A Long Ramblin' Ride Down Memory Lane

It's strange starting again after having stalled for a while...for a long while(being unemployed for nearly a year can really deflate one's motivation). But, things are changing...the skies are clearing, the stars and planets are aligning beautifully and although I still need more sleep (because what tortured artist doesn't?), I am Doing - lots of Doing.  Also, creating a lot more art, sculpture in particular.  So, let's start with point...like, CV7(cervical vertebrae 7 for those uninitiated in human anatomy) or something and then round back to point A a little further down.  It'll make sense, I swear.
While attending art school, I had to take American Illustration history.  I remember a lot of names, but not so much of the work they produced mainly because I wasn't impressed or inspired, but Polish - born W.T. Benda was an illustrator turned mask-maker who was extremely skilled, known for his eastern influenced work, mostly comprised of very sultry, yet mildly menacing, looking ladies:

W.T. Benda

Cover of LIFE magazine-W.T. Benda

The Rotarian Cover Illustration-W.T. Benda

"Zebra Rider" W.T. Benda

Heck.  Yes.  Pretty sweet paintings.  That Native American there, man, he looks like he'd slice the shit outta you and not even blink.
Anyways, Benda moved on to crafting masks of awesomeness, making all the masks for the production of "The Mask of Fu Manchu" staring Boris Karloff (the film well-known now for being über racist), among others, all of them imaginative and lovely and done in papier goddamned mâché.
Which brings me to masks.  I want to make masks.  I know that sounds silly because who needs a mask, but if I could, I would wear a mask everyday.  And my research and knowledge of sculpture in general has brought me here, with this, a first in a series of masks.  "Transition" started out as something very different, something with ears and more cat-like appearance until I just got really fed up with how stupid I thought it looked. It's a partial mask, meaning it has no lower mandible (the jaw and chin area), and is probably not going to be wearable for the fact that it's my genesis piece and I did not consider the thickness of the whole thing (meaning it will be too heavy to wear on one's face), building it as a wall decoration/totem.  Oh well...live and learn.

"Transition" Sculpting Stage

"Transition" Paint Stage

This re-immersion into sculpting has had me reminiscing about how I got started in sculpture, why I abandoned it, but have now come back to understanding that, really, I am a sculptor/painter...I am more mixed media than I imagined.  And it all started with my Aunt Jan and Topanga Canyon.

Literally, Aunt Jan's house was the place you wanted to be growing up.  Located in Topanga Canyon, right next to, but completely removed from LA, the Valley and Santa Monica, the drive there was always arduous, but when we turned off PCH and into the oak filled canyon, I could barely wait to be there.  The house overlooked the canyon, surrounded by oak trees with wind chimes hidden everywhere, while truly spectacular music (my aunt and uncle both have superb taste in music) blared from somewhere inside the house.  In the garage was my aunt's studio and I probably get my organizational skills from this place.  The stereo had CDs stacked to its height, on both sides (and sometimes on top), metal shelves lined the walls on both sides of the garage, filled with drying, fired, to be fired, in progress and long forgotten pieces.  Long tables dominated the length of the garage, and the one nearest to the entrance of the house was where she would knead clay for her various students.  This place was a mad mess of experience and artistic freedom (including the cluttered table with holders filled with different tools, slip, and a wash bowl or two).  Oh, and far above the stereo lining the wall were gold records from when my uncle used to manage big name musicians.  I just thought they had nowhere else to put them and it was funny to have gold records in frames.  The whole extended family has at one point made a piece in that studio, and my cousins and sisters all had formative experience with hand-building and glazing (My ma still has our tragically cute/sad elephants, dinosaurs, and the like, in a display armour in the living room).

Those are some of the strongest, and many of the best memories I have of childhood.  And they are all around that garage with my Aunt, making mistakes and exercising my creativity.  Now, I understand my difficulties with pen/pencil/brush to a flat surface; I just want to sculpt it and the surface just stopped me from the complete spherical movement I was able to have with sculpted pieces.  Now that I understand this though, Ha!  Eureka, as they say (because I will not do the Oprah moment).  And when he is all done, I will get him properly shot for all to see on my website.

So until later...

Song of the Moment: "Stand Up" by Ludacris
Color Obsession: Prussian Blue
Word the makes yer sma'ta': "Alembic"

Interview with mixed-media collage artist Matthew Craven

In the last quarter of 2011, I was interning at Gallery Hijinks, and right before my time there came to an end I got to do an interview with Matthew Craven, a mixed-media collage artist who's definitely not afraid of pushing buttons, changing history, more so challenging the history we have set in our minds (it's like Mr. Craven's poking a big Red, White and Blue bear with an ancient broken stick, but I digress).  His re-purposed, loaded images along with texture and pattern allows focus to be brought back to not just America's roots, but the ancient roots of humanity, it seems, and what has become of the tree that has sprung forth.  
This interview is broken up into multiple posts on the Gallery Hijinks blog for his February show FRGMNTS.  For posting here, I have done some re-purposing of my own, publishing it in full.

VS:  Have you always been a pattern person?  Especially with your past work dealing with Native Americans, it sometimes looks and feels like your weaving a blanket (such as "Life Totem").  Is this meditative process?  What draws you to this as an artist? 
MC:  Yeah, I have always been a pattern person.  As a kid I would relentlessly draw/doodle/deface pretty much anything in front of me.  It was only as I got older that I focused that energy into something more engaging and thoughtful.  As a result i have been including many cultural reference into my work in the last few years ( i.e. the native American/masonic  influence in previous work). The Life and Death Totem drawings were a result of wanting to take what had been doing for years to the next level.  I have always found peace in drawing.  The repetitive nature of such work is very meditative and satisfying to my soul.

"Life Totem I" Matthew Craven 2009-2012

 
VS:  Is there a specific quality that you look for in your mixed media surfaces?
MC:  I spend hours/ days searching for images and materials. It has become vital to my work in recent years.  I am always looking for images with great aesthetic value.  I look for images with vivid textures and surface.  I only use outdated textbooks for source material.  These books have many properties that intrigue me.  Rough/ dry paper, color deterioration and even the smell.  All of my collages are constructed from resourced books. Even the blank sheets I mount my images on are taken from the front and back of old books, which typically have two blank sheets that usually are faded or stained.  This gives my collages another level of historical narrative.

VS:  I read in an interview that you base your decisions on aesthetics rather than narrative or commentary.  Does this still hold true?  
MC:  That's quote was not entirely true, sure aesthetics play a big roll in the composition of my work, but I was speaking in a larger sense.  The images that I use and inspire my work are also based on aesthetics.  I use images that depict patterns, whether it’s textiles, carving or architecture.  I am drawn to this history of the stylized/ decorative nature of mankind.  I find similarities between my own impulses, and those who have come be from me.

VS:  Has using the Native American/Settlers created problems for you in any capacity?
MC:  I use loaded imagery, I am well aware of it.  Sometime people get hung up on singular imagery and cultural ownership of such things.  I feel like its primarily based out of their fear of the unknown.  This country gets extremely uncomfortable with any race/ religion/culture other than their own.  I'm trying to point out where we ALL come from, and the history of mankind is singular.  The goal is to form connections between modern life and the lives of the people who came before us. 

VS:  What initially drew you to collaging/mixed media? 
MC:  I was in grad school, and  trying to redefine my work.  I had given up on painting at that point and wanted another outlet.  I have always loved working on paper much more than canvas.  When sourcing imagery and materials for my collages, books seemed a much more interesting way to find paper than an art supply store can ever offer.  It also allows me to incorporate this hunt for materials into my practice that bring me out of my studio and into the "real" world.

"Headstone" Matthew Craven 2012

 
VS:  Do you think that the medium one chooses to work in reveals the nature of the creator?  If so, what does collage/mixed media reflect or reveal about you?
MC:  Sure, like I hinted at above, it brought out another impulse of mine, which is to collect objects.  I think I needed that in my work, it is a whole other skill in itself.  

VS:  You mentioned in an interview that your current body of work is still new to you and you don't know where it's exactly going.  Do you have a better understanding of what your work is and where it's going than when you showed at Nudashank (November 2011)?
MC:  Yes for sure.  At that point I was just sourcing new imagery.  The imagery has led me to create a whole new series of collages and ink drawing I will be showing at Hijinks in February.  Like most artist you start with a feeling, and as the work progress you have time to really think and observe your own work.  I am thrilled at the direction of the new work, and feel like it is finally exposing the concepts and narrative my work only hinted at in the past.

VS:  What has been the best compliment(s) that you've received about your work?
MC:  People typically respond well to my work, but one time in grad school Jerry Saltz visited my studio.   After talking with me about my work he told me I was a "real artist." I don't know what he meant by that, but I figured I was on the right track.

 "Preserve" Matthew Craven 2012

Drippings Making Happy Happenings

So with all the holiday shenanigans and otherness that's been going on, I know I've been remiss in my blogging duties, so I am typing away, hoping to create some interesting reading for all y'alls.
I finally have photos (properly corrected, of course) of the large painting; from the first night laying down color-runs and then moving onto finding specific things in the canvas, bringing them out, and now, painting the actual focus.

So, there you go. 2012, already lookin' better than 2011...thank god. Oh and Gung Hey Fat Choy. Make the year of the Water Dragon, 'cause it's supposed to be a exhilarating ride.

Color Obsession: Pthalo Blue
Song Discovery: "The Heart's a Lonely Hunter" by Thievery Corporation
Words that make ya smarter: Pastiche