14 juni 2017

Susan Rothenberg #4










Susan Rothenberg painting "Red Studio" in her studio, New Mexico, 2004.

"....
ROTHENBERG: The first thing was a bare canvas on a wall with dots for staples. Then I started locating that piece of furniture, that dog. As I said before, I almost always end up looking down into my spaces, in any kind of painting I’m doing these days, whether it’s a result of living in New Mexico or being on a ladder. But I started to locate the spaces. Then it was the t-shirt; then it was the pants. Then it was working the spaces between the objects and using about fifteen different reds to activate the different parts of the studio. I still think I have a little more work to do on it. But it came easier than I thought it could. It seemed too complicated for my brain to handle, yet it wasn’t. That was a fun thing for me to know—that I can handle more complicated spaces. And I don’t know where it will lead.

ART21: You started by drawing on canvas?

ROTHENBERG: I started with drawing. I think, in this case, I was a little scared. I was pretty timid, so I started with a pencil, and then I quickly got into a dirty brush ’til I got where the window is. I didn’t know how to paint this table, but I painted the table anyway. And then, as quickly as I could, I laid in this ocher tone to begin to find out what reds I was using. I used a dirty red tone. And then I used eighteen different reds and grays and some purple. But I laid down the tone that I knew the painting was going to have. And I figured out then what was going to be white and what was going to be yellow, and how much color the painting could carry and still be the red studio. And it just evolved over the days. You see dead spots, and you enliven those. And then that makes that spot maybe look a little dead there, so you put some orange up there, and it all responds to what you’ve done.

I think Jasper Johns said, “Do something and then do something else to it, and then do something else to it.” And there you go; you’re painting.
....
I believe very strongly that if you’re not in your studio physically most every day, you’ve denied the possibility of anything happening. So, even if you’re reading a detective novel, you should be there. I don’t go to the studio at night anymore, unless I’m on a deadline or fussed at Bruce; then I go back. It’s my sanctuary. It’s a great studio. It’s a great place to have a studio.
...."
(bron: art21)

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