Rhythms in colors, objects, and ideas come together to dazzling effect in Percy Cannon’s contemplative paintings. Although of Peruvian descent, Percy’s upbringing took him to Peru, Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina before he moved to the United States. His pan-Latin American background, through its culture and history, has shaped his worldview and permeates his artistic vision.

Percy’s paintings can be characterized as a dialogue between the medium and the artist, himself. In this regard it is tempting to attribute Percy’s experience as a youth, confronting new environments as he adapted to different countries, in how he approaches the canvas as an artist. Allowing the paint to take form in colors and shapes, Percy responds by harnessing its attitude to compose his works. This process is often initiated through the use of pours and drips, while other times he takes control of the medium, drawing out ideas in symbolic forms to create rhythmic patterns. These patterns include dots, asterisks and recently snakes.

Kismot: How has your upbringing in Peru informed your art practice?

Percy Cannon: All of my family is Peruvian so Peru is the country I call home. But in reality I have lived all over Latin America. I spent my early childhood in Lima, Peru. My father’s job had us moving to Mexico City half way through first grade. We moved back to Lima two years later, this would be the last time we lived there. The next place we moved to was Caracas, Venezuela. Once again, two years later we moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina. We lived there from 1996 to 2002, from seventh grade up until I graduated from high school. Living in all those countries helped shape my vision as an artist. Peruvian culture is part of who I am so it prevails as an influence. I have developed a deep interest in Pre-Columbian Peruvian cultures, specifically the textile arts of the Paracas period. The colorful ancient weavings depicting warriors, flowers, gods, pyramids and monsters are amazingly powerful and modern looking to me. This Pre-Columbian interest extends to my early encounters to Mayan and Aztec ruins and artifacts when I lived in Mexico. I am still interested in Mayan art, I find parallels between the gods and monsters in its imagery with those in Paracas textiles.

K: Can you explain your interest in the microscopic and the small?

P: After I graduated from RISD I was forced to scale down my work surfaces because I had to paint at home. So the majority of the work I made during the second half of 2006 and 2007 was fairly small. My work also became more abstracted focusing on using the circle or dot as the building block. I remember feeling the need to force myself to make a body of work that was cohesive and simplified. That’s why I chose the circle as my main shape. It was never my intention from the beginning for the dots to represent cells or microscopic organisms. However it is easy to make that association because the inner dot does look like the nucleus of a cell. Once I realized that I couldn’t avoid this association it became an inspiration to me. I started to read about microbiology and I liked how these cellular growth concepts related to my paintings because I was starting to think of paint as something that can change its shape and transform after I put it on the canvas and walked away.

K: How does nature influence your work?

P: I am interested in how, as in my dot paintings, when I use very fluid paint and allow it to run its course after I apply it, it begins to look very organic. After a while painting only dots, I began to create a space for them. I paint these backgrounds using horizontal bands of poured color—which gives the impression of a landscape. I have been very inspired by the colors and landscapes of the many places I have lived and visited. When I moved out to the Bay Area I was really impressed with the light blue skies against the dry golden hills and the dark oak trees.

K: Circle shapes are prevalent throughout your recent work. What is the relationship between repetition and nature in your art?

P: Repetition is a useful tool for me, it allows me to create a sense of rhythm across the surface of my paintings. I am interested in the parallels between repetition and nature. Patterns in nature are inspiring in their apparent chaos. Circles and dots where a point of entry for me into pattern making, but lately I have moved away from strictly circles into using other symbols. I moved into the asterisk shape and then into the snake shape. The snake was a way to reconnect with my interest in Latin American mythology.

K: Landscape painting often conjures the idea of open spaces. How does this relate to your interest in the microscopic?

P: Like I mentioned above I do not specifically intend for my paintings to represent the microscopic. I do consciously try to suggest landscapes and space in my work. I am interested in the kind of abstract space that happens when a painting is suggestive of a landscape and how patterns act upon this type of landscape.