We had the good fortune of connecting with Ian Pines and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ian, any advice for those thinking about whether to keep going or to give up?
Most of my most successful paintings have required not giving up on them after months or years of work. When it seems completely hopeless with them, I will usually introduce some seemingly rash and large-scale application or removal of paint that will hopefully result in an unforeseen cohesion in the whole image that I can work with. I’ve only once given up on a painting; I then cut that canvas up and used sections of it on other works—so not completely giving up on it. I guess I probably haven’t learned when to give up and when not to.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Painting (and teaching art) keeps me busy professionally. My works are brutishly personal, intuitive, and psychological: my paintings are rapidly metamorphosing mirrors of primordial oil. Yet out of the glut of paint on canvas emerges much artistic as well as anthropological and cosmological significance. Along with my tenacity and my works’ authenticity, my family and friends have been invaluable in my my professional advancement. This advancement was not easy, but I feel very fortunate on multiple levels. My recent work continues in a similar vein to previous paintings of his. There are compounded expressionistic brushstrokes, a continual churning-up and reusing of the paint, and the general working and reworking of the painting surface. These oily excavations tend to juxtapose and violently merge three elements that work at varying speeds on Earth: the slow geologic element of rocks and minerals (rocky, eroded, and stratified surfaces), the animal and human element of relatively primal existence (fleshy pinks and reds), and the technological element of quick advancement (metallic surfaces, ores, and inorganic shapes). The paintings give a sense of how unique, crazy, terrible, and wonderful our current situation is.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Because I’m quite partial towards museums, I’d certainly show them The Huntington, LACMA, The Getty, and possibly the Norton Simon. Griffith Observatory, the Baldwin Hills open space, a Malibu drive on the 1, Venice Beach, and a stroll around downtown would be on the itinerary as well.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Frank Galuszka—artist and professor emeritus at UC Santa Cruz

Website: ianepines.com
Instagram: @ian_pines https://www.instagram.com/ian_pines/?hl=en
Facebook: ianepines https://www.facebook.com/ianepines/
Other: https://www.newamericanpaintings.com/artists/ian-pines

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