Artist Talk at Gallery 825
Thank you everyone who came to my artist's talk at Gallery 825.
I'm pictured here with my painting Horses of The Apocalypse next to curator Cynthia Penna. The talk gives me an opportunity to speak about the hidden process of the work and hear the questions and insights of viewers which is always interesting for me.
Art Squat Interview
I’m very pleased to be featured in the latest issue of Art Squat Magazine. Johnny Otto asks me questions about my education, time spent working in films in Europe and a bunch of other art related topics.
Click the image or the link below for the full interview.
Solo Show presented by the Los Angeles Art Association at Gallery 825
It was a great opening Saturday! Sharing the work in the gallery was blast, thanks to everyone who came out.
My solo show, Pulling Weeds from a Cactus Garden - Life is full of pricks, explores how myth and fable intertwine with our lives and consciousness.
The exhibit runs from August 20th to September 16th. The gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 to 5 and is located at 825 North La Cienega Blvd. Los Angeles, CA
From the Gallery 825 website:
In Nathalie Tierce’s solo show Pulling Weeds from a Cactus Garden - Life is full of pricks, the artist uses metaphor to convey the brutality of human interaction in her mixed media paintings and drawings. Diving into the dark space between desire and fear, her characters struggle within uneasy cartoon humor. These figures become the symbols of the unnamable angst for the stories that bombard us through social media and politics.
Using visual allegory as a purge, Tierce holds up the effects of current events insidiously becoming a part of us. The texture and color of these works are gritty and intense—the icons in her imagery battle in a dreamlike arena. The boundaries of this stage are the edges of passion and aggression - murky with the runoff of culture and the human condition.
Tierce’s search for emotional truths in suffering led her to create a theater of the absurd from these complex situations in her quest to deliver its essence with poetry and irony. Her pieces and short writing have been published in a book by the same title as the show.
Spread Love
I’m super excited to have my piece “When Shock Collides into Despair” featured in this month’s edition of the Canadian publication Spread Love. Spread Love is a compilation of comics, arts and interviews.
You can order a copy here:
Solo Show at Gallery 825 in West Hollywood
I’m delighted to announce my solo show with The Los Angeles Art Association at Gallery 825.
In this collection, I use metaphor to convey the brutality of human interaction in my mixed media paintings and drawings. Diving into the dark space between desire and fear, characters struggle within uneasy cartoon humor.
These figures become the symbols of the unnamable angst for the stories that bombard us through social media and politics. Using visual allegory as a purge, I reflect on the effects of current events insidiously becoming a part of us.
The texture and color of these works are gritty and intense—icons battle in a dreamlike arena. The boundaries of this stage are the edges of passion and aggression - murky with the runoff of culture and the human condition.
My search for emotional truths in suffering led me to create this theater of the absurd in my quest to deliver its essence with poetry and irony and hopefully some humor.
What's Real in a Painting
I had just finished the painting. It wasn't even dry. A mother and her son, maybe five years old, happened to be walking past my garage studio while the door was open.
The boy rushed up the driveway and asked, "Did you do that? "I said, "yes." He then asked, "Which superhero is that?" I said, "not a very good one; I don't think he'll get off the ground with that pot belly." the little boy insisted, "all superheroes can fly. Even if Superman got fat, he would fly". I said, "Well, if you say so, I'm not convinced." He said, you should know that you painted this. But, I told him, I understand very little about what I'm painting, especially while I'm painting". He looked concerned and said again, "but you painted it." I said, that's true, but I don't do much of the deciding about what is in my painting; I'm just trying to figure out how to paint it. He looked at me with his head tilted, perplexed.
I said, '"you don't decide what you're going to dream, do you? It's something like that". Quickly, the kid turned away from me towards the painting and started running with his hands out. His mother called out, and I managed to stop him before his little outstretched paws hit the canvas surface. I realized he was going to settle this debate of what was real and what wasn't by touching the image.
Although I don't relish the idea of his little fingers sliding through the wet paint, there was something profoundly beautiful to me that this picture, this two-dimensional illusion, carried enough weight for this kid to want to "feel it" for himself.
It’s a pity how being a grown up stops us from “living” in a painting, song or poem. It’s the wonderful thing about being a kid.
Feature in Carpazine Magazine
I’m delighted to be featured in this current issue of Carpazine. They’ve done a a full color spread with images of my work and self accompanied by an interview.
Carpazine is a punk magazine that covers all aspects of underground culture. Available now @ www.carpazine.com
A Private View of Art
I paint to express emotions and thoughts I can't put into words. The only other experience that is as important to me is sharing the work with people.
While showing my paintings in galleries, museums, and social media connects to an audience, there is something exceptional about a private viewing.
Two collectors interested in acquiring my work arranged to view a selection of pieces in my home. One of the advantages is that I can curate the collection to their particular preferences. There is also a calm that comes with experiencing the group in a relaxed atmosphere of a living room.
Another bonus is my studio is adjacent to my home. There, I can talk about the process with pieces in various states of completion.
I am pleased to say that Destiny Guides Our Fortunes and Moon Monster will be a part of their collection.
It's much more than finding a forever home for the pieces. It's about opening the door to the how and why of the creative process.
Hearing the reactions, thoughts, and reflections of those witnessing the presentation fuels my imagination and inspires me to go back to the studio and paint.
Destiny Guides Our Fortunes
Moon Monster
Portrait of a Feeling
I just finished this one today. It started like all of my other paintings in this series, just playing around with texture until I found the edge of something trying to come through.
It was a face, just a face with a distinct expression. Slowly I realized that it looked not unlike me, and to finish it, I was the most accessible model option. Using photo reference, I figured out the parts that didn't read well. The tricky thing is this portrait/expression realistically isn't possible. The gaping mouth really should expand the right side of the face more, and that wasn't what I wanted to convey. It's more of a cartoon version of a mouth drop where all the emphasis is on the elongation of the face.
Inside my studio
Silencing the Mind and Working
In a documentary, I remember hearing Alice Neel, the painter, saying, "the hardest thing about painting is starting and stopping." That may be paraphrasing her exact words, but the essence is there. Getting into the right mindset, letting go of the hundreds of little worries and distractions that flit through the brain requires effort.
Procrastination reins. Rituals can help edge the self towards the right mindset. It's about preparing oneself to receive the possibilities and get into the flow. Once you're in it, 15 minutes can seem like an hour, and hours can vanish like pencil marks rubbed out by an eraser.
Some tricks that have become rules for me in the studio to help me keep on track are:
1.Setting specific time frames for work.
This includes time to organize my materials, visual reference and workstation, the music that I'll be listening to, breaks to step away from the studio, doing the work, and closing up the studio at the end. This gives me "permission" to turn off my phone's ringer and not feel guilty about checking work messages and calls while I'm working.
2.Not having anything in my studio that makes me think of my obligations outside my studio work.
This includes lists of "things to do" unrelated to my art practice. I also avoid making calls for the business side of my freelancing. Discussions related to appointments, deadlines, budgets seem to activate a different part of my consciousness and make it harder for me to dive into painting or drawing.
Ideally, for this reason, I leave my phone in my house (My studio is my garage). However, if I think I'll need my phone for reference while I'm working , I keep my phone hidden from view. It's a simple thing, but if I don't see the phone, I don't have the impulse to fidget with it.
Aside from removing distractions, I make the space around me the most inspiring and easy to be in that it can be. I often edit the things that I have hanging up around me. I take it down if I don't find it intriguing or beautiful.
3.Take breaks
Breaks are structured times to step away from the easel, stretch, drink water, coffee, have a snack, look at my phone, engage in social media. It may seem rigid at first, but blocking in time actually in segments keeps the mind and body functioning optimally. The other benefit is surfing the internet becomes a "treat" to look forward to on a break, rather than an activity that saps your time and attention.
As a general rule of thumb, I find that 45 to 60 minutes of focused activity followed by a 5 to 10-minute break works best.
4.Divide projects into manageable portions
Take a moment to break down the different aspects of what you'd like to achieve in your time in the studio. There are probably bits that are more challenging than others. There are two different ways I look at this, depending on my frame of mind that day.
Sometimes I get the most difficult out of the way first, free to enjoy the fun parts. Then, if I'm not ready to take on the more arduous tasks, I complete smaller, more agreeable bits that make me feel like I've accomplished something, and then I'm ready to take on the trickier parts.
My time making art in the studio is much more than being productive. It's about satisfying the urge to go deeper and further with my artwork and see where it will take me and what I will learn.
Blocking time may seem rigid at first, but it has flexibility and is quite liberating. Creating in a framework gets me where I want to be.
Pulling Weeds on Tiktok
@ttvallereads reviews my book on Tiktok. Click the Youtube link below to hear it.
Best of 2021 - The Comics Review U.K.
I am over the moon to be included in The Comics Review U.K. Best of 2021 Mature Reading Masterworks
The Silent Invasion: Dark Matter
By Michael Cherkas & Larry Hancock (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-283-0 (TPB) eISBN 978-1-68112-284-7
© 2021 Michael Cherkas & Larry Hancock. All rights reserved.
Putin’s Russia – The Rise of a Dictator
By Darryl Cunningham (Myriad Editions)
ISBN: 978-1-912408-91-7 (TPB)
© Darryl Cunningham 2021. All rights reserved.
Orwell
By Pierre Christin & Sébastien Verdier, with André Juillard, Olivier Balez, Manu Larcenet, Blutch, Isabelle Merlet, Juanjo Guarnido, Enki Bilal & more: translated by Edward Gauvin (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-910593-87-5 (TPB)
Orwell © DARGAUD 2019, by Christin, Verdier. All rights reserved. English translation © 2021 SelfMadeHero.
Pass Me By: Electric Vice
By Kyle Simmers & Ryan Danny Owen, with Derek Simmers (Renegade Arts Entertainment)
ISBN: 978-1-98890-385-9 eISBN 978-1-98890-385-8 (Electric Vice)
© 2021 Kyle Simmers and Ryan Danny Owen. All rights reserved.
A Journal of my Father
By Jiro Taniguchi translated by Kumar Sivasubramanian with Chitoku Teshima (Fanfare-Ponent Mon)
ISBN: 978-1-91209-743-2 (HB)
Chichi no Koyami by Jiro Taniguchi © Papier/1995 Jiro Taniguchi. All rights reserved. © 2021 Potent Mon for the English language edition.
Catalyst
By Asia Alfasi, Charlotte Bailey, Jason Chuang, Dominique Duong, Catherine Anyango Grünewald, Shuning Ji,Pris Lemons, Sonia Leong, Calico N.M., Tyrell Osborne & Woodrow Phoenix, edited by Ayoola Solarin(SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-91142-402-7 (PB)
All stories and artwork © their respective creators. All rights reserved.
Jinx Freeze
By Hurk (Avery Hill Publishing)
ISBN: 978-1-910395-59-2 (TPB)
© Hurk, 2021.
The Chagos Betrayal – How Britain Robbed an Island and Made Its People Disappear
By Florian Grosset (Myriad Editions)
ISBN: 978-1-912408-67-2 (TPB) eISBN 978-1-912408-93-1
© 2021 Florian Grosset. All rights reserved.
The Stringer
By Ted Rall & Pablo Callejo (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-272-4 (Album HB) eISBN: 978-1-68112-273-1
© 2021 Ted Rall & Pablo G. Callejo. © 2021 NBM for the English translation.
All the Places in Between
By John Cei Douglas (Liminal 11)
ISBN: 978-1-912634-23-1 (PB)
© 2020 John Cei Douglas. All rights reserved.
Pulling Weeds from a Cactus Garden – Life is Full of Pricks
By Nathalie Tierce (Indigo Raven)
ISBN: 978-1-73783-260-7 (PB) eISBN: 978-1-734174-4-1
© 2021 Indigo Raven. © 2021 Nathalie Tierce. All rights reserved.
Farewell, Brindavoine
By Tardi, translated by Jenna Allen (Fantagraphics)
ISBN: 978-1-68396-433-9 (Album HB)
This edition of Farewell, Brindavoine © 2021 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. Adieu Brindavoine © 2011 Casterman. Translation © 2021 Jenna Allen. Preface © 2021 Benoít Mouchart. All rights reserved.
Canciones – Federico García Lorca Drawn by Tobias Tak
Adapted and translated by Tobias Tak (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-68112-274-8 (HB) eISBN 978-1-68112-275-5
© 2017 Tobias Tak/Scratch Books. Foreword © 2017 Christopher Maurer. Introduction © 2017 Joost Swarte.
The Roles We Play
By Sabba Khan (Myriad Editions)
ISBN: 978-1-912408-30-6 (Deluxe Paperback) eISBN: 978-1-912408-98-8
© Sabba Khan 2021. All rights reserved.
Knock Out! – The True Story of Emile Griffith
By Reinhard Kleist, translated by Michael Waaler (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-91059-386-8 (TPB)
© Text and illustrations 2019 CARLSEN Verlag GmbH, Hamburg, Germany. English translation © 2021 SelfMadeHero. All rights reserved.
Love Me Please – The Story of Janis Joplin (1943-1970)
By Nicolas Finet, Christopher & Degreff: translated by Montana Kane (NBM)
ISBN: 978-1-681122-76-2 (HB) eISBN: 978-1-681122-77-9
© Hatchette Livre (Marabout) 2020. © 2021 NBM for the English translation. All rights reserved.
The Dancing Plague
By Gareth Brookes (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-910593-98-1 (PB)
Text and images © 2021 Gareth Brookes. All rights reserved.
Coma
By Zara Slattery (Myriad Editions)
ISBN: 978-1-912408-66-5 (PB) eISBN: 978-1-912408-78-8
© Zara Slattery 2021. All rights reserved.
Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles
By Fermín Solís, translated by Lawrence Schimel (SelfMadeHero)
ISBN: 978-1-910593-84-4 (PB)
© 2008, 2019 Fermín Solís. © 2019 Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial, S.A.U. All rights reserved.
I Never Promised You a Rose Garden
By Mannie Murphy (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-68396-410-0 (HB)
© 2021 Mannie Murphy. This edition © 2021 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All rights reserved.
Hypnotwist/Scarlet by Starlight
By Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics Books)
ISBN: 978-1-68396-204-5 (HB)
Hypnotwist/Scarlet by Starlight © 2021 Gilbert Hernandez. This edition © 2021 Fantagraphics Books, Inc. All rights reserved.
Reading Alone Without Words
It's been freezing in my studio. After all the rain, I'm not used to damp, cold after living in Southern California for so long.
One of the ways I keep going is to take breaks, warm myself near the heater with some strong coffee, and read a bit to get my mind off thinking about my icy hands.
I've recently read Alone by Christophe Chabouté, the French comic book artist.
Chabouté published his first work, Stories, based on the work of Arthur Rimbaud, in 1993 in France. Since then, he has received numerous prizes for his very personal illustration and storytelling style.
Alone is a simple story, almost a wordless novel told in beautiful black and white drawings.
A hermit, born with facial and bodily deformities, lives in a lighthouse for 5o years, 15 of them alone after the death of his parents. Supplies are brought to him by a fisherman through arrangements made by his deceased father.
During the day, he feeds his goldfish in a bowl and pours over an old dictionary putting words together that lead to daydreams and fantasies.
One day, one of the visiting sailors leaves something with his normal provisions that change his life forever.
While the premise might sound a bit grim, on the contrary, it's a tale filled with wonder and joy.
Chabouté's command over his expressive pen line is phenomenal. In addition, his use of negative space in composition to build up pressure delivering a punch in his imagery, leaves me in awe.
This graphic novel is a masterpiece in visual storytelling.
Paperback, 384 pages
Published July 11th 2017 by Gallery 13 (first published January 1st 2008)
Original Title
Tout seul
ISBN
1501153323 (ISBN13: 9781501153327)
Literary Awards
Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards Nominee for Best Writer/Artist (for Chabouté) (2018)
Review of Pulling Weeds from a Cactus Garden in The Comic Review U.K.
Win Wiacek of The Comic Review in The U.K. wrote a wonderful review of my book that I’m delighted to share with you.
He writes; “The marriage of image and text is a venerable, potent and astoundingly evocative discipline that can simultaneously tickle like a feather, cut like a scalpel and hit like a steam-hammer. Moreover, repeated visits to a particular piece of work can even generate different responses depending on the recipient’s mood.”
“Blending wicked whimsy with everyday paranoia and neighbourly competitiveness, Pulling Weeds from a Cactus Garden is a mature delight for all students of human nature with a sharp eye and unforgiving temperament – and surely, isn’t that all of us?”
Review of Pulling Weeds from a Cactus Garden by Jeffrey D. Keeten
The Fox and the Mosquitoes
This is a wonderful review of my book Pulling Weeds from a Cactus Garden -Life is full of pricks by the talented writer and reviewer of books and films, Jeffrey D. Keeten.
Recently, he's contributed to a collection of scary, suspenseful and weird short stories, prose and poems along with a group of other writers titled, Halloween Party '21, (available on Amazon).
I am flattered and inspired by his insight and the parallels he draws to other artists.
The review is here:
When Nathalie Tierce first approached me about reading her book, I thought to myself, I’m not an art critic, nor an expert on poetic prose, and haven’t read a kid’s book (This is not a kid’s book, so my reservations in that regard were completely erroneous) in many decades. My mind was swimming with all the reasons why I was the wrong reviewer for her book. Instead of sending her my standard thanks for thinking of me but… email response, I decided to go visit her website. I’d share that address right now, but I don’t want to lose you quite yet from my review because I know, like me, you will be spending a good hour flipping through her gallery, and you would be so bedazzled by the raw power of her paintings that you would forget all about my attempts to explain why I like Nathalie’s paintings so much.
Check out this little gem from R. Crumb about Tierce’s work: ”You are a genuine visionary artist with a direct line to your subconscious.” And what a marvelous subconscious it is!
I first discovered R. Crumb when I bought the R. Crumb illustrated edition of The Monkey Wrench Gang. This prompted me to search for more examples of his art, and I was soon ogling his Amazonian women and sometimes gasping with pleasure at his flagrantly deviant, but honest, art. (I once called a rather impressive looking waitress working in an Oklahoma bar in Bricktown R. Crumbesque. It was truly as if she’d stepped straight out of the lurid mind of Crumb.) I could see how Crumb, after perusing Nathalie’s art, recognized a fellow artist who is genuinely expressing her truest feelings through her art.
This book was inspired by Aesop’s Fables, but I couldn’t help thinking about the Brothers Grimm, especially before the brothers sanitized their folk tales for children. Even after being censored, those tales have gruesome and grotesque moments that continue to give children and adults nightmares and daylight shudders. I found Tierce’s work to be deliciously horrid and, at moments, wonderfully torrid.
Tierce worked on these paintings for two years, and during that time, as she said in her forward, “the world witnessed the most bizarre spectacle of politics.”She went on to say: ”Being in lock-down for Covid-19 made people examine disturbing, deeper currents running through our society in the U.S. that we were otherwise too distracted to scrutinize.”
We are living in a post-truth world, and I miss the world that existed before. It wasn’t perfect, but at least we could disagree about things and still be friends. Now, we are bludgeoned with information, some of it true, some of it completely false, and most of it is somewhere in the middle. We have been segmented into two Americas. Each of those segments believes the other half to be batshit crazy.
Tierce further stated in the introduction, ”The symbolism that developed in those works came from the turbulence, fear, and confusion we were experiencing and trying to wade our way through.”
Art provides us with a chance for self-reflection, and as you peruse Pulling Weeds from a Cactus Garden, you will find, as I did, that what I need in my life is more flights of fancy. The paintings in this book are playful and humorous, but also speckled with thorny truths. They are the ticklish parts of our imagination and what is accepted as reality brought together in a pleasing mixture to evoke realizations that remind the gazer of the things we used to be afraid of, the things we should be afraid of, and also the things we should still try to cherish.
“‘The drool on your chin tells me you're not listening.’ --- The Lamb and the Wolf Aesop’s Fables.” For me, this sentence sums up the last few years. We quit listening to each other. We quit caring about one another. The wolves have been turned loose in all of us, and we are a less kind society. Lambs, optimists, proffered kindness are all seen as naive. Toothy ruthlessness has run rampant. It isn’t about who let the dogs loose, but who let loose the werewolves?
Tierce’s paintings are visually amazing, and the longer you peer into them, the more you will see, so you will enjoy these paintings on a multitude of levels. I even turned each painting upside down and saw even more. That is a trick I learned from my professor in college while taking a survey class on art.
I see some Picasso in her horses, some Stephen King in her clown, a bit of Cortés in her skeleton, Jeff Goldblum in her southern belle, a smidge of Ralph Steadman lurking around the edges of many of her paintings, but in the end, these are what will be known as vintage Nathalie Tierce art.
You will look at these pictures and see your own marvelous things.
If you need a chuckle and a shudder in equal measure, then this book will give you exactly what you are looking for. This book is preceded by a book called Fairy Tale Remnants that looks fabulous as well. I will also be reviewing that book in the very near future. For that slightly quirky person in your life who is almost impossible to buy for, these books will make a perfect Christmas/birthday gift.
Nathalie Tierce provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
As promised here is the link to Nathalie Tierce’s website: https://nathalietierce.com/
You can also follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathalietie...
And like her page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nathalie.tierce
And, see below, don’t forget to follow my page on Facebook and my Instagram page.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten and an Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/jeffreykeeten/
Spirits and Books at Goldbug
Monday, November 1st, the preview opening for the auction to benefit the ACLU of SoCal was a night filled with with lots of art, people, curiosities and books! I can’t think of a better way to spend an evening.
I also had an opportunity to sign copies of my books, Fairy Tale Remnants and Pulling Weeds from a Cactus Garden - Life is full of pricks.
Goldbug is a contemporary cabinet of curiosities filled with hand made art inspired by natural history and science.... Gold Bug invites its customers to a truly unique gallery experience, presenting contemporary art in a museum enviornment inspired by history, nature and design. Representing independent artists who are masters at their craft, the unique home decor pieces, apparel, jewelry and other art objects are to sure to stand the test of time in their elegance, ingenuity and appeal. Come for a unique conversation piece to add to your home or to find a gift for the person in your life who has everything, Gold Bug is sure to surprise you with something you have never seen before."
It was a pleasure to meet the other artists who had created their “Spirit” on the blank ceramic sculptures by Roberto Cambi, Twenty in all, the full collection can be viewed here
Spirits in the Art Afterlife
Art Spirits @ Gold Bug of Pasadena to benefit the ACLU of Southern California
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