Paintings that embody emotions, on a level rarely held in canvases, with incandescent colors and flawless details... It's Surrealism, it's musical, it's passion!!...And a partial description of `
sphilr's paintings. Viewing his work is a spiritual experience, where you can't use fast forward mode and just when you think you've seen through it, you want to return for more.
It's splendid and glorious!
His own words
"...emotion is the payoff, but it only comes as a result of struggling honestly
with both technical problems
and issues of poetry that the painting itself initiates."Your paintings are provocative in beauty and intensity, a minute examination of introspective emotions, in pain and joy. They infuse optimism in life and in the human spirit. It’s an understatement to say that you put a lot of yourself into each one of them. How hard is it to literally paint emotions?
It's a funny thing... Emotion is what brings me to do the painting in the first place, but for me to get there on the page-- I have to lay out something to react to-- to see on paper how far off I am from the image that's in my head, and try to figure out what's wrong with what I've drawn, compared to what's in my mind's eye. That begins a kind of argument that continues on through the application of paint, and finally comes to a close once these conflicting elements stop making a racket, simmer down and become silent to the point where I feel like I can sign it.
I'm always surprised when someone viewing it feels something similar to what I felt when I began it-- I almost think that's a byproduct of having worked honestly to convey the truth in whatever it is I'm trying to render-- emotion is the payoff, but it only comes as a result of struggling honestly with both technical problems and issues of poetry that the painting itself initiates.
Some of your paintings have taken you years to accomplish, due to various reasons. How do you pick up a work left behind for several months and still keep the emotions so vivid?
Well, if the emotions were vivid enough to get me out to buy art supplies to begin with, usually they're vivid enough to carry me through to the end, no matter how much time has gone by between brush strokes. That's the thing about any painting-- they tend to be living records of some of your most intense emotions, and they draw me in continually, long after I've finished them.
Though painting is your medium and passion, you are not at all insensitive to photography. What do you enjoy most about Art in general?
I'm mystified and awed by an image's power to transport us into someone else's thoughts and feelings-- how much you can learn and be moved by the peculiarities of someone else's point of view.
Painters are all such disparate combinations of darkness and light-- you take someone as technically proficient as `
kolaboy, say, *
artistmonk or ~
hiraistrange-- and combine their skill with the fierceness of their individuality; the sheer power of their imaginations-- you're in for a serious jolt every time they put lines down on a page. I think it's more difficult for photographers to distinguish themselves as individuals, because the technical aspects -- from old school, large format stuff to affordable digital equipment-- tends to level the playing field and reduce personal eccentricities and peculiar styles to the point where much of it looks the same to me... But I'll be clobbered by a photograph in the same way I'm affected by a painting, for all the same reasons, when someone can show me something I think I'm familiar with in a new way-- either from an unexpected point of view, or in some surprising new context-- a photographer who's also an artist can show me the world as if I'm seeing it for the first time-- that's a big gift, and very exciting...
Sculptures and paintings are part of the most ancient forms of expression, from Stone Age to the 21st century. The role of artists in the society is unequivocally important. What is the place of great and painstaking work of Art, in the modern world of technology?
Well, I think it has the paradoxical effect of both forcing you to slow down and be more reflective about the life you're living, but also fills you with a happy impatience to get on with the things in life that your own heart has judged to be the most important and compelling-- and, since that's rarely about getting back in line and being a well-adjusted consumer, the place of art remains subversive, dangerous, and contrary to the status quo... It also serves as a constant renewal of faith in the human heart, even when you think you've lost hope altogether.
Underneath each painting there’s the canvas. What is your relationship with an empty canvas?
Pretty much religious, I'd say-- total and complete forgiveness for past mistakes, infinite with possibility, and insanely optimistic. One of my favorite things in this life is looking at a blank canvas and knowing that the best work I'm capable of is waiting right there for me to reach in and take hold of.
Impressionism, Art Deco, Modernism, Cubism, Baroque Art and Renaissance are some of the extensive movements in Art. No one would argue your mastery in Surrealism. Which other era appeals most to you and give us your own definition of Art movement.
Some scowling art critic once said that he defined Classicism as anything that makes people feel uplifted, and that Romanticism is anything that's sick and disturbed...
I like anything that can be called Romanticism-- it's the stubborn, individual human heart that refuses to give up on what the crowd holds to be irrational and beside the point-- the stuff that invariably slows production and makes the State less efficient--
the beast that shouted love at the heart of the world, to quote Harlan Ellison, just once. Deviationists; Deviants. I'm very happy with the name of this Web site.
You often use airbrush for your work, but also gouache, pen and ink. The talent you have to blend colors is beyond captivating. What determines the techniques you choose for a specific painting?
I think it might be the distance I feel at the outset between myself and the image I have in my head... If the distance is short, and I feel very familiar with it, it's probably going to be a pencil drawing, because it's all right there for me to transcribe, as if I'm taking dictation. But, if it is distant, or exotic, I'm much more likely to use the airbrush, because that tool allows me to find a general kind of understanding first, and then become more and more specific as I spend time with it. Always an education, always a revelation, always a lot of strange twists in the road before I get to where I need to be.
If given the opportunity, would you or have you done any graffiti?
I've never had that impulse, no. But I'm often amazed at the calligraphic powers some of these guys have-- it can be as accomplished looking as kanji-- I just wish they wouldn't cover my bus stop with it.
To conceive or create a work of Art is long, demanding and often a solitary atmosphere. What goes into your heart after a painting is done?
Deep, total calm, to begin with. Followed, often enough, by hopeless, bleak despair. But that goes away as soon as I've started something new.
If you had to choose one of your paintings as a message in a bottle, which one would it be?
Paradox, definitely. That's the most fun I've ever had doing a painting; it cancelled out my tendency to over-plan and showed me how to play again; the painting just never stopped showing me which way to go, right up until the end. Also because it chronicles the person I feel the most fortunate to have met, and the feeling of being in love with her. It's one of the few paintings of my own that I never get tired of looking at.
Featured artist: sphilr 
Bemused
Devious Comments
I too enjoy frolicking in Sam's work, enjoying the details and color compositions, trying to grasp the entire piece in one look, and realising it isn't possible.
You made a beautiful portrait of Sam. Good and thought-through questions baby. Well done!
And Sam: you gave great replies. I truly enjoyed reading this
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"Women and cats will do as they please...
men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." - Robert A. Heinlein
Added to your outsized talents as a photographer, designer, and writer, you've also got this genius instinct for which images to go with which words, and how the whole thing should come together-- to the point where even a mutt like me can come off looking pretty good...
Thanks so much for this, Sarah!
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Thank you!!!
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Sam is a wonderful artist and a beautiful soul!
You are one truly amazing artist, my admiration for what you do has no limit. Your beautiful heart and spirit show throughout your paintings and it's so rewarding for us to be able to view and benefit from your work, which to me, is an act of generosity!
Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview and for your kindness!
Love,
Sarah
I am honored to have been able to interview him and truly blessed to have him as a personal friend.
Glad you enjoyed the read and thank you for your comment.
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