Charline Von Heyl

Video UCLA Art Department Art Lectures

This video is of a talk Charline Von Heyl gave about her art practice. She chronologically goes through giving insight into her various inspirations, thought processes behind developments and methods of working. She speaks of contrasting various elements, abstracting forms to create harmonious elements on the canvas. This is achieved by the way she cuts, pastes and layers to create a mood and a quirky movement on her canvases. She has a veracious appetite for images and has many diverse references to keep her work moving forward. She has a strong interest in pattern reminiscent of textile design, colour, and graphic imagery. Charline is influenced by photography, folk prints, and woodcuts. She is interested in upping the anti on the visual as much as possible and loads the abstracted image with geometric forms and hidden meaning so the viewer will discover the painting slowly in steps. She likes painting to be weird. Her work is very similar to illustration in that the structure is pretty much like colouring in and she paints as though she is printing with layers on top of each other. It has an artificial feeling of not being in the lines where colors sit on top. She also uses colour to create space in what she calls a “detached way”.  Her practice is investigating how far she can go with the graphic as a painterly entity. There is an extreme amount of experimentation in her work. She really doesn’t have one specific style of painting. The fact that she has no specific style is her style. Her work is constantly surprising with her sharp graphic edges, and her playful use of pattern.  This talk was very informative giving an in depth view into one of the most sought after abstract contemporary artist.