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CW: The first thing I wanted to ask you about is your figurative background because you've had a fairly extensive one? CL: Yes, it's a good place to start. It makes you accurate and not afraid of anything, pretty much. I think people get …the biggest fear people have when they're going to draw is they say they can't draw because they are unable to draw a person. Learning how to draw the figure no matter what your imagery is gets you in touch with being human. CW: How do you continue that idea in your work? Obviously, your work is not figurative, per se, but there are a lot of flesh tones in your palette. Is that something you strive for, to keep a figurative element in your work? CL: After I finish the work I'm conscious of it but while I'm doing it I'm just responding. I definitely get into "fleshiness." That's a whole world [unto itself.] When you look at something it goes back to the color. There are certain colors you identify with certain things. If you have flesh tones then it lends itself to going in the direction of flesh and all the things that makes you think of. CW: In "They're Lyin' To You" there is one figure that is very noticeable. CL: Yes. I was telling Bridgette yesterday that I like to put myself in there. A lot of contortion goes on in my mind. I think of contortion a lot and how to fit myself in there, kind of like a mangled hand or something like that. I don't know if it's mangled, maybe it's not a human hand, a monster you've turned into. CW: How did you arrive at the circle within the square motif? CL: I was in Italy in May of 2001 with Studies Abroad May Option with Florida Southern College. I was in the middle of doing 50, 16" squares and that trip was a breaking point, right about 25 or 26 done. I had a month or six weeks where I wasn't painting on any of them. The break let me think a lot about what I had been doing so far with those. [In Florence], I started thinking a lot about Brunelleschi's architecture. His design worked with the square and with arches. It makes the cross and the square where the vaults all come together [in the transept]. Then he puts a dome on top that is a circle on top of the square. I really started noticing it because I was working in a square format. Its really design oriented. Also going in and seeing the pantheon, again. The big hole in the top. There are painters like Tiepolo and Tintoretto whom I like and whose work you see a lot of in Italy. So I had a lot of that swimming around in my head. While I wasn't painting I was looking. Something else I'm intrigued with is the combination of architecture and how when you look up into some painted domes you get the painter, or the architect with light and paint, starts creating a lot of illusions of space. You can look up, and your looking up forty feet, because the ceilings in the churches are so high and you see corners and you're not sure if you are seeing corners and then if the painting goes past the dome into the space more you see both the architect and the painter playing with your perception and wonder how you are seeing the space if it's a corner or if it's rounded off. I was really intrigued with that abstraction: that power of distorting
your perception. When I got back and started painting again I
thought about it and felt like you keep the cross…the diagonal
lines that go from corner to corner and the circle inside it is
almost just there, existing. Then, when I work I let myself be
affected by it and sometimes I don't. To me it's just there and
I try not to think about it. I work some with just the circle
inside the square, ignoring the edges. CL: Everywhere. Something will happen that adds a more complex element to the work. I think because I can be…part of me can be really kind of recklessly expressive and I like the structure of the line being there to hold me in. CW: Keep it from being totally chaotic? CL: Well sort of, I think it adds a complexity because on one hand I equate it to being just completely expressive, emotional and feeling and also being really methodical and thoughtful. It's mixing the two. There are a lot of metaphors about the circle in the square. It's a classical idea. You keep going around and around. CW: Now we had talked on the phone earlier about Brunelleschi's dome in the Duomo in Florence. I found it interesting that you would say that [it had been an influence on you] because the figures in that fresco are pretty amazing. Also, talk about the idea of the tension! The juxtaposition of the gates of hell being in the ceiling, where you look up. CL: Yes, I love that whole experience. I think about it a lot when I'm thinking about painting. CW: I've had the chance to see reproductions of your rectangular pieces, and to me, they felt a lot more expansive, especially with your watercolors. There was a lot more room to breathe. Is there a specific aesthetic reason you chose, at this point in time, to work solely within the squares? CL: Yes, it seems to be a good format with which to move forward. I think if you pick…When I said I'm going to do fifty paintings that are 16" square: That's a lot of parameters and within that it becomes a challenge. In a way, it gives you specific dimensions to not think about the size for a while. Then it lets you develop something else very specific. It's a good way to pick a format for a while, see what progress you can make within the format and then when you feel like its exhausted or a big, grand feeling like this idea is complete and now there is another avenue I need to explore. You arrive at a point that is a jump off for doing something else. Sometimes I just grab a piece of paper, like with the watercolors and just do something without any consequences, to free myself up and see what happens that day. I feel like I'm developing something. It's going well and there's more, especially with these woodcuts. I feel like they are the tip of the iceberg. This could cause another big explosion of work when I look at them. It makes me think there is so much more. You start one place; you're working. You can look back at what you've done. Your moving along and you think forward about what you might do next. I always think that way. You can think about the work existing both forward and backward all at the same time. CW: Regenerating itself. CL: Yes. Please contact the gallery for
information on exhibition catalogue, |
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