Teacher Exchange: Behind the Scenes at Angel Otero’s Studio
Apr 25, 2011
Throughout Angel Otero’s otherwise orderly studio, there were piles of spent oil paint tubes and tubs of drying paints, but they were not trash: Otero rarely throws anything away. These objects are sometimes spray-painted to look like tin foil or gold and attached to his paintings as sculptural elements. As we walked around his studio, Otero encouraged us to touch anything and to ask questions; his calm presence encouraged both.
Otero encouraged participants to take a closer look at his works, April 2011. Photograph by Ai Wee Seow
Otero encouraged participants to touch his works, April 2011. Photograph by Ai Wee Seow
On the floor of the studio, there were two four-by-eight-foot “oil skins,” layers of oil paint that Otero had painstakingly overlaid and then allowed to dry over a period of two to three weeks before scraping them off the glass on which they had been painted.
Just as we were leaving, I walked toward one of his tables and placed my foot right on one of the “oil skins.” While I could feel my misstep in every part of my body, Otero assured me that it didn’t matter at all. I lifted my foot gingerly hoping I hadn’t ripped the painting, but I held it in place once I realized the “skin” was stuck to it. There were jokes that I’d have to leave my shoe behind. It was, Otero explained as he eased it off my shoe, a collaboration.
Otero removed the paint from Osborne's shoe, April 2011. Photograph by Ai Wee Seow
By Betsey Osborne, a participant in the Whitney's Teacher Exchange program.
Osborne is a writer and teaches English at the Nightingale-Bamford School in Manhattan.