Marty Schnapf, one word to describe him? (This space intentionally left blank)
Where were you born and where do you currently reside? Indiana. Los Angeles.
Your first experience with art as a child? Crawling beneath the piano bench, watching my mother’s feet move the pedals as she played.
What book/film/work of art most recently captured your attention and why? This isn’t that recent, but Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grande Bellezza is never far from my mind. This film weaves a visually, sonically and emotionally rich path through countless authentic and inauthentic ways and reasons people perform in art, religion and daily life.
The future is _________. Likely, not as unidirectional as it might seem.
What is your thought on the following statement;Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable! I bristle at any statement that starts with the words “Art should…” Art is as variable as the people who engage it.
You have a million dollars to spend on art, you buy… Flights and tickets to performances, museums and historic sites, all over the world.
Least favorite part of your day? Washing the vegetable strainer.
Did you have any training for art or is it inherent? I’ve benefited from innumerable teachers and influences and I’ve had the impulse and persistence to continue making art. The latter may or may not be inherent.
Do you remember the first piece of art that you created? My father owned wooden models of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. As a child they fascinated me and on my 5th birthday he gifted me the Pinta. One afternoon, I decided to draw it. I specifically remember trying to articulate the billow starched in the sails. In this memory, my drawing was incredibly adept, but having seen other drawings of that age, I realize that it couldn’t have been. I’m not sure which is less accurate, the memory or the perception… probably the value.
How would you like to be seen as an artist years from now? I’d like my work to continue to resonate with people.
Do you have a place/person/thing that you visit for inspiration? If I am not feeling inspired, the worst thing I can do is seek out inspiration. I usually just need a break. I think artist block is less about being empty and more about being over-saturated with distracting concerns.
If you could have dinner with 3 artists living/dead who would be at your table? Today it would be: Sappho, Milorad Pavic, and Marvin Gaye.
Name three things you can’t live without in your studio? A healthy sense of humor, a slightly diminished concern for self-preservation and nitrile gloves.
Anything else you’d like to mention that I didn’t ask? From February 8, 2018 until April 22, 2018, I will be in an exhibition at the Soulangh Cultural Center in Taiwan featuring 4 Los Angeles based-artists. Later this year, Soulangh will unveil the first in my new series of monumental, outdoor sculptures.
