When I hop on the phone with Patrick Wilson, a 38-year-old emerging artist based in the Mt. Washington district of Los Angeles, he's extremely polite considering that I'm interrupting his attempt to grab lunch—"But it is making me kind of lightheaded, so my answers to your questions might be loopy," he laughs.

Wilson tells me that from an early age, he lived in an environment that stressed the pleasure of aesthetics—his father is an artist, his mother, a designer, and his grandfather, a furniture maker. After attending the University of California at Davis, where he played baseball, Wilson relocated to L.A.'s Claremont Graduate University, where he pursued an M.F.A. and started creating the unique and colorful abstractions that he's made a name on.

"I like to say my work is born from my experiences," he tells me. "The things around me are really important, but I am in no way trying to illustrate them. In other words, I'm not trying to imitate the color of the L.A. skyline. Inspiration comes from the food that I eat, traffic, a conversation—it can all come out in the form of a new visual experience. I start with a really basic idea of where I want to go, stuff like size, proportion, colors and structures. I go for about four or five weeks with that beginning idea, and then at a certain point it becomes very intuitive, almost like music."

Perfect. Now go and eat your sandwich!

See Patrick Wilson's new solo exhibition, "Considering Truth and Beauty" at Marx & Zavattero starting April 3rd.

- Caroline Stanley

Similar Topics:art, emerging artists, Gallery

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