Ivano with his art in Beverly Hills 2017

Night painting in Spain 2017

N: Such a big market too and a big amount of people that are doing it. It’s a lot of competition. 

I: It’s very competitive, yeah, I’m finding that here in California even more so than in Ontario or other places I’ve been. Very cut-throat, competitive. 

N: Did you notice, like, you’ve been in Guelph, you’ve been in Spain, you’ve been in Italy, now you’re in California, did you notice that – 

I: I’ve been in the UK for a few years. 

N: Oh you’ve been in the UK too? So is there like a European art vibe and then a North American art vibe kind of? I think one side of art is like the market and the business side and then I guess another side is just being the artist, and you’re talking about doing a lot of plein-air painting and just how the environment is…

I: Yeah, yeah...There’s just a different vibe in general as to what people appreciate. I find that in Europe at least when I lived there, than in North America. But in terms of the marketing, the sales, the survival side of things as an artist, it’s um, it’s not easy in Europe either. It’s very competitive there too, there’s a lot of people that do art and do it pretty darn well. You know like, um, traditional kind...Their educational model in the arts is different than in North America. I think it’s not as theoretical so they really come out of art schools having done a lot of drawing and a lot of paining, a lot of – uh – stuff you’d imagine Renaissance artists having done. A World Academy approach to doing art. And so, if you’re doing something like plein-air painting, which they tend to appreciate more than people do in North America, they’re really good! And fast and ambitious! They do these big pieces and they take your breath away looking at them, after you’re just like “wow, how did they pull that off in a couple of hours?”. Stuff like you haven’t seen in other places. Or I go out with my friends there and we just sketch with sketch books around the city or something, the stuff they do just kind of knocks my socks off...Whereas if I do the same in North America with friends I find people are more, um, they push the conceptual stuff more it’s not that it requires dexterity or skill at drawing per se, but their way of thinking about it is maybe different. There’s more of a push to be original about it and less so in Europe. It’s more - it’s not that it’s not original but there’s just a weight of classical art there that hangs over things that makes it difficult to push out and, say do abstract. Abstract art I don’t find is as appreciated.

N: Yeah, over in Europe.

I: And this varies, so when I lived in Italy I mean there’s still really a hold into the Renaissance, you know art that’s 500 years old. They just see it. It’s in the galleries, it’s what’s in the air so the artists that are even alive and doing stuff today tend to do knockoffs of that kind of art. In Spain it’s similar too. People will tend to do stuff that is reminiscent of Goya or Velázquez sort of these artists that are big in Spain. In the UK it’s kind of a mix between some of the continental European art and some North American, it’s a little more – there’s more of a punk aesthetic, there’s more pop art, there’s stuff that you don’t see much of at all in France, Italy, Southern Europe.

N: That’s very interesting. 

I: And North America it’s just a different.. I don’t know. See even within North America I find there’s a huge divide between the east and the west coast. I’m still feeling my way around what people tend to appreciate in the west coast. It strikes me as more superficial. Depictions of gas stations and commercial life and stuff so people tend to be really into that or Andy Warhol and that sort of aesthetic of doing art is big. On the east coast it’s not - it’s still more - it has a European flair to it. The stuff I do goes over better on the east coast. The stuff I sell here tends to be to people who are from the east coast or visiting and then they take it back with them...(Talking about his own art…) If it’s abstract it’s kind of abstract in the sense of the abstract expressionists. It’s gestural, it’s got an urban quality, the colours are vibrant. I don’t find that goes over well in the west coast so much.

N: I mean, I’ve looked through your art and I’ve noticed all the colour that’s in it so I figured that that would be perfect for the west coast and I’m a little surprised that the east coast has more of an affinity towards it. It just seems like, so vibrant. I guess on the east coast, at least in Canada and probably in America, there’s the houses near the ocean. They’re always very vibrant colours so maybe it reminds them of their home.

I: Possibly yeah, I’m struggling here in California. I can’t put my finger on it, I don’t know what it is. Everything feels very new still on the west coast. It doesn’t have the weight of history that the East Coast has and the immigration patterns are even different, it’s very Latino, Mexican, and Asian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese to some extent. Those two big groups of people for the most part… You don’t have a lot of you know like, Italians. You don’t have a lot of Italians in California the way you do in Ontario and New York and places like that…You don’t have the nice weathered brick or some of that stuff you see and the red brick stuff you see all over Guelph. You don’t see any of that in LA.

Guelph Studio Tour 2012

Guelph Art Studio 2010

Florence Art Studio 2015

N: So can people come into your studio and see your art or see your work space and that kind of stuff?

I: People do a little, yeah. Yeah when I was living in Guelph and Toronto I was always on the Guelph Studio tour and so I would open up once a year for that and people would come through and I’ve done the same in other places. Space is a real premium here (LA), real estate is pricy so I’m just working out of a double garage. Some people have come around, yup. I know some artists don’t like that but I’m fine with it.

 N: I think that’s fun.

Plein-air painting 2017

N: So just for a timeline of when you were living in these places. Were you in Italy first? That was the first place you lived other than Canada? 

I: No, no, I lived in Italy before coming to California.

N: Ok so Spain was the first place?

I: I lived in Spain for 6 years for quite a while and going back and forth. My wife’s from Spain so we’ve got a lot of family there and our first daughter was born there and it’s a lot of connections. I had a good go of things as an artist in Spain so whenever there’s an opportunity to go back and both visit family and reconnect with the life we had there we tend to take it on… I was in Spain for 4 consecutive years and then back and forth for months at a time to Canada and Spain, but all told it was 6 years and then it’s been visits since then…But actually before living in Spain I lived in the UK for a couple of years. Straight out of university I moved to London and found work there as a teacher. 

N: And was that a teacher for the courses that you were taking in university? Like not art courses? 

I: No that wasn’t art, I was a high school teacher for years. I went to the University of Toronto and then at the time I graduated there wasn’t any work in Toronto or it was tough to break in as a teacher so I went off to the UK and found work there in London teaching high school. And I was teaching something called ICT Information Communication Technology. It was a combination of basic computer skills and media and communication and stuff. Don’t ask me why I found that, it was a school that needed someone to teach that *laughs* and I managed to convince them I could do it. Yeah I had a degree in history so.

Solo art show in Hamilton 2014

Guelph "Brush Off" 2014

Winning a contest in Spain 2011

N: Do you know what side you get your artsy side from? Would you say it’s from your mom or your dad or a mix of both?

I: Man, I don’t know. There wasn’t a lot of art in my house to be honest growing up. Or in the whole family really…

My parents both grew up on farms so on both sides it’s very rural like that. And for them immigrating to Canada was the first time they had lived in cities really and then it was mostly just having any job and surviving and getting by so there wasn’t a lot of emphasis on art or music. I grew up playing hockey and soccer and working in factories. Even going to university wasn’t a serious consideration until my very last year of high school. Even then I kind of smartened up and thought “Maybe. Everyone else seems to be going off to university I could consider doing this”. Even then I did an apprenticeship in brick lane and plastering before I decided that was just too hard *laughs* and went to university instead. And so it was only really when I hit university that I got more serious about art. I don’t know, all throughout high school and earlier on I seemed to have some artistic talent and – uh - I had one of my art teachers from high school come through and visit my studio in Guelph when we were there and she remembered all kinds of stuff about me and being in art class and some of the projects, stuff I couldn’t even remember myself...But I don’t know, my dad worked in steel...He would make railings and try - like I could see he was trying to do something artistic and even now that he’s retired he’s built a little shack in the back of his place and he’s got some steel manufacturing equipment and he’s making small little garden sculptures and welding stuff and selling a little bit of it so there is an artistic side there. And my mom was good always with - she worked as a secretary - so she was always good with words because that was her job. So she read a lot and had an interest in books, she brought me to libraries and got me into reading so I grew up as a reader. Someone with a strong hobby interest in doing art. That’s probably the extent of it. And then maybe going to visit relatives in Italy and they would bring us to Venice and just walking around places like that were pretty inspiring. I can’t say anyone pulled me aside and said “hey you should try being an artist” or ”have you considered this?”. That moment didn’t happen for me until I lived in Spain really. I couldn’t work at the time because I didn’t have legal status, but I started doing these painting contests where there was money involved and I did abysmally initially but then slowly got better. And then some artists did say to me “hey you should keep at it and see where it goes”… I haven’t looked back since that point.  

Trade show in Toronto 2013

Being interviewed in Spain 2005

The Ward (No. 5) by Ivano Stocco, 2012-13

Mixed media on panel

32" x 40"

http://www.ivanostocco.com/2012-13.php

The conversation moved into talking about being an artist...

I: It’s definitely grounding… for the most part. I don’t always find that’s the case. It can be as aggravating as anything. When you’re working through stuff and it frustrates you - artists are never really happy with what they make. So you make something and you tend to be – in my experience – the most critical person of your own stuff. That just pushes you forward though into the next thing, it’s like “ok let me try that again and see if I can do myself better than last time” sort of thing. And it never quite happens and you just keep at it in the same way. For me it’s very painful to see art that I’ve done, you know, hanging somewhere five years ago and there it is and I’m like “oh man”. I want to take it down and edit it and change it and put it back up *laughs*. It’s some of what you just need to live with. I think for the most part there’s a therapeutic quality to it.

N: Have you ever been annoyed with being asked a question like “What does your art mean”? Or questions like that?

I: Yeah I get that all the time…If there was an easy way to put it to words you wouldn’t need to create something visual, necessarily. I think some of the strongest visual work is difficult to explain in plain language because if it were easier to explain in plain language you would’ve used plain language. You’re using the medium that’s appropriate to what you’re trying to express and get across. I mean, if you think of abstract art, what is it? I don’t know! It resonates in some way, it’s impactful, it’s bold, and it makes an impression on you. And anything you can explain away with words just wouldn’t have that same impact. It’s very uniquely designed for visual expression. Same with music, I think. If you try to explain a song to somebody who’s never heard the song, it always comes out flat. There’s only so much you can talk around it so that’s why you use music to express whatever that idea is that you as the artist is trying to get across...

...I’ve done gallery shows and now I tend to do more fairs. Fairs where I’m there. And so, I get everything at those things, you know. People that know a lot about art, that know nothing about art, it’s just the public and it just ranges from: “why would anyone put that up on their wall?” kind of thing, you know people saying that to me, “that doesn’t make any sense, what the heck is that, tell me what that means”. The other way I think of it is that they’re conversation starters. Like yeah, I’ve done my job, I’ve met you half way by creating this thing and putting it out in the world and don’t be a lazy viewer. Look at it, try to find something in it, and you tell me what you’re seeing. Because you as the artist should be equally interested in hearing what other people are interpreting or what they find in your art that you may not necessarily. The catch 22 of being a good artist is that you have to have a thin skin and be sensitive and pick up on stuff and notice things that others don’t, but then when it comes to showing your work or selling the work, that’s very - it’s very brutal. You have to just let it roll off, you have to have a thick skin for that. And so many artists can’t handle that end of things...It’s not my job to explain it all to you, it’s my job to create something intriguing and then if it’s not working for you, it’s not working for you. If you don’t understand then I’m not going to explain. I often don’t know! And I’m fine with that. I don’t know. You have to learn to live with some ambiguity - I think, as an artist, and others that see things in very black and white ways don’t feel as comfortable as maybe artists do. I don’t know, when I’m working through the art I’m often not happy with how things are going and it’s kind of like okay, persist, hang in there, see where this is bringing you, and that doesn’t make sense, that does make sense, this whole why the hell am I doing this at all? It’s kind of this back talk in your head that you need to fight off. I think the practice of doing the art and dealing with yourself and these kinds of questions it helps you deal with others – the stuff that other people then bring to you doesn’t’ feel any more damaging necessarily than what you subject your own self to. I don’t know, am I sounding like a total… am I making any sense? *laughs*

N: No, no I think you sound just right. Total sense to me, for sure. 

I: I don’t have any magic solution, I just have some experience. Again, like one of the most difficult things for me is that idea, you know, you really need to be sensitive. I think artists are very sensitive people and they just pick up on stuff that a lot of people ignore or pass over. Or they tap into things that other people can’t be bothered with...If you’re doing something provocative there’s people that really don’t like that sometimes. And they’ll tell ya… they’ll tell ya...

...In Spain I felt that people – I would do a lot of plein air work just out on the streets, and people don’t tend to have much of a filter there so if they think something it just comes right out. I had people saying that it looked like crap, what I was doing. That the guy over there was doing a way better job, or why are you painting that that colour. Or people that would stick their finger in my painting and try to correct what I was doing *laughs*. Very sort of bold and rude stuff sometimes.

N: It’s so opinion based, though, just the whole art world.

I: I get more frustrated with people – I mean – if people are honest and they just come out and say “oh I don’t understand what you’re doing” or “I don’t like it”, that’s fine. For me, what’s more aggravating is just the “oh that’s cool, oooh”. Just very simplistic language, there’s no real effort to engage, it’s just kind of “oooh”. And they’re there with their little dog or something and, you know, “nice, great, keep it up!”. That stuff doesn’t do a lot for me. Like if you hear it enough, at some of these shows where 1000 people can come through you can only hear “that’s cool” so many times before you’re like “okay, can’t you come up with something a little more elevated?”. I appreciate when people stop and I can see they’ve looked a little bit, and they chat for a minute with you even, it makes the world of difference than someone who just comes through and goes “oh that’s great, see you later”.