Art Sync: Creating The World

Elizabeth Johnson: You and other viewers describe your work as lyrical, whimsical, lush, archeological, personal. Both you and Julie Courtney state that it is a “chaotic blend of chance and careful planning.” When you finish a painting, would you say that you prefer achieving balance or landing slightly off-balance?

Val Rossman: I think it is a combination of both . . . I definitely want balance, but there also needs to be some element of surprise. If it is too balanced, then it seems boring. Sometimes it is a gesture that achieves this and at other times it is a surprising color or shape in an unexpected place. It can’t be too disturbing, just a bit awry. The combination of chance and careful planning is a major theme in all of my work regardless of media and even series. To me that is a metaphor for life . . . we all try to plan our life, but often unexpected things happen which we have to deal with. My art mimics this and I love using a visual medium to expand upon it. 

EJ: You work most often in a square format and occasionally in a rectangular one. I get that working out of a square is working out of a center. Does the rectangle provide a place to evolve? Or feel figurative?

VR: When I first started working in the square format, I thought it was very difficult because it starts out so evenly balanced that it was hard to make a composition work. However, the more I did them, the more I felt so comfortable with this shape. The rectangle does not feel figurative––just not as interesting to me. Also, because I am constantly turning the pieces around as I work, I love the square for the ability to do that and not suggest portraiture or landscape.  

EJ: I am intrigued by how you name your pieces. You mention this in your video, and I was wondering if you can elaborate on the list of places or words that you use to make titles. How do you connect a title with a painting? Do you keep a diary? Does your daily art output link to daily events? You mention for instance, that the weather was important to you during a Vermont residency.

EJ: You work in two worlds: a soft pastel world of light and depth that seems to stem from feeling and color, and a hard-edged world where you can muscle in, mask off, and build articulated spaces that seem to emphasize drawing or planning. You speak of color as always coming first and of having a strong color memory. Would you agree that the calligraphic works do both at once? I’m interested that you mostly maintain the separation. Is this because it is refreshing to go back and forth? Is this an expression of balancing acceptance and intention? 

VR: I am really not sure why I do this. I wish I actually knew the answer to this question. It is refreshing to go back and forth between the two worlds. Also, because the different mediums themselves drive what I do. For a while I painted very organically, which I liked, but there is something so satisfying about doing the hard-edged, precise paintings that I love. The pastels are so juicy and soft, I love creating the other worlds with them as well. Perhaps my life is an influence too. Part of my life is very traditional: husband, kids, grandkids, house in the burbs. Professionally, I am a serious artist having worked for almost 40 years, teaching and having a serious studio practice.
 

EJ: The pastel works seem to relate to touch through polishing, your direct contact with them. The acrylic paintings seem to achieve a broader point of view––a travelling effect. Do you recognize in yourself what compels you to make a pastel as opposed to an acrylic painting?

VR: For sure the pastels are very sensuous and direct. There is more distance in creating the paintings. I seem to go in spurts . . . either working for a while in one media or the other. Once I get going it seems that I stay in that path for a bit before looping back to the other.

EJ: Can you describe your recent pieces in terms of the comparing these two kinds of working? And maybe if and how they overlap?

VR: The acrylic paintings are comprised of numerous layers of taped-off areas. There is not a “plan” that I follow. I tape a few areas at a time and then continuously shape and reconfigure the hard-edged blocks. I continuously add gestures which “mar” the clean color blocks. I use transparent as well as opaque paint as I work. Also, the paintings begin with only scribbles and colors and lines. Some of these original areas are covered over and others remain as the painting develops.  

EJ: In the Art in the Wilderness video, I liked watching you work outside in front of a mountain. I can see that you are capturing feeling and not depicting nature. I love that you say that you are trying to capture the feeling of being in this place today. The first piece is set aside, and the second piece really charges you up. Yay––hot pink! Was finding the right color the thing that plugged you into the landscape’s drama? It seems that you had to work hard to get around the commanding power of the landscape to reach your own color definition of its power. Does that sound right?

VR: Yes, that is great!
 

VR: My idea for this lesson actually started many years ago when we were renovating our home. We had debris throughout the house, and I thought how fun it would be to think about the world being destroyed and being able to “remake” it in my own way. I have recycled this idea throughout many classes and often what the students come up with is great. This was especially appropriate during the past year with COVID-19, in that it did feel like the world was falling apart. Thinking about a new and personal world was a positive way to cope with all of the negativity around us. It is also very open-ended for students to interpret it as they wish.

––Elizabeth Johnson

(elizabethjohnsonart.com)

edited by Matthew Crain 

(instagram.com/sarcastapics)

April 2022