Just Make Art
A conversation about making art and the artist's journey with Ty Nathan Clark and Nathan Terborg, two artists trying to navigate the art world, just like you.
In each episode, the duo chooses a quote from a known artist and uses it as a springboard for discussion.
Through their conversations, Ty and Nathan explore the deeper meaning of the quote and how it can be applied to the artists studio practice. They share their own personal stories and struggles as artists, and offer practical advice and tips for overcoming obstacles and achieving artistic success.
Whether you're a seasoned artist or just starting out, "Just Make Art" provides valuable insights and inspiration to help you navigate the creative process and bring your artistic vision to life. With their engaging and conversational style, Ty and Nathan create a welcoming space for listeners to explore their own artistic passions and learn from two artists working hard to navigate the art world.
Just Make Art
Excavating the Soul of Reclaimed Materials
Join us for an exploration of art and materials in this interview Nathan Terborg, recorded at his solo exhibition at Galerie Benjamin Eck in Munich. Nathan skillfully transforms found objects into thought-provoking art pieces. Discover how his early experiences in his grandfather's woodshop influenced his artistic journey, leading him away from traditional painting towards an immersive sculptural practice. Nathan dives into the essence of experimentation, stressing how the relationship between artist and materials is foundational to creating meaningful work.
Nathan’s approach of curiosity and discovery emphasizes that artistic freedom resides in the acceptance of imperfection and the willingness to explore beyond the surface. The conversation also highlights the importance of communication through art, with Nathan referencing the impactful words of Louise Bourgeois. This insight showcases the intrinsic value of art as an unspoken language that connects both the creator and observer.
By drawing from personal anecdotes and professional insights, Nathan inspires listeners to reconsider their interactions with materials and art forms. As he encourages audiences to engage with sculptures tactually, he elucidates the transformative potential hidden within the discarded. Dive into this rich dialogue on creativity and allow yourself to be inspired by the alchemy of art!
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Galerie Benjamin Eck: www.benjamin-eck.com
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Hello and welcome to another episode of Just Make Art. In today's episode we're going to be sharing an interview that was recorded in Munich right after the day after the opening of my solo exhibition at Gallery Benjamin Eck. This is an interview we hadn't really planned on, but it was kind of a follow-up to the conversation that I'd had with Domenico Chirico. That was recorded at the opening itself. So that was shared in our previous episodes. So go ahead and check that out if you are so inclined. This was something that was a little bit spur of the moment, but Chris Fay, who's a phenomenal videographer and filmmaker, good friend of Benjamin's, had suggested that we do another interview and so he came in and set up a phenomenal setup. You'll see the lighting and everything is just on point. So if you're listening to this and you want to go, check out the YouTube version, it's there for your viewing enjoyment. But yeah, this is much more of a casual chat. This was after Benjamin and I had spent about a week together hanging out and quite a bit of time doing everything from going to the airport to pick up the massive crate full of work to installing the show, to just kind of connecting and chatting. So this is a much more casual conversation than the more formal one that we had had the night before, which again was shared in our previous episode. If you want to go, check that out.
Speaker 1:But in this episode I did a very poor job of sharing a Louise Bourgeois quote, and so I want to do that quote justice before we get into the interview, because it is that good and deserves to be shared properly. So Louise said a work of art doesn't have to be explained. If you do not have any feeling about this, I cannot explain it to you. If this doesn't touch you, I have failed, and this is especially meaningful to me because it's funny how things work out from a timing perspective.
Speaker 1:Just this past weekend, I got a chance to visit the Art Institute of Chicago with my mom. We were traveling for a family reunion that was not too far from Chicago and decided to schedule in an extra day to have a little mother-son art time together, which is super cool, but was not expecting to walk into a room full of Louise's work. They've got currently six sculptures of hers that were made at very different periods during her almost 75-year career of making work, and so it was really, really just awesome. I mean absolute blast to go ahead and look at that work with my mom, who didn't have any context, obviously, for her work or what it was about, and so this quote was especially interesting to view all those pieces for me in person for the first time, for sure, and for my mom to be seeing her work for the first time ever, and it definitely inspired a really fun conversation afterwards where we got to talk more about, you know, what inspired her, her life and those types of things, which was just really cool.
Speaker 1:But because I did such a bad job of and you'll hear it when I paraphrase this quote in the interview itself, I wanted to make sure and share that in its proper and full form. So, apart from that, we also discuss how I got from painting to what I'm doing now, how some of my childhood memories impact what I'm doing today, my relationship with materials in terms of how I acquire them, how I find them, how I catalog them and how I process material and, lastly, what I hope people take from my work. So with that, here's the interview.
Speaker 2:Hi, today we are with Nathan Turberg. Four questions for him. He's the alchemist in the gallery program, observing materials, giving it a new context, a new soul. So, nathan, have you ever thought about switching to painting, would you?
Speaker 1:like me to.
Speaker 2:I don't think so With respect to Ratul. Here we go again.
Speaker 1:You know it's interesting. So I started painting. That was the first thing that I did and I enjoyed it. I started painting, that was the first thing that I did and I enjoyed it. I found very quickly that what I wanted to do visually could not be accomplished in two dimensions, so I don't remember exactly when it was, but I was working on a piece and I started to sand a little bit, which you can do a little bit on canvas. But then I started to really work it and it wasn't long, of course, before I punct bit, you know, on canvas. But then I started to really work it and it wasn't long, of course, before I punctured, you know, the canvas, and that was that. So from there I moved on to wood panels, which just kind of gave me more space, of course, to kind of sand and carve. You know a little bit.
Speaker 1:And then I remembered, you know, back to childhood.
Speaker 1:My grandfather had a wood shop and I remember some of my earliest memories are just walking into his wood shop and just the smell of fresh cut wood, seeing him, you know, all of his tools lined up, just so, and it was just a magical place where he was, just, he was retired and just making furniture, toys, you know, christmas gifts, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:And so I started very young I got a carving knife and would do whittling and I would carve you know little animals. And so when I started working with wood, I started thinking about you know what are some ways that I can carve and just manipulate and just get more dimension and more depth. And so then I started working with wood that got more and more thick two, three centimeters and that's kind of the first series of work that I did was almost exclusively wood that was carved and burned and that then led me to everything that's here adding different materials, building up layers, which is what this show is about. So I don't have any plans on going back to painting anytime soon, but you never know.
Speaker 2:I see. So how do you?
Speaker 1:find your materials. My antenna is always, always, always.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean even just walking around the city here.
Speaker 1:I've seen some things that look familiar. There's some material that is everywhere in the world, right Like plastic is everywhere, tarp is everywhere, you know, wood is, of course, but there's never, I've never, met a material that I didn't at least want to try to experiment. Right like plastic is everywhere. Tarp is everywhere, you know, wood is, of course, um, but there's never, I've never met a material that I didn't at least want to try to experiment with, you know. So experimentation really is the core of my studio practice, it's the core of my work. It's a curiosity to really get my hands into things. It's about the process. Yes, I think of it as dissection, you know almost a scientific, like what is this?
Speaker 1:How can I get this down to its sort of essence and cut it down, burn it down, how can I get it down to its core and then from there developing a relationship with the material? That's kind of how I think about. It is like how can I sort of tame this wild beast that I don't understand? Initially, and after enough repetition and time and sort of studying what can be done, I use a lot of heat, mostly melting, some burning, but just discovering like some of these materials for example, they're very delicate there's a very, very fine line between a nice little melt, where it can be manipulated, and full flames and then it's done.
Speaker 1:But the beautiful thing about working with discarded material or trash is that for me, it provides a tremendous amount of freedom, Possibilities. Possibilities yeah yeah, yeah, choice, choice, options.
Speaker 2:Yeah, freedom.
Speaker 1:There's no limit to, I think, what can be done, and there's also, I think, no pressure for me, because the worst thing that can happen, the worst case, is that it becomes trash Again, again, right, which is what it was before you know, but you give it a different meaning.
Speaker 2:The context is the transpiration of that's what makes it unique. Yes, a new soul.
Speaker 1:I think you know I do. I spoke with somebody about this at the opening last night. I have an appreciation for art that is clearly found objects where you can identify. This is what that used to be. I have a compulsion, a desire, an obsession with what else could it be? How can I make this through process and experiment? How can I make it look different than what it was before? I like for people to be surprised when I tell them what it used to be. I don't want for it to be immediately obvious oh, that used to be. Whatever it is.
Speaker 1:And so, from a sourcing standpoint, one of my, one of the not a rule, but something that I try to stick to is having sources for materials that are renewable, or I know I can get an almost endless supply, never run out, Correct, because it takes a lot of time. I've worked with some materials where I only had a finite amount, mostly things that I found in like construction dumpsters, mostly things that I found in like construction dumpsters, some of my favorite places to go and discover things. When I drive past a construction site and I see the big, the big bins, I'm always, you know, peeking in and seeing. You know what I can find, and I found some really delicious, just amazing materials that I, by the time I, just by the time I figured out how to use them. I go back to my, my supply. My studio is full of very obsessive organization of different materials and I go back to where it was and I realize I'm out. So that's kind of my worst not my worst fear. But I try to work with material where I know I can always get more of it.
Speaker 1:So, just using this as an example, the white layer on the very inside of this is made of feed bags. Some good friends of ours farm and raise chickens and so I just hey, I need it, and they've just dumped full trash bags, you know, full of them. The billboard tarps I get in huge, huge sections. They're the big billboard advertisements and so those are. We're never going to run out of those unless we stop, you know, advertising for things. They're usually for attorneys, lawyers.
Speaker 2:I don't see that.
Speaker 1:No, it's always a surprise when I unfold a new one, what's going to be on the inside. You know, with this one there's a really interesting sort of blue that kind of peeks through. But some of the materials I'm sourcing myself right. So, like the coffee filters, I've got a pretty committed coffee habit.
Speaker 1:So, these are all from my own personal reserve of materials, but I rarely meet a material that I didn't at least want to try. Most of it doesn't work. Most of it just isn't viable. Ninety-seven% of my experiments just fail. But it leads me to the next thing, which is exciting for sure.
Speaker 1:Do you have any material that is most fascinating for you so far you ever worked with. My latest obsession is metal. There's something about the process of melting a solid metal into a liquid form, pouring it into a mold and then seeing it, of course, add patinas you know, do different things with that. I think that I'd like to say that my favorite material I probably haven't found yet. I mean, I have a long, long list of things that are in the studio that I'm starting to play with and experiment with that I haven't what would be your first choice.
Speaker 2:Do you have any preferences?
Speaker 1:There's a material called coroplast and in in the US we call them yard signs. It's like, yeah, just plastic like cardboard, but made of plastic right.
Speaker 1:And so there's a couple of pieces that we have hanging in front where the sculptural elements are made of that material. But that's a very fun material that will respond very differently to heat, but I can melt it and bend it and then when it cools it's rock, rock solid, but it's a. It's a great, great material. But yeah, it's, for me it's just the fascination, the discovery, the, the dissection, you know, to really pull things apart, see what's and then see what can be done with them.
Speaker 2:So, Nathan, how do you feel about when people compare you to Burry or Amazon Kiefer? So you're in the country of Kiefer. How do you feel about that?
Speaker 1:I mean, those are some of my heroes absolutely, and so I think there's actually something from the talk. Last night I was thinking in bed like I I wanted to from Kiefer specifically, that I that I really appreciate about his approach to work in interviews or the documentaries that I've seen. There's a story that I that I love thinking about and repeating to people. I can't recall which documentary it's from, but there's a. He tells a story of a show of his being installed and as it's being taken from the truck and moved into the museum, it started raining while a lot of his work was outside and these are some of the pieces that he was using straw and mud and just different material that was starting to kind of fall off and all of the installers and museum workers were frantically trying to pull things inside and meanwhile he's just standing back saying it's okay, maybe it'll be better, yeah, you know, and so.
Speaker 1:So to me, like that's one of those things where that is a complete embracing acceptance of it's going to be whatever it's supposed to be. Yeah, so it's. So I think of it in terms of like what I, what I try to try to take from that and what I try to apply to that in terms of just my thought process around the work, is that I can influence what happens, but I can't control it and I don't want to, because control requires precision and perfectionism, which is something that I'm actively trying to avoid. It's part of my personality that I really am working against you know, with you know with my work. So from that, from Kiefer, it's that acceptance and that embracing of you know it's going to be what it's supposed to be and if it changes, that's okay.
Speaker 2:So, nathan, what do you expect that people take from your?
Speaker 1:work. My hope is that my work invites exploration. You know, everything that I make is really an invitation to explore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, last night I experienced that myself. People are allowed to tap, to touch, so that's something unique. In a gallery, in a museum, it's not common and not, yeah, accepted, but this time it's a thing I, I, I want for that to be something where, because it is very tactile, it's very sculptural it's something that's very durable.
Speaker 1:It will hold up to being touched. So, physically, you know, exploring it, looking at it from different angles, especially pieces that have, you know, a lot of separation between the layers this looks very different from here than it does from there.
Speaker 1:It looks very different in full daylight, with the skylight versus, you know, artificial light and so on a maybe a broader level. I think I want for people to reconsider what something is and what something and, broadly speaking, what someone you know can become. Of course, the work means different things to me. We were talking Domenico and I were speaking yesterday about Louise Bourgeois, who's one of my absolute heroes as well, and she had a quote that's one of my favorites. It's something I think about a lot. I'm going to paraphrase here. I'm not going to get it exactly right, but she said something like if the work doesn't speak to you, then I have failed.
Speaker 1:The work doesn't need to be, in other words, it doesn't need to be explained. Speak to you, then I have failed. The work doesn't need to be, in other words, it doesn't need to be explained. Burry said that many times as well. He resisted giving explanation. You know for what the work was about and so I want for the work, if I'm successful for the piece, to speak directly to the person and to invite their own questions. You know for for themselves and my hope is that, um, if it makes a connection, that people will want to just spend time with it. You know, one of my favorite things from from the opening last night was I told you this before the show I said my night will be complete when I see people really, really exploring.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because a successful piece to me is one that that works from far away, you know, in a little thumbnail, from a distance, but it's also something that really pulls you in and says come closer, take a closer look.
Speaker 2:So, guys, this was four questions on Nathan's program. Join us for the show you.
