I lucked out with Elaine Reichek. She was in town for the unveiling of her facade project for the Gardner Museum. It’s taken from the correspondence between Mrs. G. and Henry James. David and his crew had just finished installing the piece when I met up with Elaine for a talk in the Living Room…. (read more)
Dushko Petrovich, Regionalism, Installation in Parque El Ejido, Quito, Ecuador, 2013 Steve Locke: It’s weird because I knew you before I knew your work. I think it was the Yvonne Rainer/Rob Storr talk at BU. Afterwards, we had a bit of a chat and you told me about PAPER MONUMENT and were sweet enough to send me a few… (read more)
Years ago, I had this idea that I wanted to make a painting about excess. I am not a big Rolling Stones fan, but one song, Shattered, came up when I was listening to iTunes. That ending part where Jagger sings, “Pile it up/Pile it high on the platter!” stuck in my head. It was like… (read more)
Steve Locke: When we were in grad school together you turned me on to the writings of Mira Schor. In those writings, I discovered a way of working that allowed me to investigate figuration at a time when that was actively discouraged. Also, because our interests in gender, depiction, and subjectivity have dovetailed over… (read more)
Painting is a way to see if something is possible. In a real way, exploring a motif is an investigation to see if it is possible to be painted. I wonder sometimes if something cannot be painted. Wondering is pointless, however, because the only way to know is something is paintable is to try to… (read more)
Steve Locke: I have been following your work since we met at Skowhegan 2009 (and I’m lucky enough to have one of your works on paper). I have always felt an affinity for your work not just because of the subject, but because of the qualities of the paintings themselves. You have a way of… (read more)
I have been making watercolors for almost a year now. I started by accident really. It was around my birthday and my friends Susanna and her sister Jane invited me to come to their place in Connecticut for a few days to hang out. My friend Linda came too. Jane even made me an incredible… (read more)
I have a lot of things to remember. That is why I started making these monuments. I didn’t know that they were monuments when I was started, but, like most artists, I don’t immediately know what the subject of the work is when I am making it. As I continued to make them, it was clear… (read more)
I finished a painting today. I had been painting on it for a while. At least 8 years, I think. I don’t mean I was painting on it every day for 8 years. I mean from time to time, over that stretch of time, I would take up the picture and try to get it… (read more)
Like a lot of artists, particularly painters, I’ve made my share of self-portraits. I did these paintings to teach myself about myself, to mark time, to solve a painting problem, a variety of reasons. Not all of them are art, but the ones that are have a special place in my practice. I look at… (read more)