Interview with Jigme Farber: The Spotlight Series Ep. 3
The Spotlight Series is a documentary series by The Yakpo Collective that highlights prominent Tibetan contemporary artists and their artworks. The series exist to provide resources for generations to come, in order to foster a learning environment based on art and creativity.
Kunkyi Tsotsong: Can you tell me a little about what you do and your background?
Jigme Farber: Yeah I’ll start with background. Obviously I’m Tibetan. My mom’s Tibetan, my dad’s white–he grew up in LA. My mom is first generation Tibetan in exile– grew up in Himachal Pradesh, Northern India. Her parents came from Dege, in Kham. They (mom’s parents) were part of Kundun’s entourage in ’59. My parents met through mutual friends in LA. My mom eventually moved to LA in her early 20s. She knew some Tibetans here that also knew my dad, because he was super involved in Tibetan Buddhism by then. So he had been attending LA Tibetan community events and stuff so, a family friend of ours sort of hooked them up. They got married eventually, had my sister, had me.
I grew up in Santa Monica– it’s like a nice beach city- it’s in LA county, it’s where Santa Monica piers is. I was always into art. There was always art around me, it was a huge influence my whole life. There’s a lot of artists in my family. Pretty much everyone on my dad’s side was. My dad’s a photographer. He used to regularly photograph Kundun at different events, he would go to all the Kalachakras. He wasn't exactly his tour photographer but, he was always welcomed by Kundun. And we got a couple chances to meet him which was amazing.
Junior year of high school, I started to really take art seriously when I took this class at the Brentwood Art Center– it’s this tiny little art school in Brentwood which is like a super affluent neighborhood. It’s actually where OJ Simpson lived. I got a scholarship to take classes there for free, so I started doing that– I took advantage of that. I had been taking classes there already since I was ten, but I think–junior year was when I took this one class, Mixed Media Painting Class, with a guy named Jerrold Burchman. And basically the idea for the class was– it was a painting class, but he really pushed us to–you know– push boundaries with what materials we used and to just, broaden our idea what art should be. So I kind of just started doing my own thing one day. Then I started doing analog collages on top of paint, paint on top of the collage, and I started to make work that I genuinely liked, and that I thought was pretty good.
At the time, a friend of mine was murdered, and I started making really crazy art. Just very existential in my mind. I don’t know, if I look back on the art it’s not that great, it’s just very emotional and colorful, and rugged. But I think that’s when I had this spark. And then I started taking it seriously, I was like okay– I could do this for a career. I’ve actually found something I love doing, and I don’t feel the need to follow some specific guideline–which is something that was always important for me because I just didn’t like working under a strict structure. And since then I’ve just been painting, painting and painting, and taking art classes. There weren’t that many available at my school because I went to a public school. I took photo one and photo two, and AP Art. Yeah I started applying for colleges, super stressed about that. I didn’t get the best grades in high school. They were actually horrible. I barely graduated with a 3.0. I was super eager to apply to all the best UCs, the best art schools in New York and LA, but I gave up on the idea of going to an art school just because I couldn’t afford it, and my grades weren’t good for that. And then I just started to get more comfortable with the idea of going to a state school and putting aside my pride, which was unwarranted with my grades.
Got into San Francisco State and San Jose State. I decided on San Jose State because it has better facilities and art programs. Obviously I would have loved to live in San Francisco, but it didn’t happen. However I’m pretty happy with where I am now–I’ve been taking amazing classes with really great instructors. I had this one teacher named Terry Powers. I’ve had him for two semesters; I took two of his classes. He was teaching at Stanford just before this. He’s a Bay area local, he makes really amazing still-life paintings. Even though his thing is still-life, he really made us push boundaries just like those teachers back in high school did for me. So that was just a great thing to have. I got to make some great work with content that I was really passionate about.
Basically right now, I have two approaches that I go with when I start a piece of work, that I’m comfortable with and that I feel like—when I use that approach, I can make work that’s successful. When I make work that’s highly concentrated with a lot of content, a lot of social content-stuff like that. Stuff that sort of speaks on many things, something that’s a broad topic, I try to go for a minimal approach just because I don’t feel it’s possible to combine a giant topic with an erratic painting with stuff all over the place. I definitely think it’s possible but it’s just not my thing. I try to use a lot of minimalism, and I try to focus on content about overlooked things, like things that we don’t really focus on. Monumenting the mundane.
JF: Basically I try to focus on a lot of things that are just overlooked and things that we don’t really value a lot, but they still hold a lot of value, and they represent a lot you know, in the same way that– you think of something that a lot of still-life painters like to paint. Because it’s an important thing. Like what did rembrandt paint a lot?
KT: Hands.
JF: You know the way that O’keefe did the clock, she focused on the clock. I like to sort of find things like that. I can find a very physical thing to focus on, and try to branch out from there. And I do that a lot just by being really resourceful, because I think that’s the way to do it. I don’t want to focus on just one medium because one medium can be incredibly restricting. Also that one medium was created by one movement of art. I’d rather get my sources from the real work. Not just from this focused point.
For example I have this painting here. You might have seen it on my Instagram. It’s the homeless man at the Arco station. There’s this gas station up the street from here that I go to, it’s the cheapest gas station around here. There’s always tons of homeless people there. There’s this one guy, he’s this older vietnamese guy who’s got full dreadlocks– you can tell he’s been through shit. And he’s always sitting in the same spot in front of this Arco station. One day I was there, and this Vietnamese lady came out with a fully cooked bowl of ramen for him. She gave it to him. I was in my friend’s car just really drunk at the time. And I was hearing these words, you know how gas stations they have those voice messages out of the pumps? With the screen-the advertisements and stuff. The advertisement was saying, with PPBM, or something–whatever their gas is called, you have the power to fuel success
And it kept on repeating that “You have the power of fuel success”. And I was just tripping out like woah. This is so ironic. There’s a homeless guy sitting out here that’s been living at this gas station. Does he feel success? For this painting, I only painted the roof of the gas station to make sure people knew it was an Arco station. So I basically got the top of the gas station, and right in the middle, near the bottom is the homeless guy. And it’s just a black silhouette of him sitting down at the curb. There’s different shades of greens surrounding him– they’re all vines and leaves because that was the view I had of him. He was partially covered by a huge tree, I didn’t really wanna paint the whole tree. I just liked that idea of- he’s in his own element, I wanted to bring some sort of natural element to it. As fucked up as that situation is, we’ve sort of gotten so used to that sort of disparity in America, it’s just in our faces all the time. The homeless, the wealth gap. To me, I wanted to make it seem like this is second nature to us now. So that’s why I wanted to bring in that natural element. I just wanted to show people a different way of monumenting something in a painting. Your subject can be anything, really. It doesn’t just have to be some important figure, or some sort of statue, or a portrait. Just look around, and you’ll find content worth talking about.
KT: well said.
JF: (laughs)
KT: What does your creative work mean to you?
JF: Well first off, I think it’s the only thing I’m truly passionate about. If I’m working on anything else, I can be like “Ah if I fuck this up, its all good”. But if I fucked up a painting, I will stay in the studio for five extra hours. And I'll get really angry with myself. I think it also brought me a new perspective in general, it allowed me to step into other shoes, and that’s mostly from the content. Once I made the content-my focus- instead of the actual instructional stuff, I think–you know I’m not against instructional painting drawing or anything like that. It’s just easier for me to focus on content first and it makes my work more powerful because it gives me more flexibility. I like to give a voice to things in general and that’s a really powerful thing to me. I think, as Tibetans, we know what that feels like–to just not really be heard ever, because of censorship.
KT: That actually leads to my next question. Does your Tibetan identity influence your work in any way?
JF: Yeah definitely. I mean there’s a very spiritual element. I wouldn’t come out and say “oh I’m a Buddhist”, yes of course we were all raised as Buddhists but it’s not like I’m sitting there doing puja (prayer) all day, or I don’t carry a mala (rosary beads) on me all the time. Although I do have one on right now.
I just can’t deny how big of an influence it's had on my life. In a way that I view people in general. I think I'm pretty compassionate. I try to listen to people as much as I can. You know the Free Tibet movement obviously has had a huge influence because that’s just- its shown me what to stand for in life. And try to open my eyes to things that I don't know, because obviously, the majority of the world doesn’t know what’s going on in Tibet. If you try and step in their shoes, it’s like, “okay well now I can bring other shit that people don’t know about, or at least, stuff that they don’t acknowledge or don't hold any value. For example, stay at home moms. The economy values them at zero dollars. That’s not right. They’re doing really just as much as the other parent that brings in money. Stuff like that. It helped me look at things critically that are overlooked.
KT: Do you have any works that you want to talk about specifically?
JF: So I did this one piece last year, freshman year of college, and I called it “In June, will they remember what you gave them in december?” It was full mixed media and it was really just collage and paint. I found this little caption from an old 80s magazine. And it said “In June, will they remember what you gave them in december?” and it was some corny pill ad. I don’t even know what it was for, it was just some ad but that really stuck with me. To me, that’s about gratitude. About how people don’t appreciate what they have, especially in a place like we do–in a place we live in. Especially right now, people don’t really acknowledge what we have. And “In June, will they remember what you gave them in december?”, December is when Christmas is, in June–that’s way later in the year, so basically saying all this bullshit we do to try and keep each other happy- it doesn’t really work (with materialism). So I just wanted to create something sort of dramatic and visual, but also with no specific focus besides the words and the visuals of the painting. The rest of the painting is scraps of paper I found in old package tape that I put on there.
That was something I was really proud of, that painting alone. I have so many ideas, it’s just really hard executing them well, and that was one that I felt like I did well visually.
KT: Mhmm. I really love this by the way.
JF: Yeah, thank you.
KT: How do you overcome artist’s block and do you have any tips for others?
JF: Well, depends what state you’re in but I just–you know, get comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s the key to being an artist really–to keep your longevity, to keep going as an artist. You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. And that’s really anything in life, but it’s really important for artists because we have such a small stage. Especially fine artists and stuff who aren’t doing commercial work–who are just working creatively, with 100% creativity, there’s no limits. And that’s what you have to remember too–you’re not in an industry. I mean, yes you are if you get into Art Basel and stuff but that’s one in a million. You’re not in an industry that’s going to control work you’re making you know. Find your confidence and then broaden what you know. Unlearn what you think you know.
KT: Exactly.
JF: Artist block… Keep working, no matter what it is. Everyday, don’t stop working because then that’s just going to make you depressed. In general when people stop working, for a lot of people, work is what they live for. And, you have to treat art in the same way. If you want this as your career, treat it as work, and take it as seriously as possible. Make deadlines for yourself, make plans, don’t just say “Oh I’m going to paint today and then maybe if I feel like it I’ll paint next week”. Paint everyday. It doesn’t matter if what you’re painting is bad. You’re keeping that vibration alive.
KT: What do you want people to take away from your art?
JF: Hmm. First, a new perspective. And if not a new perspective, then.. I don’t know, a new perspective definitely. Just a new way of looking at things. Not everything in the world is what it is. There’s multiple ways of looking at things. I don’t know. I don’t really know. What do you take away from art? That would help me.
KT: What do I take away from your art?
JF: yeah.
KT: I feel like because the things we focus on, and the art that we make are so different, when I look at your art, it makes me see things from your perspective, and how your brain works. Even if we’re painting the same topic, you’re seeing it in a much different way than I am, and in a way I’m learning more about you indirectly. Especially the school I go to, everyone tends to make the same thing, say we’re all in the same class, and we’re all being taught by the same professor. Then I’m seeing the same thing but in different forms. When I’m seeing works from other artists from different places, even if we have similar upbringings, there’s a difference in the final result.
JF: Yeah yeah no definitely. It’s like I don’t have a problem with art, but I have a problem with how people perceive art in general. And what they think is art. When someone goes to a museum, and they just go “oh circle on the wall, I could have done that”, it’s stupid like okay then why didn’t you? And it’s not just that, it’s not just the ability to paint a circle. Art is not just something you look at at first glance. That’s what good art is–it makes you think. I want to make art that makes people think. I don’t want it to be art where you just look at it and you’re like “oh wow” you know, “oh my god he did that so well, oh my god”, “look at that curve”, like no I don’t give a fuck about that shit. That to me is just skill; that’s just ability, that’s stuff you’re taught. I want people to gain intuition, I want people to think for themselves. This probably sounds very socialist but I want people to think, that’s it.
KT: What is your most treasured tool or something you cannot live without as an artist?
JF: Uhh, first my hands. And second, pallet knives? I love pallet knives. Tape? Love tape. Paper. I love paper.
KT: What kind of tape?
JF: A lot of thick materials. Very physical materials. For the homeless guy, that was oil, but I don’t really use oil that much. I like it, it’s really interesting, the way it moves and is very forgiving too, if you know how to use it. And there’s still a lot of techniques I have no idea about. I still have a lot to learn about oil paints. I think mostly it’s like the world. The materials I use, I just take from things I find on the street, in the trash. I’m not a dumpster diver, but I take things from my own trash or things that I don’t need anymore– I reuse them. I love using raw canvas. I don’t really like using primed canvas. Just because I like the idea of your surface creating a texture for you, instead of you working your ass off to create this texture that you had planned for. I’d rather it just sort of come to me as I go. And that’s why– when you paint on rough material, it automatically creates texture within that color that you’re using.
So I could put a wooden block in the middle of a surface or whatever I’m painting on, and paint over it from the top of the canvas to the bottom of the canvas, just paint over the wood, too. So it creates a lot of abstract representation.
KT: You already touched on this before but where do you think you get your inspiration from?
JF: Hm. Well I guess the first one was that first teacher from the Brentwood Art Center Jerrold Burchman. And then I took another class next year with a guy named David Lloyd–he’s a local LA artist who I’m still keeping in touch with. He’s a really cool guy. Very laid back and free-spirited. He’s an old surfer from the 70s, he reminds me of my dad in many ways, but just an ultimate creative you know? He’ll go to old vintage sailor shops. He created this giant painting out of an old sail, like on the sail boat you know the actual sail?
KT: oh yeah.
JF: Yeah he created a painting out of that, and I was really inspired by that. And everyday the instruction–it wasn’t really instruction, it was more like “I’m going to give you this very broad prompt, just go off”. He would just sort of guide you along the way, if you had questions. It was a very open studio style class, and those are the classes I love the most because I get to do what I want, but I’m also not stuck with this arrogance about what I want to do, what I think is best. I still get to get advice from trusted people. Yeah sorry what was the question originally?
KT: (laughs) It was where you get your inspiration from?
JF: Yeah, Jerrold Burchman, David Lloyd, that was my first inspiration, and over time I’ve gained a lot of inspiration from my dad because I love the idea of documentation, and monumenting certain things. He’s been photographing Buddhist life for most of his career, not just with Kundun. He goes from monastery to monastery, whenever we go to India or Nepal or something, he always makes it his own sort of project and responsibility to document these things in a very beautiful way. He takes a lot of candids, he does a lot of portraits. Yeah he’s a documentary photographer. And in a way that’s what I do– in a very abstracted way, obviously. I guess with more famous artists, a huge one is Mark Bradford, he’s a superstar–he sells his paintings for 15 million dollars and up. But I got to go to his show 3 years ago or something in LA at Hauser & Wirth, which is this really amazing gallery with multiple locations around the world, and they have one in downtown LA. He had a really amazing show, he makes these huge, large-scale paintings. They’re paintings but he doesn’t use paint–he doesn’t use any actual paint. He creates these sort of scenes from south central LA–where he’s from, and what’s amazing is that he’s a 6 foot 8, gay, Black man from south central who became a highly respected artist. He spent most of his younger life in a salon, with his mom in Shag. He was always into art but he couldn’t afford art school, and he would just start using materials that he found in the salon. Like different paper materials that they would use for curls and stuff, he used to do jheri curls for people in the 90s. If you see Ice Cube, Eazy E in the 90s, he had jheri curls. That’s the type of shit he was doing. It’s a really good form of expression, the way you do your hair. Especially black people, they’ve known expression for centuries. They’ve been the pioneers of expression in many ways. So I think black culture in general has inspired me a lot. I’ve been a huge hip hop fan since I was a little kid, and I always loved how unapologetic they were with their expression, you know? Like “I don’t give a fuck, I’m showing you what you need to see”
KT: Do you usually listen to music while you’re painting? Or, you like to work in silence?
JF: It depends, sometimes I like working in silence but usually I play music. Usually I like listening to Mobb Deep, making art, Wu Tang, and I like listening to newer stuff too. Yeah I love listening to music. I think that’s a good handful of inspirations.
KT: Well those are the 10 questions.
JF: Great!
KT: If you want to add anything, you can.
JF: Let me look at my notes real quick because I know I have some stuff here. Yeah this is something I wrote a long time ago, I was trying to describe my own work in notes. Everything sort of takes a physical form, and it shows a lot of vulnerability, it’s elemental, it’s sort of like- I make dumbed down versions of very complicated concepts, resourcefulness–I think I said that already, and a lot of critical thinking of you know, our perception of capitalism. I don’t have a huge problem with capitalism itself, I just have a problem with American capitalism today. That’s a lot of what my work relates to. Another reason why I love doing this so much and being involved in art is because fine arts, and even the business of it are in some ways, the only platform where you don’t need to paint this perfect picture of yourself, where you don’t need to follow this motto of fake it ‘til you make it, and that’s what most Americans do. And I’m not criticizing anyone that does that, it’s just– I don’t want to do that. I would rather do something that I’m truly passionate about, that I can put in my best work for, that is really meaningful. That’s what I wanted to add.
KT: Thank you for sharing that. The part where you said fake it ‘til you make it part, that’s something that, whenever my friends ask me for advice, especially the ones who graduated this year, they can’t find jobs and stuff, like I don’t know what kind of advice to give them, so that’s usually what I end up saying, “oh you just gotta fake it ‘til you make it”.
JF: We’re not to blame for saying stuff like that, That’s how this country is. I don’t want to stand for that, myself. But I totally get why people feel the need to do that, it’s perfectly understandable.
KT: Yeah but the way you said it, I never saw it in that way where, you know in art, you don’t really need to do that, and I think that’s pretty powerful.