Lucy Picasso is one of 66 Interact artists sharing work in this year's Great Big Holiday Sale. Her pop culture portraits reimagine famous works of art, celebrities, and historical figures. Referencing found images from books, friends, and the internet, Picasso’s recent work includes a series of paintings based on horror films from the 1970s and 80s, an alluring portrait of Elizabeth Taylor, and a ceramic cowperson. As most of her work translates photographic images into paintings, Picasso engages with long-held traditions in portraiture.
Lucy started painting when she joined Interact in 2008. In a recent conversation with Gallery Director Brittany Kieler, Lucy describes how it feels to find success in her creative practice.
Visit our online Great Big Holiday Sale
Video transcription:
BK: How does it feel when you're painting now?
LP: I feel relieved and I feel accomplished. I feel really happy that people are liking my paintings and saying, ‘Oh, Lucy, that’s a really beautiful painting, I want to buy it,’ you know. It makes me really proud and happy.
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For the first time ever, Interact is thrilled to share the visual art of performing arts cast member Michael Engebretson. Michael made his Interact debut as "Snout" in our 2016 production, What Fools These Mortals Be, bringing undeniable energy and dedication to the role. Also a visual artist, he carries a sketchbook everywhere, filling the pages with ballpoint pen drawings that he later embellishes with watercolor. You can find his collection of available work here.
Michael's work maps an intricate future existence beyond Earth, where inhabitants travel through galaxies by spaceship and live on distant moons. The residents of this intergalactic civilization are hybrid beings. Embracing their human, cyborg, and extraterrestrial qualities, they develop more equitable healthcare systems and renewable energy sources. “Their society is far more advanced than us,” says Michael.
An avid autism advocate, Michael would like viewers of his work to understand how, as he says, “the autistic mind operates.” He describes the way that his brain works as “just like a cyborg: part human, and part machine,” and he hopes that his work will help people to understand the vitality of neurodiversity. “Minds, minds can coexist,” he says. “Can can coexist with other people, with everybody. Isn’t that awesome?”
Video description: A recorded interview between artist Michael Engebretson and Gallery Director Brittany Kieler.
Abridged video transcript:
(Brittany) I’m curious if there’s anything that you want viewers to think about or feel when they see your work?
(Michael) I would like the viewers to understand how the autistic mind operates, and how it runs and operates. And how we’re all related with one another.
(Brittany) Did you say how the ‘artistic’ mind operates?
(Michael) Autistic mind, and artistic mind, too.
(Brittany) Autistic and artistic.
(Michael) Minds, minds can coexist, can coexist with other people, with everybody. Isn’t that awesome?
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Andie Kiley is one of 66 Interact artists presenting work in this year's Great Big Holiday Sale. She joined Interact in 2000, making her one of the earliest members of our studio. Initially a performing artist, Andie transitioned to our Visual Arts department so that she could work at her own rhythm. Her visual arts practice continues to reflect her love of music and interest in movement.
In her own words, when approaching the creative process, she says, “It is better to let yourself go free. When I draw, I follow wherever my hand takes me, and I’m very relaxed when I work. I take things as they come and try not to be forceful, and if I don’t feel it, I’m not going to try to do it. Although art is relaxing, accidents and surprises along the way can be very exciting. Sometimes I do things that I didn’t think I was capable of doing.”
Andie's watercolor paintings require tons of patience: she waits for each color to dry before adding more. While she waits, she sings a song. In this clip from a recent conversation between Andie and Gallery Director Brittany Kieler, Andie performs "Dry, Dry, Dry" to the melody of The Beatles' "All You Need is Love."
Visit our online Great Big Holiday Sale
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Virginia Townsend has practiced at Interact since April of 2019. Since then, she has continued two bodies of work. The first — a series of small landscape paintings — illuminates rivers, mountains, and open fields, all undisturbed by humans. In the second, Townsend dives into her former decade-long tenure as a sex worker, creating vibrant marker drawings of women to investigate the dynamics of power as it relates to sexuality.
This summer, Townsend met with Gallery Director Brittany Kieler over the course of multiple video sessions to discuss her artistic process. What follows are a few excerpts from their conversations. You can find more work by Virginia here.
BK: Can you talk about these recent figure drawings?
VT: I'm interested in exploring the male gaze that exists in the world. I'm interested in it because of — there's, like, this power that men hold in the world, and it's really interesting to me to see where their weaknesses are, and to see whose weaknesses can be exploited for the purpose of leveling the playing field.
BK: What do you mean by 'leveling the playing field?'
VT: I like to draw women who are kind of unabashedly sexual or sensual, and it's not confidence that I'm trying to show with it, it's not comfort in their body. It's comfort in their power over people, especially men. I'm trying to show that they have control over people — men, especially — and that they own it and they know it.
BK: You draw a line over some of the figures. Can you talk about that decision?
VT: The line kind of represents how we are separated — how women are separated. When people see women, it's like, 'She has nice hair, long legs, pretty eyes.' Everything is broken down. With men, it's less like that. It's like, 'Okay, he's handsome.' But what does handsome mean? There's two or three ways you can break it down. But with women, it's everything. There's a fatigue that that brings, of just being broken down.
BK: That's really interesting. First, I read the line as censorship, but then, it doesn't...
VT: It doesn't censor anything. It just divides the person.
BK: Yea, the parts of women that are often objectified aren't necessarily censored out, so then it becomes more about measurement.
VT: It's not just men who do it. It's women, too. I posted one of my drawings on social media, and I wrote, 'I really love this face.' And then I was like, 'Wait a second, I just did what my whole thing is about.' I isolated her face. And took it away from her body. I was like 'Look at this face, this face is beautiful.' And I just took it away from her. I did the same thing that men do. 'She's got a good face and not a good body.'
BK: Yea, it's complicated. There's also just such a long history of depicting women in art, especially by male painters. It feels like, by bringing your own experiences in sex work to the series, you give that tradition new meaning.
BK: What do you hope people might think about when they see this work?
VT: I want them to let the women around them talk about it. I want the conversation to be woman-led. And I want any moral feelings, any morality that's put on sex, to be put on hold.
BK: Can you talk about how you see the dynamics of power playing out in your drawings?
VT: My women represent power, and power is the ultimate envy. It's easily torn away by words and actions, so a woman showing power is also showing vulnerability. My work is about displaying power and defending it.
Virginia Townsend works primarily in painting and drawing. She has presented work in recent Interact group exhibitions, including We Are Not Disposable (2020), Groundswell at Artspace Jackson Flats (2019), and Saint Paul Art Crawl (2019). You can find more of her work here.
Image descriptions: (1) Free Not $Free: a nude figure stands with her back to the viewer, stretching one arm over her head and another to the left. A blue bar runs across her waist. (2) Crusher: A figure poses with one hand on her waist and one hand behind her head. She gazes up, but not at the viewer. (3) Get The Shot: A figure in a red teddy bends over with her rear facing the viewer. (4) Free Not $Free. (5) Arch Your Back: A figure sits in a chair reading a book. She wears black lingerie and thigh highs. (6) Here We Go: A figure stands facing the viewer, holding a ribbon around her waist. (7) Marketing / Get the Shot #2: A figure stands in a long blue dress, its skirt billowing up around her knees. (8) Girlfriend: A figure stands with a hip cocked to the side.
Since 1996, Interact artists and performers have been creating art that challenges perceptions of disability. To support us in this work, you can donate here.
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With the Interact studio temporarily closed, we're revisiting some of the conversations we had with artists in late 2019. In this interview, Visual Arts instructor Brita Light and artist Vance Diamond sit down over hamburgers to discuss his interest in outer space, career aspirations, and the work he refers to as his psychic drawings.
Brita Light: So, can you tell me about how you start making a piece? Do you start with an idea?
Vance Diamond: No, I just go ahead and do it.
BL: How do you know where to start?
VD: I just write. Your hand does that.
Vance Diamond, Mississippi, 2017, pastel and graphite on paper, 20 x 14 inches
BL: What do you hope for when you make a piece, what do you want to see happen with your work?
VD: Leave it there [in the flatfile] until it is time to sell it.
BL: So is selling your work important to you?
VD: Yeah.
BL: Is it important to you to make work, even if you don't sell it?
VD: Yeah.
Vance Diamond, Earth, 2019, pastel on paper, 17 x 11 inches
BL: Are there other artists whose work you're interested in?
VD: Nah, I like them all.
BL: Any famous artists?
VD: Uh-uh. How about me? Am I famous?
BL: Well, maybe you will be after we finish this interview.
VD: Uh oh.
Vance Diamond, Los Angeles, 2019, pastel and graphite on paper, 17 x 11 inches
BL: Do you have any advice for aspiring artists?
VD: Just make anything you want.
BL: What do you hope people think when they see your work?
VD: "Eh—nah, uh-uh."
(Laughter.)
BL: You hope they say that?
VD: Yeah.
BL: Can you tell me about your psychic drawings? How did you start thinking about the universe and getting interested in that?
VD: TV.
BL: Any particular show?
VD: Stark Trek.
BL: So, do you think about outer space a lot?
VD: Yeah. It's quite different in outer space.
BL: When you say that they're psychic drawings, does that mean that it's you making them, or are you saying the inspiration comes from outer space?
VD: Outer space.
BL: That's how you know what to draw?
VD: Yeah.
BL: How does that work?
VD: Well, I do psychic drawings to see what's going on in the world.
Vance Diamond, Sun, 2019, pastel on paper, 17 x 11 inches
BL: Did you make them when you were a kid, too?
VD: No. It just came to me after I became psychic.
BL: How did you know you were psychic?
VD: There's a lady. Didn't get along with the family too well. She told me.
BL: Who was it?
VD: Her name was Barb.
Vance Diamond, Space Cake, mixed media on paper, 2017, 20 x 14 inches
(Crinkling of food wrap.)
BL: Do you like the burger?
VD: Oh, yeah.
BL: I'm gonna eat, too.
VD: Yeah.
(Vance and Brita enjoy their food.)
BL: What else do you want people to know about your work?
VD: Well, I kind of like what I've been doing. So far I've said some pretty good things.
BL: You've said some pretty good things.
Vance Diamond has called Interact his studio since 2012. Primarily working in drawing and painting, Vance is inspired by outer space, which is where he gets ideas for much of his work. Recent exhibitions include Randomland at The White Page (Minneapolis, MN), Work with Your Quirk! at the Bridgewater (Minneapolis, MN), and Changing Landscapes at the Institute on Community Integration at the University of Minnesota. You can find more of his work here.
Brita Light is a mixed media artist working across drawing, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. She is currently working on a series of miniature living spaces and exploring the emotional environment imbued in them. She has been a Visual Arts instructor at Interact since 2014.
Since 1996, Interact artists and performers have been creating art that challenges perceptions of disability. To support us in this work, you can donate here.
Image credit: Special thanks to Xavier Tavera for taking Vance Diamond's portrait in 2019, shown above.
]]>We're excited to bring you the first in a series of interviews with our signature artists, a group that showcases the excellence and uniqueness of the art being made at Interact.
Gallery staff Laura Wertheim Joseph and Brittany Kieler recently asked Andie Kiley about the creative process behind her abstract paintings, known for their playful interactions of color and form.
Andie's work is available here.
LWJ: Tell us about your practice of listening to music on the radio while you wait for the paint to dry.
AK: I think I just work better with 102.1, I tried it the other way, but I think I work better with 102.1. Nothing against 102.9, I don’t know why, but I just prefer 102.1 for some reason.
BK: Is that what you’re listening to while you’re working, or while you’re waiting?
AK: Both.
LWJ: Does rhythm inform the process, or is it background noise?
AK: I do know I work better with it. Not that I’d use the word noise, I’d probably turn it to 101.3 or something like that [if I wanted noise].
BK: Is there a sense of movement in the work?
AK: There is movement in it, some days more than others.
BK: Is there movement in the physical process?
AK: Yep, I think so.
BK: How do you move across a page? How do you decide where to start?
AK: I don’t really give that any thought, I just draw...first I let my gestures or whatever do the drawing, and then I go on the colors. Maybe once in a blue moon I add a fifth color, but I mainly stay with 4 colors.
BK: How do you choose the colors?
AK: I wish I knew the answer to that question, but whatever it is, I like it.
BK: Tell me about your habit of making a lists of colors to be used in a painting.
AK: When I get done using them, I cross them off, so I don’t get mixed up in what I’m doing. But I just write down the colors I feel, same thing with the forms in the paintings. I just draw what I would.
BK: How do you decide if something’s not satisfying to you?
AK: Sometimes I look at it and think, “Why did I do this, why did I do that?” And then there are times, like, this spot right there that’s a mistake. [pointing to a more saturated area of a painting]
BK: This darker spot of green is a mistake to you?
AK: Uh huh. And so is that. [pointing to more saturated area of purple stripe]
BK: Why would those be mistakes, in your mind?
AK: My mind tells me. I wish I was better at explaining things.
BK: It sounds like your process is intuitive and you go with your instincts, and that makes a lot of sense as an artist. I think we all as artists have our own priorities, and it’s interesting to hear what your priorities are for the work. I feel like, as a result of this idea of not wanting the paint to build up a ton, you get this sort of translucence that’s really vibrant and that’s really exciting. They’re so bright. It looks like there’s light coming through it, almost like stained glass. [sifting through paintings]
AK: Oooo! [looking at paintings]
Oooo!
I forgot about that. [turns over a painting to look at the back]
Yep, I actually did that. I like this one.
BK: You don’t tend to title these, but you do put the date. Do you ever affiliate words with the work?
AK: At those times I found nothing to write. I’m not sure what to call them, I just leave them there, and I’m just gonna let the people do the naming.
BK: I feel like everybody as a viewer is gonna bring their own experiences to an artwork. There’s something kind of exciting about leaving it open to people to interpret it as they will.
AK: Uh huh.
BK: There are a couple of shapes that I see over and over, like a bean or a crescent --
AK: Or a fish. I don’t know how I do it, I just draw.
BK: Just go with it?
AK: Uh huh.
BK: That makes me think about how there’s a certain process that you use, and it kind of gets repeated. For example, your process of using the list. There’s a lot of repetition in that. And then, using that same idea everyday, going to the list, using the same colors. Do you feel like the process is exciting to you in and of itself? It’s almost like going to the gym or something, you go and you put in some time, and you do the thing, and it’s like a physical action...
AK: Maybe...I don’t know.
BK: Well I don’t want to put words in your mouth.
AK: You didn’t do that.
LWJ: One of the questions we have that is specific to this mural proposal is what kind of emotion the work evokes for you?
AK: Happiness...I mean, I do get on myself, you know, when I do things I don’t mean to do. Like that, that, that, that, that, that... [points to dark areas from earlier]
BK: But overall, it sounds like, if you’re going to sum up your experience of making the work, it’s happiness?
AK: Uh huh.
BK: That sounds really satisfying.
AK: It is, it is. I mean, there are those days I do feel lazy, it’s hard to...I have to fight myself on those days. I’d rather stay in bed at times, and I get up to come here.
I enjoy my work, you know. But sometimes when I can have a cup of coffee, that helps. With my hazelnut creamer, preferably. That also helps me wake up.
LWJ: Can I ask you about your experience in the Performing Arts department here?
AK: Yea, that’s how I started off.
LWJ: What was that like?
AK: Work, work, work, now, now, now.
Now, do this, now, do it, now, ten times. You know. Not that I wouldn’t do it...
BK: It does seem like Visual Arts would give you a chance to experience time a different way. It seems like time is a big part of your work. Because you’re waiting...
AK: For it to dry.
BK: Do you feel like that is a frustrating part of the process, or is it a chance to slow down and think about the work in a new way?
AK: It works both ways. Sometimes when I’m waiting I have to fight off the urge to continue: “You should stop now, before this turns into mud.”
BK: So that kind of answers my question, I was wondering if theater influences your visual art. But it sounds like moving into visual art was a chance for you to slow down?
AK: Uh huh. Maybe at times I do think about it and miss it. I had one hit song, "Andie’s Wedding," in a play. Madame Josette’s Take No Prisoners, I believe it was.
It’s a funny song, I start out telling the truth: “On July 31, 1999, I married my love, Stephen John Kiley.” I don’t know what comes after that, I can't think of it now. If I think of it again, I’ll try to look you up...
“Before we get a chance to go on our honeymoon, Stephen John Kiley died. August 6, 2001. This one’s for you, Stevie.” Something like that. The song was funny, but the story was true.
BK: Earlier in the studio, you were singing a song to yourself while you were waiting for the paint to dry...
AK: "Dry, dry, dry"...that one?
BK: Yep, maybe you could do it again?
AK: Dry, dry, dry. Dry, dry, dry. [to the tune of The Beatles’ "All You Need Is Love"]
Dry, dry, dry. Da-da da-da-da
All you need to do is dry [snapping fingers]
Dry-dry-dry-dry-dry
All you need to do is dry
Dry-dry-dry-dry-dry-dry-dry-dry-dry
All you need to do is dry, dry
Dry is all you need.
I changed the words from "All You Need is Love." I hope the Beatles won’t kill me for that.
BK: I think they would be honored that you reinterpreted it for your work. I mean, they should be.
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