For a lot of artists, the grip of art and creativity is something that grabs them and pulls them into a broader scene or a likeminded community.
But for some, the expression and the community go hand-in-hand, creating something more symbiotic with the art sparking connection between people and those friendships and collaborations directly driving new expressions and inspirations.
Or at least that’s what visual artist and video manipulator Luke Lightfoot is always looking for.
A recent fixture of Oklahoma City’s experimental underground, Lightfoot’s surrealist collage works and abstract video pieces have carved out a niche for themselves in indie galleries and DIY spaces throughout the metro, with his work often married to local Oklahoman music and viewed through 3D glasses.
After decades spent exploring painting, photography, and mixed-media from Oklahoma to southern California and New York City, Lightfoot eventually settled back in the metro and found himself beginning to experiment with digital video, recognizing its potential for collaboration and for a way into the underground arts community that he saw developing beneath the city.
Luke Lightfoot: I didn't start experimenting with film stuff until the apps for editing film started becoming available on your phone, and I started out with like GIFs, and then suddenly there were all these other tools for editing film.
I started doing that, and that was really exciting to me. So I started emulating that digitally.
Brett Fieldcamp: In addition to his still abstract and collage works that have been displayed in places as diverse as 50 Penn Place and Mycelium Gallery, Lightfoot’s video experiments have developed a life of their own, culminating in DVD collections and a recent video exhibition at Oklahoma Film Exchange, showcasing his highly impressionist and often modular approach to abstract video.
Luke Lightfoot: I'll get an idea of something that I could do, like a texture or something like that, and I'll start doing that. And then I like to work with music.
I think of them kind of as, like, components that I can put into different orders and change the whole tone of the thing. I hope that the stuff that I make is something that you can watch over and over and over, because there is so much going on on the screen.
It's possible to enjoy the film looking in just one corner, you know, to look at it in different ways, and then that way it's never the same thing. And I think that everyone who watches it, they won't experience the same thing. Probably, you know, they'll experience something, hopefully, very personal to them.
Brett Fieldcamp: But that aim of personal and singular meaning in his work is also a chance for connection, and Lightfoot says that perhaps the strongest force driving his art and his output in recent years is the hunger for that kind of community and collaborative spirit, something that he feels is surprisingly rich in the experimental scenes of OKC.
Luke Lightfoot: People that are into more pushing the limits of what we've considered “art” in the past are very interested in meeting other people that are doing the same thing, you know, and collaborating with them.
Like, you got to try to make art your lifestyle. That's what's valuable about art, I think. That's why anyone would want to get into it, because it has to be…it's a communal thing. It's instead of being stuck in an office, you know, your office is art shows. Your office is concerts and stuff like that.
Brett Fieldcamp: For Lightfoot, that connection across disciplines and directions is the goal, with his artistic experiments – be it framed 3D collages or mind-bending expressionist video – a means to an end of simply meeting other creative minds and finding new avenues of art to explore to further the scene and to further map the reaches of what a creative community can be in Oklahoma.
Luke Lightfoot: I want to make a life out of it, you know. I don't consider it like work or anything like that. I just consider just part of my life is going around and seeing what other people are doing, building relationships with people.
Like the art scene here, I've found to be extremely welcoming, and a lot of the artists know each other and are friends, and so they support each other. The artists support each other.
Brett Fieldcamp: You can check out the works of Luke Lightfoot and find DVDs of his video experiments right now on location at 50 Penn Place Art Gallery in OKC and by following @lukemlightfoot on Instagram.
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