Jason Craighead: Far From Detached

Tonight at Flanders Gallery: Jason Craighead opens his first major show in Raleigh in years.  The show is entitled "Detachment," a new body of work birthed amid a tumultuous year for Craighead. Far from detached, Craighead is intimately in tune with his emotions and what making art means to him.   That self awareness is reflected in a show that brings elements of graffiti, process and place into every work. In a discussion we talked with Craighead about his motivations behind this show and what he is thinking about.  The result is a candid reveal reflecting the same emotions found in the work.  

David: It has been a while since you’ve had a show in Raleigh.  What does this one mean for Raleigh and your relationship to the city?

Jason: I do feel that I like this moment a lot personally, like just as human, not just as artist. Because I feel like there’s a lot of growth that’s going on with myself and my perception of what it is that I do so I feel like this is a really strong moment regardless of what gallery it was in.  Like it could be in the street and I would feel potent.  I’m going through a big moment in my life so I feel strong about it.

Of course very happy for it to be at Flanders because I have a lot of respect for Kelly [McChesney of Flanders] and her ideals of what it is that she wants to do, anything that she’s bringing  into the city as well as her reach outside of the city and she’s just doing good in Raleigh.  She has a really good gallery and is a really good gallerist.  She believes in her people or she wouldn’t have them there if she couldn’t give them the opportunities.

David: Did you feel like focus is an important part of the process of maturing as an artist?

Jason: I mean focus, yes of course, focus on work but also kind of – trying to gain an understanding of your associations with galleries and things like that.  You want to associate with people that you respect.  You want to be in galleries that the other artists are like, “Oh, okay.  I feel great about this.”

David: Right.

Jason: So to speak.  Then everybody makes sacrifices along the way as I have and they continue to for a little bit to survive.  It’s like you got to survive so if someone thinks that they can sell your work, you may have to do that for a little bit and that’s an awful thing as far as marketplace goes.  As long as you don’t sacrifice your integrity, I think in those moments, then you – maybe you pull yourself back over and over again and try to reset the compass and then focus and keep making work.  Get strong.  As long as you’re making strong work and you put it in strong places, that’s all you got.

David: So you don’t mean compromise as far as the content of the work.

Jason: Well, no, you can’t do that.  If you compromise your personal integrity in your work, well, you’re done.  So if somebody asks that of you, you don’t work with it.  That’s where you have to stop and I had that problem with somebody like twice and like initially and I tried.  He’s [One of Craighead’s former Galleries] like, “Oh, I’m having a show,” white stuff or something and blah, blah white thing.  He says, “You’re going to be perfect for it,” because I had painted like three things that were kind of white right then.  He’s like, “So I need a couple like this size.” I’m like, “Ahh.” It’s like I don’t know about that.  I don’t feel good about that but I tried, failed.  Like the paintings felt empty and cold and it’s boring.  It’s boring.

David: During this period of rejuvenation did this body of work have any kind of feeling behind it or any impetus?

Jason: I mean probably just making an effort to apply that philosophy over and over again.  Make sure it’s what you believe.  Make sure it’s what you believe.  Make sure it’s what you believe.  In the text, in a lot of the work, you can probably see that over and over again.  There are little comments that make it – and talking about self and trying to be positive, focused and forward-thinking and et cetera, et cetera.

Alarm

David: Where would I have seen that?  Abstract forms juxtaposed with handwritten text ?

Jason: I think it’s out there though.  I mean like – I think like Motherwell although many other things, you might think of immediately with Motherwell.  Like big, blocky things or whatever but I mean there’s few paintings that are like Je t'aime, like just giant text of emotion.  I mean it’s just emotion.  I mean it means whatever it means in the moment.  Whatever is left for the viewer is ambiguous as anything else, I guess.

Then I think like Basquiat, people like that.  I mean it’s like there’s text like the Twombly and I was like I get the Twombly thing all the time.  They would be like, “Oh, you’re like Twombly,” because I kind of am, I guess.  Like scribbly and drippy and all this kind of shit but a lot of writing, things like that.  A lot of text and I think for a long time, it had been buried.  Like I buried it.

The Heart of the Butterfly

I mean actually Dave [Green] and I collaborated for several years and he was the guy that would come in and write all over the paintings.  It was like I would never write anything and now suddenly, there’s this weird – I mean we’re not collaborating so much anymore.  Every now and then we play around but I’ve felt the, need, flow, passion or whatever it is to kind of start putting the text in there and I’ve even gotten the pieces like the most recent painting. [Points to a painting with the word love centered in the image]  That’s a finished thing.

That’s it and I mean then it has got so much passion.  It has been stepped on, walked on, dripped on, scribbled on and then just coated on and it’s just great.

David: Well, the reason I asked is because a person in your state, like a state of new birth, like that, is very attractive to everyone.  It’s like you become that magnetic when you feel the way that you feel.

Jason: I can understand that in that sense too, in that way because it’s just like electricity.

Like when you’re releasing all this and coming into something else.  I think those are moments that maybe we look for all the time and maybe one way to stay in it is just to stay in it like constantly so to speak and just try to experience that all the time and maybe that’s too much for anybody too.  You know what I mean? Like nobody needs to feel that way all the time because you will crash.

David: It’s interesting how like when we get older, we just continue to deal with things the same way that we do as children.

 I feel in the state of rejuvenation, let’s call it.  I feel wholly confident.  I feel like the work reflects this moment of insecurity, growing into security and a true passion for what it is that I’m trying to do with myself  so I feel good and I hurt, always. [Laughs]

David: What about your relationship to society?

Jason: It just is what it is.  If I gain any respect from what it is I do, which is serve on the Arts Commission and serve on the Public Art Committee and do what I can do for the city to bring about more art, to bring about more opportunity for more artists to expand our community.  You know what I mean? That’s what I can do that’s a positive thing beyond hang out, and make art.

David: What do you think of the business of art as you have been doing it for 20 years now professionally? Do you think about it?

Jason: What I think about most of course is at the very root, make work and it’s all I think about and try to do that; the business, the thing that scares you the most is when people are like oh, they’re also related to the media and like oh the – stock market is this or that so people aren’t going to buy as much art and so on and so on.  It’s like okay.  Well, don’t bank on selling art as much as making art.

Just figure out how to make art so that you’re making art all the time and if you can teach to get by or do whatever you got to do to get by, for the money.  If you’re not selling art, well then figure out how to make money using your skills as an artist because I think there are plenty of opportunities in that sense.  I haven’t taught in a long time and I’ve just had a couple of really fortunate moments.

 

Detached opens alongside Holly Fischer's sculpture show: Sensual Abstraction at Flanders tonight and runs through October 1st.

 

Update 9-13: Large portions of this interview have been removed.

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