Monday, September 27, 2010

Lindsy Halleckson



lindsy@dangerpro.com
http://www.dangerpro.com/

Bio~
As an emerging artist, I have consigned paintings at various galleries in the Twin Cities, Seattle, and Philadelphia, and have shown my work in exhibitions in Minnesota, Iowa, New York, and Washington State. Also, as an advocate for the arts, I have worked in fundraising and membership for the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and Ordway Center.
Although my painting has been largely abstract, I am moving towards creating work that poses a more direct statement. My recent work is based on camouflage as a symbol of our struggle for survival in a time of personal economic uncertainty, cultural shift, and political transformation. Camouflage not only equates to function, adaptation, and evolution but depicts survival in my art, life, and culture as well.
The progression of my work draws on my increasing desire to live an environmentally sustainable life and become intimately and consciously involved in nature. I now strive to create works that explicitly convey environmental commentary.
What interests me most is creating objects that are visually beautiful but have a slight hint of something crude or disturbing. I aim to create this discomfort as an invitation to action.


Your paintings are typically created as part of a series. I am familiar with your Clash Series, and, more recently, your Camouflage Series. Tell me about the origins of these projects.

• My series always have some form of meditation on science. In my Clash Series, I wanted to represent tones of music with color. More specifically, I wanted to represent the dissonance in clashing notes with vibrating edges of clashing colors. When two colors that are slightly off-complimentary are paired together, their edges seem to vibrate. After I painted with this idea for a while, the paintings seemed to turn into color studies. I am completely obsessed with color, so I painted hundreds of small 6” paintings with this Clash theme and other themes started to emerge.


• The Camouflage Series came when I got somewhat color saturated with the Clash Series and wanted something new. My mom had given me these chunks of cedar paneling that had been taken out of someone’s closet. I decided to try out epoxy resin and see if I could layer paint and create some sort of shiny effect that incorporated the wood grain. After a couple trials, the painting started to look like military camouflage, so I researched the history of how artists developed military camouflage, made contacts with some professors and researchers who study natural camouflage and evolution, looked at different styles of camouflage around the world, and began to think of camouflage as a symbol for survival.

Do you find working in a series to be liberating or confining?

• Sometimes I feel like I don’t stick to a series enough, but for me, working in these series has helped me develop specific skills and a critical eye. It’s funny- now I feel like I’m really good at dragging a knife across a surface, making an interesting mark, and pairing evocative colors. Working in a series enables you to truly explore an idea and live in it for a while.

• At the same time, I really want to try everything. I have a ton of ideas that I’d love to work on simultaneously, but I know that I should focus on just a few ideas at a time. I’m terrible at finishing projects and great at starting them, so I really need to focus on seeing things through. I try to keep a notebook of ideas and sketches of things I want to work on when I have more time.

I hear that you have started working with sculpture and installation. Why?

• Over the past year or two I’ve been seriously focusing on getting back to being creative and having fun. During the economic meltdown, I was so focused on making work that people would want to buy that I forgot to really focus on and enjoy the work. I felt I had turned into a factory and need to get back in touch with what I want to say as an artist. I’ve been working with epoxy resin, and I realized one day that stuff can be molded into 3-D! It’s obvious, right? But I hadn’t thought that I should make things in 3-D. So, I went on a 3-day artist retreat and planned nothing else but to create a sculptural or installation piece with the resin. There is something more disarming and engaging about installation that cannot be expressed in painting.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?

• Being creative takes a lot of discipline and hard work, but the hard work should also include some fun.


You have a studio/gallery in the Northrup King Building in the NE Mpls Arts district. How has working in an artist community affected your life as an artist?

• Being a part of the NKB has pushed me to keep making art; there’s always an upcoming deadline. And, being the procrastinator that I am, I need those regular deadlines to get work done.



How does being Minnesota-based influence your art?

• There are infinite reasons to love Minnesota and getting to be an artist in Minnesota, but I love our ability to be connected to a city with extremely talented people but also have remote wilderness within a couple-hour drive. I love to be in the woods, and nature has become extremely important to my life and art. For me, the balance here is ideal. I believe that as I spend more time in nature (I haven’t always), my art becomes more environmentally focused. This is undoubtedly a theme that will be part of my work for the foreseeable future of my career.



Which Minnesota artists do you enjoy?
David Good
Kris Musto
Carl Swanson
Amy Rice


Do you have any exhibits or any interesting things going on in your life or coming up in the near future?

• October 1st Thursdays (10/7/10 6-9pm) and Art Attack www.NorthrupKingBuilding.com
• I’m excited to be embarking on my first artist residency at New York Mills Cultural Center this November. www.kulcher.org
• Check out the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota – http://www.blogger.com/www.thewarm.org

Links to Artists and Resources:
Lindsy Halleckson (Web) (FB)
David Good (Web) (FB)
Suzy Greenberg (Web) (FB)
Alison Hiltner (Web) (FB)
Angela Sprunger (Web) (FB)
Kris Musto (Web) (FB)
Elizabeth Erickson (Web) (FB)
Carl Swanson (Web) (FB)
Jeff Warner (Web) (FB)
Steven Lang (Web) (FB)
Joel Starkey (Web) (FB)
Stephen Capiz (Web) (FB)
Allen Brewer (Web) (FB)
Heidi Hafermann (Web) (FB)
Amy Rice (Web) (FB)

12/2012/L10


1 comment:

Michael McGraw - www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com said...

More Lindsy:
http://www.eotfocus.com/event/article/id/16833/