SkyHawk interviews SkyHawk

Geneva, Switzerland, 04.01.2000

SH: Since coming to Europe , what has  influenced your art work and the way you approach making art?

SKY: First, pushing financial concerns aside, the closeness of being near global politics has given me more clarity in what I would like to say and speak out against. For example, the injustices found in the quarters of the world. It is so easy to do art regarding the Native people in North America because that is where my roots are, my heritage, my history. But if my next door neighbor is having his family`s door kicked down for being a foreigner then I might be next. Afterall I am an American even if I am Native. I try my best to find strong and powerful metaphors that will cross into a universal world with art materials. 

SH: What do you find most difficult living as an artist in Euro?

SKY: The stigma that artists still are the scum of the earth. That is unless as an artist the powers that be take a liking to making you part of their money making machine. Times have not changed  much.

SH: How many true artists are left?

SKY:  If I were rich I would find some young artists and give them an atelier and freedom to do whatever they wanted. American institutions have tried in vain to do this because the American government insists on interfering with the right to "expression of freedom". The greatest fear of freedom IS expression it would seem. This makes it hard to be a true artist but, not impossible. WE are out there.

SH: What do you think about the contemporary art scene in Europe or Eurasia?

SKY: This could turn into a long discussion but, I`ll try to be brief. In Russia,(pre 1990`s) for that matter in most of the former eastern block countries there has been an underground art movement. Fear of Communist reprisals for making art that might be too outspoken against the ruling goverment. As an artist I was given hundreds of opportunities to visit these artists working in the underground. Art supplies were scarce and good supplies too costly. Yet, artists spoke thru their art. Now these are the true artists you were asking about. In Europe artists tend to be Wannabee undergroundish artists but, they lack conviction or direction. This is going to leave me wide open for a ton of bricks thrown at my art work. That`s okay, I can take the criticism. I welcome it as a matter of fact. It makes me want to work that much harder. It would be all too easy to dismiss the Euro art as only "shock art" because this is only a trend that surfaces every other one thousand artists, then there are a thousand copycats. It could be the pulse but it is not the heart of Contemporary Art in Europe. The Internet and film industries will still be a major player in how artists make art. I believe we artists have great resources at our fingertips. Maybe, we have to truly   be the Don Quixotes of the world and continue to use what we have. That is our imagination and creativity. In essence I am saying that artists  all over the world have been the reflections of what is and possibly what can be. Someone get me my horse I have a windmill to conquer...