Journal of Creative Arts & Minds, Vol. 2, No. 1-June 2016-v6

J

Journal of Creative Arts & Minds Vol.2, No.1, June 2016 An Original Publication of Jumbo Arts International Red Springs, North Carolina, USA

ISBN: 978-0-9965432-2-4 / ISSN: Pending Jumbo Arts International

3

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Journal of Creative Arts and Minds Published by

Margie Labadie, President John Antoine Labadie, Senior Editor Larry Arnold, Board Member

Electronic Links https://www.facebook.com/JournalofCreativeArtsandMinds http://www.jumboartsinternational.org

Jumbo Arts International Contact Information 217 South Edinborough St. Red Springs, North Carolina 28377-1233 01.910.734.3223 Editorial: John Antoine Labadie & Margie Labadie Design – The JCAM Team of Jumbo Arts International

The Journal of Creative Arts and Minds is a publication of Jumbo Arts International.

This electronic publication is free. The views and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily represent those of the publisher.

4

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Journal of Creative Arts & Minds Vol.2, No.1, June 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS Jumbo Arts International President’s Message – 7 JCAM Editor’s Message – 9 VISUAL ARTIST PROFILES Alberto Rodriguez Miguelez – 14 Alexander Donskoi – 22 Aphrodite Kyriazi – 33 Carl Billingsley – 43 Catherine Billingsley – 56 Evgeny Titov – 68 Golmei Gandumpu – 80 Hong Jin-Hee – 89 Josef Luňáček – 101 Joy A. McGugan – 112 Nitasha Jaini – 124 Om Soorya – 135 Pablo Solari – 144 Pankaj Verma – 156 Paulo Fernando Da Silva Cunha – 165 Saroj Kumar Singh – 176 Vadim Ryakhovskiy – 189 Valentin Gonzalez – 203 CREATIVE PROJECTS Shankar Barua – 215 Sara Mascia – 221 Information for Potential Submitters – 226

5

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

President’s Message While I was considering my President’s message for this issue of the JCAM, John reminded me that we have something in common with the creative individuals you, our readers, are about to meet in these pages. We are both active, exhibiting, visual artists.

To know this is to understand that our points of view as Editor and Publisher are from both the Creative and the Journalistic side. Each of us can identify with the questions we ask our participating artists. Throughout our professional careers each of us has answered similar questions many times. We really do care about the state of present day creative artists and writers and we are humbled to have so many of them put their faith and hard work into supporting our editorial process.

With this third issue, the JCAM has reached a total of more than 600 pages of creative works published with the cooperation and support of more than 50 artists and writers.

We seek to give each contributor his or her own voice in the interviews and articles we publish. We value our roles and we pledge to improve and evolve the JCAM with each succeeding issue.

As our title suggests, the “Journal of Creative Arts & Minds” simply seeks to bring excellent creative works to those interested in seeing and reading about them. We want to celebrate creative lives and are pleased to be able to share this information with our readers. In this issue, we have also shared details of our own artwork on these opening pages in our effort to demonstrate that this is a journal of, for and by creative folks! And as one of our artist contributors states in his interview, “Such an attitude from others you cannot buy.”

Enjoy!

Margie Labadie President, Jumbo Arts International jumboartsinternational@gmail.com

7

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Margie Labadie “Seeing Stars” (Detail) / Digital Collage 2016

8

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

A Message from the Senior Editor It is June of 2016 and we are very pleased to publish Vol.2, No. 1 of Jumbo Arts International’s “Journal of Creative Arts and Minds.” This is our second year of publishing the JCAM and we are thrilled to bring this evolved and improved edition to our readership.

As with the other projects offered to the public by Jumbo, the JCAM has evolved over time and is directly connected to our mission to support the arts, creativity, and improved mutual understanding of life ways and creative passions on an international level.

As with the 2015 JCAM publications the content for the 2016 issues has been developed entirely through social media. The JCAM has been grown though text messaging and emails, built through cloud storage, published online, and is available as a free PDF download without restrictions.

Perhaps only a decade ago this process would have been difficult for many and unthinkable for most. But none of us take the possibilities of the early twenty-first century electronic publishing for granted as this will continue to evolve and improve.

The visual artists whose works are included in the June 2016 issue of JCAM represent a wider range of countries, cultures, media, ages, and levels of experience than either of our 2015 publications. Additionally, as with our previous issues, each submission is held as unique and is allowed to evolve unhindered given the technical limitations of our current publishing format.

The JCAM receives questions about our submission process every week. The initial interaction with each of the visual artists expressing interest in being published in JCAM is based solely on a dialogue about the artist’s artwork. After the initial dialogue all submissions of visual images are subjected to review process. It is only after the editors and/or a panel of reviewers have juried a submission that an offer for publication is extended. The “interview” process moving toward a publishable article is then begun.

9

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

The June 2016 issue brought along some editorial challenges that were interesting and educational for both submitters and staff. For example, the editors received many more submissions of narrative not forwarded to us in English. But, the electronic tools to translate from one language, or alphabet, to another seem to be improving almost on a daily basis. Using a variety of such tools, and engaging in a sometimes extended backand-forth dialogue with certain submitters, allowed for the publication of “translated” articles that we might not have attempted a year ago.

The narrative portion of all articles is, as much as possible, cast in the original “voice” of the artist-submitter. Works originally sent to JCAM in Korean, Russian, Hindi, Italian and Spanish have, through no small editorial effort, been published – in English – in this issue. We see this as part of the mission of Jumbo, and intend to improve and evolve this editorial service to potential submitters over time.

Jumbo Arts International’s JCAM publishing project is a well organized, highly collaborative, and time consuming endeavor. Our small staff works diligently to gain the most from all our efforts. As such Jumbo continuously seeks to identify and publish original creative work from local, regional, national and international sources that are known to us. Our outreach in this regard has greatly expanded our network since last year. Certainly, we will continue this process in the issues to come.

In this June 2016 issue we are also beginning to offer reviews of creative projects with which we have had the good fortune to interact. Some of these project have been a part of our lives for years, and some connections are more recent. It is hoped that readers will enjoy and be informed by this feature. As artists ourselves, the JCAM staff is happy to be able to share some of our successful creative connections with readers.

Our readers are our best way to network out into creative communities. Do you know of a visual artist or creative writer JCAM should hear about? Email us at the address below. First, enjoy our latest publication!

John Antoine Labadie Senior Editor Journal of Creative Arts and Minds jcam.jal@gmail.com

10

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

John Antoine Labadie “A Day in the Fall” / Mixed Media & Digital Currently exhibited in the “19th International Conference on Information Visualisation” at the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, in Lisbon, Portugal

11

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Alberto Rodriguez Miguelez JCAM: What is your professional name?

ARM: I usually put on my canvas Alberto Rodriguez and, sometimes, I put my personal symbol too which is a square with a dot into the middle.

JCAM: Where were you born and does that place still influence you?

ARM: I was born in Madrid, Spain. Madrid.

To me it’s not a place that influences me today because thanks to the latest politicians which ran the city, Madrid, was a dead place without a contemporary art culture. So I’ve been more inspired with other cities of Europe like Rotterdam or Brussels. In my opinion, to be an artist in this city it’s kind of difficult, because, family culture still looks at this job like a hobby that you can do on your free time until you earn money with other kind of careers. For many people the culture to be an artist is like just in this place.

JCAM: Where do you live now and how does that place influence you?

ARM: I live outside of the city in a small town called Colmenarejo and this place influences me because it is peaceful and it is quiet. Those qualities help me to concentrate more on my work.

JCAM: Do you have family, friends, or fellow artists who support you in your work, life and art making and how do they make a difference in your life?

ARM: Yes, I do. Now my mother and girlfriend support my work. But in the past I did not have any kind of support to do what I always wanted – to be an artist. My family culture always saw this job of “artist” as a hobby, but my mother gave me painting classes. That was during my free time of course.

JCAM: When and how did you start making art?

ARM: Well, I started when I had 4 years old and I suppose it was a form of escape from reality. Curiously my first painting was one that was abstract. But it’s

14

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

one thing to start to paint, and another to make art which you can say, “I´m proud of it”! That’s another thing altogether. This second point of view is recently what has come to me. When I got my studio, for me that was a really fresh start and a way to be reborn. My studio is the one place where I can make my art without limits. It´s like total freedom. And this happened last summer only in 2015.

JCAM: Can you describe the time when you first realized that creating was something you absolutely had to do?

ARM: Hmmm … I only thought that I had to make art because I had never see life without it. It’s just that simple. Last summer I took the opportunity to have an studio because I was unemployed.

JCAM: How has your work changed or developed over time?

When I went to painting classes my point of view of art changed radically. Why? Because I thought that art was perhaps just landscape, or maybe still life in oil.

These kinds of thoughts made me blind and I couldn’t see another types of art.

And when I got out of my painting classes my art changed radically, because, I could be more open minded. Being open-minded is how I could work more with the ideas of surrealism and abstraction.

JCAM: What are you trying to communicate with your art?

ARM: I try to communicate the interactions of persons whose lives are lived in the world today. From my point of view, abstraction is the most direct path toward understanding how the individual moves through and lives in the world every day. Abstraction is the way for me to try to express these interactions because it helps me to paint people in the ways they cross, explode, cut, or crash into each other either accidentally or on purpose.

JCAM: Of the artworks published in this article, is there one of you are which most proud? If so, why?

ARM: For me “Pollock’s Lines” is the artwork I feel most proud, because, I could express what I want to represent with my art. Additionally, I made a technique that reminded me of Pollock, and for me it was an honor to made him a tribute.

JCAM: Do you have any creative patterns, routines or rituals associated with your art making?

ARM: Yes, I do have a ritual. My ritual is this: I am fascinated to watch the thickness of the paint by putting in glue or water and mixing these elements together. That’s why my name “Cooking Art’s” came from this singular process that I always performed before starting to paint.

15

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

JCAM: What element(s) of art making do you enjoy the most and why?

ARM: What I enjoy most is the use of domestic objects like a broom or a mop. I like to to use them as my brush to paint on the canvas, because, this makes my imagination soar and it helps me to discover new techniques.

JCAM: What is your most important artist tool(s) and why?

ARM: My most important tools are sticks and spoons, because with them I start the ritual that I described before.

JCAM: How do you know when a work is finished?

ARM: I think the canvas is a pathway with many directions. When I see my own direction is when an art work is done. It’s like trying to train a horse. You know when you have.

JCAM: What are the art making tools you use now?

ARM: At this moment what I used the most are: sticks, spoons, mops, brooms, brushes and painting buckets. And to make the “Wood Canvas” I use a saw and drill.

JCAM: What new creative medium would you love to pursue?

ARM: I would like to explore the sculpture, and particularly cement, because I would like to transport my canvas ideas into a 3D image so you can touch it, dig into it, and enjoy my ideas with your hands as well as your eyes.

JCAM: What's the first artwork you ever sold? Do you make a living from your art?

ARM: The first artwork I sold was on 2015 called “Russian Kid.” And no I don’t yet make enough money from my art to live off it. But it’s still my dream and that’s why, right now, I do cheaper works, so everyone can have a piece of my art.

JCAM: What are your goals for the future, for both work and life?

ARM: My future goal is to paint whatever happens (bad or good) and also focus on being recognized in the art world.

JCAM: What interesting project are you working on at the moment?

16

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

ARM: The project that I’m working on is to try, with a singular object, to make a 3D painting. One of the things that I most admire from Miró is that with any kind of objects found on streets or beach he could made a sculpture or an art work.

JCAM: What or who inspires you? Do you have a favorite – or influential – living artist?

ARM: What inspires me the most is to go to museums and exhibitions. And the artists that inspire me the most are Constant (Constant Anton Nieuwenhuys), Bacon, Pollock, Tàpies, Picasso and Miró.

JCAM: What work of art do you wish you owned and why?

ARM: I would like to have any painting by Miró from his series “antipainting.”

Why? Because with this series I think Miró tried to express more about imagination than painting.

JCAM: Where do you find ideas for your creative work?

ARM: At exhibitions and museums I certainly find ideas new to me. But my ideas come from my subconscious and also from improvisations.

JCAM: What does “being creative” mean to you?

ARM: For me it means to achieve everything that you have in mind and make it real and, also, to renovate works as many times as possible to learn new techniques and different points of view.

What is the best advice you ever had about how to be more creative?

ARM: My best advice is to work very hard and spend a lot of time at the studio or the place where you create so you can familiarize with tools and to not be afraid of destroy a canvas that you think is not perfect. If you feel the impulse to burn or rip the canvas then be free of it ... there’s no limit. And let me conclude with a quote that inspires me the most. It is from Picasso: “Inspirations exists, but it has to find you working.”

17

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Alberto Rodriguez “Another Red” / Painting

Alberto Rodriguez “Phoenix” / Painting

18

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Alberto Rodriguez “Zigzag” / Painting

Alberto Rodriguez “Schema” / Painting

19

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Alberto Rodriguez “Puzzle” / Painting

Alberto Rodriguez “Refugees Welcome” / Painting

20

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Alberto Rodriguez “Picasso’s Cells” / Painting

Alberto Rodriguez “Pollack’s Lines” / Painting

21

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Alexander Donskoi JCAM: What is your professional name? Where were you born and does that place still influence you?

Where do you live now and how does that place influence you? Do you have family, friends, or fellow artists who support you in your work, life and art making and how do they make a difference in your life?

AD: My name is Alexander Donskoi. www.alexanderdonskoi.com I was born in one of the unique, mystical, enigmatic places on earth – the Far East of Russia. A very long time ago it was very powerful, strong kingdom called Balhae.

The earliest extant recorded mention of Balhae comes from the Old Book of Tang, which was compiled between 941 to 945 BCE. The 13th century census of Northern China by the Mongols distinguished Balhae from other ethnic groups such as Goryeo, Khitan and Jurchen. Most descendants of Balhae are today in China.

Siberia and the Russian Far East are home to some of the most profoundly beautiful wilderness areas left on earth. Russia's diverse landscapes support incredible biodiversity, including one-fifth of the world's forests, and endangered species such as the Amur leopard, Siberian tiger, and Western Pacific Gray Whale. Lake Baikal alone holds 20 percent of the world's unfrozen fresh water, and it is the oldest and deepest lake in the world. Japan Sea with their magical flying islands. All of this quickly woke up my imagination as early as four years old and gave me the strongest impulse to create art.

The only person who supporting me, it’s my wife for 20 years! She is my real inspiration and the reason for what I do!

JCAM: When and how did you start making art? Can you describe the time when you first realized that creating was something you absolutely had to do? Why do you make art now? How has your work changed or developed over time? What are you trying to communicate with your art? Of the artworks published in this article, is there one of you are which most proud? If so, why?

22

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

AD: At a young age I began the long process of my education, self-acknowledgment, experiments with different medias, self-realizations and the study from the greatest masters of the fine art in the College of Art and then University of Fine Art in Russia.

By the time I reach my twenty’s the creation and studies of art completely swallowed me. I was in state of craziness. My life become a destiny to the creation and study fine art. For the next ten years I worked for 18-20 hours a day, traveling, visiting the world’s greatest museums and gallery’s. At the same time constantly studied ancient history of the art, philosophy and religions, cultures of the ancient civilizations.

In 1991 I moved to Canada, where I continue working on my drawings and paintings, studying and become fascinating by Early Netherlandish/Flemish artist, Italians, and the greatest Surrealist artists. During the past 20 years I have had many solo and group shows. I have had several publications and interviews with a TV programs, as well as my art work was sold to some important private collections around the globe.

JCAM: Do you have any creative patterns, routines or rituals associated with your art making? What element(s) of art making do you enjoy the most and why? What is your most important artist tool(s) and why? How do you know when a work is finished? What are the art making tools you use now? What new creative medium would you love to pursue?

AD: My creative patterns start with every day wake up at 4:00am and starting making a lots of sketches. I have “elements of joy” when I start putting my ideas into canvas or paper. At this time usually I am dancing, because from the beginning I can already see the end result – my master pieces! My artist tools does not change for centuries, I am an old fashion, modest guy. It’s a pencil, paper, canvas and paints. About new creative medium: I think I will probably try every medium in my life. But I do have a dream, I would like to create a big altar pieces or mural for the church.

JCAM: What's the first artwork you ever sold? Do you make a living from your art?

AD: My first art work I sold at 16 years old, on a street art show. I am a full time artist and I do make a living from my art.

JCAM: What are your goals for the future, for both work and life? What interesting project are you working on at the moment?

AD: The most significant past project I have had was the international exhibition in Otaru, Japan in 1998. It was called “Salvador Dali and Fantastic Realism.” There I had the honor to represent Canada with my surrealistic drawings and paintings. Also there was an exhibition called “The Flying Islands” project, along with international artists like Ernest Fuchs, H.R. Geiger and 12 of the most profound surrealistic artist. This exhibition alone allowed me to be a recognized in high-end artistic word, sharing and demonstrated my goals and endless ideas!

As I become more mature and experienced I realized that to be a Master of the Fine Art,

23

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

it is not enough only to create art, but become a passionate Art Advocate. For many years I been a promoter of the Neo-Renaissance, but you have to understand that is not my artistic style, it is the call to all artists for the restoration, renovation, and rebirth of REAL FINE ART creations.

Unfortunately human nature seems more about destroying symptoms of art making than it is about creating and building The Divine Art for the present and for future generations.

Enough wars! Enough destroying each other! It’s time to build and create the most beautiful art possible so the next generation will not be ashamed of what we did in the past and will continue to live, prosper, and have peaceful life in harmony with each other. We should move ahead with a deep understanding and appreciation of the past and good prosperous foundation for the present and future.

JCAM: What or who inspires you? Do you have a favorite – or influential – living artist?

What work of art do you wish you owned and why? When addressing a particular work to be published in this interview: Can you explain what inspired this particular piece or idea?

AD: My inspiration come from everywhere, from everyday life. But my favorite artists comes from 14th-15th centuries. Unfortunately there is no living artists who could influence me. Early Netherlandish/Flemish artist, Italians were powerful artists. Along with these creative genius artists I admire the greatest of surrealist artists such as Ernest Fuchs, H.R. Geiger.

As it comes to any of my art, the most important thing for the public is to understand is that each of my art works (drawings or paintings) contains metaphorical symbolism and other messages. Here’s what I can tell you: Pay attention to all the details before to you think you see the whole picture!

When it comes to particular work to be published in this interview, you could pay attention to my latest diptych, “The Shop-Window in 15th century. Oops.” This is an oil on canvas at the size of 56” x 42.” My inspiration for such works comes from everyday life.

Even so, I cannot really say that this is a dialog between two centuries, more of a conflict between two eras and its representatives. This is what I have visualized.

Despite the fact that people do not change (well, maybe just the entourage and technology) it is still a conflict. It is the ordinary person and his common voices that I have in mind. Ignorance, greed, deception and lying in the name of Profit, Ego-these are all the things I am describing here, expressing their most vivid characteristics through images of animals, birds and etc.

Not everyone can see this in my art. Perhaps it’s because a lot pf people are brainwashed. I believe they brainwash themselves by creating various emotions and

24

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

acting on them. I always turn to symbolism and metaphors. It helps me identify and express various characteristics in a powerful way, sometimes get even beyond that. And HUMOR! Humor is another useful tool, of course ….

Imagine taking a group of people, just random people from the street outside of your window, various characters, and transferring them to 15th century or vice versa …. This should help you understand, at least in some way, my point in the artworks I make today.

JCAM: Where do you find ideas for your creative work? What does “being creative” mean to you? What is the best advice you ever had about how to be more creative?

AD: The foundation of my artistic creativity is about defining the absolute relationship among forms, objects, creatures, time, action, events and expanses while preserving the individuality in all of them. At the same time there certainly exists a world of differences beyond unity, forms and emptiness. This is a world where there are connections, but these are constantly developing into and along two aspects of one reality. Existing in this conflicted relationship is an unambiguous whirlwind of relationships without beginning or end, yet offering an eternity of differing motions and emotions. I ride this wind!

The true artist must be always striving to reach “The Greatest Heights” – to get to the highest-altitude, to the Divine! And if he can achieve that, then he definitely will get “The Blessing from the Heaven” and by that he will be able to broaden his artistic framework to embrace the infinity by the implementation of the endless – in the total end – in transforming this ending in to the vessel for the infinity; temporary-in to transmitter of eternity in grasping intuitional stream of movements right into the deep, in meaning to the High-altitude to the Absolute Reality.

Here, and only here, where the Ocean merges into the single drop does one find the emergence of the true creation – art!

Artistic creativity is where the inner vision of freedom from arbitrary rules, where the Divine, the Spiritual, and boundless energies are pouring into the inner sanctum of artistic vision. This is where supernatural reality reflects on human consciousness.

Creativity is where all images, objects, and processes extraordinarily (and really) come to life – because they are operating everywhere, but in and through creativity is where is the reality is topical and manageable.

My goal is this: The Active image. This is the symbol of spiritual vision and it is real.

Where at the end of everything, the artist is representing a quasi-symbolic or multidimensional realization. This is my art.

25

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Alexander Donskoi “Babylonian Tower” / Drawing

26

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Alexander Donskoi “Navigator” / Painting

27

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Alexander Donskoi “The Shop-windows in 21th Century” (left part of diptych) / Painting

28

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Alexander Donskoi “The Shop-windows in 21th Century” (right part of diptych) / Painting

29

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Alexander Donskoi “Power and Prosperity” / Painting

30

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Alexander Donskoi “The Artist and Merchants” / Painting

31

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Alexander Donskoi “The Presentation of Gifts” / Painting

32

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Aphrodite Kyriazi JCAM: What is your professional name? Where were you born and does that place influence you?

Do you have family, friends, or fellow artists who support you in your work, life and art making and how do they make difference in your life.

AK: My name is Aphrodite Kyriazi. I was born and grew up in a very beautiful coastal town in Greece.

Greece is a country in Southern Europe and Kalamata,the town I grew up in, is located in the Southern Greece.

Kalamata is a place that whatever you seed, will flourish. So I trusted my city, I put my roots deep into the soil and I saw my talent evolving and my goals succeeding. Today I continue to live in Kalamata, where my family lives as well.

We are a family with strong bonds always working as a fist – together as one. My father, working as a physicist and teacher and my mother as a painter. We were – me and my brother – very lucky children, because we grew up in a very healthy environment. Our parents taught us that the potential of every human being is unlimited. The only thing one needs is to believe in oneself.

Since I was two years old, I was watching my mother silently and intently while she was painting. I grew up with the smell of oils and the colors of nature. Nature and especially flowers was my mother’s main art theme. Apart from my mother, all the rest of her family were great talents on painting. Take this into account, it was inevitable for me to have an innate talent in painting.

JCAM: When and how did you start making art? Can you describe the time when you first realized that creating was something you absolutely had to do? Why do you make art now? How has your work changed or developed over time? What are you trying to communicate with your art? Of the artworks published in this article, is there one of you are which most proud? If so, why?

33

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

AK: Since I was a little girl, I usually spent my time cutting images out of magazines with my scissors instead of playing with dolls. When my parents were finishing their jobs, we used to sit together and make collages with the images.

Basically, we were finishing together the work I had begun. When I was four years old I effortlessly managed to paint my teddy bear and my mother’s sunglasses, in correct proportions and in an absolute perspective with my paint brush. It was then I heard my mother saying that I have an innate talent on painting and that one day I would become a good painter. But I realized that creativity was within me, a part of me that was giving me peace and joy. I became a better person through this process.

My main theme in painting had to do with old vehicles, cars and scooters (vespas). Since I remember myself I cannot forget my family’s love and respect for the old-classic objects. It was always making me feel nostalgia for the past but also optimism for the future. It’s a sense that follows me until now and is intently reflected in my paintings. Although my vehicles look abandoned, the truth is that they are not alone, because they are embraced with the colors of nature.

This in turn gives them a feeling of protection and of dreaming about the future. I see it this way: Vehicles and environment exchange colors and materials – balance –with that way vehicles manage to live again and again in any upcoming season.

My art gives the message about having respect for the environment, the harmonious coexistence between nature and artificial, about recycling and the reuse of resources. My vehicles, in combination with the color range that I use, express for me freedom and imagination; freedom because my vehicles constantly travel and imagination because they are daydreaming.

Painting has always been in my life even during my studies in architecture. I tend to be more an artist-architect than engineer. I would prefer to work on the concept and the composition – the form – than deal with the functional aspects of a building. Working on a miniature model was always my best (and favorite) part of any building project. Most of the times my models looked like an art sculpture and my blueprints an art painting.

The financial crisis that erupted in Greece not so long ago caused a plummeting of the construction and building industries and made me find solace in painting.

Day by day one finds me spending endless hours relieving my creativity on that, I was absorbed entirely mind and soul. It didn’t take me long to realize that painting would be a one way path for me.

With discipline, inspiration and daily work I am evolving myself and my job at the same time. It doesn’t mean that my work is better now. My first art series do not compare well to the new ones. I want to say that I continue to invent ways to express myself and society through art. For instance, tensions of recent days in my country are translated with a lot of color in my paintings. Hence, despite the difficult situations we are going through here in Greece, I pass a message of optimism for the future.

34

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

For all my artworks I am equally proud because they are all pieces of myself. I courageously face myself every day and I express that openly on canvas. My brushstrokes and I converse on a canvas, and during our conversation we are both improving.

JCAM: Do you have any creative patterns, routines or rituals associated with your art making? What elements of art making do you enjoy the most and why?

What is your most important artist tool and why? How do you know when a work is finished? What are the art making tools you use now? What new creative medium would you love to pursue?

AK: My themes are mainly vehicles wandering into surreal landscapes. In my art, vehicle and environment exchange colors and materials – the main subject integrates into the background Symbolizing a harmonious coexistence of natural and artificial is a goal for my art making. What I enjoy the most every time I paint is when I drop the first stroke of color on a pure white canvas. It's like I start up my car engine and go ahead to the unknown. However, one of the most interesting things of all is that all of my artworks are intentionally incomplete ... they never arrive at their final destination.

On purpose, they are devoid of their last strokes. That way my vehicles never reach their destination but endlessly “Travel.” My art sometimes is characterized by strong colorful strokes and some other times the strokes are more lyrical. I usually work mixed media on canvas, but my favorite medium is acrylic. I use several tools in my paintings. With my brushes, my spatula and sometimes even with my fingers I compose my paintings.

JCAM: What’s the first artwork you ever sold?

AK: The first person I met on the first day at the University of Thessaly Department of Architecture, was the first person who bought a painting from me.

A painting with the title “Not only Red” which depicts an old red Volkswagen Beetle car was the first one that I sold. The same friend who is still one of my best friends was my model for a portrait that I had to do as an exercise for one of the art courses during my studies. The same person was the one that I chose to paint as the first portrait as a painter. She is my dear Sophia who did the best start for me!

JCAM: What are your goals for the future, for both work and life? What interesting project are you working on at the moment?

AK: My goal is to evolve myself through my art. I want to make a family because I believe that family is the greatest creation of all. That is balance for me. A recipe for a happy life is the balance.

JCAM: What or who inspires you? Do you have a favorite – or influential –living artist? When addressing a particular work to be published in this interview: can you explain what inspired this particular piece or idea?

35

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

AK: There are many artists that I admire their work. They are all so special and unique. I cannot distinguish one from another. There are many foreign and Greek artists who do excellent works of art. In 2016 – in Greece and abroad – the first web Greek art platform, the Hellenic art Vioma (www.artvioma.gr) was designed and presented to the public. In this web site apart from my work you can find artists and artworks representatives of the Greek culture. They are all so unique.

I cannot distinguish, I repeat. Can you?

The painting ''Red Rain'' was created in January 2016. It depicts a classic red beetle car. It is the second time that I approached artistically a red Beetle. “It was one of those unforgettable moments, a rainy afternoon in Volos. You asked me if I would ever paint a red beetle. I did not reply. We were in another red car then.”

Volos of Thessaly Greece is the Town where I studied architecture was the inspiration for this piece.

JCAM: Where do you find ideas for your creative work? What does being creative mean to you? What is the best advice you ever had about how to be more creative?

AK: Just being yourself, trust your uniqueness, rejoice and be excited for every moment of your life. Even for the simple daily things. My mother once told me to have faith in myself. I believe in myself, I believe in people. These are some of the components of my magic filter. One teaspoon of that every morning and then inspiration comes!

Aphrodite Kyriazi “Vespa Sweden” Painting

36

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Aphrodite Kyriazi “Beetle in a Mood” / Painting

Aphrodite Kyriazi “Bored on a Monday” / Digital

37

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Aphrodite Kyriazi “Drawn into the Sea” / Painting

Aphrodite Kyriazi “Forgotten Beauty” / Digital

38

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Aphrodite Kyriazi “Vespa Alasca” / Digital

39

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Aphrodite Kyriazi “Vespa Athens” / Digital

40

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Aphrodite Kyriazi “Vespa Brooklyn” / Painting

Aphrodite Kyriazi “Vespa Tokyo” / Digital

41

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Aphrodite Kyriazi “Red Rain” / Painting

Aphrodite Kyriazi “Rorschach's Butterfly” / Digital

42

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Carl Billingsley My name is Carl Billingsley. I was born in Oklahoma and spent the first few years of my life there. My father was a sergeant in the Army. He enlisted at Ft. Sill Oklahoma, which was and still is the headquarters of the army artillery. During my childhood, career military personnel were given a home base from which they were assigned as needed and to which they were reassigned. So as my dad was transferred from base to base we often moved with him.

I lived in many different places and learned to accept and even to prefer the status of ‘outsider’. My older brother and I were often referred to as ‘army brats’. I believe that we learned to be more independent, self confident and willing to resist the pressure to be like everybody else as a result of our itinerant status. I still feel that I am a plainsman at heart and miss the open prairies and rolling terrain of the Southwest. Ft. Sill itself is adjacent to one of the first National Wildlife Refuges in the country, the Wichita Mountains. Those mountains were our playgrounds whenever we were back in Oklahoma. Buffalo and Longhorns were as common to us as short horn cattle and horses.

The two most influential places that I experienced aside from the Wichita Mountains were Germany, where we lived for 3 years, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I ended up in high school.

Post war Germany was an amazing place for a young boy. The cities still had many blocks of rubble left from the bombing of WWII, evidence of the war was everywhere, most Germans got around on public transportation or by bicycle since they had no cars, and we youngsters were free to roam about almost at will! We weren’t just outsiders, we were foreigners and our sense of place expanded beyond anything we had experienced before.

By the time the family ended up in Milwaukee, my brother William had joined the Army and my sister was still in grade school. When Dad was transferred to Kansas, I elected to remain in Milwaukee to finish school.

43

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

I also wanted to stay close to the girl that I eventually married. Catherine was as different from me as one could imagine. Her life had been spent entirely in Milwaukee. Her father was a Professor of Art at the University and she was an honor student. I determined to make something of myself and started to attend the community college at night while working full time during the day.

Eventually, Catherine and I married and we both became full time university students. After trying a wide variety of majors, we both ended up as Art students, Catherine in Textiles and me in Sculpture. We have been partners in life and in art ever since.

I initially resisted the idea of becoming an art student because I believed that one had to have a special ability to be an artist. I accepted the old notion that artists are born not made. That idea proved to be very valuable because it made my frequent failures and disappointments in various media almost to be expected. It came as a bit of a shock when I realized that I was happiest and made my best work when I was in the Sculpture studio. In retrospect, I realize that many years spent at the elbow of my Grandfather the carpenter had provided me with the very skills and abilities needed. My growing success in the studio began to convince me that I had made the right choice.

I was immediately drawn to the foundry and I will never give up the fun and challenge of casting metal. Iron casting became a preoccupation that drives me still.

Six years after we got our BFA’s we had our first child, Benjamin, and four years later our daughter Rachel was born. I worked at anything I could to support our family. I worked in factories, as a carpenter, a construction laborer, painting houses, even for a few weeks as a stevedore. Finally, I realized that I had to do better so I started graduate school. My goal was an MFA but I decided to take some education courses as well. With the idea in mind that I would probably teach at some level, I determined to master as many skills and processes as possible so that my teaching would be from a strong base of knowledge and experience. I was finishing my final course in education when I learned of a position at the new School of Architecture at the University of WisconsinMilwaukee. I got the job, as manager of the wood shop, and that was the beginning of my career as a teacher even though I was not hired to teach.

I loved that job and never turned down an opportunity to assist with a studio class, to take on students for independent projects and to expand the range of our facilities. We added a metal working shop to the school and I started teaching some courses of my own such as model building and construction practices. I became close to several faculty who believed in the necessity for Architecture students to learn about materials and process and to actually build things with their own hands in order to fully understand their profession. I still adhere to that philosophy and took the same approach with my own students when I began to

44

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

teach Sculpture and Design at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I am fully committed to the idea that a concept needs to be realized in three dimensions in actual material to succeed as a sculpture.

At the same time that I decided to return to school I determined that I had to build a record of exhibitions. I systematically applied to every opportunity that fit my budget and travel limitations. Entering competitive shows meant that I had to have work to show so I was forced to make time for working in the studio (at that time a small room in the basement of our rented house.) I established a pattern of working every day on sculpture or other design projects that I have maintained ever since. The reality of an artists’ life is that it is one of ceaseless work.

The only ‘ritual’ that applies to my studio/artistic process is that I find that I am most productive and motivated when I clean and organize my studio space before beginning a new sculpture or project. Cleaning up and preparing the workspace seems to provide me with a quiet time for my mind to organize itself. I also believe that simply working, even if it is only cleaning, sweeping the floor or doing some maintenance on my vehicle or trailer or power equipment is all that I need to get me going. I don’t need a grand idea or inspiration to start creating I just have to get going and the ideas appear.

There are so many thoughts that one has while working that it seems impossible to find oneself without an idea or notion to try. When I am too tired to work in the studio I draw. I make sketches or diagrams on grid-paper that act as reminders for me of the three-dimensional forms that the drawings evoke in my mind. These drawings usually result in cardboard models that I can make rapidly and that then present a myriad of new possibilities.

I have tried to learn and use digital media to create models and to develop concepts but the learning curve is too steep for me. I admire those who have been able to adapt to this new way of working and I even envy the seeming ease with which these images can be created and manipulated. I would love to be able to rotate images of my ideas in the imaginary space of the computer screen but I am afraid that I am stuck with my old organic processor and its antiquated output mechanism, the hand.

In any case, I manage to keep busy and I don’t limit my expression to one medium or approach. Most recently I was selected to participate in the Sculpture by the Sea Bondi exhibition in Sydney, Australia. Sculpture by the Sea is considered to be the most viewed public sculpture exhibition in the world and it is very competitive. My work that was selected for the 2014 SxS exhibition was an installation of survey flags. These small vinyl flags are used around the world to mark everything from water lines to construction boundaries. I designed an installation, which responded to the particular Australia landscape that I had experienced on a previous trip down under. Called “Red Center”, the installation was composed of 8,000 flags that were installed on Tamarama Beach. “Red

45

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Center” won the Andrea Stretton Award, which included an invitation to exhibit at Sculpture by the Sea–Cottesloe outside of Perth in 2015. I enlisted my grandson Walker Bixby to assist me with this installation, so he now claims credit for collaborating with me on a major public sculpture at the age of 10! I seem to have started something.

I don’t remember the first artwork that I ever sold but it was probably a carving that I made while in Germany. I discovered that pine bark made an ideal medium for shaping toy soldiers, horses, etc. with my pocketknife. I spent many a happy hour carving these things, which I then traded with other kids for candy bars, marbles, or other valuable goods. What I am doing now isn’t so very different.

The problem that I have presently is that I haven’t enough time to deal with all of my projects. I am finishing work on a major public memorial for Onslow County, NC. “Reflected in Their Eyes” is a memorial for first responders in Onslow County, which includes Jacksonville, NC, home to the Marine Corps, Camp Lejune. This sculpture is made of 1-inch thick stainless steel, which has been polished to a mirror finish. The Memorial is composed of three panels of stainless. The central panel is 20 feet long and has the figures of three responders cut out in silhouette. A firefighter, EMS tech and a law enforcement person are represented by their absence. Two information panels that have the Dedication and the Honor Roll, flank the central panel. This sculpture is part of the great tradition of Sculpture that serves a public function.

I am also continuing to make sculptures for the “Lodestone Project” that utilize massive iron casting to mark significant locations on the globe. These sculptures reference the ancient way-finding knowledge of mankind as well as the development of metallurgy. I cast replicas of existing stones from specific locations in iron and then place these castings as sculptures or leave them anonymously in places that have special significance in history. In 2012 I cast a Lodestone in Wales that will eventually be placed somewhere on the Prime Meridian in the UK. It is important that the original stone from which I pulled the mold was found in the Preseli Hills, which is where the Bluestones of Stonehenge are thought to have originated. Other Lodestones are placed as sculptures in Pedvale Open Air Museum and Sculpture Park in Latvia and at Josephine Sculpture Park near Frankfort, KY. The Wichita Lodestone is placed somewhere in the Wichita Mountain Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. Additional information about this project can be found on my website: billingsleyatelier.com.

My most recent endeavor is the Sculptures @ Schools Project. I have started to offer original abstract sculptures to public schools at nominal cost as an educational tool. Very few students in America encounter art on a regular basis as part of their ordinary environment. Sculptures @Schools is designed to be utilized as part of a comprehensive Art Curriculum. Each participating school will have as a permanent part of their campus an original abstract sculpture. These sculptures will offer a variety of educational opportunities to generation after

46

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

generation of students. Lesson plans and extra curricula activities suggestions are included with each sculpture that is placed at a participating school.

Sculptures @ Schools is a Social Enterprise with the goal of being self-sustaining and does not seek to make profit. The goal is to provide sculptures to an evergrowing population at cost. Sculptures @ Schools is in the formative stage and welcomes support and suggestions for development.

This part of my interview addresses issues of inspiration. While considering these questions I found an earlier interview that I had done for the Public Art Program in Salina Kansas. The questions and my answers seem to fit so I will use the interview as part of this much more inclusive interview: WHAT INSPIRES YOU TO CREATE ART? For me sculpture is a special means of communication. It is a way for me to express some of my thoughts and ideas about the human condition. I usually create abstract sculptures that don’t represent objects, persons or creatures. More likely, the sculptures are about human activities and ideas that have preoccupied our species for millennia. Ideas such as way-finding, discovery of the materials and processes that have enabled us to build modern civilization and how those activities and materials are still in use today. I often reference history, technical processes and I always try to show something about how the sculpture was created. In a casting, for instance, I will often leave mold lines visible so that the viewers can understand that the sculpture was cast. When I carve stone or wood I leave tool marks. I guess that I am inspired by my connection as an artist to all artists that have gone before me and all those who will follow. We are part of a great continuum of human history.

WHAT MATERIALS DO YOU USE?: I still use the traditional materials and methods of sculpture such as stone and woodcarving. I model in clay and I cast sculptures in aluminum, bronze and iron. I do a considerable amount of welding and metal fabrication and will sometimes use more than one material and technique in a single sculpture. For the past several years I have also created site-specific earth works and installations.

WHY, IN YOUR OPINION, IS PUBLIC ART IMPORTANT?: Public art is important because it helps to define a place. It offers moments of reflection, beauty, mystery, celebration, fun, remembrance, wonder, insight, pleasure and surprise.

It acts for the community in the same way as landmark buildings, monuments and spaces. Like natural elements of the environment such as rivers, hills, horizons, green spaces, forests and flowers, sculpture offers respite from the ordinary, the commercial, the necessary hardware of the street and the endless signage of our urban environment. It doesn’t ask for anything but your time to look and perhaps a moment of thought or pleasure. Public Art isn’t confined in a museum, held close by a collector, offered to view for a few days or weeks, it is available for each individual to consider, like, dislike, re-visit, ignore, celebrate, enjoy, re-visit and finally to miss when it is gone.

47

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

HOW DID YOU HEAR ABOUT SCULPTURE TOUR SALINA, AND WHY DID YOU ENTER?: I have been exhibiting my work in public venues such as Salina for more than 20 years. I know of most such opportunities and am always happy to see another community join the ranks of cities that demonstrate their commitment to making art part of the fabric of their communities. One reason that I continue to enter competitions like this is because it offers me the chance to have my work evaluated and considered by a variety of jurors and citizens along with the work of many other artists. This is really a form of peer review, expert criticism, objective comparison and public acceptance.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE SALINA WILL GAIN BY HAVING THIS ANNUAL SCULPTURE TOUR?: I don’t HOPE for positive results I am CERTAIN of them!

The citizens of Salina gain the opportunity to view a variety of contemporary sculpture from across the country, to live with these works for a year and to discover things about their habits, thoughts, ideas and attitudes that sometimes surprise them. They can explore the world of contemporary art with its rich variety and discover that the old is still as relevant as the new. All of this just by looking!

They will find things that they never expected to like and things that they hate but come to understand. They are free to have any opinion that they want and lucky to be able to change their minds if they choose to. They might even find a public artwork that needs to be a permanent part of their community.

I find most writing about creativity to be off the mark. The question shouldn’t be how to be more creative. The question should be why does our culture, our educational system and our public attitude regard creativity as something special? Any serious review of Human History reveals that we are innately, as a species, creative. Innovation, creativity, the thirst for knowledge are built–in, what is NOT natural to our species is the prevalence given to FEAR. Only those who fear change are resistant to creativity. Creativity represents freedom and that alone is the difference between artists and everybody else. Artists choose to take a chance, they exercise their FREEDOM to be different, to fail as often as they succeed and to find new ways to communicate.

48

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Carl Billingsley “Aspiration” / Sculpture / Location: Costa Rica

49

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Carl Billingsley “Iron Bolt” / Sculpture / Location: Pedvale, Latvia

50

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Carl Billingsley “Plane Warp” / Sculpture / Location: Chattanooga, Tennessee

51

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Carl Billingsley “Quadrant Stone” / Sculpture / Location: Pedvale, Latvia

52

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Carl Billingsley (Shown) “P C Column” / Sculpture / Location: Oxford, Mississippi

53

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Carl Billingsley “Keystone of Space” Sculpture

54

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Carl Billingsley “Midsummer Gate” Sculpture

55

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Catherine Billingsley I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and grew up in a creative family.

My mother was a voracious reader and aspiring writer, and my father was a Professor of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

He taught ceramics but he was first and foremost a painter and had in fact been a WPA painter back in the 1930’s. My older brother became an art educator as well.

My brother and I were nurtured in many ways as children, and our father saw to it that we always had plenty of art materials to work with.

I remember running a little cottage industry weaving pot holders from colored loopers and selling them door to door when I was about 9 or 10. I recorded the patterns and color combinations I used in a small spiral notebook, and for a while I thought I had invented “hounds tooth.”

When I was in seventh and eighth grade, I took sewing in school. My parents bought me my first sewing machine when I graduated from eighth grade, and I began sewing many of my own clothes and clothes for my mother. I loved the idea of taking lots of different pieces and putting them together into something whole.

I spent my early college years resisting being like everyone in my family; I wanted to be different. I tried many directions, early childhood education, English, journalism, but feeling frustrated, I took a crafts class, just for fun, and eventually earned a BFA in Weaving and Textile Arts. The apple hadn’t fall far from the tree after all.

In 1965, while still in college, I married Carl Billingsley. We had gone to high school together and started dating each other when we were seniors. Carl was pursuing his Bachelors degree in sculpture. We graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee together in 1969, and my parents bought me a used loom so I could work at home. Everywhere we have ever lived, I have had a loom either in the living room or in an adjoining room. And I currently have multiple looms.

56

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Our lives were shaped very much by the events and attitudes of the 60’s. We embraced the “Back to the Land” philosophy and mastered many do-it-yourself skills. I felt grateful that I could pursue weaving at home while dealing with the demands of two children by day and then teach continuing education weaving classes at the community college at night. Carl ultimately earned his Masters degree in Sculpture from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and in 1986 he began his college teaching career at the University of North CarolinaGreensboro, followed by a move in 1992 to East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina from which he retired in 2014.

Ten years after Carl got his MFA, our son Benjamin got his MFA in painting and printmaking. Ben has been teaching drawing, painting, printmaking, and art history for the past 15 years at Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina. Our daughter Rachel, who is married and has 2 young children, has become a fiber artist in her own right, challenging herself with complicated knitting techniques.

I have always thought of Carl as the “engine” of our family, the force that drives us all. Most of the experiences we have had, especially regarding foreign travel, have been the direct result of Carl’s efforts. And it was while Carl was teaching at ECU, that I had an opportunity to pursue my MFA; I entered graduate school at the age of 56 and graduated three years later (2003) with a concentration in Weaving and Textile Arts.

Graduate school really broadened my skills and my sense of how my work fit into contemporary art. Using what weaving skills I already had, I learned how to combine them with surface design techniques such as embroidery and applique.

My work became more layered, deeper, and conceptually richer. I also learned techniques that were completely new to me such as bead weaving, fabric dyeing and piecing, and digital printing all of which I used in my thesis work as well as in post graduate work. I began making work in series rather than singularly, and doors were opening for me that had not been opened before.

My thesis work was based on foreign travel to Japan, Eastern Europe, Israel, and Ghana. I wove a large panel (roughly 3’ x 5’) that represented each of these locations, and I worked from photographs as my inspiration. I wove a background fabric and then additional fabrics that I cut and shaped and appliqued to the background. I finished each panel with hand embroidery on the surface. The work “Toya, Japan” combines handwoven appliques with leaves cut from commercially woven fabric.

When I was in Ghana, I worked directly with African master weavers and printmakers and studied Kente cloth, or strip weaving, firsthand. Kente cloth had been an interest of mine for years, and “An American in Ghana” reflects the affects of that experience. It is a three-part, freestanding piece consisting of

57

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

long, narrow 4” wide double woven strips that are wrapped around steel frames.

The pieces are arranged so that the viewer can stand at one end and look through the openings and see parts of the pieces behind.

Travel continued as a theme with the first piece I made post grad school. An 8” by 10” bead weaving depicting a row of houses on the canal in Amsterdam hangs in front of the same image embroidered on the woven background panel in “Amsterdam.” The bead weaving consists of 24,000 glass seed beads.

Digital printing dominated my attention while I produced a series of 2 dozen pieces based on my own routine medical imagery; many were presented as small quilts. I started with images of the back of my eye, then added various orthopedics x-rays (“Underlying Shooting Pain” was made using a hip x-ray), chest x-rays, mammograms, bone density tests, and ultrasound images. Except for a couple of the pieces, I did all the printing myself using my Epson desktop printer. I manipulated my images using Photoshop, pieced the prints together, and embroidered the surfaces using machine embroidery. I was most interested in the abstract nature I could create by repeating and manipulating these images.

“Hand-Eye Coordination” exemplifies this idea. “Ode to Titanium” was one piece I had printed by Spoonflower in Raleigh; in the designing process I aligned the images side by side and was able to eliminate the need to piece the images together later. A textile friend who was also working with digital medical imagery and I had a very successful two-person exhibit that ran for the whole summer of 2011 at the Laupus Health Sciences Library on the Medical Campus of East Carolina University. Our work garnered attention from the medical community as well as the art community.

For the first five years after graduate school, I taught part-time for the School of Art and Design at ECU. I taught all levels of weaving, textile survey, and color and design. I taught, exhibited, lectured, worked collaboratively with other artists, and did commission work. I also did my first solo exhibitions and my first on-line exhibit, was asked to write several articles for a national textile magazine and designed my own website (catherinebillingsley.com). My world definitely felt larger than ever before.

I was especially honored to share an exhibit in 2008 at the Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania with my ECU textile colleagues Christine Zoller and Jan Ru Wan. I created three of the largest pieces I have ever made specifically for this show. My favorite of these pieces is called “What Goes Around Comes Around” which measures 7’ W x 5’ H. It is woven of wools arranged in the order of the spectrum and uses a simple weave structure, putting the focus on the color interactions. I started by weaving a short section, then advanced a length of unwoven warp, and then wove another section twice the length of the first section. When the work was off the loom, I hemmed the ends and brought the two woven sections together and seamed them together using Velcro. The sweep of unwoven warp hangs loosely below the woven part. A reviewer of the

58

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

show paid me the highest compliment when she said the piece challenged her to figure out how it was made. Further she said my works were dramatic, pleasant to look at, and the overlapping sequential colors created a pointillist effect, the results of which were meditative. “Cool Knot Warm” and “Go with the Flow” were the other pieces woven specifically for this exhibit.

But even though I’d say that I might be proudest of that particular piece more than any other, the truth is my best piece is always the next piece. While I am weaving, my mind is racing ahead to what else I can do with this idea, with this pattern, with this technique, with this color combination. Making art is an evolutionary process; if you don’t learn anything new, why do it?

Weaving is a systematic, sequential process that employs logic in much the same way as mathematics. Some of the same vocabulary is common to both: chosen limits, grid, intersect, odd/even progression, order, pattern, random, repeat, sequence, theory, and variables. When I am planning a weaving, I like to challenge myself by imposing a system or a set of limits within which I must work.

I love working with the spectrum, and I have used that arrangement of color in much of my work going back to the 80’s. My colorful “Overshot Gamp” is a good example. It combines overshot patterning with the spectrum color arrangement.

I have also used Fibonacci sequencing quite a lot, both in my thesis work and in many of the color pieces I have done. The Fibonacci system is a progressive sequence starting with 1 plus 1, where the next number in the sequence is the sum of the previous two numbers: 1-1-2-3-5-8-13, etc. One finds Fibonacci numbers in the growth patterns of plants and animals, and because of the pleasing visual quality of these numbers and their relationship to one another, they appeal to our sense of beauty and proportion.

Pattern weaving has always been an attraction for me. I enjoy seeing a pattern develop and repeat, but manipulating pattern has also intrigued me. In “Pioneer Trail Meets Wandering Vine,” I wove strips of the two patterns side by side. After the piece was woven, I accordion folded it along the lines between patterns. If you stand to the left side of the weaving, you can see one pattern in its entirety, and when you stand to the right you can see the other. Carl made the plexiglass frame for me.

Another technique I use quite often in my work is a weaving technique called “name draft.” “Name draft” is a way of encoding a message into the woven cloth.

To create a “name draft,” the letters of a phrase are converted into numbers (1-4), which correspond to the number of harnesses on the loom. The alphabet can be divided in an infinite number of ways, letter by letter (A=1, B=2. C=3, D=4, E=1, etc.) or by groups of letters (ABC=1, DEF=2, etc.). The letters are assigned their respective numbers and from the numbers, a one-of-a-kind weaving pattern is created. The same phrase will generate a different pattern for each alphabetical system used. However, some “name draft” patterns are more

59

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

visually interesting than others. Although you cannot “read” the messages, they add another layer of meaning to the cloth. My self portrait name draft is titled “Catherine Billingsley: weaver, mother, book and baseball lover” and it shows 4 different systems threaded side by side and each woven in sequence; the same phrase is used for each system, but each system has generated a different pattern. For each of the four major panels in my thesis show, the titles of the panels are the name draft phrases I used when weaving the applique fabrics.

Japan and Ghana are included here; Toya, Japan, mentioned earlier, is titled, “You cannot travel on the path before you have become the path itself. Buddha” and Ghana is titled, “All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes.”

My digital printing was not the first time I had used technology in my work. I can go back to the 80’s when I made “Portrait of Ben and Rachel” shown with my inspiration, a computerized image of my kids that was printed on a dot matrix printer. The technique I used was a continuous knotting technique called Swedish Knot Tapestry. I also use a computer program to work out my name draft patterns quickly and a computer program to digitize images for my bead weavings. I have always found it interesting to combine current technology along with such a traditional process as weaving.

I enjoy the feeling of serenity I experience working at my loom and find satisfaction in “building” cloth, one row at a time. I take pleasure in creating unlimited color combinations and find comfort in the rhythm of repetition. In metaphorical terms, weaving is a part of everyone’s life. We each weave the fabric of our own lives, and every life tells a story woven together one day at a time, row upon row. If we are lucky, our lives have some constant “thread” that ties us to the past and leads us to the future.

Currently I am continuing my work with the spectrum (“Variation on a Theme, Part I”) and trying to find different ways to manipulate the cloth I am weaving, experimenting with some origami techniques. Although weaving will always be my greatest preoccupation, I have recently joined the Greenville Quilt Guild with the hopes of learning how to do free-motion quilting. I find this particular group of women inspirational. They are very productive and creative and most of all generous.

In some respects, I feel as though I have come full circle, back to those early pleasures of piecing patterns and bringing order to the whole. The truth is I have never been far from these pleasures my entire life of 70 plus years. I know how fortunate I have been both by fate and by choice. My parents set my journey in motion, and my 50-year partnership with Carl has carried me to places I never dreamed of going. We have lived what feels like a charmed life, but we have also worked hard to provide for the needs of each of us, including our children. In spite of not working in the same field, Carl and I have always supported each other in our individual pursuits. We talk with each other about our ideas, and we respect each other’s opinions and insight. Carl has made every frame I have ever

60

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

needed and cut every rod. We have exhibited our work together and on several occasions we have even put together 3-generation shows, including work by my father and Ben. And what seems to be happening, after all these years together, is that Carl’s sculpture is getting more colorful and my weaving is getting more dimensional. The influence was inevitable.

Catherine Billingsley “What Goes Around Comes Around” / Textile / Weaving

61

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Catherine Billingsley “Go With The Flow” Textile / Weaving

62

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Catherine Billingsley “Right Hand Eye Coordination” Textile / Weaving

Catherine Billingsley “Toya, Japan” / Textile / Weaving

63

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Catherine Billingsley “Self Portrait” Textile / Weaving

64

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Catherine Billingsley “Variation on a Theme – Part 1” Textile / Weaving

65

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Catherine Billingsley “Overshot Gamp” Textile / Weaving

66

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Catherine Billingsley “Shooting Pain” Textile / Weaving

67

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Evgeny Titov My name is Evgeny Titov. I was born in a small village where the living conditions instilled in me an ethic of hard work and a love of nature and good living. Now I live in St. Petersburg, Russia. This is a city with a great culture, and also with a great art school which I attended and learned much.

My early paintings came from trial and error.

I wanted to look carefully at the world around me and then share it with others through my art. I first started painting as a child, then made art in school, and then in college.

Finally I came to the Academy where I began studying the historical documentaries of other artists who have come before me. I learned how they worked and why they made their art. I looked at the study of this information as a truthful and objective way to understand my artistic predecessors.

One ritual I have is to make work. I am in my workshop as much as possible. I work making my art almost every day. I am amazed by the “birth� of each new work and celebrate it as one does with the launch of a new boat.

My working tool of choice is a brush and my medium is oil paint. My work is done (complete) when it begins to live on its own, when it is not necessary to add anything more. Stopping at this time is necessary otherwise you can spoil a work.

My occupation is this: I am an artist. Art has now become my profession and my passion as well. My art has always sold well even in my student years. These days my sales are regular and I am happy to say I make a living from my art work.

For the immediate future my plans are to work on a large solo exhibition in a reasonably good museum. My long term plans including showing my work in one-man exhibitions regularly. I want to use solo exhibitions to take my work further out into the public and also to bring joy to people.

I am inspired by my memories of my childhood: the great joy of communicating with interesting people. In our world there are so many interesting artists. But I tend to follow one of the commandments of Moses "DO NOT MAKE YOURSELF ON IDOL." I take the ideas of the life that surrounds me. Being creative is an interesting idea. Being creative to me means that I strive to be different from anyone else in my work. Even so,

68

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

I must be recognizable as an artist. In my work I pose questions about life from my personal perspective. For example, in this article I present my picture "THE BLIND" Which asks these questions: “Who are we? And how and why did we come to this sinful world?”

When a young artist asks me the question, “How can I be more creative?” I answer them like this: “Being creative means being yourself and being different from other artists but being recognizable.” This is what I say to young artists. I think that perhaps the best advice on being an artist comes from the life one lives. My life tells me this: Don't be afraid to do things. Do not be afraid to open your soul to people. Your art will resonate if you are honest.

Evgeny Titov “The Song” / Painting

69

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Evgeny Titov “Harvest” Painting

Titov Evgeny “Walk Across the Sky” Painting

70

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Evgeny Titov “Promenade” / Painting

Evgeny Titov “ The fishing” / Painting

71

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Evgeny Titov “The Wedding” / Painting

Evgeny Titov “At the Crossroads” / Painting

72

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Evgeny Titov “Sand Castles” / Painting

73

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Evgeny Titov “Torrent” / Painting

74

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Evgeny Titov “They Liked Each Other” / Painting

75

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Evgeny Titov “Ripe Apple” / Painting

76

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Evgeny Titov “Market” / Painting

77

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Evgeny Titov “The White Crow” / Painting

78

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Evgeny Titov “On the Russian Stove” / Painting

79

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Golmei Gandumpu My name is Golmei Gandumpu and I live in Singjamei, Imphal East, Manipur, India.

I belong to the Kabui Communities. The Kabui’s are singular among the populations of North East India.

I love my Kabui culture and tradition. The Kabui Communities are fading away day by day. I therefore want to preserve the tradition and culture of my Communities through my artworks. With my painting I am trying to expose my beautiful, colorful traditional costumes have been worn proudly for many hundreds of years.

From my childhood I was always interested to do drawings and paintings. This work has been a life long source of interest for me.

After my high school I joined the Imphal Art College to further my studies in art. I received a 5th year diploma from that institute in 1993. I have undergraduate and graduate degrees in Fine Arts - Painting from the Imphal Art College, Imphal, Manipur.

At this time I am a professional artist. My work has been shown in many juried and invited exhibitions in India and I have attended art workshops. As an artist I am trying to keep myself away from the many “isms” which have been set out by various masters over the many centuries in the history of art.

Through my artworks I am not trying to reveal the details of the dance or the specific dancer as I capture in my photographs. Instead I am always trying to show the movements and costumes by using different strokes and different brushes as well as sober blues, greens and brown as needed to convey the proper feelings to the audience.

Here is a specific example of the Kabui culture in celebrating the Gaan Ngai. The Gaan Ngai is the post-harvest festival. Therefore, in the distant past, it was observed in October. However, in 1947 the Zelianrong Community leaders decided that it be held on the 13th day of the Metei month of Wakching which tallies with Pousa month of Sakanda of the Indian era. The Ngai was to held on the same day in the states of Manipur, Nagaland and Assam. Since 1998 the government of Manipur declared Gaan Ngai as a general holiday. The coming of Gaan Ngai is announced on the first day of the month of Wakching/Pousa bowing the horns of cattle. This is called Gaan Shanmei. The

80

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Gaan Ngai is also celebrated as the worship of God, and for giving men a good harvest, and as an expression of thanksgiving of man to God. To show the power of and beauty of these celebrations I like to use bold brush strokes and semi-abstract elements for making my paintings. I enjoy sketching and doing preliminary studies for paintings too. I think that choosing good colors and carefully choosing the brushes for each canvas is very important for an artist. I can justify the cost of my Winsor & Newton paints as these are the tools that feel best for me. I also very much like the new acrylic colors and various mediums available now. I love to work with these materials.

The Artist’s Studio

81

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Golmei Gandumpu “Untitled” / Painting

82

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Golmei Gandumpu “Untitled” / Painting

83

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Golmei Gandumpu “Untitled” / Painting

84

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Golmei Gandumpu “Untitled” / Painting

Golmei Gandumpu “Untitled” / Painting

85

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Golmei Gandumpu “Untitled” / Painting

Golmei Gandumpu “Untitled” / Painting

86

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Golmei Gandumpu “Untitled” / Painting

Golmei Gandumpu “Untitled” / Painting

87

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Golmei Gandumpu The Artist’s Studio

88

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Hong Jin-Hee JCAM: What is your professional name?

Where were you born? Do you have family, friends, or fellow artists who support you in your work, life and art making?

HJH: My name is Hong Jin-Hee. I was born and grew up in Seoul, Korea and I live there now. Seoul is capital city of Korea.

I am married and I have two children, a son and a daughter. My husband supports my work and life. I don't have any fellow artists who support me.

JCAM: When and how did you start making art?

HJH: I started my work painting with watercolor. In 2007, there was new program, named of artist studio, in Seoul Arts Center.

Normal academic art programs have an instructor who teaches one or two students.

However, in this artist studio program the artists worked by themselves without the instructor, which provided time and space.

Seoul Arts Center is the best art center in Korea. Therefore, the purpose of this new program was making creative artists. The artist studio program lasted for one year. In short, participants complete over 300 works and their finished work was put in two professional examinations. Only selected artists were able to get the right to exhibit at the Seoul Arts Center with special favor. To exhibit at the center is one of the wishes of most artists.

JCAM: Do you have any creative patterns, routines or rituals associated with your art making? What element(s) of art making do you enjoy the most and why? What is your most important artist tool(s) and why? How do you know when a work is finished? What are the art making tools you use now?

HJH: At that time, I was in the Seoul Arts Center, I was concerned about differentiation from other artists. Meanwhile, I received a thread set from my mom by accident. I was inspired by the colors of the threads in the set, so I set out to use the material in my work.

Actually, I had specialized in fiber craft at the university and I already had an interest in sewing and handicraft. I never felt unfamiliar with the thread as my work material. I

89

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

specialized mostly in batik and tapestry. I also dyed thread or fabric, drew on the fabric, and made new soft sculptures using the tapestry.

The subject of my work is realistic natural scenery. I describe the detail focused by my sight and feel rather than the whole. There are no special creative patterns, routines or rituals associated with my art making.

When I work, I regard my feelings as the most important element. The way I create the work is to build thread from bottom-to-top like the way a plant or tree grows.

I think that the tools I use fit me and are the best tools for me, even though there are many other artist tools. Also, these tools can help me make the best works.

When there is no space left to work, either by intention, composition, light and shade and cubic effect, then I think my work is done. Before the mentioned elements are satisfied, I don't stop making the work.

I now use cotton thread, brush, and flour paste as my art making tools. As ground, I use Chinese paper, canvas and silk.

I am a thread artist. There are different types of threads - from thin threads to thick threads, cotton thread, silk thread, artificial thread, and paper thread. I use all these various threads.

JCAM: What's the first artwork you ever sold? Do you make a living from your art?

HJH: The first artwork I ever sold is hanging at the oriental medicine clinic in Sinsadong, Seoul. I didn't make a living from my art then, but I am beginning to.

JCAM: What are your goals for the future, for both work and life? What interesting project are you working on at the moment?

HJH: My goal is this. My art making plan is to try a variety of threads and ground materials to express various forests according to the seasons - spring, summer, autumn, winter - and then recast my artwork as a photography project.

JCAM: What or who inspires you? Do you have a favorite – or influential – living artist?

HJH: I am inspired through thinking, observation, and reading. I like to walk around.

Almost every day I encounter nature, mountain, river, forest on foot. Walking in nature, lets me think.

As I observe grasses, trees, flowers which are before my eyes, the inspiration comes across in my mind. Then, I can draw finished forest in it. Last, I find the way to complement my thinking and observation with reading.

90

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

But I like Vincent Van Gogh in terms of international artists and I like Park Soo-keun in South Korea because each of these artists sublimates normal life into beauty and persist in doing their best. For this reason, I admire them both.

JCAM: Where do you find ideas for your creative work? What does “being creative” mean to you?

HJH: I find ideas for creativity from my head and heart. Moreover, I think 'being creative' means trying new artwork that no one else has tried. I'm already proud of my creative artwork and loving it. It requires so much effort and to me making art is the most beautiful and attractive thing in the world. Thus, I cannot stop it.

Below is my artist statement which reflects these thoughts: “Healing Forest Created By Threads” I make art with the threads instead of color (pigment).

The reason why I choose the threads is that I can express smooth or rough texture and a sense of volume, and also pursue countless changes of shape and detail using my fingertips.

Moreover, with the threads I can control brightness like color (pigment), and thread has a double-sidedness to stick to the surface like an object or to make soft sculpture.

The subject of my art is tree and forest. The subject is one that is commonly used, but it is obvious that the forest can heal spirit or body.

The forest comforts me and I get inspiration from the forest.

The forest I express is the forest that embraces all people who have become tired and stressful.

My 'Healing Forest Created By Threads' presents an oriental mood that will touch, warm and move the hearts of people who come to understand the work.”

91

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Hong Jin-Hee “Bright Afternoon / Mixed Media on Canvas

Hong Jin-Hee ”Forest of Childhood” / Mixed Media on Chinese paper

92

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Hong Jin-Hee “Forest of Fall / Mixed Media on Chinese Paper

Hong Jin-Hee “Forest of Winter” / Mixed Media on Silk

93

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Hong Jin-Hee “Road and Forest 1” / Mixed Media on Chinese Paper

Hong Jin-Hee “Road and Forest 2” / Mixed Media on Chinese Paper

94

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Hong Jin-Hee “When I Devoted Myself To ....” / Mixed Media on Chinese Paper

Hong Jin-Hee “When I Missed You 1” / Mixed Media on Canvas

95

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Hong Jin-Hee “Dream” / 3D Construction (35 x 35 x 40cm) in Mixed Media

96

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Hong Jin-Hee “White Forest” / Mixed media on Chinese Paper

Hong Jin-Hee “Burning Forest” / 3D Construction (60 x 23 x 23cm) in Mixed Media

97

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Hong Jin-Hee “Green, By The Name” / Mixed Media on Chinese Paper

98

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Hong Jin-Hee “Spring Song For You” / Mixed Media on Chinese paper

99

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Hong Jin-Hee “Early Spring, In The Forest” / Mixed Media on Chinese Paper

Hong Jin-Hee “Little Forest” / 3D Construction (35 x 18 x 25cm) in Mixed Media

100

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Josef Luňáček I, Josef Pepa Luňáček, was born on June 6, 1965 in Olomouc, Czech Republic. I am still living in Olomouc, the second oldest city in the Czech Republic. Since my twenties I have worked as a painter at various monuments in Olomouc and I learned the old craft of painting techniques of the old masters there. I have family and with my wife (we have been for 33 years together now) and three adult children who also paint.

Many artists come to me in the studio and all the people around me support me in my work. On the other hand, when I paint pictures I am with my works alone throughout the infinite universe – and feel abandoned. This way of working, however, has produced my most interesting paintings.

Art I first started doing at the age of 18, when I started with the first woodcuts, which I finished by painting. Then 30 long years, I worked as a painter and I worked with colors.

All my life I subconsciously dreamed about painting, but in all 30 long years, I did not dare. Up in my 47 years, I bought my first three canvases and began to paint. Those initial paintings did not bring me any satisfaction and I rubbed the canvas and I put them on the shelf in the garage. After half a year, I woke up one morning and suddenly I clearly knew what and how I paint and I painted that day, all day, and since then I paint for over three years per day.

My colleagues compared my paintings with Jackson Pollock at that time, when I began to paint this style which occurred one morning. Unfortunately I did not know Jackson Pollock. My style is evolving. I started to use more color cast in a variety of products ranging from miniature droppers to funnels, etc. My artworks reflects everything I see around me, mostly the universe, I see that everywhere and in everything. I am proud of all my paintings because each of them is unique and impossible to paint identically.

However, I have the first three paintings, which all began and I highly value them, they are the first three pictures in my new artistic life ... after rebirth, and before I started painting, I had a serious illness from which I thank God healed but I might have become permanently blind. Thank god I'm not.

I have rituals in my art making. My first ritual is that I make my own paintings, canvas is stretched on wooden frames and after that is three times impregnated (covered) with my personal recipe of material for making my paintings. At this time, I usually know what

101

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

this picture will emerge. The only problem is, that even when working on several paintings at once I am not able to carry my ideas all at once. I always have more ideas than stretched canvases for paintings. So I'm always taking notes, but do not come back to them yet because I still have new ideas. Some of my other daily ritual includes music for each of my works. In making my painting pictures I have to play and listen to music, mostly rock, but sometimes I like to hear classics such as Antonio Vivaldi and J.S. Bach.

The thing I like most about my paintings is as they arise, at the beginning is just a white screen ... then I take a brush or a sea sponge or cloth soaked in paint and start on a clean white cloth to apply colors. It's amazing what begins to emerge in this initial moment, at the time this work draws me and we are connected to each other.

Consequently, everything goes forward by itself ... one its own. The next coat is with a brush, which already affects the canvas, and it leads my hand. I also use some kinds of eyedroppers (which I make myself) for applying color to the substrate which is of tinged with variations of colors. I use different techniques and different densities of paint too.

Sometimes I leave the color flow on a tinged canvas, sometimes even on a wet surface, sometimes on a dry surface. Some of these paintings I have developed for a few weeks before they have completely dried out the different layers of colors, and before I am satisfied with them. I always know when the painting is done. I know this because I feel it (exactly) when I do the last layer, and I know just what the painting still needs. It's all about the subconscious inner feelings. Once I am satisfied, when I see the painting and viewing from all four sides and different angles, and I like it, then I know it's done.

The first year I began to paint I just painted for myself and had no intention of selling my paintings. In the second year, when I saw the interest in my paintings and I participated in several exhibitions in the Czech Republic at which they sold some of my paintings, I was pleased. Today I know there is interest in my paintings for many people have expressed an interest in them. Many people tell me that may art works act very forcefully on them and induce in then them pleasure and sometimes artistic inspiration.

In addition, my art works never get old or stale, and they make a dominant central point of the room in which they are installed. So, now I really want my paintings to be worldwide and bring people joy and benefits. That is exactly why they were created.

This year 2016, I finished all my other work activities and I devote 100% to making paintings and the subsequent distribution of images.

I have signed a mandate agreement with the French gallery “OEUVRISSIM ART” (142 rue de Rivoli • 75001 Paris • France). These days, this gallery has booked 10 of my paintings for this year. I have had discussions in collaboration with the Italian galleries, “ArtStudio Queen” in Milan. Later this year, I am arranging an exhibition in Vienna, Austria. And, excitingly, in Cuba they tentatively expressed interest in my exhibition at the Ministry of Culture of Cuba in Havana. I'd also like arrange a business partnership to sell my paintings in the United States, Canada and Australia.

As I said, what most inspires me is the color and infinite universe as a living organism with undeniable unity. In this universe there are endless lines, shapes and a boundless,

102

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

vast and enormous range of colors. Yet everything has its law and order. I am amazed and awed and inspired by this reality.

I am also inspired by the art of living artists. Of contemporary living artists, I admire Mexican painter Chantal Meza. Her large format paintings seem close to my work, because I am doing some paintings also similar sizes, as well as her style and expression is sympathetic to me, because it is spontaneous.

Ideas for my work I find everywhere. Just take a look at the world around us. It is interesting that sometimes ideas for paintings are attacking me when I see the bustle on the street, or when I drive the car and observe the world around me. Or, when I walk into nature, where I look at this microcosm of the universe, and each time I see it there.

I also look into the sky, both by day and night. You can see that I draw ideas everyday from daily experience and from what I see.

In order to my progress with one’s art one must make art, lots of art. One must work often and do things to move ahead as an artist. In three years I have created about 500 paintings. I have even more ideas than I can express, because time is short, life is beautiful but very short, so sometimes even paint all day and night.

Josef Luňáček “Painting 19” (Detail)

103

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Josef Luňáček “Gormiti Rulers of the Wind” / Painting

Josef Luňáček “Modern Art 7” / Painting (Detail)

104

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Josef Luňáček “Sadness” / Painting

105

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Josef Luňáček “Picture No. 19” / Painting

106

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Josef Luňáček “XXL modern style IX” / Painting

107

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Josef Luňáček “Heart” / Painting

108

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Josef Luňáček “Modern Art 8” (Detail) / Painting

Josef Luňáček “Modern Art 8” / Digital

109

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Josef Luňáček “Modern Art 9” (Detail) / Painting

Josef Luňáček “Modern Art 9” / Digital

110

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Josef Luňáček “Picture No. 19” / Painting

111

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Joy A. McGugan JCAM: What is your professional name? Where were you born and does that place still influence you? Where do you live now and how does that place influence you? Do you have family, friends, or fellow artists who support you in your work, life and art making and how do they make a difference in your life?

JAM: My name is Joy A. McGugan and I was born and raised in North Carolina.

I spent most of my life in a small town appropriately called Hamlet and after college and marriage have lived in Lumberton, North Carolina. Hamlet was the quintessential small town, where children stayed out until dark and cousins were included in our circle of friends. My parents encouraged me from an early age (and still do) and now my supporters range from my children and husband to friends and fellow artists. More specifically, my son strongly encourages me to keep writing on my blog, my daughter has such a good eye for color and design that she is great with criticism, and my husband is always ready whenever I need to load, setup, unload my works for shows or to mail pieces out.

One of my dearest friends could be described as my private curator, she knows as much if not more about my paintings than I do and shares information about them at shows and exhibitions. And my sweet, elderly father still asks, “What are you working on now?”

JCAM: When and how did you start making art? Can you describe the time when you first realized that creating was something you absolutely had to do? Why do you make art now? How has your work changed or developed over time? What are you trying to communicate with your art? Of the artworks published in this article, is there one of you are which most proud? If so, why?

JAM: My memories of drawing began in kindergarten, and I vividly remember how much I disliked the fat yellow crayon when used on the slick, cheap newsprint we were given. It was when I was in the third grade that I drew one of the old oak trees on our elementary school grounds that others became aware of my potential. Instead of the typical “lolly-pop tree” I drew this one with the

112

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

branches and exposed roots in a manner very untypical for a third grader. My father is very talented in drawing and sculpture, and although he was also very supportive, he was my toughest critic as a youngster. I also caught grief from friends who couldn’t understand why I would rather draw than play in a neighborhood kickball game. Needless to say, I was not allowed to get a big head about my work!

As an undergraduate I majored in printmaking and minored in painting (with a promise to my mother to get certified in art education, to have something to “fall back on”) but looking back painting was my stronger suit and that is my preferred medium today. My art has changed over the years from my early college attempts at being realistically correct to a more expressive style. I want the viewer to know what the medium is, that paint was moved with brushes and sometimes enriched with other materials such as oil pastels.

One of my favorite pieces is “Robeson County Sunrise.” It was created with a combination of tissue paper, gesso, oil paint and oil pastels. There is a simplicity in the shapes of the trees in the background (but keeping that simplicity was a challenge) yet they are rich with layers of color and media.

JCAM: Do you have any creative patterns, routines or rituals associated with your art making? What element(s) of art making do you enjoy the most and why?

What is your most important artist tool(s) and why? How do you know when a work is finished? What are the art making tools you use now? What new creative medium would you love to pursue?

JAM: Photographs are usually a starting point for many of my paintings, (a technique which I depended on as a working mother and sometimes student without the luxury of time) but the work usually begins after an incubation period of thought and planning. I tend to go through stages after the basic drawing is laid out on the canvas or paper surface, some of them range from an almost cocky self-assuredness to a “what the hell have I done?” panic. The latter must be worked through with perseverance and a determination not to quit, after all, much thought has already been invested in most of my works. Change is allowed, hopefully leading to growth and satisfaction with the final product.

The photographs I use are usually some that I have taken although occasionally I ask permission from friends with intriguing pictures. Most of my work is sentimental in nature, at least it is to me. Flowers have a deep connection to my childhood and my grandmother who taught me how to plant them. Family members, friends and even pets are more favorite subject matter and lately I have ventured into landscapes.

Some of the media in my newer works are a combination of tissue paper and gesso, then oil paint and oil pastels and sticks. These pieces have a texture that

113

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

must be incorporated into the image as the tissue paper is almost accidental in nature. The paint and pastels work well together but yet add a contrast with the brush strokes and drawn marks.

JCAM: Do you make a living from your art? What are your goals for the future, for both work and life? What interesting project are you working on at the moment?

JAM: I do not make a living from my own art, although I have worked in art related fields. I have designed T-shirts and signs, painted murals, and had a long stint in Art Education. Teaching made me a better artist but also kept me from creating more of my own art. I am now retired from teaching with the goal of creating a respectable body of work, learning more about the business and marketing aspects with the end result of selling more. This new stage of my life combines new energy and creativity with a certain level of maturity and confidence that I didn’t have time or strength for before. I have currently returned to a favorite subject matter (flowers) and am working on a small series of Daffodil paintings.

JCAM: What or who inspires you? Do you have a favorite – or influential – living artist? What work of art do you wish you owned and why? When addressing a particular work to be published in this interview: Can you explain what inspired this particular piece or idea?

JAM: The first time I ever went to an art museum was when I was in high school (remember I was a small-town girl). It was the North Carolina Museum of Art and as I came around a corner a Monet painting caught me by complete surprise, it stopped me in my tracks. It was my first aesthetic experience. Fast forward to a few years ago, I was in the Art Institute of Chicago. I saw so many works that were great but the one that got me was “Gasthof zur Muldentalsperre” by Peter Doig, a Scottish/Canadian artist who now lives in Trinidad. The painting was large, with soft washes of color in the sky and foreground, a more thickly applied stone fence and two rather creepy (to me) figures. But what really struck me was the fact that two trees in the middle ground had been painted and then wiped out, showing a little of the underpainting and the stain of the wiped-out color. I was amazed that he seemed to use different techniques in the same painting, and thought that the wipe-out trees were incredible! They almost seem inconsequential when compared to the focal point of the figures posing between two fences. But when you see them and the simplicity and almost unfinished look, they just knocked my socks off! I think Doig’s work may have influenced some of my works as they have layers from almost bare canvas to the finished painting, although I have not adopted the “wiped out” technique.

JCAM: Where do you find ideas for your creative work? What does “being creative” mean to you? What is the best advice you ever had about how to be more creative?

114

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

JAM: I am attracted to contrasts in light and dark, patterns in nature, and color. I have found that “being creative” involves taking risks and pushing myself beyond work that I could safely do – expressive versus “pretty pictures.” One of my favorite paintings was done as an exercise in my studio to just let it go and smack some paint on the canvas before trying out some more “serious” paintings. I was surprised when it sold quickly but the freedom and quick strokes gave it a freshness that was appealing. One of the hardest things is knowing when to quit working (which would be the best advice ever given by a professor of mine) on a painting and that particular one taught me to be more spontaneous and not overwork pieces.

Joy A. McGugan “Zelma” / Painting

115

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Joy A. McGugan “Chicago Nude 1” / Painting

116

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Joy A. McGugan “Untitled” / Painting

117

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Joy A. McGugan “Chicago Nude 2” / Painting

118

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Joy A. McGugan “Untitled” / Painting

119

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Joy A. McGugan “Untitled” / Painting

Joy A. McGugan “Untitled” / Painting

120

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Joy A. McGugan “A Moment on the TV” / Painting

Joy A. McGugan “Untitled” / Painting

121

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Joy A. McGugan “Cambridge Flowers” / Painting

122

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Joy A. McGugan “Self Portrait” / Painting

123

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Nitasha Jaini JCAM: What is your professional name?

Nitasha Jaini Where were you born and does that place still influence you?

NJ: I was born in Punjab India, and yes, the cultural vibrancy of that place still influences me, in many ways it has made me who I am.

JCAM: Where do you live now and how does that place influence you?

NJ: I live in Delhi – capital of India – and this city has taught me, moulded me, given me opportunities to explore new ground, and question old methods.

Do you have family, friends, or fellow artists who support you in your work, life and art making and how do they make a difference in your life?

NJ: I feel privileged to be a third generation empowered woman. Education for women came into my family 50 years before I was born. My mother is a well known educationist and my father is like a solid rock that bore my burden. My parents realized the predicament of my artistic path quite early in my career, and bravely they decided to financially support me. They bought me a studio –my sanity /my retreat.

This alone held me together and helped me create art year after year, show or no show, art production has not stopped. Married to a sports person, mother of twin daughters, the pressures were many, but thanks to the ideas of gender freedom my husband became the bigger man when he stood aside and saw every nook every cranny, every cupboard, all storage spaces in our home being converted to art holds.

When I first started exhibiting, support came from fellow artist Narenderpal Singh, art critics PRAYAG Shukla and Vinod Bhardwaj. There was a lot of discussion – debate and questioning during those years. Each work was discussed threadbare, and new ways to express were explored. The discipline to create art, the sheer determination to just do that was sown into my system during those years.

124

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

These 7 or 8 years proved to be the solid base on which I was to continue creating art.

This phase ended and with it the crutches of interdependence of other art persons was broken, I knew my path ahead would be more me.

JCAM: When and how did you start making art? Can you describe the time when you first realized that creating was something you absolutely had to do? Why do you make art now? How has your work changed or developed over time? What are you trying to communicate with your art? Of the artworks published in this article, is there one of you are which most proud? If so, why?

NJ: Daughter of a well known professional educator, I was expected to fill the mould, but my own fires were too hot to settle into a comfortable zone of the ‘known.’ After an intense struggle with my mother about my career choice to be a full time artist and her chosen career for me to be a ‘doctor’ – finally I won.

I knew that expressing my self in art was the only thing I wanted to do, and ‘art’ was considered at best a – hobby. However I was allowed to study art, and that’s what I did.

My drawings and paintings were taking up space even in my mothers house, but the trauma of giving it up was greater.

I vividly remember a day, my twins were 3 years old, and motherhood has not given me any time to draw – paint. I took the girls to my mothers house in Amritsar, and requested her to watch them, while I disappeared into the top portion of the house, just then, my mom remarked, “At least sell what you have already made, then make more.” This remark was like a wound so deep that just to fill it I made 3 drawings at a stretch, and went down exhausted but happy. I knew that day, that art is what will keep me alive.

My paintings are centered around the theme of the "Male." The male as model is present very much in context of the female Artist. The form gives me a sense of freedom, to express my emotions, through his sensuality. Being a 20th Century woman, with innumerable feminist movements behind me, today I can use this form to give - my personal reaction an overall aesthetic experience.

The "male" is presented as a sensual and highly sensitive “nayak.” Only now, when female artist have come to terms with their sexuality can images like this be drawn. My work tends to ignore his violence and aggression simply because I feel those are the results of his latent animal instincts, which are best latent. His role as a nayak, purush, and Krishan hold me spell bound, and each work on display is the result of overwhelming joyful experiences.

The inspiration to transform my interaction as a woman into works of art came when I was enjoying the miniatures exhibition at the National gallery. The artists of yore, majority of them being male, have represented their emotions, via the female “nayika” she plays a prominent role in their paintings. The wealth of experiences I as a woman have had through the “nayak” came sweeping over me.

125

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

As a woman artist, I had this overwhelming desire to research through my painting, his experiences as a nayak. And thus began a joyful journey on a new path, which has manifest itself into works on paper and canvas. I have worked on the Purush-Prakriti theme, highlighting the various nuances of this profound relationship.

My research continues and the desire to break the aesthetic barriers which the content of my paintings pose. It is also my sincere desire not to create uneasiness amongst those, who find themselves the subject of my scrutiny.

I first showed “male” nudes in 1995. Over time the image has changed, the content and the reasons to work on the ‘male ‘ remain the same. The materials have also changed from traditional paper/canvas /paint. I have moved into work with cloth, mannequins, plastic flowers, stainless steel laser cut work, acrylic sheets. The list is ever growing.

Out of the works published here — my personal favorite is “INNER OUTER BERLIN.” This work is a good example of what I want to say about the male. The possibilities are endless.

JCAM: Do you have any creative patterns, routines or rituals associated with your art making? What element(s) of art making do you enjoy the most and why? What is your most important artist tool(s) and why? How do you know when a work is finished? What are the art making tools you use now? What new creative medium would you love to pursue?

NJ: My art making come out of silence. Silence is my first requirement to create art. All the materials flow out of this silence. When I begin a work of art, I don’t want to go anywhere, just be in my studio. Usually I start by laying out my materials in front of me, mindlessly squeezing paint on the palette. With dabs of all the colors on my palette I feel I can begin.

Drawing comes first when I am working on installations, on canvas or paper. Empty space comes first, then a visual map gets reasoned out in my brain. Then the layers begin.

I enjoy the mystery of placement of different parts of the art very much, it is like a puzzle one is solving taking one step at a time, to access what one has to do next. The physical tools I use in my art are stencils of all shapes and sizes, I also get stamps specially made, with images to be used on my art piece, I use this stamp multiple times till the art is ready.

My paintings build slowly, layer upon layer of paint are rolled on, then images stamped on it, till finally I sit in front of the work and the work says, “I’m ready.” I can never predict in terms of time or number of layers when the work will be ‘ready’.

When the artwork is completed I just know. It usually takes more than a week for small works. Currently I am working on installations that include small condom boxes, and

126

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

another one in the pipeline has fiberglass objects. The information explosion that has taken place on the internet, has brought every material within the artist’s reach.

JCAM: What's the first artwork you ever sold? Do you make a living from your art?

NJ: In 1992 I Had a show of paintings in Chandigarh, and there I sold a work to a progressive lady, it was a joy. My works have sold from each solo show that I have had to date, but I still am not making a living out of art.

JCAM: What are your goals for the future, for both work and life? What interesting project are you working on at the moment?

NJ: My goal is to continue to create art which comes out of my soul, in spite of the many limitations and challenges that one faces as an artist. My studio always has works in the making, this keeps hope alive for another day. The next projects for which fiber work has been done, will include installation as well as film. That’s all that I can say about the unborn work. Seeing this interview on the world wide web will be interesting and rewarding.

What or who inspires you? Do you have a favorite – or influential – living artist? What work of art do you wish you owned and why? When addressing a particular work to be published in this interview: Can you explain what inspired this particular piece or idea?

About 90% of all the art I have ever produced talks of the MALE. The man in my life.

That’s it. He was what I had celebrated on paper, he was who I was angry with, he was who I was in love with, he was who made my heart stop. He was what I wanted to talk about, he as an unwilling, sometimes abusive partner of a strong woman.

The urban male is my muse. Being in Delhi I have had the pleasure of being exposed to the works of the best artist of India, international shows have shown me the works of many greats.

As far as artists I admire, my personal favorite is Arpita Singh, I also enjoy the works of Subodh Gupta. In an ideal world I would like to bring home – Michelangelo’s David. No male sculpture can be more perfect, sensuous, as well as innocent at the same time.

One of the works published in this interview is Plastic Sexuality. This work is rooted in the idea of stagnation, in the idea of the sexual act becoming plastic, loosing its combustive quality. This work is also a hint to the urban male about his virility or a loss of it.

JCAM: Where do you find ideas for your creative work? What does “being creative” mean to you? What is the best advice you ever had about how to be more creative?

NJ: Exploration of materials, experimentation with materials combined with a sharp observation of life around me gives me creative ideas for my work. I also study the past

127

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

in relation to the present, ideas emerge from these extensions as well. The work “Dressed for Victory” is one such work. The images of males on the side of the table have been pulled out of Wikipedia, printed on wood and presented as an art installation.

For me being creative, is first of all not deriving my work out of an existing work of another artist. Inspiration is one thing but plagiarizing has to be avoided. For me creative also means the ability of the art piece to open up new possibilities/new meanings in the viewers mind. The best advice came from art critic Suneet Chopra, when he asked me to “... question my own work” and “ ... to be sure of what I want to say.

Nitasha Jaini “It’s About the Money” Acrylic on Paper Addendum: A 31 May 2016 interview with the artist Nitasha Jaini can be found here: https://www.mojarto.com/blogs/nitasha-jaini-take-us-seriously

128

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Nitasha Jaini “Plastic Sexuality” / Mixed Media Installation

129

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Nitasha Jaini “Innerouter” / Mixed Media Installation

130

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Nitasha Jaini “Corporate Ladder” Mixed Media Installation

131

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Nitasha Jaini “Heritage Property” Painting

Nitasha Jaini “Leather Chair” Acrylic on Canvas

132

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Nitasha Jaini “Jamuna Kinare” Acrylic on Canvas

Nitasha Jaini “Sensex 20000” Acrylic on Canvas

133

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Nitasha Jaini “White and Gold Deals” / Acrylic on Canvas

134

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Om Soorya I am Om Soorya, born and raised in Kannur northern part of Kerala the southern state of India. From early childhood, I had demonstrated a keen interest towards creative exercises. I drew hills, houses, trees, moon, and divine beings on the white walls of the back yard of my home with dark charcoal that blazed in the oven.

Being a child, I was ignorant of the further perception, the likelihood of turning into an artist, to make everything on flat surfaces with the same charcoal or paint. As a child, I discovered art as a medium to imitate pictures from Indian calendar art, film blurbs, and pictures from other illustrated kids magazines. Later my entrance to the art school empowered me to comprehend the potential outcomes of genuine art practices, where I understood the need of considering art practice to be an essential part of life.

Since, the pedagogy of the Indian art institutions and learning has been totally based on the colonial influences, as an art student, I was presented more to western art histories and art practices, instead of our own culture and practices.

Subsequently, the visual dialect of mine was developed through the blend of western and eastern sensibilities. In any case, in the later period of my life I have been endeavoring to incorporate the eastern visual sensibility into my works.

What you see in the works of mine today is the result of that exertion.

I have been practicing art genuinely throughout the previous fifteen years.

Through the years, my thoughts have explored in many dimensions. However, the direction has not digressed in these years. It has just sharpened more than before my method for dialect and art. In my perspective, the meaning of art can never be bound to a solitary point and it's hard to clarify in few words. The inquiry starts from this specific purpose of definition and it turns into the inspiration for an artist to place him self in history through his own concept of art and life. What is

135

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

more, I trust that Art and life are not distinctive substances; they generally work as one.

The ideas of my works are ascended as a mission for my philosophical skepticism. As a less than dependable rule, they share a kind of ambiguity over the paradoxical world. The Idea of Monumentality, immortality, utopia, and dystopia constantly have been an influential representation of my work. In this way, I endeavor to make a whimsical unique space.

The archetypal motives are the quintessence of the past though the illuminations of my consciousness. This thought of paradigms must be seen reference to the Jungian archetypal studies. By fusing, the rehashed shapes like Stupas (Buddhist) and illuminations, I need to speak to the East and its otherworldly sensibility. At long last, the procedure of illumination itself turns into a sort of chanting or framing like a pattern. Eventually I need to develop a dialogue between the ethical inquiries of the over a wide span of time. What's more, the totality of my art practice remains for the same.

A historical monument has been always well connected with the totality of humankind, connected with the history and the past. By heading off to an archeological space the human personality recollects the past experience.

Experience to this space engages the human personality and takes it back to the total insight. By crushing historic monument, the destroyer intends to erase the total perception over this memory and endeavor to supplant with another new space that has no memory. The late culture examinations of Kerala reveals that the Buddhist custom and architecture once had been particularly a part of Kerala and it was given a route by the invasion of Hindu Religion. Furthermore, here by illuminating, I attempt to invert this process of devastation, bring back every one of the recollections of the past experience to ponder with it.

The process of illuminations of my work have been even particularly part of the neighborhood society of Kerala. The illuminated sanctuary and Kavu (near by sanctuary, a worship place for lower caste people) with a great many little lights has been a one of the basic visuals from the locality. Diverse folk performances like Theyyam, which performed/brightened with flame and little lights, are additionally a fundamental piece of my visual vocabulary. The dynamic and striking extras and make up of these performances has impacted me in making this visual dialect. It can likewise be identified with the mural painting or ritualistic floor painting which is known as “Kalamezhuthu” of Kerala. All together my works of art are profoundly established with my way of life and societal customs.

Aside from the consistent canvas, I likewise do drawing and other mixed media works. One of my recent solo displays was totally put together with these fragments of works. What's more, it was totally taking into account a political topic that was expected to bring a consideration on certain social issues like ‘discrimination based on human race and caste’ which has been infringed on

136

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Indian society for quite a long time. I think an artist should have the adaptability to express anything before the public with no restriction and ought not to be composed with style or certain imprisonments.

About the work of Om Soorya, 2016 “The light is deeply informed by darkness, suggesting its inherent ambiguity, and uncertainty about whether darkness or light will prevail. It is never a pure, convincing light, but a light contaminated by demiurgic forces that are as eternal as it is. It is a light that’s flaming up may be a flickering out -- the last efflorescence of a fading ideal. His pictures are emblems of enigmatic states of mind as well as relics of historical reality.”

Noopur Desai 2008–(from the catalogue essay- Trans(CE) Locations.)

Om Soorya “Illuminated Archetypes 4” / Acrylic Painting

137

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Om Soorya “Illuminated - The Great Bath” / Acrylic Painting

Om Soorya “Illuminated Stupa - Archetypes 8” / Acrylic Painting

138

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Om Soorya “Illuminated Stupa/ Archetypes 5” / Acrylic Painting

Om Soorya “Illuminated Stupa 6” / Acrylic Painting

139

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Om Soorya “Illuminated Stupa Archetypes 7” Acrylic Painting

Om Soorya “Illuminated Stupa Archetypes 3” Acrylic Painting

140

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Om Soorya “Way to Utopia 1” Acrylic Painting

Om Soorya “Centre is Some Where Else” Acrylic Painting

141

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Om Soorya “Untitled” Acrylic Painting

142

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Om Soorya “Private Property 1” Charcoal

Om Soorya “Private Property 2” Charcoal

143

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pablo Solari JCAM: Can you describe the time you first realized that creating art was something you absolutely had to do?

PS: It was always in me from the time of my creation. For me it was always a game to "invent" people, places, situations. It bothers me to just make faithful copies of what I see and not put in anything personal - like a photographer. To me that is not art, it is simply displaying a virtuosity.

I had a stage in my study of “hyper" reality and I realized working like that was pointless because the work lacked "soul" and was something dead and I might as well take a picture.

JCAM: Why do you make art now?

PS: Art for me is my life, and I need it as the air, otherwise it would not make sense to live. Therefore, I respect the art. I'm not able to make blobs, or mixed media, for me it degrades Art. JCAM: How has your work changed over time or developed?

PS: My work was always organized and prepared. I first studied the classics and Giotto, who is the "master" from who I learned composition. From Miguel Angel I learned chromatic freedom, and from Rafael subtle brushwork ... then came the stage of anatomical study of people .... then the drawing. For me drawing is critical.

Without knowing drawing is was not possible for me to paint. And I sought perfection in the drawing.

Then came the time to perfect the painting. In 1995 I stayed out of work and was not getting any. I decided to paint, and in that inner pain, came my style, that comes from inside me. I do not stay fixed on chromatic, or composition, but I painted by turning inside. And I now own a personal and unmistakable "graphic" style which arises in me naturally. I have TOTAL CREATIVE FREEDOM. JCAM: What are you trying to Communicate with your art?

144

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

PS: I define my style as "INTERIOR REALISM" because I seek to represent the characters inside and not outside. I am seeking to show the suffering, joy, sadness, all the feelings of the suffering man.

When I decided at age 13 to study and be self-taught, I also decided not to just copy what I saw. It was a long process of study, stopping at each object, studying anatomy, observing the play of light and shadow, reflections, and memorized everything. I learned to paint any object or person so they need not be present and remembered them completely my mind.

In deciding to NOT COPY, I painted without making previous sketches. I thought if I did, and then I wanted to paint, I felt like I'd be cheating. So by elaborating the subject in my mind, I could put a blank canvas in front of me, start to paint, and it helped me greatly in handling of the drawing.

JCAM: Of the artworks published in this article, there is one of you are proud MOST Which? If so, why?

PS: I’m proud of each and every one of them. First, if I was not proud of a work, I would not show it. Second, each painting has a meaning, it represents a moment or situation in my life. I have no preference for either and love all equally.

JCAM: Do you have any creative patterns, routines or rituals associated with your art making?

PS: I find my subjects in real life, maybe finding them walking down the street, or seeing a situation. I then dig into the "why" of that situation, and I develop the story in my mind. Once I see it finished, in my mind, I begin to paint.

I have no patterns or rituals or routines, as I feel this would remove my creative freedom. I feel it would impose directives that I do not want. So I do not follow any color or compositional standard. I have my own rules that do not take into account chromatic or compositional standards, instead I contradict and disregard them.

JCAM: What element (s) of art do you enjoy making the most and why?

PS: Creative freedom, staying in the details, knowing that every detail reinforces the sense of the whole. All my work I perceive as painting a mural on a "great wall.”

But I take only a small portion of that "great wall,” like when a photographer stands before a landscape, with the aim to take only a part of that landscape.

And what I enjoy about the creative process, is when I sign the work, because I have done as I wanted to be finished.

JCAM: What is your most important artist tool(s) and why?

PS: When I paint, my most important tool is to take it as a game. So my game is to invent colors by work with the basic colors and combining them. I go looking for

145

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

nuances, I never use pure colors. But one color leads to another that is next to it, even if they are opposites.

JCAM: How do you know when a work is finished?

PS: When I am about to finish the work, I balance colors and apply some final detail. I see the work and say that "it is ready" and sign it. I know I can not add or change anything.

JCAM: What are the art making tools you use most often now?

PS: I use traditional elements, I do not like current techniques, such as a painting stand by matter and not by sense. For me it is a work of art, if you have Clarity (in their way), has Unity (whole set oriented in one sense), and Diversity (different components to be drawing attention, but reinforcing the common theme).

I do not tolerate those who paint a few blobs and then in an intellectual pose, they look for a meaning or a title.

JCAM: What new creative medium would you love to pursue?

I'm fine where I am. I believe there are current methods that are not art, which degrade art.

JCAM: Do you make a living from your art?

PS: I live by my art, but I live modestly, because I never wanted to do "commercial art.” For me it would be very easy. Every work I hope to have one day in a museum, not in a private collection where only one person sees it.

JCAM: What are your goals for the future, for both work and life? What interesting project are you working on at the moment?

PS: For my future and my life, I will keep painting. I seek improvement every day and I look forward to more and more.

Right now I have two projects, one in Argentina, where I will begin to exhibit in museums and cultural centers, to show my art to more people.

Internationally, I have invitations from many places in the world, both in Europe and the United States of America, and I will begin in Italy. In September I receive an award for my career in Lucca (Tuscany) where my parents were natives. I will exhibit in the Tuscany Region, first in Siena, and then keep moving around Europe, as well as in the United States.

JCAM: What or who inspires?

PS: In any situation, when I see something that strikes me, and I look for the meaning, looking for the why, and there comes the inspiration for creation.

JCAM: Do you have a favorite – or influential – living artist?

146

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

PS: No, I do not follow any other artist, every artist does the same, personally, and it's not mine, it is the other artist. I do not follow trends, or currents, "I paint as Pablo Solari".

JCAM: What work of art do you wish you owned and why?

PS: I would like the Sistine Chapel. Or Scrovegni Chapel, my favorite artworks.

The Annunciation by Fra Angelico .... these are my teachers.

JCAM: When addressing a particular work to be published in this interview: Can you explain what inspired this particular piece or idea?

PS: “Virtual generation�

In this painting I present the present day man who evades reality, who has a very marked individualism and made of flesh. Looking at the image from left to right, first, the sensual man seeking the material world; with him a modern woman who seeks self and evades motherhood, therefore she carries a rag doll; next comes a character in yellow who represents man without structure who does not think about the future, and lives simply. Beside him, is the man who is thought of as wise, but that is superficial. He reads little and follows the journalistic directives but wants to be considered as a great thinker.

In the second row, the first character, rends the backdrop, exposing reality. Beside him is a lady who is fixed on what others have. She represents envy, by having one eye look forward while the other eye looks at another.

Then the man in the mask, is living in appearances, wanting to show what is not. It is the pride of wanting to be outstanding, when he knows inside him there is mediocrity.

Next the man with black glasses, lives for fashion. He is impersonal, following what they say, so he is half hidden. About the horse carousel, asking for a "lap" he is a man who is is afraid to face reality.

Back barns filled (with food?), evangelical parable that reinforces a sense of why all these characters are they way they are.

JCAM: Where do you find ideas, for your creative work?

PS: Ideas come alone, or when I see a situation in the street, on television, in the new, from my window; I see something and think a story, and paint.

My life is art. Every day I get up early, breakfast, and I'm painting. Then I paint into the late night. It is my Air. The moments of greatest creativity I find at times that I do not want to paint, or those moments when I cannot find a solution to a problem in the paint. I try, and with intention, I continue despite everything, and then arises the greatest results.

147

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

JCAM: What does "being creative" mean to you?

PS: Being creative is to take something from nothing and make a work of art. It is to find something beautiful in anything and express that beauty in cloth and paint. It is to have a feeling seeing a stranger, imagine the story and represent it on canvas.

Creation is the opposite to recreate. Work that is based on what another has already done, is not doing something original, but is only continuing what the other has done.

JCAM: What is the best advice you ever had about how to be more creative?

PS: A priest once told me, "The artist is the closest thing to God, because you create something out of nothing.” I discovered in myself, that if one lives constantly thinking about art, all day and every day, if one goes with “all eyes on art” then creativity is there!” __________________________________________________ JCAM: Additionally, we are privileged to share the words of artist Pablo Solari as he describes his life and goals. We bring this to readers exactly as sent to JCAM

by Mr. Solari.

Pablo Solari: My Way of Painting - Part 1 “Of autodidact training, he defines his artistic vocation at an early age (4 years old); he begins to study in workshops for children, up until the moment he decides not to copy from others anymore, to find himself in the painting and be recognized for his personal work.

He begins to study the Classics, leaving aside the contemporary art (when he is 13 years old). This is how he takes Giotto as his Teacher, he also studies Miguel Angel (from whom he takes the anatomical studies and the chromatic freedom), Fra Angelico, Carvaggio, Rafael (in the brush-stroke finish), Fortuny, Van Gogh (in his chromatics), and the Mexican muralists Orozco, Rivera and Siqueiros.

He identifies with mural paintings; this is why he depicts his works as just a part of a big setting, as a small portion of a great mural, under the concept of a photography camera, where he chooses just one part and not the whole. But that little portion represents the whole.

Not only he studies the Classics in a self-taught way, but also he studies Comics, Cartoons, advertising techniques, and above all he specializes in the drawing, which shall be the foundation of his works to such a degree that he does not make a sketch and, once the piece is established, he puts it down in the blank canvas; this is like a creative freedom expression, already reasoned, but not adjusted to a sketch, since he considers this as the act of copying.

148

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

He goes deeply into his drawing studies, in human anatomy, in objects, in the chiaroscuro influence, in light and shadow, in such a way that when painting he does not take an object to paint it, he imagines it, deducting the chromatic and shape influence in the whole. His painting is “Rational”, therefore, personal, it comes from within, the way he sees it.

Having studied all the styles, he took only what he thought was interesting in the technical part, not in the fundamental part, casting it aside later, in order not to be influenced in his way of expression.

He fully identifies with the Italian Classics, to which he incorporates a LatinAmerican vision.

He defines himself as an “Inner Realist", since he is in pursuit of painting the inner part of the human being and not the exterior part, in this way he leaves aside the hyperrealism. He seeks to capture the feeling, the suffering and the joy of men, but not in a desperate situation, in a normal situation, in the everyday life, always with hope.

When creating his works, he does not follow a chromatic or a composition language in order not to loose his creative freedom, but he searches for the harmony of the whole, the clarity of the message he wants to represent and the unity of the piece.

In the chromatic point of view, he tries to “play to create colors”, so he does not use pure colors, he always put a touch of other color, mixing opposite colors with complementary colors, trying to and managing to achieve a color brilliance, given by his personal way of linking the colors to the work of art.”

He seeks to emphasize the light, so that everything can be seen, depicting the present image, of high definition, where everything can be appreciated, even the smallest detail.”

Pablo Solari May 2016

149

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pablo Solari “Los Sin Trabajo” / Painting

150

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pablo Solari “El Abrazo” / Painting

151

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pablo Solari “Los Inundados” / Painting

Pablo Solari “Generacion Virtual” / Painting

152

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pablo Solari “El Descendimiento” / Painting

153

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pablo Solari “La Otra Cara de la Luna” / Painting

154

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pablo Solari “Por las Hileras” / Painting (Detail)

155

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pankaj Verma My name is Pankaj Verma. I was born at Sonatand in Bokaro district, Jharkhand, India. That place always influences me due to the moments I spent in my childhood. I have had my early training in Bokaro, working with a calligrapher.

Now I live in Varanasi and pursuing Bachelor of Fine Arts at Banaras Hindu University. It offers a great learning experience for me as an artist because of its vibrant cultural life, rich heritage and an active community of professional visual artists.

I have family and they support me in my passion for art. Unfortunately, they are unable to help me financially but their positivity make me energetic all the time especially my mother who is my energy.

My teacher Sri Suresh K. Nair, Assistant Professor in Faculty of Visual Arts, Banaras Hindu University and well-known muralist, always supports me. Now these days some true art promoters or lovers are supporting my art. My professors, batch mates and other friends in the city keep helping me in my quest for learning by sharing their feedback on my work and giving me opportunity to do more work by helping me financially.

I was interested in making art since my childhood. My mother says that whenever she gave me pocket money, I used to buy colors to paint on the walls of my house. For this job my elder sister forbade me many times, but it was a habit and she beat me up for doing this, many times.

I first did my full work, when I painted portrait of Goddess Durga, an Indian goddess, on a temple wall for fifty rupees per day at the age of 12. That work was appreciated in surrounding area and got me local recognition. I did many works for temples and occasional events in the city. I stopped my study for four years until I realized that though I am able to make money I wasn’t growing as an artist. So, I continued my study with the purpose to get a good job.

156

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Once, I was called for an interview at Delhi but couldn’t get the job. While I was returning from Delhi, a person saw my sketches in the train and he not only suggested I pursue a Bachelor of Fine Arts program, he also filled my form out online because it was the last date for filling the form for Banaras Hindu University. Fortunately I got admission in BHU and since then I have done many works including public arts projects and commissioned works.

I pursue art for my personal satisfaction but I understand the need of doing commercial work. Money I earn through my commissioned works helps me in investing in my art materials, study materials and pursue my interest with less restraint. I continuously look for opportunities to assist my professors in their commissions to learn by assisting them. I do feel that my training is proving useful. When I compare my earlier works I do see a definite improvement in my skills with respect to color application, textures, tones, light and shade etc.

Through my art I try to communicate human feelings, emotions, sacrifices and individuality of people.

In my work titled as “EYES AND EMOTIONS” in this article, I want to reveal the emotions of an old man in front of those people who never understand the sacrifices of guardians, who live for their children and during the last stages of their life feel alone. I made this painting with the view of an old man who wants to hide his pain given by his own child. He wants to cry or weep but he thinks if people see him weeping they will abuse his child, so he shows strength and with powerful hands succeeds to hide his tears. I can’t explain all those sorrows that make character painful, but it can be seen in the eyes of those old men who live in old age homes.

I work with portraits and figures. I enjoy portraits the most because I think the face is the most suitable element to reveal activities. We can recognize the mood, emotions and all the thoughts that are running inside a character. Face is the mirror of a personality.

Brushes are the most important artist tool(s) for me because I need that tool through which I can express my ideas in the best way. I think with brushes the best expression could be achieved by me either in oil, acrylic, watercolor or in any other medium. I use knife, shoe brushes, foam (a thing use to make seats of vehicles or sleeping mates) and traditional brushes for oil colors, watercolors and acrylic colors.

Portraiture is the art loved by the masses. I was first paid for Smt. Sarita Lakhotia’s portrait here in Varanasi. Before this I was always busy completing commissioned works. I remember I was paid fifty rupees per day for my first work at my village.

When I started my Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), the goal was to get a good job in art teaching. But I think goals are not certain in our life till we achieve the most

157

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

cherished one. So with the time I want to be a well-noted portrait artist. For my life I wish to start an art institution where any passionate artist, who break their art journey due to lack of facilities or due to money in other sense, can continue their passion and achieve whatever they think. Now I am preparing for some prestigious fellowship in portraiture.

Time to time as I grow, my view of the works of renowned artists who are my inspirations changes. Initially, I could say my neighbor, calligrapher Vikas, inspired me to work. When I achieved his level, my inspiration changed to next one. These days Chuck Close is my favorite artist due to his large scale portraits with different graphs and techniques. I am also inspired by many artists like Raja Ravi Verma, Illya Raja, Rembrandt etc.

Whatever I see in my surroundings gives me ideas for my creative works. For me as an artist to manifest my idea in a way that viewers can understand, if that happens, the result is being creative. I think advisors advise according to their own views, so I listen to advice, and if my soul agrees then I agree. Otherwise I believe in self-advice and self-improvement, especially in my field.

Pankaj Verma “Sketch - Untitled� / Pen & Ink on Paper

158

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pankaj Verma “Portrait of Bharat Ratna Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya” “Recently I did a big portrait of founder of BHU, Bharat Ratna Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya with cow dung, soil varities like RAMRAJ, GERU, KHARIA, GANGA MITTI, etc.

This portrait is on (26”X20”) 520 square feet of cotton cloth, which I think wasn’t tried before here in Varanasi with this medium. I love to do big portraits. The video on the process of this painting can be found here.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAO9obQR7hU

159

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pankaj Verma “Eyes and Emotions” / Painting

160

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pankaj Verma “Bharat Kala Bhavan BHU” / Painting

161

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pankaj Verma “Landscape of BHU” / Painting

162

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pankaj Verma “Portrait of My Mother” / Painting

163

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Pankaj Verma “Ghat of Varanas” / Painting

164

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Paulo Fernando Da Silva Cunha I was born Paulo Fernando Da Silva Cunha on December 10, 1961 in a small Portuguese town called Moita Dos Ferreiros.

When I was 5 or 6 I remember after Sunday mass my mom would help out in my grandfather's butcher shop and I would sit on the counter and draw on the wrapping paper. I moved to Canada with my parents in 1968 where they bought a tobacco farm near Langton, Ontario.

I went to Valley Heights Secondary School and was greatly influenced by my art teacher Ross Bateman, brother of famous Canadian wildlife artist Robert Bateman. Every bit as talented as his older brother he taught me the basic drawing techniques that were to evolve into my current style. But more than anything else he taught me how to “see.” I don't know how else to describe it.

After high school I went to art college in Sault Ste. Marie where I met my soulmate and future wife, Heather. We lived in Toronto through the mid 1980's where I worked in landscape construction. Heather and I were married in 1987 and moved to London, Ontario where we currently live and I currently work as a humble janitor.

Throughout most of my life art was merely a private hobby I did for relaxation. Actually it was much more than that, it was – spiritual – it is like meditation. Most of my early works are unfinished because it was never about the finished product. It was the process that transported me to an altered state of mind, totally free from all restrictions and deadlines and expectations of any kind.

Before 2005 I was never involved in the art community whatsoever. I didn't really consider myself an artist. Sure my local friends would complement me but it wasn't until I became a member of the website “deviantart.com” and started to meet all kinds of jawdropping artists whose work blew my mind. For some odd reason, many of these amazing artists liked my work. Because of that I started taking art more seriously.

In particular I was fascinated by the Exquisite Corpse drawings of artists such as Bernard Dumaine, Ton Haring, Deborah Valentine and many others. Ton Haring was the first to invite me to collaborate on an Exquisite Corpse, followed by Deborah and

165

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Bernard. I learned so much from each artist and continue to do so each time. I am blessed with collaborating with such talented souls.

I rarely start a drawing knowing what I am going to draw. I just start with some lines and swirls and follow the journey they take me on. My favorite medium is a black fine ballpoint pen. I like how I can get the very fine soft shading quality of a pencil and the bold black quality of ink with no messy smudging.

Paulo Cunha & Ton Haring “Timelapse 14� / Drawing

166

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Paulo Cunha & Bernard Dumaine “Mythic Picnic” / Drawing

167

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Paulo Cunha “Innerface 5” / Drawing

168

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Paulo Cunha “Patricia 10” / Drawing

169

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Paulo Cunha “Blind Faith” / Drawing

Paulo Cunha “Bloody Valentine” / Drawing

170

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Paulo Cunha & Bernard Dumaine “The Osirian Mysteries 11” / Drawing

171

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Paulo Cunha “EyeAm” / Drawing

172

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Paulo Cunha “BhudeyeTree 2” / Drawing

173

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Paulo Cunha “My Lymphoma 3” / Drawing

174

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Paulo Cunha “Deborah Valentine” Drawing

Paulo Cunha & Bernard Dumaine “This Way Up 12” / Drawing

175

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Saroj Kumar Singh JCAM: What is your professional name? Where were you born and does that place still influence you?

Where do you live now and how does that place influence you? Do you have family, friends, or fellow artists who support you in your work, life and art making and how do they make a difference in your life?

SKS: My professional name is Saroj Kumar Singh. I was born in Jharkhand, erstwhile part of Bihar, and I carry the essence of rural life in me even after achieving a modern, academic education.

Yes, my birth place still has an impact on my life as well as on my creativity. The experiences that I got from village life have largely affected my vision and imagination about art, particularly about sculpture and drawing. From childhood I moved without any restriction and the visual world I saw through those eyes.

I found the visual world very beautiful because it exists and is true. I had the chance to see the perpetual flow of water, the reflection of moon light in the midnight, slothful birds, the jumble of a boat, and life around at the river Ganga. It was my tranquil life where I got the vision to see and sense the beautiful world of form and sound. Those days sparked my poetic imagination, and in appreciation of beauty I started expressing my emotion in words, like these untitled poems: I feel like shedding all my clothes, And want to run on the road in the buff.

Let the world call me crazy; But I would have no clothes except the infinite sky. __________________________ That boy Over nineteen Somewhat of dusky.

Everyday he goes to bed with a dream, AndWhen he open his eyes

176

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

He wanders Is there hunger and love Can happen together? __________________________ She always comes to me, I often notice this.

But no dialogues are exchanges between us.

Oh! My luck – When will I get to see and talk to her simultaneously?

My fascination for writing poems gave me courage and inner support. I actively took part in every Kavi – Poetry conference and seminar and read my poems on All India Radio.

Apart from these I was a sincere member of Angika Sahitya Parisad, (Angika Literature Council) Bhagalpur. I use to run from one poet to another to learn and understand more about poetry.

But later I left because I found that words alone were not sufficient for my expression. I wanted more than these. So I felt that visual element can be more effective than poetic form and was inclined towards visual art.

Through conscience I decided to enroll in art institution at Bhagalpur. I attended evening classes in so called revival style of painting, sculpture, etc. All the classes were conducted by Ramlakhkn Singh, Indradeo babu, Kapil bab and Didi Jee. They taught sculpture, painting, textile, batik, mural, etc. I learnt the accuracy of craftsmanship by them.

The syllabus of my Art School was similar to the Kala-Bhawan, Shantiniketan. Later I left for full time art education at Banaras Hindu University as an entrance topper. I got a gold medal from plastic arts department in 2001 and Master degree in creative art from M.S. University of Baroda 2003.

After having academic training in the institution I decided to stay at Baroda because the city had given me the inspiration to explore my work as well as shaped me as whole.

And decided to work as a freelance artist. Since then I have been deeply involved in the creative endeavor as well as risks and hardships involved.

JCAM: When and how did you start making art? Can you describe the time when you first realized that creating was something you absolutely had to do? Why do you make art now? How has your work changed or developed over time? What are you trying to communicate with your art? Of the artworks published in this article, is there one of you are which most proud? If so, why?

SKS: Well, I grew up in the spiritual (deep feelings and belief) environment and natural phenomenon where my mother played a great role in honing the hidden creativity in me

177

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

and she taught me the gospel of life. From there I started my journey towards art by making figures, landscape as well as the images of religious icons through the lively imagination. It was my habit during school days I used to draw images at the back of my note books. Once it had happened that my class teacher took my note book and showed it to all my classmates. She appreciated it and recognized me as a born artist.

The first discovery of my hidden talent was in the class room.

I flash back in my memories, all most at the parallel days with the suggestion of my parents, I have done many drawings of the truly great Bollywood actors and actresses, which became my daily task. It was the time when I realized that the creativity is the only thing where I wanted to involve myself and got into looking at art. I was trying very hard to know and achieve something in visual art with enormous concentration and determination.

At that stage of life I wanted to understand creativity as whole and its power to change the human, social, religious and cultural problems globally. All those stuff which were there in my mind at early stage and I didn’t want to edit out or throw away, even if it was of no significance for my creativity at that time. I felt that my greatest aptitude was in art and poetry.

I used to read about various religious people, artists, scientists, writers, poets, novelists, etc. who sparked me, bringing up my self confidence, my willingness to go ahead and bringing me to fruition. I tried to follow them, understand them and how they changed the entire face of humankind through their creativity. Over the time it has changed me and my creative process but the spirit still remains grounded.

As a poet/artist I despair to see that contemporary world who wants “The Nuclear Power” either developed or developing countries who will have a conflict with one another, sooner or later. As we know through electronic and print media the possibility about third world war might come to happen for some petty reason.

If the Nuclear war starts once again the beautiful world which has been established with great effort after the second world war, will vanish quickly. And the war will become a Frankenstein’s monster which will destroy the world! And there will be no one left to answer this catastrophe. All these things keep on going in my mind, so I want to put forward my message through the art work.

Yet, with the change of making process, from idol to object, I want to communicate my feelings and convey the ideas and ethos about things, metaphorically or symbolically at the universal scale. Sometimes my object is commenting or criticizing that certain part of feeling-less and self centered, so called modern society. I consider, my art should be real but without being realistic, and should hold a great epic quality in its abstraction with pleasure and tinge of pain.

Now I realize that creative art can teach us truly to live a life cheerfully under any circumstances. Yes, and as an artist I want to spread peace and harmony in the society

178

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

through my significant research in the field of idea art and creativity. For me, each of my work has equal importance, so I can’t signify any particular work of mine but rather I can say that I have proud of every work created by me.

JCAM: Do you have any creative patterns, routines or rituals associated with your art making?

SKS: Yes, abstraction with full of truth and beauty is an ideal and sole nature of my creative expression which comes out straight from my brain. Besides, often I feel great to express myself in a better and positive role.

JCAM: What element(s) of art making do you enjoy the most and why? What is your most important artist tool(s) and why?

SKS: Art making is not just skill, but one must have some sense of understanding the basic concept of creative art making to become a great artist. One should have the fundamental understanding of the elements like-texture, shapes, balance, harmony, position, unity, rhythm, mass and space, touch and vision, perspective etc. I would enjoy and produce a quality of work by understanding them. Still I spend time to explore, understand and learn them that how to use them together in my art work effectively. By using them I make my work more alive.

I consider it is my knowledge only which I learn by trial and error. So for me trial and error is most important tools to create an original art form. I used to use different types of objects which sometimes I get readymade from the market. And I weld them together to make my composition attractive and charming.

Fundamentally I always try to find in my sculpture, an original or unanimous form of nature and tradition. I continue the process of making an object – until I feel satisfied with its quality and property as well as the above mention things, directly or indirectly.

One more thing I would like to include about my sculpture making process, before sculpture I use to enjoy making many drawings which I call study for sculpture. Yet I do not consider my drawings to be a blue print of a particular sculpture. But it can help me on the whole with supporting elements when I start doing a three dimensional work.

JCAM: How do you know when a work is finished?

SKS: I do not consider my work finished because I keep the possibilities of remolding form as well as the content. But before exhibiting the art work I am keenly aware for the final look whatever form made by me. I always want to convey my message through the art work and remain conscious to see whether it is delivered or not by the creative form, that’s it.

JCAM: What are the art making tools you use now?

179

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

SKS: Being a sculptor I love my tools and take delight in using them well. Tools play a great role in the making of my sculpture. At present I am using the following tools for the sculptures: oxygen cylinder, acetylene cylinder, torch handle, tips, oxygen regulator, acetylene regulator, torch lighter, goggles, gloves, hammers, chisels, pliers, hacksaw, screw driver, wrench etc. When I make drawings as studies for sculpture, I use dry pastel, water color, acrylic, pen and ink and paper. I love to draw or catch the things or an idea through my lively imagination as quickly as possible.

JCAM: What new creative medium would you love to pursue?

SKS: As I feel that there are certain limitations in two and three dimensional work. That is why I would like to make some video art and short art movies in which I can put my other ideas of creative things. This is not possible to use in two as well as in three dimensional work. So I would love to pursue some technical knowledge related with the above mention things.

JCAM: What is the first artwork you ever sold? Do you make a living from your art?

SKS: After completing my study at MSU, in Baroda, there was a big question in my mind -- how will I exist and survive in the creative field. So keeping this idea I decided to start my journey by making small drawings and paintings, which I used to sell through local art dealers and managed to survive.

But I can consider that the above image at the first art work which was sold in 2006. The gallery Espace, New Delhi has given me exposure in the contemporary art field. Yet still I survive and run my studio by being fully dependent on my creative work.

JCAM: What are your goals for the future, for both work and life?

SKS: My ambition and goal for both my work and life is to keep on doing hard and smart work in the creative field, and become a well known artist with high quality work.

JCAM: What interesting project are you working on at the moment?

SKS: At this moment I have no project work so I am keeping myself involved in searching new ideas and implementing them in my creative work to gain experience to make my work more alive in the future.

JCAM: What or who inspires you?

SKS: I get inspired by the epic quality of Indian temple sculpture, folk and traditional art as well as modern and contemporary Hindi literature. Apart from that I am also inspired by the work of legendary modern artists like Walter de Maria, Jean Dubuffet, Ibram Lassaw, Barnett Newman, Isamu Noguchi, David Smith, Joseph Beuys, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Paul Klee. Abstract expressionism, Expressionism and Conceptualism inspire me and my

180

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

work as whole.

JCAM: Do you have a favorite – or influential – living artist? What work of art do you wish you owned and why?

SKS: There are many favorite living artist who influence me like, Anish Kapoor, Damien Hirst, Dhruva Mistry, Bruce Nauman, Tara Donovan, Marc Quinn. But my original inspiration comes from self confidence as well as belief in myself and also my creativity.

I wish I would been able to own the work of Anish Kapoor, titled “A flower, a drama like death” and “In between” because of the marvelous intellectual feeling and conceptual attitude. And most importantly, forms are abstracted from nature or from the real world which occurred in his wide range of creative representation.

JCAM: When addressing a particular work to be published in this interview: Can you explain what inspired this particular piece or idea?

SKS: I was in the garden around 6’o clock in pleasant atmosphere of winter in the morning. The dew drops covered the shine on the green grass and the flying larks poured down their mellifluous shrilling on the earth. There is a beauty and happiness all around, even the lazy snails crawls on the thorn gaily. The peaceful atmosphere was all around and every kind of work was going on smoothly. So it mean that all is right with the world without any difficulty.

Everything is bright and beautiful, great and small, wise and wonderful. Suddenly I heard a child ask his mother, “Who made the beautiful garden, museum and flowers?

Singing birds and their shining color? Plants, trees and beautiful morning scenes?” But his mother was busy on her mobile phone.

The child repeats the question again and again but gets no answer. However, it works wonders for me, giving me a clue to start thinking about a particular work. Later, I develop it by using copper sheet, diyas (oil lamps) and I weld them together, maintaining the fine balance of pure abstract form from nature.

The most irrational element in the sculpture is an intensification of lines which are developing from continuous combined with other intersecting lines. I begin composition at one point; from then it goes irregular, right angled, crossed and zigzagged, molding into contour lines without stopping. It creates a tension and obstinacy which goes beyond the rule and prediction. Consequently, I used elements like variable “DIYAS” as flowers which are a symbol as well as celebration of life.

JCAM: Where do you find ideas for your creative work?

SKS: I often keenly observe different objects and their forms which exist in the visual world. That is the one kind of self realization which plays a vital role in the formation of my creative work. I look at the world in two ways – one is with the form which is

181

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

stagnant, and other is without the form which keeps on moving and moving around me.Therefore I enjoy the process of my creativity. Sometimes the form or object has been prior decided and sometimes I decide its form while in process.

My creation is indicative and expressive on its own at first site. There is an importance of not only the things viewed through open eyes, but things viewed from inner eyes also. Whatever we see through our open eyes, we are later unable to understand the reality existed in it. Because of the complication of visual appearance we might be unable to recognize pure and real form in the true sense.

JCAM: What does “being creative mean to you?

SKS: In my view – Art is an activity where one can realize and feel the kinship with others and it goes beyond humanity. It could reach to all forms of life. For me, Creativity should not be based on materials only but should understand the completeness of life.

JCAM: What is the best advice you ever had about how to be more creative?

SKS: The best advice I ever got is that creative process requires all the dimensions of flow, optimal experiences and fun. So you don’t go into a creative field if you are only interested in money. Don’t go into it if you are not enjoying it. Creativity requires motivation and enjoyment of the work intrinsic to the craft.

A few more points I would like to include which I consider are also the best advice to become more creative: One should have prodigious curiosity to know about their surrounding on the deeper level and should have curiosity about things.

One should live alert, perceptive, emphatic, thinker, observer, listener, etc.

One should not worry of failure.

One should flow with unfamiliar ideas.

One should realize that clarity of goals is necessary.

One should balance challenges and skill development.

One should invest an enormous amount of yourself, your life and time. One should work on thinking outside of the box to drum up more ideas.

One should flex the creative muscles; this takes time and energy.

One should understand that, by forgetting the self, the time, and the surroundings it may switch one’s view of the relationship between gods and humans.

Finally, one should realize that the most essential component to becoming more creative is that, by thinking like a beginner, one will always have burning curiosity.

182

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Saroj Singh “The Growing Pot” / Metal Sculpture

183

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Saroj Singh “Study 1” Mixed Media

Saroj Singh “Study 2” Mixed Media

184

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Saroj Singh “Not Knowing Why, We Come Here Only To Die” Metal Sculpture

Saroj Singh “Untitled” Metal Sculpture

185

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Saroj Singh “Untitled” Metal Sculpture

186

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Saroj Singh at work in the studio

Saroj Singh “Untitled” Metal Sculpture

187

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Saroj Singh “Study” Mixed Media

Saroj Singh “Study” Mixed Media

188

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Vadim Ryakhovskiy My paintings I sign only the name “Vadim.” In dealing with artists I am called as written in my passport – Vadim Ryakhovskiy.

I was born on October 11, 1964 in Kazan - the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, which for centuries lived peacefully with Russian Orthodox Tatars professing Islam. In each city, we are near mosques and Orthodox churches.

In Kazan I grew up and got married, and in 1990 moved to the city of Nizhnekamsk in the Republic of Tatarstan. Here is the biggest in Russia Petrochemical Plant called by the name of "Nizhnekamskneftekhim." I worked a year on it, and then, in 1992, I was invited to work in the town newspaper as a photojournalist. Since then I have been working in local newspapers. I am now editor of the newspaper "Neftekhimik" which has a circulation of more than 11,000 copies and is distributed only by subscription. My family: a wife (she sings in the town choral ensemble) and son - works at the phone company.

When I arrived in Nizhnekamsk, for the first several years my free time was devoted to trips around the city. We have here a large river, the Kama, forests, hills and lakes. By bike and on foot I learned the whole area, and clambered every shore. I love being in nature and such travel for one day is something in which I'm very interested.

Drawing is something I started 20 years ago. I also did on oil canvas and participated in city fairs, but soon moved on to another schedule of making work. The technique I use most is perhaps the most simple: paper and colored pencils. About 16 years ago I was taken to the local creative group of artists with whom I participated in many exhibitions in Nizhnekamsk, Kazan, and in the cities of Tatarstan and neighboring regions. These exhibitions were successful and we wrote about them in the newspapers. But then almost all the members of our group went away – someone settled in Moscow, there is someone else who now lives abroad. Of that group, I was left alone.

In the city, of course, there are other artists who are very capable, and successful. With them, I am involved in all urban exhibitions, and fairs in neighboring towns. Last year, we had an exhibition in Kazan – in the Republic of Tatarstan parliament. This year has been a

189

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

traveling exhibition of urban artists in several cities of the country, in the city museum every year are held two or three exhibitions.

I started drawing as a child. Never specifically have I studied this, but at school I always received only excellent grades for my paintings, and teachers always asked me to draw the wall newspaper. I always liked to draw, although I had not thought to become an artist.

Even as a child I was sure that I would become a writer. The writer in me was in some ways unsuccessful, but this dream is to some extent true as well, as I work in the newspaper business and I write a lot – every day. In my spare time my drawings are made.

At school I covered field notebooks with all sorts of confusing icons; squiggles. I was scolded for it as dirty notebooks cannot be tolerated. But I could not help it as this happened involuntarily. If a pencil was in my hand, and on the table I found a blank sheet of paper, I'd be sure to cover it with my scribbles.

The unusual style in which I draw today began 15 years ago. Every year I perfected this approach and this technique has become more complicated in recent years. At one point purely abstract compositions began to appear already formed. For me it's a new direction, it is interesting to me, and I think for the viewer, is also interesting.

It's hard to explain what is depicted in many of my works. Sometimes everything is clear – these "dolls go for a walk." They are alive, they are fun, spirited, and they live their lives as dolls. That’s what they are doing. In all my work what is depicted has a life of its own. I think that even in nonobjective abstract compositions we see something that is also full of life. It's a microcosm consisting of some elements unknown to us. But these elements are everything: people, animals, plants, our planet and the entire universe.

Why is this so? Because these elements are our feelings and our destinies. If a person looks at my paintings and shares these feelings, if he empathizes with the heroes of the picture, or just begins to dream and invent his/her own stories – then there is no need to explain. I like the way many children respond to my paintings. They never ask what is shown in the picture. For children everything in my work is clear, and if they do not understand, they will find an explanation.

An artist must make a lot of art work. Personally I make draw many pictures. It is simply a necessity. If I can not draw a day or two, then some unusual fantastic images begin to appear in a dream, and even during the day appear before my eyes and I need to move them to the paper.

I have had eleven solo exhibitions to date including ones in Nizhnekamsk, Kazan, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. Of the shows, I would pick one that stands out. In 2009 there was an exhibition in Bulgaria, in Sofia. I went there with my wife by car. We went four days after Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania. We traveled to Bulgaria and even for one day stopped in Turkey. And this exhibition I remember more like an interesting journey.

Creative designs recall the artistic creativity of different peoples. I sometimes say that my paintings are reminiscent of creativity of American Indians or the ancient Egyptians. I would like to be as talented as those native peoples and ancient artists. They were not bragging 190

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

and posturing. They used the simplest means at hand and do amazing things.

I also use very simple tools – paper and colored pencils, that you can buy in any store. My pencils are tested; they do not fade in the sun, and pictures can be stored, probably for centuries. I would like to hope so.

I was told that my style of drawing is not unlike others. A man who once saw my work said he found such images in thousands of other paintings. I continue to develop this style and continue to work on abstract compositions. Abstract for me is the highest form of visual art, the same as the music – this is not a thing that anyone needs to explain. I will try to combine those fantastic images, those which have always been at my drawings, with the world of abstraction. What would happen then? I do not know. I never know what the outcome of each will be. Because while drawing on the sheet of paper new images, and perhaps the meaning of the picture, if any, changes also. The final touch is in the background. When the picture is finished, when I put my signature, then nothing can be remedied. Even if over an oil painting you can paint a new picture, over the top of the pencil drawing you will not be able to draw anything.

The first time I was in a public exhibition someone bought my artwork. This was an exhibition in the city. Having the public buy my artwork is not the main thing for me. The money I earn at working in the newspaper is how I live. As such I do not need to adjust to the art market and draw what is in demand. I paint only what I want to paint. Even so, I am pleased that I am invited to participate in exhibitions. For example, several years ago the city of Irkutsk celebrated its 350th anniversary and on this occasion the city government organized a major international art exhibition. I was invited. I did not go, because it is very far away, but sent two works. The nice thing is that on the other side of the country people know and appreciate what I am doing. It's inspiring.

Plans for the future? I have a very simple plan – to work, to draw, to travel as there is time and money. I'd also love to more effectively use the internet so that my work is seen by as many people as possible. Not everyone will like my work and not all will understand it. But if, out of hundreds of people, even one person who sees my art work seems interested, if my art inspires him to work, then that's good. It's also very nice to see the feedback, when people just thank you for showing your work. They see the big picture and say, “Thank you.

It's great.”

And here's what's interesting – my paintings, as a rule, are liked by creative people. Once my work was purchased by a wonderful artist from Saint-Petersburg, Maria Pavlova. She is a wonderful painter and she could just draw a copy herself but she wanted the original, which inspired her to work. A wonderful sculptor from the Brazilian city of Joao Pessoa Dos Santos Miguel (Miguel Dos Santos) in his comments on my pictures called me "Russian genius." This is certainly an exaggeration, I understand that, but still nice to know that my work is appreciated. Such an attitude from others you cannot buy.

Once Moscow artist Yuri Yudaev wrote this about my work: "... business-like, sophisticated, a clean washed nightmare. And look, look ... I see an important truth about myself now." In my opinion this is very accurate. Phrases like this often appear in articles which are written about me in the newspapers and on the Internet. In general I see the purpose of this – to expand the audience of people who can see my work. But I do not know how to do it yet.

191

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Of course I find inspiration in the work of other artists too. For me personally the most influential artists are the ones that worked thirty thousand years ago. They used only charcoal and ocher and painted animals on the walls of caves in Europe. As far as modern artists go I am inspired by Kandinsky or Picasso.

I am asked, “Where do you get your ideas for your work?” The ideas for my pictures appear by themselves. Sometimes there is a ready-made image; but I can just take a sheet of paper and a pencil and start to dream.

Here are some tips from me. Get to know yourself and what you need to work. Paint an owl just for pleasure and as often as possible. Show your work at exhibitions and on the Internet. The more people see your pictures the better. I know this. People like my pictures whenever they are seen online.

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “Abstraction” / Colored Pencil on Paper

192

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Vadim Ryakhovskiy / The Tools of the Artist

193

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “Acquaintance” Colored Pencil on Paper

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “An Umbrella for a Fish” Colored Pencil on Paper

194

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “Bedtime Story” / Colored Pencil on Paper

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “Composition #17” / Colored Pencil on Paper

195

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “Measuring the Distance” / Colored Pencil on Paper

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “My Collection of Elephants” / Colored Pencil on Paper

196

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “Spring Man” / Colored Pencil on Paper

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “The Act of Movement” / Colored Pencil on Paper

197

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “The Evening Mood” / Colored Pencil on Paper

198

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “Blue” / Colored Pencil on Paper

199

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “The Flower” / Colored Pencil on Paper

200

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “Untitled” / Colored Pencil on Paper

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “Untitled” / Colored Pencil on Paper

201

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “Spring Man” / Colored Pencil on Paper

Vadim Ryakhovskiy “The Act of Movement” / Colored Pencil on Paper

202

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Valentín González My full name is Valentín González, but I always sign my creative work as, simply, Valentín. I was born in Gijón (Asturias), a town in northern Spain.

Here I studied and grew up. My creative spirit was first woken up by literature.

The first books that I thought were great came from philosophers.

One day, when I was about 17 years old, I saw a photographic exhibition and I was captured by the powerful and creative images shown there. My first thought was, “I did not realize that this was possible in photography.” My second thought was “I want to do this.”

It all started from here. After a few years of studying and practicing I was ready for my first solo exhibition; and so I did it.

My personal taste about images made my approach more towards painters than to photographers. My attention was especially caught by a painter, Aurelio Suarez, much older than me but with whom I had interesting conversations frequently. Our shared point of view about unseen things, those that are hidden in the things you can see, was so close that I felt encouraged to pursue my internal visions and show them openly.

At the beginning of the twenty first century I decided to move to the Spanish east coast, by the Mediterranean sea, where I am living today. It is sunny and hot most of the year and the strength of the colors really influences my vision of things.

Traditional photography is something I like, but that I can't use as an expression of my world and feelings. To me it seems to show a very outside reality, far away from my needs. If you want to make “Art” your own, it must be yours alone, as much as your skin is your own, or it will not be art.

I'm more interested in photography that is nonobjective, photography that expresses certain feelings that I can not express with landscapes, with objects or with bodies. Nevertheless, conventional photography does interest me. The thing is that I see it as art work for museums, even the ones that are done now. In my head, photography is something else and has been for many years. I think that my escape towards the non-conceptual has no return. What I feel like doing is to go further and further towards a higher sublimation of the restriction of the object or what it symbolizes, to go toward creating new things to express myself.

203

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

The use of “objects” as models (I also consider a body or a face to be an object) is a great limitation to the deepest expression of yourself. An object has a great personality that forces you to express yourself through its meaning and limitations.

If I want to fully express myself without the censorship of any intermediate subject (or object), and to be able to accomplish that, I must make the recognizable object disappear. And this I have been doing in my work for more than 25 years, at first with photographic film and now digitally.

The most simple explanation is that, as in playing a game, we can search for faces in the clouds. When you find that symbolic face you can still see the cloud resembling that face. In my work you'll see the face, but the face does not resemble a cloud. After many years and many collections – I'm now working on my 28th collection – I still find what I'm looking for by looking around for the unseen. I am searching for what is hidden in things. My own visions develop in those objects that surround me and transform into something different and unrecognizable. So that is how I give life to a new being, a new creation, and a new work.

If you make a picture with many people in it, very often you can see viewers approaching your image and looking to see if there is someone that is recognizable to them. In my work you can see the people, men or women, the colors, the hair, the clothes ... but you are unable to recognize who they are. So you can look at my picture just as it is without the distraction of the object's personality. In doing this I discovered the special effect that my technique has on the surrounding objects. As I further investigate it, it is taking me to the state of my works as they are now.

I only work on collections, not on single pictures. Generally I search for an idea that must be worked on using different visions and points of view, even if it contains several individuals that need to show their existence, of worlds and personalities where a story can be told. When I find an idea I can develop, my next step is to look for the kind of objects I need and for the technique that is needed. I use the same kind of technique for all of the pictures in the collection, very few times in my life have I changed this approach.

There is no exact number of works in all collections. It may vary, but most of the time there are around 15 pictures in a collection. The time needed to finish a complete collection I simply can't predict; it is impossible to know. But I can say that the last one I did had 17 pictures and took more than two years to make. Anyway, I enjoy the whole the process even if I do need to have a rest after every collection. I usually end up really tired and without energy for starting on a new project immediately. The tool for my work is not the camera, the tool is me.

I know when to put an end to a picture; that is when the idea is clearly told, just the way I saw it in my head and my thoughts. Of course I take care of the proper expression, of all the emotions and subtle planned details. I'll never rush to finish any work, I look at it repeatedly while I'm doing it, so I am sure that everything fits

204

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

in correctly and, when I decide to stop, I wait a few weeks before I can say “Finished.” From that moment on I never touch that picture again.

I was so happy in my first exhibition when I sold a few pictures. For me, it was a confirmation that the public liked my work. Of course, as I grew more personal and moved away from the common images that were expected from the photographic world, my work was more difficult to sell, but that is normal, and it hasn't stopped me from selling.

I do realize that my works are different from the general idea of what “Photography” is and I know that for some it can be difficult to follow. But then again, going back in time to the twentieth century we saw this happen with abstract and Cubism, or even decades before with the Impressionists. It's just the natural developing of Art. Perhaps today it's difficult to enter the art market to sell your work and then not to have a sale the day after. The reason? It could be economical but for me it's not an Art reason. It's sad to say, but the truth is that most of the great geniuses of art, of our references, were unknown or not very well considered in their time. I'm not sure if anybody else is working with the idea of nonobjective photography, I really don't know if I'm alone in this, but if I am perhaps this will change in the future and then a new generation of photographers will use this path. I can't predict the future, but I'm pretty sure that Photography is going follow this concept.

I think that for my work it's specially important that the public understand that this reality happens in front of us, that it's not a work done on a computer nor is it graphic design. What I show lives there in front of my very own eyes. As does photography, my work does definitely reflects another world.

We as artists need our work to be shown everywhere and to be understood by the people. Therefore there must be a good communication to interact with the world around me, with the human species. My work, in many senses, is not only mine but it also belongs to the world itself. It's full of good wishes, light, hope and humor. As something quite novel, it needs time for it to be discovered, but it is happening even faster than I thought. I believe I have a big responsibility with my work in this sense, traces must be left behind in the future so people understand the reasons for the different collections and have answers to as many “Whys?” as possible.

I am preparing new exhibitions of my work, but there are also interactions with other art forms. I am just starting a project with the musician Carles Santos. He is composing music specially for some of my pictures. He has composed many incredible compositions, operas and the music for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona. I had some of his recordings and really appreciated his work way before this idea developed, so I can't wait to get started on the project. Currently, I am working with a group of people, experts in new cuisine, sommeliers, etc., who are trying to prepare an accord of wine and food in relation with the inspiration given by six of my images. It has to do with feeling, color, texture, and its origin.

205

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Cooking is an art, and the spirit of wine can be understood to mix with the spirit of other arts, in this case, my art. I'm learning a lot through this experience.

I don't feel inspired by the world around me. I don't want to show images of physical happenings. My work is not a notarial certificate of external life, so to speak. My inspirations are thinkings, feelings, sensations, dreams. Most of the time inspiration comes from inside myself, from my imagination. I convert all of these inspirations into worlds, into stories, into lands, with people who are watching, thinking, relaxing or in action. I create a kind of a story. I think about all that I need for telling this story, to make my vision real, and then I start working on it. Most of my collections are imaginary worlds and beings. I believe that, with all I am able to think, as the stardust I am, I would be to live somewhere out there in the universe.

Why not? It's a beautiful idea.

I think I am following a parallel line with the history of painting. Photography is going to be two hundred years old soon, and it seems it is time to open doors to new ideas that will carry it to the future of photographic art. This happened in painting and will happen in this Art also, and probably faster than many can imagine. A lot had been done then but there is much more to do now. This inspires me onward.

Looking back to my early creative years I realize that it was clear that the need for creation was growing inside of me. To me “creation” is a door for getting inside and outside of myself, and sometimes I touch myself and say, “I live in here.” It's not that I consider myself to be two beings, but I think there is an internal or spiritual side of me, as much as a physical part; and both of them interact, push me, make me feel. One is the support for the other, and together they give life to that person called Valentín.

Creation is a need. You understand you have something important to say, even if you do not know what is it. You think about yourself as the tool to give life to your thinking, visions, messages and your world. It's so beautiful and strong that you can not hide away from yourself. Then creation becomes a must.

True creation comes from the inside, and when you start to feel within yourself and want to give birth to your internal world, then you realize that it is not easy.

Creation is comparable to a box in which you have to make a hole in it. One day the hole will grow as big as a door so you can easily go inside and outside of your own world of yourself.

To me, the way our internal creativity grows is by having two parallel ladders, on one, you go up a step with one foot, and on the other you go up a step with the other foot, going up side by side. So, you can say that one ladder represents your vision and the other your ability, or virtuosity. You can not represent what you do not see, and you can not show what you can not represent. So in the end what is clear is that both sides have to grow together or something will be missing and you

206

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

will be able to express what you want to express.

To be creative you must never rush, you must relax, let your feelings come, enjoy them, let them grow, play with them but never push them. You must trust in yourself. If you have the power to create inside of you, nothing can stop it from getting out. You must, simply, be patient. www.valentinfotografo.com Video “HOW IS IT MADE”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV7q-2ELEtw&feature=player_embedded Video “THE CREATION”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4gnN3xmd-s&feature=player_embedded Facebook: Valentin Art Photography Mail: mail@valentinfotografo.com

Valentín González “ANIMATICOS“ Photograph

207

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Valentín González “¿CÓMO SON LAS DIMENSIONES? 2“ Photograph

Valentín González “AUCTOR VARON” Photograph

208

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Valentín González “EL BOSQUE VESTIDO“ Photograph

Valentín González “EL MECANISMO DEL MUNDO” Photograph

209

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Valentín González “EL REFUGIO DE LAS ALMAS DE PIEDRA“ Photograph

Valentín González “LA CANCION DE LA TIERRA” Photograph

210

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Valentín González “TRANSMISION DEL PENSAMIENTO“ Photograph

Valentín González “VIENTO CROMÁTICO” Photograph

211

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Valentín González “LA ESPECIE OPUESTA“ Photograph

Valentín González “LA TRASCENDENCIA DE LA MIRADA” Photograph

212

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

June 2016 Editor’s Note: I have been privileged to know Mr. Shankar Barua for nearly twenty years. During that time my wife Margie Labadie and I have participated in a number of his creative projects and activities both electronically and on-site in India in 2007 and 2010. It is difficult to define Shankar Barua or to assess his impact on the wide open field of electronic arts. We hope that introducing his work here in these few pages will be cause to engender something of the amazement and admiration Margie and I feel for this native of Guwahati, Assam, India. JAL _______________________________________________

Shankar Barua The “Background” section of Shankar Barua’s LinkedIn page reads as follows: “Shankar Barua has been many things in life before coming around to his present preoccupations as Managing Trustee of The AeA. These include adventure-travel writer & photographer, assistant editor and designer of magazines, illustrator, publisher, pack-shot photographer, well-digger, drought-relief worker, book-author, columnist, artist, musician, tea-taster, corporate consultant, advertising copywriter, public speaker, photography workshop leader, public relations professional, TV anchorperson, product prototyper, film-maker (but certainly not "the famous Assamese film-maker" by the same name~;o), and so on and on and on.

Whereas he continues to be some of these things still, his primary goals presently have to do with promoting and empowering creative experimentation & innovation in countries such as India, on the back of the burgeoning evolution and spread of technology.

Specialties: Peculiar skills & Twisted Thinking ... in Writing, Design, Imaging, Video, Music, Innovation, and Advisory. I'm also pretty closely connected to a mind-boggling array of professional creatives all over the world (outside LinkedIn), many of whom I can, and do, draw aboard on assignments.

215

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

My preferred work these days (either solo or with associates) ranges through multidisciplinary art & design, including photography, imaging, illustration, print-design, music, electroacoustics, video-work, gadget innovation,... and whatever's necessary to get a job done (even including basic cooking ~;o).

Professional Writing is my old saw, in which I've done perhaps a couple of hundred published newspaper and magazine pieces, ranged from nonsense, satire, commentary, and lots of adventure travel, through texts for a couple of books that have been sold around the world in several translations.” _______________________________________________ More than 15 years ago Shankar Barua looked ahead and saw some things that needed to be done to bring creatives together using electronic means. In February 2001 Shankar Barua made the following proposal to the government of India. The prescient text below is taken from the “Preamble” to Barua’s “Academy of Electronic Arts proposal - 2001” sent to the Chief Minister of the Union Territory of Delhi, and the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, and Principal Secretary-IT to the Delhi government.

“The dawning of the 21st century has brought with it for humanity a gradual ~but amply perceptible~ passage of the fulcrum in the global Computer, Communications and Information Technology Revolution from just the hands of so called Techies, who make hardware and software, into the Public User-Domain.

Within this "Public User-Domain", the wide and continuously growing constituency focused upon with this proposal is the whole range of individuals and organizations involved with Computer-Based Creative Practices (CBCPs) around India and the world.

CBCPs (also referred to as electronic-arts) should here be taken to include the fullest possible range of such activities, whether conceivable presently or not.

(Just a few examples of present day CBCPs would include: imaging, music, desktop & professional publishing, desktop & professional video, film & video special effects, industrial & product design, architecture, web-design & publishing, animation, time-slice, character & object modeling, computer games & other software, virtual reality, etc.)

The rationale for establishment of an Academy of Electronic Arts (AeA) is taken up variously but briefly through the course of this paper.

However, it should be reiterated at the outset here that this is not about Information Technology. It is about the users of Information Technology ~ i.e. increasingly, the general public.

It is also not about education ~ at least not in the conventional sense.

The central focus sought to be presented here is that Computers Empower Individuals ~ especially Creatively. And eventually, creative empowerment is about individuals and

216

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

communities just being able to express, evolve and enrich themselves and their respective values and cultures over time, in symbiosis with the values and cultures of every other individual and community they touch ~and who they are in turn touched by~ in so doing.

With computers, such creativity will increasingly find expression in everything from education and entertainment through to employment, the arts and even products of everyday use. For example, the average toothbrush today could not have been made without computers, and yet almost any computer could be used to design it, right the way through to a digital file ready for computer-aided machining of a die to mould millions, or for rapid-prototyping of just a single copy.

That is just one sort of new CBCP that many of the children of today will learn to be able to do absolutely intuitively in life. In the normal course. And there will even soon be desktop devices for them to actually be able to independently reproduce end results as real objects in the real world!

Which is why an increasing number of people around the world today hold that humanity has transited beyond the simple Computer Age (since affordability remains the last little barrier to ubiquity), into a dawning Creativity Age. Against this background, this paper seeks proactive association and assistance of the Government of Delhi in our efforts to establish a globally preeminent Academy of Electronic Arts in New Delhi as soon as conceivably possible, to help launch Delhi into the new millennium at the global vanguard of this wonderful new revolution for humanity.�

Shankar Barua Producer / Director Imadjinn New Delhi. India Friday 13, 2001

217

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

The IDEA (Indian Documentary of Electronic Arts)

http://retiary.org/idea/ The IDEA (Indian Documentary of Electronic Arts) Archives & Gazettes of the e-Creative Arts / Additional inks: http://theaea.org/ http://soundcloud.com/shankarbaba

218

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

http://www.theaea.org/ OVERVIEW “The Academy of Electronic Arts is a learning, sharing, mentoring, networking, benchmarking and empowering institution that evolves continuously to inclusively address *all* e-Creative Practices & Practitioners, whether already existing or as yet inconceivable, whether professional or not, and whether formally recognized as Artforms and Artists or not so, on a public-benefit basis into the future.

Our various works coalesce and deploy years of independent cutting-edge practice, networking and development of a variety of e-Creative practices, e-Creative entities, and also allied fields of human endeavour globally, in the bodies of our Advisory Council, our Board of Trustees, our primary associates, and also the innumerable other e-Creative Practitioners and associated individuals and organizations whom we continually engage with on individual projects, and also on ongoing relationship bases, all over the world.

SERVICES We look to serve the application, evolution and spread of eCreativity into the future in every good way possible, by drawing upon varying matrices of the vast pool of outstanding professionals, researchers, academics and institutions whom we connect with and network all over the world.

Accordingly: Institutions, Governments, Corporations & Businesses are invited to commission us or otherwise associate with us on Design, Development, Deployment, Management and also Evaluation of Public as well as Internal Projects, Products, Events, Processes, Surveys, Scenario-Casting, Documentation, Benchmarking, Awareness Programs, Training, R&D, Outreach and all other Affairs or Entities either driven by or otherwise associated with e-Creative Practices and Technologies.

Individuals practicing or otherwise associated with eCreativity are warmly invited to exploit The AeA as an Institutional Umbrella under which to carry forward independent good work in every good way possible.

219

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

PROGRAMS Public ~ Archive/Gazette ~ Fellowship ~ Diploma ~ Grassroots As a Public-Benefit Trust, the central activity of The AeA is a continuously evolving and always ongoing Global Program of Networking, Facilitation and Empowerment of all sorts of inter-connections and endeavours amongst stakeholders of all description in the domain of e-Creative Practices and Technologies.

As such, The AeA is itself a stake-holder in much that cannot be called its own ... and it is often happily invisible in being so.

CeC (Note: we pronounce CeC as "Sek") is an extraordinary annual public incident that is all about Presentations, Performances, Exhibits and Screenings, involving direct and indirect participation of Experimental Creative Practitioners of all description from around India and the world, spread over 3 days of intense public creative interaction ... with each and every Primary-Participant expected to experimentally bring something creatively *new* to the table.�

220

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

June 2016

Sara Mascia Early in January 2016 the JCAM team began a conversation with a new friend from Sardinia, Italy, Ms. Sara Mascia. Sara began and currently manages the international art-focused blog called “Art Sky In The Room.”

After numerous introductory conversations, Sara proposed an interview of the Publisher and Editor of the JCAM. Our subsequent conversations were translated from Italian into English and back again. A process not unfamiliar to us. Sara notified us in midFebruary that it had been published on her art blog. Please find that interview online here: http://tinyurl.com/zvtxrwq It is projects like Sara Mascia’s “Art Sky In The Room” that contain much of the genuine energy and advocacy for the arts online. We were glad to contribute to Sara’s efforts to publicize our work in the arts internationally.

Sara believes that networking with the goal of simply having conversations about art work and ideas is completely worth the effort. We agree and applaud Sara Mascia’s project and wish her well in the future.

On the following pages the JCAM is now privileged to have Sara Mascia introduce herself, her project, and the lovely island that is Sardinia. We hope readers will contact Sara with ideas and proposals for articles and projects. Sara is a pleasure to work with. She is an able and energetic promoter of the arts both online and in her home town of Serramanna.

221

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Hi, I want to introduce myself: My name is Sara Mascia, I was born in Sardinia where I still live. I’ve always loved the art and culture of people. I am interested in archeology, astronomy and technology.

I have always loved art, and for many years followed the life and work of artist friends in various parts of the world through Facebook and messenger.

Then two years ago I took a university course at the Conservatory of Cagliari called MAS, Art Management and Performing Arts, because I was curious to know how to combine my passion with something more concrete and maybe create an income for us (me and the artists).

I am the initiator of the art blog: “Art Sky in the Room.” Please read the blog and visit the pages and archives here: http://www.artskyintheroom.com/ The birth of this blog comes from my passion for art and the desire to share and exchange ideas and opinions. See more online here: http://www.artskyintheroom.com/chi-sono For me, Art is the ultimate expression of which humans are capable. Spiritual Art (art from the soul) frequently elevates creative work to another level. To me this higher form of work is really imitating God – whom I consider the greatest Artist and Poet in the universe.

To create a blog I checked on the Internet and the site Webilicous (which I recommend), was especially helpful to me. So with the help of a friend the blog was born with a clear idea on how to do it. I worked several years as a salesperson, so management is no stranger to me, but since it is Art, it is something more, much more important.

222

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Immediately everything went fine, from June to mid-August I had some stunning entries, so much so that I felt panic not knowing how to handle all this. Two online newspapers and two Facebook pages published my articles thus helping to spread the art and stories of artists.

My life has changed! I really had so many emotions, I met many artists I admire, among them John and Margie Labadie, who though they are experts, gladly granted me an interview. Thank you, friends! All known artists are important to me and a few of them have become wonderful friendships that I hope will last forever!

I remain truly delighted in observing the wonders of nature, its forms, its colors, its music, and the place where I live contributes to this. I live in Sardinia, where nature is wild and sweet and leads to meditation. See some of the wonders of Sardinia here: http://www.artskyintheroom.com/welcome-in-sardinia-the-pearl-of-the-mediterranean

223

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Now it's been a year and I would like to move to the second phase of the project. There are, in fact, lots of things to improve, newsletters, translations – which now I do with google translate, “Oh my God!” I also use a message board and many more online tools to communicate with artists everywhere. But, I'm alone in this now. I believe to grow and improve we need a structure with employees to continue to improve and innovate.

The blog is not about me at all, but about those amazing artists I have met through social media. I consider myself a normal, sociable person. I like to have friends around the world, exchange ideas, recommendations and projects. I love making cakes, international cuisine. In my free time I play table tennis or football with friends.

I think every place in the world is really beautiful and worthy of our utmost respect.

The name "The Sky in a Room" comes from a famous Italian song of the 60s that expresses a really wonderful idea. I dedicate the blog to this beautiful song by Gino Paoli. “ART in all its forms. Music, Song, Dance, Theater, Painting and Sculpture.

Because art is spiritual, It makes us dream, It makes us meditate, gives us endless emotions, because art will save the world.”

Watch images and hear this song online here – don’t forget to turn up the sound! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11mejVpT6Yg

http://www.artskyintheroom.com/

224

JCAM, Vol. 2, No. 1

Information for Submitters JCAM is a project of Jumbo Arts International which holds all rights exclusively.

JCAM is a juried (peer reviewed) publication. All submissions are reviewed by a panel of experts assembled by the JCAM editors.

JCAM publications focus on artistic creativity and publish original visual works and articles on the visual arts, crafts, creative writing, poetry, performing arts, interviews, reviews, and columns on subjects appropriate to the focus of the journal.

JCAM publishes twice each year: 30 June and 30 December. In order to assure timely responses, submitters should contact the JCAM editorial team well in advance of these publication dates – a minimum 60 to 90 days is suggested.

All requests for submission information should be sent to: jcam.jal@gmail.com Upon request, interested parties will be emailed the basic information and documents required for the submission of work to JCAM editors.

JCAM publishes in English. Are non-English submissions possible? Yes, in certain cases JCAM editors will work with artists to translate into English text documents that are directly related to visuals that have already been accepted for publication.

Current JCAM information is available on our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JournalofCreativeArtsandMinds Previously published issues of the JCAM are available online: https://issuu.com/jumboartsinternational Information about the JCAM publisher Jumbo Arts International is available online: http://jumboartsinternational.org/ All questions regarding the JCAM should be sent to: jcam.jal@gmail.com

226