How did you guys first get introduced to art? 

M:  Well, it’s kinda hard to say for me. I‘ve always been interested in making things since I was a kid.  I know that’s a cliche thing to say, but I was always drawing little worlds.  The school Camilla goes to know, MICA, I would take Saturday classes at.  It was fun for me and I was the only kid that was into that before high school. 

C:  I was always dead set on being an artist since day one.  I was really into anime and that fueled my passion for art making.  I wanted to do comics, but I totally hate comics now.  Not to read, but the making of them.

 

What changed for you? 

C:  I kept reading anime and manga and I was super into storytelling and having all these worlds exist.  I started making the comics and it was just the worst.  It took forever because you have to draw each panel and it was too static for me.  I then switched over the film.  

 

So you both do something more film based, do you think that the principles of drawing have helped you transition into film? 

C:  I only started dabbling in film, I’m an illustrator still.  Definitely my interest in illustration has only made film for me better.  I have a big focus on graphic design and prop making for film.  I think it helps me flesh out the worlds better and the characters.  

M:  It is interesting because I can see how your initial interest in comics boils down to film and illustration.  I think that one of the best things a drawing teacher has told me is that the first lines in your drawings are the edges of the paper.  Dealing with the integrity of whatever shape you are creating is really helpful.  Seeing contrast and pushing value is really helpful.  I also like to think a lot about texture because photography can be really flat.  My background in color has really given me a passion for color and lights. 

 

Do you think the final shape of the rectangle is restrictive? 

M:  Totally, I’ve been wondering about that because I’m taking an optics class.  When the light first goes into the camera it is a circle, but then there’s the rectangle around it.  The standard shape is a rectangle because it is the easiest to reproduce and photography is all about reproduction. 

 

Do you guys view the creation of art as a solo activity or do you enjoy creating it in a group? 

C:  I feel like in work and big projects  it is easier to be in a group.  I’m open to collabing on a piece, but I’ve never really thought about how it would go artistically.  I’m really set in my ways about how I want it to look and how I want to do it.  I’m also not great at explaining my ideas to other people which is bad for directing.    

M:  I understand that sometimes you don’t want to compromise your vision, but we both see art as not this singular practice.  The goal of our show is to create more of that community.  I’m working on another project which is creating a directory of starting out creators of not only visual artists but musicians.  I would love to work with other people, but I get so distracted with my own ideas. 

 

How did you first form the idea for the show? 

C:  I was working on this painting series and I wanted to show it, but I wanted it to be more than my work.  I reached out to a friend and asked if we wanted to do a show together. 

M:  We talked a little bit before about our interest in curation.  I curated a show at our old school and doing that helped make that connection.  I’ve been noticing that there aren’t a lot of opportunities outside of just putting it outside of instagram and we wanted to fix that for other people.  

C:  I wanted to do something that was reactive to the gallery space.  I got super into visiting shows when I was at MICA and you could see new works all the time.  It was convenient and it was really cool because the students do it themselves. 

 

Are the people in the show more of your friends or did you reach out to people that are in the local area? 

C:  I don’t know if I’m friends with most of these people.  It is acquaintances and people whose work I admire and I wanted to reach out to them.  

M:  Same here.  Most of them were people I was following on instagram and I never met them in person.  I was scared to reach out to people, but the whole point is having mutually beneficial relationships.  The artists are being vulnerable but giving us their work to build a  context around.  Otherwise, we wanted all our artists to bring their circles and that’s the idea of the networking.     

 

Is the show online? 

M:  Yeah, we have a 3D modeling space program that allows us to basically make a render of a room and you can go through it. 

 

Is there a central theme or is it more having different art pieces in one room? 

C:  That is the central theme, having things together and working off of those things and the relationship is doing this together. 

M:  The idea is this hive mind, we asked the artists to send work that was indicative of their current state of mind.  It is about all the individuals happening all at once and maybe finding connections. 

 

Do you think that creatives are acting collectively different to the current situation rather than people that don’t have that outlet? 

M:  I don’t know, but that’s interesting.  I think for some people I’ve seen them be more open with the process and final product.  I’ve seen people embrace the homemade aspect more, I’m all about the accessibility. 

C:  I think so in some ways, but there’s a difference within those creative people.   A lot of creative people are looking to themselves and their work and new ways to be DIY.  ALso people are taking time to relax and not focus so much on their work, which is an interesting difference.  I have been working basically non stop. 

 

Do you think for students not having access to the school and its materials has forced them to be more in a DIY area? 

C:  Definitely.  I’m in a film class and we have the materials available in a checkout system, but finding actors and locations has become more difficult.  In my other classes people are getting by from their own resources.    

M:  I think it gives students a lot more of an idea when they graduate and don’t have access to studios.  I think it is a learning experience because you are getting this professional guidance from your professors, but you are doing it out of your bedroom.  That is how it is going to be in a couple years from now.  

 

Are you having a live opening? 

M:  It is going to be up for an extended period of time, but we are doing a live zoom opening.  

 

How many different artists? 

M:  15 including us.  

 

Is curation something that interests you past this project? 

M:  I see a real need for replacing art institutions as they exist today and replacing them in an institution way for artists.  They also need to be more accessible and less intimidating to the surrounding community.  All of us as artists in general need to confront what we do now?  Do we really wanna give our pieces to places like that Whitney that are basically buying print for $15 and then charging $25 admissions.  I’m really passionate about connecting artists and finding ways to make the art economy really happen. 

C:  Curation isn’t something I’m intensely interested in.  In the future I want to keep doing small intimate shows.  I’m really interested in how artists that don’t work in the typical painting medium express themselves and their feelings from work.  It is nice to give them that platform because not everyone has that stage to express themselves.  I’m not interested in curation as a career, but as a side hobby. 

 

I would say the vast majority of shows revolve around paintings and then drawings with a few about photography.  I think that there needs to be more shows featuring artists that work in underrepresented mediums.  

M:  I think it is really silly to divide up a show by a disciple.  It makes sense if it is just for one artist showing a body of work.  I think a lot of galleries will do that because the reason why they are showing in the first place is to sell.  In reality I think it is so much more interesting to see how these different mediums interact with each other.  The reproducibility of art is something I’m interested in.  You can even print a photo on a cake, you can do anything with it.  There could be a lot of crossover in the future with different mediums. 

C:  I’m mostly a digital illustrator and I’ve always thought of traditional forms of painting as separate from my career art.  I do wish more museums and more artists would experiment with other surfaces and to see paintings on fabrics for an example.  If this show that we are doing is in person I would have totally loved to include more sculptural works and works that take up space.  If you are buying an art piece you aren’t just buying an aesthetic, but you are buying the whole history of the artist.      

 

So with the show being online, how is seeing something through a screen different than in person? 

C:  Well seeing it through a screen the colors are different and you get a whole different feel and watching something at home.  I like going to the movie theatre because of the whole experience rather than just watching something at home. 

 

Do you think that the surrounding environment will play into a viewer's thoughts on the event itself? 

C:  Yeah definitely.  If someone were to be watching something on their phone while walking to work they wouldn’t be able to absorb as much as watching it at home. 

M:  As a digital show people can be seeing it from anywhere and from any context.  It would be interesting to see how people interact if they were watching it at home with the news in the background versus if they were quietly on the porch or something.  This plays into our idea of the hivemind and the feeling of everyone being separate and sharing an experience to a degree.  As a curator I have to think about the impact of the space and the triangular discussion of the piece, the space and the people viewing it.  Yes it is different digital because the triangle will be different.  It is so experiential that it is hard to exactly pin down what it even means to have your body in space then perceive it through the screen.  

 

How is the show set up? 

C:  It is a 3D render.  You can go through the space on your own, but we also have a guided tour that goes through every piece chronologically

M:  Yeah some of the work will be for sale and some prints of the work.  

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Check out the show!

https://www.honeyguideshow.com

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