"Portraits" show artist interviews
If you haven't seen the Portraits group show in Hank & Dolly's, you are missing out. Curator Nathan Foxton interviewed several of the participating artists about their work. Check out what they had to say, and if you can't make it down to see the show before it closes April 29, check out images from the show here.
Tom Day
Hannah, Tom Day
What are you currently engaged with as an artist? What should we know about you at this time?
I'm attending Herron School of Art and Design. I am a sophomore and I am a painting student. I currently am intrigued by line work and small details through the use of polychromatic colored pencil drawings.
Tell us about your piece(s) in the show.
I had a show at the Harrison Center, where I drew my friends in a traditional style. I wanted to take that to the next level, by adding more colors and lines in these two portraits.
How would you describe your craft?
I really love to capture who a person is through 2-D design. I feel as if I am very consistent in quality and execution of texture and color. I hope to be able to translate my drawing style to my future paintings.
What is it you look for while capturing the figure?
I look for a common light source, and I try to intensify the lighting and shadows to try to increase the sense of drama in the work.
Nathan Foxton
Self-Portrait, Nathan Foxton
What are you currently engaged with as an artist? What should we know about you at this time?
This year my studio practice has brought more observational approaches into the work I’m making. I’m still continuing ‘The Hunt’ body of work that I immersed myself in last year. I’m continuing to push my color ideas but have found additional pleasure in drawing.
Tell us about your piece in the show.
This is a self portrait that I painted from observation. It went through a few stages. At first I essentially made a drawing; I often think of how to keep in the act of mark making, of using my paint in the act of drawing with it. That was essentially my underpainting. I went in with a very classical approach and layered that drawing with finely integrated spots of color. I ended up not liking it and repainted the whole thing in one night. Where the first ‘finished’ version was pretty consistent in lighting, I ended up using a cool light to illuminate my face and a low warm light in the background and in the shadows of my face.
How would you describe your craft?
I get an incredible sense of satisfaction through information that conveys color and what light does to it. It’s playing with those elements that move me from analytically drawing something to being immersed in the moment I’m creating on a 2D surface. It's both an unabashed pleasure to paint from observation, but also incredibly valuable in learning what light does to color and form. Most photographs just can’t give the information in one shot. I seek to use traditional methods of capturing something from reality to then command the essence of it in my more invented bodies of work.
What is it you look for while capturing the figure?
It’s a combination of how the person carries their own body (in some sense it is embodied personality) and the remarkable array of colors and tones that can be found which give the body its fullness.
David Hicks
Patriot, David Hicks
What are you currently engaged with as an artist? What should we know about you at this time?
Currently, my studio practice consists of creating large scale multi figure narrative drawings, which come together very slowly, over a period of months, sometimes years.
As an artist, I have always been inspired by art history, particularly the traditional altarpiece in Western Art. More specifically, I'm really in love with the idea of smaller sculptures and ornately carved frames that flank and "complement" the large centerpiece, either as sub stories or mini portraits. That's where the idea of the 3D printed heads came from. Both the large scale pieces and the 3D printed head sculptures are highly tied to portraiture.
Tell us about your piece(s) in the show.
They are actually 3D portrait versions of 2 characters in a large narrative drawing I had started. These were my first attempt at digitally sculpting and then 3D printing "flanking" sculptures for my big drawings. I had originally intended to make about 10-15 of these sculptures- each with a head and framing box. They would all be "portraits" of all the characters in my drama, and surround my drawing to act as a sort of frame. However, I have since been rethinking this idea, because of the time involved in sculpting and printing each head, as well as the frame. I've been thinking about dropping the frame idea altogether and simply printing the 3D heads to be seen in the round, perhaps on a shelf. It's an in process moment, but I definitely want to keep digitally sculpting and 3D printing!
How would you describe your craft?
To digitally sculpt the heads in the show I used a free program called Sculptris. It's very user friendly (and free I might add again). As far as digital media goes, it's the program I found to relate most to my process of drawing. As I start with a 3-dimensional sphere, or even a 3D scan of someone's head, I am constantly thinking about the topographical surface of the face, reconciling proportions, and capturing gestures of the facial features. It's very much like what I do in a classic portrait drawing, only it's digital and I have to think about things 3 dimensionally, since I can turn my model around.
To be honest, sculpting someone's face digitally and trying to get the level of detail that I am looking for actually takes much longer than simply drawing a portrait. Usually, if I start out with a 3D scan of a face, it takes about 3 hours of re-shaping the head/hair, 3-4 hours for detail in the mouth and nose, and 3 hours for sculpting each eye. If I want to do more with the hair, that's several more hours. All totaled, it took about 10-15 hours for me to sculpt each face.
What is it you look for while capturing the figure?
For these sculptures, I was very much going for a certain facial structure and facial expression that clearly communicated a personality or emotion. The text on the bottom of the frames ("Dying", or "Patriot") leaves no room for doubt about what I was going for. However, I think in the future I would like to not use text and let the facial expression and the color of the material speak for itself.
Ben Pines
Insight, Ben Pines
What are you currently engaged with as an artist? What should we know about you at this time?
At the moment I am preparing for a trip to Europe. I am looking forward to visiting museums and spending time with some great painters’ works. Velazquez, Rembrandt, Titian, Poussin, and Balthus are some of the artists I am thinking about. I am excited to see what or who else speaks to me when I visit the museums and galleries. Getting a taste of cultures that I have only read about until now is another item on my agenda. I’m living in a particular moment in social, environmental, and political history. I am looking at how I live, how I want to live, how I think I should live, and how this all relates to American cultural tendencies. That’s a thought I plan to take to Europe with me.
Tell us about your piece(s) in the show.
These are two of my most recent portraits that explore an inner life. They both started from sittings with a live model, and continued from photos and imagination over the course of about eight months. In both I experimented with applying glazes, transparent veils of color, to get a warmer effect than I had been seeking in previous work. Like most of my portraits, these paintings celebrate contemplation. For me making art is an active way to enjoy a contemplative life, an active form of meditation.
How would you describe your craft?
My paintings are records of very many small, considered actions. The process is a choreographed performance of expressing feelings and thoughts as they occur, as closely as I can. The vitality of direct emotional connection engages me in the process, and will, I hope, engage the viewer. Technically I’m interested in composition and design, a sense of light, a feeling of form, and getting there any way that comes to mind at the time.
What is it you look for while capturing the figure?
Over the past few years I have become increasingly interested in capturing more of the inner and outer life of the model or sitter. In the past I had felt that I was borrowing someone else’s form to tell my story. But now I’m more interested in imagining or trying to understand their point of view. It is always interesting. When I’m working I am interested in building on whatever feeling seems to be present. I work on designing, on a flat rectangular surface, a record of the appearance, and somehow the feeling, of light on living form, while being open to emotional content.
Caleb Stoltzfus
Brie, Caleb Stoltzfus
What are you currently engaged with as an artist? What should we know about you at this time?
I currently have a show in the Harrison Gallery. I am doing an artist residency at the Harrison Center.
Tell us about your piece(s) in the show.
Over the last few years I have on multiple occasions attempted to capture Brie's likeness. She is the person I know best, yet I've been frustrated to discover that I have a very difficult time translating her features onto paper. I think I've discovered that familiar features are more difficult to look at with an objective eye. My measurements become skewed by my own impression of what is already there. This drawing was my best effort so far in capturing Brie's likeness, though it still falls short in a few areas. Additionally, I liked how the medium (silverpoint) gave a delicacy to the subject, which I tried to contrast with an intensity of form and a sober facial expression.
How would you describe your craft?
My approach to drawing is both calculated and innate. While I try to be accurate, my road to "accuracy" is paved with inaccuracy. I don't stress over mistakes, I just scrub them off and try again. The rough surface that results from this gives my work a more interesting surface, I think, than if I had been accurate on the first try.
What is it you look for while capturing the figure?
Usually I am trying to argue something with the figure. Anything that I paint into the figure is supporting the argument of the painting. I think anatomical accuracy gives the figure more weight and more impact, so I usually try to shoot for a believable level of anatomical accuracy.
Gustavo Uriel
Straight, Gustavo Uriel
What are you currently engaged with as an artist? What should we know about you at this time?
Having concluded my thesis of personal narrative works, I am exploring loose-end ideas while adapting to life outside of school. Working in isolation, I have no one to answer to; I am free to indulge my immediate interests and switch gears at any moment. On the other hand, I am struggling to operate without the momentum I had grown to rely on. In my day to day, I am beginning to experience, first-hand, the virtual and analog spaces which hold domain over contemporary courtship interactions, a topic which remains holding my attention. Themes of exclusion, desire, and inaccessibility remain prominent in what drives my content. However, these ideas seem to come in and out of focus, which may or may not be a bad thing.
How would you describe your craft?
To put it simply, painting allows me to direct my constant over-analyzing of everything. When I paint I am after a feeling of catharsis. Therefore, I want to believe that I do most of the work on the canvas; creating a basic sketch or collage for problem solving; and references, either photos that I have taken or ones that I appropriate from online media, although, I am striving to rely on them less.