ANTHONY CUDAHY

Name:
Anthony Cudahy
Age: 19
Country: 
United States of America
Website:
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/anthonycudahy/

At which age did you start creating art? And why do you feel compelled to create? 

When I was very young I remember drawing imaginary houses I wanted to live in, consisting of too many rooms piled on top of each other, using page after overlapping page. From then on I was always drawing in sketchbooks or making comics.
It wasn't until sometime in my junior year of high school that I really began to take art seriously. It became more personal then, with me expressing my own personal mythology in my pieces. I used a lot of symbols like birds and oceans, never venturing out from the extremely esoteric. It became a continuous part of my life, developing and growing as an artist.
I've thought a lot about why I feel compelled to create. I'm not sure exactly when it began, but now if I am not working on something, I can't function. I'm always thinking about what I should be doing, how I should be working.
When I first started painting, it was the challenge of it that made me continue. It's not something I'm naturally good at in the least. I wanted to be a painter so I worked and worked. Once I began to get more satisfied with my skills, it became the excitement of certain color combinations and how they felt to me. I've sort of moved away from painting somewhat now, focusing more on line and drawing. I think it'll always be moving back and forth between the two, but I'll always be creating.

What are you inspired by? And who do you look up to? 


The Northern Renaissance with its strange monsters and odd peculiarities and German Romanticism for its idea of the natural man. There are several artists that I'm always in some state of awe towards. Manet, Egon Schiele, Jenny Saville, Kiki Smith, Andrew Wyeth, Lucian Freud, Marcel Dzama, Balthus, all inspire me for various reasons. I'm always drawn to portraiture, usually with a lot of design aspects to it.
I saw the film, Juliet of the Spirits, for the first time a few months ago and was incredibly altered. The way Fellini moved the camera around, so that one moment the viewer would feel claustrophobic and then lonely the next was amazing. His colors he chose and the sets and costumes themselves were enough to continuously inspire me to create.
I look up to people who refuse to compromise. Recently, I've been reading a lot of interviews with Antony Hegarty. His views on identity and the individual's interactions with the natural world are more than just interesting; they're inspiring. He makes me want to expand my outlook and think differently, to grow as a person.

If you had to put up one piece of artwork on your wall and stare at it for a year, who would it be by and why?


Schiele's portrait of Karl Zakovsek. There it is. That portrait holds everything.
You can feel the seated man. He's there, living, on a two-dimensional piece of art. The line quality, as always, is astounding and the design aspect of the work is ascetically pleasing. The color palette is so limited and still is not static at all.
I saw this in person at the Neue Gallery and stood there for some time, excited and inspired.
There's so much to it that I can't put into words, which should be another reason I need to stare at the painting for that long.

Tell us about your creative process.
Honestly, once I feel settled in an area, I have no one place I work. The room I live in now has a desk I sometimes use, but I'm just as comfortable working on the floor or on my bed.
it takes me a while to feel home enough when I move to a new place, and it's only when I feel such that I can be fully productive.

Do you ever find weird connections between life and art?

Especially lately, my work is very closely tied to my life. If I feel like I want to escape or if I feel lonely, I will make something that reflects those feelings as a way to work them out and reconsider. It's definitely a stabilizing effect.
There's this one sketchbook that I work in like collage. I have all of these books I've accumulated over time, of equestrians or the history of film, and I'll find something interesting in a picture and draw it. Maybe it's a person's face, or a pose. I like stripping objects in photographs (that we understand as reality) from their surroundings and placing them with others. As I'm working on these pieces, I have no idea of where they will end up, but I begin to develop a narrative like a boy walking down a hill to find a head on the ground. That was a child who was taking a break from riding horses and the head was from an assassination that was filmed.
It's always surprising to find connections to how I'm feeling at the time I create these "collages" in the narratives that I piece together.

As an artist, are you Technical or passionate?
Some middle ground between the two. When I start a piece, there is a concept in my head of how I want it to look. Maybe I will make a few small sketches for major compositional concerns, but mostly I head straight into the page or canvas with a rough sketch. While I am working, I constantly make changes that I feel are necessary. Often I'll leave areas to figure out later. I like constantly having problems to solve in my art.

How do you determine when a work is finished? Or is it ever finished?


Once everything seems right and I know that I have put forth my best effort.
I am not a person who can go back and fix things up. After I have decided something is finished, I move on. If I see something that I don't like, I take a note of it for future work.

What frightens you most about your art?


Truth. That is both the goal and the stomach-turning aspect of what I do. It's rough territory, the closer I get to any kind of truth, the more uneasy I feel. It's wrestling demons and facing devils and seeing that blackness and trying to create something beautiful from it. The experiences I have and the feelings I've felt drive me to reflect and create.
A lot of my art comes from dark places in me. The time I spend with my art often frees me later from dealing with those parts, but it's sometimes frightening to see.

Do you have any magic cures for creative blocks?
Sadly, no. Those are always the most conflicting times for me. I've been told to just take a break or go for a walk, but when I want to create and can't, there is nothing else I can think about and I just have to work through it until I am satisfied again.

Do you dream about your artwork?


Yes, just recently I had a dream in which a walk into a large white room. On the walls are finished drawings that I've completed in this world. They were filled with new ideas I hadn't considered and when I woke up I jotted them down fast. I only can remember two of the pieces clearly, but whenever a dream like that happens it is exciting.
Weeks ago I had a similar dream that I remember better. On the walls in this dream were large canvases filled with designs and patterns. I drew some of them when I woke up, but I think if you look back to around the time I had the dream, there is almost a before and after in which I really start incorporating pattern into my artwork. It's something of a design ascetic that I felt in others' art and wanted to expand on, but if that dream hadn't of pushed me into it, I don't think I would have began down that road.

Which of your own works are you most proud of/ is most meaningful to you and why?


There's this drawing I made titled "Flies." It's a self-portrait, but to me it's more of a portrait of a time in my life. Without elaborating too much, I felt a darkness weighing me down that I couldn't break free of like a long circle. I drew three flies on my chest. I wanted to show that I was vulnerable and open to the pain, that maybe doing that would offer some hope for an end.
I'm proud of the piece ascetically. The lines are patterned and necessary. Nothing is overpowering. I like the subtlety.

Which art mediums and brands do you prefer to use?
I'm really lucky in that: I'm not picky about my paints and that I have an inclination to finding tubes other people lost. Also, I like collecting papers to draw on and for larger drawings I use the backs of pads of paper. I have not specifications really. I work with what I have and rarely need to buy new materials.

What kind of art education do you have? Do you think it is important?


I am a sophomore at Pratt Institute in the Communications Design department, studying Illustration. I did my research and got amazing teachers this past semester. I really feel like I've learned so much about not only communications design, but how to create stronger and more direct images.
Although I have learned a lot from my experiences at art college, I am a firm believer in pushing oneself and taking advantage of any situation. I constantly work on my art and my ideas, and this is how I can justify ever feeling satisfied or proud of my work.

What kind of career do you ultimately want? And what kind of career do you think you'll end up having (or already have) realistically?


I really will enjoy illustrating, hopefully in an editorial context. The challenge of creating visual representations of a variety of subjects is something that I look forward to.
I've always had a fascination with book covers and illustrations. I still remember all the covers of my favorite books from when I was a kid more vividly in many cases than the actual books. To have the opportunity to influence future young creative minds in the same way is something I hope my "career" can fulfill also.
I also want my personal art to be a huge part of my life as it is now. Making some of my living off of that is a goal too. I'll always be working.
What I've realized in my limited life experience, however, is that planning rarely does anything at all and that opportunities present themselves unexpectedly. I hope I never miss out on those chances because I'm too focused on finding stability. Who knows, I could own an alpaca farm one day.

Is your family supportive of your art? Who influenced and nurtured your creativity most?


My family has always been very supportive of my art. My mom went to art school and has always provided me with whatever I could hope for in terms of materials or books about artists. I remember distinctly going to many museums with her throughout my childhood.

Which direction do you see your art heading in the future?


It's been a trend that I can't look back on most of my art made a few months before because I've improved and I know what I would do now differently and better. I want this to continue, definitely.
Other than that, I always have these images just out of reach in my mind. I see dark narrative art, moons and animals, shadowy figures. Cold, wintry scenes leaving much to the imagination. I don't know how this ties in with what I do, but it's in me somewhere.

Who are some of your heroes outside of the visual art stream?
Writers. The voice of Ginsberg's poetry or the winding beauty of Faulkner's writings send chills up my spine. Images or ideas found in the literature I enjoy influence my art maybe as much as visual artists.
I'm also slightly obsessed with Bob Dylan.