Samuel Robertson - Painter

Samuel Robertson

Name: Samuel Robertson
City/State: Minneapolis/Minnesota
Email: SamRobertsonArt at gmail.com
Website: MisterRobertson.com
Facebook page: facebook.com/MisterRobertson
Twitter: @SamRobertsonArt
Etsy Page: MisterRobertson


Bio 

I am a multimedia artist living in Minneapolis and in my illustrative work (and also in music, writing, and sculpture, I suppose) I study people and our relationships to appetite, commodities, technology, nature, and each other. I explore both the darkness and the humor in our efforts to find fulfillment and comfort through consumption, drawing inspiration from sources where I find symbolic representations of human appetite, including industrial equipment catalogs, tourism magazines, and wilderness and hunting publications. So far I've refrained from explicit judgement or commentary in my work, attempting instead to imbue my scenes with atmosphere, humor, and allegory. But I'm feeling a change brewing in my approach, though I've only caught glimpses of what it might be.

Tell me about your work? What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?

I am currently illustrating The Old Testament, in a vivid, psychedelic style, and although stylistically and conceptually it has similarities to my past work, this series diverges in magnitude and focus. By illustrating the most widely read book of all time with a sort of 21st century surrealism, I'm developing as an illustrator while learning to market and promote my work at the same time. I've finished 114 of what will eventually be over 300 illustrations and I aim to finish by Christmas Day, 2017. I'm enjoying the marketing aspects a bit, and I'm actively seeking representation, as well as a publisher. I envision these illustrations published alongside the entire text of the King James' Old Testament, with a page of text on the left and an illustration on the right, for the entire book. I'm choosing passages to illustrate with spacing in mind for that.

How did you decide to become an artist?

It was a slow process. Whenever I would think about what I could see myself doing with my life, I had a hard time imagining anything so I wouldn't think about it. In high school I took drawing and sculpture classes and drew a lot - there was an incredible set of art teachers at my school in Wisconsin, and they gave me the spark, staying after hours many nights so a few of us could get in more time on the potters' wheel. Then I went to the University of Minnesota after high school not knowing what I wanted, but I continued with ceramics, making pots compulsively until I would come home and sit on my bed and eat spaghetti and paint. But I at that time I was not interested in critiques or cyclical discussions about "art vs. design" and wanted to be left alone to make art. So I dropped out of school and built a canoe with my friend and carried it to the Mississippi River and paddled it to New Orleans. Then my friend's parents met us in New Orleans and they told me I should go back to school, and I was feeling pretty aimless and like maybe I made the wrong choice by leaving, even though I learned a lot from my time away. I was feeling pretty dumb because I didn't leave on the best terms, but I went back with a renewed vigor and spent all my free time in the art building, sleeping there pretty often in low-traffic corners - all the night time janitors knew me and they just mopped around me. 

Then life after undergraduate was wandering and strange for a while, working many jobs and painting, writing, and making music, always telling myself life as a professional artist was just around the corner if I kept making stuff. But I did nothing proactive - I didn't seek out shows or think critically about how to do the art thing. I would sell a few paintings here and there and I moved around Minneapolis a lot, letting time flow, painting, writings songs, and I worked at a shop for three years that made medieval weapons. I had other jobs too - remodeling work, screen printing, and furniture building, restaurant jobs, etc. But then I went on a music tour which felt like the pinnacle of my aimlessness. I've always been of the mindset that it is best for me creatively to bounce around from medium to medium, letting my ideas manifest however they wanted to, and in that way they would build upon each other. But when I returned from the tour, I decided a lack of focus was my problem, and that I would stick with painting and illustration until I could pave a way for myself with it, and I discovered The Old Testament to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration for my style of painting intense and surreal depictions of human appetite. The Bible has been a fruitful lens from which to interpret the vast forms and contours of appetite.

How has it been, illustrating the Old Testament so far?

It feels like it illustrates itself. I was for sure running out of steam before I started, but the King James' version is especially ripe for visual interpretation. I've never read the bible before this, but it is relieving that for a while, that's what I'm doing, and that those pages have all I need to know within them - I just have to continue to make time to decode it and find out what's the best way to show the world.

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

A professor of mine, Chris Larson, was talking to a small class of his I was in, and he said to us, "You know the secret for getting through artist's block?" (Writer's block for artists of course.) He had all our attention, because he is an inspiring artist and teacher who was about to let us in on a secret. He changed the subject, seemingly accidentally. Then someone interrupted him a bit later and asked, "Wait! What's the secret?" Chris acted confused, "For what?" he said. The person replied, "To get through artist's block." And Chris said, "Oh. You just keep making." And everyone seemed to feel let down but I felt super energized.

Also, once my friend made me a sandwich and he didn't match up the bread - it was flipped around - and it blew my mind.

Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?

I sell prints at my exhibitions and people can contact me from my website MisterRobertson.com to buy original work. I also paint murals. Also I was lucky to find a job as a mason's apprentice which has cushioned this time of my life, so I'm not completely dependent on my art just yet for income.

I'm marketing myself by sending postcards and press releases to publishers, agents, publications and galleries. I search for residencies and grants and I try to meet with working artists to get advice. Also, I'm developing a web presence with a few social media pages and a website. I'm trying to try everything to see what works best. 

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?

Jennifer Davis http://www.jenniferdavisart.com/

Chris Larson (If you google "Chris Larson Artist" his amazing sculptures will show up.

Michael Gaughan's work is real cool: http://www.michael-gaughan.com/ 

Here's some Minneapolis music I love: Rupert Angeleyes, Breakaway, The Controversial New Skinny Pill

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?

The MIA is great for it's huge collection and rotating MAEP exhibitions and other rotating galleries.

I enjoy Light Grey Art Lab, which is illustration focused http://lightgreyartlab.com/ 

And Gamut Gallery http://www.gamutgallerympls.com/

In addition to www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise? 

I like MNartists.org for events and I've found a lot of good art on tumblr. I've fine tuned my feed so a stream of fresh art is coming my way every day - that's where I discovered Julian Glander http://julianglander.com/ who is awesome.

Then a few other websites/blogs I visit:

http://www.escapeintolife.com/ 

http://redlipstickresurrected.tumblr.com/

http://turecepcja.tumblr.com/

Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future?
I am exhibiting 70 new paintings from my Illustrated Old Testament at "In the Heart of the Beast Theatre (1500 E. Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN 55407.) The show opens March 11 and goes until the 26th, and the opening reception is March 19 from 3:00-7:00 PM. It is in the main room of the theatre for the duration of Davey T. Steinman and Company's production of the rock opera, "Basement Creatures," as his whole performance is backstage, in an emulated basement. There's more information on my website, MisterRobertson.com

Samuel Robertson

Christopher Jug George - Photographer-Writer-Filmmaker

Christopher Jug George

Name: Christopher Jug George

City/State: Saint Paul, Minnesota

Email: jug.george at gmail.com

Website: christopherjuggeorge.com

Facebook page: Christopher Jug George

Twitter: @shorty_george

Bio~

Christopher Jug George is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is originally from The Valley of the Jolly Green Giant, also known as Le Sueur, Minnesota. George writes flash fiction, short stories and is currently working on a novel set in his hometown called King Corn. George was recently published in the winter print edition of Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine.

Tell me about your work?

I write micro fiction, flash fiction, visual flash fiction, short stories, and am currently writing a novel. I do most of my writing at a cabin on the Saint Croix River that is generously donated to me for brief writing trips that I spread out over the course of Spring, Summer, and Fall. I am a writer entrenched in the past and nature. At the cabin I wake up before the sunrise. I move through the dark with coffee in hand and sit on a bench halfway down the stairs built into the river bank. Then I wait for the sun, birds, water, and trees to be visible. As the sun starts to shed light on my surroundings I use my camera to turn nature into my own alternate universe. I twist the island before me with my camera lens and turn it into a feather, an ink pen, a woman’s arm in a fur coat,  a rocket ship, whatever I see. I use that camera as a portal to my fiction. I head up to the screened in patio shortly after and find myself walking around in the places I will be writing about. I pretend its the 1970s outside, or whatever decade I chose, and those characters and settings are alive somewhere near me.

Visual flash fiction is what you will find on christopherjuggeorge.com. Old photographs or my own photographs accompanying flash fiction. Sometimes the picture is found after the words and sometimes the picture inspires the words.  

I’m addicted to old photographs. Furthering what I was talking about above, they are time traveling units. Especially family photos. The look on someones face could send me somewhere I’ve never been or help me recall something from long ago or start a sentimental 70s song in my head that takes me to a scene. They could be vacation photos as well where the vastness of land behind a family looks like a tidal wave of beauty ready to envelop them where they stand. Or the simplicity of a random street scene can spark an idea. Certain faces take me beyond the stillness of the photograph. I see tragedy there or hope. Sometimes I end up back at their house, sometimes I get distracted and end up at the neighbors or the park across the way, or the photo will trigger a sentence that drops from the sky and has nothing to do with the pictures. Pictures of nature in any form are extremely poignant to me and can leave me transfixed. And, of course, nature itself.  Objects in the distance fascinate me or views of endless land or the closeness of living things in the woods. Or just a plain green yard. We are in outer space ourselves after all.

What are you currently working on?

The main project I’m working on is a novel about Terry Regal, in-house creative for the crumbling vegetable company King Corn (working title), a fictitious and bumbling rival to Green Giant Corporation 10 twisting Minnesota River miles away.  I grew up in the Valley of the Jolly Green Giant and my father worked for Green Giant Corporation in Le Sueur, Minnesota so the subject matter is woven into my life. King Corn is about executives infiltrating the Green Giant headquarters to uncover their latest ad campaign which is the introducing of the Little Green Sprout. The novel is set in 1972 and it's more about the dreamlike encounters Terry Regal has with the giant that possibly exists within the Valley's green corridors and how that relates to his wife leaving him. It's also about  intrigue, espionage, disguises, drunken stumbling from all different sorts, olympic trained Green Giant employes, and a woman who once made Terry's surreal world possible as if painting it as they went along. Ultimately it's about a man's love affair with nature and the majestic ravine bordering Terry Regal’s house.

I’m also compiling as many Visual Flash Fiction pieces as I can in hopes of putting out a book. My flash fiction stockroom is expanding weekly and I’d like to accumulate 200-300 pieces.

How is this different from past projects?

These projects differ because of my evolution as a writer. The way I see the world and my place in it is so much more secure; in my folly, in my views on love, in my comedy, in my simply walking down a sidewalk, country path or any place on Earth. It is creatively more clear but still cloudy enough that it is still unfolding before me and always will.

How did you decide to become an artist?

I was told. My high school teacher, Patty Prince, whispered it to me while handing me back a creative writing assignment, she pointed at my chest and said “You are a writer.” From that moment I considered myself one. Writing came easy to me but in that, it became very hard. I learned my craft, intentionally, from academic writing because I didn’t respond well in the only creative writing class I took at the University of Minnesota. In fact, the teacher told me writing would be a good hobby, quite the opposite statement of Patty. That is no knock on creative writing classes, it's different for everybody, it wasn't for me though. It probably would have done me some good as I can sometimes be awful at grammar and spelling. I became an American Studies major and thrived at writing academic papers, I knew that fiction was all I wanted to write but the American Studies discipline provided me with structure and repetition because there were seemingly two papers a week for a couple of years. Coming up with ideas and creative side was never an issue, I liked the places my mind took me early on and I just kept going back there.

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

Virginia Woolf, in a book of her diaries (A Writer’s Diary), wrote -“I have been in such a haze and dream and intoxication, declaiming phrases, seeing scenes as I walk.”  Nothing needs to be said about this.

My friend and fellow writer Daniel Elkin told me that brevity was always better. That’s why I’m writing a novel! Long form is something that I’m working hard at.  I'm taking the fast fiction approach to it, each paragraph can act as a flash fiction type piece in a sense. I want every sentence to pack a punch. That is daunting.

One of my personal heroes Raymond Carver wrote in his essay On Writing,“Get in, get out. Don’t linger.” This advice focused me in on the idea of getting the most out of each sentence and sent me on the path of writing flash fiction. I’ve always written flash fiction but at the time I was outputting all of these short stories that I was overwriting. I was seemingly going for length. I think my short story binge was just the act of being happy to be writing again after a long hiatus. Carver snapped me back to flash. Writing flash grounded me, made me build it from the ground up. What I love about flash fiction is you can make so many leaps in a few sentences. You can live, die, live again. Oops. I died again. Wait. Nope. Alive still but in a different way and there's the sun being clipped by a purple and orange cloud just as I walk into a Red Owl and see the vibrant colors of the aisles and I’m reminded of my childhood.

A lot can happen in very little space. I just have to make it interesting and get the reader to take giant leaps forwards or backwards with me.

Other good advice came from a Paris Review interview I read featuring Martin Amis. “Writing is waiting,” he said. He was talking about wandering around all day in his studio and getting two hours of actual writing done when everybody assumed he entered his studio and wrote all day. It was helpful to read this. Many days I spent on the Saint Croix not writing in the late morning and early afternoon. I'd be out chasing the elusive Ivory Billed Woodpecker with my camera or just sitting on the bench near the water waiting to wave at the next Great Blue Heron flying by. I always have an initial morning rush but then I lose myself in the day. Clarity is easy in the morning, at 2 in the afternoon it is not easy. It is a challenge because all of the backlog of “real life” thoughts have piled up in my brain again. That doesn’t mean I’m done though. There is always something more to come in a day. Patience is key. You have to let it happen.

Many artists struggle to find ways to sell their art.  How do you sell your work?  How do you market yourself?

By selling, at this point, it’s a matter of getting my work out in the world. I do this via my website for the most part and also by being a part of Riot Act Reading Series, a local touring reading brigade. Public readings are a great way to get yourself out there. I was silent for so long or I will tell myself I was honing my craft, the fact was I was lazy and wasn’t out there advancing myself. Friends knew I was a writer but not until I started reading in public did I actually materialize in the public sense. My website gave people a glimpse of that too. I post a lot of flash fiction on there.

From the start I had the idea that it would happen by being published and not otherwise. I’ve been very stubborn about that approach probably to a fault. I've always felt that getting published would kickstart the process and now that’s happening we’ll see if i’m right. So, really, putting myself out there evolved over time. Being in print will further the process. From the beginning I knew I was in this for the long haul and that means the rest of my life.

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you

Paul D. (Dickinson) is an artist I very much enjoy. The man IS a poet, in every sense. If you've never heard his poem Bullshit and Bluster, do yourself a favor and watch him perform it. And on instagram he posts a lot of pictures of cans. Beer or food or whatever. Maybe just metal in general. Lots of metal coming from him. Paul D. doesn’t have a website, he really might be a time traveler.

http://blogs.citypages.com/dressingroom/2010/10/paul_d_of_the_r.php

Michael Gaughan is another local favorite of mine although he's off city at the moment. He does everything, but the thing about his everything is that it’s nothing anyone has ever done. His everything is his very own.

http://michael-gaughan.com/

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places would we go? What would we see?

The sunrise on the Saint Croix River, then we’d wait to see light dancing on leaves. We would see long distance views of land in any form. Or looking at buildings or places from another time that exist in the city. We'd be watching a band in a bar or at a reading. We'd always end up at The Moon Bar, an evolving piece of art amongst my friends. It started as a bar in a garage but now it’s a circus, a beautifully crafted, ever-evolving circus. A true piece of living art.

In addition to www.Local-Artist-Interviews.com, where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and otherwise?

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews - Endless advice.

https://www.flickr.com/groups/old_photos/ - Time Traveling Opportunities

Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future?

From my Visual Flash Fiction and photography will be on display at Eat My Words bookstore in NE Minneapolis as a part of Altered Esthetics exhibition: Ae Presents: Photography.  I will be a featured artist along with photographer Marnie Erpestad. I will have visual flash fiction on display along with photographs highlighting my writing process. There will be a reception from 1-5 with a reading at 3.

https://www.facebook.com/events/1568834210038889/

 

What can we expect to see from you in the future?

I want to start making short movies again. I also have a screenplay called Coachlight that i'm anxious to get back to. I wrote it as a screenplay but I also have been thinking about turning it into a novel. I also have a novella that is mostly written called Terry in the Blue World that has a lot of possibilities in different types of media. I've subtly been thinking about that too.

Image List:

1. As Long as You Are With Me Will You Remind Me of This Moment When I'm Lost?

2. Between Two Worlds

3. Decade?!

4. Let Them Look Through You

5. River Ghost

6. The Future of Wallpaper

7. Christopher Jug George

Louis N LaPierre - Painter

"Needed" acrylic on wood panel

Louis N. LaPierre

Name:Louis N. LaPierre
City/State: St Paul, MN
Email:LouisNLaPierre@gmail.com
Website:www.LouisNLaPierre.com
MNartist.org profile: http://www.mnartists.org/artistHome.do?rid=189435
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Louis-N-LaPierre-ARTIST/173995722623577?sk=wall

Bio.
Louis N LaPierre hails from St. Paul Minnesota. He was born, learned
to walk and create. He is still walking, and doesn't remember when he
began painting. His favorite thing to do is watch, and his second is
to paint. Louis uses art to find comfort in the uncomfortable, and a
way to cope with the inevitable. Since his graduation from CVA in
Saint Paul Minnesota in 2005 he has adopted a vigorous art practice in
a variety of mediums. His work can be seen in many venues and on
projects such as album covers, gig posters, steel, books, galleys,
film, private collections and murals across the U.S.A.

"A to B" acrylic on wood


Tell me about your work?
What are you currently working on? How is this different from past projects?
My work is a constant revolving door. Some times a piece I'm working on
comes to fruition instantly, some times in mingles in a large pile for
an undetermined amount of time. I start twice as much as I want to
finish. And end up not finishing enough. projects tend to be like a
rolling ball of snow. They are not independent from one another. Time
is the only separation. Currently I think I'm going to focus more on
fishing. There is plenty of time to create when I have to trudge to
the studio.

"What is Art?" is certainly too big of a question to ask here, but
what do you hope your audience takes away from your art? What
statement do you hope to make?


Art is a attempt to connect. We all want to feel connected, somehow.


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

“Why walk, when you can run in circles” G'd Out Anthony


Tell me about your work space and your creative process.
As long as I pay attention things come together I'm some sort of
subconscious capacity. Its really all just a study in how everything
connects. I have a place were I actually apply paint to a substrate
but all the important stuff happens elsewhere.

"On Looker" acrylic on paper

Who are some of the Minnesota artists you enjoy?
George Thompson (Trans Plant):
http://knowngallery.com/artists/george-ewok-thompson
Broken Crow: http://www.brokencrow.com/
Michael Gaughan: http://www.michael-gaughan.com/
Jennifer Davis: http://www.jenniferdavisart.com/

If I were to follow you around to see art in Minnesota, which places
would we go? What would we see?
Walker Art Center: www.walkerart.org
Cult Status: http://cultstatusgallery.com/
XYZ: http://thexyandz.com/#/gallery
Yen34 Bridge: (Gotta find that one yourself)
Soap Factory: http://www.soapfactory.org/

Where do you go online for good art resources, whether to find a new
artist, or to see what is going on in the art world locally and
otherwise?
Springboard for the arts( http://www.springboardforthearts.org/ ) and
mnartists.org are the best recorces in MN by far. This website is a
good one to stumble upon new artists (http://wbfkr.com/ ).

"Blue Bird", acrylic and silkscreen on paper

Do you have any exhibits to promote in the near future?
Yes
Closing Party!
Cult Status Gallery
2913 Harriet Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55408
Closing Reception: Saturday, September 17th 7pm-1am
Music By: makr/brodR (Mark Mcgee and Andrew Broder)

Cult Status Gallery is pleased to announce Nay-Say, featuring the art
of J. Wasyk and Louis N. LaPierre. Cohabitants of the same St. Paul
studio for four years, Wasyk and LaPierre have created all the work in
this show within their studio walls. While both of their work explores
contemporary issues of environment and space, their end results are
polar opposites.


Their individual approaches to making art have
created an ongoing argument at the studio. J. Wasyk insists that there
must be a vision of the final product and executes it to a tee without
straying. He doesn't start until he knows that his vision can be
perfectly fulfilled in the end. Conversely, Louis insists that the
vision must come through the process and never knows what the final
product will look like until he is done.


Their collaboration within
the walls of Cult Status creates a body of work with vast differences
and few similarities, all stemming from the same conversations and
arguments.

"Eat Until You Cant" acrylic and silkscreen on paper