Savagery and Everlast
Natalie Richard
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On Cover Savagery and Everlast, Untiled (Detail), Digital Media, 2013.
Savagery and Everlast
Natalie Richard
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Savagery and Everlast
A Collection of Past and Present Works by
Natalie Richard
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Artist Statement
I make art to express myself but more importantly I create
art to communicate. My cycle of work begins in the land of dreams. The dreams I have influence my creations as I find great satisfaction in the challenge of articulating these ephemeral stories from my unconscious. From these dreams I work through a number of mediums, painting, drawing, digital and traditional collages. All of this work lead up to the pieces that I present to you, the viewer.
My work is driven by this interest in what you, the viewer, can take away from it. Through a process of interview I have begun collecting and responding to the interpretations of my abstract pieces which stem from dream. With these interviews I am able to create an entirely new body of work using sound and reflectios.
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Left and Right: Untitled (Detail), Digital Media, 2014. What I want from these new sound pieces is exactly what I expect from myself when I dream; I want to wake up after experiencing this surreal atmosphere and draw my own conclusions. These conclusions from my dreams are who I am and speak to my experiences and my understandings-just as your conclusions are who you are.
I hope that my work invites you, the viewer, to draw your own conclusions and reflect on how the way you interpret these images, these sounds, these experiences are a sincere echo of you. From the dream-scapes of my mind I draw. From the drawings I read. From the readings I write and scream and dance and sing. For these are my inspirations; these worlds that exist in my mind. These worlds I find in the waking world that I capture in photograph, in drawing, in painting, in whatever medium the dream calls to me. From these captured dreams, I cannabiliize the images and present them to you. Where will these images take you? I destabilize the tremours of your voice and create a sound-scape. This sound will take us through another journey of receive and response until these, the final images, are presented. Dreams exist in cycles as does this, my response.
Savage self, everlasting cycles.
Natalie Richard
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Joshua David Thompson
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Joshua David Thompson, Video Still, 2014.
Joshua David Thompson, Video Still, 2014.
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Joshua David Thompson, Video Still, 2014.
Joshua David Thompson, Video Still, 2014.
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Joshua David Thompson, Video Still, 2014.
Joshua David Thompson, Video Still, 2014.
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Cold Water
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Cold Water, Video Still, 2014.
Cold Water, Video Still, 2014.
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Savagery and Everlast
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Untitled, Digital Media, 2013.
Untitled, Digital Media, 2013.
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Untitled, Digital Media, 2013.
Untitled, Digtial Media, 2013.
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Steam Whistle
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Steam Whistle, Video Still, 2014.
Steam Whistle, Video Still, 2014.
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Savage (Right Side of the Road)
The street will stop to take the essence from a billboard A not so familiar face, eyes caught in an eclipse, eternally shadowed by pyramid flags Reach out to shriek familiarity, Push and tug, Prsent a giftwrapped: ratrace Cog grinding Gear finger: savagery everlast There is a name I have not heard in quite sometime Appropriate follow up. Glisten the grey. Backwards switsh of a grey veil hidden behind a lunar smile. Slow motion rag tag fanfare I will apologize for a night so many years’ yesterday. Warm whiskey cold with sour whiskey. Flesh pyramid. The eramacisst left a message to sweetp across the stage, left us breathless: I have found a goddess. I will apologize. Don’t you dare for first my temper shall tear you asunder. Mighty goddess: whom swallowed the storm?
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Artist Interview Collobatoration with Holly Teresa Burchat
HB: Applying several layers to your paintings in a sense could indicate your connection with the mental projection in your mind and how close you feel to that realm. Do you ever feel forced to apply more paint because you want to distinguish that separation? I would definitely say that a lot of my pieces have an ‘overworked’ feeling to them which is something I am still coming to terms with. I feel this is conveyed because of my ties to language; I see my works as a method to communicate. Verbally I also have too much to say, I think it is a matter of working through my ideas many times before finally approaching that final piece and having narrowed my focus or coming to the final work with a concise message may result in a cleaner image. Do I feel I need a cleaner image? Yes, because to me that creates a more refined, finished work however I still find a lot of value in my process work on a personal level. I add a lot of layers to my collages because that reflects the dream world that I have created; there are many layers and narratives that are connected, many times in ways that I cannot see straight away; the process of layering mirrors the dreams and how they are all connected and overlap at times. At times in my dreams it feels as if there are stories within the stories; that words are not just words but have greater significance in another aspect of another dream. They are all connected and for me that explains my connection to layering and mental projections. HB: Have you ever regretted producing a work because it exposed too much of yourself? Quite interesting you bring this up actually. One large scale assemblage I presented earlier this year entitled Bravery directly relates to this idea of exposure through my work. I honestly believe that it was because I was afraid of telling people about my dreams or realizing them too honestly that I had a lot of trouble getting my thoughts onto paper, paralyzed by the fear of revealing too much; the reason I entitled the assemblage Bravery was because it was directly related to facing that fear, in spite of what I thought of those works whether I felt they were successful or not, or if I felt I had put too much of myself into them; I put them up on the wall and dared the viewer into my psyche. This feeling of ‘nudity’ or ‘exposure’ was repeated when just this past week I decided to put up my personal process work which is where I deal with the themes in my dreams, make them my own and reflect on my current project and what it means to me and to the people I interact with. My art is a way to reflect and to respond; to hold conversations with myself, these conversations are often very personal so yet; I have regretted producing works because they expose too much of myself however I am working every day to defeat this fear and I believe that challenge is pushing me in the direction of becoming a stronger person which goes hand in
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hand with pushing me to become a stronger artist. I feel exposed just admitting that! HB: The detail presented in your work accounts for the time obsessing over an idea, do you ever feel trapped? Holly, I like that you are able to take these things out of my work; I don’t know if that is the psychology student speaking or just how your mind works but it’s fascinating! I do obsess and yes, I constantly feel trapped by this idea. It shakes and pounds in my head so that I have to get out and walk it out; I let my thoughts free when I’m in that walking space and I release them there, when I am returning back from my walk they have had their exercise as well and they are a bit tamer. Is that a bit too much? What I mean to say is that last year in particular I felt very trapped by the idea of dream and cycle. This project felt like a trap for too reasons: I struggled with how to depict dreams-how do you depict something that doesn’t exist? And I struggled with why I wanted to depict the dreams-they have always been a constant source of inspiration for my works however, did I really want to invite so many people into my mind? I felt vulnerable and blamed my artwork for that. I felt that whenever I was working on the idea, I had to do those dreams and dream-people justice, I also had to create works that met my idea of what ‘good art’ was, I was putting a lot of pressure on myself and felt every moment not at the very least thinking about the project was wasted. I am in a much better place now with it; I have learned to accept that these are my dreams and only I an do them justice, I have learned to take breaks and play with the dreams in my own drawings and choose to focus on the perspectives to present to other people because first, that truly interests me and is relevant to other viewers!
The body of work that I am creating now, in terms of the sound art I feel will always have a mark of my personality and reveal more than I am intending. Always interesting to see people draw things from my work that yes, are truth, however I had not intended on revealing through my pieces! So in some ways, art is a very vulnerable making for me however I am moving forward with this! I am confident with my sound pieces and working in small ways each day to grow more confident in sharing my personal work. It is not that I am afraid of getting poor criticism (if anything I invite it, it helps me grow!) however it is
HB: Do you feel vulnerable when others look at your work? The body of work that I am creating now, in terms of the sound art I feel will always have a mark of my personality and reveal more than I am intending. Always interesting to see people draw things from my work that yes, are truth, however I had not intended on revealing through my pieces! So in some ways, art is a very vulnerable making for me however I am moving forward with this! I am confident with my sound pieces and working in small ways each day to grow more confident in sharing my personal work. It is not that I am afraid of getting poor criticism (if anything I invite it, it helps me grow!) however it is people seeing more of me than I was prepared to share. However I think that is giving people too much credit, perhaps that is a cynical way of looking at things but it’s true and helps me show those more ‘naked’ works. With my honest work, when I share that; it is a feeling as if my brain has been cut out and put on display for the viewers to peer into. Holly these are wonderful questions! HB: Are you comfortable with what you create? The stylistic approach I am currently applying to my work I am honestly letting my mind take my hand places; I am drawing from my surroundings and from the training I have put my hands through in previous exercises and of course from my memory my hands will follow those familiar patterns. My mark making changes in terms of the medium and the posture I am in when working which are variables I like switching up often as I frequently surprise myself with the marks I am able to make just by standing or working backwards or at a table versus an easel. I am comfortable with what I create when I know I have been honest with it. I wish I could create more or create more detailed works but honestly that’s a patience thing; I cannot sit with one piece too long because there are so many ideas to get out at once! I hope that answers your question. HB: Many of your digital works focus on organic representations of the earth. Does the manipulation of a digital image expose your abstract orientation of how you see things or control things? Yes my manipulation of the image speaks to how I see things. It is again that idea of layering and contortion that I find a lot in my dreams. These images I found in the real life are remniscent to me of things in my dreams and I cannibalize these images to better represent the lurking shadows I see beneath them and all of the delicious stories just waiting to be told. I deconstruct the images thinking and re imagining the dreams and find that they come out in the most surprising ways. The process of
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creating these digital collages, especially the dream-collages, was an exceptional moment for me; it was realizing the dreams in a true form that I had never thought I could achieve. People speak of that creative moment; for me the dream collages and their creation represent that. Perhaps that is what is so powerful for me about them. I sincerely hope that honesty comes through to the viewer. In terms of control; yes the digital image speaks to how I destroy the dreams that would otherwise destroy me; we battle and eat each other-I destroyed the images and the product was positive: a dawn after battle. HB: Have you ever lost interest in a particular dream you have after representing it on paper? Great question! Once, it feels like such a long time ago, I was talking with an author I really admiresuch a passionate woman! I wanted to tell her one of my dreams, I wanted to turn it into a story and I had already elaborated on it so much that I felt it was ready to become a full story! She had stopped me and told me to just do it instead of share it; once I shared that story, the thrill of it would go with my words. I took that to heart and perhaps this is why I never talk about my dreams: I save them to make art out of. I feel I have lost interest in some dreams because all they needed was a way to escape through my art and they go. Most of the dreams are so interconnected I have not yet finished with them as each piece I creates makes me realize something new about them. Which makes me ponder; if I am coming to realizations about the dreams in my conscious life; how is that affecting what they are in my subconscious life? The relationship between waking and dreaming thought is a complicated one I don’t feel I will every fully understand. So can I really ever lose interest? One dream in particular I lost interest in was because I told people what the dream was about instead of doing that delicious thing I do where I ask people what they think the story is-a much more interesting conversation!- I did a piece called Malorey’s Scarf. To be quite honest I was quite content with this work and felt I had accurately captured a key moment in the dream. The moment came where viewer’s were telling me what they thought when one asked if they could be told what the dream was about...I told the story of the dream and all desire to show the work again or to repeat the dream-story fled in that moment. The secret of the girl in the painting had been told, the dream was no longer a dream but an old story I had read too many times.
instead of doing that delicious thing I do where I ask people what they think the story is-a much more interesting conversation!- I did a piece called Malorey’s Scarf. To be quite honest I was quite content with this work and felt I had accurately captured a key moment in the dream. The moment came where viewer’s were telling me what they thought when one asked if they could be told what the dream was about...I told the story of the dream and all desire to show the work again or to repeat the dream-story fled in that moment. The secret of the girl in the painting had been told, the dream was no longer a dream but an old story I had read too many times. HB: Does your need to mix image with text demonstrates your connection with the literature?Have you contemplated that your mark-making in a sense is an expressive language that only you can communicate with? These are really fantastic questions. I like where they are taking my thoughts; thank you for taking so much time to consider my works-these really reflect how insightful you are Holly. In terms of the text, it is something I have struggled with repeatedly. Yes, I do read a lot. Yes, I do write a lot. I once had a comment made that my sketchbooks looked more like bibles than image-diaries. I have decided to integrate my words honestly into my work because it is a fusion of the two passions I have; it is a fusion of the way I record my thoughts and the way I respond to my thoughts. So yes I agree, the NEED to fuse image with text definitely demonstrates my connection with the written form. Is language a crutch? Perhaps, however I have decided to look at it as yet another tool in my tool belt to express myself. I wholeheartedly believe that my mark making is a language, I believe that art is a tool for communication. Perhaps the forms my marks make can be the forms of communication. The marks themselves each, for me, represent the where and the when I am when I create those marks; they are indicators of time and reflection. What good is a language only I can interpret? Ha! I can express myself in such a free way and I am inviting the viewer into this code, I dare them to crack my thoughts open! It is also amazing to see the links people have made just from my obsessive mark making; perhaps they can be translated easier than I had originally thought! HB: As artist we all make mistakes do you ever feel that you rely on the uncertainties of process? Does your work ever overwhelm you? To answer the first question; do I ever leave anything up to chance? Yes, and no. I really enjoy the
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process of planning out my work and attacking it through steps, perhaps that is just the way I see the world. This is my methodology and not always the most artistically productive! At some point, after the planning and the research behind the why of the image..I like to let my hands do the work and allow the mark making to be very intuitive. Some of my recent work has been releasing from the tighter mark making and playing with that idea of body awareness and posture to make marks based purely on my body’s proximity and position in relation to the work. Yes I believe in mistakes and they can be frustrating but I also believe in chance and the creative power of the intuitive and in deconstructing to make something new. I look a lot to Dadaism and that approach to art and chance is really inspiring. At some point I need to break from process and just create which is an organic thing I believe, can there really be mistakes in a natural process? And yes as you have mentioned, I have no control over these dreams which is at once thrilling and terrifying-I rely on the uncertainty and I also rely on my control; how I can take these uncertain elements and draw conclusions from them. My work frequently overwhelms me; but that is the exciting part. If art is a natural thing, its a beast. A terrifying, unknown creature we cannot ever hope to tame; perhaps it will come out to play and create with us but we can never expect to bend it and break it to do what we want-there is an element of chance and unknown there that is overwhelming..and thrilling. Why would we create if we were always certain of the outcome? I think I feel overwhelmed at times only because I have something to say and I am not sure how to say it or I become overwhelmed by how small my voice seems in such a large world. The feeling will not last though because I have strength to move forward and this is what I do, this is what I love to do and no matter how small I feel; I will continue.
HB: Do you consider your work dark? Personal? A map? Something another person could possibly come up with? What is dark? I think that referring to my work as dark would depend on your definition. My work is definitely personal but I try to abstract these personal aspects to make them more accessible to the viewers; I am more interested in stripping these thoughts to the bones and having the viewers flesh out their own stories and meanings. I see my works as a map in that they all lead back to the same thoughts, they are all related and eventually, in spite of myself, they will lead back to me. Perhaps I see them as mind-maps; I most definitely see my collages as mind-maps (my studio wall is a great example of this, but is that a piece of art?) I do not think I have stepped into anything ‘revolutionary’ with my work no, so I do believe other people could definitely come to the same conclusions, probably the same imagery; there is nothing new about what I am doing. But what these works mean and the process of creating them...that is purely my own. Perhaps I am egotistical in thinking this but my dreams are purely mine. Influenced by outside sources to be sure and how my conscious mind creates stories out of them or the interpretations I make perhaps those aren’t original..but I like to think that the dreamscapes belong to me and are the truest form of self-portrait I could ever create. Perhaps I am striving so that one day my art will reach a similar plane.
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Natalie Richard
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Curriculum Vitae
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Natalie Richard EDUCATION McMaster University, Bachelor of Fine Arts 2011-Present Dean’s Honor Roll RELATED EXPERIENCE L.L.C. Community Adviser, Edwards Hall, McMaster University, August 2014 – Ongoing Research Assistant, Medellin Museum of Modern Art: Mediator School, April 2014 – July 2014 Research Assistant to Professor Briana Palmer, Faculty of the Arts: Printmaking, Winter Term 2014 Office Assistant, School of the Arts Office, September 2013-January 2014 Arts Director, Community Connection, July 2009-August 2013 GROUP EXPOSITIONS 2014, Reverie, New Space 2013, Touchstone, New Space 2013, Chiasmata Silent Art Auction, New Space 2013, Plein Air Art Exhibition, New Space 2013, Alexandria’s Traveling Bauhaus 2013, Mapping Paradise con Greg Schlanger, New Space 2012, Drawing Exhibition, Toyoto Upper James 2011, ART 1DM3 End of Year Exhibition, New Space 2011, Rock Paper Scissors, Station Gallery 2011, Distinguished Student Showing, Robert McGlaughlin Gallery 2010, Looking Forward, Looking Back, Station Gallery INDIVIDUAL EXPOSITIONS 2014, Mac Green Coffee House, Bridges Cafe 2013 COPE Coffee House, Bridges Cafe 2012, Bates Hall Coffee House, Bates Hall ARTIST TALKS 2013, All Saints Catholic High School, Advanced Placement Visual Arts, Whitby ON 2013, McMaster University, ART 2PG3, Hamilton ON PRINT ‘May The Kingdom Continue,’ Celebrating Art Anthology, 2012 “Savage (Right Side of the Road)”, Incite Magazine, 2014
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Conclusion
I will tear you asunder, the boil-blood beneath the mortal canvas shall rain into a sky fallen, pierced on the obelisk tip. Write me a prayer. Worship the catacombs you singed. Who were you to her? Though we made no love, I died alongside that grey sister. Haven have her. My body is her gravestone. Should you ever dare whisper remose, I will tear free the thunder, kiss your cattle-born-bones. Ghosts will saunter across each stage. Promise a star-filled night.
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Mars and Mercury, Digital Media, 2014.