Coming up on February 3rd, we will open a new exhibition featuring three very talented female artists: Katharina Chapuis, Kenson, and Courtney J Garrett. This post will feature our "Q&A", UNDER THE SURFACE, with Courtney J. Garrett. We hope you will join us on Friday, Feb. 3rd from 6-9. All three ladies will be attending the opening.

Under The Surface

PFA: Tell us about your background. Where did you grow up? Your family?

I grew up in the heart of very rural Alabama. My sisters and I are about as close as sisters can get, and they having always been my number one fans. My mother was a tole painter and my father was a draftsman. I think of them often while working--- my mother painted on a lot of my clothes and my father worked an extra job drawing when I was born to pay the bills…I keep his drawing tools pinned up on the wall in my studio--- It reminds of their sacrifice and passion. Family now is growing and changing, I never dreamed that I would be married to someone who encouraged my passions so intensely. My husband, has rallied behind every move—and hand in hand we have walked through some great creative triumphs together.

PFA: How would you say our background influenced your career? And at what age did you become curious about art?

I was always making things for as long as I can remember. My favorite parts of the day were always the “free thinking” moments. I seemed to constantly excel is public speaking, writing, and the language arts. As for my background, it provided a visual basis for what I knew and what I visually could understand. I had very limited travel experience, and did not even board an airplane until my 21^st birthday…it was 2 seater prop plane flown by my husband. I believe from that point forward, I realized I was going to experience things much bigger than me. Years later, and with many world travels under my belt…I still look back at the south with much visual integrity. For some reason, I was born with the notion that there was a lot outside of my Alabama upbringing, but maintained the idea that what I had known was still precious. I remember in design school hearing of other countries and constantly being absorbed in books that expanded the horizon of what I knew. It was a gift, to walk down the streets of Paris and feel like I had been there a million times, but still be able to close my eyes and see white front porch swings and my great grandmother’s handmade tiny cotton dresses. I didn’t have a clue how to use a camera but something electric happened when you put it in my hand. My mother, my dad, and my sisters would take turns driving me around town so that I could photograph behind the glass of a moving car. It was the first time, Wal-Mart’s and strip malls didn’t make since to me anymore. I realized there was an incessant need to save the southern American landscape or at least document it as it dissolved. The day one of my favorite houses that I had photographed for years got bulldozed…I was so upset I called the fire department to make sure it would happen properly. If something as horrific as that, could happen properly. I was living out of state at the time and my parents drove to the demolition site with there own cameras and photographed the carnage. My sweet mother was literally climbing over piles of debris when she was kindly asked to leave. The firemen sat her and my dad artifacts to the side of the rubbish that they in turn brought home for me as keepsakes. I can’t describe what circles in my head when I discuss the visual imagery I absorbed as a child, but I can promise that my work is a conduit for it. I can’t escape the memories of my fathers old green truck and hanging my head out the window screaming in excitement for a truck ride to the car parts junkyard…or climbing on the back of the junkyard dog that lived there, and riding him around like a horse. You just can’t erase those things…and sometimes in attempt to “move up” in society, I think we do forget the most precious visuals we own.

PFA: What inspires you, and how do you stay inspired? How has this shaped your artistic philosophy?

Visually, I am intrigued by artifacts- I am constantly surrounding myself with natural curiosities…and it keeps me thinking… I get on kicks where I collect things and after a few months of carrying them around or staring at them long enough they become my work. I’m also music crazy—I don’t paint without music and certain compilations. Also, this past year I learned what the word “grace” actually means for me as a person. The forgiveness, love, and acceptance in this tiny little word has shifted my paradigm from simply emotional works to extravagant attempts at inspiring hope. This required more and more contemplation, research and study. How to evoke emotion was easy for me, but how to engage the most withdrawn individual with simple color and imagery took completely absorbing myself into the work.

PFA: What artist(s) has (have) had the biggest influence on your work?

Firstly and most passionately it would be Matisse… at 80 years of age feeble and bed ridden, he was still creating works of art from his bedside…they hung paper on the walls and he drew with charcoal attached to a pole. I knew I wanted to be that driven, and I knew my passions had to run that deep. My heart beat faster when I was a young painter and I read those words…something rose up in me to create at all times and to be completely involved with something that must come into existence.

Secondly, to Maya Lin, one of the most thought provoking artist and architects of our time. At age 21 she designed the Vietnam memorial and thousands upon thousands began to engage. She has the simple ability to create spaces and works of art that encounter the whole person, and the whole heart… I remember holding her book in my hands for the first time and contemplating it’s size and shape…she is constantly inviting the viewer to great moments of reflection. I have always been moved by her ability to anticipate the moment of encounter between art and observer—with that anticipation she creates successfully broad yet intimate works. Works that cause us to interact beyond our initial expectation.

Thirdly, to William Christenberry . Who made famous the Southern Landscape he grew up on… when I first picked up William Christenberry’s work I didn’t feel alone anymore. His passions for the rural south echoed my own, but with the maturity I desired.

PFA: What is your artistic philosophy?

Be honest, and unapologetic.

PFA: What do you need around you while you are working in the studio?

Food… and lots and lots of music, and my life sized (foam) horse gifted to me by my friend Todd Murphy.

Although, my contemporaries would argue that it’s my propane heater. I physically cannot work when it is cold. (and we do not have heat so this can often be a problem)…

PFA: What do you most enjoy doing while you are not painting?

I’m always painting. Really. I mean it.

PFA: What is your favorite traveling experience?

Paris. No need to elaborate.

PFA: If you weren't an artist, what would you be?

A contemporary dancer.

"Under the Surface with Elise Morris"

Under The Surface:

This month we are featuring the work of California Artist, Elise Morris. Read below to learn more about Elise and her inspirations.

PFA: Tell us about your background. Where did you grow up? Your family?

I grew up in Southern California with my parents and younger brother. We had a big backyard and my brother and I had a very funky tree house. We made a museum for rocks and mixed up ‘chemistry’ concoctions. Looking back we were very creative kids.

PFA: How would you say your background influenced your career? And at what age did you become curious about art?

I have always been artistic, especially as a young child. My mom was a wonderful seamstress and made all kinds of crafts. Making things with my hands was second nature. I started taking art classes outside of school when I was seven. Throughout school I had amazing art teachers who encouraged me every step of the way.

In college, I had to major in art in order to take art classes, so I ended up doing a double major with Environmental Studies. I had become very focused on environmental issues and felt that was going to be my career. My art major became more and more important to me, and I really grew artistically.

PFA: What inspires you, and how do you stay inspired? How has this shaped your artistic philosophy?

I am deeply inspired by color. Achieving certain color shades or intensities can really drive a painting. Currently I seem to be drawn to more subtle color shifts and reflections of light. I am also interested in the shapes found in nature, how they can be so unexpected. There is a lot of detail that is overlooked, and my goal is to really see my surroundings. Painting is a way of understanding something I have seen.

PFA: What artist(s) has (have) had the biggest influence on your work?

I have a vivid memory seeing work by Terry Winters at the Temporary Contempory in Los Angeles. I was a teenager at the time, and I remember being utterly disturbed and frightened by his large abstract paintings. The work was raw and immediate, and not at all about beauty. At the same time I was in love with paintings by Bonnard, and his gorgeous way with color and light. On another museum visit, I was blown away by the power of the sculptures by Martin Puryear. His oversized, elegant forms seemed to live and breathe. Seeing work in person has always been important, and I had been blessed as a young person to have that opportunity.

Last year I saw Squeak Carnwath give an artist’s talk at the Oakland Museum. Her studio is actually just several blocks from mine. She talks about being present in her work – even though my work is really different, I am very influenced by her approach. Similarly, I love reading Agnes Martin’s writings about her process.

PFA: What is your artistic philosophy?

My work is really about following intuition. I am very interested in process. I don’t sketch or otherwise prepare for a painting. I start with a pencil line drawing and build the surface in many, many layers.

PFA: What do you need around you while you are working in the studio?

I love my studio to be completely quiet, just the hum of the fan and once in a while the train in the distance. I find music distracting – I need to hear my own voice. I also need pads of paper, since I write myself lots of to do-lists as I paint. And right now in winter, large mugs of green tea and my radiator heater!

PFA: What do you most enjoy doing while you are not painting?

My focus right now is on my son. On the weekends we take long outings at parks, doing errands, or going to the zoo. He’s three so everything is fun! I bring along my camera and loads of snacks and we spend the whole morning together. Then we head back for naptime. I have just started taking him to museums and also on short hikes. He has a wonderful ability to see the smallest detail, which I am learning to do myself.

PFA: What is your favorite traveling experience?

One summer in college, I met my friend, Anne, in Oxford where she was studying abroad, and we traveled to Italy. We only took backpacks and bought a guidebook on the way. I had a list written by an art professor of must see paintings, mostly in small town churches. It was an amazing way to see the country.

More recently I spent two weeks in the Bitterroot Valley in Montana with my family. We stayed in a house right on a river. We saw so much wildlife, including a moose and her calf. We explored the whole area, and my son became quite the little hiker.

PFA: If you weren't an artist, what would you be?

A zookeeper! I love to be around animals, they are so instinctual. As a teenager I worked for a woman who cared for exotic animals who were being rehabilitated. I experienced some pretty unbelievable things, between getting kicked by an ostrich and raising a baby raccoon. That experience had a profound impact on me and I will forever be an animal lover. For the time being, my son and I frequent the zoo and marvel at all the creatures together

During the month of January, we will feature new work by California artists Ursula O'Farrell and Elise Morris.

Ursula's dramatic figurative work, done in the abstract expressionist style, is soulful and sensual. As the artist says, "I think we work too much in our minds, trusting science over our emotional intelligence. In effect, I think we turn our backs on the abundance available to us if we just learn to listen to whatever we call that voice of our soul".

Elise Morris paints abstracted florals that are beautifully colored, and are inspired by nature's beauty.

We hope you will come by during the month and see this wonderful body of work.