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Spraygraphic Interview with Artist Nadine Y. Nakanishi
By Spraygraphic | October 27, 2008
Spraygraphic interview with Nadine Y. Nakanishi
SG: Please tell us about yourself?
NN: I was born in Santa Monica, California, where I lived during my early childhood years. My family moved to Schaffhausen, Switzerland, later on, a small town one hour North of Zürich, bordering the beautiful Rhine river and Germany. I spent my teenage years there, with annual travels back to California to visit friends and family. After high school, I studied Asian studies at the University of Zürich but soon realized that I wanted to major in the arts. A graphic design study followed with a graduate degree in type design at the Schule für Medien, Form und Farbe, Zürich. In the mean time, I would visit frequently family in San Francisco. It was during these visits where I felt the necessity to break out of the design world and make art. Immigration was a necessity to make that happen. I moved to Chicago where I share a painting studio/small press with Nick Butcher under the name Sonnenzimmer. Together we enjoy the rich printing culture that Chicago has to offer and our ever inspiring friends that share our belief that there is some value in working away making art.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
NN: In Chicago.
SG: What mediums do you work with?
NN: Mixed media.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
NN: Many times, I start conceptual but most of the time as I work things out and strip it down to a feasible way - it unfolds differently. That’s usually the best case, then I can just let it’s take it’s course and react to what’s happening in front of me. That’s the most interesting for me.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
NN: I jump between print making, drawing or painting. Sometimes, it also means to just sit it out and wait for the itch to come back to make stuff.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
NN: The humbling experience to just make ends meet.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
NN: I’d like to answer this question with — not in Greenland.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
NN: Here in Chicago.
SG: What is your dream art assignment?
NN: Being paid to interpret and document in my ways the sounds and colors of the Arctic.
SG: What is your favorite color?
NN: For me color has three legs. It’s hue, it’s texture, it’s light. No one without the sum.
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
NN: I have so many, it’d be hard to nail down one. It’s like the color question. But I would love to name a few:
Carrie Pollack: She finds a balance between the minimal, the conceptual, the unpretentiousness and most importing comes to a visual pleasing end result.
Nick Butcher : Nick Butcher for his intuitive, methodological visual processing approach and the actual aesthetic end result.
Ester Vonplon: Ester Vonplon for her painterly way on how she uses a camera and her courage to do so.
Mat Daly :for his chromatic color understanding.
Chris Kerr: Chris knocks me always out of my shoes on how he distills life in a very simple and humorous way. It’s always disarming. But also because his art is his extension 1:1.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
NN: Proximity Magazine, an art magazine from Chicago.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
NN: I’ve never done one. I’m glad.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
NN: Either on a roof or at the lake. Ideally in the mountains, in the Surselva region.
SG: Any final words of advice?
NN: If 80% is showing up, then what are you waiting for - make the world yours.
Topics: Artist Interviews, Sprayblog, Women Art |
