The one thing that struck me was that the whole show felt like one painting
With a title like that, 'Living Colour', when you enter a show your initial reaction
is going to react to the palette of the painting
One thing that I found quite interesting was where the show starts
On the first floor you get up there and
then you look down and you can see a lot of the larger works
You're kind of teased by it
but it's interesting that you're basically guided on this journey through her life
whilst being able to circle the bottom part of the show
We talked about how your work compares to Lee Krasner,
how does it make you feel when you were going round the exhibition?
I felt like I could really relate to a lot of the things she was saying
and the work itself and her use of colour
Why is that?
The paintings were reacting to each other.
When I was looking at this work I felt like everything felt so natural
It wasn't performative, intentionally
I could almost feel an excitement. It's almost like a tracing of her steps
and I feel like when I'm working as well I'm really engaged to the movement
of the painting, of the paint on the surface
and it's funny, when people see me paint they
really say it looks like I'm dancing!
That probably comes across because I listen to music whilst I'm working
I'm really feeling the work I'm making
It's like we're one
I think the thing that resonated with me was her kind of
engagement with failure
and I think there's a quote as well as she talks
about painting and life being one and I I feel like I talk about that a lot with
my work as well and how I'm kind of questioning myself and my own
experiences or my own moments
She really talks about paint being something that
actually gives you life in a way you hold on to it
Exactly
That really kind of aided her grief especially those paintings after Jackson Pollock died
Did the titles have an impact on what you thought about the paintings?
I thought the titles were one of the most interesting parts of the show
I felt like I was going through a diary, a very simplistic diary
It felt like the titles were a journey
but that was probably my own projection on the work - and that's fine
I mean, I think we will look at work in relationship to ourselves
I also found it interesting, if you kind of
notice where the works were placed in the show, with their titles,
it was almost like a guidance through her life
I found that quite fascinating
You work in quite an abstract and expressionist way,
how did you compare your own work?
Maybe let's talk about the colour in your own work, compared to the colour in Lee Krasner's
I was quite envious
Yeah?
Yeah. I feel like the way my work has been developing
in recent years - recent years, I haven't been going to that long but
one thing that struck me was in the beginning,
when I think it's when her collage series starts and that's when her use of
colour becomes a lot more simplistic and also natural
and when I say natural, I mean in the sense, you
you know, when you think about complementary colours
And with your own work, does colour come first?
Or does the mark making come first?
Colour always comes first
I think that's why I really enjoyed this show
Yeah, colour always comes first and I'm always envious of other people's use of colour
Because I feel like color is invitation for someone's eyes and how they see
life and pleasure or even the opposite of that
And I feel like I'm always engaging with colour
whether I'm walking down the street or, you know, going shopping
Colour is the first thing I always see and it's how I make a lot of choices in life!
Based on colour
I think that's why the title of the show really struck me at first
I was like, yes - this is my show.
This is a show for me!