Artists Show Work Inspired By Film

Directed by Sara De Luca and produced by Rick Davidman, owner of DFN Gallery in NYC, Ille Arts in Amagansett will host an evening where two creative mediums collide — film and art.

“Movie Night” will have an opening reception Saturday, October 5, from 5 to 7 PM. The show coincides the following weekend with the 27th annual Hamptons International Film Festival. The exhibit, which runs through November 4, showcases several artistic works that have been directly influenced by film. Famed artists such as Andy Warhol, Julian Schnabel, and David Lynch all made it to the big screen, lending proof that the two artistic folds can converge.

The Independent caught up with three participating artists — John Wellington, Peter Drake, and Kim Power — prior to the exhibit’s opening reception.

How has film inspired you as an artist?

John Wellington: My father was an avant-garde filmmaker in the 1960s and eventually an animator and cameraman for television shows. I was raised to think of cinema as art. Because of this, references to film have consistently found their way into my art — sometimes in obvious way such as the painting “Ghosts,” and at other times more subdued, such as the use of subtitles from an Akira Kurosawa samurai film to create a new narrative.

Peter Drake: I’ve frequently worked in black and white and the lack of color gives the film an innocent immediacy that I really like, almost like a home movie. I could easily see how I could transport the kids from “Lord of the Flies” to suburban Long Island. They remind me of kids I knew growing up. There’s always a bully, or two, or three. There’s the goofy kid with a moral center and the good kid who we hope represents ourselves.

Kim Power: I would say that film inspired me to consider the nature of dramatic plot in painting. I also became very interested in Alfred Hitchcock’s own artistic process, from the training of the birds to his choice of landscape to achieve the most theatrical effect of their attack. I paid attention to this and even bought my own (artificial) feathered ravens to pose as models for my painting. My interest in using multiple sources to get as close as possible to inventing a scenario in painting was definitely inspired by Hitchcock’s drive to get it just right.

Is there a recent film or upcoming showing that has caught your creative attention?

JW: I am looking forward to seeing Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

PD: There was a recent summer show of drawings at The FLAG Art Foundation (in NYC). It was an overview of drawing and not intended to be comprehensive, but it was inspiring just the same. There were so many options and no agenda. Stephanie Roach and Glenn Fuhrman did a great job of staying open to possibilities. I liked it, and was inspired by it because it seemed to reflect the reality of the art world without being rudderless.

KP: Actually, I have been looking more at films of the past and have been really enamored by Andrei Tarkovsky’s directing. I just watched “Solaris” (1971) for the first time. I enjoy his non-linear structure. Things seem disjointed and dream-like. That appeals to me very much.

If you could draw or depict yourself in a movie scene, what scene would it be?

JW: One of the great early desert vista scenes of David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia” would be a great movie frame to be in — of course, with a lot of water nearby.

PD: From “Lord of the Flies.” It would be the scene where they are sharing the conch at the beginning of the film. There is a sense that the kids can reproduce the order of their lives that they have at home. There is a shared democracy that holds up briefly until all hell breaks loose. I like the fact that at that moment, it could go either way.

KP: Oh, that’s easy. I would portray myself as Anna in “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” at the moment when she is gazing out at the sea from The Cobb stone jetty in Lyme Regis harbor on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. That moment of solitude in nature surrounded by its immense ephemeral beauty, that’s for me.

Other participating artists include Ben Aronson, Lauren Bergman, Tom Birkner, Teresa Brutcher, Orly Cogan, Polly Cook, Belinda Eaton, Rick Finkelstein, Ingrid Cappozzoli Flinn, Marianna Foster, Barbara Fox, Daisy Fresh, Grant Gilsdorf, Kristy Gordon, Susan Grossman, Bert Heersema, Candace Hicks, Bunny Hinzman, Felice House, Shiva Jlayer, JuliAnne Jonker, Claudia Kaak, Will Kurtz, Lisa Lebofsky, Jessica Libor, Hodaya Louis, Edwina Lucas, John Nickle, Karen Offutt, Stefania Panepinto, Daniel Pelavin, Betsy Podlach, Nadine Robbins, Kathy Rudin, Buket Savci, Viktoria Savenkova, Sharon Sayegh, O’Neil Scott, Victoria Selbach, Nancy Stahl, Shawn Sullivan, Sybiline, Tula Telfair, Daena Title, Daniel Volenec, Melanie Vote, Thomas Wharton, Ellie Williams, Dan Witz, and Charles Yoder.

Ille Arts is located at 171 Main Street in Amagansett. Visit www.illearts.com for more information.

nicole@indyeastend.com