Every Monday, a new artist will be profiled for your reading pleasure. This week, we're talking to a pair of artists starting an important movement in New York City.
Thank you for accepting my request to be interviewed for the Mixed Media Arts topic for Suite101.com! Erin, you and I go way back and we've collaborated on (and viewed a lot of) each other's projects. Chris, I'm looking forward to getting to know you better through this project.
Suite101: Before we get into the details of The Orange Matter, could you give readers some information about your background?† Where are you both from and how did you meet?
Erin:
I’m originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. I lived in various places all over California, completed my BFA in studio art at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and moved out here to Brooklyn this past July to pursue a master’s degree in Art Therapy at New York University. I come from a family of artists, so art has always been a huge part of my life. I create mixed-media paintings, book arts, and installation art.
Chris:
I’m originally from the Midwest, went to school in CO, got a BA in Political Science, continued on to get my JD (Law) at University of Washington in Seattle, bounced around living in a few different places after that and then moved to Brooklyn in the fall of 2002. I’m a photographer and a painter, and also have worked for a number of different non-profit art organizations doing fundraising and marketing. I’m currently working for a drama therapy organization.
We met living together in a loft in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn; it’s both a living space and a working space for a group of people interested in creativity, community, and collaboration.
Erin:
Chris moved into the loft November of 2005, and I moved in when I came out here in July. We started working together on various projects in Bushwick, including the neighborhood-wide Open Studios this past October.
Chris:
It quickly became clear that we both had an interest in facilitating non-curated environments for artists to show their work and equally important, we each place priority on the process over the product and that’s something that continues to be the glue that keeps things solid—no matter how things go. Success is our ability to use our creativity, not the number of people we turn out or how much press coverage we get.
Suite101: How was the idea for The Orange Matter conceived?† Was there are a lot of "bumps" to work out before rolling with the project?
Erin:
It was more a matter of needing to narrow down the ideas we had.
Chris:
It was a matter of a general brain-explosion. Far from there being bumps, it’s been a really supportive and grounding experience. One that helps me feel that I’m not insane for what I want to do and how I want to do it.
Erin:
Since the very beginning, we’ve had idea after idea, each building on the one before it. The evening we spent thinking of what to call ourselves was like Chris said: a brain explosion. I remember lots of laughing and "listen to this, listen to this!" as we brainstormed.
Suite101: Can you tell us about the first event held for the Orange Matter? How did it impact each of you?
Chris:
The first event was co-hosting of the movie Iraq for Sale with Potion CafÈ. The movie addresses the idea of war profiteering with particular emphasis on companies like Halliburton. The Orange Matter facilitated participatory creative reaction to the ideas of the film. We did that by providing dollar bills sewn onto canvass along with basic art supplies that people could use to record their thoughts, reactions, and ideas about the film or anything they were interested in expressing at that time in that place.
Erin:
Potion is a small cafÈ in our neighborhood—they call themselves "Bushwick’s Student Union." It has a living-room type feel with couches and comfortable chairs. People came and drank coffee and snacked while watching the film. As for the dollar-bill pieces, Chris and I both really believe in the importance of people having space to put their thoughts out into the world. That can take all different forms—it doesn’t have to be some polished painting to hang in a museum. Like Chris said earlier, the act of expressing thoughts or emotions is the part that interests us.
Suite101: What can your audience expect from The Orange Matter in the future?
Chris:
May 6th we’ll have our first workshop. These workshops will be environments where people can come together both to share experiences and ideas, and come away with new perspectives and inspiration. Topics will frequently be political or social, but the emphasis will be on personal experience and community-building. Although there will be some dialogue, the majority of expression will be through collaborative, creative means.
Erin:
We’re also planning various public projects. A few weekends ago, we walked around the neighborhood putting up little fliers relating to body image issues as a part of the National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. We were also photographing graffiti and responding to it with phrases we printed on stickers.
Chris:
Continuing the dialogues in the streets is one of the ideas we’re excited about. During the experience the other Saturday, we had the idea of responding to the images of women used in advertising with makeup, a product sold so that women can change their natural appearance. It would be an attention getting and personally fulfilling means of injecting a dose of reality into a fantasy world of consumerism and glossy magazine pages. Being a person who is intrigued by the colors and textures of makeup, but doesn’t use it for it’s intended purpose, I very much look forward to having fun putting this stuff to ‘good use’ fighting back against powers telling me how I should feel, how I should look, and how I should act.
Erin:
We are lucky enough to live in a neighborhood bubbling over with creativity and still in the process of evolving. During the Open Studios we put out index cards stamped with "Bushwick Is…" and invited people to respond with their impressions of this area. That’s a project we look forward to expanding; it elicited all sorts of interesting responses. The Orange Matter will be popping up all over—we aren’t just about discreet events in one place…we’re taking to the streets and out into the world at large.
Suite101: Each of you are accomplished artists, where can we find more of your work and is it available for sale?
Erin:
I have a store on Etsy: www. 2littlewings.etsy.com and an art blog: http://arteyes.livejournal.com
Chris:
My personal photography website is www.christinaderoos.com and based on Erin’s awesome experience it’s on my to do list to get an etsy store.
People can also find The Orange Matter on myspace: http://www.myspace.com/theorangematter and our website will be up soon at www.theorangematter.org
Suite101: Thank you!
Erin:
Some future activities include: the workshops as we mentioned, informal meetings in local coffee shops to talk about art and life with other artists, and participating in events and shows all over the New York Area.
Chris:
People who’d like to get updates about our events and projects or are interested in potential collaboration can email us at info@theorangematter.org to be added to our mailing list.
