Paul Pagk

           

Can you briefly describe what you do?

I spend my time painting, even in those moments I am not physically painting. I am a studio artist as that is where I spend most of my time and where I principally make my work. I paint in oils but I also have a large drawing and works on paper practice.

What drives you to make work?

I do not see myself doing anything else other than working on, thinking about and looking at painting. However here are a few of the reasons that come to mind, which may give an insight into what makes me work. The dialogue that manifests itself between me, painting and the painting; between me, my painting and the art, some of which I have seen since a very young age, that I am challenged by; between me, the painting and the development of an ever evolving language of painting and by the continuous occurring metamorphic nature of the painting and painting.

 Can you tell me something of your day-to-day working practices?

My studio is adjunct to my living space, so when I get out of bed in the morning, the first thing I do is to go into the studio to see what I did the day before, only after that do I shower and have breakfast, I can be in my studio sometimes way past midnight, I have small lunch and dinner brakes. My studio has northern light and my painting wall is on the eastside of the studio and the door to my studio is in the west studio wall. I usually have one large painting that I will be working on mostly, but also have 6 or more on the go that are in waiting as well as there are many small paintings in different states of completion. I use dry pigments that I grind into oil paint on a large glass slab, that I use as my palette. I do not prepare my colors in advance but I grind the colors while I am working, changing the hue of the color to the needs of the painting.

I will be thinking about where this or that painting should go in terms of painting, I will be thinking about the last paintings I have just worked on or brought to a level from where I am able to move on to the next work. I spend my time adding and removing from the painting, finding the color, the light, removing an element, adding to remove once more, allowing the painting to slowly define itself.

My drawing practice takes place in the same space as my painting; I have two different ways of approaching my drawing time, one which is drawing on and off while I am working on my paintings and the other which is more intensive where I will solely work on drawing for as long as it comes, producing numerous drawings until I feel that I have worn out that precise moment of drawing activity.

How long have you been working in that way?

Forever.

Which artists have had the greatest affect on your work?

Difficult to answer, as art is an all out and all receiving practice, like when we breathe (without a dust mask), whatever comes your way you take in, even the work that I may not like will have something that may inform me on my own work. And to define which artists and paintings had a great effect on me would be long, due to the fact that my interests are in many different pictorial forms and in many different artists; so here is a small list, which should be by no means taken as definitive as there are many that I have left out, Giotto, Vermeer, Titian, Rembrandt, Velázquez, Goya, Eduard Manet, Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, Pierre Bonnard, Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich, Nicolas De Stael, Barnett Newman, Philip Guston, Agnes Martin, Eva Hess, Blinky Palermo, Sol LeWitt, Robert Ryman, Ellsworth Kelly, Joan Mitchell,  Jo Baer, Donald Judd, my work is also informed by my close artist friends and my contemporaries, I have also spent long hours looking at Classical Chinese painting, Islamic art, as  well as at Classical Chinese pottery such as Sung dynasty pottery.

What, outside visual art, informs your practice?

Local light, air, local color, color, space, aura, the Hudson river through my studio windows, Merleau Ponty Phenomenology of perception, Baruch Spinoza, Gaston Bachelard Air and Dreams, Gilles Deleuze Difference and Repetition, Li Po, music of all sorts, films, life, the space in front of the painting.

How would you like people to engage with your work?

-Totally- mind and body. Totally is how I would like people to engage with my work.

Have you seen anything recently that has made an impression?

The Henri Matisse show, Radical Invention at MoMA, The Edward Manet, the Man who Invented Modernity at Orsay, The Blinky Palermo Retrospective at Bard College and the DIA Beacon, Donald Judd’s and Dan Flavin’s installations at the Chinati Foundation Marfa.

Do you have anything exciting on the horizon?

11 large paintings as well as 29 smaller ones I prepared in July, with which I have my work setout for me for about a year.

Emily Gherard

               

Can you briefly describe what you do?

I have been painting and drawing distilled images of rocks and walls. I tend to work in a limited palette and use the physicality of materials to define the space, form and tension within the piece. 

What drives you to make work?

I always need an idea/concept/theme to begin.  The painting or drawing begins with an idea of a particular form and how it might fit in the space of the painting but as the work continues what keeps me in the piece is manipulating the materials. So I try all sorts of stuff: sanding, scraping, layering, degreasing, buffing, engraving, pouring, subtly altering the color, value, temperature or composition. I look for when the use of materials adds more information, clarity and definition to the original idea.

Can you tell me something of your day-to-day working practices?

I tend to work in a series based on the materials. So I do works on paper for a few months then work on canvas for a few months to a year. Right now I am painting so: I have about 25 paintings in a range of sizes. I work in my studio 3-4 days a week. I find that there seems to be a rhythm to my studio day. I start out organized and systematic. I begin by cleaning up from the previous work day. I lay out colors, mixing huge piles of paint. I’ll mix colors for an hour or so, this gets my eyes and thoughts warmed up. Once I am painting things fall apart.  The paintings always start off hideously. This seems to be part of it for me. By the afternoon, I am scraping and smearing paint- trying anything I can think of.  By the end of my studio day- the place is always a complete mess- left that way for the next morning. When I begin a group of canvases- I work on all of them at once. After a while, I spend more time with fewer paintings. I’ll work on a group of canvases for about 3-6 months.

How long have you been working in that way?

I have been working this way for about 5-6 years, with the exception of small changes depending on my schedule and studio. I moved into a home studio a year ago, that combine with more days off has been wonderful.

Which artists have had the greatest affect on your work?

Goya, always Goya. Piranesi’s Prisons, Fan Kaun, Brueghel the Elder, Claude Lorran’s ink drawings, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Guston, Auerbach, Kossoff, Morandi, early Georg Baselitz,

Lately: Edward Burtynsky, Abakanowicz, Julie Mehretu, Manolo Valdes particularly his sculptures, Richard Serra.

What, outside visual art, informs your practice?

I live in Seattle, and love the gray rainy weather. The coast line and dark rain forest of the Olympic Peninsula, a few hours west of me. I listen to various NPR radio programs while I paint- I don’t know their direct impact on my work but they are always there.

How would you like people to engage with your work?

Although it is always evolving, one of the core issues that I return to is how the viewer moves though the space of the painting. So I hope that those ideas come through. It is also important to me that the piece feels like it just exists- that the viewer is not made aware of the hand. 

Have you seen anything recently that has made an impression?

A friend showed me a book the other day of photographs of water towers. Half of my studio floor is covered with a thick layer of plaster and the light falling on the bright white floor is really beautiful and harsh. The Herzog’s movie Cave of Forgotten Dreams reminded me of something that I have always loved. An interview with the poet Irina Ratushinskaya about poetry and politics. The sound recordings of Tony Schwartz.

Do you have anything exciting on the horizon?

I have a show in February at Francine Seders Gallery in Seattle. I am trying to make new work while forgetting about the looming deadline.