Below are Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi, the founders of the Chicago screen printing studio Sonnenzimmer. In the background is a mixed-media painting created by Nadine. I love the book cover in the left corner!
Nikko: First off I wanted to say thank you for doing this interview with me. I wanted to do it as a thank you for doing my business and gift cards. It’s good timing too because you guys are going to have your show February 11th, 2009 at Lula Café so you’re probably full of…
Nick: Anxiety.
Nadine: Yes, it’s true.
Nikko: I have spent a good amount of time examining your prints and paintings and love what you do and wanted to know more about the new body of work you’ve both created.
Nick: With time and by working on thirty different things at once, I start formulating ideas. Nadine and I are also doing some record covers and some of those ideas get translated back into this work. I like the texture of simple shapes with screen print dots over them. It’s sort of an experiment of printing techniques. To me it’s like still all these different pieces, but with a week left I have to make decisions and finish. I am not good at finishing stuff unless I have a deadline. I can just go forever…
Nikko: Like everything is a work in progress.
Nick: Yes, it’s never finished. Previously my pieces were getting really quiet, stripped down. There was a lot of work put into it, but visually not a lot of impact. The new direction is a larger introduction whereas my old stuff you can just walk by and not see it. The new work has more of a focal point. Before I wouldn’t use a hard black or make things so colorful. Now I am finding out that I want to make things a little bit louder.
On the left is Nick with a silk screen created by Nadine. Right is a view of the studio with paintings Nick is finishing up for the Lula Café exhibit.
Nikko: What are you submitting for Lula and how did you come up with ideas for these pieces?
Nadine: I wanted to do something more painting installation-y. I’ve been into using textural spatial stuff as elements for composition. -Like found drawing boards, canvas stretchers and green bars which are old type spacers.
Nikko: I think those are the textures that are on my business and gift cards!
Nadine + Nick: Yes they are!
Nadine: I like it when paintings are out and about in a studio and are treated nonchalant. I can put something on it and it becomes it’s own composition. It has stillness to it that I feel it’s different when it’s hung in a gallery which is like “now it is done and there is nothing more to it.” -But for me it’s like I hang it up and the composition is not yet done. The contextual part is always evolving and the one part that I am interested in. Imagery is all about what you read in context. I feel like painting can be a little bit dead. It’s this thing where you wear your gloves and you hang it on a wall and its done. A painting in someone’s house is going to feel a lot different than a painting the Guggenheim. The way I like art to be is this organic thing in people’s lives.
Nikko: I think that the best part of going to artists’ homes or studios. Art is treated like a daily object like a coffee cup, something to interact with.
Nadine: One of the reasons I like abstract things is it seems like there’s room where anything is possible. It’s funny because when I work in abstract I associate figurative things to it and if I do something figuratively I see the abstract in it. I think it’s a possibility to see boring or ugly things in a new way.
Nikko: When you were creating my business cards, we had a conversation about your style, how it is textural, subtle and abstract. -While some people do figurative, illustrative work. I guess it’s a certain type of mind who likes to play around with stuff like yours.
Nick: I like both. I do both. They each sort of magnify the other. When I get bored doing one thing it’s nice to have another place to go. It’s like what Nadine was saying, when you see the abstract you want to make sense of it.
Nadine: The reason why I do the things I do is that I am not good enough to do photo-realism painting. Maybe I don’t have the patience for it. I think people gravitate to a solution that is within their skill set.
Nick: I think it’s something you can work towards, Nadine. You are making things that you are happy with and you can use it as a testing ground. From there you can slowly make your way to realism.
Nikko: I agree with that you do what you’re capable of. I like the abstract and organic style too. When I draw I am slow, my style is blocky and textured where some people are very line based and they can just zip it out. -So I never really thought of it that way. I was just like,“This is my preference, this is what I like.” Haha!
Nadine: Haha! –Which is fine. I think that its good to critique yourself, to school your skills and remain open to the fact that there’s more to be learned. -To venture into other parts. The best thing for me is when I discover the art masters did something that I did before, but I didn’t know it. Like when I was into book covers, Nick was like Rauschenberg did that. I didn’t know what he was doing! The fun part is to discover an epiphany in my own rightful way, not trying to be big or anything. It’s really empowering to see these stages that I can attain myself, and it’s the same activity fields that big names have done. That feels reassuring in a universal way. -That a lot of people can get that experience from making art and can be out of the spotlight.
Nick: For me I need to have my work totally finished and done before anyone sees it, whereas Nadine can show her work at any stage. She always wants to show something new.
Nadine: We’re totally opposite. I work and when the deadline comes, I stop. For me putting a deadline to a painting is cutting a painting’s life off.
Nick: I wish I could work like that. I am inspired to try but it’s so hard to let it go where Nadine is much more free. Our personalities are opposite. In life I am laid back but when it comes to art it has to be finished. No questions.
Nadine: That’s the one part of art that doesn’t have to do that for me.
Nick: Maybe that’s why I reserve that for the rest of my life.
Nikko: In regards to your paintings when they sell, it’s like the person who is choosing to buy it is deciding that it is complete. -Cause if they don’t buy it, the painting would come back to you and you’d work on it more.
Nadine: Well, unlike me Nick sells all of his paintings.
Nick: That’s not true…
Nadine: I don’t have that experience so I am going into it with no expectations and am totally cool showing stuff raw. It’s a very honest way of working.
Nikko: It is a very pure approach! Thank you Nick and Nadine for speaking with me today and for taking the time to do an interview with Ashes & Milk! I can’t wait to see your show at Lula.
Nick + Nadine: Thanks it was fun!
All images photographed by Nikko Moy and hosted on flickr here + here.
[ You can see more work by Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi right here. ]
[ For those of you in the Chicago area, you can personally experience Nick and Nadine's new body of work at the Lula Café from February 11th - April 15th. ]
Bryan Nash Gill created the above bronze sculpture for an exhibition in the U.A.E. 