“My favorite part of painting is the weird little surprises that happen, the mistakes that turn out to be good. I never plan anything out, the faces change as the paintings progress.”
Arabella moved to Cleveland from L.A. about five years ago to get away from the extremely annoying lifestyles lived there…at least that’s my take on it – Orange County is not glamorous, it’s a suburban wasteland!
Her style is pretty much 100% classic mannerist portraiture – cleanly brushed oil paintings which celebrate the artistic traditions of the human gesture, artistic statements veiled within nuanced symbolism, and that aristocratic sneer we’re all so used to seeing displayed within large gaudy frames on the walls of the most discerning museums of the world.
But the uniqueness of Arabella’s work lies within the contrasts and comparisons of crusty old aristocrats and their crusty punk/goth counterparts of today. Both represent a degree of stylish decadence, only from completely different eras. She’s taken the cliches of our modern “subcultures” and through widely accepted classical representations, shown them in the context of exactly what they’ve become – mainstream displays of arrogance.
Arabella will be part of a group show, which opens at Vision Gallery (great new gallery in Cleveland’s Collinwood Neighborhood over by the Beachland Ballroom) on Friday September 12th. You can also see more of her art online at www.arabellaproffer.com.
Do you ever use photographs or any reference material?
I’ll use fashion magazines once in awhile…or old movie magazines – just as reference for something like a hand position or a light source. I’ve been doing portraitures since I was 17, so I’ve pretty much got it down pat by now.
How about models?
No! Models freak me out! I really don’t like it when they get bored…and I also feel weird about people watching me while I paint.
All of your work has a similar thing going on. So…I guess you’ve found a style that you like and stuck with it…
Yeah…growing up, my mom had a real extensive Russian art collection – lots of Art Deco. We always went to museums and saw all the old masters. I guess I’m really into that Eastern European style – Tamara de Lempicka, Boldini…and even some newer artists like Mark Ryden and John Currin. When I was at art school, painting was BAD…I was deterred from doing it by professors who were like – “why don’t you try doing some installation art”…and I think it was really bad to be painter at my school during that time. I got ripped apart in critiques with comments like “It’s been done, painting’s dead”. Then I discovered John Currin in 1997, and was excited…finally someone like me!
What school was that?
Cal Arts, they were not into technique – they’re into theory. And now…I’m really not into talking about meanings in paintings. I don’t think it’s necessary to make some big statement about society. I’ll just leave that for other people.
Has your stuff always been this clean? Did you ever dabble into the whole big, splotchy brush stroke thing?
I’ve done a lot of abstracts. And I used to do them as a point, just to see if I could do them. Oddly, I sold all of them…to famous people too! And Jokingly, I would just say like…$500 or a thousand for it – and they’d say “I’ll take it”. And I was like – really? …I did that while I was watching a Rat Pack movie. I thought it was a joke…it kind of made me mad too, because it took no effort on my part. And people were like – “You should keep doing this”…so I’ve done the abstract thing, but there’s no challenge in it for me.
What do you think of restaurant art?
[LAUGHING]…I’ve seen some good restaurant art. Do you mean abstracts?
Yeah…and they’re always horrible.
I just don’t like restaurant art when it’s just pictures of fucking food. It’s like – look at the barrel of apples…and that’s cool, but I’m not eating apples! And really bad imitations of Matisse…that always pisses me off.
So…what do you have going on right now…and in the future?
The newest ones are my miniatures, which are 5″ by 7″. I have a benefit in L.A. at the end of the month, a benefit in Las Vegas, the all Cleveland show in November [AT ASTERISK GALLERY], and then in May I’ll be in a two person show at the Architecture Gallery.
Do you have anything hangng in galleries right now?
Yeah, I have stuff in Maryland, Washington D.C., Pittsburgh, the Bay Area, Madison Wisconsin…it’s a good thing that I’m remembering all these, because some of them owe me money too!
How about online…do you get most of your sales through galleries or the web?
Actually, most of my sales seem to happen from myspace – which I think is really strange. I hate having a myspace page because ex-boyfriends and such find me on there, but I have to because it works so well. A lot of people who buy stuff are ex-classmates from elementary school, who somehow find me and say stuff like – “I remember in art class, you would draw cool stuff and I would ask you if I could have it, and you were a brat and said no. So guess what – I’m buying it now!” But I also do a lot of commissions of children from aging punks and goths who want their kids to look like pirates or goth princesses. I guess [my art] works with their sensibilities – they like that decadence, which is also trashy at the same time. I also do a lot of commissions of sold art, where I recreate it, but people will want a different size or they want the hair color different. But yeah, the web’s been pretty good to me.
Whats with the classical, historical figures?
Last year, I had a solo show at Asterisk Gallery where I ran with this concept of having a fake portrait gallery. So I made bios for each of the paintings, there were like 35 of them. I got a little nutty with it and even made up family trees, mostly for my own reference. I went so crazy with the research that I had to make a map so that I could remember it all.
What about the piercings and such?
To me, in any other century – piercings, hair-dye and tattoos would be status symbols, because they’re so expensive to get. In this century they’re supposedly for “social deviants”, but if you lived in the 1500’s it would be a status symbol to be able to afford hair-dye. So…I ran with that concept and did these fake bios, which were really cool for the gallery show – they made it really interactive. But I’ll get emails from people asking – “What books are you reading? Because I’ve looked through all the history books and there is no province called Albamear!”…or they’ll say – “these are fake, you’re a fraud, trying to make it look like these are real, you’re just a fraud!”…the history dorks really berate me for it!
I’m still putting them out, just not doing as many bios. It’s funny – nothing ever ends well for those people. I read a lot of history books – the aristocrats would live these fabulous lifestyles, but something always went wrong. They always seemed to die of some horrible disease…the best was the king of Greece – He was bitten by his pet monkey, which had gotten into a fight with his pet dog. He tried to separate them and wound up dying of rabies or something. So I take these things and just embellish them a little bit.
Is it also a statement on the decadence of punk rock?
Well…I used to be all punk and stuff, and it took me awhile to realize that these kids are squatting and don’t have jobs…and talking about kill the rich and all that. But somehow they’re getting tattoos, and somehow they can still buy their manic panic [HAIR DYE]. But…I do like the duality between high culture and low culture, and a lot of the aristocrats at certain times were kind of punks anyway, they had the money to afford to not care what people thought.
