Monday Motivation #4, Brain Pickin’ w/ Clinton McKay!

Clinton McKay is a fellow artist, blogger, and collector of not-so-well-known art. I first found him via his mail art and immediately signed up for a trade. Over time I have really put him on the top of my favorite artists list. He is continually putting out great work and is a constant inspiration. He was kind enough to answer some questions I have been wanting to ask him for a while: 

RJ: I have always loved your blog, but I really wanted to pick your brain after your last big run of silkscreen monoprints. They are small, but make a big impact on the viewer visually. Can you tell us about those?

CM: Thanks! The silkscreen monoprints were my first attempt at paring away all of my dependencies on presses and light tables—in preparation for working from in my studio apartment during grad school. I’ve been working for about a year on developing techniques for silkscreen monoprints (you can see some 18 inch ones on my blog) but this series is a little different. I have a statement for the project on my website, but basically, I’m planning to make hundreds or even thousands of the monoprints, all the same size and shape (6 inch squares) and show the most successful pieces. The set I’ll show will change repeatedly as I make more and more prints, meaning the same show could have an entirely new set of images each time you see it. The prints only require a small screen, some hinge clamps, and a small table (and acrylic inks) so I’ll be more than capable of producing them in my apartment. I might even start a project making a new print each day as part of my morning routine.

RJ: You just graduated and that’s pretty awesome! Congratulations! Tell us your big plans for projects now that you don’t have to worry about tests, grades, and deadlines.

CM: Bad news, I still have to worry about all of those things. I’ll be moving to Bloomington in the fall to begin grad school. As much as I hate to say it, although I love printmaking, I need something more tedious and structured to feel fulfilled (that sounds insane, I know) so art will always probably be only half of my career. I’ll be a Systems Librarian at a university library if everything works out well—and I’ll be able to take print classes (as well as language and philosophy classes) without paying for them. So the ultimate goal is to get access to a print studio and a decent income to keep working and hopefully showing on a regular basis.

RJ: Is there anything besides printmaking that you want to experiment with? I think you would be great with sculpture. You have such a sense of texture and tactile elements in your work.

CM: It’s interesting that the physicality of my work brings up this question. I think my strongest passion aside from printmaking is conceptual and performance art. I have tried to incorporate different aspects from historic conceptual and performance art work into my printmaking pieces. I think Fluxus is the most interesting movement from the past century and its influence on my work is undeniable. The three pieces in my BFA exhibition last month were fine art printmaking reinterpretations of work by Yoko Ono, Robert Watts, and Ray Johnson (all Fluxus artists) and I’d love to continue working in that vein. I’m not sure I could ever separate my work entirely from the visual aesthetic or the physicality of semi-traditional printmaking, but I do plan to continue exploring conceptual and avant-garde ideas through my processes and through performances involving my prints (like my Cut Pieces)

RJ: I appreciate you as a fellow blogger. You run a blog for your own work, and then you have one with art that you love. Where do you find your current inspirations? Are there any artists that you are really into at the moment?

CM: I have a long list of tags I check pretty frequently. I follow every term relating to printmaking and also quite a few artists. It’s really interesting how easy it is to find the influences in my work from all of the artists I follow so I’ll list them: Cy Twombly, Collier Schorr, Frank Stella, Gerhard Richter, Helen Frankenthaler, Jenny Holzer, Josef Albers, Marina Abramovic, Morris Louis, Ray Johnson, Richard Serra, Sol Lewitt, and Willem de Kooning. Aside from these artists, I have made quite a few very talented friends on Tumblr whose work inspires me conceptually and visually all the time. My art blog (appropriatorium.tumblr.com) is actually almost entirely about visual inspiration, but I make it a point to include not only classics that you might hear about in a good art history class, but also some of the new work talented Tumblr-ers and young artists are producing today. My aesthetic is really textural. I have to admit I’m apt to love a painting, drawing, or print just for its visual appeal even if it’s devoid of real substantial content and even if it’s not necessarily something you would think of as fine art (although I would argue that everyday experiences can often be more significant aesthetically and conceptually than art per se).

RJ: Mail art is a big part of your process and style. In fact, you and I have traded postcards! How is that going? How has mail art and blogging played into your recent projects?

CM: My work with Mail Art was a terrific experience, and it played a huge part in my work during college leading up to my BFA show. It actually started as a way for me to print anything I wanted and still unify all of the work in one massive dialog with an art history as well as with actual real life people. I like to think that my art is all about exploring the boundaries of art (I know that seems trite but I’ve spent quite a bit of time talking about the conceptual limits of what can and can’t be considered art and why people define the boundary the way they do). I think sending people original art in the mail is a really great way to force them to question their operating assumptions about art and its function in society so it’s perfect for a Fluxus enthusiast like me!

RJ: Do you have any advice for the fellow artist, when it comes to work ethic? You put out so much work, with so much impact! How do you stay motivated?

CM: I think I make the amount of work I do because I’m just very obsessive about things. I’m constantly thinking about printing and I get a really great sense of accomplishment at the end of the day if I’ve made a new print (or 15 new prints, as it’s been lately). I see a lot of people working really tediously on giant paintings and insanely intricate etchings—and that’s great, definitely, if that’s what you want to do and you have the patience for it—but I see 10x as many artists who just get depressed seeing those tedious artists cranking out massive, detailed work. I’m not the kind of person who can spend 100 hours working on an image and I don’t think that makes me lazy or a bad artist. If you just can’t handle making insanely complicated intricate work, don’t just give up on it, find a way to get what you want in a single stroke! Just be prepared to do it a thousand times.

Good advice if you ask me! Thanks so much Clinton for answering my crazy questions. To see more of Clinton’s work you can visit his website, follow his blog, and like him on facebook. Happy Monday and art-making! 

#photofriday #3, Hidden Inspiration

I had so many ideas for #photofriday today, because I was up late last night thinking about the possibilities. The strange thing is, every time I went to take a picture of my ideas I wasn’t that impressed. I went out all day taking photos and saving them, uploading none. THEN! All of a sudden I am standing right in front of these weird, peeling, weathered letters that are bigger than my hand. I was instantly inspired, and realized that I have looked at these numbers a million times! 

After taking some time to really examine them, I began to appreciate them more than I ever had. The red is a bright fire engine red, and the metal that they are on is rusty and has the nicest oranges and ochres in it. I thought of gritty, urban alleys and graffiti. It also reminded of some of Michael Chase’s Area of Interest photography which I have always been a fan of. Beauty can be found in the most unlikely of places! I am really glad I took the time to take this photos. I already have sketches and pieces in mind for them. Isn’t is crazy how the most ordinary things can be so inspirational?