KNACK Magazine #45

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KNACK’S ULTIMATE AIM IS TO CONNECT &

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we are dedicated to showcasing the work of new artists of all mediums and to discussing trends and ideas within art communities

KNACK’S ULTIMATE AIM IS TO CONNECT &ARTISTS INSPIRE & INSPIRE EMERGING EMERGING ARTISTS we strive to create a place for artists writers designers thinkers + innovators to collaborate and produce a unique, informative, and unprecedented web-based magazine each month

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acceptable formats

10-12 high resolution images of your work.

All should include pertinent caption information (name, date, medium, year).

PDF TIFF JPG

writers You may submit up to 5,000 words and as little as one. .doc We accept simultaneous submissions. No cover letter .docx necessary. All submissions must be 12pt, Times New RTF Roman, single or double-spaced with page numbers and include your name, e-mail, phone number, and genre.

KNACK seeks writing of all kinds. We will even consider recipes, reviews, and essays. We seek writers whose work has a distinct voice, is character driven, and is subversive but tasteful. all submissions

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

photographers, graphic designers & studio artists

KNACK encourages all submitters to include a portrait, brief biography including name, age, current location, awards, contact info (no more than 200 words), as well as an artist statement, with their submission (no more than 500 words).

We believe that your perspective of your work and process is as lucrative as the work itself. This may range from your upbringing and/or education as an artist, what type of work you produce, inspirations, etc.

If there are specifications or preferences concerning the way in which your work is to be displayed please include them.

Please title files for submission with the name of the piece. This applies for both writing and visual submissions.

KNACKMAGAZINE1 @ GMAIL.COM subject: Submission Photography / Studio Art Creative Writing / Graphic Design

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is requesting material to be reviewed. Reviews extend to any culture-related event that

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KNACK

may be happening in the community in which you live.

Do you know of an exciting show or exhibition opening? Is there an art collective in your city that deserves some press? Are you a musician, have a band, or are a filmmaker? Send us your CD, movie, or titles of upcoming releases which you’d like to see reviewed in KNACK. We believe that reviews are essential to creating a dialogue about the arts. If something thrills you, we want to know about it and share it with the KNACK community—no matter if you live in the New York or Los Angeles, Montreal or Mexico.

All review material can be sent to knackmagazine1@ gmail.com. Please send a copy of CDs and films to 4319 North Greenview Ave, Chicago, IL 60613. If you would like review material returned to you include return postage and packaging. Entries should contain pertinent details such as name, year, release date, websites and links (if applicable). For community events we ask that information be sent up to two months in advance to allow proper time for assignment and review.

We look forward to seeing and hearing your work.

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andrea catalina vaca co-founder, director, photo editor, marketing, digital operations jonathon duarte co-founder, design director ariana lombardi co-founder, executive editor, writer fernando gaverd designer, digital operations, marketing chelsey alden editor, writer jake goodman designer bFrank designer juraj gagne proofreader subscribe theknackmagazine.com

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submission guidelines

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ta l e n t 14

daniel f. gonzalez

melissa parra morrow

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ruchell alexander

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cover b. frank

paul thompson

f e at u r e john paul fauves

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qu ick l o ok 54

spreads a.c. vaca

jake goodman

FORTY FIVE

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paul thompson Paul Thompson was born in 1985 just outside Indianapolis. He is currently living in Chicago and working as an illustrator and aspiring designer. After a bachelors degree in film and video, he switched gears and started sharing his portfolio of designs and characters in coffeeshops and local bars. The Hope Fiend was born as the center of Paul’s imagined world and serves as a lens to look at how people may be reluctant to bring positivity into their own lives and bring change into the world around them. Thompson is currently working on screen-printing, writing and illustration projects which tell cautionary tales and share humorous observations.

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daniel f. gonzalez Daniel F. Gonzalez was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia and is a graduate of photography and digital production. He is a lover of cinema and especially photography, including documentary photography, portraits and conceptual photography.

His art has taken him to Mexico, where he worked for a producer of cinema and photography, photographing weddings and social events, and to Costa Rica where he enjoyed an experience with tourist photography.

Eventually, Daniel returned to Mexico to continue his work with weddings.

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melissa parra morrow Melissa was born and raised in New England and started to travel the country as soon as she was old enough to do so. She traveled in search of insight and revelation for her art. She has collected images from small villages and big cities, rifling through trash and treasures. Currently, Melissa resides on the Big Island in Hawaii, energized by the enchant of the lush land and ocean waves. For the past two years, she was participant in various LowBrow/PopSurrealism group shows in galleries across the country. She is represented by KEEP Contemporary in Santa Fe, NM . In 2016, Melissa received the DC Moore Gallery (NYC) Award from The National Collage Society. She was also part of the artistic crew in the creation of “House Of Eternal Return” at Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, NM . “I am always on the lookout for the next artistic endeavor whether on canvas or within the community or wherever I may be ‘hanging my hat’ at the time…wherever I may be collecting treasures for my next piece.” w ildthingstudiosart @gmail.com melissaparr amorrow.pr zm.com

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ruchell alexander Ruchell Alexander was raised in Northern New Mexico. He and his family were among the original members of the Magic Tortoise Commune, established in 1973 on Lama Mountain, between San Cristobal and Questa. During the time of Ruchell’s growing up, he was mentored by Bill Gersh, who was emerging as a renowned Southwestern painter and sculptor, and also was a member of the Magic Tortoise Commune. Under Gersh’s tutelage, Ru’s work has seen sveral periods and growth. The result is his art of today: larger, multi-figured canvasses with dramatic, autobiographical subjects including indications of the centrality of Bill Gersh – both personally and artistically in his formation as both a man and artist. Ruchell is represented at The Houshang Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. w w w.ruchell ale x ander.com w w w.houshangart.com

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KNACK an acquired or natural skill at performing a task an adroit way of doing something a clever trick or stratagem

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PA U L THOMPSON _

My work utilizes strong colors and precise techniques that are often emotive and thought-provoking. Most often, I explore themes of heartbreak and the strength it takes to move on.

As violence has increased drastically in Chicago as of late, I found my voice (and work) reflecting on what responsibility is and holding each other accountable for our actions. But, it was Trump’s inauguration, watching how much more divided we became as a country, that truly crystallized how my work reflected the unity involved in making it through a difficult time. This is shown mostly by the creation and repetition of the Hope Fiend as a character and iconic logo.

I wanted to create something that might influence people to put their differences aside in favor of progress and the greater good.

Over the years I’ve collected a library of influences that inform my work. Growing up it was Super Man, X-Men and Spawn Comic Books, Sonic the Hedgehog, Mortal Combat, Earth Worm Jim and Super Mario video games and Classic cartoons like Mighty Mouse, Casper and Tom and Jerry. Most recently it’s street art, politics, stoner rock and hiphop that influence the philosophies behind my work.

I hope to make my audience smile and reflect on the lives we lead and the way we treat each other.

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Hope Fiend

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Disheartened

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Sleeper

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Tongue

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Extinction

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D A N I E L F. GONZALEZ _

My work featured here, in Knack Magazine, is essentially the way I see the beach and the elements that make it up. People, birds, water, trees and sand: each photograph tells a story, in which I looked, with appreciation, at the small details of the pure life, or, in Spanish, ‘la pura vida.’ This expression of “pure life” is the emblem and customary greeting of Costa Rica, and means that everything is well in life. But how does a foreigner see that pure life? I saw it in black and white, nostalgic and intrinsic, clean and adorned with small natural details, present every day but perhaps tend to go unnoticed.

I did this series because I needed to communicate those moments on the beach in my own way. Through photography I can show part of what I feel in those elements that surround me, and I can share the way I see life itself; full of beauty spoken in gray-scale and in free-style form. These photos speak of the roads I traveled daily, across from beach to beach in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.

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MELISSA PA R R A MORROW _

I produce art because I have no choice! I breathe, I eat, I create. A self-taught architect living in the scenic hills of Hawai’i, The Big Island. I construct images to infuse and infect the mind. Since I can remember, I’ve been a constant collector of the visual image on paper, discarded books and mags, advertisements and trash with which I meticulously utilize layers of loathing and pleasure, honesty and the forbidden.

Provoked and inspired by media bombardments and brainwashed fetishes, I attempt to bridge our mores to otherworldly universes, alien-like creatures and the way in which extraterrestrial intelligence may interpret our interactions here on earth. I am forever fascinated by our interplay with each other, within ourselves, and our immediate microcosms… subconsciously and with eyes wide open! This is a crazy world we live in, and I’m compelled to epitomize its nuances and expose its dirty secrets.

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30 this page: The Butcher / opposite: above, May It Please the Court below, The Machine

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33 opposite: above, Circle of Morph below, Treading Lightly / this page: Drinking the Kool-Aid

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35 opposite: Church N Whiskey / this page: Emergence of a New Evolution

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RUCHELL ALEXANDER

I describe my art to others as “Neo-Cubism� with a strong Caribbean/South American influence. Being a pianist and composer, as well as a visual artist, allows me to blend ideas from both artistic expressions.

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Desert Scene

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Complex Thoughts

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Travelling On

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Ragtime Scene

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Ru’Style Presence

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Yoga

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Dennis Brown

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Self Portrait

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Steel Pulse

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on his exhibition, A Loss of Innocence

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J O H N PA U L FA U V E S

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an interview edited by Ariana Lombardi w/ Andrea Vaca Ego, the self, hedonism and redemption are all explored through Fauves’ solo exhibition, ‘A Loss of Innocence.’ Curated by the Tax Collection, the show is made up of 13 paintings and 350 hand-painted masks.

The acclaimed Costa Rican artist wants viewers to question their own humanity as they move further and further away from childhood innocence. He uses Disney’s Mickey Mouse as a symbol of this innocence and merges it with corrupted iconic figures such as Marilyn Monroe and James Dean.

Having shown at the famous, Guy Hepner Gallery in New York for the month of March, ‘A Loss of Innocence’ is set to show at Meirart Gallery in Belgium from the 1st of July.

What is your vision for your show?

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My show talks about the loss of innocence in humanity. We are all born innocent and free, but somewhere we start to lose track of our true nature. We start school as kids and become oriented into what to be, and you lose your individualism. We then get molded into the structure of living and most don’t even know who they really are.

eastwood

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Mickey as an iconic childhood figure, represents this innocence we all had. In my paintings he becomes a hedonist figure searching for pleasure no matter the consequence. I’m expressing this concept in all of us, since we were all innocent children once. But life changes us, and we become what we are now, most of us with dark secrets hidden in the back of our minds. In the show, besides the art, I’m bringing this experience to the audience by giving them a hand-made Mickey mask to wear. By using the mask during the opening I’m trying to create an experience where people detach from the “EGO” judgment self and start to focus on a more introspective experience. Also, once the mask is on, a lot of layers of your personality will start to unveil. This can be an opportunity to analyze ourselves.

hello marilyn

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What is innocence to you?

I think innocence is the essence of our soul and who we truly are before we start becoming this label of the egocentric world. It is what we were before the system and society got to us. I think that we never lose our innocence, we just don’t see it because of all the layers of existence we created.

The idea is that through evolved choices we redeem and go back to our natural state.

The Tax Collection

How do you view the ‘true self’?

True self is about acceptance.

We must not fight our feeling’s or judge them. We are the creators and the created. To not have a fixed identity in other words, no EGO, no control, no judging, no need to be approved. It’s about a state of bliss and awareness in the present moment. Detachment from the EGO and your needs and will guide you to that true self, your soul.

thetaxcollection.com

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ONCE THE MASK IS ON, A L O T O F L AY E R S OF YOUR PERSONALIT Y W I L L S TA R T T O U N V E I L

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THIS CAN BE AN OPPORTUNIT Y T O A N A LY Z E O U R S E LV E S

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et me, buddy

QUICK LOOK

lunanaut

All I need is a 2–4B pencil, a mechanical eraser and a Moleskin sketchbook.

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bluefor

aggressor

madison

JAKE GOODMAN

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