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Spraygraphic Interview with Michelle Muldrow
By Spraygraphic | December 3, 2007
Spraygraphic Interview with Michelle Muldrow
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
MM: I am a painter. I grew up on air force bases and lived all over America, which I feel is an important element to why I paint the things I do. I went to University of Minnesota for my BFA in Painting but took a long break from visual art and was a musician for 10 years. I moved to San Francisco, where I lived for 15 years, had a band that released an album on Interscope Records and another band that released 2 independently then returned to making visual art around 1999. I began painting fulltime in 2000. I have been showing regularly since then. My partner and I are raising our little boy here in the Midwest.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
MM: I moved from San Francisco to Cleveland, Ohio in 2006, I work out of a studio in my home.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
MM: I work with gouache on Arches 1114lb watercolor paper (it is heaven!) and I work with acrylic on canvas.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
MM: Usually I begin reading about environmental issues, urban development, really anything touching on the subjects of land use, as well American history and fiction. I guess I sort of consider myself a sponge at the beginning stages of work, then usually some travel helps and I take tons of source photos. From there I organize my photos into different obsessions, be it the artificial horticulture and landscaping in the modern developments, or the death of inner ring suburbs, subdivisions, etc, at that point I look for what I am most interested in painting. It’s sort of like all my intellectual obsessions still must go through a filter of how I feel, and that is an important element to my work- nostalgia. I suppose I attribute that to the rootlessness of my childhood, I am always trying to make sense of my landscape and home. Then I begin the body of my work. I tend to approach my work as a series or body rather than as individual images. I always prep, underpaint and paint at least 4-5 paintings all at once, never one at a time. I freehand draw, then do a monochromatic underpainting, and from there, I paint.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
MM: If I am blocked while I am painting, I change my music selection, or I go out for coffee. If I am blocked and can’t even begin new work, then I usually read and do research. If I am still blocked it is time for a vacation!
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
MM: Aside from my library of books, I am very interested in the dialogue in Cleveland about eminent domain, rezoning districts, the attempts to resuscitate the city, the whole subprime mortgage fallout, all of this informs my work in that it is active in our culture’s concept of home and progress. I also feel this is extremely interesting from my perspective of having lived in San Francisco where home and land values are astronomical and Cleveland where it is seemingly valueless, with boarded up homes throughout the city. The contrast is startling and to examine the extremes of wealth and the perspective different places have on the land is fascinating.
SG: Can you please tell us a little bit about your art series Habitat.
MM: The Habitat series is basically the umbrella series of all my different works that fall under the category of land use. It is about the new American landscape, not only about development and decay, but also about the feelings that a representational image of something so familiar and yet so mundane can evoke. I think we have an unusual relationship with places we are familiar with, no matter how ruinous the aging mall, or concrete overpasses are to the actual natural environment.
SG: What kinds of landscapes catch your eye the most?
MM: Probably the types of land use that is so obviously wasteful but so ubiquitous that we think nothing of its prevalence. I am attracted most to a place when it becomes the most common element in our environment, like industrial parks, malls, places that seem to have almost a sensory memory, like muzak, a constant droning that permeates our daily experience.
SG: You have shown a few times with the George Billis Gallery, as well as have them represent your work. How did that relationship develop?
MM: I was showing with Gallery C in Los Angeles and the former assistant art director, whom I had a very positive experience with, left for the position of art director at George Billis. She contacted me after I departed from Gallery C.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
MM: I am represented by George Billis Gallery in Los Angeles with my second solo show opening this December. I also have artwork at George Billis NYC Gallery location. Previously I was exhibiting at Gallery C, in Los Angeles. I also recently had a group show at Mina Dresden Gallery in San Francisco. My work is also at Phoenix Gallery in Park City Utah, where I will have a solo show in February. Prior to these recent events, I have participated in a group show with the LA Art Girls, and showed at Public Works Gallery in Redlands CA, Belcher Street Gallery and Atelier 142 in San Francisco, and Cooper Union Art Residency Exhibition in New York City. Before I quit painting for 10 years, I exhibited at PARTS Gallery, 22nd Street Gallery, and my graduating BFA show at the Kathryn E. Nash Gallery, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
MM: I have a solo show scheduled at George Billis Gallery Los Angeles, opening this December 1, 2007 and a solo show at Phoenix gallery, Park City Utah, opening February 29th, 2008.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
MM: I would love to do a project that would be almost a painted documentary of the changed American landscape. I would focus on its historical iconic images and travel and research the actual locations and how it was and how it is today and contrast that with the pantheon of historical American paintings. Ideally this work would be shown all together as a very large body of work in a venue that would foster and support the dialogue. Since this is sort of an obsession for me, I have already begun this project, I just don’t have any funding or a venue yet.
SG: What is your favorite color?
MM: Presently it is this coral red/ orange that has been the last blast of color on the sugar maples here in Ohio, it is the most intense vibrant color! I am so happy to be back with 4 seasons again!!
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
MM: I don’t have a favorite artist, I have artists that I love for various reasons; Anselm Kiefer for his epic take on the German psyche and history, Julie Mehretu and Sarah Sze for their architectural explosion of color and form, Fairfield Porter for his simplicity and perseverance, Michael Arcega for his humorous take on very serious subjects as well as his examination of American culture, Marilyn Minter for her approach on lurid beauty and sickened icons. Very important to me are the books of JG Ballard, Milan Kundera, Mike Davis, and Jane Jacobs.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
MM: I am forever trying to keep up with my New Yorker magazines and my New York Times Sunday edition..
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
MM: Not since maybe first year of college, it is in my attic.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
MM: When I am in Ohio, Phoenix Coffeeshop, Cleveland Heights. In SF, Dolores Park.
SG: Any final words of advice?
MM: I suppose any advice I would have is to work everyday, don’t wait until you have inspiration, create an active dialogue with your life and your creativity.
ART
1) Fruit vale corridor, 2) Amenity HortBay Fair, 3) Blight…Consum…Bedford, 4) Dead Mall, 5) Ohio Gray Field, 6) LA Wires, 7) Niche Development
Topics: Artist Interviews, Paintings, Women Art |
