MARILYN KIRSCH

The ochre sea, oil on canvas, 60 x 56", 2011

What are you working on in your studio right now?

After working on large paintings over the last three years, recently I decided to work on a set of relatively smaller canvases. The new series is 36 inches x 54 inches. Since I've become very interested in photography over the last couple of years, I chose this size because it is similar to the proportions of many of my photographs. I thought it would be interesting to see what the format would lead to in a painting.

Can you describe your working routine?

Basically I don't have one! If a painting is at its early stages, I work on my photographs in the morning and paint in the afternoon. As the painting begins to take shape, I work on it earlier in the day. When a work is very close to completion but not quite finished, I usually finish it in the morning after being away from it for a day or two.

studio

Can you describe your studio space and how, if at all, that affects your work?

I'm very fortunate to have a wonderful studio just one floor below where I live. Obviously, this makes it very convenient. It's quiet and has a lovely feeling of solitude. It's set back from the street, so even though it's in a very busy part of Manhattan, it's isolated and private.

Tell me about your process, where things begin, how they evolve etc.

I slowly add thin layers of color, usually alternating between dark and light. I build up dozens of layers before the surface becomes interesting to me. Also, the colors are constantly changing because each layer mixes with the previous one, usually in unexpected ways. The composition shifts as I work because I make decisions between my preconceived ideas and the random happenings of each layer's color and surface. Somehow through this process the work starts to paint itself. Then I know that I'm getting close to a finished work.

Reflection in gold, photograph

The sun hat, photograph

What are you having the most trouble resolving?

I find non-figurative painting compelling and I have no desire to paint recognizable things, but I love photography and working with “real” images in that way. Communicating the essence of the visual ideas I'm working with in my photographs in a non-figurative painting is an exciting exploration but a difficult one to resolve.

Do you experiment with different materials a lot or do you prefer to work within certain parameters?

My paintings tend to be oil paint on canvas without too much deviation. I experiment more with how I apply the paint than with the paint itself. When I try new materials it's usually with collages and other work on paper. Recently I've been using the computer to “draw” on my photographs, bringing them somewhere between a drawing and a photograph.

The artist at work

What does the future hold for this work?

I don't know if the conversation will remain between my paintings and my photographs or if I'll mix the materials in some way in the future. Right now I love painting and I love working with photography.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Only to thank you for your interest in my work.

Salt of the earth, oil on canvas, 60 x 112", diptych, 2011

SUSAN CARR

In another country, clouds are gentle, monsters are sweet

 2011, oil on canvas, 12 x 13"

What are you working on in your studio right now?

Right now I am not working on anything significant in my studio. I have been painting hard for quite some time so, right now I am thinking and looking. I feel as artists we all need to get refreshment now and again. I get that from looking at art, walking in nature and reading. I guess you could say, I am in the gestation phase of my work again, waiting for another burst of creativity.

watercolours

Can you describe your studio space and how, if at all, that affects your work?

My studio space is quite literally all around my house. I paint in my basement and draw in a spare bedroom and when doing collage work in the kitchen. This does affect my work as it tends to remain smallish in size but not in sculptural form.

studio table

Tell me about your process, where things begin, how they evolve etc

My work always begins with one mark and the piece is built up from there. I never know what the piece will be. I let the paint speak to me. I have to get out of the way! Because the work is built in paint, history is involved and memory. Memory of the last time I was working on the piece and how it felt. I write poetry so you could say, my paintings are poems without words. Poems dripping in color.

Collage, 2011, oil, pastel & paper pallets on paper, 9 x 12"

What are you having the most trouble resolving?

I would like to paint larger but I don't want to lose the intimacy of my small work. I know it is a give and take and I am willing to explore some new horizons. I guess we will just see.

Do you experiment with different materials a lot or do you prefer to work within certain parameters?

In my collage I have begun to experiment with different materials all at once but not with my paintings. I love oil paint and I feel that I am very old fashioned in that regard.

studio

What does the future hold for this work?

The future holds shows and new homes for this work.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I am grateful for your interest, thank you.

The motive, 2011, oil on wood, 11 x 10"

JASON KAROLAK

Untitled (P-1017), 2010, oil on linen, 12 X 14"

What are you working on in your studio right now?

I just shipped out a bunch of paintings for an exhibition in Kansas City, but I am still working on this same body of work. The work has continued in the same vein for the past 5-6 years, evolving and changing slowly along the way. I work mainly in two sizes--large around 75 x 85 inches, and small around 13 x 15 inches. I am really focused on the larger works right now. In the more recent works, the forms are floating and disconnected from the four sides of the canvas. I want this sort of abstract-image to be lightweight and off of the ground, and I am experimenting a bit with how these things get layered and built. I want the form to be both graphic and three-dimensional--to open and close

studio wall, drawings

Can you describe your working routine?

I do not have an overly rigid studio schedule. I generally get to the studio in the late morning and try to work through the day and night when I can. I was an athlete growing up, so I think of going into the studio like I am going to practice or a game--I have to be rested, hydrated, fed, and in a good state of mental and physical being. In the studio my time is spent looking, drawing and writing in my sketchbook, and making moves on one or two paintings at a time.

Can you describe your studio space and how, if at all, that affects your work?

I have been in this studio for about a year and half and am really pleased with it, would like to stay here for some time. The studio is in the northwest corner of Brooklyn, in Greenpoint, so there is sky space and light around the building and the windows, one can see some distance away. There is also a shipping company that has a parking lot under and near one of my windows where trucks move in and out these colored shipping containers all day. They position them in tightly and then take them out the next day. I don't directly reference observed elements in my paintings, but my experience of space, color, and light makes its way into the work implicitly.

Untitled (P-1015), 2010, oil on panel, 12 X 14"

Tell me about your process, where things begin, how they evolve etc.

I build forms over time. Visual ideas start in my sketchbook, get played with and varied. I make quick ink drawings on paper, some get saved and many tossed. Then I work into the oil paintings--large or small depending on the form and idea. I aim to find an image within abstraction. Geometry is the starting point, but I try to let all of these other things bleed into it. The small paintings get built up over time. These are thick, dense, and have shallow spaces. There is a packing in of information and energy. The large paintings move in a very different way. In these I get more into the physical and gestural activity of making a painting, into my body. These become more tweaked and open, and hopefully more lightweight. The energy is moving outward instead of in. In both sizes I am left with a form or thing, a sort of projection, something internal made visible

work in progess

What are you having the most trouble resolving?

Painting is always difficult. I might succeed with a painting, but I often fail and destroy or reground works. Large paintings are especially difficult because everything shows. This is important to the process.

Do you experiment with different materials a lot or do you prefer to work within certain parameters?

I keep my materials pretty consistent--oil paint on canvas and linen. My tools vary a bit and the handling of them changes slowly here and there. I am not interested in repeating myself, but I am trying to build a language over time. Because of this, much of what I do needs to remain the same so that I can see what I am doing and saying.

Untitled (P-1105), 2010, oil on canvas, 75 X 85"

What does the future hold for this work?

I have a few projects coming up where these works will be shown, including an exhibition at Dolphin Gallery in Kansas City in June 2011 and an exhibition at the Gahlberg Gallery in Chicago in May 2012

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thanks for asking about my work and process

BEN CAVERS

Priest-Sheperd, 35 x 30 x 2cm, 2010

What are you working on in your studio right now?

I have currently not been working in the studio. Apart from the odd frame being made. the studio has become a cavern of items that I own. Boxes and seats and tools and tins of food. I have been in transit from a house to a flat. My current painting life has been on hold. I have been thinking mostly. This is absolutely the important part. Also I have been drawing. If I did not have that I might not know where my practice is going.

Can you describe your working routine?

I have to remember what my routine was. The practice is similar to me in personality. I would concentrate for 1hr then get annoyed, despondent and angry and go and get some crisps from the garage as an escape. I like snacks, these are my downfall. It is not always like this. If I have a piece which has a dead line I work through the pain and hate.

Studio

Can you describe your studio space and how, if at all, that affects your work?

My studio is pretty humble at 250sq foot. It is a shared unit with a very specific feel. It has wonderful tongue and grove walls and wooden floors which was recently painted. We have a lovely toilet that is a wonderful mind bending green. I like this room mostly as the butler sink is an artist’s best friend. We have cold water though which is not an artist’s best friend. But this makes me feel like a real artist in a garret. I forget how it affects my work.

Tell me about your process, where things begin, how they evolve etc.

It is a process which i am still learning from. I have problems with context. So recently i have been interested in lovers. This sets a story and context and shapes. This is the starting point, from here it is an organic process. I sometimes draw in ink or sometimes run straight to the blank canvas. From this point in, it’s me learning pushing and pulling paint. At the moment I am crude, but I want to become refined.

Unfinished vase, 2011

What are you having the most trouble resolving?

Context and meaning and time and death and love and reason.

Do you experiment with different materials a lot or do you prefer to work within certain parameters?

I have had a varied past, at collage I was in love with Thomas Hirchhorn and might have ripped him off a bit. I was a dab hand at brown tape and cardboard. These are things that pop up now and again as I have learnt about their nature as materials and how they perform. I do believe you can be a master of any medium. Paint is my now chosen medium. As I learn this medium, I hope to gain more parameters.

Become a fail, ink on paper, 2010

What does the future hold for this work?

I have grandiose ideas, but I think I am also a pessimist, I think the work will probably be itself. Small and lame.

 Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thanks to my mum and dad ,Philippa and Ailsa and Shona, without loved ones you really have nothing.

INGA DALRYMPLE

'Table with Dark shape', 2011, oil on canvas, 41 x41 cm

What are you working on right now?

I am not working on a specific series as such; mostly I’m just throwing paint around in an attempt to find new forms and relationships. This is what I’m always doing and I never feel complacent about how much I have to learn. The forms I am using at the moment are not so directly referential although I am vaguely aware of elements from nature, interiors or the urban landscape.

Can you describe your work routine?

Unfortunately I can’t be in my studio regularly due to family and work commitments but still I try to spend at least an hour every day except weekends when I can spend longer. When I have a good stretch of time I get straight into it and tend to work on several things at once, moving between drawing and painting. I mostly make quick paint sketches and this is a habit that I find to be invaluable because this process always helps me find solutions to any painting problems that may arise. It helps me to keep open and fresh.

Works in progress - studio

Can you describe your studio space and how, if at all, that affects your work?

Before I moved to my current studio, which is a 3 x 3 meter basement without windows, I worked in an attic that was cramped and had very little wall space. That situation forced me to work quite small but now that I have a bigger space with walls that reach the ceiling I can spread out a bit and also work on larger formats. Sometimes I work on drawings pinned to the walls but mostly everything ends up on the floor. No matter how hard I try, this seems to be my preferred way of working. I’m really enjoying the ability to group things on the walls and being able to step back from them. This is helping me to find some continuity in what I’m producing and to see a larger common thread weaving itself through the work. I find that this is giving my work a new kind of energy that I’m enjoying.

Even though I have a bigger studio I still manage to be very messy and despite intending to be organized and neat, I never am. This doesn’t really bother me so much and often I’ll find myself inspired by some shape or colour combination that I might spy amongst the clutter of paint rags, pencils and jars that I’ve managed to arrange around me like some kind of magic circle. The fabric collages I’m beginning to make came about when I spied scraps of painted canvas on the floor – my first one made a satisfying combination and so I literally left it assembled as is.

sketchbook

Tell me about your process, where things begin, how they evolve.

It’s probably poor practice but I don’t set out to paint something with an end game in mind. I regularly destroy paintings (by which I mean either scraping back, if I’m using oils, or repainting if I’m using acrylic) not because I don’t always like the results, but because I like how this services the painting. It’s also a liberating way to work because then I don’t feel beholden to the original intention.

Sometimes I catch myself trying to save some little element – a nice pattern in the left hand corner for example – which I realize is holding me back. If I destroy that little bit suddenly I find something far more interesting. I like the idea that there are many layers in the painting and that each one informs the next, indeed could not exist without the one that preceded it. I also enjoy the energy and body that previous marks, colours or shapes might give to the final result. I used to eschew paint build up but now I welcome the way the patina adds a new dimension. Obviously I’m after a balance – or my own notion of a satisfying balance which might mean an off kilter or even tenuous relationship between a colour or a form or a mark which creates a tension that satisfies in some way.

I think a lot about graffiti and the way that the layering of spray paint over markers or posters or whatever creates a riot of mess but somehow, if you look closely, there can be a dazzling little discord going on which really pops out. I love the frenetic and unplanned clash of fat black lines with scratches and fluro blobs. I think that painting is a controlled version of that – not in a contrived way, but more as a process in which the artist is thinking about the history – what to cover, what to leave. Drawing is crucial to my process too. It helps me to stay fresh and not get too precious. I also regularly make collages out of old ‘failed’ drawings etc. Lately I’ve been using fabrics and painted scraps of canvas in my collages.

sketchbook

What are you having the most trouble resolving?

Like most artists I have good days and bad. Sometimes I want to throw it all in and take up something less hazardous – like skydiving! To me something is resolved when it becomes it’s own entity – like it just happened, as opposed to looking affected.  I like to get out of the way of my own work – this is when I feel like I’m working at my best. But it’s a balancing act. If I let the work become too much of its own master it will lead me in directions that don’t necessarily result in continuity. Some of my work can be somewhat geometric – exploring shapes in a more design orientated way, while other pieces can be looser. As I keep learning I find new ways to resolve things and I think damn, I wish I could use that on that painting from two years ago. I am sure that I will read this again in the future knowing something, some trick of the trade, and laugh at myself. I wish I could know it now!

Fabric collage 30 x 21cm

Do you experiment with different materials a lot or do you prefer to work within certain parameters?

At the moment I’m working solidly with acrylic because I find it helps me to work larger. But I also like to use oils. When I’m drawing I use ink, pencil and sometimes textas as well as sharpie pens. I work on canvas or board but lately I’ve been experimenting with old bits of discarded wood. I’m very conscious of format sizes and how any change in size can affect the way I work with paint or whatever. Small works always attract me because I feel like I can be more direct but larger formats ask me to take risks, which I really like.

'Tumbled shapes' 2011,acrylic on paper 77 x112 cm

What does the future hold for these pieces?

Everything and nothing. I Guess I would like to keep building on the things I learn as I make them.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thanks for the opportunity to do this interview and I’ve learnt a lot about my process and the things that are important to it.

JULIA SCHWARTZ

this is my pain(when i think of you),

 oil on canvas, 12x12 inches, 2011

What are you working on in your studio right now?

 
I am working on several new paintings that appear more "organic landscape" than figurative, although the sources and processes are the same as my usual work.

Can you describe your working routine?

I try and stay consistent about painting regularly as I've learned that if I am out of the studio for an extended period, I do get out of sorts. Sometimes I like it quiet, often I paint with the radio tuned to NPR as the shows cycle from news to music to news again. More often the music on my ipod is chosen to fit the work I am doing. Lately it's been Little Dragon and Hauschka, but there was a point where I listened only to Spoon GaGaGa.

I work on multiple paintings at a time, even multiple series at a time, and move from one painting to the next in fluid arcs of time. I have a large glass palette which gets very crusted over, so that you can really appreciate the history of color that has evolved over several series of paintings.

My other work (as a psychoanalyst) doesn't feel like a separate existence from my painting, but more like they are woven together somehow- I am an analyst who paints and a painter who does psychoanalysis. I feel each one enhances the other. But because of that work, I am in my office 3 days a week and in the studio the other time (although some days there is an overlap). Oh, and somehow, I also find time to be with my daughter and husband and family and friends.

studio and palette

Can you describe your studio space and how, if at all, that affects your work?

About five years ago we converted our garage into a studio and I was able to shift my schedule so that I can paint at least 3 or 4 days a week in the studio. On those days after I drop my daughter off at school, I come home and check email and spend some time on the computer. When the house empties out, I head to the studio and see where things have been left off from the previous session and then get to work, and try not to think too much.

One of the difficulties I am facing is crowding in the studio. Although I don't paint every day, I work pretty fast when I do paint, and I have had to rent a storage unit because I have run out of room. Also, although having a home studio is really convenient, I am looking forward to a time when I can work in a studio that allows me to paint really large- right now, the biggest canvas I can work on comfortably is maybe 6 feet! Mostly, I work on canvas on various sizes and will trade out the one on the easel (I'm not able to work directly on the wall) but I also work sitting or kneeling on the ground; I like to hold small works on my lap and even walk around the studio and the garden a bit while painting. It's a different experience to paint while walking.

a cluttered studio birth of the spider (on the easel); unfinished giraffe in his cups (leaning)

Tell me about your process, where things begin, how they evolve etc.

It is very rare for me to start with a conscious idea or concept. That said, I have the feeling that much of the time that I'm out in the world, I'm taking things in that are then going to go into the artwork. Once I wrote: "I receive and hold images, ideas, phrases and lines from books, songs, and world events. I have been thinking of this lately as a virtual Rolodex that I hold unconsciously and it requires time spent in solitude, in a reverie state for the various images to coalesce in some way that makes sense in my work." When I come into the studio, that is the time for not thinking but for being present with the materials and just painting. Later there is a kind of back and forth 'dialogue' between me and the work, and I guess thinking, analyzing, and such goes on at that point.



What are you having the most trouble resolving?

I love Keats' idea of negative capability- that not everything can be resolved and the more I might try to resolve, the worse the outcome some of the time. So the tension for me is finding a balance of trying, between working and overworking a canvas which can destroy the gestural quality in a painting- it ends up suffocating a painting if I'm not careful. The other trouble for me is over thinking a painting or even over thinking myself, which leaves the work feeling stilted and deadened, do you know what I mean? So I'm wanting to push farther without over thinking or overworking.

studio wall, 2011

Do you experiment with different materials a lot or do you prefer to work within certain parameters?

I love trying new things. I have experimented with various additives to paint-wax, marble dust, pumice, even dirt, but now I just stick to oil paint (I don't use chemicals because I'm prone to migraines).I have a table area that I think of as a "laboratory" of sorts where I experiment on paper and very small canvases (3 inches) with paints and tools- nails, screwdrivers, and all sorts of things I have collected over the years. For a while I was playing around with recyclable materials, but my studio became so cluttered with stuff that I had to make a decision to let that go, and to stick to painting. I think if I had started painting earlier in my life, I would try everything! But I feel like there is enough for me to explore just with oil right now.

When I travel, however, I take book pages or I use hotel stationery and draw and paint with water-based media like watercolor pencil and gouache.

always open windows, oil on canvas, 48x48 inches 2011

What does the future hold for this work?

As far as shows go, I have a solo show coming up in August at Bleicher Gallery La Brea in Los Angeles. And with the painting itself, I don't know what the future holds. I just keep painting and the work tends to evolve, often triggered by world events or other inspirations.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

The internet has opened up this incredible community of artists- I have had an opportunity to hear and learn from people all over the world and to see into their studios and processes. Thank you, Valerie, for giving me the opportunity to talk about my process and to open my studio to you!