Andrew Salgado is a Canadian figurative painter who lives and works in London and has exhibited his work around the world. His paintings are large-scale and incorporate elements of abstraction and symbolic meaning. He is featured in books, is the subject of a documentary (Storytelling), and his work will be displayed at his latest exhibit, The Fool Makes a Joke at Midnight, which will be in New York City from May 7-28.
Full shownotes: http://yourcreativepush.com/andrewsalgado
In this episode, Andrew discusses:
-How he fell victim to the clutches of London.
-How he incorporates things around his studio and from his life into his artwork and anything that is around him is "fair game."
-How he approaches his paintings in a fluid fashion and being as flexible as possible.
-The importance of having fun when you paint and to enjoy the creative process.
-The dangers that can come when you try to emulate your favorite artists too closely and how it can start holding back your personal style.
-The fact that art is a marathon not a sprint and how young artists expect too much too soon.
-How every artist's definition of success is different and what his personal idea of success is.
-How money, or the promise of money, almost always affects an artist's creativity.
-The idea of a debut being an experience in which you reveal your art for the first time.
-The power that comes from seeing art in person.
-How he has a trusted few people that he will show his work to, because otherwise too many opinions can derail his creative process and make him think too much.
-How attempting to make the perfect piece of art is a beautiful thing to do, despite it being a futile pursuit of perfection.
-Bjork as an artist.
-The significance of the title of his latest gallery, The Fool Makes a Joke at Midnight.
-The power of social media, but the disservice that it does for viewing art.
-How figurative painters are treated as though they haven't evolved to a higher understanding of aesthetics like abstract painters do, and how angry it makes him.
-How the beauty of art happens when you really push yourself outside of what is comfortable.
Andrew's Final Push will inspire you to work twice as hard and worry half as much!
Quotes:
"I think of myself as a scientist tinkering about in a laboratory."
"If it's in the studio, it's fair game and it can end up in a painting or it can end up inspiring a painting."
"I let the paintings take me on a ride as opposed to getting frustrated when they aren't going the way I want them to go."
"As soon as I started letting the paintings tell me what direction they wanted to go, I became stronger."
"Whatever you need to do to make yourself a stronger artist -- go for it."
"The more we experiment and nurture our processes and don't feel bad about our processes, we can reach higher levels of painterly transcendence."
"Art is about process, and it is a lifelong process."
"People can make casual comments that can really unhinge the creative process."
"As artist, we totally know when that painting isn't sitting right."
"What I am trying to do with my work is learn how to reevaluate the figure through the language of abstraction."
"I'm trying to make my works challenging for myself to create them and I'm trying to make my works challenging for my viewer to receive them."
"If you think you know what you're doing with too much conviction, you're probably not pushing yourself hard enough."
Links mentioned:
The Fool Makes a Joke at Midnight (Andrew's exhibition)