Beer with a Painter author Jennifer Samet interviews Catherine Murphy in her Poughkeepsie Studio. They talked about her early interest in drawing, discord in her family and discord in the painting community, especially in regards to figurative painting in the 1970s, her love of minimalism and the role of metaphor and how her thinking about painting, form, subject, narrative, evolved over time. Samet asked Murphy why she blocked the daylight in her studio Murphy responded...
One of the big breakthroughs for me was when I decided I could paint my dreams. It was like someone had let me out of prison. It meant that I set up situations where I controlled the light. That’s been tremendous.Check out the whole interview here
My whole approach to painting used to be a moment of recognition. It used to be something I saw that moved me, and I would work from there. But now, I want to make that happen for other people. Initially, it doesn’t always have to happen for me. So, it comes from memory, or my id, and it often comes from recurring dreams and things I’m possessed by.
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Catherine Murphy, “Persimmon” (1991), oil on canvas 25 3/4 x 29 1/2 inches (all images courtesy Peter Freeman, Inc., New York) |