Wavy Baby

Justice Dwight

Wavy Baby, Collage and acrylic on paper, 11 x 17 inches

Interview by C. VanWinkle
June 19, 2023

Would you please tell me about the prompt that you responded to? What was it?

It was a photo of what looked a porcelain figurine. I'm not really 100% sure if it was a found-object project or if it was casted and molded. The piece resembled a spider climbing up this hill, and there was this figurine watching from the pasture, just watching what was happening. They created so many cool shadows and that’s what stood out to me the most.

What did you think of it?

I thought it was really cool and really fun. It took me to several different places, which is always a good place to start. When I first saw it, I initially thought of Gothic Bo Peep. [Cody laughs] I thought, “What is she doing? Why is her dress black? What has she been through?” The spider with the head on it reminded me of a Frida Kahlo self-portrait that had her ex on her forehead, kind of connecting into her hair. But my initial thought was that it was really cool. There's also something very Coraline-esque about it. I just saw Coraline for the first time.

How did you decide where to go for your own piece?

It was actually really difficult. I'm a painter for the most part, so I always do paintings. But lately, I've been starting to do collage work, which I've never shared with anyone. I’ve just been doing it in secret. But wouldn’t it be cool to challenge myself and respond in a way that's unusual for me? This experience kind of brings that out of you. It makes you want to push yourself a little bit, which is really impactful. If there's ever any chance to do this, it would be now. So that's how I decided to approach the situation. Let's not go with our main medium. Let's go with the one that makes us a little bit uncomfortable.

I love that. I think this project does tend to bring that out in people, maybe it's because the stakes are so low. You’ know, it's not anything with much pressure. It's play.

It is. And it was very therapeutic because I learned something about myself while doing it. I thought, “Wow, I'm actually really good at collages!” I’d done some before, but I think it’s really cool that I was able to see this and be inspired and create something else from it with something that I normally don't do.

And this is collage, but there are also some painted elements too, right?

There are. This piece is actually in an 11x17 sketchbook, so it's fairly small. Months ago, I did a collage project with students I was teaching at the time, and there were a bunch of magazines. I cut some stuff out and saved it in a folder just hold on to it. While I was doing that, I decided to start doing these collages and taking it seriously. But I needed more subject matter. So I went to queer history. I looked up every dirty, queer magazine I could find from the early 2000s and started purchasing them on Amazon. This was a form of communication and community for some people, for people who were too afraid to go out to a club or get to know people. There were ads in these magazines for people to have partnership or companionship. I thought that was very lonely, but also kind of interesting. So I ordered a bunch of those and so that's how I found my materials. I had a bunch of old cut-up stuff from a school and I had the dirty magazines, and I said, “Let's merge these two things together.”

That's great. I think that might be lost on a lot of people. Before the internet, these “dirty” magazines were also the newspaper. That's where information was shared and where connections were made. It wasn't just for sex.

It wasn't! And I'm not Gen Z, but when I was reading them for the first time, I felt like such a Gen Z-er! It was such a different time I was visiting. I just felt so green to this. I had no idea that this was a thing for people.

It’s true! I'm excited that you wanted to do something different and that you're coming out as a collage artist.

I know, it was a secret for a while!

Congratulations.

Thank you.

How did you decide on what imagery to use? You had a variety of materials to work from.

Yeah, I think it came from looking at the initial piece I was responding to. What stood out to me was the head of the spider… or maybe it’s the butt. That’s what made me think about the Frida Kahlo piece. Then I looked at all my materials and said, “Okay, I have this person here and obviously they're nude, but wouldn't it be cool to do a head on top of a head?” It's very provocative and it'll get people thinking, so that’s where I went first, to take his actual head and put it on top of his other head.

I don't think I normally see you go this abstract.

No, I don't go this abstract, I'm much more literal. It's also rare that I'm ever this provocative.

I like where this could be headed for you. This might be a fun path.

I think so! It's a lot of fun. The silhouettes that the other piece created was kind of haunting to me, but also very beautiful. That also stood out. And that’s where the shadow came from, the shadow piece of the head that’s in the back. I also cut out some, silhouette shapes from my magazines to create this kind of wave. And I used the pear as the actual forming of the face.

Initially, the pear was going to be a ladybug, to reference the bug in the prompt, but I cut off her legs by accident. [both laugh] Her legs were very tiny and I cut them off! I was really committed to using the ladybug and it just did not work out. So then I looked for something else from nature. I still wanted to include something more natural as a nod to the stuff from nature in the prompt, and that’s when I found my lovely pear.

It's such a classical image. It makes me think of Greek mythology. You know, I'm sort of just getting started in collage myself. There's something about cutting things out of magazines and gluing them to paper that just feels so real.

It’s such a cool feeling. I was super nervous the entire time because it was so out of left field for me. But my best friend and my boyfriend were both very reaffirming, telling me that it was a good piece of art. I was insecure about it at first, but I really like how it turned out.

I was insecure at first because when I was little, I used to cut things out of TV Guide and tape them together. And so as an adult, I wonder, “Is this mature? Is this art? Is this real?” Depending on the way you do it, maybe.

Maybe! There's a really big element of composition that goes into creating a collage. As a painter, I work very large, so working this small of a scale was different. And thinking about the usage of space between subject matter and things of that nature was also all new, but very rewarding. At the end, I really like how certain things are incorporated, even the haunting element from the other piece. I used these windows from a door, and they're red so there’s something ominous about them. I included those to give a sense of voyeurism to the piece. You can see through from the other side.

That's cool. Are there other mediums that you work in, too? That you're willing to tell me?

I started doing digital work about a year ago. I actually just came out as a digital artist this month, so this is like a whole thing. [laughs] I did a piece for the VPM for Pride Month. They wanted a digital piece, which I’d only been dabbling in, but I said, “You know what? I'm going to try it.” So I did a digital piece for them. I work digitally now, I do collage, I paint, and I do sometimes draw with colored pencils and things like that, but I feel like acrylic paint is my favorite thing to do. But then, the paintings that I create can be like a collage; they include glitter, fabric… So I guess collage is kind of like the ultimate medium.

I can see that.

Thinking about my last experience with Bait/Switch, it was kind of crazy to see how everything evolved. Everything just kept evolving, and drastically! It wasn't even a gradual evolution. Everybody saw something different in everything and I really thought that was impactful.

Yep. Everyone gets to have their own interpretation.

Yes! Oh and thank you again for the deadline extension this week. I went to New York for a thing, then my birthday was this week, and I work full-time as a stylist, so you guys giving me grace was really important to me.

Oh we know hectic schedules. We know where you're coming from.

I was really getting concerned. I was half-done, and of course half of the battle is cutting out the pieces. I was at work in the breakroom cutting out pieces, thinking, “I hope nobody walks in and sees me with this freakin’ dirty magazine! They’re gonna think I'm such a weirdo! Oh my God!”

“What are you reading over there? Why are you cutting it up??”

Everybody stop! Nobody look! [both laugh]

Now that you are an experienced veteran with Bait/Switch, what's your advice to a newbie?

You’ve got to be open-minded when you go into it. You can't go into it with a rigid way of thinking. I feel like that's how I approached it the first time. I thought, “I paint, so I have to respond with a painting.” But I do a lot of other things too! So you can respond however you want in the moment. You don't have to go about it in a rigid way. I'm a Virgo moon, so I am sometimes very rigid, but it's fine to be the Gemini sun sometimes, and explore all the options.

I love that.

Call Number: C102VA | C104VA.dwiWa

Justice Dwight Is a self-taught visual artist who was born in Plainfield New Jersey but raised in Richmond Virginia. Besides being inspired by his family, he looks up to Black artists like Barkley Hendricks, Bisa Butler, and Derrick Adams. While also being in group shows, he's had the pleasure of sharing his art online which has given me the opportunity to create work for the University of Maryland and celebrities such as Issa Rae, Big Freedia, and Azealia Banks.