Radio Interview

The following is a transcript of a radio interview of Raymond Sicignano, by Camille Conti (CC) of KNBA, 90.3 in Anchorage, Alaska.

12 August 1999 -- 

CC: Let's start with a little background on yourself.

RS: OK, I'm forty years old and when I was young I always painted and drew. I got to travel around the world and in my late twenties, I was about 28 years old, I went to live in Europe for a year and did a lot of traveling. When I first went to Florence, Italy, the birthplace of the Renaissance, I was so fascinated by the city that I started to study art history and it really rekindled my interest in painting. Upon return to the United States, I met a professional artist who had asked me to represent him. We became good friends and traveled to Europe several times where he would paint and I would try to set up shows for him. By watching him paint I learned a lot and that really sparked my interest in painting again. Then in 1990, I decided to devote myself to painting and have been doing it ever since.

CC: Plus, what a wonderful opportunity to wear that other hat, to be someone who represents an artist so you get an idea about what happens after someone finishes paintings and attempts to get it out to the public.

RS: Yes that's a full time job.

CC: So at that point you decided to re-embrace your life as a painter?

RS: I started again, I was thirty years old and I really made an effort to paint. I've been somewhat successful, I sell my paintings and am represented in New York at the Benedetti Gallery in Soho. It's something that I do, actually, I don't really know why I do it but it's something that I have to do.

CC: I want to talk to you about the creative process because I am so fascinating about this process because when it's in all it's glory it just uses us as a vehicle and it has it's way with us, so to speak. Often when I talk to songwriters I ask them this question and I'll ask it to you.

Is painting something that you make yourself do every day. Is it something that you make yourself do or does it just seize your and you say, "Oh, I've got to go to the canvas"?

RS: I believe in what Thomas Edison said, and I'm not implying that I'm a genius but he said that "Genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration" . We all have the inspiration, but it's work. You have to get down and do it. Until I learned that, that's when I started to develop a style and began a painting career. It's work. You have to force yourself to get down and do it. It's fun, it's fulfilling but it's not relaxing, to me anyway. It's a process that's not painful. It's agonizing, but not really painful.

CC: Do you see the picture in your mind before you go for it?

RS: I do, however, and I learned this very quickly, as you start painting, the process takes over. Something inside you drives you to do what you do. You can see that my colors are very vibrant. That's not done on purpose, in fact I've tried to mute my colors. I thought they were too bright but then I realized that I can't stifle my own style. The paintings seem to go in a certain direction. Sometimes I want to paint something really tight, and realistic, and it comes out loose. And I go with it. I don't fight that, whatever it is that's happening. At times I'm even afraid to try to understand it

CC: Right, any mental though applied to it and you think that it's going to stop.

RS: Exactly.

CC: And it won't come back.

RS: I say that I paint by intuition. Something happens, I don't know if it's that Left brain- Right brain thing, but when the right brain kicks in, you start painting and you go where it takes you. If you try to direct it too much, I think you ruin that impulse that really drives the painting. They seem to have a life of their own, is what I'm trying to say.

CC: We are talking to RS, from Brooklyn NY and is here in Alaska with his paintings, 15  in total, will be on display this weekend at the Westin Alyeska Resort Hotel in Girdwood. I want to talk a little bit about this painting that's right here before us because when Nellie Moore came into the building and I said "Nellie look at this beautiful picture". She said "Oh, that's Jessica!" And this is just a wonderful story. This is Sharon McConnel's daughter. Who of course Sharon hosts the Wellness Edition of Native America Calling that you'll hear tomorrow morning at 9am, but Raymond tell us the story about Jessica and how you came to paint her.

RS: When I was in Alaska, I wanted to paint my thoughts and views and experiences of Alaska. And I wanted to do a Native American but it was difficult to try to find someone and pose them. So I was having lunch one day at the mall, downtown, and I saw Jessica and there was just something about her. She had a nice energy about her. I asked if I could take a photo. She agreed and I took a few photos. At first I wanted to put her in a Native outfit, but she wasn't wearing one, she was wearing a tee shirt so I painted her in a tee shirt. A friend of mine who's from Alaska, who actually introduced me to Alaska, has this Native American hunting mask. I really didn't know the meaning of it but it intrigued me so I put the two together, again, my feelings of Alaska and I wanted that to be part of the series.

CC: That's exciting. Well hopefully she'll have a chance to see it, I know you've sent her photos of the painting but I'm sure she'll be blown away to see the original.

RS: Yes I would love to have her and her mother see it and I had no idea that there was any connection to the radio station.

CC: What is the biggest painting that you've painted?

RS: It's 42 in X 30 in.

CC: That's pretty big. So how many times do you have to walk back from a painting that big to take it in. That's just fascinating to me that you have a canvas that large, do you just stay focused on squares of the picture as you go? How does that happen?

RS: I usually paint several paintings at a time, when I say at a time I mean that in a month period, I'll be working on three to four. When I get to a difficult part of a painting and get mentally tired, I'll move to another and work on easier parts, blocking in the background. Because I like to keep painting but sometimes I get too tired. I never step back from a painting, I work up close and I'll set it down and sometimes I have to really look at it for several weeks or months if  I'm not done, to see what's happening. Other times  people come in and say something that's very obvious, but that I've never realized because you get too close to the painting. Your in there working it and you can't step back mentally even if you physically step back. So sometimes it's good to put it aside and let it sit for a while and then you can see, when you're not so attached to it, where you need to go with it.

CC: One of the things that's curious to me is if we take the world of music, today more than ever, people are packaged, bands are packaged and there's a huge PR effort that goes into breaking and act, even if they don't have real solid talent. What happens in the world of an artist? Are artists approached in that way? What causes an artist to breakthrough and "Make it"?

RS: Well, if I knew that.

CC: You wouldn't be here!

RS: It's like anything else. In the music industry, bands and music are products. Successful contemporary artists have great marketing schemes. There are some who get a publisher who thinks that he can move the work and they make prints and that's where you can become very successful, by making a lot of reprints.

CC: But does the artist have to do that footwork or are there agents that comes to someone and says that they want to represent you. How do you get your work out there?

RS: I think that there are a few artists who are very talented in business and do that but usually you have an agent or publisher or gallery who has the resources and the desire to do that. It's a very difficult thing, obviously.

CC: I want to talk about the Alaska series that's going to be on view in Girdwood, Alaska at the Westin Alyeska Prince Hotel this weekend, the 14^th and 15^th which is Saturday and Sunday, from 10am to 5pm. What can you tell us about the Alaska Series? Is it just your work or will there be some other artists there as well?

RS: I think there will be two other artists. It started with me. I had approached the hotel and they figured that they would take the opportunity to make a week long, mini Art Festival. So they have some artists there this week and over the weekend I'll be there with two other artists.

CC: Then what happens after that, where do you go and where do your paintings go next?

RS: I'm approaching some of the galleries in Anchorage to represent me. I have a friend in town who I'll leave the paintings with and I hope to come back and continue. One of the things I was afraid of when I first came to Alaska was that I wouldn't find enough subject matter to paint. One of the places that I love is Paris, I've been there any times and I always think I can paint so many different scenes of Paris but for some reason, I don't get too many paintable things, things that really speak to me. And I don't know why. But when I came to Alaska there is a lifetime worth of subject matter. I could just paint Alaska for the rest of my life and not really fulfill all of the things that I want to do.

CC: You know that when you say that I have to think of Sydney Laurence, who I did not know was born in Brooklyn, NY, until I got your Bio. And that sounds very much like his experience. He just paints the beautiful landscapes before him.

RS: I think, well I don't know much about him, I've read a little bit and I think that painting probably saved his life. He said that he came to Alaska, like every other fool, looking for gold. And I would guess that painting probably grounded him and kept him sane. Of course, I don't think he found any gold.

CC: Based on what we're seeing here in the studio, Raymond's brought a couple of paintings, I hope you'll stay in touch and I hope it unfolds in a way that does give you more time to paint because I think that Alaskans would really appreciate seeing what we see with our eyes every day, reflected through your eyes as a painter. Once again, the event is happening this weekend, the name is the "Alaska Series" painting on view at Westin Hotel and Raymond Sicignano is the artist and thank you so much for coming by the studio and bringing the paintings.

RS: Thank you, CC.