Video: Artist Interview with Tristesse Seeliger
Thanks to my my friend and studio mate Tristesse Seeliger, she created this great 25 minute video about my work and process. I have included her description from her YouTube page below.
Artist Talk and Assignment: Vanessa Lam with Tristesse Seeliger
In this candid interview, Vanessa talks about her style of painting and collage and why she chooses abstract expressionism as an art movement to reference. Vanessa describes why she embraces process and different mediums to produce her explosive and vibrant paintings. Vanessa experiments with all types of materials that often leads her to the hardware store for tools. To convey complex human emotion she uses controlled accidents, gestural marks, drips, spills, and deliberate mark-making. Her work is a paradox of-in-the-moment consciousness mixed with steady and slow contemplation. Vanessa assigns us a creative project that will get you moving on this art form as well as thinking about creating in a new way with old work. Enjoy!
Art Prompt: Mine Your Own Work
Materials: One or two pieces of paper 11” X 17”, charcoal, graphite, paint or ink, magazine cut-outs & chalk, glue or matte medium. Please have a few different sized brushes with you.
1st Experiment – Set a timer for 5 minutes before you begin this experiment. To help with a theme choose a piece of music to listen to or think about an emotion you want to convey. Create gestural marks on your paper using your arm and hand movements to convey this theme or feeling. Choose a complementary or monochromatic colour palette in five tones, light to dark, for this exploration. Create as many of these explorations as you like but make at least two. VARIATION: If you have a hard time knowing where to start, use your non-dominant hand to draw or close your eyes to draw.
2nd Experiment – Now cut-up, shred, rip, and/or tear your work apart. Once you have all the paper cut into different sized pieces set a timer for 5 minutes. Now make a collage thinking about texture, colour, form, and line with your pieces in five minutes given. Feel free to incorporate any other materials you have on hand. Make at least five of these collages for the next step. 30 minutes
3rd Experiment – Make a painting using your favorite collages as inspiration. Scale your painting up in size to 11” X 17” or larger. Remember to keep your original emotion or theme in mind when creating the final painting.
For more information about Tristesse Seeliger, please check www.tristesseseeliger.com or @missytrissy on Instagram
