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Your Questions Answered!

I only knew you as a pitcher in little league baseball.  You threw harder than anyone else I caught for.  I became a musician and artist at age 12.  When did you know you were an artist and at what age did your compassion consume you?  Greg Currier  

Thank you for making me look good all those years!  I was all about being a Major League pitcher like Jim Deshaies, but I never ignored my creative side.  It was early elementary school days when I started drawing and that is the medium I created in for most of my childhood.  I knew I liked creating and I recognized early on that my brain just worked in that way.  I was always inspired by colors and shapes and that always kept ideas flowing whether those ideas ever made it to paper or not.  I have 2 older brothers and they were hunters with my dad so we had Outdoor Life Magazine in the house.  That was the first inspiration to draw the animals, specifically eagles and birds because of the patterns.  All through elementary and high school I was exposed to different mediums in art classes with pastels, paint and clay so creativity was always a passion.  Thank you to all those public school art teachers for always encouraging me to explore an idea.  Those teachers always inspired me to create what was within me and never had an agenda other than to let creativity live in a space without judgment. At every stage of my life I was creating in some form, but the moment in 2015 when I walked into the Kline Academy of Fine Art was the moment it all changed.  A brief conversation with Cheryl Kline really changed my life.  She taught me the foundations and the skills that I never knew existed.  I’ll never stop learning, adapting, modifying, and exploring, but it all goes back to those foundations.

 

If you could spend an afternoon with 3 of your favorite artists, living or dead, who would you choose and why?  Colleen

First and foremost, my mentor, Cheryl Kline.  I studied directly under her from 2015-2020 and she changed my life.  I don’t mean that lightly, so let me repeat that, SHE CHANGED MY LIFE!  The day I met her she finished my sentence almost before I got it out of my mouth.  She knew, she just knew.  She asked me if I was willing to strip everything down and learn the basics of classical foundation and build from there.   I would have the skill set to paint anything.  I had my doubts but, she was absolutely correct.   She taught me the skills to take everything to the level that you see today and I’m always learning and evolving my work.  She taught me to believe and put in the work and to trust the process and it would reward me in the end, and it has.

Second, Gerhard Richter.  He has been an inspiration to me for many many years.  He’s still creating well into his 80’s and there’s a great documentary on him.  He is known for his large abstract squeegee paintings, but he started out with figures and landscapes.  I’m drawn to his work because I feel like the movement of it is intriguing.  He had a piece at LACMA here in Los Angeles that I stood in front of for a long time and I could feel the energy.  Hard to explain, but it really brought me in.

Third would be Henri Matisse because I saw an exhibit that his work was part of and his painting called “Nude Study in Blue” is one of my favorite pieces of all time.  I must have been feeling a certain way because when I saw it the rest of the room just disappeared.  To me, it is pure vulnerability and that is both brave and terrifying at the same time.  I’ll never forget it.

I can’t stop at 3, I must mention Salvador Dali, because to know what was going through that guy’s mind would be a treasure trove.  I have had very vivid surrealistic dreams that I have written down and someday I will create work based on those dreams.  Seems daunting right now, but it will happen eventually.

Thomas Cole is another influence, I love the moods he creates with his landscapes.

Edward Hopper has taught me that there is serenity in solitude.  He’s truly a master!

And Norman Rockwell because he was my dad’s favorite.  My dad had a Norman Rockwell yearly calendar in his office every year so I was always intrigued.  His work “The Art Critic” has always been a favorite of mine.

 

When you have a creative idea in your thoughts, do you have steps to go from a thought to the actual first brush strokes on canvas? Rick Cassort

My creativity works in different ways, but I would say about half the time I go right from idea in my head to canvas with brush and paint, or pallet knife and paint and just see where it goes.  Other times I may take a photo and then edit it to play with contrast and light to try and get a glimpse of what the final image is in my head before I start.  That’s more of an impatient curiosity that I will try to see it before I create it.  However I am a big believer in whatever the idea is to get it down physically to see if something is there.  Because I work mainly with oil paint and it stays workable for a while if I don’t like something then I’ll take the trowel or the knife and just swipe it.  Often times that will become the background and add texture and I’ll build on top of it.  There’s ideas that flow out nicely and then there’s ideas that get stubborn and test my patience.

 

Where do you find you are most creative?  Is it in nature or in the studio? Anna Robinson Brumbaugh

My mind is always going.  I’ll see a color or a shape or a cloud structure or the way the light is and my mind just takes it to an idea or a thought before I’m even conscious of what I’m thinking about.  It’s like it’s always going in the background. It works that way with music too, often times I’ll hear something and feel something and that can lead to a new idea, etc.  So I take those ideas and write them down or take a photo so that when I’m in my studio I can revisit that thought or idea and see if it materializes into something. Recently I saw Max Richter.  He’s a composer and was on stage behind a piano accompanied by a 5 piece string orchestra.  Listening to that music through a speaker is one thing, but when I was in the room with them it became immersive.  Watching the physical movements of the musicians create the sounds that I was hearing put me inside the music.  My creative brain was on overdrive and I spent an hour after the show just writing down all the ideas that were bouncing around my head.  It’s not always that intense, but my brain is buzzing like that pretty much all the time so when I get into the studio I try to narrow down some ideas to work on.

 

Do you get your creativity from your favorite sister?  Melissa Cassort

Absolutely!  And my brothers and my parents and my extended family and friends, but maybe there’s a slightly larger percentage from my favorite sister!  I do have to thank my family and friends for always being incredibly supportive!

 

I have received so many compliments on the two prints I purchased to support the little league ball field in Massena.  I hang a little bit of Louisville talent in my office and it’s truly enjoyed.  Perhaps you can talk about some of the inspirations Northern NY gives you?  Jo Brand

Thank you for sharing that and thanks again for supporting that fundraiser.  I have and will always have Northern NY in my heart.  Growing up there with the rivers, lakes, mountains, and forests always resonated with me and is imprinted on my work in every way.  Now living in Southern California for well over a decade I’ve also fallen in love with the Southwest, the ocean, the canyons, mountains and deserts.  So in all my travels I will see something that reminds me of Northern NY.  It’s been interested traveling around the country and being able to see the common landscapes.  The Pacific Northwest has a lot of similarities as the Northeast where I grew up.  Central California looks like the Texas plains one minute and the Old West Mountain towns the next.  So the varying landscapes are always inspiring me because I’m often comparing and thinking about the North Country where I grew up.

 

A Few of your works of art show a long road.  Does the road lead you away from somewhere or is it taking you somewhere? Carol Schloop

I feel like that is up to the you and where your at when you view the piece.   Years ago I probably would’ve said taking you somewhere because we’re all moving towards something, we’re all chasing something whatever that may be.  I was chasing an ideal that was better than my state at the time.  Now, I could say I can stop and appreciate the present.  The foreground of where I find myself.  That is a strong message I portray with my road trip work.  I would like the painting to meet the viewer wherever they are in their own life.  You may be moving away from something,  moving towards something, or you can stop and take a look around and appreciate the moment.  We’re all in our own moment in time emotionally, thinking about our lives, the highs and lows, joy, excitement, stress, trauma, everyone is unique.  Wherever you find yourself in that moment while your viewing my work is your narrative to experience and you can tell the world, or maybe you just want to enjoy the moment for yourself.  It’s up to you.

 

Of your road trip series which is your favorite and what emotions does it evoke? Katherine Vo

I painted Midnight Moon soon after my father passed and Crossroads soon after my mother passed.  So those two paintings have the most personal emotion behind them.  I think of my parents all the time and it’s a reminder to me that in this crazy world we live in,  I still control how I can represent something good.  That is my mission, to create work that people can have an experience with, a moment with.  I can’t really say I have a favorite piece as each piece has it’s own story honestly.  I can say that Dirt Road to Paradise and 9 Saguaros are two examples of pieces that were more effortless because of how they flowed from idea and concept to finished work.  Then there are pieces like Breakthrough that were very stubborn trying to get the vision in my head to translate onto canvas.  Each piece is an experience, some roads are a little bumpier than others, but I’m eventually satisfied with the end result.  Often enough, a piece can add another perspective to me after talking with viewers and how it has an effect on them.  It’s truly an evolutionary process for me as well.

 

Thank you all for submitting these questions and I encourage anyone to ask questions as you have them.  My work is a representation of where I am in any given moment and I feel like the conversations I have at live shows are a reflection of what people see when they view my pieces.   It connects us in so many ways and I encourage you to continue the conversation……

 
 
 

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