Artist sheds light on her mind's dark
corners
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If you go:
EVENT: Extroverted Scar Tissue: Visual Art
by Joanna
Tagert.
WHEN: through Nov. 12.
WHERE: Prima Tazza, 8835 Line Ave.
ADMISSION: free.
By Jennifer Flowers
jenniferflowers@gannett.com
In high school, Joanna Tagert didn't wear
a lick of color.
And the 23-year-old artist, who laughs
about her days hanging with angst-filled teens, is having a
hard time convincing her high school pals she's grown out of
her nickname, "The Goth."
She hasn't heard a bat joke since high
school, but dark elements remain an intrinsic part of her
artwork. Tagert, who used art to conquer a bout with depression
as a kid, believes putting emotions onto canvas or a sculpture
is much healthier than letting them fester inside. Her latest
work weaves religious symbolism to augment her visual language,
which addresses highly personal themes.
Tagert moved to Shreveport from Covington
to attend Centenary College, where she got her art degree last
spring, and plans to go back to graduate school for her
post-baccalaureate.
Tagert's mixed-media work is on display at
Prima Tazza through Nov. 12. Her Patron Saints triptych, which
mixes Christian Byzantine-era iconography with a torn condom
wrapper and bloody gauze, was censored with a black cloth
covering for sensitive viewers.
QUESTION: What media do you work in?
ANSWER: I started out just doing painting,
but the more I do sculpture the more I'm just naturally
inclined to it. I have an idea, I have an image in my head, and
then I decide the medium upon what would make that image. So
that's why everything I make, just about, is mixed media. I
just incorporate whatever I can get my hands on to make it.
QUESTION: Did you always know you wanted
to be an artist?
ANSWER: I would like to say yes, but no. I
actually started concentrating on art at about the same time my
depression started to manifest. I was diagnosed with clinical
depression and I was about 14, and art became very big in my
life at the height of my illness when I was hospitalized and
went through therapy and stuff. They used it as a stress-coping
tool. "» The images that I try to create are trying
to make concrete what these emotions are, so I'm really just
trying to externalize everything I experience. And so it
started out as a coping technique, but I have to do it now.
That's my way of living, is to create these things.
QUESTION: Did it help you?
ANSWER: Very much. It was definitely the
best way for me to deal with everything. I'm healthy now, but I
think that's one of the reasons why, 'cause I have this healthy
outlet. People always say my stuff is really dark and scary and
depressing, and they think that I'm either doing it
intentionally for shock value or I'm a really dark, depressed
person. But I find when I talk to fellow artists or other
creative people, they understand that if you get those demons
out in a piece of art, it's no longer sitting in there running
around on its own.
QUESTION: Why do you use religious themes
in your work?
ANSWER: I've always leaned toward that
kind of language and that kind of iconography because I feel
like it expresses the intensity of emotion that I'm trying to
convey. When people think of spiritual things or try to
contemplate spiritual things, it's this whole other level of
understanding of something. It's more intuitive. And I try to
reach people more on that level.
QUESTION: Are you concerned about
reactions from Christians who see religious symbols in a
different context?
ANSWER: First of all, once I make it, I
can't control how people are going to see it. It's out of my
hands, and everyone is going to have a different perspective.
They're going to apply their own experiences and their own
expectations to the work. "» The second thing is, I
think that's one of the purposes for making it, is to have
people project their own experiences onto them because that
opens up doors within them.
QUESTION: What did you think about being
censored?
ANSWER: This is the first time I've had
someone say, 'take it down or cover it up or we can't show
that.' I typically try to make sure that my work's not going to
ruffle any feathers, mostly out of respect for the people that
are hosting it. I don't want to cause trouble for the people
that are giving me an opportunity to show my work.
QUESTION: How would you define success as
an artist?
ANSWER: For me I would consider myself a
successful artist when I am able to produce work that is both
true to myself and that communicates deeply to other people. I
think that would be when I consider myself successful at what I
do. To me, that's not really a stopping point so much as OK,
I'm getting in the groove, now I'll take this and run.
©The Shreveport Times
October 15, 2004