women artists

Interview with Martha Clippinger

Our first new contributor is Jessica Scherlag who interviewed artist Martha Clippinger. You can find Ms. Clippinger’s work on her website, www.marthaclippinger.com.

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Jessica Scherlag for Fyeahwomenartists: How has growing up in Georgia influenced you as an artist?

Martha Clippinger:  While I was growing up in Columbus, Georgia, I encountered eccentric artists who were operating without the support structure of galleries and institutions.  I was inspired by their dedication to making work and I admired their resourcefulness with materials, their willingness to experiment, and their openness to sharing their works with others. Another important influence was Pasaquan, the self-made world of Eddie Owens Martin aka St. EOM.  St. EOM created a place full of colorful patterns, totems, and various architectural details where the past and future could come together.  It must have contributed to my interest in the environmental and architectural application of color and geometry.

FY: You use such wonderfully bold and interesting color combinations in your work. What is your artistic process like?

MC: It’s totally intuitive. The colors are usually imagined combinations though I have utilized colors from memory (a bittersweet encounter with Dr. Pepper and lime sherbert), or recorded sites of inspirations (vecinos throughout Mexico City).  Sometimes my colors are carefully mixed by hand—I like to mix at least three colors together to make one, though I’ve also accepted house paint donations and use “as is”.

let water be the other half, 2011, The Doo-Nanny, Seale, AL

FY:  Are you more interested in making site-specific work or work that can function anywhere and everywhere?

MC:  Sometimes I make a work as a response to a site, but more often I make a work in the studio and then complete it through its placement (or its “site”).  Both approaches lead to mutable works. I find it interesting to see how artworks transform according to site.  I enjoy working with “universal sites”— natural/architectural elements that are practically everywhere.  I have used this approach with windows, trees, doorways, lakes, shelves, and floors.

delusion, 2010, acrylic on wood

FY: The Dirty Dirty is a gallery in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn that functions as an alternative exhibition space for artists to work outside of their everyday studio practices. How did you come to found The Dirty Dirty? Why an alternative art space?

MC: I created The Dirty Dirty as a way to bring artists together in a laid-back atmosphere where artistic exchange and social interactions would take priority over the edited, curated exhibition space. Exhibitions here are generally open calls, meaning they are open to whoever wants to participate. Parameters are given that hopefully inspire the artists to create something new or perhaps expose something already made that had not been exhibited or shared with the outside world. I also like to suggest a relationship to the South (aka The Dirty Dirty), so the outdoor sculpture exhibition “The Yard Show” was inspired by vernacular yard art. I wasn’t thinking about an alternative space when I created The Dirty Dirty.  I just wanted to get folks together and celebrate what we do.

FY:  It seems like collaboration is an important part of The Dirty Dirty and I’m drawn to how you invite participation from the community. Who or what would your dream collaboration be?

MC: My interest in collaboration is not only rooted in the sharing of ideas but also in the discomfort that can come with sharing. I hope that by creating shows that force the artists to be present, the party can bring us outside of ourselves.  So much of our process is solitary, so this creates a social environment where we expose ourselves, converse, exchange thoughts, and ultimately gain a better understanding of what each of us is doing and find encouragement. Last summer’s event, “Off the Hook!” was an exhibition inspired by the game “telephone”.  Each artist created a new work that responded to the work made by the preceding artist, then passed it on, thereby creating a chain reaction of artworks.  Many of the artists did not know one another, so they came to know someone else’s work through the creation of their own work, and then they were asked to pass their work on to the next artist who would scrutinize it in an attempt to create a new version.  The lineage was fascinating! As far as a dream collaboration goes, I’ve already experienced a “dreamy collaboration”!  Last summer, my poet-friend Urayoán Noel and I spent many days on the beach finalizing our e-constrained/post-card/accordion book about the surreal coastal Queens neighborhood of Edgemere, NY.  Check out our website and buy a book!  www.theedgemereletters.net

studio wall, 2011

FY: Many galleries and project/art spaces are run and founded by men, has being a female artist and founder of an arts organization informed your approach or thinking in any way?

MC: No, The Dirty Dirty was developed out of a personal need and belief.  I wasn’t modeling its program off of anything from the past, and I don’t know that I ever really programmed its future.

FY: What upcoming projects are you working on?

MC: “On the Fence” at The Dirty Dirty will be Saturday, April 28, 2012 from 5-8pm. Urayoán and I have been discussing another collaboration, but first, I’m off to Florida, to the Atlantic Center for the Arts.  I’ll be working with Joanne Greenbaum and can’t wait!

scott, 2010, acrylic on wood