Hi I'm Corrine. My hometown is Montclair, New Jersey, a suburb of New York City. It is a
diverse liberal art town, known for its religious acceptance. I grew up in a space and in a school that encouraged art and theatre. I've been making art since I was two years old.
As a toddler I wouldn’t be quiet, so my mom gave me cardboard and paint. Turns out it was the only thing that made me quiet. We knew that it was my calling ever since. So I took classes from kindergarten all the way through and never second guessed it.
photo courtesy of @fridasflower
“Hidden Figures” (2020), Acrylic and Oil on Canvas, 46hx 58w in.
D: Can you tell us about your work and its history?
C: The technical aspects of painting came easy to me. For instance, with figure drawing, I was making them just for assignments, but integrated them into a larger body of work. I love figure drawing and I have been doing that since I was ten years old.
I created a cohesive body of work and the figure is, as I imagine, a black figure, because that is what I am. They’re utopic, especially in regards to the fruit. They give solace.
By painting black women, I seek to make utopic, celebratory spaces for black women. The figures don't exist in this world or in this reality. They’re places to retreat to. That is why I use bright colors, happy, candy colors. Also, they are escapist, especially with all of the violence in the world. I am trying to get the viewer to go to beautiful spaces.
“Sitting Pretty” (2019) , Acrylic and Oil on Canvas, 62h x 50w in.
D: What meaning would you like your work to embody?
C: Perhaps trying to be aesthetically pleasing may be controversial as a black artist that has to say something, but I am a human and I need my work to be aesthetically pleasing. I know is it a conflict to want to have black figures as objects in a gallery. Though a black woman said to me that whenever she looks at my paintings, she feels like a super hero. So I suppose thats the best take away. To see yourself represented in different ways, in sculpture and all the ways, in respect to one's own valid existence as a black woman.
D: Yes like with Issa Rae, having a right to humor.
C: It is also important to self reflect and be critical. I get annoyed when I feel like I have to shoulder this responsibility.
D: Yeah, you shouldn’t be made into a burden, when it is about freedom.
C: Yeah, in an ideal way, when we aren’t trying to play catch up, with the canon, but want
to get to the point where we aren’t trying with representation. There aren’t ways in my work where I can portray the full experience of being a black woman. Only Toni Morrison can do that with all the different archetypes. There is self growth, watering plants and spiritual growth.
D: I think it is humanist and ecological idea.
C: Definitely about connectedness to nature, like the cosmos and universe. I want my figures to look like they’re one with the surface, they’re bleeding into the earth, the nature itself, the energy itself.
D: Interbeing and morphic-resonance come to mind.
C: I used to go to church, every week until age 12 (hippie church). The main idea in how we talk is that we are one with the universe, focusing on the spiritual more than religion as an institution.
D: There's a song called Future Feminism, by Antony and The Johnsons, about no longer serving patriarchal "sky gods", but 'finding a vested interest in this earth while we are here'. There is a 'real spiritual dimension' for one's being, their mental, emotional and physical rhythms to be in 'synchronicity with the moon' and the materials of the planet.
C: My mom works in health care, she is a project manager, in the admin realm, for New York hospitals. She makes sure that people get the care they need. It is a white collar health admin job. My dad works in the supple chain industry with shipping things. It is a white collar job making sure houses have their shipments. My dad also does photography for jazz musicians. He has been doing that for 6-7 years. That is his artistic work. My dad is an essential worker, he has been going to work every week [during the pandemic] even though he’s 60 years old...
D: ...with your work I think of Jennifer Packer's, specifically her show Tenderheaded at The Renaissance Society.
C: I remember her large paintings well. I like Gauguin's images, which is an interesting irony. I think you can understand the context in order to understand the work. I also am interested in Grace Lynne, Jordan Casteel, Matisse and Mckalene Thomas' early work inspires me.
D: Well you know, in 1992 Naomi Campbell did a Harper's Bazaar shoot in Jamaica with Peter Lindbergh, that was inspired by Gaughin's 'Spirit of the Dead Watching' painting.
Mckalene Thomas' 2014 show in Chicago, "I was born to do great things" was quite intimate and memorable. Now Mckalene's recent work has a film production scale and a new star studded, Warhol x Basquiat, pop energy as an artist. I've been thinking of a black aesthetic in regards to painting lately and looking at paintings for depth, illusion, or window, though they’re atmospheric or there is a lot of consideration to surface.
C: Yeah mine are in environments, but they’re not many I can think of where the black figure is in a deep space. Jordan Casteel is monumental. I have been asked before why my figures aren’t looking at the viewer, and if that makes them passive. Jamila [Moor] made cotton, tobacco and grew them herself, being in touch with slavery. It was a great installation and very delicate. We're in the middle of an apocalypse and I paint utopia, so it is hard mentally. I painted my dog who passed two months ago so that was therapeutic.
D: Who were you advisors?
C: My favorite professor is Richard Hull.
D: Oh I connect with Richard too! He has a great cadence!
C: This semester I haven’t been looking for guidance. I was confident and competent, just turning out painting. I enjoy talking about painting's physical touch. I enjoy surface. There's something so romantic about painting and being a classic archetype. I'm just good in it. It is amazing to be good at something you’re passionate about. There are things I enjoy doing, but I'm not good at. I'm good at calculus, but I'm not sitting around relishing calculus. I'm invested in myself in painting and it is a life long process that will keep going. It is the gift that keeps giving.
“Lil’ Tinker Bells” (2020), Acrylic and Oil on canvas, 48hx 48w in.
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