Matt Duquette

Feb 19, 2009

Topic: Featured | Tags: , , ,



You’re painting again after a five year break. How did that come about and how does it feel different?
I used to have the time to paint and I stopped because I started getting more busy with my full-time web design job and freelance work. It’s always been my intention to get going again, but it took a friend asking me to illustrate a flier for a large party in Brooklyn. So I started doing drawings and sketches that turned into a series of robot paintings. I was also building furniture because we moved and had none. I was experimenting with a different style on the TV stand that led to yet another series different than the robots. I now have more free time – one of the reasons I started the company was so I could get back into it, do more illustration.

Are you heading down this path with a different attitude than you had before?
Yeah, its funny. Before, I was painting because I was pissed off, because I had something that I needed to get out there. Now, I come here and there’s nothing bad happening so there’s nothing motivating me. I have all of these random images in my head and nothing is emotion based at this point. I kind of lost that emotional value and I feel like I’m sort of just making pictures.

Where did the robots come from? Especially the short squat one?
I thought it was funny. Putting robots in alternative settings. Robots are usually put into an ominous, destructive context like they’re going to destroy man kind. You know, they’re robots. So this series started with the idea that robots were bringing kindness to the city and there’s this short, funny little robot who needs a bike because he can’t walk fast enough. He steals it.

That’s hilarious! Are you making some sort of statement on the current state of the world.
My intention wasn’t to be a political statement. Honestly, I just thought it would be nice for a change to see a gun that doesn’t shoot bullets, but kindness and happiness – the bubbles.

Are you passive by nature, trying to change the world by adding a little bit of kindness? How much of yourself did you add to this body of work?
Yeah, it’s always sort of been a phrase to live by. I didn’t purposefully place myself into these paintings but created them more to promote the idea that people could pass kindness along. I suppose I”m a little mechanical and unemotional, but these paintings reflect a broader idea that people have trouble creating kindness, so we create robots to do that for us.

Artificial kindness. Now you’re known for a darker color palette, but it seems as though you’re letting your palette expand.
I’ve always been really strict about what I use because it works really well. But I felt like I needed to do something different and whether it works or not, I haven’t decided. I needed this change. It seemed like I was painting the same picture over and over again. A lot of the newer stuff is pretty random.

In art school, they teach you to find a style that works for you and stick with it the rest of your life. Are you worried because you’re not doing that?
It’s a double edged sword. It’s hard to get work when people don’t know exactly what they’re going to get. When you promote yourself, you need a face, a specific style so that you fit the need of the people that find you. You go to an artist because they do vector drawings and that’s what you’re looking for. Unfortunately you pigeon hole yourself to have one style. There are very few illustrators or artists who are able to have a wide range of work and make it work for them. You see some illustrators that start out commercial, then decide they want to do more fine art so they transition into the gallery scene and do work that’s more loose. That’s a bit more common. Unfortunately for me, I started going in a direction that I was comfortable in then I stopped, so I’m trying to get into that groove again. It’s been so long since I was producing a large quantity of work and aside from that, being involved in web design where I’ve had do to multiple styles for a wide range of clients and projects that are so vastly different has trained my mind to wander a bit more when dreaming up new imagery.

The character that you’ve always used – is he lost now?
Like he’s not coming back? I don’t think he’ll ever be lost, that’s something I’ve found grounds me. When I can’t think of anything else to do now, I paint him.

That’s right, he has made an appearance in your new work – is that where Black Masks and Gasoline comes from?
I’ve done two new ones with him. He’s definitely on the move. That’s what the idea was behind the painting, The idea that he is trying to burn something and he’s running from that.

This is your first solo show. Is it nerve racking, are you happy to show in an alternative space like Wootini and where else do you see yourself going form here?
Yes, I am nervous because it is my first solo show! First off, people don’t know who I am around here. It’s good because I’m a new face, new to town and a voice they’ve never heard from before. But it might not be a great turnout. I’m stoked because Wootini is known for the specific climate of art that they promote. A lot of West Coast, Mark Ryden, tattoo type art. It hasn’t hit me yet, maybe I will be after I get everything together.

Before I do anything else, I’d like to get a large body of work together that’s a little more congruent than what I have right now, which is more retrospective. Something in Raleigh is cool, but larger galleries in New York or Atlanta would be great. Ideally, being in Jonathan Levine. For more artists, I think that’s the career pinnacle. You know you’ve made it when you can get into his gallery. Or Fifty 24.

Define Transition.
The in between part. Between where you’re coming from and where you’re going. Limbo.slideshow_duquette

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