Comments on: Interview: Dan Attoe

By: pipé docken

pipé docken — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 04:18:32 +0000

dan
you have it
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By: Peter Feldstein

Peter Feldstein — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 02:09:04 +0000

Bill AND Dan, Thanks for this wonderful interview. Both the questions and answers so insightful, as is the work of both of you. Thanks.

By: Doot Doot Garden Blog

Doot Doot Garden Blog — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 04:27:32 +0000

[...] rocks) and post in the same day. Yesterday, Fabio & I & editor Sierra Hahn & painter Dan Attoe hiked through the surreal terrain carved by Mt. St. Helens’ [...]

By: Sara Fletcher

Sara Fletcher — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:10:07 +0000

Thanks Dan and Bill. Insightful questions & answers. I love the painting Trans AM and the lightning storm. Thanks for showing how the paintings are connected to the world (not just the art world). Dan, I have no idea if this would interest you, but did you know you can download the whole Bible and listen to it read by Alexander Scourby? I’m not sure why, but something in the interview makes me want to mention that – please take it or leave it…

By: Shelby

Shelby — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:49:37 +0000

Beautiful point Katherine. I tend to really love looking at art that can tell me a lot about the person making it. Dan is this apt example of someone really shaped by his art just as much as his art is shaped by him and his process is one of the most generous and obsessed I have ever seen. I agree that Dan doesn’t come across as mean but I like that he has built the opportunity and self awareness to look back, see himself that way, and respond to it. I think that’s the kind of creative well that won’t dry up.
And since Dan’s sense of humor was brought up, I think some of the mean he is noticing is the edge in his own sense of humor. It gives the paintings a witty bite but next to the thoughtful background it looses the base offending qualities that make something actually mean spirited. He could just be forgetting to look at the whole picture as he reflects back on his book. We can all tend to get tunnel vision.

I’m actually just saying this so Dan doesn’t start making ‘nice’ paintings. Although maybe he will anyway since he’s about to have a kid.

Nice interview, Bill.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 02:19:55 +0000

Bill, excellent writing. You have a way with interviews for sure. Love Dan’s work and more importantly, I love strippers, Trans Ams and forests. I also like the way all his paintings are stylized. The gamer kid is really creepy and loveable at the same time. Dan, David Lynch’s dad was a forest ranger too.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 06:26:34 +0000

I can only speak for myself, but the quality of Dan’s work that I find so compelling, and the part that I hypothesize people relate to, is that he depicts human beings in all their ugly, lecherous, beer-bellied, failure-riddled, stupid, hedonistic, dorky, vain, animal glory with kindness. It surprises me to read that you, Dan, would think you were a mean person from looking at your paintings. I actually come away from them with quite the opposite feeling. You do not pass judgement, and you recognize the bright, burning-tinged-with-sadness of being alive. I get the same vibe from Dan’s paintings that I get from reading Zen writings. We are here, we have appetites, we grasp at everything, we yearn, we die, we are sort of ridiculous creatures, the Universe continues as if we never existed.

By: brandon

brandon — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 01:41:34 +0000

really great interview bill! i love the candidness of the whole thing. like i’m back in iowa city at the grad painting studios gallery sitting on the couch between you both (waiting to be punched in the arm or shot with a paintball gun in between questions). i think comparing his work w/ that of kippenberger is great; i’d never really viewed dan’s work in that light. (i suppose i have a more difficult time imagining where most of kippenberger’s imagery is born out of – as it seems visually looser and of a different culture than dan’s). i didn’t know dan had a literal connection with him. keep up the great work (both of you)!