A LEARNING EXPERIENCE

 How would you describe your work to someone else?

Right now I’m focusing on heads and hearts, I’m trying to strip everything down and pair the two together. My favorite quote is from the novel, “Blindness” by Jose Saramago, “In order to invent heaven and hell, all you need to know is the human body.”

How has your creative process changed since you started your residency?

I did a lot of experiments with color which is new for me because my background is drawing and I’m used to using black and white. I’ve also been exploring drawing with oil sticks and using color as a psychological space. I’m interested in emphasizing materiality in a physical material sense. Form is carved out and the heart is treated as the same way as the head so viewers can see the parallels between the inside and the outside and our relationships to natural forms.

This being your first residency, is it what you expected?

I think it is what I expected, at least, it is what I had hoped for. Something to shake up my creative process and allow me to focus without the distractions of everyday life. Interactions with the other resident artists is key, seeing their work and being exposed to their process shakes you out of your habits and opens new possibilities. And in that sense it is what I expected. But one thing I did not expect is the influence of working in a space that is not just a studio, but the building, it was an enlarging experience.

With your background teaching art in college, how important do you see art education for emerging artists?

That is a complicated question. But it depends on the type of art the artists is making. I’ve been trained in classical drawing and I think it is valuable to pass on that tradition. As an artist it connects me with the history of art. I enjoy going to the museum and being able to look at drawing by da Vinci and Michelangelo and understand how their drawings were made. But, I think it is also true that much of what art is cannot be taught.

So where do you see your work headed when get back to Columbia, SC?

I will continue with heads and hearts but I think the work will be broader, less conventional. I feel like I’ve been able to see a different avenue for approaching the subject that I think in the end will make the work stronger and more affecting for the viewer.