Limited Addiction Gallery by Debra Anderson, August 2008

DA: What theme are you exploring for your new works?
AA:  The unleashed energy inherent in any work of true Art. 

DA: What medium are you working in? What types of works will you exhibit (paintings, etc.)
AA: I will exhibit new acrylic paintings on stretched canvas.

DA: Are you experimenting with new mediums or processes? 
AA: Yes. For the past few years I have been painting in a very rigid, almost formalist, style where much of my effort was spent trying to hide any evidence of brushstrokes. Although I still utilize that style, I am combining it with much freer, loose techniques.

DA: What is your process for creating your works? Do you create sketches?
AA:  I make a pencil drawing on a standard 8 ½ x 11 inch piece of paper, scan it in to the computer then manipulate the image using Adobe Photoshop.

DA: Is your color scheme reflective / symbolic of your theme or narrative and subject matter?
AA: Yes. There is a certain psychedelic construction to the appearance of my characters and my colors reflect the amped up visuals one experiences while under the influence of psychedelic drugs.

DA: What is your inspiration for this new body of works?
AA   I have always appreciated Buckminster Fuller’s description of our planet as “Spaceship Earth” and I feel that many people have lost sight of the fact that we are living in a bubble that is hurtling through space. My new paintings are an attempt to remind people that our environment is incredibly limited. I’m not telling people how to act with this knowledge, I’m just bringing up the subject.

DA: Are you moving in a new direction?
AA: Most definitely.

DA: Is your palette becoming increasingly more complex/intricate? 
AA: My palette has always been complex in that I take a great deal of time mixing up unusual colors; that is one of my favorite stages of the painting game. I believe that in the new work I have expanded on the relationships between colors and the shapes that contain them.

DA: What is the meaning behind the visual doubles you create in your anthropomorphic works?
AA: Low Brow painting is the poor cousin of cartoon-based animation and the painters are forced to narrow down narrative structure to a single image. I use visual doubles to reference the actions that come before and after “the crucial moment” depicted in the painting.

DA: There is an element of distortion in your work, a surrealist quality, often conveying a representation of a being at odds with itself – what are you communicating with these modes of manipulation?
AA: There is an element of Deconstruction to my work in that I take an image and disassemble it to its constructive parts. I then have the option of reassembling it back to its original state or putting all the parts together out of sequence and arriving at an image that is utterly different.

DA: What attracted you to underground comics and animation?
AA:  The underground comics that influenced me were from the first wave of “alternative” comics that came out in the 1960s. I was attracted to story lines involving real life situations and not fantastic superheroes. Also, my parents weren’t going to explain a hippy to me so I had to find an alternate source of information. 

DA: Do you see your work as having graffiti and post-graffiti influences?
AA: Yes, particularly Imagist Graf. I believe that the O.G.  of  graffiti characters was the underground cartoonist Vaugh Bode and, although his style has been modernized, I believe that he still exerts an influence. New Imagist Graf no longer directly references Bode but, in typical Post Modern fashion, it refers to prior references to him. More to the point, I  am inspired by the graphic language of graffiti, the color schemes and the overall energy.

DA: Do you have a specific artist statement you would like to include for this show? Or comments about your work you would like to include?
AA: Abstract Expressionism has always been the painting style most hated by Low Brow artists; they cannot imagine that a loose technique can properly express their issues. I am not trying to destroy the Low Brow allegiance to imagery but I am trying to introduce some new elements to the mix so that we can launch from the platform of illustration.