Unlike design, which presents solutions to problems, art can be any and everything — and is often a question the individual poses to the world from within. It’s interesting you say that your life’s work is to be able to define your practice, but at the same time, it’s not something that necessarily has to happen to be fruitful.
If someone needed an artist statement from me, I’ll provide it. But it won’t have a conclusion. It’s only going to describe how I felt in that particular moment.
Can you describe your process, from first thought to final execution?
I’m careful to say how long it takes to make a particular painting, because I don’t want to mislead people thinking it’s easy. With this new candle series, I’ve become pretty comfortable in the painting process, considering they’re not too big. So the process can be fairly quick, maybe about a week. But at the same time, the people who know me know that I’m in the studio all day — first one in, last one out. Whatever the deadline, I’ll always meet it.
It’s interesting how you extend the central image of the paintings to the sides of the canvas, such as the candle works — where those tiny slivers of space take on an almost equal dialogue with the central image. How did this develop?
Aside from the canvas and paints, everything else is done within my studio. A one man job — from going to Home Depot to get raw lumber to using power tools to build stretchers from scratch, stretching linen over it and then starting the painting process.
I’m not against it, but if you’ve never fabricated or haven’t gone through the process of building a stretcher, stretching canvas over it, and then painting it — it’s an entirely different feeling. It’s like building a car on your own and going on that first ride, versus just buying a car from the lot. Or auto versus manual. So there’s a quality of physically building the object. To me, the canvas is like a sculptural object, parched with emotions and energy, even before I put an image on it.
I’m a photographer as well. So I’ll photograph my work and send those to the galleries who need it. I find a lot of happiness in the process.
All artwork courtesy of Dabin Ahn for Hypeart.
