This week, Silas Plum talks about technique, subjects, and inspiration in his artwork!
Some of your pieces use thick, dripping acrylic layers. Are there any other uncommon techniques that you enjoy using in your art?
Sure, I think Multi-layered Gesso/Powder Pigment on canvas is pretty neat. Alcohol ink that is spread thick and torched is a good one as well. Also, finding different oil-based media that don’t chemically enjoy one another is fun. They can make some wild patterns as they dry and find their level.
What are some of your main inspirations for the subjects in your art?
Inspiration is another tricky thing to pin down. There are all of the typical heavy-hitters for artists, the existential gadfly thoughts that find their way into work. History is a big one, but broad enough to almost be a non-answer. Folks seem to find a decent amount of Mythological/Biblical symbolism in what I do, but I chalk that up to Collective Culture as much as anything specific in my work. I do know that I am compelled to create; I am absolutely compulsive. Whatever thoughts that have been waiting to come out that day will eventually make themselves known. The urge to create is an inspiration unto itself, equal parts dog stubborn and saintly patient.
Is there another artist that inspires you? If so, how?
I am extremely fond of the pop art boom of the 80’s, considerably artists like Haring and Basquiat. The Conceptualists before them such as Rauschenberg. The whole Postmodern and Post-Postmodern thing is intriguing, if for no other reason than it feels like painting in a bomb shelter most of the time. Immediate, meaningful, but also a hair’s breadth from being wiped clean. Magritte. Lorca did something awesome and tragic with his Black Paintings. Just a bitter, old dude creating horror-show oil-paintings on the walls. There is a sincerity in that which I find admirable. Honestly, anyone who went and just did the damn thing is an inspiration. Folks who used their time as the precious thing that it is. Enthusiasm with purpose is beautiful.
