Alex Waters – an Interview by Dean Giagni

Curator of Happy Accidents – Artist Alex Waters, interview by Dean Giagni

Question: You’re very prolific and a big part of the local art scene with various shows and live painting events. How did you get started?

Alex Waters: I went to Sage College of Albany with a bachelor’s for four years in Studio Art with a minor in painting. I started out as a graphic designer, in the program for two years, and then I was like, this doesn’t seem like fun. After two years, I decided I didn’t want to do just bad, boring stuff. So then I started painting and doing this. I still do graphic design on the side. Like flyers and things for the smoke shop. But then I really wanted to do my own stuff. I do stuff for me. I’m really selfish in that way. So like painting, art, music, that whole thing, that’s all mine. I graduated college in 2010 and then I was doing some really terrible work. I guess everyone says that. First garbage, then OK, then much better. I’ve been painting for a long time and I love it. But the cool thing about it is, it sustains itself, but I don’t need it to. This isn’t my day job. This is something I do for me. A little meditation. If I had to depend on this for money, I think that would be the real downer. I wouldn’t enjoy it.

RRX: It looks like you’re having a successful moment. What does your art mean to you?

AW: I sell a lot of work. All originals. I don’t do prints. No offense to other artists. I think it’s a tangible thing. I think art is of the moment. I think it’s a page in your diary. Spreading that across wherever, each one has a page. I think that’s kind of cool.

People find peace and tranquility in the paintings I do, and that’s not my intention but I’m glad other people find it that way. You know what I mean? Like, I really love death metal, I find peace and tranquility through that. Most people don’t. This is going to sound kind of selfish again, but I paint for me, like whatever I do is for me. And if someone else finds it cool then great. And whenever they find in it, that’s cool too. But it’s not just a piece of art, but a thing, a tangible thing. I’m not trying to transcend you. I hate that word. I’m trying to say this is made by a human. This is art. This is something I did. It’s not AI. A person touched this.

There’s a part of me; I’m not gonna lie to you, that needs validation. For someone to say – this is good. But I don’t need the validation it to survive. I just like doing it. It’s not a necessary good. I think art is important, I think it helps people’s brains and stuff like that. But I understand it’s not going to help you like eat. It can’t help you pay your rent.

RRX: Your style is very abstract. Where did it come from?

AW: My style was mostly like New York school Abstract Expressionism. Very Willam De Kooning-esk. Very hard brush strokes. What happened was, one night, I was drinking pretty heavily, and I spilled scotch on my painting. I’m an alcoholic, I’ve been sober for two years. I liked what it and I liked what the scotch did. So, then I said, let me keep doing that. I tried rubbing alcohol. Then I put the canvas down and moved the paint, using air to push things around and mix things. Add more water back into there and then see what happens. Experimenting and finding out. Like titanium white floats to the top of every painting when you boil it with a heat gun. Because of the titanium in it. Just learning the techniques and interactions.

RRX: Pour painting has been a thing in the last 5 or 10 years. And now with Instagram and YouTube videos of the process, it’s more popular. I don’t think it has as much depth as your work, but there’s obviously a similarity in the way it’s executed. Can you talk about that and your feelings about that?

AW: I mean, people can do what they want. I try to provide an emotional thing. Like when I’m painting, I am envisioning myself swimming, surrounded by the paint. And having an overwhelming feeling. I try to illustrate that feeling via abstract painting rather than like, design. People like design, people like cool things to look at. Mine is a cool thing to look at, but I think it has depth. And only the last two years have people brought that up. It’s an Instagram thing.

RRX: A technique this random and volatile must produce its share of failures.

AW: It’s control and technique. I’m a curator of happy accidents, but like, you gotta keep the accidents. There are some accidents that happen where you discover things like this, (pointing to the cracked surface of a painting) how this, cracks like that. How white paint can go straight through other paint and boil, because it breaks it up with the application of heat. With failures, recent failures; I know how to fix them now.  But failures? I got a whole room in my apartment that’s just failures. So many paintings. I like to keep them as a scrapbook, but then it’s like there’s so many canvases in here.

RRX: Do you reuse them? Do you ever contemplate going over them?

AW: No, I like to fix things. I like to try to fix things. I think that anything can be fixed.

Alex Waters work can be found at Stacks Espresso Bar in Troy and Albany, on Facebook and Instagram where he posts about live paint appearances and at his website.