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Tallmadge Doyle
206 Plays3 years ago
Tallmadge Doyle is a painter, printmaker, teacher, and public artist who’s work reflects on issues of the environment related to climate change.
Born in New York City now based in Eugene, Oregon. She received her BFA from the Cleveland Art Institute and an MFA from University of Oregon. She has participated in over 150 national and international exhibitions and her work is included in over 30 public collection in the U.S. and abroad. She has participated in artist residencies at the Ucross and Brush Creek Foundations, Playa Art Science Residency, Sitka Center for Art and Ecology and the Kingsbrae International Artist Residency in New Brunswick Canada.
Being present in the land to take in the colors, smells, sounds, and light qualities is a vital part of her process. She layers this collected sensory information with both real and imaginary cartographic elements. This invented imagery is a mapping of sorts, an approach that allows for combining a current reality with references to geological periods in the distant past and into the projected future of rapid climate change.
Recent Exhibitions include the Berlin Print Biennial, North American Print Biennial in Boston, Atlanta Print Biennial and a solo exhibition at the Augen Gallery in Portland.
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Transcript
Introduction to Podcast & Hosts
00:00:03
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host, Ken Delante. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
00:00:17
Speaker
one
Exploring New Mediums & Artistic Journeys
00:00:18
Speaker
cool aspect and um peter actually wants to you know do a formal episode or two like video setup and we're really intrigued by that because we try to be adventurous so um you know i just like uh like you're in your studio and stuff like that and there's such a an entry into like whoa you know i um i started painting about five years ago uh for the first time in my life um and
The Artist's Studio: A Reflection of Mind
00:00:46
Speaker
Then I became fascinated with your habits more and other painters habits more just to see how you do it. I've never taken an art class or anything so I try to see what you have around or how you have it set up because it's almost like
00:01:05
Speaker
elementary for me, some of that stuff. Yeah, I think studio visits, you know, visually would be a fantastic idea. Because I think I've always thought of, I love visiting other artists' studios because it's like walking into their brain. Yeah. You just get to see like,
00:01:26
Speaker
not only what they're working on, but how they work and the things they collect, you know, and artists are always on some level sort of pack ratty, you know, all the artist friends I have anyway.
Talmage Doyle’s Artistic Beginnings
00:01:41
Speaker
And so it's so fascinating going to the studios and seeing the process, you know, for me, it's all about things, just stuff happens in the process because you're engaged in the process and, um,
00:01:54
Speaker
that's so important, especially in my main medium over the years has been printmaking, different kinds of printmaking. So, you know, I have an etching press now and I have, you know, other equipment, but
00:02:14
Speaker
Should I just go start into my process? Yeah, so everybody, we're talking with Talmage Doyle. This is the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast. And I'm really excited to talk to Talmage.
00:02:33
Speaker
just really intrigued by the depths of her art, thinking about the cosmos and the environment. I found myself very engaged with the work and really kind of immediately thinking when I've seen her art. So Talmadge is a teacher, a screen maker, and artist. And based in Eugene, Oregon, Talmadge, thanks for coming out to the show and welcome.
Significance of an Artist’s Workspace
00:03:02
Speaker
Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's fun. Yeah, yeah, I get to talk about art a little bit. So I really appreciate you here. And you know, they're talking a bit about the studios and just, you know, the place that you make art.
Art, Environment & Climate Change
00:03:20
Speaker
I've noticed one of the things that you mentioned for myself.
00:03:23
Speaker
pack ratty or the slight obsessions. And once I had an easel, I had a space beneath the easel for storage and not knowing how I would behave or what I would put there, I became fascinated by the different type of like cutouts I would collect or just like masks and different pieces of paper and photographs. And I'm like, okay, now I get the artist thing. Like I need this for later.
00:03:55
Speaker
So I love talking about the artist space and it's nice to see where you work. Talmage, originally from New York City, out in the Pacific Northwest for a long time. Your work is very, I would say intricate. And like I said, I'm pulled in and engaged by what?
00:04:23
Speaker
I'm seeing. The environment is a huge component of your work and I think
00:04:31
Speaker
you know, part of the reason you do the work that you do. I found that in my show, I've had the environment in and out, you know, as a topic. I know intellectually it is the biggest crisis facing human beings right now. I've come to that belief and I believe that. And I liked the opportunity to talk to you about obviously the environment and not being an ancillary concern for artists. Can you talk about
Creative Inspirations: 'Celestial Oceans' Series
00:04:57
Speaker
the environment in your work and what you're trying to do? OK, that's a big question. I'll try and answer that question. So all along the way, my work is about being from the very beginning has been about the connection with nature.
00:05:24
Speaker
I think as the climate crisis has been building and building over the years, the content of my work has sort of leaned more towards that. About maybe 10 years ago, I started doing work that was subtly but more directly involved with issues of
00:05:53
Speaker
climate change. And so my work is not like a hit you in the head activist sort of statement, and there's nothing wrong with that, but that's just not the way I work. So I guess later, you know, this hasn't been planned, but I sort of realize along the way that my
Smithsonian Collaboration & Invasive Species
00:06:20
Speaker
My work sort of, I want to draw people in with beauty and then have them realize what the work is about. For example, in my latest work, the latest series that I've been working on, Celestial Oceans,
00:06:38
Speaker
It was very inspired by this phenomenon called the blob you might have heard of it, this in a nutshell, large warm mass of water that was found by scientists off the coast of Alaska I think it was 2000.
00:06:53
Speaker
13 and then started getting bigger and moving down through the Pacific Northwest and California and coast. And it was wreaking havoc on marine life on all levels. And so I started working on images about that, you know, about this
00:07:16
Speaker
And if I had a slideshow here, I would show you. But this is talk, so I can't do that. But I got very interested in color in terms of temperature. And so a lot of my work in this series, the current series, shows a lot of
00:07:42
Speaker
Contrast with bright orange and yellows warm colors and then cool blues and greens. So that is how I worked on. I'm working on expressing that. And I've really gotten into looking at microscopic
00:08:02
Speaker
life forms in the ocean, as you can tell by looking at my work too, and invasive species.
Embracing New Art Forms & Solitude
00:08:10
Speaker
I just finished up a project. It's actually a printmaking portfolio with a group of artists that are doing a collective portfolio about invasive species
00:08:26
Speaker
with the Smithsonian Marine Science Center in Maryland. And so those portfolios, I believe there's 18 of us printmakers, so every printmaker did an edition. These are edition prints hand pulled
00:08:43
Speaker
edition prints of 25. And so there'll be all these portfolios made up and each artist will get a set of prints. And then the other portfolios will travel to different exhibitions and they'll be shown at the Smithsonian Marine Science Center and at the conventions that these scientists have, marine scientists have about invasive species. So that'll be interesting to see. I have not yet seen the group of prints yet.
00:09:11
Speaker
But I started doing these round compositions when I was working on those prints. And ever since I just haven't gone back to working in a rectangle or a square, I've just been working in round compositions, which is really interesting to all of a sudden work with after so many years of working in a rectangle to
00:09:35
Speaker
not have any corners it's it's really freeing it's like i feel like i'm out of this box you know it's great so that that has been real interesting that's sort of a new development and did i answer your question you absolutely did i part of the thing is part of the thing is um
00:09:56
Speaker
I love your description because with the colors and the shapes and the way you describe them,
00:10:06
Speaker
It really helped me to think about your thinking, but it has to do with how you invite folks in there. I mean, you said right off the bat with the environment, there's nothing wrong with overt shock, political art to be like, hey, man, this is completely messed up, take notice. And that's, hey, I need that.
00:10:32
Speaker
but looking at how you enter into the world that we're talking about the environment or what that's what's there so you're there and there's signals of threat with within that i think your description of color immediately i think i would know that but i can feel more of the experience of seeing the contrast the color just like i would look on a chart and be like well that
00:10:56
Speaker
deep red must be wrong because it's supposed to be cooler than that, you know, and notice. So I like being brought into the world you're describing, and to encounter the environment that way. I wanted to ask one of the questions, because that first one was a monster, and I need to tell you I was asking it, but that's the way the show goes sometimes. The question I like at the beginning, and it's
00:11:26
Speaker
It's common but fascinating to me about your artistry or creativity of you humans in general, were you an artist when you were born.
Balancing Art Practice with Life
00:11:37
Speaker
I knew you were going to ask me that. And I've thought about that, you know, listening to your podcasts I, I hear you talk about that and
00:11:48
Speaker
I don't really know for sure, but I do know that I was born with an inclination to become an artist because it's the only thing that was really one of the only things that was very interesting to me as a child. And so I feel though that I became an artist through practice over the years.
00:12:12
Speaker
And maybe I was always an artist and I became more of an artist. I don't really know, but I do know that when I was a kid, it was always my way of just having alone time, just going to a space where I could be alone. And this is funny, I was thinking the other day, I used to do these paint by number things when I was a kid.
00:12:37
Speaker
with like this little oil paint set. And I mean, this was a long time ago, right? They like gave oil paints to children. And I just loved sitting in a space alone and doing these intricate things. So it's always been sort of part of what I need to do for my brain. Like I feel like, um,
00:13:01
Speaker
For as long as I could remember, I'm definitely most happy when I have I'm working on something, you know.
00:13:10
Speaker
you know, that solitary repetitive kind of work really feeds my, um, I don't know if it builds my serotonin or I think it does, but amongst many other things, it's just good for my brain and for my peace of mind. And I feel like if I, if there's time, when there's times in my life where I, I'm working, you know, on another job that I need to do or things are just really busy and I haven't gotten to my studio for a few days or a week or whatever, um,
00:13:40
Speaker
traveling, I'm just like, I can't wait to get back and have some time to be able to do that. And it is a luxury. And I think to be able to have this wonderful studio that I have and have time to do that over the years, I think artists really have to, I know I'm sort of going off on a tangent, but I think artists- That's what you're supposed to do on the show. Okay, good. That is this show.
00:14:08
Speaker
Okay, good, good. Tangents, I like that. So I think that artists really have to be determined to organize their lives so that they do have time to work because everything is pulling you in a million directions. And, you know, you have to set down parameters and everyone, of course, is a different in a different situation, you know, financially and family and all those things.
Global Exhibitions & Networking in Printmaking
00:14:38
Speaker
But I know that artists have to continually struggle to make that space in their lives and actually arrange their lives so they can work. And it's really hard when you have kids and it's hard when you have other jobs. So it's just always an effort to do that, I think, for every artist I know anyway.
00:15:07
Speaker
Yeah, and I think there's, you know, when I get the opportunity to talk to artists, you know, on my show, and there's certainly a learning process for me to hear about
00:15:22
Speaker
you know how you do it and um you know i'm somebody who does art on the side including this podcast and there are those very fundamental things to deal with and i think uh space and i think for me in thinking about it a lot of times it's the routinization not in a boring way but the routinization of like how you do things and when you do things to allow
00:15:50
Speaker
yourself. Like you said, when you're away from it, you want to get back in and I don't know your experience, but move through the motions in the strokes or the processes for you to feel like you're breathing, right? Right.
00:16:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So the challenges and the opportunities that you say, you know, you appreciate that you have, and we get the benefit from it. And so thank you for creating the space that you create for yourself as
00:16:21
Speaker
as an artist. I know one of the things that was very impressive in reading more about you right now is, my gosh, you have work in a lot of wonderful, fascinating places. I saw the Seattle Art Museum.
00:16:42
Speaker
Oregon State University, I saw Italy and Portugal. Just for a little glimpse in for us, what's it like right now to have work that you put yourself into it? It's important to you and of course what you're trying to convey is important. What's it feel like to have your work in so many places and knowing so many people will see it?
00:17:11
Speaker
Um, you know, that's, that's a really good question. Um, I want to start that conversation by talking about printmaking, you know, so I do different printmaking techniques, you know, very
00:17:31
Speaker
They're traditional printmaking. I work on copper plates. I work on pieces of wood and carve them. I combine mediums. I do mono printing, one-of-a-kind prints. I do edition prints. And printmakers have a lot of opportunity in the world to show their work for several reasons. One is that they're on paper, so they're easy to send. So I can send things to Europe
00:17:57
Speaker
Well, now. It used to be cheap, but it's not now. But I can send, I mean, as opposed to sending a canvas or sculpture, you know, forget it, that would be way, way too expensive. So I can send prints through the mail.
Connection with Artists & Passion for Painting
00:18:12
Speaker
And there are print exhibitions all over the world. And the other wonderful thing about being a printmaker is that printmakers
00:18:22
Speaker
network together so extensively. I mean, I belong to four or five different printmaking organizations, like there's Seattle Print Arts, there's the Los Angeles Printmaking Society, there's Print Arts Northwest, which is based in Portland, which is a regional organization of printmakers, and there's national organizations. I belong to the Boston Printmaking
00:18:50
Speaker
printmakers and, you know, all in Atlanta printmakers. I mean, all these people organized exhibitions that you can enter. And then there's the international exhibitions. There's a lot of mini print exhibitions, so smaller prints that are, it's really a tradition in Europe.
00:19:11
Speaker
to the miniature print and so I can send cheaply prints over there to be shown and Europe loves to buy prints you know there's such a deep tradition in Europe to buy prints and so it does it feels great to be able to do that you know all I mean I work I think the reason
00:19:37
Speaker
I work is so, it's my way of connecting with the world, with other people, sort of sharing what I do and who I am and what I love to do. And so those relationships with other people that love art and other artist friends of mine are so important. I mean, it just keeps me going.
00:20:05
Speaker
to have those relationships. I don't know how anybody really works in isolation. I mean, of course during the pandemic, we were all isolated and some artists to some extent enjoyed it because I think many artists are sort of maybe on the introverted side and love having time alone. And
00:20:29
Speaker
That's me, I think. I love having time alone. I love being social too, but I'm not an extreme introvert. But I think that having those connections and not just showing your work, but having conversations with other artists or other people that love and appreciate art is so important. Yeah. So being a printmaker has been a huge part of my artistic life. And I love to paint too. A lot of my new work is painting, but
00:20:59
Speaker
I'm always doing prints as well. Yeah, yeah I, and I love both your work I for me, and I should never state any my ultimate practice, for me, with painting.
00:21:14
Speaker
There's some type of magic going on there that I've never been able to explain.
Art Organizing & Social Justice
00:21:18
Speaker
So I'm always like most drawn to that, mostly because I don't understand or I'm fascinated by the magic that's there as much like for me as a personal reaction. So I think we all kind of have our like little areas where we're like, I still don't get what you've done. You're some wild magician and you've done it. And I see that with painters. So I adore painting.
00:21:42
Speaker
And I love your work and the prints are just amazing. And everybody, we're talking to Talmage Doyle and we're talking about art and creating art and the environment. And we're talking out here in Oregon.
00:22:04
Speaker
And we have one of the things I wanted to mention on what you were saying right there, Talmadge, is that our mutual friend, Peter Bauer, he and I talked many times about how in us doing the show, we both are organizers and thinking and maybe for social justice, labor issues, but our deep interest in the arts and music and painting and
00:22:32
Speaker
We quickly realized that there's arts organizing that happens that is so vibrant and it can be connected to all those issues that we talk about.
Impact of Artist Residencies
00:22:45
Speaker
So when you're talking about how you collectively get together and you connect with these groups and there's this mutual aid, it's been exciting to hear about how
00:22:56
Speaker
groups of people get together and get what they need to get it done, you know? Right. Right. It's it's inspiring. Yeah. And another thing I want to mention, because I know a lot of artists are interested in this and and non-artists, you know, about eight or nine years ago, I started to do I was in the position where I could leave town more often. And I started to do artist residencies.
00:23:26
Speaker
in different parts of mainly, you know, North America. And these are places often, you know, there are artist residencies all over the world, but the places that I picked to apply to were places in extraordinary environments, like UCROSS Foundation in Wyoming,
00:23:51
Speaker
And there's a place called the Kingsborough International Artist Residency in New Brunswick, Canada, on the Bay of Fundy, where the highest tides in the world happened. I was able to go there about three years ago. And also Sitka Centre for Art and Ecology, which is on the Oregon coast. Sometimes I mentioned Sitka and other artists never even heard of it. I'm like, oh, you've got it. You've got to find out about Sitka Centre. It's a fabulous place.
00:24:21
Speaker
There's also Playa in the Oregon Outback, where art meets science is sort of how they describe it. And the same with Sitka, the scientists and artists around issues of the environment. So you actually go to these residencies and live for a period of time.
00:24:43
Speaker
It varies whether it's a week, two weeks, six weeks, sometimes they're really long, long residencies, but I really can't afford to do that. But you live in these environments and it doesn't feel like being a tourist. You actually live there and you just get to soak it all in the air, the water, the forests or the desert, wherever you are.
00:25:12
Speaker
has a profound, the environment for me just has a profound impact on my life and my work. And it's hard to describe actually how that happens, but it's very interesting what happens to my brain when I put myself in a very different environment and I don't have all the regular things at home that I need to do.
00:25:37
Speaker
and to take care of. It's just, you know, you have a studio and you have time and there's also other residents that you get to meet and network with. So there's people from all over the world that come to these residencies and you get to connect with them. So if that's been for me, that's just been a huge benefit. It's been like the icing on the cake in terms of being an artist
00:26:06
Speaker
in my artistic life is having those opportunities to do residencies. And I know that all artists can't always do that because of their commitments at home and job commitments and things, but I would encourage people to try and arrange their lives to be able to do that.
Artistic Transformation Through Environment
00:26:25
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And thank you for mentioning that because I was
00:26:32
Speaker
listening very closely to what you're saying. And I thought about the environment. The one thing that sparked my head was I just read a shorter, it was a non-scientific study. It was a bit anecdotal, but it was in general, the fact I think is true. And they were talking about in this book, the three-day effect when you're separated from, and you're in nature that something happens to our physiology, our head.
00:26:59
Speaker
are patterns being in the woods after three days, which is good, which is a good more holistic beneficial effect. But on that point when what you're saying about being in a different environment, maybe being around different people is
00:27:18
Speaker
tracing what comes out over that time because I believe the transformation is real. I've felt it. I haven't necessarily been dedicated to creating art through that, but that's something I've been thinking about, of seeing what is the thing that you produce
00:27:36
Speaker
from day to day as you immerse yourself into that and I think they're going to be different different type of things and just for your own trailing of your own psychology or creative process so
00:27:50
Speaker
Yes, yes. Oh, before I forget, the most recent residency that I did, I wanted to mention it's called the Vashon Artist Residency. It's on Vashon Island in Washington and it was
00:28:08
Speaker
so beautiful to be there and that's where I broke out of the box and started doing these round compositions. It was really interesting because the founder of that, it's a fairly new residency and that's why I wanted to, another reason why I wanted to mention and make other art people aware of it for writers, scientists,
00:28:30
Speaker
our visual artists is that I was there in January for the whole month and was such a treat and I found out the day before that I went there that the other artists that were supposed to be my cohorts there
00:28:47
Speaker
were not becoming because of COVID. That was when the whole Omicron area was uprising. And so Kathy Sarkowski called me and she said, well, I just wanted you to know that there's going to be nobody else there. Is that okay? And I said, sure, that's great. That's fine. Do I have to pay extra for
Emotional & Spiritual Role of Art
00:29:10
Speaker
that?
00:29:10
Speaker
I'm disappointed for those people, but I just have no problem with being alone and working, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So like a lot of artists might enjoy that. But anyway, that was one of the most beautiful places I have been to in my life. And I felt so fortunate to being there because the house where the residency is is right.
00:29:32
Speaker
on the sound on on a beautiful bay and so just being in that next to that water I mean I wish I knew scientifically what actually happens inside a human body when they get to go to such an extraordinary place because I'd like to you know be able to clone that
00:29:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, no. I really love the discussion in this because the nexus between how we feel in making art or viewing art is really a big reason that's developed in my thinking rather than one was that was at the outset. And yes, art can be torture and difficulty and pain and suffering, but
00:30:21
Speaker
it tied to maybe different physiological experiences impacting the world for better, the repetition of a brushstroke to calm our breathing or whatever it is, to help us become really sensitive to that. And I love the conversation along those lines, but I'm gonna,
00:30:45
Speaker
move right to the big question because we're using a word, a real lot, probably a billion times since interviews started and it's art, but I have to ask you, what is art? We've been talking about it for a while. What is art?
Art as a Language for Connection
00:31:02
Speaker
a big question. Well, I know that art has many purposes in life, and it varies from artist to artist, person to person. For me, art has been a way or a language that I can communicate in the world that I have not felt with anything else.
00:31:32
Speaker
And maybe teaching art, the teaching that I've done has been important, but I feel like it's the way I connect in the world. And without it, I don't know. I don't know what I would do or be or whatever. I'm really not sure.
00:31:56
Speaker
I think that it's hard to imagine a world without art. Can you imagine not having music? I mean, I think everyone, even though a lot of people don't really relate to visual art as much as maybe music, I think everyone loves some kind of music, it seems anyway. And music is such a beautiful expression and it has so many variations.
00:32:23
Speaker
You know, everyone has some kind of favorite music or favorite song, even if they don't like, you know, quote art, you know, and.
00:32:33
Speaker
I think that just shows us how important it is. Art just takes us to a different place out of the mundane and shows us sort of a doorway or a pathway into another way of thinking or another realm. I think doorways open when you look at art and you allow yourself to experience things.
00:33:08
Speaker
kind of go and I look around and I just want to get out of there. That usually doesn't happen. But, you know, if there's a lot of people around like at an opening or something that you can't really look at the art and absorb it. But going to a museum, my attention span is limited. So whenever I go to a museum, I can't spend hours and hours there, but I usually pick out a couple things that I just sort of fixate on and they just transport me
00:33:28
Speaker
I mean, sometimes I go to a museum or a gallery and I'm really, I just,
00:33:37
Speaker
into something else. Yeah. Into thinking about more in depth about the subject matter and thinking about process and process is always so connected with the content of the work too. I think they really go hand in hand and yeah. And you mentioned in talking about museums and I think in talking about art as you know
00:34:08
Speaker
I mean I think fundamentally I think it's tough to talk about exactly what you said is like what would we do without art and I think when you pose that question you really drive it at somebody like no music and none of this and none of this people can no longer comprehend particularly if they're sensitive to art they're like I don't understand life then and that's why I love the question so much because
Public Art: Accessibility & Discovery
00:34:32
Speaker
If it seems so fundamental to existence, whether we realize it or not, then what is it that's compelling us and driving us? But your particular mention of museums too, I probably adore art museums more than any other type of space.
00:34:53
Speaker
that I know of and I had a great transformative experience when I was much younger. I think I was in my 20s and I realized one thing when I was going through the museum and I kept going to museums and it wasn't my background. I didn't know why I was doing it but I kept going and I realized that my description, my experience, I said this
00:35:17
Speaker
If you're a believer and you go to your place of worship and you feel it, that's what I feel at a museum. I am at my place of true worship. I believe in what's going on. And the environment is set up for me to inhabit that. So it's a spiritual experience. So I felt a kinship with those
00:35:42
Speaker
you know, that analogy. That's beautiful. That's really beautiful. I love that. Thank you. And it's so for me, then I was like, in my head, there was a switch. I'm like, well, I'm going to a magic place. That's why I want to go to museums. And that's why if it's a little bit more expensive than I probably should spend at a certain point being like, Oh, that's an expensive entry. But
00:36:04
Speaker
I'm going. I'm paying my donation. Right, right. You can donate, you know, a dollar or something. I know. I know. And I didn't I didn't mean to just like say just museums or galleries. I mean,
00:36:18
Speaker
I mean, just. Well, for you, for you, I'm sorry to interrupt. I know I'm sorry just to jump in, but with your public art, and I love the concept of your public art where you inhabit it. Talk about your public art and the idea of art being to the people, right? Maybe not as exclusive as some of those institutions, but to the people. Right, right. I just, I love the idea of having more and more and more public art around.
00:36:43
Speaker
It doesn't seem to be happening right now, but I know there's, I know there are public art projects happening all over the place in just in our state of Oregon. And because I see the calls, I get emails all the time about this project and that project. And if you, I ride my bike a lot and I ride around Eugene and I see all the beautiful murals here. There are so many beautiful murals and I'll still, even though I live here, I ride around and I'm like,
00:37:13
Speaker
I don't even remember seeing this mural and it's gorgeous. And I mean, there's a whole other art form mural making in itself, but the public art that I've done and I would love to do more at some point. You know, I've done three or four projects and
00:37:34
Speaker
It's been really gratifying because I know that so many people are seeing them and they're part of an environment and they're beautifying the public space and God knows we need help with that. And so it is very gratifying to be able to do that.
00:37:53
Speaker
And it's also really complicated. You know, public art, you're dealing with so many people and agencies and this and that. And it's completely different than just being in your studio doing exactly what you want to do. Right. But I am very grateful for that experience, having had those experiences. And it has been very gratifying, especially when they're over.
00:38:23
Speaker
Well, yeah, and I think the, and I love what you had to say about, because I was recently in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I was there and I was too busy, like every place I visit, I look to go to a museum, but schedules and it's a really down economy at this time down there. It's all strange to figure out what was going on. So I was like,
00:38:53
Speaker
Well, man, I'm usually doing my art museum but I walked around the city of course I love walking and I'm walking I'm going here and there and I'm like, my gosh, I'm overwhelmed like I got to leave the art museum that was the public it was the murals. It was, there was just a very intense.
00:39:11
Speaker
I don't know, dedication to public display of art that was that was all around and it was indigenous, it was, you know, urban it was it was it was everything there and I was like
00:39:27
Speaker
I'm walking around and the thing I wanted to do at my free time, which was the public art. And so it was a great experience and it was a learning thing for me to be like, when I go to Chicago, I go on to the Art Institute of Chicago for sure, but
00:39:44
Speaker
The art is also all around. And I love your contributions to public art and the idea of how we inhabit that same space publicly, right? And one of the things I thought about when you were just talking and how you feel about you walk into an art museum and you feel like you're having a spiritual experience, when I walk into a beautiful forest, I feel something similar too.
00:40:14
Speaker
And I know that's not just me. And I know it has, you know, obviously, it's so many millions and millions of people. And there's also the idea that you're that the phenomenon of your eyes are taking in all the fractals in the environment.
Intersection of Art, Science, and Philosophy
00:40:35
Speaker
So that, you know, the fractals in the trees affect every plant and, you know, they're taking in and that that effect that it has on the brain. And so I'm very interested in fractals. A good friend of mine is a scientist. He's a physicist, but he he works with fractals. He's also an artist, too.
00:40:54
Speaker
Richard Taylor from the University of Oregon. And he is a rare breed of scientist and true artist too. And he studies fractals and the effect that they have on the brain. And he designs carpet.
00:41:11
Speaker
that is fraught with fractal patterns that goes into industrial buildings and like ceiling tiles that have fractal patterns on them. I mean it's just wonderful so that I just wanted to mention that because I have always found his work really fascinating and
00:41:27
Speaker
fascinating and how he brings that art science together, which is so interesting to me. I mean, in the future, I would really like to work with more scientists doing collaboration. And I think collaboration is really important. And that's somewhere where I'm focusing now going to collaborate with other artists.
00:41:51
Speaker
Scientists and I think the way scientists work is so interesting. I mean, scientists, they do all these experiments and meant most of them fail because they're experiments. And I think artists, that's the way I work as an artist.
00:42:11
Speaker
I mean, artists usually don't talk about the piles of work they have that isn't working or they cut it up and they put it into something else. I think that you have to be willing to just keep on experimenting and trying things that might not work. And that's okay. Actually, that's a really, really healthy thing to do. And I can't remember
00:42:41
Speaker
the facts about Thomas Edison, but I think he did thousands of experiments before he actually was successful with electricity. So, yes, the process, it's all in the process. Yeah, and well, I mean, I love, I love
00:43:01
Speaker
I love you mentioned a science, too, because certainly it's another thing that's not just like, oh, science is over here and art is over here, except we cut it up that way as humans for some reason. But I know on the show, even taking something rather than nothing, which is like super big and maybe not supposed to be an art question, but it's a philosophy question as well.
00:43:26
Speaker
I've been trying to pull at times because for me, scientists is absolutely equivalent or something to try and answer whether it's the big bang or why anything's here. But there's deep beauty and creativity in science that I think maybe in our popular consciousness, we don't realize or think about whether it's
00:43:51
Speaker
the perseverance of an artist or taking a creative approach their unique scientific mind to answer the question that's there that's very creative that's that artist can sync up with so the dichotomy of art and science I think you and I would probably agree is you know it's just a way of thinking that probably not the proper way of
00:44:15
Speaker
um approaching and hearing about uh I believe it was uh Richard Taylor I believe you mentioned about you observing the kind of great proficiency art great proficiency science I think that that intuitively makes sense but it's also very nice to witness somebody doing it right at the same time yes yes and I think scientists have to work out of the box
00:44:39
Speaker
I think that's how they actually invent things. I mean, I'm speaking for scientists now. I don't know. But I know that they have to experiment a lot. And I think artists have to do that too. I mean, sometimes I see artists doing the same work decade after decade. And I just couldn't do that. I just like to really mix it up. And there are common threads through my work.
00:45:07
Speaker
all through my work, but the appearance and the manifestation is different. So anyway, that's another tangent. Hey, like I said, well, and the thing is,
00:45:23
Speaker
I love, you know, and I see it in your work too, not just, I mean, we think about the oceans and the Earth, but the stars and the universe, why all that? Because I see, you know, strong elements of the universe in your work and
00:45:41
Speaker
Sometimes cutting it up for an artist isn't really useful. The power of the ocean living out here on the on the west coast and I'm from Rhode Island, the ocean state. So when it comes to the environment, I find myself very
00:45:58
Speaker
sensitive to ocean environments or at peace around water. All right, we've been hinting along the edges. There's the idiosyncratic question that's the title of this show is for you to have the opportunity to answer is, why is there something rather than nothing? Why are we doing these things? Why are we creating things? Why do you think there's something rather than nothing?
00:46:29
Speaker
I really don't know the answer to that question. That's okay. That's okay. But when like, when I think of I've thought of that question for weeks now, because I knew you were going to ask me. And it's like toxic. It's a toxic idea that I introduce. And I don't know, I like when I my mind starts to think of nothing, I honestly, I don't know what nothing is.
00:46:54
Speaker
So I don't know if I could really answer the question, but rather than nothing, I want to go back to a moment ago when you were talking about the oceans and the solar system, outer space, this new
00:47:14
Speaker
And this might pertain to your question down in a minute. It does. We'll declare it that it does pertain to the question. So this new series I've been working on for the past year and a half
00:47:29
Speaker
You know, it started out to be about the ocean and ocean life. And then these maps, sort of pretty much spontaneously, these celestial maps started popping up.
00:47:45
Speaker
maps of the solar system and star formations. I started to look at Hubble spacecraft photographs and they just started to pop in and I realized I'm just going to go with this. The deep ocean and the deep space
00:48:06
Speaker
Just it was so interesting to me to draw the connections in in forms, for example, with this beautiful undersea creature.
00:48:21
Speaker
and star formations in the Milky Way. They look, there's so many similarities of form. So I really enjoy sort of pointing out those connections from these two very, very different places, but both places are very mysterious. Both places are really beautiful. Both places, we really
00:48:45
Speaker
can't figure out in a way. It's just incomprehensible, the vastness of it all and the scope of it all. I declared that art piece that meshes the magnitude and power of the ocean in and the cosmos as a whole is the proof that there is something rather than nothing.
Integration of Science and Art
00:49:12
Speaker
I am. I, I think, I think I appreciated you picking up back on on oceans again because I think I could do a podcast about oceans just anybody who obsesses about them and finds great peace with them but I do, I just love that part that I know now that I've seen in your work.
00:49:33
Speaker
that I didn't know was overt of the collapsing or combination of the cosmos and the oceans. I just saw visuals and then I knew it.
00:49:47
Speaker
I found that that one thing about talking about just stepping back more generally about science was one of the reasons I started I stopped studying formal philosophy was that I thought I started to
00:50:03
Speaker
study science on my own, because I've never been taught science the right way. I'll just be honest with you. Whatever way my brain is, I haven't been taught science. Science aren't the right way. I've self-studied and tried to figure it out. But when I started to study science on my own, to the best of my ability, modern physics, quantum mechanics stuff, I realized that there were a few significant questions in philosophy that were useless to discuss. Like I truly believe that my problems in those areas of understanding those questions
00:50:33
Speaker
were actually pretty resolved by science. And then I'm like, I think one department's here and one department's here. And I immediately just really learned that there was a great deal and varieties of way of approaching this and not necessarily a traditional
00:50:54
Speaker
conceptual way of, you know, Western white philosophy, male philosophy, that it had to come from different directions. And I love the integration that's in your work and how you make
00:51:10
Speaker
how we end up thinking, or at least I found myself thinking about that, which is much grander. And you said in your process of working with the depiction of oceans that you found yourself finding those patterns?
00:51:27
Speaker
of the cosmic you found that in there and then pull them together that way I really wanted to capture what you're saying there. Oh, okay so, so I collect books with ocean creatures you know a lot of them are are microscopic images.
00:51:45
Speaker
and books about astronomy and stacks of them over here. For years, I've gone to use bookstores and people have given me books. I get all of these images in my brain and also collect images from the Internet. I'd like to get into some real scientific labs and collect images that way. I think that would be really interesting.
00:52:16
Speaker
I'm working on that. Okay, now let's see what was your question I'm getting off on another tangent so so these two things you know you're, I'd say about 1012 years ago I did, I did a.
00:52:31
Speaker
couple of series that were called Celestial Mapping and so I was using maps in my work. I started collecting maps just you know on a small scale. I know some people are really serious map collectors but I started reading books about maps and
00:52:51
Speaker
Um, just maps are so beautiful to me and I, I mean, I have them hanging in my studio. I have drawers of maps that I've found in different second sand stores or that people have given me and I just hang them up in my studio. And it's sort of like this process is absorbing visual information. And then.
00:53:19
Speaker
in the process of making art, it kind of just comes out.
Achieving Creative Flow Through Meditation
00:53:26
Speaker
If that makes any sense. Yeah. In the drawing process, you know, I draw a lot. And it just sort of happens. It's not a forced thing, I would say. It sort of happens and then I go with it and. Yeah, so.
00:53:50
Speaker
I think that's pretty much how it works for me, how I work with images. And I really, I know that being in certain places really enhances my ability to, it's sort of in a peaceful place within myself and without, it enhances my ability to work
00:54:16
Speaker
um sort of to get that flow going and to go where you go where you need to go right you know i do a meditation practice to help me with that and you know there's a lot of um things i feel like i do in my life so that i can be in the place to be creative that i'm always working on doing so um
Admiration for Artists & Recognizing Brilliance
00:54:44
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Wow. It's been amazing to talk to you Talmadge. I wanted to mention a couple, just a couple artists that I honestly have been in. I got different things in the back of my head because we've been talking so much, but I was just thinking the entire time we're discussing, one of the guests I had on is Elizabeth Best and she does a lot of cataloging and kind of like artistic photographic
00:55:14
Speaker
She does this out in England, and I had her on the show a while, but I found it deeply fascinating where somebody who's using photography in order to show me the strange and wild world of sea creatures. When you look at it, you're like, does that thing come out of the ocean?
00:55:34
Speaker
all the wonder of what's in the ocean. And the other artist I was thinking of has been based in Eugene at times as Christopher St. John, painter and sculptor who, when we're talking about the environment and the environment and the importance of animals
00:55:59
Speaker
It's so present in both his painting and his sculpture, Christopher St. John. Oh, I was actually looking him up. Yeah. What was the first artist you mentioned? Elizabeth Beston. And you can find her on Instagram. She's actually been on the show as Christopher. And I was just really, it's been nice for me to think about that kind of ocean stuff. And maybe it was like a,
00:56:29
Speaker
I see Christopher as a Eugene artist in a, I don't know, just a way that means something for me and with the environmentalism, and it all makes sense to me. But I think it's been nice to hear about all the different places we go in our conversation, thinking about science, the ocean, thinking about concepts of why things are, but even mundane aspects of process in art to help us
00:56:57
Speaker
and keep us going. Before we let you go, I need you to tell the audience and myself where are they gonna go, see the works we've been talking about, where they can find you on the internet, the web, things that you can share so people can more closely connect beyond this show to the work that you do.
00:57:23
Speaker
Right, right. Well, I have a website, which is TalmageDoyle.com, double L like tall, TalmageDoyle.com. And I'm on Instagram, TalmageDoyle, pretty easy. And then I do show my work at several galleries and at the Augin Gallery in Portland, at the Car and Clark Gallery in Eugene, I'll have a show. Great gallery.
00:57:50
Speaker
Love that gallery, Karen Clark. I'll have a show at the Karen Clark Gallery in October next year. Wonderful. So I have time to get ready.
00:57:58
Speaker
That's good. Year and a few months away. And the Seattle Art Museum Gallery, which is a really nice space. It's where they show regional artists at the Art Museum in Seattle. And then the Davidson Gallery in Seattle, which is a fabulous print gallery. They focus on prints. They have an antique print collection, a modern collection, and a contemporary print collection.
00:58:26
Speaker
They just have thousands of prints at the Davidson Gallery. I would highly recommend people in Seattle or when you visit Seattle, visit the Davidson Gallery. It's really quite an extraordinary place. Sam Davidson has had the gallery in Pioneer Square for many years and he is an avid print lover and you got to love the guy.
00:58:49
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So I'm fortunate to have those gallery connections. I mean, I know so many artists that are fabulous artists that don't really have representation out there. And I know that that's not really the direction that a lot of artists are going in terms of so many galleries. The whole gallery scene is just growing and changing and maybe disappearing. I don't really know. Yeah.
00:59:18
Speaker
I gotta tell you, and as far as the visibility or how you have things seen as an artist, I gotta tell you, I've realized, and I mean this truly with a lot of artists I encounter on the podcast, I end up in truthfully and completely dumbfounded at times.
Conclusion: Encouragement to Explore Doyle’s Work
00:59:40
Speaker
by the sheer unique brilliance of what artists are doing out there, that I feel that I can see or maybe others can see or a hundred or a thousand people see and they know. And I find the question so fascinating is when you encounter things like that, I feel that
01:00:04
Speaker
everybody you at must least encounter this brilliant thing for this reason, just so you're in contact with it and to experience it. And I think a lot of people assume that maybe like great or brilliant art is going to find its way through, but it's a big world. It's a big world for artists. And I think
01:00:30
Speaker
I think if anybody's bored in their particular interest area, sometimes people say, oh, there hasn't been any no good music out or it still sounds the same. I just laugh.
01:00:42
Speaker
because it's so vast, there's so much, just look where you need to look. And the pressures of our culture doesn't really allow for that all the time, but I like spending time and saying, goodness gracious, Talmage Doyle, she's not that far away from me and look.
01:01:02
Speaker
There's these brilliant work she's doing. So I really appreciate your time in the discussion, your kind of openness to range around about these topics. I love your work. I particularly like what, honestly, I'm an intellectual. So I love what they, at least initially in seeing a lot of stuff, what they spur for me as far as thinking about what you're doing.
01:01:32
Speaker
There's different ways I think your work pulls people in. That just happens to be my unique piece. But Talmadge, thank you so much for your time. I hope you've enjoyed banding about these philosophical questions. I just really appreciate you being here. Oh, thank you. Thanks, Ken. It's really good to be asked these kinds of questions. It gets me thinking and talking more and
01:02:01
Speaker
Yes, it's been really fun. Thank you. Thank you so much. Everybody, check out Talmadge's work. If you're lucky, in particular, some of the locations in the Pacific Northwest over time in Seattle and Portland, which I'm one of the unique people who love those cities just about equally because I'm from the outside and I love them equally, so I don't have to choose Portland or Seattle. I think they're
01:02:28
Speaker
Both wonderful, so if you get a key. I used to live in Seattle, so I have a fondness for it. I really enjoy both, and that's great to hear. Talmadge Doyle, thank you so much. Please keep creating art for us, and hope to talk to you again soon. Yeah, thanks Ken, thanks. Keep in touch. All right, bye now.
01:02:59
Speaker
This is something rather than nothing.