Matthew Bourbon “Making art as it unfolds”

When thinking of art centers some of the first places that come to mind are New York City, France, Vienna, Rome and even Shanghai as of late.  One place that gets overlooked is the art scene happening where everything is bigger: Texas.  This humble art scene has an artist churning out work that can be described as half abstract-half representational.  There may even be an influence of collage-making thrown in the mix.  Why is that?  Keep reading.

Matthew Bourbon is Californian grown from just outside of San Jose.  He went to UC Davis with the intention of spending a year there then moving to UCLA to study film.  He played around with video in high school which was his main creative outlet at that point which prompted him to take film in the Art Department at Davis.  While there he decided to try his hand at painting since his mother and uncle always spent time painting.

Matthew reflects about his change in artistic pace, “I kind of stumbled into an amazing painting program at UC Davis.  The seriousness with which each professor took their art and their teaching was a bit of a revelation.”  He continues, “I was always into art as a kid, but never saw it, until my time at Davis, as a viable option for my life”.

So, with that being said, Matthew soon changed his major to Art and then doubled in Art History.  This began a future of being submerged in his passion of art.

After a year or two of substitute teaching in and around San Francisco and painting to prep for grad school he applied to the School of Visual Arts in New York City.  This became a turning point for his career and passion, “My time in New York City was very important.  The whole city became my school”.

And, was that ever true.  Bourbon went to every show and spent time in Chelsea.  While in the city he also had artist walk-throughs in his 5th story, rat infested, walk-up studio.   At one point “I remember Matthew Ritchie coming and really understanding my work at that time.  I was making flat, almost cartoonish paintings from film stills that had a noir-ish mood.”  Matthew found side-work writing reviews for New York Arts Magazine while in his MFA program.  The reviews were usually short but they kept him seeing everything around the city…and away from the art appreciative rats.

Collecting stockpiles of images from film stills, illustrations, newspaper clippings, erotica, and fabric designs is an obsession of his.  Though this may sound like an episode of ‘Hoarders’ he uses said images to begin building vignettes “where I imagine myself as a kind of latter day collagist—manipulating a range of images until I feel like I have set up a series of problems for myself”.   It is like he builds the stone in which the statue will be carved out of and then carves the statue from the stone he just built.  Though this sounds counterproductive it obviously is not for him.  This way he knows his work with problems and how to go about removing those same problems.  I would not apply this tactic to life situations.  Enough problems can arise on their own.

People watching, while just interesting in its own sense, is Matthew’s source of inspiration and ideas.  He is intrigued by the nuance of human behavior and psychology.   What people do to one another, don’t do to one another, or any other variation of those is what it is about for him.  Psychology and a general understanding of it is important as an artist.  Body language and how that body language is shaped by emotional responses helps an artist develop a character and Matthew seems to know all about that trick.  He exploits that character development, (see painting “The Pyschologist” (above) as a great example of body language yelling how it feels at the top of its lungs) by utilizing the same technique fiction writers use for characters: he lets the character(s)/art/situation(s) tell him where to go next and because of this his work is never planned out.

When asked what artists influence him he humbly makes it obvious that there are many greats out there.  Some he mentioned are Euan Uglow, Jorge Queiroz, Django Reinhardt, and Glenn Gould.  He even shows some local love by supporting Fort Worth artist, Kirk Hayes.Since 2000, Matthew has been teaching at the University of North Texas.  Teaching is a fire fueled by his teachers in the past.  This inspiration came from seeing and learning from their passion and dedication to art.  His most respected teachers set a standard by always thinking art which is encouraging to students.

Whether it be art, teaching, or hoarding images and whatnot his approach appears the same: Nothing planned out to begin with but then finding what is next depending on the situation presented.  Not every class, minute or day is the same so letting circumstances shape an approach or technique, while maintaining personal boundaries, is what the evolution of art is all about.

-Josh Baker

We recently got a look into artist Michelle Fleck’s studio for another installment of our studio visit series.

Urban explorers, city dwellers, and lovers of trash, here is your fine art reflection. Michelle Fleck is a highly talented oil painter, at once traditionally respectable and reminiscent of the modern art love affair with color. Focusing on dumpsters full of garbage, things found on the floor, and burst bags of trash, her paintings reflect the still lives of our modern everyday that is often overlooked or purposefully ignored. The Americana feel to her works reminds the viewer that this trashed land is the country we are living in. The message seems either that we must change these surroundings, or better learn to appreciate them.

- Words by Juliette Spirson

Tatiana Kazakova has used digital media to express the chaos of the world we live in, and the messy minds that have resulted from such a world. Mixing images of nature, society, and everything in between she has created art that is not only wildly creative but as well as true to the human condition. How can one not love art that is not relative to the world we live in? Tatiana has mastered using technology as an artistic medium, which deserves recognition considering most view technology and art as completely separate.

-Gabby Petrocelli

Nature never fails to elicit awe but Lee Jae-Hyo is presenting contemplations of natural form so stark they almost seem alien. The Korean artist relies not only on what he can glean from surrounding natural objects, his method, too, derives from the uncontrolled, accidental processes of nature. From giant, purely sculptural pieces, to more utilitarian tables or benches, Lee transforms the wild into the aesthetic. Piles of discarded lumber become ominous floating orbs the size of rooms, or amoeba-esque furniture that morphs in smooth contours and bid no leaning toward geometric conception. Lee comments that by disregarding geometric form he is attempting to preserve the shapes that wood most naturally implies. Whether the overall structures Lee produces denote the formulaic circle or embody organic variations of  parameter, the textural effect of each piece takes prominence; surfaces intensify in swirls of raw wood grain, boldly appearing then receding to a dark core before another wooden globule continues the shape. A sense of harmony arises from the shifting parts reveling an energy not just of the sculptures but between each part that comprise them.  In Lee’s efforts to reclaim the natural from the traditional his work speaks to a modernity more grounded in simplicity than extravagance.

-Howard Brad Halverson

If fantasy is an invention then what is its relation to abstraction if it too is invention. I think the dividing line relies on what is tangible beyond conception. It seems like one is tangible and the other a manufacture of a  pseudo-reality: abstraction attains reality existing as a work of art, fantasy only achieves a representation of an impossible existence. Somewhere between are the paintings of Jackie Tileston.

Glimpses of Tileston’s catalog extending from now back to the 90s support the notion of how close to complete abstraction she is getting. Consistent throughout her works is the sense of nothing other than the painting. Some appear entirely devoid of any semblance, only cosmic vapors leeching through inarticulate formations of squirming lines, bulbous eruptions an incoherent patchworks of color. Perhaps some space age photography of  quasars on the other side of the universe could give a likeness to some of Tileston’s work, but that is too theoretical in juxtaposition to the actual paintings. To ground the viewer back in the recognizable, back to an ideal, Tileston also implores a design aspect to some paintings. In these, gestalt differentiation intrudes upon the formless densities with charismatic ribbons or concentric circles of colors appearing so metered and in order that a mechanistic function seems a more likely source than a chaosmos. At times some of the works seem to antagonize the line between superfluous abstraction and  stratified idealism. This tension is largely adverted though, ideals discombobulating from their centrifugal gravitation and formless splotches assimilating into coherent shapes – neither holds out against the other ultimately.

-Howard Brad Halverson

Angles, tension, pressure, and gravity. Collectively these all sound like variables of some elaborate science equation. If you’re not sure how Newton’s Law works or can’t remember the formula for pressure or maybe you have forgotten the measurements of geometric reasoning, don’t fret. It’s not on the quiz.

French artist by way of Great Britain, Fabrice Le Nezet found a way to combine all of these variables and solved for Yes!

Using strategic angles of colored piping bolted to heavy pieces of concrete, either hanging from the raptures to defy gravity or steadied with tension into place by pressure, science has finally become cool.

With an exhibit that’s fun yet informative, it’s easy to like and learn. You don’t have to mass times acceleration it.   (F=MA)

-Clifton Bullock

Inspired by the tiny and spherical shape of the Volkswagen Beetle, Indonesian artist Ichwan Noor has transformed this iconic car into the smallest and roundest version of itself in his latest work on display at Art Basel Hong Kong. A companion piece to his 2011 Beetle Box (a cubed, powder blue 1967 VW Bug) the bright yellow Beetle Sphere brings Noor’s concept full circle by utilizing contrasting shapes and complementary colors.

- Kimberly Lane