ART, EDITORIAL

The phrase “actions speak louder than words” is something both proven and challenged by 23 year old artist and humanoid from Watchung NJ, Danielle Lovallo. Her multi layered paintings offer a variety of color, textures, words, and actions. Her pieces also serve as an index to her process. Every piece created often goes through a period of experimentation, as she experiments with each piece Danielle will write notes on the canvas in regards to her process, how she feels about it, usually capturing emotions and momentary thoughts.

Beautiful (is Overrated and I want to be) Invisible 52″x72″

Normally, her paintings are often dark and chaotic with pessimistic titles such as Beautiful (Is Over Rated and I want to be) Invisible) in which the title of the piece is written over the painting it self but with invisible glow in the dark paint. Danielle’s action style paintings capture her physically aggressive and violent gestures. Wether it’s repeatedly scratching her nails into the canvas or stabbing an entire set of butcher knives into a wall, her actions speak just as loud as her words.


Failing the Rorschach Test 60″x54″

Being a friend of Danielle’s for 4 years and sharing a studio space with her, I have become very familiar with her art and how she works, or shall I say, preforms. Danielle’s work treads the lines between abstract expressionistic paintings (because of her action painting style) and performance art. In her piece, Failing the Rorschach Test (My all time favorite piece of hers), Lovallo stuck her feet in a bucket of black pain, and danced all over a raw canvas that was laid out onto the floor until the song she was dancing to was finished.

Danielle explains, “I found the concept of failing an ink blot test hilarious, so if I created my own ink blot that was purely organic, there can never be a standard answer. The ink blot is now part of me, and nobody can ever accurately analyze my answer or tell me that I am right or wrong for saying what I think the ink blot looks like.”

Push (Where’s the curve I’m supposed to get ahead of?) 24″x26″

Recently, Danielle just finished a series titled Dehiscene which is a medical term for a wound that has been surgically sutured, but, due to malpractice it bursts open. The canvases have haphazardly sewn rips with what appears to be scar tissue peeking out.

After our billionth cup of coffee for the day, I asked Danielle some questions in regards to her series, Dehiscene.

Dehiscent II: Reflection on April 10″x8″

Q: So now I know the general concept of your latest series. Do these paintings represent you or anyone you know?
A: Two of them are about events in my life in the last year that had an effect on me, the other ones are about people that I know that were going through a lot of issues at the time….people who keep it together, and they don’t make a big deal about what is wrong with them. There is so much of this stuff inside them….that if you look at them the RIGHT way…you can see little moments when they break, or rip open a little bit, and you can see what’s there, underneath everything, which is unsettling and beautiful. I create juxtapositions of this.

Q: Can you tell me about the materials you used for the exposed scar tissue on and under the canvas? I find it kind of funny that you are using glittery things like pearls to create something that isn’t the slightest bit glamorous looking.
A: I used pearls, coarse molding paste, pummis gel, light modling paste, beeding, glitter, tar gel, glass, mirror tiles, paint, garnet gel, rhine stones, I think some more materials, but I lost track now. I chose “beautiful” things to create something grotesque.

Q: How did you create the layered rips in your pieces?
A: I used 2 canvases, one as a base to mount the “insides” and the other to serve as the surface of the piece. It’s a bitch to double stretch a canvas.
But I start with a scissor or knife, and rip it with my hands and finger nails…well lack of finger nails.

Q: The most ripped up painting in the series is the one that you said represents you, can you go further into that?
A: I felt the need to make these pieces, because if I was “ripping everyone else open” I might as well rip my self open. You can’t expect people to give them selves to you without giving something of your self back to them. This series is essentially about that, the things you don’t tell the co-workers, acquaintances, these are things you find out when someone calls you at 2 in the morning crying. Since this series, I have been a lot more open with my life, and a lot less restrained as a person and as an artist. These pieces are a complete departure from anything I have done.

Dehiscent I: Long Island Gray Melodi

Q: You have always done rips for as long as I’ve known you. So do the rips from your art pieces made in college hold the same meanings and concepts as the rips in your current works?
A: They gained a lot more meaning since college, and have more relevence to each piece as a whole. The pieces now are more about WHATS in the gauges instead of the areas around the gauges. My earlier pieces were more about losing things that you want to hold on to. It’s that frantic urge to piece things together and keep things from falling apart. Everything that is created, ultimately degenerates…it’s in a state of flux.

Her series was just recently shown in Asbury Park, New Jersey, making it her first solo exhibition, a big deal for every artist. You can see more examples of Danielle Lovallo’s work and see what she does next at www.daniellelovallo.com or add her on the facebook!