Jon Beinart - "What motivates you as an artist Laurie?"
Laurie Lipton - "Ever since I was a little girl, I had the desire to draw. I don't know why. It's an urge, a need. I'm happiest when I'm sitting at my drawing table. The rest of life seems like an annoying interruption. I would gladly just draw and never go out or talk to anyone… but I'm afraid I might disappear up my own whatsit. What a horrible way to go!"
Jon - "Is there something in particular that you aim to communicate with these drawings? Are the themes you explore very personal to you?"
Laurie - "I grew up in the clean & cozy suburbs of New York in the 1950's and 60's. Everything was perfect. Everyone was perfect. I was a perfectly lovely, cute little girl. What the hell was I supposed to do with the swirling mass of anti-Disney feeling careening in my guts? How was I supposed to cope with fear and rage and all the other negative human emotions? If I hadn't found a way of letting out the horror, it would have consumed me from the inside out.
My parents were very proud of my work. They thought I was a child prodigy, a genius. They used to show my artwork at family gatherings. I'll never forget the faces of my aunts & uncles when they looked from me to my drawings! The look of confusion and suspicion…. I was a cherubic child and my imagery was brutal and bloody. One of the great things about my parents was that they never censored me. I was always encouraged to do exactly what I wanted art-wise. In everything else I had to be polite and obedient. Perhaps that's why my imagery is savage but my technique is extremely controlled?"
Jon - "Your technique is remarkably controlled and I assume that each drawing takes a phenomenal amount of patience (and obsession) to complete. I hate to ask you this as I'm sure you have answered this question a thousand times before, but approximately how long does one of your images take to complete? Do you get frustrated when putting so much time and energy into one piece of paper?"
Laurie - "If I sit down in front of a ginormous piece of paper and say, "Okay…. this is going to take me 3 months to complete if I work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week", I think I would just stare at it in despair and not begin. They take as long as they take. It's not the finished drawing but the process that interests me. In fact, once a drawing is "complete", I immediately lose interest in it. People ask me how I can bear to sell something that took so much time and effort. I reply, "It's the NEXT one that's going to be amazing!"
I set impossible tasks for myself; a thousand faces, a city with every window showing, a landscape with each blade of grass……… if I were aware of the time it took, I really wouldn't bother to put myself through it. I'm not a masochist. I approach each drawing with a "Wow! Can I?" feel, and damn the time and consequences. So….. when people ask, as they inevitably do, how long a drawing took me, I lie to them and make up a number. I really have no idea."
Jon - "Yes, I can certainly relate, which is why I cringed when I asked the question. (Although I believe you could fit one of my whole drawings in a blade of grass hidden in one of those ginormous pieces of paper you use). It's wonderful to hear that you approach each new drawing with such enthusiasm. Do you do a lot of planning before a drawing? How much of your process is playful and intuitive?"
Laurie - "While I am sitting doing all those blades of grass, or thousands of faces, images flit through my head. I keep a notebook by my drawing table, or with me when I go out, and I write down images. Yes… write them. They appear in words first: a title or a sentence that encapsulates an idea. Then I do a rough sketch. Then I revise it. Sometimes I play with the composition for weeks. Then I cut my paper and plot out the general idea; i.e. a woman standing in a room. Then I work on the face. The face takes me to the clothing. The clothing takes me to the room, the room takes me to the walls, the floor…and suddenly the drawing is off on it's own and all the plans I had start to shift & change. The deeper I go into the details, the more the sense emerges. It's as if I start with a fuzzy image and it starts to get sharper and sharper until I think, "Oh yes! THAT'S what it's about!" Then I go back over the whole thing and tie it all together, bit-by-bit, centimeter-by-centimeter.
So…. my work is planned but spontaneous at the same time."
Jon - "I’m sure you have received a lot of positive feedback from people who have been blown away by your work and I'm sure people have been distressed and even disturbed by your drawings (I know this happens because of the reaction I have personally witnessed when showing people 'Love Bite' in Metamorphosis). Has anyone ever been so disturbed by one of your images that they felt the need to take it up with you? Has your work ever been censored?"
Laurie - "Actually, my work wasn't "approved" of from the very beginning. My parents loved it, but all of my art teachers tried to discourage me. At my university, my first one woman show elicited an article in the school newspaper saying that figurative work went out in the Middle Ages and "shouldn't be allowed". I recently won a competition on the Saatchi Gallery art website, beating around 4,000 other artists. There was a Blog by the other artists saying that my work was the worst they've ever seen….. mind you, that was probably just sour grapes. I really don't care about other people's opinions of my work. It's lovely receiving compliments, but if people are disturbed, upset or turned-off by what I do, that's their problem. I'm doing these drawings because I must. If I could paint pretty, innocuous pictures and make a fortune, I would do it like a shot! (Just joking)."
Jon - "I have to admit, I find many of your images amusing. I think we share the same deranged sense of humor. Does humor play an important role in your art?"
Laurie - "Yes, Jon, it's major. The one thing I remember the most about my family gatherings was the laughter. We really cracked each other up with our gallows humor. When my mother was dying and I was alone with her in the hospice, we laughed a lot. That sounds odd, but we found life absurd to the point of ridiculousness. It is, isn't it, Jon? Life is surreal…. in a Monty Python kind of way.
I hide jokes in my drawings. I amuse myself with silly innuendoes. I did a show a few years back on "The Day of the Dead" and a lot of the images I came up with really made me laugh. "Family Reunion" and "Lady Death" spring to mind. They just struck me as funny. "Normal" people are not amused, I guess. Do you know any normal people? I've run into a few and they frightened the hell out of me."
Jon - "I couldn't agree with you more Laurie. Life is completely absurd and wonderfully Monty Python like. It's beautiful that you shared that tight bond with your mother up until her passing. Nothing is more bonding than laughter. I'm not sure if normal people exist Laurie. I think the people that appear to be normal are repressed weirdos, but yes. They are scary! Do you have any spiritual beliefs? And if so, do they have an impact on your creativity?"
Laurie - "Ever since I was a child I've been searching for God. This is strange as both my parents were staunch atheists. It may have started in a museum. My father took my brother & me to art museums every Sunday to give my mother some time to herself. I saw religious paintings of Saints and martyrs and spiritual ecstasy and it piqued my curiosity. I asked my mother if I could go to Saturday School (being Jewish, our religious studies were on Saturday in Temples). She was horrified but agreed. The classes were extremely boring…. all about exoduses and tribes and laws…. so I decided to do some research on my own.
I've read almost everything. I've read the Bible cover to cover like a novel, the Koran, the Gnostic Gospels, The Golden Bough, mythology…. I even worked for a private library in Holland that housed the largest collection of books on alchemy & mysticism in Europe and was allowed access to amazing books that the public never sees. I did a number of illuminated manuscripts for this library. I felt a deep connection with the subject matter and was very good at it. The imagery permeated my work too. The symbolism of the mystics goes beyond the conscious mind and digs deep into our collective unconscious experiences. They're timeless.
After all this time and all my research I've come to the conclusion that I know nothing. Life is huge and marvelous and filled with wondrous, unimaginable things. Quantum physics is uncovering vast anomalies in our perception of reality. "Reality" is an illusion. What is possible? What does the universe hold? I really have no idea, but I'm willing to try to remain open to it all and to retain my sense of awe and wonder."
Jon - "Thank you Laurie. I really enjoyed getting inside your head and I am sure our readers will too. What exciting news is there for you in the future? Any upcoming exhibitions or publications? Do you plan to publish a book of your works any time in the near future?"
Laurie - "I would LOVE to publish a book on my work.
I've just joined the Strychnin Gallery and have a group show in New York on July 27th - August 31st. I also have a show in Madrid that starts on Oct.15th t- Nov. 3rd. I have works currently in the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore until Sept. and am in a touring group show called, "Fellow Travelers", curated by James Lawler, that is going around Denmark, Holland and Iceland throughout the year. You can see all my upcoming shows on my website: Just click on the NEWS section."
English
London based artist and printmaker Brian McKenzie creates an incredible assortment of fantastic art. One of the more fascinating aspects of his work is the timeless nature of the imagery. Seeing many of these works without knowing where they came from it could be difficult to tell if they were made today or 400 years ago. From unusual bee keepers, bizarre beasts, underwater scenes of utter strangeness and many dreamlike and surreal scenarios involving all manner of creatures and characters, there is much to see in Brian's mysterious artworks.
