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PAINTED LADIES LOCAL
FP: Do you listen to music when you
paint?
JH: Always. I type in "metal" into iTunes
and let it run a playlist. I don't have to
skip songs, even if it's a band I don't really
love. It's high-energy music. When I have
a happy moment while painting, an excla
mation moment, it's always heightened by
the music. I'm totally painting to double-
kickdrum metal!
Originally from Cordele, GA, Jeremy Hughes moved to
Athens to study painting at the*Lamar Dodd School of Art.
After a teaching gig at SUNY Oswego and a move to Nashville,
he returned to Athens and the LDSOA. where he will be teach
ing drawing and painting this fall. Hughes is a prolific painter
who has focused on re-interpreting images from films (often
Hitchcock) and advertisements, a practice that questions
notions of authorship and originality. His current project
takes the paintings of late-19th-century artist John Singer
Sargent as its inspiration. Hughes saw Sargent's portraits at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art a couple of years ago and
was floored by the "effortlessness" of his brushstrokes, but. of
course, creating the appearance of effortlessness takes a lot
of practice. What started as an academic exercise in copying
Sargent's paintings has turned into something else.
Jeremy Hughes: My living room is my studio, so art is inte
grated into my life. My painting is always visible to me. Every
morning when I head to the bathroom for a shower to wake
up, my painting is the first thing I see when I walk out of the
door. The painting I'm working on is the first thing I look at.
I've had studios outside my living space before, but that's too
much like going to a job. Painting should be more like play
than work; it should be fun!
FP: Appropriation is a part of your work. What do you take
from your environment that shows up in your pictures?
JH: The people around me. The availability of people in this
town—the personalities and artists—that is why I moved back
to it. If Atlanta is the NYC of the South, then Athens is the
Brooklyn. People are approachable here. I can ask local icons
to be [in my paintings] and they will do it.
People are ready to participate. It's a play
date; it's dress-up; it's community service.
One of Hughes’ paintings inspired by John Singer Sargenl.
Hughes works with local artists to decide which of Sargent's
models they should stand in for. His subjects, all women,
sometimes choose portraits of women and sometimes men.
With the models dressing the part to pose for photographs,
these pictures are the source material from which Hughes
makes the paintings. This collaborative process is integral to
the creation of the work. Just as his subjects are reprising
the role of Gilded Age debutantes or captains of industry, so
is Hughes using Sargent as a mask to gain the sense of free
dom and "effortlessness" he saw at the Met. Now, at almost
mid-point in the series, I see something changing as his own
self-assuredness develops. Hughes plans to take a few steps
into, as he says, "dangerous waters" with his next paintings in
the series to imbue the artwork with a little more of his (and
his subjects') own lives. Sargent said that a portrait is a paint
ing where there is a little something wrong with the mouth;
Hughes' newest artwork just might get more "right" the more
he gets "wrong" with Sargent. We spoke at his home in Athens,
where he also keeps his studio.
Flagpole: Can you think for a minute about which object in
your studio reveals the most about the relationship between life
and your art-making?
FP: Try to explain what it is like for you
to make art.
JH: I really love starting. I get very
anxious, conscious about finishing. I start
fast and paint fast for two or three days and
then I slow down for a week. Then I fin
ish in a day. It is like reading a really good
book that you don't want to finish. I paint
out of joy and love. I want to paint what I
love. When I am painting people, they don't
need to be photorealistic; they just need
to be real, like themselves. When I start
a painting. I think about specific areas in
[the composition] that need addressing. I
may make a drink and drink half and then
walk away, then I turn on the music and
walk away from everything else.
FP: What is your next project? What is
most on your mind right now?
JH: My show in Belgium just got pushed
back another year due to lack of funding. I
am disappointed about that but also a little
relieved that I don't have to cough up the
money for shipping. This [Sargent] series is
not even halfway done. I've never felt this
kind of longevity in my work—ever—and it's definitely attrib
utable to the people I am working with. I feel pretty limitless.
Gel a sneak peek of Hughes’ new Sargent series and other works at
his website: www ieremyhughesart.com/mam.php.
On Exhibition Now: Maxine Youngblood began painting ab-ut
20 years ago at age 52, immersing herself in the study of
art history and painting technique while seeking out the art
scene both here (as an MFA student) and in NYC. Upon see
ing her works—most are on view for the first time in Athens
at ATHICA—it is obvious that she is an ardent painter who
wields color and brush with boldness and confidence. While
some paintings appear to have a little Van Gogh, others are
reminiscent of Ensor or de Kooning. Her expressionistic paint
ings blend these historical citations with a representation of
contemporary subjects from Elvis and Madonna to a portrait of
O.J. Simpson's mother at his trial. Meet the artist in person at
the July 9 reception from 7-9 p.m. or at the exhibition "Walk
and Talk" on July 14 at 7 p.m. Youngblood's paintings will be
on display at ATHICA through July 24.
Caroline Barratt arls@flagpole com
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