Quick Draw Artist Interviews are
a series of interviews conducted by Otino Corsano using Facebook's IM Chat
feature. Spontaneous conversations with international artists are recorded and
documented specifically for publication on this blog.
Quick: prism.
You’ll be my mirror. It’s nice to have your pick when an avenue advances in
seven directions. Thinking of a better band name. This is why you spend so much
time in your studio. Following your leads. Covering your tracks. Reissuing
before restoring is required. Demolishing your citations. Draw: art
about art.
Rachel MacFarlane (b. Scarborough, Ontario) received her BFA, graduating as the
Drawing and Painting Medallist from Ontario College of Art and
Design in 2008, and has also received a Certificate of Advanced Visual Studies
from OCAD Florence Satellite program in 2009. Solo exhibitions of her
work have been presented at Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto and Howard Park
Institute, Toronto. MacFarlane's work has been included in many group
exhibitions including Nicholas Metivier Gallery, Toronto; X Pace, Toronto;
Beaver Hall, Toronto; Triangle Arts; NYC, Studio 21, Halifax; among others.
MacFarlane has participated as a visiting artist at the Triangle Artists
Workshop, NYC in 2010, and at Cow House Studios, Ireland in 2012. MacFarlane
lives and works in Toronto, and is represented by Nicholas Metivier Gallery,
Toronto.
Rachel MacFarlane's second exhibition with
Opening Reception: Thursday January 10th, 6pm - 8pm, 2013.
Rachel MacFarlane's second exhibition with
Opening Reception: Thursday January 10th, 6pm - 8pm, 2013.
Rachel MacFarlane
Chat Conversation Start
Today
Otino
9:47pm
Hi Rachel.
Rachel
9:48pm
Hi Otino!
Otino
9:48pm
Are you still in your studio painting?
Rachel
9:49pm
I am. Actually I just stepped on a tube of paint.
Otino
9:49pm
I hear that is very good luck.
Congratulations…
Rachel
9:50pm
Thanks. It’s like the opposite of breaking a mirror.
Otino
9:50pm
…on your upcoming solo show
~ not on squishing the life out of a paint tube.
ha.
Rachel
9:50pm
Haha.
Otino
9:51pm
Are you still working on paintings for your upcoming solo show
at Nicholas Metivier Gallery or have those works already been selected?
Rachel
9:53pm
No, I'm still working; I never really stop working.
We have enough for the show right now; but I'm not satisfied
yet.
I'm currently working on seven paintings simultaneously.
They're all at different stages of completion; yet, the common goal
is to get them all done.
Otino
9:55pm
Thus, the necessity to apply paint more rapidly - by stomping on
tubes.
Seriously though... It seems like you have been painting the way
you do for quite some time.
Rachel
9:57pm
Yeah - it's a life long project.
Actually, I'm pumping paint out of a syringe for the painting
I'm working on right now.
Otino
9:58pm
That technique seems less unique.
So then you do in fact experiment with your approach quite a
bit?
Although it does seem the formal aspects of the work are very consistent
across the board.
Does this aesthetic consistency ensure an identifiable
signature?
Rachel
10:01pm
I'm not sure any technique in painting is unique any more.
At this point, most technical avenues have already been ventured
by one artist or another.
My interest lies less in a unique quality in technique and more
in how different techniques start to collide in a painting.
Otino
10:03pm
It seems any particular painting application is secondary to
your overarching approach in creating 3D models or still lifes in your studio
from common objects later transcribed onto the canvas via abstraction - true?
Rachel
10:03pm
I'm not sure I’m invested in creating an identifiable signature.
If a consistent technical approach exists it lies more in
deriving forms from the maquettes I build.
My first approach into painting is the observation of these
models and I think a second nature approach to translation might be what gives
the work a unavoidable consistency.
Yes. You completely understand.
Otino
10:04pm
I beat you to the model discussion - just sayin’.
We were typing in unison.
Rachel
10:04pm
I'm impressed
Otino
10:04pm
So am I with ourselves.
Rachel
10:06pm
So yeah, I think the prefabricated models are used more than to
create a consistent aesthetic; rather they are definitely the most helpful part
of my process.
Otino
10:07pm
You realize this transference between media is more common than
applying paint with a syringe right?
Rachel
10:08pm
Of course, that's why I'm so interested.
Otino
10:10pm
So how is this approach of yours different from Morandi painting
from the bottles in his studio?
Rachel
10:15pm
Authorship is a funny thing. I'm not sure it’s important to
claim ownership to the process of working from models and I don't think I could.
To me, that's equivalent to claiming you have some sort of ownership to working
from photographs.
Otino
10:17pm
Sure; yet, if I painted from photographs I would have my own reasons
for doing so.
Rachel
10:17pm
If you want some insight into how I approach making the models I
suppose I'm just making interesting spaces while choosing materials allowing
the most play in between the transformation and mimicry occurring when they're
painted. I look at the materials as a way of making some sort of narrative in
the paintings, and how together they can create a space the viewer can explore.
Otino
10:18pm
I’m more interested in your reasons for painting from models of
common, everyday or found materials beyond the formal or preliminary resource
phase.
Seen 10:19 PM
Rachel
10:27pm
Sure, of course.
When I first started work on a concentrated body of paintings, I
became interested in elements I'm still exploring in painting today.
Primarily, I wanted to create physical images of mimetic spaces
referencing architecture, video games and filmic spaces.
Initially, I was working at conglomerating found images together
in colleges as reference for the paintings. This process failed. It didn't reflect
what I was trying to achieve. I wanted to critique illusion through painting
since historically the medium has been used to mimic illusion yet actually
exists as an object.
Working from collaged photographs didn't work because I was
already working from a translation once removed.
So a personal eureka moment occurred in a class by Ed Pien when
I started to work from scraps of paper. I quickly fabricated the paper into
mini sculptures and it occurred to me I should be making my own original
spaces.
Otino
10:30pm
In the end, how important are the models to the final works?
Do they even need to be mentioned?
I don't imagine you ever considering exhibiting them alongside
the paintings as recycled sculpture right?
Rachel
10:34pm
No, I don't.
You would end up getting people looking at the models and then
looking at the paintings and trying to make comparisons or finding faults or
recognizing bits and pieces and this would ruin a personal experience with the
paintings.
I guess my project is also to reveal all simulated images, even the
most imaginary and absurd, to build upon known and common experiences.
Otino
10:38pm
Speaking of common experiences:
When I first viewed the paintings - without any information
regarding your process at all - I immediately thought of the work of Ehryn
Torrell,
Martin Golland
and John Kissick.
I generally avoid these from the hip formal comparisons; yet,
with your painting approach formalism does ring with an amalgamated, high
chroma abstract style.
Rachel is typing...
Rachel
10:42pm
Sure, I definitely feel an affinity for the way both Golland and
Kissick use colour. I'm not familiar with Torrell's work so I'm unable to speak
to her work.
Otino
10:43pm
Why do you sometimes paint on Mylar as a substrate?
Does this change the work?
Rachel
10:49pm
First, it’s the perfect substrate for working on if I'm
travelling. I originally started to work on it when I was participating in the
Triangle Artist Workshop in NYC in 2010. I was broke and I couldn't afford to
ship any paintings back so I decided to try Mylar since it was affordable and I
could roll it up to take on the bus back to Toronto. I heard it was fantastic,
and it was. I immediately fell in love with the surface. It does something to
the colour, I think because it's unnecessary to prime with gesso. The paint has
nowhere to go - it just sits on the surface and the colour is at its full
intensity. There’s no sinking into an absorbent ground.
I also like its synthetic nature. I feel there's a dialogue
between the content of the work and the newness of this material.
The rest of the new work is either on Mylar or wood panel. I've even
prepared the panel in a way allowing the paint sit on the surface in a similar
way to Mylar. It's not identical; the wood panel allows for extended and different
applications of interest to me.
Otino
10:51pm
Please view this next comment only as a compliment; yet I
imagine paint companies should pay you simply for perfectly showcasing their
spectrums.
Why the intense saturation of colour?
Rachel is typing...
Rachel
11:00pm
To be honest, my decisions about colour end up being fairly
hedonistic.
The models are basically devoid of colour. I choose a lot of
materials without a specific colour palette in order to leave it until the
painting process. Making colour decisions is the part of I enjoy most about
painting. I feel I can lead a viewer into the picture plane, into crevices and
to allow works to have specific moods. I like to personify the objects in the
paintings and I feel playful colour choices help me to do that.
As far as the works being intensely saturated -
I guess it all started with wanting some optical disturbances to
occur at different planes in the picture. So for example, a perspective plane
which should recede next to another plane because of the way its oriented in
the drawn space of the image suddenly advances by the force of its colour. This
type of colour obstruction fascinates me. Other decisions are really instinctual
when I allow myself to be.
I also don't want to be too literal with the materials I'm
working from so colour is a way of enhancing an arcane feeling in the
paintings.
Otino
11:03pm
I don't think I've directly asked you what your paintings are
about. I wonder if walking through a specific work would be beneficial or you
would rather speak generally to your "life long project"?
Seen 11:04 PM
Rachel
11:06pm
I could speak about a specific work if you like...
Otino
11:06pm
Sure.
You choose?
Rachel
11:07pm
Oh dear that will be a difficult choice.
Otino
11:08pm
How about:
“No Clear Ending”
Oil on Wood Panel
30 x 30 Inches
2012
Rachel
11:08pm
Sure. That one is sort of unique.
Otino
11:09pm
Great.
Rachel
11:14pm
I found this triangular, mirrored prism broken in a scrap bin at
an OCADU studio. This object has been a gem to me. The mirror is a little
broken, it has this great, slightly greenish hue and it’s the perfect size.
I've made a few paintings using it as a prop, or as a setting. This painting
was the first.
I've been interested in employing mirrors in my work since I saw
Velázquez's work in person. Basically, the prism creates a kaleidoscopic space.
I was curious to see how I could make a structure inside this space while painting
both the object and its reflection all to the same degree, with the same hand.
The illusions sort of come in on themselves. I guess it was sort of a game for
me.
That's also why it’s called “No Clear Ending”.
Otino
11:15pm
Thanks so much Rachel.
Rachel
11:16pm
Thanks! It's great to have an opportunity to talk about the
work.
Otino
11:17pm
I'm looking forward to seeing the work in real life at your
upcoming solo-show.
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