Paul Collins is an artist, educator, and curator out of Nashville. He worked for a decade as a technologist on both coasts before giving 2 weeks’ notice to relocate for a teaching job that took him to Tennessee. @impaulcollins
Where were you born and raised? How did it influence your art and your thinking about the world? I was born in New Jersey. Looking back on my upbringing, my creative influences included 70's Catholic Social Justice, Martin Kippenberger, Philip Guston, Gordon Matta-Clark, and my sister Kate.
When did you first fall in love with art-making? Always. I tried to run away from it, but it didn't work.
What does a day in your creative space entail? Walk us through your studio and your most used materials and tools. I have a day job and a family, so art happens early and late. Most used materials are a Singer 4411 HD sewing machine, a Princeton #6 angular brush, and a Wagner Spray Tech 0529013 Detail Sprayer. Even with life commitments, I depend on this triad daily and weekly.
What projects are you working on at the moment? And what themes or ideas are currently driving your work? I'm an advocacy publisher and I make books big and small to make a difference. My biggest commitment right now is the Unbannable Library (http:/unbannablelibrary.com or @unbannablelibrary). Themes? Goddamn it we're getting fucked and my ideas are entirely focused on combating the pervasive sense of defeat that permeates liberal corners.
How do you want your audience to feel when they encounter your work? I am a diarist artist who believes that making work about the small details of life is the only way to address the universal. I hustle, and at the end of the day if the only thing my viewers get is a sense that hustle (and thus change) is a possibility, then I am fulfilled.
Which artists, past or present, would you like to meet? Gordon Matta-Clark, Hilma Af-Klint, Ana Mendiata, William Blake, William Burroughs, Denis Jonson.
Do you draw inspiration from music, art, or other disciplines? Let's be honest. Music achieves a greater range of access and impact than visual art ever will by an order of 1000(10,000? 1,000,000?). ART is a niche luxury. I dream of making a visual work that hangs on in the mind of viewers like a Top 100 earwig. Volunteer work is the most inspiring practice I know.
How does the environment of Nashville fuel your art? Nashville is great, no joke: enthusiastic collaborators, hungry youth, fun places to show your work, actual cool people, not fakers. The South is slippery but cool.
Who were the teachers/mentors/collaborators that meant the most to you? My most important teachers have been my students.
How does nature inform your creative life? I love nature. I am an enthusiastic if uninformed gardener. Digging in the dirt lets the bad vibes out and the good vibes in.
Do you incorporate AI in your art practice, and how do you feel about it? AI will never make art because AI has no horizon or mechanism for failure. In a binary system 1 and 0 are fungible possibilities, but in art no = 0 and yes = +100000. AI supposes without heat. You need a furnace of doubt to gamble and get to art.
Exploring ideas, art and the creative process connects me to… My community.
