By Ian P.E.
Beyond visual realities, into archetypes…the many changing cycles involved within life, it’s mysteries and our shared connection to a larger “subconscious” framework – the art of Douglas Max Utter succeeds in visually representing these ideas. It’s easy to fall into an intellectual approach when talking about such lofty subjects. But one of the largest reasons Mr. Utter’s work is so striking, is because these themes are expressed within the actual process of creating the art…they’re not talked about, but inherent.
Afternoon News | 20” x 16” 2008 | mixed paint media on canvas
Many of the readers out there may recognize the name Douglas Max Utter from his coverage of the visual arts in The Scene (and also the previous free Cleveland arts magazine, but now defunct Angle Magazine), his writing is detailed, knowledgeable and positive…and that probably stems from his experience as an artist. He’s not a critic, but a fan of art itself, and seems to find a strongpoint in almost any work of art that he encounters.
As one of the premier artists (in my eyes) within Cleveland, Mr. Utter has not only weathered the passing trends of the contemporary art scene over the past 30 odd years, but become stronger…although his techniques have changed/evolved over the years, his characteristically figurative style has remained intact. His art has a timeless quality to it…painterly but not perspective based, representational but abstracted, primitively refined – his work could belong to almost every movement in modern art.
I had the pleasure of talking to Douglas at his studio over in Cleveland’s Asia-town District…and in the process revealed some first-hand knowledge into his artwork, and how he visually exploits one of art’s strongest points – the creative process. The following text recaps some of our conversion…to see more of his art online, go to douglasutter.com.
Adjustment | 16″ x 20″ | Mixed Paint Media on Canvas
To me, your art does a great job of balancing the line between abstraction and representation…
I’m interested, to some extent, in texture – burying the figures in the ground and in the surrounding. It’s really an atmosphere that’s almost as if it were turning solid behind it – maybe slowing them down. Some of these works are more like sculpture than paintings in terms of how I’m thinking of them, and the way they strike the eye, and the way I’m executing them. I’m working into the tar, kind of wiping parts of it off – covering the image, unburying it, revealing it, discovering it by touch.
Obviously, over the years, you can’t be doing the same thing forever…what have the changes been for you?
For a long time, it was spray paint on canvas…from 1984 through probably 1991 or 1992. Then it was a gradual transition to more and more tar. At that point, I was being influenced by my ex-wife’s work, which was ceramic work – high fire stuff, very bold, very dark, very figurative, ancient seeming. It was something we had in common – this desire to evoke the past, the power of it, and the powers latent in the human mind, and sexuality…but more in terms of relationships. A lot of it’s about having kids. A lot is about having lovers, just being alone in the world and seeking to be reunited with some primal state of cohesion…looking for things which evoke that.
The imagery has evolved too. For a long period of time it had to do with two heads coming together, sometimes two bodies. The moment of touch was always featured as a central motif with the paintings.
Then, after the tar, I gave up on the spray paint – apparently for breathing reasons! And I started using black pastel, which can also give a somewhat photographic effect as it hits the canvas. So that is also going on in almost all the paintings from 1985 on, is this idea that there is some reference to photography. In our times, photographs seem to be the gold standard for what reality is. So, referring to them seemed to work, in terms of the very painterly orientation that I had.
What I’m doing now, for the last 5, 6 or 7 years, is pour paint on canvas, let it dry, and draw in relation to that. Sort of using [the ground] as something that’s either attached to the figure or interacting with the figure…it’s still mostly figurative work.
Woman with mask | 16” x 20” 2008 | mixed paint media on canvas
How about Cleveland art, you see a lot of art, any trends or changes, that you’ve noticed?
I think I see more genuinely contemporary art here, than things that are hooked up with art everywhere else. I think that’s happening in a lot of different cities. There’s just an increasing level of sophistication as well as several really strong artists that have elected to stay here…like Amy Casey, who only began to be recognized here after her show in Chicago. It kind of illustrates that you can’t have that much of a career in the space of Cleveland without getting out of it. I think as people increasingly recognize that, yet still want to stay here – that changes things. Cleveland feels like part of a circuit, especially with smaller works on paper, there’s a lot of exchange, a lot of travel.
And getting back to your art, anything else that you’d like to add?
Painting for me, is all about presence. The reason you do a painting instead of doing something with a digital program for instance, is to have this magic happen. It’s not that it’s shamanism or alchemy or anything, but those are good things to compare it to.
The kind of paintings that I’m most interested in, are the ones that talk about and recognize the mystery of being in the world…being able to find yourself in other things. There’s really a moment where you learn things about the stuff that you’re working with, and how to do it, that you could never have imagined. And that surprises me, in that – things that you would not have expected sometimes speak back to you. And there’s no thrill like it, if you’ve experienced it.
Yeah, there’s a surrealness involved…
Absolutely, whatever that is…when the unconscious begins to become manifest – and the unconscious is everything that we’re not. It’s the other, of which we’re always looking for and always afraid to find.
Marat | 20” x 16” 2008 | mixed paint media and black pastel on canvas
