Dwayne Butcher: Artist Interview with Elizabeth Alley 7/6/06
DB: What are your methods of visualization?
How does your creative process begin?
EA: Umm...looking?
Ok, serious, serious...I start by sketching. I always carry a sketchbook with
me and often look through it for ideas. The things that attract me to open it
in the first place are usually things that make me think: what would it feel
like to draw that? Lately that is anything with a lot of lines or a pattern.
I am inspired by photographs - snapshots, usually old ones. I can't look
at pictures without attempting to crop them anymore, and once I do I am
always anxious to
draw the resulting image.
DB: What "guilty pleasures" of kitsch,
low, or unfashionable art do you enjoy, and has your work been influenced
by any of
them?
EA: I love TV. I love People magazine - it makes me feel calm. I love
fashion photography - flipping through Vogue makes me want to paint,
lose 20 pounds and
get a foot taller.
Watching movies on TV has influenced me - noticing the difference between
movies that are letterboxed, and movies that have been 'formatted to
fit your screen'
- I have a hard time watching the latter. Watching movies letterboxed
on TV (as opposed to on a movie screen), allow you to see the thought
that went into composing
a scene.
DB: What initially drew you to become an artist?
EA: My dad was an artist, as was his dad and grandfather, so art was
just all around me. It seemed very natural to use ebony pencils, kneeded
erasers, and
watercolors out of a tube when I was a kid. I've wanted to be an artist
for as long as I can remember.
DB: Explain your work in five words or less.
EA: painterly
bold
purposeful
pretty
bittersweet
(I read #4 as: What are five words that describe your work - I think
that's just what I wanted it to say because I love lists.)
DB: What is your favorite - movie? book? color? smell? food?
EA: Movie: Ishtar
Book: either Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, or Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut
Color: orange
Smell: the Wonder Bread factory
Food: yes