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Spotlight on John Nieman: Art of the Everyday
HOW DO YOU HELP PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY
HAVE SEEN THEIR ENTIRE LIVES IN A COMPLETELY
DIFFERENT WAY?
For me, that’s the challenge I tackle with every single piece
of art. I tend to see ordinary, everyday objects and imagine
unusual connections and meanings in those pieces. For
example, what does it mean to be a life saver? What’s it
take to be a
hard hat? Who has a crush? Are apples and oranges all
that different from each other? Beyond the extra potassium,
what are the characteristics of the great second banana?
And then I try to capture my interpretation of the topic, in
a way that combines a bold visual image, underscored with
a list of free-associated names, thoughts, and phrases.
WHY THE COMBINATION OF WORDS AND VISUALS?
ISN’T A PICTURE WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS?
The picture definitely must predominate, since we
increasingly live in a visual world. But it’s undeniable that
we also live in a multi-tasking, multi-image world. Every
single day, we are bombarded with messages. Ever watch
cable news? There are often two or three images on
the screen, and a scroll of words running on the bottom.
Somehow, we have become accustomed to processing all
this information. We are able to order it in our mind, and
self-select the most interesting, most relevant information.
I simply put that process into a two-dimensional piece.
An interview with John Nieman by Angela Di Bello
Incidentally, I did not start out this way. My initial work was
purely visual, mostly in the medium of pastels. I still love
the medium, and usually do one or two new pieces a year in
that style. But I began to gravitate towards a combination of
pictures and underlying typed images. I started by painting
over sheet music, and liked the effect and the layers of
meaning. Gradually, I evolved into creating my own lists.
I sometimes call them visual riddles. I have now done
more than 90 in this series, and still have at least 20 more
subjects in the pipeline.
WHICH COMES FIRST, THE PICTURE OR THE
WORDS?
Neither. For me, it’s all about the concept or the idea.
Sometimes, I’ll struggle with an anchoring visual.
Sometimes, I’ll be stumped with the list. With the kind
of work I create, that usually means it’s not a very good
idea, so I scrap it or at least shelve it. I prefer to have a
fully loaded, double-barrel approach. However, in the final
analysis, it’s the picture that must pull the weight. It’s the
picture that must attract and entice.
The list becomes a residual tickle that adds some extra
layer of added meaning.
THERE IS A POP QUALITY TO YOUR WORK.
INTENTIONAL?
Very intentional. From the very beginning, I absolutely
adored Andy Warhol’s celebration of Brillo, Lichtenstein’s
reinterpretation of comic book visuals. I also admired
Duane Hanson’s celebration of middle-class mall people,
and Edward Hopper’s sense of heroic, high-noon isolation.
I just loved the fact that they could make me reexamine
what I thought I saw every day.
But for me, the pop world is more than an artistic influence.
I spent more than a few decades as the world-wide creative
director of some big ad agencies. In that field, you are
trained to glorify the mundane, and leverage popular
culture. I was always bowled over by the fact that, even in
the far reaches of the planet, more people knew Coca-Cola
and Michael Jordan than the vice president of the United
States or Nobel prize winners.
I freely admit to being a vulture of pop culture. Like most
people today, it is our ongoing, addictive reality. Otherwise,
why would we be riveted to O.K.? Trial, Anna Nichol’s death,
and Michael Jackson’s will? It just interests us more than
understanding the intricacies of health care. Consequently,
I freely use their names, their acknowledged quotes,
and other free-associated pop thoughts in my pieces.
Sometimes, the references are a little obscure. I happen to
like that, since a curve ball is always more provocative than