Tony Gonzalez ArtIsUnity Interview
As far back as I can remember being an artist is all I ever really wanted to be. Drawing was my safe place. I had many interests which I always drew about.
A memory I haul out whenever anyone asks me about my art—is of my being in a vacant lot and dragging a stick through the dirt and just reveling at that roosted tail of dirt that was flying up.
In this US culture where art and artist are not integrated into the activity and career options as readily available, what does it mean to be an artist, to create art?
I have a very expansive idea of what being an artist is. “Artist” signifies a way of being in the world, of being present, open and striving to be authentic. It is my experience that when drawing (and engaging in other kinds of creative activities) I’m able to cultivate these qualities—being present, open and authentic.
Did you study Art?
I went to the Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, where the education was all about learning “skills”, as opposed to esoteric high concept stuff: techniques, color and design theory, classical renaissance drawing, portrait painting. I also studied for many years at the Art Students League: anatomy, figure painting in oils, classical figurative sculpture, pastels. What I loved, and found most useful, about art school was learning to “see” the physics and geometry of the world.
Are there things you had to unlearn?
Not really, although my notions of what it meant to be an artist (what an artist’s priorities should be) evolved as I matured and read some Eastern Philosophy (Cage, Suzuki) and learned about modernism and all the other isms.
Are there Art movements, styles, periods and or artists that you’re drawn to, influenced by?
Many! In rough chronological order; cave drawings, Giotto, El Greco (and all the late renaissance mannerists e.g. Pontormo, Bronzino), Wiener Werkstätte (Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Klimt), Edgar Degas, Van Gogh, Picasso, DEKOONING!!!!!, Arshile Gorky, The Mexican Muralists (Siqueiros and Orozco), Black Mountain College artists, John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Merce Cunningham, Richard Serra.
Does the medium you’re working in influence the content, the composition of what you’re creating?
Absolutely. The work is a conversation with the medium. Every medium is different and demands to be engaged with in very specific ways. How you make the marks has everything to do with what organically emerges from the mark making.
Just drawing in the dirt and that is the pure experience; that is my touchstone, my standard when I’m working for myself on my own to make it meaningful…that’s what I want to capture that’s more important than anything else…That’s what makes it worth doing…makes it exciting…what brings joy into my heart…just working and seeing what happens…
Talk about the computer art apps you work with.
I have used Photoshop a lot over the years—scanning pencil or ink drawings and then manipulating them digitally. More recently I have been learning an app called Procreate – drawing with a stylus on my iPad. I love the freedom and spontaneity of drawing digitally in Procreate, but it is more difficult to get to that creative razor’s edge (where the most exciting things happen). Because of the infinite number of times you can easily correct and re-do a mark, there is no chance of accidentally destroying the image being created, as is the case with conventional drawing tools. The artists whose work I most admire, Egon Schiele, de Kooning, Van Gogh, Picasso inhabit that place, as if they are working on the edge of a cliff and could fall to their deaths at any moment.
How does the medium influence how you work? How you show, share your work?
Procreate allows me (with a click or a tap) to try and surprise myself as I’m working.
As I mentioned earlier, what is exciting about making art is the conversation with the medium. I want push-back—to be thrown off balance—to be delighted by relationships on the page that I could not have planned, relationships that emerged through the conversation with the medium.
What, if any, is your primary medium? Is the medium you primarily work in you preferred medium?
I am a draftsman, a graphomaniac obsessed with making marks, and delighted when the marks I’m making surprise me and send me someplace new and exciting.
In illustrating a book do you work from the feel, thought of the book as an entirety, or do you work with the visuals the words invoke as the story is progressing, or some combination, or something totally other?
Although I have done quite a bit of commercial illustration and painted several murals, I have never illustrated a book. As an editorial illustrator I had to create a visual representation which illuminated the text of the accompanying editorial without being literal—like creating a parallel visual universe, riffing on the concepts explored in the text.
Talk about being a muralist—what that requires? What are the collective, community aspects of mural creation?
The context of each mural job will be very specific and very different from all the others. A muralist has to be a good storyteller and understand composition and design. Interpersonal skills are also important. There is always a “client” that needs to be satisfied, which can require compromising a “creative vision”.
Do, how do current events/politics impact your creation?
Indirectly. Politics and social justice issues interest me, but I seldom attempt to make a drawing about “something”. Although I have done a lot of editorial illustrations for publications, of which I am very proud, the work that I do that is most meaningful to me is more nuanced.
It is hard to explain, but I always intend to draw without any “intention” at all. I do not “plan” or “compose” or “try to tell a story”. I love the act of making marks on a page and seeing what comes burbling up from my subconscious and out through my fingers – without judgement. If in the end the drawing appears to tell a story or implies a narrative that happens much later in the process—and was NEVER the driving force.
Is your art actively influenced by thoughts, emotions, spirit in the moment of creation?
Thoughts, emotions, spirit of the moment about sums up what is most important to my process.
Do you have other things going on when creating: music, visuals, meetings, company?
I often play music when I draw – gritty blues guitar, or sometimes classical (Mozart).
What are, if any, your work habits? Do you work at regularly scheduled time?
I don’t really have a scheduled time to make art, although I tend to be up late drawing (when there is less chance of being distracted of disturbed. When I’m able to get lost in the creative experience everything else fades into the background and I “forget” to eat, go to bed etcetera.
Is creation planned, detailed, spontaneous, improvisational, reactive, proactive?
All of the above – except for “planned”.
Do you have any particular physical aspects that influence your work?
When I write, talk about making art, I am mostly referring to drawing. Although I have explored other media, drawing is where I live. When I teach, I tell my students that I approach the act of drawing not so differently than one might approach shooting baskets (or plug in any physical activity that requires being in sync with your body). A fluent draftsman might look at a particular fluid line in a drawing done 500 years ago by Michelangelo and “know” that Michelangelo was likely exhaling as his hand moved across the page. Classical fluent drawing is supported by one’s breathing and posture among other things. So – yes, it is very much about the physicality and the “rhythm”.
Is there an artist or art work—more than one—that has made a lasting impression on you?
As a very young man I viewed El Greco’s painting “The Assumption of the Virgin” at the Chicago Art Institute and it changed me.
As a young man I could not articulate how or why—I just knew that El Greco’s painting spoke to me (shouted actually). El Greco was the first western artist to make his paintings about the dynamic physical act of painting (The marks! The brush strokes!). His painting was about the surface of the canvas (this fact was not so readily apparent in the small El Greco reproductions I had previously seen only in books). He was not pretending to create the illusion of reality—of three dimensions on a two dimensional surface, as if one was looking through a window onto the scene being depicted. He was doing so much more. In my mind the abstract expressionists of the 20th century are his direct descendants. In El Greco’s work I can see how he was having his “conversation with the medium”.
What role does money, income play in your creation of art?
None.
Is your basic living income derived from, related to your art?
No. However the qualities of being an artist that I hold dear have practical applications. I’m a creative problem solver who loves the journey—the experience of exploring a new medium. When you approach your days as an artist then a classroom full of kids can become the “medium” that “pushes back”.
Do you have an art representative, an agent, or work with a gallery?
No.
Talk about selling and or giving your art away. What is that like?
Although I’ve had paid commissions and had work in gallery exhibitions and sold occasionally, the income derived has been negligible. The commercial art work I have done was more consistent for a time, but, as I tried to explain above, that stuff doesn’t count.
What is it like to part with your creation?
If someone truly understands, appreciates a work I have created then they are appreciating and understanding something intimate and personal about me. Something that cannot typically be expressed in words.
What work, important interest occupy you in addition to art?
Politics, art education, literature.
Do you apply for grants, fellowships, for gallery shows and other exhibits?
Rarely. I’ve had my heart broken so many times in the past.
You’re a teaching artist—what is that like for you?
I love to teach. I spend an inordinate amount of time searching for meaningful experiences. As a practical matter, life is full of stuff that seems pointless. When I’m in front of a classroom full of New York City kids I feel I have a “purpose”.
Do you give artist talks?
I have had the opportunity to talk about my work in various public forums over the years – and I have taught adult drawing classes.
Lastly, do you see Art as a unifying energy, dynamic?
I want to answer “Yes.” “Obviously.” But this question is so broad. A lot of very exciting and profound art (out there in the world and historically) has come from horrific circumstances and or from horrible broken people. Its function is not to create balance or harmony, but it is “authentic” and “true” and important—and I’m glad it exists even though it may not make me feel “good”. I believe that the function of art, above and beyond anything else, is to tell the truth. Sometimes the truth is ugly and dark.
Art Is Unity thanks Tony Gonzalez for this interview and many art conversations.