Shawn Huckins
Shawn Huckins: Our relationship with cloth is visceral and primal -- we are swaddled in it at birth and aside from a caregiver’s embrace, fabric is our first experience with touch and comfort. Who of us, in times of turmoil, has not pulled the covers over our head, or wrapped ourselves in a loved one’s shirt, sweater, or scarf? To be covered is to be comforted, protected, and hidden. To wit, 'cloak' is both a garment and an action to shield from sight.
We use cloth to conceal, but also to express, selectively, based on how we see ourselves and how we want others to see us. Of course, we don’t express all facets of our identity, some things we hold near out of habit, nature, or fear of ridicule. We all have dirty laundry, literally and figuratively. Dirty laundry, the phrase, is defined as personal, or private affairs that one does not want made public as they would cause distress and embarrassment. 'Dirty Laundry', the series, employs contemporary fabrics painted over traditional American portraiture to explore questions surrounding what, how much, and how well we share and hide.
In these hand-painted recreations of historic works, fabrics are staged on a model in the studio, lit from the same direction and with the same temperature as the light source in the original painting, then drawn into the final composition. Bold, bright, and colorful fabrics cover all, or significant portions of the portrait. Viewers get few clues about the sitters, save an exposed hand, piece of jewelry, or beloved pet, all superficial details chosen to be revealed. Only in a painting’s title do we learn the subject’s identity, anything more that might be known about these people remains hidden beneath piles of cloth and clothing so ubiquitous it could be our own. The towering fabric head dress on 'Bashi-Bazouk' and heap of shirts on 'Mary Greene' appear poised for imminent toppling, while others, like those enveloping 'Mrs. Freeman Flower' and 'Portrait of a Lady' look well-secured. This leaves us wondering what is hidden and what might be revealed should the fabrics fall, but also probes on how our perception of these subjects might change once uncovered and which subjects we’d prefer to be.
1.Hi Shawn, tell us about your background. How and when did you first start to paint?
As with most kids, I colored as a young child and drew things in my sketchbooks that interested a boy at the time: my favorite cartoon characters, video games, and sports icons, etc. At the age of nine, my grandmother passed away and left behind a slightly used oil painting set. My family knew I was into that sort of thing, so they gave me the oil set. The one distinct memory I have was the smell of the oil paints and how I strangely enjoyed it. I did not, however, enjoy the painting process when I created my first painting of a red barn. I had no idea how to work this new medium and it took forever to dry. It was so frustrating that I returned to my sketch books and didn’t paint again until high-school. My love for painting began in college when I had good professors teach me how to work the medium.
2.What is your process like? How do you begin to work?
I start by selecting a portrait I want to replicate, taking into consideration the level of detail and formality of the figure. I will then stage my studio mannequin in the exact position as the figure and ‘build’ up my layers of fabric over it. Sometimes, I get the stacked fabrics just right, but most of the time, it’s a long process to get the fabrics staged correctly and in a color order that works well with the original portrait and its surrounding fabrics. I want to be sure all the fabrics are in one harmonized flow. I then create the lighting source to match that of the figure in the painting and take dozens of images. The process then moves onto the computer where I will select an image to best fit the portrait by creating ghost images, so I can see both the figure and the fabrics overtop. Here, I will correct the scale and distort the fabrics, so that it can be placed on the figure seamlessly. Finally, the final concept is drawn onto primed canvas where I employ traditional methods of painting. A warm underpainting is painted in to establish light and darks and create a luminous glow, followed by subsequent layers of finalized paint and glazes.
3. Does your personal history play a role in how you approach the form or content of your work?
I grew up in New Hampshire, which has a rich history of colonial America. My favorite subject as a child was history and I loved learning about the early colonists. I was particularly drawn to the fashion of the time. There are no photographs from the day, so we learned a lot from 18th century American paintings and it was in college where I learned ‘how’ those paintings were created. My style and approach formed from those lessons.
4. How ‘’Share and hide” appear in your work?
‘Dirty Laundry’ is a series of paintings that employs contemporary fabrics painted over traditional American portraiture to explore questions surrounding what, how much, and how well we share and hide. We use cloth to conceal, but also to express, selectively, based on how we see ourselves and how we want others to see us. Of course, we don’t express all facets of our identity, some things we hold near out of habit, nature, or fear of ridicule. We all have dirty laundry, literally and figuratively.
5. Your paintings are full of references to art history, such as the figure positions, backgrounds, colours, and your technique. Do you intentionally make the connection between history and contemporary paintings? If yes, why?
Yes. My paintings are all meticulous recreations of an original 18th, or 19th century painting. It’s my goal to match the painting pretty close to the original, but I will often change certain sections to make it more fitting for my new composition. This could be by changing the background color, or altering the scale. Plus, adding my fabrics can clutter up certain paintings, so I will sometimes remove portions of the background to keep the painting less chaotic. I want to take an already beautiful painting and hopefully enhance the engagement to the viewer with my contemporary fabrics while questioning our identity as individuals and as a society.
