Q & A With Artist Jim Pignetti Currently Showing "The Unrelenting Eye" Exhibition At Roosevelt Island RIVAA Gallery - Describes Evolving Painting On Metal Surface Process And Creative RIVAA Community
The Roosevelt Island RIVAA Gallery is currently exhibiting the paintings of artist Jim Pignetti through Sunday May 26.
Immerse yourself in Jim Pignetti’s world.His latest paintings – filled with intense color – explode, splash and drip their way across a silver-toned metal surface. “The Unrelenting Eye” challenges the viewer to explore how the cold, hard surface of metal and the energetic movement of paint are reconciled in a single painting that keeps the eye engaged and constantly moving.
The exhibition runs from May 3-26 at RIVAA Gallery, 527 Main Street, Roosevelt Island 10044. All are welcome, and entry is free.
Roosevelt Island resident and Gallery RIVAA member artist Laura Hussey interviewed Mr Pignetti earlier this week about his work in this question and answer format.
Q - Congratulations on your exhibition at RIVAA Gallery. Aside from the obvious fact that you own a business that sells metal what inspired your choice of material as the “canvas” for this series of paintings Inspired?A - I needed something flat, and there were “drops” in the scrap barrel. With the early experiments, I noticed light bouncing off the surface, enabling the paint to float, and the playing began.
Q - Was this the first time that you painted on metal? Where did you draw your inspiration from?
A - Yes, this is my first substantial exploration of paint on metal. What kind of paint did you use?
Acrylic Paint – I prefer the brand, Golden.
Q - All the paintings seem to employ a similar technique with abstract imagery that uses drips and splashes on the metal surface yet you manage to make them all look different. How do you do that?
A - Over the six months that I did this series, and as a process painter, the technique would evolve, from standing on a ladder dropping, dripping pigment, to creating color washes which I then blew across the surface using fans, or altering inclines, and using whatever discovery I made along the way, including different viscosities concentrations, and fluidity. By the way, brushes are not used in these paintings .
Q- All your work has a lot of color. You didn’t, for example paint any in black and white. Would you comment on that?
A - No. I just didn’t use black and white. I might in the future… I did use complementary colors for one, Yellow/Blue.
Q - How do you choose the titles of your paintings ? Do they have a specific meaning?
A - No meaning. When it was time for naming, I free-associated a long list, writing them all down, woke up the next day and applied them to the paintings.
Q - When viewers comment on your paintings do you find that they understand what you are trying to convey.
A - Understand? Not sure. But I know that they feel what I’m doing. They tell me! The work is intended to be sensual; gesture expressing energy, feelings, and color tickling the retina. When I was mounting the exhibit, people would halt on the street, their eyes caught in the artwork. I knew something was happening!
Q - Do viewers reactions ever make you see your work in a new way or see things that you never thought of before?
A - Yes. One viewer showed me “gems” of pigment. And seeing the droplets floating on the shining aluminum, they did indeed seem gem-like.
Q - How long have you been painting?
A - Art making since I was a teen.
Q - Why did you want to be an artist ?
I didn’t want to be an artist. I just am an artist.
Q - How did you become a member of RIVAA?
A - I was in need of a creative community - I saw the artwork being exhibited at RIVAA, and felt it had a sensibility where I could be understood. It’s important for me to have the support of other creatives. RIVAA has become a place where as a board member, I give back, organizing art and music events for our larger community.
Q - If you could sum up these paintings in a few words, what would they be?
A - Painting is a way to be a more perfect and realized human being.
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