone through moments, especially in my early days when I would make lots of work and nobody wanted to buy it. You do go through those patches but I think it is important for artists not to fall into the trap of believing in that sort of thing because I think it is so important to think success before success actually happens. So I just don't like that concept at all the starving artist, but of course, I know that it does exist but I think that there are always ways around it.

AD: What would you say is your ultimate dream for your work?

EA: I know a lot about art history and I have studied a lot of artists since I was young and I know what has been created. I am hyper aware of what is possible. If the history of art could be pushed into a circle, I am aware of what exists outside of that circle. So I have very strong ideas in terms of things I want to create which have not been done yet, or have not been stretched as far as I think they could be stretched. I have this idea that I have to create these things but one thing that is very important to me is the idea of reinvention and the ability to come up with different things which are all equally an expression of me and something which reflects my changes as I grow older. That has to be one of my ultimate goals. I have various ways of expressing myself in that regard- showing itself in a variety of types of work. Some people may look at what I am doing now or what I may do in two years time or even in a couple of months time and wonder if they are looking at the work of the same person. But it is important for me to do that because it is important for me to reflect on things. But that is my ultimate goal, to be able to fully express the things that I have in my mind and to just create and do whatever I want.

AD: You mentioned your knowledge of art history. Where do you see yourself slotting into art history? How would you define yourself?

EA: OK, there is a popular young British artist who is a friend of mine. He was looking at my earlier work a couple of years ago up until a certain point. He looked at the work and said, “Looking at your work is almost like looking back on the whole history of art. It is almost like going backwards.”

What he meant was that because I was so hungry as a young artist to experiment, learn and grab from as many artists and movements as I wanted, I completed a number of different works which reflected the ideas of many different artists and movements throughout history. This means that when you look at my work, you see so many different influences coming from so many different directions. For me, I think it is a positive thing that I started that way. I am glad that people can see that. I also like the idea that I have taken what I can from these people and these movements and reshaped it in a different way. So I hope that I can be seen as a person who has contributed after having taken and learned from all of these people. And as I said earlier, I have very strong ideas in terms of where I want to go with it and the things I want to create in the near future which will hopefully have that stamp on it because I think art is so free that you can really do whatever you want.

AD: Can you tell me a bit more about some of the ideas you have and what you have got coming up?

EA: One of the things I created in 2011 which was will be introduced soon hopefully is a project called the blacked out portrait. Blacked out meaning, you know when you have “lights off” in Ghana- that sort of blacked out. About a year before the riots of 2012, I noticed that the young people I was doing projects with had a certain suppressed thing about them. I think it was due to society putting a lot of pressure on them. So I started experimenting with these blacked out portraits where all you see is the eyes of the young person, but you don't see the mouth and you don't see the features, so they are expressionless. But at the same time, there is something quite intimidating about them because a lot of them are wearing hoods. Despite the lack of expression, it is very expressive and it has a very urban street look about them. So that is what those works are about and those will be introduced hopefully at the end of 2012.

Ankomah as Young Hoodie Character. 2012

Another thing I have been working on is a book called Play. It will be released hopefully near November or December of 2012. The Play book is about how men perceive women. The chase of a man going after a woman and all of the things that go with that. It is a picture book. So from the very front to the back cover, it is made from my original art. It is influenced by movies. That sounds a bit confusing so I will break it down. When you are watvching a DVD, you get a subtitle in the menu, you have that at the front of the book and then as you go through the book, you have other references and other imagery and symbols we relate to watching a DVD and remote controls. It could be the rewind button, the play button, all that sort of stuff. They are all used throughout the book. So at certain parts you are asked to pause. At certain parts, you are asked to fast forward. But from the cover to the end, you have all these things, this imagery, which is very expressive. I am very excited about it because everyone who has seen it has given me very positive reviews and feedback.

A Step Too Far. 2012

AD: Is this a photographic book? Or is it hand made?

EA: I made it with my hands. It is painted mostly- and sort of mixed media. The book will be reprinted and then sold in copies as limited editions.

AD: But the original book is just a one off piece.

EA: That is it. So everything will obviously come from that. Another thing I have is a film that I have just made. I completed it a couple of months ago now and it is called the Wake Keeping. It is a 16 minute video or short film which I have made with a producer called Pete Further. It is in post production at the moment and we have not decided when it will be released. I play myself with the top hat and everything else, like a spiritual character who is there to protect a woman in the video.

There is another video which I have been working on with a video maker called Ruth Dupree called the Hatters Reality, referring to me. The Hatters Reality is more or less about my journey as an artist. So in a sense, it is a bit like the interview we are doing now and the stories I am telling you, but imagine that expressed through video... But expressed in a way that it is not so literal, it is more abstract and you see me putting on my face paint and close up shots of how I do it and then I speak in Twi and it is interpreted in English and then I speak in English and you get a Twi subtitle. I talk about my experiences in Ghana, you know, like the question you asked earlier about how my life in Ghana influenced what I do now and my vision of being an artist and what I do with my work now and the meaning behind how I dress up and how I paint my paint and all those performance things I do. It has already been screened.

AD: Where will you release them? Will there be a screening or event that people can go to?

EA: There will be a screening. Possibly in South London at a small cinema. But all of this information will be on my website a little bit later once we have decide exactly what we are doing with it.

Acene from "Wake Keeping" 2012

AD: Could you tell me a bit more about your persona with the top hat and the face paint?

EA: From my early days as an artist, I realised that I could think in a different way. So for me the dressing up and performance thing is just another aspect of what I do. I would say that the top hat and the makeup is a mixture of something European and African. Not necessarily Ghanaian, just African. So it is like combining a cultural heritage with the idea of me having been born in England and the idea of the gentleman. So it is a mixture of the 18^th century gentleman with an urban twist. But I am conscious that as a person, I am a bit bored with mens fashion. I think mens fashion is pretty boring in comparison to what you women have! Seriously. I say this to people all the time, so it is a way for me to challenge what is possible in terms of what we can wear and what we cant wear- not that I really care about what people think. To be able to take a nice looking evening blazer, suit or whatever and stick in a street word if that is what I feel like doing and I would also wear it and let as many people see it as possible and of course, it is also part of my natural state of reinvention and always wanting to try new things and explore. So far, the reactions to the shows have been that people do have a need and a desire to see that kind of thing and I have realised that people want to be able to do that but out of fear, they can't so they like the idea of seeing somebody else who does it and somebody else who has a meaning behind it and who is free and unafraid.

AD: If you had an aspiring artist who wanted to follow in your footsteps, what advice would you give them?

EA: I would certainly advise them to know their art history. I think it is really important that before you start developing your own style or working on your own concepts, that you know exactly where what you are doing is coming from, the people who have gone before you. I think that is super important. Because then you know where you are stepping and whether you are increasing something that somebody else has started or whether you are repeating. You don't want to be doing that. You would obviously do that if you did not know what had come before.

I think they should find a way of making their work personal to them. Express yourself and create without trying to worry too much. I think there is no such thing as a wrong or right style of art. You really can come out with everything as long as you know you have some sort of meaning and backing to it. And I think its really important that its fun. Just try to make stuff that makes you feel alive. Its a bit like a comedian. Obviously they don't always get everything right but if a comedian comes out with a nice story that really is funny to them, I think there is a great possibility that it will be funny to most other people. So I think you have to definitely make sure your making stuff that excites you, or makes you laugh or makes you feel warm inside, that gives you that sense of yes, this is me. The moment you do that, I think you start to find your identity and I think the moment you have an identity then I think that other people will most certainly respond to you in a more real way. The thing about us artists as you well know is you can't really hide what you feel and what you think because it shows in your work. So I think the moment they find their identity, it changes things. Because people respect that.

The last thing is work hard. You have to work hard. Because its not a joke and it is harsh out there as you were saying earlier. And with the hard work, they shouldn’t over respect what has gone before. I think we should respect artists, we should respect different things that have been done. The way that we have showed work or the way artists have promoted themselves. But if you have other ideas in terms of how you can get your work out there or in terms of how you want to sell your work, whether you want to do it physically or through technology, just do it.

Blog: http://eugeneankomah.blogspot.co.uk/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EugeneAnkomah
Fan page Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Eugene-Ankomah/62514151561

God and the Fundamental Interactions - Sistine Chapel, 2013 by Saul Zanolari

noreply@blogger.com (SAUL ZANOLARI) — Tue, 23 Jul 2013 12:02:00 +0000

Saul Zanolari is working on the Sistine Chapel's ceiling.
After Adam and Eve now it's time for God to be painted.
The human being is still the center of this version of the Sistine Chapel.
In this triptych God is setting the fundamental forces in nature: Gravitation, Electromagnetism, Nuclear Power (weak and strong).

SAUL ZANOLARI
God Gravity
Sistine Chapel, 2013
240x300 cm

SAUL ZANOLARI
God Electromagnetism
Sistine Chapel, 2013
240x300 cm

SAUL ZANOLARI
Atomic God
Sistine Chapel, 2013
240x300 cm

SAUL ZANOLARI FACIEBAT A.D. MMXIII
©

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:00:00 +0000

Aissata Pinto Da Costa is an artist and former run way model. Born in São Tomé and Príncipe, a small country in the Gulf of Guinea ,off the Western coast of Africa. Aissata has lived in six countries around the world and speaks five languages fluently. Having travelled to more than 50 countries world wide with her modelling career, Aissata settled in the United States in 1999. In 2007, Aissata became a self taught artist. With three solo exhibitions under her belt, including Marymount Manhattan College and The Steuben Glass Gallery New York, Aissata has caught the attention of collectors all over the world. She took time out her busy studio practice to talk to me about life, art and success.

Blanc et Rouge _1.83m:1.21m © Aissata Pinto Da Costa

Adelaide Damoah (AD): How long were you a runway model for?

Aissata Pinto Da Costa (APC): For about six or seven years.

AD: Why did you make the transition from modelling to fine art?

APC: Everything that I have ever done was an accident! I did not choose to be a model, I was found on the street. Well found on the street sounds really bad, but you know what I mean! It is the same thing with being an artist. If anybody had told me that I would be an artist a few years ago, I would have laughed. I was staying with a friend from Martinique and there were these designs by some people from a Congolese tribe. I remember liking one of the designs so much that I put it on paper and embroidered it. I don't know why I did that. It took me like one or two nights... And then when my friend came and saw it he said, “Oh my God, we need to do a line of tableware!”

So we bought 300 metres of linen and went to Mali. The idea was to get the people who embroider those boubou's- African dresses, to embroider our spreads. We made these huge incredible spreads and I used one as a curtain. You know how some people see patterns and things that no body else sees sometimes? I saw characters in those things! I went on the computer, which by the way, I also learned by myself a few years before, and I started drawing these characters. I don't know why. Then I showed them to a few friends and they liked them. Then I just kept on going and I came up with these characters. Without even knowing, I just started telling this story. Then in 2007, I decided to start painting. Actually, I didn't even decide! Someone broke my heart.. You know how as women, we can be dramatic and either you die of a broken heart or you do something extraordinary. So I started painting and that is how I became a painter. Now I really love it. My first painting was six feet by five feet. I remember when I was painting it I was crying the whole time.

AD: Awww! That sounds so romantic and sad! But to start your first painting with a canvas of that size makes you very brave!

APC: Yes, but to get a bit personal, it wasn't the guys fault. I am the one who put him on a pedestal where he did not belong. You know, it was one of those things. I am actually very thankful that that happened. We are still friends and everything, but it's just that, my God, I discovered something that I never thought I was going to do, you know.

AD: Yeah

APC: One of the platforms a few years ago was Myspace. Peoples reactions were always so heartening. It made me think, wow, I have got something here... So I just kept on doing it. Now, I look at it sometimes and become a bit angry because I think, now I have to do something to get it out there. You know, the business part. Artists usually hate it, but I am thankful because look at what I have done. I am really excited and looking forward to doing bigger things.

Serena Serves_0,92m x 0,76m © Aissata Pinto Da Costa

AD: When did you start painting?

APC: I started painting in April 2007.

AD: That is not long ago at all! Have you had a solo show yet?

APC: Actually, I have had three solo shows already. I had my first solo show at Marymount School of Art, that was about a year and a half after I started painting. I met one of the curators at a party and was able to convince her to come to my studio and within the first five minutes she agreed to give me a show. Then I had two other shows at this gallery called Student gallery. All accidents. The thing is, I paint, but I don't know anything about the art world really. Maybe it is a blessing in a way, because I don't know what I am doing so I don't have any rules...

Cindy, Bibi and Beyonce_1m52×1m83 © Aissata Pinto Da Costa

AD: Yes, I know what you mean. Do you think your experience in the fashion industry has influenced your work in any way?

APC: Yes it has. Although in the beginning I was in denial. I worked a lot as a model, but I didn't care for the profession itself. What I loved about modelling was... I loved the travelling, I loved, hmm, I don't know if you can print this, but I loved the beautiful guys! But I was too young at the time. I was like 19 when I started and I did not realise what I was getting into, but I was just walking through it. I would say that modelling made me very aware of physicality, which I think is very prevalent in my work. It's funny because I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday. We were both models many years ago, but we still have that body consciousness where if we put on a few pounds we go oh my God... I always say that the modelling industry is run by gay guys who don't like women, so there are a few problems. Even though I sometimes paint women who are large, they still have a small waist. The colours, well sometimes I have to sit down and think how I got influenced because my life... I have lived everywhere, Cuba, Algeria... So sometimes I wonder where everything comes from and sometimes I don't think about it. Like I went to Cuba a few years ago and I saw this artists work and thought oh my God, now it makes sense..

AD: I think that you take different things from your environment without even realising it. You just absorb it. It then naturally has an influence on your work, whether you are conscious of it or not in my opinion... Were you able to sell any work at your solo shows?

APC: Yes I was able to sell work, but it was mostly to friends of friends. You know right now with the prices it is a bit difficult, but the thing is, I don't have that skill. I have lots of skills but selling is not one of them because I don't care for it , you know? I am a bit spoiled in that sense, if I don't care for something, I'm like yeah, whatever! And I am not starving either. I guess if I was then I would just learn that skill.

AD: How did you define success when you were a model and do you think that definition has changed now?

APC: I would not say I was a successful model and one of the reasons I was not a successful model was because I never thought I was going to be a model. Like I said, someone found me. I worked well but I never really made an effort. Sometimes they would send me to castings and I would not go. I was just too young to understand it. I wouldn't say I was a financial success as a model, but I would say I was successful in it as well.. I learned English because of modelling. One of my passions is that I love meeting people and while modelling I met thousands of people. Some interesting and some not interesting at all, but that was a very interesting period for me.

AD: Now that you are an artist, what is your definition of what it means to be successful within the art world?

APC: My father is a very successful person in my country. As a child, not that I am trying to compete with him, but sometimes I feel like a failure because I am not there yet. Whatever that “there” means. So success for me is mostly recognition. I am hungry for recognition. Obviously money would be good too. But for me, when someone comes to my studio... I enjoy the reaction. I get so much pleasure from it. Success would also mean to be economically free. Able to do whatever I want, paint when I want, you know...

AD: Yes. By your definition would you consider yourself to be successful?

APC: Well considering that I started in 2007, I would say that I am accomplished. I think I have a lot of the ingredients to be really successful but I am on my way. That is what I say to myself all the time. But no, I don't consider myself to be successful. Not yet.

AD: What would you say is your biggest achievement to date?

APC: My biggest achievement is when I look at the paintings that I have done because I was not supposed to be doing this! I am here in my studio surrounded by all the paintings and I feel like wow... I feel accomplished and also I know that I am capable of anything. I am not scared of anything. If someone tells me that they want me to do a mural of 90 feet or whatever, I don't know how to do it, but I will figure out how to do it. I know that I am capable of doing a lot of things that I never thought were possible.

Dancing Goddesses © Aissata Pinto Da Costa

AD: What would you say was your biggest failure and how did you overcome it?

APC: I don't know. I don't really think that I have had big failures because everything I have done to date has prepared me for where I am now, but failure?

AD: Think of it in a different way. Think of it like large stumbling blocks or challenges. Things that you have had to overcome.

APC: Well I could have started being an artist a lot earlier but I didn't because I partied too much! But I partied really healthy, I didn't do drugs or anything, but I love to dance. I don't see that I have failed or anything. I don't see it like that.

AD: What advice would you give to young women coming up wanting to follow in your footsteps?

APC: As black women, growing up, we did not have many people to get inspired by. Oprah is pretty recent... I would just tell her to work, work, work. The more you work, eventually, someone will notice what you do. Believe in your dream, believe in your craft and just work.

AD: Talking of black women, I am not that familiar with the USA, but I know that in the UK, the art institution is mostly run by white upper middle class men. As such, they are more likely to be naturally geared towards a certain type of person and that is not necessarily going to be a black woman. In the art world, I can not think of very many black women who have really seriously made it. Is this something that concerns you? If so, how do you overcome that?

APC: My case is different in the sense that I don't know the art world. I don't have any barriers because they don't exist for me. Also, in America, they love to box people. So if you are black, you listen to this music and you speak like this... Me, I don't belong to any of those boxes because I don't belong and I do at the same time. Tomorrow I could go to any event with Obama or whoever. I don't have any complexes in that sense and for me, those barriers do not exist.

King Usain Bolt_ 1.83m by 1.21m © Aissata Pinto Da Costa

AD: What about future exhibitions?

APC: I want to start showcasing in Africa, especially in Angola. I was in Angola recently and that country is booming! It is insane! As an African woman and an African painter- I usually don't like to describe myself like that, but I am tired of being judged by Western critics. They have their own prejudices... I really want to turn to Africa completely. I am going to Africa in like two weeks. There are a lot of wealthy people there. Now, you can feel that there is a shift. There is a new class of African people buying African art and really putting serious money into it. As a matter of fact, I sold a big painting for tens of thousands of dollars, and I sold it to an African woman from Angola.

AD: That's impressive. To sell for that kind of price after such a short period of time is pretty major!

APC: That's another thing. Maybe I am naïve or whatever because I am not from the art world, but I price my art so that it is not cheap. Even if it takes me three, four or five years to sell, I would rather not sell cheap. People say oh you could put your work in a bar or a café... But I just don't want to do that. I don't know why. I don't feel it, so I just don't do it.

Runners_1m52×1m83 © Aissata Pinto Da Costa

AD: I'm the same. I probably over price my work and people ask me why it is so expensive...

APC: Because it is! Because I decided so. I am not comparing myself to him in any way but I went to see Kehinde Wiley..

AD: Oh my God, I love Kehinde Wiley!

APC: Oh gosh, yes he is insane! And the concept is so brilliant! I have seen maybe four of his shows and he sells pieces for you know $300,000 and $400,000 and that is where I want to go. A lot of the time, us Africans and you know, blacks, we underestimate our worth. Because we have been in survival mode for a long time and we sometimes cheapen ourselves. I don't want to do that. No way!

Aissata with woman and children

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aissatas-Art/42194829953

http://www.redbubble.com/people/aissata

SISTINE CHAPEL, 2013 by SAUL ZANOLARI

noreply@blogger.com (SAUL ZANOLARI) — Fri, 03 May 2013 12:21:00 +0000

The original Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo
MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI
Volta della Cappella Sistina, 1508-1512
1300x3600 cm
Citta' del Vaticano, Palazzi Vaticani, Cappella Sistina

SAUL ZANOLARI
Adam - Dog/Adam/God, 2013
240 x 300 cm
Digital Fresco

SAUL ZANOLARI
Eve, 2013
240 x300 cm
Digital Fresco

Saul Zanolari is working on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The project is to paint, in a digital way, a new version of it: new technique, different point of view.

The centre of the artwork will be the human being in his existential meaning and no longer in a religious context as it is in Michelangelo's.

The intentions are not to restyle nor to complete his work.

It's something brand new to describe the human condition using Michelangelo's fresco as an inspiration.

The centre of these two panels is the human condition.

In The Creation of Eve it represents the female's condition. The subjects are inverted, Adam became Eve and viceversa.

The female give birth to the male and the man is constantly bound to her.

The Sistine Chapel will be realized on scale 1:1 with the original using the digital fresco technique.

At this stage we are searching for the right place to realize it and for people interested in financing it.

---------------------------------------
More infos:
web: www.saulzanolari.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/SAUL-ZANOLARI/41183086655
email: saulzanolari@gmail.com

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:56:00 +0000

Born in 1943, Harold Klunder is one of Canada's leading painters. Klunder was born just two years before the end of the second world war, in the Netherlands. His family moved to Canada in the early fifties after the war was over. Klunder paints large, vivid abstract paintings, which he describes as an alternative approach to the self portrait and each one can take years to complete. His works are held in public and private collections throughout the world including the National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art. Klunder kindly took time out of his hectic schedule to discuss his story and his thoughts on success with me.

Black Sun 2008 - 2011 © Harold Klunder. Image courtesy of Clint Roenisch Gallery, Toronto

oil on linen

Triptych, each panel 4' x 9'

total dimension 9' x 12'

“It is a struggle for everybody, especially when you are young, so much has to happen. Doing the work is the most important part.” Harold Klunder.

Adelaide Damoah (AD): I read that you were born in the Netherlands in 1943 and that you and your family moved to Canada when you were just nine years old. Why Canada?

Harold Klunder (HK): Well my father got to know Canadian soldiers during the war and he was in the underground in Holland. After the war– during the war particularly, things were poor. I had six brothers and three sisters. My dad was concerned about conscription because the Korean war was on at the time- in the 1950’s. He wanted to get everyone out and he didn’t have much empathy or sympathy with any concept of war. He was always trying to help people and did not really believe in all of that. I think that is how we ended up in Canada. It seemed like there was a possible future there, better than in Holland. Although we had our own farm over there, during the war, we were unable to grow anything because of the constant bombing. We lived underground during the war. Not underground in the modern sense!

AD: Physically underground?

HK: Yes. And that was my initial beginning. I saw no light in the first three years of my life. I was born in 43', during the war and it ended in 45' as you probably know. I think Holland was heavily hit just because it was directly beside Germany and I think that is why my father got really interested in being in the underground. He couldn’t understand how his neighbours could be so cruel. Taking food away and radios… From years of living side by side, to have this oppressive thing happening was too much for him and for lots of people.

AD: You studied at the Central Technical School in Toronto?

HK: Yes, that’s right. Those kind of schools are less popular now, but it’s kind of like the Slade school where you are not learning how to think so much, but you are more involved in the actual workings of things like how to use a brush, how to mix colour, how to see colour and that kind of thing. It was actually quite a good, old fashioned or traditional education. It wasn’t like a university course, so less academic I suppose and more just the workings of being a painter- which I appreciate because I think that kind of education is rare now.

AD: It is.

HK: Yes. I don’t really believe that it’s going the right way because I think that it is almost a form of censorship to tell artists what they should be thinking like or what the relevant issues are or anything like that. I have always felt totally free to do anything I wish as an artist and not be told that this is not appropriate. I sort of formed opinions from very early on that freedom was really what art was all about.

Hart Street (Brooklyn) 2011 © Harold Klunder Image courtesy of Clint Roenisch Gallery, Toronto

oil on canvas

20" x 30"

AD: What made you decide to study painting?

HK: From a very early age I was interested in drawing and my family were very sports oriented. I was never particularly athletic, I was not really interested in that. I was more interested in culture in general . Not to be cultured, but to look at paintings and listen to music. I was drawing from when I was eight or nine. So when I came to Canada, I was already drawing. I didn't know quite where it was going but then when I was around 13, I just started painting, without knowing what I was doing and with cheap found materials. My parents had a farm in Hamilton which is just over an hour from Toronto. My art school was in Toronto so I left the farm when I was 17 to go to art school, much to my mothers dismay. That was a good choice actually, because I didn't have any interest in high school. It just seemed like there was a lot of stuff that was in the way of what I really wanted to do. That education was actually very good because it was not really directing me in any way… In some ways, some techniques are directing, but you can forget those kind of things sometimes! I got a rounded education which allowed me to start off doing commercial work. I did some work that was like design work. It was frustrating as hell! But ultimately, I stopped doing that. I started to paint more seriously in the late 60’s. I was doing it half and half because I was doing design work and trying to paint. The two are so opposite that I had a difficult time with that and I just decided at one point to stop everything and just start painting, eat peanut butter sandwiches and not think about the money aspect of it! I have done that ever since. Since the late 60’s, I have been existing on my work and some teaching. I lecture here and there and I also do painting workshops. The teaching is mostly in Canada, but I have done some things in Australia and in Japan.

AD: You had your first solo show in 1976?

HK: Yes that is right. I had one solo show, it may not be on the list. At the University of Toronto I did a print show and that seemed to be the only thing I could get at the time! I was doing mono prints. I didn't have much money in those years, so a lot of things were done with materials that were not necessarily permanent, but they were spontaneous, so I could do things quickly. I started painting in about 70’, but not really much happened, it was a struggle, which, I guess we all go through. At that point, there was no Canada Council as yet. The Canada Council gives grants to artists and they are actually quite generous, which is a good thing, but its hard to get them. Later I was able to get them but as a young artist, it was difficult.

AD: At what point did you become a full time professional artist existing purely from you art work?

HK: I would say 1972 roughly. Basically, it all started to make sense when I was connected withJared Sable, one of the owners of the Sable-Costelli Gallery- a very good gallery in Canada. They represented me for over 25 years. It was probably one of the best in Canada at the time. It isno longer, as Jared Sable is retired (now deceased). He was a friend of Leo Costelli who had the famous gallery in New York. That did a real turn for me, because suddenly, people were looking more carefully at my work. And the work was quite rough, because really, the way that I work is quite expressive, so it wasn’t everybody's cup of tea, but he took to it, really liked it and promoted it. This made it possible for me to stop doing a lot of other things. But I was still teaching. Partly because I really enjoy teaching and I feel like I get a lot back.

AD: What challenges would you say that you have faced along the way to becoming full time?

HK: Well the challenges were partly to get people to understand the work I think. Teaching was actually really good for me because it taught me to be more articulate about how I present my work and what the work is really all about. I think that some artists find that easier than others. I have always enjoyed talking- not necessarily about my work, but anybodies work and I like looking at work. Even before I was painting actively, I liked looking at paintings. I like museums and I love the whole history of art and its all of real interest to me. I think in part, because I never learned any of it at university, I was largely self taught in terms of art history. I still find that very interesting. If I run out of ideas, its not that books give me ideas but they inspire me to kind of come up to the bat you know? I have never really looked at success as being about money, it is more whether I am realising what I want to realise in the work and hopefully, you make enough money to buy supplies to keep going. It was never my intention to be well off and I am not well off because I put most of what I make back into the work.

oil on canvas

35" x 23"

I guess I started to be a success in the mid seventies, if you want to call it success, feeling OK about your own work. That is what I am getting at. Success on other levels started to come more and more, but I have never really pursued that in a big way. I suppose I could have, but my first interest has always been to do the work and to feel comfortable with the work and hopefully, that attracts others to the work and that must be different for everyone I am assuming. Some people have a hard time feeling comfortable with the work and they can’t believe the work until they get some kind of reinforcement from dealers or the systems that be or whatever. But I think , given the fact that I am in my late 60’s, my history would be very different than say yours or anyone in their twenties. They would look at it differently because there are so many more artists now than there ever were when I was young. It was unusual to be an artist or even to want to be an artist. Your parents would always say that you would never make any money and that you were crazy and you might as well be a poet or whatever! That was the attitude I grew up with and I guess I assumed I would not make any money and that I would be free. I would not have to be on the freeway at five in the morning, or off to some job where I would have to wear a tie and all that. So the concept of being free was a really important thing to me.

AD: It sounds like your definition of success is more to do with feeling free, feeling comfortable with your work and, knowing and understanding your work and for other people to understand the work, rather than financial success.

HK: Yes, that is true. I mean, I use the money as I make it. Years ago I used to dream about buying a whole roll of canvas which cost $3500 from Belgium. To get coarse, heavy linen. Now I can actually do that. I couldn't in the past. So to have money coming in is obviously important, but to me, it is not the most important thing.

There are some shows which do well and some shows where nothing happens and usually, I try to judge it by how I feel about the work. Sometimes, the best shows are the ones that don’t do very well! Sometimes, the audience has to catch up, or they see it as some kind of departure, when really, it is not really a departure, it is just part of the same, but maybe people were not ready, or something like that.

Unfortunately, it seems like in the present, many people just equate success with having a gallery and all of that. Even at university, I think there is a large push to get a body of work and then that body of work is supposed to get you a gallery and then sustain you for the rest of your life. But if you are not happy with that body of work, because you have not experimented enough or something, then it is kind of shallow, you know. It has to be something that evolves naturally so that the work can have a life, rather than an idea. It is not a concept as much as your hands speaking to you.

AD: By your definition of success, do you consider yourself to be successful at this point?

HK: Yes I do actually. Of course, my work still has anxiety, so I am not completely satisfied at every turn but for the most part, I feel like I am going in a direction which is directed by me rather than anyone else. So in that sense, I am thrilled at how things have gone. I am a happy painter. Not always though! You have to enjoy the actual making of something as much as finishing it or more than finishing it, because you spend all your time making the work. There are only a few days during which you get to publicly celebrate the finished work. I enjoy painting. I work all the time, night and day sometimes! It seems to have no end.

AD: I read that one of your pieces can take years to complete!

HK: Yes that is right. It just depends on how I feel about the work. Sometimes they are very difficult and sometimes they are more straightforward. I am sure you have experienced the same thing, where sometimes things just click into place and everything seems really good. The next day you try to do the same thing and everything goes wrong. I guess some people would scrap a painting and start again. But for me, they are kind of like my children, so I can’t abandon something that isn’t working. I would rather work through it until it does work. It suits the way I work. For some people, it wouldn't work. If you were looking for something which was really fresh and clear, obviously, reworking over and over might not make sense.

I kind of like the look of that kind of painting. I particularly like painters like Lucien Freud. People who work with a kind of density of material. Danish painting is a huge influence. Francis Bacon has always been a huge influence, although I work very differently.. It is very heavy, heavy mentally as well I suppose, but on the other hand, I think it really speaks to humanity. It really speaks to our existence in a big way. So basically, there is a struggle in the work, but it is a struggle that… Well, I don’t know if I could say that I enjoy it, but I feel comfortable struggling with it and it doesn't bother me if it doesn't work right away. I will put it away and bring it back out later and rework it until I like it.

AD: Many people seem to have this notion of the starving artist. Was that ever your experience?

HK: Well initially I really liked Van Gogh and my mother really liked van Gogh. She had great empathy for his struggle and felt that he was dealt badly with. That made an impression on me, you know, that society is not necessarily kind to people who want to give them something, which I think artists do. They don’t get much return for something that could change all of humanity, some more than others of course. There is something very special about somebody wanting to give their life to something like that. At least that is how I feel. Maybe in the current sense it might be somewhat different because there are so many artists now looking at it differently. There are so many approaches, from conceptual to minimal, to site specific, sculpture, painting.. The traditional things are still in tact and have not changed very much. I feel like I have looked at paintings the way I have always looked at paintings. There is new work included in the looking, but the old masters still look pretty good to me. Maybe we are very distracted in the age we live in.

AD: I think so. Well there is so much to distract us isn't there.

HK: Yes. And it all seems exciting, for a moment at least.

AD: Yes. Going back to the question, would you say you had that van Gogh experience at all?

HK: No, not really. I don’t feel like I was oppressed. My dad thought I was a dreamer, but my mother was very supportive. I knew how my father would feel, but as things got more successful, he didn’t understand the work, but he understood success in the larger picture of someone actually making money from what they do. I don’t think he ever believed that was going to happen and I don’t think my mother did either, but she was willing to support as this was clearly what I wanted to do. I probably did struggle, but it wasn’t really a miserable terrible life or anything like that. I'm fairly pragmatic as a person, so I deal with things as they come along. If I had to take a job I would. I have done things like pick apples, pick tobacco, I have worked in a steel plant and various other things to get through art school. So in the early 70’s, I did lots of different things. But I never thought of it as hardship or anything! I always found things to do.

AD: That’s a nice attitude to have.

HK: Thank you. When you have expectations it seems to me that you are inevitably going to be disappointed. It is better to just kind of ride it and then hopefully it comes to something. Of course there have been some disappointments, but most of the time, I am comfortable with being an artist.

AD: I read that your work is a non traditional way of approaching the self portrait.

HK: Basically it’s a way of addressing myself, without taking into account how I actually look. It is more the spirit of who I am or what I represent. In a sense, all painting is self portraiture I guess. That is where the feeling started. We are who we are and when we paint, the way we move a brush is who we are. What we decide to do in terms of colour is who we are. So even though the painting might be of someone else, inevitably, yourself is in the painting. I am taking a certain kind of poetic license I suppose by doing this. It confuses some people and they say, “Well how can that be a self portrait?”

I say, “Well if I call it that then it is that!”

I enjoy it, but it also simplifies the whole thing of having to invent titles for everything.

AD: You have paintings in public and private collections globally and have been exhibiting consistently since 1976, what would you say was your biggest success to date?

HK: I sold a large painting to the National Gallery of Canada in 2007. It is eight and a half feet high by 24 feet wide. That was a huge thrill for me, just because it is big and it was something I worked on for a long time. I really did not expect to sell it to the National gallery. That was kind of a thrill.

Also, various trips I have made. I was in a show in Shang Hai with 15 other artists in 2005. Seeing all the buildings going up and seeing where China was going was very timely and very interesting.

Sometimes it’s the little things that are important too. It is not just the bigger things that matter. Sometimes someone will buy a painting that is a total surprise to you and you think, wow, that’s interesting! Or someone might pay active attention to something that you may not have been paying attention to in your own work.

Infinity on Trial 2005 - 2007 Image courtesy of Clint Roenisch Gallery, Toronto

oil on linen

6 panels each 50" x 100" (254 x 127 cm)

total dimension 100" x 300"

Collection : The National Gallery of Canada

AD: How did the National Gallery sale come about?

HK: Through Clint Roenisch, who was my dealer at the time. He is from Totonto. He is a fantastic dealer, probably the best dealer in Canada. I went there when Sable Costelli closed. He saw the painting when it was sort of two thirds finished and he liked it. At that point, I think he took the initiative, as he did not really talk to me about it. Sometimes dealers don’t want to necessarily involve you in every aspect because they need to work it out first. It was in an exhibition here in Montreal at the Visual Art Centre and when he saw the work, it was sent to Ottawa, to the National Gallery for viewing. The director of the museum, who was the curator wanted it badly so he just decided on the spot that he wanted it. It had to go through the formalities and then it happened. Essentially it was Clint Roenisch who really pushed for it because he felt strongly that it should be in the National Gallery and that was a great thrill for me!

AD: I can imagine! How much did they pay for it if you don’t mind me asking?

HK: It was a lot, six figures.

AD: Wow! How much of that went to the dealer?

HK: It was 50:50. I don’t mind paying that amount. I mean, it was a huge chunk of money. Some artists are well equipped to deal with it all, so they don’t necessarily need a dealer. It is very hard to boost yourself to someone, whereas a dealer is very able to do that for you. I find it hard to talk about my own work in any kind of selling manner. This is what a dealer is paid to do and I am comfortable with that. If they are good at it then it is worth paying the money. I have never had any issue with that part of it because I feel that they are working really hard and they do the wining and dining and courting the collectors and all of that. That is something some artists like to do. I’m not particularly social in that respect. I don’t go to every opening and I don’t try to meet the collectors. Mostly I am in the studio.

AD: Many artists I know complain that a lot of dealers are difficult to get to, especially if you approach them.

HK: That may be the case, but my experience goes way way back. I have the dealers that I want and it is working very well so I don’t have issues with that, but I think it is hard for young artists as it is for young dealers. If you are loyal to your artists its very difficult because you need to take the right artists. I think that makes it really rough for a young artist to get a dealer because you have an idea who your dealer might be, but its not so straight forward because they have to be happy with your work. It has to be a dealer who is keen on your work and then that might work. But if they are not all that keen but you have convinced them, then I am not always sure that works. I keep hearing from young artists that its very tough to get a dealer. You may find a good dealer but they might only represent 15 or so artists and there are thousands of artists. There may be people more deserving who don’t have the kind of personality to get the dealer they deserve. Its not straight forward.

Small Study for DNA 1995 - 1998 © Harold Klunder

oil on canvas

approx. 12" x 36"

Its almost like going back to that van Gogh story. His own brother could not sell his work when now it sells for over 100 million a painting! It gives hope to people who are struggling. The people who are in power don’t necessarily know what is going on and the very good art is often ahead of the curve, so there are young artists who are brilliant, who deserve more, but for whatever reason… I think often its personality. You know, its how they approach dealers or.. Of course, it is different for each individual . It is very hard to know how to even answer a question like that but I can understand that it is very difficult. Especially in bigger cities. Like in London I am sure it is next to impossible! Same with New York. Canada is somewhat easier, but it is still very difficult. There are a great many artists and very few dealers. There are lots of galleries that are not as good as others. I would say there is a small percentage that are amazing and then there are many galleries that are not that interesting because of what they represent.

AD: Is your price range in the region of what you sold the piece to the National Gallery for?

HK: Yes, well that work is very large and as weird as it is, things are priced according to the scale of the work. A small work is always less than a large work, but its sort of in that range.

AD: That is impressive! What is your ultimate dream for your work?

HK: My ambition is that people are with me on it as I continue. I am going to be 70 soon, so I would like to think I have got 20 years left! I am quite OK with how things are going. It is every artists ambition to somehow be remembered when they go. It is like this thing that hangs in the air and keeps us pushing really hard. I sort of think that if some things don’t happen when you are alive, they may well happen after you are gone. If nothing else, I will have at least reached the point where people will be selling them at yard sales!

AD: They will be going a lot further than that!

HK: When you are young, you just keep thinking, jheez, I've got to get my foot somewhere in the door! I have got to keep pushing or else this might not take or something like that. I think I had those feelings as a kid, of wanting to connect. Maybe that was my interest in dealers early on as well. I knew that they were important to my life if I was going to make anything happen. I did not go in with slides or images. I tried to go to openings and saw lots of work before I really pushed myself. It is always interesting for a young artist to go to galleries and talk to these people, not about their own work but in general, so that you can kind of sense what the person is like. Because what happens a lot is that people make choices that are not best for them. You know, because they have not really done their homework in terms of what that dealer is all about and a very good dealer might not necessarily be the person that suits your work. It might be someone else who is better for your work.

Scared and Profane Love 183 - 1986 © Harold Klunder

oil on canvas

6 1/2 ' x 8 1/2'

AD: What advice would you give to young artists wishing to follow in your footsteps?

HK: Work hard and somehow figure out how to enjoy painting, the actual act of painting. Think of the finished result as just incidental or just a one day thing. Also try to get to know dealers without pushing yourself, in terms of wanting something from them. Get to know them as, maybe not friends, but as acquaintances. People who you can go to when there is an opening, so that you are pushing yourself, but not in an obnoxious way. Maybe I'm speaking from a somewhat naïve position, because maybe its necessary to be obnoxious in the present world! I don’t know but I like to think that is not the case. I mean it is like any other business. If you have an interest in their artists, then they can imagine that you might fit in. but of you don’t even know what artists are represented in someone’s gallery when you are trying to get in there, it makes no sense to the dealer or the artist who wants to be in the gallery. I think mostly, just do the painting. Do the work because that is the most fundamental, important thing to an artist. The rest is by the by. It seems to me that if the work has some energy and is raw or young, there will be an interest if a person pursues and just works hard at it. It doesn't have to be raw, I'm just using words! But at least a youthful energy is important somehow. That energy could be restrained for one and viciously wild for another.

Harold Klunder. Montreal Portrait - photo - Shane West 2012

Harold Klunder is represented by Clint Roenisch

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:25:00 +0000

Born in 1981, Ben H. Summers studied Fine Art at the Slade School of Art in London. Summers recalls being interested in drawing from a very early age, taking inspiration from the natural world, the human form and built spaces. Music has always had a huge impact on him, to the extent that after graduation in 2003, he pursued a career as a professional DJ. A combination of DJ work, illustration work and art direction, lead him to make the decision in 2010 to combine his love for music with his passion for art and the brand “Beats in My Brush” was born. Since then Summers has had a solo show, participated in Artists Wanted, a big art event in New York, as well as several collaborations and group shows. His work explores various themes including desire, relationships, race, pop culture and social media. Ben H. Summers is now focusing on his U&I project, a series of intimate portraits of modern families in their own homes which explores diverse family identities in the 21^st century. Summers kindly took time out of his busy schedule to discuss his work and his thoughts on art and success.

Generation Gamers (U&I series). Oil on canvas. (c) Ben H. Summers 2012

Adelaide Damoah (AD): Could you tell me a bit about your background please.

Ben H. Summers (BHS): I guess the first things I started to draw were animals and nature. Trees... Because I grew up in the country, I had this fascination with how trees were formed. The work was quite random and very nature orientated. But then at the same time, I would just go and sit and watch Tom and Jerry, Spiderman, or whatever cartoons were on TV incessantly. My dad was in the military, so before we settled outside of Bath, we moved around a fair bit. I can't really remember very much about that time as I was under the age of four, but because of his profession, he was based in different countries. He used to bring back model planes... You know, those air fix models, I don't know if you remember those?

AD: I have no idea what that is!

BHS: Just model planes, that kind of thing. It was those three influences really. Nature, my dads military influence and cartoons... But also my mum’s fashion magazines had an influence on me. I remember flicking through and... Not perving! Because I was too young to even know what that was, but I remember trying to copy a lot of the models that were in the magazines. Whatever was around me from a young age that I found fascinating, I would start sketching. In terms of where I draw my influences from today, it is kind of exactly the same. I take inspiration from absolutely everywhere, which is why my style hops from one subject to the other.

AD: I noticed that.

BHS: It's not clearly identifiable yet. It will be in time.

AD: Would you say that you have always known that you wanted to be an artist?

BHS: Yes. It was my first passion. It was the first thing I was good at. I felt I had talent so I was proud of that aspect.

AD: Was there a specific point when you thought you would like to take it further and become a professional artist?

BHS: Yes. When I was 13 or 14, at secondary school. I was never really good academically. I guess the academic side of what I do is something that I have had to work at. I wasn't strong in a lot of subjects at school, but I was strong at art and it was really my first art teacher and subsequently my next art teacher who took me under their wing. They both suggested that I run with it as they thought I had something. It was really their encouragement that pushed me. Had I not had their encouragement, I probably would not have followed through, as weird as that may sound, just because I was not that confident as a teenager.

AD: You went to the Slade School of Art in 1999. Was it fine art that you studied?

BHS: Yeah it was fine art painting. It was great getting in there. I was over the moon to get in because my grades were appalling at A level! I got in there on the basis of a really strong portfolio. I think I was one of the youngest to have joined the course at that point. Most of the people who started with me had done foundation courses. It was quite a lot to handle to be honest, coming from country roots, so the beginning of it was an interesting time, but it was a great place to go.

AD: When you say it was a lot to handle, do you mean that it was emotionally difficult to deal with being critiqued?

BHS: Both. I remember in my first year, I really thrived in the environment and I was making work that I had never really made before. For a start, I stopped painting and I was doing these weird installations in my space, which were site specific. They got a lot of attention and they were kind of interactive as well so anyone who walked past would come and be a part of it and try to help. I remember making this house over my space at one point out of bin liners and scrap wood. It sounds totally insane now! Probably sounds insane to you as well...

Trooper. Copyright Ben H. Summers

AD: Yeah!

BHS: I plastered the inside of it with drawings and weird bits of text and photos that I had found. People walked through.. I made a little door on one side and then I made an exit the other way. I had every single tutor walking through saying, “This is great, this is first class stuff, honours degree work!”

That was the first year and then something happened after that. I think it was being taken over by London to be perfectly honest. Music was already a massive part of my life then. I had just slowly started to get more interested in going to different places in London and having random conversations with people, sketching around town, sketching events of the day in storyboard format and spending way too much money on records!

Sketch in Madam Jojo's, London. (c) Ben H. Summers 2013

My work kind of changed at that point. It suddenly became very comic book like. I started doing these enormous storyboards on huge roles of paper from events that had happened to me that week. All of my peers, my friends who were in my year loved it, but none of the tutors could understand it. I ended up becoming despondent with the environment and I was slowly but surely spending time away from the studio.

I was getting into music more, so I was starting to have odd DJ gigs here and there. Finding it hard after a while was just really due to the way my work changed and the reaction to it.

It was definitely an important process looking back at it now, but at the time, it pushed me away from university and from being in that kind of art school place. I very nearly quit towards the end of the third year. A few difficult things were happening personally and my mind just wasn't in the right place. One tutor got behind me and said, “Look, I know you have got a lot of other things going on, but you have got to finish it.”

So I did graduate. I was proud that I saw it through because I would have definitely regretted it had I decided to drop out. Call it being a bit too young and naïve, who knows. But, I finished, I graduated and that was on paper so...

AD: That's the main thing. Would you say that was the reason why after graduation, you got more into the DJ work?

BHS: Yeah definitely. By that time, I was more interested in music to be perfectly honest. The two have now culminated. They are very much one and I understand that now. But from the point of view of having fun and getting instant gratification from Djing and spending time in clubs and getting into dance as well... It was just a lot more instant for me, a lot more appealing. I was meeting some really great people and having lot of fun. From that point, I hardly did any art work. It was strange. Just because I was more intent on getting the latest tunes. The latest reggae seven inch, or the latest house tune or whatever it was for my set. Slowly but surely, I just started doing more gigs in and around London and getting involved with promoters.

AD: How long did you do that for?

BHS: I left in 2004. I did that on and off for about three years and then solidly for another four years, in between having to do other bits of work to keep things afloat. I had a really great time doing it. I still do DJ, but I have been so busy with the art that the DJ work has taken second place for now.

AD: I read that around that time, you were doing illustration and being an art director and that kind of thing.

BHS: Yes. Between 2006 and 2009, I was DJ-ing on average eight times a month, mainly within London. I started to get opportunities to do other creative stuff on bigger projects. I ended up doing firstly some illustration for Amnesty International and that was during the Dafour crisis- at a time when it was at its worst.

A friend that I had met through Djing put me in touch with one of his friends who put me in touch with Amnesty International. I had not drawn for ages. It had been about two years, which was totally unlike me. I did not know what I was going to be like. So I ended up doing these portrait sketches. I looked at some footage and some images and went from there. I could not go to Sudan and get involved in that way. So with these sketches, I just had to watch lots of footage of what was going on. I did about 10 sketches from my imagination. Just from what had sat in my mind... Two of them were quite heavily sketched portraits of young Sudanese women and they ended up using them. They were used as flashing gifs on the Sudanese wing of the amnesty International website. It was up there for three or four months. I think I only got paid £200- £300 for it, but that was still pretty good to be honest. I surprised myself because it was at that point that I realised that I could draw better than I had ever been able to draw in my life. I then decided to engage my visual art side again.

From that point on, whenever there was an opportunity to get involved visually again, I did. So the art directing came up- and that was because a friend was making a comedy short for E4. It was hilariously funny and innovative. For that, I was working alongside the director, doing everything from building props to doing sketches for the promo video, then working with one of the production companies on some graphics. So for three years, I was juggling DJ-ing. It was great. I would have loads of gigs, then have a quiet period and I would get a big commission with someone. A great commission was some live painting work for Vauxhall with my artist friend Daisuke Sakaguchi- which was part of the 2006 motor show at the Excel centre.

AD: Nice...

BHS: So for 12 days, we were on the Vauxhall stand and they had skaters with BMX riders doing tricks while we were on the side spraying these big canvases. So yeah, it was quite a fun time. I feel like I've just waffled on.

HL Table. 2012

AD: No, you haven't. And then in 2010, Beats in My Brush was born!

BHS: Yeah, so after taking more time out to really think about what I was doing, two years ago, I was in a weird place again career wise. A lot of things were not working out generally and I was doing lots of different jobs to tide me over... Unless you are someone who has a very firm career path, which obviously art doesn't always lend itself to, you are going to have to do odd jobs and just a lot of things had changed by then, I got into recruitment.

AD: I did that!

BHS: Oh did you? I got into recruitment through having done a bit of youth work and I just wanted to do something I thought would help people. So I worked in recruitment, in the Welfare to Work sector for a while.

But then it got to 2010 and I was pretty despondent with where I was going and I made a decision to decide once and for all what I was going to do. By that time, I had started to have a lot of artistic ideas again. Every day I would have these ideas going around in my head and which for me is a good indicator of where you are as an artist. There is a great quote from Ernest Hemingway about the creative process. One of many, in which he talks about writing, obviously because he is a writer, but it is a very good quote about being in the right place to just let your ideas flow. I then decided to start painting again and aimed to get a studio. I wanted to channel what music had done for me in terms of opening up my own life to different cultures, people and ways of life and I wanted that to be a part of it. Slowly but surely the name came about. As the name suggests, it is basically the music within the paintbrush or me putting the brush to canvas. It just popped into my mind. I quite liked it, it was funny sounding and people remembered it. I made a logo and all of a sudden, I had an umbrella to work under. After that, I decided that whatever I did would be under that umbrella of Beats in My Brush, with eventually, the aim of making what I did into an organisation of some sort. This is looking a long way ahead and trying to make it into some kind of creative company with a difference.

AD: I like it.

BHS: Maybe even representing other artists. That’s something I am thinking about long term.

AD: I am thinking along those same lines!

BHS: One thing I would say is that I have always been incredibly ambitious. I don't think anyone should be cagey about saying that they are ambitious or that they want to make lots of money... Or just that they want to be successful and I am not necessarily talking about the money as being success. That is a different conversation maybe... I mean just believing in what you think you can achieve and money is a factor in that. Especially if you want to grow things and I think trying to facilitate what you are doing as a big idea. Achieving financial success is something really important, obviously we all want it, but it is definitely something that I know is going to be integral in me achieving what I want to if that makes sense?

AD: Yes it does. Going back to your work. I read that your work focuses on race, desire, relationships and social media. The one that caught my attention, the “Like Me” piece... I love that picture. Is it a painting or a drawing?

"Like Me 1" Charcoal and acrylic on paper. (c) Ben H. Summers 2012

BHS: It’s a drawing. Its compressed charcoal and I used water to push the charcoal around. It is a messy medium, you have to use your hands and fingers to smudge it. I remember one day wondering how it would move if I added plain water to it and it is strange, it totally breaks up and kind of becomes fluid in a way, so you can get some really great movement with it. So anyway, it was compressed charcoal and white acrylic paint on top. I guess at the time, I had just been thinking really long and hard about Facebook. I admit, I probably spend too long on there if I am perfectly honest. I know you probably do as well!

AD: Yeah!

BHS: It's on my blackberry. Every time a notification goes off I am wondering what it is... I thought about it in terms of the amount of time added together that you must accumulate just looking on your phone.

Also, on a deeper level, your life is on there and there is that need to be liked and accepted. It has become a format for that now, for anyone and everyone to get some bit of recognition, however small it is and that question about it really interested me. There are really busy people on Facebook who are obviously really busy and it is part of their career. I appreciate that part of it as an artist because it is a very useful tool to make connections and promote. Then there are people who are really busy and who are never on Facebook, just because their career does not lend itself to that. Then there are the people on there who are kind of in between, who just post what they have done with their day and its that daily acceptance, “Oh I have been liked, it's great to be liked, oh thats made the next 15 minutes of my life.”

It is just kind of interesting to me. I mean, what did we do before then on a daily basis? I just started thinking about these things and I started laying some drawings down. I have always been interested in religion, although I am not religious myself. That suddenly linked in with this idea about worship and about what has become peoples new religion, what they are really obsessed by.

So then the image for like me kind of just popped into my head with an altar and a Facebook logo as the crucifix. In a lot of my work, I like to play around with directional light and shadow. That is definitely from watching things like Heartbeat and Art Attack as a kid! This is probably going to end up being an installation and I am going to make the altar. I am currently in talks with a church to use one of their spaces... So it is going to become something a lot bigger and a lot more public.

AD: That image stayed in my head the whole day when it showed up on my Facebook stream. I shared it on my page and people had some interesting things to say about it. Do you think that idea is something that could be a turning point for you?

BHS: I think it could. But going back to that whole idea of style and my change of style not being accepted at university, I still find it very difficult to stick within a consistent, commercially acceptable style if you want to call it that. I have been told that that is what I need to do by galleries and agencies. They tell me that I have some cool work, but that there are too many different styles for them to work with. I am now at a point where I am asking myself if I need to do that in order to almost assist them in a way, or whether to just do what I am doing... Come up with ideas and make them as big as I possibly can so that people take notice and I have got people knocking on my door. When you look at a few artists who have done that, and I guess Damien Hirst is an example, because love him or hate him, he is fantastic at self promotion.

AD: Thank you! I agree.

BHS: More than arguably he is an artist or painter. But if you were to take each of his works and place them in different galleries, people who didn't know who he was would assume that they were by totally different artists. The dot paintings, the medicine cabinets, the shark... There are a few others, but he just really interested me from that point of view.

I remember seeing a recent program on him before his big retrospective at the Tate. It was the one where he was being interviewed. Prior to seeing that program, I didn't really know if I liked him or not. But after watching that program, he got through to me from his own experiences at art college and having to pick from painting, sculpture or drawing. He said that it did not appeal to him and he wanted to go somewhere where you could just do “Art”. That is why he went to Goldsmith's, because they just had an art course and that was it.

That is the way that I am. I know that maybe in the next 2 years or so, on my site, you will see a whole portrait series. That will look like a set. There will be all the “Like Me” stuff. That will look like another set. There are a few others that I am working on that will look like complete shows in themselves. I have realised that that is the way that I work. At that point, and only at that point will I feel comfortable to start approaching people with specific collections of works to see what they say. People may disagree, but that is the best way that I work.

In my studio at the moment, I have the Next Generation Gamers oil painting, which is a detailed oil painting. Then I have the drawings, then I have a concept sculpture that I am working on. I hop from one to the other and when I get bored with one, I go and do the other. That is the way I work.

AD: Nothing wrong with that, do you. For me, art is about capturing the spirit of the times that you are living in. The Zeitgeist. For me, that Like Me piece is exactly that. That's why I got so excited about it because that is what I have been preaching since I got into this game. But moving on from that, one of the things you say you focus on in your bio is race. Can you tell me a bit more about that?

Cherie's Escape 2.

BHS: It is a topic I will keep returning to and it is one that I have not fully explored. I don't think I have reached the strongest point with it. That will take a long time, a lot more research and experience. It has governed nearly every aspect of my life. I guess there was limited access to other cultures in our community. I just remember being very affected by racial issues from a young age. It was just one of those things that really annoyed me- the ability of one person to decide not to accept someone else because of their so called race or skin colour. I can safely say that it is the thing I feel most strongly about in life.

But it’s the need to celebrate it currently that I find most engaging. Some of the pieces I have on my site at the moment are a celebration of that. It is what I am exploring with my ‘Uand I’ series. Many of them are my close friends and relatives in their own spaces, surrounded by objects that are important to them while trying not to make them look too stylised or staged. I will be painting people form every spectrum, culturally, within the identity of the family and how fantastically varied but universally important it is. I think it will be a very long, ongoing series that I’d like to take to different countries.

AD: Getting back to the subject of success... When was your first exhibition?

BHS: That was the Slade degree show. I did a couple of things afterwards. One was in a venue called Mash in London. I did that some of my friends from other colleges who were also experimenting with ideas. That was actually in what is now a restaurant called Vapiano on great Portland Street. It was a bar/restaurant with a gallery space at the front. That was about five or six years ago now, must have changed hands at least 3 times. Following on from that only just last year really because that was the first time when I had enough work to show. That was in a little space called Nolias Gallery in London.

AD: I have exhibited at Nolias Gallery! Supermodels was there! Nolia is lovely.

BHS: Have you! No way.. Yes, she is lovely. She is like a whirlwind. I walked in and I was infected by her enthusiasm and her need for deciding to do things right there and there and that is the way she works. She kindly let me have the space. She has a little shop on one side and the space on the other side. I hired the space for two weeks. The show was called “The Eccentric Native.” while I was there, I was doing drawings on site and selling them. Lots of people came in. It was really good.

Milky Way. (c) Ben H. Summers 2013

AD: Did you sell work?

BHS: I did sell work yes. I sold three paintings and lots of drawings just because I was sitting in the window drawing with at a desk. I think that got peoples attention. A lot of people working in the area just popped in. That was a turning point. After that it was just about getting back in the studio and doing more work.

AD: Would you say you are full time now or are you supplementing the art with other stuff?

BHS: I am supplementing it with other stuff just because I like to have as much money in the bank as possible. I know I am not quite there yet. I can't say that I am making a living off art. It is what I project, because I think it is important that you let people know that this is what you do, even if you are doing other things on the side. What you say is what your passion is. There is a temptation to think about other people my age whose careers are on the way, but one should not think like that as it’s a potentially negative way of thinking. Everyone’s flowers bloom at different times.

AD: Any other shows?

BHS: I was involved in another exhibition at Nolia's, called Waves and flux, which was a whole bunch of artists and that was just on for a day. I also got involved with something called “Artists Wanted,” which took me to New York.

AD: I saw that on your Tmblr. How did you get involved with that?

BHS: That was interesting. I set about entering as many online competitions as I could. That is the most recent thing that I have done. It was a bizarre competition because I think the organisers didn't expect the kind of response that they got and that was very clear. The response from all around the world was huge and it became a mini phenomenon for about a week I guess, especially in the US. Basically, you upload your work and you set about trying to get people to “like” or “collect” your work. Then what happened was the top 1000 people got short-listed. I had enough collections to get my work screened in Time Square. It was great, so I just thought, whatever happens, there are going to be thousands of people there and it was a fantastic opportunity. So off I went to New York in the summer of 2012. As I suspected, there were lots of people. However, it was a bit watered down for my liking and I know a lot of other artists felt that.

AD: What do you mean watered down?

BHS: They screened people’s work on these big bill-boards in Times Square for four seconds each. They had not really told people about that. It was a very short window of time to even get some decent photographs. So there were hundreds of people standing in front of these screens waiting for theirs to pop up and then just quickly snapping photos and then you would hear all these little cheers from around the crowd. It was a totally bizarre event and obviously the organisers logo was just everywhere. So it was very obvious. It was to promote Artists Wanted and that was the ultimate goal. Fair play to them. They tried to do something different and ultimately from an entrepreneurial point of view, it was a big marketing success. It did bring a lot of people together, so there were two sides to the whole experience. Once my ego had recovered, I can’t lie, I had a really good time. There was a great after party. Quest Love from The Roots was Dj-ing and I met loads of really cool people. I made contacts in some really random places and I think it’s just a New York attitude, that New York vibe that really hit home. I made some gallery links in Queens and Miami and with invites to come back out to New York from other contacts, so it was very worth while.

AD: There is this whimsical, often romanticised idea of the “starving artist” which is often perpetuated by the media. Has that ever been your experience? If so, how have you dealt with it?

BHS: I have a strange relationship with money in the sense, that from an artistic point of view, it is very frustrating if you can't make the work you want to make because of money. Materials can be expensive. That is why I have always had a few different streams so to speak. The notion of the starving artist, I don’t think it helps to be honest. It just really annoys me when companies come to you to commission work and ask you to do it for free. That is usually not from people within the art world. Sometimes it is to be honest, but it is usually from the corporate world.

That doesn't just apply to visual art of course, it is especially so for dancers trying to make their careers. I think that romanticised idea, like you said, had been created and it flows around everywhere, so that when it comes down to doing work for people and the money side comes into it, there is this strange view that we don't need to live or that we don't need to pay bills. At the same time artists without any business acumen can let themselves down. If I ever became influential enough, I would recommend some kind of employment law to be passed whereby it was compulsory to pay artists. I have turned down some fantastic “opportunities” in the past just because I know my worth and I am proud of that. A couple of them may have lead on to some good stuff, but purely from the point of view of living and just having to pay for things, I have had to say no. It is important to know your worth.

AD: You live and you learn. What would you say has been the biggest challenge you have had to face as an artist and how did you overcome it?

BHS: It is challenging all the time because as well as making work, you have to be your own marketing advisor and sometimes legal advisor. You have just got to be clued up in so many different areas and that is what I am starting to realise. But that is interesting. That is a challenge to me and I relish that. And I am like you, I want to run this as a business, rather than someone who is struggling, because the fact is, there are easier ways of making money. In tandem with doing my first solo show in 2011, I am just getting as clued up about business as I can. I have been on some business courses and met some really great entrepreneurs. The business side really interests me and that is why I said at the beginning that I want to take what I do and grow it into something that could be an organisation. Something that can have some real benefit and make money in different ways. So, I have not been tested enough yet as an artist. Maybe as other things, but as an artist, I can't say I have had the biggest challenges yet.

AD: What would you say is your biggest achievement as an artist and how did you go about achieving it?

BHS: I think on a really simple level, just getting quite a lot done in a very short space of time. It has only been a year or so since I made the decision that this was what I was going to do every single day and this is what my life is about. In that time, I have built my own website, I have taken in a lot of information, I have promoted myself, travelled and made lots of contacts. This year (2012), is a poignant year for me, on many levels, but definitely from an art point of view. So that is my biggest achievement. In terms of specific art work, I am very happy with what I have created so far and the ideas have yet still to be developed. There is a lot more to be done. I firmly believe, If you set about trying to achieve something, take the right steps and learn from your mistakes, then you will get there. It is as simple as that.

AD: What would you say is your personal definition of success in the art world?

BHS: I know where I would like to be. With the art world, I think it is about trying to get your work seen by as many people as possible. Artists for me are like goldfish. If you put the goldfish in a small bowl then they stay small. If you put them in a big bowl, then they grow. There are probably many analogies like that. You are a product of your environment and also how much space you have to work in. I think success is about being in a really good place with your work, having strong ideas, having the chance to show the work to a massive audience and achieving some recognition along with that and being known for the work that you might make. The monetary side of it is important. Of course it is. If you can sell your work for the amount of money that would make you happy and afford you the kind of lifestyle you want, then that is brilliant. That is what a lot of artists want. There are some who would rather stay true to the craft as much as possible and money never ever comes into it, but I am just realistic. I would like to make a very good living from selling work because there are other things I would like to do with that.

AD: By your definition, would you say you were on your way?

BHS: Yes, I would. I know that the next two years is going to be crucial. Once I get stuck into something, I just run with it. I am 100 per cent determined. I think that you will see my best work to date happen over the next few years.

AD: Have you got a strategy to get to this success place?

BHS: The first thing is to complete the series of work that I am currently working on. Get them to a point where I can market them a lot better. Then literally press, network and blog like crazy. Then springboard from that and get as many shows as I possibly can. But also the right shows. I will develop the online side of what I do. I have a store, which is just selling prints at the moment. But I do have about 20 T-shirt and accessory designs that are just designs at the moment, nothing has been made. But I quite like little things. If I can put my stamp on something that is ornamental and go in someone’s home, then I would like to do that as well. There is a plan!

AD: Very cool. So what advice would you give to any artists wishing to follow in your footsteps?

BHS: Go into something a little bit more normal? No, I am joking, of course not... I would say try and be as disciplined as you can. I am saying that because I am not the most disciplined person. I think you really have to. You have got to get in the studio as much as you can and be comfortable in the place that you are working in as well. Try and work out the best way that you create. Whether it is in a studio your bedroom or wherever. Get to know your process and just be happy with what you are making. I don't think you should pay attention to what people say so much. Opinions will always be present. Not everyone is going to like what you do and that is a fact. Also, if you are really sure of an idea, you should go with it because some people somewhere are going to identify with what you do. Just go for it. That is the thing I feel most strongly about, now being on the other side of that process.

AD: Do you have anything coming up where people can see your work?

BHS: At the moment I am just trying to make more work. There is nothing in the pipeline as far as new shows, but I am always posting stuff online and I am working on the U & I series. As those get completed, they will be blogged and posted everywhere, so look out for those.

Ben H. Summers during a session for the U&I project in 2012

Website: http://beatsinmybrush.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Artistbenhsummers

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Beatsinmybrush

Art Success. Adelaide Damoah in Conversation with Renee Cox

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:49:00 +0000

Renee Cox, a Jamaican American mixed media artist is described in her biography as one of the most “Controversial African-American artists working today.” Born in 1960 in Jamaica, Cox often uses her own body to critique what she sees as an inherently sexist and racist society, while simultaneously celebrating what it means to be black and to be female.

Completely fearless in her approach to her art, her work could be seen as confrontational social commentary, but it is more than that. Cox sees the work as a response to things which affect her. Not merely to confront or specifically to intentionally cause controversy.

One of her most controversial series of works to date entitled “Flipping the Script,” involved Cox's reinterpretations of religious art with contemporary black figures. One of the photographs in the series entitled, “Yo Mama's Last Supper” was shown at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in 2001. The large scale photograph was of a nude Cox as Jesus Christ, surrounded by black disciples all around her. Judas, was depicted as a white man in the piece which was presented as a reinterpretation of Da Vinci's “Last Supper.” When New York Mayor Rude Guiliani called for her works,

“Not to be shown in a museum that regularly received public funding...”

Cox is reported to have shot back:

“I have the right to reinterpret the Last Supper as Leonardo Da Vinci created the Last Supper, with people who look like him. The hoopla and the fury are because I am a black woman. It's about me having nothing to hide.” (From www.reneecox.org)

Yo Mamm's Last Supper. (c) Renee Cox 1996

Reneee Cox, this fearless, inspirational, unintentionally confrontational artist, took time out of her busy schedule to discuss her life, art and success with me.

Adelaide Damoah (AD): I read that your family moved to Queens when you were three months old and then to Scarsdale when you were 14. Apparently, there were only 7 black families in the area that you moved to. Would you say those things directly impacted your work? I ask because your work is very politically motivated and I see lots of themes which challenge the stereotypes associated with being black.

Renee Cox (RC): In my community, it was sort of like a bad TV series where you were always the token. It was like one of those shows where you would have one black child with all of these white people. That was my reality,so I was used to that. Coming from Jamaican lineage,there was never any fear involved in anything.

For example, when my father came to the United States for the first time in the 40's, he landed in Miami with a British passport. Jamaicans had British passports back then. His reservation had been made in advance. When he got there, the only cab driver who would pick him up was a black man. My father said, “I am going to the Fontainebleau Hotel.”

The cab driver said, “Oh no, you can't go there!”

My father was totally ignorant of racism and Jim Crow. Anyway, after 15 minutes or so of arguing back and forth about whether or not he could go there, he walked into the hotel and up to the reception desk. The people parted like when Moses parted the Red Sea! Everyone was looking at him funny, my father was just thinking, “What is wrong with these people!”

He went to the reception desk and said, “My name is Lancelot Cox and we have a reservation.”

The guy looked at the book and just said, “Erm, yes...?”

So after an hour or so at the reservation desk, the man had to honour the reservation and he stayed there for three days! I don't say this as a criticism of African Americans, but in some ways, when I hear this story, I think it is a bit of a state of mind as well. You can put fear into people to the extent that they won't even challenge it. Then you have somebody that comes along who is completely ignorant to hangings and lynchings and burnings, who insists on just going to their room after a long journey because they are tired! He did not really find out about Jim Crow until a few days later, but he didn't care!

For me, growing up in that type of environment, I have never felt any trepidation. I have never had any boundaries and felt like I can't do this because I am a black woman or whatever. I think it is a lot healthier to be like that, because then you are not carrying all this residual baggage of this deep consciousness of the outer world.

Chillin with Liberty. (c) Renee Cox. 1998

AD: That is a testament to your attitude.

RC: Yes, well there was Jim Crow and black men hanging from trees, but at the same time, it is about what you accept. If you accept subordination, that is what will happen to you. Because I mean, if you make people fearful, they do anything and that was what was used. My father did not have that fear as he did not have that fear ingrained in him like kids who had grown up in the South.

That is what happened to poor Emmett Till, he did not have that fear, so they killed him. For my father, fine, they did not kill him. They just had to honour him and deal with it. That just goes to show that the whole thing was retarded to begin with, from the word go. That is the story.

It is story that is empowering, but at the same time, do we even have to say that it is empowering or do we have to say that its just normal? That is what normal should be.

AD: Is that in part what influences the way that you work now?

RC: Oh totally! It influences the way I work, it influences the way I live. It all goes hand in hand. It's like, people say to me, “Oh, you are the pioneer,” because people have always got to label you in one way or another. But for me its like, well yeah, OK, whatever, I was always doing what I wanted to do. It's sort of like a response.

Raje, from my Superhero series was a response to fighting in Toys R Us with other parents to get Power Rangers, and then noticing that there were no black super heroes. I remember thinking to myself that in my commercial days,-I shot Sunman, so somebody was trying to do a black superhero, what happened to that? It fell by the wayside. Then I was like, well wait a second, I am going to try and do something along those lines.

Contrary to what people may think about my work, there was a lot of research and preliminary drawings and paintings that went into it. The research lead me to Charles Moulton, who was the creator of Wonder Woman. In the 1960's, Charles Moulton actually had some covers done for Wonder Woman and one of them was a black woman who was supposed to be the sister of the white Wonder Woman and her name was Nubia. She appeared on a couple of covers. For me this was perfect because I could continue in the tradition of Wonder Woman, stopping people in their tracks, and get rid of the stereotypical notions and ideas of other people. That is how that came about. In short form, I would say to you, that a lot of the time, that is the way that I work. A lot of the time it is something that has come in from the exterior, that is like mental noise and I think to myself, wait, that has disturbed me, I need to change that around!

AD: Sounds kind of therapeutic.

RC: Yes, if your work can be therapeutic and can at least keep you on track so that you don't fall into the madness of the world, then that is a beautiful thing. I am not interested in being tied up in the whole matrix of things where you need to do this, or you need to suffer or you need to be the starving artist and all that foolishness. That is bullshit. That is bullshit for the people who have the power.

AD: That brings me onto my next question actually. This notion of the starving artist has been romanticised, therefore, the average person who perhaps does not know anything about what it means to be an artist, sees that. It does not sound like that has ever been your experience. Has it?

RC: No. I have no interest in suffering! Let me put it to you this way, the Buddha suffered for seven years. He did not reach any sort of enlightenment. The day that he said, I am not going to suffer and deny myself everything, that is the day that he reached enlightenment.

So why the hell am I going to suffer and go through all of this bullshit, just to fall into some stupid motif that other people have created? I have no interest! And all of those other people, they are fucking miserable anyway! I don't want to be miserable. I am not miserable, I want to be happy, and that's it!

Hot en Tot. (c) Renee Cox 1994

AD: You studied film at Syracuse university. What influenced you to go from that to still photography?

RC: Well photography and film kind of go hand in hand. At Syracuse, back in the day, we had to do A and B-rolling- where you manually cut the film and put it into bins...

Anyway, long story short, film making at that time was very tedious. As much as I loved it, I found myself doing photographs for different people in the community and doing portraiture and I loved doing that too. The turnaround time was a lot faster. I could shoot it in the morning, go in the dark room and be done with it by the end of the day. Whereas with film, I would be there selling my books and six months later, still trying to finish this film!

AD: From there, you went on to do fashion photography?

RC: Right. Well that was always a love. I have got a lot of fashion magazines that I have collected from the 1970's, so for me, that was always the inevitable way to go. When I was at university, I was thinking about photography, but I was not thinking about art.

AD: What was it about having a child in 1990 that then inspired you to go and do your MFA and focus on fine art photography.

RC: I had been doing fashion for almost 10 years at that point. It was fun, I was in my twenties, I got to travel, I got to be superficial! My conversations would be about shoes, you know Maud Frizon or Claude Montana and it was a really shallow existence.

One day, I just woke up. Actually, I was in London and I started hearing about Nelson Mandela and the ANC and all the atrocities that were going on in South Africa. Up until that time, I was sort of oblivious to it. When I started hearing that, I was horrified and became more interested in things that were happening that were relevant in the world and at the same time, realising that the people I was hanging out with in fashion were so not there. They were living in this stupid little world. I really did not want to be a part of it.

An example that I give that makes it succinct is that I was at dinner with a bunch of fashion people, and I said to them, “Wow, it's amazing, Nelson Mandela was released from prison today after 27 years.”

These people turned around to me and said, “Oh really, well Donald and Ivana are getting divorced!”

I was like, are you freaking kidding me? Donald Trump is a complete ass hole!

Many years ago, this was this rape of this white woman in Central Park. Donald Trump put an ad in the New York Times, asking for the death penalty for these kids. It was at a time when things in New York were a little touchy. There was Howard Beach and things happening against black people that were not correct at all. So to ask to have the death penalty was like saying, lets get a lynch mob to kill these kids. That was completely irresponsible. Anyway, the kids got exonerated because of DNA evidence later, but that is another story...

That was my “aha moment,” when I decided that I could not be around these complete morons any more. That was when I decided to go into art.

At that time, it was not enough to be a fashion photographer and to say, 'I have a great mailing list of really beautiful people who could come to the show.' I needed to go to grad school and get my MFA. At that juncture, I had just had a kid and the best place for me to go at that time was the School of Visual Arts. That was really pivotal because it made me more conscious... It took what I knew technically and made me more conscious of what I wanted to say with my photography in terms of message.

Following graduation, I went on to the Whitney Independent study program which is like a débutante ball and that kind of helped solidify a place for myself within the art world. That was the trajectory.

Black Housewives. (c) Renee Cox

AD: Would you say that going on that study program was the thing that launched you?

RC: Yes. Because the Whitney Independent study program was what Yale is today. It was that clearing house, it was where everyone went to see the “chosen ones!”

AD: After graduation and the study program, how long did it take to go forth into the world as a full time fine artist.

RC: It was right away. At that time I already was a full time fine artist. I was in the Bad Girls show at that time, that was very successful. My piece in the show was one of the very few that Roberta Smith liked, so it was really fast. After that, I was in the Black Males show, with a really cool piece and just kept going from there.

AD: Did you have any specific challenges?

RC: Well the initial entrée was like bliss. I did a piece, they liked it, people were calling me wanting to buy it. Coming out of the fashion world, that was great. It wasn't like it was brain damage for me to do the work!

Then as I progressed, the next big body of work I did was the Superhero's. That is when I found some resistance. That’s when people were saying, “Oh, she is narcissistic! She apparently likes herself too much,” which is not a good thing because if you are black, you shouldn't really like yourself, you should be giving them some victim shit. I am not about that victim shit. My thing is world domination, if you want to go down that path. I am not interested in being somebodies victim, so they did not really take well to that body of work. From there, it became more challenging.

The other thing is the way the art world works, and this is not specific to the art world- its the world in general. They want to box you, put you in a category. They want to be able to say, "Renee Cox is the one who does really large seven foot photos of herself naked with her children."

Once they liked that, they expected me to keep giving them my naked body, really large scale, until the day I died. It would have been perfect because there was another photographer at that time named John Copeland, who had just died and I could have just slid right into his spot. But I had no interest! That was boring as hell! I am not interested in becoming that person, if I need to be nude, then great, it is applicable, but if it is not, then I don't need to.

I think that is where the shift came, because they realised that I was not controllable. I am talking about the commercial aspects of the art world. There was the seven foot “Yo Mamma,” “Flipping the Script,” and the “Raje”, then “Yo Mamma's Last Supper” and then it was like what? But for me as an artist, it is about my growth. I am not interested in just producing the same product each and every time.

Mother of Us All. (c) Renee Cox 2004

AD: Being a black woman in a world dominated by upper middle class white men, did you feel personally that you had to push past any kind of barriers and if so, how did you do that? Especially considering the nature of your work, de-constructing racial and sexual stereotypes in a very in your face way. Your work can not be ignored.

RC: That is just the way I am. I don’t strategise how I am going to do things. It is about the way that I feel. I do the research behind my feeling and then I put it out there. I had never really thought about it like that in terms of white male middle class. That was what was harped on about in grad school with the whole patriarchal society. At that juncture, I just take the attitude of my father which was like, “Really? I need my room!”

I can't get into other peoples madness, otherwise, you are going to become mad yourself. If that is the way they operate, fine.. You think its in your face? I don't know, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. It depends on who is looking at it and their particular sensibility.

Why is it in your face?That is an interesting question, because then I think, perhaps they would like to see somebody more muted, something more quiet, something more “subtle.” But I'm not interested in subtleties, nothing in history has been subtle. You enslave people, and have them working for you for free and then turn around and call them idiots? Wait a second, if I had people working for me for free, don’t you think I would own everything by now?

AD: What do you think it takes for a black female to be validated in this establishment.

RC: That's an interesting thing- validating. Even just believing in validation is something that will drive you mad. Who are you looking for validation from? Are you looking for validation from those same crazy ass white people that you just told me about? Are you looking for validation from your peers? Then I have to say to you, why are you looking for validation in the first place?

I can tell you, I spent most of my life looking for that stupid validation. Then I woke up one day and thought, well who am I looking for validation from? I am asking crazy people for validation. Its like, pick up a newspaper, pick up a history book. Look at what has been happening for the past 3,000 years. People killing each other over religion, over race, over all kinds of stupidity, these are the people that I am asking for validation from. These are the people who are in 2001 are going to give me my 15 minutes of fame and then pull it back and say, Renee Cox who? If I am going to believe in that validation and then they pull it back, what happens to me? I go jump off the George Washington Bridge? Because now I have no identity because they have taken it away from me? That is too much damn power to give to people! I think if any artist is out there, that is the first thing they need to realise. They should never give that power to anybody.

River Queen. (c) Renee Cox 2004

AD: You have achieved a shit load of stuff! What is your personal definition of success in the art world?

RC: Success for me at this juncture is to be happy and to be doing what I want to do. I will back that up. In March 2012, I spent six month in Mexico, I had a residency there for some rich collectors. From there, I decided I did not want to do photography. I made clay, terracotta, small figures. To give you a visual, West African ancestor figures. I made thirty of them while I was there.

It was a beautiful thing because I was able to have my resource material there and get inspired by it. Once you stick your hands in the clay and start making, it becomes something else, something different. Its one thing that you don’t have in photography. At the end of the day you can say, “I made three little people, look.”

In photography, its like a production, there is the thinking about it, the execution, the picture, then it is like, how am I going to present it. It is a whole different process. When you put your hands in the clay and your hands are just telling you what to do, there is no thought.,there is no agenda in your head of following a set pattern. It just comes out of this space of complete spaciousness. That is where all creativity comes out of, contrary to popular belief- it doesn't come out of some book. When that happens, its a beautiful thing. I want to blow them up to life size.

I would say that makes me a better artist as I am able to expand and explore. I am not doing the same thing over and over because of the market and because of capitalism. That is where I am at. That is the most important thing. Because this business, if you let it, it will drive you crazy, because the people in it are crazy. I mean just look at it, turn on the TV. On every channel there is someone killing somebody, undermining somebody... This is a form of entertainment. It is pure ugliness. I am not about that. I am not judgemental- but I look at it and I say, my God, people are suffering.

AD: By your definition of success, would you say that you are successful?

RC: It is about being happy with what you are doing, not about monetary success. So you have money, but you just run around chasing more money. You have money on the outside and you keep trying to accumulate more money and you cant even enjoy the things that you have got. You want to tell me that is success? I don’t think that’s successful. At least someone like Branson appears like he enjoys his money- so I say fine , he has money and he is having fun.

Even if you look at the Bible, it says money is the root of all evil. I mean it is good to be comfortable, but look at this way, if I was an artist chasing money, I would not be an artist. If I wanted to chase money, I would go into banking. And now the new generation are all about the money. That’s great, but I did not come up from that. When I was in school, if you talked about money, you were a sell out. I mean that is neither here or there. I am not poor, so I get to do what I want to do, but it has never been the driving force.

AD: What is your biggest success to date.

RC: Probably raising two really cool kids

AD: How old are they now?

RC: 22 and 19. Not making two ass holes for the world. Making two complete people. I would say that is probably one of the biggest successes one can have. So the next generation, there will at least two people out there with a bit of consciousness going on.

I think that is important for the world. I think the other one is when I do lectures, talking to young people, giving them the right to do what they want to do- to be who they want to be. That is very fulfilling. I have had many come and say to me that I was brutally honest, but they came back and said that it helped them a lot . I believe in the truth and there are not many people that are going to tell you the truth. They will bullshit you around and I am not interested in that.

AD: What would you say is your ultimate ambition for the work.

RC: Just that the work is out there and people see it and it gets the respect that it deserves. I am not going to be written off because there is a new bus that came in. I am still here! The way the art world works, its like a racket almost. Go to grad school, do a couple of shows, get a position out of university, get tenured... That is how the business operates, otherwise who in their right mind would major in art.

I still have things to say and as long as I still have things to say, then I am going to say them. Obviously I need people to see the work. I can't work in a vacuum. People want to label and call me a pioneer, and I say, great that is cool. I will be the pioneer, I don't give a damn. I will have fun with it. You have to be able to have fun. You have got to be able to laugh girl- otherwise it will age you before your time. That is what the Dalai Lama says as well. Only thing is, the Dalai Lama doesn't tell you how to get happy!

AD: What advice would you give to young artists wishing to follow in your footsteps?

RC: I would say, be the witness to your negative thinking. Don’t let that shit get to you. Know that the thoughts you may be having are coming out of your ego. And know that your ego, contrary to popular opinion, is not your friend. Once you understand that, you can address it and you don’t have to let it build up in you and become a real drama. You get good at it at a certain time and you can laugh about it. You know, when you get those thoughts like- “that artist is better than me, or that artist has had more shows than me or that artist...”You know, and then you start crying about it saying 'poor little me.' Once you notice that, then you can say- aha, that was my little ego kicking in there, that's what it was. Then you can ignore it because its only going to destroy you if you let it.

Lost in Mongolia. (c) Renee Cox 2008

Renee Cox Website: http://reneecox.org/

Renee Cox on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Renee-Cox/282559191833789

Renee Cox on Tumblr: http://reneecoxstudio.tumblr.com/

Renee Cox on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MAROONREBEL

And then there was light....10,000 Lux for Alanna Lawley

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 17:59:00 +0000

All of me, 10,000 Lux for you plays with full spectrum lighting used in the treatment of Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D) or Winter depression. Through the construction Lawley attempts to reverse the increase in Melatonin and reduction in Serotonin production processes that can cause depression in the winter months due to lack of light.

Exploring the contradiction of an architecture designed to provide assistance, Lawley plays with the balance of curing the disorder and causing insomnia due to over-stimulation. The site-specific construction plays with mediated and shifting experiences of repulsion, seduction and denial of access, fostering an ultimate feeling of uncertainty.

Metamorphosis by Asher Jay

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 23:31:00 +0000

Metamorphosis:
- an original literary work by ©Asher Jay 2013

I have been the wild horse
that could not be tamed,
the unpredictable storm,
the loose cannon,
the changing wind, the winding ocean current
the meandering river, the vagrant cloud
and I have always found the other to be a shackle
This maybe why
I have never been the sails of a sturdy oak ship
never the salt by the pepper shaker
the oars to a hand carved canoe,
the ornate brass legs to a rosewood table
nor the buttons of a bespoke shirt
something in you has left me feeling
more button than horse,
more salt than storm
more brass legs than cannon.
A part of me I could not connect to
in knowing you I have found,
Perhaps...
the setting sun on my horizon
has made me realize
I would prefer my pictures
mounted and framed.

Art Success: Adelaide Damoah in Conversation with Jane McAdam Freud

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Jane McAdam Freud is an internationally acclaimed, multi award winning British visual artist. Born in 1958, her work includes sculpture, installation, drawing, prints and digital media. McAdam Freud studied at the Wimbledon College of Art, Central St Martins and the Royal College of Art in London. Impressively, her work started to gain recognition from the very early age of 18, after the launch of her first solo show. Following the exhibition, one of her award winning pieces was acquired by the British museum. In 1986, she went on to win the, the British Art Medal Scholarship in Rome.

A highly accomplished artist, McAdam Freud has work in private and public collections collections including the National Gallery in London, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the British Museum and the Greek National Gallery among other international museums. Other awards she has won include the Italian State Mint prize in 1991 and Freedom of the City of London in 1992. Despite her many achievements, McAdam Freud remains humble and unaware of what many others would see as a very successful career to date.

Daughter of one of the most widely known British painters in modern history- Lucian Freud, McAdam Freud kindly took time out of her busy schedule to express her thoughts on her career to date, her fathers influence, success and patriarchy in art.

Dad Head Sculpture, 2012, stoneware fired terracotta

Adelaide Damoah (AD): I read that you first discovered your passion for art at the age of three while playing in a sand pit! Is this a real memory, which, you can actually recall, or is this something your parents told you about when you got older?

Jane McAdam Freud (JMF): It is a real memory of when I discovered my passion for the tactile, the power of the sensory and the joy of getting my hands dirty: in short my first sculptural experience. This is not something I could articulate at the time but more of a powerful sensory experience held deep within. I think it is like that with driving memories; they power one and are channelled through a resonant force within. In the case of the sandpit I avoided replicating the experience literally as I don’t want to lose the magic and power of the memory.

AD: I get the sense that you have a real passion for what you do and that the desire to do it is intense and real. When do you first recall having the desire to become an artist?

JMF: As far back as I can remember, with a complete overriding passion. I have always thought that it was the only thing to do and the thought inhabited every fibre of my being. My mother did painting and then fashion at St. Martins. Both parents being artists I thought that this was what everyone did so it was something concrete and possible in that regard. Many of my parents family friends were artists too, so I understood early that you had to strive for the best, work hard and seriously or else! I picked up on the fact that there was a difference between taking your art seriously, valuing, documenting and archiving it as opposed to just doing it.

AD: Is it possible to distinguish whether or not that desire had something to do with your father?

JMF : The intensity of the feeling may have had something to do with my father as his intensity in general and especially for his work was something I experienced form so young, from birth: he was there at my birth. This level of intensity for life, for what one does is something I have always felt.

AD: Can you pin point how and why he influenced you to pursue an artistic career?

JMF: Not sure about pinpointing but when you live with such intensity and passion as part of your identity, whether it be from an external parent or an internal source, the two get mixed up, or put another way it becomes internalised, an influence in that way, an instruction somehow. I can remember wanting success as an artist with a passion from so very young. It was my secret wish with every pull of the wishbone. I wished for it so badly believing the harder I wished and worked, or put another way -dreamed and drew, the more likely it would come true. I thought then that success meant having work acquired for a public collection – or having work on show in a public gallery.

I looked at the catalogues my father left lying around our house all the time and became entranced with the figures, their haunting eyes and how they filled the picture plane. How the figures were composed rather than the paintings being compositions. I was then very shy, my mother, a loner herself was quiet, and my father didn’t speak much so it was through images that I formed my views and from which I took my impressions.

Dad drawing, 2012, pencil on paper

AD: You went to the Wimbledon College of Art, Central St Martins and the Royal College of Art. What courses did you study at those three colleges?

JMF: I did a Foundation Course at Wimbledon College of Art, where I studied a bit of everything.

At Central St. Martins I studied the same course in the same rooms as my father. Strangely it was a course I felt driven to do without reason, although I consider it to have been the best initial training I could have wished for. The course was called 3D design / Jewellery and it was that I learnt all the sorts of skills that I needed to make things, albeit on a small scale. It was designing for objects on the body; the way we designed ,they bore little resemblance to what is conventionally viewed as jewellery in a commercial sense.

I was intrigued to learn that the Northern European Court painters like Hans Holbein the Younger and Quentin Metsys founder of the Antwerp School initially studied metalwork and jewellery design. Interestingly they were also both the sons of painters themselves. Perhaps there was some sort of unconscious instruction going on there. When I applied to the Central I had no idea at that time that my father had also enrolled on the same course when he was seventeen. It was my paternal grandmother who first enlightened me. I was surprised as I thought my father had wanted to be a painter from the outset but in fact he was also initially drawn to the 3D course at the Central but never finished the course. When I asked him about it he told me that sculpture was actually his first love and he tried different things before he came to painting. Anyway I love these sorts of what I call trans- generational links. Sometimes I play with the idea that I finished the course on my father’s behalf on some sort of unconscious level.

While I was at the Central I learnt that my prowess was with carving and modelling. The highlight was designing and making a medal to commemorate the Centenary of Picasso’s birth in 1881, which the British Museum immediately acquired for their permanent collection. What I loved about Picasso was that he traversed so many media, from painting to pottery and sculpture.

I love having a multi-disciplinary approach as this approach simulates life and ideas. Ideas come in many forms and the freer you are to respond the closer you are to finding an expression for the idea. At the Royal College of Art I took a Masters Degree by Project, where I wrote my own project and nominated the departments I required to access. I called my project: Forms of Relief – the Post Modern Medal. My supervisors were John Stezeker - Fine Art Department and Edwardo Paolozzi from Sculpture and Ceramics. I think it was the first multi disciplinary degree they had there. It does not suit me to be pigeon holed and I think cross-overs by default create originality. I was also doing some teaching at the RCA during that period, so I was crossing over from being a student to being a tutor.

AD: You won the British Art Medal Scholarship in Rome in 1986 and went on to study sculpture. Was it a conscious decision to study something other than painting- different from your father?

JMF: When I was on Foundation at Wimbledon, I realised it would be ridiculous for me to study painting and try for an unachievable goal i.e. to make a mark in the field where I would have barely a chance of equalling my father. I wanted to do something for me, about how I experienced the world that rang true to me. Sculpture, informed by that first sandpit experience seemed to be where I should be heading and that is where things led.

Earthstone Tryptich, 2012, stoneware fired terracotta

AD: Your most recent exhibitions, Family Matter, Flesh and Stone and Three Generations all seem to relate somehow to your family. I am especially interested in the way you contextualise the use of the word matter in the title of the show Family Matter. Could you give me a bit of background on each show? Could you also expand on the meaning of your title for “Family Matter”?

JMF: Family Matters was the exact title but yes it referenced ‘matter’. The exhibition was at Gazelli Art House gallery in Mayfair. This is the gallery that represents me in London. As I had been working with my father’s image making sketches, photo collages, and sculptures during that year, this is what I wanted to show. Death of a parent is a highly personal experience and in that way the title applies, i.e. It is a family matter. However, also the effect that a parent’s death, however estranged, has on you- does matter. I work mainly with process and materials so ‘matter’ the stuff from which I work and the stuff from which we are made together created a pairing that captured my imagination and helped me get through the mourning.

Flesh and Stone was the title of my show in York at the New School House Gallery. They selected some of the works from the Mayfair show along with a newer series of works called Animen and Huminals. My output for this show again referenced in part my father’s image and in a post life way it was also meant as commemorative and so I wanted to it to recall that he was interested in depicting flesh. As many of my portraits of him were made in terracotta clay and were stoneware fired it evoked images of turning flesh to stone, making it live on, so Flesh and Stone with its biblical connotations I thought was an apt title.

Three Generations was the title that the curator of Whitelabs Gallery wanted. Whitelabs is the gallery that represents me in Milan. We decided to show the drawings I had made at the Freud Museum alongside some of my sculptures from the series called “After Bacon.” Three Generations references Sigmund through the drawings I made of Sigmund Freud’s collection of antiquities. It references Lucian – through Bacons influence on him as I see it through these sculptures and also through some photo collage images I made combining my face with my father’s face.

I am looking forward to showing my new works, which come from a different place. As they are in progress I don’t like to talk about them as it takes some of the driving power away from the process.

AD: I read that you centre much of your work around psychoanalysis, which is especially interesting because of your great grandfather Sigmund. Could you explain a little about how you do this and why please?

JMF: I am interested in the driving forces beneath the radar rather than the rationalised. My work comes out of and is informed by the unconscious forces in myself and the resonant collective unconscious forces that edge their way into the works, in the way the conduit mechanism works for many artists. I am informed by my use of materials in the same way.

It is the way I see the world, through a psychoanalytic lens. I am pretty analytical. I don’t like to judge or come down on either side but rather to analyse ‘why’ things might be (in context with other considerations and time, place etc) –to illuminate to throw another light on something seemingly fixed (which nothing is). This may be an inherited or conditioned approach? I do this instinctively and it creates the imagery to express how I feel about the world and life. Not sure how clear this is but this driven approach is difficult to capture in words.

On completion of a work I tend to interrogate the ideas and contexts with a psychological slant examining these aspects as though the work itself were up for analysis! When a work is finished I live with it for a while and see what it suggests in terms of further associations, which may have gone unseen, or unknown while the piece was conceived.

Sometimes a work may come out of asking a question of a material or process and looking deeply at that question and its ironies and associated questions.

AD: Have you studied psychoanalysis at all?

JMF: I studied psychology as part of my first degree - as an option in the compulsory 'liberal studies' part of my course. I have read a lot of psychology though as part of my research for my work and as a personal interest.

AD: I understand that until you were in your thirties, you were known as Jane McAdam. The art world was not aware that you were the daughter of Lucian Freud and you had achieved a significant amount before the news got out. How long did it take after finishing your studies for you to become established as a full time artist?

JMF: When I was still a first degree art student at the Central the British Museum bought a piece of my work so this was a leap forward as it were into the Museum world. When I finished at the Central, the British Museum commissioned an edition of my Picasso Medal for a collecting society they initiated called The British Art Medal Society. This led to commissions and it all sort of took off, with one thing leading to another. As my studios got larger and the works got more ambitious the pace hotted up and in the last 5 years it has spiralled.

Picasso Medal. 1979. Bronze. 100mm approx

AD: What challenges did you face along the way and how did you overcome them?

JMF: I was patient and worked all the time. If I had challenges along the way I can’t easily remember the detail of what they were. Being a positive person I have probably successfully blocked them out.

What I do know is that the challenges were in the region of ‘letting myself’ do this or that. Not editing out the guts and not censoring myself in the way I tended to in the first half of my life. Life starts at 50 in this regard. When I was 50 I decided my life had begun – (50 being half of 100 and I often say, part jokingly that I will be very angry if I don’t live to 100). This decision corresponds with my predilection for pairing, which has been in my work in one way or another from the beginning. I thought the pairing of the first half and the second half of my life was a symbol of a work. Life is a work. The first 50 years I hadn’t claimed it I feel and now I try to. It is always easier to defer to the other; a part of empathy I suppose but it isn’t helpful to the self or the art.

AD: The art establishment in this country is known to be particularly patriarchal. As an accomplished female artist, have you encountered any resistance to your progression as an artist because of the fact that you are female? If so, what specifically and how did you over come it?

JMF: I left all those male dominated societies (won’t mention any here through fear of a patriarchal punch on the nose). Men in art are generally fine but it is the one or two territorial types who can be really indignant that women are on what they claim as their patch (particularly in sculpture) and can make life difficult. What I have found is that it is best to move out of the way and towards more of who you are and what is uniquely yours. I like Theodore Zeldon’s approach, which is that the ‘brave run away.' Perhaps that’s why I veered more towards ‘family matters’. Perhaps it was a sort of retreat back into the bosom as it were or perhaps a move towards who I am – what makes my work more me and therefore uniquely mine.

Down to Earth Installation 1, Boundaries exhibition, Paddington Studio, 2011, salt and grit

AD: You have achieved significant accolades in your career to date and clearly been “validated,” so to speak by the art establishment. What in your opinion does it take for a female artist to be validated by the art establishment?

JMF: I think it is a man’s world (unfortunately for us) but if you are doing something all your own and men are not interested in being on that territory then they leave you alone. It is pertinent to your question that I do speak increasingly about this divide through my current works.

AD: With all of the shows and other achievements under your belt, what is your personal definition of success in art?

JMF: Oh dear, not sure if one ever feels successful. My goal posts move at each achievement. If I did feel that I had arrived at success my work might ‘go off’ as it were. You need to be willing yourself to do your very best at each turn.

Down to Earth Installation 2, Boundaries exhibition, Paddington Studio, 2011, stoneware

AD: What has been the biggest set back in your career to date?

JMF: I try not to see things as setbacks but just opportunities to do things differently. I love the example Edison used when asked how he felt about failing to make a light bulb 10,000 times. "I have not failed 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work."

AD: What has been your biggest achievement to date and what steps or process did you go through to achieve that?

JMF: My solo show at the great Gazelli Art House gallery in Mayfair, next door to the arts club. The strange thing is I didn't do anything to achieve this as the director found my work online and asked to come to my studio. Strange really as I sometimes work so hard to achieve far less and it doesn't seem to happen.

Down to Earth Installation 2, Boundaries exhibition, Paddington Studio, 2011, stoneware

AD: At this stage of your career, what is your ultimate ambition or dream for your work?

JMF: To get a piece into the Tate, Tate Modern or National/National Portrait Gallery has been a grand ambition since early childhood. Although this has been partly achieved it is never in the way you envisage. One of my works was shown at the Tate Modern just as it opened, in a show of London (local to Southwark) artists works. Also the National Gallery archives have a piece of my work. I dream of having a show at such a venue one day!

AD: What advice would you give to a young artist wishing to follow in your footsteps?

JMF: Be true to yourself and maintain integrity. Don't let yourself be put off by rejection. See it as a challenge to placing your work in the right context. Avoid putting your creative energy into resolving conflict. Instead move out of the firing line and just get on with your work. Keep your overheads low so that you can make art your priority. Don't be afraid of investing in yourself as if you don't no one else will!

Jane McAdam Freud. Photo by by Jens Marott

AD: Do you have any new projects or shows coming up where people can see your work or hear you speak?

JMF: On now until December 14th 2012

‘Set’, (Archive Exhibition pairing student work with current practice). Lethaby Gallery, Central St. Martins

http://www.csm.arts.ac.uk/museum-study-collection/exhibitions/

13th & 14th March 2013

Something Special Art Exhibition and Auction, Blackall Studios, Leonard Street, Shoreditch on , see info and video

http://www.jossparkessearchlight.org.uk/

4th, 5th August 2013, Co-Chair of Discussion Panel on Art Life of Sigmund Freud, Symposium on Psychological Birth and Infant Development, Freuds Birthplace, Pribor, Czech Republic.

https://freudsymposium.eventbrite.com/#

11 January – 1 March 2013 Solo show, Gazelli Art House, Baku, Azerbyjian

Spring 2013 (Dates to be confirmed), Exhibition, Pushkin Museum of Fine Art, Moscow

May 15th - 18th 2014, Delivering Paper and Chairing a panel on Art/Object for the The 6th International Symposium, Psychoanalysis and Art, Florence.

Jane McAdam Freuds official website.

Science, Skin, and D.N.A. Pabi Chulo in conversation with Sheeka Arbuthnot

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 14:00:00 +0000

This interview is part of an ongoing conversation about the future of art, the responsibility of the artist, and the systems within which we function and fight between the artist and interviewer.

The Getty Getaway, 2012. Acrylic and spray paint on raw linen canvas. 40”x 65”

Sheeka Arbuthnot: Pabi, I would like to begin with a question that deals with geographic displacement. Can you tell me how your experience here in San Francisco has impacted your practice?

Pabi Chulo: Yes, I came here to San Francisco in August, 2011. Being a part of a creative and educational institution is very stimulating and sometimes also frustrating. Going from a full time professional artist to be at the school bench can be a challenge. But I really enjoy being around people from all around the world, discussing art and being a part of the SF art scene. I have gotten many new ideas here and a broader perspective on contemporary art. Especially contemporary American art. Hopefully, I will create an artistic network with beneficial connections for the rest of my life.

SA: Your media are painting, drawing, performance and video. Can you describe the new medium with which you propose to work (science, skin, DNA) and how you believe this is relevant to art?

PC: To me, great art is the one that takes the first step into the unknown. Leading a way into the future by asking questions about the direction we´re heading, whether it is political, scientific or cultural. Working in many media gives the opportunity to point out these issues in new perspectives. Sometimes, it is best to criticize something with it´s own medicine; like a painting with paint, film with live picture, or science with the newest technology. I see DNA everywhere, in the paint, in the media or in our body. It´s all chemistry and if we can control it we can control the world.

The newest bio-science opens up many of the unknown and endless. We will have all the bricks and we can create whatever we want. The question is, will the next generations be the same as us? Probably not, but what then?

SA: How how will you proceed with this new medium of DNA?

PB: During my research I discovered a technology that makes it possible to print human tissue with living human stem cells.

It is developed by Dr. Anthony Atala from The Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Machine and the laboratory Organova in San Diego. The science of Dr. Atala has made him the 23th most influential person in the 21th century according to Esquire Magazine (2008.) I have recently contacted him in order to get help for my further project. This December I am having a meeting with a scientist in Denmark who is able to manipulate stem cell in order to code the cell for a specific task. Like being a skin cell.

Watch these movies and you will know more about bioprinting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHz4akTdno0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SfRgg9botI

SA: How do you place yourself in the context of national identification and your work?

Do you consider yourself a Danish artist? Are there Danish artists that influence you?

PC: Right now I find it very hard to place myself. I´m in between many categories, I guess. Maybe Pabism is the new shit!

I definitely see myself as a Danish artist spiced up with an international touch. I have traveled a lot and I have lived in Berlin, Melbourne, Copenhagen, and now San Francisco. I´m influenced by many artists some of the most known are Bacon, Stelarc, Basquiat, Abramovic and Duchamp. In general, I admire people with strong personalities who can create their own world and make others believe in it.

I also get my inspiration from outside of the art world, like from politics, science and common stupid and natural human behavior.

SA: Can we discuss your paintings for a moment? You currently have a series in which you “blow-up” buildings, perhaps most memorably the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. What inspired this?

PC: In general buildings and houses are to me a symbol of dreams, tradition, and where we find safety. I blow up houses and materials to make people think about their dreams and the way we live, what is necessary for them, and what they can live without. I think we have to redefine many of our future dreams if we want a sustainable world.

The painting you refer to, The Getty Getaway (2012) shows the Getty Museum blown up or ripped apart. Out of the white marble building comes a flying oil platform lifted by the power from the oil pressure. I have used raw linen canvas in order to show the real natural material and structure. I have kept the pallet in a gray scale except for the foundation of gold spray.

This painting was inspired by a trip in February 2012 that I made to The Getty Center. The museum is located in the hills of Brentwood just outside of Los Angeles. What many may not know, is that the museum was founded by an oil mogul: J. Paul Getty (1892-1976.) At his death, J. Paul Getty was one of the wealthiest people in the American history. He was the first to own more than one billion dollars. By creating the Getty Museum, owned and driven by The J. Paul Getty Trust, The Getty Research Institute, The Getty Conservation Institute and the Getty Foundation. The Getty dynasty is now the wealthiest and most powerful organization in the American art scene. With an endowment of $4.2 billion, the Getty Trust is the wealthiest art institution in the world. Every year more than 1,3 million visitors come to the attraction and this makes it one of the most visited museums in the US. It has no entrance fee.

I do not doubt that Getty was interested in art and in making good conditions for the art. But under the generous surface there is also another reason for spending these large amounts of money. It is a “public secret” that the Getty empire saves a lot of tax money every year. This money they can instead spend on the art world. From a democratic point of view, I find this spectacular, because the public majority might not agree on spending that much money on art. Instead, the money could go to education, infrastructure, or health care, which might have a greater benefit to the people.

On the other hand, support for cultural and other extraordinary projects often needs to come from private funding, otherwise they would never become reality. I find this discussion about private and public funding very interesting because these organizations create the systems that the artists need to work within. No matter if the money comes from the government or from private donations. In the USA, there is a tradition for private funding and charity. In Denmark, we just pay more taxes and then we have the feeling of giving enough. In Denmark, it is difficult to become really rich, but also difficult to be really poor. It is all about values.

In my choice of material I try to make that contrast by using gold on top of the brown unprimed natural linen canvas, with fake poisoned gold spray paint on top, together with the white building and the black oil. I use the oil to represent progress and invention. But during the last couple of decades it has become a symbol for something negative and almost stupid. The oil is equal to pollution, abuse of power, and war. It has become a symbol of a lack of development in technology and thereby the possibility to be independent as states. If a country, such as America, became independent from oil, there would be fewer reasons to make wars. In this way I can argue that the Getty´s oil money takes art as its hostage. This brings me to another point. Most artists I know of are anti-capitalists, socialists, and pro-green innovaters, but I have never heard of any artist who denied receiving any kind of financial aid from a company or organization with a bad reputation. Nor would they give their money away when they become extremely rich. For example, the expensive Swiss-made, double-framed, linen canvas that I use is sponsored by a donor from Texas. And guess where the money comes from? Oil! Yes, we are all hypocrites!

My goal is actually not to state what is right or wrong, but to question all kinds of institutions that create our world, because there is always a backside. To me the art world is getting more and more organized and controlled by all kinds of interests because of the increasing values in art. In my opinion, the result is the loss of freedom for the artists and an elite-controlled art scene. The art world is not what it used to be and so be it!

SA: What is the responsibility of the artist as an active pursuant of new materials and modes?

PC: Any artist can, of course, do what they want, but to me artists should be curious and investigate all kinds of material and resources, not be afraid of being a failure. As an artist I use all my time doing things and thinking thoughts that other people do not have time for. I´m very pleased to have this gift. I can then pay back with art that generates some of these ideas and brings new dimensions to perception in life.

Pabi Chulo is a Danish artist currently residing in San Francisco while studying for an MFA in Painting at San Francisco Art Institute. His practice is in dialogue with the global, personal, and physical shifts in systematic forms of knowledge. This is most clearly evident in his manipulation of historical maps. These maps, whether anatomical or geographical, retain the information that they are intended to communicate. Pabi manages to enhance, even while obscuring, these systems by applying alternative components that either place their history in contemporary knowledge or go so far as to propose new concepts of thought. By doing so, Pabi challenges individual and cultural acceptance of understanding.

His work is strongly based in his personal experience. When he was fourteen months old a pot of boiling fat spilled onto him. This has resulted in permanent scarring across a large portion of his skin. He even goes so far as to challenge that this was his first work of art, a controversial statement that sparks conversation over the eternal debate of the definition of “art” and the relationship between artist and art. Between object and concept. Between science and thought. He is working with scientists to develop a “skin print” which he plans to use as a material in future works.

Art Success: Adelaide Damoah in Conversation with Ruud van Empel

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 00:04:00 +0000

I came across Ruud van Empel's work on Facebook because someone posted one of his stunning images from the eponymous “World” series. I was dumb struck. I instantly fell in love with his work and was astonished that I had not heard of him previously. Born in 1958 in Breda, the Netherlands, Ruud van Empel studied graphic design at the Academie St. Joost, Breda between 1976 and 1981. After some time working in the field of graphic design, film, television and interior design, van Empel purchased his first Apple Mac and began to learn about the wonders of Photoshop. This was a turning point and van Empel went on to pursue a successful career as a fine art photographer, despite much advice to the contrary. Utilizing a complex technique of photo montage van Empel produces stunningly beautiful, yet strange and captivating images. His work has been exhibited globally and exists in many private collections, including the art collection of superstar Elton John. Ruud van Empel was kind enough to take time out of his hectic schedule to discuss his career and his views on success in the field of fine art.

Adelaide Damoah (AD): I read that you studied fine art at the Academy of Fine Arts Sint Joost Breda between 1976-1981. Why did you decide to study graphic design?

Ruud Van Empel (RVE): I was advised to because I used to make comic books when I was a kid. The process involved lettering and design for the covers so it made sense. In addition, a number of people advised me not to go into art because I was told that it did not give you much of a future in terms of making money. That was wrong in a way. Anyway, graphic design was also nice, especially when I studied in the 1970's. It was a really interesting time in the world of art and design. There were many things happening, so it was very interesting to study that. After graduation, I had to work in graphic design studios. That was too boring for me! I did that for about half a year I think. Then I just stopped and started making art. I started to do painting and videos in the early eighties. I experimented with that. I also did some set design. I did all of the things that I did not study to find my way, while having an interesting job and making some money. I was not particularly commercial as I accepted jobs because they were interesting for me. I did set-design for a number of theatre plays and television shows. Slowly, I started to get involved in movies. I did art direction and the production design of a movie here in the Netherlands. In fact, I worked on a very nice movie which 20 years later, is still very popular here in the Netherlands.

AD: What is it called?

RVE: I can not translate it into English, but essentially, the two main characters are a couple who act like children. They have very big teeth and look funny, it is a comedy. It was hilarious and very campy. This was done in 1989. The collaboration between the two actors and I was successful because we really understood each other. We went on to do a couple of television shows. There is a channel here in the Netherlands and they do some experimental television. We did a nice show on there. Translated, it was called “Creative with corks.” It was the kind of show that taught you how to make creative things out of corks. It was a comedy. That kind of work was very interesting and exciting to do for a while. I did it for about five years. I finally decided to only make art because it was all too limited. By the time I stopped television, it was in the mid nineties. By that time, everything became very commercial. This meant that the artistic starting point was losing ground and things became commercial. I wanted to work for more artistic programmes. All of the artistic programmes were discontinued so I made a decision to stop there and and carefully start with art.

AD: What was the process of transitioning from that to art.

RVE: In 1994, I bought my first Apple Macintosh. It was a Power Mac at that time. A lot of things were possible because of that, it was very interesting. I started out with a series called “The Office.” Those were ideas that I had previously for set designs and the Apple Macintosh allowed me to make them in Photoshop. It did not cost any money. I could build as big and as nice as I liked and it became an art piece instead of a real set. In reality, I could never make those kind of sets because it was too experimental, too expensive and there was no time, but in Photoshop, I could do it! It got completely out of hand. I started working more and more. After working for about three years in Photoshop, I presented it to a gallery in Amsterdam and they liked it immediately. I got an exhibition there, and then I got one in Germany and in France. Suddenly, I had a big success with that work. That is how it started.

AD: That was your very first series, the Office?

RVE: Yes

AD: Did you teach yourself how to manipulate images in this way?

RVE: Yes, just by doing it. Somebody taught me how to work with it- all of the basic things you can do with the programme. Then after that you just have to start working. You discover all of the possibilities when you are working. That was very inspiring for me. I was working 10 hours a day every day! I did not get out of my house much! It was a good thing to buy a computer and start working in that way.

AD: I read that your first official solo show was the one in 1999 at the Groninger Museum, under the title “Waterpas of Optisch recht?” (Level or Optically straight?).

RVE: The title of that show was made up by those actors that I worked with before. It was kind of a joke that when you hang things like paintings on the wall, there are two ways of doing it to make sure that it is straight.. When you do it by eye, this way is optical right. But if you do it by measuring, it is more precise. I used to work on the sets that I did for those two actors. One of them heard me repeating those lines and that is how we came up with the title.

AD: What did that work involve?

RVE: It involved a lot of poster design. The first photo works were shown there.

AD: Did you sell any work?

RVE: The museum bought two works at that time. I just had a big show with them last year. In 1999, they decided they wanted to do a big show with me in the future and that happened last year.

AD: I read that your international breakthrough came in 2005 with the series entitled “World Moon Venus,” at the “Picturing Eden” exhibition. What was that exhibition all about?

RVE: That show was curated by Deborah Klochko. She is a curator from New York. She saw my work on the internet and I think later on, she saw it here in 2004. She just sent me an email asking if I wanted to participate in that exhibition, just like that. That is the good thing about the internet and email- everyone can contact you very quickly. She wanted me to be in her exhibition she was doing about Eden.. The image of Eden and how that is depicted in works today. This was in 2005. We were in the middle of George W Bush times and America was not very popular. It was a country that was kicked out of the Garden of Eden, just like the bible story where Adam and Eve were kicked out of the garden of Eden for doing wrong... That was her feeling. All kinds of contemporary artists were invited. She thought my work would fit well with the show and she put my work on the cover of the catalogue. Immediately, I got a lot of attention. At the same time, my gallery was showing some of my work in Miami and we sold about 35 pieces of work in four days.

AD:Wow!

RVE: Picturing Eden was in January 2006. I also had my first solo show in a gallery in New York in January 2006, so that all came together at that point. I was working on the “World” series. World, Moon, Venus.. I became internationally successful at that point.

AD: Would you agree that 2005 was your breakthrough?

RVE: Yes, I would agree, that is when my name got known world wide and the work was selling very fast. Prices were getting higher. Elton John saw my work and bought it. All those things happened at once. It can go very fast.

AD: How did you depict Eden in that show?

RVE: There were a couple of the “World” images, like World Number 1. The image was of a black girl in a white dress. This was very popular and it worked very well for the black community in the USA, because they were not used to having a black person depicted in such a positive way in fine art.

AD: Yes and this is part of what excites me about your work. They are depicted in a stunningly beautiful and positive way. What inspired you to focus on dark skinned black children as subjects in your work?

RVE: At that point in that series, I decided I wanted to do something with beauty. It also comes from my technique that I was developing at that point. You have to find a way to make things look beautiful, because if you start to montage photos in an experimental way, you find that the sizes of things do not fit relative to each other. If you start to do that, things start to become very ugly. In a photo, things have a two dimensional feeling. This applies to the faces, because the faces are montaged completely. The eyes, the eyebrows, the mouth, even the pupils. All of those things are montaged, so the montage is very detailed and I have to be very careful that things are right, that they look as if they could be real. I am therefore very focused on making it beautiful, or not ugly, because it becomes ugly when it is not correct. If the mouth is just a little bit too big, you see it and feel it immediately and it becomes ugly. If you look at the series that I did- “Studies for Women,” you will see that I was still developing my technique. The technique was not perfected yet. You can see that the images of the women are kind of frightening. I did not make the montage perfect. I was very aware that I must make it as perfect as possible and that means that it must be beautiful. This is important to me, I don’t want to make an ugly image. Beauty is important to me and it is one of the things that still impresses me. I am 52 years old now and lots of things that I used to find interesting 20 years ago, I don't find interesting any more. But beauty is something that always stays.. I chose children because innocence is also a kind of beauty as a subject, so those two things together make the world series. The nice thing about the World number one also is- I did not know this at that point- an art historian said that black children had never been the subject of innocence before in this way. This was the first time in art history. It was nice. I was surprised. But before I did “World Number 1,” I made an image of a white girl in a white dress with pigtails standing in a birch forest. I was criticised for that picture because she looked so incredibly white. People said that it reminded them of the Nazi era- that she was so white that she must be an Arian. I was not thinking about that at all. I was very surprised that people made that connection.

Untitled #1. Copyright Ruud van Empel.

AD: I would not make that connection at all. I am looking at the image now and it is a very beautiful image.

RVE: At that point, I became aware that people are very sensitive to what they see. They can make all kinds of connections to things. If they saw a girl with pigtails, they connected it to the second world war. This was kind of crazy to me. From that, I started “World” and I made the girl black. I wanted to see how that would look. I put her in a white dress and that is how “World” started.

AD: Congratulations. It is a beautiful series. That is what drew my attention to your work. I also read and saw a clip of the Dutch television documentary, “Beyond Innocence.” How did that come about?

RVE: The exhibition that I got in the Groninger Museum was decided already ten years before hand, but not confirmed. It was confirmed in 2007, so lots of things were happening at that point in my life. Both of my parents died for instance. My brother, who is a professional documentary film maker and camera man, spoke to me and I said maybe we could film a documentary... Maybe we could film a video at the exhibition. But my brother was kind of ambitious and he talked to the television network here in the Netherlands and they decided that they wanted to co produce this documentary. There is a channel in the Netherlands where they make art documentaries. They said it could be one of those films. That is how it started.

Beyond Innocence DVD

AD: How was it received?

RVE: It was very well received and people were very excited.

AD: I can imagine because just watching the short clip on your website, it looked very good.

RVE: It took three years to film. One day, I heard that Elton John was coming to the Netherlands for a concert. I asked his photography manager- I have contacts to her because he bought my work. I said I wanted to interview him for four minutes for the film. They agreed to ask him, but said they were not sure if he would do it. He ended up giving us twenty five minutes! It was a big surprise and was a very nice interview. He normally refuses interviews but he did not refuse me. At the end of the interview he said, “I had a very nice day! Yesterday, I met Andreas Gursky and today, I met you!” It was really exciting. Later on, I went to see his show and he sang a song for me!

AD: Wow!

RVE: Yes! At the beginning of our film.

AD: You have done lots of exhibitions and Elton John collects your work, you have also won lots of prizes, including the Charlotte Kohler Prize in 1993. What does success in the art world mean to you?

RVE: The last prize sort of involved my art work as the prizes were given for all of the work that I did- including television work, set design, graphic design, interior design and art work. They gave me the prize for all of that together. That is important when you are young especially, to get prizes, to give you a push. To bring you to the attention of other people. For example, the Charlotte Kohler Prize was for artists up to the age of 34 I think... The Werkman prize, is for mid career artists- like early forties. I actually won the Werkman prize on the same day as 9/11. The attack was announced as they were about to give me the prize. There was a lot of confusion and they did not know what to do. They quickly gave me the prize, there were no photos and every one went home. This meant that I got no publicity or attention for my work. The attacks were so terrible that of course all of the attention went there. That was a pity.

AD: What would you say were some of the biggest challenges that you have had to face as an artist?

RVE: Getting a good gallery was very difficult, especially here in the Netherlands. It is a small country so, there are not so many possibilities. I was very firm in what I wanted. I wanted to be treated honestly by the galleries. I was very firm in my agreements with them. The moment they did not stick to their agreement, I was out of there. That was the hardest thing for me- to get honest, good and fair treatment from galleries.

AD: How do you personally define success in the art world at this point in your career.

RVE: If I am able to have exhibitions in museums and public places where people can go and see it, that to me is success. That is the best thing to have. To be able to show your work. They give you exhibitions because they like and are interested in your work. That is the best part of success I think. For the other part, in terms of the commercial side, if your work is selling well enough, you can live from that. Of course, that is very comfortable and nice. I have that situation so I am very happy with that.

AD: I would take it that from your definition, you would consider yourself successful?

RVE: Yes. I am not working for success. I am just working for my work. My work develops and I like to make work. That is why I do it. People like Damien Hirst I think have been working with all kinds of publicity stunts, I don’t know exactly how that works, but anyway, he got really big using a strategy. That is another way of achieving success I think. If you get a lot of attention put on you then automatically things will happen and people will be drawn to your work. That is not the kind of success that I am after. I just want to be able to work as an artist for as long as possible... To make work. I hope that I will be able to show it in galleries and museums. That is what I am aiming for. If that works then I am successful.

Venus #5. Copyright Ruud van Empel

AD: There is this notion that has been propagated throughout history of the starving artist. Has that ever been your experience?

RVE: That is a myth, the starving artist. Actually that myth has caused a lot of problems here in the Netherlands. Because of this myth that Rembrandt and Vincent Van Gogh died for, they have started sponsoring art here in the Netherlands. The problem with that is that certain people decide which artists get sponsored and which artists do not. From there, all of the problems start. I am one of those artists from the Netherlands that was not being sponsored in his early career, so it was more difficult for me to build a career. The myth about poor artists- well Rembrandt was not poor, he just could not handle money. The same goes for Vincent Van Gogh. He got a certain amount of money from his brother each month. It was so much that a family of eight people could live from that. For him, it was not enough, because he was spending constantly. That was the problem. For artists- you have to work hard if you want to get your name out there and be noticed. It does not come easily. The whole idea of an artist sitting in his studio in the attic or basement on the floor is something from 200 years ago! It does not work like that any more. Now you have the internet, you can have a website, you can do all kinds of things to get your work noticed. There is a whole market nowadays, there are a lot of people interested in art and buying art. It is therefore possible to have a career in art. It was not like that in the 1920's or 30's. There are well known stories. People like Magritte or Man Ray. They had been poor for most of their lives and when they were old, in their 70's, the art market started developing, mostly in the United States. They went there and sold work and finally made some money for the rest of their lives. But those days are over. It has all changed now.

AD: What would you say was the ultimate dream for your work?

RVE: My big dream... That the work gets better and better. I am getting more critical of course. As I do more work, it becomes more difficult for me to make work that satisfies my own wishes. If the work gets better in future, that would be the ultimate dream.

AD: What advice would you have for aspiring artists wishing to follow in your footsteps?

RVE: To follow your heart always. To work hard and to know know your goals. One has to know what one wants. For example, this gallery or that museum, to make this series of work. Don’t let yourself be distracted and follow your heart. Following your heart is what will make you feel good in the end. Like I said before, everyone advised me not to go into art. If I had followed that advice, I would be a poor, frustrated and unhappy man today! In the beginning, everyone said that my first work was not art. They said it was ridiculous. I got very negative reviews. Everyone hated it! But I just kept going because that is what I wanted. You must have belief that you can do it.

AD: Do you have any new projects or shows coming up?

RVE: Yes. I have my first show at the MOPA- the photographic museum of San Diego. The director of that museum is Deborah Klochko. She became head of that museum. That show will then travel through the United States. That is the first museum exhibition coming up. Next year, I have one in Antwerp, Belgium, one in Stockholm, Sweden and in September 2012, I have an exhibition of new works at Flatland gallery here in Amsterdam.

Ruud van Empel

Ruud van Empel has been represented by Flatland Gallery in Amsterdam since 2005 and is also represented by Stux Gallery New York.

J. Harry Edmiston ..."Abstract Details in Colour"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:00:00 +0000

Your upcoming exhibition entitled - “Abstract Details in Colour”, at the Alpha Gallery in Cork Street, London is about to begin. What is your inspiration behind it?

Well as a solo show, I guess the idea has been focus a lot on the process. The way the images are produced plays an important part in creating what is a fairly technical body of work. I think the ‘inspiration’ behind the show has been to create an aesthetically beautiful body of work with an end goal of creating abstract pieces that one would want to have hanging on a wall at home. Of course, taste is always entirely subjective.

Which picture from your show would you choose to possibly explain your particular outlook on photography?

Thematically, the show is about using the medium to draw out interesting perspectives of what might be perceived as “the mundane” around us. There is a series within the show that plays on the detail of bubble wrap. I guess with these, the aim is to play on the simplicity of the subject and turn the image into an object that is aesthetically pleasing, by way of colour and the production of the actual works themselves. There are other pieces that do this, but I guess people will have their own interpretations of what they see, like and dislike.

Can you share some details of your process?

I’ve stuck principally to using a 50mm, 1.4 Zeiss prime lens to try and capture as close to what the naked eye actually sees. From beyond the actual image capture, and minimal image shaping and manipulation in post, it’s been more a trial and error process to see what works and what doesn’t. Playing a great deal with various printing and mounting options, I’ve tried each piece on a variety of paper types and while arduous, I guess it’s rewarding when you get the outcome as you had originally envisaged. I am eternally grateful to the guys at the print lab, as I’m pretty sure they must be sick by now of my indecisiveness!

How would you sum up the philosophy of your art?

My art is my philosophy - love knowledge and improve myself.

What do you feel about the democratization of photography?

Good question. I guess it has its benefits and pitfalls. With the rise of services such as Instagram, I think the downfalls are apparent in that everyone seems to consider themselves a photographer by merely throwing effects onto often fairly mundane images and passing it off as a skill. At the same time however, I think the technological movements in the world of DSL cameras and their subsequent accessibility by price has given rise to a slew of very talented photographers and filmmakers that with the evolution of distribution channels such as the Internet, would otherwise have gone unnoticed. Of course, this has also lead to the evolution of citizen journalism etc. that I think is socially important for all of us in this day and age in often helping paint a clearer picture of the world around us.

How do you think the photographic community should respond to this?

I think it hard to think in terms of what we would like people to do. If it’s happening, it’s happening and there’s not much we can do about it. One consequence has been a contribution to the decline in budgets for larger scale photographic shoots for editorial in commercial photography. I think principally as there often seems to be someone out there that will do things for less (I’m sure often at the detriment to the quality of the work) and when this happens, it can be damaging for the trade. As with all professions, I think skilled labor should be reward according to quality and not squeezed by waning budgets.

Which photographer do you most admire? What have you learnt from their work?

There are many. Some of whom I have met and others I dream of meeting. More often than not, it’s not just about their work and methodology, although often fascinating, it’s about their own personal journeys and how they got to where they are. I think if anyone sticks at something they enjoy the results can be astonishing.

Do you dream of making one shot which you haven’t yet?

I dream a lot these days - endless possibilities and limited time and budget. I think we all dream of using the medium for capturing something that changes minds, alters perceptions and is remembered for the impact it creates. It’s early days for me. I guess we have to just see what happens!

How do you see your photography evolving in the future?

I have a few ideas for steering my work and the “fine art” route gives immense flexibility to do this. As much as I’d like to pretend my work is solely influenced by my own ideas, I do rely heavily on the thoughts, feedback and opinions of others. I think to move forward in response to what seemingly works and what does not from the input of onlookers, will play well to the evolution of the projects and ideas that I have. I do also want to make a more concerted effort to get out a bit more and travel with the medium as a means to do this.

Next steps?

My next steps will no doubt be governed entirely by opportunity. I have a number of ideas already in the works for future shows but finding the right home for them is the key. Again, I think something abroad. I would like to look towards the United States & Canada, where I have spent considerable time. I also feel the market for fine art photography is a lot more understood in these territories. It must be said though, having studied Chinese, I very much have Shanghai in my sights!

My Chronic Condition by Asher Jay

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 19:20:00 +0000

This original artwork was created using scans of napkins that were stained with paint from cleaning brushes that were used to render other canvases in progress. To me it represents both process and the pulse of the remainder from an equation, much like love. So I wound up writing a little poem about the feeling that fueled the piece:

My Chronic Condition:

Asher Jay

Cannot function when you are near
You’re in all I do and say, it’s clear
I am wrapped around your little finger,
Thoughts of you do make me linger.

Every word you utter a cerebral kiss
Your eyes spin my world off axis
When you smile it starves me so
A Johari's quadrant I've yet to know

Think of you no matter the day
My shaking hands, give me away
Your touch leaves my body buzzing
Localized seizures are not a blessing

You’re both cause and symptom severe
If only I could profess, I love you dear
Your absence results in withdrawals
You laugh and it costs me my vowels.

Can’t you see how you impact me
My chronic condition, you’re all I see
In you I find that I do belong
With you my phrases turn to song.
I miss you so much I lose my breath
Like sickness seeks untimely death
My chronic condition, can’t you tell
I love you like molten warm caramel.

My prescription states there is no cure
I want you, of this I am plenty sure
When you go silent, my thoughts clot
Your lips my calling, I’m overwrought.

With every cell infected, I’m a mess
You affect my story, I confess
I’m a glowing, tangled, confused heap
You fit my story; I’ve no score to keep.

Just falling for you feels like a win
My ribs are too small to hold you in
So I am glad you’re in my every pore
I’d clone myself just to give you more.

Without you I feel less than one I fear
I feel minus though my whole is here
I miss you like I’ve never missed before
You always leave me wanting more.

Can’t you see how you impact me
My chronic condition, you’re all I see
Your every caress stuns my frame
The New York skyline spells your name.
When we first met I lost my head
You’re in my bloodstream and my bed
My chronic condition, I am done
If I were in orbit, you’d be my sun.

- an original literary work by ©Asher Jay 2012

Art Success: Adelaide Damoah in Conversation with Wiz Kudowor

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:59:00 +0000

Born in 1957 in Takoradi, Ghana, Wiz Kudowor is one of Ghana's most respected visual artists. Kudowor's career as a professional artist spans more than 30 years and he has exhibited in more than 50 group shows and 12 solo shows around the world. Kudowor's unique works are held in public and private collections the world over. Public collections include Ghana's National Museum, China's Ministry of Culture, Japan's Osaka Prefecture Collection, and a public mural at Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park. Kudowor's style is unique and instantly recognisable. His abstracted figures, faces scenes and shapes are created using a roller brush and pallet knife, creating bold paintings reminiscent of traditional Ghanaian themes while simultaneously referencing cubist and futurist styles. Kudowor kindly took some time out of his busy schedule to discuss his work and his thoughts on success in art with me.

Urban Funk 140x150cm

Adelaide Damoah (AD) : I read that you studied art at the Kwame Nkrumah College of Science and Technology. When did you decide that art was in your future?

Wiz Kudowor (WK) :Yes I went to the College of Art of the then UST, Kumasi(now KNUST). I completed my studies in 1981 and specialized in Painting. Art has always been a part of my life. I am one of the few artists from Africa whose story is not based on the system of parents trying to dissuade them from pursuing art as a career. I had been drawing and painting since I was a child and was very much encouraged by my parents to express myself through art. By the end of Secondary School, I knew art was definitely in my stars.

AD: How did you develop your particular technique (roller and pallet knife)? Could you tell me about your process?

WK: At college, I was doing strictly representational work, mostly satisfying the requirements of academic work. The roots of my current technique were however developed after graduation. I was inspired by Sami Bentil’s technique of using dots to create images and actually indulged in it for a while and became well noted for it. Being a restless being and finding the dotting process laborious and a bit too monochromatic, I began to look for new challenges and new ways to do my work with a lot more speed and still achieve the same result. The multicoloured bead-works from East and South Africa began to court my attention. I started to research ways to create the same textures with any tool I could lay hands on. The aim was to achieve the same pointillist feel. In short , the roller brush which came with all sorts of textures became my favourite tool for laying colour areas and the painting knife helped with details and finishing.

AD: What inspires your subject matter?

WK: My subject matter remained quite representational for more than ten years after school. My ideas were sourced from my immediate physical environment. I still source from my immediate surroundings but deal more with the essence rather than the physical .My environment therefore serves as a database for my metaphysical explorations into existence or life. Subject matter is served by my subconscious and experiences. I express ideas derived from what I read, feel, touch and see all mixed up and manifested as art. I Regard myself as a vessel that captures images from the energy fields around me and make it manifest for people to see. I do not reject the promptings that come to me, nor try to understand or explain the results.

Clan Gathering 120 x180 cm

AD: African Encounters refers to you as a "transcultural visionary." Why do you think that is?

WK: I don’t really know what “Transcultural visionary” means in relation to me. I may have to ask Ama De Graft Aikins who came up with that. However,I believe it is due to the fact that I translate, capture or source from any environment or experience I find myself in. I can’t really say!

AD: I read that you have been exhibiting for more than 30 years! Do you remember your very first solo exhibition?

WK: My first solo exhibition was in 1990 at the Centre for National Culture in Accra, nine years after I graduated from school. I was still very much into the “Dots Dynamics” as I called my style then. I had 36 paintings on display and the exhibition was only for three days which was all I could get from the Centre. I curated and financed every aspect myself and it was well worth it.

AD: Did you sell any work?

WK: I sold half of the work exhibited.

AD: What has been your biggest challenge to date as an artist? How did you overcome that?

WK: My biggest challenge artistically is that I am still trying to channel my energies along a defined path and be recognised for that. That is, being able to be selective with the ideas which come to mind to express. I am still stuck in there and enjoying the challenge because it allows me to explore my every whim.

Cultural Confluence 120 by 120 cm

AD: There is a perception that the public has about artists. That of the starving artist. Has this ever been your personal experience? If so, how did you overcome it?

WK: Most artists have had their starving moments especially here in this part of the world where there are limited or non existent resources for artists to access. I have faced moments of stark need , however, this has sometimes been out of choice, because I preferred spending my last resources on materials for work ignoring my own comfort. But, being a creative person, I have found ways of indulging in creative commercial art ventures.

AD: Could you tell me a bit more about these creative commercial art ventures, how they came into being and how they helped you to overcome the "starving artist" situation?

First of all Public perception of a starving artist has really never been directed towards me. People always saw me as doing well. I was the only one who knew what I was going through at all times. However, I did try to keep my head above water by identifying commercial ventures like translating some ideas I had at the time into post cards and general greeting cards... I designed textiles with screen prints for sale and also indulged in fashion. I started producing African print shirts and clotheslines for women.

AD: What has been your biggest achievement in your artistic career to date?

WK: My biggest achievement.... I wonder. I am still waiting for the “aha moment...” Seriously though, I think it will be that I have been able to stick with the art practice in this environment even in spite of all the obstacles. I have worked for 30 years as an artist and achieved some amount of recognition for it. That will be my achievement. I do have a few public commissions to my credit which I consider as a matter of course.

AD: I know one of those public commissions is the famous Relief Mural at the Kwame Nkrumah Museum in Accra, Ghana. What other public commissions have you had? How did you get commissioned to work on these public pieces of art?

WK: The Kwame Nkrumah memorial park relief mural was as a result of my first solo exhibition. The Chairman of the Commission of Culture then saw the exhibition and was so impressed that he pushed for this project which at the time was in the pipeline to be offered to me. Others were the Nestle new head office murals which was through a short-listed competition and the Volta hotel. The Akosombo commissions were just direct commissions.

Relief Mural: Kwame Nkrumah Mueum, Accra, Ghana. By Wiz Kudowor, Kofi Setordji, Sudzi Agbeko

AD: There is an almost palpable shift in the consciousness of the art world toward African art today with you and artists like the legendary El Anatsui, Romauld Hazoume and Brother Owusu Ankomah leading the pack. What effect do you think this shift will have on African artists going forward?

WK: I have always believed that Africa needs to put systems in place to appreciate value and accept our own art. The practice of waiting upon the Western Art Establishment to authenticate evaluate and validate our art in my opinion is outmoded. I sincerely believe I am one of those artists whose work is watched by the art establishment from the corners of the eye, like an accident waiting to happen. Not completely in the mainstream and not shut out as well. The new consciousness will open doors I believe for a lot of African Artists to grow yes, but how many will be able to sustain their craft when the tide changes(and it will change) is what I dread. The tendency is for a lot of African artist to crave acceptability in the West by indulging in activities or work that lacks character and identity. It is important for an artist to be himself and challenge his conscience every chance he gets. That is the essence and character of artistic practice.

AD: What effect has it had on your career?

WK: In terms of how this will affect me as an artist, I think I have already established myself as Wiz and just have to be accepted as is.

Migration Patterns. 120 x 180 cm

AD: Many artists of African descent are intimidated by the so called Western Art establishment, fearing that they would not accept them. As an internationally acclaimed artist, have you had any experiences that would substantiate that fear?

WK: The Western Art establishment have a right to stick with what they know and what they define as art. I do not see why artists should be intimidated by the spectre of Western rejection. African artists should also be able to define themselves and develop character and identity intimidating enough for the western establishment to desire like the legendary El Anatsui. Yes, I have offered my IP(INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY) on various platforms for appreciation and validation on a number of occasions. I did not get a definite response and therefore decided very early in my career to stick to what I know best, being WIZ. This is where I am.

AD: How would you define success in the art world?

WK: Success- I don’t know how that really relates. All I know is mine will be significantly different from another person’s success.

AD: Would you consider yourself a success?

WK: Having defined parameters for myself from the beginning in terms of being a professional in full time practice, I believe I have achieved some level of success. I will measure my success by how far I have come in terms of stick-ability, quality of work, general impact and level of recognition I have attained. I also affect the younger generation positively.

Sanctity of the Union. 150 x200cm

AD: What is the biggest and most ambitious dream you have for your work?

WK: My dream is to be able to affect the generality of the world more positively with my work and be the ultimate viable investment option for collectors worldwide in my lifetime. I am on track if you ask me.

Folklore. The Question of the Apple 150 x180 cm. 2011

AD: What advice would you give to young artists wishing to follow in your direction?

WK: For the younger Artists, there is no free lunch. When you want to impact the world,it is important to impact and impress yourself first, then the world will have no choice but to pay attention. Keep working and develop your intimidating character. Hard work,stick-ability and love of your own work. These carry you over any obstacle that will come your way.

AD: Do you have any new shows coming up in Ghana or abroad?

WK: 2012 is more or less a fallow year for me. I don’t have any shows scheduled. I am evaluating what I had at the end of 2011.I do have a few group shows to occupy me till the end of the year.

Folklore. The Tree of Wisdom. 100 x120 cm. 2011

Wiz Kudowor

www.wizkudowor.com

Poem for England (Who Am I) by John Armstong

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 08:55:00 +0000

Call the Bluff, Know your Tell: Presidential Elections 2012 by Asher Jay

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 19:30:00 +0000

It’s odd sometimes who chooses to run
As a presidential candidate, just for fun
With no compassion, logic or common sense
A grasp of past, future or present tense
Hoping to secure swing vote oscillations
Using dated slogans, false accusations
Fluffy promises & fist pumps to endorse lies
Ignorance promotes 1% biased money ties
Women’s rights set back to days of yore
Career choice between witch and whore
Romney you know not what is right
You don’t have collective welfare in sight
To you climate change is a fat myth
FEMA was about to receive the scythe
You have left the American people with no choice
All your campaign statements, just white noise
You don’t care about oceans, rivers, air or land
Life can’t survive on oil, gas and fracking sand.
You’ve abused the system, now you’re bust
United we stand, it’s in Obama we Trust.

- Original Poem and artwork by Asher Jay

Art Success: Adelaide Damoah in Conversation with Gerard Quenum

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 16:53:00 +0000

Born in Porto Novo, Benin in 1971, Gerard Quenum is a unique sculptural artist who creates his hauntingly beautiful pieces using recycled, found objects. His work grabs and holds the attention and it is as thought provoking as it is beautiful and mysterious. The objects he creates serve as portraits of people and things he observes in his surroundings. Each comes with its own embedded history and serve as a “lens through which we view Africa.” His latest works, to be exhibited at the October Gallery, London in September 2012 are entitled “Dolls never Die.” The works include various parts of dolls which have been recycled twice... As donated hand me downs from European children to African children and again to be used to play their unique part in the installations Quenum cleverly constructed. Quenum kindly took time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions via translator Gerard Houghton about art, success, life and dolls.

Je suis le messager (I’m the Messenger), 2012,Wood, metal, shells and plastic doll, 178 x 37 x 13 cm. Photo Courtesy October Gallery

AD: Did you study fine art or sculpture to degree level?
GQ: No, not at all! In Benin where I was growing up there aren’t even schools, never mind such a thing as an ‘art college’ where you could study something like fine arts. There’s nothing at all like that. There aren’t any museums and very, very few places where you’d be able to exhibit what westerners call ‘art’ – let alone sell it to someone. The very concept doesn’t even begin to have much meaning.

AD: At what stage did you decide that you wanted to be an artist?
GQ: It’s not as though there was ever a particular time when I thought that I would become an ‘artist’. When I was younger I worked as an apprentice doing odd jobs, which also included working as a decorator, and you pick things up. How to design, how to draw particular shapes, a bit of calligraphy and so on, doing a wide range of different things in different media – drawing little sketches even portraits of people. There were a bunch of us young guys together and we would talk about what we were doing all the time, passing on little tips or suggesting other ways of creating a particular effect. People would ask us to do different things – special effects that they wanted, which would set us off in new directions. Sometimes it would require that we got together a small studio to work on a special project, people would come by – see what we were doing, like it and maybe a new job would develop out of that. It was all quite ad hoc, but it was a very valuable experience all round. You learned to use everything, wood, metal, paint, plaster, clay – if you like, all those disciplines that other people might go to art school to learn. We became our own artistic movement and taught ourselves; a group of friends who stimulated each other and pushed each other forward – and that’s something of incredible value because you know that it’s based on something you developed within yourself. Amongst this group I was able to maintain my own particular sensibility for material things – for objects – and that’s what I ended up working with the most – and the results you can see today.

AD: What inspired you to use dolls and other “urban detritus” in your work?

GQ: Well, in fact at the beginning I didn’t really use dolls at all – but I would work on old objects that I’d come across, bits of bone, old pieces of wood, things like that – whose shapes would often attract me. One day I came across an old doll’s head that had been thrown away. It was dripping wet, so to dry it out I attached it to a piece of wood with a big nail to stop it falling off. Almost everyone who visited me would comment upon it, and that alerted me to the various possibilities which I then started to explore – and to really cultivate the dolls as an avenue of expression. In fact, any doll I find still inspires me in exactly the same way today – when I see an old puppet or doll, that’s been played with for so long and suffered at the hands of so many others – it still stirs feelings of pity and compassion – and I have to rescue that doll and create for it a safe place from which to recount the stories of the many things it has experienced and seen.

AD: When I look at the work, I feel a mixture of emotions, but most of all, I see pain and a deep, mysterious history. Is there a particular message you are trying to convey in this series?

GQ: Those emotions do exist in my work, but there are also some very positive pieces, and some works are intended to be quite humorous also. Life may be difficult and hard, but it’s never just that alone, and there are moments of illumination that pierce the darkest gloom, and provide humans with the force to carry on regardless.

Carnaval-mystère, 2012, wood cloth rope and plastic doll, 87 x 62 x 40cm, photo, courtesy October Gallery London

AD: Could you tell me about your artistic process?
GQ: I have always worked with found and recovered materials. The dolls I find are all old and much-used. They have already served several generations of children as hand-me-down playthings, and have been used to tell the imaginative stories of each child who’s owned them, and by extension of the families amongst which the dolls have found themselves. Little by little, they have been transformed by this process, perhaps by losing eyes or limbs, or by having their hair cut, or pulled out, etc. The wood which I use likewise contains its own ‘stories’ – actually the wood is literally impregnated with history; since all these woods have served – sometimes for many decades – as drums, or mortars to grind food, or as pilings that supported the houses of people living in the marshy regions around the lagoons close to Porto Novo. These woods, too, have been active witnesses to the lives of numerous generations of families. In essence, I juxtapose these two kinds of objects, each with their separate histories and use them to tell the tales of whatever the combination produces. The dolls seem to tell us about the world in which we live, today. They become the focal point for these outpourings of feeling, and I let them try to tell their own tales – tales they have already told me in private – to wider audiences and on a grander stage. Perhaps this mixing of these two contrasting streams is a means of putting together objects coming from uniquely African traditions with something that’s much more contemporary and of the present.

AD: When was your first solo exhibition?
GQ: In Cotonou, in Benin, in 1998. I’d been working with dolls for a while and was asked by a local restaurant in the main city of Cotonou – a place called Maquis Dunya – whether I wanted a space to hang some of my works – just to get them out of the atelier and let more people see them. Although it wasn't a proper exhibition space and the lighting was not particularly great or anything, it seemed like a good idea and it was a start. I gave the overall title of Interior Voices (Voix Interieurs, 1998) to that first outing – and the clientele who would eat there became the first actual audience for my work. Over the course of a few weeks they were seen by many people, one of whom was André Jolly, the Director of the French Culturel Centre in Cotonou, and he liked them so much that we began to talk about an exhibition in a dedicated gallery space. The following year marks the date of my first real exhibition at the Centre Culturel Français in Cotonou, and from there it all begins, after Cotonou I had a couple of shows in Paris, then London, Brazil and so on.

AD: Did you sell any work?
GQ: I think people went to Maquis Dunya to have a bite to eat more than to appreciate art, so there wasn’t very much happening in that direction at first. But with the subsequent show at the Centre Culturel Français, there were indeed a few sales and after that I’d sell one here and another one there, from time to time. But, as you can see when you look at the work – it’s not necessarily the sort of work that everyone might want to have in their living-rooms! The works can be somewhat intense. You would need to have a particular reason... Maybe you are an Africanist or have spent time in Africa and understand African things, before you would want to provide a vantage point for some of these pieces in the home. This means that, apart from specialist collectors, it’s museums rather than individuals who most often collect my work, although there are some people who find them irresistible and have purchased several.

AD: What has been your biggest challenge to date as an artist?
GQ: That’s a bit of a difficult question to answer because in some sense, the artist is a person who is always encountering challenges of one sort or another. It goes with the territory. If anything, you’re always combating something, overcoming one challenge after another if you are on the right track with an idea. Sometimes it’s the tiny details that can be the hardest to resolve and for seemingly minor reasons, I might leave a work aside for a long time because I haven’t yet managed to solve some issue. Sometimes I can end up feeling dissatisfied with the whole piece and leaving it aside entirely.

AD: How do you overcome that?
GQ: Well, to continue with this last example, sometimes you solve a problem by leaving it alone and not thinking about it. Or again it might be something else that you are working on that gives you an idea. You might try to use another thing you have just solved in a different context and that unblocks the thought process allowing you to surmount the challenge in a different way to what you had imagined. Sometimes quite extraordinary things happen that you never could have predicted. For example, I had been working for about three months on a large piece – The Angel (L’Ange, 2008) - the head of a doll with empty eye-sockets affixed to a large wooden cylinder to which I had attached some ritual metal pieces that, in Benin, suggest the world of the sacred. Although nearly finished, the piece still lacked that vital spark, so somewhat dissatisfied I relegated it to the patio outside my studio. Weeks later, passing by the piece, I was astonished to see that the hitherto empty eye-sockets had been miraculously transformed with bright new eyes! As I examined the statue, I saw a wasp land lightly on the doll’s head and move around on the shining white surface of ‘the eyes.’ This gave me a clue as to what had happened. This wasp had built its nest within the doll’s hollow head, before sealing off the eye-socket access-points using a brilliant white kaolin clay that she could find all around the lagoon close to my studio. Without question the work was now complete. The wasp had deftly added the necessary finishing touches to something that I’d been struggling to achieve. Maybe it’s a collaborative work and the wasp should be credited as an artist too...

Moine (Monk), 2012, Wood and plastic doll, 97 x 36 x 33 cm. Photo G. Quenum. Courtesy October Gallery.

AD: What is your proudest achievement as an artist to date?
GQ: I’m not really somebody who is proud of myself or who likes to talk too much about what I’ve done. I’m quite a simple person, really. Perhaps, having one of my works permanently displayed in the British Museum’s African Galleries is something that gave me a real sense of achievement, because, even in Benin the BM is known to be one of the most important archival resources of cultural heritage. To have one of my contemporary works recognised in this way was, for me, a mark of real distinction.

AD: There is a perception that the public has of the “starving artist.” Has this ever been your experience? If so, how did you overcome it?
GQ: We do have lots of starving people – and that’s not something limited just to one particular class of people – and that reality is anything but romantic. My work is about the reality of what I see in the world around me, and encompasses the difficult sides of life as well, including poverty and starvation. Everybody has to work hard to avoid starving, using whatever skills, energies, creativity, chance or good fortune they can muster. In this respect artists are no different to others – we raise our families and feed our children using our wits to survive – just like everyone else does.

AD: There is an almost palpable shift in consciousness towards African art today. You along with artists like El Anatsui and Romuald Hazoumè seem to be leading. What effect do you think this shift will have on African artists going forward?
GQ: (Laughs) Well you’ve put me into a bracket with two major artists from Africa, and it’s a category to which I’m not sure I really belong, yet. I have been in shows together with El and Romuald, but maybe all that demonstrates is that we’ve all been represented by the October Gallery, which has always played a critical role in bringing contemporary African artists to the attention of international audiences.

I would say that El Anatsui has been most important in the sense that here was an artist from Africa who is a recognised master of contemporary art and he still lives and works from his home in Africa. Once the western art world awoke to this shift in consciousness, it was only a matter of time before they found other contemporary artists from Africa whose work displayed the same qualities. Qualities that have always been present in African art but which until very recently the west had been unable to see – or recognise. Everyone talks about Picasso and African masks, but no one mentions the unpaid debt that Picasso and western contemporary art owes to African art, as though it was all to do with his genius and there was no genius in what he found. So, the real answer might be that just because there’s been a palpable shift in consciousness towards African contemporary art, that might not necessarily mean all that much to African artists, who hopefully will continue working as they always have done, and perhaps again show the way forward to western artists as they’ve done in the past.

Rodeo, 2012, Wood, cloth and plastic doll, 73 x 45 x 27 cm. Photo G. Quenum. Courtesy October Gallery.

AD: How is this shift affecting your career?
GQ: Well, it gives me the opportunity to travel to many places and to observe more of the world. That’s all information that feeds into my work once I return to Benin. I learn that there’s poverty in Brazil and lots of crime in London. I realise that the problems my work depicts are to be encountered everywhere – that we share a single planet and we’re all in this together.

AD: What advice would you give to any young artists wishing to follow in your footsteps?
GQ: I only have my own experience that’s guided me to the present and it seems to have been such an individual series of things unfolding that I’m not sure that anything I have to say would be of much use to any other artist. We’re all quite different people, we’re all following something that’s very personal. But, I would say that you first have to believe in what you are doing and then trust yourself to be able to do it over and over again - and always be searching for ways to improve it.

AD: The October Gallery show is starting in September, do you have any other projects or shows coming up in the near future where people can see your work? This can be here or abroad.
GQ: Recently I’ve been preparing an exhibition in Paris for this coming September, and was up in Manchester, in July, for the opening of a new show at the National Museum of Football, Moving Into Space:Football and Art from West Africa. A major exhibition Dolls Never Die, at London’s October Gallery, begins September 19th, and I’ll also have a major piece on the theme of Aido-Ouedo – The Rainbow Serpent –showing at the Afro-Brazilian Museum in Sao Paolo this Autumn. I’ve got quite a lot going on in a few different places, which all keeps me focused and very busy!

AD: Where can people find your work online?
GQ: I have my own quite simple web-site which gives some idea of what I’ve done before and where and what I’m up to and my future plans, but it’s in French and that might put some English speaking people off. Have a look at the October Gallery web-site, where you can see a historical set of images of my sculptures going back over ten years or more. That’s the best place, they know my work well.

Gerard Quenum. Photo by Romould Hazoume. Courtesy October Gallery London

Translated with thanks by Gerard Houghton 2012 Director of Special Projects, October Gallery, was born in England. After graduating from Churchill College, Cambridge, he travelled extensively throughout West Africa working as an interpreter for a researcher into African History, before taking his linguistic skills to the Far East. He is currently a free-lance writer, translator with interests in a wide range of subjects both artistic and scientific.

Gerard Quenum Website (French): http://gerard.quenum.free.fr/
Gerard Quenum at the October Gallery,London: http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/exhibitions/2012que/index.shtml

Art Success: Adelaide Damoah in Conversation with BP Portrait Award Finalist Toby Mulligan

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:18:00 +0000

Born in 1969,Toby Mulligan is a a rising star on the British art scene it seems. A self taught artist, Mulligan was a 2012 finalist for the BP Portrait award and subsequently had his work exhibited at the prestigious National Portrait Gallery in London. Mulligan is unusual in that he not only taught himself how to draw and paint with both hands simultaneously, he also taught himself how to build houses and landscape gardens which he did on a professional basis for a number of years to supplement his practice and to look after his family. A full time artist now, Mulligans career has taken on a new direction following the recognition he received from earning a place as a BP Portrait award finalist. He took time out of his busy schedule to discuss his views on success, life and art.

BP Portrait Award Entry 2012 (c) Toby Mulligan

AD: How are you? You sound like you have a cold!

Toby Mulligan (TB): No, it is my voice. When I had my first child 20 years ago, I was so overwhelmed with the whole experience that I lost my voice completely. The doctors said that I have a nerve which stops functioning and then one vocal cord starts moving. It is paralysed and they have never been able to find out why. I have spoken to lots of different people and tried lots of different things, but it is a psychological thing. I don't know where this condition comes from, but for me, it seems to be due to being overwhelmed by needs and demands that are not mine. I am very sensitive and if you are that way inclined, you tend to take on a lot of what is going on all around you and it is a constant dilemma. I remember not being listened to and being told that I would never make money from painting. I had my first commissions when I was thirteen or fourteen years old. So I was actually making money from painting from a fairly young age. It carried on when I moved to France to be with the mother of one of my children. I taught myself to build houses and built my own, as well as building houses for other people. I devoted myself completely to that. I really enjoyed it. But this thing really affects me. There have been so many opportunities I have had to pass up because of it. I wanted to teach, but when it came down to it, my voice would just go by the middle of the day.

AD: What you were saying about being told that you were never going to make money or be successful.... Those things can become so deeply embedded in your unconscious mind that your conscious mind may be saying one thing, but your unconscious mind, being in the drivers seat, is forcing you to do the opposite.

TB: Yes, that is very interesting. I don't know about you but I absorb things... I also have a desire to please and I carry other peoples expectations with me. I allow people to have their expectations and I know that I may let them down. Then I spend lots of time working, because their expectations are too high...

AD:You said you were selling paintings from the age of thirteen or fourteen...

TB: I was not brought up in an artistic family. My dad was a farmer and a businessman. He used to travel a lot and work in different countries, so he was not around that much. We lived on a farm in the country. I was on my own a lot. I have got a sister who is a few years older and we did not see each other that much. Most of the time, I was on my own. I did not go to school at all until I was seven. In some ways, I was kind of fully developed creatively, or imaginatively, by the time I was seven. I knew who I was and what I wanted to do. I used to carve and make things. I used to draw all the time and make up stories. I then went to a public school which was very regimented. It was all boys and completely mad! The school was very big on discipline. At that point, I really got split. I did not know what to think because I believed that I was very sure of myself and of what I wanted to do. I was completely confused by this world that I was in. It was full of mad people who made you do things that made no sense! There was no art at all in my family. There was no painting, we did not listen to music.. I am very connected to nature. You could say my confusion came from there. Because all that I was and all that I deemed to be important, had no significance in this world that I had to be in. I just wanted it to finish! When I was 15 or 16, I got thrown out of school. Not because I was bad, but because I just was not doing anything. I literally stopped responding to orders. The trouble was that I was also still trying to please my parents. I still felt as if it was my fault and that I was not functioning. So I tried. I was very good in sport and that got me through for a while. But after some time, I just could not cope with it any more. I did do A levels because they really wanted me to. I studied in my own time. I also started doing gardening jobs. I did get one A level, but I kind of failed them completely. In any case, I was self taught.

AD: There were no paintings around you. People were not listening to music and you attended this regimented school with no art. How on Earth did you teach yourself to paint?

TM: I am very lucky in that I am very instinctive. I remember seeing an article on painting and thinking that it was amazing. My parents are open minded and they were good parents. They got me some paints and I copied this painting without knowing anything at all about it. They got me a book on how to paint and I read it. When I focus on something, when I decide I want to do something, I do it. So when I decided I wanted to build a house, I had no training, there was no one to teach me, but I got a book and I looked around me and I just learned how to do it.

AD: Wow! You learned how to build houses from a book?

TB: Yes!

AD: That is amazing!

TB: I am very practical. When I need to make a window, I work out how to do it and I just do it. But at the same time, I am very easily distracted and usually confused! It is like when I wanted to learn how to draw. I remember when I was 15, I wanted to carve a human figure. I saw this photo of a ballet dancer in a newspaper, I got a book on wooden carvings and I just started carving it. It took me months and months to do it. The leg even broke off because I did not know anything about wood and how to treat it. Despite that, it was good actually! It wasn't bad at all. I really believe that when it comes to teaching yourself, if you are listening and you are alive to what is going on, you can learn anything, very quickly. This is why I feel very strongly about school. I am very anti school as it stands because I believe that whatever you do, the things that you learn, they have to matter. If you want to cook, it is because you want to eat, because you want to enjoy food. You don't learn to cook because it is the thing to do. You do things because they matter, because you need to. If you need to paint, then you are going to paint. Not just to pass the time.

AD: I agree with you about teaching yourself stuff. I am the same way. At school and university, there were plenty of times when I did not go to lectures and I had to teach myself so that I would pass the exams. I learned better when I taught myself. I knew that I absolutely had to because otherwise I would be in big trouble!

TB: Yes! I think urgency is the best teacher. We are alive, but we often don't really feel we are alive until we might die. That is very dramatic, but in a way, that is how it is. If you feel like, “shit, this is it, this may be your last moment,” that is when you go for it. When I did the painting that is in the National Portrait Gallery now, it was a competition. You get a year to get your work ready for this competition. But I couldn't work out what to do. On the morning that I was meant to hand it in, I did a painting of my daughter in two hours and that is the one that was accepted.

AD: That is impressive!

TM: Yes. It is a competition called the BP Portrait award. My painting was never going to win because it is not photographic. The winner is always photographic. I knew that, but I also knew that I had to make a painting, so that is what I did.

AD: Congratulations on being short listed.

TM: I was surprised, but in a way, I think that if I had worked on it longer, I would have ruined it.

AD: Yes. I have seen the painting, it is beautiful.

TM: Oh, thank you! I work at it. Every day, when I draw, I do 50 drawings in one hour. I work with both hands. I paint with both hands at the same time. I do 50 in one hour, or maybe 30 in 40 minutes. I have learned to work very fast and I believe that less is more. Even when you are doing difficult stuff, less is more. You just need to get really clear, know what you are going to do and do it. I spend more time thinking about it, dreaming about the work and less time doing.

AD: You are some sort of prodigy.

TM: I don't think so! My belief is that every one can do that. The question is, do you have the motivation or the desire or the energy?

AD: That is true. I don't think I have the energy to learn to draw with both hands though!

TM: I teach people to do that. I used to teach people in France to do that and they always protest, saying that they can't do it! I always tell them, well you are not going to die if you give it a go! I draw with my feet... You see, it is all about seeing. Because, when you put the emphasis on seeing and responding, it is not about what your hand can do, but what your mind can perceive. I believe in pushing yourself beyond the limit so you can't control the result. So many of the best things happen when you are not aware of them happening. They are beyond your control. We are very scared to be beyond our control obviously, but there are ways of equipping yourself with skills that allow you to respond quickly when you need to.

AD: I would assume that you are full time?

TM: Yes, I am full time now. I was doing landscape gardening and building work, but I am not doing that any more.

AD: How long have you been full time?

TM: Not very long actually. About six months. I came to London about a year ago. I was still doing building and gardening. It is only about six months ago that I decided to just do this full time. It was a big risk because I have four kids and I am trying to provide for them. It is not easy.

AD: Did you make the decision to go full time or were you approached by a gallery?

TM: It was a decision. It has to come from you.

AD: Have you had any solo shows?

TM: I have had a few recently and the last one was... This seems a bit ridiculous, but I know that this is how people work... I had one a few months ago in London and I only sold one painting. Luckily, I didn't pay for the exhibition, so it was not a complete disaster. Then I got accepted for the NPG and the last exhibition I did was a sell out. People think, “Oh he is in the BP award, so he must be good!” I find it funny because I have been painting for years like this! I can do this. But people need to see recognition. It is something that they understand. I have not been to art college. I have not got any letters after my name. No one knows about me, so the only way is to get recognised by a big institution and obviously, it doesn’t get much bigger than the BP Portrait award. I sold 21 paintings and got eight portrait commissions. The problem is that they are all kids! It is getting to the point where I am getting tired of painting kids! I need to paint older people! But anyway, it is work.

AD: What would you say is your definition of success in the art world?

TM: For me personally, my definition has always been to be completely free. Freely expressing what I really want to do and just free flowing. Without worrying or being in a position where I feel constricted or not able to do what I want to do. That is why I want the proper recognition and I want the money. I find that I am currently held back because of other considerations. I am earning money but there is all the paper work, the emails... All this stuff to do, which I am very bad at doing, but which I do. It takes up so much time and I forget things and I loose commissions and forget phone numbers! I am useless! I want to be in a position where I have got somebody who can run that for me. I have got a woman who is sponsoring me and helping me to get stuff done thankfully... Anyway, ideally, I need somebody that I can pay to be a PA. My definition of success in that sense would be, to have a proper studio somewhere, to not be worried about money or thinking about it and to just be working flat out all the time because that is what I love to do. I would like to give workshops and open studios every few weeks. I am somebody who very much wants to be involved. I like to be involved with people, sharing and inspiring... But I don’t want to be organising it and to feel like I have got commitments that I can not keep up with. I just want to be doing the work really.

AD: By your personal definition of success, are you there yet?

TM: No I am definitely not there yet. If my voice was clear, I would be there now in myself. If I had a PA and a studio space that was big enough to work in... I am renting a studio space now, but it is quite small. I want to do sculpture. That is where I am really at. I want to do sculpture, film, animation... All sorts of stuff so I need a space that is bigger. I am a long way from success now.

AD: But you will get there!

TM: I will get there yes! My main goals at this time... One is to be released and to not be worried about what people think and to be able to speak freely throughout the day, which I can not do now...

AD: What would you say is your biggest achievement to date?

TM: As a man for me it is having kids and building a house. Not just having kids, but also raising kids. I really love my kids. My eldest is nearly 20 and he speaks several languages. He is his own person. He has travelled all over the world. He is very free... We get on really well and we really love each other. I am very proud of all of my kids. Having and raising kids has taught me that there are no limitations and it has taught me about trust.

AD: What would you say is your ultimate dream for your work?

TM: I want to have somewhere I can work. A big space to be working in multi media, so sculpture film... Collaborating with film makers and making music. I am really into music too. I want to be involved in everything. I want to be continually and freely creating and thinking. I also love writing. I want to find a fusion of film and writing. I want a place that is designed by me from the building itself to landscaping the garden. I want it to be a studio/workshop/gallery where people can come and participate in films being made, workshops... A centre. That is what I want. That is my dream. I have built houses by myself. I built a football pitch for the kids. It got to a point where I realised that without money and other people, I could not do it. I now realise that there is no reason to do it alone. There is no point. I don't want to do it on my own anyway. I therefore need to get recognition, get the money flowing... I don't want the money for myself. I want it so that I can do this and get it working for people. I want it so that I can be generous... It could be anywhere, in the city or in the countryside somewhere. As long as enough people know about it and there is a momentum going, then people will come to it. That is my dream.

AD: What advice would you give to anyone who wanted to follow in your footsteps?

TM: Trust in the really simple values of working. First of all having a spark or a dream... Something that really moves you. That is the gift. The gift is to be moved. The gift is not to be good at something, that is what you work at. Be moved. Have something that matters to you. Either that comes to you, or you have to open yourself up to it. But be moved by something, then simply just do it and go on doing it without worrying about what will happen. Do it with trust that if you do it, then it will happen. Every long journey starts with one step. You just do it. It is not complicated. The difficult bit is not being diverted by other people or other stuff going on. This is part of the reason why I want to do the workshops. I want to show people that it is not difficult. Even drawing with two hands is very difficult in a sense, but everyone can do it, given the structure and given the energy of somebody motivating them, you can do it and it is amazing what you can achieve. It is really amazing and so is the release you feel when you are not in control...

AD: I am really intrigued by this... When you are drawing with both hands, I would assume that you are working on one picture?

TM: Yes, one picture. There are a number of reasons why I do that and it is to do with the left and the right hand sides of the brain. It is to do with combining the rational and the creative sides of the brain, the rational and the intuitive. There is a science behind it. The main thing for me is that when you are doing something sort of impossible, which requires you to focus in different directions at once, which in a way, kind of explodes your brain and breaks up the synapses, it is really difficult to do. But at the same time, it releases you. You can't control it, therefore you do something that you wouldn’t plan to do. Then the other part of your brain can utilise it and go with it. Life is duality. You have chaos and order. We are all trying to make sense of what we perceive to be a chaotic world, a chaotic universe. Very often, we are terrified of this. We are terrified of anything we can not control, death, ageing, disaster... All for good reason. The trouble is that it is there. Our fear is not going to stop it from happening. It is not an answer to be fearful and it is not an answer to control because you can't control. Therefore, in my mind, the only thing you can do is to go into it. To dive into it and be a part of that process. To give yourself to it, but to give yourself to it with tools.

AD: When did you start doing that?

TM: Years ago. I have done lots of things where I have no idea why I started doing them. The thing that got me into drawing with my other hand was a book called Drawing on the Right Hand Side of the Brain. The book advises drawing with the left hand. Drawing with both hands is just me. I just decided that it worked for me. My whole life I have had this desire to not be in conflict, but to be free. I feel that for some reason, we accept disease- the opposite of ease. We accept things that shouldn’t be acceptable. We assume for some reason that life is difficult and that life is dull. I have so little patience for that. I think that it is because you make it that way and that is because you accept things that are unacceptable. But it doesn’t have to be, it shouldn’t be. The best things happen when you fall in love with somebody... Or when you love something. It is not an effort. You have got to make an effort then to go on loving somebody. But that is different to this notion of boredom and this notion of dragging yourself through things. I don't believe in dragging yourself through something. If you are going to build a house you just do it. When I was building my house, it was incredibly difficult. I was working sometimes in -17 degrees! I did it. I was not dragging myself through it. When you want to do something, you can climb a mountain, you can sail around the world. You can do amazing things! It is not difficult. It is difficult in the sense that your body may be very tired and you may have to really push yourself. But you still do it. You are struggling, but actually, within yourself, you are at peace. It is amazing what you can achieve when you are in that space, when you are living your purpose.

AD: I love your bio! It says a lot without saying very much about you. It says that you were inspired when you were a kid by the Roald Dahl story about Henry Sugar. Do you think that that has shaped your views on success?

TM: Yes. Very much so. I love Roald Dahl. I think a lot of the time, I have got confused because I really believe in where you are in yourself. It has taken me a while to get to the point where I have had to accept that I need worldly recognition. I have kids and I have to look after them. That is why I built a house, but at the same time, I was not wanting to accept money and the fact that I had to make it. This meant that life has been a real struggle for me because I would always be doing jobs that I didn't want to do. I think that story affected me in such a way that I believed that with the power of your mind, you could achieve anything. That is true, but of course, there is a day to day thing... You combine that with a day to day thing, so you have got to carry that power or motivation into simple tasks that you do day by day. I think that is where I fell down before. I did that, but I did not translate my passion into what I was doing day by day. But now I am doing that. Before I was passionate and working very hard, but the two were not working together. The key is carrying that passion into the simple things that you do every day and to keep on doing it, even when it doesn’t seem to be producing results, keep on going.

http://www.tobymulligan.com/

Matthew Ellero

noreply@blogger.com (cloudmuffins) — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:01:00 +0000

Bird Balloon 3D, 2012

Media: Pencil, Watercolour. photoshop. Paper, scissors. Canon eos 1100D camera. 3D illustration for Digital Artist magazine.

Matthew Ellero's wonderful, whimsical, multi-media artworks are derived from a sincere love for drawing which originated when he bought his first art book, by Rolf Harris, at a book fair when he was about seven years old.

Ellero was recently named one of Digital Artist magazine's Top 10 'creatives to watch in 2012'. Based in the UK, he works as a freelance artist and modestly states, "I've been fortunate to work for a variety of clients including Digital Artist magazine and the American charity 'Art with Heart.' I am currently painting a wall mural based on Noah's Ark for a local Primary School."

I highly recommend visiting Ellero's website www.matthewellero.com to experience the movement inherent in many of his pieces.

The artist's dream is to fully illustrate a children's book.

Cars in the Wild 3D, 2011

Media: Pencil/Photoshop/ scissors, glue. Originally a drawing produced for the OutSmart online exhibition on the theme of 'the adventures of the SMART car', this 3D version was a personal project.

See more of Matthew's artwork and illustrations here: www.matthewellero.com

Alanna Lawley

noreply@blogger.com (cloudmuffins) — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 15:45:00 +0000

Vacant, not empty, 2012, photographic construction, side angle

Taking the influence of spatial and in particular architectural relationships on the individual within the private realm of the home as a starting point, Alanna Lawley constructs temporary, representational environments that investigate how deliberately fragmented spaces can generate a feeling of the Uncanny, resulting in experiences of disassociation, anxiety and isolation.

“Vacant, not empty, 2012”, a site specific photographic construction for the exhibition, Architecture as Human Nature, Berlin, 2012, positioned a photograph of the inside of an entirely sealed container at the back of a recess where one would expect to see the real space. Exploring the idea of the physicality of the photograph and the notion of the Uncanny, the piece explores the idea of architecture as a mediated, ultimately inaccessible experience and one that fosters a feeling of uncertainty and frustration.

Vacant, not empty, 2012, photographic construction - installation view Architecture as Human Nature, Supermarkt, Brunnenstr 64, Berlin

Please see more of Alanna's work here: http://alannalawley.com

Art Success. Adelaide Damoah in Conversation with Tim Okamura

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 11:27:00 +0000

Tim Okamura is a Canadian artist most well known for his beautiful and realistic depictions of African Americans and other minorities in urban landscapes. His stunning and positive depictions of groups of people who have rarely been treated with such dignity in art history are a powerful testament to his views on racial differences and the problems that focusing on these differences can bring to society. Born in 1968, Okamura obtained a Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary, Canada. He subsequently moved to New York and obtained his Masters in Fine Art from the eponymous School of Visual Arts. His career highlights to date include his paintings being featured in several motion pictures, being selected for the prestigious BP Portrait award for the National Portrait Gallery in London five times and being short-listed to paint Queen Elisabeth in 2006. Tim took some time out from painting and marketing his latest Kickstarter project, “Heavyweight Paint,” to discuss his views on success in art with me.

Adelaide Damoah (AD: I read that your work is influenced by urban life and hip hop, which is interesting to me because of my love of music.

Tim: Yea, I used to have a hip hop radio show when I was still in Canada in the late eighties and early nineties. I actually had the only hip hop radio show in the city so it was a great opportunity because when some of those early artists went on tour, they came onto my show. Most notably, Will Smith and Ice T were on my show. A few people who were just at the top of their game at that point in time came on the show. It was very cool.

Adelaide Damoah (AD): I see that you have had several solo shows since graduating. What year was your first solo show?

TO: It actually took a while because I was doing a lot of stuff for advertising agencies. I was doing story boards and commercial art, illustrations for album covers and that type of thing... I think I had the first show of my work in around 1999 or 2000. It probably took about seven years from graduation for me to do a solo show.

AD: So after graduation you were doing commercial art as opposed to fine art.

TO: Yes. It is so hard to make that transition from graduating art school to really making a living with your work. I sort of had a plan to work commercially and do things in advertising where I was at least still drawing and painting while at the same time still trying to improve my technical skills. By the time I started doing my own work, that was still a work in progress and very much a learning curve. In a lot of ways, I was far from ready, even after getting my masters degree. The sheer volume of work that I did commercially helped me to build up a better toolbox of skills without being under the spotlight of a gallery. I was able to make a lot of mistakes. The work was seen of course, but I never felt that personal attachment to it that I do now when I show my work in a gallery. It was a long gestation period before I was able to start showing MY work. Everything for a reason but I was certainly glad that I was able to take the time to try to hone my skills and get better at my craft.

AD: Did you sell anything at your first show?

I think I sold one or two! I set the bar pretty low when I first started. I did not have any expectations. My early shows were breaking even and that was a victory to me.

AD: At what point were you able to go full time doing your work for shows?

I would say probably around the time I started to do art work for films. I worked on a film in 2004 called Prime staring Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep. They featured a lot of my work and I also did a portrait of Uma Thurman which did not make the final cut of the movie. Right at that time, I was able to make a little bit of money from the film and I also happened to have a couple of sales in London and elsewhere which helped me to make that jump. My friends helped as well. I specifically remember saying to my friends,

“If I am still working in the commercial industry in another year, please kill me!”

I just couldn't take it any more, so all of that came together at the right time before I had to take drastic measures!

AD: How did you get into film?

TO: A number of different ways. It was an interesting series of circumstances. I had a commercial agent whose brother was a location scout. The very first thing that I did was a portrait, a projection of what Richard Gere's father would look like in a movie called “Unfaithful.” That was one way I got in. Another way was I had some paintings hanging up in a club in Brooklyn. I ended up having the paintings incorporated in a film called School of Rock with Jack Black. They saw the paintings and liked the aesthetic that they added to the club so they wanted them in the film. Then a guy who became a good friend of mine, a writer director named Ben Younger, he had done a film previously called Boiler room with Ben Affleck and Vin Diesel...

AD: I've seen Boiler Room...

TO: Yea, so he was coming off of the success of that and starting on a new project which came to be Prime. He moved into Williamsburg. He was living in a loft just down the street from my friends club with all these paintings hanging. He got in touch with me and he was going to make the main character a writer. After seeing the work and talking to me, he decided to make him a painter. He called me up and asked,

“Would that be OK with you? Can we use your paintings?”

I said, “Erm, let me consult with my management team... Yes, yes, that would be fine!”

Haha! That was actually a while before we did the film. I mean, that must have been around 2001 or 2002... The chips were down because we were still in the wake of 911 here, the economy was crap and everybody was struggling. That was a really encouraging thing that happened with that film. After Prime, I ended up doing paintings for and having some existing paintings shown in an Ethan Hawke movie. He did a screen adaptation of his novel called, “The Hottest State.” There were a few others... I guess I got my foot in the door and then my name got passed around a little bit. I was meant to work on a Spike Lee film recently but that got put on hold... I hope it comes back around because I enjoy working with film people. I usually work in solitude and it is kind of fun for me to go into that world...

AD: I have seen that a lot of your subject matter seems to revolve around hip hop, placing ethnic minorities in urban settings... How did that come about? Why is it that you were particularly influenced by those things?

TO: I think it was a confluence of different influences and interests. I was interested in Hip-hop in a big way. In a way, it was sort of my Punk Rock I guess. Growing up in Canada, it was so different and for me to be into Hip-Hop was completely growing against the grain in terms of what everybody else was into. That was a part of it. Every aspect of it I really enjoyed. Break-dancing... I was never good but I aspired to be good! So many individual aspects like graffiti were huge for me. When I moved to New York in 1991, I was very much in that mind set. I had moved to this city which was to a large extent the birth place of Hip-hop and graffiti. The fact that I had always been interested in portraits sort of lead me to marry the two ideas. I decided to paint some of the people that had created this...

The Royal Guard. Copyright Tim Okamura

When I first got to New York, I was spending a lot of time painting a lot of rappers and DJ's- without actually getting them to sit for me. It evolved over time and I think that some social awareness and social consciousness became an important aspect of what I was doing. I realised that in painting, a lot of African American women and certainly ethnic minorities, had not been represented very much in the history of painting and certainly not in a classical academic style. I found that there were interesting stories that could be told through the portraits... I had painted men primarily for a long time and I think there is a little bit more leeway with men. You can get a little more expressive, or a little more rough sometimes with the depiction and they still work. But with women, there is a level of sensitivity that is required to sometimes capture what can be very subtle beauty. That is was part of the challenge too. Can I even do this? Can I do justice to these subjects...

Courage. Copyright Tim Okamura

I am half Japanese and my mothers heritage is British so I am this half white half Asian guy painting black women and that question does come up a lot. It is certainly a very valid question and I think that it is not necessarily a short answer for me. There are different aspects to my motivation... Number one, I feel that there are interesting stories to be told and I am not going to sit and wait for somebody else to tell them. I want to tell those stories. I feel that my intentions are to portray these women with a real strong sense of respect and a strong sense of wanting to show their subtleness, strength and their beauty. I am not going to stop myself based on the fact that I am not a black woman!

It is interesting with figurative art because that is how people make connections. The want to show this line between these two poles. It's like, you are a white man, therefore you should be painting white men or white people. You are an Asian man, therefore you should be painting Asian men or people... It is almost like being at school or something, with people saying,

“You are going to paint these people because you know them.”

Listen, I think, what better thing than to explore people that you don't know that well? I think that that is a huge motivation. I think that most artists explore subjects that intrigue them and that they want to learn more about. It takes a longer answer to explain... I don’t necessarily think it should but I understand it and I certainly feel comfortable talking about it. The response has been overwhelmingly positive...

AD: It is very interesting to me. I understand exactly where you are coming from because somebody who is not black, who is painting black people is a rarity. You and another artist who I interviewed earlier this week are the only two non black artists I have interviewed so far who feel somehow compelled to paint black people. I find that interesting and I think it is a good thing because I think that people like to focus on our differences rather than our similarities, too much. Once we start focusing on our similarities rather than our differences, a lot of problems will be resolved.

TO: That is exactly it. I could not have said that better myself. I hope that what people take away from the work is that you may approach it with an initial reaction that the subject is really different from yourself, but then you spend time with the piece... Eyes are very important to me in paintings. You look in that persons eyes and you get a little bit of an energy... Then you walk away thinking about all of the similarities you have with that person. How you are sharing similar emotion that obviously transcends any of the surface differences.

Obviously people are always going to be critical. I think that when people are looking at it through a negative filter, their gut reaction might be that it is exploitative in some way. Honestly, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, I think that it is more of a risk for me... Not that I look at it that way, but gosh, if I was going to choose to paint anybody and be concerned about making money let's say, the least obvious choice would be the subjects that I have painted. But it was always a natural progression for me and in that way, I am very happy to talk about that and to answer that question because I know where my heart is at. Things can get very convoluted with art, in the art world and for me I know that the connection is really strong, really pure and it feels good to know that. Like I said, I can talk about it for a long time! It is not gimmicky, it comes from a natural interest in other humans and wanting to depict human beings who have not had their fair share of documentation and respectful depiction.

One more thing, when you were talking about the fact that you only knew of one other artist that was painting black subjects, I think that one other thing I wanted to add to that is that I have been very fortunate in that I have had quite a bit of exposure in recent years, so my name probably comes up when it comes to that. But, honestly, there are so many artists that write me emails and letters and there are some female painters who do nothing but paint black women. And they are comfortable with that. There are a lot of people, especially in the younger generation who are very excited about doing this cross cultural type of work who I just think have not gotten the same amount of exposure that I have. I am more than happy to break some new ground and answer questions from them

AD: Considering everything you have achieved to date, what would you say success in the art world means to you?

TO: It is a bit of a tricky one for me because, being in New York and being in the scene so to speak... I think most of us artists have pretty big healthy egos and I think that most of us are extremely ambitious. I do know people who are happy to just make money from their work without being famous and that is their definition of success and I feel that. I do. But, I am ambitious and as I continue to move forward and I feel like I am about to tap more challenging themes and I feel like the work is slowly but surely getting better, I would hope that it would... I feel like, yes, I would like to get more exposure. I would like to see how far I can go. I don't think there is anything wrong with that. I just think that it is sometimes a slippery slope, because you get caught up in comparing yourself to others. The further you go, the more people you see and the more ladder there seems to be up ahead of you... Sometimes, it can be a little daunting and you have got to have a strong base of confidence and a strong philosophy about life. Not comparing yourself to other people, we are all on different paths... It is hard. It is confusing in the New York art scene. There are many days when I sit and meditate and sort myself out a bit...

The Ascension. Copyright Tim Okamura

But to answer your question more directly, I think that having a gallery that supports you and understands your work, that is certainly a huge pillar of success. Being able to make a living off the work is another important aspect. I think the most important of all is really feeling like you are connecting with people. I have been very fortunate in that respect, in that I do have people take the time to email me and tell me,

“I'm feeling your shit man!”

Whether it is people in school, in high school.. It kind of blows my mind, when I get some 17 year old kid from Surrey in England, taking the time to email me to say that they are really affected by the work. That is awesome and is a huge part of me feeling a success...

AD: By your definition, would you consider yourself to be successful?

TO: Yes, to some degree. It is a little tough. When you are in your own shoes, it is harder to see where you are at sometimes. I think from other peoples perspective, from their stand point, it is like a slam dunk. But like I said before, the further you climb up the ladder, the more you see ahead of you. I never really sit and pat myself on the back or anything like that... Well once in a while, I have to take a moment to be happy that I have survived, that I have made it this far or whatever but I guess I am always looking ahead, so it is kind of hard to be thinking that way.

AD: It is good to pat yourself on the back once in a while!

TO: Yea! Well, just as long as it does not make you complacent. I am always trying to think two steps ahead because I am always trying to do better work.

AD: Thinking about all of your achievements to date, what do you feel is your biggest success and why?

TO: The people I have connected with have been people I never would have expected to connect with. That is one huge thing. I usually do get more emails from France, Italy and Australia. It's great! I probably never really would have imagined that when I was younger so that is a sign of having some success for sure... There have been some fun moments. Working on the film stuff has been fantastic. Going to the premier of Prime... They gave me my own limousine! It was just fun to be a part of the whole Hollywood thing for a while. Conversely, the short-listing thing, well it was not really super formal, but it was the Royal Surveyor of the Queens pictures who had seen my work at the National Portrait Gallery in London, who invited me to come and speak with him at St James Palace! I had to check in with the Royal Guard there and I sat in this grand tea room in St James Palace speaking with him. That was a very unexpected moment. It certainly made me feel at that point that I had at least done something worthy of conversation.

The Coronation. Copyright Tim Okamura

AD: How far did that go?

TO: It sort of ended there. It was actually a learning process for me because I didn't realise that it is not the Royal Family commissioning portraits. It is all these different societies that they are the figure head of. He said they may contact me, but in leaving he said I would probably be more suited to painting Prince William or Prince Harry than the Queen. This is going back a few years, maybe 2006 or something like that. I never did hear back from them. I think maybe their preference would be to use an English painter for something like that. It was cool of them to be thinking outside of the box. Obviously, some of my work gets pretty edgy but maybe he saw something in there which he thought may have been a cool, unexpected direction to go in. I couldn't have done any graffiti on the background of the Queens portrait!

AD: No! Imagine that!

TO: Yes! It would have been a fun project.

AD: What would you say was your biggest failure or set back?

TO: As far as specific events, there have been several shows where I have been banking on making money to live from and I put everything I had into the show in terms of costs and the show was a dud. That has happened several times. It is kind of a gamble and I still consider myself to be an emerging artist in a lot of ways. It is never a slam dunk when I do a show. There are certain galleries where I do very well and at others it is more of a crap shoot. That is tough... I don’t think those were necessarily mistakes that I made, but more the galleries were the wrong ones to show at. It has sometimes been a bit of a gamble.

I was in bands for a number of years Singing and touring. That was something that I loved doing. I love singing and performing, but I think it delayed my progression as a painter. I would never give that up though. I don't think it was a mistake. Sometimes I wish I was where I am at now five or 10 years ago. But I think everyone does that. We all take a certain path and make certain choices... It is happening now... Maybe I was not mature enough anyway to handle the demands of it all. Who knows!

AD: When I have had shows and not sold anything, I have felt really down about it. How did you overcome that and continue?

TO: It is hard because of the financial repercussions. I have sat down and thought, oh my God, I am really screwed here. There have been times when I sat there and thought I was too ambitious with the work, and maybe I should have done smaller pieces... I think you just have to check those thoughts... For myself, one thing is I always know I try like hell to do the best show that I can, so I know that it is not because of being lazy or lack of effort. But after a show, there is that kind of vacuum if it does not do well where you just sit and think. But at a certain point, you know that there is no plan B anyhow so you just have to figure out how to survive in the wake of a disappointing show and just start working on the next one. You can not just sit there and wallow in it because you are just going to make it worse! You might as well do everything you can to start working again, as soon as you can. A lot of the time, I have sold a painting down the line that someone was not sure about at the time of the show. Or I have taken the work to a different gallery, or pieced it together somehow and kept moving forward.

Progressive Youth. Copyright Tim Okamura

AD: When that has happened, have you done other things to bring money in?

TO: When the chips have really been down, my family has helped me. There have been times when my parents have had to keep me going! My sister, my brother... You know, thank God, I mean without the family support that I have had, I would have been done for a long time ago. There have been many times when they have really bailed me out when my back has been against the wall. Friends have sometimes helped too. I think as an artist, your friend network is super important. They become like another form of family. When other guys are down on their luck and you are up, maybe you lend them money and when you are down and out they lend you money! That is kind of how you keep going. Unfortunately, it is not a career where you have a smooth upward calculated trajectory. You need the support network, but, not everybody has that. I can see how people end up having to go in another direction because they just can't do it any more. Luckily, I have been able to avoid that.

AD: What advice would you give to an up and coming artist wishing to follow in your direction?

TO: I am resisting the urge to give the cheeky answer!

AD: Give the cheeky answer!

TO: The cheeky answer is quit immediately, do something else! No, I would never say that. I think you do need to have a little bit of a realistic plan. Luckily, I had some friends who were able to point me in the right direction in terms of having a short term, medium term and long term plan. My long term plan was always to be a painter. The medium term was at the point when I was interested in doing commercial art with album covers and books. That was a medium term thing, doing the commercial art, freelancing, hustling, having an agent...

When I first got out of school, I got a job at an agency just doing graphic design. I worked as a waiter, a bar tender, a bouncer... Just anything I could do. I think you are just in pure survival mode when you get out of school. Planning the stages is a huge part of it. You need to realise that you have to always be working on upgrading and mastering your skills and working non stop with the awareness that it takes time. I think sometimes it is a huge mistake of certain dealers who want to exploit someone who is doing something kind of hot for a minute. You then get these 24 and 25 year old guys getting out of school and being celebrated when they are not yet fully formed. It is very rare that you get young art stars who are 24 or 25 and that is something that I think a lot of art students don't necessarily realise. It is like making it in the music industry. Do you know how many thousands of singers there are trying to make it in the UK and in America, wanting to be on Top of the Pops or whatever... The reality is that it takes a long time, it takes complete and total dedication. An actor friend of mine, Brian Greenberg said to me,

“The only reason why I am an actor is because I never had a plan B.”

It is the same for me as a painter, there is no plan B, so you do what you have to do to keep going. I had an instructor in grad school who said to me,

“Listen, I will tell you the same thing my instructor told me when I was in school. For anybody that sticks it out, you have to give yourself at least 10 years before your technical skills, your ideas and your opportunities mesh. After that, you actually start to do some shit!”

I always have that in the back of my head. He said, “I am not lying to you, I am not trying to scare you, it is reality.”

It was almost ten years to the day when I did my first big show and I realised that he was so right.

AD: Do you have any new shows coming up?

TO: Yes. There are two things that are coming up for me. One is my gallery in New York which it is going to the Toronto International Art Fair. It will just be myself and another Canadian artist named Martin Whittfooth who will be showing together in Toronto. That should be fun! I have not done the Toronto International Art Fair for a few years and I'm excited.

Headdress. Copyright Tim Okamura

The next thing after that is a big four man show which I am doing with three other friends who are also figurative painters here in New York. It is in a fabulous gigantic space called the Art Directors Club in Chelsea and we are doing it as a n independent exhibition with a charity partner and a youth organisation. Our theme is boxing so that is going to be exciting... We are all doing different takes on the boxing theme. I am doing female boxers. I have been buying all this vintage antique boxing gear like boxing gloves from the 1890's, boxing shoes from the 1920's... I will have my models wearing this antique boxing gear... It is actually the climax of a documentary that we have been filming, that we have been the subjects of. We started filming last March. The basic story is about the four of us trying to put on this show against all odds. It branches off and explores our individual lives and artistic practices. It is me showing for the first time with three very good friends of mine who are fabulous artists. The exhibition is also the climax of the film.

I had a show here in New York in September and I really hadn't shown in New York in many years and even in a gallery for a big chunk of time. That show got lots of attention and I feel like this is kind of like a follow up that even more people will be able to check out. It is an important show for all of us.

AD: When is that going to be?

TO: It opens on December 10th at the Art Directors Club in New York City. We don't even have our title yet! We have our theme, but the title of the documentary is Heavyweight Paint. We actually have a Kickstarter campaign going right now. There is a trailer for the film which gives a little bit of a taste of what the film is going to be like.

Tim Okamura in his studio.

Tim Okamura website
Tim Okamura is currently represented by Lyons Wier gallery in New York.
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Heavyweight Paint Kickstarter Project.
Official Heavyweight Paint website

An abridged version of this interview will be published in the September edition of Lime magazine with thanks to editor Vernia Mengot.

Tim Okamura in the studio

Tim Okamura