Wayne Thiebaud
Interview conducted on March 18, 2009 at the LeBarons Fine Art building in Sacramento, California for the Loveland Museum of Art, Loveland, Colorado. Mr. Thiebaud and I sat in his son’s office surrounded by art books, some of his smaller paintings, as well as paintings done by his grandchildren. He said he had one hour but that easily slipped into a ninety minute conversation; I could have talked to him all day.
RF: When people write about your work they use such words and phrases as: ‘what happiness feels like’; ‘radiant rainbow outlines’; ‘dance of brushstrokes’; and, ‘joyful’. I wonder, is the light and humor in your work a reflection of you as a person or more influenced by something outside your control?
WT: Those pictures are a result of my being a spoiled child. My parents were terrific parents, and I could really do nothing wrong. So, I had one of those privileged spoiled lives.
no wonder Radvanovsky enjoys performing tragic roles: her first glimpse of opera was seeing Placido Domingo in Tosca, which she watched on television when she was eleven years old. She had always sung in the church choir but seeing the drama Domingo could achieve with both his voice and his character left her mesmerized, and soon thereafter the precocious Radvanovsky set to work persuading her mother to let her start taking voice lessons so that she could perform just like Placido. It was this voice teacher who recognized the budding singer’s god-given talent. “And not just any music,” Radvanovsky said, “Opera!”