My wonderful MFA advisor, Laurel Sparks, was recently interviewed by Gorky's Granddaughter. Showing her recent work in the studio, Laurel gives an honest, raw description of how she develops her ideas, changes things up, and "throws out her Rosetta stone". Laurel has a wonderful appreciation of both systems (she talks about her use of Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies), and an intimate, personal, process-oriented sense of touch.
Here's the link:
Gorky's Granddaughter: Laurel Sparks, July 2012
When I first looked at Laurel's new work online, I sensed a shift in her place, having moved to New York in the last year or so. And so I attributed her changes to a change of place. But, editorializing a bit, I love her discussion of discovering a personality in a painting. She seems to set up the conditions of personality, and then, as in real life, you discover the unknowable aspects of personality -- hence obliteration of the original conditions.
One favorite part of the video for me is minutes 15:56-16:06, which displays a glittering, sparkling space (is it the night sky, or sparkling spandex?) surrounded by pastel, geometric segments and punctuations of built up visual moments.
Alchemy.
