Andrea Borsuk
Santa Cruz, CA
Your Website
andreaborsuk.com
Social Media
Instagram
How would you describe your work?
I make narrative-based paintings and installations, as well as mixed media works on paper. Stylistically, I toggle back and forth between theatrical and surreal themes to illustrative social commentary. I often think of myself as a set designer who loves to paint, and a painter who loves to create characters and accidental, collage-like stories. In every work, I usually incorporate some aspect of human representation, trying to connect to a common thread in the long history of storytelling in art. I see the figure as a hieroglyph or part of an alphabet of human emotions, like symbols from ancient calligraphy. However, the “story’ or theme is not what it is all about for me— representation of the human figure is just one of many elements that I can use within the structure of a painting. I like to invent characters to tell parts of a story—- and by adding things and taking things away— a process of covering and uncovering— a new story is invented. I have continued to be intrigued by possibilities of imbuing a painting with signs and messages about psychological and social issues concerning mortality, love, and what is it to be human. In my work, the figures are usually small and the backdrops are big and dramatic. I’m awed by our “scale” in the world and this is one of the reasons my characters are often small in contrast to the landscape or space in which they exist.
What inspires you?
Nature and culture are the two big subjects in my treasure trove of things that inspire me. I live in Northern California, on the coast, so naturally, I am inspired by the landscape. I’m constantly amazed by the evolving “palette changes” in the natural environment, in terms of color, light, textures and forms. I have often incorporated the running landscape and the changing light of day as backdrops in my paintings, referencing time and changing weather— both metaphors for our own inability to control our future. I am deeply inspired by Asian landscape scroll paintings, especially the emphasis on the journey one takes while “reading” the painting from left to right, like on a walk through nature.
Culturally, depending on where I am, I’m equally inspired when I get to see dance and theatrical performances, offbeat circuses, and impromptu street life. I really enjoy witnessing the “dance” of human movement throughout the world, which is like a type of pre-verbal or primordial gestures. I spend a lot of time in Italy, and that is a place that really inspires my work. I studied there as an undergraduate, and I have continued to return for the last 40 years, teaching art workshops in Tuscany. My love for the culture, the landscape, the museums and churches, and the improvisational gestures that I observe on the cobbled-stone streets and piazzas keeps me inspired. I treasure the details of life with the streets as “backdrops”, observing daily life as people who go about their routines like an improvisational dance or play. There is a quality of life that is so PUBLIC and essential— the eating and socializing, kissing in random places, putting laundry on the line, or watching elderly couples holding hands while taking an evening “passegiatta”— these human gestures don’t seem to have changed much in all the years. Also, I can’t walk by a church without stepping inside to discover that I am a tiny person in a HUGE jewelry box!
I am nuts for the over-the-top embrace of elaborate, decorative, frescoed or tiled walls, artifice and embellishment surrounding beautifully painted images AND, of course, the flowers, candles and sacred objects that dangle like jewelry in every nook and cranny, the beautiful altars, cameos and charms, the sacramental ornaments and the overabundance of memento mori, reminders of our fragility— all of these symbols of mortality have become part of my vocabulary. The architecture and its ornamentation, the site -specific artwork, those in-situ narrative paintings and sculptures (REAL LIFE installation projects) have certainly had a big impact on me. The Venice Biennale is always a common attraction for me, as well as the plethora of museums in all the Italian cities. I am very fortunate that I can see a lot of art when I travel and I realize that everything I am attracted to eventually finds its way into my work, even if it is not intentional.
Can you speak about your process?
I often “begin” in the studio by making works on paper. I notice that I take more risks and play, knowing there is nothing to be precious about. On paper, I usually employ water-based media (such as gouache, inks, graphite and collage) and because there is no waiting-for-the-paint-to-dry, I can be impulsive and experimental, and that is always where the breakthroughs happen for me. It is also the place, like a sketchbook, that I work through ideas and find new imagery or processes that speak to me. The work usually evolves from systems-based “grounds” that may be decorative, expressive and gestural. Then, either via collage or direct application, I respond to the ground, usually letting intuition and impulse help me decide what my next move is going to be and that is where the conversation really gets good. It is always a multi -step process of working in layers. Like a collage, I love the accidental poetry that happens when putting disparate things together and witnessing the new relationships, both formal and allegorical.
When using oil paints, which has always been a medium I am really comfortable with, I approach the painting in a similar fashion, creating a ground first, which is usually abstract or with an awareness (and enjoyment ) of paint application. Then I usually incorporate figures and forms that are layered and integrated, creating new stories and connections within the piece. I never begin a painting knowing what I am going to paint. For me, the process of painting is a series of conversations between formal decisions and visual epiphanies. Paint can do so many things and it's a great challenge to figure out how the different approaches and applications with paint can coexist in one space, on one surface. From a drip to a gestural mark with the brush, allowing accidents, creating contrasts with patterns and textures, introducing extraneous collage bits, and also rendering highly articulated forms— these are on my menu of “options” from the grand schmorgasboard of painting techniques! In my work, I often use multiple panels (paintings or drawings) and I think of my work as an installation of parts (or pieces) that tie to a larger story.
How did you become interested in art?
I learned to how to appreciate art and paint while studying in Florence, Italy as an undergraduate almost forty years ago. Before leaving, I took a landscape watercolor class and I fell in love with painting outdoors. I discovered the work of artists, Piero della Francesco, Giotto, Caravaggio and Pontormo while studying and I traveled around a lot, painting small on-site watercolors. When I returned to California, I finished my art degree at UC Santa Cruz, then left for 20 years, and now I am back again in this beautiful town.
That pivotal year in Italy was where narrative painting was planted in my heart. Storytelling would continue to be meaningful to me. I discovered that paintings could be loaded with content and beauty and it was the first time I was introduced to the power of allegory— people might not be able to read words but they sure could read images. So I became a die-hard figurative/image- based painter all through graduate school. When I attended Columbia University for my MFA in the late 80’s, the influential artists I was looking at were David Salle and Eric Fischl, Cindy Sherman, Nancy Spero, Ida Applebroog, Marlene Dumas, Annette Messager, Sigmar Polke as well as abstract artists, Terry Winters and Brice Marden. While living in NYC for a number of years, I drank up the art and devoured dance performances, in particular, Pina Bausch. Her poetic, dramatic and humorous stories on stage were riveting. I witnessed the popularity of video art, especially the work Bill Viola and his non-linear ways of allegorical story- telling and his fondness for greater themes tied to the human gesture. These influences confirmed my connection to the human body, performance, dance and narrative art.
My work developed using concepts of seriality and multiple styles. I wanted to paint the figure, but not in a traditional narrative way. What I really wanted to do was stage performances but I loved painting, so I stuck with that.
Do you have any favorite artists?
Some of my favorite artists are: Shazia Sikkander, Wangetchi Mutu, Leonora Carrington, Nick Cave, Nicole Eisenman, Firelei Baez, Inka Essinhigh, Etyl Adan, Jennifer Packer, Marcel Dzama, Salmon Toor, Francisco Toledo, Maira Kalman, Ann Hamilton, Hannah Hoch, Joan Mitchell, David Park, Piero Da Francesco, the ceilings at the Uffizi, The Giorgio Vasari House in Arezzo and Cy Twombly… to name just a few.
I just finished the biography of Hilma af Klint. I love to read artist biographies and I’m also leafing through a fun book called, “Daily Rituals, How Artists Work”, which is a broad taste of how artists get inspired and what their daily rituals are. I love asking people that very question— how do you get started in the studio? For me, I clean my studio, put on some great music and find a piece of paper to start fooling around on.
Recent favorite quote: “ The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you” (Neil Degrasse Tyson)
What advice do you have for younger artists?
After 40 years of doing this, my advise is this: Make art because you love the process of making things. The practice of making art should be a dedicated PRACTICE, something you love to do and HAVE to do— like walking, breathing and playing. It will always give you purpose and joy as long as you don’t look at it as a way to make money or achieve “fame”. I always say to students; “just because you made it and think it’s great, doesn’t mean that someone else necessarily does… or for that matter, needs to own it”. Make art for yourself…. not anyone else. Have no expectations. Show your work wherever you can: coffeeshops, hair salons, small galleries, etc. Invite your friends and family to witness what you do— they are the people who love you and will appreciate what you do. Find a group of like-minded friends who also create. Meet in each other’s studios and talk about art. I believe that artists are the barometers of culture— making art and sharing it with the world connects and enlivens the human spirit. There is no down side to making art!
