Jeremiah Douglas Stroud
LandE scape
CONTEMPORARY ART REVIEW quality. How do you view the concepts of the real and the imagined playing out within your works?
I think because of my work using the current political landscape mixed with photos from my childhood give this guise of fabrication. You get a blunt attack of honesty mixed with an ambigious personal story that anyone can relate to. The figures are often the on-lookers in the painting / much like the viewers of my artwork. You have to decipher abstract from concrete, real from imagined, or you have to decide that it has the potential to be one in the same.
We would like to pose some questions about the balance established by colors and texture: we have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances that saturate your canvas and especially the way in Her Men they suggest the idea of ephemeral plasticity and even such a tactile feeling. How did you come about settling on your color palette? And how much does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones you decide to use in a piece and in particular, how do you develop a painting’ s texture?
“ Her Men” has changed color palettes multiple times. When it first started, it was very cool and mostly made with blues and peach tones. After I looked at my origin photo, I began to notice I was unhappy and crying. This unhappy attitude formed from having to leave a concrete yard rabbit at my Aunt ' s before we left for the vacation. I was also positioned in the third row of the vehicle and became nauseous, so we stopped for Pepto-Bismol to ease my stomach. This, ultimately, altered the color palette. The painting took on a fragmented, flat, dark and murchy application of paint and color. Layers have built up within this painting, and within those layers is a story of my changing emotions toward this moment in my past.
You allow an open reading, a great multiplicity of meanings: associative possibilities seems to play a crucial role in your pieces. How important is this degree of openness?
I believe it is crucial for the viewer and myself. It lets each persons ' preconceived notion of political identity manifest inside themselves and they have to deal with these feelings. My works should feel confrontational to stir an inner dialogue. The viewer tries to connect these figures of a family and tries to associate them with what is happening around them. I don ' t play one side of the fence and direct the viewer to a certain answer; instead, it works best when I leave faint pieces of information.
Over these years you have exhibited in several occasions including your recent solo Whispering Secrest of The Present to The Past Self. One of the hallmarks of your work is the capability to create direct involvement with the viewers, who are urged to evolve from a condition of mere spectatorship. So before leaving this conversation we would like to pose a question about the nature of the relationship of your art with your audience. Do you consider the
43