Interview with Gina Magid

q) When did you start to make art?

a)Around 18 or 19 probably

q)Explain your inspiration?

a)I strive for a feeling of transcendent beauty, some mystery, the inclusion of the negative side of things as well as the positive. I like art that can take me to another realm where things are more open to possibility, not so narrow, and in a way present a more accurate picture of the situation, showing the connections between things that might not be readily apparent otherwise.

q) In what way does your inspiration transform into ideas?

a)I try to be aware of the visuals and feelings around me, and to notice what things affect me and how, but I don’t always understand how, and working through them in my paintings is one way I can explore myself and my relationship to the world. The spaces between the internal and the external. I try to work from a place of uncertainty rather that with a concrete idea because I think its more interesting and gets me to something more real.

q) Could your ideas be portrayed in any other medium? If so which?

a)Sure, probably any. Dance, film, clay, fashion, music, writing. In a weird way it doesn’t really matter what the medium is, but I chose painting because I love having a solo studio practice and I respect it’s connection to the past, the craft of it, which has been building for hundreds of years, and which I can draw upon and add to in my own way.

q) What does being an artists mean to you?
a)It means living outside of the “normal” constraints that most people submit to, and making it my business to reflect light into areas that might otherwise might not be seen, or might not seem important. Revelation, revealing.

q) When does your art become successful?

a)It becomes successful when it reflects something back at me that I didn’t see coming and which is interesting and which I can stare at endlessly and it keeps revealing. When it is no longer about myself.

q) Who prices your work? And how is the price decided upon?

a)I guess mostly my gallery, Feature, helps to price my work. I think the prices mostly have to do with being in NYC in the art world system and them fitting in with how that system operates.

q) What is your next; move,project,show etc?

a)I have nothing coming up right now, but I am making a visual blog where I post recent work from the studio, photos, some other stuff I’m thinking about or working on. It is www.ginamagid.blogspot.com
Im very involved right now with a construction project. I’m building a studio space on the roof of my house in Brooklyn. It’s a big project and takes up a lot of my time. Then I’ll have a great studio tho!

q) What are the pros and cons of the art market?

a)Mostly I think that the current market is gross and to some extent ruins art. It is the part about being an artist that I don’t like. Here in NYC it’s really bad. It kind of bums me out that no mater what I may think I’m doing in my studio, ultimately I am creating consumer products for the ultra rich. That’s a problem! But I want people to own and live with my paintings, so it’s confusing.

q) Which pieces would you like to be remembered for?

a)I don’t get attached to individual pieces. They are all my babies!

q) Who has been the biggest influence on you?

a)I have a myriad of sources that I like to commune and converse with alone in my studio. It can range from Velasquez to Karen Kilimnick. I like Rita Ackerman, Elizabeth Peyton, David Hockney, Francis Bacon, Monet, Kirchner, Schiele, Franz Kline, Klimt’s landscapes, old Flemish portraiture, water, animals, gore, the disrupt between humans and nature, things that make me feel something, trees.
I work a lot from the cultural time and place that molded me, Long Island in the 70’s and 80’s. I was a child in NY during the Women’s, Movement, which my mother was very affected by, and that has undoubtedly influenced me as well.

q)Other visual artists that you like.

a)See above

q) How much do you think hype affects the public perception of what good art is?

a)I think that hype absolutely and completely affects the public perception of what good art is. Magazines, media. At least here where I live it does, I don’t know about anywhere else.

q) Last CD you downloaded ?

a)In my studio lately I listen to Interpol, old Neil Young, Sonic Youth, Mazzy Star, The Cars, Sanskrit chants, Nina Simone

q) What makes you happy?

a)Animals, trees, my husband, swimming in the ocean, painting, bike riding, spiderwebs, creative projects

q) What makes you sad?

a)Roadkill, war, aggression, factory farming, intolerance, ignorance, George Bush, the conflict in Israel, disposable culture, consumerism, my phobias, lobsters in tanks at the Chinese restaurants .

q) Last book you read?

a)The Time Travelers Wife. Right now im reading The Pianist. I read a lot, all the time, and quickly. I don’t have a TV, because it numbs me out.

q)Your contacts.

a) www.ginamagid.com
ginamagid@msn.com