assume vivid astro focus: Learning to Paint | ART21 "Exclusive"

[assume vivid astro focus: Learning to Paint]

[Eli Sudbrack, avaf]

I have to take my glasses off

just to do this,

because I have to be really close

so I can see detail.

Ulrika is actually amazingly proficient at doing that.

I'm just painting for the first time

since last year.

I'm still learning.

[Ulrika Andersson, Assistant]

[ANDERSSON] I did photorealistic painting
for about 10 years,

before I started working on this.

So this is a nice change.

I guess I have a pretty steady hand.

It's kind of like working with nail polish

because it gets that build up.

But, I've kind of gotten used to it now.

I think it's, like, a matter of figuring out,

kind of, how to layer it.

But, I kind of like it.

I really like the surface that you get.

I listen to audiobooks and comedy podcasts,

so, I guess Eli hears me giggling.

But, there's usually music...

[SUDBRACK] She laughs a lot

[ANDERSSON LAUGHS]

[SUDBRACK] Which is excellent.

[ANDERSSON] I'm giggling and Eli is listening to music.

[SUDBRACK] So these here are

the paints that we have been using.

They're all K-60 Krink colors.

Maybe you should call them, like, graffiti paint.

They just use it with an applicator,

and they just do...you know, tag,

with the applicator here.

We take the foamy thing out

and we just use the actual paint,

you know, with brushes.

Because it has this sort of, like,

enamel lacquer quality to it.

And it is an alcohol-based paint,

which dries really fast.

I'm not so fond of this tone--

it's too eggy.

So we start mixing it with white,

so it will have, like, a lighter,

brighter yellow.

For these paintings,

I wasn't sure if I should have more, like,

block colors,

or if I should just pattern everything--

make everything really crazy.

I always have issues with leaving things

absolutely white.

[COUNTING, "...three, four, five, six..."]

These are many layers

of different shapes that are colored in

for this painting.

Christine is going to be finishing up tracing.

I'm going to use this to start coloring that
canvas.

[COUNTING, "Nine, ten. Ten layers!"]

The Krink wouldn't really allow me

to change that much,

because I can't really overlay the colors.

But it's sort of like a coloring-by-numbers
process.

These shapes...

I wanted to make it lighter.

First, I was going to turn the whole thing
red.

And then I felt like,

I'm just going to outline red.

And then I started doing it, and I said,

oh, this actually looks good like this.

I recently went to the Philadelphia Museum
of Art

to visit, again, that Duchamp room.

And I was looking at the large glass.

I have this image of this mechanic figure

called "The Bride".

I thought, maybe,

those trannies from those paintings,

one of them might have been transformed

into absolute abstraction in geometry.

I felt, that's the connection--

that's "The Bride".

I made some references to that here,

like, there's like this fluid

that she exalts in this area here.

That became this fluid here.

I brought this piece to this bottom area here.

I used this Jimi Hendrix cover,

and I wanted to use this grass element,

and I traced it over here.

This green area came out of, like,

something that I was looking at by Al Held

to create a more 3-D element on this painting.

Sometimes I feel like I should bring another
reference,

and then sometimes I feel like I should not

bring any reference at all.

That something should just come

more organic out of my mind.

[CHRISTINE WILCOX ACKERMAN] Once I'm done
tracing it,

I'll go do some freehand.

I spent maybe five hours just doing the first...

[Christine Wilcox Ackerman, Assistant]

layer from the scan,

and then Eli worked on it

for probably at least a week, right?

[SUDBRACK] Yeah, it took me a while to finish
that one.

[WILCOX ACKERMAN] So Eli, do you want to look
at

the first lines that I fixed?

[SUDBRACK] Yeah.

[WILCOX ACKERMAN] And make sure...

[SUDBRACK, VOICE OVER] I had a really hard
time on this one... [LAUGHS]

Like, adding color and other shapes.

But now I'm happy with it.

[SUDBRACK] Oh, yeah, definitely.

Definitely, yeah.

Perfect. Thank you.

If I'm able to spend a whole day just painting,

that's, like, the paradise day for me.

Like, this traditional idea of the artist--

the painter.

[HAMAIDE-PIERSON] I like these little, like,

marshmallow teeth. [LAUGHS]

No?

[SUDBRACK] You know what that is?

[HAMAIDE-PIERSON] No.

[SUDBRACK] A reference to Duchamp.

[HAMAIDE-PIERSON] The glass panels?

[SUDBRACK] Yeah.

[HAMAIDE-PIERSON] Yeah yeah yeah...

[SUDBRACK] The two panels.

[HAMAIDE-PIERSON] Yeah yeah yeah...

[SUDBRACK] Right? And the large glass.

The top section, what the bride is...

[Christophe Hamaide-Pierson, avaf]

[SUDBRACK] There's like these fumes coming
out of the bride.

[HAMAIDE-PIERSON] Right.

[SUDBRACK, VOICE OVER] I keep thinking, like,

how would it be

when I use different paint?

Am I going to be

working right on the canvas

and do something that's more spontaneous?

[SUDBRACK] ...fumes that drag them up--

they're wet, or something--

that's what that comes from.

[HAMAIDE-PIERSON] I see...

Marshmallow.