Q&A w/ Van Hanos

Briefly describe the work you do:

I make paintings. Oil on linen. Honestly, now that I’m in the crunch of a deadline and painting so many hours a day, it reminds me the work is so many other things besides painting. There’s admin, prep, etc, but I think it’s mostly thinking, looking, researching, thinking of images, relevance of objects, the point of doing it, and by extension the point of anything.

Tell us about your background and how that has had an influence on your work and on you as an artist:

My parents were musicians, my father was an exceptional guitar player, we grew up in that scene. I remember parties, lots of activity, visual stimuli. My godmother’s husband Wayne Turback owned a bar everyone gathered in, he’s a painter and sculptor, he was a huge influence, and in churches, and in grafiti. Primary school didn’t have art classes, but I was obsessed as a young person. So it was more of a hunt for it, comics, cartoons, tv commercials, advertising, whatever. Growing up in that way, it was a beautiful thing, my impression was being with friends is best parts of life, art, music, or whatever creative thing was the catalyst to share and gather around. It seemed to me the root was art, a good life would follow. -- It’s irronic that I make paintings, a solitary act to produce that.

The concept of the artist studio has a broad range of meanings in contemporary practice. Artists may spend much of their time in the actual studio, or they may spend very little time in it. Tell us about your individual studio practice and how it differs from or is the same as traditional notions of “being in the studio.”:

I have a traditional studio practice, as I mentioned, the work is often other things. In that way I feel it’s a balance. A body needs to eat in order to shit, if that output is the work, the food is information. That amounts to a healthy practice, but moreso I’m interested in the fact that - one the of only stregths art still has is its symbolic value as a model. So I spend a good amount of time in the ethics of labor, and try to have everything tuned to that note. In that way I could say there are elements in line with what an post-studio artist might be concerned with, but I also have the root, which is painting, which is a very strange and interesting activity, it can be utilized in infinite ways. Its really about ways of thinking, not ways of painting, or image production. That part is exciting to me, and seemingly never something one could arrive at.

What roles do you find yourself playing that you may not have envisioned yourself in when you first started making art?

The whole professional side of things, I really didn’t know or think about that at all, I have an understanding of the business of art, the subtleties, how radically different it is from standard business, but knowing all that still doesn’t make it any easier to do.

When do you find is the best time to make art? Do you set aside a specific time everyday or do you have to work whenever time allows?

Honestly I set aside all hours, of course, I live life, but everything moves around deadlines. I’ve found that I will think thruough a image for sometimes years without acting unless there’s a deadline. Then I feel I can comment on my current attitude on the subject, while saving that thought for future consideration. I like to allow it to dictate how I live, where I live, etc. That said, it’s best to follow brain activities, morning is best for decisions, prep, busy work, chores, and/or something I’m excited about. Afternoon is good for the chunk of getting deep into something, or socializing, or admin, evening is best for details, curve balls, u-turns.

How has your work changed in the past five years? How is it the same?

It’s the same in that I’ve been trying to keep doing what I always have been, while constantly trying to get somewhere new. I guess its different in the same way.

How have people such as family, friends, writers, philosophers, other artists or even pop icons had an impact on the work you do?

Endlessly, my first show (still an unfinished project) was a series of gifts for friends and family that have influenced or otherwise helped me to where I am. I feel like I have a good lense to see through, the rest is the world around and those who fill it.

Have you ever been pulled in the direction of a pursuit other than being an artist? What are your other interests?

Yes, mostly because of money or other life things that needed more attention. I wasn’t happy about any of that. I’ve made music, which I thought at one point I might have taken more seriously. I love building, I love spaces, figuring out where things go. Nature, animals and people - once met outside of the usual social constraints. I’ve considered jobs that fulfilled that, but haven’t done them. I guess they’re hobbies.

Are your works autobiographical in any way?

Yes, everything is, right? But not in overt way, I think I may be the only one who knows how they are. It’s not important that any of that reads, its just a place to work from.

What importance do you give the story in your paintings?

That’s a tough one, I don’t see them as narrative in a pictorial way, they have narratives, like rumors do. Or is about the subtle things around them, or how they were made, but again, I don’t think it’s important that these things are legible. In a way I’d like them not to make linear sense, to balance non-conceptual thought, a kind of factual practicality, and tap into something phenomenological. I know that needs to be unpacked, but it’s at the core of something that I feel is unique to painting. As it is essentially a pre-lingual activity that has been conditioned to condense language to it’s most efficient means.

Van's work will be on display at the closing reception for the Rowhouse Project on Sunday, February 28 from 6 - 9 pm. 2640 Huntingdon Ave, Baltimore, Maryland.

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