Based out of Atlanta, painter and VCU alumnus Dane Jefferson has been working hard to bring his rough brush realism into the gallery world after a long layoff. He stopped by the RVA office on the way to his newest show, “An Ocean Narrative,” at Air & Eau Gallery in Orient, New York. I took the opportunity to ask him a few questions.
Based out of Atlanta, painter and VCU alumnus Dane Jefferson has been working hard to bring his rough brush realism into the gallery world after a long layoff. He stopped by the RVA office on the way to his newest show, “An Ocean Narrative,” at Air & Eau Gallery in Orient, New York. I took the opportunity to ask him a few questions.
What’s up with all the water scenes? Where did this central theme come from?
It started off… the show is up in North Fork, which is across the water from the Hamptons [in Suffolk County, Long Island]. It’s a beach community, and so I just sort of started there. I’ve always been fascinated with water and how water brings out all the emotions in humans, from wonder to terror to relaxation [to] fear. After more research, I started off trying to show the full scope of the human experience with water and make all these interesting scenes. When you’re standing in the midst of all these paintings, it’s kind of human nature to start trying to connect the dots between one scene [and] the next scene. So I narrowed the subject matter to a male in water; that way it would be just enough encouragement for the audience to connect the dots and form a linear story, but there’s no narrative that I am trying to portray. I want people to start forming that narrative on their own.
It seems like different scenes you might see if you’re hanging out on the beach. Here’s a horse running through the break, does that have any symbolism at all?
We are looking at the paintings individually. I want all of the paintings to stand on their own individually, but when all the paintings are together, the viewer can start giving them meaning within their own narrative that they’re forming.
So you’re hoping the reader brings their context to the work?
Exactly. I’ve shown these paintings to probably close to 60 people now and I’ve gotten all kinds of different interpretations from certain paintings, like the one with the child in the whale. Some people get kind of disturbed by it and then some people see it [as] inspirational, like it’s dream-like.
The whale and the boy painting seems like he’s either dreaming or he’s passed on. There’s some conflict going on in the scene.
Some people see conflict and some people see wonderment.
These others seem like they’re unreal. It’s a mix. When I see these horses running, they mean several things, like daydreams for example.
I wanted to paint the best moments possible–nothing in these paintings is impossible and everything in these paintings has probably happened at some point. This scene has probably happened at some point in human existence.
I’m sure, but there is an underwater horse. Seems a little bit dream-like…
You’ve had those experiences. I am in a surreal moment right now, and I don’t want to throw the surreal thing out there too much cause I’m not trying to go overboard. Everything is possible and nothing right here is even crazy, but it’s one of those moments.
Are you trying to share some of that? With your paintings, you’re trying to give people a sense of wonderment, maybe remind them of these moments that you tend to forget, and you’re doing it in such a large scale. It’s almost like you’re encompassing the viewer. This one painting must be 7-8 feet long. So why did you start working on such a large level or scale with your work? What interests you about doing pieces that big?
I’m creating a piece of art to be seen in person. So looking through this on the website, you can appreciate maybe composition and colors and all that kind of stuff but then once it’s in front of you and it’s six feet across or seven feet across, then it has a presence, and it’s like it’s forcing you to pay attention. There are beautiful magazine ads [and] you flip right by them, but if they were 9 feet tall in front of you and on a white wall, then you’re going to start appreciating all the thought that went into it. You have to see it and you have to think about it. A lot of the imagery that I’ve been drawn to, it’s imagery that’s, by being that large, the size is like part of the experience.
Working on that larger scale, it seems like it would transition well to murals. Have you thought about doing murals? Can your process, the way you paint, translate into doing murals and are you interested in that?
I’m not really interested in doing murals. Mostly, it’s not very practical when you know a painting is going to take like 100 hours. At the same time, I like the idea of doing paintings for an unknown customer. That kind of fascinates me.
How did the show come about? Did you already have the pieces before the show?
No, I did all the pieces for this show.
They wanted you to do a show and then you came up with an idea and a theme?
Right. I started showing compositions–“do you like the look of this? Will it fit in your space?” They said yes, and I started painting in October.
How many pieces are in the show?
There are 12.
You stretch your own canvases, right?
I stretch a lot of my own canvases, and that huge one I stretched, but sometimes I just buy them pre-stretched because it’s a pain in the ass to stretch a canvas, especially if you have deadlines. Like, I can’t spend the next three months stretching canvas. And things happen when you stretch canvas–your wood might warp, you might warp the wood yourself by stretching the canvas too tight, and then your painting torques out after you gesso it, so it’s not even as simple as just stretching the canvas. You have to stretch it correctly.
Does it happen subconsciously or consciously that you put yourself in your own narratives? I’ve got to say, the characters in your paintings have a resemblance to you in a way.
What my professors say is you always draw yourself even if you’re drawing an Asian woman. [laughs] In other words, elements of yourself are going to be in there because those are the features you know the best. And when you are rendering something, it is always important to actually be rendering what you see, but everyone [is] subject to [a situation] where they draw the same earlobe on every person, and that earlobe is probably going to be their own earlobe. It takes discipline because you fall into those routines of, “Oh, this is how an eyebrow is,” without looking at a person’s actual eyebrow.
So last question–are you excited about the show?
I’m pretty excited. I’m pretty exhausted. I can’t wait for it to happen. Yeah, I haven’t been this exposed in a long time.
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An Ocean Narrative is the latest collection of paintings from artist Dane Jefferson. The relationship between man and the ocean transcends the entire spectrum of human emotion. An Ocean Narrative explores its interaction in a series of paintings that express the diverse personalities of the ocean and how we interpret them. The themes of the paintings were carefully depicted to be unique yet similar, The similarities in the paintings will encourage viewers to connect one with another forming a narrative of their own. Opens April 19th, 2013.
See more of Dane Jefferson’s work at www.danejefferson.com
