ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: LINDA LAINO
I am a visual artist and writer based in Mexico. I received my MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, where I taught as an adjunct for a number of years after. As an undergraduate, I began my art practice in fibers. I’ve had a long love affair with the characteristics of textiles: texture, hand, structure and pattern. I taught papermaking classes and fell in love with the translucent yet sturdy nature of mulberry papers. When I switched to painting, I began by painting on mulberry paper with watercolors. They are perfectly compatible in their transparent qualities.
Making art and exhibiting regularly for over forty years, I’ve received grants from the Virginia Museum and Virginia Commission for the Arts in addition to stipends for residencies in different parts of the world. I hope to find opportunities for more of this focused painting time in residency in the next year.
Tell us about your greatest inspirations or influences please.
When I was very young, I fell in love with Gauguin and Matisse. To me, Gauguin was a color magician. I still love looking at Gauguin. In college, I was heavily influenced by Francis Bacon and R.B.Kitaj as well as experimental art films. The German Expressionist film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari made a very big impression on me in terms of composition. In art school, figures and room interiors were a favorite subject. After a life-altering car accident left me broken for a while, my imagery shifted to the interior body. I became more acquainted with the beauty of body organs and bones, and the myriad forms and patterns there. Human biology eventually spread to animal and plant biology and I am still looking at those forms in my work today. Nature plays prominently into my work.
As a poet, my writing talks to my visual art quite a lot. Poetry and painting share a condensed language and have much in common. I’ve always been influenced by language.
Artists I am currently looking at include Jennifer Packer, Cecily Brown, Felipe Baeza, Pamela Sunstrum, to name a few.
How are the current trends in technology and innovation affecting your work as a creative?
If by current trends you mean social media, I have a love/hate relationship with it.
Technology and social media have made it very easy to organize and share work with the world. But it has also changed the landscape of art in negative ways as well. What much of the public sees on Instagram can feel watered down, and I often don’t even trust images that I see online. Sometimes, it’s hard to know what you are looking at. There is still no substitute for going to a museum. I also think these platforms reward “personality”. Some of us aren’t quite as extroverted or living out loud and the internet can feel intrusive at times.
The whole NFT thing passed me by. And now, we are seeing AI paintings. For me, technology is useful when I need it, but my work doesn’t rely on it. I do love my Iphone for photographs however, and it has become an indispensable tool!
We’d love to hear more about your creative process.
My process is quite organic. I have developed a visual vocabulary of sorts over the years that I return to often. To begin a painting, I create a base of layered marks, forms, and color on a gessoed surface, that I then cover with different layers of rice paper allowing the prior marks to show through. I may have one image that I am interested in starting with, but that’s about it. I don’t plan a painting beforehand. Every element is placed in relation to what came before. It’s a multi-layered process that is as exhilarating as it is grappling. In the beginning, things move quickly, and then the process slows down with deliberate decisions about image and composition. I’m always open to changing or scrapping something that isn’t working. Even if I’ve spent days on it! In the end, I may have fifty paintings underneath the “finished” painting. The Buddhist principle of impermanence finds its true home in the painting process! I strive to land somewhere between representation and abstraction, elegance and tension and hopefully convey a vivid sense of experience. I try to embrace the struggle.
What do you think of the art world?
The art world has certainly changed greatly in the forty years I’ve been making art. I think today, there are many art “worlds”: The New York art world, the academic art world, the self-taught art world, the Instagram art world. All operating with different values and intentions. I think it’s a shame that the average person doesn’t posess or seek out the most basic art education to make their own distinctions. The public tends to lump the word “art” into one giant pile, the same as “artworld”.
Certainly, the obscene auction prices in recent years have made dollar value and aesthetic value synonymous. But I believe it’s dangerous to equate success as an artist with money and sales. My definition of success is that I am still curious about making art. Simple as that. For me, the work is the focus. It’s certainly validating to have your work recognized and sold in that market, but the (any) art world and its trends shouldn’t figure into the making of it.
Anything coming up that we should know about?
I’m currently working on new paintings for a solo exhibition in Mexico in April, 2023. Titled The Poetics of Form, it was curated for five artists with similar aesthetics, but presenting individual bodies of work. In late October, I’m heading just a few hours by bus to a writing residency.
What does wellbeing mean to you and anything in particular that you practice?
Ever since I was a kid, the measure of “well-being” was directly related to worry. If I had nothing to worry about that day or that week, I felt free. There was space in my head to daydream, create, get lost in, instead of repeated thoughts that went nowhere. I have no car where I live and I walk a lot. Walking creates that same kind of space or feeling of wellness for me. Yoga and meditation have always figured into my life as well, but honestly, I find painting to have the same effect. For sure, if circumstances prevent me from painting for a while, I start to feel unwell.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
I’m pleasantly surprised at how making art at this time in my life is even richer than when I was younger. It feels more liberating and confident. I’m not as ambitious in terms of sales or another line on my resume as I used to be and I can relax into the work and follow where it takes me without an agenda. The act is its own reward.
