C.J. Wild is a Los Angeles based artist working primarily in acrylic on canvas. His work is a collection of imaginative characters, some are based on real people while others exist solely on his canvas.
His pieces have a colorful cartoonish quality with a unique, unrefined style, somewhere between pop and lowbrow, decidedly outside. A touch of humor is often found in his works while others exercise the viewers imagination. Through their fictional nature, the artist enjoys the freedom of bending the rules, and allowing the same freedom to the viewer; to see and feel what they wish and interject their own interpretation.
"I was trained as a graphic designer, with a high use of tools for tightness and precision. You would probably not guess that, but I tend to like a graphic quality in my work. I try to keep my surfaces flat, somewhat like a simple silkscreen, which looks simple, but can be surprisingly challenging at times. I experiment with a lot of glazing and I can get a nice plastic, toy-like feeling which I'm after. I've been in the art world and there is an intimidation factor and seriousness which I have always struggled with. Knowing and working with so many artists personally, I have often found the people behind the work so much more approachable than some of the work itself. I've found the most dismissive and most playful work collected by the more serious collectors. Newer collectors tend to stay with safe bets, that look serious. I want my pieces to be approachable, and accessible, even if they're not for everybody. I'm not aiming for any museum interest.
There is a playful element to my work, and even some of what I consider darker pieces wouldn't look out of place in a child's room. Again I try to capture a toy-like quality, with an almost manufactured plastic feel, like something you would want to pick up and play with.
I can be serious about my work, and often spend ten or fourteen hours straight painting, but "serious" is never the first adjective that come's to mind.
There is definitively a mental or physchological quality to it. I love Monet for example.. Technically what he was doing was fascinating, but the cerebral element of painting a haystack or a wheat field, moreover contemplating a field or a haystack, as a viewer, seems a bit boring. Maybe it's serene, and that has it's place. I have an interest in psychology, and people. I think that shows up in my work. L.A. is a weird place, and it's not hard to find wierd people here...that may show up a bit too.
Drawing as a child, people would always ask "Who is that supposed to be?" and it always drove me a little nuts, wondering why it had to be "somebody". That's the creative part of creating. The characters kind of just come out. Art, to so many people, is judged by how much it resembles the original subject...that way they can tell if it is "good" or not. So I should say I don't use subjects and don't do portraits. With little exception I work with no reference...I only look at the canvas and paint. Miro would be the first to come to mind who worked just from dreams. My process is a little different, but definitley imagination based. I never have any idea what I'm going to paint before I start. That's kind of poor planning, but it just comes out somehow.
I'm not trying to capture an image "
Instead of capturing an image, I'm trying to set it free
Commissions and Licensing opportunities available through
The Wolf Fine Art Gallery
C.J. WILD paintings
"Instead of capturing an image,
I am trying to set it free"
