Interviews - Michael Darling
The Artist Makes The Art.
The artists hand is always involved in Tullis collaborations. Unlike many print shops the artist is actually making the artwork with their own hand. Since mark making is such an important focus of the projects done at Tullis it’s important to remember its original not a reproduction. Printers generally make copies of an image, striving to make exact duplicates of an artists original creation. The artist provides the original and leaves the printer to replicate it as an edition. The artist often times does little else but sign the numbered edition and collect whatever royalties are due.
The Tullis studios didn’t work that way. Artists were invited to work in the studio by invitation. They had proven their worthiness by exhibiting and selling their creations. It’s a critical eye that chose who did or didn’t make the cut and get the chance to use the incredible studio facility.
It was quite at time and place, I'm so glad I got to participate in the creation of many great pieces of art.
Richard Tullis
 Interview w/ Michael Darling
MD: Did you go into your project at ART9 with any thing in particular in mind, any goals?
LC: No, not really. Drawing for me has always been like taking a walk, very casual and easy. For me it's a place to find something. I had some vague notes I took while on a trip in Italy, but other than that nothing. The process is a place for taking things in, and also letting things out of your system, sometimes for good.
MD: Did you gravitate towards a particular way of working while there?
LC: I mainly dove into the process and started to look for things. Some forms just began to come out. There's a certain type of mark-making and language that comes out and continues from one piece to the next as an inherent part of the process. I don't have a very procedural way of working, and I don't usually do printing projects because of the time constraints. Richard is not like that. He facilitates me in looking for things and lets the process carry itself out. For me, it's all about meandering and finding something. Like taking a walk and seeing what sticks to your shoe.
MD: This seems to be one of the unusual qualities about working at ART9.
LC: Richard is very receptive to experimentation. It is like a laboratory there. You're there, and that's all you think about. No distractions. It's very concentrated and intense, and really becomes your own studio.
MD: Does the space itself promote this feeling?
LC: It's just conducive. It's quite large, a great viewing space, with lots of neutral settings to see art. It's enviable. There are great tables, great presses, and wonderful light coming in from the skylights.
MD: Is light important to your work?
LC: No. There is no light in my studios. I like privacy. I like to bury myself in the studio. The less outside world, the better.
MD: Is it a departure for you to work so concentratedly on paper, or are works on paper integral to your normal practice?
LC: I do a lot of works on paper, but I don't show them. I draw every night, just before I go to sleep, but they're very private. They just go into journals. But there's a quietness to them that I really like. I also do preparatory drawings for paintings, but it is not a really regular part of my studio work.
MD: Does the printing process accord with your usual approach to making paintings?
LC: The work I do up there [at ART9] comes out of a collage mentality, and I am comfortable with that. It is very similar in many ways to what I do in my studio. The process of subtraction and addition is the same except that it is on thin sheets of paper. But there is a real similarity to it.
MD: What is Richard's role during your work at ART9, his level of participation?
LC: Richard knows when to stay out. He is quite confident of knowing what to say and when to stay away. He knows that comments are not necessary at some point, especially at the early stages when things can be a little ugly. I often work when he leaves. I enjoy the quietness. We have a certain rapport though, and it is fine working with Richard. He was raised in this environment, knows this process intimately, and knows how to act.
MD: What else makes working at ART9 a special experience for you?
LC: It is a luxury to be able to go up there and explore things, to look for things. There is a quietude I enjoy. It's very private, which feels good to me. It teaches me a lot about what is necessary to do other things. And I do find things. It's just about trusting the process.
Interview w/ Michael Darling 2001
MD: How has your work at ART9 impacted your painting?
MF: The experience got me to start reintroducing more color into my work again. Previously, I was working with line on vacated canvases, but with Richard, I started to use really saturated colors. In a way, I brought my studio practices to his atelier and imposed them on the traditions of printing.
MD: Your paintings typically feature a lot of three-dimensional relief elements. How did you relate those interests to the very two-dimensional process of working with printing presses?
MF: The woodcut process made me think about space. I began to dig into the paper and then build it back up with paint. Embossing became an additive process different than building up with paint, as I normally do. I loved working with the woodcut, but it was hard work, and the rough look was not something that I initially liked, but I smoothed it out. Working with a hard material made easy manipulation a challenge, but the very pliable nature of the paper was also difficult. Each roll of the press yielded a different effect. I liked that element of surprise in working on the press, whereas in the studio I usually know what to expect.
MD: What role did Richard play during your work at the studio?
MF: I didn't ask for art suggestions, but he helped me with technique. He told me about limitations of certain methods, but left things open for me to explore. For me, the process doesn't really change when there is another person around, and Richard let me be on my own.
MD: How did working at ART9 differ from your own studio?
MF: It was very freeing to be in the space, with the gorgeous light, the wide open atmosphere, lots of tables to work on, instead of the small Hollywood apartment that I paint in. Richard's music and cooking also helped and made it very special.
MD: What else did you find valuable about your project at ART9?
MF: I like delving into other aspects of artmaking, and think about artists like Miró who did textiles or ceramics. I like exploring different media because it is bound to open up possibilities for me, from different formats, to new colors, and so forth.
Lawrence Gipe
Interview w/ Michael Darling 2001
MD: How did working at ART9 correlate with the ways you work on a daily basis?
LG: When I began working at Richard’s, I was interested in translating the images that I often work with onto his incredible paper. I have been looking a lot at color separations and components of photographs, and tried to explore that through the printing method. For instance, I took a picture of a cloud with a tiny plane and printed it in blue, red, and yellow then butted all three up against one another as if to imply that they would combine to form a color photograph. I didn’t know how that would translate to painting, but now I am working on a canvas with the same idea, in this case using a still from a Fritz Lang film. Working on the presses at Richard’s is a very different experience from what happens in a painting studio—the process directs you. It’s like painting into a carpet, Richard’s hand-made paper just sucks up paint and the subtlety of the color can’t compare to that you achieve with any other painterly support.
MD: Is your painterly mode compatible with what is possible at ART9?
LG: I shift into another way of working when I’m there. At Richard’s I use my hands constantly which I don’t do at the studio. This makes it very intimate. The closest thing to it is working on the lithographic stone, but that is so cold. And yet, I don’t really think of what I do at Richard’s as printmaking at all, I approach it as making a unique work on paper. I just kind of freefall with the process. The freedom of that and the touch makes it a seductive process.
MD: What is Richard’s role while you are working at ART9?
LG: He doesn’t participate very much except in the beginning. Then he lets me go on for hours and hours. He does come in for a chat when it’s 70% there. He has a very informed voice in the discussion. Richard will give me an honest opinion when I ask for it, and is usually very encouraging. Richard brings me images too. Sometimes he will go to the computer and download images and tack them up on the wall and walk away without saying anything.
MD: Does the environment at ART9 affect your way of working?
LG: I’m pretty used to the light and wide open spaces out here in California, so that is not such a factor for me. But the sheer space of the studio can be daunting—talk about a big white wall to fill! The best thing for me about working at ART9 is that you can put up everything you’ve done during two weeks of working on a fifty foot wall and see it all at once. This gives you a real sense of accomplishment. It’s not like looking through a drawer of stuff in a back room.
MD: Is there anything else that is particularly appealing about working at Richard’s?
LG: At ART9 it begins and ends with the paper and how paper can be turned into such an object. Previous to working with Richard, I never thought of a piece of paper as something with an identity of its own. Here, you start with a three by six foot piece of paper that begins with an object-like presence because of its heft and beauty. That amazes me.
Interview w/ Michael Darling 2001
MD: How did you approach your last visit to Tullis?
NH: I was intentionally unorganized about it so that I would hopefully be free from the beginning to try strange things. This is really important for me, to try opposite approaches that I otherwise wouldn't take. With all the space at the atelier and the great presses, it is a wonderful time to do things out of the ordinary. I sometimes carry over ideas from earlier series, but I rarely bring the same attitude that I have in my studio to the work I do at Tullis.
MD: What in particular makes working at Tullis worthwhile?
NH: The light there is wonderful… and the high ceilings, openness, and the enormous space. When I work, I like it completely quiet, and am indulged by the quietude. I also turn on the music sometimes, and work all day long, completely unaware of time passing.
MD: What sorts of things can you do at Tullis that you are not able to do in your own studio?
NH: I make my paintings on linen-over-board. With Richard it is of course all on paper, and the monoprints are like drawings for me, completely unique. There is a physical way of making them that can't be transferred to the painting process. Working on the plates is just so much different than working on linen-on-board. Monoprinting also allows me to explore the concept of memory in a different way. In my studio I deal with memory by using glow in the dark paints. At Tullis, memory is evoked in the diptychs I make with a print and the ghost of that print, especially in the “Thus/Gone” series.
MD: What other painterly interests of yours are served by the printing process?
NH: Unlike many painters, my interest really lies in light rather than in color. Aspects of light in the monoprints come from the transparent layering I do, and through the application and removal of paint. With this process, the paper makes the light, whereas in a painting, it is painted in.
MD: What is Richard's role in your working process at Tullis?
NH: Richard doesn't interject at all. I'm indulged by music when I'm there. It is great to listen to music in that room. Richard is a terrific cook too. When I'm in Santa Barbara I feel pampered, spoiled, and indulged. He generally leaves me alone to do my thing.
Interview w/ Michael Darling 2001
MD: How did the work you did at ART9 affect the work you made after your time in Santa Barbara?
JH: It mostly affected my work in terms of ideas about drawing. We did a sort of layering with the presses that I began to use in my own studio, even though I had already been thinking about it. For me working at ART9 is mostly about a reinterpretation of technical acts, not an illustration of ideas.
MD: How did you find working with printing plates as opposed to the work you do on canvas or paper?
JH: There are physical restraints in monoprinting, such as you can't glob on paint.
MD: Do you work on paper much in your own studio?
JH: Not as much as I do at ART9 of course, more for preparation, or sketches for paintings. The works on paper I do with Richard tend to be more completely realized. Monoprinting has an interesting place between drawing and painting--it is not drawing, not prints, and not painting. For me, it is a very fertile way of working, very process-oriented. Each pull is different, and I keep spinning off from previous information. It is very generative of ideas, more so than lithography.
MD: Your work seems less about traditional composition and more about a process-based approach to making images. How does this affect your approach with the presses?
JH: I find the image as I work, in the process. For this reason, working with the press is very well-suited to my process.
MD: What are some of the special qualities of ART9?
JH: It is a really special place, with great space, great equipment. Santa Barbara is also a very nice place to be, especially if you're coming from New York. Seeing the mountains outside the big doors is really beautiful, so is watching the fog and the changing light. It is like a giant window. I also like the give-and-take of the process, getting another person's input. Richard's technical help is very useful and new ideas spring from that knowledge. Richard also has a fantastic music collection.
Interview w/ Michael Darling 2001
MD: Did you approach the work you did at ART9 in a different way than how you make paintings in New York?
SK: My approach to making work is very predetermined. I make drawings first, then the shapes are blown up and put to canvas. That was eliminated when working with Richard. I went straight from the drawing to the finished work. It makes for a degree of spontaneity that was different. Process and image became one. I still cut out shapes as usual, but there was more involvement with the medium and paint with Richard. I have a much more distanced relationship with paint in my studio. With monoprints, I really have to get in there and mess around. I find it hard. In a way, the process is better for painters who draw with paint, but the challenge was liberating. I brought a lot of that back to my painting.
MD: I remember you telling me that a lot of the work you did at ART9 was destroyed because you were unsatisfied with it, but the ideas in the lost work came back into your work at a later date. Is this typical of the process?
SK: You are there for a limited time and don't get much time to spend with the work. The last time, I got there and started making prints and wasn't happy with them so I ripped them up. Then I was able to move beyond that in a different direction. If you keep pushing yourself you will eventually come up with something successful.
MD: What was Richard's involvement in the process at ART9?
SK: I don't really rely on what Richard sees or thinks when I'm working. It is nice that he can leave you alone without distractions and interference. He leaves me quite alone, which is good for me. He is sensitive to artist's needs. On the other hand, I do like to take advantage of his expertise with techniques, processes, or how to achieve another kind of surface.
MD: How is it to work in the space of ART9?
SK: It is liberating. The space is wonderful. There is as much room as possible in which to work. It is very relaxing. If things are going well, you can take a leisurely lunch, and Richard is always willing to please you with his food and wine. I work constantly when I'm there, however, and never saw the beach. I'm not really so affected by the lush environment of Santa Barbara.
MD: Do you see the works on paper you make at ART9 differently from those you make in your studio?
SK: The saturation of the oil paint into paper with this process produces an incredible kind of color. Watercolors (which I use at home) are softer and don't get the same kind of contrast. With oils you get really vibrant colors. I like how paint saturates the paper Richard uses.
MD: Have you tried any unusual experiments with the presses at ART9?
SK: The last time I was at ART9, I was most interested in the painted surface than in making other kinds of surfaces. I haven't experimented that much with strange materials.
Interview w/ Michael Darling 2001
MD: What is the relationship between the work you do inside and outside of ART9?
JM: It has been an ongoing and evolving relationship. It started out by translating a group of paintings I had already made into works on paper. But once I learned a little about how it all works, I became much freer. Now, I go up to Santa Barbara with no ideas. I go and play. And that usually informs other bodies of work. I find something in the process which I follow-up on later. In many ways, the printing process is like preparation for paintings, and I see it like drawing in that sense. Being in Santa Barbara allows me to work out things that are only a question when I arrive.
MD: What is particularly unusual about working at ART9?
JM: For one, Richard let me treat the atelier like I would my own studio. No one in this business lets artists do this. I come up and I do what I want, and he never says a word. He is not a loyalist to the printing tradition. He allows the artist's mind to wander. The only thing he is fanatical about is that every piece produced is a unique work of art.
MD: Does Richard play any role during your stay at the atelier?
JM: Richard and I have an intense relationship. Sometimes I need to be alone and I do everything--push the buttons, etc. Other times, he comes in and shows me new techniques and sets me off in a new direction. Sometimes he is like a studio assistant. Sometimes I really seek out his opinion. Richard is like a good movie director or producer who knows when to let the artist alone and when to jump in. He knows this. It's a good give-and-take. He knows when to go into the office and be a dj and mix music for me and also when to bring a glass of scotch.
MD: Do you work on paper as much in your own studio as when you are at ART9?
JM: When I'm working on paper at ART9, it's about paper. At my studio, they're not so precious, and are secondary to the canvases. At ART9 it is all realized on paper. Sometimes these works on paper serve as springboards to new bodies of work, others have been specific to ART9 and never incorporated later into paintings.
MD: What about the process? How do the facilities at ART9 challenge your typical working methods?
JM: It is different, but not a complete stretch. I don't believe in style. It is a byproduct of intent. My work changes a lot. I see my work like a filmmaker: if I want to do a comedy, I do it one way, a historical piece, another way. Currently in my studio I have four completely different bodies of work. It's just how I work. Richard's studio is just part of the cycle of how I work. And he is very curious about that in me. It causes trepidation because no one knows what I will come up with when I get there. Richard has that faith in me. Other printers want to do what I've already done. I can't do that. Richard wants it to be a unique experience for the artist and also to make a project that is unlike any other atelier project. Richard is the only person who treats his studio like that. It never seems to be about money when we are there working. He understands the artist like no other person in his profession. That's what makes him unique and what makes so many of us want to work with him.
Interview w/ Michael Darling 2001
MD: What sorts of activities do you explore at ART9 that you don't in your own studio?
LR: Working with someone else is very different, that aspect of collaboration. In my studio I am all alone. Working on a plate is also a real departure for me, as I had never done any kind of printing in the past. The working backwards that you must do really threw me off at first, and then became more comfortable. After doing a lot of works on paper, we started to try some things with Mylar, but I knew we had just scratched the surface of its potential. When I finished at Richard's, I continued to work with the Mylar--also in reverse--knowing that when I put something down on it it would be in a different place when I flipped it over. Another new experience for me was a real exploration of different materials, something that Richard really encouraged.
MD: How did you treat Richard's input during your sessions at ART9?
LR: Richard really helped guide me through different processes, working with plates and materials. For me, it was a slow medium at first, and kind of jarring. I wanted to make it faster and faster, and was able to get it moving along. In terms of content, Richard has a very good eye and being around him with that in your mind keeps you on your toes. He wouldn't say "that's good," "that's bad," but knowing that someone with a good eye is there looking too makes it an interesting sort of collaboration.
MD: Are there any other processes or materials that you picked up while working with Richard?
LR: He really pushed oil pastels on me for drawing on the plate, and the immediacy of that fit with what I was doing, and I have taken that back into my own studio practice.
MD: Was working on paper in a concentrated way a departure for you?
LR: I like to show paintings and drawings together, and feel that drawings can really let you see how an artist's mind is working. There is a casualness, and directness of thought as opposed to a dressing-up and formality in paintings. I'm very interested in process and how drawings can show that.
MD: And did the press do that?
LR: At first I was hung up on the idea of making a finished drawing, but Richard's encouragement of using the "ghost" to start the next drawing kept it all loose and moving, with one leading into the other in an organic way. It was a way of making it more like drawing and establishing a rhythm.
MD: What was the relationship between the work you did before coming to ART9 and the work you made there?
LR: The work I was doing came out of a show I did which featured a lot of distorted organic forms. When I came up to Santa Barbara, it was not like I had a project in mind, I just wanted to see what happened. I went in without any preconceived ideas. I went in with a fast, scribbly line, but that's it.
MD: Did you want to make something different happen?
LR: Yes. It was a very free and open situation, which is rare. The works ended up being pretty automatic, and the best ones of them are the most automatic.
MD: Some artists have a hard time judging between good and bad when it comes to the new products they create with the presses. When do you know?
LR: I made so many pieces, and it was pretty evident which were good. But it is hard to really see what is good without years of hindsight.
MD: As a painter, was there anything particularly useful or sympathetic to your own process about working with a press?
LR: I was very pleased with the inherent qualities of the medium--there is lots of room for accidents, surprises, and play with composition. One frustration I had, was that I fuss with my work a lot, and it is hard to go back when working in this medium. But I was able to work back into them. The Mylar helped that. Now I know so many more things that the next time I will bring a lot more to the process. As a painter, I liked not knowing what was going to come out of the process.
Interview w/ Michael Darling 2001
MD: Were there methods you discovered while working at ART9 that became applicablein your own studio practice?
JT: I'm not a printmaker, so didn't take techniques that I used with Richard back to the work do in my studio but there were materials used in my Tullis project: that interlaced with things was already using and have continued to use such as vulcanized rubber, plywood. and wire. Now I am dipping objects in brightly colored rubber and would like to find a way to bring that to working with paper and presses. The total convolution of work is what interests me most- I would like to do some monoprints that incorporate this yellow rubber dripping process. Maybe press some of the Plasti-dip into the paper and then work back around this... I think I was a bit of an odd duck as far as working at Richard's because the kind of artwork that needs framing is not so interesting to me. If I go back, I'd like to do big, self-sufficient things that don't require framing.
MD: Was working at Tullis in some ways like a return to the traditional ways of painting which you have in some ways abandoned!
JT: It was a relief to get back to the specifics of working on paper- imbedding images and forms in the paper is where the interest lies for me, I tried not to make it so painterly and play with shapes against shapes and between materials. For me, the more the paper pieces approach abstract painting, the less successful they are to me. In my most current work, I'm dipping objects in a material that masks their identity and then making photographs so they're like portraits. If I were to draw them via printing, it would also be interesting. The dimensional capabilities of monoprinting embossing. etc.- -is one way to explore this.
MD: Does the collaborative nature of working at Tullis inhibit you?
JT: I thought it was extraordinary. Richard would appear and then I wouldn't see him at all. He was very subtle, and once I got in a groove he would just keep encouraging me and bringing out more materials to me. Richard was very open about allowing me to keep using different things. He is very eager to push what he does in different, unexpected directions, and I think this is exactly what he should do. Because I wonder how such hand-oriented work as is made at Tullis relates to our current artistic moment
MD: How does the space at ART affect your attitude toward working?
JR: The ample space was very inspiring. All your sensory desires are met- open, extremely high ceilings, for example. One night we were looking up to the Riviera and the clouds and the sky were breathtaking. All the flat tables and room to work is amazing. It's like working in a sculptural landscape. The press itself as an object is absolutely beautiful. Working there could either be liberating or intimidating for artists. I personally think it is fantastic. It allows me to get out of my own way of working which is really liberating. It encourages me to experiment. Richard gives artists a hell of a lot of leeway. I don't think he sees himself as a critic, but the dialogues that develop while working are very stimulating. When I first came to work with Richard I tried to identify immediately how could get the most our of the extraordinary paper. I wasn't as worried about painterly possibilities because of my history as a painter, nor did I find it particularly fascinating that I could keep feeding an image through the press. But once I started bringing all these different materials to bear on
the process. it became very exciting.
MD: So did you approach working with the presses as if it you were making collages?
JT: In some ways, yes, but it was more about making paper works whose parts were completely integrated in the end result. Lots of the work from Tullis shows painterly concerns, but I like to link the process with the resulting qualities of the paper. I would like to use this medium in a way that would enhance and exploit its
sculptural potential.
Michael Darling 1995
In Studio: Richard Tullis
Underneath the noses of so many of us who follow the art scene in Santa Barbara, Richard Tullis has been operating one of the most exciting laboratories for artistic experimentation in the state. Situated in an old Sunkist lemon processing plant at the end of Salsipuedes Street,Tullis has quietly facilitated the creation of numerous bodies of works on paper by an eclectic range of artists from all over the world. Although the operation has technically been active since 1985, it is only within the last three years that the studio has come under the ownership of Richard, and been guided by his own particular vision. Formerly the Garner Tullis Workshop, Richard took over the business in 1992 from his father and changed the name to Atelier Richard Tullis / A.R.T.9, emphasizing the individuality of his enterprise.
Trained in ceramics, printmaking, and photography, it is painters that have attracted Richard’s attention for projects during the last two years, looking to artists with a particular facility for paint handling and distinctive image-making for his collaborations. Artists as far-ranging as Shirley Kaneda, Christopher Le Brun, Jacqueline Humphries, Per Kirkeby, Thérèse Oulton, Chuck Arnoldi, Idelle Weber, and Joan Tanner have come to push their craft within the cavernous warehouse space of the Tullis Atelier, relying on the two enormous presses, hand-made Tullis paper, and Richard’s encouraging expertise for a variety of undertakings. Artists usually stay for a two week period, during which time it usually takes a few days to work through some adjustments to the technology before they really get into a rhythm of familiarity and facility.The works created are never made in multiple edi- tions, but are instead made as singular works, one at a time, using the uncommon technology of 800 ton presses to open up new creative avenues in their practice.
Joan Tanner, for instance, who engaged in a short but prodigious stint at the Atelier, put the funky materials with which she has been working lately together into intriguing compositions that are given a whole new dimension when pressed against paper. Copper wire, plywood, rubber, aluminum sheeting, solder, and roofing material were all employed in Tanner’s extraordinary prints, resulting in stained and compressed plates that hold as much interest as the complicated prints from which they were made. New York painter Shirley Kaneda’s recent residency introduced an element of expediency into her work that is usually absent in the paintings she builds up and adjusts over a long period of time.The complex interrelation- ships of patterns, colors and shapes that Kaneda balances in her paintings were complicated further by the exciting shifts of depth created by the bas-relief of the embossed prints.The Danish artist Per Kirkeby exploited the immediacy and large-
scale capabilities of Tullis’ large offset proof press, a machine that was refitted to artistic tasks after its original purpose of printing B-29 Bomber struts duringWorld War II. Kirkeby created numerous human-scaled impressions around nature-based themes. Exhibited as a group, as in the recent “Untitled” exhibition at UC Santa Barbara’s University Art Museum, these works become environmental in both their scope and feeling.
Tullis is just beginning to expand the visibility of his Atelier, making the products of his labors more accessible to a wider audience. His recent collaboration with Chuck Arnoldi, resulting in a large body of wildly colorful and expressive works on paper, was featured in the Venice Art Walk in Los Angeles in May. A selection of Atelier Richard Tullis prints were recently donated to the collection of the University Art Museum at UCSB, some of which were part of the Museum’s perma- nent collection exhibition, “From Warhol to Baule,” on view this summer. “Works from the Atelier Richard Tullis,” a sampling of artist’s projects fresh from the Tullis presses, was also presented at Sullivan and Goss in Santa Barbara. As these various showings have proved, increasing accessibility to this challenging material, for audi- ences both near and far, is a welcomed development, as this work is just too good to keep hidden.
—Michael Darling
June 14, 1995
Santa Barbara Barbara News Press