Connor Addison
Painter and photographer based in Barcelona, Spain and London, UK
founder of Last Universal Creative Ancestor
founder of Cal Misso
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Painter and photographer based in Barcelona, Spain and London, UK
founder of Last Universal Creative Ancestor
founder of Cal Misso
As the son of interior designers, Connor developed a strong interest in draftsmanship, architecture and art from an early age. Teaching himself photography and painting, he studied Fine Art at Central St Martins, London, one of the world’s top art schools whose alumnae boast Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hamilton and Alexander McQueen to name a few. In search of further technical vigor in his artistic practice, he went on to study politics, philosophy and economics in the city where his parents met: Manchester.
Learning of Existentialism, History and Aesthetics motivated deeper reflection on the human condition and its representation. While nurturing a discursive range of influences and love for the rich history of religious and secular art, architecture, and the human experience as sources of reinterpretation, his work avoids being categorized as emblematic of any particular movement. However, he sites Giorgio de Chirico, Francis Bacon, Georg- es Braque, and Pablo Picasso as some of his inspirations.
Connor currently practices in Barcelona, Spain, immersed with a community international artists at Groc Studios.
Interview
by Psychic Garden Magazine
1. What inspired your initial foray into the world of art? Did you come from a family of artists, or was it a personal passion that led you to pursue these creative disciplines?
My parents are interior designers so an awareness of shape, space and colour was there from a young age. One of my earliest memories drawing was copying my mothers floor plans of house interiors and another was my fascination with a Picasso book cover, I guess both gave me a combination of imaginative freedom and a love of a meticulous draftsmanship that initiated my aesthetic
Did any artworks or artists have a big impact on you growing up?
Picasso and Bacon had a large impact on me growing up, there was something about the figurative drama in their work that led me understand how art can be an alchemic process, transforming reality into a feeling itself, a psychological state.
My parents are interior designers so an awareness of shape, space and colour was there from a young age. One of my earliest memories drawing was copying my mothers floor plans of house interiors and another was my fascination with a Picasso book cover, I guess both gave me a combination of imaginative freedom and a love of a meticulous draftsmanship that initiated my aesthetic
Did any artworks or artists have a big impact on you growing up?
Picasso and Bacon had a large impact on me growing up, there was something about the figurative drama in their work that led me understand how art can be an alchemic process, transforming reality into a feeling itself, a psychological state.
2. How do you choose the themes or subjects for your paintings? Are they influenced by personal experiences or larger philosophical ideas?
Both, often thorough reading or observation I notice patterns in human behaviour, archetypical dramas, universal forces. Certain things might be very present at a moment in my life and I decide to honour one of this observations though a painting, mainly for a conversation with myself, to assimilate a new piece of maturity.
Both, often thorough reading or observation I notice patterns in human behaviour, archetypical dramas, universal forces. Certain things might be very present at a moment in my life and I decide to honour one of this observations though a painting, mainly for a conversation with myself, to assimilate a new piece of maturity.
3. Do you consider your artwork to be a form of therapy or a means of self-expression? How does it help you untangle and process emotions?
When it comes to psychology I really believe in the importance of delving into your shadow; a concept Jung proposed was the only way to become an integrated whole. Expression is therapeutic because it is a form a purging, vomiting or extracting. By externalising my own pain, confusion or questioning I no longer have to carry it and implicitly, by displaying artworks, can tell myself these things are ok and can be shared.
When it comes to psychology I really believe in the importance of delving into your shadow; a concept Jung proposed was the only way to become an integrated whole. Expression is therapeutic because it is a form a purging, vomiting or extracting. By externalising my own pain, confusion or questioning I no longer have to carry it and implicitly, by displaying artworks, can tell myself these things are ok and can be shared.
4. How do you approach the composition and arrangement of subjects in your paintings to create a narrative and allegorical effect?
Because stories often develop over time, allegory can be difficult in a static painted image. Often, in religious art, you find characters at a moment in a well known story, and the viewer projects this story into their viewing experience. My work however attempts to express stages in time all at once, using space as an indicator of the same characters moving to another state or stage. the fore, mid and back ground being different moments for example. I often even have two sources of light (suns) to indicate the A-temporality of my spaces.
Because stories often develop over time, allegory can be difficult in a static painted image. Often, in religious art, you find characters at a moment in a well known story, and the viewer projects this story into their viewing experience. My work however attempts to express stages in time all at once, using space as an indicator of the same characters moving to another state or stage. the fore, mid and back ground being different moments for example. I often even have two sources of light (suns) to indicate the A-temporality of my spaces.