After much debate and for a variety of reasons, we have decided to have two winners!
Michelle:
and Alain:
Congratulations to our two winners! If you like what you see, visit their websites, email them, buy art from them!
Happy Holidays from all of us at A Bad Crit!!
xox
-Monica
Want a chance to have your work featured on A Bad Crit?
Enter our first ever Holiday Greeting Card Contest!
You can choose a specific holiday, make a general “Happy Holidays,” or “Seasons Greetings” card. It’s all up to you!
The winner’s design will be featured on the blog, sent out in an email blast, with more possibilities thereafter. A Bad Crit will also link your website/blog and contact info for all of your adoring fans to find you and your work.
The card design should be 300 dpi, 5”x7” RGB as a .jpg (for the purposes of the blog).
Everyone loves free publicity!
The deadline for entries is December 15th.
Email us at: abadcrit@gmail.com for more information!
xox
-A Bad Crit
By: Magtotoart
Ever wonder what happens when your living space fills up with art that you’ve made and you don’t want it laying around collecting dust? Ever wonder what happens when an art teacher/artist needs to appease the bills-bills-bills beast? Looking for that special porta-potty watercolor to hang in your home? Got a thing for nurses?
Well, I’m here to bring to you the official Wofflehouse General Store Studio Sale.
Jenifer Wofford is a Bay Area based artist who has traveled the world and just so happens to be a good friend and mentor of mine
Go check her website out: http://wofflehouse.com/
When you’re done learning, laughing, and maybe crying a little, stop by the wofflehouse general store and check out the goods!
Have fun!
By: Magtotoart
When I asked Andre 4k what it was like to direct a music video, I had no idea what I was in for. I knew that it was no piece of cake. My brief stint in the production industry taught me that. But I wasn’t aware of all of the prep work involved. I wasn’t aware of all of the setbacks involved in making a video on your own. The video I worked on was all set up by the time I got there, and all I had to do was stare at some monitors, help compose some shots, hold some cords, and adjust some clothes and chairs.
Andre gives us an inside look on his process. This is the story of a director on his way up:
“So the name of the first music video I’m presenting is titled “Heroes” from up and coming local artist Cahlaj (collage). I met him earlier this year in February through a mutual High School friend. I had to go through a lot of treatment such as finding extras, shooting locations, looking for props, networking with other filmmakers, borrowing equipment, and making at least five to six different shot lists every time the slightest thing was added or excluded. Right now I’m guessing, but coming up with the whole concept might have taken me two months. The next step was trying to find a day to shoot on. My schedule was pretty flexible but the artist Cahlaj was a fulltime student from Cal State Fullerton who also worked fulltime. So it was really hard for him to be open for a shoot while he juggled college classes, work part time, doing his music on the side, having a social life, and then shooting a video in two different locations in LA… So we met in February-April and had a few meetings to discuss what message we wanted to get across, made sure we had our locations secure, and his song was mastered and mixed. The artist wanted a view of downtown LA buildings in the background, and a little kid with a towel around his neck, which was just a visual look to a bar in the song.
In the month of April, I was ready to shoot the video, but he kept postponing and postponing because of his schoolwork load so we rescheduled until the end of the semester. Again, more delays because the artist was saving up to buy his own microphone and was going to mix the vocals and track by himself. Which didn’t turn out as great so he was recommend a engineer, who liked to take his time. In the meantime I was trying to confirm that I had a downtown loft location booked for the shoot but ended up going thru hell trying to confirm the date because the loft owner lost their phone. I included a scene at the high school we went to. The artist claimed he still talked to one of the teachers who still worked at the school and everything should be good…wrong he waited the last minute to contact her that added another few weeks pushed back.
This video was shot in August on two different days. Day one was shot in the industrial side of downtown LA filled with graffiti and street art, then we headed over to the top floor of a 6 story loft (no elevator) where we would had a view of some skyscrapers, and then end it off with a green screen setup. Day two was about 3 weeks later after we got authorization from the high school to shoot on their property, and also shot some more green screen footage in a friend’s house in Westchester while the rooms were clear from his family moving out.
After I had all the footage I went in nonstop trying to edit as fast as I could, prepping Photoshop pics to be animated, compositing the green screen footage, etc. A good week and a half goes by and once again his audio engineer still hasn’t mixed the song, or any of the songs for his whole entire mixtape. As irritated as I was I just took a break from the project and talked to more artists who was looking for a new director and respected my work ethics. On and off I would go back and tweak certain things until his engineer got his life together and now I can finally present his music video that took way to long to produce. It was a learning experience that didn’t make me want to quit but approach things differently since I’m up and coming.”
You can watch the video here:
By: M.Song
As an artist, when people ask me to define what “art” is I am usually left speechless. Not because the question is insulting my intelligence or because of some deep seated trauma involving gauche. It’s because “art” is a loaded and ephemeral question that can’t be explained without a lot of time and cigarettes. There are many interpretations of what “art” is. Is it just a device to express the soul, or is it just another way to tantalize our eyes? Can art be defined by a tangible object, or is it a feeling that can be manipulated and molded at the creators choosing? Sketch Theatre is one of those venues that skirts that line of ambiguity.
Sketch Theatre was created by Alex Alvarez who also happens to be the founder of Gnomon, a school for visual effects and arts in Hollywood. Artists apply and come to their studio rig and sketch what ever they want. This work is then turned into a short video for everyone to view. It’s dictated in their mission statement that, “Aspiring artists are exposed to contemporary artists and the various career paths taken by these like-minded individuals who all began their careers by simply putting ideas and expressions down with a pencil & paper. The brilliant myriad of artists featured on Sketch Theatre strip down and expose raw sketches on camera, never failing to captivate and inspire” and they stay true to it. Giving opportunities to the younger audience and trying to break preconceived notions of art is the feeling that I got from this project. So it’s no surprise that Gnomon would have a gallery reception to showcase these artists.
Celebrating the release of their first book and using the Gnomon gallery space, Sketch Theater and Gnomon showed us how much class they have. Instead of the usual stuffy white walls of your typical gallery, Sketch Theater really made it all about the young people. Open bar, Dj, and elegantly dressed bar girls left the impression that it was a place to celebrate their creation together and share a little bit of what they wanted to portray with their project. The mood came across and, to a certain extent, I would also say that about the art work that lined the walls of the gallery.
Why a certain extent you ask? While I see what they were going for it was more of a celebration that it was an art show. If there was a need to actually analyze and compare against other art shows I would have to say that, while there are a lot of beautiful sketches created through spontaneous inspiration, it is hard to say that they are in their autonomy, completed pieces of art. As I asked for opinions of the show, each opinion was as different as their own definition of art was. While some said they had a hard time viewing the sketches as pieces, there were others that said that they loved the simplicity and unpolished feeling that it gave. Most just enjoyed their intoxication and saw it as an interesting experience. In the end, while it might not be what everyone defines as high art, I can confidently say that if anything, it was a great time. Whatever your definition of “art” may be, there is one thing that we can all agree on and that is that the experience always outweighs the label.
For more on this event, the book, and the video, go to:
Hey all you fabulous readers,
Don’t forget to follow us on twitter for the latest updates, shows we’ll be attending, and other news: http://twitter.com/#!/abadcrit
And join our group on facebook to see our posts, post your own work, and share love in the community: http://www.facebook.com/groups/103974329648073?ap=1
Underdogs gotta stick together and spread the love!
xox
-The A Bad Crit Team
By: Magtotoart
I never know what to expect at gallery openings. Once you think you know the crowd, they switch it up. Since starting the blog, I have realized that depending on the body of work being shown, the people that come to the show will differ. You can count on the regulars: art appreciating folks who like to sit and sip wine (or in this case Pabst) and discuss color, movement, influences, and allusions in the work, the gallery regulars: people who are faithful to the gallery and are at the openings regardless of what is being shown, the randoms: people who you otherwise would not find in the high-toned fancy white cube setting of a gallery, and the people of the scene (not to be confused with scene-sters): folks who are well versed in the specific style and background of the work being shown. The latter will follow the artists of their particular scene from gallery to gallery, event to event, and show love and support. All of these people are the spice that makes each gallery opening unique and special for the artist, the gallery, and the usual patrons.
After working in a gallery setting for a year, I have studied these different groups and come to appreciate what each sector brings to the table. Each group, when mixed with others, makes the show into a show. You will always have the one drunk guy who wanders in off the street in a trench coat and no shirt to make the even entertaining and at times scary, but the eclectic, fluctuating groups are what really do it for me. I love seeing people who would otherwise not interact be thrown together in a gallery, all there for the same cause: to appreciate art. Attendees of a gallery show are there to support the artist and the gallery and to make it special. It’s like going to someone’s birthday party; the night is not about you, it’s about them and it’s your job to make it special.
The opening of 1:AM’s “When We Were Kids” featuring work by Minette Mangahas, Christopher De Leon, and James Garcia was a prime example of the demonstration of this love and support. I saw a lot of people hanging together, looking at art, hugging, and taking pictures. Perhaps my upbringing in a similar setting influenced the scope through which I saw the interactions at the show, but it seemed to me that the artists, for the most part, had some great support from family and friends. The show is a collection of work that speaks to being brought up in the Philippines and the US (for more see: 1:AM’s site) and there was a real sense of community happening at this opening.
Here are some of my favorite pieces:
For more on these artist’s, see the 1:AM website: http://1amsf.com/art/
Hey new followers, fellow art makers, appreciators, and enthusiasts!
Thanks for being a part of our experience here at A Bad Crit.
Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/abadcrit
and join our group on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/103974329648073?ap=1
Stay tuned for more loveliness!
xox
-The A Bad Crit Team
By: Magtotoart
Last Thursday, I attended the opening of “That Was Then, This is Now” featuring collaborations by RISK and COOZ.
COOZ was one of my instructors in college and I consider him somewhat of a mentor and idol, so this was a fun show for me to go to. It was a humbling experience because it reminded me how far I have to go and how much I have to prove as an artist. It was both motivating and exciting.
111 Minna is a great venue for these kinds of shows because it showcases the work nicely. The space is open and they have good furniture for pontificating. The downside to having an art opening with a full bar is that sooner or later, there is going to be some drunk dude/chick touching the paintings. Regardless, it was a beautiful show, in a nice space. If you’re in the area, check it out!
Here are a few of my faves:
To see more of the work, (and way better photos) visit:
http://www.111minnagallery.com/2011/that-was-then-this-is-now/
For more of COOZ (Nathan Ota)’s work go to:
For more of RISK’s work go to:
Hello loyal lovely readers!
Please excuse our absence. We are making some changes and filling our brains up with awesome things to share with you!
Stay tuned and see you all soon!
xox
-The A Bad Crit Team
By: Magtotoart
This weekend, my art adventures took me back to Drip Studios for the opening of “Silica Candy: Glass Infused Paintings”
If you recall, the last show I went to at this studio was a large group show with artwork of all genres by a bunch of different artists. It was a fabulous show, but this time, they’ve really outdone themselves. The space had transformed from the last time I was there, and it felt a lot different. In a sexy, shiny, reflective way. With art by Adam Mostow, and John Park, the confident brush strokes of Park and the elegant glasswork by Mostow made for a completely different experience. (most pieces I will show are paint and glass, collabs by both artists, glass work by Adam Mostow)
It’s hard to say what I enjoyed more, the calligraphy-like paintings by Park, or the giant glass elephant head (you know I’m a sucker for elephants).
I will not bore you anymore, but instead, present images of the work:
(front and side view)
So many images! Email me for more. Or go to:
By: A Bad Crit
ABC: Tell us a little bit about what you do.
TL: I’m a person who draws and paints dark comedy on the side. I can read dreams, pretty neat.
ABC: What inspires you to do your work?
TL: It’s pretty hard to pinpoint out the reasons why I do what I do, for the most of it, I do it because I’m infatuated with the stillness images in my head. It’s a combination of matters and experiences bond together with ideas typical to me.
I utilize concepts in my works, focusing mostly on portrayal of young children as they “develop” and converse themselves into this world. I can never understand the link between childhood and innocence. Mind you, I’m not trying to create some creepy uncensored ideals about them tiny feet. I can’t help but feel excited by the haunting setting when children inhabit in matter that wouldn’t fit their social label. Zero politics in this, the way I was brought up made me realize kids abuse their status. What I do pokes fun of them. I try to create images that are still and momentary build-up for my watchers curiosity and my own. It’s my way of manipulating time and expectations. Playing around with concepts isn’t a bad pass time.
ABC: What are your influences?
TL: I’m a typical 90’s Asian kid who enjoyed her manga, anime and music. Even when I would declare myself picky about my choices.. I was heavily influenced by horror mangas and old Japanese horror flicks. Would spend afternoons watching tons, ending up behind the sofa sweating my brains out half of the time, the other half laughing so bad my chips would stain my shirts. This never made mother happy. Dry humor plays a role in the whole package.
On a personal note, I have an increased interest in mixing my sense of isolation and alienation in my work. I’m biracial and where I legally live, it’s a matter that isn’t taken seriously and often pushed into the margins. Ironically, my desire to become an artist of some sort came about so I’d have a place to fit into. That hasn’t worked really. My works made some people find me externally strange and inwardly weirder. It’s a sensitive and aggressive subject that proves -so far- to be a handy tool in the representation of my works.
ABC: What are you trying to say to the world with your work? (and anything else you’d like to say about it.)
TL: I’m not sure if I draw to announce any public statement, directly or indirectly, what I know is that my work, from my perspective, a pure representation of my mental state, though it’d be neat to be able to change the mind set of low brow art as being some sort of underdog art. I don’t think my work speaks to conduct morals or an organized thought, lemmi put it in this way - better yet, compare this to competitions.
Growing up I was never the competition type. A competitive person would always be running to be the first in something, there’s gonna be that rival they’d always try to get a head-first start and win. I can’t rely on my opponent to be a fierce hardheaded bad guy forever, what if he decides changing careers or even worse, turn into a good guy. That’d hurt me tremedously since I’d would be fueling energy towards beating that person without realizing the inner potential I’m neglecting.
In other words, I’m experimenting my own limits regardless of the subliminal messages I’m sending out to those who look at my work.
ABC: What was the worst critique you ever received?
TL: Since I was a part of the art club, I took liberty to use their studio whenever I have time between classes. This one time, I decided to try out the art club in another faculty different than my usual spot, just to get the feel out of it. The instructor came up to me while I was sketching and criticized my use of unrealistic images and said I should be attentive to what is going on in reality. “You should be aware by now that you’re a college level student and these things should be for children. You’re an adult.” you could say he burnt shades over my imagination. It wasn’t the sort of constructive critique you’d learn from. I doubted myself and refused to draw for over a week.
This wasn’t the first time I ran with my pants on over this issue, another fellow was scrolling through my artworks only to end with “you should keep to reality,”
ABC: How did it make you feel?
TL: The first time, frustrated and felt cheated on. I was a freshman so, had an unusual sensitive mind-set. Haha, I have no idea why. The experience did make me doubt my own abilities. I started of believing that going realistic in my lining would make people understand or pay attention to me. To think I’d go on a path just to prove to others I can draw… How sad it’d be if I ended up believing their words.
ABC: What did you do about it?
TL: I remember bickering about it. For a long while, I was trying to prove to others that I can draw. I wasted a lot of time doing that instead of toning my own abilities and listening to myself. Took me 3 years to actually understand this point and just go for it.
ABC: Where else can we see your work? Do you have any upcoming shows?
TL: As of now, I do provide scans preview of my drawings on my webblog for all to look at and comment.
I’ll be participating in a group exhibition in mid-spring in Kuwait University showcasing my new collection series and loads of pretty goodies. Also, I participated in this year’s Artscoop Sketchbook Exhibition in New York (The library’s been open for a couple of weeks now) do as I say and go find it!
ABC: What would you like to say to the Underdogs out there?
TL: Don’t let words bring you down, study them, ultilize and develop ideas you see fit and believe in. Know when to draw the line, for yourself and others, you better not accept rubbish strangers tell you. Go for it and enjoy the parody of being underdogs.
To see more of Thuraya’s work go to:
By: Magtotoart
(very old post, but i thought i’d put it up. sorry for the delay)
My First Weekend adventure continues with First Saturday at Gallery Hijinks for their opening of “The Letter Collector”. With over 100 separate pieces in the show, it’s hard to choose which images to show you. The crowd was a bit more congested than Friday night, with a lot more elbows thrown, so I apologize for any blurry or crooked pictures. I did my best. Hopefully, as I get more practice maneuvering around engrossed art enthusiasts, I can get a steadier hand in low light situations.
This show reminded me a lot of going to a concert. I felt the need to push and shove my way to the front so that I could get a good view of the show. With the help of my trusty accomplice, I was able to snap more pics than I believe are necessary, so feel free to check out the show online for more.
There were a number of artists that I was excited to see, many names that I recognized, and a lot of people that I had never heard of before on the roster. It’s a huge show, so if you’re in the area, carve out a chunk of time to go see it.
So without further delay, here are my highlights:
“A” by: Beau Stanton
“O” by: Erik Otto
“V” Seth Neefus
“A” Andrea Wan
“H” Fernando Pizarro
“M” Uri Korn
“E” Molly Bosley
Every artist needs to know how to take criticism. Even me. So after
receiving some friendly constructive criticism about my article on Big
Umbrella Studios’ show last Friday, I would like to clear a few things
up.
Firstly, our mission at A Bad Crit is to present artwork. We are here
to bring you, as readers, work that you may not otherwise be able to
see. We know that our readers are all over the world and we appreciate
the opportunity to bring you new and exciting things from up and
coming artists.
So, I would like to formally apologize if I made it seem as though I
did not enjoy the opening of Bestiarum Vocabulum, because I thoroughly
did. I have been to many shows that were overly crowded which can make
it hard to really absorb the work. I liked that this vibe was
different. So by “caliber” I simply meant “hype”. Maybe because Big
Umbrella doesn’t present itself as a snobby, overly hyped up gallery,
which I liked, I used the wrong language. I appreciate the work that
all of our local galleries do to support artists and I meant no
disrespect to the gallery or the artists or their work. I got so
excited about putting the images up that I did not take the time to
re-read what I wrote and consider how it may have come off to the
readers. I made some assumptions about the crowd there, noticing that
everyone was enjoying themselves and engaging in deep conversations
about the artwork, that everyone knew each other, and for that I
apologize as well.
That being said, I hope that you, the readers, enjoyed seeing the
images, as they were enjoyable in person, for me and I look forward to
bringing you more of what San Francisco’s finest has to offer.
<3
Monica
By: Magtotoart
After being separated from the art world for several months, I am attempting to make my triumphant return in small pieces. It is not as simple as making a big bang entrance like, “Hey all you m-effers! I’m back!”. A lot can change in the art world in that amount of time. I had to slowly scope out my options and have a few practice rounds before showing up at an art show that I was really pumped about and blowing up the scene.
I figured that the First Thursday/Friday/Saturday weekend would be a good opportunity to check a few shows out and snap some pictures. There were sure to be lots of events with lots of people which would allow me to hang in the background before I started asking questions, handing out business cards, and chatting up artists. A warm up round if you were.
My first official first Friday turned out to be a bit of a bust. A decent show overall, but not necessarily up to the caliber I was once used to. The work was good, but the gallery was small, which made it hard to get around. The crowd came and went, but it was more of a social event than an art show. I got the feeling that a lot of people that were there knew each other. Here are a few highlights of the Big Umbrella Studios show, “Bestiarum Vocabulum: The Book of Beasts” which featured art by Grant Gilliland, Rick Katagawa, Raymond Sanchez, and a few more. A show all about monsters from all over the world.
“Teen Wolf” by Raymond Sanchez
“Dawn of the Dead” - Raymond Sanchez
“Frank (Donnie Darko Rabbit)” - Raymond Sanchez
Above are the three paintings closest to the entrance. Each using a movie monster theme. I admire the choice. Zombie movies are always a hit, as is Donnie Darko. And Teen Wolf is a good choice if you’re going to use a werewolf. I was glad to see that there were no Twilight or True Blood References.
Here’s a few more of my faves from the night:
“European Dragon” by Grant Gilliland
“Kraken” also by Grant Gilliland
“Tsukumogami” by Rick Kitagawa
“Water Leaper” by Grant Gilliland (I really want this painting)
“Skinwalker” by Rick Kitagawa
“Bigfoot”, Grant Gilliland
“The Grim Reaper”, Gilliland
“Hydra” by Rick Kitagawa
“Trolls”, Gilliland
“Eastern Japanese Dragon”, Kitagawa
and Finally,
“Cyclops”, Gilliland
To see more work by these artists, head on over to:
Raymond Sanchez (co-owner of Big Umbrella Studios)
Stay Tuned for my review of First Saturday!!
By: Magtotoart
This is a very late post, but I think it’s worth it.
Two weeks ago, I made appearances at the opening of two shows that are worth talking about. The opening of “Outside In” at 1:AM gallery, and the opening of an all female show, “Yin” at Drip Studios Gallery.
“Outside In” featured local talents such as Buter, Jurne, UFO, Wand, Keb, and a few others.
Everything from a classic 90’s street piece, to a combination of found art, paint, and letters were found at this evening’s packed event. There was such a wide array of styles that it was hard to absorb everything all at once. It took me a few laps around the gallery to take it all in.
The atmosphere was a little like a house party, but slightly more organized. There were familiar faces, new faces, and of course, party faces. The choices in style, color, and composition were unique to the artist’s taste, flair, and placement in the gallery. Being a graffiti show, one expects nothing but spray paint, but these artists really took it a step further.
Above is a mixture of found and created art. It looks like the artist literally cut this wall out of an alley and posted it in the gallery. To bring something indoors that we are so used to seeing outdoors is a bold move. The color and placement choices for each of the panel provided a large statement without being overwhelming.The work overlapped, built on, and separated the panels. The letters were in the background, on the panels, underneath them, around them, and hidden inside them. If you were not looking closely, you would miss some of the hidden messages in the piece.
Because of the foot traffic, most of these pictures are only pieces of the work. To see more images, go to the 1:AM website. Above, the use of complimentary colors against a white and black background caught my eye. this piece is a little busy, but it kept me intrigued for quite a while, noticing more small details, the longer I stood there. Five separate pieces came together to make one very busy piece. I could go on and on about variations in can use, but I’ll let you linger on that one on your own.
Jurne’s piece used overlapping positive and negative stencils. The color choices caused parts of the piece to vibrate. The use of a blurred background with sharp clean edges in the foreground made the work pop off the wall. I really enjoyed looking at this huge series of panels.
Here are a few highlights from the 1:AM show, including a surprise guest appearance by Lousy Right!!!
nice use of overlapping type here :) see if how much of it you can read.
All of the artists showcased above on the show’s title piece “Outside In”.
Surprise visit from LOUSY RIGHT!!!
Nice use of stencils and can control!
Overall this was a great show!
On to Drip Studios’ opening, “Yin”, featuring ten kick ass women. This show was much different from the 1:AM show, but was a necessary stop on my list because of the theme. Hope you enjoy:
There were many styles, aesthetics, and choices of subject matter to choose from at this show.
Below are some of my favorites from a huge wall piece by Susan Wu:
The juxtaposition of old world and new world, east and west, past and present, make this piece into a comforting and yet still provocative pastiche of the artist’s cultures. The different mediums used in this piece: paint, pencil, collage, etc. make the work that much more meaningful. The artist’s fearlessness in showing her family’s heritage and her own culture now are exciting for me personally as well.
Here are some close up shots of another piece by Susan Wu. These faces are so tiny in real life!!
Some work by LAurus Myth with themes of nature laced with technology:
Two psychedelic pieces by Jessica Perlstein:
Some interesting and curious pieces by Adriana Sparkuhl:
The lighting in the one below caused some massive out-of-focusedness but I had to show it:
And last but not least, at the end of the night I had the pleasure of meeting the wonderful Miss Winifred. An amazing printmaker and jewelry designer. Here are a few of her beautiful pieces:
The night was filled with free (or semi-free) beer, friends, surprises and a lot of meeting new people. An eclectic mixture of work, old and new styles.
There were some totally different styles, but all are styles that are absolutely crucial to our San Francisco art culture. We are a city that thrives because of our diversity. And these two shows are only a tiny snapshot.
Hey there everyone!
Thanks so much for following us! We are so excited that we can continue to bring you amazing content week after week! If you would like to be featured on our blog, please email all inquiries to:
There are a few ways to be featured:
-get interviewed by a friend
-interview yourself
-interview a friend
The guidelines are on our main page: www.abadcrit.com
Please note that the first few questions and the very last question of each interview is usually the same. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to write!
You can also keep in touch with us on facebook and twitter!
Thanks again for your continued support!
-Monica + Daniel and the A Bad Crit Team
Interviewer: Saki Waki
SW: Tell us a little bit about what you do.
LG: I make watercolor paintings of the beasties that live in my head. There’s a desolate but cheerful post-human landscape in there, populated mostly by birds and rabbits and oddly functioning technology.
SW: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
LG: It happened in art school. I was a sculpture major, and I was trying to make objects that told fictional and fantastical stories…not so different from the kind of paintings I do now. I was absolutely delighted with these things I had put together for the crit - sort of a melodramatic chapel of improvised saints made out of found objects and butcher paper and plaster casts of my roommate’s beatific, madonna-like face. And I got smacked down SO hard. The head of the department said, basically, that if I was interested in using narrative and language, drawing and telling stories, then it was time to transfer to the illustration department. They thought there was a huge impermeable wall between ”commercial” art and “fine” art, and that I belonged on the commercial side of it.
SW: I read that you’ve only recently began your watercolor adventures. What did you do before this?
I’ve had a lot of different jobs, but I’ve always made art for money. When I was in my twenties, if someone was willing to pay me to draw or paint something, I’d do it. I did custom leather jackets, murals in people’s apartments, portraits, postcards for shows, wedding invitations, comics, editorial illustration…you name it. The most epic of my early works was a four-foot-long portrait of a Harley Davidson with a wall of flames behind it, gently parting to reveal the silhouette of the Verrazano Narrows bridge. I think it’s hanging over a fireplace on Staten Island now.
In retrospect, I think doing all those different kinds of work let me get a lot better at drawing and painting without angsting too much about content and concept and “meaning”. By the time I started making the things I’m making now, I didn’t have to worry too much about the technical stuff.
Interviewer: Monica Magtoto
MM: Tell us a little bit about what you do.
TJ: I make your city look pretty….I am an Urban Landscape specialist. Which translates into an urban artist fluent in the major media of the city streets, i.e. freehand graffiti, Wheat-pasted poster art, stencils and 3D sculpture interwoven in the fabric of the urban landscape. I am also a college professor at the Art Institute of Las Vegas, and a commercial designer.
MM: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and
how did it make you feel?
TJ: The worst critique I have ever had came from myself. I try not to suffer as a result of something that I feel is unacceptable. In fact at that point I do my best to remove emotion all together and replace it with problem solving. And besides I don’t care what most people think about my work…
MM: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt
about your art?
TJ: I have always felt that if I didn’t like my work then no one would like my work. Really art is your own struggle; to be comfortable within your artistic skin, if you will. I don’t believe in the bad or negative attitude. To me attitude is everything when approaching a project. The attitude will dictate the energy and love being put into a particular piece of work.
MM: What did you do about it?
TJ: It was my mission to find everything and anything positive and constructive and put it into what I was doing…I spent time with my work….I became friendly with that which was foreign to me (successful art and design). Then after a while it was not foreign but a part of my inner mind. Art was like breathing after a while. Some people will do a piece and all they can focus on is the one thing they did bad (in their opinion). That opinion is like a “seed of perception” dropped by the artist and one day that seed will grow in the mind of the viewer who will in time think that the one imperfection the artist did ruins the work. Positive must always be the attitude.
MM: Where does the tiki in tikijay come from?
TJ: The tiki in Tiki Jay comes from my icon which represents an Urban Easter Island head.
MM: What is your favorite medium to work with?
TJ: Musashi was Japans greatest Samurai. He said that one should not be disciplined in one weapon but all of them. I believe the same thing with art to be a well rounded, an artist must be fluent in as many mediums as possible and master all of them.
MM: How has your life changed since Otis?
TJ: Since I have left Otis, life for me has taken on the reality of a dream I once had when I was a little spray paint can. I am making my living and living my life as a Full-Time artist. And I am helping to shape and change peoples lives. I really am enjoying my life as an Artist/Designer/Urban Artist Extraordinaire…
MM: What is it like teaching? Any teaching advice?
TJ: Teaching has been the most Rewarding experience of my life. Teaching advice: Watch Randall Wilson teach…
TJ: The best part about being in Las Vegas is that now I am fully motivated move back to California. As soon as they’re not broke anymore. Thanks Governator. Oh yeah and I love that the bars are open 24 hours….LOVE IT!!!!
MM: What is the biggest challenge about the medium/industry/circle you work in?
TJ: The biggest problem in industry today, and the reason some people aren’t working is because there is no money in the economy to drive the businesses the way they should be. It certainly isn’t a lack of talent.
MM: What is it like working on both the legal and not so legal sides of art?
TJ: I enjoy the archetype of being the outlaw hero……
MM: What/where is your next show?
TJ: I will be painting a gourmet Ice cream sandwich truck soon, I also have a show in Vegas, and there are some new bombing and urban projects in LA upcoming. Oh yeah and there is the new film on some of my new work.
MM: What projects are you working on right now?
TJ: Currently like I said, I have a mural project for a company called Chunk-n-chip, I am working on designs for a band called Avenged Sevenfold. I am working on a designs for a pin-up series, interviews, and my peace of mind.
MM: Where can you find tikijay on a saturday afternoon?
TJ: Um will little kids be reading this? If they are you can find me at school (Art Institute) drawing nude models…or you may find me at the bar sitting with a young lovely, or you may find me Bombing your hood.
MM: What is next for tikijay?
TJ: I am actually work on some new street art personas that will be risky in the nature of their work. I won’t go into detail, but the work will be more interactive with other artists and with the general public pushing the limits of what is considered “street art” or “respect” in the city streets. I am hoping to achieve something that is beyond myself, per say. I want to move away from the self indulgence of the single artist and include viewer and other artists at large.
MM: What would you like to say to the underdogs?
TJ: Everyone loves the underdog!!!!!
To see more of tikijay’s work visit:
Interviewer: Monica Magtoto
MM: Tell us a little bit about what you do.
AD: Honestly I’m still growing into my style, and I’m not sure what I’m going to do with my work. Right now I really enjoy portraiture. I see beauty in the subtleties of people’s faces that most people I know overlook, and I like to depict people in a blunt, colorful way that accentuates those.
MM: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and
how did it make you feel?
AD: At the 2009 Otis internship fair when I was showing my portfolio around I could tell when people were giving me the “that’s cute, but we can’t use someone like you” goodbye smile. I’d hear things along the lines of my work not being cohesive enough, my style not being what anyone was looking for. My work didn’t have enough broken buildings and zombies and wasn’t concept-y enough for any of the game companies to get excited about it, and it wasn’t cartoony or kid-friendly enough for any of the big childrens’ TV networks to take a second look. I just didn’t fit into what employers were looking for. With the economy tanking that year and Otis banging into my head every day that I needed to get a job, I already felt like a failure because I knew I’d never be able to cramp my style into what the movie or game industry wanted, and I didn’t have enough of a sense of self to keep my head above the water after basically being told that my work looked alright but wasn’t useful to anyone.
AD: It made me wonder if I even wanted to DO art for a living if what I was seeing was what the rest of my life would look like.
MM: What did you do about it?
AD: What I’d always wanted to do—I disappeared. Ran off, what have you. I just got away and pressed a big fat pause button on my art life and worked on myself and who I thought I was.
MM: What has your time at Otis taught you about yourself/ your work?
AD: Not a lot of people at Otis know this, but as I approached college, I struggled with choosing either art or academia, because both are dear to me. I spent my childhood reading encyclopedias, collecting and breeding bugs, going to nerd camp (Duke TIP represent!), studying space and animals and ecosystems, and just being a geeky little kid. Being at Otis was hard because there were not a lot of people I could identify with in that sense—it really is an art school. I had trouble getting along with people at first, and at times I truly wished that I gave more of a shit about badly recorded indie music or Halo 2 or America’s Next Top Model or whatever else people were talking about, just so I wouldn’t feel like such an island. Eventually, though, I did find like-minded people and teachers who put brainpower into their work and you could see how strong of an impact it made. I realized that my backdoor love affair with science and constant munchies for information would be my greatest assets as an artist. I became wildly interested in the physical properties of light, the anatomy of the eye, the structure of the human body, how people see other people, how facial recognition works in the brain, to name a few subjects. Science rules.
MM: What was it like going home? How did it affect your work? What did you learn?
AD: Home. That’s a funny word. I don’t really feel like I have one, truthfully. I left Otis after an overly exhausting sophomore year that left me not knowing who I was. I felt like Otis ate me. I lived at my grandma’s house until about September in a peaceful, tiny town in the Midwest, and it was nice in that it really made me stare myself down in every possible way and confront things I didn’t want to look at. However, I had nobody to relate to and the environment quickly became inhibiting and boring, so I ran away to a college town in Indiana that was home to a high profile engineering school and I lived with two computer engineering students and a bio-med for the rest of the year. Those people became my home. I was only there for eight months but for the first time in my life I didn’t feel like a giraffe in a pasture of horses. One of the students I lived with was a friend I had met at nerd camp in 2005 and we began dating. I drew him endlessly and after memorizing and drawing all of the subtleties in his face over and over again, I got a lot sharper with portraiture in general.
I couldn’t find a job, so I DJed at the school radio station for the last quarter and just enjoyed being under the radar and living my own life. The station got this fan letter from this prison nearby where Timothy McVeigh was executed(apparently the prison really enjoyed the station), and this guy named Edward who was serving life wrote my name in it and said that he liked my show. All I did was play songs I liked off of my laptop. I even let facebook and AIM noises slip over the air more than a few times. But this guy! I can’t explain it, but it changed how I looked at things. I also experienced my first real winter. I learned how to live off of NO money, how to stay warm, how to bake the tastiest bread ever for less than three bucks, and how to love everything from baby leaves to people better than I knew how to before.
MM: What are your plans now that you’re back in LA?
AD: I interned all summer with Columbia Records at Sony, which was a blast, and I might go back there in the fall. I’m also going back to Otis to finish my degree, so most of my life for the next two years will belong to the DGMD.
MM: What is your favorite medium?
AD: Oil paint, oil paint, oil paint forever. Give me my cancer right now!
MM: What is your favorite subject matter to paint/draw?
AD: Beautiful, interesting people that make you stop thinking about whatever you’re thinking about and just stare.
MM: What do you do when you’re not doing art?
AD: I read comic books and I internet. I also like looking for new music—I’m a sucker for house and drum and bass, and most things electronic. I also love nature and I love taking spontaneous trips into Santa Barbara or just into the mountains on random nights. I have also become a bit of a foodie in the last year so I really like looking for new things to cook and new restaurants to go to.
MM: What’s your next project? Any secret projects to look forward to??
AD: Yeeesssss. I’m doing a series of parody portraits, but I’m going to keep the theme a surprise!
MM: What would you like to say to the underdogs?
AD: Don’t waste time being too serious, be as raw as you can, and don’t limit your dreams by defining them as just dreams. They will happen if you make them happen and you will be blown away.
To see more of Alexa’s work visit:
Interviewer: Brandi Clark
BC: Tell us a little bit about what you do.
AK: I’m a Canadian Artist who’s focus these days is primarily in digital collage pieces.
BC: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
AK: It was a few years ago when I was primarily designing furniture. I had one of my pieces posted on a design site which was open for feedback. So the general response was positive except for one guy who courageously posted as ‘Anonymous’. He went off on how bad the design was and ended with the comment, “this is just fat and it’s ugly”. At first I was pretty bummed for the day, but soon got over it and realized that it was pointless to lose sleep over it. For me if the crit is constructive and has a point, I’m all good with that and appreciate the time that someone took to think over the piece. But this guy really had it out for me that day.
BC: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt about your art?
AK: Funny enough it made me put more thought into my work and think about where I was coming from and where I was going with it. Plus i’d say it helped me develop a thicker skin when taking a crit. The fact that it creates some form of dialogue is a good thing because there’s nothing worse than being ignored. So whether it’s feedback from a seasoned pro or feedback from an insane person, it’s all gravy after the fact.
BC: What did you do about it?
AK: I just let it go and moved on. If the guy can’t post under his own name, what’s the point of responding?
BC: What makes a “good” collage?
AK: A couple of things for me. One is: I like a collage that entices the viewer to come up with their own narrative for the piece. The other is when it takes time to explore the work. You look at it one day, then revisit it later on and discover something new about it.
BC: What is your process?
AK: I usually have an idea in my head as to what I want as a narrative for the piece. I start with a character, then a setting and then add in supporting elements as I go. I’ve accumulated a stockpile of articles, clippings, magazines and photos that I’m able to sift through and use as needed. It’s just this organic process where I feel things out and just go with my gut. I don’t have an academic background to help me through the process, so I‘m relying on my instincts every time.
BC: Is there an advantage to your medium?
AK: I’m not a great painter. I’m OK, but not OK enough to put it out there for people to see. But with collage, in particular digital collage, it allows me to execute ideas and compositions that I would normally not be able to present. I actually taught myself to use Photoshop a little over a year ago, so my knowledge with the format is limited. But it gets me to where I want to go at the moment. For a while before that I was using Paintbrush, which, looking back on now, was pretty insane. I wasted a lot of time using that progam.
BC: Is there anything frustrating about your medium? What are the challenges?
AK: As I said, my knowledge of Photoshop is limited, so there are a few elements that I wanted to add but just didn’t know how to. I’m sure as I go I’ll figure things out, but for now I make due and am able to get across what I want to.
BC: Is there anything symbolic about the “man” recurring in your collages?
AK: B. Sherman or ‘blockhead’ as people have been calling him. The head is actually the first furniture piece I designed years ago. It was a simple one drawer unit that I initially called ‘Sherman’. It was always my favorite piece mainly because of how simple it was and how much of a visual impact it could provide in a proper setting. So when making the transition from design to collage, I wanted to hold on to an element from that phase in my creative process.
BC: Do you ever experience “artist’s block”? Do you believe in artist’s block?
AK: I’ll let you know when it hits.
BC: How do you know when you are finished a collage?
AK: Instinct. You just get to the point where the composition just works. I usually let something sit for a day when I think it’s done, then revisit it with fresh eyes the next morning. It’s amazing what a clear head will see.
BC: What’s currently on your bookshelf?
AK: I framed and put up a print I picked up from Dr.Lakra’s summer exhibit at Boston’s ICA. Man that was a great exhibit. So there’s that, a new piece from Muttpop, the new Kozik Tequila. Some other random vinyl toys, art mags, etc. I always like to surround myself with work’s from other Artists to keep things flowing.
BC: What would you like to say to the other underdogs out there?
AK: Have patience, take the hits along the way because they will come and just keep working your ass off. Eventually it’ll pay off in some fashion.
To see more of Adriean’s work go to:
Interviewer: Tae Querney
TQ: Tell us a little bit what you do.
JD: Beyond the basic tag of being an artist, I’d consider myself an illustrator in particular. While I do have moments where my work may blend over into fine art, I think it’s safe to say that the majority of my work is illustration. Of course, illustration can be considered fine art as well but you know what I mean. We could be here all night if we start up that argument. In my work I always try to add a bold or graphic sense or… I don’t want to say style but that’s what it is. As much as I hate that word. And as for medium, I tend to work with pen and ink and, until recently, color digitally. I’ve been trying to move away from digital color and add a bit more traditional medium into my art. It’s not that I hate digital coloring now- it’s just that I’d like to get to a point where I’m not as dependent on it as I use to be.
TQ: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
JD: Now that I think about it, my worst critiques were the ones that didn’t really say anything. Only awkward silence with the occasional I like it or it’s nice. It’s incredibly frustrating. As corny as it is, I tend to be my harshest critic so I’m always up to hearing about what people think about my work. A few comments here and there have stung a bit, though. Things like I was behind the curve or that I was wasting my time. I’ve also been told more than once that my work was trying too hard to be perfect- which seemed ridiculous at the time but I understand what they mean now. I just need to relax and stop being so precious with my work. Start having fun with it again.
TQ: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt about your art?
JD: Actually, I’m the most excited to get back to work after a critique. As long as it’s constructive, that is. I can tell if I have those simple realizations. Those “My god, why didn’t I think of that” moments. It really gets me in the mood to put them to the test as soon as I can.
TQ: What did you do about it?
JD: They’re little things that change my work bit by bit. Hopefully for the better. My style has loosened up and the process is becoming just as fun as having that finished product again. I’m trying to be more daring, trying new things. All of that came from critiques. Either from myself or from others.
TQ: Where do you get inspirations for your illustrations?
JD: That’s a good question. Everywhere, to be blunt. I love subject matter either from nature or from other cultures so I tend to look there. After that I just search through the internet day and night and hang on to anything that catches my eye.
TQ: Who are your influences?
JD: I get a lot of influence from artists like Tomer Hanuka, Sergio Toppi, and Moebius. Along with that, I’ve been looking at artists like Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Alphonse Mucha, and J.C. Leyendecker to name a few. I try to look everywhere just like I would for inspiration.
TQ: You recently graduated, what are your plans now that you’re out of college?
JD: Now that I’m out of school, I’m trying to get my name out there and continue to work as a freelance illustrator. I’ve done a few small jobs so hopefully that will be just the start of many more to come. For the time being I’m just trying to make ends meet. I’m working as a studio assistant and I’m interning at the Society of Illustrators right now, which is amazing. To be surround by illustration both old and new like that is a dream come true.
TQ: Do you feel like you got the best education as an illustrator?
JD: Enrolling at the School of Visual Arts was probably the best choice I’ve made in my entire life. Not only are you in constant reach of artists in the business right now but also you’re in the heart of the city which doesn’t hurt. I had the choice to go to a few other art schools but New York City made the final decision a lot easier. The illustration program at SVA is incredibly up to date while not forgetting about where it came from. I would strongly recommend it to anyone interested.
TQ: What would you like to say to the other underdogs out there?
JD: When you’re putting together your portfolio, try not to make it too general. You shouldn’t be drawing what the art directors are interested in but instead, what you would want for future jobs. They’re going to hire you based on what work you have so it has to be stuff you enjoy drawing. That, and keep it fun! Don’t get stuck in anything too repetitive. It never hurts to experiment once in a while. Even if it’s only in your sketchbook.
To see more of Johnny’s work, go to:
http://johnnydombrowski.com/
http://www.johnnydombrowski.blogspot.com/
http://twitter.com/jdombrowski
Acquired by Monica Magtoto
My name is Alain Norte and I am an illustrator and designer from Los Angeles. I grew up pretty normal I guess. I’m a huge comic nerd and have a horrible addiction to variant covers although I have cut down on my overall comic purchases lately. I play videogames but not too much anymore. I do go to the gym a whole heck of a lot. I love it. When I’m not doing any of that stuff I’m drawing and sketching. I’m sketching right now! Haha! I also like MMA and feel like if I wasn’t an artist I might have been a fighter and a good one. I still might who knows. Probably not. Art is in my blood. There are a lot of artists in my family.
My dad was my first real teacher. He pretty much started it all for me. He also was the one who got me into comics. My mom however was the one who put me into the right schools and always pushed me to do my best in my education. So both of my parents had a very large part in getting me into the arts. I went to an art high school here in Los Angeles, were I got a lot of the basics down. I had some cool teachers and fun times there. I then went to Otis College where I studied Toy Design. That was pretty fun too but it was my years there where I realized that toys weren’t for me.
I had one of the worst WORST crits of my life during my senior year of Otis that pretty much sealed the deal for me that I wasn’t going to be doing toy after graduation. It was my first semester final where I had to present my “girls toy product” to my teacher the chair of the toy department as well as actual Mattel girl’s designers. It was pretty intimidating to say the least. I had about 30 minutes of sleep the night before due to me working like mad to get my project finished. Which I didn’t. I remember just trying to get through my presentation as fast as I could. Afterwards they literally told me I failed and that my idea was terrible. When they told me that I felt hurt angry crushed all at the same time. They told me that I should have stayed with my original idea that my teacher had told me to change half way through the semester. I looked at her while they were telling me this and she played it off like I was the one who messed up. I would have had a good product if I hadn’t listened to her. Anyway that still really burns my cookies when I think about it. The best crit I ever had I would say was that same crit though. It made that click happen.
From that point on I did what I wanted to do. I knew I wasn’t going into toy design so I just had fun my last few months of school. I made monster baby sculptures that I wanted to put on my shelves. I couldn’t have cared less if nobody wanted to buy them. They were cool and I liked them. I still have them on my bookshelf. Now that I have graduated I really dont see myself ever EVAR getting back into toys. My style doesn’t fit into most of the toy companies out there. I really feel like comics is where I am going to shine. That’s what I grew up with and where I found most of my inspiration for my art growing up.
There were and still are so many artists that fueled the fire for me. First of all and most importantly I would have to say my dad. He was my first inspiration and his artwork is amazing. Then Frank Frazetta, Harvey Kurtzman, Dean Yeagle, Frank Cho, Michael Turner, Gary Geraths, J.Scott Campbell, Mark Silvestri, Joe Mad, Randy Green and literally about 100 others. There are also people who pushed me and motivated me that aren’t “artists” but very important like Vince Hernandez who sent me home from the cons back to the drawing board a few times after ripping my portfolio to shreds. Thanks Vince. Also some of the most important if not the most are my grandparents. They made it possible for me to be here and think about them everyday. All those people are what is driving me to make it.
Each year I get closer to that goal of one day making it big and making an impact in the comic industry. I do have some Indy work under my belt though. I have two published comics right now, which are: Cold Blooded Chillers 1 and 2. I did lettering in issue 1 and then art and lettering in issue 2. I also have done art for a small trading card company by the name of Sadlittles. I have done work so far for four of the card sets they have produced and will probably keep working with them. I am also working on some submission samples for this years San Diego comic con as well as working on my first art book that I am going to debut at this years Anime Expo in Los Angeles in a few weeks. I’m also taking commission requests and selling stuff on eBay all the time so I get pretty busy.
To see more of Alain’s work visit:
Interviewer: Romina Perez
A Good Company Interview from Romina Perez on Vimeo.
For more information on A Good Company check out:http://www.weareagoodcompany.com/
Check out the websites of their projects:
And their personal sites:
Caroline Hadilaksono: http://www.hadilaksono.com
Micah Rich: http://www.micahrich.com
For the past several months, we have been receiving these postcards at my job here at Giant Robot San Francisco. We have no clue who the sender is, only that they are from the UK. We love the work and want to get the artist’s info. If anyone has any information on this artist, PRETTY PLEASE send it our way.
Whatever the reason for sending them anonymously, this artist has caught our attention in a big way. Excellent branding and ingenious marketing technique, I must say.
We like the simplicity and boldness of each piece. It says something and nothing all at the same time. Clever use of simple shapes and bright colors juxtaposed on old photographs and every day graphics is what makes these images pop.
This is the latest one. Bearing nothing but the usual “par avion” sticker and a 67p stamp. For the first time, we can actually see the post mark: “Royal Mail - 13.07.10 - South East Anglia - 07:39 pm - 13902299”
Excuse the crappy Iphone photography. If anyone knows ANYTHING about this artist, please email us.
abadcrit@gmail.com
thanks for reading!
-Monica
ABC: Tell us about what you do?
PC: The Art of Paul Chisholm explores what it is to be human in a 21st century society. With the world evolving into ever greater complexity, the artists’ work pinpoints simple and playful ways of exploring issues relating to ageing, isolation, the geography of human consciences, gender issues of a gay man in a modern world, climate chaos, terrorism and politics.
Working with both painting and sculpture, the artist deploys materials such as dust, plastic, pins, rubber bands and found and discarded materials from the street, re-inventing them in ways that are both surprising and poetic. Each object is chosen for its metaphorical and sociological value. The artist certainly has an obsession with all things morbid, but at the same time his work shines a light onto what might otherwise appear dark.
Underlying each of the artists’ works is a feeling that life is far from idyllic: that we are destroying the planet and each other in pursuit of a perceived perfect life.
ABC: What was the worst critique you were given and how did it make you feel?
PC: The worst crit I was ever given was when I graduated from Nottingham Trent: I was given a 2:2 which I felt undermined my creative abilities and the effort that I put into my degree. The worst part was the lack of critical feedback from the institution.
ABC: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel about your art?
PC: That experience made me more determined than ever to create my Art and to promote it and exhibit it: to be an Artist, so to speak, with or without an institution’s glorification or approval!
ABC: What inspires you?
PC: The obvious answer is life, but to be more precise, my own experiences of the visceral world around me, whether that be personal or collective.
ABC: How do you promote your work?
PC: I have my own website and a facebook fan page for my art. I also have pages on all of the “art websites“, but none of these seem to engage the people I want to see my work - mainly, galleries, curators and collectors. It is hard to be a sensitive creative type and also your own best PR lady! These skills are not taught enough at art school!!!
ABC: What’s next for the art of Paul Chisholm?
PC: Well I recently exhibited as a part of the Islington Exhibits Festival in London and I am due to start the Contemporary Art course at Metafora in Barcelona in September.
ABC: Where would you like to see yourself and or your work in ten years time?
PC: I would like to see my work being exhibited in contemporary art museums and galleries around the world. As my work is both conceptually beautiful and critically engaged in contemporary culture I am sure society would have a lot to gain from my works of art.
ABC: Finally what would you like to say to other underdogs out there?
PC: Carry on creating for your own passion and love of art. If it is recognized by the art world then all the better but if not, it is still your own creativity that counts!
To see more of Paul’s work, visit:
www.facebook.com/paul-chisholm-artistInterviewer: Davis Ngarupe
DN: Tell us how you became a designer?
NM: I can trace my graphic design roots to my teenage years when I use to skateboard and play in punk rock bands. I would make stickers, screen print shirts, make cassette covers (yes I’m that old that CD’s weren’t around), 7” record covers and fliers for the punk bands I use to play in. After high school I moved to Los Angeles and I put together a fanzine called FAR FROM HOME with a couple friends. Up to this point I still didn’t own a computer so most of the fanzine was cut and paste and photo copies. One of my roommates bought a computer but we only used it to print text since neither one of us knew how to really use a computer. Even when the fanzine moved from photocopies to newsprint we still gave the printer a cut and paste version as the original. I then started to take some art classes at Pierce College in Los Angeles. I still didn’t know what graphic design was until one of my art teachers at Pierce College asked me what I planned to do as a career. I told him I didn’t know. I told him about the punk band I was in and the fanzine I made and he then told me that I should look into graphic design. That is the point I started to look at my hand drawn type and band shirts as graphic design. And the rest is history. I got a BFA in graphic design from Brigham Young University and I’m currently in my final year of the MFA program at the University of Utah.
DN: Who are your design influences?
NM:As far as influences go, I think I’m all over the place. I think it is really hard to nail down influences because of how much information is out there on websites. There are so many websites and blogs I follow that range from traditional Swiss design to DADA and Futurist typography to printmaking to street art. I definitely still have a soft spot for collage and photocopy work. It reminds me of my teenage years. At the moment I’m really influenced by mono-type prints, wood type and screen prints.
NM: The worst critique I remember having would have to be my first semester in the BFA program at BYU. We had end of semester critique with the design faculty. I really was not prepared and didn’t know what to expect. I had heard rumors about students getting kicked out of the design program for not having a good critique. I expected one of the faculty members to be pretty hard on me but to my surprise he sat there quietly looking over my work. I think that through me off so when the other faculty members asked me questions about my work I was not prepared to answer them. They basically thought my work was not good and I that I needed to work on some things.
NM:I went home thinking I should start thinking about picking a new major because I thought that I would be getting kicked out of the BFA program. After a couple days I played back that critique in my head and thought about the things the faculty said to me. I thought about the late nights I had spent designing and studying for my other classes. I figured that if I could spend more time on my design projects and less time on my general ed classes that I could do a lot better. So I did just that. I spent less time on my general ed classes and more time on my design classes. I can honestly say that it saved me from getting kicked out of the BFA program.
NM: I’ve been doing a lot of screen prints lately. I’m currently working on social and political work. As a graphic designer I feel that my artwork should not only help to communicate the brands of the world, but also shed light on social issues that face our society. My artwork addresses the immigration debate between the United States and Mexico. It takes aim at the myths about immigration and the need for comprehensive immigration reform.
NM:I think I will always have my hand in both corporate branding and social political work. My MFA thesis will definitely be around the immigration debate so you can expect a lot more screen prints. You can keep up with what I’m doing at www.heymendoza.com
Interviewer: Andy Nukes
AN: Tell us a little bit about what you do.
BC: What don’t I do? I’m so scatter-brained. I’m best known for working with Japanese fashion dolls (Pullip, Dal, Byul, Taeyang, and Blythe), but I also work with urban vinyl, kokeshi, some painting, collage, I make jewelry, and I even write haiku, lol…I also hula hoop unusually well.
AN: How did you develop an interest in doing art? Describe some of your early creative endeavors.
BC: When I was a kid I remember doodling a lot, but instead of the fridge being a reward the drawings my dad deemed “good” would be made into zines. The motivation that comes from print publication is far more than any cold, metal surface could provide, I’ll tell you that much! My first zine, “Monster’s Nature Land,” was published in 1986 when I was five years old, I remember hawking it to the neighbors and managed to sell them all for $0.25 a pop!
AN: Who are some of your influences?
BC: I used to do collage, way back, and so I made an effort not to look at any collage work so that I wouldn’t inadvertently borrow anything. It’s like how every starting musician “invents” part of “Stairway to Heaven,” and then gets really disappointed later on. When you start out, you’re too malleable. I don’t look at many doll artists either and those who I love, the reason I love them is because they’re so different from me. As far as influences that translate into my work go … the biggest one has to be fashion, especially Japanese fashion, there are so many facets and it’s all so amazing. Mythology or folk/fairy tales from any culture are another huge influence, I feel a strong compulsion to revision the characters. Sometimes I’ll see a shape or color scheme in graphic design and a light bulb will go on and, most recently, I was inspired by a Camilla d’Errico’s work which I translated into a doll. She was very supportive, which made me very happy. It’s very rare that an artist will inspire me so much that I’ll need to do a direct reincarnation of a piece, but d’Errico is really exceptional.
AN: Now, let’s talk about your custom dolls. Where did you get your inspiration to do these?
BC: Once upon a time I just mangled generic Barbies that I bought at the grocery store. I’m not being cute or hyperbolic when I say “mangled,” I mean, they were disturbing. After that (by “that” I mean a good 7 years) I customized My Little Ponies just because, I wasn’t bad at it, though I wasn’t good, and it’s where I learned how to paint on toys/3D. Eventually I started collecting Pullips and when I had one I wanted to get rid of that I couldn’t sell the urge to take it apart overwhelmed me.
AN: Zombuki is an awesome name. What does it mean? How did the name come about?
BC: It’s “zombie” and “kabuki” - when I made my first one I was taking photos of it in a ditch outside my house (glamorous). My friend (then-roommate) came over and I asked for his help brainstorming a name “for these things” since he was great with stuff like that. It went something like, “I want it to be something like ‘zombie’ and ‘kabuki’ …” and he said, “How about Zombuki?” it was so absurd it just stuck!
AN: You name each of your dolls. Tell us about this.
BC: The names of the dolls are pretty important to me, usually they’re obscure personal references or references to something about the design. Andalusia, for example, is based on a peacock and she’s named after Andalusia Farms, which is where Flannery O’Connor raised peafowl for most of her life. Hanami is named after a flower viewing festival because her design is inspired by cherry blossoms, and Pon is named after a package of Japanese candy because she’s candy soda-inspired. They all have a little something like that to them, sometimes I explain it, sometimes I let it stay private. There’s a lot in a name, I feel like randomly naming them would be disrespectful somehow.
AN: How do you decide what each doll will look like?
BC: It sounds strange but there’s not a way I can answer that question. The dolls fall into place or they don’t, I don’t feel like I “decide” what they look like at all. Sometimes I’ll see a design element somewhere that that will inspire me, I’ll feel like I “need” to use it, but that compulsion is about as close to “deciding” as I get.
AN: The painting on the doll’s faces is different from anything I’ve seen before. What was your inspiration for this particular approach?
BC: Actually, and I hate admitting to this and I’ve been forced to half a dozen times, the first dolls I made were fan dolls based off of makeup in an ANTM photo shoot from 2006-ish. It introduced me to a makeup style that combined geisha, kabuki, and insane colors that I meshed so well with it inspired 50 more dolls. It’s an embarrassing stepping off point in a lot of ways, but I think a lot of photographers, for example, have an epiphantic moment looking at a scene that make them say, “I have to be a photographer,” and that was my moment when I thought, “I have to work with dolls … again.” It’s been thrown in my face … a lot.
AN: How did you master the technique of doing such delicate and precise painting?
BC: Doing it every day for years. It’s that simple. It’s that complicated. If you do something every day for years and aren’t good at it then my heart aches for you.
AN: How do you select clothing and accessories for your creations?
BC: I am lucky enough to have a muse, Art Plonsjeroze aka Chantal! Her doll clothes (all handmade) are perfection, they go hand-in-hand with my work, if she retired I feel like I would have to as well. Occasionally I find an outfit here or there that I like, or even love,
but she’s the only one whose work has inspired mine. She’s like the silent creatrix! I do, also, try to only buy handmade and to promote those I buy from.
AN: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
BC: I’ve had a lot of really exceedingly negative critiques. I think the worst actually came from “an answered prayer” which, as Truman Capote warns, is just about the worst thing you can wish on someone. It had always been my dream to date another artist, I had this huge, romantic vision of being some super amazing, hand-holding art couple,
but when I finally dated another artist - and he was a very good one mind you - it was really demoralizing in a lot of ways. He painted in oil and told me that he felt like my work wasn’t legitimate nor was it worth the money I charged, and he meant it, he was very well connected and never introduced me to anyone even though I was just starting out. Eventually he told me that the only way I was ever going to be a success was if I made my dolls, photographed them like I do, and the painted paintings of those photos - unless I did that I would never be a “real” artist, just someone playing pretend. He really didn’t consider me a peer and I felt it.
I’ve had a lot (and I mean a lot) of copycats and really nasty people saying really nasty things, but no one whose ever been ugly with me, or copied me, has been someone I respected. It’s annoying, it’s demoralizing, but it’s not painful. People are often rude in person, “Those dolls just freak me out,” or “I wouldn’t pay THAT for THAT!” or “My kid could make those!” but I’m just rude back or it’s funny, depending on my mood, I actually enjoy both equally. BTW: your kid isn’t as talented as you think.
AN: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt about your art? What did you do about it?
BC: My “real” bad crit made me work my butt off. I wanted it to be undeniable that I was his peer, that my prices were deserved, that my work - albeit in a bastard medium - was just as legitimate as his damn oil paintings. I did the internet equivalent of “cold calling,” I got into magazines, I networked my behind off, I got a solo show … it motivated me. Of course it destroyed the relationship too, but that’s a duh, some things I don’t think it’s possible not to resent.
It’s funny because people copying my work or being catty online make me want to give up a lot of days, which is really stupid I know, but I think it’s because there’s really a lot of pressure to be “professional” online and present this super plastered on happy
version of yourself, like you’re always at a job interview, you know? Because you never know who knows who, or who is a potential customer, and all that jazz, but really some days you just want to be like, “So and so is a horse’s ass! Ha ha ha!”. But I swear online drama from 3 years back (when I started seriously working) is still there for all to read, the internet has a creepy permanence that disallows bad (read: human) behavior in artists who want to be working professionals.
AN: What would you like to say to the other underdogs out there?
BC: I definitely direct this to those who work in bastard mediums (toys, digital, collage, plush, etc): if you wouldn’t do what you do alone, in your house, with no attention (good or bad), and no one seeing it until you pass away, then don’t do it at all. If you could stop if you wanted to, don’t start. When you work in a non-mainstream medium it has to be a need from inside you to make what you make, you cannot doubt yourself, because everyone else is going to. If it goes somewhere, you win the lottery, and never ever stop being thankful for it.
To see more of Brigitte’s work go to:
http://www.zombuki.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/riotsqurrl/
http://www.facebook.com/zombukidolls
http://twitter.com/zombuki
Inerview: Monica Magtoto
ABC: Tell us a little bit about what you do
SC: I draw, I paint and I create sculptures that make people smile.
ABC: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
SC: Back in college, I was trying to develop an unique personality to my drawing. I began researching and examining artworks from various publications and exhibitions. Unconsciously I started to draw like one of the popular illustrators at the time. My instructor wasn’t happy about my drawing and gave me a harsh critique because my work wasn’t original. It was an embarrassing moment, but it struck me and woke me up.
ABC: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt about your work?
SC: After the critique I understood the differences between inspiration and mere imitation of other people’s work.
ABC: What did you do about it?
SC: I started to draw freely; I looked for things that have truly interested me in my life to inspire myself. I want my work to represent me, and to represent the person I want to become.
ABC: Where do you draw inspiration from for your work?
SC: When I work, I often doodle with a pencil, drawing lines and shapes without having a definite idea in mind. There was this one time, when I saw a silly smiley face in a few randomly placed lines. I liked the smile and I imitated and modified the smile over and over until it became a personality within the world I created.
My works are inspired from a variety of things I have learned to appreciate over the years. One of my inspirations is to observe people and animals. In their movements and body language, I found resemblance to my characters. A simple pose portrays an action. From the expressions I observe, I can create exhilarated scenery as if it is coming from a stop motion picture.
ABC: There seems to be a good sense of humor about your work. Where does it come from? Where do you get ideas for works like “Ear Drum” and “Mouth Watering”?
Most of my works involve bizarre and odd humor. I enjoy planting comedy within art. Happiness is an essential emotion to people, and comedy helps create happiness. People suffer from depression everyday, especially in the society we live in today. It is crucial to find humor and add some comedy into our life.
I grew up in Taipei, Taiwan. The culture is highly influenced by Japan. One of my favorite comedians is from Shimura Ken from Japan. He is a wonderful performer. He can create comedy in an instant, simply with a little twitch of facial muscles. Most of his humor is bizarre and unusual, and I think that’s the earliest influences for my sense of humor.
I grew up in a city with a very high population density. We were surrounded by so many different noises we couldn’t escape from. I believe that was one of the earliest influences and reasons most of my characters have no ears. However, besides the junk we are forced to listen to everyday, there are also beautiful melodies and touching words we sometimes forget to appreciate. Therefore, I created a character out of an ear just to emphasize the good of listening by adding humor into the character. The rest of the facial feature characters emerged from my mind one after another and became the series.
ABC: How long does it take you to make a piece such as “You Are Not Alone”?
SC: It took me few days to brainstorm the idea. The actual time I spent to create the piece is about one to two weeks, approximately about 4 to 5 hours a day.
ABC: Where do you hope to take your work? Will your pieces always be individually made or do you someday want to mass-produce them?
SC: I like the idea of hand sculpting my art individually. The concept of individuality and originality are essential to my work. Therefore if I someday have the opportunity to mass-produce my work as a toy or an art display, I will still continue to create hand-made artworks.
ABC: Do you have any new projects up your sleeve?
SC: I am starting to work on some new pieces for a show in October at Tinlark Gallery in Hollywood. It will be a two-person show with a wonderful artist James Ulmer. I will keep updating new pieces on my blog.
ABC: What would you like to say to all the other underdog artists out there?
SC: No matter what reason you decide to pursue a career as an artist, keep it going and keep it original! I am still working toward my goals too. Don’t give up your dream.
You can see more of Sean’s work at: http://www.seanchao.com
Interview: Mark Turnage
MT: Tell us a little bit about what you do.
GF: First and foremost I’m an insomniac, my sleep schedule is so fucked up right now, besides that, I write and take a lot of pictures.
MT: How does insomnia figure into your work?
GF: Ever since I was little I’d stay up late, watching Monstervision on TNT or Late Night Black and White on Cartoon Network, possibly playing video games until I was in zombie mode. Now I tend to stay up late editing photos or writing a story, or possibly running the streets taking pictures of whatever.
MT: Did your taste in television and videogames influence your creativity?
GF: I think I grew up at a good time because I got to experience some really cool shit as far as TV and video games go, I remember Rocko’s Modern Life, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Tales from the Crypt, Duckman, Ren And Stimpy, Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers, I gobbled that shit up as a kid because there wasn’t really much else to do in Oxford. Movies and TV and video games are in my blood, my friends and I can have whole conversations made of just quotes from movies. The influence is intense because I’m a Pop nerd and a visual freak. When I take pictures I try to present the images as larger than life, legit and timeless, if I want to. I could also make it look scary or shitty depending on the vibe, the Joker has always been my favorite comic character even before Heath Ledger made him popular again. Those characters are larger than life and really fuckin’ inspiring.
GF: I’m incredibly fascinated by dreams and deja vu, stuff like that. I always ask people about their dreams because our brains seem to just run wild while we sleep and maybe try to tell us something. I analyze my dreams so I can see what kind of food for thought they can provide me with. Recently I had this fucked up dream that a UFO crashed into the street by Seppe’s house and little alien rodents and lizards came crawling out and ate all our normal animals. It was really scary, I woke up at 2 am and drew the spaceships and animals, it was fucked up.
MT: You said you write and take pictures, tell me a little about both.
GF: Photography has always come more naturally, writing is something I’d have to get close and intimate with. When I’d write a story or something it would be like I was taking a chunk of my soul and converting it or some shit. It was hard, but when you’re in that zone where it flows and your fingers are just hammering away and you feel it, that’s incredible. I don’t usually write stories anymore, every once in a blue moon, I’ll do an interview with someone I admire. I’m a very visual person, photography is more of an extrovert thing while writing is more introverted. It’s fun to run around with a model or whoever and go somewhere pretty or ugly and take pics of them there. Writing is lonely and not very fun, it’s like homework to me.
MT: With photography being your medium of choice, what equipment do you favor?
GF: I use whatever I can get my hands on, it was all about megapixels for a long time and people loved to dis digital over film. I grew up with disposable cameras, shooting like 30 and then waiting for your prints. When digital rolled around I was hooked. I don’t care about film vs. digital, darkroom vs photoshop, I just care about the final image. After my cam was stolen, I found myself taking a shitload of dreamy black and white pics with my phone, the LG Voyager, then in February I got a Sony Cybershot that I’ve used religiously ever since. I like the fact that I can run around with it and shoot whatever. A bunch of people would have those giant ass nikons that they never want to carry around anywhere and mine isn’t an inconvenience so I find myself shooting a lot.
MT: What would you say is your philosophy of photography?
GF: I don’t put much thought into it, I feel like my photography is more a discipline than a philosophy, it’s just something I try to do everyday. I try to learn as much as I can and try to put those lessons to good use. I love a good photoshop tutorial or photography book because chances are it’ll inspire me. I was listening to Eminem’s early shit when he was young and hungry and not rich and his imagery is so vibrant that it was giving me scary movie ideas. Philosophy has nothing to do with it…yet.
GF: I’ve done a bunch, I feel like each interview I got published was out of pure luck because I didn’t know shit about journalism. I just really liked to ask people random questions, especially people I admired.
MT: Like who?
GF: I don’t want it to sound like name dropping because I hate that shit, but so far I interviewed Chuck Palahniuk, Frank Kozik, Irvine Welsh, Ross Halfin, Kate Nash, Luke Pritchard, Mike Vallely, Nate Sherwood, Kareem Black, Saul Williams, Karin Tatoyan, Brian K Vaughn, Adam Wallacavage, Mickey Factz, Asher Roth, Donnis, Deron Miller, uh…..Mike Carey, Ben Frost, and recently I interviewed May Pang and George Lois. I got lucky, but that’s writing shit and I mostly take photos now. I learned something from every interview though because I asked those guys things that I really wanted to know as opposed to standard interview fodder. They’re all great and I thank them again. It’s fun.
MT: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
GF: This old lady gallery owner in Lancaster trashed my paintings once, years ago when I was more interested in painting. She said it looked like something a college kid would have on his wall, and i’m like “is that…bad?” She made it clear to me my paintings would never sell and that she really really didn’t get it. Her daughter came in and was looking at this big painting of a robotic hand that I drew and she goes “the fingers look like penises”. That was kind of a turn on though, she was pretty hot. I have tons of art school horror stories too, those critiques were like facing a firing squad because my classmates were some catty little bitches. They dissed everything they didn’t like, or didn’t understand, and they were venomous about it. I liked getting such an adverse reaction though because it inspired me to do some more beautiful and aesthetic fuck you’s to anybody with a closed mind.
GF: It made me realize the power of art, and the gut feelings it could invoke. I mean I grew up wandering through video stores looking at the boxes to horror films and being impressed by the dark art of it all in one place. That video store was like an art gallery to me at one point, kinda like malls are art galleries if you wanna see shitty people. Despite any negative reactions I love when I make something I feel is beautiful and people agree. When people like a picture of mine or buy it or give me props or whatever, I’m very fuckin’ thankful about it because the absolute worst reaction is no reaction at all.
GF: Well I saw my first poladroid picture on Tumblr (http://garrettfaber.tumblr.com) and I asked the chick how she did it and she told me about the program, I then started really messing with it, that and photoshop and it started coming out pretty cool so I went looking through all my old pics and converting them, I also started shooting with an eye for how it could be a poladroid. I started uploading the pictures on facebook because I couldn’t afford a website and their photo uploads are free, also all my friends are on there. For a while I would just shoot everyone and tag them in the photos, sometimes they would make that their default pic and I found that to be the greatest honor. Just because as much as people tend to hate on facebook or myspace or twitter or any of those sites, they do work. They connect our brains, the audience message channel thing is all there, and it works.
GF: People, I dig people, a picture is worth a thousand words and an image can really capture the vibe of someone. Look at that picture of Che that everyone loves, that image became an icon and a symbol that’s been bought and sold left and right. I love appropriation too although not too much, I recently did two series of poladroids, “The Most Expensive Paintings Ever” and “The Hottest Chicks Ever”, I went digging for some images and then I edited and converted them into poladroids and I think they’re gorgeous. I love to shoot pictures of personalities, characters. Luckily for me growing up in Lancaster, I knew a lot of cool people. Running around with my cybershot in my back pocket allowed me to always be on some photo shit. So, that’s cool.
GF: I have a lot of goals, my main goal right now is to make a bunch of money so I can pull off some of my bigger ideas. Another great photographer Hank Willis Thomas did a massive balloon installation across a river and I was really impressed with that. Money is the motive though. This economy kind of changed shit; the nineties were all about bling bling and c.r.e.a.m and whatnot. The first ten years of the 2000s seemed to be about fear and loathing, hopefully this next decade can be a creative and gorgeous one but you never know. We could have world war three tomorrow, or a meteor could destroy earth or something. I always think my time is running out so I try to get my kicks while I can. I also want more shows, I had my first one in May and it was amazing. I want to print like a thousand poladroids and do a massive installation somewhere like a giant wall, or hallway just so you’re completely immersed in pictures. I want to tour America and take a shitload of pics, I want to revisit Highway 61. I want to take Mary Kate Olsen’s picture, I want to get a sweet job and make some cash cuz I’m hungry as shit.
MT: Here’s a cheeseburger. Tell me about your first show.
GF: Holy shit I love cheeseburgers! Nom nom nom. I’m a big Depeche Mode fan and I really dug the song Halo on Violator and the chorus goes “Though our worlds may fall apart, when the walls come tumblin in, though we may deserve it, it will be worth it.” That shit just stuck with me, I wrote it on a sticker and put it on my door, it was like a daily affirmation, “It will be worth it”. When I got my first gallery show and it was time to make the facebook event and promote that shit, it just popped in my head and suddenly the show was called “IT WILL BE WORTH IT”. I had 777 poladroids printed and Katy and Nicole and I were in the gallery till like 3am taping pictures to the wall. If it weren’t for them it woulda took me forever. Anyway the show was a success to me, I took a shitload of pictures and I got people to join my mickey mouse club. It was during first Friday and a lot of people were out and they visited the gallery and it was so cool. I sold my pictures three for five bucks, and it was the cheapest art in the city. People were selling their pictures for like 80 bucks and nobody I knew was willing to drop cash like that on a picture, but five bucks for three was a deal and I actually sold a bunch. It was worth it. We had a black and white party after that and despite that day being shitty, the party was amazing because we were doing giant murals and at one point all my closest friends were there and we were all busting our ass working on this giant mural. It was rad, I definitely wanna do more.
MT: What would like to say to the other underdogs out there?
GF: Life is short, don’t doubt yourself just follow your gut and do what you love, you can waste your time doing shit you don’t believe in while wishing for something more but if you do what you believe in and really work at it, think about it and grow with it you can get what you want. It takes balls, it takes nerves, it takes long sleepless bouts of insomnia and invisible guns but goddamnit, you only live once so go make some shit happen. Don’t waste your time fighting the light.
You can check out Mark’s sweet Batman fanfic The Face We Call Our Own, and you can take his incredible Arkham Asylum Quiz.
Goodnight and thanks for reading <3 <3 <3 <3 <4
Also check out Garrett’s blog at:
http://garrettfaber.tumblr.com/
Interview: Brigitte Coovert
BC: What was the worst critique you received and how did it make you feel?
AN: The funniest critique was from a more traditional comic book
artist who slammed me for not using a ruler to do the borders around
my drawings. Straight lines have no place in my drawings. Neatness is
not a goal or a part of my aesthetic. So that critique amused me.
The toughest criticism of my work (because it is true) is that I
seldom do sequential work. I simply am not skilled enough to draw the
same face (for example) across multiple panels. I wish I could but
wishing doesn’t make it happen. On the other hand, though, when I have
done sequential things, I got bored. I don’t want to draw the same
person or persons over and over again. But, the critique does sting a
bit simply because it is true.
The biggest blow to my artistic ego, though, happened when a number of
my drawings were on display at a piercing parlor in Florida. Thieves
broke into the place one night and stole everything – I mean,
literally, everything in the shop – except my drawings. I didn’t know
whether to be relieved or insulted. I’m still not sure.
Seriously, though, I have had a few local shows and sales were very
poor. Aside from feeling unloved or whatever, this did help me to get
a clearer focus regarding what my work is about. For years, my
priority has been publication, generally in small press publications.
I have done well at this. (A few hundred of my drawings have been
published over the years.) These experiences helped me to understand
that drawing for publication is what I do best. Shows are fun (and I
still participate in them when I can) but they no longer carry the
weight they once did for me.
BC: How does working primarily in black and white differ from working in color?
AN: It is both easier and more difficult. From a practical point of
view it is much easier to work in black and white. It requires less
supplies and takes less time. Black and white also offers different
challenges and different opportunities. The biggest advantage to black
and white is the potential for a really bold image. I do work in color
occasionally (primarily pieces for art shows) and enjoy that but there
is a different feel to my color work.
BC: Can you walk us through the process of creating a drawing?
AN: Sure. I start off with a pencil underdrawing which I do with my
left hand. The reason I mention this is that I’m right-handed. The
advantage of using my left hand is that this allows for less control
over the image that is being laid down on the page. Previously, when I
worked with my right hand, my drawings were far too controlled, too
neat. Naturally, over the years, I’ve gotten more proficient at
drawing left-handed. But the resultant drawings still have a rough
look to them that I like. When the underdrawing is done, I go over it
in ink with my right hand. At this point, I want control so that my
inking is faithful to the original pencil drawing. That’s why my
drawings look all crazy sloppy yet, at the same time, look a bit
obsessively neat.
I used to use India ink exclusively for inking my drawings. But they
are logistically impossible. The pens have to be constantly cleaned
and then replaced and good India ink is hard to find and on and on. So
I switched to Sharpie pens, which work just fine. My friend Josh
Sullivan recently turned me on to brush pens, which are a great
supplement to the Sharpies. When I do color work, I use watercolors
(applied before the drawing is inked) and crayons (applied after the
drawing is inked).
BC: Why “Andy Nukes”?
AN: Good question. Basically, my birth name is pretty lame. (Sorry,
Mom.) I wanted a name that expressed what I feel when I’m drawing.
Besides, it makes for some fun word play. One of my mini-comix is
called MORE NUKES. I think that’s funny. I’ve had a number of people
write to me and tell me that “Andy Nukes” is a great name and if it’s
not my real name it should be. They’re right, of course.
BC: What advice can you give people who are just starting out?
AN: Draw (or paint or whatever) every day (or as often as possible).
In that sense, art is no different than football or guitar. Hmmm,
maybe I should do that.
It is essential to find your own style. Sure, start out imitating
other artists you admire, but allow your own style to emerge. I
believe that one’s style is something that happens, not something that
can be forced, so pay attention and be open to what happens when you
draw. I started out wanting to draw like Frank Frazetta. I even had a
Frazetta-wannabe drawing published in a Tarzan fan magazine. But I
quickly discovered that trying to be Frank Frazetta was (for me)
laborious and ultimately boring. When I found my own style drawing
became effortless and fun.
Finally, whatever kind of art you do, do it for you. Trying to please
others or meet their expectations is the kiss of death for an artist.
I have seen far too many great artists lapse into a sorry state of
unintentional self-parody by giving the public what it wants.
You can see more of Andy Nukes’ work at
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1300903960
http://www.flickr.com/photos/72918238@N00/
Thanks to our newest contributor Brigitte Coovert, we’ve been mentioned on SpankyStokes!! Check it out! And big ups to Brigitte, Troy, and Spanky!
Interview: Brigitte Coovert
BC: Tell us about your work.
TS: My work is centered around nature, it’s something I set out to do last year and I’ve been pursuing it ever since. I’ve always had an obsession with moss and the way it grows on rocks, walls, trees, and anything else it can stick to. It’s sort of nature’s way of telling you something has been there for a while and it’s adopting it as a part of it’s world now. When I create a piece, I aim to make the whole thing feel connected and as one. Even though the center of the piece is a vinyl toy usually, I try to make sure it’s surroundings are just as detailed as the piece itself. Making it appear that you’re looking at a snapshot of a far off world, rather than a custom toy sitting on a shelf.
BC: Why Gorilla Mouth?
TS: I was looking for a name to call my online store, so I just started pairing words together. Gorilla Mouth was born and it was kind of a joke at first but really started to stick. My artist friend Brad Pascual, whipped up the logo for me and it’s been Gorilla Mouth ever since. I don’t go by a moniker and I wanted to keep Gorilla Mouth open as more of a name for the place to find my work and work by other people (like my local art friends) for future projects. Which are brewing for this summer, so keep an eye out.
BC: What was the worst critique you’ve received and how did it affect you?
TS: Since I’ve only been in the toy scene for just over a year, I haven’t received a ton of critiques. Most people seem to watch the boards and only comment on things they like. I’m a big fan of constructive criticism and I’d like to see more of it.
Although, there is one that comes to mind and I appreciated the honesty. I had just finished my first Munnsai and someone said they liked it, but they couldn’t see the toy and it might as well just be a paper towel tube inside of all of the foliage and epoxy. I knew this person was right, I set out to make the Munny look like a tree, but I had failed to keep the feel of the platform while doing so. I’ve kept that crit in mind every time I set out to do a piece these days and I strive to keep the original platform visible, yet covering it as much as possible in my own style.
BC: What draws you to work in 3D?
TS: Short funny answer is that it’s the only field of art that I’ve found that I can do. I’m not really a 2D art kind of person. As much as I’d like to be, I’m just not. I’ve tried over the years to improve my drawing skills, but my hands and drawing just don’t seem to work with each other. I know a lot of artists sketch out their ideas before tackling a project, but for me, even if I doodled the idea, it wouldn’t do me any good. I would say 99% of everything I create is coming from my mind and is being directly created and manipulated to fit that mental image as I do it. This is another HUGE reason why I like creating in 3D, I have total control and instant results. If I don’t like something, then I can cut it off, smooth it in, or build off of it. Since I can’t draw, I do use a lot of reference, but what artist doesn’t? I use pictures to draw inspiration and from there I start in on my project, if I get lost along the way, then I go back to reference pics or take a walk to clear my mind and figure out what the next step needs to be. Like I said before, I’ve only been involved in the scene for just over a year, but finding 3D art has had a huge impact in my life.
BC: It seems like a lot of your work process and pieces have a Zen feel to them…
TS: When I set out to create the Munnsais and Dunnsais I studied a lot of photos of actual bonsai trees. The work that goes into these ancient mini trees is incredible. I wanted to keep that balanced and peaceful nature in my work, which I strive to do with every piece. I highly respect the thought and discipline that goes into each planned out branch bend or exposed root.
Although many of my layouts may look unplanned, each piece is there for a reason. I run the moss up the sides of a tree to balance the foliage that may be dominating one side. I’ve studied a lot of religious and spiritual paths along the way, but many of the core beliefs that I feel are important in life stem from Buddhist teachings, which also lends to the Zen feel of the piece.
BC: Have any last words of advice?
TS: Don’t just talk about the things you want to do, actually do them. Trying and failing is still better than talking and never actually putting your thoughts into action. Failing will only show you how to improve on where you went wrong, or uncover a new route to pursue along the way.
You can see more of Troy Stith’s work at:
http://www.gorillamouth.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11758302@N03/
Interview: Volksradio Moos
VM: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
N: That would have to have been at WVU, for the worst critique. My painting instructor told me my work was too poster like. I thought all great art made it to posters so what was this guy talking about? My professor liked to paint “L”s over some expressionistic background, all he painted. Was not a fan of surrealism. So I always got “D”s or “F”s. Even though I would sell these to friends and had hours upon hours invested in them. So I painted a piece I knew I’d get an “A” on. I painted two over lapping tic-tac-toe boards and put the primary colors in the squares, he loved it. It took like ten fifteen minutes to do, wouldn’t have wanted to say I painted it, yet I got an “A”. I stood up, told the professor how full of shit he was and walked out of the class. Got an applause from my classmates.This is why I left WVU.
The worst feedback I ever got was a “Frowny face” as a grade. Shepherd College I did a masturbation installation. I posted collaged porn all over the men’s and women’s bathrooms. They were sealed and very glossy. In the men’s room I had wash rags dipped in elmer’ s glue so they were all crusty like a cum rag. And their was targets painted on the collages which lined the floors and walls.
In the ladies room I had the collages minus the targets, and obnoxiously large cucumbers dipped in Vaseline. The back of the restrooms doors had a pack of cigarettes on them with a note that Read “Cum Again”. The art dept. was pushing interactive art and installations so I figured I’d give them both. My grade = “Frowny face”.
VM: What did you do about it?
N: Kept on, keeping on.
VM: You live in a place where not much happens, but your work is so full of images. Where do you find all those images?
N: I’d say it comes from “Pop culture”. What I see on T.V. and just the crazy ass TWISTED VISIONS in my head. Style comes from skateboards, punk rock, Dali, Tattoos, video games, JUXTAPOZ, my brother, PEPPY. I truly believe he guides my hands sometimes. Puts images there for me to see, then I “Grab” them and pull them out for the world to see.
VM: You were a long-time a non-practising artist, can you tell why you started again with making art?
N: My younger brother, Joseph A. Barbera. “Peppy” past away a year ago in April. His spirit actually came to me as a glowing green orb. This was maybe a month or so after his passing. He told me “Nunz, don’t know what you’ve been waiting for, Get up off your ass. You only need like $50 bucks to get moving!” So needless to say I stayed up all night drawing and painting, till I could go to the store and buy a few things. Mostly shit from wal-mart. Only place really around me. Got paint markers and sharpies, some india ink and posterboards. Started fooling around with layers and lacquers. Thought what better way to layer than actually layer. That’s where the collage element came into play. I felt quilty using others images so I started TWEAKING them. And played photoshop on my own, manipulating the images and tying on my own without the help of some program.
VM: Do you have people/artists that have inspired you and your work?
N: TOO many to name since being on here. But I will name some, that got me here and influenced me as started back up. Dali of course. Robert Williams, Pushead, Mad Mark Rude, Glenn Barr, old punk flyer art and album art, H.R. Giger, Alex Grey.
Music and dreams, The Sub-conscious mind!
Interview: Andrew Hem
To see more of Wayne’s work, go to:
Interview: Monica Magtoto
ABC: Tell us a little bit about what you do.
TK: I’m a Photographer who is very open minded about different styles of shooting. My styles of photography range from fashion, portraiture, documentary, landscape photography and conceptual work. I don’t stick to just one main subject or direction. I like a taste of it all. I still have so much that I can learn, so I would hate to limit myself to only one type of photography.
ABC: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
TK: I rarely come across people who don’t like my work. But of course it does happen… I would have to say the hardest time I had defining myself and my photography would have to be while I was living in the Midwest. I was constantly surrounded by people who did not understand my work and style. Anything I did with my work was just a waste of time in their eyes. I constantly felt hopeless and misinterpreted. Also, photography is a business, and if I wasn’t making money from it, then why keep doing it?
ABC: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt about your art?
TK: At first I completely gave up. I was not in my right element to start off with. I think that in a sense made it easier for me to want to throw it all away. I needed to throw my focus into other areas of my life at that time. It was a lot to handle, but not being able to express myself with my photography made me feel like someone had stuffed me into a trunk to die.
The feelings eventually lead me to a deep depression. My time in Michigan was not one of my best periods of life. My mother was dying and I had given up completely on my dreams. I found hope in one of the last places I thought I would, in my mother’s hospital room.
She told me she wanted to clear the air, and then proceeded to talk to me about my photography and how great I was at it. She told me it was my art, and to never let it go. No matter who stood in the way, I needed to make this my life.
She died three days later.
This was the one and only time my mother has ever even showed an interest in my work.
This newfound understanding from my mother made my passion for photography even fiercer.
ABC: What did you do about it?
TK: I moved on. Literally, I left the state a year after my mother passed away and came back home to California. I do not let anyone come between me and my art. I have more confidence than ever before with my work. I like to think that if someone has something bad to say maybe they just don’t see what I’m trying to convey in the first place.
Now a days I’m my hardest critic. I do not look to others for validation; I do not dwell on what people “don’t get”. I’m doing what I love, and I know where I want to take it.
ABC: What inspires your photography?
TK: Beauty inspires me in general. You might see something ugly, but I will defiantly find the beauty in it. Everything in and around me in this world inspires my photography. From art, to colors, flowers, streets, certain time periods, music, certain people, and things all inspire me. I really do see everything as a photo; you can say I am constantly looking through the world with rose colored lenses.
I see the world a lot differently than a normal person would. I think a lot of photographers are like this, as well as most artists in general. I like to think outside the box and see what others cannot, or do not want to see.
ABC: Your portraits seem to show more subversive things about the subjects. How do you decide what things to expose about the models?
TK: I have a ton of ideas that I want to express on film. A lot if it depends on the model, and what we are trying to achieve together as a team. Once I get shooting, the background just fades away. I get really into the moment, and I get to a point where I’m not really thinking about what I’m exposing or underexposing. It’s just what I see. When I’m in a shoot there is no pause between my brain and my lens. I just shoot away. Hence the name Shoot Away Photography.
ABC: Your color and texture choices are very interesting. What informs those choices in your work?
TK: I love color! I strive to work with people who aren’t afraid of trying new things. I like to work with designers and makeup artists who have the same flare for creativity as I do. It all depends on what I’m trying to showcase at that very moment. There are shoots that take months to plan, whereas other times I get an impulsive spark one day and just have the model wear jeans and a tee with eye makeup that really stands out. Then other times I may be trying to focus more on the clothes. I may also focus on what is in the background to make the model appear softer so she doesn’t drown out the clothes.
ABC: What kinds of things do you do when you’re not taking pictures?
TK: I just love to unwind once I get all my editing done. After a shoot is done, that doesn’t mean it’s really over, at least not for me. I do a good amount of post-process alteration, which can take anywhere from a few days up to a couple of months depending on the shoot. I’m always editing. But when I do get have free time I love seeing my friends, and just relaxing. I try not to think about photography, but sometimes it is hard to shut off that part of my brain.
ABC: What would like to say to the other underdogs out there?
TK: Follow your instincts. Don’t think that you have to commercialize your art in order to achieve your dreams. If you’re not afraid to be yourself, then no matter where your life takes you, you will be happy that you stayed true to your style.
To see more of Teejay’s work, go to:
Interview: Tae Querney
ABC: Tell us a little bit about what you do.
EH: I’m a freelance comic artist and illustrator. I was born and raised in San Diego, California and I’m currently living in New York City.
ABC: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
EH: Back in college, one of my sophomore year teachers called me out for drawing pretty pin up girls. He also said that my career won’t excel beyond that.
ABC: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt about your art?
EH: The class helped me realize that story is(obviously) essential to comics and sequential art. But having a class based solely on storytelling really did change my mindset on the comic industry as a whole. Comics are more than just a pretty image and flashy action poses.
ABC: What did you do about it?
EH: I decided to take my profession a little more seriously. I started to study and read more comics outside of classes to try and understand the medium. The control of pacing, panel composition, page layouts, they were all foreign to me at the time. I think I have a better grasp of the medium now.
ABC: who are your biggest influences/inspiration for your comics/stories you write and how so?
EH: My teachers are truly my biggest influences. Klaus Janson and Phil Jimenez really jump-started my career. Before then, I really didn’t have a focus on what I really wanted to do. Both are remarkable artists with invaluable lessons and tips.
ABC: how does your work stand out in the comic industry?
EH: As a kid, I grew up reading cheesy Chinese manhua(the Chinese equivalent to Japanese manga). It almost seemed like the entire spectrum of manhua was just martial arts comics and video game adaptations. As goofy and cliched as they are, some of their unique character proportions and excessive use of speed lines did seem to carry over to my drawing style today.
ABC: what would be your dream job?
EH: I’m not quite sure what my dream job is at the moment. I would love to work at Marvel and DC, but not for my entire span of my career.
ABC: You’re graduating pretty soon, what are you plans after college?
EH: I’m trying to stay in the City at the very least. I tend to get a little distracted in San Diego. Here in New York, I am currently working at the Bodies Exhibit two days a week so I can sustain a decent living while working on comic related jobs throughout the rest of the week.
ABC: Do you feel like you got the best education as an cartoonist?
EH: A bit expensive (and a lifetime’s amount of loans), but yes. I came in without a clue and left with a portfolio that I am confident in.
ABC: What would you like to say to the other underdogs out there?
EH:The comic industry doesn’t pay well. The paycheck will weed out the comic artists from the fan boys.
edwin@edwinhuang.com
Interview: Daniela Petkovic
(editing kept to a minimum to preserve the voice of the interviewer and the interviewee)
DP: Hi Silvia, where do you come from?
SI: I was born in Cagliari, Sardegna (South Italy) but it’s been two years since I’m living and working in Milan.
DP: How did you approach to art? [How did you become an artist?]
SI: Since I was a child I used to draw during my free time. This passion has been growing up with me and through tenacity and determination I’ve made it my work.
DP: Do you work in progress on a paint? [Are you currently working on a painting?]
SI: Of course. I’m working on a new composition: it’ll consist in 13 little sketches. I put together all the pieces into a unique one in which they will maintain a dialogue. At last, what I’m going to create is a sort of storyboard, it’s like an idea of direction, a screenplay.
DP: How do you prepare your working set?
SI: First I make sure that the drawing table has been well lavigated and prepared and then I start to paint. Another main step is to create a black acrylic base that becomes the screen for my imaginary projections.
DP: Your style is very minimal and there are some featured elements in your artworks such as the grass and the black skies that give to the paint a sort of latent tangibility structure. On the contrary, how do you renew your work?
SI: Yes. In my works I tend to keep a minimal style because I think there’s no need to be excessive to express a sensation or a concept. The green grass and the black sky are just an encephalic dimension in which memories emerge, feelings and emotions in a constant growth and mental exploration.
DP: How do you develop your characters and where do they come from?
SI: They come from my imaginary, memories and anything that touch me. One of the main sources for me is the cinema, I just love it.
DP: Your artworks show feelings for what they are. Is it love above all?
SI: A Sensation, a kind of feeling are always featured in my artworks. All thoughts, both from the past and the present are connected to a feeling like nostalgia, sadness, love and so on.
DP: Why animals are dissected in your artworks?
SI: Sometimes it seems that figures librate, sucked by the grass or sectioned. Heads are divided from their body. This is possible in a mental dimension where shapes are split and deleted by time.
DP: Any upcoming exhibitions?
SI: Not at the moment but soon one of my artworks will be used by an Italian publisher as a cover for a novel by the Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgårds.
DP: Please, give us a message for all those underdogs out there!
SI: Keep believing in your work, assert your creativity and call into question. If you truly believe, you’ll make it!
To see more of Silvia’s work go to:
Interview: Monica Magtoto
ABC: Tell us a little bit about what you do, artwise.
NS: Short answer: I am an illustrator/printmaker. My day job is as a screen printer and then at night I come home and paint and/or print some more.
Long answer: I work in a lot of different mediums, formats and styles, a lot of times I’ll do straight narrative illustration and portraits, but most recently I’ve been working a lot in combining painting and screen printing, using a lot of layering and juxtaposing imagery to suggest meaning. I’ve always been a big fan of combining a lot of stuff, really overloading to create a larger portrait. To be wordy and artsy about it, it’s working with a lot of iconography along with themes of conception of self and how media and advertising work on the mind. Also sometimes I just like painting some chicks.
ABC: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
NS: I try and take something from all the feedback I get, be it about the actual technique or the idea behind the work. So the worst critiques to me are ones where nothing is really said at all, which strangely enough, are usually the positive ones. Stuff like “I like it.” means nothing, obviously I appreciate it, but there’s got to be something in particular or whatever. Someone can say they like something, and not give a reason why, and it’s no more useful than a critique where the person obviously doesn’t see any merit in the work.
Along those lines though, I did have a sculpture type teacher a long time ago who gave us an assignment to do something with gardening gloves, didn’t matter what it was. So I ended up making this giant sculpture of hands coming out of the ground, like they had grown and ripped the gloves apart, Hulk-style. And this teacher hated it, just really shit on the idea and execution, which admittedly was probably a bit shoddy, but not to the point where you couldn’t see where it was going and what I could have done given more time to get it down right. But the critique of the work was so useless, so non-constructive in it’s negativity that there was nothing I could take from it except anger. The coda to that story is that the entire class eventually ended up feeling the same way about this teacher’s comments about their work and basically had an in-class mutiny because we all hated him. It was intense. But yeah, feedback, be it positive or negative, is worthless to me if it’s not constructive, cause then I can figure out if it’s something I want to process into how I’m doing what I’m doing.
ABC: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt about your art?
NS: It taught me that you’ve got to believe in what you do, that sometimes there are going to be people who don’t like what you do, but that can’t take away from what you think about it. To paraphrase a quote I probably misheard once “One of something is an aberration, 10 of something is a series, 100 is a collection, and 1000 is a movement”, you’ve just got to keep going.
ABC: What did you do about it?
NS: Never did sculpture again, so there’s that, wasn’t really my thing anyway though.
ABC: Talk a little bit about your blogs and what you aim to do with them.
NS: I’ve had a lot of blogs over the years, not really as self-promotion or the journal aspect (though I’ve had both) but more as way of sharing things I like to the larger world, there’s a lot of really interesting stuff and work being done, and I like sharing what I find, as well as seeing other people’s interests and inspirations. For now I keep a blog of just inspiration and stuff I like (http://nigelsanders.tumblr.com) and then one just of my work and progress (http://thisisnigel.tumblr.com), so all of it doesn’t get lost in the noise and frequent posting of the other blog.
It’s tough not to spend my day just looking at a lot of really awesome work (and getting a bit discouraged), especially since Tumblr’s come around, and working on stuff to fill the other blog, but I think it can be important to stay fresh and on top of the possibilities and ideas floating out there. I’ve had ideas to turn previous blogs into a magazine or more fully realized and focused outlet, something that actually produces content rather than just aggregating it, but that’s tough to tackle, and I’ve got enough on my plate.
ABC: There is kind of a pop, film noir aspect to your work. Where does this inspiration come from and what does it mean to you personally?
NS: I’m a huge fan of the noir era, the films, photography, the writing, it all resonates with me. Obviously the lighting and composition was so key and so dramatic back then, it’s a lot of fun to try and capture that and juxtapose it with the modern world. As a kid I was really into extremely well-lit areas or extremely dark areas, no vague shadows. I remember my dad’s car had a little door in the backseat in which you could access the trunk and I would go through there and just hang out on drives home, as weird as that sounds. But I would watch as the brake lights make everything in the trunk glint red and just be fascinated by it. And then at home, being the half-asian I am, I would pretend to be a ninja, and try and move around in complete darkness. I got a lot of bruises in those days.
ABC: What inspired the “Robots” series?
NS: I have a big spiel about how it relates to the speed at which modern technology updates, and how people are at different levels of understanding it and thus the world, and how it creates larger gaps in communication because everyone has different reference points; but that the one thing that is common is emotion, and that will never change, even if our ability to express it and process it changes, which, along with the technology aspect, is what inspired the vintage robot looks.
In all honesty though, I wanted to paint some robots, doing some fundamentally human things, in my head creating this larger world where robots live and how things in our world would look or be realized there. Same thing they did in the beginning of Howard the Duck, which might have been the only good thing about the movie.
ABC: How does being multi-cultural influence your work?
NS: It doesn’t manifest itself in my work so much in that I don’t call attention to it or draw specifically from it, it’s who I am but it’s not what I feel I need to share visually to the world, if that makes sense. But i think it does have a larger influence on my outlook and my perception of the world, which obviously comes through into the work, to be all post-moderny about it. I mean, my mom is Filipino, and my dad is English, both of them came to America and then I came along, and then my step-dad is a black man and my step-mom is a woman who was raised Jewish but whose family can be traced back to the Mayflower ships, so my immediate family was like America personified. All of that plays a role in where I’m coming from. What exactly? Couldn’t say.
Though I recently came across the term “Hazn” for half-asians, and I’m a big fan of that.
ABC: With all of your work, how do you find time to DJ, bike, and take care of Nigel?
I’ve stopped checking Facebook pretty much, so that’s one thing. I don’t really know though, I just try to stay busy, can’t really explain it, I’m really good at focusing and multi-tasking I guess, I always try to stay productive. Can’t say I take very good care of myself though, sometimes I’m working and I forget to eat, or sleep, or blink, that one gets painful.
ABC: What would like to say to the other underdogs out there?
NS: If you feel like an underdog, embrace it, use it, take it as motivation. Who are you under, who is over you, what are they doing, and what are they doing that you’d like to be doing, how can you get there? Underdogs don’t stay that way for long, but they are counted out for some reason, so it’s up to you to make yourself at least a regular dog, if not a top dog.
Also, any underdogs should check my website out:
http://www.NothingRhymesWithNigel.com for no other reason than I would do the same for you.
Interview: Volksradio Moos
KT: I’m a stencil artist based in Belgium. My work is based on ballpoint drawings which are converted into intricate cutouts. The workflow is analogue to get more organic results. I work on media like vinyl, canvas, cardboard, wood and walls.
ABC: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
KT: The worst critique is no critique at all. Lack of response whether positive or negative is the worst enemy of creativity!
KT: I’m very sensitive to critique, and I use it as a guideline to continuously change things. That’s why online platforms are very important to me because you get very objective comments on your work as opposed to a real life gallery where people come and shake hands and tell you how brilliant it is. The best gallery however is the street, because you can see the direct impact of your work on people living their daily life, it’s like an unfiltered selection of the population.
ABC: Whats your relation with vintage magazines?
KT: I’m obsessed with them. Since my childhood I’ve always been interested in old photography to see how usual things around us change throughout time. It’s definitely not the glamour side of the magazines I’m interested in, more the common ‘fait divers’ side like. I can spend hours looking at old photos of cities I know, it’s a born aberrance I guess. I have the same obsession for old record sleeves, toys and movies (film noir). The reason I don’t use vintage graphics directly is copyright issues. I’ve done some stencils right on thirties and fourties newspaper spreads though and in the near future I would like to experiment with collages.
KT: In the past I’ve been doing some multilayer work but since I picked up drawing again, I prefer single layer work, quick and a little dirty. The drawings are done in like 10 minutes of intensive scribbling. The cutouts can take me more than a week.
ABC: Do you have artists that have inspired you and your work?
KT: Ernst Pignon-Ernest, Swoon, C215, Pollock and baroque painters like Caravaggio and Velázquez. I’m also inspired by Henry Rollins and Jimi Hendrix!
KT: I like cutting paper very much so I’m doing some research on kiri-e (Japanese paper-cut art) and hope to use elements in my designs. I would like to experiment as well with photography, like hanging my stencils on windows in abandoned factories and photographing the light/shadow they generate.
ABC: Please share some upcoming projects and gallery shows?
KT: This summer I’ll be painting at Upfest (Bristol), Vitry Jam (Paris) and Teamworx (Belgium). I’ll be doing street work in Lille, Paris and Prague. Further there are contacts with galleries in the UK and NL.
KT: Get your hands dirty, don’t chase success, be patient and take plenty of time to reflect upon your own feelings and emotions.
To see more work,http://www.flickr.com/kristrappeniers
Interview: Daniel Lim
ABC: Tell us a little about Lynette May
LM: I’ve always had an interest in art, even as a small child I was attracted to expression through creativity. Now at age 33, still holding strong to my passion for art, I have managed to place emphasis on developing skills as a painter, sculptor, seamstress and jewelry maker. Being a single mother, I find it even more important to succeed and let my son see that you really can do what you’re passionate about in life, it just takes persistence and work.
ABC: Were you formally trained as an artist?
LM: I was never a fan of art school and was fortunate enough to have great programs in my High School that taught me a lot. Also, having other friends who are artists has really helped me out.
ABC: What was the worst crit you received as an artist? How did you cope?
LM: I had a customer tell me once that she hated her order and was brutal in wording her feelings on it. I took it kind of harshly, since it’s the only time I’ve ever had a person complain. However, I took her criticism in and made sure to consider her feedback in my future works. It’s hard at times taking criticism when it’s about something you worked hard at, but we all need feedback in order to grow.
ABC: How did you start promoting your work?
LM: Actually, I started selling my artwork when I was still in school, both at school and on eBay. My first painting from eBay was purchased by a New York bank employee. She later told me she hung the piece in the employee area of the bank to share it with everyone…talk about proud moment!
ABC: Please tell us about your Hey Killah project.
LM: Hey Killah was picked up after having issues with my host for Bleu-Lulu. My last shop had more of a variety, but I wanted something to help me hone in on my work more so than my consignment pieces from others. I’m currently making changes to the shop and am working on getting one of my best sellers mass-produced. I have great things in store for Hey Killah and hope to start picking up more art shows under that company name.
ABC: What is the most important thing in your life?
LM: That’s simple…my son. He’s hands down the best thing to ever happen to me. He’s a great source of inspiration on a daily basis and I want nothing more than to make him proud.
ABC: Whats in the near future for Lynette May?
LM: M&M… M = moving in September to California & M = getting married. Great things.
ABC: What would you like to say to the ABC community?
LM: In the short time that we have to make a difference, I have to say…live out your dreams, never allow anyone to tell you it can’t be done.
Websites:
www.heykillah.bigcartel.com
www.randomhouse.etsy.com
facebook
Interview by Daniel Lim
ABC: Please introduce yourself to the community
ET: I’m Emi/Emily/Emiri/Emyli/SPiLLeD MiLK. Born and raised in Yokohama, Japan, I am currently attending Otis College of Art and Design as a Graphic Design major.
ABC: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
ET: When I was told my figures were too “fat”, as well as my style being too “avant-garde” during my fashion illustration classes. I wasn’t too butt-hurt about my instructor giving me pointers on my style, but the “too fat” thing got to me. I wanted my work to make girls feel pretty, or inspire them to have fun with fashion. I didn’t want one of those people that pressured girls to get skinny or have perfect-model-bodies through my work.
ABC: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt about your art?
ET: Basically it led to me flipping my middle finger at the fashion industry, and leaving it behind. For a while, it made me unsure and discouraged about my work, but my passion towards art and design did not allow me to kill my true love.
ABC: How was it like growing up in Japan as an international student?
ET: My first few years were extremely discomforting. Some people have an idea that Japan is full of weird crazy stuff and they’re open-minded about a lot of stuff, but that really isn’t the case. A lot of Japanese people are actually quite conservative and close-minded, even from an early age. Being multi-ethnic led me to be a frequent target of bullying when I was a child, simply because I looked “different” from the rest of the other children. As a result, my parents decided to enroll me into an International school, where such problems wouldn’tt happen. As much as I love and respect my heritage and culture, growing up in Japan was not the easiest thing for me in my younger years.
ABC: How was the transition from Japan to California?
ET: Absolutely weird. I had visited California a couple times before moving here, but living here was a completely different question. People’s attitudes are completely different. The public transportation is a mess. The food is too greasy. I spent the first 3 months crying in bed at night from being home sick. Now, I’ve been blessed with amazing friends and transitioned a little better.
ABC: Why did you transfer from fashion to graphic design?
ET: One of my closest friends inspired me to do this, actually. Seeing his work made me notice that graphic design was what I really wanted to do. I also loved the way conceptual and individual thinking was promoted in the department- something that wasn’t very prominent in fashion design. I still love fashion, but I feel more at home in the graphic design department.
ABC: What is EmiRant and where did this come from?
ET: EmiRant is a journal I keep of random things that happen in my life. I’ve been keeping journals from a young age, and EmiRant is just another edition of it. My teacher, Daniel Lim (whoohoo!) encouraged me to keep it on a daily basis, and ta-da!
ABC: Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
ET: Ideally, I will be working for M/M Paris and be living in Paris as an Art Director in a fancy little apartment. Or be Erik Spiekermann’s Asian sidekick. …The worst case scenario will be me back in my parent’s house in Japan being a cat lady and crocheting scarves all day.
ABC: Do you feel like your education is going in the direction that will help your vision as an artist?
ET: Absolutely. Although I had my doubts when I was in the Fashion Design department, I’ve learned a lot from that department too. Since I’m a semester behind as a Graphic Design major, I’m planning to haul ass and catch up as much as I can.
ABC: What would you like to share with the ABC community.
ET: Love, warmth, peanut butter, hot tea and all those lovely things. I look forward to seeing all of your amazing work!
http://spilledmilk.carbonmade.com/
http://fuckmedoll.tumblr.com/
Interview: Volksradio Moos
(Interview conducted in Belgium. Editing kept to a minimum to preserve the interviewee’s voice)
ABC: Do you think it is more difficult for a girl than for a guy in the art world? Are girls more underdog than guys?
MS: I do not think it is harder for us girls, but it always depends of the environment, the people around you, the message you want to share, the passion you have for your work. In Belgium, being a man or a girl, it’s the same. It is anyway very hard to be popular here, and be able to live from your art. And it’s probably worse when you are from the ‘pop surrealism’, because it’s almost nonexistent here. I think we should try to always do the best and never give up.
ABC: What would you like to say to the other underdogs out there?
MS: You’ll need a lot of patience and passion. Being an artist will take a lot of your time, and a lot of work, but finally, it’s the best job in the world, right?
You can see more of Miss Sucette’s work at
http://www.miss-sucette.com/
Interview: Romina Perez
ABC: Tell us a little bit about what you do
DB: I make and draw things. I mostly make things now and draw for myself, but I would still like to keep that going too. My work has evolved into more diorama environments and puppets where I draw, craft, knit, sculpt, paint, build, photograph and edit. I think I just like to do too many things so I am trying to find a way that I can do them all. I like to sit down and get lost in what I do and then kinda wake up and find out I made a whale or a boat.
ABC: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
DB: The worst critique I got was when I was doing design. Which is funny because I care less about it. It still really floors you though because it is your decisions they are questioning. I think I that am so self critical with my illustration work that when someone says something, I have already thought of worse. So most of the time, with feedback, I agree and view it as really constructive and helpful.
ABC: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt about your art?
DB: I guess it made me think that I have to push harder to make it look like what I envisioned. I am still just figuring things out. It is an on going experiment.
ABC: What did you do about it?
DB: I try harder.
ABC: Your illustration work is mostly 3d, how did you find yourself transitioning from 2d illustration to 3d illustration?
DB: Well, I was in Nathan Ota’s painting class and I was really struggling with an assignment. I went to him for help and he said what if you actually build it. And from then I on I was like, wow, I can do what I want and work with what I want. I had this idea in my head that I was going to be a traditional painter, I guess I am not. Still kind of want to be though. But that’s not me, my head is too all over the place to stick to one medium. Now I just collect materials I want to work with and try new techniques every time. It is so fun, I learn something each time. Now I just need to find out how to make it marketable.
ABC: How long does it take for you to create a whole piece like “don’t tell me what I can’t do”.
DB: That piece took about a month. It was my first bigger piece and I really didn’t know what I was doing. Now I can build something in a week or less. It also depends on what I have around the house. Sometimes you need to find the right things to put together and that takes time. I go to the thrift and craft store a lot with Jessica (my roommate, a fabulous artist).
ABC: What inspires/influences your illustrations?
DB: Everything. Movies I watch, my friends, things I find, stories I write or just other art I see. I do a lot of internet wandering. Sometimes I will just have some yarn and really want to knit something and think this looks like a ….. polar bear? I have been on a big sequin kick right now. I find excuses to sew sequins on things. It relaxes me.
ABC: What do you love the most about being an illustrator?
DB: I can do what I want and I get to share it. I get to look at all these beautiful things all day long and then try and make something like it.
ABC: Share 5 fun random facts about you:
DB: I love sailboats. I have a cat named pocket. I drink at least three cups of hot tea a day. I listen to vast amounts of science and culture podcasts about how things work. I am really bad at telling left from right. I should never be the navigator in the car.
ABC: What would like to say to the other underdogs out there?
DB: “Don’t stop believing!”
Visit Danielle’s
Website: http://www.dbuerli.com
Interview by: Emi Tamaru
ABC: Tell us a little bit about what you do.
AK: I’ve been a magazine illustrator for over 30 years and also I’ve been doing a lot of personal work (I’d define it as fine art) for the past 10 years. I’ve also lectured and taught a lot.
ABC: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
AK: There have been so many I don’t know where to begin. I think the worst is the most recent one, and that’s the one that stings the most. But certainly early in my career I was told I’d never make it, I was told I wasn’t in the same “league” as my peers, and I was told by a well known agent that he could never take me on because it was obvious that I couldn’t draw a car! I’m sure those early rejections hurt a lot…I don’t really remember, but somehow I just kept going.
The recent negative review was from a gallery in Chelsea NY. The owner was particularly brutal with me. He was unnecessarily vicious. I actually felt as though I was going into a bit of a depression after that, but then I ran into Marshall Arisman who told me lots of really bad gallery stories and then I felt a bit better.
Actually, now that I think of it, I guess I’ve had quite a lot of bad feedback about my work too. I’ve had lots of letters written to Editors complaining about my work.
photo credit
ABC: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt about your art?
AK: First of all, I think there’s a right way and a wrong way to give a crit. Making a student feel bad about their work and therefore themselves is counter productive, and creates a mental block. Giving encouraging criticism is much more helpful.
When I get helpful criticism about my work I don’t feel bad about my work, but rather I try and incorporate that advice into what I’m doing. But if I feel that the advice has been given to me in a condescending way, I don’t appreciate it.
Also I had to, at some point, realize that if I was going to be in the public eye visually tackling some controversial subject matter, that not everyone was going to like my work. So I try and keep that in mind. You can’t please everybody.
ABC: What did you do about it?
AK: Well I kept on going. I also realized in hindsight that a lot of the criticism was in fact accurate. I wasn’t all that great an artist in the beginning, and I had a long way to go! It’s all a journey.
photo credit
ABC: It’s hard to believe that someone with such amazing style and achievements as you would have been a victim of “a bad crit”. If you don’t mind us asking, is this something you deal with, even today?
AK: Thank you! That’s sweet. And yes I still deal with it. I always try and keep challenging myself. Now that I’m in a different field (more fine art rather than illustration) the rules are a bit different, and I feel as though I’m learning all over again. But I think it’s good for all artists to think of themselves as students their whole lives.
ABC: I think a lot of us have to face some sort of criticism towards our work, especially when we’re in our developing stage as an artist. Unfortunately some people can’t handle it and give up on their work, despite having great potential to becoming successful. Do you have any tips and advice for us emerging artists in regards to dealing with criticism?
AK: Yes I’ve seen that too. Some of the best artists in school don’t have the tenacity to continue and weather the storms. Others, who I don’t think will succeed, do! I think that’s a testament to how in our field a lot of someone’s success may not have as much to do with raw talent but rather with their desire to succeed, their networking abilities, and their self-confidence. And if you don’t have self-confidence, fake it! There have been lots of artists in the past with crippling self-esteem issues (myself included)!
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ABC: What’s interesting about your work is that despite maintaining a very solid style, none of your works look identical. Establishing your own style is challenging enough, and making pieces look separate from one another is even harder. How do you manage to do this?
AK: Well thanks, but that can work against me as well. I try and make work that has to do with ideas, and my ideas don’t always follow predictable patterns. So when I recently tried to put together a fine art portfolio I had to do it in categories. I’m actually working in a number of different areas. I’m working on a series about gender, and another one about anthropology and another about science versus religion, etc. I sometimes feel as though I’m all over the place!
photo credit
ABC: Your portraits are interesting too (my personal favorites are the ones you did of Borat and John Lydon, as well as your interpretation of the Sex Pistols, they’re simply hilarious!) They manage to not only capture someone’s features but their personas, and blowing them up like a caricature. What do you keep in mind when you are working on portraits?
AK: Well I have to give a lot of credit to the amazing art directors I’ve worked with in the past… those who gave me enough freedom to be able to do crazy funny things without censoring me too much. And with subjects like Borat and Johnny Rotten it’s just so much fun!
The process of painting portraits has to do with incorporating photographic reference without infringing on the photographers copyright. Plus I have to identify certain traits and use those traits in the concept of the piece. It’s challenging but rewarding.
photo credit
ABC: I think another thing that emerging artists have problems with is crossing the line between illustration and fine art (I personally have a couple friends who are unsure what to label themselves as) What do you personally think makes an illustrator distinct from a fine artist?
AK: Yes, that’s always a big topic of conversation. Many of us (myself included) are designing hybrid careers. There has always been a big argument about the validity of illustration versus fine art. But it’s something that doesn’t concern me very much. We are all artists. Illustration is simply directing your art to something more specific. I don’t think we really need labels at all. It’s all good.
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ABC: Please give us a message for all the underdogs out there.
AK: Keep going. Recognize your value as a unique human being, whatever your background. If you have a challenging history that’s even more reason to make art. And do take criticism to heart. Try to learn from it. Count to 10, or 20 or wait a day after a crit, especially if it’s been a brutal crit. And then continue to make art. And don’t let someone take something special away from you!
For more of Anita’s work visit:
Interview by: Emi Tamaru
ABC: Tell us a little bit about what you do.
AS: I make magic happen in the form of “graphic design.”
ABC: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
AS: Digging deep within my past, I’m not even sure which one is the worst, as I’ve had a lot of discouraging crits. One that does stand out is one project I was working on during my senior year, I was told that it “looked like sophomore work, at best”, that I was really far behind, and that I didn’t understand my references. Basically I was failing and getting confused and making ugly crap. My reaction was, “Shit, i gotta step up my game.” Also, every crit after an all-nighter seems like a terrible crit (am I right, people???).
ABC: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt about your art?
AS: I learned to embrace my references and it feels gooooood.
ABC: What did you do about it?
AS: After I stopped crying, I swam out of my pond of tears and just started making things intuitively. I think I was over-thinking it before and so I thought I should just let go. It helped.
ABC: Humor seems to play a big part in some of your works. Do you intentionally try to make people laugh, or is it something natural? (I still laugh hysterically when I see your SEXY TYPE work) .
AS: Well thank you! I think it’s a little from column A, a little from column B. Laughter + Humor is HUGE in my life, and I like making people (& myself) laugh. It’s important for me to keep a sense of humor in just about everything I do. As my good friend Suzanarchist said, “taking yourself seriously is seriously boring.”
ABC: You seem to have some side-projects going on too, DGAF being one of them. Tell us a little bit about DGAF, what it stands for, and what it entails.
AS: DGAF stands for Don’t Give A Fuck and it’s a way of life. My friend and I (CMYK (Coolest Motherfuckers You Know (if you know us (more parentheses!)))) keep a blog called DGAF (cmykdgaf.blogspot.com) and we like to write about things and places and people we think are DGAF in a badass and/or hilarious way.
ABC: Could you say that music is a source of inspiration for you? It seems like you’re quite active in the music scene, looking at the DGAF posts.
AS: Absolutely. Music is art, too. And I kinda like art.
ABC: What are other sources of inspirations for you?
AS: CHEESEBALL ALERT: my family and friends. OTHERS: comedy, theater, other artists, designers, illustrators, DGAF people.
ABC: Do you have any other projects/secret plans coming out of your sleeve any time soon?
AS: Besides working on music with CMYK… idk, quest to find the grail?
ABC: Please give us a message for all those underdogs out there!
AS: Stop giving a fuck and just go for it.
To see more of Amy’s work visit:
Artist Closeup: Pyuupiru
By: Emi Tamaru
I first came across Pyuupiru and her work when she was still, according to official paper work, a he. I read an interview of her conducted by Sebastian Masuda, the creative director of 6% DOKI DOKI (a “super-kawaii” shop located in Harajuku, Tokyo). Quite honestly, I wasn’t interested enough to look into Pyuupiru’s work after reading the interview.
The second time I came across Pyuupiru’s work, my mind was blown into pieces. She was taking part of the “GOTH” exhibition held at Yokohama Museum of Art in 2007, exhibiting her “Selfportrait” series. Through this series, Pyuupiru documented her struggles with gender identity disorder (GID) as well as her transformation from the male body to a female one, portraying herself as a boy, a monster, then a girl. The “Selfportrait” series also documented her undergoing sexual reassignment surgery (SRS), and most importantly, the process accepting her identity and nurturing it. A couple months later, I was fortunate enough to attend Pyuupiru’s performance held at the same museum. Here, she brought her “Selfportrait” series to life, and transformed herself on stage.
What makes Pyuupiru’s work so strong, be it her “Selfportrait” series, costume work or performances, is her ability to express deep inner emotions through her work, and allow the audience to empathize with those emotions, allowing them to be a part of her experience as someone in transition. Not only that, her work becomes an encouragement to those going through a similar experience to hers. As long as you are able to accept who you truly are, and embrace your own identity, there is nothing wrong about being who you are. There is no need to worry about others’ opinions or judgements. Self acceptance is what makes a person truly beautiful. As Pyuupiru says in her own words, “I can never create works that lie”.
Interview: Emi Tamaru
ABC: Tell us a little bit about what you do.
LK: I’m currently a student at Otis, I’ve worked as a Freelance designer before, mostly web design, and I used to create marketing pieces for Santa Barbara City College. I started from a digital background and have grown to love the hand-crafted pieces
ABC: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
LK: That would have to be my first review at Otis, my Communication Studio professor pulled me aside and gave me one of those “what the F$#K are you doing here” talks.
ABC: How did that experience change or not change the way you feel/felt about your art?
LK: I felt like shit for the rest of the day, but then forgot about it. My old man once said “If you get knocked off the horse, get right back on.”, I have no idea what the hell he was talking about.
LK: Graphic Design is such a broad field, It allows so much day to day variety so that a person with a short attention span (me) won’t ever get bored. I don’t really consider myself a Graphic Designer because my personal work extends outside of the “boundaries” but allows me to be grounded in realism, and limits me in a way to solve problems creatively.
ABC: Through your work, I see that you explore a lot of different cultures. What countries and/or cultures interest you most, and why?
LK: That’s a tough question… I appreciate art from all cultures, but I’ve always been fascinated by native american art, their simple yet strong and beautiful shapes, with color choices that are restricted to only that which they can produce in nature.
ABC: Culture seems to be a proficient source of inspiration for you. What kind of things inspire you and your work? Also, who are some artists/designers that have inspired you and your work?
LK: Bold colors, strong shapes, expressive linework and abstract content always inspire me. I’m a big fan of the fine artist Gabriel Orozco from Mexico, He does some pretty amazing work with found objects I’m also a fan of R. Crumb’s illustrations, Paul Rands logo work, Erik Spieikermann’s strict German type design, and Vassily Kandinsky the Russian artist who basically created modern art as we know it.
ABC: Do you feel like you are influenced by the culture you were brought up in, or rather, foreign cultures that you are not familiar with?
LK:Unfortunately white trash culture is not as deep and influential most would believe. But I’ve been interested in other cultures, I’ve traveled to India and Spain, and plan to travel everywhere else. I suppose foreign cultures have always been alluring because of their exoticism, but I’ve allowed myself to appreciate American culture, and let it influence me as well.
ABC: I see that you have started making 3D-versions of your design work, your customized Munny and totem pole being a good example. Do you plan to create more 3-dimensional work, and if so, what kind?
LK:Well I’m looking to create a series of the totems, and continue working with the Munnys. I’m also working on building up a proficiency in Maya3D and hope to design and create my own toys.
ABC: What would like to say to the other underdogs out there?
LK: Confidence and originality can go a long ways…Keep on, Keeping on…. Keep on trucking…umm nevermind.
Please give some love Lane Kinkade
Interview by: Fawn Fruits
ABC: Tell us a little bit about what you do.
TQ: Well, I am a trained illustrator. It’s a commercial art, and some people don’t even consider it ‘art’. But I think many illustrators are breaking that gap and stepping into a place where that line of fine art and illustration is really blurring. In my ‘illustrations’ I try to really find connection with a subject matter that I personally care about. For example, I had an assignment where I were to illustrate my ‘childhood ambition’. I grew up on anime as a girl, so I decided to illustrate about that. Then I thought about how it impacted me. I thought about myself and idea of beauty. Consequently, the article about a Chinese girl who got surgeries to look like Jessica Alba to get her boyfriend back.. with those references, I created my Xiaoqing piece, which a few people emailed me and said it brought awareness to them. I think everyone does their best work when they care about the subject matter.
I think that way my illustrations are fine art too- it communicates an idea that is personal to the artist.
ABC: What was the worst critique/review/feedback you were ever given and how did it make you feel?
TQ: Yikes, I have too many! Well, In my sketchbook class in junior year, a teacher said to me, “you MIGHT make it…” all I heard was ‘might’. This statement was a question of ‘is the glass half full or half empty?’ At that time, I lacked the confidence of whether I will make it in this profession, so since then, that comment always repeats in my head for some reason. I either get paranoid about not making it, or be assured that I will.
TQ: I really tried pushing myself harder. Most of my time in school, I devoted myself to just improving my technical skills. Honestly, I signed up for illustration without really even know what it is. Completely blind of what it was, I threw myself in just because I wanted to draw and paint. I created illustrations not really caring about whether I liked the piece or not, I thought of it as training exercise. So I wasn’t really attached my any of the work I created then. But my glorified entries from the sketchbook class- in that class we had to create an image from our head without reference, so I got to think more beyond technicality. In the end that sketchbook really reflected my Senior portfolio a year later.
ABC: What did you do about it?
TQ: Since my focus was to grow in technical part of illustration, I set my sketchbook aside. But In the beginning of Senior Portfolio, I constantly referenced and went back to painting in the sketchbook to explore my motifs and repetition of certain elements. I think I learn a lot about myself through that process and apply it to my current illustrations.
ABC: Where do you get the inspirations of your illustrations?
TQ: Well, I look at a lot of fashion photography. I have a folder called “inspiration” where I print and save all the images that I like. Right now there are a lot of Matsui Fuyuko and Vania Zouravliov’s work. Each image always seem to find a place in my work. Currently I am collecting images of Delia Robbia.
ABC: You’re graduating pretty soon, what are you plans after college?
TQ: I took my weekend break, and considered that my summer vacation. It’s a Sundaynight, and got back to work. I’m going to continue creating personal illustrations to keep building my portfolio. And of course promoting! As for rent, I’m plan on getting a part time job- to just to get by so that I can keep painting. I am pretty frightened because living in NYC is really expensive. Sort of still freaks me out, so I traded in my graduation present to Paris for couple months of rent instead. My parents did so much throughout my college. I’m sort of their baby girl. I want to assure them I went to art school, but I’m going to be OK. Its going to be tough few years, but I’m up for the challenge.
ABC: Do you feel like you got the best education as an illustrator?
TQ: SVA has the best of retro and contemporary. Teachers like Joo Chung and TomWoodruff comes from place of experience, so they have really deep understanding of the field. I love hearing them talk about the changes and advices on having a longevity in the field. Teachers like Marcos Chin and Chang Park are extremely active in illustration right now so they can be really informative about the trends and business. It has been really great four years. But I’m very greedy, so I always wish I had more-
ABC: What would you like to say to the other underdogs out there?
TQ: One time I worked on my sketches till 5:10am to email them to my teacher. I went to sleep complaining about how its so late. But when I checked the email in the morning, he had written me back at 5:20am. At that moment, I realized that I need to be working harder and later than my teachers if I want to be anywhere near their success.
To see more of Tae’s work go to: taequerney.com
