Gary Panter

[tartysuz]

Just came home from hearing Gary Panter speak at the Art Gallery of Alberta. He's a great speaker: inspiring and insightful.

I jotted down a few notes and quotes:

• "[Growing up] in Texas, it was bleak. I had to make my own culture."
  
• Comics is about bringing people in, immersing them in this world, and having them want to stay there. Painting stops people in their tracks.
  
• "I'm an old-timey painter, which maybe makes me a modernist. Or a postmodernist."
  
• "In painting, I think it's enough to put images next to each other. People can start to find their own reason for it."
  
• He puts all sorts of junk together for his light shows. "The brain will organize it."
  
• "Being an artist is about exploring your psyche."
  
• "If I'm doing commissioned art, I'm solving someone else's problem."
  
• "Go into your head, but don't torture yourself."
  
• "I don't make too many rules because it hangs me up."
  
• "I don't watch TV unless I'm in a hotel. I turned on the music video station and everyone's naked. When did that happen?"

The AGA announced that Panter did three illustrations for an upcoming artbook that goes with the Janet Cardiff / George Bures Miller installation A Murder of Crows, which I experienced (all too briefly) at the AGA a few weeks ago. The book is scheduled to come out this fall, so I'll keep you posted.