TWS – Hi Sean. Please tell us something about you…
SN – I’m an artist from Los Angeles, California
TWS – Even though your medium is paint, collage is very present in your work. How did you arrive to paint collages? What does collage offers you conceptually that became such important part of your work?
SN –It began through experimenting early on with different mediums and techniques. I’ve always been attracted to the freedom of collage. Conceptually it offers me spontaneity and excitement. I enjoy pushing and pulling different elements within my work. It gives me a freedom that I still enjoy.
TWS – Hyper realism, comic, surrealism, pop culture, commercial design. There are many cultural references and techniques mixed in your paintings. What does this use of such varied styles refer to? What do you look for when mixing not only elements but also styles and techniques?
SN – I think it comes from the admiration and respect I have for these various styles. I get as much artistic inspiration from a 60’s underground comic as I do from a dutch master painting. I enjoy the clash of unlikely elements, and the goal of trying to get them to work together. It keeps things exciting for me
TWS – Who are the characters you create? Where they live? What do they represent?
SN –I suppose that they’re an amalgamation of the past and present. Representing humanity through a variety of natural and artificial objects.
TWS – How much these characters are a product of your context (Trump’s America, the internet age, climate crisis)? Do you feel your work is political? In which way?
SN – I’m not trying to be political in my work at all. Sometimes subjects may be interpreted as so, but I feel thats the case with almost any type of artwork. I’m mainly trying to represent humanity and combining both historical and contemporary influences.
TWS – Which are the main issues you’d like to transmit with your artworks?
SN – Pushing and pulling from drab reality until it achieves a psychedelic euphoria. The low sharing space with the high. Celebrating and finding the beauty in the massive overload of information, not the shame. Ephemera meeting divine forms of nature.
TWS – What’s your thing with food and specially fast food?
SN – It’s such a universal subject matter that can carry so many different perceptions. I tended to use fast food in my earlier work, but not as much in the past years.
TWS – Is there any relation between the accelerated time of consumption (of information, fast food, trends, etc) and the detailed work that you do (that I can imagine is everything but fast in terms of the time needed to be made)?
SN –Thats a fascinating interpretation, but it hasn’t been a conscious decision. I just think that the instant access we have to so much information is one of many things I enjoy exploring.
TWS – What’s your definition of collage?
SN –The combination of unlikely elements.
TWS – We’re starting a new decade: what would you like to happen (in the world or in your life) in the next 10 years?
SN – Continue to grow as an artist and produce work that pushes me to the next level
