Tell us about your up bringing in the UK. Where did you grow up?
I was born in Glasgow and grew up in Edinburgh. My Mum and her side of the family are Australian. I went to university in Dundee, a city about an hour north of Edinburgh after that I moved to Glasgow, then back to Edinburgh where I had a studio. At this time I was working at an artist run space in Dundee – Generator Projects - so my life at that point – and still is come to think of it –every transient.
Now being in the United States two and a half years living in Philadelphia for the majority of the time and now in New York, looking back, how has this influenced your perspective of the States and where has it impacted or taken part of your work in unexpected ways.
I want to say that there is more of a do-it-yourself attitude over here but as I’m thinking about it, my friends back home are as proactive in that regard and there are a huge number of artist-run spaces, events, zines etc. Perhaps it’s more to do with a generational/economic situation that more dynamism is asked of emerging artists.
I think about how something you make could only be made in that time and place. I don’t regret much and when I think about the different scenarios and directions you can go in – it’s comforting to think of all the singular looking things you’ll see there that will impact your work. A cold comfort perhaps but whatever helps you sleep at night…
Graduating from Tyler School of Art in the spring of 2011 and now taking on your studio practice on your own, what has become less important to you in your practice as a painter and what has become more relevant?
I probably jettisoned a lot of ideas that I was not ready to abandon. I felt an incentive at grad school to race through ideas. When I started working again in New York I wanted to make complicated paintings – I wonder if in hindsight it was because everything was moving quickly and I needed to do something slow and meditative
. I’m interested in the idea of making art in opposition to things happening in life.
I acknowledge that a sense of time is a recurring idea in my work – even if the approach and subject vary wildly painting to painting, the contention between ideas made over time with great consideration and a quick gesture or decision seems important.
What is the current direction that your work is taking?
I’ve been making lots and have some momentum at the moment. The work is pretty abstract. There are references to figuration and landscape, which is usual in my work. The paint is thin and there is a lot of charcoal involved - more so than in the sketchy early stages of a painting – I’ve come to recognize it’s significance totally and it sits upfront on a lot of these new paintings.
I've made large, slow paintings based loosely on interior spaces. They're quite flat and thin. I was painting the light from cinema projectors for a little while.I’m still rationalizing that decision, but it seems like a nice succinct way of reconciling the relationship my paintings have with films. I'm trying not to over think and I’m approaching subject matter with very little prejudice. I do need to start being more aggressive about arranging studio visits and getting the right people in my studio - - I worry that I'm too passive and not hustling hard enough - after all that's what I’m here to do....
Who are you looking at right now? What is inspiring your practice?
All sorts. Stuff like cartoons, buildings, old films, the east coast. Show-wise: the new Joyce pensato show at Freidrich Petzel, the Sergei Jensen at Anton Kern, Thomas Scheibitz at Tanya Bonakdar and Guenther Foerg at Greene Naftali from the last crop at Chelsea.
List of Image:
1. Untitled, Oil on Linen, 72 x 58
2.
3. Oil on Canvas, 63 x 70
4. Light From A Film Projector, Oil on Canvas, 15 X 19