Four guys and
four days ago two fathers, a single guy and a DINK set forth on this continent,
to a national museum, conceived in knowledge and dedicated to the proposition
that all art can be collected.
Now we are
engaged in a great retrospective, testing whether dots or an artist can paint
four colors and can be so dedicated that they can endure. We met at the National
Gallery Museum. We have come to this destination, as a starting point, to
comemorate those artists that have come before us so that we might create. It
is altogether fitting and proper that we (David, David, Adrian and I) should do
this.
But in a
larger sense, I cannot describe, rather depict, nor round out this artist…Roy
Lichtenstein. So I, as a
Pennsylvanian, drove to DC with these artists to examine, give praise and
admire a collection of Lichtenstein's work. Though I and my cohorts would have
rather seen the retrospective in chronological order; those higher up than I
decided to arrange the show by subject matter. Could it be an easy answer to
showcase an artist that broke out onto the art scene at the age of 37. The
comic figure subject is the first step and exemplified by the large Mickey and
Donald painting centered at the entrance. This is the piece that we as artists
all strive for…the break out piece. “Look Mickey” is
supported by documentation and two other abstract paintings on the second
floor. I'm sure Mr. Lichtenstein wouldn't mind me saying he wasn't very good at
the abstract stuff.
The story
goes, or at the very least it works better in my mind, that Roy made it to LeoCastelli's gallery a few days before Warhol. Leo took Roy's work in and hung the
“Look Mickey” piece. A few days later Andy comes into the gallery to show Leo
some of his paintings of Superman, but Andy is blown away by the accuracy of
Roy’s comic strip drawings and goes back to the drawing board (rather
silkscreen) and cleans up his act. The rest is history.
If you paid
the five dollars for the headset you could have heard him say, “Art is based on art history or we would all be painting like children.” Or something like that. But I digress… These artists shall not
have died in vain, that this retrospective under God shall have a new birth of
freedom and that government of the people, by the artists, for the people,
shall not perish from this earth. So if you're headed to DC to see the
inauguration or the tail end of the retrospective or voting for the Oscars,
remember Lincoln but see Roy.
Artist Rob Mars needed to escape from the hustle and bustle of NYC. He wanted a place to bring his wife and son where they could decompress, relax, and still be inspired. Being a nice guy, I invited them down to good old Downingtown with the stipulation they can’t stay past the weekend. They were more than welcome to shop for houses and studios while in the area if they wanted to extend their stay. I first saw Rob’s work in NYC when we were showing at the same gallery. I was immediately drawn to its texture and graphic nature. Bright colors, patchworked behind high contrasted images of America’s landscapes then sprinkled with well-worn retro advertisements of the times. His art is crisp, sharp, and visually perfect. An aesthetic that he developed as an apparel designer. He has an eye for the times and has the pulse of the commercial culture monster that plagues the big cities. Which, I find very ironic for a soft-spoken, humbly hip guy that visited me for the weekend. I had to figure out where to entertain and interview our out of place city dwellers. I say out of place because I truly believe they are a little country at heart. I hate to divulge this but we took them to Wyebrook Farm in Honey Brook for food, music and farm animals. I hesitate to share this information because everyone will start to flock to this awesome place. It’s such a beautiful little gem on the outskirts of Chester County. I believe if the Vikings had discovered it first they would have tricked us and named it as deceptively as they named Iceland. Wyebrook Farm elevates the word “farm” to an exceptional culinary feast. A feast for the senses; the quietness of the country, scenic vistas, and a taste of grass fed animals. We avoided the bright sun and sat under the carriage shed drinking Dogfish 90-minutes to cool us down. The interview only lasted 20 minutes but we still had 2 more 90 minutes. So we got started…
How did you get started making art? I had been making art my whole life on a personal level but started to notice a shift in direction around 2000. I was deeply involved in the skateboard industry on the graphic design side but felt I had a more personal message to convey and so I started producing a large body of experimental work until I had a solid collection to show. The roadtrip pieces were the beginning of where I am today.
Did you receive any formal art training? Where and what did you major in? Parsons School of Design in New York City. I majored in illustration and graphic design.
How would you describe your work in general for the readers? My work deals predominantly with the 1950’s and 60’s in America and the modern day influences that came out of that era. I am drawn to the architecture, graphic design, furniture design, and car design of those particular decades. Since 2009 it shifted away from these particular icons and more towards the celebrity personalities that left an indelible mark on American popular culture.
What is your media? Mixed media on wood panel. But more specifically they are multiple process paintings that involve layers of paper, vintage ephemera, paint, and acrylic transfers with the final process being an epoxy resin coated to encase the layering and texture into a smooth, glossy finish.
How do you choose your subject matter? It comes from a lot of research. It started off with the American icons left over from Route 66 culture, so there were neon signs and the cars from the 50’s, the 60’s. That was something that appealed to me on a basic level from my youth. I was taking several road trips a year to small towns in America and photographing the remaining pieces of American culture still standing and using these as my subject matter. From there, it began evolving into the personalities of the era, obviously Marilyn Monroe is the most famous, but also focusing on the beauty of Grace Kelly, and the masculinity of James Dean, the classic styling of Jackie O, and the sensuality of Brigitte Bardot (although not American she still has that star quality).. It is not only about the people but capturing the iconic quality of their image and presenting it in a contemporary manner.
What are your thoughts on perfection?Perfection is the great illusion. Marilyn, for example, appears perfect in photo shoots and films but she had her complex issues and I try to tell that story in my work. There is an imperfect quality to my work which becomes less apparent after resin coating them but in looking closer you can see the cracks in the foundation. Tell me about some of your favorite techniques... I will spend a good amount of time on any piece layering vintage newspaper, maps, and magazine clippings and, then apply a paint layer making it as perfect as possible, and then I will take sandpaper to the whole thing to reveal the "underpainting" and let the sandpaper create imperfections and a weathered effect. I really like the random things that can happen with that process.
Where do you find your imagery? Everywhere. In books and magazines. I have a pretty big library of things from that era in my studio which I will dissect and organize into piles for use as I am building up the layering. Where do you go shopping? Ebay is good for buying large lots of things like old Life magazines but a lot of it is shopping small towns while on the road trips. I scour the antique stores along the way and find old ephemera and ship back boxes to New York. I hate when a viewer asks is it done? So I’m going to ask you “How do you decide when an artwork is done?" Fifteen minutes after I started… No, I think you just get to a general satisfaction level. I think that’s the thing about pop art, it’s the immediacy of it. Its not having something last for a month and working on it and reworking it. You choose all the materials and you have them there and you just make it work. It tends to become about your confidence in decision making while creating.
Who has been the biggest influence on your life? Robert Rauschenberg. His use of material. His constantly evolving body of work. His general outlook on life and art. He was a true master.
What inspires you?Really gets your creative juices pumping? It’s funny, because as much as I complain about New York when I'm there and the constant stimulation overload, the city is really what drives me. When you boil it all down, you’re surrounded by a lot of fashion, a lot of good design, a lot of good art, and even things like graffiti play an important part of the culture. It is all an influence when making art.
Do you have any habits or morning routines you do before going to the easel? I used to get coffee, not any more. Monday and Tuesday I get there around 8 because I have my assistant come in at 9. The rest of the days I get there around 9, work until 6. I always take a lunch break to make sure I have that down time. When I am there, I spend a lot of time thinking about the work before I start making it. You’re in that mode of, “I am going to make this,” and you’ve given all the thought to it and then it becomes about the creation.
How important was your graphic design background to your work now? My graphic design background plays an integral part of my art. It is so much more about the graphic design influence than it is about actual fine art influence, it is just the materials that are different. It's more analog than digital.
What is your favorite food? That’s a hard question; I will consider myself a foodie and say that I will enjoy almost all foods. I love the basics like a slice of Joe’s NY Pizza in the village, or mussels and a Hoegaarden at Market and we always have our favorite Egyptian spot, Kebab house, in Astoria.
What does home mean to you? Peacefulness. Surrounded by art.
Your proudest moment? That guy (referring to his son). And when I actually stepped away from the day job, and committed to being an artist.
Money is OK, but it isn’t what life is about. What is it about? Its about your health. It’s about having your health and having your friends and family close.
Where did you grow up? Dirty Jersey.
What is the last book you read? Curious George actually…
You collect? I’m kind of collecting art right now.
Something that is important on your nightstand? I have an alarm clock on my nightstand and that helps me wake up to get to my studio on time.
Your strangest possession? My wisdom tooth. I still have that from 1986.
Your best birthday? 40th. My wife made that very special and I am not a birthday person. The Interview ended and we gazed over the fields of grass as the cows grazed. I swear you could taste the grass in every bite of that hamburger. A burger so fresh you didn’t feel guilty eating the fried pickle on top or the French fries fried in the rendered lard. All this meat would make any Viking envious. We gathered our troops and went back to my studio to talk more shop, relax and imbibe. As the conversation turned to staying another night, his wife inquired about our zip code so she could look up some local real-estate listings. I think we might have another local artist soon.
The “Speed Round Questions”
Learn more about Rob Mars and his work by visiting robertmars.com. Rob’s also a blogger too, which is readable here.
I can’t guarantee it but it’s what I'm currently feeling so I’m
going to tell it like it’s the worst. It happens as you watch your child grow up;
they slowly pluck away at your heart. I believe when they are young
your heart gets so big, because you give and give. The giving just feeds
your heart and makes it so big and bursting with love and pride that it becomes
a contagious smile across your face. It’s like an animal that stores all its
fat because it’s going to be a lean winter.
You know its going to be lean because you can feel it. You can’t
put a finger on it but you know. It’s like that swamp scene in “Return
of the Jedi” with Luke and Yoda…feel the force! For me that force is adolescence,
not mine, but my daughter's. She feels it and I’m the old squirrelly guy in a
sack with sandals. Truthfully, I wish it were plaid shorts, black socks and sandals,
but I digress. It is everything you taught them being used to walk away.
Yet the force is GOOD! It assures their minds that are full
of doubt and in pursuit of confidence. As would a young Jedi go to his master, a
daughter goes to her father; presenting him with drawings that she so quietly
and diligently worked on. Those once small brown eyes, now looking equally into
mine, wants confirmation at a job well done. I’m not a master, as I also stumble
to find my way I joyfully express my enthusiasm for a job well done and a valiant
effort. But always the teacher, words of correction and reassurance fall from my
lips. It is a dash of encouragement with the bitterness of life that nourishes
the soul. Following the praise, I offer the suggestion that a drawn line might be
off or a greater depth of shading is needed here or there. I view it as adding
sunshine to a plant that is ready to flower.
So I pick her up and whisk her away only to plant memories.
My heart grows smaller but the memories grow fonder.
The rumor of my death
has been over exaggerated. The excuse for my absence in the blogosphere has
been debated. They range from; too busy making art, lack of creative energy, or
self-doubt and procrastination. The last two are the most evil yet the easiest
to squelch. So I’m sticking to the first excuse; I’ve been too busy making art.
The first leads to the second, it’s not merely that I lack creativity, it’s
that the creative energy has been used to fuel the art.
So what is the art? This
creation that I speak of is locally known as the Chester County Studio Tour. A
tour of local talent weaved throughout our county. Studios are found in between
the rolling hills, winding roads, and cow dotted pastures. It’s a pleasant
weekend in mid May where our doors to the ivory towers of creation are opened
for the curious. Opening the doors to one studio isn’t a problem. I have
coordinated ten studios to open their doors, not only to share the owners’
creations but to also share other artists’ creations too. In total it becomes
25 artists sharing their love, passion, and hard work with anyone willing to
drive to their door.
This is more than an
open studio; the inner workings are more like a cat wrangler. The performance
actually takes place three months prior to the event. That is when decisions
are made, when the “brush strokes are laid” (if I were to compare it to the
creation of artwork). Back in the 70”s this might have been considered a
“happening.” Yoko Ono might be seen pacing back and forth trying to convince
participants to hammer a nail into a piece of wood. For her it worked, yet, some
might conclude that piece of art broke up the Beatles because it was there that
she met John. Now I’m not trying to break up any boy bands or start a
revolution. I’m just trying to introduce some art to some local people. But I
can’t help to think of the bigger picture; just for two days everyone has the
opportunity to experience art. I even made catalogues and posters to document
the experience. Maybe I’ve just worked too hard and my delusion of grandeur is
over exaggerated.
(Actually the order of
this story is going to be sour first then onto the sweetness. It works better
for my time line.) It is through this blog that I share my struggles,
curiosities and maybe a tinge of enlightenment into my artistic journey. With
all journeys there are struggles, successes and different ways to get “there.” Between us, I’m not sure where “there”
is but that’s half the fun and getting “there” takes lots of time. Time is
something I just can’t get a handle on. My sense of time is: if I have to be at
some place on the hour, I will leave 5 minutes before the hour. I seem to believe
it takes me 5 minutes to get anywhere. In my head, the longest it takes to get anywhere
is 20 minutes. Reality has some equation that puts in traffic lights, time of
day, other people and finding a parking spot. I just can’t compute these
things. This formula creates a bitter side effect within my life; I have no
time.
The sour situation; my
workload was about to increase due to unforeseen circumstances. Truly I didn’t
see it coming. We all know that in the work place some other coworker usually
causes this when their lack of time appreciation is on display. Their burden
shifts and it is suddenly placed upon you. This kind of happened in a round about
way and I was called into action. Find the matches, find the oil cause it’s
going to be a long night. I don’t have extra time but because of my occupation
I can find the time. I have yet to figure out how to make time. With a little
grumbling I figured I could do it; it wouldn’t take long. Fast-forward to 3 am
and it’s still not done. Continue for another 48 hours and it’s almost
finished. A bitter pill to swallow but that’s part of the gig and we all do it.
The sweet situation; I
have the time to do random acts of multi-tasking. One of the side effects of
time appreciation is the need to multi-task. I figure if I can’t manage time, I
should do two things at once with it. This is the sweetness of my life. Considering
I had finished my unforeseen project, I had some time to spare. Within this
spare time, I had to exercise and run a few errands like picking up milk and some
small items. My unbelievable approach to multi-tasking helped me utilize my
time management skills. I had concluded it was a brilliant idea to ride my bike
(exercise) to the store (get milk). A brilliant plan to burn calories and
accomplish something within 5 minutes, ok maybe 20 minutes. Fast forward 3 hours;
I had put air in the bike tires, climbed hills with a lack of physical
strength, wandered through shopping aisles in search of a reward, namely
chocolate, because of my successful multi-tasking. Then another journey home,
back up the same hill I climbed to get there, so it seemed. I had passed so
many things that I had never noticed while driving in a car. I had the wind at
my back, the sun in my face and all the time in the world minus 3 hours for a
gallon of milk. Now I digress; that was the best bowl of cereal I had eaten in
a long time. A droplet in my espresso and I am off to find more time today and
see how I can spend it…the benefits of owning your own one-man company.
“Making money is art, and working is art, and good business is the best art,” says Andy Warhol. I couldn’t agree with him more on the art of business and the business of art. After all, this is my business. I make art. When I’m not doing other things like writing a blog or procrastinating on the task of making art. When I do make art, I need to sell that art; it puts food on the table, puts my kids in school and allows me to buy more art supplies to make more art. After that equation is all done, I’d hope to have a little money left over. But that left over money or how to make more money is not what this blog is about. It is about how I, along with many other artists, have a fault. Ok probably more than one fault, when it comes to business.
Here is my fault: grandiose ideas fueled by passion and inspiration. Not to knock the Wall Street guys but I don’t think any of them buy stock cause it’s inspiring. Not a bank in the world is going to lend money to an artist with that business plan. So I saved up my own money from my art sales and bought three overly huge, gigantic, custom-made panels to paint. For me, 48 inches by 96 inches is a bit on the larger size. Granted I’ve painted murals before but those were for outside or over a span of twelve booths. This size painting requires one large sofa.
I started with a little idea. Then with too much time alone, the thought rattled around in my head and got bigger and bigger and bigger. Then I had to call my framer to see if he could make it. I actually looked into making it myself but couldn’t wait. I needed it now! Another fault that many prudent business people don’t share. The framer, a good businessman, tried to persuade me out of it, saying it was too big, too fragile and would be too expensive. My inspiration and passion must have radiated through the phone because by the end of the conversation he was just as excited to build it, as I was to paint it. We negotiated a fair price and a deadline that was too quick for him, and too long for me to keep my inspiration bottled up. The phone call came and they were ready. I picked them up in my truck and drove back to the studio. The boards hung over the tailgate waving a red flag warning other motorists something big and awesome was on the way.
Here they sit in the studio primed white and ready to be painted, sketched, scratched, re-worked and made to shine. I sit and think wow! These are big! How am I going to move them or ship them? Who is going to want something this big? In this economy, who can afford something this size? What was I thinking? Then I think it is a small price to pay for something so big. It is the spark and inspiration that gets me up early and excited to be in the studio. It is a belief in an idea and a passion to pursue it that makes this the best job. I just hope somebody on Wall Street found a good stock and has a big wall this can occupy.
If there has ever been an artist who is more excited now, it would be Kate Stewart. She has a show up this month at Vox Populi in Philadelphia and another show opening next month. But her real excitement is written in the Mayan Calendar and the apocalyptic aftermath. If the end happens, all her paintings would be better understood. I’m not sure if the equation works out and whether there are people left to see them but that is beside the point. All right, Kate isn’t that excited about the world coming to an end, but it is the subject for the majority of her work. I sat down with Kate Stewart, the painter and assistant professor of West Chester University, at Iron Hill Brewery in West Chester to gain a little more insight into her art and also to share a pint.
First off, she does not carry the dismal outlook and attitude of someone that contemplates the world ending. She has a lot of time to contemplate things with two studios, one in Philadelphia and the other in Carlisle, plus a teaching job in the middle. She says she enjoys the drive. It’s a time to gather information for future paintings, think about life, and critique her work through the images on her phone. (We did discuss how texting is now illegal in PA but we don’t think critiquing is.) Kate’s paintings are simple apocalyptic scenes, not of mass destruction but of smoke and a little bit of fire and bright pink skies. An intense pink can be found in many of her paintings. This isn’t the dreary type of stuff found in movies like 12 Monkeys.
Our meeting at Iron Hill wasn’t a random choice. I always let the artist pick the restaurant for the interview. I’d have to say I’m a bit partial to Iron Hill though, especially the art work inside considering I painted them. So you might say I’m biased, but not really. Because I go there often, I always head to the featured beer selection and featured entrees. There is always something new to try! I opted for the andouille sausage sandwich with peppers and onions, smoked paprika aioli that was smothered with cheese. Of course I had to have beer once again, I reach for the seasonal list; this season is the best season because all the beers are strong and heavy to help keep you warm during the winter months. I went with an old favorite, FE10 brewed originally for Iron Hills 10th Anniversary. Kate broke tradition and strayed form her self-imposed vegetarian diet during the week and grabbed a big juicy burger. This too was smothered with cheese and nestled underneath was a pile of exotic mushrooms. We both had a brief health epiphany and chose the salad as a side instead of the fries. That was a wise decision because it left room for dessert. Lets get to the interview, then I’ll tell you about the dessert and the other beer and the other beer and…
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
How did you get started making art?
I kind of grew up with it. My mom and her side of the family had a lot of creativity. We always had art supplies around the house, so I was always around it. I lived in Baltimore and we would go to the museum and I loved it as a kid.
Where did you go to college and what was your major?
Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA. I went in as a Bio major, but was a little lazy in signing up for classes. So, I didn’t get into Bio 101. But I really loved dissecting and the anatomical side of biology so I got into environmental science and started taking some art classes. I knew I had a propensity towards art but I didn’t want to just do that. That’s why I went to a liberal arts school. But then I changed my major at the end of my freshmen year. I majored in art and minored in art history.
Can you describe your work in general for the readers?
I work in a variety of media mainly in painting. I do drawings and collage works on paper and I also do installation. I am very inspired by the natural world but in terms of imagery, I am always thinking about the apocalyptic worlds. So over the years it’s gone through an evolution through these explosions or natural disasters into beyond that to what the world would be like without the constructs of society. Almost like referencing Chernobyl. Nature has sort of taken over because mankind is no more. My recent paintings are about repurposing relics of our culture now and having a different value tied to them. It’s really kind of far out. I am sort of fascinated by the idea that everything we have now might not be there.
What is your favorite medium?
Painting.
How do you do choose your subject matter? I think about this stuff all the time. I have read some apocalyptic literature like, The Road, that is interesting to me. I guess I seek it out because I have an interest in it. But, I also watch things like Rachel Maddow in reference to the way I look at things and it has seeped into the way I look at politics now. They aren’t separate.
What are your thoughts on perfection?
I use to think about it a lot. I was a taper in my paintings. I masked it off with matt medium. I wanted the crispness in the paintings. Now in my paintings, I am not interested in that at all. I want messy, I want cluster, and I want it to feel really lived in and visceral. I think that my paintings use to have a real flatness and detachment and coldness to them, and I wanted that. I wanted that attachment. But now I don’t want that; I want a painting to feel lived in and experienced and labored in, to have a surrealistic feel within the piece.
As a professor at WCU what do you hope your students walk away with after taking your class?
I hope they have a sense of who they are as an artist. I hope that they continue to make work, but that they also kind of carve out a creative life for themselves. I think it is really hard that first year out to generate that enthusiasm about art and work as your able to do in school. I also encourage them to find a community to identify themselves with in terms of a creative community.
How do you decide when an artwork is done?
If nothing in it bothers me anymore. What I do, because I drive a lot, is I take pictures and look at them with fresh eyes while I am driving. If they feel ok and if I am excited by them still then that’s a good thing.
For some of your shows you have painted or wallpapered the walls behind your paintings. You do this because?
I designed a stencil and painted all of that so I’ll damask the walls with my own design in those installations. For a while, before I was teaching full time, I was a decorative painter. I was in peoples’ homes constantly. I would be on a ladder listening to the radio to the atrocities going on, you know war and so forth. It was kind of gross to me that I was hiding out in these mansions while all this was going on. As Americans we have this luxury of ignoring or escaping what’s going on in the world by just staying home and turning on the tube watching Family Guy or something. So I wanted to start paying attention to that in the paintings and I was to have some sort of catastrophic thing going on outside of this real austere beautiful environment on the inside. Then I started to break out and think about it in terms of three dimensionality and how that would look. So I started doing the paintings in these sort of catastrophic moments and the environment was sort of enveloping and seductive. So there would be this little play, some tension.
What inspires you?
A lot. I garden extensively. I love seeing things grow. The different greens I can see I can mix and bring into my paintings. Seeing things get overgrown, that’s the natural world that comes into my art a lot. I definitely go to New York as much as I can to see what’s going on and get to the shows. Apart from just my life, what I see every day, I really try to push it and see as much as I can.
Do you have any habits or routines before you paint? Yeah, I kind of meditate a bit. It’s not like I look at an egg and meditate. I mean, I call it meditation but it’s probably not traditional meditation. I kind of just sit there and look at things. Look at everything together; figure out what my next move is and where to go in my work.
A majority of your paintings have this intense pink, why? I love it. I love color. I love knock out color. I always come back to pink. There are so many different kinds of pink. There’s like Pepto-Bismol pink, there’s neon flashy pink, there’s voluptuous fleshy pink. But I think at the heart of things is that it has a presence. It jumps out at you, hopefully.
What are you eating right now?
I am eating a burger. It’s a black forest burger. I have not been eating meat really, so this morning I woke up really craving a cheeseburger. So that’s why I got it, with a side salad, a nice healthy salad.
What is your favorite food?
Quiche. I love quiche. I named my cat Quiche. My husband cooks…I feel like I married Julia Childs. He is a brilliant cook and cooks all the time.
What does home mean to you?
Home is where the things that I love the most are.
What is your proudest moment?
I just got a grant, a research and development grant, through West Chester, as a way to implement technology into my work. So I am going to take classes at this studio called NextFab Studio in Philly. It’s like a sculpture gym. You go in, pay a membership fee, and you learn all these different programs that allow you to use machinery like 3D printing, laser cutting. So for my stencils I am going to learn how to do the laser cutter and really know the ins and outs of it to do my own stencils.
What was your mother right about?
I was lucky. I had a mom who basically said that if you focus on what you love you will be successful. I am not making tons of money but I am happy.
Money is OK, but it isn’t what life is about. What is it about?
Trying to make money…No. I think being fulfilled and being stimulated. I feel very much those things, which makes me really happy.
Where did you grow up?
In a suburb outside of Baltimore called Catonsville.
What is the last book you read? Just Kids by Patti Smith.
You collect?
Oh God, Lots of things. My husband and I really love old Pulp novels; so, Pulp novels. We collect a lot of religious literature. Some of the darker ones, like your time is coming and it might be now. They are about the apocalypse. I collect tons of things though, like really kitschy dolls, moths; I collect cats, apparently.
Something that is important on your nightstand?
Usually the book I am reading and my phone.
Your strangest possession?
I love this weird lamp that’s made out of three deer hooves.
Favorite time of day?
I love, really early in the morning. I am not a morning person but I love when the sun rises. But I do love the evening too, that kind of alpine glow where everything is lit from behind.
I gave Kate time to eat and finish up her burger after the interview. I had bombarded her with enough questions and side conversations to write a novel. Plus, in my head I was already on to dessert and another beer selection. I did think about the Oatmeal Cookie beer but opted for the Old Tom Barleywine and a slice of chocolate hazelnut cake, that way I didn’t feel like I was eating two desserts. Kate chose the old fashioned oatmeal cake with vanilla ice cream. It was as comforting as a warm muffin. She definitely won the dessert choice award. After the last round of drinks I whipped out my iphone and broke out the speed questions. The beverages didn’t slow her down but she did email me later, that during her 2 hour ride back home she thought about how she would have liked to change some of her answers. I said it’s all on video, no can do. But I will share that there are three other things you won’t find Kate doing. They are getting a twitter account, never telling someone not to pursue the arts, and she’ll never stop traveling. If you want to see what the other three things are that she committed to on video be sure to watch.
Kate Stewart will also be showing at John Bakers Studio; 119 West Evergreen St
West Grove PA 19390,
during the Chester County Open Studio Tour, May 19 – 20th. For more information please visit our site.
I have always admired John Suplee’s American Impressionists Painting. Suplee is a local artist that has picked up where Horace Pippin left off, capturing the change and expansion of West Chester, PA. The paintings are common sights painted with confident brush strokes that wiggle around the contours of his subject, popping them from the bright blue skies that surround them. All of the paintings have a shade of red or orange peeking through these brush strokes. I later found out that Suplee’s favorite color is orange.
If I have already lost you with too much art vocabulary and a dizzying description of eye candy, beware, it is going to get more interesting. For, John Suplee is a man that was born too late. If he was born earlier he would be considered a gentleman, a scholarly man, a man of the arts and humanities…today he can be reached by phone not email. This is where my conversation starts. I had only met John once briefly at an art opening and was given his phone number to contact him and set up an interview. I called him and he was pre-warned of my request and graciously accepted. Like all of the interviews they are self serving. I get to eat and drink in the middle of the day while meeting and sharing with wonderful artists. This one turns out a bit differently, however, in a good way. While asking John where we would like to eat he replied that he didn’t really care for restaurants that had long descriptions on their menu and would rather I just join him at home so we wouldn’t be bothered with the distractions of people. With my self-serving attitude I replied, “That would be great! I’ll stop by Carlino’s and pick up lunch to be there by noon.”
There I was in Carlino’s Restaurant in West Chester with a plethora of gourmet delights. It is a dieter’s nightmare due to a maze of beautifully laid out food to eat in or take out. I wind my way through dried pastas, fresh cheeses, cured meats, prepared foods, wood oven pizza, hot and made to order, sandwiches, cookies, pies, cakes, and the register. Dazed and confused, I needed to back track again to gain my bearings and focus on my appetite. I go with the daily specials, a brief menu with a few commas and short and precise descriptions. I take the tilapia sandwich with panko-encrusted tilapia and a chipotle tartar sauce. For John, I try to play it safe with an Italian marinated chicken breast sandwich. I skip the mixed greens and tomatoes but ask for the sundried tomato spread on the side. Making my way to the register I notice the bakery section and I think to myself, “We need desert.” From there I begin thinking about dinner too. My arms are full. I should be able to convince any gentleman that gastronomy is alive and well in West Chester today.
Before I go into the interview, please let me set the scene. Sitting down at John’s newly designed kitchen island, I proudly serve my well thought out “simple” food. I hand John his sandwich and he graciously thanks me. He opens and inspects the sandwich and reaches for his knife, only to scrape every sesame seed off the top of the roll. Seeds fly across the room landing all around us. Quietly he murmurs how upset his wife will be now that there is a mess. I press record and allow the humor, the wit, and the contemplative answers to ensue.
INTERVIEW
How did you get started making art? Probably to see things that I couldn’t see without drawing them myself. As a little kid I drew a lot of things blowing up. When I became a teenager I worked on other things that teenagers wanted to see. Around that time, I transitioned into the idea that you could make things that were important that people would pay attention to.
Did you receive any formal art training?
Yeah. When I was a kid, the lady across the road put oil paints in front of me when I was six years old. She painted herself and was a teacher. She was an inspiration. In High school, my art teacher saw some stuff that I made and said you don’t want to take art here in high school. Then he just took four or five of my pieces and put them in an art show. He said I could just come in at noon and use the room if I want. I went to college in New York State, Hamilton College, which I partly picked because of the visual look of the place. I ended up majoring in art there, being virtually the only art major in my class. Instead of just going for an MFA, I’d just continue to work on my own. I studied like crazy. Even today I am just obsessed with searching out other imagery that is not necessarily what the major information streams feed you.
Describe your work in general for the readers?
It’s painting and drawing. I don’t put the drawings out much. I have sort of taken a pause now. But over the last five years I had a big spurt of life drawing. Over the years I have done that and I feel that sharpens my ability to draw other stuff.
What is your medium?
I use acrylic paints. I was working in oils a little before that. I found acrylics was much easier.
How do you choose your subject matter?
There is never a shortage of ideas. I have always had more ideas than I could bring out. The ones that make it into reality are just sort of the lucky ten percent.
Why are you an artist?
Well, I think I am just sort of a loner type to begin with so I am able to tolerate the isolation and find it preferable to constantly being presented with expectations and interactions with others.
What are your thoughts on perfection?
It’s really overrated. There are painters who paint that way. There is a whole new school of classical realism. They have a rock and a feather and they look so freakin real and you think why? I try to keep it somewhere in between.
Tell me about some of your favorite techniques...
Well I find a great stress reducer for approaching an empty panel is to just do a brush drawing and usually it’s kind of a light shade of orange and eventually transfer into a dark shade of orange and I find corrections present themselves. Then I add white into my painting. The advantage is that I have a lot of orange and reds under my paintings.
How do you decide when an artwork is done?
When stuff that I do to it starts to take it downhill. Fortunately with acrylics, when I see a mistake coming I just wipe it. Even if the correction I am making still needs to be made if it starts out wrong I just, what I call, nuke it and take it back to point zero and then re-correct.
Who has been the biggest influence on your life?
The lady across the street, Aldan Knowls. My family, I had one grandmother who was particularly wise. She would take me into Philadelphia to a Thomas Eakins show. Also, while not extensive but meaningful encounters with Tom Bostelle and he’s the one who started me on the idea that the people who can teach you the most art are dead.
You have been quoted as saying “all art comes from other art” What other artists have inspired you?
Oh wow, well there is sort of a period. I think its more a question of a period of time and an approach to reality that is important to me. It goes from maybe 1870 to mid twentieth century and it’s all about the intersection of the physicality of a painting as it meets the visual world. Say if you take the Dutch landscape, they are all flat with a little bit of land on the bottom and then a sky. I think the big kick in the butt came from our intersection of Japan through Europe. Then all of the artists began to get the idea that you could arrange things and you could intensify things and you could paint things that were a combination of what you saw and what you felt. All the European artists began doing that and then all the American artists trotted over there. Lately as I have been studying more and more and just recently began studying the internet finding all these obscure people out there that are hugely talented, some of them dead some of them not dead, I found the reason that the high end art is so lame is that talent is everywhere so its not a rarity. There have been a few people who have been given permission to draw representations by the really huge end art world. Its not that they are so extraordinarily unusual it’s just that they some how sneak under the door.
Besides art what inspires you?
Collecting stuff.
For the beginning artist... what tip do you have?
Network
What are you eating right now?
I’m eating a dismantled chicken breast sandwich, which I scraped all the sesame seeds off.
What is your favorite food?
Steak. My least favorite food is anything that takes a long time to describe. I have this sort of paranoid feeling that there is this vast network of menu writing schools. I am a really poor person to go out with for food.
What does home mean to you?
I get very very attached to stuff that is familiar. My absolute best friend is my wife. We are very happy with our house and our cat.
What was your mother right about?
Hmmm…Being funny.
Money is OK, but it isn’t what life is about. What is it about?
Reduction of stress.
Where did you grow up?
Here in West Chester in the country.
What is the last book you read?
Read…read? Well I’ll put in a plug for a book, I just glanced at by Odd Nerdrum called Kitsch More Than Art.
You collect?
My wife is a non-clutter person so most of the collections are sort of conveniently put out of sight these days. Oddly enough, rugs were the only worthy objects that my family collected. But even that I backed off a bit because I have some rolled up upstairs that nobody sees. I have some Japanese prints. If I had my way they could easily go all the way up the stairs. Postcards too, it’s just because its random eyeball candy.
Something that is important on your nightstand?
I have a little skull cap for when my head gets cold.
Your strangest possession?
A shard of glass left over from the accident scene where my childhood dentist was killed.
Your best birthday?
Maybe my fiftieth, Carol made me a nice big party.
FIRSTs
Play-
You mean drama? I was in some plays. I remember [when I was in school] they took us on a bus trip to see Macbeth in NYC, which was cool.
Concert-
Philadelphia Orchestra concert.
Plane ride-
Germany during a high school trip
Piece of art you sold-
In college I was doing a lot of free association pen line drawings. I remember that one of the professors in the psychology department bought like twenty or thirty of them.
What is your next trend and where do you see West Chester going?
I think in some ways West Chester is rediscovering itself and kind of becoming a new Manayunk. There are places it could be “do-dadded” up but I think the historical architectural integrity is recognized in the west end of town and they are sort of keeping the lid on, which is good. It doesn’t concern me to capture it. My concern is more about warning people then congratulating them.
I finished up with the questions; we finished lunch and our beers. I reminded John I had dessert, cupcakes, that were decorated accordingly. He reached for the carrot commenting that he likes orange. We then proceeded through out the house admiring his art collection, his art and other collectibles. When we hit the third floor, he smiled. This was the end of our tour and we were where he loved to be, the “book room.” Every wall had shelves of books, books were then piled on the floor 3 stacks deep. Random sketches collectively piled in stacks then placed on stacks of books told the whole story. This was a gentleman that loved collecting for knowledge and inspiration. Now let's see how he holds up to the speed questions.
