Instructor Interview: Jay Stuckey

This summer, the ever-popular Mixed Media and Collage for Artists and Designers will be returning. Previously taught by artist extraordinaire James Fish, this summer the helm will be taken by Jay Stuckey.

Jay comes to us from a previous teaching position at Brown University. Want to learn more about Jay? Check out our interview below.

Can you describe your own artistic practice – what type of media do you prefer, what themes does your work deal with?

Right now my main focus is on painting and collage. The work has both representational and abstract elements. For me the main goal with these recent pieces is to initiate an idea within the viewer, to have the images ask questions versus posing answers or making statements. It gets tricky because ideally the questions asked are unique to each viewer, as each viewer is indeed unique. I also hope that the images are visually engaging. That they have visual presence when one comes upon them, and, if a viewer feels so moved to sit with a painting or collage for 10-20 minutes, they can actively wind their way in and around throughout the image while subtle nuances and new bits of information reveal themselves.



What advice would you have for beginning art students, or those who are considering making art a part of their lives? Is there anything you know now that you wish you had known when you started?

Wow, a lot, I actually taught a seminar on this subject at Brown. Yes it is difficult to forge a life where the creative act is part of your weekly if not daily existence, but at the same time if I figured it out, and number of my friends have figured it out, it can't be rocket science. If you really want to make it happen, you'll make it happen. I would say, perserverance furthers, always make sure you are enjoying, engaged, or challenged with what you're doing, if not change your approach. It's so difficult to find/carve out the time to make things, that you want to be stimulated by what you're doing. Community has always been a high priority to me, surrounding yourself with like minds, so I would suggest getting to know your art community. Luckily for us Los Angeles has an AMAZING, thriving, international art community. We really are lucky, on a global level there are not many places for art that compare to L.A. right now. Oh and don't walk into a gallery cold asking them if they're looking at work. Yes this has worked for some artists I know, but it's like playing the lottery. Sure you could win, but your odds suck, and the experience is a little embarrassing....for everyone.

What benefits and challenges does working with collage and mixed media present?

One of the main benefits I see is being able to take an image and recontextualize it. Perhaps it's an advertisement familiar to everyone, but by cutting or manipulating it and placing it in a different context, you can take that preconceived association everyone has of that image and amplify it, subvert it, nullify it, you name it. It's wonderful. On the flip side, I find one of the greatest challenges is the options available within the broad scope of 'collage', it can at times be overwhelming there are so many possibilities.



What do you hope your students accomplish by the end of your class?

In general I hope everyone walks away with a love for the creative process and the physical act of making things. Specific to collage I hope that everyone will have a solid foundation with the mechanics and materials behind making a collage (various forms of cutting and gluing, composition of shapes, basic design/layout ideas, etc..), AND, more importantly how these mechanics and materials behind collage are the vocabulary for this non-verbal form of communication which has great seductive powers.



Was there a moment when you officially began to consider yourself “an artist”?

I can't think of a specific date. However, I do remember walking through Jonathan Borofsky's retrospective in Washington, D.C. when I was 18 and thinking, "I might have to do this for the rest of my life."



(paintings by Jay Stuckey, from top to bottom: Forming a Communist Party, The Apartment But It's Different, Chinese Map of Paris and Chicago)