Artist Talk: Emilio Perez, painter

“When I go into a piece of work, I don’t worry about what it’s going to look like.

Because whatever I end up with is going to look like Emilio.”

http://emilioperezart.com/

Emilio Perez is an artist of many mediums, but is mostly known for his paintings. He works mainly with abstract paintings because he does not go about his process in the “typical” way an artist goes about his work, in the way that he does not have a specific theme or goal he wants to achieve at the end of his paintings. He does not work with a preconceived concept in his mind, but rather paints for the sake of painting. So the way he starts off his paintings is not with a sketch, but rather with the paint itself, which I thought was really interesting. I think many artists today try too hard to find a concept to work on that the art of the process begins to get lost, so I appreciate that Emelio does not do this and admits that. Once he gets the paint onto his surface, he then finds drawings within the splashes of color he created, so he starts to draw on the surface as long as the medium he used was thin, such as watercolors. When it comes to thick media such as oil paint, he waits for the paintings to dry, then uses a carving tool to cut lines into his paintings. Because of the sharp objects he uses against the surface, he only paints on wood in order to withhold the sharpness of the blade. Another method of painting that evolved from this is painting onto a surface, scraping away the entire painting so that all that is left is the tints of color, painting over it with white, then scraping off the white surface to reveal the color that lies behind the white, sort of like an encaustic painting. I have been to an encaustic workshop once, but I never would have thought to try it with oil paint, although I imagine it would get very expensive. Another thing I liked about Emilio’s art is that they are always large. He wants the viewer to have an intimate experience with his work, and I think large is an effective choice because of all the intricate lines he places on his work. A trait that I also thought was admirable was the fact that he is spontaneous when it comes to his paintings. He doesn’t get caught up with making sure he gets a certain image. He said, “When I go into a piece of work, I don’t worry about what it’s going to look like. Because whatever I end up with is going to look like Emilio.”

Anderson Ranch Arts Center - August 10, 2014

Alternative Workshop: About Me

Who I Am

What I looked like as a child (Note: you are still legally a child when you are 17 years old).

My main character trait.

What inspires me most.

What I normally take pictures of.

What I love about photography.

What I'd be doing if I weren't a photographer (eating cookie dough).

The first thing I touch in the morning.

A favorite photograph.

A secret about me.

The meaning of life.

Alternative Workshop: Memory

What moment from your life do you most wish you had a photograph of?

This is going to sound pretty cruel, but I wish I had photographs of the time I moved out of my house through DCYF. Everything happened so fast that it's hard to process what happened that weekend. I've been wanting to do a series to try to recreate the moments: the tension, the emotion, the fear, but haven't really been able to figure out a way to do so. The reason why no photograph exists is because one, my parents would have flipped out, and two, it's not a very appropriate time to pull out a camera when there are police officers talking to your parents. One of the only indirect photographs I have of that period in my life is this, taken with my old cellphone:

Workshop: Final Project

 

 

 

inspired by Erwin Wurm.

Lighting Workshop: Final Project (work in progress)

This project is inspired by Erwin Wurm.

contact sheets so far:

 

Artist Lecture: Scott Schnepf

Daumier; "Rue Transnonain"

 Scott Schnepf came to the MOA to talk about the work by Daumier that is hanging up at the museum. First he talked about the origins of lithography. It was discovered in 1798 as a limestone accident in German and they discovered that because water and grease had different effects, images could be transferred with this idea that one medium could stick to paper and another medium cannot. Scott talked a little more about what Daumier did in his early career days, preparing stones for about 5 years at a lithograph shop. Later he became a cartoonist and sooner or later, he became one of the most famous printmakers, making around 4,000 lithograph prints in his lifetime.

After the short bio on Daumier and lithography, Scott led us to the print-making shop and demonstrated the lithography process. Each stone costs about $500-$2000 depending on how big the stone is. As he was demonstrating the process, it reminded me of the darkroom process because of how many different steps you have to take in order to finally get an image onto a piece of paper. He also made many variations of the print, adding more ink each time, which is sort of what darkroom is like because we have to make many test strips, with each strip having different time exposures under the enlarger.

Lighting Workshop: Narrative (final)

 

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This project is an exploration of the various sides of me that pull me in conflicting directions.

They are haunting most of the time, as if they are skulking behind my every move.
These photographs represent a depiction of my struggling efforts to escape
all the various obligations and expectations that people have for me,
in addition to the ones that I have for myself.