Interview with Ezra Brown for ‘Trying To Keep It Together’ | Exhibition on view Saturday April 1 – April 22, 2023

Thinkspace Projects is honored to present Ezra BrownTrying To Keep It Together,’ our debut solo exhibition with Ezra Brown. In this exhibit, Ezra encapsulates his many experiences, emotions, and feelings using his character ‘Happy the Clown’ as a reflection of himself to portray his message. His character, ‘Happy’, is often portrayed as the opposite of his name in Ezra’s work, as his image is instead used as a way to cope with events in the world around us today. Ezra encourages the viewer to use his work as a device to tap into their own feelings, and connect on an emotional level.

“My creative process is really simple, I feel something sad and I paint and vice versa. Creative ideas usually come from personal emotions. So in reality I’m sharing my feelings with the viewer through my paintings. It’s sort of a visual diary of my personal thoughts.’ – Ezra Brown

Our interview with Ezra Brown shares his most challenging piece, which crime shows he loves to listen to to tap into his creative flow, and which artists had a really deep impact on his art career.

What themes were you exploring in this body of work? Did you have a piece that was particularly challenging?

For this body of work I really wanted to tell a story of a failed relationship and how one deals with the emotional rollercoaster.

Yes this was the first time I actually had someone fabricate something for me. The piece is called ‘I’m sorry’ and it depicts my character having his spirit leave his body. This piece was originally going to be a huge wood cutout but then my friend Carmen Acosta had mentioned to me why not try making the spirit portion a see-through piece that is separate from my characters body? That way it would give it a little more depth and really convey my message. So we bounced around with how it would look and finally I sent out the digital rendering to get fabricated. I honestly was nervous because as an artist you have a certain vision and when you work outside of your circle it’s scary, you never know if that person or company is going to encapsulate that same feeling you have as an artist. I just want to give a huge shout out to Pretty In Plastic they really did an amazing job of capturing the look and feel of what I was going for.

What does a day in the studio look like for you? How do you structure your days?

My days are really unpredictable, my studio is located in my house and honestly sometimes it’s hard to stay focused. I have a 17 year old daughter that I take to school in the morning and then I have to pick her up in the afternoon. So trying to cram in as much time to work on my projects is really challenging not to mention the fact that going back to bed or just lounging on the couch and watching tv has not crossed my mind once or twice. Keeping a schedule helps me really stay on task and my wife also making sure I stick to that schedule is a plus she truly is my boss and runs a really tight ship.

Do you have any rituals that help you tap into a creative flow?

Funny enough I love listening to old crime shows from the 1930’s like ‘Yours Truly Johnny Dollar’ or ‘Rocky Jordan.’ Honestly I myself don’t know how that all started but I just love the way those actors voices sound and the faint crackling of the radio just soothes me. If I’m not listening to those shows then I’m listening to jazz music it really amazes me how beautiful that music is. I’m mean it tells a story but in sound like take for instance Bill Evans playing those somber notes on Blue Green or Doris Day hitting the perfect pitch on ‘Again’ it really makes me feel a type of way that I can honestly say without a doubt my work comes to life.

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

Coming up with the idea for an art piece is what I love. Most of my artwork deals with a lot of emotional struggles and really capturing that feeling is so important to me. Once that’s all said and done then comes the hard part putting that idea onto paper or canvas and bringing it to life. Raw emotions are tough because people know what some sad looks like but making that saddens turn into a melancholic whirlwind is another thing. I really want to dig into peoples own feelings and that takes a whole lot of energy. When you see my work I want you saying to yourself man I can really relate to this.

Who are some of your creative influences? Why do they inspire you?

My father was my first creative influence, as a child I would sit and watch him paint these beautiful landscapes. I would just marvel at how effortlessly he would create these pieces. As I got older and started exploring my own artistic style I began to look at the works of Windsor Mcay, Ub Iwerks, Max Fleischer, Al Columbia, and of course Walt Disney. All of these artists have had a really deep impact on my career as a creative individual. The craftsman is very evident in their work. Quite honestly they pioneered the way for a lot of the cartoons we see and love today. So I always have strived to have that same level of passion and dedication in my pieces as well.

If you could have any skill or topic downloaded into your brain, what would you want to be able to do/ be an expert at?

Learning how to speak different languages. I speak Spanish and English but I just feel if I could learn every language I could connect to people on a much more personal level. Especially working with galleries overseas this would be a big help when it comes to setting up shows or even doing projects. For me taking the time to understand someone’s native tongue just shows that person that you truly respect them and want to make them feel comfortable with you.

What do you hope viewers take away or experience while viewing your work?

Honestly I hope they walk away knowing that the most amazing thing about us as people are our own personal experiences. Whether it be a break up or feeling angry about life or simply just trying to make it through the day without having a nervous breakdown. I want those feelings and experiences to connect us and make us understand we are not alone, we are all going through it together even though sometimes it feels no one is there for us but I see you and I get you.

How do you like to enjoy your time outside of the studio? Do you celebrate the completion of a body of work?

Spending time with my family is important to me being an artist most of your time is spent alone creating. So whenever I get a chance to step away from my work I like spending it with them.

I try to take a vacation if possible just to relax and clear my mind. It’s always important to me hitting that reset button once I’ve completed a big body of work. Plus it helps me transition into the next thing I have on my list.

Exhibition on view April 1 – April 22, 2023 at:
Thinkspace Projects
4207 W. Jefferson Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90016

In Conversation with B. Robert Moore this Friday March 24 at 5pm

Join us this Friday, March 24 from 5-6pm for a talk with artist b. Robert Moore as he delves into the stories and influences behind his new body of work, Out the Mud: A Black American Rite of Passage.

Please arrive early, as seating will be limited. Thank you.

Thinkspace Projects
4217 W. Jefferson Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90016

Los Angeles Times features b. Robert Moore’s first solo exhibition ‘Out the Mud: A Black American Rite of Passage’

April Exhibitions Featuring Ezra Brown, Caroline Weaver, Delisha, Willem Hoeffnagel Open April 1st, 2023 at Thinkspace Projects

Thinkspace Projects presents:

EZRA BROWN
Trying To Keep It Together

CAROLINE WEAVER
A Gummy Wormhole In The Sugar Dimension

DELISHA
Sweet Dreams & Beautiful Nightmares

WILLEM HOEFFNAGEL
Similarities

Opening Reception:
Saturday, April 1 from 6-10pm
* First 150 people through the doors will receive a free t-shirt from Ezra Brown

On view April 1 – April 22, 2023

Thinkspace Projects
4207 W. Jefferson Blvd + 4217 W. Jefferson Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90016

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Gallery I:

EZRA BROWN
Trying To Keep It Together

Thinkspace Projects is honored to present ’Trying To Keep It Together’, our debut solo exhibition with Ezra Brown. In this exhibit, Ezra encapsulates his many experiences, emotions, and feelings using his character ‘Happy the Clown’ as a reflection of himself to portray his message. His character, ‘Happy’, is often portrayed as the opposite of his name in Ezra’s work, as his image is instead used as a way to cope with events in the world around us today. Ezra encourages the viewer to use his work as a device to tap into their own feelings, and connect on an emotional level.

“My creative process is really simple, I feel something sad and I paint and vice versa. Creative ideas usually come from personal emotions. So in reality I’m sharing my feelings with the viewer through my paintings. It’s sort of a visual diary of my personal thoughts.’ – Ezra Brown

Artist Bio:
Ezra Brown is currently based in San Diego, California, where he mainly creates works with acrylics on canvas, as well as some occasional woodworking. He was inspired by his father, also an artist, and felt encouraged to pursue his own artistic career as he studied at the Academy of Art, San Francisco. He hopes to inspire all generations with his art, which he creates from his personal encounters and struggles, encouraging the viewer to relate to these shared experiences. 

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Gallery II:

CAROLINE WEAVER
A Gummy Wormhole In The Sugar Dimension

Show Statement:
Your eyes land on a tossed wrapper, the stars align and you’re down the wormhole. Back in time, where 20 bucks lasted all night and proximity to your crush was life and death. 

It’s not nostalgia, more like a Time Dialation Meditation from a made-up religion for Fatalists. 

Artist Bio:
Caroline Weaver is a self taught oil painter that has been working in and around the Americas for the past decade. Exhibiting in cities and spots along the way such as Portland, Calgary, San Luis Potosi, San Francisco, Vancouver, Montreal and Baja. Countries, regions, cities, towns, neighbourhoods all taking turns to colour her work. Currently residing on the Sunshine Coast, she is attempting to analyze our arcs of actuality and working to expand her view of the forest floor through multiple disciplines. 

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Gallery III:

DELISHA
Sweet Dreams & Beautiful Nightmares

Show Statement:
The “BEAUTIFUL MONSTER” acts as a security blanket to help us navigate life’s problems and tune out the harshness of the world. It’s easier to tune out the judgement, the abuse, the neglect, and doubt while wrapped in the comfort of scarves.

A BEAUTIFUL MONSTER manifested from a cold world, and is also a reminder to embrace fear, because you may find comfort in uncovering what’s really there.

“It’s a cold world, you better bundle up!” – Freeway

Artist Bio:
Delisha currently resides on the Westside of Chicago where she creates paintings of child-like perspectives and narratives. Inspired by Bill Watterson’s comics, and the late great Dr. Seuss, Delisha definitely does it for the kids. She speaks of their dreams and nightmares, their potential and their sadness, and would rather view them as “little people sorting out their emotions”, and not just as “children”. Her imagery of children and toys speaks of those experiences hidden in the adult psyche in detail; evoking imagination in us all.

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Gallery IV:

WILLEM HOEFFNAGEL
Similarities

Presented in collaboration with League OTO

Show Statement:
“In ‘Similarities’, I draw inspiration from the movements of others, gazing at strangers and those I know, running around my town, or even feeling overwhelmed and the thoughts that feeling brings to my mind. The figures are all seen in different states; some calm, some mid movement. It’s subjects like that, that most move me in paintings I enjoy myself. It suits my personality, I don’t search for more meaning in my works, I look for similarity between the figures and me, or us. For my viewers to see themselves and their everyday lives in my work.”

Artist Bio:
Willem Hoeffnagel is a painter from the Netherlands. Born in 1995 in Arnhem, he has always been interested in drawing and painting from an early age. After leaving a bachelor in entrepreneurship in Amsterdam, Willem enrolled in ArtEZ Zwolle to study illustration design. During that time he focused on his personal style while also experimenting with new techniques and ideas.

However, Illustration didn’t end up being his strong pointand he left in year 3 out of 4 but working on his art everyday helped with developing as an artist in general. Soon after that he started to work on his painting full time, to grow in the medium he loves the most. 

The recognizable figures that feature in Willem’s work have been close to him for more than a decade. Using the figures as a place holder for a person, whether himself or someone else, it allows him to portray a scene or part of a small story to the viewer without putting to much attention to who it’s meant to be.

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Interview with Anthony Hurd for his current solo exhibition ‘Verified’ on view til Friday March 17, 2023 at The Brand Library & Arts Center

Thinkspace is pleased to present Anthony Hurd ‘Verified’ where “in a wonderful world of random blue check marks, engagement farming, social media clout chasing and general acting a fool, we find ourselves in the midst of the golden age of the death of social media. It’s failing us all… No matter the damage, I still come crawling back to my abuser for comfort, to suckle on its black barred, censored tit and let it caress my burning brain with one hand while it picks my pockets with its other 99 hands for that sweet, sweet, dopamine rush, worth it… And I along with billions of others continue to scream into the void of endless data gathering in hopes of a better tomorrow.”

Our interview with Anthony Hurd shares his frustrations that inspired his current solo show, what he was up to during the pandemic and his film recommendations.

How long have you been showing with Thinkspace? What does having an exhibition up at the Brand Library and Arts Center mean to you?

Errr, wow, I’ve been showing with Thinkspace for 10 years now, crazy. The Brand Library show is awesome. Aside from it being my first museum solo show, it’s also a history space with lots of good stories. I lived in LA for ten years, living in Silverlake, but at the time I didn’t make art, so to be back in LA, making art full time, in my old hood, seeing so many old friends and new ones it was amazing.

What was the inspiration behind this latest body of work? What themes were you exploring?

Mostly I was exploring my frustrations. It’s been such a strange time for so many years now between the political madness, the global pandemic and the ever changing economy of the world everything just feels constantly uneasy, no stability, no reality to hold onto and social media seems to be at the center of the chaos most the time. It’s opened the door for so many crazies to take center stage, and yet it’s diminished the reach of most of us artists. We’re not the prime content these days, sucks to even have to consider ourselves “content” but that’s what we’re faced with. So the absurd faces of social media started to come to the forefront for me. The bots, the algorithms, the rich white men pulling the strings and making lives more difficult. This crazy moving target that no one seems to understand fully. Some get lucky, some do not, but none of us really have a good grasp on what’s going on any more.

What was the most challenging piece in this exhibition? How did it help you grow as an artist?

I’d say ‘Zucker-Lon‘ (The String Pullers) was the most challenging. It was the first piece for the show, and it set the tone for everything else. I worked on it off and on for many months before even touching the additional works, so I just kept pushing it and allowing it to evolving until it started to speak to me in a way I could see translating to the rest of the works. Like all works it teaches me patience, but reinforces my constant need for exploration. The experimentation and exploration have become my major driving force in the work these days and its taken me a long time to really understand that it’s where my happiness in creating stems.

The opening at The Brand Library and Art Center was quite the scene; what was one of your favorite moments from the evening?

Being that I don’t living in LA anymore, my favorite moments were both seeing so many old friends I miss dearly, and meetings so many other artists who I’ve been in touch with via social media for over a decade and never met in person. It was a massive event and truly made it feel like the most epic homecoming.

Your exhibition is titled Verified, and in content leading up to the show, you’ve lamented about the nature of the current social landscape. However, you’re pretty good at the content game. How much time are you spending on creating content as part of your studio practice?

I don’t spend as much time creating content as it seems. I just understanding the editing process well enough now to stitch it together thankfully. After all these years I’ve never had a single viral video that’s gone anywhere significant, but I’ve learned to just enjoy myself and try new things. Mostly I spent 10 minutes a few times a week recording content, so not to time consuming really.

Skate culture is one of your biggest creative influences and you use skate videos to help hype you up for painting. Can you share a few of your favorite skaters or videos with us?

Ugh, I don’t even know where to start with that. It’s not longer about specific skate videos, I just follow so many skaters and skate accounts that my feed is full of awesomeness. The level of progression in skateboarding these days in absolutely insane, and the rise of both queer and female skaters doing crazy shit just warms my heart. So I just open literally any social app these days and I’m flooded with the newest videos.

During the pandemic, you slowed down to growing food and plants, enjoying the demise of the pre-pandemic pace. Have you been able to maintain that slow pace or peace on your own terms? What’s in your garden?

Well, since the pandemic, we were finally able to purchase a small home of our own, so the older garden is long gone from the rental house and we haven’t officially made a garden yet in the new house but it’s coming soon hopefully. We do have a pomegranate and apple tree now and grew strawberries, blackberries and raspberries last year which was nice.

Unfortunately, the slower pace of the pandemic is long gone and didn’t stick. Seems life pace has picked back up and then some. I make moments every day where I can rest, lay in the hammock, or just relax and take in the views but mostly it seems endlessly busy. Recently my 14 year old step daughter moved in with us full time. We’ve been wanting her to live with us full time for many years so that’s been awesome, but having a full time teen isn’t a relaxing experience generally. Haha. So we do as we must, and make space for ourselves when we can. Studio time is when I get the most time to myself but that can feel hectic these days too as some works tend to take on a sense of urgency on their own.

What is your favorite unique find from the devil’s website (i.e. Amazon)?

Can’t say I have any great finds on the devil’s website. It’s almost purely orders of shit I’m too lazy to go out and fine IRL these days, or just shipping supplies with the occasional flannel pj’s. Ha

If someone wanted to understand the emotional landscape of your story and creative process, do you have a film recommendation that would be able to echo familiar themes?

No one single film unfortunately, but over the span of my life, I’d say What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, echo Dead Poet Society the emotional landscape of my youth, but as much as I love movies and connect with them I don’t have any more contemporary films that speak to my own story and creative process. I love the continually visible queer culture happening these days but it doesn’t generally speak to my personal experiences as came out at the tale end of the AIDS epidemic, and a generation prior to any contemporary acceptability that many young folks may experience. Skateboarding and music are both huge parts of my story and inspiration but everything is built with a tinge of fear because there integration of queerness wasn’t pervasive in my youth and I juggled multiple different lives, always fearful of how they would clash if they were ever to cross paths. Maybe some day someone can capture these themes in a singular story but I don’t think we’re there just yet.

There are more than several amazing pieces in the exhibition, and this might be a difficult question, but are you up for the challenge – what piece would you want to add to your art collection, and why?

In my own personal work? None, I don’t like hanging my own work in my house. Haha. I have one piece hanging currently but I try and surround myself with works of others. I’m too hard on myself to stare at my own work daily like that. In the rest of the exhibitions? That’s hard. I really loved that piece “Carry Me With You” by Karla Ekatherine Canseco. Strange and emotional, delicate and colorful, I’d have been very happy to have added that to my collection for sure.

On view only until this Friday March 17th at The Brand Library and Arts Center in Glendale, California.

The Brand Library and Arts Center
1601 W. Mountain Street
Glendale, California 91201

Viewing Days / Hours:
Tues. – Thurs.: 11am – 8pm
Fri. & Sat.: 10am – 5pm
Closed Sun. & Mon.
Free Admission & Free Parking

For more about the exhibition and opening night click HERE!

Photos by @BirdManPhotos.

Interview with Matthew Grabelsky for his current solo exhibition ‘Riders’on view til Friday March 17, 2023 at The Brand Library & Arts Center

Thinkspace presents Matthew Grabelsky’Riders where his new body of work continues his exploration of people with animal heads riding the New York City Subway, and in one case the London Tube. Each painting contains elements from pop culture (a magazine, a poster, a tattoo, a character in the background) which relate to the specific animal, creating a series of humorous tableaux. With a realistically rendered and highly detailed oil painting technique, his goal is to create the effect of looking at a scene on the subway as if it were a diorama at a natural history museum. The images present richly detailed moments frozen in time allowing the viewer to closely inspect every element and make connections between them to read an overall story. In this world, people are transformed into part-animal to create scenes that are strange, funny, and endearing.

Technically inspired by 19th Century academic and naturalist painters, Grabelsky creates these unlikely, surreal scenes with a staggering degree of realistic detail. The contrast created between the visual verisimilitude of the works, and the surreal improbability of their content catches the viewer in a prolonged moment of convincingly suspended disbelief.

Our interview with Matthew Grabelsky reveals how he linked up with Thinkspace, the reason he had to recreate one of his paintings, and which animal he would choose to do a self-portrait.

How long have you been showing with Thinkspace? What does having an exhibition up at the Brand Library and Arts Center mean to you?

My first show with Thinkspace was back in 2012. I’d walked into the gallery without knowing anything about it and loved what they had up. LC was there and I started talking to him. He asked to see what I did and I showed him a few photos of my paintings. He loved them and showed them to Andrew. Andrew invited me to put a piece in a group show they had opening a few weeks later and I’ve been showing with Thinkspace ever since.

Seeing my paintings up at the Brand has been a huge thrill. I’ve been going to look at art in museums my whole life and seeing a room at a museum full of my paintings feels like validation. Around the end of college, I decided I wanted to be a painter. I would look at detailed realistic oil paintings and have this overwhelming feeling that I had to make something like that. Learning to do it took years of study and working on my technique and subject matter. When I stepped into the room at the Brand with my work for the first time I felt I’d accomplished what I set out to do all those years ago.

A handful of the pieces have film references accompanying their subway rider. Do these films have a greater meaning or reflect an influence on you as an artist/person? Or were they fun explorations in anthropomorphic associations?

I picked the films because they had fun associations with the animals in the paintings. In “Crow-Magnon” the figure has a crow’s head and is dressed all in black. Adding Brandon Lee as Eric Draven from “The Crow,” standing on the platform, struck me as fun goth touch. In “Giddy Up” the guy is dressed as a cowboy and has a horse’s head. I added the poster from “City Slickers” as well as Billy Crystal reflected in the window in his character from the film as funny connections to my city cowboy. In “Gotham Local” I wanted to make a Batman-themed piece because he’s always been my favorite superhero. Tim Burton’s first batman with Micheal Keaton was the seminal batman from my childhood so I used references from that film, including the batman logo on the t-shirt and Jack Nicholson as the Joker standing outside the window. In “Polly Wanna Cracker” a girl with a parrot head eats Ritz Crackers. I thought it would be funny to have a pirate standing on the platform. I chose a guy dressed as Keith Richards’ character from Pirates of the Caribbean because it felt culturally relevant. Finally in “An American Werewolf in London” a guy with a wolf’s head rides the London tube. This painting started as a joke when a friend said he thought it would be funny if I made a painting based on that film. I loved the idea so I filled the piece with references to the movie including dressing him like the titular character and even putting a still from the movie on the newspaper that he’s reading.

What was the most challenging piece in this exhibition? How did it help you grow as an artist?

Every time I make a painting I run into new challenges I have to figure out. Sometimes it has to do with the composition and sometimes it’s a technical aspect when I start working on the canvas. That’s part of what keeps painting interesting for me. This time around the biggest challenge had to do with painting denim. It’s a tricky texture because denim is made up of blue intermixed with specks of raw white cotton and faded to varying degrees in different areas. If not done right it ends up looking like plain blue fabric.

I spent a whole day painting the jeans in the werewolf piece and thought it looked pretty good when I went to sleep. I woke up in the morning and with a fresh eye, it just didn’t look right. I let it dry for a few days then painted that whole area back to white so I could start from the beginning. I experimented for a few weeks with different methods of layering the oil paint and finally found a technique that worked. I repainted the jeans and they looked great. There were several other paintings in the show with blue denim so I used the same method and each time it worked like a charm.

The opening at The Brand Library and Art Center was quite the scene; what was one of your favorite moments from the evening?

The opening night blew me away. There must have been a couple of thousand people passing through that evening. I spent countless hours alone in my studio working on the paintings with the hope that they would connect with people and engage them. There were so many times that night that I would see groups of people looking at my paintings, talking about them, and laughing at the humor in them. Each time I saw that it made me smile and told me that all the work was worth it.

The “Hello Kitten” piece was a recreation of a similar piece that was lost, what made you decide to revisit this work? Where do you think (or imagine) that piece is now?

Sadly the first version disappeared during shipping and was never found. It was a very meaningful piece for me and it strongly connected with lots of people. I’m hoping that it either got sent to the wrong place or someone stole it so it’s still around somewhere.

It was the thought that it may have ended up in the trash that make me want to recreate it. I hated the idea that I worked so hard on the original and now no one may ever get to see it again. I had all my original studies so I decided to make a second version. I intended to stick quite close to the original but as I started the new version I found several things that I thought would improve it without losing what made the first one a success. I made it larger so the figures would be life-size. That gave the sense that the mother and daughter were in the same room with you. I added a red bow to the little girl’s hair to match the cartoon character. In the first version, she was just wearing socks so I added a pair of shoes. I adjusted the perspective slightly so that the girl’s head was fully surrounded by the blue of the subway seat which made her head pop out a bit more to focus your attention there. Finally, for a fun little inside joke, I removed the glasses from the guy reflected in the window. A lot of people have asked me who he is and he’s my friend who’s the father of the little girl. Since I made the first version he got Lasik surgery and doesn’t wear glasses anymore.

(Study version)

If you were to do a self-portrait, what animal and iconography would be included in that piece?

I’ve been thinking about painting a self-portrait of myself as a raccoon. A big raccoon used to sleep in the bush right outside my studio window. I loved watching it and got kind of obsessed with raccoons. They’re super clever and can do amazing things with their hands. As someone who works with his hands all day, I can relate.

How has understanding the chemical properties of oil paint influenced the development of your technique?

I strongly believe that the medium you create art with has a huge impact on the end product. This ranges from the aesthetic qualities of a particular medium to the way that working with one might give you different creative ideas than you would get from another. There are many ways to make a realistic image from painting which reaches back to the beginning of humanity itself to more recently photography, digital rendering, and now even AI image generators.

I love oil paint for two reasons. Aesthetically oil painting has a unique textural look unlike anything else. Oil paint is extremely versatile. It dries slowly by oxidation with the air so it stays workable for a long time. That lets me apply oil paint to my canvas and blend into it to get very subtle effects. By adding different oils and solvents to the paint I’m able to adjust the consistency which lets me get a range in surface quality. The paint stands out a bit more in some places and is thinner and more transparent in others.

Secondly, building up an image with oil paint takes many layers and lots of time. The result is that I’m working with my hands directly on a canvas for many many hours and inevitably during that time I get ideas that I add to the painting that I didn’t have when I came up with the initial composition. These are sometimes big changes and sometimes small but they always make the image much richer than what I started out intending to paint.

The New York subway still remains your main backdrop/ third character in the compositions. In this body of work, you included the London Tube, but have you ever considered painting the LA Metro? If so or if not, please elaborate.

I’ve lived in LA for over ten years now but I’m still a New Yorker at heart. This series started on the New York City Subway and that has been the setting for the majority of my paintings. I love the subway because it’s an iconic New York location instantly recognizable to anyone who’s been there. It is also a central mixing place for people in the city. When I had the idea to do a werewolf in London, the London Tube seemed like an obvious spot to bring one of my characters. It plays a similar role in London as the subway does in New York. A scene from the movie that inspired the piece even takes place in one of the Tube tunnels. As far as Los Angeles, while there is a metro and I’ve ridden it a bit, it doesn’t feel like a particularly central part of the city. At its core, LA is still a car city. When I think of LA I think more of the landscape with its palm trees, beaches, and mountains. To that end, the one painting I’ve done set in LA so far takes place on the beach right in front of the Santa Monica Pier. If I do more paintings set in LA that is probably the direction I will take.

Studying in Italy led you to pivot your career path from astrophysics to art. What is a significant moment from that time there that has stuck with you and informed the person you are today, beyond just being a full-time artist?

My experience in Italy was amazing and changed the course of my life. I was fascinated by astrophysics and enjoyed studying it in college. However, when I was dropped into an immersive painting experience in Italy it gave me a different level of satisfaction. I was living in Florence which is a living museum. Just walking down the street I would pass incredible frescos, sculptures, and architecture. Italy has a sensuousness about it, more than any other place I’ve been. It is full of beauty and made me want to create beauty. Italians also have a way of focusing on enjoying life. Italy convinced me to be an artist professionally and also taught me to enjoy life along the way.

There are more than several amazing pieces in the exhibition, and this might be a difficult question, but are you up for the challenge – what piece would you want to add to your art collection, and why?

There’s something I love in all of them but I’d pick the one I did of the crow. My mom was the model so it’s a particularly personal one for me. I got the idea for it when I was on a trip with my mom to Sicily. We were crossing the street and a car was coming which made her nervous and she made a sound like the caw of a crow. I instantly knew I wanted to paint her as a crow. The painting is full of references to my mom. “CAW!” is painted across the back of the seat on one side in my mom’s handwriting. On the other side, her name is painted to look like it’s scratched into the plastic, again in her handwriting. On another part of the seat, I put a sticker that says “I Love My Mom.” On the platform outside the window, you can see Eric Draven from “The Crow” which I saw in the theater with my mom when I was in high school.

On view only until this Friday March 17th at The Brand Library and Arts Center in Glendale, California.

The Brand Library and Arts Center
1601 W. Mountain Street
Glendale, California 91201

Viewing Days / Hours:
Tues. – Thurs.: 11am – 8pm
Fri. & Sat.: 10am – 5pm
Closed Sun. & Mon.
Free Admission & Free Parking

For more about the exhibition and opening night click HERE!

Photos by @BirdManPhotos.