Interview from Nowhere:
Artist Todd Bura and Guest Curator Dina Dusko on "Mighty Pretty Rain Crow"
Triple Base Gallery, August 17 - 20, 2006.

Dina Dusko: What medium do you use?
Todd Bura: Watercolor mostly.

DD: What kind of paper is it?
TB: Paper torn from books.

DD: Why are the drawings so small?
TB: I don’t see them as small, they fit the size of the paper.

DD: Are they of a particular thing?
TB: I try to paint what I see. It usually begins with a certain feeling.

DD: Can you recall any of the feelings for the work in this show?
TB: No I can't, but some feelings that may inspire a painting are a bright window with a plant next to it and a city street below, friends over for dinner, or a place you can picture and smell as if you had been there but you haven't.

DD: What does the title "Mighty Pretty Rain Crow" refer to?
TB: The origin is from a song written by Henry Whitter. It is a phrase – a comment Woody Guthrie makes at the end of a musical conversation he has with Sonny Terry. The performance begins with Woody suggesting to Sonny that the piece he is playing sounds a lot like one he learned back home – it is the sound a rain crow makes when it’s gonna rain. Woody offers his version on his harmonica. Sonny replies with an example further illustrating the difference between the two. At the end of Sonny’s playing, Woody says, “That’s a mighty pretty rain crow.”

My last show was titled “laa lala la, ooh oohoh...thank you all for the music”, which is a direct appreciation for everyone who makes music – I am very grateful. The title of this show suggests that by displaying my drawings I am entering into a very similar conversation to the one in the song.

DD: As a musician, how important or related is music to your visual work?
TB: No comment.

DD: Do you feel the visual choices you've made, specifically painting "to fit the paper" and sparingly, are a reaction to your environment and the art you've been exposed to?
TB: No.

DD: So, there's no criticism in the simple fact that your work exists, simply?
TB: No.

DD: Kenneth Baker, in review of this show, mentioned your "self-conscious mimicking" of Richard Tuttle. How do you interpret your relationship with Tuttle's work?
TB: Richard Tuttle is amazing. The comparison Kenneth Baker made is very flattering. Kenneth Baker is a critic, which requires him to create a context – he is probably very accurate.

DD: When we were installing "Mighty Pretty Rain Crow" you actually quoted Tuttle. Do you remember that quote?
TB: I cannot quote it accurately, but I believe it was that he makes work so small to account for the invisible.

DD: In Baker's review typically negative words were written and read positively. I think his was an appropriate style choice considering your visual work conjures the language of polarity. Do you find the absence of image as important as its presence? Do you use minimalism to cleverly suggest more?
TB: I am not very clever. I do see suggestion in many forms possibly being more powerful than illustrating a feeling or idea overtly.

DD: Construction is an interest of yours. In the last exhibition of your work at Four Star Video you constructed vitrines for the paintings and if we had more time for this show you would have created dry wall portals for the framed works. This pays even more than your usual attention to the frame. You make a living as a framer, is the frame as important as the image?
TB: Hell no.

DD: We, as viewers, all seem to overlap in our basic curiosities. The last questions are from Gallery visitors: Have you experimented with other media? What came before this? Will you ever paint large? And really, what's next?
TB: At one time I made paintings that were much larger than the drawings in this show –- then I stopped, I couldn’t paint without second-guessing every step I made. I then began making what turned out to be a room. On the fresh walls were drawings here and there made by puncturing them with a pin. Since then I have been slowly working my way back to painting.

DD: Any last words or images?
TB: Not really.

*Since the exhibition of “Mighty Pretty Rain Crow” Todd Bura has added new work to the permanent flat file collection at Triple Base Gallery. Visit the gallery Thursdays – Sundays from 12pm – 5pm for a personal viewing of these extraordinary works on found paper.