Untitled

Josh Baptista

Interview by L. Valena

Let’s talk about your piece! Can you tell me what you responded to?

First, I was responding to the composition and the way the space was broken up. The 2D space was absolutely shattered by mark-making. I have much more of an illustrative quality, I think, about my work. So I always want to pick out things that resemble something. I saw this eyeball and these two hands doing some sort of dance motion or something, and I just isolated them. It was interesting because I don’t think I’ve drawn like that before. It was really cool for me to pick that out. It was an interesting exercise. I’d never done anything like that before!

So the thing that kind of jumped out at you was this composition. Can you remember your first reaction?

I thought it was an abstract painting. It looked like it might have been a couple images, maybe a computer-generated image, maybe a couple paintings on top of each other. There was almost a monochromatic feel to it, as well, in that it was colorful but subdued. And there was also a gesture going on throughout the piece. This is very different from what I normally do, so I thought, What can I learn from this?

What happened next?

I had been working on some panel pieces already in my own work and, looking at the way the space is already broken up, I thought, Why not use one of these panels that have a paper collage on top? The space is already broken, two-dimensionality is broken, great. Then I started focusing on the eyeball that I thought I was seeing in there. “Okay, let me start out with this.” I started out with a loose gesture in pencil at first, on top of the collage paper. From there, I kept bringing detail out and pattern into it with the pen, really isolating what I loved about the piece, which were: that gesture, that eyeball, the two hands that look like they were in like motion. And then I felt there was a shadow underneath, which I put in there as well.

You said that this is different from anything that you’ve drawn before. I know that some of the stuff may be hard to put into words, but can you elaborate on that a little bit?

Sure. As an artist, I’ve definitely painted in this similar, abstract, much more subdued, subtle way, but I’m not there right now. I was really trying to, I guess, identify with it, because I like the idea of pulling things out. So even if this isn’t something that I would normally do right now, I was still seeing the qualities that I wanted to see in my work when I was pulling it out. So it was very strange. Even though I wasn’t directly connected with the work, I was still putting myself in there and pulling from that as well.

So you’re putting yourself into the work and then pulling out from that? I’ve never heard anyone describe it that way. That’s a really interesting way of thinking about it.

Well, don’t you think that it’s very common for artists to find inspiration in other artists’ works that they admire and then take those qualities? Maybe for a while, there’s a period that the artist is like, This is like forgery. You’re directly copying or biting this artist. But it’s because you’re trying to figure out what it is that you like until you can put it into your own voice, right?

I think that’s totally it. That’s a cool way of thinking about it and phrasing it. And I think it makes total sense. I love this kind of patterning that you have in here. How does this relate to the rest of your work?

Oh, thank you. The patterning has been something in the work for a while. I really can’t explain it, except that it seems to be a way of meditation, to lose yourself through the actual process-making, not having a really clear idea where it may be going, but that’s okay. Letting each move inform the next move, that kind of thing. It’s an adventure, right? You’re in it, and you know when it’s done. The patterning thing, especially with the torn pieces of paper, is a way to bring things together in a certain way. It’s connecting these torn pieces of paper while it’s weaving anad creating this pattern, it’s actually creating images, like the hands and the eyeballs and the shadow. It’s creating something new by bringing things together.

I’m sure that there’s a question I haven’t asked you or some element of this that we haven’t talked about. Is there any aspect to this process or to this piece that you want to talk about more that I that I missed?

For me, I think this was a learning experience. To be open to new work and identify it, but it was also like homework or a lesson, like learning visually. I think I might like to use this tool again somewhere down the line if I get stuck or whatever. I think it was great. I definitely would never have come up with that composition, as awkward as it is. I think it works, and it also opens up some doors for me as an artist.

Do you have any advice for another artist approaching this project for the first time?

Yeah, I think to just have fun. I think that when you get in your own head and you want to make something the best or whatever, it doesn’t work out that way, right? This is just another piece for you. I think that, if anything, this should be helpful because, for me, it was the reacting to something that made it just flow easily. Yeah, I would say just have fun. You know, you could think very deeply about it and create something completely conceptual, or you could just react to it.

Call Number: Y53VA | Y56VA.baUnti

Born and raised in Boston, MA, artist Josh Baptista completed his Bachelor’s of Fine Art at Montserrat College of Art at Montserrat College of Art in 2002. Josh subsequently pursued his Master’s of Fine Art from American University in Washington D.C., graduating in 2009. Josh currently lives and works in Providence, R.I.