Interview with Nicole Sardone

Nicole Sardone began her undergraduate studies unsure of what she wanted to focus on. Taking many courses in fine arts she ultimately discovered painting was her mode of expression. She is a figurative painter: looking to highlight the shapes of the figure and bring the parts of the body to a new realm. As the focal point of her paintings, they speak on their own, apart from the entirety of the figure.

Ilana Cloud: You grew up not knowing you were interested in art, so how did you begin to see that painting might really be a place you wanted to go, and that being an artist would be a path for you where you could really grow and develop?

Nicole Sardone: I have tried so many different areas of the arts, like graphic design, drawing, sculpture, etc. But something with painting just stuck. With graphic design I felt like there was a middleman that I did not want and that led me more towards drawing and painting. When I really started drawing and painting I realized I was very interested in, not necessarily the figure, I was not drawn to the full figure by beauty or anything like that, but more so the interesting shapes of the body. The forms, and the possibilities of just your hand alone, such a small part of the body, are endless. So that is what I have begun to really focus on in my work.

Ilana: What have you taken in terms of classes in your undergraduate studies so far?

Nicole: I have spent about three years at Middlesex County College before coming to Rutgers, studying part time at Middlesex, taking classes such as graphic design, figure drawing, sculpture, a bunch of different painting classes.

Ilana: When you took these art classes early on in college, you found something that really interested you? Leading you towards art?

Nicole: I found that I enjoyed making art in those classes, before that I was very confused about what I was going to do. I did not have many hobbies; I did not have any particular subjects I enjoyed in school. I was really relieved to know that there was something I was truly interested in, something I wanted to do, wanted to continue to do.

Ilana: From the work of yours that I have seen and from our discussion it seems you are very interested in the body. Are you looking at all areas, are there some parts of the body that draw you in more?

Nicole: I have not found a part of the body I do not enjoy painting. However, I have found that I am really drawn to feet. Something about a person’s feet, they are just so interesting, the shapes, the angles.

Ilana: Do you often like to portray female or males in your paintings?

Nicole: I have not thought about genders too much in my work up until this point, but I think I prefer a male. Women seem a little too dainty in some regards. I like the broadness of males, the rigidity and structure. I have been doing a lot of torsos, as you can see in my work, and many backs. I really wanted to find someone with substance, someone like a three hundred pound person, but that turned out to be quite hard to find as a model. I like things to be bigger, bigger is better; this is what I want to continue to search for, for my paintings.

Nicole: I often look at Jenny Seville; I find her work to be so gorgeous, so compelling. Many times her paintings can look grotesque in nature, but I find it to really be beautiful. I don’t see my work as looking similar to hers in any way, but she is definitely someone that has greatly influenced me as a painter.

Ilana:  Do you see anything similar in her work that you identify with, something that she is saying with her paintings that relate to why you paint the body or have an interest in it?

Nicole: Well, I started painting the body before I even looked deeply into her work, but I found a connection there; she does show a lot of different sides of people, people undergoing plastic surgery, transvestites and some bloodied figures. There is, it seems, an element of drama, a sort of creepiness in her work, but at the same time there is so much beauty.

Ilana: Is that something you are looking to grasp in your own art?

Nicole: Yes, I definitely want to bring the viewer to a similar place. There is some work that I definitely feel has a creep appeal and those are the pieces I am most happy with, most engaged in. Though I am not really sure why, I can’t really pinpoint or describe what draws me to them. I think it has a lot to do with the way I want to use paint to describe the body and aspects of it. I look for a more expressive way to engage the figure in my paintings.

Ilana: Is there any theme, or idea about our world that you are bringing to the surface with your art?

Nicole: I could say something about our world but it is not really my driving force. I have some thoughts in the back of my head, but I am not quite sure what they are. A lot of what I envision has a lot to do with my personal experiences, personal interests.

Ilana: From a lot of your works, it sees that you crop the parts of the body in interesting ways, offsetting at times, not including the whole figure, but making the figures anonymous in a way because heads are not included in paintings with other parts of the body, and often you chose only one aspect of the body to represent. Is this intentional, what are you trying to create for the viewer?

Nicole:  I never start off a painting by thinking about where the figures are placed. I don’t do a lot of planning, and I enjoy bringing things really close to the picture plane. Break the barrier between the viewer and the painting; I want to get it in your face. I don’t want too much information there. I really like to separate the body, take it out of context—take a part of the body out of context of the whole thing. I think that connects with the second aspect of your question about figures or bodies being anonymous. Its not a figure in a space, it becomes an object on a picture plane. A quote that I really think describes my work or my process well is one by Lucian Freud: “the longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and ironically, the more real.” The idea that the figures becomes anonymous I find to be a large part of my work because I am looking at the shapes the body creates, in a sense, dissecting parts of the human figure, depicting them on their own and disassociating them from the human being. I want the bodies to become something else, to change inside the mind of the observer, losing their sense of humanity, and in a way becoming abstract objects.

Ilana: A lot of the paintings do not really show what the figure is doing, or they are cropped in a way that does not allow the viewer to see exactly what space they are in.

Nicole: I am really not interested in the backgrounds or what is going on around the figure. I do not like to have it be distracting, or having any other type of objects in the background. I also like the flatness of a background juxtaposed with a three-dimensional rendering of the body part. In my paintings there is different types of representations, such as line, two-dimensionality, turning into three-dimensionality, and then a difference in texture between thick or thinner paint, rough or smoother paint, transparent or opaque paint and color. I really enjoy opposing styles and contradictions in the paint.

Ilana: Does this pull towards contrast influence what materials you use, what surface you use to paint on?

Nicole: Yes, definitely; I work on wood panels. I feel that it allows me to build layers, dig in deep, and have a hard structure to begin with. At some points I’m pushing the paint around with a palette knife like a sort of sculpture with paint, sculpting the paint. I have experimented with many different types of wood and even so I do not seek out a particular type when I go to buy supplies. I sense whether I want them based on the way they feel, something with a decent amount of texture, but not enough that it is going to overpower the work or draw the viewers attention to the wood of the support. I feel that wood works perfectly with the image I am looking to create.

Ilana: Do you feel that this is the direction you will go with for thesis this semester and spring semester? Any ideas on what the work will look like? Whether it will change or not?

Nicole: Yes, I feel that this is the direction I want to take, to keep exploring the body and the aspects that strike me most. Also though, I want to try and create for thesis a way in which the paintings I make can intertwine, or communicate to one another, in a sculptural sense. I want to arrange the paintings into their own sculpture that relates them, allows them to connect with one another and impact the viewer in a certain way. I am trying to avoid it looking or resembling the figure, or referencing the figure in the obvious sense, but I want my paintings to occupy space. I really want them to take on the space around them, not just be hung on a wall. I want the to have a presence, bring them into the viewer’s world. I am looking into creating a three-dimensional painting in a sense, comprised of many paintings together.

Ilana: Are there areas you want to explore further for thesis that you feel you have not had a chance to so far?

Nicole: Yes I would really like to work on the face. The face can do so many interesting things, and though this will anchor the paintings back to a more human sensibility, I feel that I will obscure the facial expressions and the placement of the head in order to create the same desensitization and fragmentation. I plan to look at and experiment shapes inside of the face, such as lips and noses, and not look at the face as a whole necessarily.

Ilana: Is there something in your own life, an experience or a way that you live your life that you feel people have in some way missed these parts of the body or have become so distant from the shapes of the human form? Have you thought about why you want to really bring the features so close to the viewer?

Nicole: It seems like a very unconscious choice, it is mostly just how I work and have been working for some time. I work based a lot on feeling and initial reaction. I am really not sure why I am so interested in placing the parts of the body so close to the picture plane. Even when I started figure drawing I never though for one second that I had to draw the whole figure. I immediately zoomed in and worked on only one part. It just felt like the right thing to do.

Ilana: What is the size of your work normally?

Nicole: I was working primarily last semester on 2x2 feet panels, but towards the end of the semester I started working on larger paintings, upwards of four feet to even larger.

Ilana: Do you have a technique that you start with to begin? To you draw out in pencil, in paint?

Nicole: I draw out in the beginning with paint and I am very interested in also leaving a lot of those initial drawing lines in my finished paintings. I have looked often at Degas’ work where he leaves the lines from previous renditions of the figure and I feel it gives the painting and the figure a real sense of movement. The artist Jim Peters also influences me; though he has a lot more space, a lot more of an environment for the figures, but when I saw his style it definitely influenced me in the way I paint. I look at his work for the way he handles paint on the canvas.

Ilana: As a final question, do you make fast paintings? Slow paintings? Do you make a conscious decision about what you will use to create the painting?

Nicole: I do often chose a method before I start a painting, such as doing a fast painting, a dry brush painting, using a palette knife or other type of method. I feel like this creates not only a dialogue between the paintings but also adds an experimental aspect to the paintings, a gestural mark that becomes part of each painting. I really want to learn from each painting that I do and have it inform the next piece.

Closing remarks: Combining experimentation with her desire for a zoomed in view, Nicole Sardone subjects the viewer to the body as part, not as whole. Her work asks the observer to question the role of the figure in painting and whether the entire figure needs to be seen in order for the painting to be complete. These paintings illuminate aspects of the body that are otherwise not seen as one in themselves, creating their own atmosphere and presence.