Dao Strom, Artist

 

Hello and welcome to the 48th 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed the fascinating and multi-talented Dao Strom. Her show at Catherine G. Murphy Gallery really stuck with me and I am so pleased that she agreed to do this. Her answers provide a lot of insight into her work and process and I think you will enjoy them. Thank you for reading! (All images courtesy of the artist / Instagram: @herandthesea)

Jackson: What first inspired you to be an artist? Were you motivated by a specific experience?

Dao: There is no specific experience that awoke me to the role of art in my life - creativity has always been a huge part of my being ever since I was a child. Perhaps it helped that I had a mother who was a writer and so I was encouraged by her - to a degree - to write and draw when I was young. Writing, language, stories, the imagination were natural refuges for me, and I wrote stories and drew pictures and made up worlds in my head all through my youth. But instead of studying writing when I went to college, I decided to study filmmaking; this is where the use of the camera and visual techniques first became a more intentional field for me, perhaps. As for music, I had no notions of myself as a musician until I began exploring music in my early twenties. I would say the music came to me - a box of cassettes (back when this was the listening format, yes) of traditional folk musicians found on a sidewalk in New York City one afternoon, played a part in opening a door onto a genre of music that led to me wanting to learn how to sing and play guitar myself. My journey toward and through those mediums of "voice" I inhabit has felt, for me, like a very organic, winding path. 

Jackson: I really like your poetry and music but I particularly love your video art. Do you have a preference? Are the video pieces more difficult to realize?

Dao: I have individual relationships with all of these mediums, and yet, and also, I feel that it is important for me to recognize how the hybrid space/forms where these three voices come together is itself unique and where the endeavor of my art finds its biggest tensions. At least for myself the melding of mediums is maybe also a re-pairing - an urge to reconnect - disparate, fragmented spheres of myself. I think it is the same 'voice' that manifests through each medium, that is not content to just sound through one format or conduit alone. That all can carry through without relying on a body, on concrete materials, etc, to be an experience - the way a song can be sung/played by anyone who cares to inhabit it; a song is such an amorphous, wondrous vessel. As for the video pieces: since the imagery often involves myself playing a part or performing some action, I have collaborated with others behind the camera, and also in the editing process at times. My collaborators, however, have (so far) been only a couple people who are quite close to me - friends, loved ones. Some of the video work also involves found imagery, whether personal or documentary. The video-making process, although physical and involving collaboration, is still quite intimate and interior, I don't go into it with planned ideas for what to shoot, for instance, but more just a few rough ideas, then we go looking for the right settings and objects, and see what unfolds. A lot is created later in the editing process.  

Jackson: If you could meet any artist living or dead, who would it be and why?

Dao: Theresa Hak Kyung Cha - but maybe only to witness a performance by her or hear her voice, embodied. I would not myself know what to say to her and would be happy to just hear/allow her work to speak for itself.

Sarah Kusa, Artist

 

Hello and welcome to the 47th 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed the super talented and unique Sarah Kusa. I have been following what she does for many years and I always take something new from her art whenever I see one of her shows. It always leads to a discussion which I think is a real achievement. Her answers were really great and I think you will agree! Thanks for reading and try to catch Sarah's show at Catherine G. Murphy Gallery! (Artist photo by Rebecca Slater / Other photos from the Instagram I run with my Dad: @artworldexploration / Artist Instagram: @ kusasa / Artist website: www.sarahkusa.com) 

Jackson: What inspired you to become an artist? Was it early in life?

Sarah: As a kid I was constantly creating: drawings, elaborate habitats for stuffed animals, outdoor forts, and clothing. I grew up seeing my father use tools to make things, and our home was full of my grandmother's quilts and embroidery work, so I was keenly aware of what was possible to make by hand. At my first elementary school, my art teacher would borrow taxidermy mounts from the university museums for us to observe and draw. Art hooked me early on.

In high school I took art classes, but I chose not to go to art school for a variety of reasons. I studied journalism and mass communication in college instead and went to work in advertising. A few years in, I took a screen printing class at Highpoint Center for Printmaking in Minneapolis. After years of working exclusively with the computer, it was my gateway back into hands-on artwork. I knew I needed a career shift and started a small business printing fabric and making decor goods for the home. Over time I was more invested in creating than in selling mass quantities of product, so I let the business fade and followed my curiosity into art. That was when I started going down the deep, dark rabbit hole of sculpture and installation. I have always been interested in physical spaces, so I think that is why I gravitated to 3D. I never really set out to be a professional artist, but somewhere along the way I decided to follow my art for as long as I could sustain it. There are definitely easier career paths, but like many artists, I am one of those people who continue to pursue art because it meets one of my most basic needs.  

 

Jackson: Do you consider your art sculptural or conceptual? Both? What type of response do you hope for?  

Sarah: I work in 3D for the most part, but not exclusively. Sometimes my work is more sculptural in nature, and sometimes it is more like three-dimensional drawing, when the process is fairly immediate and gestural. Early on my work was often about making an object either to see what it felt like to make or what it did in space. Now there is almost always a set of questions I am working with when I start new work in the studio. I'm often thinking about some aspect of human vulnerability or how a particular material mirrors the body. I typically have something in mind from my own life experience, but I'm unlikely to share specifics because I want the finished work to be broader than me. I try to present my art in a way that is open enough for others to have their own sensory experience and make connections to their own lives. My hope is for people to come away from my work with a fresh perspective, a sense of shared humanity, and/or a sense of empathy for others. 

Jackson: If you could meet any artist living or dead, who would it be and why?

Sarah: This is a surprisingly tough question. If I could choose two (I realize I'm cheating), it would be Louise Bourgeois (who died in 2010) and Ursula Von Rydingsvard (who is 80 years old and still at work). Bourgeois was not one of the first artists I was drawn to, but the longer I have been an artist, the more I come back to the breadth and emotional power of her work. Von Rydingsvard is a contemporary sculptor making amazing large-scale work from wood and metal. If you can track down the recent documentary about her called Into Her Own, it is so good. Both artists are powerful examples of female sculptors with long careers that I deeply admire.

Joshua McGarvey, Artist

Hello and welcome to the 46th 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed Joshua McGarvey, an artist I've admired for a long time who is receiving a lot of well deserved attention. Joshua does very unique things with installation art, sculpture, and video art and has a current show at the Minneapolis Institute of Art that everyone should go see. As I expected, his answers were very interesting and informative. I think you will agree! Thank you for reading! (Instagram: @joshuadmcgarvey, website: joshuamcgarvey.com, all images courtesy of the artist)

Jackson: What inspired you to be an artist, and a video artist in particular? How old were you when you settled on the idea?

Joshua: My mom was always very creative. She drew and would occupy me and my brother often with pencil and paper. My interest in being an artist grew from there. I was always drawing. In school, I was often called by teachers for "doodling" too much. Then in college, I discovered printmaking (specifically intaglio, woodcut, bookmaking). Then in grad school, I discovered installation. Installation led to building sets and wanting to activate them with performance. Performance led to documentation. Documentation led to video. But also the works of artists like Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith, Peter Kubelka, Paul McCarthy, Bruce Nauman, David Hammons, Mike Kelley, Hito Steyerl, and Alex Da Corte led me towards video. I am also inspired by internet video culture and some reality TV. Although some of my more recent large scale pieces have been focused on video, I consider myself a multidisciplinary artist working with but not limited to performance, sound, interactive elements, and materials such as textiles, scuplture, photography and video. My current exhibition "POSTURING" at Minneapolis Institute of Art's MAEP Gallery includes some large sculptural works that play off the videos in a way that expands the concepts of the installation from hyper personal to institutional critique. 

Jackson: When did you begin using masks in your art and why? Does it relate to the humor and irony you use or do you see it as separate?

Joshua: I printed the masks of my own face in 2017 as I was developing my work for the Jerome Fellowship for Emerging Artists exhibition at MCAD (The Program, 2018). The mask was born of the question, "how do I remove myself from my video performances of hyper personal ideas." I began trying to cast a new me, and my work utilizing the mask grew, abstracted, and evolved from there. In my video "An Interview with the Artist Joshua McGarvey" the mask represents a concept I call "emotional anonymity", which explores digital identity, privacy, futility, and presentations of self by using the mask to hide my facial expressions during an interview. In terms of humor/irony, I try to use that as a disarming quality in my work, like a mechanism to casually engage my audience while exploring abstract concepts.  

Jackson: If you could meet any artist living or dead, who would it be and why?

Joshua: I would like to hang out with Mark Manders. I love his work. I really admire his ability to intertwine language and sculptural forms. His piece "Shadow Study (2)" is so beautiful, haunting, simple, and poetic. The way his text allows you to enter the sculpture is very satisfying to me.

http://www.markmanders.org/works-a/shadow-study-2/2/

Rima Chahine, Artist

   

Hello and welcome to the 45th 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed United Arab Emirates based painter Rima Chahine. I love her style of painting and her approach to making art. She has been kind enough to check out what I've been up to with my art which I always appreciate. I think her advice about believing you can do it even when others tell you you can't is great. Thank you for reading! (Instagram: rimachahine.art, website: rimachahine.com, all images courtesy of the artist)

Jackson: On your website you say you believed in yourself when no one else did. Did that make you more determined to be a successful artist or impact the type of work you make?

Rima: I always felt growing up that many things did not resonate with my being in the culture I grew up in. The state of being of people I met along the way made me feel like an outcast often, so this is what made me become an artist. I believe in free expression, I applaud high sensitivity in life and in art, in being true to who you are no matter the costs. This is my art expression. It is peace, love and authenticity. 

Jackson: Did the pandemic affect your career or change the way you made your paintings? I lost some opportunities and noticed I was using brighter colors.

Rima: Yes, it did. I needed to do more travelling, attending international art fairs and exhibitions to find bigger opportunities for exposure and sales.

Jackson: If you could meet any artist living or dead, who would it be and why?

Rima: Monet. I like his art gentleness. So expressive and soft. I wish to paint with him one day.

Donna Bruni Cox, Artist

 

Hello and welcome to the 44th 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed super talented painter Donna Bruni Cox. I have always admired her skilled, colorful, and unique paintings and she has had kind words for me about what I do, which I really appreciate. I found inspiration in what she had to say here and I believe you will too. Thanks for reading! (All images courtesy the artist. Instagram: @dbcstudio / Website: www.donnabruni.com)

Jackson: What inspired you to be a painter, and an abstract painter specifically? Did you have a particular experience?

Donna: I remember drawing in sand at the beach when I was very young, making marks, paths and pictures, then watching them magically wash away with the tides. I loved the freedom and impermanence of it. I was always coloring, drawing, painting, designing, making things. In elementary school a pastel drawing of mine was selected for the school art fair. From that point on, I was the artist in my family. In college, I spent many hours in studio art classes painting and drawing, while studying graphic design to become a working artist. As a painter, abstraction was a natural progression for me. I was captivated by the pure language of painting and its ability to express emotion, energy, essence, spirit, form and shape of things. Living in New York in the mid 1970's, that door opened for me through weekend museum and gallery visits. I started to think about painting more seriously. I remember seeing Picasso's monumental painting, Guernica, at MoMA and feeling the depth and power of abstraction to express feelings of humanity. Studying paintings in museums is how I began to understand the mystery and beauty of visual language. I took a weeknight painting class at the School of Visual Arts at that time, but it was years before I had a studio and would focus on developing a body of work.

Jackson: Following you on social media I have noticed that you travel a lot and paint in different places. Do you think this impacts how you make art? Is location important to your process?

Donna: I have family in a lot of different places, so that helps. I think of travel as moving out of my day to day life and into the daily life of other places. Since I work from memory in my studio, movement is important for changing perspectives and shaping visual ideas. I make all kinds of visual notes and iPhone photos from planes, trains, cars, boats and walking. I use the downtime when travelling to think about a lot of different threads to pursue in my paintings. When I am back in the studio painting, I begin with color and a feeling or sense of imagery. Collected images and personal stories are part of the painting process at every stage.

Jackson: If you could meet any artist living or dead, who would it be and why?

Donna: I'd love to wake up in another time and visit the studios of many women painters, Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Emily Mason, to name a few. As far as contemporary painters, there are many women artists working in diverse mediums who I'd like to meet. I'd probably ask them these three questions!

Peter Bognanni, Author, Macalester College professor

 

Hello and welcome to the 43rd 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! I am very excited to be interviewing award winning author and Macalester College professor Peter Bognanni. I love his books The House of Tomorrow, Things I'm Seeing Without You, and This Book Is Not Yet Rated. They are all so good - you should read them! His book The House of Tomorrow was also made into a film starring Nick Offerman and Ellen Burstyn and the film was really great. You should see it! I thought his answers were wonderful and I think you will too. Thank you for reading!

Jackson: What made you want to become a writer? Did you have a specific experience?

Peter: The story I often tell is that I came to writing last after trying every other art from first. I was really into visual arts and theater when I was a kid. But I was always reading. My mom was a librarian and we had books all over the house. At the end of high school, I wrote a play, and that was the first time I remember thinking that this was something I could do. It was a ridiculous play in retrospect. I'm pretty sure it was narrated by an old man and his dog, and there was a scene where Ronald Reagan gave a speech wearing an American flag as a toga. Still, I had the bug, and when I got to college I had some fantastic teachers and started to take it more seriously. The simple answer, however, is books. Reading books made me want to be a writer. They still do. 

Jackson: What was it like to have The House of Tomorrow made into a film? Was it surreal to see characters you created for a book on a movie screen?

Peter: Yes, it was a little surreal. There was a moment before shooting began where the two actors playing Sebastian and Jared were just practicing guitar in a room. I was on set that day and it looked like a moment from my teenage years had just been perfectly staged in real life (with better looking people). It's always strange when something that has lived primarily inside your head is suddenly outside of your head. There were many of those moments during filming, and it never stopped being delightful and strange.

Jackson: If you could meet any writer living or dead, who would it be and why?

Peter: This is a tough one. There are so many. Also, I only occasionally read a famous writer's biography, so I don't know who would be generous and who would reduce me to tears. As a result, I'm going to make a really safe bet. I met George Saunders once at a book signing and he was one of the most generous people I've ever encountered. I was (and am) a huge fan and I'm sure I was not playing it cool at all. But he talked to me about writing for a little while in the middle of a bookstore. So, even though I know I'm supposed to say Walt Whitman or something, I'm going to stick with what works. George Saunders. Final answer.

Tristan Hilliard, Artist

 

Hello and welcome to the 42nd 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed super talented artist Tristan Hilliard who I met at the awesome Frameworks Gallery. I really admire Tristan's art and videos and his Instagram is a lot of fun. He has lived many places and has a unique perspective. I think you will enjoy his answers! Thank you for reading! (Instagram: @tristanhilliard) (All images courtesy the artist)

Jackson: Did you have a specific experience that made you want to be an artist? Did you always draw or was it something you learned how to do?

Tristan: Hmm, I don't know if there was any specific experience that made me interested in art. I've just been drawn (pardon the pun) to create for as long as I can remember. Art definitely runs in my family's veins. My paternal grandmother, Judy Kusinitz, was a calligrapher and watercolor artist. My dad is a musician. Both my parents, immediate, and extended family have always been incredibly encouraging of art. I think as soon as I could hold it I grabbed a crayon/pencil /pen/whatever and have just been going ever since. It's something I'm definitely always continuing to learn. 

Jackson: Do you think living in several different places has impacted the way you make art?

Tristan: Interesting question! You know, I never thought about it that way before, but I would say - yes, living in different in different places has definitely impacted my art.  I've lived in five different states at this point, and in each one I've focused on a different style of art (or creativity in some way). In Rhode Island, where I was born, I grew up drawing constantly; when I lived in South Carolina, I was heavily into photography and video production; in college at the Art Institute of Atlanta in Georgia I studied digital art and animation; when I lived in California I learned the art of design consulting and framing; and now in Minnesota, I've gone back to more traditional art - painting in watercolors and acrylics. I think I am very much inspired by the community and art I observe around me - and in seeing people excited about certain types of art, I can't help but want to dip my toes into that realm of creativity. Over the past five years working at Frameworks Gallery and meeting many Minnesota artists, such as yourself, has been immensely motivating in that regard.

Jackson: If you could meet any artist living or dead, who would it be and why?

Tristan: Oh, I think I'd go with one of my all time favorites: Salvador Dali. The twentieth century surrealist painter and big personality most famous for painting The Persistence of Memory. I enjoy his brand of weird so much that I dressed as him for Halloween last year. I remember as a kid and young teen I had little to no interest in artists or art of the past (despite loving to draw and make art myself). I didn't care much for what had come before and was only interested in what was going to be created in the present or the future...but one year, probably when I was about 16, my family was visiting my grandmother in Florida and we went to the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg where I saw many of his incredibly unique, masterful, and surreal paintings that were explained in detail through curators. I had no idea so many metaphors, ideas and meanings could be packed into single visual mediums and Dali very quickly became my gateway into a deep appreciation of the world of art history - an appreciation that I've only learned to love more and more over the years. Plus Dali was just a really strange and unique individual - I bet he would have been very interesting to encounter.

Areca Roe, Artist

Hello and welcome to the 41st 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed the multi-talented artist Areca Roe! I have been seeing her work at Rosalux Gallery, The Soap Factory, and online since I was 11 years old and have always loved it so this is very exciting for me, and it was also fun for me to discover we both love David Bowie. Her answers are very thoughtful and I think you will agree. Thanks for reading! (Image 1: the artist, image 2: from Beastland, a 3D exhibition, image 3: Finnian (Angora Rabbit), image 4: Passenger Pigeons, image 5: Katy. All images courtesy the artist)

Jackson: How did you first become interested in art and making art? Did you have a specific experience?

Areca: I've loved art for as long as I can remember - looking at art but also particularly making art. I was one of those kids who would draw by myself for hours, and I became obsessed with photography when I was a teenager. I started using my parents' old 35mm film cameras and learning the chops of photography. There was no specific 'aha' moment, but I remember being enamored with the books by art photographers at my small town library - Cindy Sherman, Richard Avedon, Laurie Simmons, Carrie Mae Weems, etc. I'd never seen anything like that, and it opened up what seemed possible in photography.

Jackson: How do you get inspired and work through your ideas? Are your photographs staged or are the ideas spontaneous?

Areca: Most of my work for the past decade or so is staged photography, not terribly spontaneous. Though in photography, surprising moments always arise. That's part of what I love about it. I get inspiration from so many sources - fiction or non-fiction books, hikes in nature, movies and shows, and of course other artists. I often make work that's inspired by science, biology and ecology but I also follow other paths that interest me at times. The natural world and our relationship to it has been a source of inspiration for me consistently. I usually work through the ideas by reading about the topic, looking at other artists' responses, and just starting to make the work. That's the most important, start making so you can see what the work is saying back to you!

Jackson: If you could meet any artist living or dead, who would it be and why?

Areca: Hmm, tough question but I might have to go with David Bowie. Not necessarily a visual artist but just an amazing creative force all around. I'd like to see what he's like in a normal conversation, and just talk art and music with him.