The Relentless Urge to Create: the Work of Earl Joseph Martell

comments (27) May 25th, 2009     
Now consider how Earl Joseph Martell reconfigures those steps in what might be referred to as deconstructed, process-based ready-mades: He does not select the colors he will use, nor does he select the base finish (so he has no part in determining whether he will be using oil or latex paint, a flat, glossy, matte, or eggshell finish). He does not "apply" pigments to a canvas or object—just paint to paint, he has no access to the painter's "intent" since a machine injects the color into the paint cans in a random manner outside his control. He then documents the result of these multiple, random factors that have conspired to manifest themselves in an "expression of color and chemicals," after which he shakes the cans (thus destroying the work he has just documented), hands the mixed paint to the customer, who pays for it, takes it home, and applies it to his or her own wall or project (using his or her own brushstokes and making his or her own decisions as to placement, thickness, glaze, and finish).

As you can see for yourself in the following examples, his work is beautiful, lush, and even strange. The pieces seem lively and fresh and surprising, and, well...happy. Such strange but visually stunning work turns out to be the product of an equally interesting and engaged artist. In conversations with him, I discovered an artist whose work I found riveting and whose approach to his craft, and understanding of his own motivations, seemed in many ways in line with my own motivations and thoughts. What follows after the pictures is an excerpt of a long interview I conducted with the artist over the course of a few weeks in May of this year. Read it and see if you don't recognize yourself in his drive to create, his insistence on seeing the world from a position of wonder and amazement, and his utter passion for pursuing his interest in making and sharing his vision with others.

(NB: The photographs featured here are copyrighted works belonging to Earl Joseph Martell. Each picture is a discrete image; the pairing of these images into diptychs is my doing in an effort to show as many images as possible in this post and does not represent the artist's intention.)

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