Capri Landi is a painter based here in the Valley — an exhibition of her work, called “In Phases,” is currently on view at Arizona State University’s downtown Phoenix campus.
Looking at the paintings, The Show's Sam Dingman was struck by their expressionistic, almost mystical quality — and when Dingman read up on Landi’s process, he discovered that she practices a technique she refers to as “intuitive painting.”
Landi joined The Show to talk about what that means, and says a lot of it boils down to feeling an impulse and following it, wherever it leads.
Full conversation
CAPRI LANDI: I may see a photograph, I may get a thought in my mind, and I'll just take it from there. And usually what I do is I work in watercolor.
I really just kind of get wrapped in the flow of it all and just mixing colors or working with organic shapes.
SAM DINGMAN: You use the word flow, which I know is a reference to a very particular set of ideas about creative process.
LANDI: Sure.
DINGMAN: Like this idea of flow state.
LANDI: Yes.
DINGMAN: Getting so immersed in something that you don't notice time going by.
You said something about that once that I was really fascinated by. You said the concept of flow is exactly what I feel when I go through my creative process, and the result of that flow is sometimes a tangible piece of art.
LANDI: Correct.
DINGMAN: Do I infer correctly from that that what you are after is not necessarily a painting, but a state of mind?
LANDI: That's correct. Sometimes you get a beautiful painting out of it and there's something to hang up on the wall. There's a lot of things that I don't use and I don't share with anyone.
DINGMAN: What is important to you about pursuing that state of mind, even if it doesn't lead to anything, you end up wanting to share more broadly?
LANDI: Well, I think as an introvert, I think it's a way of expressing myself, like my inner consciousness and things that are going on up in my mind. Those things are hard for me to express. And on the canvas or in the sketchbook, those are ways for me to explore those different ideas, or to get lost in something and hide from the world for a while.
DINGMAN: I'm gathering from what you're saying, that sometimes these things that are in your mind that you want to externalize in some way aren't necessarily literal. They're not the kind of things you could put into words.
LANDI: Correct.
DINGMAN: But I have to imagine that you sometimes end up looking at what has resulted from your explorations on the canvas, and there is some concrete idea being reflected back at you.
LANDI: Yes. Sometimes I'll be working in my sketchbook, or I'll start a painting and I'll say, oh, this really looks like the rock formations at Papago Park. Or, this reminds me of a time I was at the beach in Mexico and the way I felt. So, it's a way of capturing maybe different memories or even processing maybe some not-so-nice-feelings and just kind of working through those things.
DINGMAN: One of the things you have said is part of this dynamic for you is, to quote you, “Working with my inner critic.” Tell me about that relationship – not to turn this into a therapy session, but.
LANDI: That may be – an entirely – another show. But, I think it's a way of being OK with different feelings that you're going through and not judging those.
DINGMAN: Can you give us a sense, because I'm imagining somebody might be listening to this and thinking, “that sounds so nice. The idea of externalizing these non-literal ideas that I have in my head, but that are troubling me or affecting me in some way, shutting my inner critic up, making a painting, finding a way to process an emotional experience. I want to do all that. But how do I approach it practically?”
So could you walk us through, Capri is going to spend some time in the studio. How do you cultivate this state that leads to these outcomes, in a very practical sense?
LANDI: OK. I would just literally go to the store, get a great sketchbook, pick out some colors you like. Watercolors are always nice because they're easy to work with in a small space. And I think they're very forgiving. Just mix the colors. Throw it down, and let it go.
DINGMAN: So much of what I hear you saying, Capri, is giving yourself permission to not have a goal. And yet, I've seen your work. It's very beautiful. It seems like in the course of doing this, you have developed a consistent craft.
How did you start to recognize that these flow states you were cultivating were somewhat consistently leading you in a similar direction?
LANDI: I think that the non-judgment thing is a huge element to this. I think the element of play. I think when I went to art school, back in college, it was: “We're going to set up this still light. We're going to observe how the light hits the different forms, and you're going to recreate this as realistic as possible.”
Well, this kind of throws out that idea, and it's quite the opposite actually. It's just there is no goal in mind. Maybe that's just playing with the colors and seeing how they bleed into one another and seeing some cool shapes that those shapes of water and color form.
DINGMAN: You were saying at the beginning of this that a lot of times, all you have when you begin working on something is some fragment of a memory or something you've been thinking about.
Is there a consistency for you to those things? Do you find yourself often being drawn to memories of, you know, like places or people? Or is it sometimes totally abstract, like just a feeling or something that you're trying to figure out what that feeling would look like?
LANDI: All of the above. So, as you're going through the play or as you're in the process, maybe some of those memories or feelings come to you while you're working. And that's completely normal. And you just kind of let it go. And, that's my, I guess that's my quote for this interview.
DINGMAN: Let it go.
LANDI: And what it will be, it will be.
DINGMAN: Do you find that the impacts of working this way as a painter inform other elements of your life?
LANDI: Yes. That's a hard one to elaborate on. But if I look at a body of work and I look at my old sketchbooks and even the show that I'm in right now, it's kind of like a soundtrack of different parts of my life. You know, happy, sad, lonely, looking back at all of my work. Those are some things that I see.
But I don't think maybe the viewer would see that, and that's OK. Whatever the viewer would see, that's fine with me. If that reminds them of a memory for them or it makes them feel calm or all of those things are all right.
You know, when you get to a certain age, you're like, “wow, we don't have much time left.
This is not a dress rehearsal. I'm going to explore some different things.”
DINGMAN: Was that a significant realization for you? That idea of being on the clock?
LANDI: Yes. Yes. You know, life happens. And I'm also a very sensitive person – don't tell anyone.
DINGMAN: I do have to tell you, this will be broadcast, publicly.
LANDI: But I think that even more so, those times of experiencing flow and working with these different, you know, mediums and concepts and stuff like that, I think it becomes even more important.
