The Eva Series Revisited and an Interview with Mark Miltz

Statement

This series of works features the integration of Japanese pop cultural images (anime) into traditional western fine art objects.

This series of works features the integration of Japanese pop cultural images (anime) into traditional western fine art objects. The pieces rely on both the contrasts inherent in the disparate source materials and the interplay between these contrasting cultural symbol systems for their content. In effect, the works are translations. They attempt to emphasize a commonality of experience through the mediation of the native symbol systems of the viewers, whether western or Japanese. By using Japanese elements in western motifs, I am exploring the ways in which the assimilation of content is affected by its form.
The works overall deal with universal issues of love, alienation, sacrifice, and the crucible of adolescence by using that most universal of images, the human body. The body (often at life size) facilitates a metaphysical link between individual viewer and art.

Judgement of Paris
2012 Oil on canvas 36"x 48"

INTERVIEW WITH MARK MILTZ

JLM: How did you get started and tell me why did you gravitate towards the nude in your work?

MM: That's an interesting question. That was the main thing that interested me when I started to work; even in school, the figure drawing class was the thing that really grabbed me. Also, I'm a guy. I gravitate toward those sorts of things anyway. And then, admittedly, when I was getting back into painting consistently, I was living in Colorado at the time and working full time, so there was no competing with the landscape painters who were painting during the day when they weren't sitting in an office. I decided to concentrate on an area they were not dealing with. So that's one of the reasons why the concentration came out the way it did.

JLM: So do you feel any kinship with the landscape painters? Do you ever take the nude in the landscape at all in any of your work?

MM: Yes, actually, I just admire their ability to record the moment, and I like to get out and do it occasionally,. I love the immediacy of it. It is pretty amazing. And so in my version of that same kind of process, it's basically these three hour paintings (of the figure) that I do with my drawing group once a month or so.

I (took the nude into the landscape) a few times during COVID because no one would go inside. So I had all my drawing group friends over here, and we would draw the figure out in my backyard. In 2012, I did a fairly significant piece that was a judgment of Paris, which I intended to look as close to an old master's piece as possible, a Renaissance piece. So, that's instantly three nudes in a natural setting. It's the most ambitious painting I've ever tried. It was really part of a series that I was working on. But in doing that piece, I ended up doing a costume design and choosing models for each one of the three goddesses and for Paris, and I did individual paintings of each one of them, and then I put together the other piece, and I kept track of how long it took, just because I was kind of curious. So, painting time was about 175 hours, not including model time, precursor paintings, design, and all that other stuff. It's one of those two pieces that were up at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center for an exhibition, and at one point, they felt strongly enough that they had to take it down every time a school group of kids came through, which ended up almost starting a bit of a feud in the newspaper. It was just ridiculous, on the other hand. And eventually, that blew over.

JLM, I had three pieces that were put in kind of a closet room in 1998 at the Peninsula Fine Art Center, I know the feeling,

So you consider that a milestone piece in your body of work, and what are other milestone pieces or milestone moments in the history of your practice?

MM: I guess I would consider that a milestone simply because of the level of effort and planning that went into it. But there's certainly others. Some of the pieces that are currently in your gallery are kind of milestone pieces for me in the sense that they're collaborations with the models, and so they're a little bit richer and less narrative driven. The narrative ends up coming from the interaction with a model and what the model is interested in. So I've really enjoyed doing those individual pieces. Also, the judgment of Paris piece was different because it was a large number of figures in a single environment, and that's a bit tricky and was fun to work with. That was fun. Also, because I was making sure that each of my goddesses was a separate racial group. There were a lot of allegories built into that painting. Not as much in the current series, although here's definitely still allegeorical content.

*Proximity Burn*, 2006
Oil on canvas
36 × 36 in | 91.4 × 91.4 cm

JLM: So they were painted from life, the goddesses?

MM: Well, actually, the goddesses, I have painted all of these women before. And typically what I do for a studio piece is I painted the person before. I will bring them in for a photo session, and usually at the end of the photo session, I'll do a color study, a small color study to make sure I've got things worked out in my head that way. And then I paint the large studio paintings based on photographic stuff. Usually that's been composited and adjusted and so forth within Photoshop.

JLM: So do you ever paint from your imagination, or have you tried that?

MM; I have. Oddly enough, I don't do it very often. Well, actually, that's not true. I do it very often. But I do that when I'm planning a session. So for example, if I have a model in mind, I'll come in there and I will paint three or four or five or six small poses out of my head that I think will work at that model so that when the model comes in, I have an idea of exactly what I'm shooting for. And like I said, I've usually painted them before. And of course, the things that I do at the drawing group are always painted from life. But as far as the studio paintings, no, they're painted off of photos, and I'm not proud of that per se. But I've already painted these people often enough that I have a pretty clear idea of what colors I'm shooting for. But designing and Photoshop is just so much easier. It gives you a great deal of flexibility just in terms of even a adjusting color, making things live in the same world, so forth and so on.

JlM: So you bring it into Photoshop and you put your elements together in that way.?

MM: Yeah, exactly.

JLM: So Art Rosenbaum, added elements in his work from photographs, and then from life also. So do you ever, when you're working on something you've done the sketch, and then you see a pose from life and you change it because of something you see or something strikes you?

MM:Probably not as often as I probably should, but there are always things that change. Usually it changes in Photoshop rather than actually on the canvas, but sometimes it does end up changing on the canvas as well. Usually, for example, it's very rare for me to actually use a single photograph from the model, because typically what ends up happening is I'll need a hand from this pose. I'll need a face from that pose. I'll need a head angle from this pose. I'll need a twist of the shoulders from that pose. So I end up frankensteining these things together until I end up with what I feel like is a more effective composition.

JLM: So you're saying you're the narrative approach and your work has changed over the years. Can you elaborate on that or the way you're interacting with the model?

MM: Yes. This ties into your earlier question of whether I ever paint out of my imagination. So when the Dobbs decision came down, I had a still-life painting I was working on, and I just painted over it and did a piece out of my imagination based on the heinous ruling. And in doing so, that was a pretty effective painting that ended up in an exhibition in Hampton recently. A friend of mine saw it and said it does not look like anything you would usually paint, but it seems more like those preliminary sketches than an actual finished piece. It's a fun piece, but it's depressing as hell. This is not the kind of technical expertise of my usual work. There is technical expertise. It's that that's not the point. The point was to get the message across, and I did it for myself, and the fact that I ended up showing it is a bit of a surprise to me.

JLM; So are you inspired by classical literature philosophy in your work? This one Dichotomy for some reason, it reminds me of something about a novel from the 19th century or something. It has an odd feeling, but just for me personally, it reminds me of something inspired by perhaps Flaubert

*Dichotomy*, 2020
Oil on canvas
48 × 24 in | 121.9 × 61 cm

*Invalid Comparison*, 2023
Oil on canvas
24 × 12 in | 61 × 30.5 cm

*Glass Ceilings, Glass Walls (Khalia),*, 2018
Oil on canvas

*Glass Kayak*, 2019
Oil on canvas
48 × 24 in | 121.9 × 61 cm

MM: I hope it does it a little bit. I mean, the piece is designed to be a little bit disconcerting, but once again, it really came out of the interaction with the model. The model showed up that day with this amazing hairstyle that I've never seen on her and all of this nice jewelry, and I had already planned on a lighting setup that was pretty much this cool and warm lighting setup. So that was sort of planned. And in developing that, it struck me that there's the warm and cool aspect of that. Then there's the seductress end versus the subjugated woman end. So I ended up playing pretty much with some Christian tropes and with a stigmata as a graphic element'. That particular one does have a stamp of iridescent stuff on the background and the stamp. I loved that image because it can be read as a dancing girl, or it can be read as a crucifixion. And that was a perfect, similarly for me to kind of play with that.

JLM: Well, it really has an immediacy and its authenticity to it and emotion. And when I see it in the gallery, it's just very bare.

MM; I'm glad to hear that. And I do take weird chances with things like that because one of the things that I feel is important is being willing to let go a little bit. So with that one, I wasn't quite sure if I was going to run those stamps over the figure and then paint over that. And so there are a couple of places where these iridescent stamps show through the paint on the figure, and once again, it's one of those happy accidents, my Bob Ross commentary.

JLM; So you're talking about Christian tropes. Do you use that a lot in your work?

MM: It's often, I wouldn't say a lot, but it's definitely something that shows up. I mean, the Judgment of Paris has a very obvious Christian trope built into it, which I don't think I'll go into here because no one can see it. But yes, I, I've definitely got Jesus leading the sheep in that one, but he is leading them to slaughter in that piece.. There's so many classic painters that I admire and whose work does move me in those kinds of ways. And I do like to build a sense of narrative into them. I mean, the Caravaggios, et cetera. I mean, I want to kind of build that story into the pieces to whatever degree I can.

JLM: So this kind of aside, do you frequent museums and look at paintings?

MM; Oh, yes. And I look at the contemporary stuff too, so yeah. Yes, I do. I mean, we're lucky to have the Chrysler Museum here in town, so that gives me a lot of opportunities. I don't get to travel as much as I would like, but when I do get to travel, yes, I will definitely hit the museums and the galleries.

*Hatred*, 2003
Oil on canvas
36 × 36 in | 91.4 × 91.4 cm

JLM: Comment on the peice Glass Ceilings/Glass Walls

MM: That was one of those happy accidents when my local art supply store was moving, and they were selling off large canvases, really cheap. So I got this 24 by 72 inch canvas, and then I was at drawing group and ran into a model that I just thought, oh, I just want to paint her. And that was a really entertaining piece. I enjoyed that one a whole lot, and it had my typical level of nightmare accidents in building it. There are hand prints throughout the entire back of that piece, and that was right during the heart of the early stages of the Me Too movement. So there's a bit of social commentary there as well. It's currently entitled Glass Ceilings, glass Walls, because as a young black woman, these are the obstacles that my model is facing as a human being, both racial and as a female in the world. And I have daughters, so I have a tendency to gravitate toward those kinds of commentary.

JLM; So was this done from a photograph?

MM: Once again, I had her in the studio. I'll send a picture of the tiny little painting I did after that. I've drawn her multiple times. But yes, that's worked on from a photograph. And what I did have her do with that particular photo, which was kind of entertaining, I held up a big hunk of glass, and she had to press her hand against that piece of glass. And then I had her press her hand on some ink and on a stamp. So I have a stamp of her hand, which is what that background is done with. The background's a bit more subtle than I had intended, but it's kind of keep those hands off of me, and also the walls between us, if you will.

JLM: So interesting. Yeah. So is there anything else about the piece you want to talk about or other pieces have anything to do with the Me Too movement or

MM: That one? Well, there's one other aspect, which is, it's secondary, but it's not secondary. The model had some scarring. I don't know where that scarring came from, but this is not a slavish decision to include everything that was in the photo. This is a very conscious decision to include the scarring, because I feel like that sort of builds on the narrative, scar guard, been through some things, but still strong and resolute.

JLM: Okay, excellent. Yeah, definitely. So this other painting, the next painting, for some reason, it reminds me of Virginia Beach. It is very colorful to me.

MM: Extremely colorful, that one. That's the classic example of a collaboration with the model. And this is a model I've drawn 20, 50 times, many, many times I've painted her and just a real muse for me for many years. She's an artist and she's primarily a stained glass artist. So when we were talking about what we wanted to do, I was kind of thinking about stained glass, but she also happens to be an avid kayaker, does whitewater kayaking. And so I wanted to build all of those things into a single piece. And what I was really shooting for here is a feeling of stained glass almost. And I think that it has a bit of a Christian feel to it from the stained glass look aspect. But I was actually thinking a lot of trying to develop a sense of texture, trying to develop a whole lot more color, something that kind of brought across her personality, her strength. And I had a lot of fun with her hat too, because it has a logo on it that combinesw one of her favorite things and one of my favorite things, I didn't want Nike on the hat, which is what's in the photo. Of course. So that little symbol includes a cat, which turns into a martini glass. She's the cat person. I'll leave you to figure out the rest.

JLM: Can you comment on the Barbie piece, Invalid Comparison?

MM. Once again, this comes down to me having daughters. And in fact, when I talked to this model and asked her if she would post for me, she asked why I wanted her to post, and I told her, you don't look like a Barbie. And she went, oh, I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not. She did go ahead and pose for it. And I just enjoyed, and once again, this is a piece that shot the photo reference of her, and then composited this with some photos of Barbies that I had to try to build a composition. Part of that also came down to the fact that a friend of mine gave me a bunch of Barbies that I could paint. I never got around to doing any of 'em except this one.

JLM: So what other paintings have you done? Are there other paintings that are unusual or veering away from the path of the usual work?

MM: If you're talking about studio paintings, I actually come to think of it. I actually have done a couple of full on portraits from life, but there's a lot less thought involved in that. In a lot of cases. It's just a question of trying to build something. Actually, I did a series of paintings based on anime characters combined with nudes.

JLM. I think you had been doing those many years ago, hadn't you? I think rememeber seeing them in an exhibiton when I had recently moved back to the area.

*Passion Play*, 2005
Oil on canvas
36 × 36 in | 91.4 × 91.4 cm

MM: Yes, they're from the nineties. Actually. I did the first of those in the late nineties. And the rest of them, probably in the early two thousands, they came about because a friend of mine forced me to watch an anime show. I was like, well, whatever. Okay, fine. I'll do it. I got hooked. This is back in the days when you had to wait for your anime to be shipped to you. So it'd be six months in between three episodes. This show, I got hooked on the show mostly on the characters. But what initially hooked me was the design, the design of the frames, the design of the backgrounds, the way the whole thing was put together was really novel, weird stuff, like a camera angle that's up from the floor, up the noses of two people standing on two sides of an elevator. Just weird stuff. So I initially did a painting. I was doing a lot of figure paintings in my studio at that point. So I did a painting of one of my models in front of one of these pieces, and it occurred to me, be fun to try to combine this two dimensional art form with the very three-dimensional looking art form and still have them look like they hung together as a piece. So the first piece was basically just had the image as a background element. It basically functioned as a wall. But after that, I started moving a little bit further and playing around with depth of field in the images. And at that point, I knew I wanted to do another series of paintings. So I actually wrote to the owners of right to that particular animation, which is Neon Genesis. I had the letter translated into Japanese and told them that I wanted to do a series of paintings. I would never do prints, and I just wanted the rights to do that. And I got the letter back, which of course, I had to pay to translate back, and they gave me the rights to the entire series. I think they were so shocked that anybody bothered to ask instead of just ripping them off.

*Muse (Triptych)*, 2008
Oil on canvas
40 × 84 in | 101.6 × 213.4 cm

MM: Actually, those paintings are available. The fun part about those paintings too, is right after that, the company I was working for in Colorado went bankrupt, and I went to get a master's degree. I had determined that I wanted to teach, so I needed to get a master's degree. And my company went bankrupt, and darn if they didn't go bankrupt right after the deadline to apply to graduate school in the US but not so in England. And I was also doing some 3D design. So I found a school that did 3D design and painting master's degrees, and I went to Ken Institute of Art and Design in Canterbury, England. I flew over on 9/11, that 9/11. So it was very bizarre. I was the only American in the school. And boy, with this accent is that obvious. But it was a fascinating year. And what I ended up doing, what's much more conceptual, and I won't go into that here. However, I designed a large series of paintings and did one painting out there and one altarpiece out there of these works. And the painting that I actually did was, it's six feet tall by 14 feet wide in panels with all the figures or life size, but it's very much the same thing, a combination of some of the models that I had photographed in Colorado with the anime elements. And the trick there is making sure that the lighting matches, the angle matches, and the pattern of lights and shadows match the color temperature matches. You do all those things to make the figures integrate properly so that they still read as a unit in spite of being so disparate in terms of their approach.

*Interiors*, 2003
Oil on canvas
36 × 36 in | 91.4 × 91.4 cm

JLM: I love it. So what did you take away from England?

MM; Well, I rapidly discovered that if I just painted, I was not going to pass because they're far more interested in the conceptual elements. So the stuff that I did in England ended up being a whole exhibition, a themed exhibition of these anime based paintings that never happened. And my interest was what is the difference between a piece that someone knows exists but has never seen, and a piece that they think exists, but once again, they've never seen it. So I was playing with that idea. So my exhibition actually was an exhibition that was in 3D space. I populated it with all these paintings I had planned. I left a couple of paintings that I had actually done out front as sort of artifacts, and then I published all the posters and pamphlets and all the things that would've gone with the show, including a movie of the show, a fly through movie of the show. And the best part of that experience was listening to some guy walk into the show and just go, no. Yeah, what was this piece here? What the difference? Everyone believes in the Mona Lisa, but how many people have really seen it? That really was what that was about. It was great fun.

I say too, the opportunity to see the contemporary work that I saw in London while I was there, and I also got to go to a symposium on manga and anime in London, which was hilarious because the stuff that was being translated wasn't all that funny. But every Asian girl in the entire auditorium would burst into laughter, and we just knew the translation wasn't coming through properly.

JLM: Comment a bit more on the technical details of your process with paint. Do you start with a colored ground in many of your pieces?

MM: They're all over the place. It just depends. The Dichotomy piece was one where I actually stamped a resist on the whole canvas. Then I stained the canvas in gray. Then I tried to rub the resist off only to discover that oil paint dissolves it and it turned into mud. I probably spent more time trying to fix the background than the actual piece, which is, that's where that red that you see is kind of underlaying, the iridescent comes from. That was the original resist. And then I tried staining that with red and stamped the rest again because everything sort of went away. I like that because it adds some complexity.

JLM: So well the last question I wanted to ask you is who's inspired you? Who are your heroes as far as painters?

MM; I hate to say this because they're kind of classic, but I mean actually I'm really fond of Whistler and Sargent of course is huge. Some of the contemporary people I like Jeremy Mann's work quite a lot because of his level of abstraction. And actually, I think I really like his cityscapes even more than his figurative work. The figurative work is great as well. So there are tons of people I could mention. Malcolm Liepke comes to mind as well. I was fascinated with him back when he was called Skip, and I would see his stuff in illustration annuals, not that I'm copying that in any sense, but I love his simplicity and the approach, which of course is shared by Kobyashii. I guess. They were roommates in college and sort of came up with this approach together. And right now, Connor Walton is a painter online who's worked. I'm really impressed with both on a conceptual level and a technical level, but also because he's capable of doing humor and humor is tough in a painting. I am not particularly good at that, but he nails that stuff right and left. I don't know if you follow him, but if you don't look up Connor Walton,

Beautiful stuff.