Tristan Barlow studied painting at N.Y. Studio School and at Chautauqua School of Art, NY with Don Kimes. His Masters Degree is from Slade School of Fine Art, London.
Tristan’s shows include Anita Rogers Gallery NYC & Blu Shop Cottage, London. He is a recipient of the prestigious John Moore’s painting prize and is a Visiting Artist at RAP.
“Art, whatever it takes”- The RomeArtProgram has made a series of interviews with Artists living in Italy, the USA & the UK to know their feelings and orientation during these times of emergency – Tristan Barlow:
RomeArtProgram: Where do you live ? And what is your background ?
Tristan: I live and work in Brixton, a vibrant part of South London. I grew up just outside of Jackson, Mississippi and went to college in southern Mississippi, where I began to seriously study painting and drawing. Dreams and ambitions took me to New York to studio at the New York Studio School, then to London for my Master’s Degree at the Slade. London is where I’ve landed and now call home.
RAP: In your opinion is there a “creative method”?
Tristan: Yes, there most certainly is… but, there is danger in nailing anything down to the specifics when it comes to the creative process. Creativity requires a willful suspension of disbelief. The maker has to believe in the fiction for it to ring true. The mind has to stay in an abstracted focus in order to jump to unexpected places and arrive at odd conclusions or surprises. Staring at clouds with blurry eyes isn’t too far off the mark.
There are many ways to trick yourself into making something unexpected. There are clever ways to suspend disbelief to maintain the sense of mystery that is necessary to keep going. But that is the personalised secret ingredient that every artist must hold on to for dear life; not because they don’t want to share it or teach it, but because it has to be found through lots of hard work.
RAP: The “lock down moment” can set you on the path of some important change(s) in your creativity and style…Has this happened to you ?
Tristan: Lockdown has given me a curious apathy- like walking into a fog where I don’t know exactly what I might bump into or when I’ll get out. Sometimes there I bump into an unexpected idea. It is like a volcanic dust has settled over everything, and in that quiet and foggy place, I feel like there is unexpected growth and new life pushing to come up through the surface.
My ‘style’ hasn’t changed (to be honest, I don’t think of myself having a ‘style’), nor my creative mode, but my speed has. The lockdown has toned down the speed of the whole planet. My painterly ambition remains unchanged; however, the high speeds of city life have slowed and allowed my process to slow down. I am allowing myself to take more time looking and less time rushing. I have more space for dreaminess. I really am beginning to think the best paintings are daydreams. I’m spending months on a painting, complicating my process, and I don’t rush a single shape. I am very excited about some of the new ideas taking shape.
RAP: What normally inspires you? Which is the most important inspirational source you have found in Rome?
Tristan: I draw inspiration from absolutely everything. Being an artist is like being a human recycling can. But in Rome, I am most fascinated by time. Layers of time all sit on top of each other. Histories, stories, physical and archeological layers all stack up in a way that is so human, disorderly, and nonsensical. Rome shows that human progress is not linear, but cyclical: one idea replaces another, one dogma overtakes another, and the world goes on…
RAP: Is there a difference in working in Rome for an artist? What art medium do you prefer to work in?
Tristan: In my normal London studio life, I make large oil paintings and rarely work outside of the studio. I’ve never had a studio in Rome. I’ve always hoofed around on the streets looking for something to paint with some scraps of paper, watercolors, and ink in my bag. I take visual notes. I like to wander around alone, in and out of churches and palaces, into neighborhoods I don’t know so well, and get lost. The curious thing about Rome is as soon as you are really lost, you realize you aren’t lost at all.
RAP: Specific events and historical conditions have a significant role in the creative process; how does this pandemic emergency affect the Arts?
Tristan: The pandemic has made everyone stop. People tend to get ideas when they stop. Artists are always walking a tightrope of uncertainty and I think many artists feel relatively at home within chaos. I reckon this pandemic will be art fodder for years to come in many surprising ways.
RAP: How are you feeling at this difficult moment and what made you feel this way? …are you optimistic for the future?
Tristan: I am always optimistic for the future, but I am also a realist. People are tough and societies go through challenging times. I don’t think this is fun or take it lightly. There is great sadness in the world at the moment. The one thing that is constant is change. This moment will end and we will move on to the next.
RAP: What can Art contribute to history? Will “Art save us” ?
Tristan: Art will not save us. I don’t maintain that delusion. Rather, art might well document us as while we need saving.
Art makes us human and is thus absolutely intertwined with our history. And since history books are written by the winners and academics, Art might be the more important reflection on our current state than any textbook. Art is our history.
RAP: What is your most ambitious dream?…and the greatest sacrifice that you have made for your Art?
Tristan: My most ambitious dream is to get through my life as an artist. That inherently involves a battle against normality and social structures. I don’t know that I have made a great sacrifice. I’ve made choices in life. The choice or necessity to be an artist is full of uncertainty and risk but it is also absolute freedom.
RAP: Recently, the artistic and cultural message of Italy and Rome was reemerging as a great “work in progress”, …is this your point of view?
Tristan: Rome has been a work in progress for several thousand years, so why stop now?
RAP: Which is your favorite Italian, or Roman, place(s) of art (Museum, Gallery, Monument…) ?
Tristan: The Duomo and Luca Signorelli’s chapel in Orvieto.
RAP: Which period of Italian Art do you prefer? What is your favorite Italian work of art?
Tristan: The Quattrocento and early Cinquecento paintings and architecture are my favourite. The moments of the Renaissance when the questions were so big and ambitions so lofty, but there remained a solid stillness and dreaminess about the paintings and spaces created. Peiro della Francesca’s paintings in Arezzo are at the top of my list- fascinating in their complexity, but absolutely still.
RAP: How has Rome personally influenced you as an artist and a person?
Tristan: Rome has had a significant influence on me as both an artist and a person. I seem to gravitate to Rome during important moments in my life; whether by accident or providence, I’m not sure. Rome is an artistic homebase and Mecca. I return over and over again and never feel like I’m returning to the same place. It serves as a constant, like a mirror, where I can measure myself, reinvent myself.
RAP: What’s your goal? What role does the artist have in society? Any final thoughts and advice?
Tristan: My goal is to get through life as an artist and compromising as little as possible in the process. The artist is a necessary part of society: the outsider who looks in, the one who does the irrational, the one who dreams. Artists keep society human.
My only advice is to love living, enjoy the ride, and to keep making things even when the going gets tough.
www.tristanbarlow.com
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The RomeArtProgram is ready to bounce back!
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