Roz Leibowitz, a New York, NY based artist [heavy flash site for her gallery] and blogger, participates in the Artists Interview Artists Project. Below Roz responds to another artist's five questions (Anthony Easton from Ft. Sask, Alberta, Canada). In order to participate, Roz had to provide me with five questions for some other artist to answer. The assigning of questions to artists is completely random. If you're an artist and interested in participating, let me know.
Lena
pencil on vintage paper
15 1/4" x 12"
2006
1. What’s your day job?
My educational background is actually in language arts and library science – I have master’s degrees in both. In the past, I have worked as a public librarian and as a reading specialist in New York City, but currently I am devoting most of my time to my art.
2. How much of your work is about theory, and how much of your work is about practice?
I don’t know if I can make an exact distinction, if by theory one means the conceptual framework and by practice, the actual manipulation of materials. I would rather say that there is a Spirit that moves with the hand and pencil, and that without such a Spirit the work is dead, just as without the hand the Spirit is silenced. I believe strongly in the panentheistic universe of Boehme, Eckhart, and other mystics: Spirit is revealed in the continuous ebb and flow of creation. Making art is simply being in right alignment to the cosmic show. But, of course, “simply” is an understatement: the daily practice of moving the pencil, preparing the paper, trying and failing and trying again is an essential part of the work.
3. What makes you different than a lawyer, a doctor, a busboy?
Absolutely nothing, if the lawyer, doctor or busboy in question is willing to give up his or her life for the work.
4. What is the oldest artist you have an affinity for? The newest?
I think my strongest influences, historical or modern, come from vernacular culture, especially folk art and folk belief. This includes European and American printed broadsides, pamphlets, and other ephemera as well as anonymous snapshots and photos. I also have a strong affinity for the classic “outsider artists” such as Martin Ramirez, August Natterer, Henry Darger (all 20th century) as well as the Naïve painters of both Eastern Europe and Haiti. In short, anything or anyone who deals with a kind of reverence for memory.In terms of well-known artists, Joseph Cornell is an absolute influence for his creation of worlds within worlds and his singular vision, Louise Bourgeois for her oddity, Hannah Hoch and Grete Stern for their precision.
My opinion of contemporary art changes continually. Recently, I have been drawn to the work of John Digby and Maritta Tapanainen, both of whom work in collage, a form that is increasingly of interest to me.
5. How does technology directly affect the daily practice of your work?
I thank daily the wizards who invented Photoshop and the ease with which we now travel on the Internet. I use Photoshop to do initial layouts and cartoons for the final drawings, which are still done by hand with that most un-tech of mediums – the pencil. But I also have a vast collection of images that I collect from print media and from the Internet that I use for inspiration and reference. I have files on everything from “women dancing 1940s hats” to “Hand Movements - Flamenco”. Very recently, I have dipped into web blogs (having always been inveterate diarist) and am in the process of preparing my own. In a very real sense, technology has opened new worlds and new vehicles of communication for artists everywhere.
The Flower of Eternal Imagination
pencil on vintage paper
43" x 26"
2005
Previous Interviews:
Juno Doran (questions by James W. Bailey)
Josh Feldman (questions by Joseph Barbaccia)
Lisa Stephenson (questions by Whitney Lynn)
Joseph Barbaccia (questions by Josh Feldman)
James W. Bailey (questions by Matt Hollis)
Matt Hollis (questions by Juno Doran)
Carol Es (questions by James Leonard)
Alexandra Silverthorne (questions by Ami Lahoff)
Christine Buckton Tillman (questions by Carol Es)
Douglas Witmer (questions by Alexandra Silverthorne)
Sky Pape (questions by Douglas Witmer)
Whitney Lynn (questions by Lisa Stephenson)
Heather Levy (questions by Joanne Greenbaum)
Heather Lowe (questions by Samantha Wolov)
Samantha Wolov (questions by Heather Levy)
Timothy McClellan (questions by Heather Lowe)
James Leonard (questions by Sky Pape)
Joanne Greenbaum (questions by Timothy McClellan)
Richard Kooyman (questions by Robert Walton)
Candy Keegan (questions by Warren Craghead)
Robert Walton (questions by Candy Keegan)
John M. Adams (questions by Richard Kooyman)
Prescott Moore Lassman (questions by Mary Addison Hackett)
Mary Addison Hackett (questions by Prescott Moore Lassman)
Andrew Wodzianski (questions by Nathan Manuel & D.Billy)
Nathan Manuel & D.Billy (questions by Andrew Wodzianski)
Michael Janis (questions by Scott Listfield)
Scott Listfield (questions by Michael Janis)
F. Lennox Campello (questions by Sean Hennessy)
Matt Andrade (questions by Adrian Parsons)
Sean Hennessy (questions by F. Lennox Campello)
George Wayne (questions by Michelle McAuliffe)
Eridanus Sellen (questions by Anabela Jevtovic)
Anabela Jevtovic (questions by Eridanus Sellen)
Marianela de la Hoz (questions by A.B. Miner)
Martin Henry (questions by Barbara Johnson-Gresser)
A.B. Miner (questions by George Wayne)
Barbara Johnson-Gresser (questions by Martin Henry)
Adrian Parsons (questions by Matt Andrade)
Heather Schmaedeke (questions by <Patricia Hartnett)
Anthony Easton (questions by Melissa Kennedy)
Comments