Your piece, Donuts, Coffee Cups and Comic, is on display in our current exhibition, The Shape of Things: Still Life in Britain. Could you share the story behind this work?

The Donuts were made when I was a student at the Slade (School of Fine Art, University College London). While there my work oscillated between 2D and 3D pieces and I moved between the sculpture and the painting schools. As a US student, I could move more freely from department to department—this was a big plus. The piece is both 2D and 3D – I didn’t really see a reason to be confined to one ‘discipline’. This reflects how I work as an artist- the ‘idea drives the form’.

Sculpture then was fairly confined to metal, stone, wood, sometimes clay, wax… and the like. Materials that were ‘tough’, hard to the touch and usually cold. The things that I wanted to depict were entirely different- they were soft, warm, bendable. The idea of making things in fabric better represented the subjects that interested me.

If the act of sewing could be reduced to a single definition it might be this: Sewing is the practice of turning 2D material into 3D shapes. Traditional painting might be said to be the reverse – turning 3D phenomena in a 2D form.

Still life is often considered a ‘lesser’ genre in art. How do you view still life, and what drew you to explore this genre in your own work?

Oh I don’t consider it a lesser genre at all. I think it is one of the five cardinal areas of fine art painting and sculpture – The Portrait, The Nude, The Still Life, The Landscape and Religious Art. I’m not overly interested in the last two, but I’m entirely captivated by finding new ground in the first three. I love still life as it is represented throughout Fine Art history. It is elemental and a quiet, domestic place of visual joy.

Who or what are your biggest influences in the art world, both past and present?

Early Richard Lindner, Stanley Spencer, Picasso, several graphic novel artists and Kent Williams tops that list. I have an adversarial relationship with the art world – I want to do better. So, when I find something I love in a sculpture or a painting it sort of drives me nuts. My passions for various artists change decade in and out. Presently I am driven crazy by Frank Auerbach’s charcoals that were at the Courtauld. I loved Andy Holden’s Beano Show and Jason de Caires Taylor’s work makes me crazy – wish I’d thought of that!

More broadly speaking I love the whole concept of graffiti and street art. I occupy the underclass of that movement as a muralist, but I love the early practitioners, the artists of 80 and 90s- JR’s amazing concepts, Swoon, 3-D and Banksy. Their stance on ‘free’, un-trained, unsellable, ever-changing work has challenged the traditional concepts and status quo of the art world. This is the first truly international art form.

The Work in Progress mural, which you created with your daughter Liberty Blake, is an impressive tribute to approximately 360 women. How do you see the role of women in art evolving, and what impact do you hope Work in Progress will have on viewers?

Work in Progress is about inclusiveness. It sets out to inform. I didn’t know my own history as a woman. I didn’t know upon whose shoulders I stood, nor how hard they had worked so that my generation might appear in galleries, colleges, places of meaningful work.

Work in Progress is also about breaking barriers, not only the barriers that the women depicted broke, but the barriers that say only trained artists make artwork. 90% of the images in the Work in Progress panels to date are made by non-artists. They are community members, nurses, residents/staff of the YWCA, employees from SLC’s Mayor’s office, a surgeon, museum staff curators, directors, art historians, university students and faculty. This collaborative effort shows that art can come from anywhere and anyone.

That said, while Work in Progress is a collaborative piece, it’s important to note that the final work—now 22 panels, soon to be 24 (stretching 96 feet in total)—is by Liberty. My role in that process is more of a helper, assisting where needed. It’s a complex, interwoven process, much like the journey of women in art itself.

The mural’s form, collage, straddles a fence between ‘low art’ for some-‘scrapbooking’ and high art when a Matisse. Also, stenciling was traditionally part of ‘folk art’. Work in Progress is sort of outsider artwork. It doesn’t conform, rather like the women that it depicts.

How did the collaboration with communities across the UK shape the final piece? Were there any particularly memorable moments or stories from the workshops that stood out to you?

The UK workshops took place during the pandemic, so it certainly was memorable. Liberty (Liberty Blake – fellow artist and Jann’s daughter) and I had never run a workshop from the other side of the world. We were up at 4am in Utah to set up cameras, lights and sound to get ready for the workshops in the UK. We literally started in the dark with the workshop there starting in the afternoon.

Even more memorable though was getting the real work back in Utah. We didn’t want to trust it to a carrier, lest it be lost. So Lib (in a mask) flew to London for a weekend and picked it up. ALL the images for the mural were rolled up, the life size full figure works for the front row, the portrait heads and put in a huge tube that Lib carried onto the plane (it was only a little over the length restriction so…). She was questioned more by passengers than by airport officials – it looked pretty much like a large bomb!

Opening all of them out was incredible. Every image started with a photo- and you might think that that would curtail originality. But as we went through the work – the individuality of the maker asserted itself in every portrait. If you really look at the ‘how’ of each of the heads, there is a quiet courage and personal invention throughout. The work is as varied as the participant and subjects themselves.

Are there any upcoming projects or themes you are excited to explore in your future work?

YES! Two newly commissioned panels for WIP, but I can’t talk about those yet. And Liberty and I are closing in on the completion of a 1000sq ft mural consisting of 28 panels for Salt Lake Community College titled ‘Utah Women 2020’. This was originally displayed on the side of a 7-story building in digital banner form. Liberty is now collaging the original artwork for a second version of the 2020 mural.

I’m on the last pass for a 70 page Graphic Novel that probably no one will possibly entertain publishing. Also planning to do a collaborative project in LA and another mural project for Denver’s Entertainment District.

What advice would you give to young artists, especially women, who are just starting out in their careers?

My advice for women would be no different than my advice for me. Whatever ‘other’ work you have to do to support your art zone- don’t see it as the enemy of your art time. Everything feeds the art, every experience, every encounter. You can make art out of anything. If you don’t draw well – learn to. It isn’t hard and it doesn’t take a long time. It’s like the violin, if you don’t practice, you will be goofy when you pick up the pencil or charcoal at intervals—bash on. Drawing is the best way into projects. Keep a verbal notebook – best done in a café. Don’t go to cafes where they get testy if you stay more than an hour. (Excellent one in Turnham Green-London—great ones in Denver and SLC.)

You can see Jann Haworth’s Donuts, Coffee Cups and Comic on display in The Shape of Things: Still Life in Britain until 20 October 2024.