Renee Couture: 5 questions with Todd Baldwin
The title of this exhibit is Surveyed. This can be taken to mean looking carefully or observing, or examining and recording areas of land. Tell me how your work fits into these general concepts.
This work involves my examination of my surrounding landscape on a variety of levels: there’s the literal horizon line that surrounds my property used in each of the images. This is something I experience every day and that I’ve seen change through the years. Then there is the political and economic survey that is hidden within the work. I live in an area that is often referred to as “the Checkerboard” due to the division of land between public and private, which is literally looks like a checkerboard when one looks at a map. How the public lands are used or managed is extremely political. Currently, Oregon has more timber or forested lands that are federally or state owned than privately-owned timber/forest lands, but most of the timber extracted comes off of privately-owned lands. Many towns are historically, and to some extent, currently timber dependent. Many of the debates surrounding land-use management become very black and white, focusing on ideas surrounding function vs. value, wild vs. managed, ecological integrity vs. social well-being. I often wonder where that gray area is that acknowledges and allows for both.
What was the biggest challenge you faced when creating this body of work?
One of the biggest challenges also facilitated the work. There was a wild (forest) fire burning not two miles from my home. While there were days when the sky was clear and I would have never guessed there was a fire so close, there were other moments when ash was raining on my property and I could barely make out the horizon line. When I could see it, there was sometimes a question in my mind as to whether or not I could really see it, or if I could see it because I knew it was there. The day I left for a residency at Vermont Studio Center, I literally didn’t know if I would have a home to come home to.
Another huge challenge was creating the surfaces of the images. I created these during my last week of my residency. It was a physically labor-intensive to work long hours forcing the powdered graphite into the paper to create a velvety surface. More long hours with a pencil in hand to create “the shiny parts”. It was sore at the end of my long work days.
Some artists say that a work is done the moment it leaves the studio. How did you know when this work was finished?
I only believe that sometimes. Sometimes a work is not done and you only realize that when you see it outside of your work space. I guess I know that a work is done when I know I can’t or don’t want to add or edit anything more from it, and when I’m slightly uncomfortable with that decision.
If you didn't have a shortage of time, what's the top thing on your to-do list that you would get to?
A period of extended travel.
What's next for Renee Couture?
I’d like to continue with this series, but larger in scale - something along the lines of 50 inches x 7 or 8 feet, and displayed on a special set of stands so the viewer can see both the front and the back of the paper. I also want to create some sculptures that continue a recent line of inquiry within the scope of “place”. I want to explore the boundary lines that divided our surrounding landscape, lines that dissect or unify a space, lines that are actual and invisible, man-made and natural. I hope to do this by using quotidian objects and imagery, - such as fences, gates, rivers, ridge lines, etc. - then deconstructing and recombining them to make a body of three-dimensional works.
Matthew Shelley: 5 questions with Todd Baldwin
The title of this exhibit is Surveyed. This can be taken to mean looking carefully or observing, or examining and recording areas of land. Tell me how your work fits into these general concepts?
This summer I started working with these mechanical and architectural shapes. The larger forms were made from individual images, so I spent a lot of time considering how those images relate to one another. There are a lot of different ways you could look at it, but I was most interested in how all of the separate parts were working together to describe a broader environment. I kept thinking about how the individual pictures, which were based in reality, were coming together to form something totally fictional.
For me, the title Surveyed relates to the overall picture that begins to form when collections of individual images link together. I wasn’t thinking about surveying as a deep analysis of something, but more like reconnaissance. I thought of the forms as reflecting a place, but in a way that was fractured or incomplete. Under most circumstances, I would think surveying would apply to something observed in reality, but in this case I wanted to leave that undetermined.
What was the biggest challenge you faced when creating this body of work?
The most difficult aspect was trying to understand the relationship of the individual parts to the larger forms in the work. It was difficult to make decisions, because every material, and every image can introduce new content. I got pretty stressed out about appropriating images connected to art history because those images all have pre-existing meanings. I had to try to find a balance between the material’s inherent content, and the new form that was being constructed. In the end, I decided that I wanted to use the images in a different way; not as commentary, but as a resource to build something less discernible.
Some artists say that a work is done the moment it leaves the studio. How did you know when this work was finished?
These pieces usually start with drawing. After I find a composition that works, I scale the drawing up and make a pattern. With this method I solve most of the design and placement issues in the early stages. Most of the struggle for me is finding images that work together. There were definitely moments of improvisation, but compositionally speaking, the work was usually finished when I reached the end of the pattern.
If you didn't have a shortage of time, what's the top thing on your to-do list that you would get to?
There were a lot of materials that I was considering using, but had to stay away from for lack of time. Some of the materials would take too much time to learn how to use, or they would introduce some new idea that would overwhelm the rest of the work. I started using some things like cork and plastic, but I had to sideline those materials for future projects. I got close to making them work, but there were just too many elements at play and I had to cut it back down.
What's next for Matthew Shelley?
I have been building a parallel body of work using 3-D modeling and animation programs. Those have been really fun to work on. 3-D modeling allows me to deal with these forms in a way that is more dimensional, and animation introduces time as an element. I’m looking forward to working more with those programs over the next couple months. Outside of trying out those new methods, I’m just planning on a little open-ended studio work.
