Stephen Waddell Asphalt Layer 2002
Though that old fine-art wall between photography and painting is largely a thing of the past, it can still be a surprise these days to find an artist who is truly devoted to both. Yet Stephen Waddell would seem to fit the bill. In addition to painting early on in his career, Waddell sees his photographs as pictures influenced by Baudelaire’s concept of “the painting of modern life” rather than connected to contemporary photographic phenomena of Flickr and Photoshop.
Now, with a Waddell retrospective—including, at the advice of exhibition curator Roy Arden, those previously neglected paintings—on at Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery, the cross-media connections in his work are becoming clearer. Here, in a phone interview with Leah Sandals, the artist discusses his various influences, from art history tomes to aimless, wandering walks. (Running time 12 minutes 29 seconds)
