Artist Lauren Doyle Interview w/ Lincoln Mag Vol. 3
How many weeks or days do you work on a project?
LD- I have multiple paintings in progress / various stages of completion hung along the wall. Each painting takes a different length of time to complete. For example one painting may take one or two years to complete and others just hours. As I begin a painting I never know what direction it will go or how long it will take but I just try to enjoy the process of creating the image itself without focusing on the end result. I find focusing on the end result of working on a painting destructive to the art making process completely. The painting must be created naturally.
2. Please describe your process from a blank canvas to a completed canvas.
LD- I allow my hand to dictate the movements of the marks on the paper. I begin drawing small on square pieces of paper 5 inches by 5 inches or less in black and white. Beginning a composition small has many advantages. You can eliminate unnecessary lines or shapes quickly and begin to see the form and or direction of the image immediately. I take the original black and white small sketch and draw them over and over again but this time and the larger scale. I used a large paint brush size 16 or 20 with watercolor paint on paper. Often I will paint vertically to further separate my control of the image. The water color will go down the paper as I create the images and often I am surprised with new images that I did not see before.
I repeat painting with watercolor in a large brush many times and often return to the pencil to define the new shapes. Other mediums may be added such as acrylic, latex paint or oil paint. I will then move on to other paintings and work on them simultaneously to take a break from each project. I hang them up on my wall and step back about 12 or 15 feet and squint my eyes. This process goes back to the first step of creating a small drawing to see the form and composition of the image.
3. Which comes first, in stages of completing a piece? Composition, color, contents?
LD - Color always comes first then composition and content. (if any)
4. Why do you want your audience to feel a sense of movement and Stillness?
LD- Our world is always in motion. I wish to take these fleeting moments and freeze them in time.
5. Why do you want your audience to understand equal parts of heaviness and emptiness?
LD- My paintings are objects falling or being dropped from above. The image is captured in mid-flight, frozen, and stuck. I wish to share my emotions of the process through heaviness and emptiness. I often cannot know what I'm feeling in my head and have to make images to see into it.
6. How do your themes of movement, Stillness, heaviness, or your past experiences play into your daily life? Hopes for the Future?
LD- I repeat and emphasize emptiness, and heaviness through the objects falling. As for stillness repeated organic forms act as a calming, relaxing experience for the creator and viewer. Images are repeated to sooth, calm, and still your mind. As for the future, I hope to use these meditative images to calm my own mind and help others release the heaviness from their daily lives.
