A
Refreshing Lack of Irony
Bird
of Beauty
Blue
Print Red Ladder
The
Obvious Solution
The Unfortunate Code
This Humanity
All
Images © Alexis K. Manheim
All Rights Reserved
Artist of The Month — an Interview with TheArtList.com
This interview was originally published in the March 2006 issue of TheArtList.com
Alexis
K. Manheim
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
TAL: How and when did you start creating art?
AM: I believe I’ve been making art my whole life. Many of my most vivid childhood memories are of making certain objects or paintings. I can remember making a large robot out of found objects in 2nd grade and becoming very frustrated that my partner in the project wasn’t taking it as seriously as I was. I can recall tons of paper mâché animals and clay sculpture figures and vessels built by hand and thrown on the wheel. I was making wax resist paintings by the fifth grade and keeping them in a portfolio. In a junior high school art class I made a plaster sculpture of an ordinary wall socket complete with holes that I plugged a real cord into. It was probably about that time that I realized I had a different approach than of my classmates. Since then, I’ve experimented in just about every media – sculpture, ceramics, theater, printmaking, photography, and painting. I guess I’ve always been an artist; it was only a question of what medium.
TAL: What media and genres do you work in?
AM: I now work almost exclusively with soft pastel, inks, and charcoal on paper. My work falls somewhere between drawing and painting in that space where the work really looks more like a painting though it doesn’t actually contain any paint. I actually studied photography in school and worked as a commercial photographer for many years shooting nearly 12 hours a day at times. The commercial work killed my desire to work creatively in photography and I found myself needing a new creative outlet. Painting seemed so much more organic and direct... and much more expressive in terms of what I needed to convey. Once I started painting I couldn’t turn back.
TAL: Who or what are your influences?
AM: I am heavily influenced by jazz and blues music. I don’t think I’ve made a single painting without music providing the soundtrack. I’m also influenced by scientific theory, physics, astronomy and especially older schools of science like Alchemy, which contributes significantly to my source ideas and titles. Asian art – specifically Sumi-e brush painting figures prominently in how I use the negative space on the paper, my ink work, and compositional considerations. Politics and my own personal history as a mixed race woman artist are always in play. In terms of other artists, currently Basquiat, Hans Hofmann, Cy Twombly, and Franz Kline among others.
TAL: What was your inspiration for “A Refreshing Lack of Irony”?
AM:
“A Refreshing Lack of Irony” is one
of my current favorites. It’s really about pure and unadulterated
whimsy -- and bebop -- and circles -- and the fun of making art and
being creative... it’s about lightening up a little and letting
go of the loaded subtext once in awhile.
TAL: Describe
your creative process?
AM: I guess my creative process starts with inundating myself with lots of ideas... I read, I listen to a lot of music, go through art books, dictionaries, and textbooks looking for a seed of inspiration. I’m basically filling myself up with ideas. During the research phase I’m usually making smaller scale paintings and studies hashing out ideas until I hit on a visual theme that resonates. Once I’ve found it, I work nearly every day in my studio exploring every visual angle in what eventually emerges as a body of work under a series title.
TAL: What are you working on currently?
AM: Right now I’m working on two bodies of work concurrently – “Labyrinth” and “Remedy.” “Labyrinth” is inspired by an exhibit of old world labyrinth and maze illustrations that I saw in Budapest last year. Its about time, direction, and memory... abstract maps for the mind. “Remedy” is inspired by my recent trip to Northern Italy and Southern France and explores the connection between art and healing. I’ve also started making my own handmade pastels from raw pigments so I’m spending a lot of time mixing solutions and grinding pigments.
TAL: What are your near/long term goals as an artist?
AM:
I guess my near and long term goals are really to continue to devote
myself to the creative process each and every day. Like most artists,
I’d also like to get the work out into the world and viewed by
more different types of people. But ultimately, I’m really, and
very simply in search of beauty... which of course takes on many forms
well beyond the obvious sort.
TAL: Where
can people view/purchase your work (gallery, website, etc)?
AM: My work is currently available at Chandler Fine Art in downtown San Francisco, Metamorphosis and Greene Contemporary in Sarasota Florida as well as from my studio.
www.alexismanheim.com
www.chandlersf.com
www.metamorphosisthegallery.com