Repetition Revolution
“Enraptured by each others beauty, Beatrice and Celia became distracted by looking deeply and lovingly into one another’s eyes. As the day passed into night, the intensity of their gaze began enabling them to achieve a psychic bridge, fusing them, mind and body, into a singular super being.”
cut paper collage on illustration board.
2011
By Meghan Hendley
Photos courtesy of Patrick Turk
Local artist Patrick Turk’s work goes beyond your basic vision’s ability. His pieces merge color, imagery, history, and more in order to create something otherworldly. Armed with scissors, hundreds of pages, and a wild imagination, Turk turns to his passion of repetition and new creation to make each piece a unique collaboration of images and movement. Call it a wonderland of mystery or a visual take on the chopped and screwed DJ style with a vintage hinge. Turk’s work offers the viewer a chance to see something different in each nook and cranny. Spend some time and get lost in his work, allowing your eye to shift across the kaleidoscope of his creations. FPH had the opportunity to speak with Turk about his artistic travels.
How did you develop your collage style? How do colors come into play?
I originally got into collage because it was a new and portable way to make art. I had been drawing and painting a lot before then. Even my painting style is very elaborate and slightly psychedelic and that definitely translated to my collages. As time goes on, I try to continue pushing my work forward into more unique and surprising areas. Color is super important to my work and a huge part of my compositional decisions. Colors have huge emotional and associative properties in themselves; I just try to use them intuitively.
You take pieces and images from everything from science to old western images to space. We zip around different time periods. Those pieces of collage have distinct colors as well. What does the use of different eras mean to your work?
When I go looking for imagery it’s usually more about things that have good color and movement. Because I create lines through a repetition of imagery, I have to find things that will look good overlapping each other over and over again. In collage, it can be difficult to obtain a broad color palette because you can’t just mix it like paint; you have to find what you need. Color and movement aside, I think that it’s the style of the work that I am attracted to. I like anatomical illustration because of the scientific precision employed in creating it. The sci-fi, western, prehistoric, etc. material I use is not necessarily about the time periods they reflect but more about the era that those images were being produced in. The book cover and magazine illustrations being produced in the ‘30s – ‘60s tend to be among my favorite. I guess I am more interested in the imagery than creating an actual narrative associated with the historical relevance of those images.
The sense of perception is also played upon in your work. What are some of the ways you like to display your works that alter this perception?
I have been gravitating more and more to the idea of adding sound, movement, and light elements to my work. I want the work to shimmer and move and never be static. To have a life of its own even.
How has your experience as a resident at Lawndale Art Center been?
It’s been really fantastic so far. The studios and building themselves are great and working with everyone on the Lawndale staff has been amazing. They are really supportive, and the studio program as a whole I think really encourages productivity and creation.
Please tell me about one of the most challenging series or shows you have had in your career.
“The Time Travel Research Institute Presents:” was definitely the most challenging show I’ve done. Everything about the work was new and experimental. In a short amount of time, I had to do a lot of research on the time periods I was working with and I also had to develop new techniques for nearly every element of the work. Prior to that show, everything I had done was two-dimensional collages on canvas or panel. That show incorporated three-dimensional collage, LEDs, wood, motors, and magnifying lenses. I had a good deal of help from my friend, Tom Ebersole, with all of the lights and electronics.
If you could travel to any time period, which one would it be?
Currently, when I time travel I always end up in the future. I think I like the idea of unhappened realities better than finished realities.
In a way, you create a universe out of your work for us to live in. What kind of elements go into the universe and what does the scenery look like?
I can create a universe out of my work. Some of the processes are still in an experimental stage, but more and more I am focusing on not solely what that universe would look like. Also what it would do for all of the other senses as well. I’d like the work to become extremely immersive. I want the viewer to also be hearing, feeling, and smelling the work. And then, of course, will be the hurdle of the great intangible “sixth sense.” Anyway, I think I would be most happy to create work that could result in synesthesia, like this work feels purple and looks like bird’s songs.
