ASSEMBLA MAGAZINE
ISSUE #2
APRIL 2025
ATTUNEMENT ISSUE
2
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
4
EDITOR’S NOTE
6
A Q&A WITH TARA AXFORD
94
KAT JOHNSON
22
A Q&A WITH ICARO GALVAO
98
JASON LORD
36
SOPHIE ACHILLI
102
MAJKE LUTHI
38
MARSHA BALIAN
106
KRISTINA MORICONI
40
TWIGGY BOYER
110
NATASHA PASTRANA
42
ISAAC FRANKLE (SHOVELMAN)
114
GALE ROTHSTEIN
44
LICHTENERGER-FROEHLING
118
JOAN TAMKIN
46
LISA PETRIDOU
122
A Q&A WITH JACK RAVI
48
QUINCEY SPAGNOLETTI
136
JOHN DIRE
50
A Q&A WITH DAWN SURRATT
142
FRANK JENNINGS
64
A Q&A WITH MIRIAM ABELLAN
148
PAMELA CONNOLLY
78
AMY DUNCAN
82
DANA FALCINI
86
LISA FREEMAN
90
ELISABETH DISHUR
COVER ART BY DAWN SURRATT
3
EDITOR’S NOTE To collect is to care. To arrange is to listen. To create is, perhaps, to remember how to see.
This issue is a quiet celebration of presence. Each artist reminds us that beauty lives not only in grand gestures but also in what we find tucked into pockets, scattered on sidewalks, or held in the stillness of an afternoon. Leaves, paper scraps, fragments of the built and broken world are offered back to us, reimagined with tenderness and intention.
Their work is a meditation on noticing. On finding balance in contrast. On allowing instinct, memory, and curiosity to guide the hand.
There is no need for certainty here. No pressure to produce a final answer. Only the gentle invitation to show up, to explore, to create for the joy of it. These pages ask us to slow down and take delight in what we often overlook.
We hope this issue meets you in a quiet moment. That it gives you space to reflect and room to wander. That it reminds you of the beauty in small things and the magic of paying close attention.
Not because you must. But simply because you can.
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Dana Falcini - Your Poem is Recorded in the Shifting Winds
5
Tracing Memory: A Conversation with Ícaro Galvāo Ícaro Galvão (b. 1996, Recife, Brazil) is a visual artist whose practice explores themes of memory, forgetfulness, and the passage of time through experimental photography and mixed media. With a background in analog and 19th-century photographic processes, Ícaro incorporates cyanotype, collage, weaving, and other physical interventions to transform images and found materials into layered narratives. His works often feature discarded family photographs, aged wood, and other objects marked by human touch and the erosion of time, recontextualizing them to construct new meanings. Influenced by the Pictorialist movement and a tactile approach to artmaking, he emphasizes the interplay between history, materiality, and human memory. Ícaro’s works reflect a deep engagement with archival materials and manual techniques, fostering a slower, more reflective process that contrasts with the immediacy of contemporary image production. By reimagining forgotten objects, he invites viewers to contemplate the fragility and resilience of memory.
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Marsha Balian www.marshabalian.com
@marshabalian
BIOGRAPHY Marsha Balian admits a dislike of following instructions. She is self-taught and frequently invents her own techniques. Her work has a strong narrative quality and incorporates found materials, often combined with drawing and painting. Since invention doesn’t require strict adherence to rules, her art avoids what might be literal and attempts to engage the imagination of the viewer. Humor is never far behind. Her artwork has been shown throughout the Bay Area, in many parts of the country, and internationally. She has been featured in several publications, including Photo Trouvee Magazine, Woven Tale Press, Oakland Magazine, West Marin Review, and 48 Hills Magazine. Her work is included in Collage by Women: 50 Women Collage Artists of the World, a book published in Spain that has enjoyed huge international success. Most recently, Contemporary Collage Magazine included her work in a member feature.
Bird in Hand
38
Coms
stock
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ARTIST STATEMENT Sometimes it feels necessary to work three-dimensionally; it satisfies a need that isn’t always identified. I can be a hunter-gatherer for found materials that don’t always lend themselves to two-dimensional work. The three pieces submitted were inspired by objects found unexpectedly, like the old leather shoe sole used in Comstock or the wooden yellow cornice used in Yellow Roof. I adore antique photographs, and combining them with other found objects gives them new life and an implied narrative. Bird in Hand makes use of an old studio portrait of a serious-looking young man. I painted stripes behind him and added black nails I found at a job site. I painted a background scene for the doll’s hand and added form to the roof using empty spools of thread. I never plan my work in advance; rather, the materials themselves direct me toward where they need to go.
Yellow Roof
39
Wellspring
60
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Fractal A
74
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Latent
75