Summer School 2012 interview series: Rick Rudd

Kyla Mackenzie interviews award winning studio potter Rick Rudd in the lead-up to his Summer School class Hand Built Pottary in January 2012. Click here for a full description of Rick’s class & enrolment details.

KM: You trained in England and have, since arriving here in 1973, exhibited extensively here and overseas and have featured in many publications.  

Given your extensive experience as a pottery tutor,  having taught since 1981 – what do you look forward to with the upcoming course at Corban Estate Art Centre?


RR: I really enjoy the concentration necessary of shorter courses, the level of focus required, the adrenalin...  I want the students to milk me for as much information as possible...In fact, I'll know I haven't done a good job if I'm not drained at the end of the course!


KM: What do you enjoy most about teaching others? 


RR: It is very satisfying engaging with different personalities and adapting to different needs at each course.  Are they novice or  experienced?  It doesn't matter.  The challenge of each situation keeps tutoring fresh for me as each atmosphere is new and I therefore demonstrate in a different way.


KM: Do you gain perspective on your own work while teaching?


RR: While I like working on my own, you always gain ideas during workshops – they can really spark things off for me.  


KM: Over the course of 5 days, you'll be teaching students your techniques of pinching and coiling.  What will the students gain from these methods?


RR: Any shape is possible with this process – you can have very rounded forms to the very angular; they can look 'thrown' or look 'slab built'. A great advantage is that the forms don't have structural weaknesses – and that the method allows large scale objects to be made – building up from the bottom.  


KM: I understand that as a young student, you discovered your facility with clay despite being enrolled on a textiles course?


RR: I discovered I don't think in 2D during my Textiles course...After 2 or 3 months I went downstairs to the pottery class one evening and worked with clay for the first time.  I finally twigged.  'Clay was the Way'.  Therefore, while I had hated life drawing, I later loved making torsos out of clay.


Later when working with clay, I resorted to doing 'working' drawings after the objects were done – which was probably obvious to the tutors!

KM: Were there other moments or experiences that helped you along the way?


RR: I developed an appreciation for the Oriental aesthetic.  However, it took two trips in 1995 and 1997 to Japan for the penny to really drop. I marvelled at the pottery tradition in Japan and Japanese aesthetic, ...their talents and importance.  


In fact I have a large collection of Japanese drinking vessels  - I loaned them to Objectspace recently – 100 works collected over several years.  


KM: Were there individual practitioners who inspired you along the way?


RR: There were two strands of influence for me – the Modernist was one - Lucie Rie, a Viennese potter who left Nazi Germany to live in London, and Hans Coper who she mentored and then worked alongside, were my gods.  Function informed the shapes, but the resulting object was very much an aesthetic object.  The sculpture of Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth was also very formative.  I went down to London to a wonderful Henry Moore exhibition when I was still living in England. 


The other strand was represented by the domesticware of important British studio potter Bernard Leach who launched an Anglo/Japanese tradition with Japanese potter Hamada.  

Rustic simplicity was key.  


KM: And now?  


RR: I've been around so long, it's now a matter of my own work influencing me.  I go back and forwards – returning to ideas and re-developing forms in different directions.  


KM: Does function play much of a role as opposed to aesthetic considerations in your work?


RR: The teapot, for example, is an easy entry point for people.  They know what a teapot is.  A teapot of mine doesn't pour and well, it's impossible to get a teabag in... For me, it's all about form.  


KM: Your works that I saw recently are suggestively figurative, lively and playful – what are some of your visual stimuli?


RR: People see all sorts of things in my work.  It's just a form but that's ok.  People even see mountains... I never put titles on my pieces.  The shapes, line and form are suggestive of anthroporphism at times.


KM: What are your thoughts on pottery today? 


RR: There are fewer full-time potters.  Many of the existing potters went off and got 'real jobs' when cheap imports came in in the 1980s.  The 70's was the heyday – anyone could make pottery and sell it.  Now there is a discerning public and that's good.  It's healthy not to have an oversupply and more important to get quality.  


Now you get more part-time potters – who I would not call hobbyists – they are often just as professional as the full-time potters.  


KM: Why do you prefer to be called a studio potter rather than ceramicist?


RR: In the 1980s, you could go and do 'hobby ceramics' – and someone else would fire your pieces.  It was somewhat 'by numbers'.  To me, 'ceramicist', still smacks of that scenario.


The 'studio potter' makes one-off pieces so I use that description.  


KM: What are your thoughts on the status of New Zealand pottery/ceramics?  


RR: I think we punch above our weight, given our population size.  These days influence and ideas can go round the world in 5 seconds with the internet.  We're not so isolated any more.  
It never worries me when people copy or take ideas from my work.  Everyone's got to start somewhere in order to move onto something else...

Summer School 2012 interview series: Beck Wheeler

“I think art and play should be the same thing.”


CEAC staff member Kyla Mackenzie interviews Beck Wheeler in the lead-up to her Mixed Media Summer School class in January 2012. Click here for a full description of Beck’s class & enrolment details.

KM: Beck, in 2008 you were named one of Australia’s Top Ten Creative’s by Design Quarterly, you exhibit internationally (Japan, UK, USA, Australia, Spain and New Zealand) and now back in West Auckland, New Zealand, you are offering an exciting workshop at our 2012 Summer School:  


Did you ever dream you could have a career using your imagination and immense sense of play?


BW: I always wanted to be an artist, but when I was younger I didn't know how to become an artist. I thought it might be something that just magically happened. 


I got stuck in art school for awhile. I found art school quite conservative, instead of inspired I felt very confined. At art school if you weren't doing minimalist text based paintings or conceptual installation you failed. 


It took me a few years away from art school before I started to embrace my creativity again. I looked at the things I collected and the things I loved for inspiration. I learnt to paint in every medium available, I learnt ceramics, textiles and a variety of sculptural techniques. I allowed myself to play and make mistakes. And then 10 years later I realised I was making a living full time as an artist. 


KM: Your course offers the student the creative environment in which to create visual narratives using paint and found objects:  how will you guide the class to mine their personal memories for this purpose?


BW: Our minds are a great big filing cabinet filled with our memories and experiences. Maybe you want to do an artwork about a childhood memory, or maybe you want to do an artwork about your morning walk to the dairy.


I think art is about being honest with yourself. What excites you about art/life, might not excite someone else. There are no right and wrong answers, its very personal. 


Everyone has things they have collected, things they love, colours they are drawn to. 
I think the key to keeping creativity alive is to identify the things that excite you. Then not to judge these things as being either good, bad or ugly.


KM: What should they bring?


BW: You will need to bring in the materials on the materials list, which includes acrylic paint and brushes. Additional materials to bring in will be discussed on the first day of the course. This might be reference material, family photos, paper for collage, or objects that you want to work with. We will be working predominately with acrylic paint, however we will discuss how to work in mixed media. A limited amount of inks and watercolours will be available to experiment with. If you have your own watercolours or inks you are welcome to bring them in.


KM: What are some of the sorts of found objects you yourself have found evocative in your own works?  


BW: I am drawn to domestic objects. I use old kitchen utensils, broken childrens toys and all sorts of random odds and ends. I work mainly in wood and plastic.


KM: You provide some understanding of colour theory in the workshop – what are some of the emotional resonances and perceptual effects that you find particularly compelling?


BW: In my own work I try to use the brightest colours I can find. I will use one bright colour and then I will find or make its opposite (relating to the colour wheel). I am inspired by how you can create harmony in an artwork through the use of opposing/complementary colours. Even when you are using a very colourful palette you can still create harmony and balance.


Colour also has the ability to communicate without words. I love how passionate people get about a colour, or a palette of colours.  If you want to see how passionately geeky you can get about colour palettes then head to www.colourlovers.com This website is where people can go to upload their favourite colour combinations it has 1,815,625 different colour combos uploaded so far.


KM: What textures and colours from your own childhood memory have informed your own work?  


BW: I was bought up in the late 1970's and a lot of my childhood books and toys were in citrus greens and oranges with splashes of hot pink and muted shades of blues and browns. I am  definitely drawn instinctively to using a similar colour palette in my work.


The textures and patterns I use developed as I experience different cultures and environments. I use a lot of textures from the bush since moving to Piha, but when I was living in the city I tended to use more geometric forms.
  
KM: Childhood or references to are often delightfully universal in much of your own work:  do you think we should actively embrace ‘the child’ within?  


BW: I think childhood themes are popular because they remind us of a time when it was okay to play. In play there is no right or wrong. But as we grow older we start to analyse everything in terms of being right/wrong good/bad and we lose the freedom of play. 


I think art should embrace play. I think art and play should be the same thing.


KM: How important is play, fun and beauty for our mental health?


BW: I think play and fun are very important to our mental state.


KM: Who are some of the artists who have inspired your art and philosophy along the way?  


BW: Edward Gorey, Jon Pylypchuk, Quentin Blake, Chris Ware, Winsor McCay, Shaun Tan, William Morris, Richard Kearney, Bosch, Brian Boyd


KM: What do you look forward to most about your upcoming Summer School workshop?

BW: Sharing knowledge: I am passionate about art materials and using traditional painting techniques in a contemporary way.


Empowering creativity: I think everybody is creative, but we just get trained out of it as we grow older. I think it is important to get the creative juices flowing.

Summer School 2012 interview series: Anna Browne

CEAC staff member Kyla Mackenzie interviews Anna Browne in the lead-up to her Summer School class Material Effects in January 2012. Click here for a full description of Anna’s class & enrolment details.

 Anna Browne

KM: In what way have some of your own works paid some sort of homage to your own family history and or domestic arts in that history?


AB: My own work does not directly comment on domestic arts in a post-modern, self conscious sense. Instead I see my work as a continuation of the crafting skills family members have/had. I have vivid memories of my maternal grandparents using wool (knitting and rug making). My mother taught me to sew and crochet. Craft techniques interest me as a mode of physically producing art work.


KM: When did you first get inspired by the concept of re-purposing/recycling/up-cycling secondhand or vintage fabric?


AB: Two things inspired me: My love of textiles and necessity (lack of money!). At secondary school a friend and I used to remake or modify clothes bought from the Sallies. At the time there were a lot of beautiful dresses from the 50's and 60's in the second hand shops. I also remember making a beanbag out of old school jerseys. I'm keen to make that sort of thing in the Summer School Class. 

Remnant Wool Cushion

Woven Blanket

KM: What do you think the trend towards re-using existing materials says about society today?  


AB: Hopefully it means a growing awareness of the finite nature of resources on Earth. Re-using materials is something humans have always done - a majority of societies in the world still do. In the west our prodigal use of 'consumable' items is predicated on cheap labour and commodities. A consequence of being removed from the production of goods is our ignorance of the toil and resources that go into making them. 


KM: Is the intersection between ‘craft’ and ‘art’ an interesting one to navigate, for you?


AB: I don't see art and craft as two poles on some sort of a spectrum - perhaps they once were? They are intertwined, particularly at the moment with the current popularity for 'craft-based' artwork. Just because something has an assigned function doesn't mean it's without 'art-content', and vice versa. Many pieces of art are carefully crafted. 
Looking at this issue in a political way (high-brow art vs. low-brow craft) is not an issue for me personally.

Jersey Pouffe

KM: What are your thoughts on the feminine history associated with 'home-craft'?


AB: It's easy to forget how limited the choices were for many women, even forty years ago. Home-crafting wasn't just about thrift, but an important way for women to express themselves, to personalise house-hold items and clothes etc. Home-crafts can also have broader significance. I'm very interested in the history of quilt making; the stories they tell, the evolution of the patterns and the social roles they played. The quilts from Gee's Bend, or Durham Quilts are wonderful examples of this.

Summer School 2012 Interview Series: Alexis Neal on print-making and teaching

Alexis

CEAC staff member Kyla Mackenzie interviews Alexis Neal in the lead-up to her Summer School class ‘Te Mata Kia Mahi ‘To Work the Surface’ in January 2012. Click here for a full description of Alexis’s class & enrolment details.

KM: I think I first saw your printmaking in the 1990s when you were producing beautiful, mysterious mezzotints of taonga – at that stage you had left Elam SFA and were studying at the Slade School of Art in London.  In what ways did being so far from home affect your print-making practice and perspective on yourself?

AN: I felt I needed to go and see things from another perspective to explore another side of my Identity and my placement within that context. And I achieved that, I come back a lot more confident in my ideas and had a better understanding or over sight of where my position could be developed.

KM:  Do you think there are still misconceptions about the medium of printmaking?  The word alone is often confused with straight reproductions.

AN: Unfortunately in New Zealand we are consistently defending Print and to educate the public is not an easy thing. The diversity of the medium and its layers is very technically demanding and challenging just for the artist alone, let alone the average person to understand the process. So yes the conversation between limited edition print verses reproduction is a difficult one. And it’s value.

KM: How has tutoring over the years affected your perspective on your own work – if at all?

AN: I have really enjoyed the teaching aspect as I love to share knowledge and its really rewarding when you see your students achieve their goals. It certainly has informed my practice and made me look at aspects of my own work, the directions I have gone through and the surfaces I have been creating.

'Exchange for a musket'

KM: You’ve got four days to get students into creating their own imagery: what do you enjoy about teaching others?

AN: Introducing students to new ways of working, asking them to consider layers and how they build those layers. Being resourceful with found materials, how they could use them within their work and just to experiment.

KM: How should or can students generate ideas? A work-book? 

AN: A work book is great as it is a place where we can develop our thoughts and working drawings, a place to store research in a particular area and a place to revisit later on. My self my studio wall has become that work book. But honestly I say to my students sometimes we need to work through the process to understand our ideas. Making mistakes, learning what doesn’t work and what does.

KM: What kinds of materials can add to the rich layering possible in printmaking? 

AN: Re- cycled materials like fabrics, organic surfaces, anything that can give you an impression. Multiply printing using a number of plates inked up and printed on top of each other creating constructed compositions. Chine Colle to collage or to add thin wasi Japanese paper can enhance areas of imagery.  

KM: What qualities do you think are particular to printmaking as opposed to painting?

AN: Firstly they are very different applications and processes, both giving very different effects. The surface quality, the subtly of constructed line and tone and the materials used on works on paper sits very different than paint on paper. The print allowing us the multiply, and the painting, the original.

KM: Alexis, you’ve claimed elsewhere that printmaking and its processes appealed to an organized, methodical person such as yourself.  Is there a balance to be found and encouraged between the method, procedure and the happy accidents along the way?

AN: I think you’re either attracted to print or not, for me I enjoy the technical layers as it allows me to develop my ideas through the process. And that unknown happy accident draws me in even more to discover ‘what if’?

KM:  How does one incorporate playfulness and spontaneity with the discipline of making editions of the same (consistent) image? 

AN: Well the edition is there to be challenged, but there is something quite rewarding when you have spent a lot of time working on plates, creating your relief layers and working out the order of what layers are going down first is where you start to see the work take shape. There’s a technique in getting things consistent. And to really answer your question, it’s in the mark making and the above surfaces that keep it playful and fresh.

KM: What do you find each process within printmaking offers to your own practice and development?  For example, a mysterious quality with the dark medium of mezzotint

AN: There has been a continuous area of research and investigation made so far in my career and sometimes print isn’t the best medium for my ideas. But print is the backbone of my practice and it informs everything else that I do. I see print as my working drawings, but those drawings have been made on plates allowing me to manipulate in any way, giving me options. But I have chosen certain print processes because I am seduced by the velvety black of a mezzotint, I am seduced by the layers I can create through woven surfaces and the endless possibilities of what if.

KM: What elements do you feel make a picture, regardless of medium, compelling?   Meaningful concepts or rich allusions for example, or can a work stand on its formal elements alone?

AN: Content is really important to me and good execution of those ideas. Sometimes we can’t always get it right but if you demand the viewer to look closely at your work I believed it has worked on some level. 

KM: What would you like to see in terms of raising the profile for print medium in New Zealand – to receive the same reception and exposure as painting?

AN: I think it’s about time that the big gallery institutions start putting print shows together that celebrate how rich print is in New Zealand. We need to show case celebrity artists working in print through to emerging artists and community based artists all in the some space. I’m in the process of curating a Works on Paper show at Art Station in October 4^th where I will be installing print within a large Poutama wall installation to start that conversation.

I think also maybe the more established galleries should be show casing print more to meet the market and to educate them. We are in a turbulent time where most people can’t afford to buy an original painting and that’s where print should come in, making it more assessable to the public to purchase at an affordable price depending on the edition size and who the artist is.

Summer School Tutor Interview Series - Bridget Brandon

CEAC staff member Kyla Mackenzie interviews Bridget Brandon in the lead-up to her Summer School class ‘Igniting the Creative Fire of Writing’ in January 2011. Click HERE for a full description of Bridgets' class & enrolment details.


KM: Your upcoming writing course in January Igniting the Creative Fire of Writing revolves around each participant's own life story. Is this focus on understanding one's own life, a crucial step for meaningful writing of any kind?

BB: I feel the core of my work is about creating the platform for individuals to dive into themselves and at the same time into their creativity...It seems we have a lot of hang ups about our writing in particular. In addition people think their life is ordinary and they can’t express themselves. Given the right circumstances and encouragement most people are creative.

KM: A previous student of yours said:
“I feel that 'writing' my life is also like 'righting' my life - setting it out before me, so I can look at and understand the reason for decisions I have made throughout the years I have been writing about.” (http://storyworks.com.au) Is this a common experience for your students?

BB: Yes it is!

My goal is to allow people to see their life is not ordinary. No ones life is ordinary. (It is) quite the opposite and telling their stories and having their stories listened to in a non judgemental way allows them to appreciate the uniqueness of their life. With the feedback I focus on what works and I get the group to provide feedback on what works. Once someone is feeling confident, sometimes then I introduce the element of what else or what if...

KM: What is an example of one of your ‘loosening up’ exercises to get thoughts and memories flowing?

BB: One example is to draw a word out of a hat and write about what it means for 5 minutes.
Another is to choose a colour and then keep observing where you see that colour and next day write for 10 minutes on that colour.

KM: What's an example of a writing discipline you get your students to use?

BB: Just do it, just have a go. Early on I give out 5 writing principles. These really help people deal with their critic and issues. Each day they choose one to work with and at the end of the day we check in to see how they have gone. So the key is active engagement and not letting them get away with saying they can’t do it.

…. Focus on the story and the words will follow whereas if you focus on the words paraylsis sets in and the story is lost.

An excerpt below is written by someone who I think sums up my approach:

I arrived at the Larapinta River without a story in my mind and no idea whether I would actually be able to write anything. I have never had any confidence about writing and this was my first experience of putting my stories onto paper. The week was full of insights, friendship, grace and fun. Thinking about what made it possible for me to get so much out of it. Here are some thoughts.

The written hints we were given (eg the Basic Prinicples/ Seven Rules//Haiku guidelines) were sufficient to give practical help and to set a tone of freedom without being prescriptive (ie that there was a "correct" way to write and a benchmark to achieve).

No activity went for too long - most of the exercises were quite short in duration and I had a sense that even if I wasn't sure I was "on task" it didn't matter as the time spent doing it was limited and the next task would come along shortly. I didn't have time to "get stuck".

The reading back to the group was great - it gave me a sense of each person's uniqueness and that there were a lot of different ways of approaching a task - all of which were valid and which, therefore, validated my own voice/expression.

The fact that it was compulsory to read aloud was important - it helped to know that you "could run but you couldn't hide"(as it were). At some point you had to put into voice the words written on the page.

I arrived at the Larapinta River without a story in my mind and no idea whether I would actually be able to write anything. I have never had any confidence about writing and this was my first experience of putting my stories onto paper. The week was full of insights, friendship, grace and fun. Thinking about what made it possible for me to get so much out of it. Here are some thoughts.

The written hints we were given (eg the Basic Principles/ Seven Rules/Haiku guidelines) were sufficient to give practical help and to set a tone of freedom without being prescriptive (ie that there was a "correct" way to write and a benchmark to achieve).

No activity went for too long - most of the exercises were quite short in duration and I had a sense that even if I wasn't sure I was "on task" it didn't matter as the time spent doing it was limited and the next task would come along shortly. I didn't have time to "get stuck".

The reading back to the group was great - it gave me a sense of each person's uniqueness and that there were a lot of different ways of approaching a task - all of which were valid and which, therefore, validated my own voice/expression.

The fact that it was compulsory to read aloud was important - it helped to know that you "could run but you couldn't hide"(as it were). At some point you had to put into voice the words written on the page.

I did find that once my secrets became stories they were set free. There was an alchemy that took place. The stories still belonged to me but they didn't have the same grip on me as before. They became things to respect as the experiences that had shaped me and I didn't feel scared that people would judge me.

Telling my stories allowed my light to shine. Active listening was important - you knew that at the end of your reading there would be comments which kept me grounded in the experience (not able to quickly slam the book and pretend it had never happened).

Working with metaphor was really useful. It was helpful to step outside my own reality and to use the language of "tree/landscape/nature" to write more evocatively. It allowed me to experiment with language and to look at situations from a different perspective.

The process of rewriting the "hard" situation using the language of the landscape was particularly helpful. It changed the language and tone of the story completely and that was a revelation to me.

The process of drawing the life scheme (rapids/billabongs/flowing) was very useful. To then take a "chapter" and break it down into "moments" made it easy to approach the story. It also allowed me to see how rich each of those "chapters" was and that there was a wealth of material for stories. I felt proud of my life when I thought of it like that - such a rich life!!

The consistency around the time keeping was good. Knowing that there was a set time to complete a task and that we would be kept to that made it possible to concentrate on the task at hand - your instruction to "find a way to finish the sentence" meant that the task didn't "bleed" into the time available.

The clarity of instructions and permission to take the task wherever it wanted to go. It meant there was both structure and freedom.

Bridget’s management of the "subtle “level to the group was masterful. Especially on the morning that Paul left - you brought us back to a a more centred space. You did this by naming the tension that was in the group and by asking us to renew our commitment to the process.

Having all the logistics taken care of was fantastic - it freed me to concentrate on the tasks at hand - no distractions and no rushing to ensure that I was on time for tasks - I was free to chill out and follow my own thoughts.
~ Participant 2005

Sewing School with Sarah Bird

"It was like being in Project Runway (one of my favourite shows!) – but without the competition edge. It was just pure fun! Four of us lined up in an arts studio, with our machines, piles of gorgeous vintage fabrics, books on sewing and appliqué, patterns and accessories to drool over."

Aimee from On Top Of A Lily Pad reports back on a practice run of the 'Sew Inspired' Summer School Class with Sarah Bird.

Read the full story on Aimee's BLOG.

Summer School Tutor Interview Series - James Moore

James Moore

'Untitled' 2009 - 2010

CEAC staff member Kyla Mackenzie interviews James Moore in the lead-up to his Summer School class ‘Drawing Beyond the Boundaries’ in January 2011. Click HERE for a full description of James's class & enrolment details.

KM: You are holding a three day workshop, Drawing Beyond the Boundaries, 18 – 20 January 2011, at Corban Estate Art Centre in Henderson. How would you describe your approach to drawing in this class?

JM: It’s a broad and explorative approach, covering a wide range of media, techniques and perspectives on the notion of drawing.

KM: Paint is used in this class and you have taught both painting and drawing for 15 years. Are drawing and painting as categories in art potentially confusing?

JM: Categories of drawing and painting may have a large area of overlap. Rather than being confusing it just means that the categories shouldn’t be seen as being too separate. If I make a preparatory study in painted line then it can be a drawing and a painting.

KM: What do you love about teaching art?

JM: It is really satisfying to see students make progress in their work. It is powerful to help instill and support the self belief that students need to make keep making art.

KM: Is it hard to find the time for your own art?

JM: Yes. Sometimes. It can be frustrating to have the ideas and motivation but have other commitments keeping me from getting in to the studio… It’s a matter of grabbing the windows of opportunity when they come along and hope the opportunities coincide with some inspiration.

KM: I have asked painter Viki Garden if she considers painting to be “... a difficult pleasure”. Is a certain amount of struggle simply part of the creative process?

JM: Yes. I would describe it as a difficult pleasure. I generally run into problems in a painting sooner or later even with things quite well planned before hand. Problem solving is a big part of the art making process. A lot of people want to believe that it’s all feverish emotional outpouring and soul bearing split by a lightning bolt of inspiration.

KM: Some of your own work is montage-like. Objects are placed together within the frame creating intriguing combinations. Could you describe them as ‘picture-poems’?

JM: Yes in the sense that the combinations of elements in my work do not necessarily have literal narrative connections. They resonate in more oblique ways so yes it’s more like poetry than prose I guess.

KM: What are some of the things around you that inspire your own work?

JM: I’m interested in certain elements of popular culture at the moment. Computer games, still-frames from T.V. dramas, urban street art, street signage, shopping mall interiors.

KM: Do you keep a work book/diary with ideas on you?

JM: Yes. I have always kept a visual diary and encourage my students to do the same. It’s good to have your thoughts, doodles and pictures collated in one place.

KM: You’re also a musician. Does this have any influence on your visual art?

JM: Music and art work separately for me. When I am not teaching I am either doing a music project or painting project but generally not both. I feel I absolutely need to be doing both music and visual art and they complement each other rather than one being a direct influence on the other.

KM: Who are some of the artists, historical or contemporary, who inspire you?

JM: James Ensor, Francis Picabia, Anette Messager, Alex Katz, Neo Rauch, David Salle, Martin Kippenberger, Sigmar Polke, Bill Hammond, Andrew McLeod, John Pule, Joanna Margeret Paul, Julie Mehretu, Beatrize Milhazes.

Summer School 2011 Tutor Interview Series - Viky Garden

'New World Virtues' 2007

Oil/acrylic on jute
83.5 x 63.5cm

CEAC staff member Kyla Mackenzie interviews Viky Garden in the lead-up to her Summer School class ‘It’s All About You’ in January 2011. Click HERE for a full description of Viky's class & enrolment details.

KM: How long has your work been preoccupied with autobiographical element and the figure – referenced from yourself?

VG: There’s a self portrait on my wall that was in my fifth form art folder – that’s going back almost 35 years now….

KM: Your recent works, from 2009 and 2010 are quite different in effect. Rather than frontal portraits with exaggerated features, in the works from ‘nature/nurture’, a young girlish figure in black-silhouetted profile features in various allegorical scenarios. Did anything in particular spur this approach?

VG: I’m forever noting things in my workbook, drawing compositional sketches etc., because I’m always looking for new ways to represent the figurative within a narrative context. When I drew the silhouette, I knew that it would add more abstraction and ambiguity (even though it’s still my profile). The initial idea came from a profile in Arabesque (2006), which I adapted into the Passenger series (2009). While playing with ideas for Nature/Nurture (2010), I drew inspiration from the Pahiatua girls from Any Given Day (2002). I enjoy having a large body of work that I can constantly reference, and from which develop a unique language and individual set of motifs.

Private collection
'Self Portrait - Some trace of her' 2009
Oil/acrylic on hessian
800 x 600mm

Huia I
oil/acrylic on linen
50 x 70cm

KM: You have explored younger 'selves' previously in self-portraiture, such as ‘Seven”. What does ‘girlhood’ mean for you?

VG: It’s a very, very vulnerable time, a time of absorbing and grasping ideas, of innocence and fragility. In Nature/Nurture, I have been exploring notions of merit and value, juxtaposing youthful innocence against the implicit presence of societal violence and sexualisation, so it was crucial to use a very young protagonist for this series to give emphasis to vulnerability, impressionability and the potential for corruptibility.

KM: What do red lipsticked lips mean for you?

VG: Lipstick is face-paint, a feminine tool. I use it in a number of ways, partly to convey or accentuate sadness, irony, and artifice, but also to suggest individual projection and power.

KM: Familiarity breeds contempt, as the saying goes. Does this have any relevance to your own repeated use of your face and body in your works?

VG: Not at all. If an idea is strong, I’m like a bull at a gate. It’s more about how to use her than me.

With regard to her. I start a composition that has a portraiture element to it - I include myself within the context of the narrative. In the process of doing that, the portrait becomes more a figurative element, a slight disassociation that somehow allows both intimate reference (subjective 'the me') but also universal resonance (objective 'the her'). Which is why when other women (in particular) when viewing a painting, often see themselves.
I don't think they're buying a portrait of me. I've had experiences (one in particular) where two women came to one of my shows and one woman broke down in front of a painting. It wasn't because she saw me, she saw herself.

All the paintings become 'my girls' - when I see a work I've not seen for a while, I think, god, isn't she lovely!

KM: I've heard that 'good' models are hard to find. The artist's face is often the most convenient subject and talking to yourself is optional... Do you ever get asked to produce portraits of others?

VG: Talking to myself is mandatory, not optional. I have been asked to paint commissions, however, painting someone else would mean interrupting a process that I have worked at for nearly twenty years. When I am painting, my mind is already working out how to move and expand (or reduce) the idea – so I’m already prepping the next canvas in my head and have worked in this way for years now - very much to the exclusion of all else. I’m rather protective of the way I work because ideas are fragile things and often the strength of a body of work is in the continuation of various thematic threads. It is very difficult to apply or impose these personal thematic strains on someone else, someone with their own set of expectations.

KM: You have gained a strong following, particularly over the last decade, and your works have a depth, truth and integrity. Is painting for you, as Australian painter Brett Whitely put it, ‘a difficult pleasure’?

VG: Very much. It’s a difficult pleasure on various levels. I live in a city that has a high cost of living and I paint full time, so I’m dependent on my work selling. The compromised lifestyle isn’t something I’d recommend in a hurry – not when you consider that inspired work has to come from it. Facing a blank canvas is daunting enough, then comes the time - the very alone time – of creating art. When it works, it’s a moment of personal celebration.

KM: As a young painter, you were tutored by another painter, Vivian Lynn. She later became Lecturer of Drawing and Design, Schools of Architecture and Design, Victoria University. Did anything about her approach encourage your own hard edged painting style or did that evolve much later?

VG: Vivian tutored me for five years during my mid-teens. I am immensely grateful for that time with her. They were formative years and I was in the best of hands. Her dedicated, disciplined and focused approach is a constant inspiration to me. An artist for nearly sixty years, Vivian’s work is as topical, relevant and vital as when I first met her. I began painting when I was 27 and my practice is drawn primarily from my time with her.

KM: Who are some artists and or artworks that have impacted on you and your work in some way?

VG: Many artists and artworks have stopped me in my tracks. Shani Rhys James is a Welsh painter who also uses herself within a narrative framework. Marianne Kolb paints dark figurative studies that I sense are autobiographical. I’m also very passionate about the work of Ben Nicholson and Paul Nash. Their work has a high level of emotional intelligence, more feminine in expression than masculine. The sculptural work of Beth Cavener Stichter is inspiring. Another artist who greatly impresses me is Valerio Adami. My work is vastly different to his, but I completely understand his use of line and colour. His sense of composition is flawless.

KM: How do you recognise long-term potential and drive in the work of students and emerging artists?

VG: If someone is able to articulate thoughts visually, devoid of superficiality (unless that’s their intent and they express it well), then that’s a good place to start. Much depends upon motivation, discipline, good fortune and good timing. I am very interested in subtext (which I apply to my own work), and I look for it in the work of others. I’m attracted to art with conceptual depth, a sense of mystery and modesty – these are a few of the things I look for that speak to me about the inherent individual quality of an artist.

KM: Your paintings are instantly recognizable as yours. How do you encourage others painting their self-portraits to find their own iconography and painting style?

VG: I think if I can get others to feel relaxed with what they are trying to do, then something will come of it – perhaps not even in the week that we have together. That’s fine. The pressure can be immense, a blank canvas can be intimidating, let alone a mirror in unflattering light. I simply want students to realize that painting is a process, and that observing oneself for long periods can be very rewarding.

KM: What are your thoughts on University art schools?

VG: This is a difficult one for me to answer because I didn’t have the opportunity to attend an art school. However, after twenty years as an exhibiting artist, I’m aware that had I been in the class of so-and-so or under the tutelage of whomever, it would have been very handy for dealers, funding councils etc., enabling them to more easily contextualise my work. It’s a privilege to be able to spend time within an arts facility, and to build up one’s practice without the pressure of exhibiting each year and having to make a living.

KM: Your upcoming class on self-portraiture, ‘It’s All About You’ at Corban Estate Art Centre in Henderson, runs from 17 to 21 January 2011. Teaching painting must be quite a contrast to the solitary activity of painting in your studio. What are your thoughts on this?

VG: Yes, it’s vastly different. I please myself in my own studio, so the discipline of having to achieve something within a strict timeframe is going to be interesting.

KM: You have taught in this capacity before – what do you most enjoy about guiding other painters?

VG: I love seeing people quietly bloom. It can be very poignant. Unlike still life or landscape painting, the trust and courage required to approach this type of self-examination cannot be underestimated. Seeing what one is capable of can be very revealing, but it can also be a very rewarding experience.

KM: What sorts of ideas and approaches should your students bring to their class in January?

VG: The only thing I would suggest is to leave the Greek chorus of nay-sayers at home. Everyone will come with their own ideas, aspirations and hang-ups, so if I can get on track with each person and support and encourage them, then I’ll be more than happy, and hopefully they’ll enjoy what they’re doing and not feel it’s an examination.