Artist Profile: Sarabeth Dunton

 

Hudson Helicopter Crash, 2009. acrylic on canvas. (click to enlarge)

 

Justin Lamar Nix: How long have you been painting? 

Sarabeth Dunton: Oh god.  Forever.  When I was little I used to make these crazy abstract color block paintings with water colors.  My Grandma kept all of them, and pulls them out to show me every now and then.  They’re pretty amazing.  Very raw and just completely visual.  Sometimes I wish I could get back to that. Other than that I painted for five years of school, then took a two year hiatus and focused on drawing.  I started painting seriously again a little less than a year ago.  

JLN:  Who are some of your favorite contemporary artists? Oldies?

SD: I love so many artists for so many different things.  I love Eric Fischl for his taut psychology, Marlene Dumas for her arrogant and grotesque beauty, and Matthew Ritchie and Julie Merhetu for their abstract yet apt depictions of the contemporary landscape.

As for older artists the list goes on and on.  I think it’s especially important for postmodern painters to look to pre-modern art and really dissect it.  For instance, Cezanne’s use of composition and color is eternally interesting and practical to the understanding of all painting.  Also, Morandi’s  indefatigable meditations on the same dusty still life is pertinent to all painters.  I appreciate the slow process of really getting to know your subject, it changes the way you approach the painting and the choices you ultimately make.  As for earlier figural work, I’ve always had strong guttural reactions to Caravaggio and Goya.  The drama and theatrical quality of their work will always affect me.

Science Fiction Reality, 2009. acrylic on canvas. (click to enlarge)

JLN: Where do you draw your inspiration?

SD: Lately I’ve been taking images from the front page of the New York Times.  They have such amazing photographs on the cover every day.  Specifically, I’m interested in disaster scenes.  These images grab my attention in such a way I feel I have to comment on them.  An image of any disaster, be it war, a plane crash, or a natural disaster is such an interesting thing to me.  It seems to capture a slice within a moment so well.  I like to take an image, a sliver of reality, and complete the story. 

JLN: What about new Orleans inspires you, keeps you here making art?

SD: It’s such an interesting place.  It seems to be a place where there are so many contradictions.  It has a self-destructive energy to it that I think fosters creativity.  My work is all about exploring the confluence of destruction and creation, and I think that New Orleans embodies this idea very well.

Natural Disaster, 2009. acrylic on canvas. (click to enlarge)

JLN: With non-figurative painting, do you see the finished image before you begin, or does it evolve in the process?

SD: It’s definitely an evolution.  I’ll start with a concept and an image, usually an image from the newspaper, something I’ve seen that day that’s really struck me, something I feel I must comment on.  Usually this image inspires a color, so I start off with a color field and a representation of the original image, however I choose to interpret it, and then build around these principles.  I think that all painting is an evolution.  There is no way you can set out to produce one thing and have it turn out exactly so.  Artists are not computers.  We have to work with our mistakes and be willing to have a dialogue with the painting.  This means that sometimes I inflect my desires onto the canvas, but also sometimes the painting itself directs me where to go.  There are certain choices, visually, that have to be made in order for a piece to “work”; these choices are prompted both internally (personal preference) and externally (basic principles of composition as directed by the work itself).

JLN: How do you want to affect the perspective of your viewer?

SD: I want to startle them, then intrigue them.  I feel like I’ve completed a successful painting when the viewer goes back again and again and continues to discover something new.

 

Molecular Annihilation, 2009. acrylic on canvas. (click to enlarge)

Sarabeth Dunton is a painter, illustrator, and installation artist in New Orleans. She speaks very loudly, and is a dear friend of mine. Check out more of her works at sarabethdunton.com.