Like a moth to a flame, Atlanta-based painter Ally White has always flocked to color.
She found her expression in her youth through wearing lavishly loud outfits. In college, she found solace in painting humorous yet poignant pieces with pigment-saturated palettes. Since earning her BFA from the University of Georgia in 2013, her work has been featured in shows from Atlanta to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
CommonCreativ talked with White about her vivid dreams, her upcoming solo exhibition and how chance creates a brighter spectrum of opportunity than planning ever does.
CC: All of your palettes are seductively rich—have you always been drawn to vivid colors?
AW: I think so. I remember being first drawn to vibrant colors through choosing what clothes to wear as a child and teenager. I wanted to wear the most bright, colorful, patterned and textured pieces that I could find. I also grew up in a house that was (and still is) completely monochromatic brown, and I joke to my parents that that’s the reason why my paintings are so colorful. I’m not kidding—brown paint, brown stone, dark-stained wood, brown leather furniture and even brown fake floral arrangements. Everything. So I don’t really put a lot of brown in my paintings. I buy a tube of burnt umber and raw sienna maybe once a year.
CC: Describe your process.
AW: I’ve never refined my process enough to summarize it. I change my mind a lot, so it’s best for me to work intuitively and with no end goal. I do make work very quickly, and most paintings, except my large ones, are completed in one sitting. In the past I would approach a large-scale piece with literally no idea in mind and just start painting. Lately, however, I’ve created small studies with collage and paint as prep work. I make these studies in a matter of minutes, with squinted eyes and whatever materials are nearby, and sometimes I think they’re the best compositions I’ve ever come up with. So now I’m using these studies and making larger paintings off of them.
Lately I’ve forced myself to start writing ideas of my work down, instead of keeping it all in my head. I like to do obsessive, tedious things such as making a list of everything I’ve ever included in my paintings, and then a list of what I’m likely to paint in the future.
CC: Do you dream in color?
AW: I do dream in color, and I have the most vivid and horrifying dreams. Recently I screamed so loud in my sleep that my boyfriend Joe literally fell out of the bed. Sometimes I’ll dream up paintings, but they’re always such bad ideas—like a huge painting of a thumb. It would be nice if my art dreams were more useful.
Ally White
CC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your work?
AW: Painters such as Dana Schutz, Nicole Eisenman, Judith Linhares, Lisa Yuskavage, Joan Brown and Allison Schulnik have had the most influence on my work thus far. All of these artists have shown me how to use color, humor and the figure in my own work.
CC: What opportunities have you had in 2015 that have helped you grow as an artist?
AW: This year has been my second year living in Atlanta, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity of being included in multiple group shows such as MOCA’s GATHERED: Georgia Artists Selecting Georgia Artists and ATHICA’s J1 juried exhibitions.
I’ve tried to focus on how I progress day by day this year, and not worry about where I stand in the larger context of “the art world.” If each day I’m in the studio, then each day is successful. I’ve realized there’s no worth in stressing about professional aspects of art making, and that the most important thing at this time is just making the work. All of my greatest opportunities have been ones that I could have never planned or dreamt up anyway.
CC: Who are some of your favorite local artists?
AW: Addison Adams, Tori Tinsley, Nick Madden, Paige Adair and Benjamin Britton, to just name a few.
CC: What’s the best thing to come out of the Atlanta arts scene in the last year?
AW: LadyFest Atlanta was killer and so important to the arts community. I also really loved Ann-Marie Manker’s latest exhibition, El Gallo. Hearing her talk about the work made it even better. I have the feeling that Blood, Fire & Milk: Recreations of Performance Art would have been one of my answers here but I couldn’t make it. That looked awesome.
CC: Do you have any big plans for 2016?
AW: I do! I’ll be having my first Atlanta solo show at Eyedrum—super excited for this. I’ll be experimenting with new materials as I plan on having mixed-media sculptures alongside my paintings.
CC: Where can we find your work?
AW: Right now you can find my work at ATHICA’s J1 exhibition, juried by The High Museum of Art’s Michael Rooks, and also at the Classic Center in Athens for Tableau, curated by Didi Dunphy and Jaime Bull. You can also find my paintings featured in the first issue of American Chordata, a biannual literary magazine.
You can see more of Ally White’s work on her portfolio site.
