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Spraygraphic Interview with Artist Jennifer Celio
By Spraygraphic | March 17, 2008
Spraygraphic Interview with Jennifer Celio
SG: Please tell us about yourself.
JC: My art springs from the urban environments I drive through every day. I have always been fascinated by decaying structures and the transformation of buildings over time due to use and misuse. I like imagining the history that a place holds, like when walking through an abandoned house in the desert. My drawings are of the banal yet universal imagery of the roadways and streets. In my work, the romantic landscape ideal presented in art is extended to include the sidelines of the freeways, the foliage and signage and circumstances that exist in the in-between areas. There is an attempt to extract the hidden beauty in the ordinary places that I commute past on a regular basis. And I appreciate many other things besides art- wine, music (especially electronic music), going to clubs, hiking, travel, reading.
SG: Where do you currently live and work?
JC: My home is Long Beach, CA. It’s great to live a few blocks from the beach. My apartment has an extra bedroom that is my studio, and I added an additional space last year that is more conducive to creating my new, much larger drawings. The new studio is a storage room that I rent in the apartment building two doors down. I could no longer get large wood panels up the stairs in my apartment!
SG: What mediums do you work with?
JC: Since 2002, I have been using graphite pencil on gessoed wood panels to create my very detailed, obsessively rendered drawings. Last year, I started including other drawing materials as well as a bit of paint. So I continue to use the graphite for the thousands upon thousands of tiny ‘hatch’ lines while also incorporating charcoal (compressed and powder), a wide range of other types of pencils, and watercolor and water soluble pencils for color. And on rare occasions, I do something completely different and go back to my older style of figurative acrylic paintings, executed in a very water heavy process, kind of like using watercolors.
SG: Describe your working process when creating a new work.
JC: I plan out the drawing from ideas I have noted or reference photos that I have taken, followed by thumbnail sketches. I choose the appropriate size and proportions of a panel and prepare the panel with sealer and gesso. Then I create a full scale transfer drawing on paper, which is put on the panel with graphite transfer paper. When the entire line drawing is done on the panel, I start the cross hatching process, working generally from left to right, top to bottom. I rest my hand on a piece of paper to prevent dirt marks and smudging on the white gesso.
SG: What kind of things do you do when you get blocked or find it hard to create something?
JC: I resist dwelling on being blocked or obsessing about it. I allow time to observe the city from which I derive my subjects, or I flip through my hundreds of reference photos to see if some scene inspires me. I try to avoid such problems by taking photos of environments and situations on a regular basis so that I have fresh material at all times. There are times where I am emotionally distraught, and that is when I do not go into my studio. I don’t want those stresses to distract me and ruin a drawing in progress. I wait it out.
SG: Where are you currently finding your inspiration?
JC: Mostly on the streets of Long Beach, where I live. I notice interesting buildings or situations while I am driving to my day job, and I go back with my camera to get the necessary photos. This city has an eccentric mix of people; architectures; urban and suburban areas; and nature and the city. It’s a rich source for my drawings.
SG: Where has your work been seen?
JC: Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Atlanta; art fairs in Miami and Marfa; in print in New American Paintings, Art Papers and a forthcoming book from the London International Creative Competition.
SG: Where will it be seen next?
JC: Group shows in Los Angeles, including at Otis College of Art and Design in the summer of 2008.
SG: What is your favorite color?
JC: It has always been green, I guess because I associate it with nature.
SG: Who is your favorite artist? And Why?
JC: Kelly McLane’s drawings and paintings are a joy for me to view and an inspiration to my own work. I love her nightmarish imagery coupled with intensely beautiful linework. She now uses oil paint in her pieces along with the pencil, and these works are partly what nudged me towards expanding my visual vocabulary and materials.
SG: What book/magazine are you reading this week?
JC: I have been reading what so many people have read, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. In magazines, I have read Artillery, Coagula and Art in America. Oh yeah, and People magazine.
SG: Ever do a self portrait? Where is it now?
JC: Oh yeah, quite a while ago. Required in art school! I did the last about 8 years ago, and it’s sitting in storage. I rarely do figurative work at this point.
SG: Where is your favorite place to hang out?
JC: At my friends’, sisters’ or parents’ homes. I have some crazy friends and family-it’s always a great time with them!
SG: Any final words of advice?
JC: The best advice I received and actually followed through upon was to ignore the dead weights in my life, those who by what they said or didn’t say were threatening to drag me down and prevent me from pursuing my art career. That is the best advice I can pass along to another artist.
ART: 1. 99 bottles of Rinso, 2. Available-detail, 3. California Dreaming-detail, 4. Lakewood Produce, 5. Patterns of Traffic, 6. Signals-detail, 7. Waves-detail, 8. Dad’s Camcorder-detail
Topics: Artist Interviews, Paintings, Pencil Drawings, Women Art |
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:32 am
hi Jennifer!
I just love your work!!! I hope to see it one day in real life… good luck with your art career, everyone that tries to prevent you from it is blind or just jealous!
keep it up!!