Chicago-based artist Todd Chilton creates geometric paintings that embrace imperfections and the human touch
When developing a painting, Todd Chilton generally starts with thumbnail sketches of patterns that evolve as he connects points at regular intervals, or as he follows the edge of a rectangle and works toward the middle. He iterates the patterns in his sketchbook until they become almost self-generating.
Chilton rarely makes studies for a painting, preferring instead to let it form as he works. As he moves to canvas, Chilton creates his patterns with paint, reworking it layer by layer until the painting—usually very different from his original conception—is complete. During each stage of painting, he explores an idea or a color or a texture, sometimes scraping off paint when he doesn’t like the result, and always adding layers of paint to build the surface of the painting.
Although Chilton’s primary medium has shifted over time from printmaking to painting, he has always been engaged in abstract art. His current geometric work developed while attending the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), where as a new graduate student, he made several black-and-white paintings reminiscent of optical illusions. Interested in the impact of color on viewers, Chilton wanted to see if he could use color to achieve similar visual effects. “Sometimes I’m looking for contrasting, vibrating color, and other times I’m looking for subtlety,” Chilton said. “Sometimes the colors are really bright or artificial, so there is this aspect that draws you in, but then because the colors are harsh, it pushes back as well.”
In addition to discordant color combinations and textured surfaces, Chilton’s geometric compositions embrace imperfections and the wavering of a hand. Meaning and a sense of honesty and directness come through these choices: crooked lines, sagging structures, thick paint and a record of time spent directly engaged with an object. In contrast to Modernism’s grandiose claims of universality, perfection and aggression, Chilton’s paintings propose something more modest, subjective, imperfect and generous. “Something that could be cool and really clean becomes more human and messy,” Chilton said.
Texture, color and imperfections work together to enhance the presence of Chilton’s paintings and give them personality. Their physicality creates a situation in which viewers become aware of the experience of looking, as they engage an object rather than a picture or window. At times, the shapes in his patterns resemble objects—such as ramps, stairs or sails—which Chilton includes in his titles.
“The patterns, color and texture can operate on many different levels, and I’m not excluding any of them,” Chilton said. “I acknowledge that our brains associate shapes with objects. The titles give permission to that, and hopefully add at least a little bit of humor.”
Since completing graduate school in 2005, Chilton has maintained his focus on painting while balancing time with a growing family and a job at SAIC in instructional technology. For eight years he also taught classes in drawing, Photoshop and web design. Devoting significant time to making art has allowed Chilton to thrive as an artist, and to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. He remembers one year when he was able to participate in an exhibition despite only a three-month lead time because he was already engaged in producing a body of work.
In addition to consistently making work, Chilton suggests that meeting people is essential to success as an artist. The Chicago scene—where Chilton has spent the last 15 years—is especially supportive of artists who take initiative, he said in a 2009 interview with the magazine neotericART. “Artists see a need to show their own work, that of friends, or work they believe in, so they put together shows in apartments. It seems like the people who work hard and make good work will show, but you have to actively invite people to see it.”
Chilton met one of his biggest supporters, Hudson, through a graduate school colleague who worked for the New York gallery owner. In 2009, Chilton’s classmate showed Hudson some of his artwork. Hudson, who earned a reputation for nurturing emerging artists during his life, requested that Chilton send him regular updates via email. Chilton maintained contact until Hudson invited him to be in a show at Feature, Inc in September 2011. Shortly after exhibiting Chilton’s work in “Self-referral Nonobjective,” Hudson included one of Chilton’s paintings in a show he curated at Rhona Hoffman Gallery in Chicago, “bodybraingame.” These shows have led to many additional opportunities for meaningful exhibition.
Although Hudson has since passed away, Chilton said his support came at a crucial time in Chilton’s development as an artist. “You have to find those people who care about your work and maintain those relationships,” Chilton said, “because that’s what’s going to help sustain you and help your career.”
Artist Statement For the past few years, I have been making straightforward geometric abstract paintings. I build the paintings by layering hand drawn patterns that are always bounded by the edge of the canvas. The paintings exhibit imperfections that are a result of handmade patterns and geometry. This often heightens optical effects in the patterns, and serves to create a situation in which the viewer becomes aware of the experience of looking. I want to create images that convey at once a sense of ambiguity, purposefulness, and humor. At times they have a sense of openness on one hand and resistance on the other. I am interested in what happens in the middle. Meaning comes through determined imprecision, broken or sagging structures and the obvious hand that created the painting. This underscores the physical experience that takes place between a viewer and my work through surface, scale and optical qualities, which subvert, or sustain, a sense of balance.
