The following interview with local artist Micah Cash took place in August 2009 via email. It's a good one. I have been putting out calls to interview local artists and Micah was one of the artists to respond. I checked out his website and found his paintings thoughtful and inviting.
TOM: I like your work.
MICAH: Thanks, man. I enjoyed your interview with Dan [Stuelpnagel]. I appreciate you getting back to me.
TOM: We can do the interview by email. How should we start it up?
MICAH: Email works. Feel free to start it up anyway you like. This sounds fun. If you'd prefer we could meet in person as well, grab a beer or something; and you're always welcome to drop by my studio.
TOM: I vote for email. Sure, a beer some time sounds fun. So you have a studio? That's a good place to start. Whatta you think about your studio lately?
MICAH: That it's too small. I work out of a home studio, which is nice for many reasons. However, I'm currently beginning a group of large paintings, many in the neighborhood of 5 - 6 feet. Since I prefer to work on many pieces at once, I routinely have space issues. It only gets worse when the paintings grow in size. It isn't uncommon to see paintings drying in my dining room and hallway.
TOM: I took a closer look at your website. I see that you work with oil paints and other materials such as beeswax. Interesting "environments" you are creating there in your paintings. Some of your work takes a look at people. Here's one for example:
The painting has a spiritual feel to it and I don't mean religious, but the guy seems to be floating maybe like a ghost. Let me ask you: this was painted about 4 years ago. How do you feel about your older works in relation to the newer ones?
Oh and aren't there things called drying racks for paintings where you can stack multiple paintings on the shelves, kind of like a skyscraper for paintings. Ever thought about one of those? Heh heh. I can relate to space issues. I am in an apartment myself and space is precious.
MICAH: That's a great thought about the drying rack. I prefer to allow my paintings to dry standing up due to the process of drips and glazes, but even some sort horizontal rack with individual slots might be an avenue to explore.
My choices of materials are always very specific; usually chosen for their metaphorical and physical properties in relation to the emotive elements I want to convey. In the case of beeswax, I was looking for a material that added both visual and physical depth. The smell and texture of beeswax maintains its organic qualities on the surface, and it worked well with content I was exploring in those drawings. I'm able to push and pull the wax and work the image on the paper in a loose, painterly manner. In conjunction, the inherent translucency of the wax was integral to creating the ephemeral quality I sought for those "environments."
The ephemeral and as you put it, ghostly, element is something I'm drawn to. Almost all of the work I make exist in the purgatorial realm of memory. Whether its a landscape, figure, or nebulous cloud of color. I believe that people and experiences shape us, and the memories of these things are always in the back of our minds. So in the case of the figure in *Zemedelec*, your comment of the spiritual ghostliness isn't far off. He's a remembrance of an ancestor or someone who forged a path that you (or I) am a product of. And his presence is a reminder of whether or not you're living up to his example.
But to answer your question, I'm quite fond of the older paintings as they are directly responsible for my current series. The idea of internal vs. external experience is something that my work directly speaks about, and the older paintings were meant to be an experience. Compare that to the current series, which are strictly about internal experience and you begin to see the connections. As with all work, there are plenty of things I would do different now, but as a body of work I'm quite proud of those paintings. They were a necessary step to where I am today and where I want to go in the future.
TOM: Well, Mr. Cash, that answers all of my previous questions. Now another question: What do you think about the Internet?
MICAH: It's a fascinating thing. I'm amazed at how simple of an idea it is, yet how profoundly it has changed the way we live. As a society we've been quick to take it for granted. It has become such a multifaceted tool of daily life: communication, news, content sharing, productivity, and financial record keeping, to name a few. All of which were completed differently a little more than a decade ago. It's a great thing that has leveled the playing field to individual people. It's impressive.
However, in response to that, the internet not only allows people immense freedom and control, but it also forces them to accept responsibility for what they read, write, and do. So, while it allows people, like myself, to showcase my work and manage a fantasy baseball team, it also allows hate groups a platform for communication and organization. Even after all the things we now utilize that are internet-based, there is potential for so much more.
TOM: Micah, you've given me plenty to work with here, but maybe one or two more questions before we wrap things up because readers have a short attention span on the internet. You have a website, so your art is definitely on the internet. How do you see:
a.) art changing the internet
b.) the internet changing art
Thanks. No pressure!
MICAH: This is an interesting question, and difficult to answer. Is the internet changing art? Absolutely. But how? As an artist, the internet has made my life easier. Showcasing my work on a website, thus allowing anyone around the world to see it is a huge plus. But has it changed the nature of the art? That, I'm not so sure of. I view the internet and the digitization of our lives as another tool for artists to utilize. Just as photography, slide projection, sound, plastics, and other media have entered the artistic vocabulary over recent history, so too has digitization and the internet. Its not better than more traditional media, just a more recent addition.
But as far as art changing the internet, I think that's much less likely. Art has and always will be about experience; both the artist's experience and the experience of the viewer. You can't put that on the internet, but what you can do is use the medium for it communicative and informative possibilities. If an artist can make more people familiar with his or her work, then hopefully more people will seek it out in person in order to have the experience the artist intends.
I'm glad that you like the work, and I appreciate you having this exchange of ideas.
TOM: Fantastic! Thank you for sharing. For anyone interested in seeing more of Micah's work, check out his website: www.micahcash.com