THE FOCUS

Rachel Bubis: What’s it been like getting a physical exhibition together in the midst of a pandemic? I know you also had a show recently at Cheekwood. KJ Schumacher: Quarantine was a Godsend for me, as it gave me some of the most uninterrupted time in the studio I’ve had in almost two years. I got organized, got focused, and got to work. Before Rinna, I prepared the @Home show for Cheekwood. The COVID-19 situ...

Rachel Bubis: How are you? It’s obviously been a tumultuous year so far… How has your quarantine experience been? Have you been making new work? If so, has your perspective changed or have you reflected on your practice in a new way?  Houston Cofield: I’m doing okay. Probably about the same as many people / artists during this time. Commissioned work has slowed down significantly which I’m actually very grateful for. It has allowed me to ref...

Rachel Bubis: You explain how your experience with hearing loss gave you insight into the “structural aspects of communication,” particularly in how you relate the language of sound and color in your paintings.  Brianna Bass: The relationship between color and sound first became apparent to me when I started making the vertical prism paintings. I sensed something musical about them, and realized that they remind me of piano keys. Each color plays a specific role in a larger system, and...

Rachel Bubis: Many of your works deal with some pretty dark and disturbing themes. I’m still haunted by your lifejacket and sound piece, False Promise (2016), from the Asymmetric Kin exhibition, which references the true story of people selling fake lifejackets to Syrian refugees. The viewer must lie on the floor to listen to sounds of children playing in the water through headphones, which are connected to a lifejacket stuffed with newspaper.  There’s also your #thoughtsandprayers sound-collage piec...

Locate Arts contributor Ashley Layendecker sat down with the artist Julian Rogers to discuss his paintings and his solo exhibition, "Alexander’s Dark Band," which opens Saturday, June 22 at The Red Arrow Gallery in Nashville Tennessee. The show will run until July 27.  Ashley Layendecker: Explain where the imagery of the fruit, clothes, and old master renditions generate from. Julian Rogers: The fruit, clothes/fabric, and table tops are still life fundamentals. Very common from the old Dutch still lifes th...

Rachel Bubis: You say in your statement, “I am endlessly interested in the idea of a place as a thing and a thing as a place.” Could you elaborate? Erin Harmon: I’m interested in the object-ness of landscape. Often when one thinks of landscape painting you’re thinking of a scene to be looked AT, when really we are in the landscape all the time. I’m curious about how bits of nature held in a hand can imply landscape...

Rachel Bubis: You collect pigments from nature and make your paint. What’s the most interesting or surprising thing you’ve learned about this process? Amanda Brazier: Using earth pigments to create is an ancient practice. With paint making, I’m learning the basics of my trade, fundamentals that have fallen mostly into the background of art education and practice. Before and during the Renaissance, artists (or their apprentices) would have to grind their own rocks and crush dried insects to mak...

Rachel Bubis: In your artist statement you explain, “My fascination with craft is one of the main driving forces in my research and yet is continually at odds with its distance from my personal history.” Could you elaborate? I assume you wouldn’t describe your own work as craft?  Ray Padrón: Craft is a word that carries a lot of baggage, which is why I use it in my statement. Though I would not describe my work as craft,...