As exhibition curator for Art Center Sarasota and fine artist Dustin Juengel has a lot on his palette. Over lunch at Café in the Park, SRQ pulled out the X-Ray machine to see how Juengel ticks and the way he unwinds.
PHOTO BY WYATT KOSTYGAN, WITH ART BY DUSTIN JUENGEL.
Espresso I don’t remember my first espresso, but I do remember having one at a little café right before I went into the Prado. That was a memorable one because I ordered it in Spanish and I don’t speak Spanish. I like the one at Coffee Loft.
Quiet Mornings Yeah, Dustin’s not waking up at seven in the morning. There’s no set time—sometimes I’m up painting until 2 or 3 in the morning the night before—but I usually start opening my eyes around 8am. I don’t really do anything in the morning except maybe put on some internet radio.
Peter Paul Rubens When I go to the Louvre, I try not to look at anything else. I just walk straight to the Rubens gallery, before getting over-stimulated with art. I can give those paintings some time. [On The Ringling’s collection:] It’s off and on. Sometimes I go several weeks in a row. I just keep going back.
Art Museums I like the Met because of the variety, but there are so many cool museums. I saw an exhibit with Ira Ray’s work in the Perez Museum in Miami two years ago. There’s a neat museum in Cologne called Kolumba Museum. There’s not really anything interesting for me personally in there, but I like the building. MOMA? Wow. The Louvre? Nothing gets better than that. It’s almost too much at that point.
House Music Marathons I listen to a lot of Kygo. I’m not really up on the genres, but I think it’s all like house/dance music. I listen to that 24-7. If it’s a painting day, I wake up, have an espresso, put on the music and I don’t turn it off until I fall into bed at night.
Oil Paints I like how far you can push them, how much control you can have over them and I like the finished result. There’s a richness to oil paint. So many of my favorite works are oil paintings, so it makes sense.
Eugene Delacroix I’m a big fan. He was a romantic painter and the work I’m attracted to are these very large history paintings. The Death of Sardanapalus might be my favorite. There’s a horse in the foreground and the way that horse is painted, that’s a cool horse. I stand in front of his paintings and it’s just like, ‘Yeah, I get this.’
Horses, Horses and Horses Horses are cool. I would really like to ride horses a bit more–I just want to ride it across a field as fast as I can.
Do you think giraffes are just stupid tall horses? No, I don’t really think of a horse when I see a giraffe. It’s more like a leopard. A nice, tall leopard.
Being by the Water There’s something about the water. I don’t think it has anything to do with art. Maybe because I’m from Germany and there weren’t really big open bodies of water, so being here is very exciting for me. I can’t believe I live right by the ocean. Or palm trees. Water and palm trees I like.
German Attitude I don’t have an object or anything to remind me of home, but I’m sure there’s some kind of attitude that I bring from Germany. Maybe my love for an espresso from an actual espresso cup, I brought from Germany.
DIY I bought a condo and renovated it. I made it as much my dream studio as I could, which had a very positive effect on my artwork. All of the sudden, the space had the right character for what I wanted to do. It’s very open, very generous with space with high ceilings. The light floods it. As soon as I step into that space, I’m awake.
Regal Hollywood 20 I like to go once a week for movie night. I’ve been doing it at least a year. This year was an epic summer for movies; all my childhood favorites came back with Mad Max up on top. It’s downtime, very different from what I do with my painting. I like all kinds of movies. If there’s a movie in 3D, I try to watch it in 3D.
