Minna Resnick
Ithaca, New York
Website
www.minnaresnick.com
Social Media
Instagram
How would you describe your work?
My work has always addressed issues confronting women and their reactions and accommodations to their cultural environment. Since this is my fiftieth year of an active studio practice, the last two decades or so have included the changing nature of experience over the course of time and aging, commenting on themes of expectation and reality, and the ideal and the everyday.
What inspires you?
Just about everything! I collect early- and mid-twentieth century manuals on home management, health, beauty, and education, along with contemporary imagery, including fashion magazines. So many of the captions under the vintage illustrations are so absurd that I immediately guffaw. As for the contemporary fashion ads, they are so overtly sexualized, I immediately start thinking of how I can make fun or comment seriously about each one of these appropriated images and play them against one another. I hope to do this while still retaining a sense of humor.
Can you speak about your process?
I was traditionally trained as a printmaker, making editioned prints, but always continued making drawings separately. About 30 years ago, I started to combine both, that is, making drawings that included printed imagery, which I continue to do to this day as my primary practice. However, I always build my drawings in layers, as I still think like a printmaker. For the last twenty years, I have also been working with a printer in Bern, Switzerland, making digital first layers. These are then sent back to me in Ithaca, NY, where I continue to complete each image with additional drawing.
How did you become interested in art?
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t make art. My parents saved a newspaper article about me winning a poster contest in second grade, and I was lucky enough to have their support my entire life.
Do you have any favorite artists, movies, books, or quotes?
Sigh. Too many! After studying art history as an undergraduate in art school, and looking at four years of slides (yes, I’m that old!), when I graduated and treated myself to a trip to Italy and saw original Giotto frescoes, I nearly fainted. I immediately understood reproductions were for identification only and that art, for me, became alive when seen in person. I know that’s impossible to do only this, but when I have the opportunity, I sit and stare for long times. Some random favorites: Mantegna, Leonora Carrington, and the drawings of Winslow Homer and Jim Dine. My favorite quote comes from the painter Phyllis Bramson, whose work I also love: “I am a contaminator of conceptual thinking.”
What advice do you have for younger artists?
Be serious and work hard. But take time to enjoy it. If something doesn’t work out, be thankful you are not a heart surgeon, and no one died. Just try again.
