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Spraygraphic Interview with Artist Nicholas Bohac
By Spraygraphic | September 29, 2008
Spraygraphic Interview with Nicholas Bohac
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
NB: Well, my name is Nicholas Bohac and I’m a 26-year-old artist originally from Omaha, Nebraska. I’m married (my wife’s name is Kim), and we have two cats. For around four or five years, I played bass guitar in a band called Caught in the Fall. We played around the country, back and forth from the Midwest to East coast a few times, released some vinyl and had an awesome time. Recently I graduated from the graduate program at San Francisco Art Institute with a focus in printmaking. Most of the work I ended up making in school combined printmaking with painting and collage.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
NB: I live and work in San Francisco. My apartment is in a two story house a few blocks in from Ocean Beach and right next to Golden Gate Park. My studio is in the basement of our house.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
NB: Currently I’m using a wide range of materials. I started experimenting around with building paintings out of prints last summer. These paintings incorporated lithography, silkscreen, etchings and woodcut prints to build a landscape composition. After those first three paintings, I started to incorporated more materials back into the work to get to the point where the work is now. My paintings are generally made on wood panels. I typically will use acrylic paint or ink to stain portions of the surface, for skies, water and other areas that might need a different effect. Other materials include photographs, magazine imagery, printed matter (mostly lithographs and silkscreens), window screens, and various metals.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
NB: Every day seems to bring something different. Sometimes I’m stretching and painting sheets of paper that will make up multiple paintings. Other times I’m sitting at my desk with a sketchbook, writing down ideas and drawing thumbnails and sketches to help flesh things out. This summer, after I established a general direction I wanted to go in, I got some materials together and made a lot of smaller panels. Then I just went forward from there, making a lot of smaller panels that are a little more abstract and less narrative than the larger works. The goal is that the smaller works fill in the gaps with the bigger works, and eventually build into the ideas that become the larger and medium sized paintings. Hopefully, while working on the larger paintings, everything comes full circle and those paintings inspire the next batch of smaller works. Then repeat.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
NB: This just happened to me around the beginning of June. After just moving into my new studio space, I was having some trouble figuring out where I wanted to go next with my work. There were a few shows I was committed to already, and I was intent on making brand new work for those. So I went ahead and just started working with no aim. After a few days, I had some better ideas and ended up abandoning those originally pieces. Having worked on those aimless pieces though really helped me figure out where to go.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
NB: Since summer started, and I stopped riding the train as much as I was to get from where I live to my studio across the city, I have shifted to watching more movies and television. I’ve been catching up on a lot of history and science type documentary stuff. Most days, I bring our laptop into my studio, throw a DVD in, watch something on Netflix or Hulu, or I just put on the iPod. Video game design has influenced the work for awhile now. Also, the daily news is always coming into my work. Things that are happening around us are so ridiculous, you just can’t make that shit up.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
NB: My work has been seen at Hot Shops Art Center in Omaha, Intersection for the Arts and HANG in San Francisco.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
NB: I have work up at Lobot Gallery in Oakland, as well as a piece up with Clara Street Projects in August. My good friend Adam Friedman is helping curate a show at Mission 17 in September, and I’ll have a new large painting and two smaller pieces in that. I’ll also have three small paintings going to The Bemis Center for Contemporary Art in Omaha for an exhibition from September through November that is capped off by their annual art auction. After that, I’ll have work up at Tinlark in West Hollywood for the month of November.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
NB: I wouldn’t mind just having a considerable amount of time to make a series of large paintings that would show together cohesively in a space.
SG: What is your favorite color?
NB: I use Manganese Blue in almost everything I do, as well as Quinacridone Magenta because of their similarities to process colors. My colors a normally layered one over another in transparent glazes, so I constantly go back to thinking how color is built up, whether in a painting or in a print.
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
NB: Chuck Close has always been one of my favorites. He’s essentially painted the same thing for the last forty years, and every piece changes. The work always is more about the processes that go into the painting, and not necessarily about him painting a portrait of Lisa Yuskavage or one of his dealers. The fact that his work got better after his spinal injury back in the 80’s, when his doctors were first thinking he was never going to be painting at his large scale again…that’s just phenomenal to me. He still has limited movement, and he’s done everything he can to not only be a productive artist, but to also refine and re-invent his own work, be it in oil paint or as a print project. That dude is awesome.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
NB: Still reading the current National Geographic, as well as some Batman graphic novels and Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, off and on.. Light and easy summer reading.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
NB: For a year, all I did was portraits and self portraits. My parents own a set of portraits of myself and my brother Adam. Another is in a collection back in Omaha.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
NB: With my wife working a normal schedule every weekday, and me liking to wake up late and work overnight, I just really enjoy hanging out at home and spending time with her.
SG: Any final words of advice?
NB: My only real advice is that you have to do what is right for you. No two people are the same, and nobody’s life will play out exactly like somebody else’s. If you want to make something happen, you have to go out there and make it happen for yourself. Other people are only going to believe in you and want to be a part of what you’re doing as long as you believe in what you’re doing.
List of Images:
1. Fifteen Minutes
2. Hitting the Vein
3. Kansas
4. Approaching Kashmir
5. Into Kashmir
6. Nature Versus Nature
7. Untitled
8. Untitled
Topics: Sprayblog |
