Interview with Michael A. Rippens
5:20pmByron
So do you have a web site that we can look at?
What’s the url?
5:21pmMichael
yeah: www.rippens.com
5:21pmByron
Okay. have you changed it recently?
It seems different.
The big landing page.
I don’t remember that.
5:22pmMichael
I just put up the big cardboard piece from Fountain
The opening page is a “mural” I made for a disability Center in Long Island
5:22pmByron
It’s interesting. I don’t remember it from before.
5:22pmMichael
Its made of cut plastic and is called “forward motion”
5:23pmByron
Would you like to talk about it.
5:23pmMichael
Umm 2001 maybe
5:23pmByron
Okay. there you go.
5:23pmMichael
the info is in the murals section of the website
5:23pmByron
Have you been using cut plastic for some time.
Seems so.
5:23pmMichael
I began using it my sr. yr @ Pratt
5:23pmByron
What year was that. 2000?
5:24pmMichael
It was a progression of materials from paint to cut paper to cut cardboard to cut wood then the plastic stuff
yeah 99-2000
the plastic was so much easier to work with and big and fast
5:24pmByron
Roger that. I’m wondering what pushed you toward that medium?
Gotcha.
So your work is all drawn basically with an exacto correct?
5:25pmMichael
I could make a 30 ft piece in the time it took me to make an 8ft one
out of wood, that is
Ummm Utility knife
It begins with photos of course
5:25pmByron
What do you think the medium of cut plastic says about you as a person or is there anything there. Because to me that would be very difficult and taxing.
They are beautiful by the way. I’m just wondering what pulled you toward it. Just that it was easier than cutting wood?
5:26pmMichael
Well, I don’t like being tied to materials that are traditionally intended for making Art
5:26pmByron
Why did you go from painting to cutting?
Did you feel painting was limiting?
5:27pmMichael
I began making paintings that tried to be cutout images. I was really fighting w/ the media and decided I was only using paint cuz I wanted to be a “painter”
5:27pmByron
So what do you call yourself now?
A cutter?
I guess you are over labels by now.
Titles.
5:28pmMichael
Then I’m like “screw that” and I put tracing paper over one of my oil paintings and transferred it to black matte board and “cut out” my painting. It was a liberating breakthrough
5:28pmByron
I would call you a human since I have met you in person and you seemed so personable.
5:29pmMichael
I still call my works Paintings
5:29pmByron
Why is that? Because they are the traditional subtraction and addition?
5:29pmMichael
I never thought it was strange. Like how light artists might refer to their work as sculptures.
5:29pmByron
Image making.
5:30pmMichael
Then everyone asked me what these things are (my plexi or vinyl sticker pieces or tape pieces)
5:30pmByron
Are they not more drawings than paintings. And an important question, to me with image making, isn’t it all drawing?
5:30pmMichael
No one else likes calling them paintings
Umm I’m a few questions back- hold on
5:30pmByron
Sorry. I get excited.
5:31pmMichael
I don’t really see them as drawings. I make my drawings on the computer now.
They are the result of the drawings
Am I caught up?
5:32pmByron
So if you take something and make it more it becomes a painting?
So drawings to you are studies kind of?
5:33pmMichael
Not just that. I consider the way I work with different media as “painting” with whatever it is I’m using
5:33pmByron
So working with video is painting also to you?
5:33pmMichael
Drawings are the plan for the paintings – I never really show anyone my drawings. I guess I’m not really a drawer
No, although editing seems similar
5:34pmByron
Editing video to you seems like painting?
So if that’s the case, what would you say about performance art or installation art?
5:34pmMichael
I’m not really a video artist, but I love to dabble superficially in all media
I guess they all kinda come from the same place – the place where you make creative decisions
5:35pmByron
Gotcha. Thanks. Let’s go on if you don’t mind.
5:35pmMichael
Then they become their own thing
ok
5:35pmByron
So you were at Pratt for you B.F.A. or otherwise.
5:35pmMichael
BFA
5:35pmByron
In painting?
5:35pmMichael
yup
and screwing around
5:35pmByron
And then you stuck around Brooklyn for a bit?
5:36pmMichael
4+ years
I worked for a non-prof art ed org
5:36pmByron
And you met the Openground folks around and about.
5:36pmMichael
and made and showed work
through a friend at Studio in a School (where I worked)
5:36pmByron
Were you showing with them or elsewhere.
5:37pmMichael
I joined up for their last season, I think
5:37pmByron
When did you leave Brooklyn?
5:37pmMichael
Before they gave up the space in b-burg
In 2005
5:37pmByron
Gotcha.
5:37pmMichael
then took an extended art vaca. to do residencies and shows
5:37pmByron
Then you moved back home or is LA a new frontier?
5:38pmMichael
LA is and was home
5:38pmByron
How is it treating you?
5:38pmMichael
Love the weather!
5:38pmByron
Are you glad you are back home?
Are you staying in LA or do you still have wanderlust?
5:38pmMichael
The quality of life is much better that brooklyn cuz I was poor all the time and trying to do way too much.
In LA you take it easy and enjoy nature and stuff more
I get antsy and want to move on every 4 yrs or so.
5:39pmByron
How is the LA art scene?
Have you showed there lately?
5:40pmMichael
I might do the bay area next, but I always fantasize about moving back to NYC – even though I loved and hated it
I had a solo show in Echo Park last year
5:40pmByron
I hear you. I’m having the same fantasies.
Ever think about Seattle or Portland?
5:40pmMichael
The art scene is much smaller and less mature than NYC, but growing in an exciting way
5:40pmByron
In LA?
Really.
5:41pmMichael
Ummm I’m afraid of cold, but would love to check those places out. I’ve never even been!
5:41pmByron
Yeah it’s cold. Blizzard weather. Have friends up there. I’m in Florida.
So Michael, what are you working on now.
5:42pmMichael
Yeah, many young artists and galleries in LA which often makes for less mature work, but also allows for a lot of freedom and experimentation
5:42pmByron
Is there a lot of the low brow scene there?
Seems to be low brow heaven.
5:42pmMichael
I’m working on a commission right now, but as soon as that’s done I’m gonna finish up a triptych called Heaven is a place online
Yeah! especially downtown where I live!
5:43pmByron
How has your work been received in low brow heaven?
5:43pmMichael
I’ve also been doing more of those masking tape paintings
I don’t show around here much (or at all)
5:43pmByron
Do you currently have a day job?
5:44pmMichael
I love to look at everyone elses stuff tho
Yeah I work with my fam biz, a big reason I’m stuck in LA
5:44pmByron
I don’t care one way or another. I mean I hope you can pay for your rent.
5:44pmMichael
I pay it
5:45pmByron
But some folks love the whole romance of someone being a full-time artist although I’m learning all full-time artists I know have money coming in from somewhere else.
5:45pmMichael
I love that idea, too
5:45pmByron
Isn’t it grand?
5:45pmMichael
Most artists are still full time artists, even though they have a day job
5:45pmByron
What did you think of Art Basel?
I hear you on that. I agree 100 percent.
5:46pmMichael
I’m always thinking about my art and bemoning the fact that I’m not workinf on it due to a day job.
5:46pmByron
Our minds are always somewhere else aren’t they it seems.
My studio is in my head.
Cheap rent.
Bemoning the fact. Ha….
5:47pmByron
I’m enjoying your piece we swapped on in Miami. It’s under our stairs.
I’ll send a pic soon.
Let me ask you one more serious question.
5:48pmMichael
ok
don’t expect a serious answer tho
5:48pmByron
Do you have any words of advice for young artists who are interested in pursuing a life in the arts.
5:49pmMichael
work work work
and then go to med school
5:49pmByron
Good one.
Okay man. Nice catching up.
Nice little look into your world.
appreciate it.
5:49pmMichael
that’s it- kinda like removing a band-aid
it was fun thanks
8 Comments
Byron King
January 12, 2009Does anyone want to try and give Michael the same type of constructive input we gave Johnathan McDermott last week? That would be really swell of you guys if you are down.
Frank
January 12, 2009I’m noticing that Michael, as many street artists and art students, are caring less about the media itself and more about the image. I see a move away from appreciating the random aspects of paint/drawing media and instead concentrating on the crispness of the image. Jason Wright’s work is a good local example. Smooth surface, well constructed imagery with almost no sign of a human hand moving around the paint. The apparent use of stencils in Michael’s work (even the crowd scenes being stencils themselves) add to that very mechanical approach.. “When Michael says ”I was really fighting w/ the media and decided I was only using paint cuz I wanted to be a “painter”, I think he admits that he couldn’t entirely bend the media to his will and needs a faster way to find a powerful image with less random qualities. It is hard to control paint; it’s kinda like herding cats. I wonder if the move toward a less painterly image is the result of impatience, influence of computers or the clean flatness of comic books and cartoons.
In art history, I think artist themselves became more important and celebrated by the public when artists developed more separate and personal styles. The tendency to create work that looks more produced than created seems to contradict that.
Frank
January 12, 2009…and to add; I am really liking the crowd scenes. It inspires me with a couple of ideas for my own work.
byron king
January 13, 2009Well, I’m a bit bias as I have “We Are Just Reflections of Our Time” in my very small collection. Michael and I traded pieces after Art Basel. We were in the Openground show at the Fountain Art Fair. I really liked the concept behind that project he showed because it was tied into MySpace. The project is called MikeSpace: http://rippens.com/paintings/mikespace/#
And what I gather is he pulled images of selected Mike’s. Himself being a Mike it was a sort of portraiture project of Mike’s throughout MySpace. It was a sampling of course but it allowed him to see what other Mike’s were about. In a sort of voyeuristic manner without getting to know them personally. On each portrain he also included the headline from their profile in text from each Mike on their portrait.
So I don’t only see process in his work but the concepts he’s working with. And to tell you the truth I find his process quit painstaking and meticulous, something I utterly respect. Dripping and sloshing paint to me has been completely over romanticized.
The piece I have now hanging under my stairs in my home by Mike continues to catch my eye as I still can’t imagine working in this manner. I also enjoy how his work is a project. Each piece belongs to a larger body. So he expresses his ideas through a consistent body of work. Something the majority of artists I know personally aren’t doing. I enjoy seeing that.
The work also came with a “How To” on taking care of it throughout the years and a statement on the project. All very professional I thought.
So to me regardless of the fact that he’s using graphic material I find his projects to work on a very conceptual level. He is dealing with very personal and social issues through his projects.
The one thing I might enjoy seeing is a description of each project on the web site as I know there are many levels to his work now that we’ve discussed his work in person and I don’t see descriptions on http://www.rippens.com. That might help the uninformed viewer to get more from the images he’s producing.
Thanks for sharing Mike.
Keep cutting away. I’m looking forward to seeing your “Heaven is a Place” project when it’s completed.
Frank
January 13, 2009“Dripping and sloshing paint to me has been completely over romanticized.”
True and my point exactly. 100+ years ago that was cutting edge, even considered vulgar. Now, it is often seen as romantic, which implies anything but vulgar. I think it is a part of the re-evaluation of the painter/artist correlation. In the past a person strove to be painters, and in time, maybe create Art. Now artists, for the most part, consider the craft of painting can be bypassed for a direct line to self expression.
None of this is a judgment for or against either idea. It is an observation of the sweeping movement that take place in visual art… a movement that Michael’s work unintentionally comments on.
In some ways, the meticulous method Michael and stencil artistes are using is a turning the clock back to a Renaissance like approach to painting. The stencil look is a kind of new chiaroscuro. Very smooth, perfect, and mathematical indeed. It is quite different from the Abstract Expressionist movement, which is a high point of painterly paintings (embracing that chaotic element).
The pendulum is swinging back and I’m curious why.
Check out Logan Hicks and Kngee for examples of that meticulous approach taken to an extreme.
Michael
January 15, 2009Hi Globatron,
I’ve been enjoying this discussion on my work and process. I just wanted to address Byron’s rquest for more info about each project on my website.
It may be easily missed, but on each series page of my site (rippens.com) the final thumbnail in each group of images is a grey box that says “info” in white. If you click on this “info” thumbnail you will see a box w/ a brief description of the ideas behind or inspiration for that particular body of work. Some descriptions are longer than others, but they’ll at least answer a few questions about what I was trying to do or what that group of work is all about.
Thanks for your interest in the work and for all your comments!
byron king
January 15, 2009Hi Michael, I stand corrected. I can’t believe I missed the info box. It’s very obvious actually now that you pointed it out. Appreciate you doing the interview. Keep me posted on future projects if you have the time.
Akbar Lightning
January 15, 2009these are cool. it would be interesting to see a bit more indulgence in the material. in other words, more abstraction with the material itself, with the imagery a bit less emphasized.
i find that the images are so central as to become overly focused on the photograph being used. i think the artist has more intensity than this, i feel this by the color choice which is passionate and risky, which i like.
some of the photos really play into a kind of degraded society theme i see a lot in art fairs, it’s not my thing, i find it kind of condescending in a weird way, i know it’s not intentional, but it’s kind of like reality shows that humiliate strange people.
for this reason i like the atomic bomb image the best, because it focuses on the material and uses symbolic juxtaposition. again, i think the photographic images are great, but it would be fun to see them more lost in the vinyl.
there’s my take. i would also have liked some more serious answers to the questions. perhaps it had to do with the chat medium.
i will definitely keep an eye on this artist.
akbar