KrossD: Flower Pepper Gallery

Nicole Bruckman is an artist I met many years ago when she was helping run operations at Flower Pepper Gallery. She's shown in damn near every gallery in Los Angeles. As her art reflects, Nicole is an animal lover to her very core. She has done a lot of work for Downtown Dog Rescue (please donate). She's the mother of two adorable kids and two sweet pits. Nicole relocated back to her native Cleveland a couple years ago, and I miss her a lot. A global pandemic seems like as good a time as any to check in on her...

How are you feeling?

Definitely feeling anxious and going a little stir crazy! Missing mundane activities and visiting with friends and family.

Were you able to quarantine in the studio? How long has it been?

I have lost track of how many days we have been quarantined for now but luckily my studio is in my home. However, being home with my 3-year-old and 7-year-old has made it challenging to accomplish much!

When did it hit you how serious this was?

I think being a parent made it feel very serious to me very early on. It has definitely made me think of their future and the future of our planet.

Have you had cancelled/postponed exhibitions as a result?

Luckily my solo exhibition at Gabba Gallery was in fall of 2019 and most of the group shows I have upcoming have been able to move to online shows.

What have you been doing with the downtime? Are you able to make art right now?

Making art has proven to be challenging between the anxiety over what is happening and homeschooling which takes most of my time. I am trying to get back in the groove a little as it does make me feel more optimistic when I create.

Are you finding any inspiration in this mess?

Well, oddly, I have found comfort in making Alice in Wonderland inspired decorations for my daughter’s 8th birthday party which has been postponed indefinitely. My 3-year-old wakes up every morning and says, "what are we making today Mommy?"

What has been the most challenging part of this for you?

Definitely the homeschooling!

What are some of your coping mechanisms?

Making things with my children and walking the dog when the weather cooperates are definitely helping!

What's the thing/place you wish you could do/go but can't right now?

I really wish we were able to have my daughter’s birthday party at the Holden Arboretum and would love to be able to take my daughter to the art museum, and my 3 year old tells us daily that he misses Target.

Why does Sam like Target so much?

Sam loves Target because we always went there after his weekly swim class to pick up
cleaning supplies, etc, and he was allowed to pick out a small toy if he was cooperative at swim class.

Done any binge watching, book reading, game playing?

We have been playing Clue and Yahtzee, I am reading Little Fires Everywhere, and just finished watching Tiger King.

Favorite work of art in Los Angeles?

Too many to name! I miss the variety of art the city provides. Prior to the corona virus hitting the states I was fortunate to see the Margaret Killgallen exhibition at Moca Cleveland which is fantastic.

Any piece native to Cleveland that you love?

My favorite piece of art in Cleveland is the attached portrait of a young girl by Renoir at the Cleveland Museum of Art. I have fond memories of this painting from trips to the museum with my mother and grandmother when I was young.

Renoir

What song is stuck in your head right now?

The soundtrack from Alice in Wonderland since my kids have been watching the movie on repeat!

Favorite brand of toilet paper and where do you find it?

Whatever we can find these days!

If you could hoard one food item, what would it be?

Apples. We eat so many and they go so quickly!

Do you know anyone personally who has contracted the virus?

Fortunately, I do not at this time.

How do you think this all ends?

I am concerned that if we do not change the way we as species interact with wildlife and destroy their habitat that this will never really end and we will be doomed to repeat the cycle with future pandemics.

Thanks, Nicole! Stay safe.

I just dug up an old interview Nicole did with Juxtapoz and have unearthed her favorite quote. It's quite fitting.

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.” -Dr. Seuss

At the end of every year, I like to geek out and compile a list of my favorite (and least favorite) art of said year, Sadly, I just couldn't do it this time around. Maybe I'm just getting cranky in my old age, but for me, art in 2015 often had the unholy stink of "meh" all over it. In large part, I blame our collective 8 second attention span. Truly talented artists are being forced, by sheer economics, to create work that is vapid, garish, cute, and hollow just to get a moment's glance before you check your phone again. I don't know how we are going to deal with this problem and still be able to create anything meaningful. But I'm holding out hope. There was one artist this year that stopped me in my tracks, every time I saw her work. Valerie Pobjoy is a revelation. She is taking classical techniques and standing them on their arcane heads. She applies a masters' hand to the grime under our feet, and, wait for it, makes us actually feel something.

In October of 2014, I was in a show at Flower Pepper Gallery. Valerie was in the show too, and her paintings grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let go. I immediately asked Nicole Bruckman who this girl was. I was soon introduced to a tiny stick of dynamite, poised to blow up all your preconceived notions of what art is, and what it can do. I've been lucky enough to show alongside Valerie at a number of shows, and she humbles the hell out of me every time. Imagine if Delacroix and Sargent were alive today, and entrenched in the Black Metal scene. It's quite a leap, I know, but they would certainly have a response to the glut of Ryden-lite art being continuously vomited up in gallery after gallery. Pobjoy is that fantasy fully realized. She can render a urinal at a metal club utterly alluring, without losing any of it's bleak, harrowing nature. She is extraordinary at capturing the hardened despair of concert-goers, and hangers on, People on the outskirts, searching for a moment of contentment in a brutal riff, a sense of community, a bottle or a dog.

I visited Valerie's studio last week, and in spite the presence of 3 chickens, and a cat, the place is pretty clean. She keeps her brushes immaculate, a trait I've found rare among artists. Her work is hard to photograph. She frequently employs delicate, soft edges to figures. It's not exactly blurry, but there's a slight haze that my camera didn't know what to do with. There's also masterfully executed textures that beg to be seen in person. But you may be seeing less of that in her future work.

I’ve kind of lost my boner for texture. I feel like it was becoming a crutch almost. Like, ‘let me make this really cool by making the texture really weird’, as opposed to having it actually be interesting. It was becoming a crutch. So, I haven’t really been playing with texture as much as content.

Spend a few minutes with Valerie, and you will bear witness to a keen intellect (and sense of humor) that belies her 26 years.

I had all these commissions in a row. You know, painting people’s kids, portraits of Dads, stuff like that. I started having such an existential crisis, and feeling like I was so boring. I wasn’t putting out what was in my soul, you know? I decided that I need to go to grad school. I need to move away from L.A. I felt like the most boring person in the world. I came to the conclusion that I just need to paint a toilet. I just need to paint something gross.

I was pretty shocked to learn that she'd never even used oils until she was 21.

When I was 17, graduating High School, I decided I wanted to go to art school. I went to visit the Academy of Art in San Francisco. When I got there, there was a bunch of teenagers that were just like me, like rebellious and Goth, and I thought, ‘Man, this is just a phase! I’m not an artist.’ So, I left thinking, ‘I’m just going to go community college, figure myself out, and make sure it’s not just a phase.’ So, I started studying to become a vet. But every time I would study, I would draw, instead of take notes, and it was like, clearly I just want to draw. I had been at Santa Monica College for a few years, and I was just so bored. I wanted something really challenging to happen. I went to Art Center because it had the reputation of being the hardest school. I talked to an admissions guy, and showed him my sketchbook and he said I needed to do oils and figurative. So, that’s when I started with oils.

Valerie studied under Sean Cheetham, names Shaun Berke as her mentor, and sites Lucian Freud, and Edgar Degas as huge influences. You can't pin her down on a favorite metal band, although she offers Metallica as a default answer. She used to do graffiti as 'Punk Rock Pussy' (don't try to Google that). She's the kind of art nerd I adore, eager to show you her comic books and record collection, and she says she'll never stop painting her brother's dog Holly.

I really loathe when people attempt to compliment an artist by saying they're gifted. It's so dismissive of the hard work that they put in. But it really is crazy that Valerie is as good as she is at 26. She is able to convey so much raw emotion in the most unlikely settings. I look at how she renders the metal kids at shows, and grand symphonic orchestras play in my head. There are sad, lurid tales being told in the silence of the seedy urinals. There's a theatricality, a noir at work in the simplest of her portraits. She's honors the history of art in her technique, while creating wholly new content. It's really exciting to think that she's just getting started, She's one of my top 5 working artists, and she created my favorite works of the year, by far.

You can see Valerie's work for yourself this Saturday night (12/12015) in "Wish List 3.5" at Gabba Gallery.

She will be one of the artists featured in Flower Pepper's 4th Anniversary Show on Dec. 19th.

Also, if you hurry, there was one drawing left at Daniel Rolnik Gallery, last I checked.