Gregory Euclide: An Exploration of Landscape
Gregory Euclide “Bon Iver album cover” paint, pinecone, paper, and melted snow
Gregory Euclide
Gregory Euclide “Slid down my front as the rust from lands new soaking” acrylic, found foam, geranium, pine cone, buckthorn root, sponge, sedum, hosta, moss, photo transfer, pencil, goldenrod, and heuchera
Gregory Euclide “I was only the land because I liked the predictable stillness” acrylic on paper
Gregory Euclide “fuzzy hold on the cycle with no mouth to name” sumi ink on porcelain coated steel with found plastic bags, hosta, blackberry lily seed, paper, and acrylic
Gregory Euclide “Spot 2” sumi ink and organic material on porcelain coated steel
Gregory Euclide “Seed” sumi ink on paper, seeds, and acrylic
Gregory Euclide “Scrape 2” acrylic, and organic matter on paper
Gregory Euclide “Day 13: Daily Drawing Series” pencil and watercolor
Gregory Euclide “Capture 3” acrylic paint, juniper, paint can, paper, pencil, pine needles, moss, sedum, sponge, and found styrofoam
Gregory Euclide is known for his intricate paintings and mixed media work surrounding landscape. Growing up in Wisconsin, Gregory felt deeply connected to his environment from a young age. After spending his youth and teen years replicating the trees and lakes around him, he began to delve into abstraction, with an interest in exploring the concept of landscape through a new lens. Gregory has exhibited throughout the United States and gained international attention after his work was featured on Bon Iver’s album cover in 2012.
Tell me about your background and where your creative journey began.
I grew up in a small, somewhat historic town north of Milwaukee. I was fortunate to have land to play on and explore. By our house there was a county dump, farm fields, a pond, a river and an abandoned barn. As a kid I explored and played in these places, often alone. It would not be uncommon for me to climb a tree and spend the better half of a day observing what was happening around me. When I first became interested in art it was through an attempt to duplicate what I saw around me in nature. Later on it became more important to depict those things that were not visible.
How has your work shifted and evolved over time?
As I alluded to above, I used to be interested primarily in duplicating that which could be seen. And then began to focus on abstraction- trying to depict how those things I saw made me feel. Upon going to graduate school I found myself very drawn to the theories surrounding landscape and land-use.
Your work is deeply rooted in the natural world, with recurring imagery of Pine Trees, mountains and lakes. Is there a particular place, region, or perhaps memory, that inspires you?
Almost none of the imagery in my work is from a specific location. It’s a mixture of things that I have seen on posters, nature specials, postcards, calendars… All of the things that we are culturally taught to view as beautiful and natural. Growing up looking at these materials, I can’t help but now associate those images with nature. But a mountain range with a river descending through Pine Trees is no more or less nature than an area in between the roads of a cloverleaf freeway ramp.
You often combine 2D and 3D landscape elements to create your mixed media work. Can you tell us about your creative process?
There was a time when I was interested in working on multiple sheets of paper at once. They were layered one on top of another. As I would do a drawing of a memory I would rip through it and start on the next sheet of paper below. I had thought about these sheets of paper as a metaphor for moments in time. Once after letting the artwork dry I noticed a pool of water that had blue pigment in it. I couldn’t help but think that the torn sheets of paper resembled the topography that I was creating through illusionistic methods with pencil and paint. There, contained in the artwork, was an actual lake. This intrigued me. I started to play around with making the actual substrate resemble the topography that I was depicting. I also became interested in what it means to look at the land from above versus horizontally. One belongs to cartography and the other is very much rooted in romanticism.
Which artists have impacted your work?
Oddly enough the Artists that I really enjoy have nothing or very little to do with landscape. Yoko Ono, Rachel Whiteread and artists of the like.
Although, there are artists that I have been fascinated with who are making work that seems to be very similar to my own. It has happened on several occasions where I am making a body of work that has a certain aesthetic and while in the process of making that series I stumble upon an artist who is doing something very similar. Often these artists are completely unknown to me and living in a totally different part of the planet. I’m fascinated then how we could arrive at such a similar language.
How did you come to collaborate with musician Bon Iver, and how did this experience impact you as an artist?
Justin and I had a mutual friend who suggested my artwork for the project. It was one of the first times that I had really devoted a portion of my life to creating a visual for an album. I probably listened to the album 70 times while I was making the work. I was in a very strange place, not listening to anything else and thinking only about what Justin had given me in terms of direction. The project really exposed my work to a broader audience.
What advice would you give to emerging artists who are looking to find success in the art world?
I think it is a good idea to define what success is for yourself before you go out looking for it. Otherwise you might end up never feeling fulfilled… And that’s a horrible existence… To always be chasing.
What are your future goals and aspirations?
I run a record label, or project, called THESIS PROJECT and I have been actively pursuing that for the past three years. I’m very interested in the intersection between music and visual art. My hope is to use our 7 acre property and barn to establish a residency for musicians. Also... I have a three-year-old and a six-year-old that require a fair amount of energy and time. So goals are being obtained on a slightly extended timetable these days :)
website: https://www.gregoryeuclide.com
instagram: @gregory_euclide