Atlanta based artist Craig Hawkins first impressed me when I took a peek at his latest series entitled Notice. The pieces are charcoal on paper and have the intensity of his oil paintings. Check out an interview with the artist below.

Art Nouveau Magazine: How are you?

Craig Hawkins: Thankful to find myself in a situation where doing what I love is a career for me.

ANM: Describe your work to someone who has never seen it.

CH: My work is mostly drawing and painting with an emphasis on drawing. I like to collect moments of revelation. I take these personal, local moments and record them through meditative compositions, high contrast, and expressive mark making with the hope of expressing them as having applicable qualities. Seeing the history of process is exciting to me and I value the visual evidence of the artist’s hand in a work of art. he bible is a major influence. The process from the moment of revelation to the final work of art is a mystery to me. The experience I try to record feels universally important and personally applicable at the same time and I’m compelled to explore this moment to create a visually stimulating record with mark making.

ANM: Tell me about your background in the arts. When did you know you were an artist?

CH: I began drawing at a very early age (around 2 or 3 according to my mother) I’ve always had the encouragement from family and friends to pursue my talents. I guess knowing I was an artist didn’t happen until someone recognized me as one. I knew I loved drawing and painting and felt that was enough. I didn’t need a title or label to go with it but I suppose it happened the same way a young person is referred to as an adult one day. Surprisingly, someone recognized me as an artist and just like referring to a boy as a man for the first time or a teen as an adult I recognized what was already present in my life and I think my self-image and eventually self-purpose became a little clearer. People usually recognize a talent or a change in a person before the person does.

ANM: What theme if any does your work explore?

CH: The figure is important to me, but as a theme I’m going to have to say personal thoughts within a biblical worldview.

Who are your creative influences? My preacher, My wife, My son, Jim Dine, Alex Kanevsky, Lisa Wright, Jenny Saville, James Way, Ann Gale, Tony Scherman, Gerhadt Richter, Nathan Ford, Robert Longo, Harry Ally, and Makoto Fujimura

ANM: What’s your process of creating a piece? How do you know when you’re done?

CH: Whatever inspiration I have usually develops or creates a visual context, picture or question in my head. I find as many visual references for the visual context because I work best from references and after some prayer I dive in. I always start a piece with the naive intention of finishing it in one session. In reality several if not many sessions take place before a piece is complete, but I know I’ve completed a piece by a measured guttural feeling. I kind of just know but I ask myself questions like: “Is it still feel fresh or is it over worked?”, in reference to mark making, “Does it have enough captivating areas that dominate the space I’m working in?”, in reference to content, “Does it ask more questions than give answers?” and “Does it show more than tell?” and over all “Is there a good balance between form and content?” If most of these are answered in a positive way and my gut confirms it I’m ready to walk away and start a new piece.

ANM: What’s on your Music Playlist lately? Does music influence your work?

CH: Lately it’s been the musical scores to pixar films. Music can help me focus and ignore my surroundings so it does influence my work ethic.

ANM: If you couldn’t create art, what would you be doing right now?

CH: I don’t really have a plan B. It’s a good question and a bridge I hope I never have to cross.

ANM: What’s your favorite color to incorporate in your work?

CH: For years it’s been warm colors with high contrast as an emphasis. Lately I’m really intrigued by white space and the duality it has portraying flatness and infinite depth. So I guess white is my favorite color right now.

ANM: Tell me about your Heart series.

CH: The intent of what has become my heart series is to display the invisible emotional and spiritual connections that exist within a person, within relationships and within a family unit. Our heart makes it’s home in what ever we treasure most. Whenever that treasure is a person we are always connected to them no matter the physical distance. People are the riches of the kingdom of God. Life flows through loving relationships.

I was inspired by the following bible verses:
“…but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14 (New International Version)
” Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” Proverbs 4:23,

”For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:21 (New International Version)

ANM: Tell me about your Notice series.

CH: The notice series came out of a sermon I heard at Buckhead Church in Atlanta, GA and turned into the question of whether or not I would feel ignored if I surrounded myself with life-sized drawings of people with there backs to me. Once the drawings where complete I lined them all up shoulder to shoulder instead of surrounding myself with them and they unified into one big question, “what are they looking at”. The question even incorporated the viewer as a part of the piece when displayed in the gallery. So it all boiled down to asking What do people ignore? Why? What do they notice? Why? The book of Matthew chapter 13 seems to reference this. It’s interesting to read why Jesus chose to speak in parables.

ANM: I sense a influence of biblical motifs in your work. Tell me about that.

CH: I have always worked from a direct visual reference or personal experience and my personal relationship with God has a direct or indirect influence on everything I do. I have a Christian worldview and it’s the light by which I see to live and create. I’m really pleased with how my most recent work (the notice series) has begun to include the viewer in a more active role. i.e. becoming a part of the series itself by sharing in the action and experience) I’d like to explore this possibility in future work.

ANM: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

A: Thank you.

Click here for everything Craig Hawkins.

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