-At the beginning of our night meeting in my apartment, we explored each others works from our time here at Rutgers. There were not any initial questions prepared, however, it did not take long for each of us to become very comfortable with each other. This is what happend.
M: When and how did you come to start doing art?
T: I use to ride horses for about 10 years and that was what I would do to relax. I unfortunately got into an accident unrelated to riding, but resulted in me not being able to ride anymore. I started to fill my time drawing and painting, and it became my new way of relaxing. I discovered that I was actually good and enjoyed doing it as well.
M: Did you enter Rutgers as a painter?
T: No, actually entering Rutgers, I had not decided what my area of concentration would be. I continued practicing drawing and painting but discovered sculpture as well.
M: When making work, is there a certain theme that you like to focus on?
T: Not necessarily, most of my works come from a personal place. I use a lot of my secrets, friends’ secrets, stories and situations I encounter on a daily basis throughout my work. One of my recurring themes however is color. I like playing with color in people confusing or adding context with color. Making you think of stereotypes or laughing at the idea of color being crucial or important to the scene but it is really at random.
M: When talking and looking at your work, it seems that many of your life situations are displayed in your paintings while other ideas are explored within your sculpture. Can you elaborate on that?
T: When it comes to painting, it is something that I need to constantly do. I always have something that I need to tell and get off of my chest. Once the idea has been completed I can put it away satisfied that I have tackled it to the best of my ability. Painting is something that I need to do, while sculpture is not something I need to do. Sculpture is so stressful at times.
M: I would think that something you spend so much personal time with would be relaxing rather than stressful.
T: For sculpture there is so much time and energy spent into making a piece. You have to think of an idea, gather supplies, plan your work, re-evaluate and change ideas all before you start to make your work. Sculpture is so solid compared to painting to where it comes to the point where I ask myself "does this need to be done?" For painting I tend to work very fast in the ideas. I tend to want to make my entire scenes urgent.
M: You asked me about titling my own works; do you title your works?
T: Yes I do. I feel that many of my works need to have something to further explain my thought process at times. I reference very intimate situations and serious situations so I make my titles playful. It makes serious matters seem funny.
M: Can you describe your thoughts into making your piece with the legs and iron.
T: I wanted to work with the reference of the American Flag and women. She is sitting sewing the flag and it is pretty large. Through her legs there is a printer and it is printing a lot of political ideas and thoughts that are bullshit. There is also an iron that has needles coming out making it incapable of being used. It is essentially making a stab at the political system to where there are inabilities to iron out and solve our issues because the women is sewing more than what we can handle.
M: What do you plan on doing after graduating from Rutgers?
T: I want to do whatever it is that will keep me making art. Moving to Brooklyn and getting a job and apartment with friends or other artists would be cool. I’ve worked in many different environments within the art world so my resume is pretty open.
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