10 Reasons Why…. at Lane Community College
The show at Lane Community College looked wonderful once it was put together. Given the economy not a lot of sales, enough to cover the shipping costs, but 3 more people have taken my work into their homes and that is a good thing. We are also posting an interview that preceded the show and was published in a local newspaper in Eugene, OR.
Do you have a personal favorite? If so, which one? Why?
I tend not to get attached to my work…Very few of the pieces that I work on end up having sentimental value for me…There are exceptions, of course…Pieces in which I use images of my father, for instance…Those are usually pieces that I keep and do not put up for sale…I would pick “I wish I’d never met you…” I’ve felt like that many times…I guess it’s inevitable as one gets older…The image of the stars in the jar…A whole universe of possibilities captured, confined to that little space…She feels like that…The painting is about what could have been and also about entrapment…What she could have done…Fate, in the form of a chance encounter, stopped her…
How does your art communicate your experiences? How do you want your art to be interpreted?
Well, you are what you paint….or sculpt or print…It’s about translating an idea into some kind of marking…Something outside of you…I would say ideas are rarely detached from feelings…When I paint, I mean physically engage in the act of painting, I have already gone through a long process of ruminating and layering all kind of experiences, communications, thoughts…In creating the one piece that is going to capture this long sequence of recollections and emotions, the essential thing for me is to edit what’s superfluous…but the core of the experience is always there because it’s always inside you too.
I have no concrete expectations about how my work should be interpreted…You can never please everyone and I know that there will be those who enjoy it and those who dislike it…It’s just fine…If somehow it pulls at your heartstrings, then the work has “arrived” so to speak…if not, it becomes no more than a passing notion…like the elevator music that everyone despises so much…It’s nothing more than a temporary nuisance…and you can step away from it.
Is there any one piece that you feel speaks louder or more of yourself than the others? Why or why not?
Perhaps, the one with the “bully”…It’s titled Refuge… I feel for the girl who obviously has few choices available to her…Come down the ladder and face him…Stay in the isolation of her little house….There’s something ominous about the black cloud in the corner…despite the fact that I like rain storms I think this one is man made… by him…He thinks he’s hot stuff with his crown and all…The one sign of hope are the little wings that are keeping her afloat… The wings could help her stay clear of trouble…or at least I hope so.
Which piece(s) took the longest to work on?
Actually I am very slow with my work…I am very much in my head all the time…Not always a good thing…I change my mind about the pieces and rework many of them…Detail seems important somehow…and quality also matters a great deal.
How long overall did it take you to finish this project?
Well over a year, I would say…and I’d probably still be working on it if I had not made the conscious decision to turn the page…It’s a link in the chain…everything is built on something that was there before…Projects never happen in isolation.
What made you decide to start this project?
I was contacted by Lane about a possible show…I was working on some of the initial pieces at the time and the call gave me the incentive to expand on the ideas I was working on…
Several people have commented on your gallery. Many of the comments revolve around the face that remains static in most of the pieces.
Yes, sometimes the pieces are linked by an element such as this one…She could be the heroin…or the villain…but in this case I think she’s the one who endures difficulties and remains “in the picture” (no pun intended)…She has her reasons for being there (hence the title of the show) but they run deep…Her face does not really show her emotional state…The face is the “public” part of her, but we can see what she’s feeling inside…The waters rising, the holes in her heart, the regret, even a glimmer of hope at times…
Who is the little girl, and how does she relate to you or your work?
I don’t really know who she was, but I found her very endearing…She appears in the pieces as an iconic figure who is also, as her older counterpart, enduring and struggling…She should be sheltered in that little space of her own, but as she moves through the field, from frame to frame, she experiences new and unexpected things…I think she looks very much adrift…she does not seem to have a say in anything that’s going on…Again, it’s the idea that her circumstances mold her and that we really cannot tell what anyone is going through at any given moment…We judge other’s reactions by our own standards without knowledge of their reasons for acting the way they do…It’s a universal kind of disconnection that we all experience…
What are the typical reactions to your artwork? Are they the kind of reaction you want? Why?
I enjoy getting feedback…Obviously, someone is taking the time to let me know what the work conveys to them…I feel gratitude for it. Of course, sometimes the feedback is critical of the work, but even then there’s something to learn from it…People’s comments tell me a lot about who they are as well…Each person sees the work through their own personal lens and their comments and interpretations reflect who they are too…
Most of the time I get comments and questions about the symbolism behind some recurrent elements in the work: houses, fire, flowing water, red lines and so forth…but the story is not really mine to tell…My story merges with their stories and together it transforms each time and with each viewer… Therefore, fire sometimes means desperation and others anger…Water can be tears or the changing tides…ladders can go up into heaven or down towards hell…It’s all in how you look at it.