Ten Questions: Fred Mitchell

Ten Questions is a new feature by curator and Gallery Director Brett Levine. He asks artists, both emerging and established, to respond to ten questions regarding their artistic practice.

First to be invited is Fred Mitchell, an emerging artist based in Las Vegas, Nevada.

BL: Who or what is your most significant influence when making work?

FM: My daily interactions, experiences, relationships, and emotions subconsciously immensely affect my work. I suppose that my art is my conveyance of where I am currently at or about to be. If that makes any sense? I have plenty of heroes all of whom I consider to be an artist in some form or fashion.

BL: What piece of creative equipment do you most like to use?

FM: After much thought, I have only been able to narrow this down between two things. Technology and Nature.

BL: Do you describe your thinking as more analogue or more digital?

FM: I suppose I would see it has a middle-ground between the two schools of thought. I have grown up in a very interesting time in the world when there are frequent technological advances but I have on the older side of this revolution. I am sure there are kids growing up nowadays, unaware of what analogue actually is...

BL: What is your biggest creative success?

FM: I am not sure if I would consider anything I have done necessarily a creative success, but I am pleased with ideas that I have seen all the way through. Mainly, 4D work I have done would be projects I am truly proud of.

BL: What is your biggest creative failure?

FM: Each time I stumble, I like to think I have learned something.

BL: Which book, if any, first influenced your thinking about creative practice?

FM: On Photography by Susan Sontag has been a pretty important to me, although I do not think that was necessarily the first to impact me. Film has played a huge part on me as well as music and literature, and all in different aspects. I could narrow it down and probably explain each if you like though.

BL: Are you more afraid of originality or appropriation?

FM: Probably appropriation because I worry that my point of view may be misconstrued in the eyes of someone else.

BL: Do you archive or destroy works that you view as failures?

FM: I have a problem with being impulsive. I make an effort not to destroy failures because I need time to look at them and figure out how to put the next foot forward, but in the past my impulsive side has caused me to destroy projects. Hopefully that side of me will go dormant in the future.

BL: What medium do you view as the most relevant in the present day?

FM: This issue is one I have obsessed over for quite some time. To keep it brief I will say that I feel the most relevant mediums are any that can combine with science or the digital world to create something new and engaging.

BL: What medium do you view as the least relevant in the present day?

FM: I do not really consider any mediums do be less relevant than others but I do feel that some mediums are faced with a greater difficulty appealing to a wider variety of individuals.

Fred's works can be found here: http://yay-fredmitchell.com/