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Jim, about painting:
1Q: What inspired this painting?
A: Waking up and breathing each breath,
having a powerful work ethic, being my hero each moment, justifying my
existence. It's life itself. Painting is accessing and practicing consciousness.
It's a portal.
I love bringing passion and fierceness to the space
- creating great value.
2Q:
What prep work and painting techniques went into it?
A: I always keep my supplies collected
as far out in advance as possible. I stretch all of my own canvases (Fredrix #190
primed Belgian linen) on beautiful heavy duty finger-jointed wooden stretchers.
I make a sketch on the canvas with Conté #2B charcoal and pound the paint for
hours working my palette up. My days start at two o'clock every morning, seven
days a week. I'm never warming up, I simply fry and I back off and I fry and I
back off, it's a flutter, that's my range. I am pretty much a pure worker. A
string of paintings is a string of breaths.
3Q: What was your greatest challenge?
A: Being that the bar is set real
high, I'm always moving to center and performing my best - it's all fierce.
The commitment is to give it everything it calls for and refine and deepen that
commitment. It calls for great discipline to gain great freedom.
4Q:
What is your favorite part of this piece?
A: The elasticity, complexity and
relationship of colors. Its qualities - powerful, strange, compelling.
5Q: Why do you consider it one of your
most significant works?
A: I consider each painting, each
moment in each painting very significant - as it should be. Each and every
moment operates on different levels; it's exhilarating, challenging, wrenching,
exuberant, euphoric.
6Q:
How does it relate to, and differ from, all others you've done?
A: Each painting stands on its
own. I'm interested in performing in velocity, personal growth and that degree
of engagement. My desire is always to have a quality, exciting, composed
experience with the act of painting - hopefully the residue of the experience
(i.e. the painting) will reflect those qualities.
7Q: What does this painting mean to you?
A: It is a statement of my
intention and the result of my intention: to make a piece of
artwork that's really wonderful, that I can connect in such a
powerful, emotional way. I'm auditioning this moment for the next moment.
8Q: What do you feel (or hope) it says
to the viewer?
A: That the viewer is touched in
a powerful way, on such a deep level, that they have to possess it, own it and
visit with it. These paintings for many people offer an access or portal to
growth, comfort, joy. For something as sensitive and personal as artwork to have
a prominent place in their life. Each painting is a love letter.
Jim,
about yourself:
9Q: In what area of New Mexico do you
live, and how long have you been a resident of the state?
A: I've been living in Santa Fe
for over 26 years. Living in my dream 1912 adobe studio and gallery, in an old
downtown neighborhood of Santa Fe.
10Q: How long have you been painting in
general?
A: I've been painting
professionally, continually, for a living for 50 years.
11Q: How did you get started?
A: Volunteers at the Shrine
Crippled Children's Hospital, where I had a series of polio operations as little
boy, brought art supplies for the children and I made some work with those
supplies. In 1956, my parents opened a storefront, a mom and pop shop, that sold
art supplies and made picture frames so I was around a bunch of artist
collecting their supplies. Through the sixties I was exhibiting in dozens of
alternate spaces at a time: dinner theaters, beauty boutiques,
bank lobbies, restaurants, outdoor art shows. It was experiential, getting a lot
of feedback, building a collector base from grass roots. I'm self taught, I've
tenaciously worked at it.
12Q: What mediums do you work with?
A: Gamblin Oil Colors, great paint,
beautiful paint, with palette knives on Fredrix #190 Belgian linen.
13Q: What, in general, inspires you to
create?
A: Painting for me is life
itself. To me, success is living to my potential. My life is an extraordinary
personal triumph and these paintings are a celebration of it. I am an ordinary
guy with extraordinary potential - and my goal in life is to reach my
potential.
Questions Courtesy of: Art Journey New Mexico:
104 Painters' Perspectives
by The Editors of The Collector's Guide
(available at
www.northlightshop.com)
Newly released hardcover book including Jim Rabby
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