Inner thoughts of an Artist. . BRYAN LEBOEUF
By Danielle Sonnenberg
Bryan Leboeuf’s recent solo show Vessels at the 511 Gallery, features a set of images which invoke deep feeling and intensity. His paintings explore the relationships among people using light, irony and space. He leaves his paintings open-ended with questions instead of answers. Duality is a common theme throughout his paintings. In Trois Bateaux a man bends over showing his muscles. A girl is in the background. We don’t know their relationship. It appears to be a simple story but if one looks further there is a lot more being told.
DS: What made you study art specifically painting?
BL: I’ve always drawn since I had the motor skills to at least draw. And painting came along when everything else went away. There’s an attribute of painting I find that I can have a way to do that I can’t do with anything else. It’s sort of if you met God the question isn’t what you would say; it’s what you wouldn’t say. That’s kind of how I figure out what to say.
DS: Do you need angst to create art?
BL: No, that’s depends what someone’s criteria for art making. You’ll live a short life if you’re trying to binge and purge. I don’t recommend it.
DS: Have you been depressed?
BL: I’ve been to the bottom but that’s art beside. That’s human; that’s not the bubble or outside the bubble.
DS: What artists have inspired you?
BL: Mostly humanists have inspired me. Conceptualists. Some video artists such as Phil Loyola. I look at the past and the present; I look at filmmakers like the Cohen brothers.
DS: Do you have relationship with God?
BL: I hope so. Yes I believe. I’m human. Of course I definitely fear God. It’s hard to say. I can’t comprehend what God might be like.
DS: What are you influenced by?
BL: I’m influenced by minimalism and twentieth century art. I’m a narrative person by nature. I’m constantly thinking how I would tell the story. There’s something I keep finding in oil paintings. It’s showing something that nothing else makes. It’s the most invigorating thing in the world. I could never imagine doing anything else in the world.
DS: Do you get excited about possibility?
BL: Maybe not as much as I would like to be. All the things that I paint are invented. They were realized long ahead before I sat down and painted. From the beginning till the end it all comes back to the image in my head. I’m not referencing anything other than this information.
DS: How do your relationships impact your art?
BL: I get my ideas from my life-the places I’ve been.
DS: Tell me about irony in your paintings?
BL: I love irony much as much as the next person. There’s dumb irony and then the highly intelligent irony. If you go to see age old story in the form of an opera or a movie, part of the thing is that it is suspending your disbelief. I never end up doubting what I do. I’m in the audience too of what I’m making. If I drive it hard enough I’m not giving myself a moment’s doubt. I try to be a member of the audience because I have to be. It’s hard to be completely objective. It might go according to plan by the end. The trip is in the questions not the answers. In terms of making the picture, the mental capacity to make the decisions is not always easy. It’s craft, it’s work and it’s not void of that.
DS: Who are the people in your paintings?
BL: The people I use are not the characters in the paintings. I get annoyed when people ask that. It’s very much like casting characters people for roles. It’s just using two models. I used my brother and nephew for the painting Father to Son as models but they are father and son in the painting. I leave it (the perception of the picture) open ended. Part of the trip is taken by the audience.
DS: Is it built out of passion or craft?
BL: That’s a good question. Part of what I realized is that technique is invented by necessity. You need to figure it out. It’s like the car broke and you’re in the middle of desert. What do you do? You figure out what you need to do in those situations.
DS: Like that adrenaline rush? Like a mother lifting up a car on top of her child?
BL: Yeah, that’s an extreme example.
DS: Do you sleep?
BL: Sometimes, yeah.
DS: Do you always look at the destination when painting?
BL: The painting is the sum of the part not the parts. It’s not about the destination.
DS: Who have you been compared to?
BL: A lot of people but I don’t want to be anyone else. Not even my teachers. Of course I’m influenced by them. I completely paint a different way but it’s an influence nonetheless. Desiderio was a teacher of mine. Eric Fischl was briefly an advisor.
DS: How long does it take you to get a show ready
BL: At least a year. I don’t usually work from start to finish. It is very hard to finish a painting. It could go on forever.
DS: Do you have another job?
BL Not in the last year. I’ve been very lucky. I’m very blessed.
DS: What are your common themes?
BL: Duality is a common theme. It’s what’s represented. What I paint is always a conscious decision. Why did John Currin choose to distort the paintings the way he did? That was a conscious decision. You take out with what you don’t need and you’re left with what you do need. If you can’t get the thing you need, try not to see what you don’t need, then you get there. You make it by default. It’s about addition and subtraction.
