1 minute read
K Umetnik se predstavi …
from KULTURALIST 08
by KULTURALIST
Predstavitev umetnika: Andrew Villone
Andrew Villone, a native Californian, has spent the past two decades living, traveling, and guiding others throughout Europe and the Near East. With a keen sense of adventure and a desire to connect with the unfamiliar, he has witnessed a world most have only dreamt of. These lived experiences and connections made have built the foundation for a world of his own, expertly illustrated and told through the vibrant characters of Dazzle.
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I first came to Slovenia in December 1999 as a backpacker. A lot has changed since then but it’s still as beautiful and captivating as it was way back then. In 2005, I was looking to travel for free while making a few dollars on the side, so I started a tour company in the U.S. offering boutique tours around Slovenia and Croatia. I had never studied tourism or been on any tours, so I just did things my way.
Nearly 20 years later I am still doing tours and still doing them my way which means focusing on many small, less-visited spots and letting guests enjoy the undervalued wine and culinary experiences on offer here. In 2014, I decided to move to Slovenia, first to Kranj and then to Koper. The chances that I’d move back to my home country are somewhere between 1% and 0.
This past year I needed something very different than travel and running tours. I had a story in my head for the past 25 years that I envisioned as a film but never did anything seriously with it. So I decided to reach out to an artist friend of mine in Motovun to see if this could work as a comic. The past ten months have been a whirlwind of creativity and new experiences for me. And now I have our first issue of Dazzle completed and printed. Only 29-30 more issues to go for me to tell the story that I didn’t know I had in me.
Log line for Dazzle
A young girl in search of her identity runs away to a globe-trotting circus fuelled by magic. There she will find both her dysfunctional family and her true self under this strange big top filled with outcasts, dreamers, assassins, charlatans, monsters and angels.
