Ivar Zeile: Lets start with paint. You've had a relationship with paint for 40 years now, its obviously second nature but what would you say about a lifetime spent with paint?
Dave Yust: Actually my interest isn’t so much about ‘paint’ as it is about color. Whether color is explored via paint, litho inks, colored pencils, or oil pastels is not so different for me. More specifically, I am interested in the juxtaposition of colors that are at the same (or nearly the same) light/dark value range. Georgia O’Keeffe once said --- “Color is one of the great things in the world that makes life worth living.”
2. Looking back what do you consider to be the defining moment in which you realized you were going to have a successful and long "career" as an visual artist?
One defining moment likely happened back in the early 1960’s when I came to the realization that the pursuit of art had the fewest compromises for me --- the main ones being with my head and with my materials. Why become an artist if you can’t do what you want. Of course the real challenge of this is having to be and really being self-directed. Another defining moment occurred in 2003 when it finally dawned on me that my work of the past 40 years had been centered on trying to resolve the dichotomy of successfully combining geometric and biomorphic/organic imagery. This is one of few threads that has extended through my work since the early 1960’s.
3. Can you tell me a bit about how the first dimensional canvases took shape or explain a bit about the early progress in this realm?In 1969 the first three-dimensional canvases happened because I was interested in exploring various ways of having light (and resulting shadows) divide certain shapes and areas into symmetrical relationships.
4. I'm sure you remember the first time you said "I'm going to work at a truly enormous scale," perhaps one that challenged anything you had done prior. Can you describe what that was like?
There are few ‘art’ things worse than a big awful painting. The largest paintings I’ve done over the years have been for specific locations and spaces. It is a great challenge for any artist to do one’s best to rise to the occasion. I have always worked very hard to make absolutely certain that if I ever had ‘to eat’ a painting --- I would be happy to do it.
5. Motifs where the line-work is fluid and concise (and frankly amazing). What made you decide to get away from that?
It was in the early 1980’s when it came time for my wife and me to build a studio as part of our Fort Collins home. It took two years to do it. During that time I grew away from my ‘explorations in symmetry’ works within the circle because I had no place in which to work. Anyone who has tried to carry on a long-distance relationship can empathize.
During 1980 – 1982, while I was doing all of the design and working drawings for our studio addition, I was reading numerous books on post-modern architecture including ones by Robert Venturi. In Venturi’s book Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture one part hit me between the eyes --- “architecture (or in my case, art/painting) must embody the difficult unity of inclusion rather than the easy unity of exclusion. More is not less.” It was time for me to search and explore new and more complex resolutions of unity. (The earlier paintings and prints rarely ever had more than 6 or 7 different colors in any given work --- and I began to want and need more colors and more of a variety of shapes and surfaces.) The Inclusion Series began in 1982 and is ongoing to this day.
6. Can you relate any moments of doubt (if any) within your career where you weren't quite sure how to continue, maybe specifically after having seen success and critical acclaim?
One of the ‘doubting’ moments that prevented me from making an earlier commitment to becoming an artist was the fear that I might run out of ideas. This has turned out to be an unfounded fear. A basic interest in my life has never been to make a lot of money --- but to have an interesting life.
7. What was it like being highlighted at the Denver Art Museum with an exhibition and the ltd. edition serigraph series? Do you think something like that can be replicated with a local artist in today's scene at that level?
The invitation for my solo-exhibition at the Denver Art Museum came from the late Lewis Story as a result of recommendations from the juror(s) from an earlier DAM exhibition in which I was included. These state wide juried exhibitions at the DAM provided many new and established artists with opportunities to have their works be seen in an important environment. The Foothills Art Center and the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art are among the few Colorado venues where artists can still enter juried exhibitions. (Although it is difficult to monitor --- I feel that ‘new’ artists should not submit art works to juried exhibitions (or galleries for that matter) that have been done under classroom instruction and/or supervision. Instead, I feel that it is imperative that one must find one’s own self-acceptance and one’s own visual voice after and outside of any school art studio assignments and influences.) One thing that exists now for anybody, for better or worse, are websites on the internet. It is hard being an artist these days as it always has been. It is hard simply being a decent human being!
8. Your most recent works utilize an oval shape, and as you told me not too long ago the oval canvas is a new form for you. Can you discuss this shift or how that evolved from your previous works.
For me a determining reason for working within a circular format in the first place was to be able to have an infinite number of possible positions for an image to be viewed from. I have found it to be a very interesting visual question to work within an elliptical shape. My choice has been to place the ellipse horizontally leaving me two positions --- 180 degrees opposed. My relatively recent investigations of the use of catenary curved shapes in both paintings and monotypes has caused me to consider gravity as a new visual component. I don’t want to have any limitations unless they are self-imposed.
9. What do you think of todays art scene and the disparity in markets and pricing between successful regional artists such as yourself and todays international superstars?
Perhaps I should/could be more concerned and worried about these disparities. My focus continues to be on what I am doing (and am about to be doing) in the studio.
10. You have quite a history working on projects and with Christo and Jean Claude. How did that evolve and how has that opportunity inspired you or your own work?
I believe Christo and Jeanne-Claude are among the most idealistic people on our planet. As an idealistic person as well, I admire their trait tremendously. Their work ethic makes me strive to work harder. Because of their hughnormous and beautiful projects no two people have ever done more to spark conversations between others who have never met before --- conversations about what art is and isn’t. I think this is just terrific. After working on their Surrounded Islands Project I thought about it every day for the following two years. I am so hoping that they will gain permission to do the Over The River Project in 2012.
11. What motivates you today and what are your goals for the future?
I trust that some of my motivation(s) have been revealed in my answers to your questions, Ivar. I am trying to stay on course to live my life with as few regrets as possible with respect to what I have and haven’t done. A major and exciting reason for working in the studio is to find out what I must discover next.
12. Finally, what's something people wouldn't generally know about you but is perhaps reflected in your work?
I am very interested in edges and perimeters of whatever shaped format I find myself working within. I’m not fond of art works --- referential or abstract --- that have a singular focal point as invariably, I feel sorry for the corners. If images can find a way to have interesting perimeters --- this usually goes a long way to making it much more visually compelling art work. Although I don’t believe there is such a thing as a bad color (any more than there is a bad note on a musical instrument) --- there can be cacophonous and underwhelming combinations of colors. I aspire to be known as a significant colorist.
