[New York Close Up]
I have been collecting images
putting things into books-
i don't know, probably since high school
Before, it was more about coming across an image
and if it struck me, I would put it aside.
[Louise Despont, Artist]
And then later, it became searching for specific images.
Looking for specific examples.
I've been thinking about where ideas come from,
what the source of inspiration is,
what that communication was about.
["Louise Despont According To The Universe"]
I'm really drawn to images that are very full
and very packed
because I want that energy to feel strong
and present in the work afterwards.
Most of them come from the Internet.
Some are Xeroxed out of books
and some are travel photographs.
These are chicken baskets in Bali.
Collecting images and storing them
and looking through them,
there's a large amount of it that's unconscious.
It’s just about looking at work that vibrates for you--
that you say "Whoa!" that is so powerful--
and you're moved by it and you're changed by it.
Ten years ago I would spend most of my time
looking for images and collecting them
and a little bit of time drawing.
It's nice to look back.
It's like bread crumbs.
Reminds me of all the steps along the way.
What those first images were that caught my eye,
and which ones still feel significant,
and which ones aren’t interesting anymore.
[LAUGHS]
This is an old portfolio from 2009 in India.
I visited astronomical observatories in Jaipur and Delhi.
They're just beautiful geometry.
This is a collage I was making
from Xeroxes of books on textiles.
This idea came back into my work six years later
in a piece that I made for Pioneer Works.
[Pioneer Works, Red Hook]
For my show, "The Six-Sided Force,"
I was thinking about beehives--
their systems of communication,
their use of architecture,
the energy of a hexagon.
[MAN] Wow.
[DESPONT] And then starting here, three hives,
then a big piece.
Wow. Amazing.
Oh, it looks great!
[WOMAN] It looks amazing.
[DESPONT] A body of work sort of develops its theme in different ways.
One way is simply that,
because the work is so slow to make,
one year equals one show.
It's kind of just the state of mind of that year.
I am suspicious of having to decide on the subject of a show
before starting the work.
The process of drawing is such a learning tool
that the work will guide it much better than sitting down
and trying to make a decision.
[Nicelle Beauchene, Lower East Side]
For my show, "Harmonic Tremor,"
I'm thinking about vibrations, sound waves--
specifically volcanic vibrations that encircle the world.
In terms of Krakatoa,
I was interested in that one specifically
because it was such a huge explosion--
that the sound waves travelled around the earth four times.
A seismograph--
it's a drawing that the Earth is making.
Everything is vibration.
Everything is made up of waves of energy.
Things that are alive have a hum
and there's a way to visually represent that.
What are the patterns of an emotion?
What are the vibrational waves of a relationship?
When I look at the drawings
and I feel the examples that are the most successful,
it really feels like they hum.
That the drawing starts to vibrate in this way
where the energy has been translated in the correct way.
It's taken on its own life.
Yeah, the vibration of it just becomes alive.
What's so interesting about the creative act
is that you can access something completely outside yourself.
It's a communication with awareness
rather than consciousness.
You put them all up and then maybe two
or a connection between four of them
will find some reference into a work.
And because the work is not an illustration of a concept or an idea,
there’s enough freedom to say,
"If it's contained within me, it'll make sense."
There will be some unifying force.
If you offer yourself up as the hands to make the work
the relationship you form with what you communicate with
has its own voice.
Sometimes that voice comes through research and combing through images.
And sometimes it's direct on the paper.
In terms of inspiration,
for some reason I had this image in my head of an eyeball.
If we think of the pupil and the iris as the ego and the conscious mind,
and then you imagine the white of the eye as awareness--
as energy that you can access outside of yourself.
That's what I think is the most exciting part about making work,
is that you start to build a relationship with accessing this awareness.
That work isn't coming from your personal life story.
It's not coming from your background.
It's not coming from your ego.
It's coming from some universal energy, you know?
And that relationship is so sacred.
Finding what those really interesting connections are,
it's sort of playing with memory.
Because I have a very bad memory,
I think I remember what it is
but then I'm afraid to really say what it is.
It's like the reference sometimes disappears.
Then, you're just looking at one specific thing about it.
It's not really about it’s context anymore.
[DESPONT] Should I start burning down here?
[MAN] Left.
[MAN] Okay. You're good.
[DESPONT] It’s really hard for it to get through the black ink.
[ALL LAUGH]
[MAN] Hold.
[DESPONT] It looks like a devil's face! [LAUGHS]
[MAN] Wow.
[DESPONT] That was so nice!