Artists in Dawson: Tammy Salzl Q&A with Lance Blomgren
Tammy Salzl is a Montreal artist who works mainly in painting and drawing. Her detailed, figurative work is both lushly beautiful and psychologically dark. She is visiting Dawson City as an artist in residence at the Klondike Institute of Art & Culture, where she is preparing for her upcoming exhibition at the ODD Gallery, opening Thursday, September 24.
KS: What constitutes life in Montreal these days?
TS: Working in my studio all day, hanging out with my family at night, taking French classes on the weekend and eating fantastic, cheap food every chance I get.
KS: How does the work for your upcoming show at the ODD Gal- lery relate to the work you’ve been doing over the past few years?
TS: My previous work has been primarily figurative oil painting that deals with issues of identity. The ODD show is an evolution on this theme. I’m still dealing with the figurative, but I’m now includ- ing drawing and mixed-media work that examines how we see our- selves in relation to other species and the environment. I’m excited and curious about the reaction it will get because I feel people here might have a much more intimate relationship with nature than big- city dwellers.
KS: What subjects attract you? What makes you say to yourself, “I’m going to make a painting of this”?
TS: I’m interested in capturing the psychological and emotional aspects of human nature. I use allegory and metaphor to express my particular anxieties and what I perceive to be a generalized psychosis within society. Instead of portraying dead Afghanistan civilians or animals that are going extinct at exponential rates, I paint people with gnarled, anguished flesh and haunted faces and place them in conflicting settings that are familiar yet foreign.
KS: What do you hope viewers will get out of your work spe- cifically, or painting in general?
TS: I want people to relate to the work enough to cause a reaction, be that emotional or psychologi- cal, something that will take them outside of themselves even for a moment. I’d also love it if people could get a new perspective on painting, its endless possibilities of expression. Whether you love it or hate it, painting is alive and continues to sprout new tentacles. I think contemporary painting does what painters have done through- out history, take images from the past and reinterpret them, which can be a powerful way of making a point about the present.
KS: If you weren’t work- ing as an artist, what would you be doing instead?
TS: I pretty much suck at ev- erything else! Being a mov- ie critic seems really awesome though—can you imagine get- ting paid to watch movies all day long? I’m a total movie junkie.
KS: Do you have any secret talents you would love to let the Dawson readership know about?
TS: I can make my tongue look like Gene Simmon’s tongue from his KISS days.
KS: Is there anything you’ve learned here in Dawson?
TS: I’ve learned that I’m afraid of bears and that I love pickled asparagus.
