Julia Schwartz interviews painter Charles Garabedian on the occasion of the exhibition Charles Garabedian: Re-generation at L.A. Louver Gallery, Venice, CA, on view through May 11, 2013.

Garabedian discusses his history as an artist, the challenges inherent in painting, and the subject matter of his new work: "I think with all artists an idea sort of manifests itself within a period time. No matter what the paintings look like, there is something that identifies them as part of one thing. In this case I’ve looked at the work and see that it has a lot to do with the figure, which the work has for years and years. In these particular paintings, the motivating kind of force was the idea of Salomé, which led to a certain kind of figure, primarily a female figure. The female figures have always had a quality of their own in terms of personality, and I think it continues on in these paintings here."