Isis Hockenos: Studio Visit
A few weeks ago, we visited painter Isis Hockenos at her San Francisco studio. Over warm cups of milky tea, we discussed her upcoming show at Gravel & Gold. And while we were at it, we had Isis model some pieces from our Spring Summer '16 Collection.
Read on to see Isis' mellow studio playlist and her favorite items from the shop.
Isis Hockenos studied visual arts and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, NY and printmaking at Fondazione Il Bisonte in Florence, Italy. Hockenos works primarily on oils. She is interested in incidental gender dynamics both physical, through the lens of task and labor, and emotional, through interpersonal relationships. These interests are juxtaposed with a strong connection to her natural environment and to an affinity for narrative.
She is currently living and working in San Francisco and West Marin, CA. Hockenos is influenced by the wind and the salt and the craggy shores of her native Northern California coast, while being inspired too by the urban angles of the cities in which she has lived.
Her studio space at Melting Point Studios was formerly Hamm's Brewery. In the 80's it became a squat for punks and in the 90s a welder named Tammy Bickel took over the building and turned it into the artists' studios it is today. Isis has been painting here since 2011 and recently moved into a larger studio space in the building to accommodate her growing body of work.
The marvelous tube squeezer in action!
Join us at Gravel & Gold on April 20th for the opening of Two Girls Three, a collection of work by Isis Hockenos.
Isis says:
The selection of paintings that make up Two Girls Three focuses on my growing awareness of the silent, unacknowledged, often incidental work that I’ve experienced and also witnessed the women in my life do, constantly. There is a female sense of urgency, of responsibility, of bondage that insists we maintain momentum and forward pressure no matter the context. There is no name for it, small concrete evidence of it. However, there is joy, ease, playfulness and efficiency that comes from women working together. By fostering instead of suppressing these instinctual approaches, in every facet of life, we can begin to rebuild the social construct that is currently bisected by a gender-normative chasm.
I use my painting as a way to realize the creative potential of the unconscious mind. My drawings act as a filter between my eye and my subconscious, bridging the gap between what I take in visually and what I later put down on the canvas. I simplify shape and form in an attempt for the viewer to, on one level, acknowledge the subject or idea that I am exploring but on another level the simplification adds importance to composition, plane, color and mood.
3. Volta Pants
4. Paint tube squeezer (in store only)
5. Correa Dress in Black (coming soon!)
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