A conversation with Matthew Del Carmen.
The root of my creative process is derived from my photographic explorations, wherein I diligently seek moments that encapsulate people's collective engagement with a singular endeavor. Amongst the extensive array of visual representations capturing the vibrant tapestry of New York City's bustling streets, I am continuously drawn to the diversity inherent in human society. Within these scenes, where I've identified a unifying thread, my practice is centered around asserting each individual's distinct identity. Once I've chosen a compelling reference photograph, I prepare my surface. If my surface is flat, I lay down a texture that I know will make it difficult for me to draw on. I enjoy creating problems for myself as I believe that the magic comes while solving them. It forces me to embrace the aberrance of the creative process, pushing the boundaries of my traditional training and creating for myself new avenues of creation.
What draws you to the subjects that you paint? Who are they?
Foremost among my inspirations are the artists whom I am fortunate enough to call my friends. The significance of a steadfast artistic community is essential, and something we all appreciate. My peers not only inspire and motivate me to search for greater horizons, but also allow me to have people to share my love of creating with. I am constantly astounded by their magnetism, individuality, and unwavering capacity for wholehearted engagement, which only furthers my interest in the variety of the human experience.
A standout feature of your works is the texture-how do you achieve this style?
I draw and paint on top of a surface with a pre-existing texture, either inherent or one that I applied myself. From materials like OSB to concrete, I search for substrates that hinder my ability to work comfortably. While my work is often large and all encompassing, I take careful consideration of the minutiae of every square inch, creating compositions that oscillate between areas of texture and flatness. A worthwhile viewing experience is chief among my motivations. I want to entice the viewers into a closer examination of the work, where the diversity of techniques presents them with a payoff when looking at each individual stroke.
You incorporate multiple painting and drawing materials into each canvas. What pushed you to combine these materials in your work?
It's not been my experience that many artists are inclined to only one medium or singular manner of communicating. Despite this, we are often encouraged by the industry to delve deeper into one visual language to maintain a measure of predictability to our work. My solution was to build my entire artistic oeuvre upon the basis of combined media. So that my work in any particular combination of practices is not seen as a deviation from my main medium, but rather a testament to my continued dedication to mixed-media exploration. Each medium is tied by precedent to some form of style or expression merely by the nature of the material, but I feel that exhibiting a large variety of techniques allows me to more freely get across my own visual language.
What would you like viewers to take from your art?
I would like my viewers to understand that my work is like a fly stuck in amber, that any part of their personal life can be beautiful, extravagant or mundane. That no moment should be taken for granted. I want them to feel the desire to be present, resist the urge to pick apart the past or obsess about what lies ahead. I want them to feel the emotion in all of my subjects' faces and recognize that any moment can carry just as much gravity, then suddenly their attention is stolen by a bottle or can on the other side of the canvas. I want them to realize that the substrates I'm using are hidden within everyday life, and that the variety of media points to how it is inconsequential what material is chosen, that expression knows not the bounds of physicality. Hopefully, imparting on them the belief that they also have the capacity to create.
How have you witnessed your artistic practice change over time?
I was always a portrait artist, and I feel as though I might always be. Constantly occupied with the nuances that would make or break the likeness of a person. For the first nine years in which I pursued art, technical proficiency with as many mediums as possible was one of my top priorities. All people look at artwork for different reasons and notice different things. When I looked at artwork growing up, my main focus was the extent in which the artist pushed their medium of choice. I would do mixed-media work quite often, but never really saw it as such. The past three years is where my artistic practice has seen the most change. I started working at a much larger scale, my first piece being a 12 x 6 ft work that consisted of five full body self portraits. Each subject was rendered with a different combination of mediums. I quickly realized that the likeness of my subjects, a vital piece of my practice, is something that will only be for myself and my loved ones to experience. I had to commit to every inch of my canvas with the same emphasis on imparting emotion that I carried while drawing my subjects' faces. This allowed me to fall in love with other aspects of the process: the textures, materiality, composition, color relationships, as well as dive into the world of mixed-media. I rarely have to buy substrates to make art on as New York City always seems to provide me with a surface that is calling on me to touch. The biggest change in my artistic practice is the confidence I have in my intuition in decision making and truly falling in love with the journey I am taken on while creating a piece of art.
Do you see your lived experiences/background interacting with your artwork?
I view all artwork as placeholders in time, marking the current phenomena that encapsulate the world at any given moment. I am a contemporary impressionist painter, with my work being accurate representations of my lived experiences, both physically and emotionally. This also speaks to my background, coming from an Asian household, most creativity is taught to be suppressed, pushed down. The subject matter that my viewers see comes from an artist who learned to find beauty in the ordinary, an acceptance of reality at face value.
What inspired you to become an artist?
I didn't know the answer to this question for the first 20 years of my life and I'm still unsure if I am certain of it to this day. I truly feel as being an artist was my only option, I made a decision to continue with a gift I was given and stuck with it. I needed nothing more than that to carry on creating. When I think back on my life, I find that making art was the only avenue that I could make decisions fully removed from logic - based completely on intuition, and there would never be anyone who could tell me definitively that it was wrong. The only place where I am comfortable enough to shift my perspective on mistakes and allow them to become happy accidents. In present time, I am constantly inspired by my peers, the ones brave enough to create something that is raw, authentically themselves, and share it with the world. I had two people to share this love with when I first started, my middle and highschool teachers Nancy Provido and Terry Reffell, with whom I owe everything for they are the ones that nurtured me and showed me to grow. Nothing feels greater than the privilege of being able to pursue this dream with so many talented creatives and having something I find meaningful to dedicate my life to.