The multi-disciplinary New York academic, artist and healer Ann Tracy is widely celebrated for bold and colourful works that blend various symbolic cultural motifs in otherworldly dreamscapes that arguably owe as much to mid-20th century figurative abstraction as they do to renaissance painters, such as Piero Della Francesca, and the cosmic illustrations that adorned classic funk albums by George Clinton’s legendary Funkadelic in the 1970s. Her current show Transmissions at Impulse Gallery in Lucerne features a wide array of recent paintings (many of which were painted during the pandemic), alongside haunting site-specific sculptural works, and a sonic piece conceived with poet Amy Hosing and contemporary classical composer Marcelo Toledo. The show from the Boston University alumni and Kundalini Yoga therapist deals specifically in the notion of projection and reciprocation, and the profound personal and spiritual changes that can occur within the myriad small transmissions that are part of daily life – reminding us that the divine resides in the ordinary, and sometimes even mundane, aspects of reality. In this rare interview with House Collective, the artist shares the ways in which art has helped her navigate life’s biggest challenges, and tells us why taking time out to do seemingly nothing at all is a form of action too.
What would you say is a conceptual thread or through line in your work?
I would say maybe a thread that is quite common or prevalent throughout my work is my appreciation for a primal energy – an authentic mark making, or kind of divine energy that comes from the gut. It is always the first reaction or first response that most interests me, and then working from there. I would say that I'm an anti-perfectionist, and you would find that that is a line throughout my work also. I teach Kundalini yoga and meditation, and meditation is absolutely standard practice for me for getting the directives – it’s like the field of consciousness says, you need to make this, and then I'm just the construction worker, and I am, like, I'm on it. I'll do it. It's tricky because the art world is always reticent to talk about spiritual things. But I have always maybe been a little outside of the box, because my spiritual life has always been important in my work.
Is the exploration of your inner cosmos the most important aspect in your creativity – is art-making therapeutic for you?
I think that art and its nature is a therapeutic experience for both the maker and the viewer – for probably every artist there are hours and hours of meditation and dealing with your inner self. I'm a yoga therapist, and I've been teaching Kundalini for 15 years, and that’s all about working with human geometry and human structure, human form and sensibility, and the holistic experience of actually being a human being. I have actually also done tons of therapy since I was 26 years old, because, as a kid, I had unspeakable experiences that you almost couldn't put words to.
What kind of things has art helped you overcome?
Our power usually comes from the hardest things, you know? My oldest sister is schizophrenic. I was 12 when she was diagnosed, and she was 25. It’s made me who I am, and I moved right through it with art – it’s almost like, when I was four years old, I became a healer, and when I was 12 years old, I became a shaman. Because you can start to own it, right? You can start to own your power. And a painting can really help you move through it, and also be sort of a portal for the person both making it and experiencing it; and I think that's maybe a good gift to give. If you had lived what I lived though, you would understand that I could be a total junkie right now with what went down, but I'm throwing glitter around in the backyard instead.
Do you feel the weight of the canon of art history as a painter?
Yeah. I think it's really important. I would say the canon is a big deal. I mean, I went to a figurative school, and, at the time I was there, there were teachers who would say, oh, you can only paint with earth colours, and only three of them, and that's all you get. But early on, I decided, I am not studying painting with you, I’ll figure out how to make things on my own. It was a school where Philip Guston had taught, so, I would sneak into the library at 18 years old and pull a lot of Philip Guston books, and I would put them all out on the table and just spend time with him. I always say that my best teacher was a dead teacher! In terms of what we can learn from art history, one thing I think it’s important to realise as an artist is something Rodin said, and that was that patience is an action too. Isn't that awesome? I mean, he would really get that, because sculpture is such a pain in the ass – every time you make a sculpture, you're making something absolutely unknown, and you might as well be building a UFO. So, having patience as an action, I think that's useful.
How would you describe your process – how do you transmit the kinds of energies you are talking about to the canvas?
It’s just always the best when you lose your capacity to think about the work too much, because when you're consciously trying to put something into the work, it never works – it always backfires. There’s a lot that happens upfront until you release from that – until you finally have the moment where the work starts talking to you. Then the process becomes more like jazz. One of my favourite jazz musicians lived upstairs from me in Brooklyn. His name is Robert Glasper, and he's really a beautiful, and amazing man, so I listen to a lot of Glasper when I am painting. I also listen to a lot of mantras, and I listen to a lot of Nina Simone. I love listening to Sun Ra and his connection to infinity. The work is only going to happen in the moment of non-thinking. And by that, I mean that taking your foot off the gas to dream can be as important as putting the pedal to the metal. It’s kind of about holding space for your process, There's a lot of taboo cans and cants in the art world regarding the spiritual, but I think if you're trying just to move through life and express honestly, you have to do it your own way.
Transmissions by Ann Tracy is at Impulse Gallery Lucerne until December 21. Find out more here.
Images (top to bottom): Dawn And Dusk In The Midnight Garden; Adrian And The Twins; Fire Puja; Night Time Garden II.
