Amy Talluto
Hurley, NY
Website
amytalluto.com
Social Media
Instagram
How would you describe your work?
Paintings and sculptures based on mixed personal symbols and characters
What inspires you?
I often get inspired by artist documentaries and lately have watched films about Louise Bourgeois, Clifford Still, Phyllida Barlow, Philip Guston, and surveys like In the Absence of Light and Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists. I also love artist interviews made by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art on Youtube (in particular Laurie Anderson's). I enjoy talking art with other artists on my podcast, Pep Talks for Artists, about exhibitions and art history. And I get inspired by art books and biographies. Sometimes ideas just come from nowhere too: like while driving.
Can you speak about your process?
I start by drawing images that come into my imagination with graphite on paper or on my phone in my digital Sketchbook app. I then select some drawings to use as ideas for oil on canvas paintiings, and others to use as ideas for sculptures (in glazed ceramic or oil painted polymer clay). The images that I create are based on several personal symbols and characters that I’ve discovered along the way such as: the eyes in an Ingres painting that remind me of my mother, square head "Blockhead" figures birthed from a collage, a lone tree with a single knot hole like an eye, the palettes from 6 Matisse paintings, prism rainbows, and a star-covered double-headed figure called the Star Child. I’m excited by the surprise that comes from combining these images in different ways and environments, and by spooling out their endless permutations in 2-D and 3-D form.
How did you become interested in art?
I’ve loved making art since I was a child, especially drawing. In New Orleans, I attended a public arts high school called NOCCA that exposed me to additional mediums like painting, ceramics, printmaking and photography. I also spent many hours at the New Orleans Museum of Art in nearby City Park. My favorite work in their collection was the Jim Nutt painting, Sliding, Slowly, Softly, 1972 and I was also deeply inspired by an exhibition that traveled to the museum in 1989: Making Their Mark: Women Artists Move into the Mainstream.
Do you have any favorite artists, movies, books, or quotes?
Right now I am looking deeply at the work of Meret Oppenheim, Forrest Bess and Matisse, but in general I also love Charles Burchfield, Hannah Hoch and Dominick Di Meo. The book I tend to recommend the most is Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations, Clark Coolidge (Editor)
I’m a bit of an Artist Quote Magpie, so it’s hard to choose just one, but I’ve recently been thinking about this one by Amy Sillman from her lecture Drawing in the Continuous Present at the Menil Collection:
“Not being a hack is doing shit that you love to do: [maybe] it doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t fit and it doesn’t work and you can’t sell it and it doesn’t hang together and it’s shaggy and it’s ill-fitting and it’s weird, but you’re the person who is presenting it and you’re the artist and you’re saying ‘Here’s what I do’…So, I was trying to figure out how to force together [parts of my work] not fittingly, not [like] a well-oiled machine, but [like] a clunky weird machine”
I aspire to be a clunky weird machine as well.
What advice do you have for younger artists?
I tend to gobble up advice "for the young" myself even though (alas!) I am no longer young. I believe you can never have too much encouragement at any stage. Here are a few things I could offer: Avoid getting pigeon-holed into just one type of work; Expect short times of success and long stretches of working in a vacuum; Make lots of artist friends and support each other; Hone your own unique voice and value freedom in your work over professional achievement; Put on your own pop-up or artist-made shows; Apply to residencies; Make do with the studio and time that you have (It’s ok to work in between the cracks of life at the kitchen table); Stay humble in your work and stay sensitive as a person; Be nice to everyone and don’t only network “up;” Let your work be your guide (work comes from work); Don’t quit.
Any more thoughts about art, creativity, or anything else you would like to share?
What would you make if you could suspend self-doubt for a while? What would you make if the art market went away? What would happen if you made the thing you are embarrassed to make?
One last quote because even the greats got the blues sometimes:
"I find I am lacking in canvases that might be submitted for the delectation of art lovers. Wanting to offer for critical appraisal only those studies that might pass muster, I cannot take part in any exhibition." – Paul Cezanne 1887
