There was a lady named Ruth Ettling in my church who was a fairly well-known artist. She made beautiful prints and collages. I got to visit her studio when I was in high school, and I remember wanting to have a studio like hers. She went to Rhode Island School of Design and was thrilled for me when I was accepted to go to college there.

I studied painting because I wanted to master color, but I’ve evolved into a sculptor. Now I make this hybrid between painting and sculpture where I build surfaces of color with weaving, sewing, and beading instead of paint.

LO: Please explain the themes in your work as well as your working process. For instance, some artists are very methodical while others are more instinctive. Please elaborate.
KD: The idea of a garden in paradise influences the organic abstractions I make. I worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for many years in Asian and Islamic art, and that time deeply influenced my work. The symmetry in jewelry from India, the balance between realism and abstraction in Japanese screens, and the beauty and fantasy of the borders in Persian paintings really connected with me.

I work instinctively but in a very orderly and organized manner. I organize my materials so that I have a sense of color, scale, and a goal of what I want to accomplish, and then I dive in.

LO: You are a painter, sculptor and also create public works. Are there any differences with each way of working?
KD: I approach each medium differently.

With painting, I have an idea about a size, palette, and compositional approach, but it’s pretty loose. I usually can’t articulate what I am doing in a piece until after I’ve done it.

With sculptures and installations, I usually gather together materials that I want to work with and start organizing the colors and forms until I develop a compositional plan.

I can usually say what direction I’m going in if not the final destination.

With public work, the site rules all of those elements. I look at the site and try to imagine how I can bring my visual voice to the space, history, and requirements of the place.

Public art requires that you fully articulate what you’re going to do before you find out if you are going to get the opportunity.

LO: Who are your favorite artists and why?
KD: I love Calder’s use of color and play, Lee Bontecou’s articulation of nature and abstraction, the way Kiki Smith and Louise Bourgeois use materials. Judy Pfaff’s compositions are so dynamic. Having worked at the Met, I developed a long, close relationship with the collection there. The Tiepelos at the top of the main staircase blow me away every time I see them; I’m awed by the color and compositional dynamism of those paintings.

LO: What advice would you give younger artists on how to mark success as an artist? Success seems to be marked by big galleries making big money. Do you think that there are other ways to mark success as an artist?
KD: Not everyone is going to get rich or even get by, and very few artists will always be “hot stuff.”  My advice: commit to a life of making art, with success being measured by your satisfaction with a piece or body of work. Make making art and building a body of work the priority; then, you need to find a balance in which you are creating the work, showing it, and engaging with the art world outside of your studio.

The post Leah Oates in Conversation with Katherine Daniels appeared first on NY Arts Magazine.

Microscope Gallery is a new art space specializing in the works of film, video, sound, new media and other time-based artists. The artists we present are independent, radical, experimenters and risk takers who range from the emerging to recognized pioneers and innovators. Microscope also offers a weekly screening, performance, readings and lecture series complementing the exhibitions as well as programs that showcase other artists.

Conceived in the heat wave of 2010, Microscope is the realization of a recurrent dream, dissolving the barriers between the white walls of the gallery and the darkened setting of the cinema/concert hall/theater space. In our first year, we held 9 exhibitions, presented over 70 screenings, music, and other performances. In addition we curated off-site events including the 2-day, 10 program BOS Film Festival, held as part of Bushwick Open Studios 2011 and Bushwick in the Box, video installations and performance exhibition featuring 6 emerging Bushwick artist at White Box (NYC).

The gallery, exhibitions, and events have been featured in ArtForum, Time Out NY, Village Voice, Wall Street Journal, BOMBLOG, Artnet, New York Magazine, Buswick Daily, Oakazine, Bushwick BK, Hyperallergic, Flavorpill, Break Thru Radio, BadLit, Screen Slate, CineSoiree, WG News & Arts, and others.

Sarah Halpern: How do the frequent screenings and performances in the gallery compliment the exhibited work and vice-versa?
Microscope Gallery: This is the core of what we do at Microscope so it should be a simple question, but it’s a little difficult to explain succinctly. We see the 2 programs as part of a
whole. We started Microscope to present the works of artists working with moving image (film, video, new media), sound and performance. To us this implied having both regular screenings and sound and other performances as well as exhibitions. While there often is a separation between the black box of the cinema/theater/music venue and the white box of the galleries, it’s usually an artificial one in that many of the works can be shown in either environment with different modalities. Also, many of the artists make installation works or work in other mediums. Theexhibits allow us to show the entirety of their artistic practice, for example we also showed photography and sound installation by Peggy Ahwesh, drawings by James Fotopoulos, light boxes by Joel Schelmowitz in addition to their moving image work.

SH: What is the function of Microscope Gallery within the avant-garde film/video community in NYC?
MG: Function? If we have one, perhaps it’s giving new and emerging artists a place to show their body of work, which is actually quite rare. We are constantly open to submissions to add to our programming. We also work to gain a wider audience for more established artists, to bring people in who have never heard of Anthology Film Archives and again to break down this separation between the so called film world and the art world. The distinction doesn’t make much sense to us.

For more about Microscope Gallery: microscopegallery.com

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