We had the good fortune of connecting with Peter ILLIG and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Peter, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your

imagination….Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent….In any case, always remember what

Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from – it’s where you take them to.”

– Film director Jim Jarmusch

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I’m a painter so in a roundabout way, I am writing about my own creative process. Art ideas come from inside, in your mind, or outside, through your eyes. For me, always the latter. I absorb images, I collect them, and ideas begin to form. Then ideas turn into painting images.

Reading literature, philosophical works, and books about psychology generates ideas. If I read something I feel strongly about, there are images that come to mind that seem to “illustrate” the idea. Words become visual for me. I certainly don’t think I’m unique in this.

Creatively using images found in outside sources delves into psychological areas. In my art works I want to examine the overlap of the ‘conscious and unconscious’. And in so doing, examine that overlap in art interpretation, how the viewer responds to the work. There are feelings that are portrayed in all art work, but the artist can’t completely know how the viewer will respond. For example, if you get ‘a funny feeling’ looking at one of my art works, that’s evidence that your unconscious mind is being stimulated, or hidden memories being recalled. If we have a darker, shadow side to our unconscious minds (and the study of human psychology shows that we do), then often art will evoke those sorts of feelings, when contemplated for a period of time.

Most artists who work figuratively, or with ‘realistic’ images, paint consciously, but often the unconscious is really making most of the decisions about what subjects are chosen, or how the paintings will be constructed. An artist feels compelled to make art, but the meanings of the art work may not be revealed until the process is well underway or even after completion. To me, that is evidence of the unconscious forces at work.

The idea of Conscious and Unconscious is pivotal to my work. I have been called a “surrealist” and pop art-influenced painter. Art historians define Surrealism broadly to mean an art style that deals with conscious or unconscious imagination, often taking strange directions into dark recesses of the human mind. Personally, I’m not so interested in the ‘weird’ but the quotidian, everyday people and scenes.

Someone once said Surrealism makes the strange seem familiar, or the familiar or commonplace seem strange — I definitely lean toward the latter. I don’t distort objects and figures, or paint from my head. I’m more of an assembler of found parts, the “stolen” images mentioned in the original quote above. Often, I’ve referred to my work as “psychological landscapes”. They serve as sites for interaction and hopefully lead viewers to contemplate how ideas and feelings can be shown visually.

I care deeply about dreams, and their symbolic meanings. Many of my paintings may be viewed as dream images, with their attendant crises and anxieties.

I was fortunate to attend a school that also had the Creative Studies Institute on the campus and I was able to take courses in creativity. We learned a 5 step process for creative problem-solving but before you think it was only a series of structured steps, it had a lot of allowance for, and emphasis on, deeply mystical processes, sort of Jungian, inward-looking creative connections. One was making ‘forced associations’ of widely differing things. This becomes visual in ‘juxtaposition’ of images, a huge aspect of my art work.

I also think a lot about the conflict between the rational mind and the emotions. In part because this battle has often been won by emotion, to the detriment of various aspects of my life. How does one ‘illustrate’ this struggle? Literally dividing the painting into sections is one way.

If I were to summarize here, I would have to say that making paintings, for me, passing from Idea to Image, would be like dumping all the ingredients, the processes I’ve mentioned, into a big pot and stirring it until a painting comes about. It’s not that random, of course, but the analogy isn’t far off.

Peter ILLIG

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Art galleries along Santa Fe Drive and in the West Colfax art district. The Kirkland Museum.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
All public school art teachers. A group to which I used to belong.

Website: Peterillig.com

Instagram: art_theory3

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peterillig888

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