Camilla Fallon in her studio. Courtesy of Roberta Fineberg Photography.

Camilla Fallon: Point Lobos Cypress 3, 2007, oil on canvas, 30 by 40 inches. Courtesy of The Barbara Ann Levy Gallery.

Last year, meeting Camilla Fallon,
a fellow artist who graduated from the same university that I went to,
was quite a beautiful and fascinating experience. When I headed over to
her website, I saw some of the most exquisite paintings rendered in
mostly black and white with a tinge of grey and blue within the ground
of the paintings themselves. It was like looking at the poetry of Robert Frost or humming the last symphony of Schubert. I couldn't explain what drew me into her world of poetic imagery that captured my feelings as much as when looking at Brice Marden's Cold Mountain series over a decade ago.

I
was honored to be able to get in touch with the woman who had inspired
me to explore the poetry of the sinewy line and curve within my own
spray paintings and street art. Her series of black paintings remain a
triumph of the forceful imagination in newly explored avenues into the
secret world of the psychological caverns.

If you have any questions about Fallon's artwork, feel free to contact her gallery at barbaraannlevy1@mac.com.

Now here are THE ART ASSASSIN's revealed details of this reputed "assassination":

qi peng: You are represented currently by The Barbara Ann Levy Gallery.
What is the story behind how Ms. Levy found your artwork for
presentation? Do you feel that having your work displayed in a physical
space differs substantially than an online website? Which do you think
works better for presenting art?



Camilla Fallon: I met Barbara Levy when she had a gallery in Chelsea. Unfortunately it got too expensive and she had to give it up. She is in West Palm Beach now.



I had a friend who had a show there and I stopped by to see it, she struck up conversation and we hit it off.



I
can’t tell you enough how much my (and all) paintings need to be seen
in a physical space. A painting is more than a mere image. A painting
has scale, can be architectural in relation to the viewer, not to
forget tactile and a good painting has a presence cannot be duplicated.



qi peng: Your work has been featured in two art fairs, the Bridge Art Fair last year through The Barbara Ann Levy Gallery and The Affordable Art Fair through Artlog.
What is your opinion on art fairs? Do you think that artists hate them?
How does being featured within the art fair context enhance or detract
from a career?



Camilla Fallon: Art fairs can be fun if you can go with the flow and not invest too much time or money.



I never expected any substantial exposure there, a gallery is a much better forum. I had a fantastic time in Miami,
though. I don’t think one can have great expectations for oneself and
one’s career. Looking at art, so much in one place that was not NYC was
a revelation. There was a small Picasso collage
that blew me away and some huge dreadful painting nearby. All in all a
fresh look at the art market and a lot of interesting work. I don’t
anybody ever gets a good introduction to an artist’s work at an art
fair. The web provides a better forum for an overview and context in
terms of how a piece fits into an artist’s development.



I’ve always heard people talk about how some shows detract from their career. I was in a Salon type show in Williamsburg
recently and people remarked that nobody took the place seriously, I
found the show’s premise interesting and I had my own reasons for
participating in a show celebrating John Milton.



(It’s not my aim as an artist to live my life to please the rule makers whoever they may be.)



qi
peng: What would you consider to be your studio practices? Where do you
derive your ideas from for your paintings, both figurative and abstract?



Camilla
Fallon: I am not sure what you mean exactly by studio practice:
painting as an art form that one needs to do regularly over along
period of time on order to develop? I was schooled in the History of
Western Art for the most part my direct influences are from Post- Impressionism and early Modernism, late Monet through Picasso and Matisse, and French Symbolism, German Expresisonism, Mannerism, Titian and surprisingly Poussin. My influences are classic.



There
are perceptual influences too, the way I see: response to blinding
light, planes shifting in space, my physical body in relation to the
scale of paintings I see.



Tactile response to the materials in my studio.



The
idea to press stencils into the paint was from an exercise I used in a
high school class that I taught making prints with bubble wrap, It was
alive, unpredictable and graphic. The kids taught me a lot about
surprise. I taught drawing in the AAS program at Parsons
in the early 90’s; drawing with its primary aim to draw objects as
coherent and readable planes in space. I learned a lot through
teaching. I work as a Graphic Designer.



Imaging with Photoshop is a huge influence.



(I
have turned a blind eye to Theory. A number of the people I knew
stopped making things, and I think were lead down the garden path out
of fear of being judged and then attempting to turn Art into an
intellectual exercise that was so arcane that it couldn’t be judged) I
mention this only to show that it wasn’t easy to stay within the realm
of traditional painting. It was a conscious choice.



qi peng:
What do critics and/or curators think about your ability to switch
between abstract and figurative paintings? In what ways do you find
painting each type differ from one another?



Camilla Fallon: Very
few of my paintings are abstract in the true sense. They almost always
refer to nature in some way or are perhaps symbolic. The History of Black series
literally began by covering up psychological imagery that I hated. I
wanted to strip down the painting process and make it more about itself
and give myself a break. Simplify it. That’s why History is in the
title. So I worked with black and white and a little color. The
paintings are always evocative. It could be light coming through or
something else, and there is often a ground plane or horizon line
somewhere that you might not see. They are playful. Most critics and
teachers said to me that you can’t do both. I don’t think too many
people care about consistency anymore in terms of Art, look at someone
like Gerhard Richter. The dealers want consistent work because it’s a product and they like to be able to predict what an artist will do.



This work isn’t abstract or nonobjective like Barnett Newman or Ad Reinhardt.



This
is work that is rooted in nature and has a structure that comes from
it. If you see it together in one space its all obviously by the same
hand. One of the most interesting shows I ever saw was one of Mondrian’s
flower paintings. Most people only see the work an artist is famous
for. The art world likes a signature—like branding, consistency. Over
the years I have moved back and forth and for me the need to make is
also the need to let the work evolve. Even though I blur the edges,
some people cry foul but I find that for the most the work is not
pictorial. I cry foul when I see work that is merely pictorial or
illustrational.



In a lot of painting now there is emphasis on
craft. There have always been artisans and skilled people who
manufacture images. Painting is different than that for me.



qi
peng: Whom do you consider to be your artistic or cultural influences
on your work? What excites you to enter the studio to execute a piece?



Camilla Fallon: I think I touched on that in [question] 3.



Some of my early was blatantly sexual with precedent from Hand Buldung and Balthus, I did it in way that scared people at the time. I was reacting to a culture that was becoming increasing conservative,



A few years later the stage was different. The provocative was de riguer.



In my studio what motivates me is time to work, space to work in and new materials.



Looking at paintings makes me want to paint, even at Miami Basel and the Jasper Johns show at MOMA. Seeing something that I respond to will set me off.



qi peng: Having attending the Yale MFA program,
what are some of your memories and thoughts of your experiences there?
Which professors did you find most crucial for your methods and
philosophy?



Camilla Fallon: It certainly validated my own perception and experiences as an artist. I worked with the three B’s and a C: Bailey, Bochner, Berthot and Chaet and Roger Tibbets
who I TA’d for. At that time I had no desire to painting anything but
figures and I was blasted for my blatant sexual content, It was
difficult. Another topic for another day. That aside, I learned about
painting and the difference between Painting, making picures, ie the
mere pictorial. Chaet, Berthot and Tibbetts were very much about the
mark, handwriting if you will. Seeing and making understanding complex
pictorial spaces trumped the pictorial with all of them. Bailey, I
reacted against later. He liked to talk about the order in Poussin, for
instance and how the Rape of the Sabines was about order that was cool and formal, therefore it is good. I was like WHAAAAT???? How divorced from the real can one be?



I think he was really off on that one.



But
I am grateful that I know how to look for formal structure and the
underpinnings of a painting particularly in the representational.



qi
peng: What is some advice that you have for young, emerging artists
graduating from a BFA or MFA program? Any suggestions for them to find
gallery representation? Any ideas for how they should conduct studio
visits/open studio exhibitions?



Camilla Fallon: The recent
gallery scene was a good thing for a lot if people . it was open and
young artists had comraderie. The Yale crowd that I knew always seemed
backstabbing. I think one needs to cultivate relationships with other
artists that are based on mutual respect. As I got older I saw a lot of
people burning their bridges. The new crop of artists that I’ve met,
the painters, I mean, seem to relate to each other in a positive way.
Make your Art and cultivate people who understand it and care about it.



qi
peng: In what ways do you think that the economic recession will
influence the international art world and the way galleries behave? Do
you see a direct impact on the works of New York artists specifically?
Is any of your work influenced by the mood or ideas from this recession?



Camilla
Fallon: If the pickings get slim and they will in the new economy,
people will have to be flexible. Making Art is a life long process. I
got burned in the early 90’s when there was a mini recession and the
uproar about the NEA created problems for all of us. I lost my studio. It took a few years to get another one. I thought I would lose my mind.



It could happen again.



You
have to go with the flow and stay true to yourself. In 5 years the Art
World will be a different, Even if comes back, it’ll be different, the
preferred type of work—whatever.



qi peng: What is your opinion
of the mercurial and quick, rock-and-roll ascent of young artists from
obscurity into blue-chip fame overnight? An example is Rosson Crow, who is represented by Honor Fraser.
Do you feel that age allows maturity and experience in artistic style
which contains a more developed vocabulary? Can young artists be truly
insightful or should continued exploration be encouraged?



Camilla
Fallon: I don’t think it has much to do with me. I think Rock and Roll
fame is more the province of celebrity which is a whole different thing.



qi peng: What are some of your favorite hobbies? Do any of them relate to your studio practice?



Camilla Fallon: Listening to piano music, Schumann,
Scbubert, the 3 B’s and some contemporary and trying to play, people
see a rhythm and patterns in the work and are comvinced that it derives
from that.



I never danced, but I love movement. I did gymnastics and now I do yoga,
When I work with the figure which always a favorite I feel that I feel
it. When I draw from a model, I feel that weight and posture. I must be
intune with the physical body in some way.



It's funny because in
yoga and painting I have to have symmetry around me . If there is
something weird on the wall I can’t balance. If I don’t have the right
space around my paintings I can’t paint. The painting is like an
extention of the room, architectural.



I read a lot which influences my thinking but I don’t see a direct link right now,



I used to read poetry and try to evoke it in some of my work, its been a while.



The
History of Black is loosely based on a series of poems. But I’ve know
those for a long time, they were written by someone close to me.



qi peng: What is your opinion on juried competitions such as Studio Visit Magazine and New American Paintings, etc.? Do you think that entering and/or winning will help to get critical attention for an artist's work?



Camilla
Fallon: I don’t like juried competitions much. I was in few a long time
ago I gave it because it was too much like a cattle call, If its not
difficult though I would apply for everything. You have to be able to
prioritize. If its time consuming and expensive and you don’t get much
out if it, move on.



qi peng: Do you enjoy reading art magazines?
Which ones do you favor and recommend to the general public or
collectors who are starting out?



Camilla Fallon: I don’t read them much, I look at the pictures in ArtForum see what’s hot.



I enjoy Jerry Saltz’s crticism in NY Mag. I almost never agree with Roberta Smith however. Since they are a pair I don’t know why that is. Some the online blogs are wonderful, ArtCal & Roberta Fallon and Libby Kossoff (Libby Rosof).