My interview published in the Art & Sole exhibition book.
(Questions by Caleb Beyers.)
Art & Sole"A Collaborative Art Shoe Project from PF Flyers and El Kartel"
Even though it’s changed significantly over the last few years, you’ve always had way of creating work that undeniably bears your signature (without actually bearing your signature), does this come easy to you, or do you really have to work at it?
I think it comes pretty naturally. I’ve always tried to keep a standard of detail and focus in my work, and hopefully if translates through to my audience. Art we make is indicative of our personalities. The way I lean towards painting in a certain style is no different than the shoes I choose to wear.
You’ve recently made a shift toward painting primarily portraits. Why the change?
Over the past few years I have become more and more involved with a great number of people in Vancouver - mainly through art events, music shows, and people just generally out in the scene. The more I talk to people the more I see such odd quirks and idiosyncrasies that come out in them if you pay enough attention. It’s like a brief, intimate, instance of a social hiccup; when a person has let their guard down enough and makes that face right before they sneeze.
You went to school at Emily Carr (right?), which is a school with a heavily conceptual slant, how was your work received in that context?
My work had mix reactions when I was attending Emily Carr. It seemed to appeal more to my peers than to my professors. I do agree with having a strong concept behind my work, but first and foremost it’s about aesthetics. One great teacher of mine at Emily Carr was Peter Schuyff, who always said, “If you give me an issue, I’ll give you a tissue... “ His blunt attitude and approach to painting always stuck with me to be constantly developing my own skills as an artist. If my visual vocabulary is not articulated in my work, I’m not doing my job right.
Vancouver seems to be treating you well, and you’re very active in the creative scene here, are there any other cities or places that hold particular interest for you? What keeps you in Vancouver?
I would like to have my work represented in larger cities, but the more I plant roots in Vancouver, the harder it is to leave. A lot of what you get out of a scene is how much you put into it. I hope that I can inspire people to do the same and help make Vancouver stand out in the global art scene. I’ve always felt that this city is capable of it.
Do you work from photos? If so, what qualities do you look for in selecting a face to draw (other than who the face belongs to)?
I base my portraits off of photos that I take of people myself, in my studio. I sit him or her down and have a casual conversation as I have the person move their head around at different angles and make faces. In the end I have usually taken a couple hundred photos. I then flick though until I find that one great expression that they makes me pause more than the others. It’s like what makes us do a double take when we pass someone on the street that makes us look again.
If you could meet any living person, and have them sit for a portrait painting, who would it be, and could you describe how you’d paint (size, medium, palette, etc)?
It would probably have to be Lou Reed. His music has been such a large part of my life, and the painters surrounding his prime in New York have been the strongest influences in my work. I’ve always been keen on the intrinsic relationship between musicians and visual artists at that time, and have tried to emulate that myself.
As far as how I would paint him, it would probably be a large and gaudy thing. Not in any insulting way, but a hyper- realistic rendering of an aged hipster whose work held ground.