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Prudence Flint
149 Plays5 years ago
This episode is a joy. Stay for the whole visit.
PRUDENCE FLINT is a Melbourne based artist. She has held solo exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Hobart and has exhibited in major state and regional galleries. She is a seventh time finalist in the Archibald Prize.
She won the Len Fox Painting Award (2016), the Portia Geach Memorial Award (2010), and the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (2004).
Her work is held in the collections of the City of Port Phillip, Artbank, BHP Billiton, City of Gold Coast, University of Wollongong, Castlemaine Art Museum and in numerous private collections.
Reproductions of Flint’s paintings have recently appeared in international publications including Oh Comely (UK), It’s Nice That, Printed Pages (UK), Hi Fructose (US) and recently in Juxtapoz (US). Flint is represented by Australian Galleries in Melbourne and Bett Gallery in Hobart. She had her first international show at Mother’s tankstation Limited Dublin in May 2019.
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Setup
00:00:01
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host, Ann Vellante. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
Prudence Flint's Artistic Recognition
00:00:18
Speaker
This is Ken Volante, host of Something Rather Than Nothing, with episode 17 starring Prudence Flint. Prudence is an Australian artist and a brilliant thinker, a brilliant artist, and just
00:00:34
Speaker
creates a fascinating world with her paintings. I hope you'll check out her paintings either before or during or after this episode. They're quite brilliant and won many awards in her home country of Australia.
00:00:52
Speaker
She's being recognized more internationally with her first international show in Dublin and also some recent exposure on magazines such as High Fructose and most recently in juxtapose winter 2020 issue.
Listener Engagement and Podcast Goals
00:01:09
Speaker
I wanted to mention a few thanks for your support for the podcast, which actually just passed the 1,000 downloads and as you know is available on Spotify, iTunes, and on its source Podbean. I've received a lot of nice comments and feedback from folks. Always feel free to
00:01:32
Speaker
contact the show. The easiest way to do that would be at my personal email, which is Ken Vellante, K-E-N, V is in Victor, O-L-A-N-T-E, Ken Vellante at iCloud.com.
00:01:47
Speaker
And I appreciate any comments you have or any ideas for future guests that you think would be great. I've had such incredible guests. Again, this is episode 17 since debuting this show in July and have some incredible guests upcoming, including Gerald Roulette, who's
00:02:09
Speaker
Portland, Oregon artist, just an incredible artist and bailed a new portrait of Jesus over at Concordia University. And there's also a former NFL player and a lifelong artist since an early age.
00:02:30
Speaker
So that should be an episode. They'll be coming up very soon including another episode with Jack Kent who is a Portland sketch artist and is somewhat known for his sketchy people series where he depicts the
00:02:48
Speaker
Gosh the strangeness that is Portland, Oregon and some of the Some of the folks he meets there. He sketches them out and lists their location and Anyways looking forward to a great conversation with him again want to thank you for all your support for the podcast and now we have the incredible gifted and fascinating Prudence Flint
00:03:24
Speaker
We're we're separated by a lot of time zones. And, you know, I sent you the link to the podcast. But, you know, it tends for my guests, it tends to be pretty comfortable. It tends to be, you know, rather fun chance to answer or try to stab at these, you know, some of these questions. But
00:03:44
Speaker
From the outside, from the outside looking in, do you have any any just kind of just drop them out questions or anything? So with your podcast, so you interview all kinds of people. It isn't just artists. So that was my question. Yeah. Yeah. So one of the things that's interesting is it's developed is like what type of podcast it is. I mean,
00:04:12
Speaker
First and foremost, I want to ask like conceptual philosophical questions of artists or those who create. And these are the type of questions I think sometimes you're not asked or maybe not in this way.
00:04:33
Speaker
Yeah. So my net remains, it ends up being pretty darn large because my interests go that way. And, um, uh, so yeah, so, you know, some less, uh, I would say creators actually might even be more accurate. Now that sounds good. Yes. Yeah. Cause there's some, you know, like some political stuff I have in there, these like things that like, I think of things like organizing or cooking or like these kinds of creative acts and just, uh,
00:05:03
Speaker
So with a net that large, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it looked interesting. It looked really interesting. Yeah. No, and I like the questions. I really like the questions that you asked. So I did write a few little notes this morning about how I'd answer your questions. Yeah, all right. And I want to, yeah, so I'll get into it. I want to ask a little bit more into your interest
Creative Process and Influences
00:05:31
Speaker
some of the things that you read and also your process with journaling and you know how that how that yeah no I've got a real um I I journal I've journaled well I'm 57 um and I've been journaling since I was about 20 or 19 so I've got I've got about a I'm on my 134th book like and I just I write all the time so it's my I don't even know what it is I don't even call it anything I just
00:06:00
Speaker
I just write. I'll write in all kinds of ways. I'm interested in fiction writing, but I kind of feel like I'd need another life to write literature, but I feel that I just write anyway. I need to write, and I find that I draw and write, and it's all very connected for me. Well, Prudence, I'm sorry to interrupt,
00:06:30
Speaker
Uh, I was very interested in here, what you had to say about, you know, about the amount that you read in, in your, your writing. And yes, you know, for me, just looking at the two activities, they seem rather disparate, right? I mean, how do you writing, you mean writing and painting? Yeah. Yeah. But they conjure, they conjure worlds. Okay. Tell me about that. Tell me about that. Well, I think,
00:06:59
Speaker
When I read, it's very visual. I imagine the people, I imagine the places. It's fluid. I move around emotionally and I find painting is very much the same. For me, it's a narrative. I create a space and a psychological space and I come up with a
00:07:27
Speaker
an idea and I don't see it as so different. For me, it's quite connected. Yeah. And let me tell you the reason why I said that and the reason why I think that. I just started painting myself a couple of years ago. And one of the things I realized was very much in what you just said. I recognized it as language.
00:07:56
Speaker
And there was, there was no way, there was no way what I was experiencing at that time that I needed the process and I wasn't writing it. And it created this whole pathway, which completely, it really transformed me and kind of just kind of blew my mind. Um, but I think it's the way I had built them up, built them up so much time over so much time. You mean the painting, you're talking about the paintings. Yeah.
00:08:24
Speaker
about what that is and how it seems like. And your description about that process and what you're doing is born by decades of doing both. So you see them as maybe very similar type of processes for you. Yeah, same but different. They're different. They're different languages, but it's like Italian and German maybe.
00:08:54
Speaker
but one is very tactile and one is more internal and in your imaginary zone. Yeah, painting is more hands-on and physical. It's the physicality of it I love. I kind of think of it like cooking. It's like cooking a book. You have to make it like a recipe.
00:09:23
Speaker
That's how I see it. But I see it all connected in a lovely way, imaginative worlds. And the type of writer that you are ends up being influenced by another activity that I've read you mentioned as far as things that take up your time and help
00:09:46
Speaker
you develop yourself as, as, as reading. So what about, what do you, who are you, who are your top authors as far as that, that influence? Yeah. Oh, there's so many. I mean, some years I'll go through the classics. I, I've just, I read, you know, all the Charles Dickens and Proust and, you know, all, I love all, I go back through history and read.
00:10:14
Speaker
you know, Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters and then more contemporary writers. I'll read a lot of contemporary writers. I'm not going to be able to think of any of them now, but I'll read everything. I read crime. I read science fiction. I read a lot. I read theory.
00:10:39
Speaker
I should go to my bookshelf, shouldn't I? I love all kinds of books. Alina Ferrante, I loved all that series. Does that give you some prizes? Yeah, that does.
Gender and Personal Background
00:10:57
Speaker
So let's go back to childhood, I think.
00:11:06
Speaker
Another interview I heard that you were the youngest in the film. And I had three older brothers. Wow, three older brothers, which will definitely create an influence altogether. They put you in a spot, doesn't it?
00:11:24
Speaker
Like I was the last one and I was the girl and there was like four years difference between all of us. So I had quite old, you know, they were quite older brothers and I'm kind of closest to my brother who's the nearest in age to me. And yeah, and I think I had to definitely fight for my place in the family in a way because they were a force unto themselves and very competitive family. And, um,
00:11:53
Speaker
So I think my femaleness was a real, I think I survived, I survived. Some other person might have done another thing, but I think my femaleness became quite an interest of mine. And I think that's what's happened with my work in that I think I'm still investigating that in my work.
00:12:21
Speaker
And I'm interested in that when I read fiction. I think I'm very interested in gender and how it defines you socially and through history, how it influences how you exist in the world. And prior to painting and teaching and some other things you've done in your life, I understand that you did have some time
00:12:51
Speaker
working in the fashion or within fashion. Could you tell us a little bit about that? Well, I did a degree in design and I did do a few freelance jobs once I left school, but I pretty quickly realized I was very dreamy and really wanted to do my own work. And I started to look at art and
00:13:19
Speaker
So I kind of went back to school and went and did fine art and started painting. And then I started painting women and it kind of went from there. Yeah, that's a very abbreviated version. When I first saw your paintings, and I think I might have seen them in a spread that was in High Fructose magazine a little bit back. I mean, I was just floored. I thought they were absolutely
00:13:49
Speaker
gorgeous and incredible. One of the thoughts that was in my head was I saw an element of fashion and neatness within the cuts that said, I was not surprised when I heard that about you. I wanted to tell you, I know you're getting more attention as an Australian artist, but more attention in Europe and maybe some more recent exposure in the United States.
00:14:18
Speaker
I share, you know, some of your work with my friends and kind of in the reaction to each person is was very similar to mine. They're just it seems so, so wildly different and fascinating that people just have this very similar reaction to. Oh, that's lovely. Yeah, to your work. And it has a piece where and I've used to describe some other art in the past. It's a strange thing to say where there's this
00:14:48
Speaker
you know, intense familiarity, but also this incredible amount of space between say myself looking at it and what it is. And it's like those two aspects. So that you're saying there's familiarity. Yeah. And also something foreign to you. Is that what you mean? Yeah, very foreign, very like, it's like a space like I'm peering into or a universe where you're like, well, how was this created? Like it just,
00:15:18
Speaker
Really. So you, so you, so you actually relate to it, but you don't as well. Is that what you mean? Um, I very much relate to it, but don't understand it in a way that I would like to at least yet. Okay. Okay. Okay. That's really, that's really nice. I like that. Yeah. I don't know whether I understand it either. Well, um, that depends what you mean by that.
00:15:46
Speaker
What you that you don't understand it in that you want to know You want to know where the ideas come from or you want to know the story behind the ideas? Is that what you mean by not understanding? Well, let me let me let me try it this way and this might be inexact part of it what what what I was thinking is that You've described your works which seemed to me just crisp just right and perfect
00:16:15
Speaker
as having a very kind of, there's an aspect of incompletion or that they're not finished for you or you're never quite done with them. It seems like you kind of let them go at the time, that seems right. And for me, I wonder how that is. And that's part of my, that's part of like me conceptually looking at this. Oh, I suppose I let them go when I,
00:16:46
Speaker
something's not annoying me too much like there's a point where you know I'll be working on them and they're all it's like music out of tune and until I get it in tune it I won't be finished with it so I will work on them for about three months and I'll keep tweaking the colors and
00:17:06
Speaker
I'll move things until it all feels like it's sitting as a whole. And there'll still be things about it, but until I can sit with it and kind of feel this calm feeling that it captures, it holds itself, I won't let go until I get that. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does.
00:17:33
Speaker
And one of the biggest challenges and questions I didn't have written down for you, but I'm gonna take a stab at. I've discovered on the podcast, it's easier to play a music track, right? And then the music's gonna be right in front of you and hear the sounds. And of course with painting, sometimes you feel like, I feel like I'm stumbling out of the block describing painting. But what I would say basically
00:18:02
Speaker
about the painting in your recent pieces is that there are women subjects, predominantly, that there are various, very neat and perfect geometric shapes in shadow interplay and light interplay. There is a kind of, you know, a mundane activity. There's a bit of disproportionality where
00:18:30
Speaker
things seem a little bit bigger or smaller than you would expect them to be. Now, if everybody's listening to podcasts, the point is just go look, go search for the images. But I always try to take a stab when we're talking about painters about, you know, about what's what's what's going on there.
Artistic Process and Emotional Connection
00:18:52
Speaker
I think you describe them very, very beautifully. Oh, my gosh. All right. Well,
00:18:58
Speaker
I was going to write it out. I'm glad I just tried to work it out in my head. No, no, no. That's beautiful. And I love the way you say the disproportionate parts of, because those, they just happen when I, you know, I don't do things deliberately. It's more just that, but I love it when I get a body to sit how I want it to sit. And it's, um, it, you know, and it becomes a, it's, it's like a body sitting in the space. So that, that's the,
00:19:27
Speaker
that all happens in the process of the painting. It's not, I don't design it like that. It just kind of happens. Usually they start out quite in proportion in the, I suppose, if you want to say that at the beginning sometimes and then they get out of proportion or whatever. But I feel like they, they, the out of proportion is a kind of psychological proportion. So yeah. Yeah. Cause
00:19:57
Speaker
If I did kind of photo, because we'll actually photographs distort, emotional emotion distorts, I didn't feel like we ever have a so-called accurate sense of ourselves. So if I want to embody a figure in a painting, it, for me, it always has to be have its own sense of proportion. It's not, it's not about a
00:20:25
Speaker
you know, like if you measured it all up in a scientific way, it wouldn't, that wouldn't make sense to me. Speaking of proportion, I was surprised and then it made perfect sense to me of some of your interest in some of classical painting. Yes. And kind of, you know, typical, you know, religious, well, typical, so to speak, religious subjects. And I heard a bit of audio.
00:20:53
Speaker
Yeah, and just you describing about that. Can you tell us about your interest in that and whether you see an overt connection to your work that you do? Well, I love, when I travel, I love going and seeing early Renaissance paintings. Just because they're so incredibly intense and
00:21:19
Speaker
And I love all the religious narratives because they're never, you know, there's such a scope, even though the story stays similar, but I just find them incredibly heart-wrenching and about humanity and pain and pleasure and humorous. And I just love the limitation of painting in that
00:21:48
Speaker
You know, you actually have this, when you go and see these paintings that were done quite a long time ago, and you see the artist's hand, you know, you see the paint and I just can't, nothing beats it for me. I could just, it's always the highlight of my travels. And even tiny little paintings, they might be as big as your hand or two hands.
00:22:19
Speaker
I just find it amazingly emotional when I go and see these amazing little paintings and yeah, they're like little windows into the past that are really precious and hmm. Yeah, there's some beautiful pieces and I think there's a lot of just hearing some of your description before about those on another podcast. Yeah, yeah.
00:22:49
Speaker
Oh, was it was it about it was about a five minute piece about a particular piece? Yeah, at the Met. Yeah, I love Hans Memling. And he's one of my favorites. We've got a beautiful one in the NGV here in in Melbourne. And yeah, so yeah, they they they they really inspired me. They kind of
00:23:16
Speaker
If I could do anything that was even slightly as powerful, I would, yes, that's what I find. I can go and see the paintings and it just will remind me of the power of it. So, yeah. Is that why, one of my questions for you is why you create, is that why you create?
00:23:38
Speaker
I think, yeah, why I create. I think I've always, ever since I was little, I think I've always needed to do something. I'm not somebody who can, I think it's a certain kind of suffering that makes you create. I don't mean that in a dramatic way, but I've never been able to just kind of sit back and not do something. I feel like I get a lot of joy
00:24:07
Speaker
from looking at pictures and from stories. So I suppose that I need to engage in that too. I suppose it's a way to, it's an existential dilemma. I have to do that to feel like my life is okay or I to stop anxiety, general anxiety about living. It somehow makes living makes sense to me.
00:24:37
Speaker
because I will have a, like this year I've had a very dramatic year and my paintings, I can sit back and I can see that I've done quite a bit of work this year and I find it very consoling that I can somehow still make work from that and I, and it will feed my work and somehow it makes me think I'm, there's a part of me that is,
00:25:06
Speaker
watching everything that's happening and and there's a remove and it's a peaceful place it's um so when i go into my studio it's a it's a peaceful kind of power i'm empowered because i'm there's a detachment and that i don't probably have in other parts of my life and so that's yeah that's why i do it oh no
00:25:31
Speaker
Yeah. And in the face of difficulty, being able to have that experience is quite the blessing. I'm happy for that. Yeah. And difficulty is inevitable in life. Like it's because, you know, life is, there's always loss going on and you, you know, life, that's what life is. And you, you, you have to console yourself somehow. I'm making it sound pretty dramatic, aren't I life? But it's just, I actually think it is pretty tricky.
00:26:00
Speaker
living your life and how to make sense of it and come to grips with loss. I'll explain what's happened this year because I was in a relationship for 31 years and it finished in January. This year is my first year since most of my adult life I've been in a conjugal relationship.
00:26:28
Speaker
This year is the first year, you know, I'm, I'm adjusting to huge change. So yeah, my painting is, um, very controlling at the moment. It's kind of a place I can go and I'm, it's a separate place that I've always had. And it doesn't, you know, it doesn't, I don't have to, um, it's, it's, it's a familiar place that I'm in control of. And yeah, so that's a massive change. That's a massive change. Did you,
00:26:56
Speaker
Were you ever fearful that you might not want to go do that or to wouldn't provide you what you need? I mean, was there, there must've been a lot of fears that you were going on. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. I mean, it's, it's all right. I mean, life is okay. You know, it's all security wise. Everything is fine. And I'm very fortunate like that, but I, you know, just emotionally, there's a lot of adjusting going on and a lot of processing going on. Um,
00:27:25
Speaker
which is totally preoccupying and I'm watching myself how I cope because I know some people may get more depressive and I'm probably watching myself get more, I'm more on the, I get a bit more obsessive and impulsive and that's what I've had to manage this year. I'm much more
00:27:50
Speaker
obsessive thoughts. And I I've had trouble reading and watching films because it's as if my brain is preoccupied with processing all this new information. It's kind of like I've got to find a new way to live with myself and the world. So it's been a huge project, possibly the paralysis of freedoms or different. Yes, that's amazing. That's a great. That's an amazing statement. Yes.
00:28:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's like for a little while sometimes. You don't what? You don't move for a little while sometimes when you're like, OK, which direction? I can go in any direction or you know, it's it's quite jarring. Yes. Oh, freedom, you know, whatever that means. But it's yeah, it's it's taking up a lot of my it's it's like I've got to just go through it. I've got to go through the experience of it and
00:28:47
Speaker
Yeah. And I went overseas on my own for a month and in Europe and travel around Europe on my own. And I had never, I traveled, I've traveled a lot, but never on my own. So that was really intense. And, but I liked it. There's a lot of things that are really good about it. So I'm, um, yeah. It's been a big year. It certainly, it certainly sounds like it. Um, so part of, part of that I'm wondering too, is like, could you, I mean,
00:29:17
Speaker
And I'm going to tell everybody, just mention your name again. We're talking with Prudence Flint, an Australian painter whose beautiful work is going to be in the new Juxtapose magazine 2020 with a short profile of her. Prudence, that's connected to what I was wondering.
00:29:42
Speaker
You won, you know, quite a few awards and has been recognized in Australia. And I understand that more recently works being seen and I believe in Ireland and it's becoming, you know, more international with some exposure in the United States. Can you tell us, you know, most listeners being in the United States, can you tell us what that experience has been for you and what you think
00:30:12
Speaker
people are noticing what changes there are for you in that type of attention? Okay, well, it doesn't change a lot of things for me because you know, I'm still working in the same room that I was working in for 20 years. I'm still in this little room working away on my painting. So that never changes but I suppose I have, it was
00:30:42
Speaker
It was really good to go overseas and get my work out of Australia because I think the main thing is that figurative work in Melbourne probably has a bit of a limited kind of... It doesn't necessarily get supported by institutions here or given the same kind of opportunities.
00:31:08
Speaker
Getting my work out of Melbourne was really great because I think it gets seen with fresh eyes outside of Australia. And it was really, it was hung in such a beautiful space in Dublin in this gallery called Mother's Tank Station. And we just had a beautiful big skylight. So it was all skylit and it just looked beautiful and
00:31:34
Speaker
Yeah, that was really great. Whereas figurative art is probably given a bit of a B grade situation in Melbourne for some reason. I think it's hard for me to explain why, because I live here. So it's hard to see it from a distance. But I know that figurative work probably has more of a lineage outside of Australia.
00:32:03
Speaker
English, you know, Lucy and Freud, there's a whole kind of history of figuration that gives a certain kind of ground for work to be seen in a bit of a, you know, more powerful way. So, yeah, does that answer your question? Yeah, yeah, it absolutely does.
00:32:30
Speaker
One of the, one of the things I wanted to ask you is it's just, you know, not to be, um, you know, overt about it, but it's, it's the, the women in, in your paintings and the role of women is, is just so important and prominent in your work.
Gender Perspective in Art
00:32:46
Speaker
And I know in the, you know, the fashion industry where you worked in and in another interviews, you relayed some of the expectations upon you, uh, as a woman, um,
00:32:58
Speaker
No, that's obviously such a big part of your experience. I've done interviews working with another artist, Megan McGroarty, with female politicians who are running for office in the United States. And it was interesting the questions she had developed that were just
00:33:23
Speaker
You know, what, what's it like not to have to answer a policy issue question, but the question about the color of your dress and, you know, you know, what was going on with your here today or not being, you know, that women have to be encouraged to run for office, you know, basically 10, 11 times to a man's one, you know, where does that come from? And in that dynamic, what, what, you know, with those types of things in mind and, um,
00:33:54
Speaker
you know how options might have been limited to you or doors were closed. How has all that been part of your experience and informed your art? Well, oh, that's huge. Um, okay. Probably it's a bit like sinking or swimming. I've kind of feel like I've made it work for me. I've made it work for me now, but probably for a long time I had to,
00:34:23
Speaker
I had to kind of drown and drown in the disability of it or something. I suppose that's what was my interest. I was interested in the disadvantage of being a woman. And as a painter, you're very much in a male tradition. Even if you're as skilled and talented, I suppose the voice, where you come from with your voice,
00:34:54
Speaker
in regard to creating meaning, it's loaded because you come from a different place. Historically, you're the object that was painted. So if I didn't drown and I start to use it and I start to not see it as a limitation and actually
00:35:21
Speaker
see it as an advantage because it was interesting. I had this gallery director come to my studio the other day and he said to me, with a smile on his face, he said, well, you can get away with things that I wouldn't be able to get away with. And I love that because I actually feel like as I've got older, I kind of I'm not so worried about being politically correct anymore because I figure that
00:35:49
Speaker
I've lived my life and I feel like I have earned my truth and I can, I just, it's like my territory. I'll go there and I'm curious how far I can go and open it all up and even feel like it's dangerous. I love that feeling and I think that's a really healthy feeling and
00:36:17
Speaker
but I feel like I've had to really live it and earn it over the years. I think when I was younger, I suppose, yeah, I feel like my painting has had to come from my life and living my life. And I feel like I have to keep living my life well, and then I will feed my painting. And as a woman, I have to live my life well. And yeah, and then my painting will
00:36:45
Speaker
will reflect that as a woman. And when you talk about women politicians, I think, oh boy, because they're, I feel like when I watch women politicians, they are up there against, I feel like they're up against so much. I think that it's like the extreme, isn't it? It's like extreme, they're in this world that is really
00:37:15
Speaker
against culturally how gender works. And then it's like they're in the wrong box. They're in the wrong place. But I love it. I love watching women deal with it and how they deal with it. And yeah, it's very, and I find it funny when people say, oh, she's a strong woman. And I think, who isn't? Like I don't even think that, I don't even
00:37:44
Speaker
you know, what does that mean? That's, you know, I don't like, I don't like it when, you know, we have made, we think that when a woman is phallic, that she's strong. And I like to question that one, because I, I think that just feeds into, you know, you know, that, that, that strength is the phallic thing that the suit and the
00:38:13
Speaker
Yeah, and I always like to feel like I don't want to do that. I feel like that's I'm just I'm not I'm not really I know I think I'm just judging women then just like social the social world does and puts women in a certain corner and I think women have a
00:38:39
Speaker
You know, I know men do too, but it's kind of like gender. We put each other in a corner and, you know, you've got to kind of stay there. And I like it when it crosses over and it gets all kind of blurry. And I think that's more much more real note. Yeah. And I, you know,
00:39:00
Speaker
There's there's it was obviously a really big question And I see a lot of I mean I picked up on some of the words you had to say and and just strength I see your you know your paintings being just Incredibly strong and the other the other piece the and the figures in your painting being incredibly strong the other piece I was picking up on you know connected to freedom and you know you feeling that there's you know you keep trying to get away with things and I was thinking of the
00:39:30
Speaker
The answer to the question, what is art by Andy Warhol? Art is what you can get away with, right? So getting away with things. Crossing thresholds somehow. Yeah. Yeah. Well, so tell me what is art? What is art?
Philosophical Reflections on Art
00:39:52
Speaker
Yeah, well, that's a really general question. Yeah, I don't know.
00:39:59
Speaker
It can well. I feel like it's a mirror. It's for me, for me, I mean, maybe for other people will be something else. But for me, I really want I want a mirror. So I look into and that's my interest in a painting. I suppose it's I want to look into like a space and I want to I want to go. Oh, I know that feeling.
00:40:26
Speaker
And I think that's what I love. I get a lot of joy when I can recognize something that I know that it's a feeling or a place or a, and the same with fiction reading when I recognize something and I, yeah, that's art to me. It's a mirror. It mirrors us back, our aliveness. Is that part of the reason why you
00:40:56
Speaker
you stay with your paintings as long as you do. I mean, I found that to be. You mean three months when I actually stay with them to work on them. Yeah, you mentioned it seemed like when they were placed when you're placed in a different location that you had kind of been, you know, near them for an amount of time or had, you know, that relationship with the paintings themselves. And then they were, you know, displaced some some ones. I just heard in your answer, I mean, is that is that
00:41:25
Speaker
part of why you think you do that or everything? When I have to let go of them and then I have to create new ones. Yeah. Ah, yeah. I feel like, yeah, because life's constantly changing and shifting and I have new ideas and there'll be something that's quite, you know, it's kind of like dreams, you know, you, you dream certain dreams that are repetitive
00:41:47
Speaker
well, I get repetitive dreams for years, and then they'll suddenly stop, that repetition will stop, and there'll be a new kind of dream. I see the correlation with my painting. I will work on a series, and then I'll kind of come to the end of that series, and it'll be reflective of what I'm struggling with in my life, or it'll be kind of marrying some, yeah, unconscious,
00:42:15
Speaker
space I'm inhabiting and yeah and I'll and so I work on a painting for three months because it takes three months to build up it's a it's actually just a practical thing to build for me to build up the surface and get everything working and all tonally and color temperature working it takes that long to just get a tweak it all into tune so that's why I work on them for that long yeah
00:42:47
Speaker
I've heard you talk before about the impact or it seems to be a sensitivity you have that I can see with light and shadow or sunlight and it's in showing up in the shadows or through the windows. Yes. Now I love light. Do you think that's part of a reflection of where you are?
00:43:14
Speaker
I was recording here from, from Oregon and it's going to be like largely cloudy and light rain until for another four months. So your description of the, I know cause I, I don't think I could live in Europe cause I don't know, you know, Northern Europe cause I just don't think I could stand the weather. I know Australia, I mean, Melbourne, we do get a winter, but it's probably about four months of
00:43:42
Speaker
But, you know, we still have sunny days and then we get mostly sunny weather. And I live upstairs and I get a lot of light and I love it. I really like light. And I find that my paintings, I need daylight to paint them by. I cannot paint by natural light. I've just found I would probably, if I had to, I would, but they'd be different paintings. They'd probably change.
00:44:11
Speaker
To get everything working, color temperature, tone, I need to work in the natural light. So there's a few months in the middle of the year, like June and July, that I'm actually cursing the clouds because they come over and I can't see what I'm doing. And I actually do. I shake my hand at the clouds because it's like,
00:44:33
Speaker
I can't see what I'm doing now. And I can do certain aspects of my pictures. I can draw and do some things. But I can't do the part that I love the best, which is when I get the painting working and I'm just tweaking it. And I tweak it for, you know, probably a month, I'll tweak little bits until it all just comes together. And that's my favorite bit of the work. And when I've got the painting, basically, and I'm just
00:45:03
Speaker
I'm just tuning it and yeah, I really need good light. So I've got a studio, I've just got a bedroom that I work in and it's got Northern light. And so this time of the year is great. And so I know I've got January, February, March, April, May, May gets a bit iffy, June, July. Yeah. I do most of my work over this time of the year.
00:45:31
Speaker
There's a busy period yeah, yeah Yeah, I'm glad you're slightly slightly envious to hear you talk about that son But I you know I could look at pictures for a little while and you know So One of one of the things you know the the title of the podcast is something rather than nothing and there's this large philosophical question Which is why is there something rather than nothing and I for
00:46:01
Speaker
Artists and thinkers, you know, like yourself, that's the question posed to you. And you relate it to work of art or why there's art or anything. But the question is, do you have an answer to why there's something? Yes, no, I have an answer. I have it totally. I have an answer because when you asked that, I read that question and I thought it's because of abundance. I have an abundant of feelings and
00:46:31
Speaker
And I feel like life, I'm constantly overstimulated by life. So I need for that to go somewhere. So creating art is the perfect place for that to go. So that's my answer to that question, that I feel like, what do you do with all your feelings? What do you do? I feel like I've always had an abundance of feelings.
00:47:00
Speaker
I've always feel like I've needed to do something with my feelings. Yeah. And confusing feelings. It's not simple. And the journaling feeds into that too. I feel like I've always needed to process my feelings and thoughts and ideas and yeah. I find your answer
00:47:28
Speaker
Fascinating for me personally and here's why I think for myself I would never have thought of answering that question with Regarding with regard feelings everything you said made eminent sense to me, but without hearing that I've never thought I've never thought of it in that context and I think I really
00:47:51
Speaker
um really need to and i was also thinking about your journaling because i get really really fascinated by people who are creating people who are feeling things maybe more intensely or questioning life and like how do you process where you are whether it's conceptually or with your feelings and how do you how do you move and how do you get through that and um so i really appreciate your answer because it's almost like just answering it um
00:48:20
Speaker
entering it anew. So it's really for you a lot of the, you know, the proof of, you know, that you're experiencing these feelings and then trying to do something with them. Yes, do something with them. I, like, it's literally, I will sometimes, I watch myself sometimes, I will have an intense experience, you know, it can be all kinds of things.
00:48:44
Speaker
And sometimes I won't even know I'm having an intense experience. It will creep up on me. It doesn't mean it might be just watching TV one day or it doesn't have to be something dramatic. But it will be some shift or some things moving and then an idea comes and then it's very exciting because I'll get an idea and then I start seeing a painting and I draw it up.
00:49:12
Speaker
And it's like channeling. And then it's a great, joyful experience. And it's like I get to put it somewhere. And it might be a kind of something building up in me, like a kind of a layering of feelings. And then when I have somewhere to put it, and I put it in a painting, there'll be an idea that will contain it, somehow embody it.
00:49:42
Speaker
And then I love that I have somewhere to put it. And it's kind of a humorous thing I do with myself. It's kind of a joyful feeling. Like I, it's like a joke I have with myself. Like how kind of, it's almost like how crass I can be or how kind of, no, at times I kind of think how obvious. I feel like I'm being really obvious and kind of almost kind of, I want to see it plain and
00:50:12
Speaker
Beers kind of out, just kind of plain about it. But it's never plain. Because I find when I start painting it, the depth of it starts to reveal itself. And then I start to look at it and think, ah, so there's connections with this and the past and my mother. And then I start to see all the layers of it. And that's very consoling because I think that
00:50:40
Speaker
You kind of realize that that's what you're doing all the time in your life. Everything's connected. It's always kind of ricocheting from back and forth and connecting. And that's how our kind of psychology works, I think. Yeah.
00:51:06
Speaker
in hearing your your answers and thinking about both the processes of Writing and painting. I wanted to mention one comment which kind of one thought I had that confounded me when I started painting was And it was it has this aura of negativity to me But what I said to myself was you start a painting because you're too afraid to write right now And it was like so aggressive. It was so aggressive towards myself
00:51:34
Speaker
And, um, and it was prior to me realizing what I was trying to do was to talk, was to, with painting, was to talk, was to yell, was to show, was to process, was, you know, all those feelings, all those things going on. Um, but it was almost like the one way I had tried or had not tried over time with not writing enough. It was like a self criticism of being like, you're taking the easy way out as if painting's easy, which of course, yes. Yes.
00:52:00
Speaker
Very intricate psychology and that's why I've been quite interested in your relationship with both the writing process and painting. I love asking these questions but I also have a question too as far as
00:52:18
Speaker
If you wanted to hear somebody that you know, an artist or creator, answer these type of questions, who would that be?
Inspirations and Future Exhibitions
00:52:27
Speaker
Or who would they be? Like another artist. Yeah, like just these type of questions. There's an artist, Jocelyn Hobbie. I think she's in New York. And I would love to hear what she'd say. I love her work. She paints women as well. Yeah. Is that what you mean?
00:52:48
Speaker
Like yeah, that's exactly that's exactly it's you know, like this I I love doing the podcast There's this whole element where you might hear it as far as how I interact is like I'm just I'm trying to I'm trying to really learn or in Well, I've heard her talk as well. She's got it on her website She's she's got a there's a there's a lecture she's given at a university and she's really interesting and I think she's
00:53:14
Speaker
I really loved, I loved listening to what she said and how she talked about her work. And yeah, so I related to that a lot. And so I'd love to hear her talk again. Yeah. And thank you for that. So Prudence, part of part of this is just at the end here is just kind of open ended where just kind of like let us know
00:53:40
Speaker
You know what what you're doing or where people can find your work. I had mentioned the new juxtaposed magazine with the profile and depiction of your work and nice interview and you've been in high fructose Magazine and but but you know other other ways or in general like how people can Interact with the work that you do your art
00:54:10
Speaker
Well, I have an Instagram account and I put up a lot of studio shots and work in progress. So if people are interested to see how the work gets done, because I will put things up before they're finished. And so that can be interesting for people. Yeah. And I have a website which has all comprehensive, you know, looking back over all my work over
00:54:39
Speaker
right from a really pretty early on. So, yeah. I mean, anything else? Well, and also there's the galleries that I'm with, they have but they're more, you know, they will show work that's available for sale. And so it's not necessarily a comprehensive look at the work. But yeah, yeah, no, that's all.
00:55:07
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to be having a show next year in the mid year in Sydney next at a gallery called Fine Arts Sydney. And so I'm just finishing. I'll be showing five paintings because I probably produce five paintings a year. So that that's my next show. And that will be in mid year. So a good time for me to have a show because it's when winter
00:55:36
Speaker
It means that I won't be able to do my work. So it's a good time to have a show. Yeah. Do the other component of what? Yeah, being an artist. I'll probably go up to Sydney and have a bit of a break. And yeah, it will be good. And I wanted to thank you, Prudence, in your busy schedule. I just want to tell you what a joy and an honor it's been to have you on the podcast. Thank you. I really enjoy your work.
00:56:05
Speaker
You know, I don't find myself always getting into, you know, the biography or the kind of like the, all the processes of all artists, but I was just really intrigued by a lot of things that I saw that you were doing and just, just really, um, beautiful work. So I really appreciate you taking the time. And you know, the United States tends to be a place of bomb bath. So I'm going to say the entire country, the entire country loves you as well. Right.
00:56:32
Speaker
It's the bombast that we work with. So everybody here loves you. Very good. Well, no, thank you. And I have loved all your questions. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much, Prudence. Take care. You are listening to something rather than nothing.
00:57:04
Speaker
And this is my thank you list. This is from me, Ken. Host of something rather than nothing. Deep thanks, as always, to Peter Bauer who produces and edits this show from the first episode to the present. He does an incredible job and spends a lot of time helping make this sound.
00:57:26
Speaker
The show sound great, but me sound great. There's only so much, you know, he can expect him to do but Great work Peter Thanks to make rugel did the design work for something rather than nothing Jacob Rivas who helps consult on the program Kim Reed who's helped with booking
00:57:47
Speaker
and also there's some folks I send this program to prior to it going out of the ear and they listen to it and they always tell me it's great and so then it ends up you know on the ear so they're secret people that I send it to so
00:58:07
Speaker
Thanks to them for listening to it. It's very difficult for me to keep listening to My voice and I just want to kind of crack jokes during some of these episodes, but I'm gonna ask some serious questions, too Thanks for everybody who is making this show possible. It's taken a lot of hours and
00:58:28
Speaker
of shockingly unpaid labor to them, which is a shocking, shocking issue for a union rep. But I'll deal with that existential or ethical, well, geez, that ethical knot, maybe in a later episode. Thanks, folks.
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Speaker
you
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Speaker
you