AKZ What are you currently working on?
ML I have a couple of finished things and some works in progress. Right now there's two factions of work, these bigger paintings, and a couple smaller ones which I like to think exist in the world of the bigger ones.
AKZ What does painting give you that you couldn’t express in a different medium?
ML With painting you can really capture a moment. A lot of my work are moments that could only exist in a second long moment, and it’s difficult to capture that in other mediums.
AKZ How do you come up with these universes, and does your background in furniture influence your painting process?
ML I've always been drawn to objects and architectural spaces, I think my original interest in furniture-making stemmed from this inherent attraction. The worlds portrayed come from thinking about what objects or certain materials can be good at, often keeping certain ideas in the back of my head as I encounter them in the real world.
Sometimes I'll think of an object or material and not really know what to do with it. An example is I have this bubble level that has been hanging on my wall for years and I kind of think there's something there, but I don't know how it relates to anything. I keep it in the back of my mind, and in time something just clicks where I realize a way to use it that takes it out of context and relates it to other things I am experiencing or Ideas I have about other things that aren't bubble levels.
AKZ How do you exist in relation to these worlds?
ML A lot of them feel like they end up being self-portraits. Part of the reason I'm drawn to painting objects is because in the right context they can become a character, acting as a stand-in for people without being anyone specifically, more like an icon of a person. So it can be anyone, I think I may use this anonymity to sort of hide behind instead of directly painting myself. Although with time I find myself slowly introducing a human presence more and more: a hand, an ear, the reflection of an eye.
AKZ How do you describe these landscapes?
ML Maybe disorienting? I like experimenting with incorporating different scales into an image. To focus on this bigger one I'm working on, it's a maze of rooms and pathways that altogether make up the structure of a tree. So when you are looking at a small part up close it is completely different than when you zoom out.
AKZ Especially in bigger works where there’s a lot going on, what’s the relationship between the objects themselves?
ML I like to have a lot of things mirror each other, repeating the same thing in different forms. Talking about the same painting, the room maze/tree sculpture is in the center frame, but then there is a house to the left of it, and a tree on the right. The envelope on the floor obviously needs a postage stamp with a painting of a tree.
AKZ How would someone navigate these spaces?
ML I like to imagine someone first stumbling upon a scene not as a painting but as if that scene happened before them in their life, maybe an initial shock of confusion, but as they explore they find more clues about what is happening in front of them.
AKZ Do you have specific objects you gravitate toward?
ML I don't think so. I mean, there's certain things that are more fun to paint or look sexy in oils, but often it's just random commonplace things. I guess I do lean a little towards painting the most recognizable version of something, like if im gonna paint a pair of scissors it has got to be the scissors with the orange handle.
AKZ Do you write these ideas down as they occur to you? What’s your process for turning those ideas into a new piece?
ML Lately I've been jotting random ideas on sticky notes and putting them on my studio wall. Letting the ideas percolate and the more interesting ideas float to the top.
I definitely like to plan compositions out, I usually make line drawings to figure out where major elements will fit and see if size ratios look right. Since I’m painting these familiar things that we’ve all seen, I like to get the size right as a way to ground it to reality.
AKZ Do you typically work from a photograph? How do you achieve such a high level of detail?
ML I’ll look at a lot of photos, and sometimes I'll paint directly from a reference photo, but a lot of the time I take in all the information from photos and come up with my own way of depicting something that fits my needs.
AKZ Is there a medium or piece that became a turning point in your work?
ML I think a lot of the work from the show ‘Like Magic’ that I had a couple years ago felt like a turning point. If I were to give it to a specific one it would be this one of a sims esc house made out of toothpaste on a bathroom floor, titled ‘floorplan’. I think before that my work felt more in the vein of traditional surrealism. I think what I discovered with this one was the sweet spot between surreal and I guess real. Like this image could really almost exist, if someone had enough toothpaste and passion they could probably make a decent model house out of aquafresh.
AKZ How do you navigate transitioning across mediums?
ML I like to let the different mediums I've worked with inform each other and work together when they can. I've used oil paintings in sculptures before. Now Im trying something new for the first time that im really excited about where I am making a painting of a sculpture I made for that purpose.
AKZ Do you see this sculpture as a piece that would be in the show next to the painting?
ML Definitely not, it’s actually falling apart. Which is funny because it’s a tree and it's slowly drooping down.
I originally wanted to make it as a permanent sculpture out of wood. But I decided to just make it out of cardboard, and in real life it wouldn't last more than a couple weeks, But if I make a painting of it I don't have to worry about its longevity. I want to explore making more ephemeral sculptures, and making paintings of them. I have plans next for a diorama made out of red onions.
AKZ What tools are essential to your process?
ML I use a lot of those blue paper towels, somehow I always find myself trying to rub paint off of parts of a painting where it doesn’t belong.
Love a ruler. I spend a lot of time just measuring things.
I've also been using a lot of tracing papers for doing transfers. I’ll tape it to the painting I'm working on and draw on it until I get something that looks right, then paint a thin layer of oil paint on the back and trace it again to transfer to the canvas.
AKZ What’s your favorite part of the process?
ML Definitely working on the details, there's always something nice about putting little highlights on metal or adding a little easter egg of sorts. But I also like a lot of different parts. Sometimes the early stages are really fun, when you have to cover a big space of paint, and other times it's nice doing some of the mindless patterny stuff, where it's very repetitive and you can let your mind wander.
AKZ Have you always been obsessed with detail? What motivates such intricate work?
ML Definitely always, in my earlier work I was also pretty detail oriented. I get sort of OCD about the details and trying to get things really crisp, sometimes to my own detriment.
AKZ Do you ever get creative block, and how do you work through that?
ML Yea especially after a show, it takes like a little while to get going again. I feel like I won’t want to do any ideas I thought of before the show because I want the next thing to feel new and different. Sometimes as a starting point I'll just try making something different for the sake of doing something different, and see what emerges.
AKZ Do you write these things down or what does the process of reflecting look like?
ML I don't do too much writing, but I'll talk with my roommates and we'll go on a painting rant or something. I do think about it a lot, it’s more of an internal process.
AKZ What do you spend the most time thinking about?
ML I spend a lot of time just thinking about how things relate to me. Maybe selfishly, I don't know, but sometimes I'll be working on something and then, something will happen in the work that feels relevant.
Sometimes I don't feel like things are that personal when I start making, but then as you're working on it things reveal themselves and you're like, oh, that's why I thought of it.
AKZ Has there been a challenging piece?
ML Yeah, weirdly this small candle one. I wanted it to be a little more abstract which felt a little out of my comfort zone.
AKZ Walk me through a day in your studio.
ML I normally come in, delete Instagram, I can re download it when I leave. First ten minutes is usually assessing what I did the day before with fresh eyes. I try to plan what I'm gonna work on that day the night before, so I then start mixing my paints and get started. I'll take breaks for snacks or to run across the street to western beef.
AKZ What did your journey from furniture to painting look like?
ML I went to school for furniture, and started the program making very serious woodworking furniture, but by the end of it I was making sculptures that vaguely resembled the forms of furniture out of a bunch of materials. After graduating, I started working for an artist and making sculptural furniture for him in his studio, and that’s when I started painting. After making sculptures all day I was getting a little burnt out so I just wanted something different to do at home. I also didn't have a studio so painting was very accessible to do in my bedroom.
AKZ Did the job in sculpture influence your practice?
ML Yes, I was working for Misha Kahn and I learned so much from him. Looking back I realize how lucky I was to work for him, I hear so many horror stories about other artist assistant jobs but with him he really respected us as individual artists. He would have us working with so many new and different materials that i sort of developed an attitude that experience wasn't always necessary, I could just start making work in a new medium, I didn't need to go to school for painting to make paintings. Also his style was very different from mine, his process is more fast and loose, so I benefited from working outside my comfort zone. It helped me be a little less precious about certain things and embrace a bit of chaos, which I think is important and something I am always trying to allow more opportunity for.
AKZ And now you're full-time in your practice?
ML Yeah, I've been fortunate to be doing it full time for the past two years. It feels surreal to get to paint everyday.
AKZ What motivates you to keep coming back to studio every day?
ML I really do just love making things.There is also a thrill to finishing a piece. When I start feeling burnt out I try to mix things up. I started this big one and I feel a second wind with painting because I’ve never worked this big.
AKZ How do you know when a piece is done?
ML For me there is often a sort of checklist in my head of things I want to do before I call it done. The checklist thing is usually for the end stages of a painting, in the beginning of a painting so many things are changing you have to stay open to different possibilities.
AKZ So would you say the concept for a painting evolved over time?
ML Yeah, I definitely leave space for things to develop, I love planning but I’ll start something without it fully figured out. I know something needs to happen, but trust it will reveal itself as I work on it.
AKZ Can you talk about a painting where there was an exciting discovery in the process?
ML There’s been a couple.
This washing machine painting I was working on had a lot of diagram stickers on the machine and product labels on soaps that I turned into quasi paintings in their own right. From this I really learned how much control you have when you are making an image from scratch. In real life the diagram is for how to use the machine, but in a painting it could be about anything.
AKZ What's something you hope an audience takes away from the work?
ML Maybe a way of looking at things, It would be cool if people encounter something irl that I've made a painting of and they remember the way I depicted it, or even better they make up their own surreal version of it.
