EAC Intern Lexi interviews artist Paula Menchen, focusing on her exhibition, Place and Passing.
Lexi: Could you give a quick self-introduction?
Paula: Yes, so I’m Paula Menchen. I’m a mixed media artist. I started out as an oil painter and as a print maker, and they were going very well but on different paths. So, I now use them through collage to create these very tactile and sensory paintings.
Lexi: How did you find out about the Evanston Art Center and what brought you here?
Paula: My sister went to Northwestern University, so I came to Evanston when I was 16.
Lexi: Oh my gosh! An early start.
Paula: It was an early start. So for me to come back, I found it through social media. And they put out a call for artists, and so I went ahead and submitted my proposal. And when I got accepted to Evanston, I got very excited, and I shared it with my sister. [laughs] Because I went to visit her when she was at Northwestern - I was only 16 - and I hadn’t come back. And so my work deals very much with landscapes from memory and of place, so they’re very grounded in place. So for me to go back to a place that I can remember - I can never go back to being 16. But I’m back here now, and as I walk around the campus I can remember us laughing, and it was wonderful.
Lexi: Were any of the pieces inspired by this area?
Paula: I wouldn’t say that they were, although my work is very layered so it’s never about a particular place.
Lexi: Mmm, I see.
Paula: So like, it could’ve been all of the greenery - because that’s what I’m experiencing here- but that could also be the parks in London. I’m also born in England, so. So it’s all of that meshing together.
Lexi: And then, I also wanted to ask, what are some of your favorite elements that show up in your work? You were kind of touching on that.
Paula: So my work is based on landscape or seascape, but that’s just my jumping-off point to where I start to imagine or remember these things. And so when I’m doing these pieces, they’re collaged, and they’re very distinct fragments of printmaking. So they’re almost like notes to myself, and I layer them up, and then I grind them down with a power tool!
Lexi: Oh my gosh! Wow!
Paula: And when I’m doing that, what’s really nice is that you get these dulled colors, these textures that evolve and this energy, and that’s partially how it tells a story. So like for me, each piece is very unique, like we are, like you have very unique qualities, but there’s something that we share in commonality as being human.
Lexi: That’s so interesting with all the different layers and very intentional physicality in your pieces.
Paula: So that part is very fun for me too because there’s an element of surprise! You know?
Lexi: Yes, that's so fun! I also wanted to ask, where do you get your inspiration from? You talked about being born in England
Paula: So I was born in England, I lived in Spain for 20 years, and so I have family in Scotland and Gibraltar. So it’s definitely an [unintelligible], and I grew up in America, in California. So now I’m coming back to America. So it’s definitely my inspiration is from all other cultures and basically people and all the experiences, but it is definitely grounded in landscapes and seascapes, for sure.
Lexi: And then, for one final question, we were curious if you’ve experimented with different styles, and has that shown up in this exhibition in any way?
Paula: Well, I started out, as I said before, as a painter. An oil painter, traditional. I feel like the style has just evolved into itself, and it’s through the collage and the materials that really speak for my pieces. And so they-- I always try to describe my paintings as like when I would go into my grandma’s house, and I’d smell the toast, you know, and maybe it burned a little bit, and it brings me right back to her. So that’s what these pieces do, so that’s kind of what I need to portray, these styles, and almost where you want to touch the more-- but there’s an energy. Like a vibration almost.
Lexi: Yes, like very vibrant memories.
Paula: Yes, yes.