James with Paintings and Newspapers
by Andrew James Mckay
Acrylic with graphite and ink on panel. 2023.
Photo by Rachel Topham Photography
Andrew in Good Health
Oil on wood panel, 16 x 20 in
2023
James:
In 2023, my e-bud @andrewjamesmckay reached out about his forthcoming project, Tête-à-Tête. He explained that he would set out to paint about ten different artists, and they would all paint him. The thought of a space filled with portraits of him and him also being present was very funny to me and also very powerful of him. I couldn’t say no. For working reference, Andrew sent me a photo of him post-optometrist visit, pupils gaping, letting way too much of the world in. I loved learning from this painting and from talking with Andrew, but most of all, I love the painting(s) he’s made of me.
Andrew:
In an effort to mitigate the basic ego-maniacal nature of the project, I was interested in also painting the artists who would be doing my portrait(s). Do artists have a special acuity in terms of sight? What impositions or inferences would each include in their portraits of me (and vice versa)? Would it—as James alludes to—look totally mad having them all together at once, all shouting the same image in a variety of dialects? One thinks of the hundreds upon hundreds of portraits of Nicolae Ceaușescu, former Prime Minister of Romania. Despite now being generally unexhibitable owing to his late-rule conduct, they show him in innumerable circumstances and getting up to all kinds of wonderful things; apparently he hated all of them. As for me, I like James and I like the painting he did of me. I think he made something substantial out of what was a disorientating day for me, and it was a pleasure to be able to interpret him in his studio space to say nothing of this venture having provided an opportunity to have a colleague become a friend.