CREATIVPAPER Magazine
Vol 003
Issue 009
When CreativPaper was founded a few years ago, Jimmy Outhwaite wanted to create a platform for creatives both new and seasoned to showcase their work. We would never in our wildest dreams imagine that this would culminate into an active online community and seven digital issues. For our first print issue, we wanted to feature a selection of artists that have been an inspiration to us over the last year and new ones we have discovered along the way. In this issue, we have featured a wide range of artists ranging from Jason Clarke, Ronald Ownbey and Ziba Moasser to name a few. Each one challenging their creative energy into the work through a multitude of mediums. We would like to thank everyone who has believed in us and shared our vision. We hope you enjoy our latest labour of love. Thank you! Jimmy Outhwaite and Jefferson Pires
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Healthy forests help absorb greenhouse gasses and carbon emissions that are casued by human civilization and contribute to global climate change. Without trees, more carbon and greenhouse gasses enter the atmosphere. To make matters worse, trees actually become carbon sources when they are cut, burned, or otherwise removed.
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08 THIRZA SCHAAP 14 SARAH ALLEN EAGEN 22 RYOTA MATSUMOTO 28 ROBERT STONE 32 MARISA VADILLO RODRÍGUEZ 40 ALESSANDRO DE ANGELIS 50 RUTH BROWN 54 GRANT GILSDORF
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62 CHRIS DEKNIKKER 66 SIMON KIRK 74 DIANNE FACCIN 78 TANYA SAMSONOVA 82 LILIANE AVALOS 90 LINDSAY PICKETT 94 REBECCA ROWLAND-CHANDLER 102 REBECCA HINWOOD 106 NIKOS LAMPRINOS
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COVER ARTIST
/THIRZA SCHAAP Our oceans are probably the greatest resource on our planet, for millions of years they have been the primaeval soup that has led to the evolution of countless species, including inevitably us. Its what separates us from the trillions of planets in the universe. Even today, there are vast spaces of the universe that are yet to be discovered, however, there is one aspect of human life that has touched every corner of it and that is plastic. This wonder invention has revolutionalised our world and consumption-driven society but also led to the pollution of every aspect of our ecosystem, none more than the oceans. It is estimated by the year 2050 there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish. Dutch photographer Thirza Schaap, for her series Plastic Ocean, collected the non-natural objects she came across on the beaches of South Africa, her new home and collaged them into bright and contemporary still lifes, challenging our perception of these disposed of objects. Permeating every level of the oceanic food chain, a magnet for chemicals these micro-plastics are toxic confetti across our planet, and in Thirza’s own words “Our beaches are covered in plastic confetti and there really is nothing to celebrate�. plastic-ocean.net
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Above: Plastic Ocean: Frog 09
Above: Plastic Ocean: Kick 10
Above: Plastic Ocean: Fruit
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Above: Plastic Ocean: Spalsh of Pink 12
Above: Plastic Ocean: Smack 13
INTERVIEW
/SARAH ALLEN EAGEN The word ‘patience’ seems to have lost its meaning in the 21st century. We live in a time of almost immediate consumption, at least for a significant portion of the planet. With everything being a tap away the same applies to our interpersonal relationships. Intimacy has been replaced with immediacy; a topic explored extensively by artist Sarah Allen Eagen in her work. Based in New York City, she specialises in using art as a means of social engagement around topics such as diversity, violence prevention and violence against women. Your work was showcased at Art Toronto last year, what was that experience like? How did you get involved with the show? Art Toronto 2017 was the first art fair that I participated in, and my work was featured part of the Vellum Magazine booth. I got involved with the fair through my connection with the magazine. Prior to the art fair, my artwork was featured in Vellum Magazine, issue 18 in 2017, and also at an exhibition curated by the editor in chief of the magazine, at Central Booking’s Offline Space in March 2017.
After working with Vellum Magazine on these two projects, I was invited to display my work at their booth in Art Toronto. Vellum Magazine has dozens of art fair partners, and I thought it was particularly fitting that my work be included in Art Toronto because it’s the biggest Canadian art fair in my hometown. It was an incredible experience, and I’m so grateful to have had this opportunity! How old were you when you moved to New York City? I moved to New York City to complete my graduate degree, 14
Above: Feed Me Diamonds
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a Master of Fine Arts at Parsons School of Design, in 2011 when I was 23 years old. I had just finished my undergraduate degree and was one of the youngest students in the MFA program at the time. I’ve been living in New York City ever since. It seems like we are obsessed as a society with sharing our lives online, is there any space for intimacy and privacy anymore in your opinion? I absolutely believe that there is room for both intimacy and privacy in our lives, but I think that with the advent of technology, both are often sacrificed for immediacy. The virtual world provides a seemingly quick fix in the search for meaningful bonds. For instance, when a person feels alone, they can send a text, or search for a new connection, and receive immediate feedback. These transient cyber connections can be satisfying in the short term, but are a different experience than face-to-face, voice-to-ear, skin-toskin communication. Technology has long played the third party to close interpersonal relationships. It is almost impossible to discuss intimacy without also referencing the role digital devices play in
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orchestrating these private relationships. With regards to privacy, the challenge is that when we use technology and applications to mediate our communication and intimate moments, we can end up inadvertently sharing private information with the companies that own the apps and devices. For a connected world, we sure seem to be getting distant emotionally as explored in your solo exhibitions titled “Tender: Intimacy in the Digital Age” and “Anatomy of Desire”, what are your thoughts on that? My work explores interpersonal relationships in the twenty-first century where intimacy has often been replaced by immediacy. This theme was explored in the exhibitions “Tender: Intimacy in the Digital Age” and “Anatomy of Desire.” “Anatomy of Desire” explores human frailty and mortality and presents a space where contradictory ideas rub up against one and another. This body of work focuses on the tension between the artificial and the real, comfort and discomfort, and the stunning and the grotesque by exploring the moment when these distinctions dissolve.
The viewer witnesses a bodily form quivering on the knife’s edge of seduction and repulsion, and must navigate this charged psychological space. Anatomy of Desire is a body of work which possesses a disorienting doubleness - forcing the viewer to examine the work with extra care and putting them on intimate terms with one’s own vulnerability.
Who was your favourite artist growing up and why? When I was a child, I was obsessed with Frida Kahlo. I didn’t have any formal education in art history until much later, but I went to many art exhibitions from a young age. I remember seeing an exhibition of work by Frida Kahlo, Georgia O’Keefe and Emily Carr when I was 12 or 13.
“Tender: Intimacy in the Digital Age” explores the sensual, vulnerable, and alienating aspects of the digitisation of society. “Tender” is a play on “Tinder,” the name of the ubiquitous dating app whose tag-line is “Tinder is how people meet. It’s like real life, but better.” The Internet has an immediate and powerful impact on human relationships, and this exhibition is Inspired by the ways in which the human experience is mediated by digital skins.
It was the first time I had seen an exhibition featuring work by exclusively female artists, and I immediately connected with Kahlo’s work. I was drawn to the tragedy and triumph of her life and the autobiographical nature of her work. There was something very powerful about seeing a famous woman painter create self-portraits that communicated the turmoil of her life, while also being stunning visually.
My work aims to highlight the ways in which people communicate and construct their identity in an online world and demonstrates how the desire for connection can be found in the ways in which people use technology to connect with one and another.
You recently had work featured in the SciArt Center exhibition “The Void in the Cloud”, and in 2013 you completed a BioArt Residency at the School of Visual Arts, can you tell me how science influences your artwork? I am interested in collaborating on projects that combine art, science and technology.
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My work has always been heavily influenced by the biological and anatomical, but participating in the BioArt Residency at SVA in 2013 transformed the way that I approached my work. There, I learned how to use new materials and chemical processes to create my work and to understand that the boundaries between art and science are often fluid. Joining the SciArt Center and writing for SciArt Magazine has transformed my understanding of the artwork of others in relation to the hard sciences. More recently, I began collaboration on a new project, entitled “In Our Skin,” whose goal is to bring together artists using Virtual Reality technology.
affecting wealthy young people. I interpreted this term “affluenza” literally: throughout the exhibition, figurative sculptures are pockmarked with rhinestones which obscure their humanity. This body of work co-mingles representations of fashion and decadence with references to illness, trauma and decay. The title of the exhibition is an absurd proposition: it reflects an obsession with and desperate desire for wealth and instant pleasure so strong, that one begs to be fed diamonds with the hope that the status symbol will merge with the core of one’s being and become a part of their identity.
The exhibition reflects an enduring attraction and impossible obsession Could you tell us a bit more about with glamour as a contemporary the inspiration behind your body preoccupation that is part curse, of work titled “Feed Me part pleasure, part impossible Diamonds”? fantasy. This body of work invites Feed Me Diamonds explores the viewers to confront notions of relationship between saturation, narcissism, consumption, and material inequality and modern instant gratification. anxiety. The body of work was inspired by the idea of “affluenza,” a portmanteau of affluence and influenza, a term used by critics of consumerism used to describe a psychological malaise supposedly 18
Above: Muzzle
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There’s an undercurrent of eroticism in your work, can you tell me more about this? Is this a topic you think more artists should endorse? I think that art has the potential to explore eroticism in a space that avoids taboo. There are many artists who explicitly engage with eroticism in their work, and I think my approach is more subtle. I am interested creating artwork in the space where contradictory ideas rub up against one and another by blurring the lines between seduction and repulsion as well as comfort and discomfort.
drink is The Campbell Apartment. The bar is tucked away in an ornate corner of Grand Central Terminal, and it has a speakeasy vibe. The space itself is stunning, full of history and Florentine decor, and the drinks are amazing. www.saraheagen.com
I like to create work that simultaneously reveals and conceals and plays with the boundaries and assumptions of the viewer. In my artwork, made of silk, rubber, glitter, silk and wax, sensual forms are rendered clinical and are at once vulnerable and erotic. Even the title of my first exhibition was subtly erotic “Anatomy of Desire”, but it balanced the erotic with the anatomical. What’s Sarah’s favourite place to grab a drink after a long day in New York? My absolute favourite place to get a
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Above: I wish this scar... 21
INTERVIEW
/RYOTA MATSUMOTO For better or for worse, as a species, we have had the most impact on the landscape of our planet. Observable from space, we have altered the face of our planet, illuminating and moulding it to meet our needs. Artist Ryota Matsumoto’s work explores these relationships and changes, taking the form of visual commentaries of our dynamic landscape. Would you say that every aspect of our lives is influenced by art in one way or another? Yes, We are able to draw something rather banal, and it manages to speak a lot by itself. A simple object could be infused with a lot of anecdotes and memories with just brushes and a canvas. It proves the point that we are always inspired and influenced by every aspect of our lives and even ordinary matters that surround us and vice versa.
Do you think we could ever curtail our negative impact on the planet since the beginning of the Anthropocene? First thing first, we need to look at the Anthropocene from a broader geological perspective rather than human-centric or academic one. We also need to be aware of the urgent proximity of nonhuman presences. The other crucial point is how much we could let the public to be aware of this grave situation that we are hopelessly mired in. 22
Above: Surviving in the Multidimensional Space of Cognitive Dissonace.
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That would lead to set up effective grassroots organisations for coming face to face with the Anthropocene epoch as well as addressing the myriad of related environmental issues. In a nutshell, I believe that kind of shift in our outlook might eventually lead to curtailing our negative impact on the planet.
collaborations among them lately, and they certainly blur the boundaries among them. I’d say that art is the glue to hold together different disciplines as it is the best medium to inform creative thinking.
As someone who uses multiple mediums, If you had to pick between digital and analogue techniques to create art, what What are you trying to would it be and why? communicate through your work I would embrace analogue as an artist? technique for creating art My work reflects the wholeheartedly, as that is what I am morphological transformations of familiar with long before the start our manifold ecological milieus of the digital revolution in both that are attributed to a multitude of architecture and fine art in the first spatiotemporal phenomena place. To be honest, I am weary of influenced by sociocultural and constant firmware updates of urban built environments. They are digital tools almost on a monthly created as visual commentaries on basis. speculative changes in notions of societies, cultures and ecosystems People often refer to Japan and in the transient nature of shifting Tokyo specifically as the future of and adaptive topography and cities around the world. Are there geology. lessons learnt that we could all benefit from? Do you think the lines between That is mostly the weird myth various disciplines are blurring primarily created by some notable with each passing day? science fiction films and novels I’d say so for some disciplines such in the west, I believe. Moreover, as art, science and I speculate that strange blend of architecture specifically. There are a street signs in both English and lot of cross-disciplinary Japanese in the centre of Tokyo 24
Above: Swirling Effects and Their Wayside Phenomena.
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Above: The Indistinct Notion of an Object Trajectory. 26
Does Ryota have a morning routine? I tend to be a night owl and hardly ever have time for a morning routine, to be honest. It’d be nice to practice. Tai Chi or go jogging in the morning for my well being, of course. That is only an ideal anyway.
probably conjure up the illusion of the future cities. As far as I can tell, I think most of the Japanese cities aren’t that different from cities in the rest of the world. It actually hits home for me that how much NY projects the future of cities considerably more so than Japanese cities with all those mega skyscrapers and huge logistical systems in Manhattan.
www.ryotamatsumoto.com
Could you tell us a bit more about your time growing up in Hong Kong? I used to live in Hong Kong from the mid-70s to late 80s. That was when Hong Kong went through the drastic transformation from a tiny seaport town to one of the most prosperous business cities of the world. It might have influenced me enormously in academic respect, as that experience led me to study both architecture and urbanism in hindsight. Has the past year had any specific highlights for you? I had received two first-place awards for the artworks from Visual Art Open in the UK and ISEA of the United States last year. Those are undoubtedly memorable events as an artist thus far.
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ARTIST FEATURE
/ROBERT STONE Out of all our senses, it’s the sense of touch that I find most fascinating, the patina on an old chair, cold metal across a kitchen worktop and the touch of a loved one. These are experiences that would be less visceral without touch. It’s this sense of tactility and texture that San Francisco based artist Robert Stone wants to convey through his work. Created using brushes he made himself they have a geometric crystalline precision that images do not justify. Robert’s skill as a painter is evident in his use of space, volume and depth which results in his work having a virtual three-dimensional feel. Not shy about using large canvases, Robert wants his audience to be consumed by his pieces which provide multiple strata’s of engagement. www.robertstone.art
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Above: Untitled (Florida 16.4), 2016, 60 x 42 inches, acrylic on linen 29
Above: Untitled, 2014, 30 x 30 inches, acrylic on linen
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Above: Untitled (Florida 17.4), 2017, 24 x 18 inches, acrylic and wood on linen
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INTERVIEW
/MARISA VADILLO RODRÍGUEZ Based in Córdoba which lies in the picturesque southern Spanish region of Andalusia, we have artist Marisa Vadillo Rodríguez. In our conversation with this his multi-disciplinary artist, we talk about her time growing up in Córdoba, her professional goals and how the art industry has changed since she first started out. Could you tell us about your experience of exhibiting your work for the first time in 1996, how did that change you as an artist? In 1996 I began studies of Fine Arts at the University of Seville. Those first exhibitions were important for my formation, but I think that it was more important to develop my identity as authoress and as a person, to know who I was, who I could be, who I did not want to be and not at any price. There is an age in which you must 32
to choose, and learn to do it feeling what implies these decisions is difficult. Those years corresponded to choosing and creating without any certainty. You have a multi-medium disciplinary when it comes to art, is there one medium that been transformative as far as your work is concerned? Though I have worked painting, video, actions, drawing, photography or installation, I think that the field of painting is the medium that been most
Above: Another Day Maybe 33
Above: Broken Landscape #2
transformative in my evolution as an authoress. Maybe it is not a question about techniques, the real issues are the poetics, and I believe that in painting it is where more there is demonstrated everything that has happened to my work in the last years. Especially from 2015. These works have become more baroque, more complex, intimate, have gone out of the own painting because it was necessary to transmit important aspects of my current work. The focus of these topics is the time, to put in crisis stable values 34
of the classic history of the art, the impossibility of the beauty or the game between appearance and truth. My recent work is focused on an obsession concerning to the spring. Therefore, probably is the classic oil painting the one that more has mutated, it is closer to the installation. Nevertheless, my new works are exploring the possibilities of the graphical art concerning space and relational aesthetics. In the course of my studies I specialized in engraving and design for what these areas had to appear sooner or later.
Above: Broken Landscape #7
Where do you usually get your inspiration from? For me, the creative act is more associated with the communication than with the inspiration. My process of communication is creative, it constantly occurs, with total naturalness. This does not mean that I am continually holding exhibitions, I am very interested when creativity make the daily object or moment became a piece of art. My creativity is not enslaved to the art market since I do not have a significant need to expose everything that I produce.
The environment of the present art market is an environment that I visit only when it is necessary and I can retain my identity and independence. This is very important to me. Due to my job at the university, I have the privilege of being able to choose where, how, when and to whom relating (or not), this seems to be a great luxury to me: to be allowed to choose freely. How has the art industry changed since you first started out as an artist? I have the impression that each 35
Above: Silence #1
time everything is more homogeneous and that the market imposes a rhythm of voracious production and execution that forces, in some occasions, the authors to repeat patterns that we know work well. Especially among the youngest artists. There is a ruthless tyranny that gives to understand that one that is not rewarded in specific competitions or it is not in some artistic circuits is not art. It is a great fallacy of our times. We have accepted in a certain way these rules of the game. Probably
the social networks also influence this environment of homogenization that, in some cases, it is lamentable. Are you still based in Cรณrdoba? What was it like growing up there? Yes, still I am based in Cordova though sometimes I think that I live in the train because I am employed at the University of Seville as a teacher at the Faculty of Fine arts, and these are different cities. This supposes having the feeling of not being anywhere. To grow in Cordova means growing 36
Above: The logic the empty #2
in a friendly environment, something familiar because it is a small city. Historically it has had few references in contemporary art up to the recent inauguration of the Center of Contemporary Creation (C3A). The town contains many monuments and an enormous cultural past produced by the mixture of cultures as demonstrates in our famous Mosque that has a Catholic Cathedral inside or in archaeological Roman remains, among others. It is a very remarkable city.
Could you tell us a bit more about your body of work titled ‘Bluebird’? The photographic series Bluebird is inspired by Charles Bukowski’s famous poem that has this title. It is one of the poets that I like more; I think that he is one of the most sincere men at the moment of writing. In this text, Bukowski defines the whole fragility that it characterises to the figure of the artist, who protects the most vulnerable thing that he has, hiding it. These days it is a phenomenon that many people do. We all are, in a way, bluebirds.
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Ironically, the birds of the photographic series are pink, appealing to the poetical sense of the image, not to its visual appearance. If you want, you can see that they are blue. They are for me; it is the meeting of a couple of bluebirds and another bird invited as a viewer.
What is Marisa’s favourite thing to do at the end of a long day? No doubt is to forget the daily troubles and begin the night, entering the exciting world of some television series. HBO, a sofa and your partner, is like being in paradise. When our children and all their love and intensity leave us to do it! …And sometimes to draw.
Do you have any professional goals for this year? Presently I am preparing an individual exhibition with the main subject about the Requiem of Mozart. I think that it is one of the most beautiful, tragic and intense artistic works of our history.
www.marisavadillo.es
The works will be organised in an artistic series titled as ‘Another day maybe’, ‘Broken landscape’ or ‘Requiem’. I have been working on it from 2016, and it will bring together pictorial pieces, art installations, graphical art, and more. In parallel, I am revising my new book on the women of the Bauhaus; it would be my third book on this topic. Also, I am preparing two projects as a curator on the occasion of the next centenary of the German Bauhaus School in 2019. 38
Above: Chess mate #3 39
INTERVIEW
/ALESSANDRO DE ANGELIS Most of us can admit to having some routine or schedule that we follow consciously or unconsciously every day. Wake up, coffee, work, home, chores and bed. It can seem like a movie playing over and over. But, what we don’t realise is that we are unknowingly working towards a bigger goal as a collective. It’s these dimensions along with dream worlds that artist Alessandro De Angelis draws his inspiration from. In our conversation with him, he talks about his time growing up in Turin, Italy and the powerful force our anxieties and fears play in driving us forward. You were born and grew up in Turin, Italy. What was that experience like? I understood the true value that Turin held to me after I moved out. As babies do, I started realising it only after it was taken away from me -or, I may say, I took it away from myself. Growing up in Turin not only meant being surrounded by art and baroque buildings, but it was also living in the heart of modern Italian history. It is a way more intimate city, reserved, always 40
cautious about sharing its treasures. Hard to crack open. Cold, at first sight, Turin is ready to embrace anyone’s own nature to its ecosystem only if the person is ready to be challenged and tested by the sharp colours of the city. Turin is a cautious city, where caution does not mean fear for the other, but a demand for respect. Turin’s gates can be opened by anybody; it is only a matter of taking the effort to find the right key. That reflects my personality as a product of my hometown.
Above: Moneaan, 7pm
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Above: Soft Sounds From Another Planet
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My ice shell is only a defence system designed by my brain and life experience to protect my core from who is not willing to dig deep enough to get to know my true self.
believe in the existence of further dimensions than the ones we can perceive, dimensions that include parallel timelines and alternative universes, then it is inevitable to give nihilism its credit. Would you say each of us are ants However, can nihilism enclose its in the colony that is the universe, own meaning? Could the fact that working consciously or at the end of all, if nothing even unconsciously towards a common matters, the only point in time that goal? really has any kind of value is the Definitely unconsciously. We all present one? Would it make sense work towards goals that we think for a sentient being to consciously we are able to define, but we often work towards the unknown? Yes. miss the perspective of things. As Wouldn’t that make us I try to portray it in Butterflies, it fundamentally unconscious then? just takes us a glance at the sky to understand that there is more that Death, although a part of the we don’t know than what we natural cycle, can have a rather actually know. strong response from us humans emotionally, often negative. How We think we understand the do you approach that topic as an dynamics of our colony or artist? universe-, but we often don’t even I think that death is one of most comprehend the mechanisms that romantic topics one can talk about. rule our everyday life. How can we Similarly to the previous question, think that we know where we are even with death, we tend to miss headed to as a whole if the most the bigger picture. incomprehensible and mysterious thing we have to deal with is our There is so much we don’t know own mind? about it, yet we act as the only translation of the word death is the This doesn’t mean we are doomed end. As we discussed previously, we or that we have no purpose, even are conscious beings unconsciously though nihilism is a philosophy working towards the unknown. that deeply fascinates me. If we 43
Above: Second Coming
I deal with this topic in my some of my compositions. Like Neo in The Matrix, the protagonist of Leap of Faith has a decision in front of him: he can keep living his ordinary life made of mainstream patterns, or he can jump in the clouds unaware of what he will find beyond it, not knowing if there will be anything at all, only conscious that no matter what, it will be something he never experienced. On the other hand, Conversation with a dying moon has a similar, yet different take on the topic of death. It deals with the randomness of events, including
death, which doesn’t look anybody in the face: whether you are a horse, a human being, or a celestial body, everything dies, and there is no such discussion as “Why me?” Even what we worship and we see as untouchable has an end. It’s just the sequence of cosmic patterns that dictates it, and there is nothing wrong with accepting it. How do you balance aesthetics and meaning in your work? It is really tough to have those two match. They usually build themselves and interlace during the creative process. I usually play music while I create and let it
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Above: Feels Like We Only Go Backwards
Is it true that our anxieties and deepest fears are often the strongest vehicles of change for us as a race? Yes, yes, and yes. Being static is the easiest way to deterioration of body and mind. The only way to slow down the laws of entropy is, in my opinion, to keep pushing forward as a human being, and in order to do that, we need something to direct us. The entity that does the most efficient job at this is fear. A piece of art that only focuses on Anxiety is the voice in our head aesthetics risks to appear frivolous, that helps us stay on track; it’s the while something that only focuses spy in our car that warns us when on meaning risks to fail to convey something in the system needs to be fixed. the message. dictate my work, which means that my artwork often absorbs the meaning and the shapes of the song I’m listening to, or the feelings that it evokes in me. Balance is a fundamental word, and I am truly glad you asked this question. Nothing can exist without balance, not even the universe itself. Therefore art as well has the obligation to respect -or at least pursue- balance.
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Above: Leap of Faith
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Without fear, we would never face any improvement because we would be satisfied with our current situation. This satisfaction would silently drive us towards the edge of the cliff, and by the time we realise that the brakes are not working, it would be too late. In Soft Sounds From Another Planet, I give my graphic representation of Japanese Breakfasts homonym song. In her song, Michelle Zauner says that “they [the soft sounds from another planet] will never let you hurt me”, stating that they are her protectors, a sort of guardian angels. Well, my protectors are my fears, which keep me vigilant about the flaws of my personality so that I know that I have to work to fix them before I reach the cliff.
life. The part of New York that truly stole a place in my heart is Brooklyn, which is where I spent most of my time. It made me feel as if I was in the centre of the world, where my ideas were free to fly. I see New York as a heavy sledgehammer that regardless of anything else started pounding on my head and cracked it open to let everything flow out. The feeling of freedom that the city is soaked in awoke all the hibernated ideas that were in my head. Now that I left the city it hurts a bit to talk about it, but it’s a good kind of hurt.
What are you listening to at the moment? It’s been a couple of weeks that I have been writing a lot and when I do that I mostly listen to instrumental music, mostly Could you tell us about your time classical. Contemporary composers in New York? What were the early such as Max Richter, Olafur days like after just moving from Arnalds, and Hans Zimmer Italy? manage to strike the right chords Right after I moved from Turin to to unleash my creativity and let my New York, I was terrified. I guess mind travel as far as I want. They it was my own leap of faith. I was make me experience the stories scared of being swallowed by the that I rehearse in my head over and monster represented by the city of over and almost make them feel New York. Saying that I loved my real, as if they truly happened. time there would not be enough to explain the role that it served in my 47
Above: Lifetimes
I think that those moments are windows, which overlook those parallel timelines and alternative universes that we discussed earlier. At the moment I am listening to ‌And They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness by Olafur Arnalds. As the title suggests, it makes me feel a sense of lightness and freedom; however, this feeling is still somehow attached to the memory of the weight of darkness. It conveys me the bittersweet feeling of a long story that comes to an end.
Of all the elements you feature in your work, is there one you are drawn to the most? The most prominent element in my work is the super moon. Disastrous environmental consequences aside, I have always thought how beautiful it would be to witness oversized neighbouring celestial bodies orbiting our planet, showing off in front of our eyes. When I look at the supermoons in my finished artwork, I often feel like observing a blue whale swimming by me. 48
Above: Everything Being Still
up, not the caress that puts me back to sleep!
So massive and majestic that I am petrified in front of it, and there is nothing I can do but stare at it in all its nobility.
www.randomaccess.space/explore
It’s something that makes me feel as if time was stopping in order to let me enjoy the moment as long as I need to. How does Alessandro take his coffee? Black. No milk or sugar. The main quality of coffee is its bitterness, and if we dilute it, then we defeat its purpose. My coffee needs to be the slap in my face that wakes me 49
ARTIST FEATURE
/RUTH BROWN From its early days around 115,000 years ago, jewellery has been used, like clothing to denote status and as a medium of expression. With each advancement in technology and craftsmanship, these precious objects have taken more intricate forms. Each era having its own unmistakable signature. Artist Ruth Brown takes inspiration from repeated linear structures found within architecture and contrasts these controlled forms with amorphous and disordered images produced by the reflective surfaces which are equally as prevalent within the urban environment. Through experimentation with space and reflectivity, Ruth aims to harness these visual juxtapositions, to depict the fragmentary nature of observation and understanding, and portray this through the sculptural frameworks of jewellery objects. www.ruthbrownjewellery.com
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Above: Intertwined Space Necklace, Silver, 9ct Gold 51
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Previous Page: Fragmenation, Silver Above: Cubic Necklace, Oxidised Silver, Resin, Printed Acetate
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INTERVIEW
/GRANT GILSDORF The art of cinema has been a constant in our lives for a long time. The industry itself has turned into a behemoth these days, but at its core, it still has the power to inspire and move us in ways that few other art forms can. A multi-sensory experience, it is a powerful tool for those that know how to wield it well. Artist Grant Gilsdorf draws inspiration from the silver screen, trying to create a narrative-driven experience in his work. What is it about film and cinematography that fascinates your creativity? In the 1950s, as cinema began to soar and the art world turned toward more abstract expressionism, there was a division in the populace. Most saw film as a medium to challenge and entertain them, and saw the shift in art as too inaccessible. The long lines and buzz that surrounded art began to shift toward movie theatres. Fast forward to the present, and the film
industry has become a juggernaut and at the very centre of the zeitgeist. I myself am enamoured with film-makers but long for the day when crowds return to the art world. Thus, I decided to steal from film and cinematography. I thought if I could make my art look and feel like the narrative-driven experience viewers encounter at the cinema, then they could engage with my stories in a way that felt familiar and more accessible. 54
Above: L3T1T8URN
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That meant studying techniques in realism, and learning how directors use composition, lighting, and mood to guide the viewer’s experiences. I approach movie-watching the same way I do museums and galleries. I’m close-reading and looking for what to pull. This billion dollar industry is built on imagery; it would be a mistake not to take notice.
were already being drawn, and for years, sides had been forming. I took all of that and gave it imagery. James Baldwin wrote “An artist is a sort of emotional or spiritual historian. His role is to make you realise the doom and glory of knowing who you are and what you are.” My work is built upon that exploration of both humanity and myself.
What aspects of being an artist excite you the most? There’s no denying the fact that I think of imagery as such a artists are storytellers in their powerful entity. Pictures transcend own right, does your work have language, and in that regard, an a narrative you are repeatedly artist shoulders both a tremendous drawn to? amount of power and The last few years have burned like responsibility. You can compose a a slowly growing fire. I could sense quick philosophical gem on Twitter the hurt in our country and the and share it with the world, but it tensions rising. While I was not can be quickly dismissed as a rant unique in my observation of our and fades into Twitter oblivion. country’s precarious position, I did You can explore that very same feel compelled to address it. topic as a painting, and it is no longer written off as a rant, rather What emerged was a collection of it is called art and calls for a certain work that proposed to answer my level of reverence. It is exciting as burning questions, “What happens an artist - knowing my if we don’t attempt to address the compositions have the potential to issues that divide our country? impact people in ways What happens if we stop seeing deeper or more profoundly than each other as humans, and rather, other mediums. Additionally, from as nuisances to the establishment a strictly personal standpoint, of our envisioned utopias?” Lines skill-turned-coping-mechanism 56
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that I can utilise at any point in my life to help digest thoughts and feelings. This same skill allows me to birth my thoughts and feelings into something tangible, which releases me from the emotional burdens I feel being a reflexive participant in the world around me. Art-making is a gift to yourself, and then can be passed along to others.
think people would consider him a narrative artist, but the mood and tension in his work is so palpable. I feel his ghost running through me and my current work.
Lastly, in a year of great albums, Father John Misty’s ‘Pure Comedy’ was special. It was the first time where I felt someone was speaking my language and singing to me on my wavelength. The way he mixed Could you name three individuals Elton John-esque music with that have inspired you creatively Chuck Palahniuk-styled lyrics was in the last year? brilliant. To embed darkness into I could probably name 3,000, but such beautiful lightness is brilliant. I’ll give you these diamonds. The I found myself playing that record work Denis Villeneuve has done as a sort of shared group therapy to lately with Sicario, Arrival, and understand the murky ethical Blade Runner 2049 should be ambivalence permeating our hailed. He is a masterful storyteller country. and one who is determined to ask the big questions within the Does your son share your passion confines of his medium. for the arts? Villeneuve’s relationship with the He is only three-years-old. So any cinematographer, Roger Deakins, “passion” he shows lasts for about has led to some of the most awe-in- 20 minutes max. With that being spiring imagery I’ve seen in the last said, there is a special place in his few years. heart reserved for when he gets to venture into “daddy’s studio,” to The Brandywine Conservatory ran make big boy art! He may not ever a retrospective on the life and work be an artist, but I hope to foster an of Andrew Wyeth. He has long appreciation. been a huge influence on my work, but I was overwhelmed by his technical skill and vision. I don’t 59
You have cited the television series ‘Black Mirror’ as a source of inspiration, what do you think it is about that series that makes so many people uncomfortable? ‘Black Mirror’ is classified as sci-fi, but rather than take place in a galaxy far away; it emerges just a few baby steps away from the world we know and understand.
It might seem that there’s certainly an excess of doom and gloom in the world at the moment, how important do you think art is as an instrument of dialogue and change? We often confuse entertainment and art. There must remain a distinction. Unlike entertainment, art doesn’t need to please or distract. Art can directly address That thread of relatability is what social issues in any way the artist terrifies us. We know on some level thinks is authentic to their voice. that we are inching closer to these That can be difficult to see, or it can fictional stories becoming new provoke, or in the best of scenario, realities. I’ve borrowed that same it can encourage dialogue. device and put it into my work. I try to root my preference toward These are the conversations that speculative fiction into the present. heal and propel humanity. When we ask each other the big The other things that makes ‘Black questions, and give pause to Mirror’ work on such a profound listen… amazing things happen. If level is its lack of catharsis. Our art can be that vehicle, then I can expectation as an audience is to be think of no greater entity; doom challenged, and then ultimately feel and gloom be damned. some level of peace or strength for having overcome a said obstacle. www.grantgilsdorf.com Rarely does ‘Black Mirror’ follow that structure, and even if it does, it also coincides with lingering questions or doubt. It is not a show about happy endings; rather your fears echo on.
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ARTIST FEATURE
/CHRIS DEKNIKKER Our love for trees and the planet is no secret here at CreativPaper. Not only do they provide filtration, food and shelter to countless living organisms but they are also a vital archival source. Prehistoric tree fossils from millions of years ago give us vital clues about the weather and events recorded in their concentric rings. Artist Chris DeKnikker is drawn to these materials that help him explore the complex relationship between nature and humankind. His work is a means to access this connection. His pieces often use hundreds if not thousands of carefully selected pieces; each one picked for its unique physical characteristics, collectively these take on a new identity, bringing Chris’s vision to fruition. www.chrisdeknikker.com
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Above: Beginning
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Above: Fertilizer (detail)
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Above: Heart Building
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INTERVIEW
/SIMON KIRK Being the only child, a lonely a prospect as that can be, comes with its own set of perks. It forces you to be creative with your time, and this is exactly what artist Simon Kirk did growing up, watching cartoons and spending hours perfecting his drawing skills have paid off now that he is older. Having started his art career just over a decade ago, Simon’s work is sought after by collectors worldwide. A resident of the Turner | Barnes | Gallery we had a conversation with Simon where he talked about the unique challenges of being a global artist amongst other topics. You’ve had your work extensively sold around the world, would you say that each audience comes with its own set of challenges? We have the benefit of the internet now which is invaluable. Artists now have access to a wider audience and collectors can view a much broader spectrum of art than ever before. Where someone lives is almost irrelevant. But I do appreciate the question. For example, when I exhibit in London, they’re very receptive. I have always found my work to be very popular with a French audience.
Some of your larger pieces incorporate multiple stories and themes, could you tell us a bit more about that? I let the larger works develop by gradually combining disparate images until a narrative develops in my head. My work is the world filtered through me – my personal edit of information I gather from all around me. I draw on the philosophical idea of ‘the Absurd’; the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent meaning in life and the inability to find any.
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The Turner | Barnes | Gallery sold my entire collection at the Affordable Art Fair New York. However, in my personal experience, the general attitude to art in the UK is very conservative and traditional. Don’t misunderstand me – people appreciate contemporary art outside London, and there are artists working and creating all over the country, but that ready-made large-scale cosmopolitan audience is unique to London. You have to work much harder to find your market if you’re not in the capital.
decided then I wanted to be an artist and that never changed. Do you have any professional and personal goals you are working towards this year? I’m collaborating with Hippo Screenprinters on a new series of screen prints. I’ve not produced these before, so I’m very excited to be adding them to my body of work.
Is there an artist that has had a profound influence on your work? I think it would be Picasso. When I first saw ’The Three Dancers’ at the Tate in my early teens, I was captivated by the sensation of Were you always interested in the movement and the layers of arts growing up? imagery that appeared through An artist is what I always wanted close inspection. But it was also to be from since I can remember. It the fact that it was inspired by this has always been a perfect fit for me. tragic and complex trinity of I was an only child, so I had plenty human relationships that of time to myself, and I’d spend it fascinated me. It was a deeply drawing. I’d watch cartoons then personal painting for him. It was spending hours practising the beginning of my understanding drawing noses and hands, those and appreciation of Modern Art. things I could see from my own drawings that I wasn’t very good at. Discovering the work of William By the time I started school, I was Burroughs was significant, it led recognised as having talent, and to me incorporating text into my that was extremely pleasing to me. work. The ‘hard work’ was paying off! I
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Style-wise, the work of Robert Rauschenberg, Jean Dubuffet, Cy Twombly, Paul Klee and Jean-Michel Basquiat are significant.
imitate this by condensing information into the work. To me, there’s something inherently aesthetically pleasing in combining images and text.
Charles Bukowski has a very dry dark humour to that appeals to me. Films inspire me - I’m drawn to films that don’t have a linear plot, like David Lynch films for example. You recognise all the scenarios, you can understand the language, and you almost know what’s going on, but not quite. It’s open to interpretation.
As a piece progresses I start to develop a narrative I want to pursue.
How do you find a balance between aesthetics and meaning in your work? Good question. I don’t work backwards by trying to second guess what people want to see. However, because I’m building up layers and layers in the early stages of a piece, there’s a certain element of play. I’m adding bits, painting bits out, ripping pieces off. I sometimes use a power sander. We live in non-linear times – we can watch TV, communicate, read, listen to music, shop, in a such a short space of time with minimal effort in a way that was impossible twenty years ago. I’m trying to
In my mind, I’m planning what I will do with the piece in front of me several ‘moves’ ahead based on what juxtapositions of text and collage I can see in the boxes around me. It can be a memory game; this piece of collage would be perfect for this piece - now where did I see it? But other times it happens in seconds – images and text collide and create observations that I wasn’t expecting. At that moment, I am kind of my own audience seeing the piece I have created for the first time. I can have an honest reaction. It’s taken years for me to develop my style and it’s the way I feel most comfortable working.
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Above: Fitter Happier
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Could you tell us a bit more about your piece entitled ’72 Years’? What was the inspiration behind that? There are various set-ups occurring across the piece; children are chasing money, a man sits on his chair observing another man photographing a woman, there are fingers pointing and comic book explosions dotted around the work. That’s part of the beauty of combing otherwise unrelated images and text. The resulting narrative is always greater than the sum of its parts. People bring their own experiences and associations and make their own connections. I was told by the Turner | Barnes | Gallery who sold the work to a collector that the image that most stood out to them was the man in the fishing wellingtons and the net. What is Simon listening to in the studio these days? I’m naturally drawn to lyricism, so I like storytellers like Tom Waits or Nick Cave. I’m a big fan of Public Enemy. When they started the technology didn’t exist to achieve what they wanted, so they improvised by joining tapes by hand and winding them around microphone stands to make big
loops. The music itself was also a sculpture, running around the studio! It’s multi-layered musical collage; being able to visualise the way music ‘looks’ really appeals to me as an artist. I’m just as likely to have films playing in the studio while I work. I like to keep a constant supply of influences: music, film, television, radio. www.simonkirkartist.gallery
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ARTIST FEATURE
/DIANNE FACCIN Born in England and spending her early childhood in Kent, artist Dianne Faccin went on to become a dental nurse but always pursued an interest in painting. Marriage and the arrival of a son and daughter kept her busy for a few years, but in 1985 she took up the part-time study of oil painting and later watercolour and pastel under the tutelage of A. Pozelel, Wladslaw Dutkiewicz, Lorraine Hancox, Arthur Phillips and Ross Paterson. Dianne’s present distinctive style has evolved as it gradually became clear that she has a strong feel for colour and a lifelong love of flowers. Her family have become her most valued critics, and with her husband Jack, who grows many of the flowers that she paints, there has been great teamwork. Dianne has participated in many mixed and juried exhibitions as well as numerous one-woman shows. She is currently a member a member of both the Adelaide Arts Society and the Royal South Australian Society of Arts. www.instagram.com/diannefaccin
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Above: Party Poppies
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Above: Fantasy Flowers
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ARTIST FEATURE
/TANYA SAMSONOVA Born in the Ukraine, artist Tanya Samsonova’s journey has not always been an easy one. Single-handedly raised by her mother who was also an artist, Tanya often battled poverty and starvation in a troubled country. As she grew older, she decided to change her life for the better, beginning with a better diet and karate. This ignited Tanya’s fascination with Japan and Oriental culture. In 2014 when the war started in her country, she moved with her family to the mountains, where isolated from the world she could focus on her art, meditation, silence and peace of mind. This started a new chapter in her artistic career, once she has never looked back from. Ever grateful for the support she has received she donates all her profits to charity which provides the prosthesis for wounded soldiers and medication for victims of war. She had her first art exhibition in April 2017 and is preparing for another one later this year. www.zenart.in.ua
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Above: Montenegro
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INTERVIEW
/LILIANE AVALOS No stranger to CreativPaper, Liliane Avalos in an artist on a mission. Frustrated by the lack of art initiative in her hometown of Welasco, Texas, she has taken matters into her own hands. Working towards opening Welasco’s first Contemporary Art Gallery, exhibitions and provide resources for artists are all on her bucket list. In our conversation with her, she talks about the new direction her art has taken and her experience working on private commissions. You’ve recently launched an online store for your work, how has the response been for that? The response has been great. It’s been really cool to see my artwork take shape onto new surfaces and fun to see people live with my artwork in a daily lifestyle setting. I currently have ten original paintings that I am promoting as per designs on the shop right now. I am working on digital designs now specifically for the site as well as new paintings. They all visually seem kind of random and out of place, but it’s all part of the same
narrative. There’s method to my madness, I promise. ;). How important do you think it is for artists to have a channel and platform for creativity in their local communities? There are some days where it feels extremely important, and then there are others where your own self-confidence feels like enough. Being an artist isn’t always the easiest of professions to pursue and even more so when you live in a community where contemporary, urban art or creative incubator spaces are scarce. 82
Above: If There is a Tomorrow, Can You Show Me?, Acrylic on 3ft Round Board Wood Panel, 2017
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Above: You Are Celebrated, Acrylic on 3ft Round Wood Panel, 2017
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But artists are living in the best era of technology; online media platforms have made outreach and the possibilities endless. Now that’s a great motivation and feeling, being able to connect with people on a macro scale in real time. I think that because of the age that we live in, it really balances out, filling in the impression of lack of local community support. But none the less the push to promote the arts is always there. Minds and time are progressing slowly but surely, and great things are underway.
sleeve, but for now, that’s all I want to disclose, haha. When I pause and take a look at my To-Do list, it’s overwhelming, to say the least, so anyone wanting to partake in my crazy life efforts to make this happen is more than welcome. Overall and bluntly enough, these are all things I so selfishly and desperately wish there was for myself in my community but my efforts at the end of the day are macro. Not to sound overly clique but, “Be the change you wish to see in the world”, right?
How has your art progressed in Could you tell us a bit about the the last time we spoke? art initiatives in your hometown Well since we’ve last spoke a whole of Welasco, Texas? lot has happened. The most You mean where do I see myself in exciting life event was exhibiting the next 5-10 years? Building up an my first solo show in my art community up! My art hometown of Weslaco, TX. The initiatives for my hometown are paintings I presented in the show long-term “first”. To list off a few were a direct reflection of my goals of mine, open up Weslaco’s cultural identity. I approached this first Contemporary Art Gallery, body of work as my homage to host a major mural festival with home while subliminally telling my both local and international personal life narrative. Heavy in artists, & run a local art store the symbolism of death and lively hosting high-quality brands such as with a pallet full of colour. It was a Montana, Golden, Trekell, very emotional time for me in the imported handmade paper, and moments leading up to opening more. night. There are a few more secrets up my
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I’m not one to easily open up about my personal pain, I usually let the artwork heal and speak for itself. But, my grandfather Jose A. Avalos passed away before the art reception. He was and still is a bright light in my life, before falling ill he would come around to check on my progress for the show, and it always warmed me when he did. After he passed, the subject matter and story I was telling became even more real. I’m still trying to digest what that time and all these paintings are telling me; it’s beautiful. Every time I look back and meditate, I hear his motivational voice, and there are always new realisations. I feel like he is embedded in them, so I happily sign and carry his last name on each one, Avalos. I’m confident as life goes on I’ll continue my self-investigation of my family and cultural heritage I was brought up in. I’m sure you’ve noticed I’m pretty family oriented and proud of my background as any Latina would be, haha. I have a handful of new things I’m working on, portraits of family and friends, technical studies, and experimenting with new mediums. I’m super excited with blood running hot to start this new
chapter in my life. You recently worked on a privately commissioned project, could you tell us a bit more about how that came about? Yeah, by word of mouth and the magic of facebook! A lovely lady from South Padre Island contacted me requesting a portrait of her husband as a surprise birthday gift. I loved her art direction for the painting, “Make him sexy and put one of your sombreros on him!” She was referring to a painting that I had recently shown in my solo show of a boxer dog wearing a sombrero. Custom order a hexagon wood panel from my friends wood shop, “Moose Canvas”, out of San Marcos, TX knocked it out in three weeks and delivered it. I’m always a nervous wreck honestly when working on commissions, mostly because I’m working with fingers crossed in hopes that they love it and see in it what I see. And none the less she was floored, she loved it. “OMG he looks hott!” were her exact words when she saw her husband’s portrait, haha.
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Above: God is a Palm Tree, Mixed Media on Wood Panel, 11 x 14�, 2017
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Above: Jellyfish, Acrylic and Enamel on Wood Panel, 70 x 40”, 2014
I was comforted and reassured by her excitement and requested for two more paintings. This time nautical theme seeing as how they just moved into a new beachfront home. I’ll be posting process photos of these two soon on my social media. You are also a fine art figure model, is this something you have been doing for a while? I began figure modelling right after I graduated from Texas State University of San Marcos in 2012. I became a freelance model to generate some side income and kept at it as it allowed me to stay active in the art community. It’s always fun to watch others process
and choice of the color palette in creating a portrait. I sometimes treat my modelling sessions as opportunities for meditation, focusing on my breathing, the muscles within my face, testing my endurance of “stillness” in body & thought. Is Liliane still a yoga warrior? Currently, I am practising off the mat. My attention has been on the evolution in my artwork/career. I’m so looking forward to getting my Hatha back on this Summer. www.lilianeavalos.com
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Above: “Drink from both sides of the Rio Grande River”, 36x36in, acrylic on canvas, 2012
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ARTIST FEATURE
/LINDSAY PICKETT Lindsay’s primary practice involves painting with oils on canvas, linen and board. He starts with a basic study of composition, takes it further as a small watercolour painting and then develops it more as the finished oil painting. He also uses photographs to create a visual reality that can be convincing at times and especially if he wants to get the likeness of a person’s face. It has also been good for him in the fact that it has honed his observational skills. Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Brueghel, Rene Magritte, M. C. Escher and Salvador Dali have inspired him through the years. His contemporary concerns have included people and more recently, cityscapes that are often warped to create an impossible reality. www.lindsaypickett.co.uk
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Above: Take A Bath
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INTERVIEW
/REBECCA ROWLANDCHANDLER Glass has come a long way since it was first used in the Stone Age by cultures using naturally occurring volcanic glass, Obsidian as cutting tools. As our knowledge and refinement processes expanded, glass has become a ubiquitous element in our daily lives. Artist, Rebecca Rowland-Chandler close this rather challenging material to express her creative vision. Using Kiln glass Rebecca creates beautiful objects that reflect the natural world around her. Your choice of medium is kiln glass which is rare, to say the least. How did this decision come about? I was first introduced to kiln glass in 2014 on my art foundation course at City & Guilds of London Art School but only dabbled with the material, experimenting with melting glass through wireframes as facilities were quite limited. Then, the medium of choice was painting, and I was considering taking a Fine Art degree but real-
ised that a “conceptual” pathway, which would naturally be pushed on a Fine Art course, was not one I was interested in. I have always been driven by aesthetics and was drawn to glass initially because of it’s beautiful material qualities - its transparency and fluidity. I took a risk, I had barely even practised sculpture before, and after my foundation course ended enrolled onto the Glass, Ceramics, Jewellery, 94
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Metalwork course at University for the Creative Arts Farnham. I specialised in glass in my second year, becoming absorbed by its light reflective qualities, and how I could experiment with “depth” and “the interior” of a piece, and, the incredible contrasts I could achieve with highly textured surfaces and sharp, angular edges. Hot glass did not appeal to me because it does not come naturally to my way of working, when glassblowing, you must be very quick and know exactly what you are going to do before you do it. I like to make my art slowly, not to plan too much and have new ideas as I go along, kiln glass allows you to do that. What are the unique benefits of working with that material? One of the unique benefits of working in glass is its transparency, and as a result, how you can play with layering, interior compositions, and the role of light, which are all essential components to my sculptures. All my pieces exploit this unique aspect of glass, it would be very difficult to translate my designs into the majority of materials, and you would not have the effects of light,
shining a light on a piece of glass makes it looks almost otherworldly. I am drawn to surface contrasts, and the extremes that you can push this to in glass is fascinating, in texture, transparency and opacity, and simplicity and complexity in the exterior and interior form. Your current project which also happens to be your final one at university explores patterns in landscapes and combines them in geometric forms, could you tell us a bit more about that? As I mentioned previously, I am continuously drawn to contrasts, and my recent series ‘Geometric Layers’ involves combining abstract, organic, fluid patterns seen in different environments, with an often simple, highly polished, cubic form. In my recent sculpture, Illuminated Waters, I used a triangular form which enabled me to use different angles to create an even stronger contrast than in my cubic pieces, usually featuring three patterned layers, as Illuminated Waters’ interior composition was far more organic. 96
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Above: Platinum Mappings
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I am inspired by linear repeating patterns present in the natural world and how they can be altered and abstracted when perceived from an aerial perspective. Macro viewpoints appear to be micro; Marble Dunes features designs inspired by tracks caused by farm machinery but appear more like cells under a microscope. I translate these landscape markings into designs for layering, continuing to explore the contrast between dense pattern, sparse designs, solid colour, transparency, and opacity. Where do you usually find inspiration for your pieces from? My main source of inspiration is the landscape because I view it as beautiful and awe-inspiring, with nothing bringing me more happiness than the wonder of nature. I do not seek to replicate nature in my work or compare to it, but I hope to evoke feelings in the viewer that are similar to mine when amongst nature.
and Manyara Highlands were inspired by the bold colours and contours of the African savannah, the Ngorongoro Crater and Lake Manyara in Tanzania, which I had the privilege of visiting last summer. Many of my sculptures are also inspired by the work of professional photographers, who have the ability to capture environments and perspectives I cannot, I compare these images to my own photographs and find parallels in the patterns of nature. Glass is such a versatile and rewarding material to work with, why do you think it’s not adopted by more artists? It can be a very challenging material to work with because there are so many factors in the making process that can go wrong, once a piece is in the kiln, and it can be for days, sometimes weeks, you cannot touch it until it is finished.
Moulds can break, firing cycles can throw up unexpected results, Creating sculptures in which I things that are completely out of consider beautiful makes me your control can ruin a piece of happy, which is why I do what I do. work so easily. Temperatures are Hunstanton Cliffs in Norfolk was something you must experiment the initial inspiration for the with a lot when trying anything layered design, and Otherworld new; there is a lot of trial and error 99
which with glass is expensive. As it’s such a brittle material, there are also many challenges when grinding and polishing a piece if you want to achieve high transparency, scratches, unevenness, and the sheer amount of time it takes. My pieces require six stages of grinding and polishing before they are finished with the aid of industrial machinery. Glass is not taught at many arts universities in the UK, I imagine because of the expense and specialist skills required to teach it, however, because of the material’s sheer beauty and unique qualities, the results you can achieve can be magical, and even more so when you know of the labour (and love) that goes into them. Where are you currently based in the world? While I am at university, I am based in Farnham, Surrey, but when I graduate, I will be moving back to London where I am from originally. Do you have any plans after graduation? Immediately after I graduate I will be exhibiting my work as part of my degree course, BA (Hons)
Glass, Ceramic, Jewellery, Metalwork (UCA Farnham), at New Designers Part One (stand JC9) at the Business Design Centre in London. I would love to do a residency abroad to broaden my artistic horizons and gain inspiration from new environments, especially as many of my recent pieces are inspired by the textures, patterns and colours of frozen landscapes, yet I have not actually visited any myself. I would love to visit the deserts of Utah to gain inspiration and am considering applying for a programme that enables artists to visit Antarctica for three months. Currently, my sculptures Marble Dunes, Glacial Tides, Manyara Highlands, and Otherworld are exhibiting as part of Rising Stars at the New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham. In May, as part of London Craft Week, I will be involved in the exhibition and panel discussion, “The Alchemy of Glass” at FBC London, with ceramicist Marco Tullio.
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Above: Marble Dunes
Is there a favourite colour of glass that Rebecca likes to work with? I like to work in colours that are contrasting yet complement each other, so I use a lot of blues, greys, warm and cool neutrals, and I sometimes bring in slight hints of bolder colours like rich oranges and purples, as well as creating work that is simply black and white, like Marble Dunes.
work, in solid form and through frit (tiny chips of glass) which I use to build up patterns. I prefer to use glass frit because I use multiple shades and tones of the same colour, and this creates a more organic aesthetic than using solid coloured glass. www.rebeccarowland-chandlerglass. com
I have recently begun experimenting fusing platinum leaf between layers of glass, hence the name Platinum Mappings. Colour is a very important aspect of my 101
ARTIST FEATURE
/REBECCA HINWOOD Having recently returned from Australia earlier this year we were taken back by its sheer natural beauty. From its pristine beaches to rugged, no-nonsense countryside, it has it all. This natural beauty plays a huge role in Sydney based artist Rebecca Hinwood’s work. Having met Rebecca in person during our time there Rebecca gave us a tour of her studio and gave us hands-on time with some of her pieces. Working primarily with Opals her pieces often have a fragility that accentuates the gemstones it frames. Each of her pieces is handmade, a quality that is vital to her creativity. She wants to pass on the joy of owning something bespoke and unique. Something we can all agree with in an age of mass-produced consumerism. www.rebeccahinwood.com
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ARTIST FEATURE
/NIKOS LAMPRINOS As mighty as some might consider the human race to be we are a species driven by feelings, just like every other creature on the planet. Love, anger, hunger, hate, despair and countless other powerful forces have a direct effect on our daily lives. These moments are often archived, brought back to life by a reminder which could range from a fragrance to a song. It is these moments that Greek artist Nikos Lamprinos wants to evoke through his work. He uses photographs or images from his sketchbook as sources of inspiration and has exhibited his work extensively throughout Europe, Asia and in New York. His pieces can also be found at the John F. Kennedy Museum and in private collections in the U.S, U.K, Germany and Asia. www.nikoslamprinos.com
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Above: Airport, Oil and Acrylic on Canvasboard, 75 x 105cm, 2017 107
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Above: Labyrinth, Acrylic on Canvas, 90 x 110 x 3cm, 2017
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