The Trading Tortoise invited people to bring along a meaningful object and exchange it for something else special that Salazar & Choy have found or traded for along the way. Monica and Souther made their last stop in San Diego and shared their vision, tales of adventure and spoke about the exhibition Souther was planning at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery, titled Souvenirs.
I caught up with Souther to share a few thoughts about his latest collection of work and the adventures of The Trading Tortoise.
mM : The Trading Tortoise has ended and you are now living/working in Portland. What were some of the highlights that will be captured in your new body of work for the Jonathan LeVine exhibition this past May?
Souther : I thought a lot about the people we met, their stories and all of the crazy stuff we saw along the way. How people relate to objects as souvenirs, as a tangible way to stay connected to a favorite memory or place. We crossed the US 4 times and travelled over 20K miles, so there was an exciting mix of memories and revelations swirling around in my head. I tried to let it just spill out as I work.
Some of the pieces I made were based on very specific memories, of stories we were told, or people or places visited. Others were trying to chase down bigger themes, and exploring them through the process of painting. I also made some sculptural and drawn pieces that were sort of like trying to organize memories from the adventure into imaginary souvenir collections.
mM : Your sculptural pieces provide an intimate insight to your painted environments. Do you find influence from your sculptures and then incorporate some of the characters and environments back into your paintings?
Souther : I definitely learn and get ideas about painting from sculpture and about sculpture from painting. If I’m lucky, I might get a vision for something fully-formed, but usually it’s just a fragmented thought. The characters or environments begin as something very unclear in my mind…just stand-ins for memories or drifting thoughts. I try to arrange it all in a way that makes sense, or that start to tell stories that I feel a connection with. But after they’re created, they kind of keep living in my mind… it doesn’t really matter if it was in a sculpture or a painting, it’s all the same world. The next time I go to make something, everybody’s still there, all these little creatures and places to return to… I think I avoid knowing them too specifically, because part of the fun for me is to see where they go on their own and to get to watch the world slowly expand over time.
mM : How was your experience meeting Mr. Emberley and how has he influenced your approach to your creative works?
Souther : It was amazing. He and Barbara welcomed us into their home and gave us lessons on eating lobster like new-englanders, and he encouraged us to dig through his sketchbooks and flat files and look at anything and everything. I wrote about it all in the first issue of our Trading Tortoise zine, which will be available publicly soon, now that all the subscriber copies have gone out. His approach to drawing has been such a deep influence on me, and from such an early age that it’s hard to separate it from whatever I may have come up with on my own over the years.
Thank you Souther for taking time out. Souther Salazar was born in 1978 in Hayward, California and now based in Portland, Oregon. During early childhood, Souther occupied small living quarters in an antique store that doubled as his childhood home. Great background information, as Souther Salazar’s painted worlds explore the tinniest of spaces and his sculptures are made up of reclaimed artifacts. (Souvenirs, TT Last Stop, The Trading Tortoise Intro, Jonathan LeVine Gallery).
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