Though his work maintains bold statement, considerate precision, and circumscribed technique, Eddie Colla actually draws outside the lines. A conversation with him reveals a deeply thoughtful and clever person who operates within boundaries of his own. When I asked him why he became an artist, he told me he doesn’t think people
become artists. In his estimation, all children are creative. They make things. They make up stories, creatures, imaginary places. “We arrive in the world as artists,” he said. “Then, some of us stop.”
The
why that happens is a more interesting question to Colla.
Colla studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York and graduated from California College of the Arts with a BFA in Photography and Interdisciplinary Fine Arts in 1991. He displays an ironic sense of humor, but don’t be fooled, his work is quite deliberate, thought provoking and prescient. What three words would Colla use to describe his own work?