★ MEET N‘ GREET ★
David Linneweh

Jess Wheaton interviews David.

1. Hi David, firstly what would you say about yourself to someone like me in just a sentence? Maybe we have mutual friends and we’re waiting outdoors for them to finish their burritos because the AC is blasting inside, and wherever-we-are is as balmy as it’s been here in San Francisco lately.

I’d say that I’m a painter who loves art, traveling, experiencing and thinking about life and all it’s complexities.

2. Can you tell us a little about your background and where you’re from, and how it’s dropped you off at your present age and location?

Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago had an enormous impact on my work and generally how I perceive the world.  In 2002 I received my BFA degree at Illinois State University and in 2007 my MFA degree at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.  Perhaps one of best experiences I’ve had was my first school residency at Chautauqua School of Art in 2001, after this experience I really knew for certain that I wanted to be an artist. Over the past year I’ve completed a number of Artist Residencies, which have allowed me to create new work, travel, and experience awe while being in beautiful locals surrounded by other artists.  Through the support of my family and friends I feel fortunate to have had all the experience I’ve had within the arts. 

3. In a very general sense, your work concerns how we deriving meaning from our surroundings. Can you share more about this? When you speak about places that once felt new becoming stale, do you speak of yourself or everyone? It’s kind of disenchanting to think a new-seeming place will always become old-seeming, and I wonder about your views on this process. Is it a universal phenomenon?

While growing up I never shared a communion with landscape in the sense of Henry David Thoreau, instead it was the contemporary experience of landscape through simulation or a car window.  For me, driving has become a medetive experience where I consider landscape in relation to the manmade and how over the course of time they change.

Generally I believe that it’s just a natural transition for us to have our sense of awe diminish over time as what we experience becomes more repetitive and part of a routine.  It’s hard to speak about universal experiences but living in the United States it feels like so much of our Landscape and architecture is created not for the sake of what will last but what is convenient. 

4. I love your consideration of structures as evidence of ideas, in that we can know what ideas of the past still survive by observing the architectural landscape. Can you talk about the intersection of real life, the information these buildings hold, and your portrayals, which are "somewhat saccharine in nature," as you say? I’m also interested in what initially inspired you in this direction. Is it your treatment of your subjects that "refurbish" your refurbished paintings?

The early Re-Furbished series was based on Murphysboro Illinois, where I lived during graduate school.  The town itself was interesting in that at one point it was more industrious and over time has changed, this was reflected in the varied new, old, and remodeled architecture.

All of my work intersects with real life in that they are all based on places I’ve lived in, walked through or driven through.  With the paintings Based in Murphysboro I became interested in how sometimes the service or function of a building did not seem to match the architecture.  I would say this would most be exemplified by Refurbished Building (Curves for Women) in that the chain health club appears to have been a old remodeled Americana Chinese Buffet.  I use the word saccharin in that I am drawn to a building because of these formal characteristics but ultimately they are a constructed idea created from my worldview.  Within each piece they are refurbished in the sense that I’ve re-created them in a new and polished context for them to be considered. 

5. What does your personal juggling act consist of every day? Also, I know that you teach and am interested in how that piece fits into the puzzle of your life. I’m wrapping up my undergrad work soon and am always curious to hear what teachers have to say about what that route is like. In some sense I imagine teaching art must always seem bizarre, but I’ve also been helped immensely by a couple wonderful professors who are really good at facilitation.

The journey of finding your way through an art career varies from person to person I think.  Since getting my MFA I’ve been doing a lot of residencies so most of my experience working with students lately comes in the form of critiques and pushing students to be ambitious with life, artwork, and exhibiting it. 

Ideally I’d like to say that I’m in the studio painting everyday, but in actuality I spend a lot of time editing photos for new compositions, doing research for my work, and exploring new teaching, exhibition, and residency opportunities.  During the course of a residency my time is typically much more focused in that I’m able to explore the local landscape and spend the majority of my time in the studio painting.

6. Where do you imagine your work going, or what are you stoked about and want us to look forwards to from you? Are your new "Driveway Moments" a sign of a big shift?

The Driveway Moment pieces are actually old, from around 2006 but I do think the idea of figure ground and negative space is something I continue to use in my current work through the relationship of paint and graphite on the wood surface.

Currently I’m most excited about the possibilities in the Re-Assembled Landscape series in which I play around with composition and abstraction of the image within the painting.  The new work also seems to reference the formal qualities within the architecture buildings, and reflect on consumerism and advertisement through the use of color and repetition.

Thanks David for being a part of Little Paper Press!