There were many interesting interviews but I chose to feature Miranda July. Miranda July was a prolific performance and video artist in the 1990s who stepped into the mainstream limelight when her 2005 film Me and You and Everyone We Know became an international hit. She now is making exhibitions featuring do-it-yourself art taken from the ever-expanding Learning To Love You More project, an ongoing collaboration with Harrell Fletcher.

The Learning To Love You More website features 65 creative assignments, as well as the reports from people who completed an assignment. With over five thousand reports and counting, the website has become an amazing archive of personal creative endeavors by people from all over the world. Browsing the pictures, drawings, and videos that were uploaded, you kind of feel a connection to them, which is due to the nature of the assignments. Learning To Love You More is a project for and about other people and, as Miranda says in the interview, it’s a great source of inspiration for her and keeps her sane.

Filmed at MU, a great art space in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, on Friday 24 August 2007, the day of the opening of the Learning To Love You More show.

When I started my art practice at the age of 35, I did portraits.  I was inspired by Modigliani and others but one of my very favorites was the work of Alice Neel. I liked her story.  She lived in Greenwich Village in the 30’s and was part of a generation of bohemian artists and writers. During the 40’s and 50’s she worked outside of the mainstream in Spanish Harlem, where she developed a uniquely individual approach to portraiture in a time dominated by abstraction.   Neel’s outspoken personality and her daringly honest portraits made her a cult figure in the art community. I had the rare chance to see her work in person at the Walker Art Center.

Neel’s estate maintains a website for her, with a bio on its home page that labels her a pioneer, an apt description – for she was a brave painter.  She went her own way, no matter what the rest of the art world did and no matter what the world said.

1970 Andy Warhol Oil on Canvas 60 x 40 inches, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Gift of Timothy Collins

Marlene Dumas, a South African artist and painter  describes how Neel painted modern portraits, locating her subjects. Dumas writes:

…She painted people.

Most figurative painting is not about people and seldom about “characters.” Philip Guston painted cartoons. Warhol painted public images. Chuck Close uses portraiture to paint about painting; Alex Katz paints the cool; and Elizabeth Peyton paints dreams…

Dumas also notes that ”the unflattering criticism she received about her nude self-portrait at age eighty [below] is unforgivably stupid.”

1980 Self Portrait Oil on Canvas 54 x 40 inches, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

I have this book on Alice Neel and recommend it highly.

Alice Neel

Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American author, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed black characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved.  I haven’t read any of Toni’s books but this interview with Annie Lebowitz has inspired me to do so.

Much of what she says about her readers is how I often feel about viewers of my art.  While she is sometimes disappointed that readers want a quick and happy ending, I too feel viewers want to quickly like something based on the colors, a pleasing image or how it will look in their room.  She goes on to say that she would like each book to create a willingness to surrender, to be in the landscape and make it theirs.  This, in my mind, is where all of the magic happens.

Shahzia Sikander was born in 1969 in Lahore, Pakistan. Educated as an undergraduate at the National College of Arts in Lahore, she received her MFA in 1995 from the Rhode Island School of Design. Sikander specializes in Indian and Persian miniature painting, a traditional style that is both highly stylized and disciplined. While becoming an expert in this technique-driven, often impersonal art form, she imbued it with a personal context and history, blending the Eastern focus on precision and methodology with a Western emphasis on creative, subjective expression.

I recently saw an interview with artist Agnes Martin. It was my first introduction to her work.  I loved her simple insights on the benefits of a vacant mind.  After seeing the video (posted below) I did a little more research on her work.

Her signature style is defined by an emphasis upon line, grids, and fields of extremely subtle color. While minimalist in form, these paintings were quite different in spirit from those of her other minimalist counterparts, retaining small flaws and unmistakable traces of the artist’s hand; she shied away from intellectualism, favoring the personal and spiritual. Her paintings, statements, and influential writings often reflect an interest in Eastern philosophy, especially Taoism.  Because of her work’s added spiritual dimension, which became more and more dominant after 1967, she preferred to be classified as an abstract expressionist.  When she died at age 92, she was said to have not read a newspaper for the last 50 years.

Martin worked only in black, white, and brown before moving to New Mexico. During this time, she introduced light pastel washes to her grids, colors that shimmered in the changing light.

Sister Wendy Beckett, in her book American Masterpieces, said about Martin: “Agnes Martin often speaks of joy; she sees it as the desired condition of all life.  The work awes, not just with its delicacy, but with its vigor, and this power and visual interest is something that has to be experienced.”

In my final series of conversations with Ingrid Restemayer, I posed this question:

Is there a significant person or persons in your life who has influenced your thinking and attitudes about your work?

“My family is definitely the most influential. I often reference coming from a long familial line of fiber artists and craftsmen including generations of quilters, tatters, crocheters, knitters and woodworkers.  My  immediate family made DIY a lifestyle long before it was a trend.

“But separate from family,  there are a number of artists who have touched my life and without whose influence I wouldn’t be doing what I do today.”

Although Ingrid shared many influential individuals, one stood out. It is the story of contrasts with Ingrid’s college friend and artist, Christy Puetz.

“Christy and I first met and studied together at the University of North Dakota where we both graduated with BFA’s, concentratiing in Fiber Arts.  Christy has influenced my work for decades first, as young students where I was obsessed with  process and a focus on the formalistic qualities of the medium at hand.  Christy was the opposite, she used the medium simply as a venue for her ecstatic expression.  I saw creativity ooze from her fingertips and was fascinated by her freedom and less dependent nature surrounding craftsmanship.  My devotion to craftsmanship could sometimes get in the way of invisioning a satisfying end result.  This creative tension was really good for us, pushing and pulling each other to one side or another .  Today,  we still draw upon those early lessons and continue to guide and encourage each other.  I think we are both better artists for it.”

Ingrid surprises me with her new exploration of color. Still evident though is her exquisite craftsmanship including thousands of french knots.

Ingrid Restemayer--Etching, Stitching & Handmade Paper

Christy in contrast has a wonderful free form style and almost controlled chaos in her work.

Christy Puetz, Princess Meatball, 2007

Using playful found objects, Ingrid explores less structure in her stitching. Perhaps influenced by Christy at some level?

Ingrid Restemayer, Redwork--Checkerbox

And Christy’s recent work highlights her beading craftsmanship.  Lessons learned from Ingrid?

Christy Puetz, Blue Ringed Octupus Skin, 2008

With funding from the Jerome Fiber Artists Grant, Ingrid  took her detailed stitching techniques to a grander scale.  Pushing outside of the boundaries of her traditionally framed format, Ingrid’s grant project opened up new possibilities for something more monumental, creating a 40-foot long delicate piece of assembled handmade paper, whose surface was entirely hand-stitched. Her project appropriately titled, Perseverance is estimated to have nearly 94,000 stitches.

The Jerome Fiber Artists Project Grants are awarded through the Minneapolis Textile Center. The program is designed to expand the opportunities and support of emerging fiber artists undertaking a specific artistic project.

Please bare with me as I learn how to assemble audio and video together. It’s pretty rough but I love hearing the artists voice and point of view. This is series two in a three part series on my conversations with Ingrid.

Ingrid Restemayer is a printmaker and fiber artist working fulltime out of her studio in Northeast Minneapolis. This is series one of three posts about my conversations with Ingrid and her insights on creativity.  Ingrid and I originally met when we were members of the cooperative artist gallery, Rosalux in Minneapolis.  We had a two person show together called Stitch.  It was a natural pairing given the stitch, often used in both of our work is a connection to previous generations. Rather than a pragmatic practice, the stitch is an intentional mark, a means of expression.

Ingrid’s use of stitch is disciplined, influenced by generations of fine crafters her work reflects traditional embroidery techniques while incorporating other process-intensive mediums through collage. I am always struck by the intricacy of her work. Etchings on handmade papers and forms made from hundreds, sometimes thousands of hand-stitched threads.

Ingrid Restemayer, Illustrated Koi 1, Etching on handmade paper, cotton printmaking paper & hand-stitched cotton thread (22" x 30")

Getting inspired is an ongoing quest for artists. In my conversation with Emily, typically she is drawn to techniques and materials artists use in their work rather than their design inspiration.  Emily shares two of her favorite artists that have inspired her work and process.

New York artist, Biba Schutz was the first to lead Emily on her path to jewelry making.  Accustomed to weaving paper and fabrics, Emily felt a natural connection to Biba’s metal weaving techniques.  Similar to Emily, Biba  combined her various fields of study to create a totally unique look in her jewelry.

Biba’s work is mostly constructed from oxidized sterling silver, bronze, and copper, giving warmth and depth to her organic look. She creates a form by manipulating wire as if it were thread. Schutz’s feeling for sculptural form is so strong that for some years she could not decide to work as a sculptor or a jeweler.

Pendant Design by Biba Schutz

Michael Zobel is Emily’s biggest influence.  Designer, Michael Zobel was born in  Tangier, Morocco, raised in Barcelona, Spain and apprenticed in Germany. Zobel is recognized for highly individual, strong and masterful crafted jewelry of timeless beauty.

Emily has been fascinated and inspired by his techniques and his generous handling of materials. The combination of different metals with and on top of each other, the free use of colors and forms, of geometry and organic sources, of precious stones which has been a signature of his work from the beginning.

Cuff Designed by Michael Zobel

Thank you Emily for sharing these great artist.  This concludes my series of 4 artist conversations with Emily Johnson.  Emily’s parting advice, “maintain a sense of play in your work.”  I would love to hear your comments on Emily’s work, the format and content of these posts.  I plan to feature artist conversations monthly. In between view postings on fresh finds and authentic stories about my work and other discoveries.  The next artist feature will be in December featuring Ingrid Restemayer.

To see more of  Emily’s work or find retail locations please visit her website.