Christian Vargas will be showing at the Iron Bird Cafe for the months of July and August. We extend our thanks to the cafe for having him and we look forward to hanging out with him for the months to come. Christian will be adding to his collage of drawings through out the two months for a "living installation" of sorts.
We want to also congratulate Christian on having the cover-art for the Undercurrent Magazine July issue.
Congrats Christian..... keep the Nihon spirit alive.
Here is the full uncut interview between Christian and Daniel Schultz at the artists studio that is partially up at the cafe.
Daniel Schultz: Tell me about the body of work you are currently engaged in.
Christian Vargas: I've been doing these portraits--family portraits, from time to time, trying to make my way through the entire family. For about a year now I've been pushing the boundaries of how dark I can get the backgrounds [of my work] without using any actual black; making dark portraits harsher with more dramatic light sources. And then in March, when I was approached to do the show at Iron Bird Cafe, I started doing not only portraits of my family, but also portraits of, say, a work mule, or ox, [as well as] these quilt patterns that carry over from the last show I had at Nihon [Gallery]. And then just random things, like family photos, a lot of pattern work, installation pieces, sculptures. A really important wall [of the Iron Bird show] will be all drawings. So it's kinda like a three part thing, with random things I found around my house that I was able to frame, that are significant to me, like the flyer from my first art show, or family photos.
DS: So we're looking at work that you've done, and then included with that some found objects that have influenced you in a sense? Or snapshots; pieces of your persona?
CV: Yeah, definitely. Some things are just found objects that I've discovered in the alleyway between here and Iron Bird. For instance, I guess someone was evicted from one of the hotels, and there were bags of clothes out there, and there was a quilt. [And I thought] someone made this, it is hand-sewn, someone spent some time on this, it by itself is art.
DS: Does this work connect with a lot of work you've done in the past? Would you say a major segment of your work has been in portraiture?
CV: I'd say the last two years I've been doing [primarily] portraits. Only now I'm starting to venture off. All the portraits are significant since it's all just family members; I hardly ever paint anyone that I don't know or isn't related to me. With this [Iron Bird] show I've ventured off into other things, but all of them still very personal.
DS: Do you see these portraits as testament to your relationships with these people in your family; does it reflect how you respond to these people?
CV: All the references for the portraits are from candid photographs, but I definitely respect those [whom] I paint. For sure I focus more on my dad and my grandpa, and I kinda feel that painting them is in a way just like painting a self-portrait. I always figured this body of work, more than anything else, is just the puzzle pieces of who I am.
DS: What has your family's response to... did you approach them and explain what it was that you were doing, and how did they respond to that?
CV: They definitely know I paint their portraits, and I show them the work when it's done, but I've never gone to them and just thrown it all on the table like this. They definitely think it's somewhat odd that I pick up these things from around the house, because a lot of it is just crap... just stuff we have laying around. [pointing to a handmade water jug] Like this thing, a water jug from Mexico. It's broken [and] worthless now, but I've kept it. It reminds me of living in Mexico.
DS: How long have you lived in Fresno?
CV: I was born here, and [then would move] back and forth [between Fresno and Mexico], we'd spend like half the year in Mexico, until I was about eight. Since then I've been here for pretty much the entire time, going back just every now and then.
DS: Would you say a fair amount of your family lives here, or in Mexico?
CV: Most of my family lives in Mexico, about ninety percent. My immediate family and some aunts and uncles live here.
DS: A lot of my work [as an artist], being a white male... I don't have a lot of cultural influence in my work, as a 3rd generation American. But for you, would you say [a cultural vein] influences your work, when you're painting these specific animals, or this iconography [that translates] even in these quilt pieces?
CV: Yeah, it has a huge influence. I'm 1st generation [American] but I also come from a family of farm laborers. So the mule, or the giant ox... it has everything to do with both my father and grandfather, aunts and uncles, who really had no choice growing up whether they could be anything... the necessity for them to work was so [great] just for them to survive. They never had a choice whether or not they could go to school, but they had to work. My dad is seventy, and still works in the fields. [pointing to a pile of bags] These bags will be a part of an installation piece; they are bags that farm laborers use to pick oranges. And were used last week. They're straight from the fields, my dad brought them home. Some of them are bags he's even used. Bags I've used, since growing up I'd get a little work [in the fields] so I could see how difficult it was for them to earn a living, to gain some respect instead of being an idiot and wasting my life away.
DS: Is all this work in response to the respect that you have for these family members?
CV: Definitely. They've lived difficult lives, working every day, waking up really early every day, working whether or not they were [healthy or] sick.
DS: Does that idea to create dark backgrounds without black stem from that concept of a difficult life, but never... well, black is very bleak. Hopeless. I don't see that as being your intention at all, in these portraits.
CV: I've been told a few times that I'm painting death. And I focus on both my dad and my grandfather, because they're both towards the ends of their lives, both older men with [their share of] health problems. I don't do it with the intention of painting them as dying. I do choose them because they have so much character in their faces; character that's built up with their age and their experiences. That's why I first started painting them. They've had interesting lives, plenty of wrinkles, sunspots, scars. The [dark] backgrounds came about because [at first] they were difficult to work with, but over time I've just used it with everything. For a long time I wanted to build these worlds behind the subjects [of my paintings], but recently became very comfortable with this background; like a dark room.
DS: Do you have a vision of where you want to go after this? Do you feel like you're nearing a completion of this process--?
CV: No, definitely not. I'd like to get to a point where I have a couple hundred pieces; portraits of animals, portraits of family, and then random stuff, creating this big installation. But I could work on this my entire life, just painting all these things. I'd like to do more sculpture work; I'd like to do bigger pieces, like the ox. I'd like to do a family portrait, actual size.
I go to family gatherings we have every Sunday and I'll shoot random photos of my family just sitting around, doing absolutely nothing--just bee-essing, you know, but that's the great stuff that you remember. That's what I'd like to paint.
A special thanks to Daniel for his extensive interview.
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