Story & photos by Madeleine Ahlborn | maddy@alamosacitizen.com
CONI Grant’s opening reception on September 10th in the Cloyde Snook Gallery at Adams State University brought the community together through “Big Marks & Small Marks: a year of painting.”
Coni earned her M.A from Adams State University in 2006 and owns and operates PleinView Painting Studio and Gallery.
Her exhibition is mostly acrylic as she made a shift away from oil with the abundance of time she had to work unbound in her studio. I was able to ask some questions about the show and what it meant to her to be back in the Cloyde Snook Gallery.
Creative Citizen: So this show has been a long time coming?
Coni: March 2020. I was originally invited in 2018, and this gallery was named for Cloyde Snook. He was very very dear to me and just a great guy and a big part of my graduate experience. When Cloyde passed in 2019 and COVID hit, everything hit pause. I had cards printed and the show was ready to hang. Then Adams State closed and everything I thought, “What am I going to do next?” I had slated a whole year of what this show would do after it was here; go to the hospital then down to Taos. The postponement was like a great gift, it was good for me because I was able to paint and paint uninterrupted. Artists don’t get that time very often, you know. I always feel pressure from galleries, but when galleries are closed I could do whatever I wanted, that was a good time.
CC: Did you feel disappointed in any way?
Coni: I didn’t regret the year, but I also didn’t think I would ever get to hang here again. So when I saw Gene – we saw each other in the market I don’t know how many months ago – and he said; “Are you ready to hang your show?” I was sort of like, “whaaaat?” (laughter). I had to regather. This is a BIG gallery, filling it was very stressful. I just had to think. “Do I have enough?” because I probably sold 10 pieces out of the original show.
Eugene Schilling and Coni Grant
CC: Did the work or your mindset change in this space of freedom working in the studio again?
Coni: That is a thoughtful question. What I did was, once COVID hit, I realized everything was going out the window and there’s no point trying to maintain any hope in what’s going to happen. So I just started painting whatever I wanted and not that it was going to be groundbreaking but I needed that kind of freedom. … I will have to say that’s how I coped. Because how do you explain these unseen barriers that artists put themselves in? “I have to paint this kind of work or I have to paint that kind of work.”
CC: What was the change like going from oil to acrylic?
Coni: Changing from oil to acrylic was a big deal for me, and for my galleries it was kind of abrupt. So after doing that and then coming up with all new imagery and trying to sell paintings that were not image-driven I pulled out every canvas I redid it, covered it up and just did what I wanted. That was good, and freeing in a lot of ways, it freed up a lot of my oil paintings so now I approach that in a whole different way now.
Creative Citizen: Do you think because of COVID or this time with galleries being closed it gave you permission in some way to shift your practice?
Coni: It was the gift we couldn’t give ourselves. If there was ever a time to stop the world and just “get off” this was your chance. Coming up with enough work, that was stressful. I just had in my mind this imaginary number and I tried to hang on and even up to the day we hung the show I was working on one of the paintings because I knew I needed it. Then hanging the show I remember thinking. “If I just had one more, just one more” but this was a whole year, “just one more. I need just one more.” You never have enough.
CC: The work fills the space so well, the organization of the space really allows the work to breathe on its own.
Coni: I can thank Isaiah and the crew for that. They were very instrumental in helping me get the big picture.
CC: I want to ask you about the purple walls, was this intentional or just happenstance?
Coni: I wish, but no. Most of the time as a rule, the colors I use; screaming orange, yellow, purple and green like just like to live together. I’ve had gallery owners paint walls and they love the opportunity of making crazy choices like this. In a space like this I would not have asked Gene to do that but he had them painted for a show last year and they were leftover. The minute I saw those walls I said “Count me in.” They suited the paintings really well; I couldn’t be happier.
CC: It feels well balanced.
Coni: Yeah, thank you, and thank the hangers for this as well. I mean it should have a sense of flow. I just love this gallery. It is a fabulous space to show work, I feel so lucky.
Coni expressed her overwhelming sense of gratitude to be back on campus and in the Cloyde Snook Gallery. This was not just another show for her, this was a homecoming.
I was also able to share a few words with Isaiah, a senior art major at ASU and one of the gallery assistants.
Creative Citizen: So you work in the gallery with Gene as his assistant?
Isaiah: I like to think of myself as “general assistant.” (chuckles)
CC: How has your semester been so far?
Isaiah: It’s been a very busy semester, very busy so far. This is only the third week. It’s kind of out of practice because COVID came in and knocked everything out, it’s really been a “hit the ground running” get art, get artists in, get painting. … It’s been busy.
CC: This is the first show in the gallery since the pandemic?
Isaiah: Yes, the first guest show. We have had in-house stuff but this is the first visiting artist.
CC: How has it been working with Coni?
Isaiah: It’s been working really well, really well. I know she was a student here before and now she is back for the full gallery. I’m working with her in small ways, mostly moving walls around to be sure the ‘busyness’ in her paintings is not compromised by a small space. I like that you can stand in the middle of the gallery and just take everything in. The work needs room to breathe.
CC: I feel like you can just sit with the work, there are subtle elements that happen but also the texture brings a new level and dimension.
Isaiah: It is like that “calm on a summer day” in here.
Coni’s work will be available to view until Sept. 30 in The Cloyde Snook Gallery at Adams State University. Make sure you carve out enough time to sit with the colors, the imagery, the texture, and the thoughts of what it must have been like to spend a year preparing for something so grand.
