Kathryn Markel and artist Joanne Freeman discuss where she gets the imagery for her abstract paintings.
JF: A big source of my imagery comes from graphics and comic books. I look at the forms within frames, minus the text, and I'm influenced by the compositions of the forms within the frames and within the narrative of storytelling.
KM: This painting is called "Betty and Veronica." Does it come from that kind of imagery?
JF: Yes. If you remember, Betty and Veronica was a very simple graphic that harked back to pinup girls in the 50s. The two dominant colors are red, which could be Betty, and blue, which might have been Veronica. Actually, I think it was the opposite.
KM: So, you put down one shape, and then that leads to you creating other shapes.
JF: Right. The process is totally intuitive. I lay down the shape with a slight idea in my mind of what the whole thing will look like, but it never ends up that way. One shape will lead to another shape and another, and I'm always mindful of the spaces in between, which also become shapes.
KM: The spaces seem to have this heft, and I think it's because of what you do to the surface of the canvas before you put anything down.
JF: Yes, I spend a lot of time on the surfaces before I even start. I use a process where I put down modeling paste which starts to feel like old Roman frescoes, which gives it a stone-like surface, and then I sand it back. It's also quite transparent until I get this nice surface where the oil paint can sink into the surface.
