Erin Cone

Interview: Erin Cone

 

ERIN CONE was born in Lubbock, Texas in 1976.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the University of Texas in 1998 and working briefly in the design industry. She lives with her husband in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

She has a unique take on figurative realism or as we say: “Figurative realism with a glitch. Humanity with a flaw”.

L’Artiste spoke to her......

 

• Can you describe your work for L’Artiste in 10 words please?

I paint figurative realism within a framework of pure design.

 

• Tell us something about your background.

I always wanted to be an artist—from the time I was a little girl—and I always drew and painted throughout my childhood. I got a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting but didn’t believe it was possible to make a living as an artist so I worked for a couple of years in graphic design before deciding to paint full-time.

 

• Do you come from an artistic family?

Both of my parents are creative and though neither pursued art in any serious way, they have both always been very supportive of my artwork.

 

• You worked briefly in the design industry, was this experience useful in the way you now frame and pose your work?

After college, I worked in the design department of a large publishing company and the experience was most useful for motivating me to do anything rather than work a corporate job again! The experience honed my professionalism and taught me basic business skills and a strong work ethic – all of which are arguably just as important as talent for succeeding in the art world.

 

• Your work has a minimalist quality to it. Is this fashion merged with art?

I think of my work as a fusion of minimalism with figurative realism. The minimal aesthetic is very important to me – I feel that the expressive power of the figure is heightened by its isolation in space – almost the way the negative space operates around a sculpture or the empty stage around a dancer.  The fashion aspect to my work is not as clear-cut. Originally, my goal was to keep the clothing all very simple and timeless, again to keep the focus on the gesture and expression of the figure. In other words, I didn’t want to paint a particular fashion; I wanted to purely capture the figure. In recent years, I’ve been using the clothing more as an additional compositional element, almost functioning as abstract form – and this has allowed me to delve into greater variety with it and given me a further tool for visual impact.

 

• You began your professional career at 24, a young age to experience success. Did you expect such an early recognition?

My career has been really amazing. My portfolio consisted of only about 6 “serious” paintings after college and with these, I was offered representation and a solo show at the first gallery I approached. Since then I’ve had 1 or 2 solo shows every year, selling virtually everything I paint, and have worked constantly just to keep up with demand. So it has all been very unexpected, but very gratifying.

 

• Your work is exclusively feminine. Is this a statement or a targeting of a sector or something else?

I think my focus on femininity stems from my early exploration of self-portraiture (which stemmed from lack of models!). I actually did use my husband as a model for a few paintings early on, but as a woman I think a feminine aesthetic holds more expressive potential for me.

 

• What do you find most attractive in femininity?

Artists throughout the ages have been attracted to the feminine ideal as their muse and I suppose I’m no different in that respect. Though it is often considered taboo among figurative painters today, I seek to capture beauty – of line, of form, and of person. My work is highly idealized and therefore has a certain cross-over with the realms of fashion, advertising, performance, etc. Femininity is a part of all of that and it gives me a basis from which to explore certain themes – for instance the inner world vs. the outer world, the concept of the façade we present to the world, what is hidden vs. what is revealed, etc.

 

• Within the frame of the painting the image is willfully cut while geometrical lines act like a complementary element. Could you explain the reasoning behind this? 

Georgia O’Keefe said “Objective painting is not good painting unless it is good in the abstract sense.” This is something I keep in mind as I compose my paintings.  The “visual glitches” I incorporate serve three purposes:  they flatten the realism of the figure – enhancing this abstract sensibility; they become abstract elements themselves – enhancing the compositional strength of the work; and they act as abstract representations of something ineffable for the figure to relate to – enhancing emotion without reference to any specific context.

 

• One of our writers described your work as ‘other world, the best bits of a mannequin’. Is this a fair comment? She said that you took the individual away and created something else in its place, an imaginary, stronger female. What would you say to her?

A lot of my work is about capturing the ideal. I had a solo show a couple of years ago titled “Theory of Forms”, referencing the Platonic concept of ideal forms. My focus is on this ideal rather than on strict realism, which I find rather dull.  My goal is to refine my vision to the essential to heighten its expressive power and visual impact.

 

• Your color palette stands out for its vibrancy and clarity. Is this a deliberate choice or a spontaneous tendency?

I don’t over-think color. I begin each piece with certain ideas in mind but during the course of painting, things naturally evolve. I paint rather backwards in that the background is always the last thing I paint after all the detail of the figure is done. At that point, I respond quite intuitively to how the figure ends up looking and usually a certain color is the obvious solution for the visual puzzle.

 

• Your titles add to the work you produce. ‘Ethereal, Hindsight, Implied’. Is there a personal story behind your work? Or is it a way to involve the audience at another level?

With rare exception, I title my pieces at the end of the process. Until that point, I just allow the mystery to be - painting to capture the gesture or emotion I’m going for without naming it. By the time the work is finished, I have gotten some idea what I think the piece is expressing and I begin the search for a word to convey it. I try to keep this subtle and do try to involve the audience - allowing room for interpretation, for each viewer to approach the work in their own way.

 

• As a young successful painter, have you come across criticism?

I’ve been very fortunate never to have received a bad review of my work. I know there must be critics out there who don’t appreciate what I do – that’s just a given. I don’t really think about it. My goal is to paint what I most want to see in a painting and to stay true to what motivates me.

 

• There is a subtle change in your work if you look at it chronologically. Is this a growing of your understanding of what you want to achieve? A kind of ‘growing up’ process?

I’ve been painting professionally, full-time for 14 years and I think any artist must evolve over that span of time. For me personally it is definitely a “growing up” process -  I was only 23 when painting for my first solo show and my aesthetic sense, like everything else in life, has of course matured since then. Over the years I’ve certainly gotten more clarity about what I most want to capture. I find I’m very inspired to explore quite subtle variations within the range I’m working in and that it is not necessary to “re-invent the wheel” for every painting. This clearer focus is surely a product of having painted almost 600 paintings – each new work grows out of all of that experience.

 

• Who inspired you when you were starting out?

Georgia O’Keefe is an early inspiration, both for her art and for her life. Her ability to paint in a wholly realistic manner while achieving gorgeous abstract compositions has heavily influenced my work. And, of course, she was one of the first female artists in America to really make an impact in the male-dominated art world and she did it while being so true to her own vision. She inspires me on several levels.

 

• And who inspires you now?

I don’t have any specific answer. I’m inspired by many individual works of art and particularly by certain parts of certain paintings but I equally draw inspiration from design, fashion, advertising, cinema, nature, architecture, even just people-watching. I know what motivates me and with this inward focus I find that there is much to inspire me.

 

• If you could pick any person (apart from yourself) to have as a model, who would it be and why?

I’m so used to stylizing myself and other models into an ideal that I’ve never actually considered who my idea model would be. Audrey Hepburn would have been a great model – though having such ideal beauty to begin with would certainly take away some of the challenge I’m used to.

 

• What are you working on now?

I’m painting for upcoming group shows with a couple of my dealers and for my annual solo show here in Santa Fe. My concept for my new series is evolving as I work but I know part of it will be exploring the dress as a uniquely feminine symbol and what it means in terms of gender roles – is it the epitome of female submission and propriety or the powerful and unique domain of woman? Either way, it’s a timeless and evocative element and I’m excited to explore it.   

 

• Do you have any plans to exhibit in Europe?

I will have new original works at AAF Hampstead in June and my prints of my work are represented throughout Europe at Lumas Galleries. As my schedule permits, I would love to find the perfect venue for a solo show in Europe.

 

• What would you say to newly graduate painting students?

I don’t think there’s anything I can say that expresses it better than this Martha Graham quote which inspires me daily:  “There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.  And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.  The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is; nor how valuable it is; nor how it compares with other expressions.  It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.  You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work.  You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate YOU.  Keep the channel open.  No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction; a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”  

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