Tamara Gonzales: Studio Visit

Tamara Gonzales, Ultra-powerful Gamma-ray Burst, 2011, spray paint on canvas, 60 x 48 inches (courtesy of the artist)

Kris Chatterson interviews painter Tamara Gonzales about her work.

Gonzales begins by describing how she came to work with spray paint and lace: "I began spray painting through lace which gave me the baroque excess and decorative elements I like so much but with an economy of surface. Abstraction has alway played a part in my work, though I believe we met when I was going through a particularly heavy collage faze. Early on I made big messy installations with my paintings in them. Then I put the materials I used in the installations onto the surface of the paintings. These tended to get clunky and hard to stack. Objects constantly falling off or getting crushed etc. After repairing a hole in a canvas with a doily I instantly thought of Judy Pfaff's work so I spray painted it. Then it fell off and I liked what I saw. It was a breakthrough moment for me."