SIM: In After the Gold Rush, the tile is a focal point. You have other pieces that prominently feature really unique tiles. Is that something in your own life that you collect?
NS: A big influence in my work is an artist named Gregory Gillespie. He spent of time in Italy and he painting these invented views but took architectural elements from different places and sort of collaged and forced them together,- like tile floors with patterned wallpaper, and interesting architectural details. Since grad school, i often try to use pattern in my paintings. Going into my first year of grad school, I was doing mostly representational painting, and then the program sort of shook figurative work out of me and got me looking at things in a different way. I started painting drop-ceiling views with fluorescent lights and making paintings of corporate architectural details because in New Haven there was so much of that. Once architecture got into my work, it never left. I’m interested in different eras of architecture layered on each other, and you certainly see it in South Philly all the time. You know, the houses that were built in the 20’s, and then in the 40’s they did a renovation and left some elements from the 20’s behind, and then from the 40’s to the 60’s more layers are applied, you end up with this mash up of architectural eras…I like forcing all of these things to coexist. I try to either invent or pick views that highlight those layers of architectural history.
SIM: Do you listen to any particular music when you’re painting?
NS: Right now I listen to Brian Jonestown Massacre a lot. I think they’re the best rock band around right now. I also listen to Wire, The Kinks and early Bowie, Bobby Lee. But yeah, Brian Jonestown Massacre is really good, especially some of the newer releases.
SIM: You and your father have very different art styles. How old were you when your dad illustrated Peter Rabbit?
NS: I was probably 13 when he did Peter Rabbit. He was still doing editorial stuff for magazines like TV Guide, Playboy, and Esquire when I was a kid. His children’s book stuff is the most well-known, but there’s so much good work of his from the 60’s and 70’s. Somehow my family and I have to figure out how to put together a book or a show – That work needs to be seen. There is so much of it. He was doing the editorial stuff so fast – like 3 jobs a week and just cranking it out. When he started making children’s books, he never went back to doing editorial work. The children’s book illustrations were definitely the most important and cherished part of his career to him.