www.SampleSize.ca
November 2004

 INTERVIEW WITH ISCA GREENFIELD-SANDERS
By Otino Corsano

 Otino Corsano: There has been a lot of focus surrounding the new media processes you employ. What relevance do you place on materials and procedures in regards to your intentions for the completed paintings?

 Isca Greenfield-Sanders: As most painters are, I am heavily engaged with surface. My process is perhaps more elaborate than most, yet every artist’s materials and technical choices strongly affect the read of their work.

When discussing the read of a painting, artists often refer to the “speed” of an artwork. That is to say, how quickly does the work register in the mind of the viewer? I would say the read of my work is fast then very slow.

With most paintings, the longer you examine the image, the more information you gather. My work is the opposite; as my paintings are photographically based there is a certain level of understanding with a first glance. As the viewer continues to parse the image, this initial understanding fades. The layers of watercolor and oil paint bring up questions about the surface; a viewer may begin to ask: “Why is there a grid? What exactly am I looking at?” The ‘speed’ of my work is directly related to the materials I choose and the process I developed.

Otino Corsano: I imagine the resulting structural grid floating lingeringly on each painting is so planned you would not consider printing on larger stock prior to the final oil painting stage. Is this true? What are your thoughts on the significance of the seams?

Isca Greenfield-Sanders: I could print the tiles in my paintings any size I choose. For that matter, there could be no grid at all. I choose to work on a seven inch, square grid for two reasons. One: my process is about combining the mechanical with the handmade. I like there to be a remnant from each transformation. The seams are leftover from the enlargement process. Two: I am a math person and I enjoy prime numbers, especially seven.

Otino Corsano: The photographs you alter are not from your own family’s archive. Are all your reference photos from the one “Putnam Valley tag sale” purchase? Did you buy the photo collection from a direct relative of the documented individuals; alternatively, have you been contacted by the depicted or their extended family? How much did the set of original images cost?

 Isca Greenfield-Sanders: For the last five years I have been using photographs from one family archive that I purchased at a tag sale in 1999. I assume the man who sold me the photographs was not a member of the family, but the person who bought the house and sold the contents. I have never been contacted by anyone having to do with the photographs. I purchased the collection for $1 per box, so six dollars.

Otino Corsano: Can we return to the process in a more immediate way: in relation to the personal necessity of each stage in the creation of the final work? Also, could you describe your mathematical approach to art production? Were you suggesting a numerological angle to the work?

Isca Greenfield-Sanders: The printing of each panel and the cutting of the four resulting edges is a large physical part of the production of each painting and it seems disingenuous to not recognize it in the surface. If I chose to print each painting the size of the canvas, I would have to out source the job as I can only print up to 18 inches at my studio. I like the whole process contained in house - at least for this set of images. I was not suggesting there was a numerological angle to my work. Simply, if one has to choose a size, seven is a nice number - no?

Otino Corsano: Seven is fine. Artists like Amy Adler complete a similar art and photography exchange with the photograph as endgame. Is the presentation of the final works as paintings essential or are you comfortable with mixed media blurring into the read?

Isca Greenfield-Sanders: Yes, my works are paintings. I describe them as “Mixed Media Oil Paintings”, yet it is just a physical description. They are oil paintings.

Otino Corsano: Who designed the most expensive pair of shoes you own? Is it the shoes? When did you first meet Holly Dunlap?

Isca Greenfield-Sanders: The most expensive pair of shoes I own are by Stewart Weitzman. I bought them at a second hand store along with a champagne colored fifties cocktail dress to wear to my engagement party. I bought the shoes and the dress because both were covered in gold dots and Sebastian paints me in the shower behind a dotted shower curtain.

 To my knowledge, I have only met Holly Dunlap once. She is close with my friends Casey Cook (excellent NY based painter) and Hanuk Kim (genius fashion designer).

Otino Corsano: Do you enjoy a balanced support structure within the N.Y. arts community or is the ‘boy’s painting club’ network and mentality still prevalent?

Isca Greenfield-Sanders: I would say that for the most part men and women are treated equally in the NY arts community. I would certainly like to see more major museum shows devoted to women artists, but compared to many professions the arts are ahead of the game. Only time will tell whether women artists will get written into art history the way that men do.

Otino Corsano: Do you think viewers can ever fully appreciate the true thought, time and work required to create each of your effulgent paintings? Have you ever faced these moments of questioning while painting in the studio?

Isca Greenfield-Sanders: I find that most people think I am crazy when they hear about the work that goes into each canvas. Thankfully, they rarely underestimate that work. It is apparent from my work I spend a lot of time in studio: I would estimate about 10 hours a day.

Every time a painting becomes difficult, I seriously doubt my abilities. I am somewhat superstition about painting. I certainly believe in “bad” painting days and “good” painting days; when it is a “bad” painting day, I find it is better to just simply walk away.

Otino Corsano: I imagine digital images of the work may not accurately document the subtle material details of the actual paintings. Can you offer us a subjective account of a completed work highlighting the most pronounced or even unanticipated effects in your own view?

Isca Greenfield-Sanders: My most recent series is loosely titled “beach detail paintings”. These paintings depict incidental figures taken from the background of two photographs from my original archive of pictures. As the background figures are significantly smaller in the original photographs, these paintings are less defined and have a markedly different quality as compared with my more photographic earlier work. The appearance of surface paint is more prominent. My desire was to have the oil paint act more like watercolor; I wanted these paintings to remain transparent and bright, and in doing so, speak about temperature and light.

In thinking about what makes a beach painting, I kept returning to the color blue. I thought it might be an interesting project to eliminate blue entirely from the equation. The resulting “pink paintings” rely on a slimmed down, predominantly pink palette, with some white, yellow and green.

Otino Corsano: What factors at play helped you establish a distinguished international practice early on in your career?

Isca Greenfield-Sanders: My first solo show was in Italy at Galleria In Arco in April of 2000, just before I graduated from Brown. My dealer Sergio Bertacchini produced a catalogue including all the paintings in this first show; this publication was instrumental for raising interest in my work. Generally speaking, I have had the good fortune of working with extremely generous collectors who have recommended my work to dealers both nationally and internationally.

Otino Corsano: The factor I return to in your work is of anonymity. It appears to me the paintings privilege this unidentified privacy in a blatant and moral manner: blatant in the works dislocated identities as random references; moral in the way the work becomes a celebratory memorialization of these lost mementos from personal lives and, in principle, raises any individual to a honored level of documented nobility.

 Isca Greenfield-Sanders: Is there a question?

Otino Corsano: Not really. I was just attempting to reach affirmation. I also see this privatized, Arcadian picnic as a crisp juxtaposition with your Father’s highly distinguished career of documenting famous celebrity. Has this been made mention of before? Is it an assuming context or relevant point for the work?

Isca Greenfield-Sanders: Others have also previously mentioned this idea; however, it is not relevant to my work.

Otino Corsano: Any Canadian artists you favor?

Isca Greenfield-Sanders: I particularly like Karen Davie’s work.

Otino Corsano: Thank you for this conversation. Speaking personally, I am still unsure if I can fully comprehend the detailed time and concentrated care each painting magnificently preserves. Regardless, these qualities clearly form the works’ powerful dilatory resonance. As you are a disciplined artist, devoted painter, creative mathematician, successful entrepreneur and stunningly beautiful person, I am rendered silent by your modest approachability and inspirational individual achievement.

- Otino Corsano & Isca Greenfield-Sanders, Sept & Oct 2004