M I K E S H A F F E R
| LOOPING CLOUDS/FLOATING CIRCLES |
A Conversation with Artist, Critic,
Curator, Joe Shannon
About the Line Paintings from the Exhibition Catalog, "Mike Shaffer Line Paintings," BlackRock
Center for the Arts, May, 2003
JS. Let's
talk about scale now. I would guess they are about five by five feet. Is
that fairly standard for you? [MS nods yes.] Okay, lets look at Bananarama,
very, very different from Strawberry The loops are not quite as dominate
but the grid is the power and here you used a yellow background. Is it
mottled or flat?
MS. You know, I can't remember. Looking closely I could tell you but I'm not
sure now.
JS. You subsequently added some splatters, a little bit of Jackson Pollock I
assume. The lines of the grid vary nicely, they are set at evocative angles
which conjures up a nice tension. Why is it that sometimes you show these on
the horizontal and other times not?
MS. It depends on how the work is developing—its
character. I decide after I've had a chance to
step back and look at a work in its completeness.
The only ones I show at an angle are those with
clearly evident horizontal and vertical lines that
are at an angle either in a grid or in a horizontal/vertical
pattern. I want to emphasize the overall arrangement
of intersecting lines by making it contrast with
the painting's edges which are shifted away from
their conventional orientations. The whole effect,
I hope, grabs the viewer's attention making the
works more powerful.
JS. There are those who might argue that you are being led by a gimmick.
MS. That is certainly a valid point but I don't see this as being "gimmicky." The
idea seems to come right out of the works themselves. I could argue that there
is no reason NOT to tilt the paintings if doing so seems logically related to
their content. Why should anyone, especially in a field generally recognized
for its connections to creativity, be bound by the custom and conformity associated
with the way they are displayed? Compared to shaped paintings and draped canvases,
showing works at an angle seems to me to be tame.
JS. Well, I do see your reasons- it is effective. The painting Earth Net Mind
Set is a good example of that effective use. Here the angled grid is aesthetic
logic. It has a dark irregular background. But I am looking now at the angles
here where the horizontal black grid is behind a wafting kind of looping cloud,
maybe some floating circles and spirals of blue and some confetti-like flickers
of white. How did you do that?
MS. That's a good observation. In this one the background is mottled, as you
call it. The small light patches that show through were made by simply not covering
the white ground completely with the dark background. The flickers are spatters
that were added last but, as with most of these works, when I put on another
layer, in this case the dark purply black, I can add dimension by letting sections
of previous ones show through to varying degrees.
JS. Years ago, in writing about abstract works like these, Clement Greenberg
would have pointed out the old empirical notions of the past and say "depth---you
don't want depth." Virtually all abstraction then was flat but of course this
is another generation and depth is perfectly acceptable. According to Greenberg,
the two-dimensional element was the absolute foundation and power of abstraction
but on the other hand, if you look at a Jackson Pollock, you always see depth
and space. Now, lets look at Beach Plum Outcome.
MS. The layers start with a fairly uniform background of dark plum as the title
suggests followed by smattering of light blue swirls.
JS. Then you put on your grid in a completely asymmetrical fashion so that some
of the lines are angled down, some are pinched toward being a cone and some are
not. There is a lot of improvisation and I imagine you were trying for another
kind of image.
MS. Another variation on the theme.
JS. Green Bean Cuisine, absolutely aleatory. It almost suggests figures-there
on the left-something is going on! Are we viewing the rudiments of a depictive
work? But no, it is still very abstract. You have made a kind of unity by interlocking
some of the linear elements. You offer a sense of potentiality, which you keep
secret. One of the strongest things about any abstraction is to bring, if possible,
a new area of provocation and this work does this very well. I like the arcing
yellow grid and how it comes up to meet the one coming down from the upper right.
Interlocking with the next one sweeping across. It gives the whole work a satisfying
kind of majesty and breeziness.
MS. Going now from go to stop, the red Tomato Soup Recoup shows what happens
when the grid elements are almost totally obscured to produce mostly light swirls
and spots on a deep red field.
JS. In this work you have obviously splashed paint into your image. How do you
do that?
MS In some cases I do it the same way Pollock did, by shaking or dripping it
off the end of a stick or a brush.
JS. Pollock used those sash brushes too, you know.
MS. I read about that. I also dribble paint from squeeze bottles or small cans
depending on how thick it is. I squirt thick paint from plastic bottles and drizzle
thin washes out of the aluminum pie pans I mix it in. I paint with pieces of
cardboard and rags and sponges and at times I squirt it from hypodermic syringes.
We didn't talk about it earlier but in Beach Plum I set the cans I was using
in the wet paint to make circles and smeared places.
JS. Of all that I have seen, where you have tilted the canvas to orient the grid
along the horizontal/vertical axis, Green Mountain is one of the strongest because
the grid is very dominate and very colorful. It's blue and white and yellow and
red-the red is especially persistent and thrusting. To the right in this case-could
go either way. The impetus and speed suggests-by the arched verticals makes it
look as if a great wind is pushing it to the right. I also like the way the rudimentary
drawing with the lined loops gives it an interesting focus toward the left whereas
the whole push of the imagery is to the right because of the vertical arcs.
MS. One of the effects I worked on in this painting that is not done always is
illustrated by the little amorphous fields of yellow splattered around in clouds
rather than being uniform or regular.
JS. Yes, they are quite effective because they are reinforced by the yellow in
the grid. The yellow has a dual purpose here adding to the general schizophrenia
of the work. Where other similar dualities work in the other images—a virtue,
good of course.
MS. What is your take on the way people always seem to want to find representational
images in abstract work?
JS. I don't think it's a necessity but it is a natural and impulsive tendency.
For example, when you see space in a Jackson Pollock or a Hans Hoffman, they
would say no, it's only two-dimensional. We tend to think of it as space if it
looks like space. Also we see figures. Pollock's later work became more figurative
because he began to see figures in what he was doing and gravitated in that direction.
It's completely opposite from his early work.
MS. Now we are looking at Grapefruit Mousse.
JS. I think of Mark Tobey when I see such a scribbled dance as this. You say
that Mark Tobey and Agnes Martin have had a vibration in your life and its very
apparent here but at the same time, you transformed it into something very personal.
What makes the difference is your personality and personal devotion to the forms
that come tumbling out of your mind. This free association is a vital part of
abstraction. It's the "each act triggers the next" thing and as you have said,
you keep shooting, you keep working on it till you like it.