By Jonathan Burger, Craven Arts Council & Gallery, Inc.
Where are you from and how did you end up in eastern North Carolina?
My family is from Annapolis Maryland, area and most of my relatives still live there. My dad was in the military and we got deployed to Stuttgart Germany. My sister Katie and I were born there. After two years in Germany my family moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia and we eventually moved to New Bern, NC.
Does your work have a central theme, or do you have several themes?
A lot of my work takes inspiration from Buddhist philosophy and the idea collective consciousness, that nothing is separate from each other and everything is a result of collective action. No matter how hard I try to make work about a very specific topic; I always end up making art about my life. Now I spend a lot of time reflecting on the past and observing how the people in my life shared similar experiences. Some of them are about more specific events in my life such as how our mom took care of my sister and I as we both have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder. Others are a reflection of broader feelings such as feeling hopeless about my personal and collective future.
You work in several mediums. Do you have a favorite, and why, or why not?
I don’t have a favorite medium; I find both painting and sculptor to be what I gravitate to most. I find it difficult to just do one so I choose to use multiple mediums in my practice. If I just paint then I get tired of painting; if I just sculpt I get tired of sculpting.
You recently graduated from ECU, what next for you?
I am headed to D.C. to work at Capital Murals, a mural company based out of the D.C. area. They do a lot of murals for schools in Northern Virginia so I am excited to use my skills to brighten up educational spaces. While I enjoyed the challenge of creating a large body of work for my senior show; I would like to experience working full time for a bit before pursuing a gallery practice outside of school. I feel like changing my schedule to be more structured and would relieve the stress of having a work life balance. At some point I would like to continue a gallery practice in the D.C. area.
A lot of your work seems to feature yourself, family or friends. Can you tell us about the significance of this?
When I first started making work that was more coherent I used myself as a reference for most of them. Eventually I got bored of painting my own face and began branching out to include my family and friends. To me these people all share similar experiences and so using these individuals as reference models acts as a way to connect with them. I paint about my life and experiences; but my life doesn’t exist in isolation as the subjects I paint either have a direct connection to a specific event, or we relate by proxy of being alive at the same time.
In there another artist whose work you admire or inspires you?
I enjoy Eric Thor Sandburg’s work. I like that his paintings look like they were inspired by pre-renaissance painters like Hieronymus Bosch, but a modern take. He also has a great understanding of skin colors and anatomy. Moving away from visual arts, I am inspired by Bjork as well. I love how personal her lyrics are and how she does such a good job building a world for her music through fashion and music videos. Her music takes a lot of inspiration from nature, while using electronic production. That is how I would describe my work inspired from classic art and nature; but with bright modern influences. Another artist who works is a fashion and sculptor artist is Nick Cave. He makes sounds suits that confronts issues of racism and expresses a queer identity. I learned about his work at The North Carolina Governor’s School for visual arts. His work influenced how I create visually. A lot of textures, bright objects, and found objects. He focuses a lot on accumulation, smaller objects coming together to amass something bigger than where it started. I’d say he has had the biggest influence on my sculptural work than any other artist.
Do you have any advice for artists just starting out or those wanting to get into the arts?
Don’t do things that don’t feel natural or put pressure on yourself to succeed in a certain type of art. There are so many different types of art to create and more ways to have a creative career than the traditional path of making art to sell or go into galleries. Finding what makes you the happiest will lead to a more sustainable creative practice, versus trying to fit into an expected archetype.
What piece, award, or exhibition are particularly proud of and why?
I was featured in the Greenville Museum of Art’s, Growing Up Queer in the South Exhibition. It was awesome working with Parks Mcallister and all of the participating artists fully impressed me. I am so glad my art could contribute the exhibition and I could use my work, and story to help promote visibility for the queer community in Eastern NC.
In one sentence, what is art to you?
Something I can do with my hands.
I know you’re in the 2024 Bank of the Arts National Juried Exhibition, but where else can people find your work?
Currently my paintings are on display at the Scullery in Uptown Greenville; NC. To see my paintings and sculptors as well my art instagram is @cusack.studios.