Untitled Portrait

Nick Ward

Interview by L. Valena

Can you describe to me what you responded to?

You sent me a poem, which is pretty much what I was afraid you were going to do when I signed up and said you could send anything. I guess I'm a visual person- poetry is always a stretch for me. I was prepared, but I was nervous.

Tell me about the poem.

Fortunately, you send me something kind of short and sweet, so I could digest it a little bit. What I kind of took from it was a feeling of having something to say, and not being listened to- that kind of thing. When I was approaching the painting I was thinking about different ways I could do a portrait but obscure the mouth a little bit. So that was kind of where I went with that.

So tell me what happened next.

I made a painting that was a total failure. It was kind of a chopped up portrait- I took two images together, and kind of spliced them together so the mouth disappeared. There was kind of a violent cut through there that divided the two images. I was working on it, and I couldn't get it to work, so I went back in and came up with a more gentle version. Instead I made a portrait of someone kind of turning away, and I used an invented lens flair to do a similar thing.

Tell me more about what you were thinking about when you made this.

I guess I just wanted to do a portrait. I kind of set that before I even received the poem. That's my thing, and I wanted to make something that's very much in line with the kinds of things I do, as opposed to reading or seeing whatever you gave to me and going with my first response. I built myself a little box to respond within. So that was the feeling the poem left me with- this kind of idea of having something to say, and not being listened to, or not being able to say it. From there I just went through images that I had, and found something to start experimenting with. I really just started working to see what would happen, and kind of responding to the image as it grew. I guess I didn't have a good plan going into it, I just improvised.

I think it's really interesting that you group the feeling of not being able to say what you want to say, and also saying what you want to say but not being heard. Can you say some more about that?

The poem left me with more of the impression of not being heard. But as I was making the painting I wanted to put those together, because it made it more of a wider audience, if that makes sense. I wanted to broaden the idea a little bit. So that's why I chose an image where she's kind of turning away. In my mind it's almost in frustration- she's turning away because nobody's listening. I wanted something that was a beautiful dreamy image, but something is broken. That was the idea going in. I wanted to take a beautiful image and then somehow disrupt it, in a way that feels in line with the idea. I guess this second attempt is a little bit different, but that still comes through.

I think it's so admirable that you tried one thing, and it didn't work, and so you tried something else. That really takes a lot of discipline.

That's just part of being an artist. It's a lot of trying things that don't work. I feel like a 50% failure rate is pretty good.

Did you keep the 'failed painting', or did you paint over it?

No, I painted over it- this is the same panel.

Did you take a picture of it?

No, no, no. I'm going to try again with the image. I'm trying to do a lot of paintings that are using video glitch to violently break up an otherwise beautiful image. Except doing that in a way that, instead of just being an interesting visual thing, it furthers the narrative of the piece.

Right! I know that glitch paintings are a big thing for you. Can you talk about how this piece relates to the rest of your work?

I'm a portrait artist mostly, and I try to think of ways to take portraits from being a way to just kind of catalogue rich people, and make very expensive glamour shots, and turn them into something that, while still having the look and feel of portraiture, doing something that's a little more relevant and interesting in my own life, and in the modern world.

There's such an exciting resurgence of portraiture as a way to take back the visual landscape.

I know I love it! Portraits are popping up everywhere. It wasn't too long ago that it was a kind of stale and boring genre- with obvious exceptions. But if you asked ten people, including people in the art world, what they thought of portraiture, they would just yawn. I hope not to totally fall into that trap when I'm making things.

You've been experimenting with glitches for a few years now, right?

Well, I guess so- I guess it's been like two years. It's kind of slow going. I'm learning that the way I want to make them doesn't really lend itself to painting, and I'm wondering if I could start doing screenprints, or something that's more structured. More related to pixels on a screen, in order to be successful. But I don't know- I'm a painter. I'm going to keep trying until it works I guess. I'm still determined to figure out how to make it work for me. There's a lot of people that do interesting paintings that play with digital images. That sort of abstraction that comes when images are breaking. The abstraction we're all used to seeing on the internet- low resolution photos and glitches that happen with things download wrong. I really want to do it in a way that isn't just a visual trick- isn't just making something that looks cool with no other reason behind it. But if I'm employing these different ways to abstract the image, I want to make sure it's there for a reason, and not just because it looks cool.

It's interesting- since painting is all about making space on a two-dimensional plane, and you're breaking that space somehow. It's really crazy- kind of a mind fuck.

It's a nice way to make a pretty image not a pretty image. If something bad is happening to the person in the photograph, than that's a nice way to kind of show violence in a way that's interesting and not gratuitous. Dividing an image along a plane when it's a very natural shape otherwise is jarring. It leaves an impression- you know it's unnatural, and it feels wrong. You can really say something with it, if you're so inclined.

Is there anything else you have to say about making this piece or going through this process?

It was a pretty fun process. It was a challenge to respond to a piece of poetry. I know poets, and I listen to and read their work, but I don't always feel like a get it automatically. I really have to kind of dig to understand what the words really mean beyond the surface level. It was fun to kind of push myself and try something different, even if I just ended up with another portrait- it was nice to kind of lose control a little bit more. I wanted to make this very moody and kind of soft, and if you're going to invent a lens flare, it's fun to do it in a way that feels natural but also a little out of place.

Do you have any advice for someone else who's going to do this?

Definitely check the box that says 'send me anything' and get something crazy that you're not expecting- or that you are expecting. Then just dive in. I spent a little too much time thinking and worrying about it initially, and then once I just dove in and started doing it, it just happens naturally. Like anything else.

Call Number: C15PP | C26VA.waUnti

Nick Ward is figurative painter and printmaker who creates portrait based works that explore timeless stories through the internet obsessed eyes of today. Originally from a small town outside Portland Oregon, Nick currently resides in the outskirts of Boston, MA with his wife, daughter, and their scrappy dog. His work has twice earned him Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation grants for painting.