Interview with Ashley Macomber
q)What is your name?
a)Ashley Macomber
q) Where do you live and work?
a)Los Angeles California
q)What is your creative process like?
a)There is some thinking and reading followed by sketches, then photos and source material, then drawings and finally painting.
q)What is your favorite medium?
a)Acrylic on wood or paper.
q)What is your current favorite subject?
a)Hands in gloves, costuming, humans, America, reality, giant squid. Lots of things. It is an ever changing list. Sports.
q)How long does it take for you to finish a piece?
a)It varies. My larger paintings take months and it can become a very overwhelming process so I try to switch up my projects by working with video and sculpture which are less time consuming and allow me to have a looser more goofy tone.
q)What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?
a)It seems to be the most recent thing that I was involved in. Its usually a solo show and seeing if all the pieces fit.
q)Are there any contemporary artists that you love?
a)Lee Bontecou, William Wegman, Wynne Greenwood, Louise Bourgeois, probably a million others but I am terrible with remembering names. Dick Bruna
q)Can we buy your art anywhere?
a)You can contact V-1 Gallery in Copenhagen and Kavi Gupta Gallery in Chicago .
q)Anything that people should know about that we don't??
a)Nathan barley. Peace and fucking.
q)What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
a)Work a lot even if you don't have time or space.
q)What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
a)I would get depressed and be super unhappy if I didn't make work so I just move forward. And you shouldn't let anyone else influence your path in life because time is relative and noone knows what they are doing.
q)How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?
a)I guess I try not to and tell them to look at it. When I try I always feel very tongue tied. People have very distinct notions in their minds of what painting is and the language can be very broad and misleading.
q)What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
a)I went to Rhode Island School of Design and graduated with a painting degree and then I worked as a textile designer recreating antique textiles. I learned an incredible amount about technique and color.
q)Is there a tool or material that you can't imagine living without?
a)My camera.
q)Who are your influences?
a)Bob Dylan, Lee Bontecou, Jane Goodall, Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica.
q)What inspires you to create?
a)The notion that I could one day make the perfect painting. Or at least tame my brain.
q)…your contacts…
a) ashleymacomber.com,
ashley@ashleymacomber.com
Interview with John U. Abrahamson
q)What is your name?
a)John U. Abrahamson
q) Where do you live and work?
a)San Francisco, California, USA
q)What is your creative process like?
a)Late at night, I wrap myself around a feeling that I need to express then dive into the canvas most of time with little or no forethought as to the image itself. I start with a blank canvas and paint it black. Jet black. I then scratch in a base image that calls out from the void and wipe away the black until the image is revealed using the white of the base canvas as highlights.
q)What is your favorite medium?
a)Oils.
q)What is your current favorite subject?
a)All the dark little corners of the psyche that no one wants to shed light on. Currently, my own mortality and finality of death.
q)How long does it take for you to finish a piece?
a)Depends. Works on canvas or wood can take up to 3 or 4 weeks. Works on paper HAVE to be completed start to finish within 12 hours time, otherwise the paint dries and I can no longer manipulate the black paint.
q)What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?
q)Are there any contemporary artists that you love?
a)H.R. Giger, from my childhood on, Saturno Butto and Lucian Freud.
q)Can we buy your art anywhere?
a)Yes, there are several galleries that carry my work but the best way is to contact Les Barany at lesbarany@aol.com
q)Anything that people should know about that we don’t?
a)That my mother abandoned my sister and I when we were 5 and 7 years of age. I mention this because the work of mine that seems misogynistic refers to this alone.
q)What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
a)Never be satisfied, never listen to anyone except your own intuition.
q)What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
a)The knowledge that the answer to whatever artistic quandry I may face is there and simply needs to be found. That and a shower. I do all my best thinking in the shower.
q)How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?
a)Dark, traditional, rough, figurative, sacreligious, sexualy charged, and not work for those that are easily offended.
q)What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
a)I found my voice DESPITE art school. My training was through examination of the masters works and then trying to figure out how to do the same thing.
q)Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
a)5 realy good brushes and ivory black. Now adays a computer as well.
q)Who are your influences?
a)Motherwell, H.R. Giger, Francis Bacon, and the literary figure of Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost.
q)What inspires you to create?
a)That welling up of emotions from within that if they did not have a canvas to explode upon would simply consume and ultimately kill me and I do not mean that in a metaphoric sense.
q)…your contacts…
a)
jua@johnua.comhttp://www.JohnUA.com
Interview with Martin Skauen
q)What is your name?
a)Martin Skauen
q) Where do you live and work?
a)I live and work in Berlin. At the moment I have an artist residency at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien.
q)What is your creative process like?
a)It is like mentally putting together a story or constructing an image that makes my heart beat faster. Then its finding balance through adding or substracting elements, so that the image or story reaches a perfect ambivalence
q)What is your favorite medium?
a)Drawing and video.
q)What is your current favorite subject?
a)Faith, devotion and the misunderstanding of power.
q)How long does it take for you to finish a piece?
a)It depends on the size, one day to six months.
q)What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?
a)Accepting that I will never totally understand my work.
q)Are there any contemporary artists that you love?
a)Jorunn Hancke, my girlfriend.
q)Can we buy your art anywhere?
a)That would be through my galleries: Galleri MGM and Laura Bartlett Gallery.
q)Anything that people should know about that we don’t??
q)What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?
a)Keep working and not comparing own work with anybody elses.
q)What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
a)That usually when its frustrating the work ends up stronger.
q)How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?
a)Classic old school detailed figurative pencil drawing. I often use video to make new stories out the drawings, filming straight off the drawing (no animation). The videos have soundtracks made by myself and my band.
q)What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?
a)Well, I went to the art academy for 4 years and prior to that 2 years of artschool. It would be wrong to say that that didn’t do anything, but I think learning to shake off all the information and the notion of being tought how to make art made things easier. I didn’t make drawings at all before two years after ended art education. I think all those years of school, experimenting and even running an artist space for several years helped build up what I’m doing now.
q)Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?
a)My imagination.
q)Who are your influences?
a)No one in particular. There are so many people and things that has an influence on me, what I do and how I think. Its hard to drop names.
q)What inspires you to create?
a)War, ignorant people, stupidity, thinking of death, women in burka, nature, Jesus, music, movies, strippers, money, family, presidents and dreams.
q)…your contacts…
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