tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2009-06-22:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807 2007-04-06T15:33:16Z Movable Type Enterprise 4.25 tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2007:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.75298 2007-04-06T15:32:27Z 2007-04-06T15:33:16Z

Paul Coroneos ]]> ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2007:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.75297 2007-04-06T15:31:28Z 2007-04-06T15:32:19Z

Paul Coroneos ]]> ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2007:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.75296 2007-04-06T15:29:54Z 2007-04-06T15:30:37Z

Paul Coroneos ]]> ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2007:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.75295 2007-04-06T15:19:51Z 2007-04-06T15:28:20Z

Paul Coroneos ]]> ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2007:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.75294 2007-04-06T15:19:51Z 2007-04-19T14:51:53Z

Paul Coroneos ]]> ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2007:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.75290 2007-04-06T15:10:04Z 2007-04-06T15:19:11Z

I am not extremely interested in talking about my work with others or going as far as to explain it. This has been something that I have been struggling with for some time now. I have a hard time understanding...

Paul Coroneos I am not extremely interested in talking about my work with others or going as far as to explain it. This has been something that I have been struggling with for some time now. I have a hard time understanding making artwork for the viewer. When I am making a work, I am never trying to create it for someone else to look at. The piece that I am creating is solely for myself. It just happens that my work gets looked at by other people and they make comments on it. Most of the time I have no idea what to say to these comments. An awkward thank you or a grunt usually comes out but I never dig into what they think because for me it does not really matter. I am not in my studio creating something like a valentine for someone else, I am creating these works for myself to look at. Influences are a very difficult issue for me to deal with. I never really want to admit that I am influenced by one particular person because I feel that following that point people will judge not only you but your work as well. Trying to stay unique in today’s world is as hard as trying to dive into a pool without water. What I have done, be it out of ignorance or out of stubbornness, is try not to look at many other works. I try not to go to museums, read art history books, or just look at other art in general. That is something that I had done for a long time. I am slowly slipping out of this hermit like state and have begun to look at other artwork in hopes that I can still believe that I can be original. In this portion of text, I was interviewed by Erika Johannsen in the fall of 2006. We discussed various topics from my influences in art to why I do what I do. This text has been edited from its original version. Erika: First of all, are there any artists that you look at for inspiration…your favorite artists? Sam: You know for me, I can never really look at an artist. For a long time I went through this thing where I would try not to look at any art because I was afraid that if I looked at it I’d be thinking that I’d be copying everything I would do after that. I wouldn’t go to museums, I wouldn’t look at anyone else’s work because I thought then my stuff wouldn’t be original at all. So I really haven’t invested myself at all into any artists. It’s kind of an odd thing… E: Not being tainted by to much education, keeping yourself original. S: Trying to at least, which is becoming in and of itself a funny idea because everyone thinks there isn’t an original idea anymore. Everyone talks about these artists that they really love and then I start to think about it and I have no idea. E: Since you don’t have any artists that you look at. Where do you find your inspiration? I notice that a lot of your work could be attributed to your cultural heritage. S: That’s kind of just come in the past year. I felt for a long time that I could do anything and it wouldn’t matter, there was no meaning behind it. It came down to just the process and making marks. I felt like to be a serious artist you have to have a series of works so I did this series of portraits which were white guys with Native American makeup on; so there are about ten of those, which is odd for me. It’s my first series that I’ve worked really hard on. So now I’m stuck. I want to go back to doing random things. Not the subjects just the process of making art, but I cant break out of the series, thus the owls that I have been doing for a year and a half. E: You have a lot of portraits. Do you always work figuratively? Even when you’re working abstractly, do you have a subject in mind? S: Yeah I try to bring something out through the marks, building layers; lots of pieces put together make something. E: Do you build layers as a way for the viewer to enter the piece? They have to explore it a lot in order to find the… S: Yeah in a lot of my pieces people have no idea what’s inside of them and I can see it plain as day. I have this painting that’s six feet by four feet and to me I see an owl. For hours at a time people will sit at my house and finally before they leave they will be like, “Is that an owl?� You want to shake someone, like, “Don’t you see?� It’s kind of like a veil, the layers. I got into the ideas a while ago with the idea of the landscape, the cityscape; shedding all of these layers. What have come before them, like what used to be here, whether it was a meadow or…if you look underneath bridges where they have their trusses and there are layers behind that and behind that until it builds up what you see what you do now. That flowed into this mark making building layers. Bringing some images forward, pushing some back trying to make it so the viewer can’t see what I see, but I want them to see at the same time. It’s kind of a hard game to play. If it hit it every once in a while it’s really amazing to me. Other times I hit a wall. E: Obviously you make challenges for yourself, what challenges do you like to make? S: I like to see starting from nothing and building. Right away, initially things always look like hell. I can’t make them perfect right away and that challenge of making the image hide and come out, that play back and forth is really hard for me to get to some times, also coming up with ideas. It keeps me up at night. E: Do you feel like you have to be really original as an artist? S: Sometimes. I feel like I’m at a point in my life where I feel like everything that comes out of my hand or my mind is original no matter what it is. Even if it's copying someone else. E: What sort of goals do you have with your work, for example: some people have political goals? Do you want people to read certain things into your work? S: The one thing that I have struggled with is the idea of not having any sort of conscious thought that I have put into it; that I want the viewer to read into it. I’m trying to conquer the art world by saying that you don’t need that. Every class is always like, “What secret crazy thing are you trying to hind behind this dark image? I’m making art for arts sake. I’m making an object. For me, I want to rid art work of any sort of context or politics. E: What part does the viewer play in your art? Do you think that they can add meaning to your piece? Do you consider them when you’re making your work? S: No, a lot of time I don’t let people look at my work. I don’t feel that I made it for anyone except for myself. I’m not going out of my way to push my art onto people. It’s almost therapeutic. E: When did you start pursuing art? When did you consider yourself to be an artist? S: In high school I took a lot of art, whatever I could take which was weird because I had to get permission from my counselor. I was in the advanced math and the advanced science, advanced English, but I decided not to do any of that stuff. When I came to the U I wanted to go into architecture because I thought that art from my family’s perspective wasn’t good enough to be functioning in society and I was semi-brainwashed. So I started in architecture and I took my first architectural drawing class and I did all of these drawings for my teacher and I got a D, drawing strait lines. He said in my final review that I was too expressionistic. There was too much feeling behind my drawing. That was the point when I knew that I wanted to be an artist. E: How do you think that sculpture is changing your art; working three-dimensionally. S: It makes me want to go and be more aggressive with painting and printmaking. I see how restricted two-dimensional work is. It gives me the opportunity to really build a surface. It makes me want to go back and push my paintings and prints. E: Materials, what materials do you like to work with? S: I like using anything and everything. Anything that new, that I haven’t tried. Experimentation is number one in my book. I also try not to use the same thing, I’m trying to find things that are free that I can use. E: Do you paint with paint? S: I use asphultum, which is awesome over paint, it’s super toxic. E: Yeah, my finger nails have stopped growing. S: I’ve used ink, ink with mineral spirits, foundry wax… I like to explore different things. Some things work, some things don’t. I try not to think about the mental stigma to advance yourself in a business world. I try to separate myself from that because I think it can take over what you do and I don’t want that. I want to create for myself. tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2007:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.74841 2007-04-03T16:50:57Z 2007-04-04T20:59:29Z

Michael Vegell ]]> ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2007:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.74839 2007-04-03T16:41:18Z 2007-04-04T20:59:29Z

Michael Vegell ]]> ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2007:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.72809 2007-03-20T23:45:08Z 2007-04-04T20:59:29Z

Anna Mansell ]]> ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2006:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.62751 2006-12-15T02:18:10Z 2007-04-04T20:59:29Z

Jessica Driscoll ]]> ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2006:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.62744 2006-12-15T01:39:37Z 2007-04-04T20:59:29Z

Jessica Driscoll ]]> ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2006:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.62739 2006-12-14T23:20:38Z 2007-04-04T20:59:29Z

Sarah V. ]]> ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2006:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.62736 2006-12-14T22:58:26Z 2007-04-04T20:59:29Z

Sarah V. ]]> ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2006:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.62732 2006-12-14T22:44:14Z 2007-04-04T20:59:29Z

Sarah V. ]]> ]]> tag:blog.lib.umn.edu,2006:/lyonx001/blog5400//4807.62728 2006-12-14T22:29:12Z 2007-04-04T20:59:29Z

As an artist I am constantly thinking about new ideas or ways in which I can approach my artwork. I identify with the ability to use something one is very passionate about to speak to the world. To be able...

Sarah V. As an artist I am constantly thinking about new ideas or ways in which I can approach my artwork. I identify with the ability to use something one is very passionate about to speak to the world. To be able to find a language to say what you mean and to have others identify with what you are expressing is a powerful thing. Art is incredible because it is a form of communication that everyone can understand regardless of cultural limitations. Because of this I know that art can make an impact, and I am careful to be deliberate in what I want to say in my work. Often I find myself in the situation where I am obsessed with every little detail. Even if I find that I am no longer inspired by the art piece I am working on, obsessive compulsion keeps me moving. I might not feel as strongly about the piece as I progress, but the compulsion drives me to continue until I get something I like. I believe in working through things until they are acceptable, what’s the point in starting something and abandoning it the moment things don’t go your way? There’s nothing to gain from that approach. I consider myself a “visual interpreter�, the things I see become subjects of my work. I have never felt that I possess the ability to properly articulate the things I think through words. Just like anyone else I react to the things going on around me, but I choose to do it through art. A large portion of my work is based on human emotions, ones that I feel or ones that I see other people go though. I am of the opinion that emotions are a very concrete way of connecting with people; if you have empathy you can identify with whomever you meet. I very much dislike when people ask me what kind of artist I am. As an artist how can you grow if you limit yourself to some label such as “painter�? I view being an artist as a profession that has no limits and there is a constant need for exploring. You will never know what you like or don’t like until you try them out. A particular theme that reoccurs in my artwork is the idea of mediating inside and outside. I am interested in how our exteriors influence our interiors and vice versa. It appears to me that often we take very important things for granted. What I’m really after is exposing the things that we often take for granted. We live in a world where we make things much more complicated for ourselves than we need to. It’s so easy to lose sight of the small things in search of fulfilling a bigger picture. I’ve also been putting a lot of consideration into how to interact with the viewer. When one has been trained to look at art a certain way, how does one unlearn it and look at art from a viewpoint of someone not educated in the arts? How can I speak to my audience if I don’t know how they conceptualize my ideas? I made a series of paintings based on my interpretation of a song. Using watercolor, I’d paint my visual interpretation, and take a photo as I went on. The idea was to get photos of the paintings as they progressed, this way the viewer could see how I work as an artist. Paintings don’t just appear, there’s a process and most people don’t know what the process is unless they’ve done it themselves. Once the paintings were complete I took the photos and timed them to progress as the song progresses. I’d like to go on and do this with different mediums. Progression as an important thing. I hope to continue to grow into an artist who is able to connect with an audience and have that audience take something away from my work.