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Interview -- Matt D.

NG: In your work, you seem to enjoy embodying established artistic styles, especially when making art about your family! Do you prefer letting the atmosphere you’re building inform which styles you look for, or do you have a set of references you consistently pull from? MD: Most often, the former is true. The content typically comes first, and I’ll look for styles or materials to suit it. If I settle on a highly specific reference, I do a lot of research. It’s not generally difficult in today’s environment, and I can find what I need within a few degrees of separation from Google Image Search, but I try to be very detailed in terms of fidelity to the original material and/or inclusion of many specific references (“Easter eggs” in some cases). Now that the family portraits have become an annual tradition, I’m stockpiling classic Christmas motifs. The only atmospheric requirement is fun. I started with a less precise or contemporary concept in the form of stained glass, and I have considered digging into medieval, Renaissance or 19th century realist art. There’s a lot of potential for absurdist humor, taking the piss out of overly dramatic, self-serious religious art. NG: As someone who can’t figure out working digitally to save my life, I really admire your illustrative ability to make digital artwork that, at first glance, could be thought of as another medium! Do you have any go-to methods for reducing the “digital look” in your art? MD: For many years, I’ve paid a lot of attention to textures, patterns, pixellation… anything that calls our immediate attention to the computer rather than the artist’s hand. I could be really effective with photo manipulation. It rarely resulted in drawings and paintings that were truly convincing, but at least those retained some character. Some older apps like Corel Painter got high marks for realism, but I had very little experience with them. More recently, tablet and stylus-based software has become so powerful, and there are many artists creating excellent brushes and textures. It’s much, much easier to create work that is traditional in appearance, though one should still pay attention to brush selection, be careful with image reference/manipulation, and be clever when relying on auto-generated elements. Masking effects are also really handy for adding imperfections. NG: You also showed some of your traditional media work, and said you enjoyed making it even though it takes more time for you than producing digital art. When working with traditional media, do you like to think of it in layers as you would a digital piece, or do you prefer to let different mediums inform how you use them? MD: I’m often more hesitant with traditional media, which is natural. There’s nothing like an Undo command and the ability to retain multiple variations. With less familiar traditional materials or styles, I take the same approach described above, gathering a lot of image reference before I start, and I try to lean on others’ experience. But as you know, thinking in layers is very handy when you’re working in silkscreen.

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Interview -- Angelina P.

NG: You were really influenced by 1000 Words and interpreted it wonderfully in your piece during midterms! Do you think this will be a recurring motif in future work, or do you like it just with that one piece? AP: Thank you. To be honest, I am not an installation artist (for now). However, that work: titled Sweet Spot, was the closest I have come to consider the space occupied beyond my canvas with that mindset. I kind of liked it. It may happen again. NG: What about airbrushing draws you to it, and do you have any artists working with airbrushing you’re inspired by? AP: Air brushing is the feeling a painter gets when putting that last white-reflective dot on the iris & pupil of the eyeball within a portrait...but on steroids. I was introduced to airbrushing and inspired by two fellow artists that I had the luxury of working with (one of which I still work with today) at my current job. NG: In both your work and your practice, you’re working with large-scale pieces! What about that size appeals to you, especially as it helps convey your themes? AP: Size matters. I love big works. They have presence. It's always a challenge because I feel the content needs to justify the scale with respects of a certain level of rendering (I call the "sweet spot"), which can be daunting. The bigger the work - the more .... the work. I am a firm believer that nothing worth having comes easy (T. Roose) & there is always a level of pain, & difficulty that ensues during my paintings. I go big to challenge myself and to confront the viewer. I believe the size helps to convey my themes because when I paint to catalogue moments in my life, I want it to be an immersive experience. I have always felt more consumed by a work when it's large.

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Interview -- Janessa D.

NG: Color is (obviously!) an important part of your work. Do you choose colors before beginning a work, or do you respond to the imagery as you work? JD: Both! I have a color palette in mind before I have an image in mind but then it gets exacerbated by the colors I see in an "image" (in quotes because I'm referring to images or scenes I come across when looking around- so like walking by my fence and seeing my shadow. I'm not exactly sure what to call it or how to describe it.) But I can never really predict how the image, or the color palette will work out when involved in painting so most of the time I change or shift colors and add/subtract them- so I am definitely responding as I work! NG: Your cast shadow people are the first time (to my knowledge!) working with a more literal representation of the human figure in your work! Do you think this will evolve into actual figurative work, or do you see more artistic value in suggesting the presence of a figure? JD: It is! I'm not sure yet. If anything, I see my work and shadows becoming more abstract rather than more representational/realistic. Personally, I definitely see more value in my work with suggesting the presence of a figure. It always makes my work more interesting to me that way. I like the mystery and the implications rather than outright statements (even though those of course can also have more than one dimension) but that's just me. NG: What made you decide to really delve into shadows and dark spaces in your work that contrast dramatically with the fluorescent hues you use? (Yes, this is a shameless second question on your use of color because I love it so much!) JD: I love the juxtaposition! I think it jives well with my work and the bittersweet feelings I have about my home. I consider the conceptual aspect to be as important as the formal aspect, which is I love how they look contrasted together. That said, the shadows and dark spaces contrasted with the fluorescent hues look strange. It looks off. It exaggerates the uncanny I'm exploring.

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Interview -- Kaitlin K.

NG: As someone working with paint, cut canvas, and even seeds, what draws you to mixed-media artmaking? KK: I wanted to experiment with how else to express the themes (memory, childhood, nostalgia) I have been interested in with painting, and I do enjoy when a work has a tactile element. I wanted to understand if a different or additional media would be more successful. However, I am not sure I am liking the direction I was going with mixed media works or how I could move forward with it purposefully, so I think for now I want to want to focus back on painting. To experiment more with abstracted shapes, maybe "deskilling", the idea of "disruptors" in scenes, and misshapen or cut canvases. I need to explore how these different shapes could add meaning or what it means to take away something traditional. Like the canvases I just cut were traced from the shadows the morning light was making coming through the window of my studio. NG: You’ve mentioned the importance of art festivals in your practice, particularly the overlap between that environment and your market knowledge that lets you know what you can make that will sell! What other influence/information do you feel you’ve benefitted from by participating in various art festivals? KK: From working as an interior design consultant, I get good insight as to what people like to put in their homes. At art festivals I get a good understanding on what content people respond well too, which tends to be clouds. I get feedback from both visitors and other artists, which can be nice to hear commentary that is not solely academic based. I have only done a few so far that are juried/ of notable size but I do find them worth continuing to do since they seem to be the only opportunity I have to learn how to market myself rather than being research/academia focused. NG: You described your process when you beginning a piece as very intuitive, letting the paint fall where it may before you make any specific compositional decisions. While in this part of the process, what questions are you asking yourself that eventually inform how you finish the piece? KK: The first thing I make a decision on is color palette based on the mood I am trying to convey. Once I have general composition down the next thing I decide is scale, one big cloud or lots or small clouds, tiny trees far away or larger ones taking up the foreground, how far back should the viewer be from the scene? I think in upcoming works I want the viewer to feel distanced and like they are viewing the scene from above. Content wise I try to keep the shapes of the natural elements and structures, kind of "generic" in a way so they do not feel to evocative of a specific time or place, but I think moving forward I want to look through descriptions of landscapes in fairytales (Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson versions) to draw inspiration from those. Once I have all the elements in I want I will add as much of them (abstract shapes, foliage, waterfalls, etc) until the composition feels balanced to me.

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Interview -- Stacie B.

NG: As someone who has family that survived breast cancer, your work and research are deeply meaningful to me. From the input in our classes together, I get the sense that’s a common response to your work. Are you ever surprised at the number of lives touched by your topic of research, and do you consider them your audience when creating work? If not, who? SB: The number of people interested in my work seems to be directly proportionate to the amount of people Breast Cancer affects. I am always grateful that people are able to see the value in my work, but it's also emotionally heavy because of how many people this work touches (whether directly or indirectly). When I’m creating art in the vein of this research topic, I don’t necessarily think about who will see it, but I am very concerned with not overstepping my boundaries by trying to speak FOR this population. I try to keep my unique position in mind and speak my truth about what I see. Creating art this way is tricky, but creating the tattoos for these clients is much easier. The audience for the tattoo is the individual standing in front of me at the time. I try to turn off all my subjective opinions and listen to my client. My only goal is to give them what they want. Technically, I will interject if something isn’t going to translate into a tattoo well or if the design won’t age well over time, but the subject matter is in the client's control. That is part of the power of this service: providing control following an experience where one seems to have lost much of their control over things. NG: Even as you expand your practice to include new things, you still dedicate time to making paintings. At the risk of sounding very Amer, why is continuing to paint important to you even as you explore new avenues of creation? SB: Tattooing is my way of feeling like I’m doing something for someone other than myself. As I get older, I think it’s important to find ways of positively contributing to the world, and medical tattooing is the best way I’ve found to fulfill that part of my life. I feel a responsibility to take medical tattooing as far as I can. It feels like I’m driven by something outside of myself, or maybe something deep within myself that I’m still trying to connect to. Having said all that, painting is strictly for me. I’m not trying to tell anyone else’s story. It’s my time to get out all the things inside of myself. I paint because I have to. Not in a forced kind of way, but in an “I have to get this out” kind of way. Tattooing is me telling someone else’s story, and painting is me telling my own story. Painting is vulnerable, honest, liberating, exposing, and just something I must do. I can’t NOT paint, if that makes sense. NG: As someone equally fond of reading, what books have impacted you and your work recently? SB: This question makes me so sad because I realize I haven’t been able to read any of the amazing books I’ve been stockpiling. I’m dying to get into the 9th Street Women book, and I also got Judy Chicago’s newest book, which is just a bunch of quotes by her. I’m hoping over Xmas break, I’ll get to indulge finally.

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Interview -- Stella A.T.

NG: You spoke before about the “nature goddess” persona you’ve created as a motif in your work. Why is embodying nature in that way important to you and how it conveys your themes? SAT: (Nature Goddess). The Nature Goddess is an important alter-ego for me because after living under the shroud of "marriage" she gave me a voice that made me feel powerful and of significance. She embodies the person I have been told since childhood to hide: an independent, fiercely caring, uncompromising woman who lives by her convictions and her empathy towards those who cannot speak for themselves. NG: When Alissa and I entered your studio, you explained how you were going to utilize the gold leaf in other works of yours. What does the gold leaf mean to you? SAT: I grew up on Colombia up to age 15, the place where the Legend of "El Dorado" and others about the treasures of the land filled my mind. In fact, the yellow of the Colombian flag signifies the Gold and richness of the land, which was extracted by the Spaniards for their gain during the colonization period. The museum of Gold in Bogota houses many treasures created by out indigenous ancestors as offerings to the sun and other Gods. Likewise, as the Spaniards filled their churches with gold from our lands, a simple statue or frame became highly prized. Although tacky to some professors here, my use of gold is not a novice's experimental fancy or passing aesthetic. I use it as a means to tie to both my heritage and the concept of divinity, coveted treasure and timelessness. NG: If you had to (and if you can’t or don’t want to, also a valid answer!) how would you classify your practice? Is it art activism as it portrays humanity’s relationship with nature? Personal narrative as it illustrates your own journey? Etc.! SAT: I suppose my work can be considered "cathartic activism". It is my hope to both help others connect with their inner strengths and bring awareness to the amazing gift that nature is for humanity. Curiously enough, I also think of my veganism in the same way, but at a meta-cognitive level, being a more intimate practice required for my own peace of mind and daily functioning.

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Interview -- Kenyari G.R.

NG: You found that a lot of faculty and individuals at midterms were unfamiliar with the term neurodivergent! Was that expected or unexpected to you, and how did it motivate you in your research and artistic practice? KGR: It was unexpected to me. When Kathleen Thum asked me "what's neurodivergent?" It kind of gave me pause because I thought many were familiar with the term. After her visit, it did make me think how my work might be important, as neurodivergent is usually a term I see online and maybe it's only ever used in my "bubble". I thought of my work as a chance to locally spread this knowledge to other bubbles. It gives me assurance that my work is doing something, educating. It's motivating me to put more focus on neurodivergent topics within my work and in hopes that it will be used by educators to explain neurodivergent topics to others. NG: The characters you create in your work embody a whole range of emotions, with humor being a big one! As someone who is also using humor in their art, I wanted to ask you why you use it, and how is it important to the work you do? KGR: As a chronically anxious person, I do not like confrontation. I find that using humor makes tough conversations easier to have. Before he started speaking about the trans community, I think stand-up comedian Dave Chapell used humor to great effect to highlight black issues to an audience who normally wouldn’t listen. Through my researching, I've also come to find out that educating others through a humorous method makes the topics being taught easier to remember. You will also find more engagement from those you are trying to teach when using humor. Also with my practice and work, having positive energy within the work is very important to me. If someone takes one of my pieces home with them, I want it to be a source of positive energy within their home. Giving people the good vibes is mostly why I create, and is the source of my happiness when I create. I don't think people find that an acceptable answer professionally or academically, so I never really phrase it that way. It might be too simple, and people are expecting more from me. I'm trying to find a way to complicate it for them. I don't find that to be a negative as it gives my work the chance to be something differnet, but I wish they could see the beauty in the unspoken and simple. NG: At the risk of sounding like Melissa, who do you consider as your audience when making your work? If you don't have a certain audience in mind, would you say you're making your work for yourself? Either way, valid! KGR: I make work for myself, and it has evolved to making work that represents neurodivergent topics for those in that community to feel seen and to educate those outside of that community. Now I'm trying to find a blend that is fulfilling for myself, represents, and educates the neurodiverse community.

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Interview -- Lenee P.

NG: To me, you are a person of many hats, and you’re always finding new methods of creating to express your themes! As someone who struggles with that myself, do you find it overwhelming when considering all the possibilities to convey an idea, or do you often know right away which “hat” to put on to best translate that particular idea? LP: I don't find it overwhelming but more so exciting, I like having so many options to choose from when conveying a message that is obviously so important to me. I think some mediums just work better for some narratives and I want to honor that rather than try to always make a painting out of something that could have been way more impactful as a sculpture, play, book, etc. NG: Theatricality is (obviously!) a big motivation in your work. You’ve spoken about it before, but why is theatre important to you, and what works of theatre have been most impactful to you as an artist? LP: I love theatre because of how human it is. History was told through stories and oral narratives for soooo long before recorded history became accessible, so theatre feels like us carrying on that tradition. It's super collaborative, even small or one person shows have a crew behind them. Small indie theaters, high school theaters, broadway and off broadway all have a team of people coming together to make something and that is so special to me. Some of my favorite musicals are The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Fun home, and Gypsy. Some of my favorite (and most impactful) plays and one acts would be Talk To Me Like The Rain And Let Me Listen, Buried Child, Proof, Children of a Lesser God, and Twelve Angry Men. NG: As someone who’s a big fan of questions, what do you ask yourself when creating a work? Are there any reoccurring questions you hold in your mind to keep yourself on track? (Yes, this is a shameless excuse to ask you more about your practice!) LP: I'm not sure I think of questions when I'm creating but I do get little phrases that pop into my head that circulate around. Usually something small, like "be the bigger person" will come up and I just can't stop thinking about it. I think my subconscious always knows what I'm trying to say while I'm working and I just get these little phrases as hints to keep chipping away at a concept. Could also just be the OCD.

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Interview -- Alissa B.

NG: You’ve talked about how babygirl-ing masculine individuals is a way to flip the script on the objectification of the feminine body, which is so interesting! Do you consider that the first step towards a larger discussion of objectification in general, and if so, where would you expand your references to? AB: The unfortunate thing about starting a new body of work is that the meaning and reason for doing things changes before you get to the perceived end. When I started this work, I was curious about how feminine people on the internet objectify men because it only mirrors the way men objectify women in the fact that a gender is being objectified. Men create a violent fantasy of how women should act and then treat women that way. I’ve found that “babygirl-ification” is also a kind of fantasy, but it’s one where men have less power and are less likely to commit abuse or acts of violence. Or rather its both, where men have less of the power, physically and socially, to be able to be violent and abusive. However! I think my portrait collage series is shifting. I realized that I have a lot of shame when it comes to attraction, especially towards men. Having celebrity crushes or fantasizing about certain fictional characters makes me anxious because I worry about how I will be perceived. This is very normal behavior by the way, and it’s common for younger people, specifically queer and feminine people who have little to no romantic or sexual experience, to explore sexuality/ physicality/etc through the use of fiction. A lot of my shame comes from bullying in middle school (doesn’t it all), and I realize now I don’t want to be ashamed to experience attraction of any kind. This series is now becoming a way for me to connect with a younger version of myself, and to give her a platform to express herself after I’ve tried to repress her for so long. NG: We’ve talked before about why making larger-than-life-sized art is important to you, but why is making your smaller work in the sizes you choose important to you and your practice? AB: The size of my work has to do with content but also about practicality. I love making big, almost mural-like paintings of complex scenes, but I am under a time constraint in a single semester. By working small, I can explore more topics and materials, and it takes me a fraction of the time. There is also something to be said about how my work about the digital, niche community on the internet require a smaller frame. The internet exists in the size of a phone, tablet, or laptop screen. While the internet and fan communities feel big, they physically are small. I would love to play with size and distort it eventually, but now as I’m trying new things, I’d like to keep it small for sanity’s sake. NG: You’ve talked about how your engagement with media is a big source of reference for your work! As your relationship to the media you pull from now naturally changes with time, how do you see it changing the way you see this artwork down the line? Is it like a studio scrapbook, or more of a linear story detailing what you were into at the time it was made? AB: Yes! I think that’s a perfect way to describe it. When I look back on work I made in my undergrad, I am able to see exactly where I was mentally and emotionally because I included so many references to the things I love. It’s almost like that scene in Ratatouille, where I am immediately transported back. It becomes a diary or scrapbook. I sometimes don’t remember the day to day, but I always remember what shows or what music I was listening to. I get to create these eras for myself, and that’s something I’m really interested in exploring.

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Interview -- Brittani B.

NG: You have a practice very dedicated to building bridges (that both sides can cross, I might add!) between your northern Floridian upbringing, American southern identity, and American identity in general. Does extending that bridge internationally interest you, and if so, what would you hope would come from that? BB: Extending bridges nationally isn't something I can achieve before I finish grad school. It is a long-term goal that I have for my work; I don't just want to build bridges between Southern communities, but I would also like to do so for rural communities across the country. They all have a lot in common, and two of those commonalities are that the people are very proud to be rural, and they are underrepresented by their government officials and suffer for it. Building bridges and community is dangerous for the ruling party's goals. NG: I’ve watched you find great joy in seeing your southern identity reflected in others’ work! Is this connection something you hope to foster by bringing Floridian experiences into the larger dialogue of American southern experiences? BB: I HAVE TO FACILITATE THIS EXPERIENCE! I was just going to type YES!!! but just that didn't feel like enough. One of the primary reasons I started making this work is because, after growing up not seeing myself in the arts, I STILL couldn't see myself in the arts as a young adult, so I said, goddammit, someone is going to see me. Now, there's this resurgence of the "New South" ideology, and I'm seeing myself more, and I hope I can be that for somebody else. NG: All your work ties together into a very identifiable Floridian theme. Your photography, embroidery, and installation pieces all work together to create a very specific atmosphere. Do you consider that atmosphere first and foremost when making work, or do you let it build naturally as you consider which medium suits your themes best? BB: I do consider the atmosphere first and foremost. However, not too far behind that is what I am happy to do. We had our conversation about your outlook on what it meant to be an artist when you were in undergrad; I couldn't relate at all. From a young age, though, both of my parents, miserable in their jobs, told me to figure out what makes me happy and find out how to do it for the rest of my life. So, even though photography, embroidery, and printmaking all have deep roots within Southern history and Folk art, they're also processes that I find tremendous joy in. They are all meticulous and can be changed completely with the smallest adjustments.