Interview with Courtnye Koivisto

Courtnye Koivisto's "Minimal Taxonomy", an exhibition of paintings and photographs, will be at the gallery from April 12 to May 15, 2011.

When did you first discover your creative talents?

As early as before elementary school. I've always been drawing and interested in art. My big thing used to be dinosaurs. I love dinosaurs! I would draw dinosaurs all the time. In middle school and even into high school I drew a lot of fantasy creatures. I still love dragons. I've been doing it all my life. I don't know exactly when I found out…but a long time ago.

When did you start doing painting and photography?

Definitely when I was in high school I got into both of them. I had always done pencil sketches up until high school. I was taking more art classes and started to paint. I was on the staff of the high school's art and literary magazine. I started taking more photographs then and also explored other forms of art at that point. That's also when I found out that I liked graphic design. That all came out of sophomore year.

I majored in fine art at Shippensburg University. I concentrated in Graphic Design. I had an internship in Photography and Graphic Design.

When did you begin to focus on nature as a subject in your artwork?

It's a tricky question because I've always liked nature. When I was doing it primarily for fun, it would be sketches of animals or fantasy creatures.
Then in college, I kind of put it on the back burner. I did subject matter that interested me, but I wasn't necessarily passionate about. Part of it was being around so many different artists and having to fulfill certain expectations. Nobody else really did nature, so I thought maybe that's not acceptable. When I had to do my senior project, we could do anything we wanted. I still felt strongly about doing stuff like this, so I did a series of paintings on endangered species. I really enjoyed that. So when I graduated, I was like, this is what I love doing so I'm going to continue to focus on that.

Could you talk about the life/death cycle in your artwork?

I've always been fascinated by macabre and dark. When I say I drew fantasy creatures in middle school, I would draw unicorns, but they would be black and dark. My dad thought it was a phase, but I've kind of continued with it. In photography I find some of the more interesting subjects to be decayed things. Even man-made, rusted, old. You can tell they had a life, but they don't now. They've taken on a different embodiment. From that you can see a cycle of rebirth.

Who are artists/artwork that you are inspired by?

I enjoy seeing other artists who have taken on a more natural aspect to their artwork. One photographer that I absolutely love is Nick Brandt. De does black and white photographs of African animals, primarily. The way he photographs them…they're just breathtaking. I love his work.

Another photographer is Andrew Zuckerman. He has two photography books; one is called Creature, one is called Bird. They're beautiful photographs, but sometimes they shouldn't be. The details he captures…you see every bump and crevasse and you're just like..eew! but at the same time you're amazed at things that you don't usually see. One because they are half a globe away and Two you don't ever see them that close. He photographs them on white backgrounds. All your eye is drawn to is the animal itself.

Also Salvador Dali. Paul Klee.

What camera / gear do you use?

I primarily use three different digital cameras and two 35mm. The two 35mm I haven't used so much lately. It gets expensive, unfortunately. Even though I work in a photo lab, it's still expensive. Both of those are Nikons. I've surprisingly been able to take good pictures with my point and shoot Olympus. But right now the one I'm using is a Canon Powershot G10. It's wonderful because it can be point and shoot, but it also has manual settings. It's a great camera. I like how it's small, it's not like a big digital SLR.

Do you have a favorite lens?

For the photographs I've been doing lately, I've been using the macro lens. (interchangeable lenses for the G10)

Could you talk about your choice to use wood panels to paint on.

They are birch panels. I have another one that is umm, I forget what it is. Pine? In my painting class in college, one of our projects was to do a painting on small 12x12 panels. The assignment was we had to do a wet sand layers of paint then cheesecloth to create texture. But the part we had to paint on was just the wood. Painting on the wood, I loved how it felt. It's very smooth. Very natural. I like painting on canvas, but there's something about painting on wood you just can't get from canvas. I also like the textures of wood. I did another painting where I just did a very thin wash for bones over the wood so you can still see the wood through the bones. I like the texture and the smoothness.

What were you like growing up?

My mom has always said that I live to the beat of my own drum. Not necessarily in a bad way. I'm okay being alone doing my own thing, not having people around. I do what i enjoy. But at the same time, I like to have fun. I was quiet growing up, I'm still quiet now. I get very excited about some things though. I was very excitable. I was an easy kid. I never really had much of a rebellious stage.

Describe your workspace/studio.

It's in the corner of my living room. In our apartment, we have two sliding glass doors that lead onto a patio. I have my studio setup right next to it. So when at all possible I can paint with the sun coming in.

Last year we found this awesome antique corner desk. I didn't have anything except stacked milk crates and it was a pain in the butt to have to bend over to get my paints. So I have my corner desk now. Right next to it I have my easel, which was a wonderful gift from my husband. Usually the way it's set up I can look at the TV while I'm painting. It's a little messy. I have extra carpets and towels down so I don't get paint all over the carpet.

How do you decide which birds to paint? Do you research them first? or paint the birds you see and then research later?

It's kind of a little bit of everything. I'm familiar with a lot of bird species, so I just have ideas in my head. I've always had bird books and liked birds. For the series, I wanted to pick birds that are a little more common. Some of them are slightly more exotic. Rose-breasted Grosbeak is one of them. It's a songbird. It's a bird you see around, but not like a robin. For this i didn't want to go into the tropical birds. One is a painting of a European Goldfinch, which you aren't going to find around here. For the series, I wanted to do slightly more common songbirds. Another thing that played into my selection were their colors, their body structures, habitats even. I didn't want to do a series of just red birds or brown birds.

What sort of outdoor activities do you engage in?

I definitely enjoy walking now that the weather is getting nice. I go to Wildwood by HACC a lot. It's a nice place to walk around. When I can, my parents own kayaks, so I go out kayaking or on the boat or tubing. One thing I wish I could do more often is snorkeling! Definitely not something I can do in Central PA though.

Hiking… there's King's Gap, Pole Steeple, Pine Grove Furnace.
My parents house is a great place to observe nature. They live out in the woods. Any of the parks around here too. Long Pine at Michaux State Forest. Whenever I needed a break from school, I'd just drive up there and it was nice and quiet. You can hike and walk around. You can kayak but you can't fish or picnic there. It's the water reservoir for the city of Chambersburg!

I haven't been here recently, but Lake Erie has Presque Isle. It's a nice natural area to go to.

Any music you are listening to a lot lately?

I'm recently on a kick of Mumford & Sons and the Avett Brothers. That style. iI seems to fit with winter going into spring. I'm on a bizarre task of listening to all the song on my ipod in alphabetical order. I'm always listening to Gorillaz. I love them! I'm always looking for new bands or rediscovering old ones. Like, Matchbox 20! I used to listen to them a lot. I recently listened to their first album again and thought, oh! this isn't that bad! I'm always listening to music. One reason is because I have a half hour commute to work. It's nice to put on music and drive.

Any books you are reading? magazines? websites?

I'm currently reading At Home by Bill Bryson. Amazing book! It's so dense with information that it's a bit of a slow read. It's a history of private life. One of the chapters I just finished reading is about why we put salt and pepper on the dinner table. There are long bloody histories to both of them. It's just stuff you don't think of. When you do you're like, yeah why is that? So it's a fascinating read.

I'm not much of a magazine reader. I enjoy magazines. When we go to the bookstore I like to look at Archive.

Websites? umm.. stumbleupon. it takes up a lot of time.

You've been married for a year an a half. How does your husband, Joseph, influence your artwork?

He hasn't really influenced it directly. I've done some drawings of him. Most of his influence comes from his support, which has been great.

Like, the other week we were at Michael's because I needed a tube of paint. The one I wanted was nine dollars and I was like, oh I don't need to spend nine dollars. So he says, oh no, you can get it. So it's stuff like that.

He helps motivate me. Anytime I need a second opinion on something, he gives me an honest opinion. Which is nice because there were times that I thought something was finished but it would've looked like crap. He's been wonderfully supportive even through high school and college. And it's technically his camera that I use. He calls it my camera, but it was his.

Do you like to cook?

I love cooking! I like curries. My dad got me into curries. My most recent discovery is leeks. We went over to a friend's house for dinner and his mom made sautéed leeks and italian sausage. So good! Never thought I'd like leeks, but they are pretty tasty. Part of my cooking I get from my dad. My dad is a great cook. you better enjoy it now, because he might not remember how he made it! I kind of cook like him sometimes. You know, hodge podge, throw it all in and see what happens.

Any recipes to share?

Here's a link to one of Courtnye's favorite recipes: http://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/hunting/deer-hunting/2009/10/how-cook-venison-pumpkin-curry She says: It's for venison and pumpkin curry, but beef and butternut squash make good substitutes.

Any new skills you'd like to learn?

I'd like to learn HTML coding. It's one thing in college I didn't have an interest in. I was more interested in print graphic design. Upon graduating I realized that so many graphic design jobs want you to know HTML for websites. Print isn't' appreciated as much. HTML would be a useful skill that would help me.

I would like to be able to scrape by speaking another language. I've taken so many years of french, I just can't remember it.

Other art techniques. Metalwork.

I'd like to learn more about how to build my own frames for wood. So it would be a built-in frame. I've done canvas frames and then stretched the canvas. But I haven't built my own shadowbox frame for a wood panel. That would definitely help me with my art.

Are there places you'd like to travel to…either new or revisited places?

Oh yeah, I love to travel. Definitely want to go back to Paris. I went there in college. We did all the tourist stuff, it's still amazing. We didn't get to go to the catacombs because they were closed for renovations. And that was one of things i was looking forward to.

We're definitely sometime in the future going to go to Germany. My husband, Joseph, lived in Germany for a few years. His family is in the military. He wants to take me to Germany so bad.

In the states, I'd definitely love to go back to Florida. We always used to go. My uncle has a sailboat. We can go snorkeling. I love that.

Maine. I loved Maine.

I haven't been out west so much. I don't know if I'd want to go to the Midwest again. Went to Oklahoma and wasn't too impressed. I could just skip that and go to Oregon. I do have family in Washington state. So someday, hopefully I'll make it out there.

Do you have any pets?

We don't have any at our apartment. With pet fees, we can't afford it. But I do have a fat cat, whose name is Fatty. She lives with my parents. She's my baby. And they have….I consider them to be my pets because I've known them…Fatty and Skinny cat and then two dogs Penny and Tika. Tika's an Irish Setter and Penny's a Collie. I love them.

We've always had pets. 30 rabbits…yeah..one was a boy. Didn't know that! We've had chickens, hamsters, fish, birds. I would definitely like to, once we can afford it or live somewhere the pet fee isn't so much…I want an animal to be part of my family.

I'd also like to have a scorpion. Joe's not too thrilled about that! So if i ever have a separate studio, i'd get one. I love pets! He's a cat person. I'm a dog person. I want a Corgi! I want a Corgi so bad!

What do you hope your audience gains from viewing your artwork?

An appreciation for things they've seen but not looked too hard at. Just realizing that there's so much beauty in the natural world that you can skip over without a second look. People are running around so fast they don't stop to smell the roses or even to stop and look at the roses. I'm hoping that the next time they're out on a walk they look into someone's garden and see bees pollenating and think that it's beautiful to just watch them. For some of my creepy subject matter, like snakes and spiders, people can see they are beautiful…their colors and patterns.

More of Courtnye's artwork can be found at: http://courtnyekoi.tumblr.com/