Q: If you could change your name, what would you change it to?
A: My name's Counsel Langley. I'll keep it.
Q: In what hour of the day do you function best?
A: The Eleventh. a.m., p.m. and the proverbial...
Q: What inspires your color choices?
A: Unnatural lighting, urban sunsets, asphalt and concrete grey juxtaposed with neon signs and garish advertisement, safety indicators, warnings, decay, shining steel and reflective windows, rock-n-roll, glaciers, liz taylor eyes, that bathing suit i had when i was 12, bardot hair, 70s auto interiors, james bond movies, inclement weather, japanese anime and japanese folk tale illustrations, our digital world of little blinking lights, pinball, roller rinks, casinos, outdoor stadium events at night . . . I enjoy and deliver beauty, but not easy beauty. My colors reflect this--I seek combinations that are unexpected, yet hold some sort of meaning to me. Through these imposed meanings I've developed a code with which I can tell a story. My colors choices reflect moods, atmosphere, and my own personal little rules about what a color "feels" like. Some are"on" others are "off," this one is "full" that one is "void," hot and cold, dirty and pristine, bossy and submissive, floating and dense . . .
Q: What is your favorite aroma?
A: Vanilla.
Q: If you could have lunch with any artist, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
A: Leonardo DaVinci. Hands down. I mean he is the man isn't he? He did it all and did it well. I love people who have many interests and skills--specialization is for insects; passionate curiosity is magnificent. No one epitomizes this type of life like DaVinci. My only concern is that he'd be one of those "We should get together sometime!" -but-always-just-too-much-on-his-plate-to-ever-pin-him-down-for-a-date-people. So, since Leonardo can't commit I'd go with Albrecht Durer. He is sheer brilliant talent in a meticulous way that appeals to me. Also, he's, like I am, a painter whose early training was in metalsmithing. Plus, I have this idea that he'd be real chatty.
Q: When you went to school you did mainly metalsmithing. How did you end up painting?
A: I was drawn to metalsmithing, and repelled from the painting department, because of the seriousness of the metals students. You can't bs your way through a metalsmithing curriculum. Also, I was attracted to the wealth of tools available to students of metals. Aspects of working with metal that I embraced include the attention to small-scale detail, the rigor required in terms of proper use of tools and respect for your medium, the rich finish of surfaces. However, as graduation approached I began to find that patterns and plans I was drawing for objects I would later build were more intriguing, more beautiful and mysterious to me than the completed 3d object. So, I began to paint the 2D plans and haven't looked back. The work I am doing now evolved directly from this.
Q: Do you have any plans/ideas about expressing your style through other mediums?
A: I'm so glad you asked! Yes! I am very excited about three things: 1) Going back to my metals/3D roots I want to begin creating relief works using various rigid materials, such as sheet and wire metal and foam core. The basic visual language will be the same as that I have been developing in paint, but the effect will be more sculptural. 2) One of my best friends, brilliant fashion designer Erin Sherry, and I have begun a collaboration. We are developing one-of-a-kind clothing and housewares based on my visual imagery and her clothing designs. The items we are creating include, but are not limited to dresses, pants, skirts, shirts, bags, bedding and throw pillows.
3) Electricity! Light and movement! I plan to create paintings using my existing visual language, but in place of painted dots there will be actual switches and knobs. These will be linked to lights and motors. The circuitry will be both functional and arranged so that it will be visual pleasing in the same way that I arrange paint.Q: What word in the English Language do you wish you had invented?
A: Serendipity.
Q: Do you generally plan out your works ahead of time or do you let them evolve organically as you work?
A: A little of both. Generally I'll have a mood, color pallette and subject matter in mind at the outset of a painting. Along the way I allow the unexpected to occur and make adjustments in reaction. Sometimes this can dramatically alter my intended course, other times the finished work is quite close to my original conception. You know, when you decide to climb a mountain the eventual goal is the top. You plan ahead, choosing the day, reacting to the weather, planning your ascent via a particular trail. However, it would be insane to plan each individual step of your foot, intake of breath, gaze at tree or beast. If you were not flexible and open to react to the unforeseen and make adjustments based on new information you would not only make for a dangerous hiker you'd also miss out on the major reason for embarking on the climb at all. When all is said and done you, like me and my paintings, might still make it to your intended goal of the summit despite all the meandering and unplanned details navigated along the way. Or you might be rained out, or come across a something so wonderful that the original plan no longer holds sway.
Q: What is your favorite flower?
A: The one which is given unexpectedly.
Q: What or who inspires you to be your best self in any situation?
A: I believe that there is always room for improvement and that it is honorable to be doing your best to be your best self, so the answer used to be myself, but now that I am a parent my kids motivate me far more than I was able to on my own.
Q: What affect has having children had on your art?
A: Having children was the final straw that moved me from cool chick talking art in the bar to someone who makes art every single day. They taught me the meaning of discipline and the value of five minutes. I have my family to thank for the progress I've made in the past few years.
Q: What do you miss about your childhood?
A: Magic.
Q: Are you ever influenced in your work by mythology or legend?
A: Hm. Yeah, i think I am, but it is buried pretty deep down. There's a part of me that wants to say 'we are all influenced by our myths and legends and this comes across in what we produce,' but to avoid a cop out I'll try to answer in terms of my work specifically. Looking at my general approach to making paintings I think my sense of story telling via metaphor and codes is a mode of communication absorbed from reading myths and folktales. I feel the desire to make my own. I have begun a series I'm calling Captivity/Captivate. This series is more openly inspired by myth. It is about mythical creatures and how they represent pieces of our psyches; our urge to examine and define The Other; why it both fascinates and frightens; how we cage and are caged by that which we deem to be oddities.
Q: What's the biggest mental hangup you've had to overcome as an artist?
A: That I need to live in a big city and have a cool hair cut to get my art seen.
Q: What do you listen to when you work?
A: MUSIC. I CAN NOT OVERSTATE THE IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC TO MY WORK, HELL TO THE CONTINUED PUMPING OF MY HEART. I am indebted to musicians. I consider the immediate emotional response that music produces to be among the essential tools that I employ to do what I do. Music aids my memory, my ability to focus, reminds of what I love best about being alive, and creates a direct route to my sense of self worth.
Q: What is the main fault in your character?
A: I take stuff too personally. (Sadly, this, in my view, breaks down into a whopping THREE faults: egocentricity, paranoia, and a tendency to get bummed out for no real reason.)
Q: When was it that you first realized that art was taking a hold of you in a way that you could no longer ignore?
A: Honestly that realization came somewhat recently, sometime in the past few years, long after art had already taken hold. Probably came during some quiet moment while the coffee was brewing, the weather was calm, and my mood was serene. The realization would have just floated up into view and poof there was awareness where a moment before there was none. I was already a ways down the road and chose not to turn back. I'm certain it was a supremely satisfying realization.
Q: What is the first quote that comes to your mind?
A: "Success is loving what you do." So says my coffee mug.
Q: Where and what do you see yourself doing 10 years from now?
A: Further along the same road. Painting and parenting . . . my kids will be older and my paintings will be better.
Q: Finish this sentence with one word: "Happiness is ......
A: Self-actualization.
Q: Are you happy?
A: Very.
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How this came about:
I wanted to try a new approach to the bio/artist statement. So, I asked friends and family for a question with the plan of answering with spontaneity and then putting it altogether in interview format. The volume responses made this very fun and challenging! Thanks to everyone who participated in my Randomly Generated Interview. Although, in order to avoid repetition and preserve a certain tone, I did not end up using all of them I appreciate all of your questions.
