As a visual artist, Roberta Fineberg (RF) focuses on the themes of serendipity, inventiveness, and the development of ideas for her photography, video, installations, works on paper, and painting. Drawn to experimentation, she explores diverse mediums and concepts such as the ephemeral (Butterfly Series), stolen moments (documentary photography), play, timelessness, the enduring, and the significance of matter. @amusepro
Where were you born and raised? How did it influence your art and your thinking about the world? I was born in Boston, raised in Boston and Paris. Boston is super provincial, and Paris just blew the lid off puritanical thinking - Parisians have no relationship with Mayflower ancestors. Lucky me!
When did you first fall in love with art and realize you wanted to be an artist? For you, what is the importance of the arts? In high school, I was a troubled adolescent and found salvation in art. The epiphany became apparent during a printmaking class - silkscreen, I believe. I was probably torturing the very kind male instructor who was patient, and from that class on, I knew I wanted to be in the arts to save myself.
What does your typical day in the studio look like? Walk us through your studio and your most used materials and tools. There's no typical day - I am experimental. When I latch on to a project, though, I stay committed to it. Right now, I am combining skill sets - I have a history in photography, a medium I love. I started painting around more than 10 years ago - I have a good sense of color and enjoy abstract art. These days, mixed media feels so right - starting with a lens-based work on paper or canvas, I explore pastels and oils - mixing my own colors - using pigments from Europe to achieve rich results.
What projects are you at work on at the moment? And what themes or ideas are currently driving your work? In Paris, I was very attached to literature, language (studied in French), attended/photographed literary events, and documented women writers
in Europe, the US, and Russia. My love for books as objects of desire for wisdom and unearthing mysteries of life became apparent or reemerged while having lunch at the home of a former bookseller in Paris. I took a few shots of her private library and then got hooked on the image as an abstraction with the book’s potential as a color field when the object is taken out of its usual context. Deconstructing books? Maybe!
What do you hope people feel when they experience your art? What are you trying to express? Connection to ideas that books represent, color abstractions - the physicality of the object, the joy of color - painted objects in a world we all take great pleasure in digesting color, where color becomes the life of the work.
Which artists, past or present, would you like to meet? And why? Women artists are mainly trailblazers. How unlikely it is for a woman to excel and succeed creatively in any artistic field, which is highly competitive and male-dominated, like most fields.... I love all the rare birds here are a few of my favorites:
- Tracey Emin
- Georgia O'Keefe
- Diane Arbus
- Julia Margaret Cameron
- Francesca Woodman
- Kusama
- Louise Bourgeoise
- Helen Frankenthaler
- Frida Kahlo
- Hilma af Klint
Do you draw inspiration from music, art, or other disciplines? I love all music, really. Film. Dance.
A great thing about living in New York is… NYC is infinitely interesting - impossible to be bored, while necessary to safeguard energy for work. For example, a simple errand in a NYC neighborhood can turn into an adventure of discovery with many hours spent out of the studio.
Can you describe a project that challenged you creatively or emotionally—and how you worked through it? Every project challenges me -- while working, I don't dictate the outcome of the work. Sometimes I reach a precipice and wonder how I am going to solve the piece or the project - I keep going, following my gut. I find a way back from the edge and complete the piece that, in the end, I like.
Tell us about important teachers/mentors/collaborators in your life. Peter Bonner, an Australian abstract painter, whose studio classes I have enjoyed for years at both the Art Student League and the New York School of the Arts. Peter has shared so much about art making - an approach to making work which I always felt very akin to. I refer to Peter as an artist whisperer!
Sustainability in the art world is an important issue. Can you share a memory or reflection about the beauty and wonder of the natural world? Does being in nature inspire your art or your process? I love being in nature and would like to spend more time doing so. One of my favorite places in the world is Little Compton, Rhode Island. It's a peninsula (ocean and the Sakonnet River), a rural community (farmland), and one of the oldest hamlets (villages) in the United States.
AI is changing everything - the way we see the world, creativity, art, our ideas of beauty and the way we communicate with each other and our imaginations. What are your reflections about AI and technology? What is the importance of human art and handmade creative works over industrialized creative practices? AI has its own language, and some people are using it well and to their advantage, like Sasha Stiles. The medium is in its infancy - let's see what practitioners will do with this relatively new medium.
Exploring ideas, art, and the creative process connects me to… myself and the world. Art makes me feel alive, and I appreciate being able to share my creative exploration.
