Mark Umansky / SPPSBrian Tydings' work will be showcased at XYZ on Main Street.
Collegiate Times: To start, can you tell us a little bit about your show?
Brian Tydings: Ray Kass, professor at Virginia Tech, approached me through XYZ gallery about putting on a show this summer, and I was very excited. The show is called Five Rooms, Five Paintings; my original oil on canvas at XYZ gallery. Each painting will be in its own separate room, you will have the experience of viewing the painting by itself and as part of a collection.
CT: When did you start painting? How many exhibitions have you done?
BT: This will be my third solo show. I started painting when I was 19, in a horse barn studio in Colorado.
CT: A horse barn?
BT: It was an old barn turned into studio space. My space was what would have been a horse stall. So I used to gather materials from the recycle center: plywood, metal pieces off of machines, and paint with that. I put a portfolio together then went to San Francisco Art Institute. But I only attended class about five times and instead spent all my time in the studio. So I came home and got a local job. I met my wife there and relatively soon after that we were married and our daughter was born. So my wife went through college while I painted and worked.
CT: What style would you use to describe your paintings?
BT: Impressionism meets West Coast. West coast meaning, basically, you steal an idea and you rework it to make it your own. And I'm trying to do that with some of the great painters that I love. Beginning with Paul Cezanne through Willem de Kooning and trying to figure out Warhol and at the same time making a painting that Francis Bacon would be proud of.
CT: How have you developed this style?
BT: I found art through great museums and then through art history. I began reading poetry, great works of literature, viewing great films, having great conversations and ubiquitous thoughts about everything else. Then I just kind of stopped doing that and started to not think about anything at all. And then just start thinking with my eyes. Then my paintings got really good. I don't talk the way I used to talk or think about things the way I used to think about things. Now it's just showing up and making a painting. My basic style hasn't changed much over the past 10 years, but (my paintings have) become more sophisticated, and I feel that's where I want the audience to experience that level of visual … the paintings are basically a visual experience. Paintings about me thinking about the way I feel and documenting that one brush stroke at a time. And putting that together into a kind of chorus or symphony of visual sound.
CT: Is it hard to work in a smaller town where there isn't a very big art scene?
BT: I feel like you can make bad work anywhere. So for me having no overhead was very important, so I was able to just continue to grow. The majority of the art world today, outside of major markets like London and New York, is on the Internet. You can see the shows that galleries have been putting on, you can do research on artists, you can find basically every show of importance through several Web sites on the Internet. So I would say, without the Internet, it would be much more challenging. Of course, seeing it in person is a big difference because that's where art and people really come together. So it was good to be in this place, I would encourage any artist to find a place where they can get lost and find themselves again.
We like living in this area; there's not really a good economy, which is difficult, but it's a great place for our daughter to grow up. And it's a great place for me as an artist to push myself and figure out how much I want to paint. I make my paintings where nobody's around and nobody cares, and still I showed up and kept painting and kept working, so I've developed a lot of confidence in my vision as an artist. And that has made all the difference. For a long time, I really thought I was looking to maybe find something else and not feeling like I was making the progress that I wanted to. That has always been a constant struggle, feeling like I was missing something in the painting — that I wasn't saying what I wanted to say, but, at the same time, I didn't really know what I wanted to say either. I always felt like I wanted to get to this place, where I had a complete idea or a complete thought. And I had no idea how I wanted to get there or how to do it, and the only way it really happened was for me to show up at the studio every day. Good painting or bad painting, and I had to go through a lot of paintings to get to where I am. And over the past six months, it's come together in a way that I would never have expected.
CT: You don't paint for a living yet?
BT: I've sold paintings in the past and I've done commissions for private collectors, but I kind of shut things down. I just wanted to push myself as far as I could go without worrying about getting my work in a gallery or trying to appease a collector's demands. So I'm trying to make the transition over the next six months to becoming full time in the studio. But at the same time, I feel very good about where the work is, so I feel more grounded in the work, making my day-to-day life as an artist more meaningful.
CT: So how do you balance studio time and job time?
BT: Currently I am mixing paint at Lowe's. Working is way easier than painting. I always felt like I wasn't doing anything, it's not a real job, it's not real work. Painting is extremely difficult and challenging; having a regular job is much easier.
CT: If someone were to find one of your paintings in 500 years, which would you want it to be?
BT: I'll put it to you this way. Some people are really responding to the Archangel Gabriel. I think that painting has really captivated people's attention. The other paintings are kind of moving off that. It's a constant struggle between putting too much or not enough into a painting. And at the same time letting each painting become itself, without getting into the mode of manufacturing the work. Because basically when I start the work, I start all the paintings the same then all hell breaks loose. Three days later, they look like something I would never have imagined. The Archangel Gabriel is the culmination of the past 18 months of work in my studio — and out of that painting many more paintings will grow. And it's just a question of figuring out how to let the painting become itself. It's been said that nature can't help but make beautiful things, and I feel like the best thing I can do is get out of the way.
CT: Well, I have to ask, what's the meaning of life?
BT: The meaning of life for me is to make great paintings, get laid, have some fun and try and figure out how to make my paintings even better.
CT: Is there anything you want to add?
BT: I think the way we see the world and the way we shape the world is our most evolved adaptation to this human experience. I'm really thankful to be a part of creating and changing and developing, making the world look the way it is for better or for worse. Being a part of everything that can't be said but is always seen is why I'm an artist.
The show will be open at the XYZ gallery 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday from today through Aug. 8.
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