TM: Is there an artist that especially interests you beyond Yves Klein? It may be an artist that does not expressly relate to your own work.
KH: Eve Aschheim. I am a great admirer of her work. Her drawings I especially admire. Her work is like a passage in time. It’s like looking out the window and seeing a series of events in stop action. I am also a huge fan of Jasper Johns. I usually balk at that question.
TM: I know for some artists this an unfair question. It’s like asking someone what wine they prefer without accounting for the varietal or vintage.
KH: (Laughter) Yes…I have a tough time with recalling names. If someone reads me a passage in a book from the middle of a novel, I am able to name it, but for me to tell you what books I read in the last month, I am never able to do it. It is the same way with artists. When I am in the middle of it, I’m in the middle of their work, but then I have a hard time from a distance.
TM: Your most recent work is in charcoal and very dense. That work has a very different touch compared with the works created with fire. Physically that work holds a very different gesture. What led you to work in such a different way?
KH: I wanted to get back closer to painting…painting in a Western tradition. I have been working for maybe eight years on the ground, painting large pieces on un-stretched canvas. For a while I was trying to explore a kind of mark-making and how that tied into what I was seeing and thinking. I wanted to get back to working in oil on panel, a process that would allow more intervention. For me it meant obliterating the white of the paper.
TM: You work primarily on paper and on canvas?
KH: I go back and forth. There was no real way for me to draw without blacking out the surface and starting to work backwards. It all remains dry pigment, dry pastel, and graphite. I think about blocking out the light from the paper and then trying to find a way of bringing light back from the pigment.
TM: How is the experience of working with dry pigments? Having made paint and watercolors from raw pigments, I understand the sensation and process.
KH: The dry pigments I use in the drawing.
TM: What is binding the pigment to the paper?
KH: I’m grinding the pigment into the paper.
TM: There are [health] risks working with unbound cadmium colors. Is that a concern for you?
KH: I’m not working with cadmium reds or cadmium yellows so I’m not worried about those pigments.
TM: Beyond the danger of some colors, working with pure pigment is a beautiful experience. The essence of a color is expressed in…say the coarseness or fineness of a particular pigment. Working this way gives you more control. Your decision to work with charcoal is in some respects still very much related to working with soot.
KH: Yes, that’s true, and I like the versatility of having dry pigments in the studio. If you have the pigment you can choose the binder you want to use. It is like you were saying, it gives you more control. I‘ve gone back and forth, using commercial grade materials like binders for house paint and things like that. I can achieve better colors using the dry pigments.
TM: It’s like cooking. You begin to understand issues of finesse. What makes for a good recipe becomes obvious after a while. You notice the difference in working with materials that are purchased over handmade.
KH: Oh, yes.
TM: Until you prepare your own materials you never fully understand the differences. Using a glass muller and sensing the different grit of different colors, noticing which ones absorb more or less medium is a significant issue to understand.
KH: Yes, it influences your work. You become aware of the different refractive indexes of the mediums you are using. It sets you in a different place in terms of how you approach your work.