Interview with Artist, Allison Green

Interview with Artist, Allison Green

22 Jul, 2012

Artist, Allison Green

Fascinated by the forest at an early age, artist Allison Green, who grew up in a rural suburb of Media, Pennsylvania, found inspiration from the trees surrounding her. Graduating with a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Maryland, and at Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy in 1995 with colleagues such as Guillermo Calzadilla and Jennifer Allora, who are representing the U.S. in this year’s Venice Biennale, she has built up a large body of work. Green has shown artwork at galleries such as Lana Santorelli Gallery in Chelsea, The Angel Orensanz Center, The Jersey City Art Fair at the Beacon, and with Salon Ciel to just name a few. She will be displaying her arboreal portraits in a series called “Deeply Rooted”, which were all created over the last year and a half, at Susan Eley Fine Art from March 2 – April 14, 2011.

You can view more of Allison Green’s artwork at: www.AllisonGreen.net

Dig In Magazine: Where are you based out of?

Allison Green: Downtown Jersey City, New Jersey, right across the river from NYC.

DIM: What is your artistic background and training?

AG: I studied Fine Art at the University of Maryland, where I graduated with a BA in Studio Art and Women’s Studies. I also studied at Studio Art Centers International in Florence, Italy in 1995. My classmates there included Guillermo Calzadilla and Jennifer Allora, who are representing the U.S. in this year’s Venice Biennale.

DIM: Where did you grow up?

AG: I was born in Philadelphia and I grew up in the nearby rural suburb of Media, Pennsylvania. When I was 16, my family moved to Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

DIM: How did your upbringing in Philadelphia inspire your artwork?

Aline, oil on canvas, 48x72, 2011

AG: My childhood, particularly growing up in a neighborhood surrounded by trees, has greatly inspired the work I make today. I grew up in a house atop of a big hill in a little community surrounded by a forest. It was the kind of place where everyone’s dogs ran free with out a leash, and all of the kids played together in the woods from sunrise til sundown every day. It was a beautiful way to grow up, and the view from my bedroom window was just trees. As much as I loved it, it used to scare me a lot too. I’d have nightmares about those same woods – dreams about stuff like the big bad wolf coming out of the woods at night! These experiences – both the love and fear of these woods, really had a profound effect on the images that I paint today.

I also had an amazing art teacher in high school in Media, named Mr. Falcone. He inspired me to paint on really big wooden panels with house paints (4ftx4ft) in my freshman high school year, when my classmates were using watercolors on small pieces of paper. I remember everyone would have theIr drawings on the chalkboard, and I’d show up for class with these paintings on four foot boards, at 14 years old! I think that this is where my love of large-scale painting began.

DIM: How long have you been painting and creating art?

AG: I have always loved and made art, even as a young child I walked around with a sketchbook and my pencils. I was in high school when I first used oils and acrylics.

DIM: How would you describe your artistic style?

AG: This is a hard one for me! Surreal, magical, and even a little “faux-naive” (i.e. Chagall and Rousseau). Right now, I am in love with color as well – I just can’t get enough of beautiful, vibrant color!

DIM: What do you find fascinating about the forest and the trees that you depict in your paintings?

Andrea, oil on canvas, 60"x48", 2010

AG: Painting the forest has always fascinated me, because I get lost in this imagined space, which is so charged with memories for me. On an aesthetic level, I have always been intrigued by the hundreds of overlapping branches in a winter forest, and the rich, overlapping greenery of the woods in the summertime.

I find the trees that I paint fascinating because they all have such unique personalities. When I was painting forests, the trees were more uniform, but painting individual trees is where they really come alive. Usually, they start when I become fascinated by a tree in real life. It could be a tree right in the middle of a city street, or in the park, but something about it speaks to me profoundly – and usually it reminds me in some way of a person. It doesn’t have to be a “beautiful” tree, and more often than not it is weathered and flawed. To me, that gives it character. Its like a person who has survived something and is more beautiful then the airbrushed people we see on TV. For the Lovers series, it was a trio of birches in my neighbor’s back yard that I can see from my studio window. The “Lovers” gestures, the way they curve around one another – that just fascinated me. When I start to paint the trees in my studio, they become personified, and this is when it really gets interesting. I love to study their details – the knob that really looks like an eye, the mark that feels like a wound, the way the trunk curves like an expressive gesture. I am also entranced by the background colors, and how they play into the tree’s “personality” in the painting. I love to sit amidst these trees in my studio, and I am going to miss them and feel very alone when they leave me for the show!

DIM: What does the tree symbolize for you?

AG: For me, the tree is a powerful symbol of life. Of course, it is biblical, and there are plenty of references to it in fairytales and myths that I just love. But it is also more personal to me. When I walk down the street, the trees seem like individuals – sometimes weathered and struggling to stay alive, other times abundant in leaves and fertile seedlings. I love them all, they are powerful symbols of life – resilient, strong and quiet, imperfectly perfect beauties.

DIM: With each painting, what are you trying to convey?

AG: Life experience, emotion, the world of the imagination.
I am always trying to convey a concept when I paint – my paintings are never just about the aesthetic. I enjoy the emotive in art – the charged image, even the color, which will trigger an emotional response from the viewer. I want the painting to confront you, and to convey something deeper than words. In each painting (and series of paintings), I am trying to convey something specific. For example, in the Lovers series, I am trying to convey a dialogue, or dance, between two lovers. In all of my work, I seek to find that intersection between real and fantasy where color and image really take control, and the imagination becomes central.

DIM: How large are your paintings?

AG: My paintings typically range from 4 to 6 feet in size. Most of the recent Arboreal Portraits are around 60 inches tall. For my upcoming show I have also done a lot of smaller pieces, and this has been really exciting for me. The smaller paintings are between 20 and 30 inches. I have also started a series of even smaller paintings, which are meant to be viewed together like a big collage. These works, called Portrait Studies, are between 10 and 20 inches each.

Henrietta, oil on canvas, 60"x48", 2010

DIM: I understand that you have your first solo exhibition called Deeply Rooted at Susan Eley Fine Art in Upper West Side Manhattan, what artwork will be displayed there?

AG: The works that will be included in this exhibition were all created over the last year and a half, and none have ever been shown before. There are twenty new paintings, which make up four series, and all are interconnected through the personified tree. “Arboreal Portraits” is a series of six large scale individual tree portraits, “Lovers Portraits” is a series about two birch trees, “Family Portraits” is a series about a growing “family” of trees, and “Portrait Studies” are the small works, little glimpses of the details of different trees, meant to be viewed together like a patchwork quilt.

DIM: How did you come up with the names for your paintings?

AG: In Arboreal Portraits, each painting is named after a woman from my family. For example, Henrietta, the palm tree, is named after my grandmother. She was originally from Spain, but grew up in Casablanca, and she ultimately moved to Florida. I started sketching for the palm tree painting while I was staying in her house in Miami, and thinking about how the resilient palm reminded me of her, and how it must have reminded her of her home country. “Gertrude” was named after my other Grandmother, whose family immigrated from Russia, “Aline” is Henrietta’s sister, and so on. For the Lovers series, I let the colors define the titles, so there is “Crimson Lovers”, “Midnight Lovers”, “Purple Lovers”, etc.

DIM: Can you go into detail about the different parts of a tree in a painting and the intricacies of certain features?

AG: When I am painting a tree, I am working as though I am painting a portrait of a person. First, there is the color of the background. I am not thinking about a landscape and a sky, but instead about which color which will reflect the tree I am about to paint. Often, the background is layered with different hues to create a textured and very deep color. The color of the background can even define what kind of tree I go on to paint. I really enjoy making these backdrops in bright and intense colors – they create a wonderful dichotomy against the earthy, neutral tones of the trees.

When I begin to work on the tree itself, I focus a lot on the trunk. I am really thinking of it as a figure – gestural in it’s form and unique in it’s bark. The tree tops, with the branches and leaves, berries and other arboreal attributes are almost like a person’s hair, or some sort of adorning feature. They are very important to the painting, as they express even more information about this tree’s inherent and unique character.

I spend a lot of time working on the bark specific to each tree – it’s texture and the eyes and knots randomly dispersed through out. This is one of my favorite parts, because it is when the tree really starts to become humanized. I often find myself drawn to the wound-like pock marks on the tree, and of course, the eyes. Sometimes, I pick one “eye” on the tree to really work on in greater detail so that it will subtly stand out more than others. In the Lovers, it is more about the interaction of the two trees – the individual attributes are still important, but even more crucial are their gestures and the way that they intersect and work together.

Evelyne

DIM: How does the mythical/fairytale-like nature of trees inspire you to create these works of art?

AG: In addition, being inspired by the forest that I grew up in, I have also been heavily influenced by the fairytales about trees and forests that I used to read when I was a child. I was always entranced by the illustrations in the Brothers Grimm book of fairytales as a little girl. I loved all of the stories like Little Red Riding Hood and Snow White, which took place in the forest. I watched the Last Unicorn over and over again, especially loving the scene where the big tree comes to life. I think that this magical, mystical quality that myths and fairytales attribute to forest and the tree are definitely carried out in my work.

DIM: Has your artwork spanned beyond the arboreal?

AG: Yes. My earliest paintings were figurative and surreal. My work has always been emotive and organic. I began creating the forest paintings nine years ago, and I began the tree paintings only two years ago. The tree was present in my earliest work, but not central until recently.

DIM: Where has your artwork been shown?

AG: Last year, I was included in a group show at Lana Santorelli Gallery in Chelsea. I have also shown at The Angel Orensanz Center, The Jersey City Art Fair at the Beacon, and with Salon Ciel to name a few.

DIM: What can we expect to see from you in the future?

AG: A lot more painting for sure!

About the author

Cindy Maram

Cindy Maram is a Dancer, Public Speaker and our Founder & Editor-in-Chief of the entertainment, fashion and arts publication, Dig IN Magazine. She is an accredited film critic for Cannes Film Festival in the South of France, Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, SFFilm Festival and CAAMFest, as well as a runway fashion photographer and editor for London Fashion Week and New York Fashion Week. She also serves as a professional sports photographer and writer. She is a prolific art critic providing media coverage for Art Basel Miami Beach and surrounding Miami Art Week fairs. As a creator, Cindy is a writer, vlogger, podcaster, social media strategist and manager possessing a Bachelor's Degree from UC Davis and Master's Degree completing graduate work in Mass Communications + Popular Culture Studies with an emphasis in Film/Marketing/Writing from Cal State Fullerton. Further, she is producer of independent feature length and short films, and is committed to supporting the visibility of underrepresented groups in the media and film industry.

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