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Alison Stewart: This is All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart, live from the WNYC Studios in SoHo. Thank you for sharing part of your day with us. The other day I was walking in Chelsea to see a small gallery show which happened to be in the Landmark Arts Building on West 27th Street between 10th and 11th avenues. The truth is, if you're going to see one show at the Landmark, you might as well take in two, three, four, five, or more. There are six floors of gallery and art spaces.

We've put together an hour to learn more about some of the artists and work showing at 547 West 27th Street, starting with Carole D'Inverno, a Brooklyn-based artist whose show From My Notes is currently on view at the Atlantic Gallery on the fifth floor. The show features 42 pieces, most of which were made this year using watercolors, ink, pencils, and more. D'Inverno originally grew up in Italy and Belgium, but she immigrated to the US as a young woman.

She writes in her artist statement, "I travel quite a lot in the US and I have seen many changes since the late '70s. From the breakneck expansion of the suburbs to the emptying of main streets to the decline of the industrial cities of the north and the population explosion of the Sun Belt, America keeps morphing. In contrast with my upbringing, the country seems to be in constant motion." From My Notes is on view through September 23rd. Carole D'Inverno joins me in studio. Hi, Carole.

Carole D'Inverno: Hi, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.

Alison Stewart: Listeners, I want to let you know if you go to our social media @AllOfItWNYC, in the stories, we have some of Carole's art up there, as well as our other two artists we're going to talk to so you can look at some of their work while we have a conversation about it. The title From My Notes, what does that mean to you?

Carole D'Inverno: Well, I think usually the last few shows I've had are based on American history. I had a 2% show that just came down in Florida, and that was centered on the history of Florida, an abstraction of it, I should say. Then before that at Duluth, Minnesota. I worked on all that. I decided to instead of doing the history of New York, because I feel that's been done so many times and much better than I can handle it, I thought, "Well, what if I just simply--" I should have called it From My Mental Notes.

I didn't necessarily go back to sketchbooks or anything like that. I just felt like, "Well, after so many years of living here and studying all this, what is left? What is it that--?" I was surprised because there were all these motifs and shapes that kept coming back as main drives to make the work. I just focused on that and I made a couple of decisions as boundaries around the show as far as works on paper because I felt like that would be a real-- It creates such an intimacy with people. It's something that we all handle. It's paper.

I wanted to also not just do painting, but I wanted to use pencils and inks and watercolors. I just combined all these things together and I framed the work around that. It was interesting for me getting into the studio and just decide, "Okay, what does it want to be?" and just really try to get out of my way as much as I could, which is not always easy.

Alison Stewart: I love that phrase, "What does it want to be?" When you go in, it's not necessarily, at least for the show, not planned?

Carole D'Inverno: No, not at all. No, never. Then, of course, there's paintings that are just-- you have to throw away because they're a mess. Especially with paper, it's harder. If I wanted that surface to have the white of the paper, if I mess up, then I can't reuse it. I like to just be throwing myself off the cliff and see what happens, but it's just kind of a practice that I have developed through the decades of doing it. That's how I focus.

Alison Stewart: There are 42 pieces in this particular show. A majority were made this year. That's a lot.

Carole D'Inverno: Yes, except two little ones. All of it starting in actually, the end of April.

Alison Stewart: When you go to the studio, do you have any rituals? I've spoken to artists who-- one artist said he had to brush the floor. He had to take a big broom and brush the floor before he could start. Do you have any rituals like that?

Carole D'Inverno: Well, I think in between two shows, I do a big cleanup. I put everything away. I repaint the walls. I just clean up the mess, and then I start. When I do those small pieces, they don't necessarily come as sketches for something and vice versa. I just put a big piece of paper on the wall. When it tells me it's time, I just do a big one. Then in between, I may come into the studio and feel like I just want to work on something very small and just--

Because I think every time I draw, I slow down. When I slow down, I can focus more. Instead of responding to the surface, I just get deeper into what hopefully is going to tell me that it wants to be. I just try and calm myself down. You're right, everybody has their own-- I always have those little-- I have to have food around. [laughter] There's just no way. I'm Italian. I grew up in Italy. We have to have food no matter what. I always have crackers or peanuts or whatever. I'm always, "Hmm, I need a break." "Well, but you just put down three brushstrokes." "That's okay. I need a break." That's just the way I work.

Alison Stewart: What is different about this work over the past nine months from previous work?

Carole D'Inverno: I think what is different, I really-- Again, that idea of only using paper as a medium and also the idea of having even more of these mark makings. That's how I started when I was very little. I've always drawn, and I feel like I wanted to give it more present. I have a really wonky hand. I'm not somebody who's steady with lines or anything. It took me a long time to simply accept that that's the way my body functions and so I need to just let it happen and instead of trying to correct or guide the lines, let them just go.

I'm finding this new world of reconnecting and connecting to new shapes and all that. That's always the very exciting part for me. That's why I decide not to ever know what I'm going to do because I want it to just happen and discover what it wants to be.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Carole D'Inverno. The name of her show is From My Notes on view at the Atlantic Gallery through September 23rd. Please correct me if I'm wrong. At one point in your career, you were a chemist.

Carole D'Inverno: I never worked as a chemist. I did, yes. No, actually I did, but yes, I went to university for chemistry, which is just really an interesting thing. Then when I came to the United States, I went back for that. I think I was 10 credits shy of graduating, and I said, "I can't do this. I just want to do art," because I always had been there. It's an interesting thing. It's like, "It is." There's something about chemistry that's in some ways similar because something is there, this is it. This is how something is made. I think a painting, okay, it's finished. That's how it's made.

There is this correlation in my mind, but I also see I think there is some of-- my brain is a little bit that way with synesthesia. I can see information makes shapes in my head. I think all those studying all these chemical compounds and all these things, I could see them in 3D in my head. Even if at that time there were no computers to give you a 3D rendering or something, but I could see them in my mind. I've carried that over. I think it's just part of my language. Then there is the analysis of just really trying to follow a lead that comes with that. I think that's converged in my work.

Alison Stewart: That's where the science and the art-- You're the second woman scientist who's become an artist who I've interviewed this year.

Carole D'Inverno: Oh, wow. Oh, that's wild.

Alison Stewart: Sort of interesting.

Carole D'Inverno: Yes, there's something.

Alison Stewart: There's something there. When you came to the States, English wasn't your-- You didn't have English at all, right?

Carole D'Inverno: No, not all. No. I had some English at school. I met my husband overseas, and I came with him when I was like 23 in 1979. I didn't really quite understand the language, let alone the actual country. I think that's where I-- Well, I was born in 1956, so post-fascist Europe, post-World War II. For me, history and art were always just completely together. To me, I don't see the light in between them.

When I got here, of course, there was a shock of being in New York City, going with all that I'd heard about the land of milk and honey, and there was thousands of people homeless in the street. 1979, the city was--

Alison Stewart: Gritty.

Carole D'Inverno: Yes, and I couldn't understand. I had to just hit the books and say, "Why is this like this? Who is the majority of people in the street? What do they look like? Why are they there?" It became this kind of-- Still to this day, that's what I do. I'm constantly trying to understand my environment. I think just part of it as an immigrant you have these survival mechanisms in place, but also, I just love this country.

I really, truly love living here so when there's things like-- these times are so heartbreaking in so many ways. Going back to my show now, I felt like I wanted to do something where people could walk into the space. I purposely didn't write an artist statement because I wanted people to just take on the work as they felt instead of just one more time imposing a way of thinking. I feel like we're being so weighted down by all these opinions. This country really teaches me what I want to do next. That just seems to be what happens.

Alison Stewart: Some canvases leave a lot of white space. When you're thinking about white space, what is its usefulness to you as an artist? How does it help you with a piece?

Carole D'Inverno: I think very much creating the space. I think it's in response to the marks. Again, I try to feel it and let it guide me. I don't necessarily say, "Well, I'm going to leave this white." If I put a markdown, I can feel this sense of like, "Okay, that's enough," or "No, this wants more." Some will be completely covered, some will have a lot of white.

Basically, I can look at it as white paint in some ways. It's a way to look at it if-- It's hard to explain the process of just getting lost in the painting. I don't really quite know how to-- When it's working and you have those couple of minutes where you're completely lost, it's like the best feeling in the world. I think that's what you aim for.

Alison Stewart: Somewhere between Zen and being in the zone.

Carole D'Inverno: Yes, exactly, and not eating more crackers. [laughs]

Alison Stewart: Nothing wrong with eating crackers.

Carole D'Inverno: No, not at all.

Alison Stewart: Thinking about the show, did you know that you wanted to have so many works? How did you decide on what you wanted because you mentioned earlier that sometimes you get a piece of work and you think, "I don't think that's going to be shown."

Carole D'Inverno: Right, yes. I knew the space, so I knew how much it could carry. I didn't want it to be overwhelmed at all, so I just really scaled. I think I took one piece out that I wasn't completely convinced about anyway, and so it was an easy choice. Yes, I think the space becomes also a tool. That's also like a white space that I have to deal with. I like to hang things so that either it's really crammed and salon-style.

It depends on what mood I am or what I'm not trying to achieve. This time, I wanted something that would just be really-- you walk in the space and you can calm down. You just can take it on and there's no pressures. I think that's what's the goal. Everything, the palette, the colors all came together, and it felt like it was trying to tell me this thing about just maybe resting a bit, taking a break from everything.

Alison Stewart: Because rest can be active.

Carole D'Inverno: Yes, very much so.

Alison Stewart: Rest doesn't mean you're just checked out.

Carole D'Inverno: Right, absolutely. Alison, you're absolutely right. Yes, there's an engagement that happens when your brain is slowing down and you're just either listening to something or looking at something. I think that's the power of any type of art. You just have to let go and stop, and then your brain resets. Hopefully, people enjoy the show enough that they walk away feeling a bit better or whatever or with a question mark. All of that. All is valid to me.

Alison Stewart: You mentioned earlier having a show in Florida and then one in Duluth. Do you travel a lot?

Carole D'Inverno: Yes, I try as much as I can. I think because I go to those places if I get a show-- At the Duluth Art Institute, I got a show there, and it was based on the history there. I wanted to go and look up the light and look at the colors. Those two shows are very different. The Florida one is, of course, much more chromatic and stronger colors, whereas the ones in Duluth are just more grayer but deeper greens.

I tried to go there and also to talk to people and see what they're about, what they want. That helps me a lot putting together a show because if I'm studying a lot of stuff, it's pages and pages of things, but if I can't grab them onto somebody or space, they're just bits of information that I cannot do anything with, so I try to connect at some level.

Alison Stewart: What advice would you give to an emerging artist right now?

Carole D'Inverno: Oh, just work, work, work. That's all there is. It's great to have all these, whatever it is, accolades, throughout your life. They're great and everything, but I think being in the studio or dedicating yourself to one discipline or two or three that you can just be really dedicated to, that's everything. A lot of young people ask me that question, and I'm just-- "Well, listen, if you want to be an artist, you have one job, it's to help that. That's it. That's your job. You have to protect that. You have to help it. You've got to do whatever you can. That's it."

That's pretty much all I can-- because it's the seesaw of life. There's decades that go by, and it's hard when we're young to think about, "Well, I'm going to be 70." It's like, "When I was young, I could never think about that," but then you start thinking, "Well, maybe that's what we--" Then there is less of that anxiety, I think, around making it and all these things that are not really helpful in the studio.

Alison Stewart: It's good advice. The show is called From My Notes, now on view at Atlantic Gallery at 547 West 27th Street in the Landmark Arts Building. My guest has been Carole D'Inverno, the artist. Thank you for coming to the studio.

Carole D'Inverno: Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

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