An extemporaneous investigation into creative impetus through physical travel and virtual acquisition with Adrienne Kammerer.
You started this series of drawings while away at a residency. Where were you and how did that environment affect your work?
I noticed a continuity in some of the landscape elements within your drawings. Are the pieces part of a larger world? Or does each drawing depict it’s own environment and narrative?
I like to think of it as both. Something akin to Narnia and it’s multiverse of worlds where passage between the worlds is rare but possible or similar to King’s Road depicted in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell which once you find your way onto the road you can access infinite realms within the kingdom.
I was thinking about nightmares and childhood fears that stay with us into adulthood when curating this show. Are there certain images or experiences (real or imagined) that have stayed with you in life? If so, do they find a way into your drawings?
As a kid I would occasionally stay with my grandparents for the weekend. The house was built in the middle of 50 acres of wooded forest and my bed was positioned directly across the room from my grandfathers collection of animal skulls. Raccoons lived in the attic and coyotes would howl through the night. If I slept at all it was guaranteed to be a sleep filled with nightmares. I’m sure this probably instilled some sort of love for the macabre later in life.
Even though your drawings could be described as gothic or fantasy related, they are also comedic and self aware. Can you tell us more of your motivations behind creating these?
Adrienne Kammerer, along with artists Ryan Travis Christian, David Jien, and Toshio Saeki, examine storytelling through the channeling of subconscious narratives in the latest exhibition: Happily Until Their Deaths