Winter 2024 Artist Mini-Interviews
To give artists a chance to talk more about their process and craft, or just to give us a little more insight into their piece, we provided them with a list of questions from which they could pick one to answer. We hope you enjoy this peek behind the curtain!
James Keul
Q: How did you land on the title for this piece?
A: I chose the title “Traveling Light” for this painting because, not only is it a reference to the light falling on the mysterious cloud that travels across the sky, but it’s also a reference to the figure in the foreground, carrying something indistinct. Just as the source of the traveling cloud is unclear, what the figure is carrying is intentionally left open to interpretation. An empathetic vision of the climate refugee, which asks the question: what would you take with you if you had to flee only with what you could carry.
Jennifer Lange
Q: If you could give your piece an accompanying tasting menu, what would it consist of?
A: The piece is about standing together and picking up the weak. It's work for the strong, but that's their advantage. In a matching tasting menu, all dishes would be mean, with a soothing agent. It might have:
searing hot chili bites with yogurt sauce
miso soup with caramel sauce flurry
pickled red beet salad with candied apple slices
chili-pepper strawberry swirl sorbet with dark choc flowers
baklava cakes topped with sour jelly drops
The tasters would be tied together at the wrists, so they could only eat together or starve alone.
Marleah Singleton
Q: What do you feel is the best part or the hardest part about creating art?
A: The best part of creating is the lack of parameters; the boundless potential outcomes, interpretations and connections that could come from your work. One of the best parts for me is the re-imagining and reshaping of your work along the way- sometimes it comes out exactly as envisioned and sometimes you have a whole new piece that's drastically different from its inception. I also research and learn SO much while I'm creating, which I love. The process of creating art is truly the art itself.
The hardest part of creating art, for me, has been holding the term artist as an identity even in times when I'm not creating. I continually remind myself that being an artist is who you are, despite what you can produce or how often you can produce it. I think knowing my potential for growth and the passion that I have when I create makes me feel as if I haven't reached self-actualization (and maybe I haven't) but my community is always reaffirming and supporting me. So when in doubt, trust yourself first then lean into your people.
Simon Beraud
Q: What do you feel is the best part or the hardest part about creating art?
A: The hardest part, which is also the best part to me as an artist, it’s the empty time: when nothing is created (yet). A time when nothing happens apparently, but when ideas form. Being confronted to the solitude, anxieties, questionings, frustrations, doubts, you need to stay as true to yourself as possible to yourself, confront to yourself. Before saying, ’’I want to do that’’ or ''I will create that,'' you need to listen to yourself, work on yourself. The hardest, and the best part therefore… The best part of a work, I believe, is not a fun time, it’s a difficult time: I don’t consider work as a “fun’’ thing, and I think it shouldn’t be considered that way: creating art is a very serious thing, it’s not about contemplating your navel and being contempt about it. It’s about being honest to a time in life that often involves very serious human questionings that are absolutely not fun - and it’s about being honest to myself as a human. It’s a work on the self before anything - it’s hard and interesting at the same time: you observe, you learn, you work, you evolve.