The American Artists Gallery Interview 1/19/12
with Gregg Coffey...
…on his work, inspiration, and visual poetry in the 21st century.
By Robbie Brown, Senior Editor - The American Artists Gallery
I was ready for Gregg Coffey. Not for him to sit for this interview,
but for his art to affect my thought process. One can’t view Gregg’s
art and look at anything else quite the same again.
I chose Mike Bloomfield and the Butterfield Blues Band’s “East West”
as my background music while editing this piece, and those two words
sum up Gregg’s artistic vision. He blends East Asian traditional themes
with Western rock and roll imagery and multicultural mythology, and
bends the limits of his varying media. In Gregg’s words, “ I make art
for my own personal amusement and enlightenment, and if the public gets
some inspiration and satisfaction from viewing my work, I am pleased,
but essentially, I make images that I can get lost in… alternate worlds
to inhabit and explore.”
The members of the American Artists Gallery have been “exploring”
and “getting lost in” Gregg’s work for over a week now (since our
founding on 1/11/12), and the editors of AAG felt it was time to
explore his mind…
American Artists Gallery: Tell us about the moment you realized you were an artist.
Gregg Coffey: I had drawing skills in grade school,
but they wouldn't let me take art in high school, because I was college
prep, and art class was for "losers". By my junior year, a new school
had been built, with a massive art campus, and a brilliant new teacher.
They let me take art, and the teacher took me under his wing.... he
even drove me around to colleges. I do remember being a sophomore in
college, and a date asked me if I was a real artist, and I realized
that I was not. Luckily, I found my voice my senior year. I went from a
photo realist to a biomorphic surrealist.
AAG: Please explain biomorphic surrealism for our readers, and tell us why you describe your work with that term.
GC: Biomorphism was coined by Alfred Barr in 1936,
and it is the usage of artistic design elements based on naturally
occurring patterns and shapes from nature, such as fractals. Antonio
Gaudi's architecture could be seen as biomorphic. The Surrealist
movement, founded by Andre Breton, focused on the artist penetrating
the collective unconscious and dreams for inspiration.
AAG: Well then, it's pretty obvious why you describe your work with that term, actually…
GC: I had a teacher in the BFA program at IU who, on
the first day of class told us that our paintings were boring, and
that we should leave our studios for a month and paint at home. I
converted an attic into a studio and decided to work on round canvases
because we don't see in squares. I had been a photo realist, and,
knowing that I had to paint something completely different, I let the
paintings paint themselves. I always looked at it as jazz
improvisation. The piece I am working on now seems to have a life of
its own; I am just guiding it through a loose set of parameters, those
being the Golden Mean and Melancholia by Albrecht Durer. Over the years
Asian elements and mathematics have imposed their will, as well as
Celtic, Shang, Tlingit and other tribal tendencies have acted as an
influence.
AAG: Your work involves religious and mythological
images, but it also evokes 60’s rock concert poster and underground
newspaper art. Can you tell me about that intersection and your
influences that inform those styles?
GC: I was raised in a Christian family, and they
all, eventually became atheists, agnostics and Buddhists. I minored in
religion, but it was pre Vedic Hinduism and Sufism. I started doing
kundalini yoga in college, and after college I attended Naropa
Institute, where I studied Tibetan Buddhism. Previous to that I worked
for Pacific and Hall designing concert posters, and I did several
covers for underground newspapers. I have always been interested in
mythology. I took a fair amount of post graduate courses in Irish
folklore and mythology. If you consider that I started college in 1968,
got swept up in the anti war movement, and it was truly the greatest
period of rock, all those influences would impact me. I began eight
years of formal Chinese brush painting lessons, eventually landing me
in San Francisco to study with Lui Sang Wong. He moved to Taiwan, and I
entered the printmaking department at SFSU. I still feel all of the
influences, especially Asian and Celtic, but my science and geometry
background, and love of MC Escher influence the work in sort of a
Cubist or Futurist vein.
AAG: Your paintings on musical instruments are superb.
GC: I have always been interested in music. I
started as a rock drummer, then a jazz drummer, then tabla and dumbek.
Later, I started playing guitar, bouzouki and Irish penny whistle. I
was working as an artist in residence in Indiana schools, so I decided
to build instruments as a demonstration. I have built an Irish wire
strung harp, a 13 string lute, a balalaika and a mandolin. While in
Chicago I studied West African drumming for 3 years, and before that I
played in a band, the Scurrilous Blaggerds, for several years. We
performed Irish, Scottish, English and maritime music with a Pogues
feel.
AAG: And you’re in a show coming up this weekend...
GC: I am in a show on Friday, REVOLUTION 2012, at
the Jackson-Junge Gallery. It is a political show, and I happened to do
my occasional political work, "Accidental Bovine", a mixed media work
commenting on Arab Spring, Tea Party and Western warmongering.
AAG: Have a great showing, Gregg, and thanks for taking the time to sit with us.
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