The Artist in conversation with Sue Roe
SR ‘Can you say something about your relationship with your work?’
CB ‘For me when I start it’s about getting the surface going. Even working back into a print is sometimes a good starting point because I need something to be there before I can carve out my image. A lot of the time I’m quite brutal. I don’t see a problem eliminating stuff. Sometimes I can get rid of something good, then I get angry with myself.’
SR ‘Your work in oils seems very close to your prints, with shared textural qualities, as if the two media are somehow fused or cross-referenced for you.’
CB ‘I need my work to have layers. But I also want that freshness, spontaneity, lushness and immediacy of line. I don’t like pictures that look as if they’ve been rehearsed, and I reached a point when I wanted to do more with printmaking, some of them end up more like paintings. The print’s there underneath, but I paint over with the brush or roller. I like the scraping and carving out process of print-making but I like the scraping back process of painting as well.’
SR ‘So the process of etching out an image, in both media, is like bringing something to light …’
CB ‘The surface has got to have some ambiguity, the surface has to hold and present an intrigue as well as immediacy. More and more I’m combining the two media.’
Corinna Button’s work tells stories, but not in the conventional, linear sense. The stories her pictures tell feel as if they’re in the process of being glimpsed, unearthed, and we can see them as they’re etched into being, scratched out on canvas, layered up in delicate textures and bold, lyrical marks, evoking desire, desperation, celebration, mystery and intrigue, which deepens into bold, authoritative images as we look. Her stories are always unfinished, in process, pulling us in, and her suggestive forms surely reference the work of Munch, Nolde, Beckman, Kollowitz, even early Picasso, all of whom set up tantalizing associations within the subtle complexity of this artist’s unique and subtly provocative vision.
Sue Roe, March 2007. Author of The Private Lives of the Impressionists and Gwen John: A Life
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"In everyday encounters, I see something else quite fascinating happening beneath the surface. It could be a restless energy or unspoken words, all tangled up with different emotions. I use this to conceive characters and situations to reveal an imagined world. I want to compel the viewer into seeing new and significant aspects of the human experience of our time.
Currently, I am exploring the complex relationships that are formed between teenage girls and young women. This theme initially grew out of my daughter’s numerous recounted experiences and snatches of conversations overheard from her school and college days experiences. It has since been further developed to reflect the wider picture - street culture (ie; the build up of this ‘’new wave’’ of street culture amongst teenagers, particularly females.) The media , obsessions with image, gossip, fashion, the minutiae of celebrity life and materialism have further enriched this theme and it is indeed a fertile arena to harvest!"
Corinna Button A.R.E.