Brett Amory (Artist Interview)

Meet The Artist: Brett Amory

Hazy, dreamlike, meditating, quiet-unfullfilled anticipation. Hopeful, yearning, deconstructing, urban…..waiting. Brett Amory’s ‘Waiting’ series highlight heaviest of these elements in such a unique and delicate manner that if you blink it could all go away.

411posters got to sit down for a quick Q & A with Brett Amory and he gave us some insight into his past and current projects as he gears up for this weeks solo exhibition titled Waiting 101 at The Outsiders Gallery in Newcastle, UK.

Brett Amory

411posters: Where are you from and what is your art education background?
Brett Amory (Amory): I am originally from Chesapeake Va. I moved to the bay area in 1996 to go to the Academy of Arts. I was a film major at first but eventually switched over to fine art.

411posters: How did you get started in painting? What were your first paintings like?
Amory: I started painting about two years after I moved to San Francisco. I was skateboarding and playing music with some artist so I started drawing which eventually led to painting.

411posters: What mediums do you use to create your art?
Amory: I have experimented with a lot of different mediums but I primarily use oils.

411posters: What/who inspires you to create?
Amory: My surroundings inspire me the most. People and places I see on a day to day influence my work more than anything else.

411posters: Take us through the process of your art from concept —> process —> final piece.
Amory: My work starts with observation. If I see something that has a certain feeling, I take a picture. Now days most of the work I make is for shows. When I’m getting ready for a solo I take hundreds of pictures over the course of a few months and slowly narrow the images down. Once I have about 20 or so that go together I start painting. I usually edit about half of what I paint.

411posters: How did the ‘Waiting’ series come about and how different is the concept of it from when you first started it, to where it is now?
Amory: I started the Waiting series in 2001 but it was more about people in transit. I was living in San Francisco and working in Oakland so I was taking the train to and from work. I noticed how there was this disconnect and how everyone seemed to be somewhere else. The work was pretty much about people waiting to be somewhere else. I stopped the series in 2003 and experimented for a few years. I came back to the series in 2007 but the idea was less about people in transit and more about not being in the present moment. Every show I do I treat as a sub series within the series.

411posters: What does the term ‘negative space’ mean to you and how does that apply to your ‘waiting’ concept?
Amory: When I came back to the series in 2007 the feeling of the work was my primary focus. I felt by stripping down the environment the viewer would be forced to focus on the feeling of the work first and the aesthetic second.

411posters: Do you expect to find any resolve in your ‘Waiting’ series? Or are the characters disconnect a lifelong human condition?
Amory: The only thing I can hope for is that when the viewer is in front of my work they are in the now.

411posters: What aspect of your work have you found the most challenging thus far?
Amory: Figuring out what I want to say.

411posters: Any misconceptions of your work that bother you?
Amory: Some people think I only paint overweight people.

411posters: Who are some of your art influences?
Amory: The past year I have been looking at Stephen Shore, Robert Adams and a few other photographers.

411posters: List some of your favorite music, movies, and art work.
Amory: Boards of Canada, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Slayer. I really like the movie City of God and Dreams. I saw some of Velazquez paintings last year at the National Portrait Galley in London and was blown away.

411posters: Art, like life, is an ongoing progression of evolution and change. Where do you see your art headed in the next year(s)?
Amory: I really dont know. I just hope I can keep moving forward and do what I love everyday.

411posters: Tell us a bit about your upcoming exhibition/projects.
Amory: I have a solo with The Outsiders (Lazarides) in Newcastle April 19th and a solo at Sandra Lee Gallery in San Francisco in October.