Humdrum Artist Series: Savanna Dohler

‘Humdrum’ is a series of profiles on twelve of Los Angeles’ finest up and coming multimedia artists, reflecting the roster of the group art show of the same name opening at des pair books in Echo Park on September 16th.

I don’t know if it needs to be said, but I’ll say it anyway: you should be at that opening. Not only because the art is good and worth finding parking, but because print is important, physical space is important, and supporting artists is important, and by attending, you knock out all three. Savanna Dohler makes painting and sculpture that is uncannily sweet for how apparently eerie it is. The depictions are of superficially spooky figures that hold in them a certain imperfect sweetness that make it difficult to reconcile and from which we cannot look away.

How did you get started as an artist & how has your practice evolved to where you are now?

I grew up in Tennessee and am blessed to be a part of a family that is very creative. I started my journey drawing, hand making plushies, then photography, clothing design, and now 3D modeling, ceramics and painting. As a kid, I loved eyeballs - that’s the first real thing I remember making. I would use crayons and make blue, green, yellow, red, pink, rainbow gradient eyes and carry them around in my binder. All these years later and I still have a deep fascination with eyes and have found that even when I’m exploring a new technique, the eyes and blending still remain the most important part of the piece to me.

How does your creative process usually start? Does a vision or motive come first or do you find the meaning/end point as you work?

I would say it’s 70% vision and 30% just seeing what happens. There’s periods of time where I feel more fearful of experimenting so I found myself hyper focusing on an idea, drawing it out, gridding it and then getting the exact measurements on the canvas before I even start. The joy of the unknown is something I’m working on being more excited about and accepting outcomes that I didn’t know we’re there - even if it’s a waste of paint, because it never really is.

Have there been any significant feelings, experiences, or themes that have influenced your work?

Mostly things that have disturbed me. I think through creating, I’m able to find comfort in the distressing and so the result ends up falling somewhere between viewing the experience through a child’s eyes while accepting the adult reality.

Los Angeles is a particularly intense and often uncomfortable place to be operating in. Do you feel like this pressure of perception and competition has affected your work or identity as an artist?

When I’ve found myself trying to conform to what I believe this city’s expectations of success look like, I have found myself the most lost /feeling shame in the things I naturally gravitate towards. Alternatively, when I’m very present and accepting of who I am, I feel no desire to prove anything and I only create for myself.

What do you feel is lacking in the modern art scene and why?

Community. I’ve been doing a wheel class and have been really enjoying meeting people that I normally wouldn’t have bumped into. I think as adults if you’re not actively seeking out being uncomfortable then life can become very monotonous and isolating.

What role does technology play in your practice and how might that change over time?

Being someone that dislikes creating stuff I don’t like, technology helps me accurately articulate my feelings without having to commit to specific colors or compositions. I used programs like Procreate or Photoshop most often and have recently been diving into the world of AI - training models on my art and seeing what bastardized versions of my ideas it creates through what I’ve made. It’s really disturbing, then I get mad because I like what it creates - at the end of the day it wouldn’t be able to made it without me. It’s a weird spectrum I don’t know where I fall on.

Do you believe your work belongs to you or the viewer?

I think whatever gifts that we’re given are made to give away. There’s a part of me that feels like we are all the same thing anyway so it’s not really for me to say who has ownership of it. Ultimately, it belongs to everyone and anyone’s allowed to interpret it however they please, other than if I don't agree then they’re not allowed to. That’s a joke.

At what point do you believe a piece of work is ‘finished’?

Probably when I think that I don’t have the ability to make it any better. Some pieces are more like a checklist and others are endless cycle of questioning how much further can I go before I fuck this up - I think it is constantly changing, and I never feel the same with one piece of art versus another.