Maybe this seems like an odd question, but how present do you actually want to be in the studio?
I’ll probably say this 80 times for this interview, but I really like my work to always be kind of in between two things. I feel like I set up a lot of parameters for the paintings. Like I might make a collage first as the basis for the drawing, or I might do a really rudimentary color map of what I’m planning in my head. But then that gives me the freedom to improv, or push off against it.
Maybe earlier on in your career, you’re a little bit more precious with your paintings, but at a certain point, I know that if I don’t risk ruining it or if I don’t push it in a different way or try something new, I’m not going to be satisfied. So, to answer your question, I think I like having the structure and a plan, and then really being able to improvise and completely flip it up, changing it for the sake of the painting and not be worried about editing or ruining something that worked.
There is a way that being super present might make you self-conscious. That might be overthinking. But I think I’m trying to get to that flow state, which I feel is the opposite of being hyper-fixated on things that aren’t happening right. I don’t want to be present in the sense that I’m so worried about where the painting is going to end up, but I want to be present in the sense that I’m on that certain wavelength, just that perfect feeling when you’re painting.
Anthony, what are you painting?
I don’t even know if it’s a tightrope or if it’s between two things, because to me it is very, very personal. In terms of the paintings and things I’m interested in, and the themes and the symbols, I could provide an annotated guide for reading them and how it would relate to my particular vantage point, place and time. But also I’m interested in the conventions of narrative and of figurative painting in general. It’s how we organize meaning and tell stories, and that all has the macro-micro thing, where I think the more intensely personal and specific you are, the more you can latch onto something that a lot of people relate to.
I feel like the paintings are concerned with the very general big issues that people have always been concerned with: mortality and legacy, and wanting to know another person and wanting to be known. Within that, I’m interested in painting as a language where there are conventions and belief systems around it that people have. Like, “This portrait reveals some inner truth about the sitter.” I think it’s just that I’m very interested in figurative and narrative art.
