Tag: James Bullough interview

Interview with James Bullough for ‘Parallel Truths’

Thinkspace is pleased to present Parallel Truth featuring new work by James Bullough.

Bullough is a technically accomplished painter who creates with a staggering degree of detail. He begins with figurative imagery, disjointing and levitating its fragmented parts impressionistically to build dynamic surfaces that read with startling affective resonance.

In anticipation of Parallel Truth, our interview with James Bullough discusses what piece challenged him, his advice to fledgling artists, and what skill he would download into his brain.

SH: For those that are not familiar with you and your work, can you give us a brief look at your artistic background and how you came to meet our curator and co-owner Andrew Hosner?

JB: I started my art journey a bit late in life.  I graduated from college with an Art Education degree and eventually went on to be a middle school art teacher just outside of Baltimore.  Studying to be an art teacher is much more about being a teacher than being an artist.  I took a few art classes but nothing too serious, it was mostly about teaching.  After 4 or 5 years of teaching kids how to be artists, I figured I might give it a go in my basement in the evenings after work.  A few years later, after a lot of experimenting and a little guidance from a local oil painter, I figured I knew enough to quit my job and go full time.  Obviously I didn’t, but I sold my house, my car, and pretty much everything I owned and moved to Berlin with the unrealistic goal that I’d be showing in galleries within a year.

It took me about 3 or 4 years in Berlin to find my own voice artistically and develop my skills.  Right around that same time I met Andrew Hosner at an event for the Urban Nation Museum.  I invited Andrew and Shawn to come on my newly formed podcast, VantagePoint Radio, and from there we hit it off.  He took a liking to my work and invited me to show some small paintings in a couple of group shows and before long he asked me to join the roster for the first Vitality and Verve exhibition at the Long Beach Museum of Art. That show ended up being a huge deal and the piece I created for it really stood out and made people take notice.  I’ve been working closely with Andrew and Thinkspace ever since.

SH: What is the inspiration and themes you explored for this body of work?

JB: As is the case with most of my work, my inspirations and explorations are mostly technique-driven.  I like to push myself with every painting to make something more interesting or complex or just different than the last painting.  It can be simply pushing the design and composition further, or working with more complex photos or more interesting models or just doing a better job with the actual painting of the image. 

For this show ‘Parallel Truths’ I am actually presenting three different bodies of work which I’ve been developing over the past year and a half.  The first is my traditional fractured portraits but pushed a bit further in terms of composition and delicacy of the painting and level of detail. The second is my peeling portraits which give the feeling of the painting peeling off of the wall or the wall peeling away and revealing the portrait underneath.  The third is what I’m calling ‘hidden words’ which is a spin-off from the peeling portraits but instead of revealing a portrait underneath the peeling wallpaper reveals a hidden word which you really have to work to find.  So for me, this body of work is all about trying new techniques and pushing what I’ve been doing for the past few years into new directions.

SH: Is there a particular piece in this exhibition you feel really challenged you?

JB: If so, why and what makes you proud of this piece. One of the larger paintings in this show is called ‘Morning Light’ and features a new model I’m working with named Polly Ellens from London who is one of the most interesting looking people I’ve ever seen.  I actually passed her in the Philadelphia airport and couldn’t resist walking up to her and asking if I could paint her.  I’d never done that before and haven’t done it since but Polly just had a look I couldn’t let go.  Unfortunately, the look that she has is quite tricky to paint.  She has ice blue eyes and an explosion of freckles on her face which highlight the brightness of her fiery red hair.  The combination is absolutely stunning.  She is also covered in tattoos which I left out of the paintings because, in the end, they were distracting from everything else. Painting a face with so many freckles is really challenging.  First I had to try to see her without all the freckles and tattoos so I could paint her skin as it is underneath.  Then add the freckles on at the end without making them look painted on.  It was really tricky and technically over my head but if I didn’t get it right I would have had to start the whole face all over again.  In the end, it worked out really well and is probably my best bit of oil painting I’ve ever done and that feels really good.  It’s going to be a hard painting to let go of when it sells.  

SH: What is your favorite and least favorite part of the creative process?

JB: When I come up with a new idea for a painting or a new technique I want to try I am always faced with the reality that I can plan and design all I want to ahead of time but I’ll never really know if what I want to try will work until the painting is finished.  My paintings take weeks or even months to design and paint so that uncertainty can be really crippling.  I have had to grow a thick skin and trust my instincts but also trust that if what I’m going for starts to seem like it’s not working, I’ll be able to wrestle it into something that does work.  My least favorite part of the creative process is that floating feeling when I’m not sure if things are working and how things will be received.  But the flip side of that is when I get toward the end of a painting and start to realize that the idea I had half a year ago is really going to work and this piece is going to knock people socks off when they see it.  That’s my favorite part.

SH: If you could make an album cover for any musical artist, who would it be?

JB: My favorite genres of music are hip hop and drum and bass (a kind of slightly aggressive sub-genre of electronic music).  I don’t really think my work lends well to those types of music, although there are a few exceptions that come to mind.  My work would probably better suit some kind of indie rock band like Death Cab or LCD Soundsystem or something.  Maybe if Postal Service got back together and put out a new album my painting ‘Colide’ from this upcoming show would be a cool album cover.

SH: A Netflix movie is being made about your life, who would be cast to play you (the actor does not need to look like you, more be able to capture your essence) and what kind of movie would it be? Try to describe it with similar movies.

JB: Wow!  I could take this question in a million different ways.  Jonny Drama from the show Entourage, unfortunately, might have to play me because people have said we look similar before.  I’m not happy about it but it might just have to be a fact.  

As for the story, it might have to be some kind of Forest Gump or Benjamin Button kind of movie because I’ve always felt like I lived my life out of order and every 5 or 6 years I’ve completely shifted gears and done something totally different than before.  In college, I was pretty heavy in the rave scene and was a club Dj but had never really left the northeast coast of the US.  Then after graduation, I spent a year traveling the world and doing any insane thing I could think of like an out of control teenager.  When I returned to the States I got a job teaching at a suburban middle school for nearly a decade, basically living the life of a 45-year-old during my entire 20s. When I couldn’t take that anymore I moved to Berlin in my 30s and fell in with some graffiti/street art guys and next thing you know I’m hanging off an 8 story roof at 3 in the morning with a roller in handwriting a name I made up for myself like some drunk 20 year old.  

Last year I turned 40 and had my second baby in two years… so finally I feel like I’m living the appropriate life for my age for the first since I was in primary school.  Unfortunately, I look and feel like I’m in my 50s so who knows, maybe I’ve still got it all wrong.

SH: If you could download any skill into your brain, Matrix-style, what would you want to instantly learn?

JB: I’d like to be fluent in German.  I’ve been living in Berlin for almost 10 years and speak just enough to get by.  I studied full time at a school in Germany for over a year and on and off for years after that but my brain just isn’t built for learning languages.  It may sound like a cop-out and maybe it is but I was never good at school and languages are just a mystery to me. It’s definitely one of my biggest regrets knowing that I can’t truly be myself and relate to people in the country I live in the same way I do with English speakers. 

SH: Some of the advice you give to other artists is to commit to consistency, and the honest self-realization of when one starts to think they are getting pretty-good it’s still not that great – so keep going. How long did it take you to develop your style, and then how many additional years to really hone your skills?

JB: I feel like I was one of the lucky ones who sort of figured things out rather quickly and even then it took me about 10 years to really find a voice and a skill set that people responded to and got excited to see.  I had been working on my craft (painting) that whole time while I experimented with lots of different things so, by the time I developed the fractured portrait style that people know me for, I was ready to really go for it.  

It’s natural for young artists to want to do many different things, and in many ways, it’s completely necessary to figure out what you want to focus on and what you’re good at.  But at some point, in my humble opinion, you need to be aware enough to notice when that “thing” comes around and then grab it and go hard with it until you are undeniably good at it and nobody else is doing it quite the way or quite as good as you are.  You can always expand and experiment later, and you definitely should, but if your goal is to get noticed you’ve got to be focused 

SH: At the beginning of your career, how many hours a day did you spend painting? And now how many hours a day are you painting?   

JB: When I first started painting in my mid 20’s I was working full time as a middle school teacher so the only time I could paint was for a few hours in the evenings. I was quite dedicated to it and painted as much as I could but it was definitely just a hobby then.  When I moved to Berlin in 2010 is when I started to take is seriously and considered painting as my job.  From then I was painting all day every day and as I started getting a bit of interest in my work and was invited to shows I was painting between 9-12 hours a day 6 days a week.  Eventually, my wife had enough of my crazy hours and now we’ve got two little girls so I keep pretty normal work hours these days but I had to hire an assistant to keep the workflow from falling off.  

SH: Would you rather be able to talk to animals or read people’s minds?

JB: Definitely read people’s minds.  Although that seems like one of those powers that seems better than it actually is.  I bed you’d want to lose that ability pretty quickly after realizing you have it.

SH: If you could paint a mural anywhere in the world, where would that be and why?

JB: My favorite part about painting murals is the family vibe between all the artists in the scene and painting alongside of all my friends.  Painting a commission wall is great and pays the bills but painting at a mural festival is so much more fun.  Any time you get 20 or so people at the top of their field together and give them a week to do what they do best and share thoughts and experiences and good times you’re going to have a super fun and creative experience.  So for me, the answer to the question is not really about where would be the best place to paint a mural but rather with whom?  If I could invite all of my mural buddies and a bunch of others who I respect but haven’t met yet and given us a week or two in a small town that would be the most ideal situation for me.  Bonus points if there’s sun every day and a beach and no wind.

Join us for the opening reception of Parallel Truths Saturday, February 29th, from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm.

Interview with James Bullough for “Breaking Point”

James Bullough Interview

Thinkspace Gallery is proud to present James Bullough’s solo exhibition Breaking Point, in the gallery’s project room. In anticipation for the show, we have an exclusive interview with James Bullough sharing with us his process of moving through creative blocks, moving to Berlin, and a dream dinner party.

SH: Artists explore many different styles before finding their voice, what inspired you to explore altered reality and what about it clicked as this was your voice?
JB: When I first started painting back in my early 20s and for probably the first 5 years or so I was painting entirely abstract works with no real direction or voice. These early paintings in retrospect were basically just studies and experimentations in composition and graphic layout. I soon realized that none of them ever felt like finished paintings and they were all missing a vital element. With some guidance from a local painter in Baltimore Matt Zoll, I basically taught myself how to use oils so I could add some elements of realism into my abstract paintings. Almost immediately I realized that the realism was the star of the show and became the main focus of the work but the abstraction never left. as my oil skills increased, I began concentrating on portraiture and that’s when it all started clicking for me. The mixture of realism and abstraction has been my thing ever since.

James Bullough Breaking Point

SH: What does a day in the studio look like, from morning to night?
JB: My work day is very different depending what stage of the process I’m in. Some days are spent with models and photographers doing photo shoots, others spent on the computer day after day manipulating photos and sketching out potential paintings. In the summers, I spend a lot of time outside painting walls, but in the studio with a brush in hand is where I like to focus most of my attention.

A typical studio day starts with a strong coffee and an hour or so at home on the computer getting any administrative stuff out of the way. I don’t have the internet at my studio which really helps with focus and attention; so once I get to the studio around noon it’s all business from then on. I’m a very slow painter and some days I might only paint a few square inches in an entire 8 hour work day… the hair, a face, a leg, exc.. It can be frustrating but it’s the only way I know how. I normally paint my backgrounds first and then sketch out my figures on top of that. Once the sketch is set in place, I do a quick and somewhat loose underpainting that normally takes a couple days. From there I meticulously paint the final image on top of the underpainting. For the most part, once I’ve put the second layer on any given spot, that section is finished and I move on to the next section. At 8 o’clock I go home and cook with my wife, have a late dinner and then up early the next morning to do it all over again.

SH: You really explore the human form in your work with your models showing extensions or collapse of form, do you take reference photos yourself or find the form elsewhere? Are your models’ dancers?
JB: With this current body of work I had a very clear idea for about a year that I wanted to create an entire series of figures floating in the air. I’ve worked with a few dancers in Berlin before on different projects and through them I met a few more and everyone was super keen to come work on the project with me so I assembled a team. I found a photographer in Hamburg named Florian Gobetz (www.graphic-to-go.de) who had done a series of photos with dancers jumping in the air and asked him to come to Berlin to work with me on the project. I am horrible with a camera but good with directing, so together with Flo’s photography skills and the incredible dancers who gave everything they had to get me the images I wanted we were able to get some amazing photos.

James Bullough Breaking Point

SH: How do you battle self-doubt or creative blocks?
JB: This is a great question and one of the most difficult parts of being an artist, especially one that works alone. It is not uncommon for me to go weeks in the studio without anyone seeing anything I’ve done. This can be jarring and the self-doubt can really start to fester. I normally get to a point with almost every painting where all I can see are the problems and mistakes, a point where another artist might move on to a different piece and come back later with fresh eyes after some time has passed. I on the other hand approach painting more like sport and each new piece as a battle, once I’ve started, there’s no turning back. Through years of painting this way I’ve learned that if I just plow through, eventually I’ll figure it out.

SH: What made you decide to move to Berlin? How do you think that has shaped you as an artist?
JB: In 2001 I was living in Australia and met a girl from Berlin (now my wife). In the five years that followed my visit to Berlin often to see her and it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with the city. It’s always been hard for me to put my finger on exactly what it was that I fell in love with but there is a sense of freedom and creativity in Berlin that I had never experienced anywhere else. At that time in my life, I needed a change and I knew that Berlin, because of it’s cheap living and creative vibe could provide me with what I needed to make the leap from being a gainfully employed middle school teacher to a basically unemployed full-time painter… and I was right.

In Berlin, I was able to live cheaply and get a studio and just experiment without the pressure of making money and getting a “real job” At the time I still hadn’t found my voice as a painter and I needed a couple of years of trying different things in order to find it. I spent a lot of time in the studio figuring things out and I began painting in the many abandoned spaces in and around Berlin and experimenting with painting on walls for the first time. Those first two or three years in Berlin were extremely important for me and In the end, I think the greatest gift Berlin ever gave to me was time.

James Bullough Breaking Point

SH: What’s been a WOW moment for you thus far in your career?
JB: In 2015 I was invited to paint a wall inside the Long Beach Museum of Art in California as part of the Vitality and Verve show put on by the LBMA, Thinkspace Gallery, and POW! WOW! Long Beach. The other participating artists were some of my biggest influences in the art world and people I had been admiring for years and years… legends like Craola, Audry Kawasaki, Tristan Eaton, Nychos, Jeff Soto and basically everyone involved. I felt like it was a mistake that I was even invited, that I didn’t belong in such a group, but I also saw it as an opportunity to show people what I could really do. I made it my mission to paint my best mural to that point and really go for broke. As I worked there throughout the week and built friendships with these people who meant so much to me, I also banged out a great painting that I was really proud of. There is no greater accomplishment in my opinion than gaining the respect of the people you so greatly admire, and that week I felt like I had done exactly that.

SH: What motivated you to do a podcast? What’s been your most favorite and least favorites part of that process?
JB: VantagePoint Radio was an idea I had after living in Berlin for a few years and meeting so many different and interesting artists. I found myself time and time again sitting in a bar or at a party with someone and because of my curious and chatty nature we often fell into deep conversations about their practices and how and why they do what they do. I found it really inspirational and informative. It just seemed logical that other people would be interested to hear these conversations so I set out to start a radio show. A friend of mine named Tom Phillipson (www.Auto64.com) had worked in radio before in Australia so I asked him to be my co-host and produce the show and it was that simple. Because Berlin is such a magnet for street artists and muralists, we were able to get some of the biggest names in the game and once the ball started rolling it never really stopped. I’m supra proud of what we’ve accomplished with VantagePoint. At this point, we’ve done over 60 interviews and thoroughly documented the scene in a way nobody else has done.

Visit www.VantagePointRadio.com to check out all of the past shows and videos.

James Bullough Breaking Point

SH: Where was your first mural? What was the prep and execution like?
JB: Oh man… my first mural was in Washington DC on the side of a bar back in 2004 or so. I painted it together with an artist named Andrea Wlodarczyk and we really didn’t know what we were doing. It was a super fun process but took us almost the entire summer, mostly because we painted during open hours and the drinks and food were free so we really didn’t try to rush things. Today I think I’d probably do that wall in an afternoon. It was kind of a cheesy beach scene with a crashing wave and all that but it wasn’t too bad. This was years before I would ever pick up a spray can so we did the whole thing with brushes and latex paint and it was kind of a nightmare. I recently passed by that wall for the first time in years and it’s still there and in pretty good condition. It wasn’t my best work, but I’m still proud of that wall

SH: If you through a dinner party for 5 people dead or alive, who would be on the guest list? What would be served? And what music is playing in the background?
JB: WOW! this is basically an impossible question but here goes…
Guest List: Moss Def, Adam Carolla, Conor Harrington, Erika Badu, and the 25-year-old version of my baby girl who will be born in September
Food: Maryland Blue crabs with tons of Old Bay seasoning and unlimited Natty Boh beer in a can on ice.
Music: The entire album ‘Circles’ by Adam F and a selection of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Bob James.

James Bullough Breaking Point

SH: What do you think is the biggest misconception about being an artist and about your work in general?
JB: The work ethic! I think people have an impression of artists as relaxed maybe even somewhat lazy creatives. The fact is almost every successful artists I know is an extreme workaholic and a master of the hustle. Learning to paint and create an image from absolutely nothing is a skill and takes a lot of hard work, time, and focus, but the business side of the job is just as demanding. I don’t have an assistant or a manager or anything so every aspect of my business is done by me. Deciding what projects to take and which to turn down, who to work with or not, and knowing how many different projects you can handle at any given time is extremely important and can have massive consequences on your career now and in the future. I don’t think artists get enough credit for what they truly are, extremely driven, self-employed entrepreneurs who both produce and manage the product that their company and family live off of.

James Bullough Postcard

Please join us Saturday, May 28th for the opening reception of Breaking Point from 6-9pm. For additional information on Thinkspace Gallery and our upcoming exhibitions please visit the Thinkspace Gallery website.