Artist Spotlight: James Parker Foley

Image courtesy of Lissy Thomas Photography

Last year, we had the pleasure of meeting artist James Parker Foley through their involvement in our annual Fresh Faces exhibition. In March of 2022 we debuted their work in person in Layered Truths, a three-person exhibition centering on portraiture and the process of painting. We recently sat down with James to discuss more about the symbolism in their work and their history as an artist.

Abigail Ogilvy: How did you decide to become an artist?
James Parker Foley: I’ve always been a painter, but I didn’t realize how rich the world of painting really was until I went back to school. Once I started my MFA program and grew accustomed to focusing full-time on my practice, I realized there was just no other option for me. I wasn’t willing to give up the time I dedicated to my practice in grad school. I just loved it too much to stop.

AO: Your style of painting revolves heavily around portraiture, but you also have this incredible process of building worlds within your paintings. What drew you to incorporating this in your practice?
JPF: I do a lot of plein air painting and drawing. The work I’m doing now, and the work in Layered Truths, was created by introducing figuration into that practice of landscape.

For me it’s important to be genuinely committed to exploring what is possible in every painting; to allow each one to be their own world. It feels unfair to get to a certain point in a painting and then try to make it “go with” my other ones. I don’t think you can really get anywhere in your work by trying to intentionally make them all the same. I think that just makes a product. But painting is about discovery, and pursuing that discovery, without obligation to your own past.

AO: Could you speak a bit more about your choice to leave the faces of your figures blank?
JPF: I’m not really worried about the details.

AO: What is your favorite color right now, and why?
JPF: I’m in a good place with green. I struggled for a long time to find greens that worked for me, and to figure out how to use them. I recently found a phthalo green that really works for me, and two different permanent greens that I like. I’m using dark phthalo greens as water in some works, and they’re deep and cool, but more distant and less friendly than a color like ultramarine. I like the mystery.

James Parker Foley, Night Feeding, 2021. Oil on canvas. 42 x 46 in.

AO: Many of your paintings feature figures with purses that often become a focal point in the piece. Could you take us through the meaning behind these bags?
JPF: The work is, in some ways, about my own experiences as a woman. I use gender-coding signifiers with my figures—hats, long hair, coats, shoes, purses—to let you know how the figures are operating and, sometimes, who has power in the composition. I’m not painting women, I’m painting bodies dressed up like women.

So; the purses. A lot of my figures are busy ladies who have things to do and places to go. It’s a no-brainer, they need their purse. They have kids or errands or they just need somewhere to store their tampons. We just have so much to do, and I don’t want anyone to forget that.

AO: What brought you to painting as a medium?
JPF: I’ve always painted, since I was very young. I don’t remember a time before painting.

Painting is one of the most basic forms of human culture. As a species, we’ve been painting for at least a hundred thousand years. Painting connects me not just to art history, but to our shared human history. It’s embedded in who we are. I think people respond to painting because it is so deeply human.

Installation view of James Parker Foley’s paintings on view in Layered Truths, March 2 - April 17, 2022

AO: Where do you draw the most inspiration for your paintings?
JPF: Wes Craven—the horror director famous for the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.

My work is about formal possibilities of a body within a picture plane—and I think his films are as well. The body is a compositional element. When the body—and what might visually happen to it—is the driver of the work, you have a completely different way of making. My paintings are—first and foremost—formal propositions, and the magic happens when the formal begets narrative. It’s about creativity unbridled to rules or expectations, about saying, “how cool would it be to try to put a body on the ceiling? to suspend a person in the air?” and in painting and film, you get to do that. And the meaning comes after.

AO: What was the most helpful piece of advice you have gotten in your life or your career?
JPF: “Don’t have a plan B.”

Artist Spotlight: Susan Murie

Susan Murie in her home studio. Image courtesy of the artist.

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is proud to showcase the work of Susan Murie, a local, contemporary artist working primarily with cyanotypes. We recently had a great conversation with Murie about her artwork, her influences and inspiration, and the incorporation of botanical topics and processes in her work.

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery (AOG): First, can you briefly describe the process of cyanotypes?

Susan Murie (SM): Cyanotype is a photographic process invented by astronomer, Sir John Herschel in 1842. It is also known as blueprint. It uses light-sensitive iron salts produced by brushing solutions of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide onto a porous surface, such as paper, dried in the dark. The solution is UV light sensitive and exposure of the image is done with sunlight or other UV light sources. I select fine art papers and coat them with the solution and use the sun for exposure. After exposure the print is washed in water to clear away any remaining solution and then hung to dry.

AOG: What drew you to cyanotypes as a medium?

SM: I’ve been working with photography since college in various forms though the years - black and white, hand colored and large, abstract color prints and artist’s books. About 12 years ago I read an article in a cooking magazine about a small restaurant in Georgia that featured a whole wall of botanical cyanotypes by photographer Rinne Allen. In that moment I knew I wanted to explore the medium. And I did! It continues to fascinate me.

Susan Murie, “Ancestral Map 2,” Cyanotype on paper, 45 x 30 in., $2500

AOG:  In your statement, you note the uncertainty of the outcome with this medium. Was this something you were able to quickly embrace, or was it more of a learned process to work with this uncertainty?

SM: In the beginning, as I was learning how to make cyanotypes, I wanted to master the process. I made many, many prints using pre-coated paper, later switching to coating my own paper. Once I understood how it worked, I learned to welcome and work with the unpredictable nature of the medium. I’ve come to understand that the uncertainty works well with the theme of ephemera in my work. Seasons, paper, wind, clouds can all have an impact on the resulting prints.

AOG: How has your vision and process changed over time? Was there a pivotal moment for you?

SM: Yes, there was a distinct time when my work shifted. Until a few years ago, I was making work with actual plants and objects applied right to the paper and exposed in the sun. I began to want to make larger prints and have objects out of scale. I literally woke up one morning and decided, from that point on, I would photograph all my subjects and print from negatives. I knew I could produce large negatives and play with scale and most importantly, lighting, to apply more focus in my work. It also enabled me to work much larger which changed how I work and the dynamic of my finished pieces.

AOG: What are the similarities you’ve found between working as a gardener and as an artist?

SM: Both are creative mediums but also take a lot of hard work, including physical, that the casual viewer may not fully realize. For my work with cyanotypes, the obvious connections to gardening are the use of sunlight and water.

AOG: Do you have any advice for artists who work botanically in terms of how they can allow it to inform their artistic practice?

SM: Get out in wild nature as much as you can. It is a very different thing to flowers in a vase.

AOG:  Who are your mentors in the arts, and how have they shaped the way you approach your work?

Susan Murie, Aurelia. Cyanotypes on gampi paper assembled on Japanese metallic paper. 31 x 21 in.

SM: I was fortunate to be selected to be an artist in the the Community Supported Art initiative in Cambridge, MA. This unique program gave us a grant to produce multiples which would be sold in the form of an art share, much like a farm CSA. We were also given professional seminars to help us with the business and development side of being an artist. The program provided opportunities to exhibit and talk about our work with the public. There was also that community, again, which I loved. All the artists in our cohort are inspiring to me and I love to continue to stay in touch and see what they are making. Through the program local arts administrators became mentors and their hard work provided valuable opportunities for growth. This program really mattered to me and the work I am making now. We need that kind of support!

AOG: How long have you been an artist, and what were your earlier inspirations or influences that led you to become an artist?

SM: Like many artists I would say “all my life”! The desire to make art and also be with other artists just started at a young age and never stopped. When I was in elementary school my absolute favorite thing to do was make art in the summer with friends at our picnic table. I distinctly remember that I wanted that to never end. When I got older I found a group of artists working together in high school in the form of theater and that was my thing for many years. I picked up photography in high school as well and when I got to college, discovered there was darkroom in the basement of my dorm. A friend showed me how to make prints and that was the beginning. I also took drawing, sculpture and art history outside of the demanding course work and schedule of a theater major. I was drawn to visual art but didn’t know yet how that would manifest for me. I eventually left theater and went into filmmaking and video, all the while still making photographs. Lots of transitions, always making, seeking company with other artists and now here I am. I have been and am inspired by fellow artists in many mediums. I love live theater, dance and music. I go to see as much art as I can and be open to new ideas, media and points of view.

Susan Murie, Downrush. Cyanotype on paper with colored pencil. 30 x 22 in.

AOG: Any advice for the next generation of artists?

SM: Seek out the community and companionship of other artists where you can be accepted for who you are and what you do. Know that your value to your community and society at large is real. It can be a struggle here in the US where “productivity” is all. Taking time to reflect, read, engage in conversation are all of value. Let yourself partake in slow life. Be curious.

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Visit Susan Murie’s artist page for images and available artwork: https://www.abigailogilvy.com/susan-murie

Artist Spotlight: Katelyn Ledford

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery is proud to bring Katelyn Ledford’s hyperrealistic, deconstructed paintings to Spring/Break Art Show this March. Ledford’s artwork contemplates the ways digital technologies dominate our contemporary image-making, especially portraits. She seeks a mode of painting that can slow down the viewers and make them consider our image-saturated, online-obsessed, contemporary reality within the framework of portraiture. Recently, we had the pleasure to engage with Ledford in a conversation about her process of art-making, the pervasiveness of social media, and her candid advice to emerging artists.

Abigail Ogilvy Gallery (AOG): When did you first discover the arts, and why did you decide to pursue it?

Katelyn Ledford (KL): I grew up in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama where there was just about nothing going on by way of contemporary art, so I was truly ignorant about the arts besides the highlights in art history. I’ve been practicing Photorealism since I was a kid, but I didn’t start learning about contemporary art until I was in undergrad, and even that was extremely limited. I learned the most through the internet, artist friends, and mentors about what it means to be an artist and find your individual practice in the 21st century.

Compare/Despair, 2019. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30 in.

I don’t have a clear moment when I decided to pursue it as a career because art-making has always been a part of me. It’s what I did for fun as a kid despite not knowing people could make careers out of making art and what that even looked like. I definitely became more serious about it while studying fine arts in undergrad and realizing the hustle it takes to make it a career.

AOG: What does your creative process look like? Do you have any routines or rituals?

KL: I’m an image collector— screenshots from my phone, random Google searches, photos of TV shows, anything that gives me a gut feeling. Sometimes I’ll see an image and the narrative immediately jumps into my head, while others are a slow boil to figure out how they can create a dialogue with other images. I’ll create multiple rough sketches in Photoshop using a few of the images, which typically include female figures. Every sketch and idea ends up becoming a portrait, even if it is completely de-constructed. The sketches are just the groundwork though as they change quite a bit once it’s roughed out on the canvas since I work in many layers. My paintings can be labor intensive, which means I’m looking at them a lot. Because of this, I go through phases of being frustrated with the image dialogue and as a result, I end up altering, modifying, and destroying parts. The fun usually happens then when I feel the need to squeeze paint from the tube directly on the canvas or use a quick slash of paint on top of a meticulously painted area. 

AOG: Much of your work speaks to digital technologies and social media. How do you, as an artist, feel about social media? How has it affected your creative process?

KL: As an artist, I love social media. As a female, I hate it. As an everyday person, I hate it. All of these mixed emotions play into the narratives and dialogues within my paintings. Digital technologies are undeniably a part of the average life; therefore, they inextricably influence how I make and see paintings. 

Katelyn Ledford in her studio. Image courtesy of the artist.

AOG: What is your favorite reaction when someone sees your work? How do these reactions influence your work, if at all?

KL: Any reaction is a favorite reaction to me. Indifference, a lack of reaction, means nothing sparked any feeling in the viewer. I want viewers to be able to feel something visceral, have a moment, gain a unique experience­— no matter how that manifests itself in the spectrum of reactions. 

AOG: What advice would you give to a young artist who wants to follow in your footsteps?

KL: Build your community and hustle 24/7. The art world can be unruly and untamed, so having a community to support you and share information with is priceless. From art-making habits while you’re young and/or still in the safety-net of academia because once you’re out, everything will try to get in your way of art-making and distract you. Also, find peers and mentors whose opinions and advice you value and listen to their words while ignoring the toxic voices of others. 

For more Katelyn Ledford’s works, visit Spring / Break Art Show 2020 from March 3 - 9, 2020
625 Madison Avenue, New York, NY

Artist Spotlight: Daisy St. Sauveur

One of our favorite things about contemporary art is getting to know the artist behind the work. While the work itself tells a story, the artist’s background further paints the picture of where they came from and how they got to where they are today. We sat down with our artist Daisy St. Sauveur to learn everything about her - from growing up in New England to navigating her artistic career:

Abigail Ogilvy: Tell us a little more about your background.

Daisy St. Sauveur: I grew up in Cohasset, Massachusetts- it's a tiny ocean town in the South Shore. My mom is a graphic designer/painter, and my dad works in music. I knew I wanted to be an artist my whole life, but until 2015 I thought I would study illustration (I was obsessed with anime and cartoons growing up!). I ended up declaring as a printmaking major at MassArt and I've been studying it ever since.  

AO: So what was your initial spark to be an artist?  

DSTS: Since my mom is an artist, I was lucky enough to be introduced to art at a very young age. We would see all kinds of artists- from Miyazaki to Thiebaud- I was introduced to many different styles at a young age. Making art was the one thing I could focus on when I was growing up (I probably went through five sketchbooks a year!). There was definitely a period of time in middle school when I was fascinated with anime, and I think that interest inspired a lot of the shapes and colors I currently use.

AO: How did you choose your medium? 

DSTS: While I was a freshman at MassArt, I wandered into a student printmaking show one rainy morning. The work was so fresh and interesting, it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Being the impulsive person I am, I decided on the spot that I would study printmaking instead of illustration. Print allows me to work in a layered, collage-like way, and I can easily make variables and play with the piece until I'm satisfied. 

I've also started painting a lot more- primarily acrylic. Painting has taught me patience, I can't be as impulsive with it, but I've learned a lot about creating unique shapes and spaces.

AO: What is your creative process like? When you begin a new work do you have a vision of the end result?  

DSTS: I always have a vague idea of what I want a piece to look like but I never know for sure. I'll start with a sketch and then realize 'You know what? I'm bored I'm gonna scribble on this.' Or I'll cut it up, collage it, paint over it, etc. I love to push my artwork as far as I can. I try to make things as chaotic as possible while staying along the lines of the original composition. Whenever I mess up, I'll paint a big square or scribble over it- kind of like white out. I always like the pieces I "mess up" better than the ones that go exactly as planned.

AO: We love that organic chaos in your work! With that in mind, what themes do you pursue? 

DSTS: Recently I've been interested in branding and advertising. The idea of interruption seems to be a common theme in my work lately. I love working with pop culture, social media, and the visual relationship between architectural and organic forms. As a young artist, my experience is a little different from those who grew up in the 90s. The 2000s fascinate me, and I take a lot of my subjects from that era.  

AO: What are you currently working on?  

DSTS: Right now I'm working on a series of screenprints that have advertisement-like interruptions. One of the pieces I'm most excited about features a pink and yellow jungle-like pattern with a vintage Sandals Resort ad in the middle of it. I really want to explore that frustrating feeling of interruption and obstruction. I'm constantly being bombarded by commercials- from Youtube and Instagram to the radio, billboards, or even airplanes. What would it be like if fine art had advertisements too?

AO: Are there any artists that inform your work?

DSTS: There are so many artists I love, but my favorites are Jonathan Lasker, Henri Matisse, Nona Hershey, Cy Twombly, Takashi Murakami, Ricardo Bofill, David LaChapelle, and Leroy Neiman.

Check out Daisy St. Sauveur’s work at Abigail Ogilvy Gallery on view through June 16, 2019!

Daisy St. Sauveur, Side C, Etching with screenprint, 22 x 18 in. (framed), 2018

Daisy St. Sauveur, Side B, Etching, 22 x 18 in. (framed), 2018