Jonah Criswell: RESIDE 
Opening reception this Friday, September 3rd from 6:30-9:30pm at the Arts Incubator’s Cocoon Gallery.
Read on for an interview of Jonah Criswell done by Erica Mahinay.
Reside functions as a two-part exhibition of paintings and drawings by Jonah Criswell, in which Criswell continues an ongoing tradition of documenting the everyday through a reexamination of the domestic setting. Avoiding common associations with comfort and stability, Criswell navigates between unexpected compositions, murky and brooding pallets, and an ever-present sense that these familiar spaces contain more unfamiliar truths about human experience. Paintings of rooms strewn with evidence of inhabitation suggest states of tension, and anxiety through off-kilter compositions and a fractured sense of time. Graphite descriptions of the most banal home listings flicker between coming and going, revealing potential intimacies, and simultaneous states of “hello” and “goodbye”. In The Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard writes, “A house that has been experienced is not an inert box. Inhabited space transcends geometrical space”. Criswell explores the home as both inhabited and vacated, and depicts the home as a richly layered site in which all aspects of human experience can be traversed.
Erica Mahinay:
I think I would like to begin by asking a little about your thoughts on the relationship between your medium and your subject. What do you think happens to a space when you use paint vs. drawing?
Jonah Criswell:
Painting feels more concrete, based on how I draw, which involves layers and layers of marks. Painting seems to be more assertive but drawing holds, for me, a lot more mood. The larger paintings have a lot of force and really feel like joined shapes of spaces where the drawings have a strong sense of grid that underlies everything. Drawing for me is so much about showing the difficulty in finding, something like mystery.
EM:
Through a process of mark making you mean?
JC:
I think the process of mark making is a by-product of trying to understand your subject. Some people make the process the subject, which is fine, but I am mostly responding to something I found compelling. The subject, its representation is a general destination, the mark making is mostly the vehicle to that destination but those layers are about the difficulty or ease of that transition from an image in the world, in my mind and then on paper.
EM:
Can you elaborate a little about the decision making process? What happens when you translate a source photograph into paint or graphite? What associations become activated in this translation?
JC:
I think it mostly reflects something like nostalgia or memory. I usually choose an image that feels beautiful or haunting or lovely– something unnamable to it. When I translate it into paint I usually focus on how the source material seemed more dramatic. Drama being the rhythmus of a kind of emotional experience. Usually the things that I emphasize are born out of the relationship I develop with the image, or the changes the image undertakes just by being around. Printouts have a tendency to change subtly over time. Mostly though, the emphasis or de-emphasis of certain passages comes from trying to find a way to give the viewer that same electric feeling — without trying to just lay it on thick, sometimes you need to slow someone down so that when the work reveals its agenda to the viewer, there is no going back. This is highly dependent on the viewer.
EM:
Do you think the content of the familiar tends to disarm your viewer then?
JC:
Oh hopefully! I think that there is an expectation of what exists in a gallery setting… Representational paintings do this/ abstract paintings do that/ Performative pieces do these things… What would happen if you walked into a gallery filled with photographs and drawings that felt like they were from your life? Would you then see life as ceremonial, or worthy of something more than just memory? Life feels ceremonial and the world feels regal but there is a danger, like the angry mob at the gates of what you think of as precious. I want that danger in there, because I want the viewers to defend the work.
EM:
I think that some of your works, particularly the ones using Craig’s-listed and advertised source image ‘homes for rent’ flirt with the notion of the voyeur, but in a way that springs from socially acceptable means of peeking, and with all the potential of having this place, which is not your home… become your home…
JC:
Oh certainly! Also the opposite is that they talk about the exhibitionistic character of our lives now.
EM:
So do you think that by making a decision to use the ‘banal’ or the familiar as a subject, you in effect poke fun at the more outrageous things that are available for our internet viewing? Or is that beside the point?
JC:
I think that the more outrageous things we can see on the internet become sadly common. I was more interested in finding a depiction of places non-artist type people would consider moving to. In the paintings, one of the valid things I was told was that a lot of the austerity feels like an artist or designer’s home. (Albeit a poor one, but an artist type person.) This, I think, shuts some people out because they would just compare their life to that of the author (me). By choosing already empty homes, I took me more out of the equation!
EM:
In these paintings, there is a very different sense of composition than in the drawings, which build a kind of anxiety, whereas the drawings seem to tend towards a bleak calm… neither are very comforting, but are on opposite ends of discomfort. Can you talk about some of the intentions behind your notions of discomfort in the home?
JC:
You are absolutely right about the compositional differences. The paintings were supposed to be almost doorways into rooms. Given that they are 6ft and larger, I wanted the viewer to have to experience the painting almost as they would experience a room they walked into. The drawings have such a delicacy and nuance when you get close to them. I want to create a kind of intimacy with the viewer that ultimately reveals a sadder truth.
EM:
Each of these works seem to be about moments that could simultaneously be coming or going… but at different speeds and for different durations. Do you think about pace during the making process?
JC:
Mostly as a compositional features. Also, I think about pacing during the installation of the work. I am so scattered personally that it naturally happens when I make a work that is very energetic, I naturally make something quieter after that.
EM:
The empty house drawings seem to take on an element of permanence despite it being a transitional moment (moving in/moving out)… through the mark making there is evidence of a though- out decision making process that implies this longer duration of time… while the paintings seem like a more immediate moment- like entering a room- which makes me think some of this has to do with medium as well as composition?
JC:
Certainly, my paintings usually work to place color as a surrogate for emotion and emotional states whereas my drawings push mark making and mood to the foreground. You are also right in how the paintings seem more about living whereas the drawings focus on that permanence and transitional character of being. For me, I thought a lot about how, and this is sappy, the way we arrange our homes and lives is like an exhibition but there is that quiet pause between them, the death and birth of a space is subject to the same existential conflicts as a person’s life.
EM:
In your editing process while setting up this exhibition, what did you think about in terms of pace? What do you consider when deciding how much to give the viewer and how much to leave out?
JC:
Well, I wanted to present my best work naturally, but I felt that the paintings and drawings counterpoint themselves well. The drawings become places for viewers to “rest” with all of the rambunctious color and compositional things going on whereas the gloomy character of those drawings pushes people out to the more aggressive but lively paintings. I didn’t want anything too small though. This forces people to orient themselves to the smaller works, which are still large, 36 x 51, as a standard of a kind of intimacy.
The works featured in Reside explore the complexity of the home, and challenges the notion of the domestic setting as common or banal by directly addressing nuances in seemingly ordinary spaces. Common associations with comfort and familiarity are inverted as spaces become charged with apparitions and traces of history and memory, while evidence of anxiety and discomfort reflect a contemporary shift in American cultural psychology. Each of these works highlights moments of transition, simultaneous states of coming and going, lending the viewer an opportunity to pause, and experience parallel conditions of duration through line, color, and composition. Despite the permanent nature of the exhibition’s title, Reside, a temporary nature of daily experience is evident, suggesting the impossibility of the comfort and stability that comes with a state of permanence, perhaps revealing a very current fear in Americans across a broad scope of cultural and economic lines.
Jonah’s work will be on display from September 3rd through September 24th. The Cocoon Gallery is open Monday 11-2, Thursday 4:30-7 and Friday 11-5.
Turn On The Heat!
Save-the-date: Turn On the Heat 2010 will be held Friday, November 12th at the Arts Incubator. Come join us for hot food, cool drinks & plenty of entertainment!
More details coming soon!
Share the love!
Thank you so much to Kansas City bridal boutique, Altar. During the month of June, Altar donated 5% of all sales to the Arts Incubator to assist up-and-coming artists and designers.
Altar brides don’t accept the tired definition of a bridal gown or how to shop for one. They choose to think differently. At Altar, brides will find fashion-forward bridal gowns, bridesmaid dresses and accessories from up-and-coming industry and local designers in a relaxed and open atmosphere. But it’s not all about the bride. Altar has unique statement pieces such as headbands, handbags and jewelry for girls who love fashion and enjoy playing dress up.
Visit Altar’s website at www.altarbride.com.
New Work
Scion X-Change Event
Congratulations to new Resident Artist, Estrella Payton, who is the Featured Artist for the Scion x-CHANGE Event in Kansas City July 12 & 13. This event is free and open to the public from noon until 8:00 PM both days at The Bunker, 4056 Broadway St., Kansas City, MO 64111.
All proceeds go to the Arts Incubator!
For more information visit http://www.causes.com/causes/475702
New Incubators
The Incubator family has recently grown by four! Please join us in welcoming these new members:
Chuck Crossland, Screenprint & Facilities Coordinator
Chuck Crossland spent 43 years with Hallmark, Inc. His career at Hallmark encompassed many moves throughout the company, with positions of increasing responsibility. He spent two years in the Army with a 1-year tour in Viet Nam. He then returned to Hallmark in the screen print manufacturing area, while pursuing his BFA degree with an emphasis in Screen Printing at KU. Chuck worked as a color preparation specialist, as well as screen print press operator. In 1978, he moved to the creative division and managed a screen print prototype studio until 1995. After that, he became a consulting designer for five years. During those years, he taught screen print classes, faux texturing, paper mache & Spanish marbled paper. In 2001, Chuck was asked to manage an R&D area of Hallmark called the Process Development Shop. He managed that area until September of 2009. He then retired and started a new career with the INKubator Press.
Chuck had many wonderful years with Hallmark, meeting many new friends and very talented artists whom he can call his friends. A special thanks goes out to all those wonderful artists and friends who helped make his career at Hallmark so wonderful. Chuck would like that friendship to continue by inviting all Hallmarkers to come share his new experience at the INKubator Press. The doors are always open to all artists in the community and all are welcome as everyone learns together.
Nicholas Naughton, INKubator Press Manager
Trained at the University of Iowa and New Mexico State University, Nicholas Naughton is a printmaker with skills in many technical methodologies. He is very excited about becoming a member of the Arts Incubator team and his directorship at INKubator Press. He was recently awarded a Charlotte Street Foundation studio residency at 906 Grand Blvd.
At birth, Nicholas was born into a family comprised of butchers and veterinarians, a juxtaposition that shaped much of the creative work he would later pursue. After early childhood NPR inundation, ambiguous interpretations of political or social conflicts made their way into his art works. He currently lives and works in Kansas City, MO, blogs about food, and is training for a triathlon.
Check out his work at www.nicholasnaughton.com
His blog is http://domesticmale.blogspot.com/
Lauren Shriver, Intern
Lauren Shriver grew up in Holland, Michigan. She moved to Tucson, Arizona for part of high school and then started at Northern Arizona University, where she majored in Visual Communications. Something brought her back home to Tucson, where she was recently accepted into the University of Arizona Fine Arts College, pending acceptance to the university.
Lauren is here for the summer, living with her brother and experiencing Kansas City. She loves being outdoors and spending time with her family. Art has been a passion of hers ever since she was able to pick up the Crayola’s and color. Recently, finding her own style, people have begun to call her a Happy Tim Burton.
Ross Kenagy, Intern
Ross Kenagy is a new intern here at the Arts Incubator. He is a sophomore Art and Design major at Missouri State University in Springfield. He lives north of the river near Gladstone, and he went to high school at Oak Park.
Ross is an avid cyclist. He can’t wait for the Tour de France to start in July, something he and his family have watched religiously for many years. He is excited about helping out here at the Incubator and looks forward to the many learning opportunities he will be presented with!
We’re one of the best in the world!
The Arts Incubator is honored to have been selected as one of the top Incubators in the world!
We have been nominated to receive the Non-Technology Incubator of the Year Award at this year’s NBIA International Conference on Business Incubation in Orlando.
Congratulations to the other nominees from India, Spain and Florida; we’ll see you at the awards ceremony!
Hard at work
Great pic of our Strategic Planning Staff Meeting hosted by one of our lovely board members…
Welcome 12X24 Resident Artists!
Come by tonight to welcome our new class of 12X24 Resident Artists as they join our veteran Incubator artists for First Fridays!
In the meantime, check out these photos of our artists hard at work to prepare for First Fridays…
Inaugural HELLO ART FIRST FRIDAY LOUNGE this Friday
Friday marks the opening of the Hello Art Lounge and the first official Hello Art Trolley Tour. We hope you (and a guest) can join us for this memorable evening. Even if your schedule is a tight, feel free to drop in briefly to say Hello!
* The evening will kick off at 5:30 p.m. with wine and hors d’oeuvres in the Hello Art Lounge, located in the Arts Incubator.
 
* At 6 p.m., members can board the Hello Art Trolley to explore several local galleries. The trolley will make multiple loops along the tour route, so members can tour at their own pace.
* You and your guest are welcome to return to the Hello Art Lounge, which will be open until 9:30 p.m. We also recommend exploring the rest of the Arts Incubator and visiting the Cocoon Gallery (located on the first floor of the Arts Incubator), which will feature the work of Hello Art Member Artist Heinrich Toh.
Many thanks to Berkowitz Oliver Williams Shaw & Eisenbrandt LLP, our generous sponsor for the evening. Please RSVP no later than Feb. 4.
The Hello Art Lounge is located in the Arts Incubator at 115 W. 18th St. KCMO 64108.
For more information about Hello Art visit www.helloart.org.
