As an artist I have done my share of experimenting with a variety of styles and imagery. I learned to make art by copying others along with drawing what I saw and illustrating fantasies that rattled around in my head. I went to art school to learn traditional techniques for drawing and painting the figure, still-lifes and landscapes. Throughout this journey I had been a figurative artist. Although I was exposed to a lot of abstract works by Modern artists such as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and Louis Nevelson in art history and in museums as well as the paintings of fellow classmates I didn’t really understand it, let alone see how people went about creating it. Now I have been working as an abstract artist for the past three years. To me, it is the most freeing of all the painting styles, the scariest and the most rewarding.
Q: What made you choose to be an abstract artist? Do you consider yourself to be primarily an abstract artist?
Neidiggity: The only thing I can definitely say about my art is that it changes a lot. I started out painting really abstract art, then surrealism, then realistic landscapes, then slowly returned to abstract again. I would say that my current art is abstract landscape.
Mercede: Yes. I definitely consider myself primarily an abstract artist. It is what most naturally flows through me. I enjoy the process and love playing with colors and different types of brush strokes and mark making.
Q: What inspires your imagery and when do you know when a painting is done?
Neidiggity: When I paint I try to use colors that evoke a sense of nostalgia. Without really thinking about it, I started painting lines one day. In my mind the lines represented landscapes or layers in rocks. I started adding perspective into my line patterns, and that added movement. Now my paintings resemble landscapes you would see when you are driving fast in a car.
Mercede: Images materialize through the use of brush strokes in the paint. Occasionally I have a particular story I want to tell. Often times I will do this with the aid of photo references of friends, family or animals. Text is also an important element in my paintings. The text is often derived from stream of consciousness writing.
Q: Several different styles of painting have ebbed and waned in popularity during the history of art. Every once in a while painting itself is even declared dead. Currently there seems to be a saturation of figurative art incorporating deer, birds and flowers in popular culture. Where do you see abstract art fitting in to the contemporary art scene? Is that something you even think about?
Neidiggity: I do see those paintings you talk about. It is hard not to be influenced by them because they seem to be everywhere. But fads come and fads go. When people get tired of the deer-bird-flower art they will be on to hyping the next trend. But I think the art world is so broad that there is room for all styles of art. Although I can’t really see where my art fits into the contemporary art scene, I do think the key is to paint what you want to paint, and put the effort into painting it well.
Mercede: I just assume that abstract art is popular because a lot of people I know like it! I see it in lots of galleries and magazines. Plus, I WANT it to be popular so that people will like my art. Ha ha.
Sometimes I do wonder though, I wonder how you figure out what is really hip?
I don’t know what the future holds for abstract painting. I do know that one thing most artists will say (whether they are abstract painters or not) is that you have to keep making what you love no matter what the peanut gallery tells you. It seems that Mercede and Neidig are doing just that. Kelly Neidig has just completed hanging two local
Photo: Courtesy Allison Kramer
From left to right: Jennifer Mercede, Lorna Nakell and Kelly Neidig with a harvest of new paintings.