In this column, Ariel Marken Jack connects with a local artist and sits down for an in-depth conversation about their art practice. This month, Ariel sat down with Anne-Marie Cosgrove.
AMJ: You’ve lived and worked as an artist in several provinces and countries. I’m curious to know if moving to Lunenburg has impacted your artistic practice; what, if anything, have you noticed about how your approach to your work has changed since coming here?
AMC: My artistic practice has evolved from the autobiographical and psychological perspective of being born in Montréal and living and working in Montréal and Toronto, Canada’s largest cities. I had heard of a strong art community in Lunenburg and hoped to connect and build on those resources. Fortunately, I had the choice of where I could move and chose Lunenburg for the cultural community. My work is changing in the new environment, and my perspective on my work is also changing.
My work draws from everything I think about and experience. It’s nothing new that I’ve been questioning my work as an artist and painter. I remind myself that the present modifies the past and vice versa. I question identity, place and belonging through my work. I’m constantly looking at the new environments around me. Being an artist is an almost unavoidable practice of evolution.
AMJ: Some of your current work is done on an iPad rather than an easel. How does the experience of working on a digital image directly, with your fingertips, contrast with working on physical images across the paintbrush-length distance between the canvas and your hand?
AMC: Along with painting and drawing on paper, in 2020, I began drawing on an iPad. With an iPad, I can quickly work towards a completed image and progress through visual ideas in a series of drawings without needing the space of a traditional studio. I can take the iPad anywhere I choose to work. I have a new drawing series loosely inspired by the dories I’ve seen in the harbour. In these drawings, I use my fingers on the glass surface to draw and have limited my application brushes. This allows me to focus more on the drawing while minimizing distractions. Although I’m not working with paint, I draw as if I were painting.
AMJ: You describe your style of image-making as “figurative abstraction.” I’m curious about this term—to me, as a writer who admittedly has only a passing familiarity with the lingo of visual arts, it seems a bit charmingly impertinent—and I’d love to know more about what it means to you.
AMC: “Figurative abstraction” is a mash-up of visual art descriptions that I use partly because the terms are readily available and seemingly contradictory. However, I often use titles and visual references to provide a broader conceptual axis upon which the viewer can approach the work. My work is never purely abstract, and neither is it primarily figurative. I try not to describe my work concretely, preferring the most elusive, poetic approach possible.
AMJ: We spoke about your interest in the line as evidence of where your hand has been. Can you expand on that idea here?
AMC: Drawing has always been integral to my work, which begins with drawn and painted lines. Line has been a way to incorporate gestural movement and, at the same time, to define visual space. A while back, my younger self noticed my reflection in a car window, specifically the age lines forming on the sides of my mouth, which caught my attention. Surprised at my dismay, I thought a lot about it, and a series of large paintings ensued, titled “Character Lines”. I’ve often reworked those ideas of aging and the negative associations with aging that are found in our North American culture, particularly for women. I began a series of drawings in 2023 with the working title, All Smiles. I use a limited palette of brushes and create figures built up of continuous lines that arc upwards on the page. The drawings may have other associations, but this is where I start.
AMJ: Something I find particularly striking in your art is the use of recurrent forms that slowly change shape over repeated iterations. What can you say about form and transformation in your recent work?
AMC: Being a process-based artist allows me to embrace and be challenged by the unexpected while working. I can set out to make a line, and the resulting image will surprise me with unintended results. When that happens, I usually continue the exploration and try again. With an accumulation of attempts, I will work until the final image appears to have happened all at once, with an undeniable immediacy.
AMJ: Finally, where can Barnacle readers look to find your work? AMC: News and work in progress can be found @annemariecosgrove on Instagram and related social platforms. For further info, please see my website: https://www.anne-mariecosgrove.com.
