December, 2014

Excerpted conversation between the artist and Waqas Wajahat

What was it like growing up in your family.  Did you visit museums.  If so, what if anything, do you remember?

Art was not big in my family growing up. I’m not even sure where this love for making art and looking at it comes from.  I know that I have always needed it. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to draw - to make things. It is from my imagination that I want to create. For me it’s a release -- making art is not a matter of choice. It is my identity.  My first exposure to looking at art was at the Met during middle school.  I was completely enamored by the work of Rembrant! He not only captured a physical likeness of the figure, but he was able to bring me in closer.

You mentioned making art being a big thing for you in high school. You then went to Boston University, which has a great tradition of painting.  Philip Guston taught there and John Walker is there now. Has any of their work influenced you?

No, I am still finding my way to abstraction. Right now, finding the space between academic understanding and imaginative inspiration is critical for my process. My aim is to create works that are visually compelling through a combination of interesting references from life. 

Let’s jump right into it--tell me about your work. What does it mean to you?

My work is focused on the human condition. I am interested in exploring the places we occupy -- physical and emotional.  In my latest paintings, I am concerned with documenting what I see and with the fantastic.  The work combines my own perception of human emotion and invented narrative. Through my interactions with real people - friends and strangers, I distill a story, a feeling or a fragment of their experiences.

Which artists have influenced your work and where do you go when you’re looking for inspiration?

Artists that particularly influenced my work are Richard Daad, Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, and Neil Jenney.  Richard Daad was a British painter active between 1837 and 1886.  Aside from his unbelievable patience and minute attention to detail, I am fascinated with his ability to harness an other- worldly imagination that makes his work relevant and contemporary even today. I am someone that is intrigued with the idea of darkness and find it important to go through this darkness in search of light. Like the characters in Bacon’s work, mine come alive for me as I paint them. I love the idea of creating my own creatures. The dioramas at the American Museum of Natural History greatly influenced my landscape paintings.  A line that would ordinarily be straight on a flat canvas, would have to be rendered as curve in a diorama. I read somewhere that Alexis Rockman spent a lot of time looking at dioramas and that they had a profound influence on his work. James Wilson’s dioramas taught me how to look at trees, plants, rocks, and light. Like James Prosek’s work, I believe that the artist must look to nature for inspiration but must rearrange the elemental truths into an orderly sequence or progression of interests. That said, both Rockman and Prosek verge on the boundary of Fine Art and Science, something that has always intrigued me.

Tell me about your process. Do you start with a few studies or sketches or does the composition form as you paint?

I want to first come back to your earlier question about influences. Lucian Freud experimented with surrealism, but he established his own artistic identity. He meticulously executed realist works, imbued with an erotic perversion.  His diverse palette, use of vigorous brushwork and choice of setting significantly influenced my portrait paintings.

As far as my process goes, I begin by doing extensive research on a particular topic.  I look at the work of other artists and the various approaches to an idea.  When I am working on a figure, I need to understand the anatomy of the figure in that particular pose and so it is important for me to study the bone and muscle structure and how the skeleton looks underneath the skin.  Next, I make three to four quick thumbnail studies.  When I’m ready to begin working on the canvas, I draw a final sketch. Then, I mix my colors and begin to paint.

Where do you see your work going. What’s next?

I would like to work on large figure paintings that mimic life in both scale and complexity.  Ultimately, I want to invent a new anatomical structure for the human figure that doesn’t resemble what we are already familiar with.  I don’t necessarily plan on abstracting the figure, but I would like to paint realistic juxtapositions that will force the viewer to question what is real.