Tristan Perrotti

Year of birth: I was born in 1995 in Seattle, Washington. And moved to Oregon when I was 3 days old, I’ve been here ever since.
Where do you live: I live in Portland, Oregon. I’ve been here for almost 7 years now and currently live in the downtown area.
Your education: I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Southern Oregon University, and I received my Master of Fine Arts in Visual Studies from the Pacific Northwest College of Art.
Describe your art in three words: Tense, Evocative, Introspective.
Your discipline: I’m a painter at my core, I may occasionally dabble in other mediums, but I will always focus on paint. My discipline is fundamentally me making observations about myself or the people around me through metaphor and a historical lense of perspective.
Website | Instagram

Can you tell us about how growing up in rural Oregon has influenced your artistic vision and approach to painting?

It’s done a few things for me, firstly it’s given me an appreciation for and the will to push through physical discomfort and difficult work. Finding that space between action and thought so you can simply DO whatever it is you need to do and not get hung up on the aches or pains. Secondly its given me an appreciation for the little moments in life, the things that go unnoticed by the wider world, that still happen nonetheless. I love those little dramas that could be the subject of elegant prose, or the simplicity of watching wildlife go about its day unbothered, or sitting by a seasonal creek before the summer months dry it up again.

What draws you to explore the emotional connection between feelings and the physical body in your work?

For me, painting is in and of itself a physical act, our emotions and our physicality are inherently intertwined, so it seems that painting as an expression or exploration of that relationship is only natural and interesting. We feel our emotions in our body, and I want my paintings to invoke a physical connectedness with the viewer. I hope to activate the viewers sympathetic nervous system through the universality of action and motion.

Tristan Perrotti | Free fallin

Your use of bold colors and dynamic movement is striking. What inspires your color palette and the energy in your paintings?

I originally taught myself to paint trying to copy the Impressionists, their choices in palette have stuck with me as a result. Along with that influence I have always gravitated towards visual intensity. So, saturated contrasting colors and marks achieve this nicely and lend themselves again to my need for physical intensity. In terms of movement, people are always in motion, I don’t think of anybody ever being truly static, so I try to show that honesty in our constant movements, both emotional and physical, the ever present vibrations of life.

How do surreal and classical influences shape your expressionist style? Can you share specific examples?

Romanticism and Renaissance era classical works are huge influences, i’ve always found their grandeur seductive and their interest in depicting universal human experiences as something I really strongly relate to. At the same time, I consider Renee Magritte’s absurdist humor as something very similar to my own interests. Humor and absurdity are accessible, they can open our minds to different ways of thinking without being struct about interpretations. These influences and others all get filtered through my love of the expressiveness of Leon Golub, Lucian Freud, and Francis Bacon, who are major visual influences on my style.

Tristan Perrotti | Fellini Holiday | 2024

As an artist and political consultant, how do these two roles intersect in your creative process, if at all?

Fun note, I actually just recently changed jobs and now work in the Oregon State Legislature! I try to not have these different sides of my life intersect at all, though the realities of life sometimes mean that they do. While if we’re talking about the creative process, my work is interested in systems of power and of interpersonal moments, which may overlap with the political world. However I am strict about not falling down the rabbit hole of political commentary or speaking to contemporary political issues or figures. It’s just not where I want to take my work, especially since I deal with the function of politics everyday in my regular job, I like to get away from that a bit in my artwork.

You mentioned rarely revising your paintings. How does this rapid, intuitive process affect the final piece?

I work in acrylics, which dry quickly. If want my piece to look or turn out a certain way, that means I have to work fast, I also like that it means I don’t have time to over-intellectualize my decisions. Following intuition and reacting to what’s happening with the paint in real-time adds a certain level of energy and texture to a piece I think. You can look at it and feel the motion that went into it.

Tristan Perrotti | Sarah | 2024

Could you elaborate on the themes of machismo and corporate culture critique in your work?

I think there’s something fun in taking these two identity or affectations, which are very self-serious, and just doing something minor but noticeable enough to make them funny. I find there’s joy in not taking oneself too seriously, especially when you work in a high-stress environment. We need some absurdity in our lives. The important thing though is that when I critique corporate or machismo self-seriousness, i’m not tearing them down or saying that they ought not to exist, but rather pointing out there are healthy ways to inhabit these identities which are not harmful or toxic towards others.