Laylah Ali in "Power" - Season 3 - "Art in the Twenty-First Century" | Art21

All right, so let's go into his face,

which is crazy.
(laughs)

Well, well, well.

What other background blue do we have?

You know I was thinking for the billboard.
I just wanted it to play off the sky

as an unreal sky blue.

(car horns beeping)

I spent a lot of time watching television.

I think, for artists of my generation

it has to be some kind of influence.

I watched a lot of cartoons.

It wasn't unusual for things
to be two dimensional.

So, when I use what looks to be
cartoon imagery in my work

it's just part of what I grew up with.

When I talk about the work
I don't want to talk about it

as if I believe in
this alternative fantasy world

which is my secret little world
like a doll house.

It doesn't really work that way for me.
It's not an escapist fantasy.

I wish it was.
It would be much more pleasant

and much more of a relief to be in here.

It's a little bit too connected
to the worlds

to my own life
for it to be an escapist endeavour.

Over the course of time I collect images
and when I'm at home

and I'm reading the newspaper
I tear them out or in magazines.

And then, periodically, I file them
and my filing system is on the wall

according to categories that kind of
make sense for my work.

It's like underlining when you read.
For me it's cutting out when I read.

I think about what I am interested in
that might feed the work in those.

I show you just the hands category.

Hand gestures

have been very important for my work.

These are some Shia Muslims praying
and their hands are of interest to me.

Ah! This is from a few years ago.

1994.

These are the tobacco executives
swearing that they are telling the truth.

Even something like
the difference between the way he swears

versus the difference between
the way he swears.

His thumb is bent towards his hand
like that

hence this.

And those little things
have great interest to me.

One of the ways I keep track of everything
is I have a very detailed notebook

on what I'm supposed to do every day
on the paintings.

And then I'll write down
all the notes from that day

and I'll circle or make notes on
what I think I should address the next day.

Especially with this kind of system
when things are all over the place

and I have 100 colours of paint
so there has to be a method of notetaking.

All of these brushes sit here
and they refer to different colours

and I don't mix.
One brush, one colour.

There's no cross contamination
of my brushes.

So I have to be sure
I'm using the right brush.

There have been times
when I've labelled the brush.

When things get really crazy.

So I have little pieces of tape
and I label them.

This is gouache.

It can be really fussy to use
and not very forgiving.

It's a constant source of frustration,
but I always like the end product a lot.

But it takes a lot to get there.

This is a little bit more velvety
and soft than an acrylic.

Around the studio
I've taken some of them down

but you'll see colour swatches.

So before I decided on that
colour of grey

I tested all of these ones.

It was very hard to tape them on
because they are so skinny.

But they all have little notes on the back
as to how I made them

and what colour combinations I used.

Everything I do is plotted months before.

It's not exactly enjoyable, this stage,
because the tension around screwing up

is high.

My figures don't have ears.
(laughs)

Not yet.

They don't have to have eyebrows.

I mean, there are things
that they just don't have.

And they still exist just fine
as, I don't like to say creatures

because creatures starts to be
almost too monstrous

and I don't think of them
as being fantastical.

By removing arms, in some way
I can understand what they do a bit more.

So,

to figure out what can be done
without arms

what kind of commands can be given
without arms

just though other kinds of gestures.

There is still a lot of power
left in the body

and in some ways, I'm trying to see
how much I can take out

and still retain a really powerful
or influential core

or one that can tell a story.

Which is a little bit of what is going on
with this guy here.

He is obviously extremely compromised.

He has got these growths coming out
of his abdominal area

which interests me a lot
because it is not clear

whether he has been stick with them
or they are growing

if they are something that
the other figures are frightened of

or that they have done to him.

I grew up in Buffalo, New York.

In a working-class family.

I was a real reader.

I think in that way, this, the way I work,
is more like reading or writing.

That I use paper instead of canvas.
Very connected to the paper.

And I think that has something to do with
my love of reading and writing

and the smallness of the images.
I think initially this idea

that you could be intimately involved
like you are in a book.

These are some of the drawings I've done.
Preliminary drawings.

Part of my process
is to do things to loosen up

and come up with ideas.

These are mostly helpful
in terms of the costume.

Here are some little details about headdresses
and shapes and textures

might appear in the paintings.

Obviously the paintings will be colour.

On these, a little bit of the expression
could show up

but there will be, hopefully,
more complexity in the psychology

of the facial expressions.

I am acting on impulse in the drawings.

And I think that is important.
It is important to keep that part

really alive.

So there are no paintings
without the drawings.