Francine Dressler

We had Francine Dressler's daughter and business partner, Madelyn Somers, interview Francine about the re-launch of her original prints from Los Angeles circa 1979 AND WE GOT A SNEAK PREVIEW FROM THEIR UP COMING COLLABORATION WITH ARTIST HATTIE STEWART.

SCRATCH IMAGE BELOW TO REVEAL FRANCINE DRESSLER X HATTIE STEWART COLLABORATION 

“I had often looked at them and thought like what am I going to do with all of these. I was done with her really, or I thought, but I guess not.” - Francine

Madelyn Somers

Madelyn: Do you feel like the response that you got in the 70s with your artwork is like the same response you are getting today?

Francine: I think it is still brought about that people love to laugh, people love good sense of humor. I was a little bit shocking then,  I was really the only one on the street showing boobies, in fact one time I did a show and they asked me to put a blanket over my work.

M: It is so relevant though, I have talked to so many of my friends and they are just like she didn’t make these today? Just how liberated and cheeky and boisterous these women are, and there is so much about feminism in todays world. I know you were just creating these women without thinking about a feminist attitude.

Francine Dressler

F: Well no, I did not get married until I was 32 years old, so I was single for a long time. I had to fend for myself. It was my life, that is how I felt about it, it was not really like I am a feminist it was just who I was. It was the times, and it was newly acceptable for women to behave in ways that it was not before. A lot of exploring.

M: Not only does her sense of humor relate to so many people, but also her figure it is very relatable. Was she inspired by someone specific?

F: I lived with my cousin and I used to draw her a lot, but I do not think she inspired me to draw her. I think when I ended up living on my own I used the mirror a lot and I posed myself. I think it is just all women, and just experiences I have had with women and their humor. You know if I am sitting across the table and somebody is eating something and they are eating something in a funny way, I would think oh that would be a funny drawing. People do say it looks just like you. So I guess it is me.

M: I mean definitely over time it is uncanny how much you look like her. Were you posing naked in the mirror for yourself?

F: I mean I did, not naked, but I used my hands and I used my poses cause I lived by myself so she had to come from that. I would just make myself pose and think, oh that would be funny I am going to draw that. It just evolved.

M: You were just doing selfies.

F: Yes I was doing selfies that is a good point!

M: And they are funny selfies.

M: It was cool to come home, because she has so many prints in her drawers that are not colored. She goes back and hand paints the color, and I was trying my hand at it. Then she brought out all her pen and ink and actually dipped the pen in the ink, and I really just didn’t fully realize the medium that she used. It felt like a quill, like old fashioned.

F: I get asked a lot what is it like to live in the 70s. If I asked you what is it like to live in 2014, I mean it is just your life you are just living it. When you are living your life a lot of times it is not that romanticized. Its not like oh wow you lived in the 70s, you lived when so and so was happening. Its like yeah you just sort of expect it. When I look back I feel fortunate to be young when the Beatles first came because it really did influence you and your life, but yeah it is just your life I can not really pin point anything, except...it was good.

M: Yeah I am sure one day someone will ask me and I will reflect back on it, but mine was more of a hodge podge of like the 70s, the 60s, the 90s the 80s, we are now all reliving the past. All these trends are coming back. I was just in a vintage store, he is like the 70s are coming back.

F: Yeah well it was the 40s and the 50s for when I was younger.

F: We started this collaboration with having Stewart, who Madeline told me about her and I love her, and I love what she does. She looks like she is having a lot of fun doing her work, and I was having a lot of fun doing my work.

M: When I approached her and just told her the adjectives of how we describe your women, liberal, sassy, cheeky, she was like those are exactly the same adjectives I would use to describe my work. I think that caught her attention. She has been so sweet. We are going to launch in 2015 and my dream would to create like a pop up Keith Haring like store, like he had in the 80s. Just gathering all these emerging artists and talents from all over. I mean now I guess you do not know who is going to be still talked about in 10 years like Keith Haring, Basquiat, and Andy Warhol, but kind of create the factory scene but now.

“THE ADJECTIVES OF HOW WE DESCRIBE [FRANCINE’S] WOMEN ARE, LIBERAL, SASSY, CHEEKY” - MADELYN

francinedressler.com

hattiestewart.com

INSTAGRAM @FRANCINEDRESSL1979     

Eric Helvie

Artist Eric Helvie uses snuggies as his canvas, but his work is far from being warm and cozy.  inspired by millions of VISUAL references he creates a LANGUAGE that is unique and VIBRANT, he gave us a look into his latest work. 

The Unlimited - What is the story in your work?

Eric Helvie - An addiction to looking is where it begins. A need to constantly be flipping through imagery, whether its is film, art history, other people’s art. A lot of my work comes from this addiction or this need that I can not control, and the individual works are a distillation of this process. A pure sort of refined comment on thousands and thousands of images.

TU - How do you refer to the snuggie in reference to your art?

EH - When I first came across the snuggie I thought this is a completely absurd object and it has no meaning and no cultural value. Then as I continued to look at snuggies for whatever reason I realized that there was all of these layers that I was projecting onto them from my own addiction to looking or seeing. I felt that the snuggies for whatever reason had this quality of being both humorous but also somewhat decadent and even violent in some aspects. If you consider the military endeavors that allowed people to live in the amount of comfort to give them a blanket with sleeves. All of these things sort of coming together, all these layers, make the snuggie for me a perfect example of the distillation of art history and imagery and even politics in some cases.

"I think it is a fascination because of my personal aversion to emotion in the work, and even now as I am saying emotion in the work I cringe."

TU - How do you treat emotion when it comes to your art?

EH - My art has never been focused on emotion, or emotion has never been important to my art. In fact it has been something that I have avoided. I have a distaste for this idea that the artist has to deal with his deep inner psyche through his work, its bullshit and I do not give a fuck about it. I think I view art as work and the best art as just being incredible acts of creating.

TU - And there has never been a time when your emotion crossed into your work?

EH - I need my work, but need is not an emotion. It comes to individual pieces I will say yes I love this painting, but it is more because I have a hard time imagining seeing it leave the studio. Beyond that, when it comes to my painting the thing that tends to be the most powerful presence in the studio is art history and visual references in general.

 Eric Helvie's website

Ron English

Ron English took over the lobby of the Tribeca Grand with his newest show "Evolutionary Alternatives". The show features a series of paintings and the mural on the Grand Wall of deer with camouflage. Along with other paintings of non-existent animals, the show is based on the concept of how animals may have evolved had their surroundings been different, all done in English's signature cartoon colors yet photo-realistic painting style. 

https://www.popaganda.com

Artist Profile with Jenna Gribbon

Jenna Gribbon's paintings will make you want to talk.

The Unlimited talked to Jenna about her "Conversation" Portrait series.

This particular series of people having conversations is meant to capture a very specific moment in time when someone is expressing something or listening intently. I seem to always return to painting people, and I guess it's because there's nothing more interesting to me than the people of a given time, their presence, and their relationship to their world. It's fascinating how a good portrait can approximate something of that presence, and materialize it into something permanent. I think that the people I know are pretty interesting and worth documenting, and that they are at their most beautiful and themselves when they're deeply engaged. I love being in a room with people enlivened by a good conversation. There isn't really anything better. These paintings create something of permanence out of those moments.

Do you paint from life or photos?

I don’t paint the figures from life. It's important that they come from a photo because only a photo can sort of freeze time that way, capture that one specific moment. Otherwise the scene would have to be set up, and that's not what I'm interested in for this work. However the backgrounds are more fantastical and are often painted from life, or completely made up. Whatever is happening around the figure is meant to be a kind of amalgamated version of their interior world and mine, with cues taken from the conversations. 

In what way do you give each painting its own character?

I had a goal in this series to paint every single one in a different way, and even within each painting to paint in a few different ways. I do a lot of...a kind of channeling of other artists that I like. It's kind of fun to feel like a sort of medium for all of these people in painting history, and think, Oh, I’m going to paint this part as if this person were painting it and then I’m going to be this person when I paint this part. Of course you are never really that person, and then that's where you find yourself. I think it keeps it fresh in a way because I don't get stuck in this rote delivery of brush strokes. Then the paintings become not only about the conversation the subject is having, but my own conversation with myself about paint. 

"I think in order to really paint someone well you have to fall in love with him or her a little bit. It's an act of devotion to paint someone's face. Even in the case of a commission, in order to do it well, I have to develop a sort of emotional attachment to the subject."

Stephanie in Conversation 66" x 42"

After the Morandi Conversation 24" x 20"

Hannah and Caris in Conversation 12" x 9"

Isabella in Conversation 36" x 48"

Peter in Conversation 70" x 46"

What is The Oracle Club?

My boyfriend and I started it three years ago. It is a work space for artists and writers predominantly.  We also wanted a place where creative people could go and sit and have a quiet evening and nice conversation, (Which goes back to my interest in good conversation), but be able to sit down and talk to someone and play some records and maybe have a bottle of wine or a cup of coffee without feeling like you’re in some kind of scene-situation or there's music blasting. It doesn’t have to be dinner. It can be people just sitting around. Sometimes people have parties here, and sometimes we have readings, collage class, or concerts, but the day to day is really just a lot of good work happening.

Anyone interested in membership can contact us through our website, and send us an email to tell us who they are and about their interests.

Interview & Photography by Karin Bar 

jennagribbon.com

The Oracle Club, 10-41 47th Avenue, Long Island City, NY; 917-519-2594;

go to theoracleclub.com.