Honoring the Artist:

Joe Fig

While Jackson Pollock has always been a popular subject for various projects originating in the Hamptons, the current cover by Joe Fig proves that such endeavors are still generating interest. The following conversation with Mr. Fig goes into more detail.

Q: Your cover showing Pollock's studio is part of an extensive series of sculptures celebrating various artists' studios. The minatures will also be part of a forthcoming exhibit at the Parrish Museum called "Studio as Muse." Tell us about the evolution of the series. First, your interest in artists' studios.

A: When I was in graduate school at the School of Visual Arts, there was a whole floor filled with student studios. It got me thinking about how to set up a studio. Then I got interested in contemporary artists and their work spaces - I did a sculpture of a friend's studio first. Then it evolved into people like de Kooning and Pollock. I always liked abstract expressionists. I looked through photographs of their studios, and I went to the Pollock-Krasner House, for example.

Q: How did you proceed with the living artists?

A: I decided to interview them besides doing minatures of their studios. Artists like April Gornik, Eric Fischl, Chuck Close and Ross Bleckner. The interviews took place over a five-year period.

Q: What would you say you learned the most about artists or their process during these interviews or during the course of the project generally?

A: I started to question what success is, that the most successful artists are those who work the hardest. Some of them even said that artists are the hardest working people they know. Also, they don't seem to wait around to be inspired. They knew they have to get in the studio and work everyday. I asked them about their typical day, and most of it is basically tedious. Their day is like any other person's day.

Q: In other words, not particularly romantic or filled with drama and pretty models. Or like movies we've seen about artists' lives including Rodin and his mistress/model, Camille.

A: Right.

Q: Another aspect about your project's evolution concerns your chosen medium. How did your interest in sculpture begin?

A: I was painting for ten years using a representational style,working in large scale, painting people and places inspired by American Regionalist art. But that came to an end. I went back to graduate schoool, which was a better experience than undergraduate school since I was not pressured to sell my work, and I didn't have to worry about my tuition. In undergraduate school, I went back and forth between painting and sculpture so it was easier to make the transition to sculpture.

Q: How about your interest in art? How did that come about?

A: I grew up in Seaford, Long Island; I didn't know much about art. I did drawings for years with my identical twin brother and then painted without knowing what it means. When I was younger, I said I wanted to make a living as an artist by the time I was between 35 and 40-years-old. I'm 39. I'm in this for the long run.

Q: In ten years, what do you think you'll be doing?

A: I have no idea. I work piece to piece to make each work so I don't necessarily look ahead. I like this method, as long as I don't repeat myself.

The cover is titled, "Jackson Pollock: 1951 (detail), 2002" by Joe Fig (American, b. 1968). Mixed media. 24 x 42 x 30 inches. Collection of Steven G. Perelman, New York. Mr. Fig's website is: www.joefig.com.

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