Interview with Todd Jones
Interview with Todd Jones
May 2020 Digital Resident
Mineral House Media: Tell us about yourself and your personal history as an artist.
Todd Jones: I was born in Tallahassee, FL, where I went to Florida State University and received my Bachelor of Fine Art in Studio Art and Psychology. After I graduated, I moved to Columbus, OH. When I moved, I immersed myself in my artistic practice and did what I could to be a part of the arts community. I volunteered my time working at a gallery and taught art at an afterschool program. I then went to Philadelphia for a summer to attend The Summer Painting and Sculpture Intensive at the Tyler School of Art. This was a significant event in my art career that pushed my work and drive to attend graduate school. I am now an MFA Candidate in Painting + Drawing at Ohio University in Athens, OH.
“As a process-driven artist, I view my artistic practice as scientific experimentation.”
MHM: What role does material experimentation play in your practice, as you explore the boundaries between sculptural and painterly language?
TJ: Material exploration plays a massive part in my work. I used to be a traditional painter and have always been interested in sculpture, but never knew how to go about creating 3-D work. Paint is something I knew very well, so I started to expand my paint into sculptural skins while on residency at the Tyler School of Art. Since then, I have been interested in pushing the boundaries of painting into sculpture. I now explore other materials, but I am still interested in how paint can be transformed into materials for sculpture. My artwork takes an investigational approach to materials, manipulating them to understand their limitations better. As a process-driven artist, I view my artistic practice as scientific experimentation.
MHM: For Polypore, your paint-mushrooms installed on logs, you situate a non-organic material as if it is part of the natural world. What’s on your mind when you contextualize materials of domesticity, even anti-environmental materials, within the natural world?
TJ: For a while, I have been working on creating sculptures that mimic lichen and other forms of fungi. I have wanted to install these sculptures in nature temporarily. I am interested in how these human-maid forms mimic nature and how these construction-based materials connect to fungus being the building blocks of the ecosystem. In “Polypore,” paint skins were created by pouring and drying acrylic paint. Once dried, the paint is peeled up and resembles a hide of skin. They were then attached to the log to resemble polypore fungi. When dried, acrylic paint resembles a plastic substance, and I was interested in how plastic is a material of our everyday lives. It is everywhere and even littered in nature. We sometimes become so used to seeing it out and about that it can go unnoticed. This body of work explores 3-dimensional forms, both human-made and from nature, that are altered and overrun by an invasive species of plastic created from paint. I wanted this work to be a conversation starter about the human impact on the environment. It makes you think about a future where plastic can grow and will replace parts of our natural landscape.
Entanglement, Todd Jones.
MHM: Can you elaborate on your method for the Entanglement works? Does the physicality of making these installations in nature have an impact on your thought processes?
“ I was able to take advantage of social distancing in the woods and to develop my work. My studio is not the largest, and working outside has allowed me to explore my work in scale and concept. ”
TJ: To create this installation, I acquired a section of semi-truck net and added it to make the desired size. I enjoy weaving nets for my installations from scratch, but I found this section and decided it would save me some time. This is by far the largest net I have worked with. Working with repetition, such as weaving a net, can be very meditative and allows me to think through the work and the process of creating it. I find this way of working to be relaxing, and I can see the finish line because I know I have to repeat the motion until it is complete. With this work, in particular, I was interested in making this obstruction in nature. I found a spot in the woods with a lot of fallen branches and logs around the area. Making this work made me think about how I would impact the environment. I wanted to limit my impact as much as I could, and I thought hanging a net in the trees was the best way and to only use materials in the area.
MHM: Do you find that the site-specific nature of these sculptures impacts your relationship with the materials and space in ways that a traditional space might limit? How do you go about selecting these in addition to the locations where they take form?
“Working with the materials and putting them out in nature strengthens the conversation. ”
TJ: Working with the materials and putting them out in nature strengthens the conversation. This was something that I was thankful for in quarantine. I was able to take advantage of social distancing in the woods and to develop my work. My studio is not the largest, and working outside has allowed me to explore my work in scale and concept. I currently live in Ohio and attend Ohio University. I am from Florida and went home for Spring Break and decided to stay once quarantine began. The location of these works has been in the woods outside of my family’s home. This space was convenient and has given me a lot of freedom to explore installation-based work out in nature.
MHM: These Entanglement structures seem to paradoxically reference nests and mass harvesting methods. They evoke home and safety, while simultaneously referencing the destruction of habitats. How do you negotiate these boundaries within your work?
TJ: In some of my work, I use nets and question what a net can mean? I use a net to represent one's actions. A closed net indicates that your efforts are dishonest and will cause harm to others while an open can be a sign of honest dealings. Often, we may not realize we are causing damage through our actions, and with my work, I want to start that conversation.
Excavation, Todd Jones
MHM: Referencing your Excavation poured paintings, you note your interest in the passage of time and the process of excavating the earth. Can you expand on this painting process and what it means for you?
TJ: As I poured my paint skins I became interested in how thick I can make them due to the amount of paint poured. I then became curious and decided to try and make thick skins that I could manipulate. I started to look around my studio for a container to hold the paint as it dried, and I ended up using a panel. I quickly discovered that I needed to work in thin layers to allow the paint the ability to dry. I used different colors to help keep track of the number of layers poured, and it started to become a time-based work with every day pouring another layer. I became interested in this record of time and, once completed, wanted to show those layers through carving. This carving reminded me of the process of digging as it revealed the layers of the work.
MHM: You often seem to employ elements of meditation to push back against insatiable material desires, “how we consume things and how we always want more.” Can you describe the importance of meditative processes in your art? What do you find this looks like in your experience?
TJ: Creating is a way to access a meditative state of mind. For me making art is a tool to cope with overwhelming emotions, especially with what is going on in the world at this moment. This form of working allows me an escape and to fully emerge in my work.
Preserving Beauty, Todd Jones
MHM: In your Preserving Beauty pieces, you observe the knockout roses in resin as their classically understood beauty fades. How do you conceptualize the nature of beauty through the passage of time?
“The concepts of death, decay, and preservation have been topics of interest lately. I wanted to express that even though they passed away, their memories will continue to live on.”
TJ: The concepts of death, decay, and preservation have been topics of interest lately. I wanted to attempt to keep the flower clippings preserved and frozen in their current state of living. This piece started with a smaller series titled “In Loving Memory,” where I collected wilted flowers from a cemetery where I have family members buried. I collected these flowers and cast them in resin to create these works dedicated to their memory. I wanted to express that even though they passed away, their memories will continue to live on.
MHM: Your Skin Slab pieces bring a deep level of viscerality to your work, addressing anxieties in reference to the body. How did these works develop?
TJ: My “Skin Slab Series” was developed around the same time I started to make my panel works. I was interested in the idea of having layers of paint by itself without having a container being present in the final product. I am still trying to develop these works and want to break out of the constraints of the square and rectangle. These forms do resemble slabs of flesh and this idea of cutting away to reveal information. I find this interesting, and I want to explore this further in my work.
MHM: Noting the transit between painting and sculpture in your practice, could you describe the qualities, features, and techniques that have become most instrumental to your work?
TJ: My material exploration has been instrumental in my work. As an experimental artist, my artwork takes an investigational approach to materials and manipulating them to understand their limitations better. I treat the studio as a tinkering workshop where I am continually experimenting and testing out materials and techniques. I would say I have a chaotic studio practice with a lot going on at once. I have a wall dedicated to my experimentation. From my tests, I will decide what to pursue further for that moment. I almost feel like a mad scientist at times, and my studio is my laboratory. I have always been a curious person and like to question how things are made or what happens when you manipulate a material.
MHM: In what ways does your relationship with these materials change over time? Have you found yourself returning to or repurposing certain skills throughout your practice?
TJ: My relationship does change over time with materials. I use to see paint as only being a medium to create a painting. Now I see it as a material to also sculpt with. No matter what materials I use in my work, I do always return to paint. I think it is because I identified as a painter for the longest time and is the discipline I know the most about. Creating paint skins was when I started to become more of an experimental artist, and I always return to that process every once and a while.
MHM: Who are some of the artists you look up to for inspiration?
TJ: Some artists that inspire me are Tara Donovan, Judy Rushin, Danna Harper, Linda Benglis, Andy Goldsworthy, and Patrick Dougherty. In March, I was in Chicago and saw the exhibit titled The Allure of Matter, and all the artists inspired me. This show changed the way I view materials and has inspired me to create more installation-based work. The exhibition featured material art from China. It brought together work from the past four decades in which conscious material choice has become a symbol of the artist’s expression, representing this unique trend in history. These artists use everyday objects into large scale artworks showing material transformations and explorations.
MHM: Are there any materials or processes you are eager to experiment with next?
TJ: I have wanted to experiment with clay lately. Ceramics has always interested me and is probably the discipline I know the least about. I have some ideas for some installation-based work with clay. We will see what the future holds.
Todd Jones was born in Tallahassee, FL, and is currently based in Ohio. As an experimental artist, Todd explores the boundaries between contemporary painting and sculpture. Todd is interested in accessible materials primarily from the domestic context. By repurposing how they are used as consumer products, he creates a visual language that challenges the viewer’s association and perception of these materials. Todd is interested in material culture and transformative labors through the use of modest material contrasting with the investments of labor by using meditative repetition, and mass production. A lot of his work explores the serendipitous phenomena from the processes of painting and expands them into sculptural skins. These skins, in turn, are superimposed on undulating three-dimensional forms derived from natural elements. Together, they occupy an unstable liminal space between nostalgia and our precarious future.
Todd received his Bachelor of Fine Arts with a double major in studio art and psychology from Florida State University. He is currently living and working in Athens, Ohio and is an MFA candidate in Painting + Drawing at Ohio University. Todd has been an artist-in-residence at Studio 209 in Thomasville, GA and attended the Summer Painting and Sculpture Intensive at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA. He has had solo shows at Wild Goose Creative and the City Center Gallery at the Urban Arts Space in Columbus, OH.
