Certain things, you just know this is what you're going to do. I decided I was going to be a professional artist when I was in the second grade.
Artists are people who are always creating, making something. They usually have been doing it for a long time. I like to create flat things on paper — visual artists. I like to create figures. If you give me some abstract elements to deal with, I'm going to just keep working on it till I find the figure and I'm going to bring it home.
When I paint, it's figurative. When I draw, it's figurative. When I print, it's figurative. When I do an installation, it's about the figure.
You make images by any means necessary. I'm doing basically digital collages and I make them in the computer. I don't know what they're going to look like until you get lucky, you know — you play that record backwards and it happens. But a lot of times you don't win because you keep doing the same process over and over, same technique over and over again. You got to change up on something.
So I make images, and hopefully over a period of time when you put them all together, you can pick out a wide variety of different kinds of images — figurative images. And the impact of the images is a lot more important to me than the content. I just want to grab your brain with just something that you saw, and maybe you take a little bit of time to figure out.
A lot of time I'm out here shooting stuff, but not shooting a piece of art — a picture. You're shooting textures, or you're shooting skies, you're shooting objects that you know you're going to use for something. And then in my studio, the model comes in, usually they get nude and I physically paint the model. I used to paint with a lot of colors, but I narrowed everything down to just white washing, because when you white wash something, it's easier for the textures that you're going to lay on top of them to show up.
Sometimes I'll have a large quantity of a material — like the last thing I dealt with was jute rope, burlap, or Guinea sacks. Somebody gave me a bunch of rope, you know, we got a thing about that rope, it's a hanging rope. They gave me a large quantity of it, and someone gave me another large quantity of Guinea sacks. Someone gave me a large quantity of this netting that looks like a fishing net but it's made out of jute.
So the model came over, 'What we doing today, Platt?' I went down the basement, got this, and I started to wrap her in it. I didn't know where I was going with this, but I did do a little research and found out the jute — I mean, they use it for everything because it's strong as hell but it itches. They even had a coat made, you know. But while I was working on the image, I got into this thing, the spirit of the jute. There's one image in the back where you can't separate the model from the jute.
But things like that happen only if I want the first one, you know what I mean? If I see the spirit, now I have something to work from. Usually most of my work comes from the piece I just finished. Then you intentionally make a change, or if you're up for it, if you're ready for it to change, sometimes you can superimpose something — and that usually doesn't work, but you got to make the right change. That's the nice thing about working with the computer, because you can always backtrack.
Going all the way to the beginning, messing up everything. I got a lot of prints in the basement there, just the ones that didn't work. We're pack rats, you know, we don't throw nothing out because one day we're going to come back and work on it. That day never comes. But I want to draw on top of these things, draw and paint on top of them. Then again, now you have something to work from.
Unlike straight drawing and painting — face a white piece of canvas and you're drawing and you're painting — you feel like you're starting from nothing. That's difficult, nothing is there. But with a computer, I know my process. I start with this image, this figure, and usually it's the pose that the model gives me, or it's a non-pose, and it's the place where I shot. You just start throwing these things together, playing around like you're just doing a collage. I would say today that if Romare Bearden was living, he'd be doing collage.
Themes — they come up and they're usually based on traveling, a place I've been, I've seen. We shot the Divine Lorraine in Philadelphia. Basically it's a Grand Hotel that turned into a flop house. It was about putting life back into this place. I did the Eastern Prison in Philadelphia, Eastern State Prison — that again was about putting life back in.
Went to Australia. The art that you see over there, the Aboriginal art — it'll just check your heart. You think you're seeing something here, but it's more than that. It's history, it's everything. That really fascinated me.
Then we went to Flint, Michigan, not too long ago. By luck, on the last day I saw it — it was an abandoned mobile trailer home, a big lot full of them. That to me, that said that's Flint. When the auto industry left, they left. A lot of boarded-up houses, you know, it's like St. Louis.
So what shocked me was these abandoned trailer houses — looked a little treacherous up in there. My wife didn't let me stay up in there too long, but that's what this piece is about. The abandoned trailer houses, to me they were like dreams deferred. I did about three or four pieces dealing with Flint, Michigan.
Again, when you walk up into the abandoned trailer home, you see couches and you see set designs. That's what I saw. I've been playing with that. This one right here, I just superimposed like somebody's house right on my face. I used to live here. That's how subject matter comes up — I have to feel something.
A lot of times the themes are a direct growth from the series I did before. Before I got into this Pathfinder thing, I was doing time travel. They seemed like they were just people who were going back to a place that they knew, or going back to the place where dreams were deferred. And from there came Pathfinders. One grew from the next. I don't know what I'm going to do now, but it's fun to get to the point where you don't know what you're going to do — that's a challenge. So one series usually comes from the series I did just before that, and then you add a change.
I read something in the paper earlier — my wife read it, she talked about it. It was talking to an artist. The artist, basically almost the same question. He said he was born to do this. Certain things, you just know that this is what you're going to do. I decided I was going to be a professional artist when I was in the second grade. Just never stopped. I don't have to prepare myself — you just work, you just do it. It's something that you've always done. I just do it automatically. There is no preparation. It's just like eating. I'm going to make something, or something goes by and I'm going to read about something that somebody made, or I'm going to find out some technical solution so I can make something better. I always made things.
If you really want to create something, do art. You just do it. It's very easy to say but it's true. Just do it. Don't wait on nothing. You can't wait too long.
The young lady right here, the model — she does a lot of yoga, she's a Buddhist. She finally got rid of her kids out of the house, and I'm still halfway good-looking — this is the bucket list. I'm a model. And she came to the opening, she was just as happy as she want to be. She's on her way. She has that spirit. She's had the spirit, 'I'm gonna do something.' That's what you do. It makes you feel good. If it makes you feel good and positive, do it again.
Always want to feel good, you keep doing work. We all know what we got to do, but we just got to do it. Try your best not to let anybody discourage you. In my experience in Visual Arts, there's always one parent that says yes, the other parent says no — 'You can't make no money out of that.' Listen to the one that says yes. But the reality is, you can't make any money out of it, so both of them are right. But it's up to you to work it out. Don't let anybody stop you from doing what you want to do, even if you have to moonlight. Work it out, it's possible. Because if you don't, you can be running around here talking about what you used to do — that means you ain't doing it. Just do it. It's easy to say, but it's true. Just get off your ass and do it — even if you're a second grade boy, get off your ass. And it's fun.
