- Hits: 358
Name: John Brophy
Place of birth: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Black Cat aka Didi: I read in your biography that you had been a student of the "sheer force of will" school of painting! ….but at the same time you had an important background in art history and art conservation/ restoration… Can you tell us how you made the decision to create your own art work? What would you consider your first big break?
John Brophy: I came into the art world though a different route than many of the artists I know. Instead of studying the techniques of illustration or painting in a studio arts program I studied art history and some restoration/conservation at the University of Madrid. I've always been interested in the history of art and I feel that this background has benefited me tremendously in my own work. However, the focus was on the language of art and very little attention was given to the technical aspects of how the paintings I admired were put together. Of course, that’s what I really wanted to know! I spent countless hours at the Prado Museum scrutinizing Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights”, the Memlings and Van Der Weydens, and of course the Velasquezes and Titians trying to deduce how these paintings were made. There was no one around me who knew anything useful about traditional technique, so I had to figure it out for myself. This is why I say that I come from the “sheer force of will” school of art.
Ultimately, I cooled on the art history approach because at its heart it was more about translating the visual experience of art into literature – a completely different medium. I also wanted to make my own paintings and the only thing I was learning was how to be a fan of other people’s work.
At the same time I was studying art history I was continually painting and drawing during my free time. My host mother in Madrid was actually nice enough to give me an extra room just so I could have a studio. But it wasn't until ten years later when I returned to the U.S. from my teaching job in Japan that I really got serious about my own artwork.
A major turning point for me happened when I went to see Mark Ryden's Meat Show in 1998 at the Mendenhall Gallery in Pasadena and realized that there were other artists doing the same kind of work as me. Until then I had worked inside a bubble, isolated from the art world and other artists. I started going to all the gallery openings I could at Merry Karnowsky, Copro Nason, Luz de Jesus, etc. I got to know more artists and my own work started to gain a bit of momentum. However, because of my day job as a 3D character modeler in the game industry, I was limited in the amount of time I was able to commit to making artwork.
In 2007 I moved to Seattle and started work at Snowblind Studios making Xbox games. By a stroke of luck, Brian Despain happened to be working there as a concept artist and it was he who first introduced me to Kirsten Anderson at Roq la Rue. She subsequently invited me to be in some group shows and things have been progressing ever since. I owe a lot to Brian. He baically kicked the training wheels off my bike and pushed me down the hill to the open doors of Roq la Rue.
B.C.: I know that you use the computer to map out your compositions. Can you describe your creative process?
J.B.: I've been involved in the computer game industry for about 12 years, mostly making 3D characters. I use Maya, 3D Studio Max, ZBrush, Photoshop, and a host of other software programs to do this work. Because I use these programs every day, the most comfortable process for designing my own compositions has been to use these tools. However, I have never been a fan of "computer art" because it lacks the object quality of a real painting or sculpture. My real love is for purely traditional works that are hand-painted in oil on canvas or panel. So I use the computer to work out the compositions and then hand-paint the final piece. Though the process is very technical, it keeps things interesting and provides a great deal of flexibility. I also like to leave a residue of the computer-generated origins of the work in the final painting. I feel this is a very contemporary way of working and it allows me to have the best of both worlds.
B.C.: Witching Hour”…How did you come up with the idea for this piece? And what is the symbolic meaning of the main elements of the blood and the heart and the mathematical expression? Is there a connection between them?
J.B.: This painting has a deep personal meaning to me. It is about coming face to face with my mortality. Last July '11 I had two stents placed in my heart after I had been feeling some discomfort in my throat while exercising. My father had his first heart attack when he was the same age I was at the time, so I was very aware of the warning signs and what they could mean. Fortunately, I got it taken care of before anything bad happened.
The equation in the halo simply represents a scientific inspiration rather than a religious one. I use the iconography of traditional 15th century Flemish art quite often in my work, but instead of religious references I use the language of science as a spiritual statement.
B.C.: I find the composition of “Let The Power Fall” very interesting. Aside from the amazing colors that you used, what could be a possible interpretation for this complex painting?
J.B.: I imagined a visitor from another world visiting the Earth long ago when everything was idyllic... like the Garden of Eden. Of course, there was never such a time because it's human nature to color the past in these nostalgic terms. So in a sense, the landscape represents the "Land of Nostalgia". However, the explorer is isolated from experiencing the place because of her space helmet. The Jesus bomb is simply a religious version of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. For me it represents the destructive aspects of religion, but also the breaking point between the idyllic world of the mind and the real world.
B.C.: Apparently almost all your paintings carry a spiritual undertone, but I think that there isn’t any spiritual message in them. I think it’s simply an aesthetic choice. Is that correct?
J.B.: I use spiritual and religious imagery because of their connection to art history. These are iconic concepts that have become part of our collective psyches in large part by the way they have been deceminated throughout the history of art. I'm not using them to make a particular spiritual statement. Rather, I play with them like toys. I personally am not a believer, but I can still lay claim to these images because they are part of the culture that I come from. They are part of our collective intellectual property, so to speak, and I feel that I am free to do whatever I want with them.
B.C.: There are undoubtedly underlying messages, but I find it refreshing that an explanation is not a requirement for enjoying your work. How important is it for art to impress an audience at surface level, and do you sense a turn in tide away from conceptual art?
J.B.: My goal is that each painting should work on two levels. It has to be aesthetically interesting (I freely admit that I'm a big fan of beauty), but there must be some underlying substance as well. Beauty that is only skin deep isn't real beauty to me. Above all, the idea behind the painting must be interesting to me. I like the idea of using beauty as the vehicle for expressing compelling ideas that go beyond simple aesthetics. Some of my paintings are more successful than others in this regard, but it is always my goal to have a foundation of compelling content in each piece. This is what I love most about making artwork.
B.C.: What dark artistic passions or obsessions do you have or see in your work?
J.B.: I wouldn't consider any of my motivations for making art as dark. I'm interested in beauty and don't impose any boundaries on what I can or cannot paint. I always keep in mind a quote that Brian Eno once said, that "Art is a safe place where we can experiment with ideas that might otherwise be dangerous for us to experience in real life." This for me is the best argument I can think of against censorship. The whole point of art is to be completely free to express anything the artist wants. I guess following that idea can sometimes produce art that gives the impression of coming from a dark place.
B.C.: Describe an insecurity you deal with in making art…
J.B.: Hmm... I can't think of any insecurities I have these days. I actually feel the opposite. I'm full of confidence and very happy with the direction my work is heading in!
However, I used to worry about what to paint and having the technical ability to pull off the ideas I had. I used to second guess myself so much that I hardly finished anything. I still second guess myself a lot, but my instincts have become much more finely tuned in recent years that I'm never very far from the target. And now that I'm painting on a deadline for specific shows and have had quite a bit of success in selling my work, I find that those old issues simply faded away. Now I'm in a position of confidence and have so many ideas that my only concern is that I won't live long enough to do them all!
B.C.: What makes an artwork great?
J.B.: This is tricky. Every time I think I have it defined an exception to the rule immediately pops into my head. But there are two perspectives to this; the artist's and the audience's. Deeming a particular piece of art "great" demands more than simply the artist being satisfied with his work. It demands audience participation in evaluating the work.
But from my point of view as an artist greatness is all about that moment of transcending yourself and achieving something unexpectedly wonderful. The best analogy I can think of comes from playing sports. I think everyone has experienced this at some time or another. Every now and then you make a play that is so good and so amazingly outside your normal ability that it seems to play itself, almost like you are just going along for the ride, or like it plays you. And when you look back on it (and sometimes while it is still happening) you know that it couldn't happen any other way. It's like the stars line up in your favor. From the artist's point of view a great artwork is just like this. It transcends your normal ability and you feel that you have achieved something superhuman. I am always hoping for this to happen.
B.C.: Where can we see your art? And what are some of the projects you have planned for the future?
J.B.: I'm currently preparing for my third featured show at Roq la Rue this coming November '12. So be there or be square! And please visit my website and Facebook page:
B.C.: Thanks John for your time and for sharing with the xlegion’s readers your art!
