Tim Tozer, Artist

Hello and welcome to the 57th 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed the talented painter Tim Tozer. I met him years ago at Rosalux Gallery and I liked him and his paintings. His paintings are amazing! I have wanted to interview Tim for a long time and I am glad that it has happened now. I enjoyed what he had to say and I think that you will too! Thank you for reading! (Instagram: @tim.tozer / All images courtesy of the artist)

Jackson: How did you become an artist? Were you around art or did you have a specific experience? 

Tim: I was lucky to grow up in a household where art in most forms was always present - music, literature, painting, etc. My dad was an architect and my mum was an art teacher; I think I draw more like my dad, but my mum took me to London to see the exhibitions that would inspire me to become a painter. There was a Lucian Freud retrospective in 1984 that was particularly important to me; I remember looking at a painted knee and thinking that yes, this was what I wanted to do!

Jackson: Do you think being from England has informed your paintings? Do you ever feel nostalgic?

Tim: I've been in the US for over half my life now, but I still think of myself as a British painter. I'm skeptical of that kind of sentimentality, but yes, I think a lot of my figurative work has been a way to relive a sort of unfixed version of my past. My more overtly abstract work has been my attempt to strip away the nostalgia and exist in the present, although of course everything shares the same formal DNA. I do miss England all the time, however, and I can't separate that from what I do.

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

Tim: This is a really difficult question! I'm afraid that if I met an artist I admire, something in their personality might taint the work for me forever - not necessarily in a negative way, just in a way that limits it. However, it would be fun to sit in a corner and watch Vermeer paint; I wouldn't want to chat (I don't speak Dutch anyway), just to see how a human made those paintings. I'd like to shake Julie Mehretu's hand to salute their epic accomplishment; that retrospective at the Walker was one for the ages. And having a drink with Francis Bacon would've been something to brag about, even if you couldn't remember much of it afterwards. 

Mckenzie Cassidy, Author

 

Hello and welcome to the 56th 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! I am very excited to be interviewing author Mckenzie Cassidy. I read his debut novel Here Lies A Father with my Dad and I really loved it, parts of the book really stuck with me and I get into that in the interview. I think that you would love the novel and I believe you will enjoy his answers as much as I did. Thank you for reading! (Website: https://www.mckenziecassidy.com / Author photo courtesy of the author)

Jackson: How did you become an author? Were you a book lover when you were young? Did you feel like you had stories to tell?

Mckenzie: Growing up I never thought of myself as a writer and I wasn't interested in the act of writing. In school I was an average student (mostly Bs) who did enough to get my credit and move on to the next grade. One thing I did love was watching movies. I grew up in a small town in upstate New York in the 90s and in my free time I rode my bike to the video store. Back then it was all VHS tapes, 49 cents for old movies and 99 cents for new releases. I would end up riding home home with a plastic bag full of VHS tapes. I did some reading as a kid but not as much as you would expect. Most of my extensive reading started in my 20s. The truth was I considered myself a storyteller rather than a writer. It wasn't until I went to college to study Political Science, which probably should have been English or Literature, that I started writing a ton and getting positive feedback from my instructors. After that I slid into journalism where I wrote news and features for years, and finally started writing fiction. In my 20s I worked at a newspaper in southwest Florida and started reading memoirs (some of my favorites being This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff, Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls). These books inspired me and that's when I realized I may have my own interesting life story to tell.   

Jackson: The good wolf/bad wolf story from Here Lies A Father really stayed with me and I have repeated it to many people. Does it have personal meaning for you? Is that how it ended up in the book?

Mckenzie: I also love this story. Originally, it was a Cherokee legend demonstrating how no person is all good or all bad. I can't remember where I first heard it but it resonated with me in the context of addiction. We all have internal conflicts, urges that are both good and evil, but unlike wild animals we have the choice on whether to act on those thoughts or feelings. Mental disease makes it difficult for some people to make the right choice and substance abuse is like pouring gasoline on a burning fire. When I used this legend in Here Lies A Father, it was during a scene where the main character Ian was speaking with his mentor, a small-town boxing coach named Bud. It would actually be the last time Ian saw him. He talked about how for decades men had shown up to the gym trying to get control over their own demons. They spent too much time feeding the bad wolf and as a result their lives were a mess. I wanted Ian to have an epiphany about the importance of feeding his good wolf with healthy activities like exercising, education, reading, or the arts. This would be the opposite of what Ian's father Thomas had done for most of his life. For the child of an alcoholic or addict, that meant not following the same path by drinking or using highly addictive substances. I also think it's important we all stop seeing each other in such black and white terms. As a society, we're starting to lose the ability to see shades of gray. I'm not sure if it's our education system, television, or social media, but we tear each other apart and forget that each of us is flawed. We all have the good and bad wolf, everything about life is so nuanced.     

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

Mckenzie: This may sound like a cliche, but Ernest Hemingway. When I was at Wilkes University working towards my MFA in Creative Writing I remember writing a short piece of fiction about having lunch with Hemingway. For one, I adore his writing style and enjoy most of his books. If I am ever in a writing funk and need some inspiration, I simply read some Hemingway to get the creative juices flowing. Even though I'm a fan of his writing and the legends around his life as "Papa" Hemingway, I also know he was an alcoholic, a womanizer, a bully, and an all around asshole (this could fit into a different conversation about whether we should separate the art from the artist). The most interesting part about meeting Hemingway would be separating the man from the myth. He was brilliant at branding himself in a certain way but who knows if that was really the man behind it all? Over the years, I've read various theories about his childhood, sexuality, and his real war experiences. Hell, his first novel is about a character who is both physically and emotionally impotent! He wouldn't be an easy person to understand or accept. To be honest, I'd probably end up hating his guts but at least I would've showed up. I also think Hemingway is another perfect example of feeding the good wolf and bad wolf.

  

 

Daniel Buettner, Artist and Musician

 

Hello and welcome to the 55th 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed the very talented painter and musician Daniel Buettner. I particularly liked his 2019 show at Rosalux Gallery and I have listened to his bands (Broken Hearts Are Blue and Skulpture) with my dad on Bandcamp. Really cool! Check them out! I really enjoyed his answers and I think you will too. Thank you for reading! (Instagram: @danbue / All images courtesy of the artist) 

Jackson: What cause your interest in both art and music? Do you feel art and music are connected for you?

Daniel: Growing up, there were a few artists in my family and in the neighborhood I lived in, in Upstate New York. To be an artist was never a crazy idea to me. It was something I saw other people doing, and even though it wasn't something that was necessarily nurtured in my immediate family, my parents recognized it was something I drifted in and out throughout my childhood. It wasn't until high school that I started taking it seriously, which is when I think my parents started to encourage me to turn it into a career. High school is also when I started playing music. I hadn't given playing an instrument much thought before then, but somewhere around 16 or 17 years old I noticed many of my friends were taking music lessons and/or starting punk bands. I was heavily involved in skateboard culture, and the two seemed to go hand in hand. I wanted to be part of that. I don't know when the DIY ethic became mainstream, but it was very ingrained in everything we did. We built our own ramps, printed our own photographs, started our own zines, and made our own t-shirts for our skate team. When it came to playing music, it was the same - you bought an instrument and started a band. There was no concern with learning how to play first. For me, visual art and music are not connected at all. Painting has always represented pure individual expression to me. It's you vs yourself. You celebrate your wins and learn from your loses privately. Being in bands and writing music with people brings collaboration to my life. The value is in creating a piece of art with others, whose contribution you can't control. It's a much different experience.

Jackson: What inspires your ideas for painting and playing music? Do ideas just come to you or do you have to work at coming up with things?

Daniel: With painting, I have to work at getting my ideas. My art has always been about finding humor in the small moments in life, and those are not always easy to find. I get inspired by looking at photographs. People, animals, objects - all things. I sift through photographs in magazines and online constantly, looking for something to jump out at me that would make a good beginning concept for a painting. I use a lot of other people's work in my own; mostly their photographs, but sometimes even artworks other people make appear in my paintings. When I do that, I always reference the original artist in the title. I'm inspired by interesting poses, expressions, patterns, and of course shiny things. Songwriting is much more organic. Though I do write independently for a long-distance band I'm in, I prefer to write in real-time with other people, which is why I also play with some local musicians. Our songs usually start out with everyone just kind of making sounds and looking for interesting patterns in what we are doing. Either something will come together and be the beginning of a song, or it won't and we will move on. I think to make interesting music you have to subscribe to the philosophy that there will never be any shortage of creative material, and therefore no need to force yourself to fall in love with something that is "good enough". It's always obvious when one member of a band wrote a song and forced it on everyone else, if for no other reason than they spent time writing it. I don't slave over songs. If it doesn't come easy, it doesn't stay long. In order to write this way you have to be playing with the right people. Bandmates are like spouses; the best ones have opposite interests but similar goals.

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

Daniel: This is a tough one! There are so many artists I'd like to meet. Julie Mehretu would definitely be in my top five. Kehinde Wiley for sure, Duchamp, Rauschenberg...but I'm going with Ben Shahn. I absolutely love his work and have tried any times to pair colors like he does, and I feel like I fail every time. I want to know how he chose his palate and his process for layering paint. He used Tempera, which I also find fascinating. I think I would learn a lot from a conversation with Ben Shahn. 

Derek Meier, Artist

 

Hello and welcome to the 54th 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed excellent painter and super nice person Derek Meier. I first discovered Derek's art at Allison Ruby's Red Garage Studio in 2019 and loved it and have been following him since then. His art is very unique and inspiring and I really enjoyed his answers. I think you will too! Thanks for reading! (Instagram: @derek_august_ / Images 1, 3, and 4 courtesy of the artist)

Jackson: How did you first get into art? Did you have a specific experience that made you want to be a painter?

Derek: I was drawn to mark making early on as a way to mindfully wander, and I eventually engaged painting in my Fine Art studies. My initial attempts in nonobjective abstraction would mark the point of no return. I was deeply entrenched in how lost I felt in the challenges posed as I learned how to navigate these spaces, and I continue to be addicted to seeking higher outcomes as the languages available to me grow.

Jackson: How did you become involved with Interact? It seems really cool.

Derek: I began working at Interact in 2017. It was and continues to be thrilling to be surrounded by a roster of working artists and be involved in their wildly varied processes. Interact is a art center/gallery/theater company that works with artists with disabilities, assisting in facilitation of their studio practice and exhibiting their work. It is a place I am able to teach and learn every day and share in the collective energy that greatly benefits my own practice.

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

Derek: The aliens that did Stonehenge, for obvious reasons.

Laura Marks, Artist

 

Hello and welcome to the 53rd 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed excellent London based painter Laura Marks. I discovered her work on Instagram and I love it, I'm not sure I've seen anyone doing what she does. I feel like we have something in common as I too like to like to try to do new variations with the same sized canvases. She's great and I think you will really enjoy her answers. Thank you for reading! (Instagram: @jlauramarks / All images courtesy of the artist)

Jackson: How did you end up being an artist, and a painter specifically? Were you always artistic or did you have an experience that sent you that way?

Laura: Its been a gradual process. I am interested in many different areas and having the privilege to express my creativity wasn't always on the cards, but over time I have managed to be able to devote more time to it. I believe we evolve constantly and being "creative" or "artistic" is a spectrum we're all on, just some of have the interest, privilege, and opportunity to expand on it more in different timers of our lives. 

Jackson: I'm fascinated by how you use similar sized canvases for most painting and cold wax and oil. Did you get there through trial and error or was this your thought process from the beginning?

Laura: I do work on a larger scale too but I love how a small canvas forces you to be more deliberate with your marks and teaches you to appreciate the finer detail, illustrating the paradox between my love for bold, energetic marks and the delicate, patient opposite. It teaches me a lot.  

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

Laura: Yayoi Kusama, I would be very interested to understand what she makes of the commercialization of (her) art at the moment, and how different this is from when she was younger and her work was understood and appreciated so differently. Apart from that there would be many, many artists that I find inspiring - John Chamberlin, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Dan Flavin, etc etc! And Egon Schiele! 

Mary Gibney, Artist

 

Hello and welcome to the 52nd 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed super cool artist Mary Gibney. She's great! Mary was kind enough to go to the show I curated in Stillwater and I've always really admired her style and unique approach to painting. Mary has a show called Funhouse Waiting Room opening February 4th at the awesome Rosalux Gallery in Minneapolis. You should go! Mary's answers to these questions were inspiring and I think you will agree. Thank you for reading! (Instagram: @marygibneyart  Website: www.marygibneyart.com / All images courtesy of the artist)

Jackson: How did you choose the life of an artist? Did something specific inspire you?

Mary: Like many artists I really liked to draw things when I was a kid, the act of making something was very important to me. My first artistic memory was being frustrated by a kindergarten art project that wasn't going according to my vision of how it *should* look, but even though it wasn't perfect I persisted, which has sort have been my lifetime routine of how I paint and make things. Almost all my paintings start with an idea that changes in some way while I'm working on it. For me, frustration can access something deeper. I work until it is right, whatever that means. In that sense I think the elements of color and pattern have to come together in a way that also reflects feeling. I value emotion over skill.

Jackson: How do you choose the subjects for your paintings? Are you influenced by you surroundings?

Mary: My subjects have varied over the years. I really love painting faces so I have found inspiration in vintage mugshots, bar patrons, faces of strangers in a crowd. Also circus sideshow performers and so-called freaks, bodies and body parts. Lately I've been painting bar scenes, full of imaginary characters. In that case I am influenced by my surroundings, since I love a good dive bar, especially to hear live music. It's very freeing to make up these situations because in art there are no rules!

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

Mary: I would love to spend a day with Alice Neel, hanging out in her living room as she paints. Just to watch her brushstrokes and color choices and listen as she chats with her subject. I saw a wonderful retrospective of her art last year in New York, and her lifetime body of work is so inspiring. Her apartment is still intact, with canvases stacked in the halls and leaning on walls, so I'm hoping one day it will be an Alice Neel house museum.

Maria Orozco, Artist

 

Hello and welcome to the 51st 3 Art Questions With Jackson interview! This time I interviewed Mexico based artist Maria Orozco. I discovered her art on Instagram and I love how unique it is and I especially like the clean lines and edges, and through this interview I discovered that we both admire Carmen Herrera. It is always interesting for me to interview artists from other countries to get a different perspective. I found Maria's answers super interesting and I think you will too! Thank you for reading! (Instagram: @mariaarte0 Website: www.mariaarte.com / All images courtesy of the artist)   

Jackson: Do you feel like you were born to be a visual artist? Or did you have an experience that made you want to be an artist?

Maria: I consider that when you are a child there is no total conception of the profession that you want to adopt when you grow up, however when you are a child you develop skills that lead you to what you like. In my case my father was an architect and he liked to paint, which caused my interest in painting since I was a child, thanks to my father my approach to the plastic arts and architecture was there since I was a child.

Jackson: I really like your style. Do you feel like your art is influenced by what you see around you or are there other factors?

Maria: Thanks! Everything is always influenced, nobody invents the black thread. In my pictorial exercise I retake the conformation of geometric compositions as a reference to the forms and conception of Constructivism and Brutalism, from its historical booms to the traces that in the present maintain the impact of its origins. Provoking an exercise of plastic interpretation of the forms, the space and the emptiness with which I compose on the canvases, forms that can be appreciated from the juxtaposition of elements and their sizes, to the detail of influences of Hard Edge painting. 

Painting is the constant means of my process to combine the conceptual and transversal interests of my professional knowledge and curiosity to find new ways of self-interpretation.     

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

Maria: I would love to meet several artists but if we are being specific this would be my top 5:

1. Inge Dick

2. Auguste Herbin

3. Theo van Doesburg

4. Carmen Herrera

5. Le Corbusier

I admire the work of each of them, I consider it super interesting how they projected themselves creatively in their respective times and countries.