Artist Interview

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Collected miniatures, Cherie Grist, 2019

Cherie Grist spent ten days with us in early September 2019. She is a contemporary abstract expressionist painter who uses colour and geometry to create safe spaces where both she the artist, and the viewer, can rest in a painting, and leave feeling restored. She is also a photographer. Cherie lives and works in Liverpool, UK.

Odette Brady: What have you been working on this week?

Cherie Grist: I have been working on my personal statement, and an action plan for when I get home, stating what my work is about and where I’m going with it. I’ve also been doing some mini-artworks, exploring some ideas I’ve come across while reading here.

OB: What books have you been reading?

CG:  The Language of Pattern by Keith Albarn, Drawing Geometry by Jon Allen, Josef Albers book Interaction of colour, The Secret Lives of Colour by Kassia St Clair and Ways of Being: Advice for Artists by Artists. I found the last two in the Cel del Nord library. Also, for a break, I’ve been reading Feel Free by Zadie Smith.

OB: Do you start reading from the beginning of each book or do you pick out the relevant bits?

CG: I started the Drawing Geometry book at the beginning, and the same for The Language of Pattern because both were heavy reading. I chose them because I want to explore the reasons why shapes and patterns feature heavily in my work. The Joseph Albers Interaction of Colour book I dipped in and out of and The Secret Lives of colour book I just picked the through the colours that were appropriate to me and my work. It’s been interesting discovering why I automatically choose the colours that I do. 

OB: Do you remember a conversation we had about an interview in which the interviewer asked an artist why he had become an artist? The artist responded with something like “do you think I chose this?”, he was quite enraged. Do you remember who that artist was?

CG: I can’t remember now.

OB: Obviously, you didn’t choose to become an artist, you were just drawn in, but if you weren’t an artist, if you weren’t doing this, what would you be doing?

CG: Probably dressmaking, but going mad at the same time. It’d be a little bit creative which would be nice, but you just can’t say anything with it, so I’d be slowly going mad too.

OB: What is about being a painter and photographer that stops you going mad?

CG: I think it’s that it’s one-hundred percent what I want to do. I’d find it hard to do something that I don’t want to do. Not hard, actually, impossible. Maybe that’s just being an artist. And maybe it’s also being a Grist.

OB: When you’re in your own studio, or here in this studio, what do you need to make a good day’s work?

CG: A ruler, a pencil, and something to work on, and some colours. As long as I’ve got a ruler and a pencil I’m alright. I can work without music but I prefer to have music, and it helps to have a little snack to look forward to. I also need a hot drink of some kind, but that’s it.

OB: Do you do a 9-5 day? Or do you come and go?

CG: I normally start at 8, and then finish at 6. That’s if I don’t get side-tracked. Often someone will get in touch to say “Dyawanna come for a cup of coffee?’ and then that turns into lunch and then a glass of wine. But when I get back to Liverpool I’m going to be stricter, I think. I’m going to have set hours, just to keep a good level of concentration going.

OB: What other things are you planning to change?

CG: I think I’m going to take things more seriously now that I’ve got a good plan. I am going to work harder and be more disciplined instead of just thinking about the things I need to do, I’m actually going to do them. Having my statement now makes everything so much easier.

OB: You had an epiphany with your statement during your residency, didn’t you?

CG: Yeah, I figured out what I was doing

OB: Did you surprise yourself?

CG: Yes, because I thought it was going to be something a lot more complicated than it is. In the end it obvious, I just hadn’t cleared it up in my head.

OB: Does it feel like a relief?

CG: Yes, because I can continue doing what I do, but with a sense of acceptance. Because it’s for something, for a reason. In the past I’ve felt like maybe I’m ignoring something, but I’m not I’m just doing it. I’m doing the correct thing.

OB: It kind of comes back to that thing about choice. You didn’t choose to be an artist, you certainly didn’t choose what your art was going to be like. Would you say it was like a discovery?

Cill the studio dog wearing a collar hand stitched and beaded by Cherie.

CG: Yeah, definitely. Because I could just make art about anything I wanted. But that’s not why I make art, I make art just to literally let it flow, and now I know what I’m flowing about now… The floooooow.

OB: Yeaaaaah, have you thought about becoming a rapper? What kind of raps would you write?

CG: *rapping* Do whatcha-fuckin-wanna-do all the time, do whatcha-fuckin-wanna-do all the time.

OB: (*beatboxes badly* then says) I think we could be a good rap duo.

CG: Yeah, I think so. Cilla (Cel del Nord studio dog) can come in on the chorus, with a little bit of heavy breathing.

OB: And her tail is like “boof, boof, boof.” Like the beat.

(both laugh)

OB: Okay, serious again now.

CG: Okay.

OB: If you were to start again here, if you were to come back, would you approach it in the same way or would you do something different?

CG: Well, when I come back….

OB: Yay!!!! whoop whoop!

CG: … I think it will be easier because I won’t be discovering what my practice is about. I already know, it’s locked down, so I’ll be able to concentrate on an exhibition. I’ll be doing more research, looking at other things and becoming inspired by other things. And then maybe I can do some bigger works, because I’ll be more prepared. I’ll do some more photography work – it’ll be more of an exploration than a “pinning down”.

OB: Have you been away to work before? Did it go as you expected?

CG: No, I haven’t. It was better than I expected, I think. Even though I’ve worked all the way through my ten days I feel rested and inspired. I’ve done loads, so I feel good about that. I’ve got a good plan, and I want to go home and work now. In the middle I didn’t (want to go home). I was thinking I wanted to live on the hill [behind the house] and that I wasn’t ready to go back home, because I’d found some peace. But I feel like I’m taking some peace home with me. And I know that I need to give myself some peace if I want to get the best out of myself and my work. I was trying to do everything and wondering why I couldn’t get where I needed to be.

I’m actually tired! It’s the hardest I’ve worked all year (laughs). But it’s been so nice being able to spend all that time in my own head, not having to worry about anything else.

OB: The people that we love are a tax sometimes.

CG: Yeah. It’s made me think that when I’m at home and I’m at work, I have to not answer my phone or let anyone in. I’m blaming other people for ringing me, or whatever, but I need to take responsibility for that. I need to be able to say “I’m at work, if you want to speak to me you can speak to me at this time” and turn my phone off, to give myself a chance.

OB: People in other jobs get that automatically.

CG: People have respect for other peoples’ jobs, it’s just that art isn’t a real job is it? To some people. I mean, how many times have been asked if I’m having a nice holiday? It’s only Martin (Cherie’s husband, Chef Martin Renshaw) taking it seriously! 

OB: And you!

CG: And me.