Interview with Elizabeth Huey

q)So, can you tell me a little about yourself? Full name, age, some background info, etc?

a)My name is Elizabeth Mackey Huey. Born on March 7th. (Sharing the day with Luther Burbank the first man to make colored roses). I really don’t believe in chronological time. Sometimes I’m 17. sometimes I’m 83. sometimes I’m 32. My age really depends upon how I feel.
I was born in Virginia but I’ve spent many years in Aix-en-Provence, France and lifetimes in Florence.
I’m much better with pictures than words. It’s true.
Recently a poetic friend of mine called me “plutonium girl”. I’d say that’s a pretty accurate description of my personality.
Plutonium has been called "a physicist's dream but an engineer's nightmare".

q) How did you get started making art?

a)When I was hungry I’d draw cheeseburgers, when I was lonely I’d draw friends, when I wanted to play outside I’d make mountains and trees and if I wanted to be rich I’d make dollar bills with construction paper and crayons.

q)How would you describe your art?

a)Equal parts romance and tragedy.

q)Where do you get inspiration for your art?

a)Random google searches, church basements, mental illness and master paintings, machinery, colored waters, crazy rants from gutter bums, ancient psychological manuals and old dictionaries, at the dog run, in my bathtub, in my dreams, American and European history, clothing and costumes, muffled giggling, documentaries new music and the my warped ideas about the wilderness.

q)What are you working on now?

a)Two things…I’m working on a video short about Bedlam, the very first psychiatric institution. I’m flying to London next week and I’ll be visiting the hospital. It’ll be shown on an analog TV at MASS Gallery in Austin, TX. Also, working on my solo show at New Image Gallery called The Waiting Room where new paintings and drawings will hang in a wallpapered room with a small table and chair equipped with all the accoutrements of the space where a patient would wait to hear the verdict from the doctor.

q)Are there some web sites that you would like to recommend? Artists, art communities, xxx,...!?

a)myspace is so amazing. I can’t get enough of meeting new artists and seeing new pictures and drawings available 24 hours a day. Check out my wikipedia manual…ok. Here we go…PIKACHU….Pikachu’s main purpose in the games, as with all other Pokémon, is to battle both "wild" Pokémon, untamed creatures that are encountered while players pass through various natural environments in the game, and to fight against "tamed" Pokémon owned by Pokémon trainers

q)What are your artistic influences? What or who?

a)Artists at the moment I’m obsessed with include Hans Memling, Edvard Munch, De Chirico, Magritte, Marcel Broodthaers, Duchamp, Sigmar Polke, Kara Walker, Jockum Nordstrom, as for people influencing my work I will also add my obsessions with the lives of Dorothea Dix and Thomas Kirkbride and the relationship between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung.

q)How are the reactions on your work in general?

a)Hissing Possum says “Applause, standing ovations, tears, cries of anguish, a turned head, an exhausted grunt, flowers and more applause.”

q)What are you doing when you’re not creating art?

a)I’ve been making art so much lately there’s very little separation between when i’m making it and not making it. seems there’s really no clocking out.

q)Tell us about a recent dream you had.

a)This morning I dreamt I was in a large wooden conference room and two of my ex-boyfriends were in charge…seated at the front with sly grins and half-dressed women. Giggly girls were hugging them and administering generous doses of flattery. Seated to the side two large, wrinkly faced politicians in black suits bragged about mutual appointments as board members for some medical college in Connecticut. They rambled on and on laughing about how one of their daughters could pull strings despite the fact she used the term carrot hole frequently. Lastly, a ghost-like voice clearly pronounced instructions for me to take a photography course. Unfortunately, before it really got good my cell phone rang and woke me up.

q)What is freedom to you as an artist?

a)Strangely enough freedom to me includes security and privacy as well the absence of internal and external restraints.
Unfortunately, the above ideologies do not comfortably coexist.

q)Are there any particular works you've done that stand out as your favorites?

a)My favorites are frequently changing. Right now I’m very interested in the flat green color in Hydrotherapy, the screenprinted moving figures in The Retreat and Bedlam.

q)Last Books you read?

a)Paul Auster’s The Invention of Solitude and The Idiot’s Guide to Organizing Your Life. I’m in the middle of The Glass Bead Game and just started Vindication for my book club.

q)Last records you bought?

a)Beck’s Information, Thom Yorke, Cold Elf, Animal Collective and The Arcade Fire

q) Who are your favourite artists & your favourite galleries?

a)Deitch Projects, Canada, Clementine and New Image because they keep mixing it up and maintaining my interest.
Eigen & Art, David Zwirner, Andrea Rosen, Zach Feuer and Sikkema Jenkins because they represent my favorite artists.

q) Which do you think make good art good? Originality or style? And, why?

a) Artistic style is different from fashion style. Artistic style incorporates visual devices, characteristic mark-making and other elements that help to distinguish one artwork from the billions of others. So I believe style and originality are
inseparable. “An original work is one not received from others nor one copied based on the work of others”. When an artwork reflects a unique style, then it’s original. When it’s original it possesses style.

q)Your contacts…E-mail…Links

a)I update my myspace page more frequently than my website because it’s easier. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=10388717

I am going to learn how to update my website soon, I promise.
www.elizabethhuey.com

this is the link to my solo show up at Feigen Contemporary now http://www.feigencontemporary.com/

Here’s my email elizabethhuey@mac.com