This is the twenty-fifth in a series of interviews with each of the Sondheim Award Semifinalists. Finalists have been announced, and will be on exhibit at the Walters Art Museum June 21 to August 17; those not selected as finalists with be exhibited at the Decker, Meyerhoff and Pinkard Galleries at MICA July 17 to August 3, 2014.
Name: Trevor Young
Website: www.trevoryoung.net
Current Location: My studio is in downtown Silver Spring.
Hometown: Takoma Park, MD
School: University of the Arts, Philadelphia (BFA)
Current favorite artists or artwork: Valeri larko, Stepehn Magsig, Glenn Barr, Joe Deal, Olivia Rodriguez, Lewis Baltz, Michael Massaia
What is your day job? How do you manage balancing work with studio time with your life? I am a full-time artist. I get the pleasure and challenge of working every day. I work with a two fantastic gallery’s. J.Cacciola gallery, NY and David Klein gallery in Birmingham MI.
How would you describe your work, and your studio practice? My work focuses on “non-places” such as ATMs, gas stations, airports, highways, and factories that appear to me as minimal architectural forms. I am drawn to the spatial relationships and specific light found in these places. The geometry can be really dramatic.
What part of art making to you like or enjoy the most? The least? I like all the aspects and the challenges that painting and spatial relating imposes on me.
What research do you do for your art practice? My research starts with my grabbing my camera and getting into my car. I photograph on road trips and in my own neighborhood. I rarely don’t have my camera and sketchbook with me. I consider photography to be part of the drawing stage of a painting that allows me to collect images from either my vehicle or from my tripod.
What books have you read lately you would recommend? Movies? Television? Music?Wayne Thiebaud talking about Giorgio Morandi.on the Morandi Museum website.
Do you ever get in creative dry spells, and if so, how do you get out of them? Rarely do I dry out creatively. I am worker not a dreamer. If I slow I get busy adjusting my process. I might slow but I have never had a dry spell thankfully.
How do you challenge yourself in your work? I create new problems to solve in each painting. I sometimes choose difficult compositions that I don’t fully understand and have to find a way to make them work.
What is your dream project? My dream project would be producing a large series of panoramic view of airports from above. I have always loved DFW airport. It’s grand place that’s void of the short comings of natural space.