Thursday Spotlight: Jon Lezinsky

Tell us about your background.

I was born in Connecticut and received a BFA in Illustration from Rhode Island School of Design. After graduating, I found my way into the world of freelance illustration. Unfortunately, it was also at the same time when the illustration market was dramatically changing and slowly drying up. I worked a lot of different jobs in order to keep working as an illustrator. Eventually, I made a decision to learn software, skills and whatever else it would take to find work as a designer. I currently work as an art director doing advertising, print design, web design and animation. I enjoy experimenting with all of these different mediums, but doing illustration is still what I love most. I am currently working on a new body of personal work.

Name some people, artists, artistic genres, etc. that have been influential in your work.

There are so many things that I come in contact with each day that has an influence on my work in one way or another. I have always been attracted to textures, whether on a canvas or on the side of the road. When I walk down the street, I love to see the random marks and scars of the world. Decaying walls, graffiti stained signs, abandoned buildings; all this stuff is constantly influencing my work. I am always absorbing these textures and then slowly letting them slip out into my work. I look at other people’s art as often as I can, checking daily blogs, searching for new websites or flipping through magazines to find new painters, animators, photographers and other cool stuff that really moves me. I love to find new work that excites me and makes me want to get into the studio and start working right away. Early on, when I was in school Robert Rauschenberg, Joseph Cornell, Romare Bearden, Fred Otnes, and Greg Spalenka were huge influences on my work. I also had a couple of those amazing teachers that touch you and change you as an artist, leaving a permanent mark on your work.

Where and how do you get your ideas?

Inspiration is a bit elusive when working on a commercial assignment. The phone rings and instantly you are on the clock. The theme is already determined (and unfortunately in some cases an art director has already thought up an idea for you). Sometimes the topic is interesting and other times it is something you would never have imagined learning about. Either way I try to spend some time with it, thinking, sketching and researching the topic a bit to find some way to make the work a bit more personal.

As for my personal work, the approach is a bit more abstract. Ideas are always coming to me usually as reactions to things. Recalling parts of dreams, watching weird off beat movies, listening to good music or just quietly observing people usually gets me thinking. I keep sketchbooks filled with all sorts of sketches, images, words, phrases, poetry and stories. I go back through the books looking for a starting point or something to spark an idea. I usually start with something abstract, a vague idea or even an emotion that a word causes. Listening to music is also a huge part of my working process and it is just as inspiring as seeing a great piece of art. And of course standing in front of a real painting in a museum or gallery is an instant shot of inspiration.

What materials do you work with? Describe your technical process.

My process is a bit chaotic. I rely heavily on intuition, chance and faith. It sounds crazy, but because I use so many textures and objects to make marks, I rely on accidents and discoveries that happen as I am exploring and building layers of texture on the board. I use just about everything in my work, so mixed media is usually how I refer to it. I collect junk, scraps of paper, metal, and all sorts of found objects. I keep them organized in plastic bins so that I can find what I am looking for when I start to work. When I start a painting, I usually work on a wood panel and slowly build layers of acrylic and gesso with paper, tape, bits of magazines and scraps mixed in. Most of the time these beginning layers are completely painted over or scraped off. I tear up layers as quickly as I put them down. Then, at a certain point the painting begins to feel right emotionally and compositionally. This really is the starting point for building the details of the piece. Sometimes I will continue to work on the actual painting and sometimes I will scan what I have and bring it into Photoshop. With extremely tight deadlines for most illustration assignments, the computer has become an essential tool in my process. I try to use the computer the same way that I paint, layering elements and forcing it to create accidents and unexpected mistakes that sometimes become a major part of the finished piece. The other advantage to working digitally is that I scan all sorts of objects on a flatbed scanner and use parts of their textures and combine them in a way that I simply could not if I were working traditionally. I keep exploring and experimenting with different techniques between traditional and digital media taking advantage of the best the both have to offer. Working this way opens up an unlimited amount of possibilities. However, the only downfall to a digital piece is that in the end there is nothing tangible to touch.

What do you find to be the most challenging part of being creative? What is the best part of being creative?

The best part about being creative is the process and how it consumes me and is exhausting and challenging as it takes me along a spiritual journey. I love all of the thoughts, emotions, fears, memories and other stuff that gets stirred up and revealed while I am working. It’s a dialogue I get to have with myself that is extremely necessary for the soul.

For me, the most difficult part of being creative is doing commercial work and still finding time to satisfy the personal work that I need to do. Unfortunately, there are not to many true creative outlets within the commercial world. There is a lot of compromise and different skills needed to survive, ones that usually conflict with being a true artist. No matter how much time and energy I put into my design work and no matter how satisfying it is I still need to do whatever it takes to do work for myself.

What advice would you give to someone seeking advice about being an artist?

I read a quote once that said, “Denying one’s creative impulses can lead to sadness and depression.” Making art is about satisfying a desire, a need within you to create and express yourself. You have to put your heart into everything that you make and you have to love what you do. Don’t question your work, just do as much as possible. Try new things, experiment constantly and make plenty of mistakes. You have to trust your intuition because creating something is truly an act of faith.

 Jon’s Facebook page
Jon’s website 

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Thinking

Over the past two weeks, I’ve spent many hours doing nothing but thinking about my project.  It’s a little excruciating to just sit and think about the conceptual aspects of the work, but I think it’s necessary at the stage that I’m at. I don’t think it would do me much good to be active in the studio when I’m still questioning what the work is actually about.

I’ve come to the realization that although this new sculpture work is still about my anxiety and depression that it’s no longer the same project as “Falling.”  ”Falling” was about expressing the pure raw emotion of depression, and I think now that those emotions are out there I am ready to move onto something different.

What I’ve recently become interested in is the idea of hiding. I isolate myself by hiding from other people. I’ve hidden my depression and anxiety for most of my life. It’s these layers of hiding that I want to express in this new project.  So how does one portray the act of hiding?

I like the idea of using lighting to make the sculpture more theatrical.  An idea I came up with yesterday would be a pitch black gallery where the faces would be installed. Visitors would be given a flashlight to enter the space, which they would wander in and discover the hidden faces with the flashlights.   What do you think?

Thursday Spotlight: Rosa Glenn

Tell us about your background.

Well I was born in Dublin, Ireland and lived there for the early part of my childhood. My family moved to the United States when I was around six or seven years old. Twelve years and a few citizenship tests later, my family now calls Portland, Oregon home. Art and design has always been a natural interest of mine but I didn’t start to focus on it until my senior year of high school when it occurred to me that the idea of writing papers for another four years was absolutely terrifying. After a frantic rush to piece together a portfolio, I am now a sophomore textile design student at the Rhode Island School of Design. I hope to work as a fabric designer either for apparel or interiors and eventually get an MBA.

Name some people, artists, artistic genres, etc. that have been influential in your work.

 I love color and pattern and am really attracted to traditional textiles from India, Peru, Guatamala and Morrocco. The aesthetics of Baroque interiors and Native American art are two great interests of mine. As far as artist go I am always inspired by Rothgo, de Kooning, Wayne Thiebaud, Diane Arbus, Monet, Carravagio and Sargent. The designs of John Paul Gautier and Christian Lecroix are also really inspiring. But through and through, Martha Stewart remains a personal icon. I am fascinated by her story and success as a female entrepreneur and designer. She is a wonderful contradiction of females as both domestic housewives and cut throat businesswomen, her stint in jail only adds to that.

Where and how do you get your ideas?

Much as my interests might suggest, I pull ideas from all over the place. Nothing is ruled out as a source of inpiration. The more research I have to do the better. There’s nothing more satisfying than learning about an entirely new subject and processing that knowledge through the creation of a design. Then once the piece is complete you’ll be able to talk about it articulately and understand design decisions better because they all came out of a highly thought out concept or context. Even with something as potentially flat and purely aesthetic pattern, if it makes a comment about something and serves a purpose its usually more interesting.

 

What materials do you work with? Describe your technical processes.

In my drawing i work a lot in charcoal. Now that I am in my first year of textiles I’ve been learning silk screen, stenciling, spinning yarn by hand, dyeing (natural, disperse, acid, mx, and direct dye methods), weaving on a hand loom and machine knitting. I’m not fluent in any one skill set yet, but I’ve been enjoying the hands on nature of each process.

 

What do you find to be the most challenging part of being creative? What is the best part of being creative?

Nearly everyone is creative in some way, those who are artistically creative and work at it, are just more connected with that side of themselves and pursue it relentlessly. The flip side to that is often very creative artistic people are so in tune with their own work and emotions that they can lose their connection with the outside world and with their relationships to others. It can be difficult to strike a balance when you are so passionate and surrounded by equally passionate people. I’ve lost a good few friendships with peers who have disappeared into their own work. It’s important to surface from studio to breathe. That being said, the reward from such dedication and passion is unlike any other. But as with most things, balance is key.

What advice would you give to someone seeking advice about being an artist?

Work. Work. Work. It doesn’t matter how well you can render a nude figure the first time you try. Or the second time or the third or fourth or fifth or etc. The only thing that separates “good” artists from “great” artists is the amount of hours you pour into it. Art is all about perseverance, because chances are you’re going to make some really terrible, god awful, big shitty messes of drawings that make you wonder why you even bothered with this drawing thing in the first place. But if you can push past that and keep going, you’l be fine in the end.

Rosa’s Flickr Page

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Thursday Spotlight: Rebecca Doughty

Tell us about your background.

I first studied art in the 70′s, when there were lots of interesting, contradictory forces, from academic drawing to minimalism. I tried a bit of everything including welding and guerilla art. I spent some time in London studying drawing and printmaking. I never studied painting formally, but that’s where I landed. Drawing has remained the most important piece.

Name some people, artists, artistic genres, etc. that have been influential in your work.

Surely all the images I’ve absorbed in my lifetime– from cave paintings to cartoons. I grew up with comics, Warner Brothers, and Mad Magazine, and with the darkly funny illustrations of Charles Addams and Edward Gorey– brilliant. I’ve always been drawn to mark and line– all that can be expressed in simple and direct ways of drawing. Folk art and “outsider” artists like James Castle are also on my list. But so is Cy Twombly.

Where and how do you get your ideas?

From the comedies and tragedies of everyday life.

What materials do you work with? Describe your technical processes.

Usually I use traditional drawing and painting materials– pencils and paint (acrylic or oil) on paper or wood. I work in a very direct way adding and subtracting, using a knife to layer up paint and a razor blade to scrape it away. I etch into the paint with a blade or sharp pencil, then scrape paint into the etched lines, kind of like inking an etching plate. Then I go back in and add line with a tiny brush. I also like to paint and animate everyday objects– in the folk art tradition– sticks, rocks, acorns, or draw on old postcards or discarded paper. But right now I seem to be using ink on vellum, just to revisit something I haven’t done in a long time.

What do you find to be the most challenging part of being creative? What is the best part of being creative?

Since creativity is a natural part of being human, the challenge is to steer clear of the parts of modern life that threaten my humanity– traffic, banks, shopping malls, art openings. I go to nature whenever possible. The best part of being creative is forgetting what time it is.

What advice would you give to someone seeking advice about being an artist?

Find a separate way to make money. Find a few like minded friends to talk with about your life and your work, and take good care of them. Think of your work as lifelong, and be kind along the way. Don’t worry about it, just make things.

Rebecca’s website

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Inside/Outside

I’ve been away from my blog because I’ve been trying to take a break and clear my head for a while. After creatively hitting rock bottom two weeks ago, I knew I needed to just stop everything. All last week I took naps, worked in the garden, went to the gym, and spent the weekend in NYC.   The other thing I’ve been doing is reaching out to my friends and colleagues, discussing the work, talking through my creative process, and getting some much needed support and encouragement. One of my friends put it simply as “Don’t give up.”  I was also pleasantly surprised by many of the comments I received online, my last post had the most comments I’ve ever received on a single post and many of them were substantial and very thoughtful.

Last night I started to have a more concrete conversation about possibilities for the work with my husband, which felt good. I realized through talking to him that I didn’t want to simply rehash the same idea that the drawings explored, rather I want to work on another facet of my experience with depression. One idea I’ve been contemplating is the concept of how you truly feel emotionally on the inside and how you have to behave on the outside due to external pressures. I’ve spent the majority of my life acting  like everything was fine when really I was an emotional wreck on the inside. It’s an extraordinary amount of effort to put on this mask on a daily basis, and I think it’s an experience that many of us can relate to, regardless of whether or not you have depression. Just last week when I was falling apart, I noticed the little things: having to reply “good” when someone asked how I was. In these brief conversations, no one ever says they’re doing badly. So that’s where I am now, I have the concept but now it’s a matter of translating this visually which is what I’m work on brainstorming today. Already it’s getting better.

Thursday Spotlight: Laura Evans

Tell us about your background.

I grew up just outside Philadelphia, PA in a large Quaker family and attended a private Quaker school from K-12 grades. I was in the first class at Hampshire College in 1970, a small, experimental liberal arts college, where I earned a BA in Painting. After graduation, I worked in an alternative high school teaching art and math in Brookline, MA. Subsequently, I went to Boston University for an M.F.A. At this point, I got married and started a family, so continuing to make my own work was a challenge. I have four wonderful children, who are grown now, but I have to say that raising children definitely has influenced my work!

Name some people, artists, artistic genres, etc. that have been influential in your work.

First of all my parents, both of whom loved to make things by hand: clothes, sweaters, quilts, meals, furniture, household repairs & gardening. They were not artists, but their example of being self-motivated, enjoying the process of making things and being patient about the outcome really sunk in. Next, I would have to credit my high school art teacher, Miss Scull, and my Hampshire art professor Arthur Hoener – very skilled teachers that allowed me time to develop my own ideas & methods. Artists and genres that have influenced me include, (in no particular order): Brancusi, Eva Hesse, Louise Bourgeois, Minimalism , Feminist Art, Richard Tuttle, Annette Messager, Martin Puryear, Fischli & Weiss, Rikrit Tiravanija. Also much Folk Art & Outsider Art….and there’s many more!

Where and how do you get your ideas?

Just from things I see around me everyday in the natural world and in our built environment, like twisted trees, weeds coming through a crack, seeds, shells, pipes, branches, bent packaging, bones – odd shapes or behaviors. Other ideas come from watching my(or others’) children play, unusual juxtapositions of objects, textiles, surfaces, travel, other artists’ work.

What materials do you work with? Describe your technical processes.

Currently I am using chicken wire, plaster wrap, joint compound, paper pulp, wire, screening or mesh (metal, plastic and fabric), yarn, aqua resin and sculpey. In the not too recent past I used more found objects, fabric, fiberfill, cardboard tubes, paper bags, and casting materials like hydrocal, cast stone and concrete.

What do you find to be the most challenging part of being creative? What is the best part of being creative?

I find two things very challenging: the first is the mental shift that is required to go from being organized, responsible and social in the day- to-day realm to a place where the outside world fades away. In this place I occupy a totally different space and attitude about efficiency, logic and completion. Then there is the reciprocal challenge of leaving the studio and functioning “normally” again! OK, my second challenge is trying to frame what I am after in words and seem like I understand what I am doing when someone asks me what my work is about. This is hard for most artists that I know. I think one still needs to keep trying to translate something that seems very fuzzy into something more defined.

The best part about being creative is that feeling of being really connected to a timeless energy. I can act on and respond to the materials at hand in a playful and meaningful way. When it’s all going well, I lose the sense that I am the one directing the process. It’s an experience that I want to repeat again and again, in spite of the inevitable failures and doubts.

What advice would you give someone seeking advice about being an artist?
-Put in the time. Go to your studio or inhabit that space as often as you can, whenever you can. Give yourself plenty of quiet time for reflection.
-Build a network of other artist friends, because you will really need their support, responses, examples, critiques, referrals, etc., especially when you leave the structure of your institution.
-Go see as much art (“in the flesh”) as you can & travel as much as you can.

Laura’s website
Boston Scuptors website

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Crisis

I’m having a creative crisis. I try to avoid writing about topics like this, but it’s gotten so bad this week that I have to stop and acknowledge it.  As many of you know, I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety for most of my life and this week has been especially difficult.   I can’t focus or concentrate on anything during the day and I’m starting to panic. I’ve lost my drive, passion, and motivation to work which is really troubling and unsettling.  I hate all the work I’ve been making over the past few months, and I’ve held off on starting any new pieces or buying supplies.  I have too much space to think right now, and my mind is racing with negative thoughts and frustration. Everything feels like it’s come to this horrible standstill. Time is moving at an achingly slow pace, and I catch myself watching the minutes going by on the clock during the day.

Have you had a creative crisis before?  What was it like and how did you pull yourself out of it?