Emil Robinson

http://paintingperceptions.com/interviews/emil-robinson

Amy Hutcheson - Playhouse on the Square, 66 Cooper Street, Memphis, Tennessee

A conversation with Memphis artist Amy Hutcheson about her forthcoming exhibition, "Transformation" at Playhouse on the Square.

DH: You have an upcoming exhibition at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis, Tennessee. When does the show open?   How many pieces?

AH: It's a beautiful new space. The show goes up September 17 and the opening reception is September 25 from 4-6 pm. The show runs through November 7. I hope everyone comes.

I am working on having 20-30 drawings/paintings for this exhibition.  The work is combination of graphite, ink and gesso on paper.

I love drawing and so this work is a natural progression for me. I sat back recently (on the advice of Fred Burton my friend and professor from college) and took inventory of the work I have done in the past 5 years.  I listed what I liked and didn't like about each series, both process and finished product. It always came back to the drawing and the work within the lines.  So I took all these thoughts and pulled them together and tried to develop a synchronicity. I think it works quite well.  This is the most personal work I have ever created.

DH: You seem to be creating in an interesting place that balances between abstraction and representation.  Almost as though the viewer is looking through several frames of film that have been stacked.  In fact, these pieces do feel cinematic.  Are there individual inspirations for the different pieces or maybe is this series a storyline with a beginning and end - or does each piece stand alone?

AH: I think it's a bit of both.  I think all work tells a story about the artist.  Sometimes it much more obvious to the viewer and other times it is only there for the artist.  I look back at work and it's like a photo album of memories for me.  Probably like how some parents look back at their child's first day of school.  I can tell you what music I was listening to, what was happening in my life when I look back at different pieces I have created.

This work is really about breaking down the obvious elements of the figure and reconstructing them in a way that creates something totally different.  I work from a reference photo for the initial drawing, but then never look at the reference again so that the image becomes totally different.  I erase and redraw and block areas out with powdered graphite, always trying to not consider the initial image and just let what I see develop.  Like a puzzle with infinite solutions.  These are all pretty large scale drawings and I really like the physical aspect of working large and just getting so lost in the work.  It overtakes you a bit.

DH: I agree with you, these pieces clearly appear more personal, there seems to be more thoughtfulness and intuition in them, than what I know of your previous work. Is it the choice of imagery in these pieces that makes it so?  Or perhaps it might be more correct to say that you are inviting the viewer to the conversation?  You seem to be interacting with the work rather than making observations.  These pieces feel vulnerable with secrets and privacies still to explore. Like the two sides of being overtaken by the work - sometimes a pleasure and sometimes a curse?

AH: Intuition is a great way to describe how it comes to me.  The image of the body is very appealing to me both in the linear aspect but also in the way certain parts of the body pique the interest of the viewer.  Letting the viewer fill in the blanks of what is going on is very fascinating to me. I think these really pull you, or at least that is my hope, and force you to discover the work over and over.

The body for me has always held allure when it comes to drawing and painting.  The reason I haven't worked with it in so long is that I couldn't find a way to really approach it in a way that was both challenging and satisfying to me.  This work does that for me in so many ways.  For instance, the initial juxtaposition of the figures to create a spacial hierarchy then letting go and renegotiating the entire piece over and over.

So yes it's a blessing and a curse I suppose...this work in a way does show a vulnerable side of me, but a very feminine side.  I think we live in a time right now where there is such a blur between the lines of feminine and masculine in our daily roles.  So when a women creates or does something described as feminine it can be viewed as weak perhaps, or, I don't know, maybe vulnerable is a better term.  I think though there is still a need for some balance in our gender roles...and vulnerable may not be so bad.

DH: Well, that can be said about a man's work, too - that vulnerable can be viewed as weak. When actually it takes considerable inner strength to get to that place where one can make art in that way.

You said these are large pieces - like how large?

AH: These are around 37 inches by 50 inches and 50 inches by 50 inches. 

DH: Thanks for the conversation.

AH: Thank you for your interest in me and my work.

Bryan Blankenship at Gallery 56

2256 Central Avenue, Memphis, TN 38104
901.276.1251
July 8 - 31, 2011


An interview with Bryan Blankenship conducted by Memphis artist Dwayne Butcher.
http://artbutcher.blogspot.com/2011/07/bryan-blakenship-interview.html


Dwayne Butcher: Can you talk about your upcoming exhibition "Metes and Bounds"?
Bryan Blankenship: Metes and Bounds is a centuries old English system of describing general boundries of land parcels utilizing a landmark as a starting point.  The system was brought to
the United States and is still in use in a few states today. I used the title of this system as a jumping-off point for creating the works in this exhibition. Since my youth I have been fascinated by aerial views of landmasses. I am particularly interested in the manner in which the three-dimensional environment we inhabit is visually flattened and simplified when viewed from above. I like to take these common images and translate them into uncommon works utilizing actual and implied textures enhanced by diverse color schemes. The pieces really don’t have much to do with documenting a place as much as representing the essence of a specific location that I have both visited on the ground and seen in an aerial image.


DB: How do you come up with the landscape imagery you use in these pieces? Are these places you want to travel to or have visited?

BB: Some of the pieces explicitly describe a certain locale or place I have visited, and some are just implicitly referential of generic aerial imagery. With the latter I feel more freedom to take liberties with the overall shapes and color schemes.

DB: Do you see these pieces more as painting or sculpture? Do you generally like to blur the lines between mediums? Or is that even a part of it?
BB: I see them more as two-dimensional works inhabiting some sculptural characteristics. I don’t consciously think about blurring the lines between mediums as much as I like the idea of redefining mediums. Many individuals that have seen pieces similar to the works in this exhibition have thought that the Masonite shapes were ceramic. I always assume they made that decision because they know me as a ceramic artist.


DB: How do you work between this series and the works that you showed at MCA's "Local Flavor" exhibition?
BB: The works in “Local Flavors” were much more revealing of my self-deprecating narrative. The works in “Metes & Bounds” truly are the eye candy that I was referring to in “Eye Candy” at the MCA show!


DB: Who are some of artist influences for this series?
BB: Sean Scully, Richard Schur, Bruce Robbins, Richard Diebenkorn.

DB: You are known as one of the best-known potters in the region, does the ceramic work influence this work or vice versa?
BB: I started my art career in ceramics and I have always believed that working with a material as unforgiving as clay has taught me a great deal about patience, perseverance, and craftsmanship. There are a lot of similarities in process between these works and making pottery.


DB: Does working as the 3-D technician for the U of M interfere with your studio time? Is it hard to work in the studio after helping people in a wood shop all day?
BB: The only negative aspect of having my studio at the University is that students are not always aware that evenings are my studio time and they will call on me to help them or need a tool repaired etc. With that one exception the energy of working amongst developing artists is quite refreshing and enlightening at times.

DB: What other exhibitions or events are upcoming?
BB: As always I will be at the Cooper Young Festival in September, and the Pink Palace Crafts Fair in October. In January I will be participating in a ceramics show at the Memphis Jewish Community Center’s Shainberg Gallery with Bill Rowe and Robert McCarroll.

Kristine Rippel, 'Ink in the Veins'

Plaza Gallery
68 Saint Francis Plaza
Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico
through July 24, 2011

A little Q&A with the artist:


DH: Tell me about your choice of materials and your thoughts on installation art.
KR:  I enjoy giving people an art experience, hence my focus on/in installation art. It's about working on a grand scale and being overtaken by the piece: for me and the viewer.  I elected to use blue newspaper. Blue is a powerful color, everyone relates to blue. Newspaper because it was the best option for adhesive quality. 


DH: How is the paper adhered?
KR: Rubber cement.


DH: The little bits of non-'color field' materials worked into the piece give me a sense of a life getting 'papered over', if you will. How did you make those selections?
KR: The blue field needed some movement: pieces of color. Much like a painter knows where their painting needs color to move the viewer through the painting. 


DH: Did you anticipate the wonderful impact on the piece from the curvature of the walls?
KR:  The definition of the curvature of the wall was totally unexpected but truly loved. The piece truly became part of the architecture. The blue defines the weight of the wall and gives the illusion that it's falling. A 3d painting of the wall...


DH: The reaction from your viewers at the opening reception?
KR: At the opening I was engaging in fabulous discussions over it: much about peoples "experience" with it. How it made them feel. What they would like to do to the piece, etc. Really exciting!


DH: Your opinion of the state of contemporary art in Taos?
KR: Not enough contemporary art being shown in Taos!!!!

Two Rivers

David Hinske at Harrington-Brown Gallery, Memphis, Tennessee
May 6 - May 31, 2011
by Carol Knowles


In Harrington Brown's current exhibition, "Two Rivers," the swatches of color on the surfaces of David Hinske's paintings look as shot through with light as the Taos home in which he works. The rhythms of Hinske's brushstrokes — by turns staccato and fluid, impastoed and full-throated — mirror improvisations of the jazz music playing in the background.

basil (in a can by the window), 40"x40", oil on canvas

In works like In the Kitchen, Digging in the Pantry, and Basil (In a Can by the Window), what looks abstract is most real for this painter/chef/musician who multi-tasks. Hands on the meal prep as well as on his brushes — slathering oils onto canvases as high-key as the notes of a sax, pulling sprigs of fresh herbs from orange-lipped canisters, and peeling/slicing/dicing tomatoes and yellow peppers for the soup simmering in a kitchen that also serves as one of Hinske's studio spaces: Everything is in motion.

David Hinske responds:

I do, in fact, believe that the participation in the arts crosses over into other arts and more generally into the artist's life overall.  Participating in the crafting of food and music undoubtedly plays a part in the construction of my paintings, adding flavors and harmonies that would've been otherwise undiscovered.  There are places of bliss in all of those things for me and they serve to distinguish the paintings rather than dilute them.  While the paintings themselves appear immediate and simple, that is a thoughtful and deliberate choice I've made.  Further consideration, I believe, will reveal a deeper understanding of the intimate communication I am intending with the viewer.

A Slice of Berlin in New York

by Natalie Hegert

For a real slice of graffiti history (and history history) a few blocks away from MoMA you can find a literal slice of the Berlin Wall.  Situated in the courtyard of 520 Madison, this segment of the famous division between East and West was painted by artists Thierry Noir and Kiddy Citny circa 1984.  The wall is now divided and placed out of context, but the graffiti stands as a testament for the transformative power of art over symbols of authority and political repression.

These Two Pages of My Sketchbook Are Haunted

by the artist known as '14'

Much amusement can be derived from flipping through the pages of high society magazines and checking out the photos of wealthy people posing at various balls and charity fundraising events. Many appear stiff and taut with freakish cosmetic surgery, overly flashy with blinding white teeth, shiny couture and sparkling jewels - I just love it.  Palm Springs Life is probably the best publication on the newsstand to view these glamourous spectacles and while flipping through it a few months ago, I came upon a photo of Tom Bosley and his lovely wife holding a white fluffy little dog. They seemed so happy and yet both their hands were twisted and knotty with arthritis. There was something so beautiful and scary about the image, that I started a rough sketch right there in the bookstore and later came home to finish it up. While working on it, I heard that Tom Bosley had passed (RIP) and I suddenly got the creeps. Later, a friend sent me a society photo from a hoity-toity event in Houston. There was something creepy about the people posing in it, as though they had recently emerged from an long sleep in the cold dark basement of their drafty cavernous castle and flew to the party inside a swarm of shrieking vampire bats as thunderstorms raged through the night.  I'm sure they're nice people, but it's fun to let the imagination run wild. That being said, I formally declare these two pages of my sketchbook to be haunted.  Medium: graphite, ink, marker and ectoplasm.

Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, Oil on canvas, 30x60 inches. Art Institute of Chicago

Robert J. Hughes, writer living in New York and Paris


Even the everyday, of course, can be monumental. At the Art Institute of Chicago hangs the almost-mythic Nighthawks. This is Edward Hopper's iconic and immense painting of three patrons and a counterman seen in artificial yellow light in a diner in the shadowed emptiness of a summery New York night. I did not know from reproductions how large this painting was, but on seeing it for the first time in person, I was struck by its immensity and how fresh and awe-inspiring the original would be.

t’s a rare painting that conjures stillness – Monet's water lily paintings, perhaps, manage it as well – though for Hopper, the color of stillness was somehow an essential part of his palette.

Where the sculptors of the Laocoön captured the doom of man somehow offending the gods – don't mess with destiny – and rendered the mythic palpably human (if heroic in scale), Hopper portrayed the silent figures of daily life, yet somehow imbued them with the dignity, the grace, even, of something mythic in our nature. They may not have to worry about the wrath of gods, and perhaps must contend instead with the wayward distances of others, but they sit and chat as if they were somehow noble still, seated far from Olympus and yet, because of Hopper, nevertheless near to eternity.