BIJIJOO
BIJIJOO
The Asheville, North Carolina-based artist shares his eclectic path as an artist, and giving himself over to the process of making paintings.
Bijijoo was born in Atlanta, Georgia (USA) in 1975 and has lived in New York City; Seattle, Washington; Eugene, Oregon; and Portland, Oregon. The artist currently resides in the Asheville, North Carolina area.
Bijijoo has been painting and drawing since childhood. He has experimented with figurative, abstract and conceptual work in a variety of media, including writing, music and video (an archive of the artist’s music from 1993-present can be found here). He diverged from practicing art to pursue technical studies in mathematics, physics, computer science and chemistry, culminating in a Ph.D. in biophysics in 2008 (select scientific publications can be found here) and a career as a research scientist and then patent agent (most recently working in Nike’s intellectual property department). In 2018, Bijijoo reignited his passion for art and has been exhibiting extensively since.
Mepaintsme: We spoke earlier about your path in life and what led you to creating art and it was very interesting. Can you give the reader a synopsis?
Bijijoo: It’s hard to summarize the 48 years that led me to where I am today! I've always been an artist but got sidetracked by getting into studying a lot of math and physics in college/grad school. I was always the "art kid," my go-to has always been drawing. I started studying oil painting when I was around 9 years old. I've been through many different "career paths." One plan, just after high school, was to tour and do art fairs. Instead, I moved to NYC to study film, but took some time off school and worked as a security guard at the Guggenheim Museum (for like 3 years). I was heavily into symbolism, philosophy, and conceptual art at that time, which led me to get really fired up about mathematics and physics, so spent years studying that, and ended up getting a Ph.D. in biophysics. Then I worked as a patent agent for like 15 years (most recently in Nike’s legal department). Throughout all that time, I’ve always been working on art and music projects on the side, as a hobby I guess. I’ve explored so many different styles and approaches to art. Most recently, I switched things up after my daughter was born, and found my current art path that feels really right to me. Essentially I've come back to realizing that, yes, I'm mostly an artist that has done all these other things.
MPM: Right, you’re such a prolific artist - I was really surprised to hear about you studying math and science when you were younger. Do you see any relationship or overlap between art making and those other interests?
Bijijoo: It has given me a lot to draw on in terms of experience, knowledge and outlook. Math and science are great counterpoints to art, in terms of thought process and approach. I think it’s mostly helped with driving my experimental approach to discovering and exploring techniques and styles in art making.
MPM: Process and experimentation are a huge component in your work, and this improvisational method has given birth to a vast array of primordial characters. At what point does the free flow of materials end and your own brand of figuration begin?
Bijijoo: Yeah, I love having aspects of art making that are somewhat out of my control or chaotic, to give me something as a starting point to work with. I think it’s a great way for self-discovery and helps me grow as an artist. That said, I always exert a certain amount of control over every part of the process, but like to introduce paint flows, print methods, etc, to introduce unexpected results to work with. So yeah, that’s the first step: an initial form guided by me, but chaotic and a bit unpredictable, too. And then finessing that form to turn it into something that looks good to me. I love the process and it’s something that grounds me and provides an outlet for me to work through things in my life.
MPM: I can see that. Your creatures feel to me like they are an embodiment of this process. How do you see them?
Bijijoo: Yeah, the last few years of work have focused on creatures or humanoid forms and building stuff around those. These have been evolving recently and getting a bit more abstract I'd think, but I view those creatures/forms as a manifestation of parts of myself or where I'm at or what I'm going thru at the time. I don’t put a ton of thought into that aspect, but just let the work take me where it goes. I give myself over to the process I've been developing, and that leads me to the imagery that captures parts of myself: a very personal self-discovery journey for me.
MPM: Although your work clearly points to elements of illusionistic space, there was a period of time in the mid 2000’s where your work could be categorized as surrealist, painted in a more traditional, realistic manner. I'm interested in what led you from that work to your current, more experimental and spontaneous, type of painting?
Bijijoo: Yes! I've explored so many different styles and types of art throughout my life, from cartooning when I was younger, to abstract, to conceptual, video, music, etc. I had taken a long break from painting before getting back into it in the mid 2000s. At that time I was into making more surrealist work, like the Presidential Ham series, Celebrity Still Life, and these other paintings with people hanging out with big bugs, ha! I got burnt out on that tho: the reliance on photos, the lack of freedom, the somehwat contrived ideas. I ended up taking another break from painting after that and focused on gut remolding an old house (which took up all my time), and then my daughter was born. Making silly drawings of monsters for my daughter and just having fun with her making art and being creative led to a shift in my approach to art making that has led to my more recent work.
MPM: You recently exhibited your work at Saatchi London. What was that experience like?
Bijijoo: It was with the Saatchi Yates gallery (not Saatchi London), run by Charles Saatchi's daughter, Pheobe and her husband Arthur. They are such wonderful people and fun to work with! Their gallery space in London is epic and it was amazing filling their gallery with my work for a solo show there last year...the largest paintings I’ve made to date. They threw a special preopening party for kids for my daughter, which was the most amazing and wonderful art opening I've ever seen and participated in — it was so much fun!
MPM: Has becoming a father influenced your artwork? Does your daughter like your artwork?
Bijijoo: Fuck yeah it has. My daughter is 7 years old now and has been the biggest art influence on me. I got back into art with my current approach by just having fun making silly drawings of monsters for her. She's super into art and making stuff too, which makes me so proud, and is something we share together. Sometimes she gives me shit that I don't draw things realistically and she’s convinced that she is a better artist than me, which I think is true. She likes some of my work but is also very critical of some of it. She gives me super valuable input and critiques of my work. She’s the most creative person I know.
MPM: You also compose music which I can only describe as the perfect soundtracks to your paintings. When did recording become an interest?
Bijijoo: I've been into making music since I was young, too: art and music go together for me, two of my main interests. The first instrument I learned to play was the saxophone and I’ve taught myself how to play most instruments well enough to make some decent sounds. I got heavily into 4 track tape recording in high school and have a huge library of old and more recent music that I recently published. These days I’ve been mostly making music on my iPad to relax but am getting into more sophisticated approaches for performing music more spontaneously, and potentially live. My secret fantasy is to be a music producer/dj and perform live...maybe i'll make that happen someday, ha!
MPM: Do you have any shows or projects coming up that you’d like to share?
Bijijoo: Yes! Right now I'm finishing a bunch of new paintings for a solo show at Richard Heller Gallery in Los Angeles that opens July 20th. I'm also starting work on some online art classes that I'm aiming to make available in September.