The Animals that Live in the Forest,
(2003, Acrylic and gouache on paper) As a child, Lamar Peterson used to paint mountain
scene with the PBS TV show sensation Bob Ross (below).
Bob Ross (1942-1995) and
his PBS series “Joy of Painting”
has aired on over 300 public television station internationally. Each
of his 30 minute “how to” episodes were believed to have therapeutic
effects, and he more or less became a cult figure himself. Like Lamar
Bob Ross is also from the state of Florida.
|
Did
you take any classes on filmmaking? Or are you just playing with cameras
and things like that?
No, I never done it, but I will be totally interested in doing that.
I don’t know if we talked about this before, but I imagine my
paintings being animated someday. I always feel they are like a moment
in time you know. Like the point where you take a picture and you say
“cheese” and everyone stops and then smiles and poses really
quickly for you. That’s what I think of my paintings in a way.
Yeah, I wish we could hook you up with
a director.
Hahaha… I know. That would be cool. I wish you could too.
Besides Science Fictions, what are your
other influences?
I grew up looking at the more “painterly” painters to be
honest with you, and a lot of outsider art. I always put a mountain
scene [in my paintings] because there use to be this painter who did
a 30 minute television show called Joy
Of Painting. His name was Bob
Ross and he had an afro. When I was a kid I used to paint along
with him and he always painted a mountain scene. I imagine that as being
the perfect scene with perfect images that most people can relate to.
In a sense people see that mountain scene as being an ideal kind of
thing, so I keep coming up with images like that. I haven’t painted
many indoor scenes; they’re usually landscapes.
There really is this contrast between
what is comfortable and what is uncomfortable. Is that subject matter
a deep realm inside of you that just comes out unintentionally?
Everybody has dark side and I think that comes out in my drawings but
it’s subtle. I like when things are subtle. First you think, “Oh
that’s a happy image,” and then you are like, “wait,
that’s really dark and creepy!” When people say that to
me, that’s when I start to feel good because that’s really
what I’m trying to achieve. Life is like that in a way. So yeah,
I look at some of my paintings and I know what I was thinking at the
time and what I was going through. But I also like people to have their
own interpretations.
|
 |
 |
|
Clock wise
from top left:
Girl on a Boat,
2003, acrylic and guache on paper.
The Flamingos,
2003, Acrylic and gouache on paper.
“Flamingo is a Florida bird, and I am from Florida,”
said Lamar Peterson. The boy looking curiously into the dark unknown.
What we see in this painting is not the familiar Florida beach or
landmarks, instead it’s a generic “perfect landscape”
much like the imaginary landscapes of Bruegel.
Picture Perfect,
2003, acrylic and guache on paper mounted on canvas.
Today, Lamar Peterson’s work touches on even wider issues of America’s
modern society, and often stir controversy in the most ordinary
gesture.
Girl with Cat
2004, Gouache on paper bag.
Lamar Peterson branches out in 2004 with sculptures, like these paper
bag puppets. |
|
| |
So
what is your next step?
Lately I feel like I have too much of a “style” myself,
I would like to be able to work in other materials. For the Deitch
show, I did some 3D stuff, which I never done in my life. I felt like
I need a break from drawing. I had a show at Richard
Heller a month and half before the Deitch
show, so I was working non-stop. I just need to do something else for
a while… I am going to maybe do some experiments this summer.
I’m going to do some oil paintings and some more sculptures. The
puppets were fun, they gave me a chance to do different things. I had
fun doing those sculptures last time.
I like your portable landscape [in the
show].
Well great! It was the packaging form my CD player. Out of the sculptures,
that’s the one I like the most too. (laugh)
You’re going to be in Site
Santa Fe’s biennial this year, is that your first big international
show?
Yeah, I am really looking forward to that. That’s going to be
intense. X
<<
previous page | pg 2
|
