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Spraygraphic Interview with Artist Carolyn Mason
By Spraygraphic | April 11, 2008
Spraygraphic’s Chuck b. interview with artist and painter Carolyn Mason about her art making process, her art installations, and her most recent artwork.
1. Curiosities, 2004
Performance & Installation
Mixed media, Dimensions variable
2. Pink Frosting, 2005
23″ x 28″
Digital C Print
3. Green Frosting, 2004
Documentation of a site-specific installation/performance
4. Big Fluff, 2007
20 x 44 x 8 inches (not including pedestal)
Mixed media including fake fur, wood and chromed metal. This piece evolved from Curiosities (Image #1)
5. Pink Roller, 2005
26 x 18 x 5 inches
Paint rollers and handle. This piece evolved from Curiosities
6. Orange Paint, 2005
16″ x 20″
Digital C-Print
7. Blue Mop, 2005
Dimensions variable
Mop handle and material
8. Mop at Standard Hotel (Intervention), 2007
Dimensions variable
Mop handle and material
9. Matrimony #3, 2006/07 from Maternity & Matrimony Project
Matrimony #5, 2006/07 from Maternity & Matrimony Project
Matrimony #8, 2006/07 from Maternity & Matrimony Project
Maternity #1, 2006/07 from Maternity & Matrimony Project
Maternity #4, 2006/07 from Maternity & Matrimony Project
Spraygraphic Interview with Carolyn Mason
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
CM: My life as an artist began almost by chance. I was doing crafts and baking and then ended up living near the San Francisco Art Institute in the late 1990’s. I would wander the halls, then I started taking an evening class or two, and then a few daytime classes and eventually learned how to take ideas and materials that I had always been working with and put them in an art context.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
CM: I live and work in Los Angeles in Silver Lake. My studio is in my apartment, which is convenient since I do a lot with cake and frosting and need a kitchen handy.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
CM: Most of my work is based in performance and installation but the performance pieces often result in photographs and objects from the installations often evolve into individual sculptures
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
CM: I typically begin with everyday objects such as a paint roller—or ordinary activities such as frosting a cake or taking a family portrait—playing with them and taking them one step toward the quirky or extravagant and one step away from our expectations of “normalcy.”
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
CM: Part of my art practice is to collect and organize everyday stuff that fascinates me. Sorting through and experimenting with this collection often spurs new ideas.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
CM: I’m interested in Renaissance Cabinets of Curiosities — the obsessive collecting, the excess, and the chaotic manner (by today’s standards) in which objects were organized. For example the boundary between man-made objects and organic specimens didn’t exist so an animal skeleton might be next to a miniature painting which might be next to an exotic plant, etc.
SG: Can you please tell us a little about your project, Frosting.
CM: The Frosting performance series plays with issues I’m always interested in: the edge of madness, the everyday gone awry, excess and decadence. I was imaging myself as someone so obsessive and intent on frosting the cake correctly that I just keep on frosting beyond the boundaries of the cake onto the counter top. I love the sensual texture and smell of frosting – though on a large scale it borders on scary. In all these projects the cakes and frosting are real and were mostly consumed afterwards.
SG: Can you please tell us a little about your project, Matrimony and Motherhood. How did you and Susannah Slocum come to work together?
CM: For the past year, Susannah and I have been sitting for portraits at Olan Mills and Sears photo studios with a variety of men and children – all recruited on craigslist and paid to portray intimate relationships with us. Susannah appears as a mother
and I appear as a spouse. It’s an interesting experience, being inserted into template poses by the studio photographers to illustrate motherly affection or romantic love. The photographs document an ongoing performance which, to date, is comprised of 20 images.
Susannah I went to Mills together and she’s now based in New York City. She started the project by sending me a photo of her with a baby. I was inspired and then sent her one with a spouse, So the project started organically as a conversation between two artists.
SG: Can you please tell us a little about your project Mops and Paint Rollers. How many different pieces are in the collection? Can you speak in detail a little about Orange Paint.
CM: Hardware stores are a favorite place. I like to imagine mops and paint rollers spawning, or being extra fluffy and belonging on a vanity, or being on steroids and becoming enormous. I’ve currently made several large mops and 10 paint roller pieces — with more on the way. All of these pieces evolved from my ongoing collection, which I installed in the ATA storefront back in 2004 as an installation & performance. For the photograph Orange Paint, I painted my studio as if I were using the Orange Roller – which is spawning new growth.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
CM: Last year I did frosting and cake-related performances at Art LA with LACE, Dangerous Curve and Marvimon House – all in L.A.—and also for Detich’s Art Parade in New York. I also did a storefront public installation last June sponsored by the County of Los Angeles and my porcelain bottles were in a design show in London as part of the London Design Festival.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
CM: I have several things in the works, including doing another storefront public installation project here in Los Angeles and showing my porcelain bottles in England and Italy. I’m also hoping to do an artist book of the Maternity & Matrimony project. You can email me at carolyn@carolynmason.com to be on my announcement list. And if you’re into chocolate, you can find an image of my Pink Frosting piece in ArtBars from Ithaca Fine Chocolate.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
CM: To do a residency at a natural history museum where I could set up dioramas and displays combining museum specimens, pieces I’ve made, and everyday objects from hardware and 99-cent stores.
SG: What is your favorite color?
CM: Deep pink with green a close second.
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
CM: A favorite would be Louise Bourgeois for the wonderfully tactile nature of her work and the charged psychological content. I went to one of her Sunday salons when I was in NYC a few years back and it was a great experience. I’m also a big admirer of David Wilson and his Museum of Jurassic Technology.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
CM: I’m crazy about Bloom, a gorgeous magazine out of Paris that focuses on art and fashion as it relates to horticulture. I’m also reading Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads by Stephen Asma about the evolution of natural history museums.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
CM: Only in drawing classes as an assignment and they’re now tucked away somewhere.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
CM: Drinking good coffee at an outdoor café with a friend or friends or the paper. My local Café Tropical has this fabulous Cuban espresso con leche and then Figaro Café in Los Feliz almost makes me feel as though I’m in Paris.
SG: Any final words of advice?
CM: Advice for artists? Being supportive of other artists and creating community has been rewarding for me. Though it may be overused, I’ve found Joseph Campbell’s phrase “Follow your bliss” helpful to keep in mind.
Topics: Artist Interviews, California Art Scene, Sculpture Art, Women Art |
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