CRAFT
YYC EDITION Meet the creators of Calgary
WHAT WILL YOU FIND IN YYCRAFT ?
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INTRO make MOVE style TASTE
EMAN. NICOLE. RAQUEL. KATRINA
ALEX. NIKOLETA. TYLER. RICHARD. DANIEL. R&J.
JEANELLE. AJAY. MARY.
TONY. MARK. JUSTIN.
AVIV.VANESSA. SCOTT.
a note from the editors
INTRO
WE VENTURED INTO THIS MAGAZINE ON A MISSION TO MEET AS MANY CREATORS WITHIN OUR CITY. WE HOPE THAT AS YOU FLIP THROUGH THE PAGES OF THIS MAGAZINE YOU FEEL THE INSPIRATION THAT WE FELT WHEN MEETING AND SPEAKING TO THESE WONDERFUL INDIVIDUALS. ...
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Eman Elkadri is a 20 year old student who was born and raised in Calgary, AB. She is currently working towards her degree in Information Design at Mount Royal University. Eman has had a passion for art from a very young age, and has been drawing since she was six years old. Eman expresses herself within her artwork and and is contantly inspired by her surroundings. She enjoys talking to people and listening to their stories and life experiences. Eman also enjoys fashion design and hopes to one day have her own line. She has a love for travelling and considers herself a concert enthusiast, having been to over 80 concerts in her life...so far. “Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it”
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Being fostered in a Filipino culture, Nicole’s ethnical roots modelled her artistic and visionary persona. Her aesthetic visuals are often driven by passion and empathy. She considered herself a wanderess, a traveller, a dreamer, who loves to capture the charms of a place through her camera lens. An aspiring information designer who has a purpose to bring about change through the combinations of her art, writing and research. Her hobbies include painting ,gardening, writing poetry, singing karaoke, and cooking food for her love ones. She is fiercely loyal to her friends and family and will have your back no matter what. “Your design is the weapon, your style is the ammunition. Stay wild, and stay unbolted to create and to destroy as you see fit. “
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R a q u e l C h a m b e r l a i n Raquel Chamberlain expresses herself through her visual artwork, short films, and her style. She brands herself as a content creator, information designer, and an artist. She appreciates surrounding herself with other creative minds, having interesting conversations, and exploring different cultures and destinations. Her love for design drives her aspiration to travel and to be inspired by people, places, and ideas. "Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that’s why it is so complicated." -PaulRand
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Katrina Tabuli brands herself as an innovator, illustrator, information designer, and a procrastinator. She loves to leave everything up to the last minute. She appreciates messy sketches and listens to classic rock and alternative music, which explains her collection of dark and unusual coloured lipsticks. Seriously, she rocks her purple black, and blue lipsticks. Despite her sarcastic humour, she still tends to be brutally honest about everything. In other terms, she has no filter. One of the words she lives by are said by Stefan Sagmeister, “Work your ass off. Don’t be an asshole.”
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+ALEX KWONG +RICHARD ERLENDSON
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+DANIEL J. KIRK BLANK PAGE STUDIO
+NIKOLETA ANTONAK +T.B PERRY +RICH AND JESS
RUMBLE HOUSE/GORILLA HOUSE
This section features visual artists, photographers and poets of YYC.
INTERVIEW WITH:
ALEX KWONG Alex Kwong is a visual artist based in Calgary. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Victoria, majoring in Art History, and minoring in Business. Alex also completed the Graphic Communications and Print Technology Diploma program at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. -- Alex considers himself as a creator who breathes things into existence; making something out of nothing, and hopes to inspire other people to be creators. He takes inspiration from anywhere. Kanye West has had a big influence on him. -- He admires the fact that Kanye is an evolving artist who doesn’t care about what anyone else thinks. -- Over the years, Alex has learned that it’s good to be aware of limitations in an art piece how far is too far. Artists can find it difficult to distinguish whether or not an art piece is completely done. -- Alex Kwong states, “most times it can result for an overly done art piece if one does not learn when to stop”. -- One of the best pieces of advice he got was how to price his work. He elaborated his own process saying, “You have to pick a piece, figure out how long it took, and how much it’ s worth en price it, divide it by the square footage making sure the pricing is all consistent. If people don’t like the price, he does not sell it for a lower price; for him it’s about knowing the value of your craft and having consistency throughout. He also points out, “if a plumber shows up at your house, you still pay the plumber $300, nobody questions that”. For artists who can create an art piece from nothing, they often just get “exposure or maybe I can take you out for a beer” response. For Alex, exposure is good, but most times it’s not all about the exposure. An artist for him, needs to know his own value and the values of his craft. His next project is at a restaurant called Paper Street, where he will be doing murals on the walls and the last mural would be done live when the restaurant launches. Alex wants to make sure everyone gets paid well. He wants to “redefine what an art event is rather than just the exposure idea”.
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“KANYE DOESN’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT WHAT OTHERS THINK AND THAT INSPIRES ME.”
My next project is at a restaurant called Paper Street, and I’m doing a bunch of murals on the wall, and I’m going to leave the last portion of it undone, and I’ll do it live, and I’m going to hire a band to play at the same time. I’m going to make sure that everyone gets paid. I want to redefine what an art event is rather than just the exposure idea.
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ichard Erlendson is a professional photographer, who runs his own successful photography enterprise. He shoots for publication magazines and newspapers. When Richard was in high school, he got a part time job working for the local community newspaper in a small town in Saskatchewan. He studied photojournalism, and continued to work for a decade as a photojournalist. Richard was the chief photographer for The Daily Herald Tribune in Grand Prairie.
The long-standing debate in the world whether photography is art or not still stands. Richard believes that photography is art because it covers the whole spectrum of recording events. For Richard, photographers create their photos in a similar way that a painter would approach a canvas. He counts himself as a photography educator. He doesn’t have a preference on his photos. Any situation provides the possibility for an amazing picture.
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At the end of the day, photography is all about these moments in life.
Richard’s Water art.
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Richard has photographed the Queen three times, as well as Princess Margaret. When Richard was about 20, he met a senior veteran photojournalist doing a presentation, which told him to “shoot into the light” everything becomes playful and magical. He starts his photography with his eyes. He pays attention to light sources, and how it’s colouring it’s surroundings and where the shadows are. He positions himself to shoot into the light, and he plays with perspective. For Richard, the equipment doesn’t matter - it’s an individual’s ability to take good photos, how to crop, how to watch for a moment, how to position yourself, and how to
how many people get to go there every year. This reflects Richard’s love for horses.
compose an image. His one piece of advice for ameteur photographers is to give yourself permission to go out and take pictures. His two favourite photographers are Jim Brandonburg from National Geographic, and Courtney Miln who’s a Saskatchewan photographer. Richard’s dream project consists of photographing wild horses on Sable Island. It’s an unstable environment, however, and they limit
Besides that, he would travel to any country in the world looking for neat pictures. He doesn’t look for the typical tourist kinds of images, those have already been taken. He looks for opportunities when he’s there depending on people he meets.
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ABOUT BLANK PAGE STUDIOS Blank Page Studio is a space for people dedicated to the advancement of innovative practices and ideas in art, architecture, design, and culture. Their mandate is to engage a broad audience throughout Calgary’s communities in generating dialogue about, and active participation in the city’s cultural sphere. Blank page is open to hosting events and workshops that can lead to cooperative learning and to create a stronger community bond. EVENTS HOSTED Art classes, swing classes, Improv. FOR INQUIRIES https://www.facebook.com/blankpagestudio 1221B Kensington Road NW Calgary, Alberta 2nd floor, entrance left of the mural. Google Map 403.475.1994 bpagestudio@gmail.com 22
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Q&A 1
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What inspires you about your field of work?
What is your dream project? My dream project would be to travel the world with other photographers, take many photos and collaborate with others.
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My camera! Also my vintage cameras, I’ve started collecting those. My grandpa gave me a white lander german vintage camera from the 1920’s. I also use photoshop and lightroom to edit my photos.
What’s it like being a photographer in Calgary? I feel intimidated because I’m such a small fish in a big ocean! It would be worse if I was in California where all the famous photographers are. As long as you keep practicing your photography, you should be able to teach yourself.You don’t need photography classes, simply just going out and experimenting with light and perspective aids the creative process. Originally I wanted to go to ACAD for drawing and painting. I draw a lot of cars, mainly for my boyfriend, and abstract drawings. I love watercolour and acrylic painting the most. I love how wild you can get with painting.
Who or what has inspired you the most?
What’s the most indispensible item in your workspace?
Describe the ideal working atmosphere. Relaxed, good lighting, good people that you enjoy. I like outdoors photography better than indoor.
Too many, there isn’t a certain person. The whole world around me inspires me to take photos, not just photographers. My grandpa is also a photographer, which I didn’t know until last summer. He taught me so much that I didn’t know, and how to edit. Also, I’ve never been so inspired by my classmates before going into the Information Design program. Seeing all of their magazines and the effort they put into their projects is really inspiring.
The idea of capturing a passing moment in time fascinates me. I take pictures now for similar reasons, but also to express myself and tell stories. I have many ideas in my head about what kind of stories I want to tell with my photos. The program that I’m in has pushed me to be more outgoing and proactive for sure.You can do whatever you want with ph, it’s a really great medium. There’s no limit to what you can do.
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What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given? Be different and be yourself. There are so many photographers out there all doing the same thing. That’s also what I have the most trouble with. I don’t really like to be bold since I’m shy. I don’t like to stand out too much.
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How and when did you get started on your career? I’ve been doing it all my life, but I really started in high school and last year when I got my camera. I used to take pictures just to capture moments. I remember having a little plastic camera with film in it when I was a kid. I picked up photography after I gave up synchronized swimming (which took up all my time). I quit in Grade 8, and picked up my artistic side instead. I felt like art was a part of me, just because I’ve been doing it all my life. I want to do photography forever.
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Who are you and what do you do? I’m an Information Design Student at Mount Royal University, I do photography as a hobby but I want to pursue it professionally. I don’t follow a specific style in photography, I just want to try everything out. I do a lot of landscape photography and nature photography, but I also try to be creative. I like to have fun. I can never stick to one style, and I don’t want to be labeled as a specific type of photographer.
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Do you consider photography as an artform? It depends on the intent of the photo, and how the audience perceives the photo. Just like you can paint anything on a canvas, you can stage everything in a photograph. You can make it your own. I definitely think it’s art.
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our job and career doesn’t have to take away from your creative pursuits. It can actually feed into it.” This is what we’ve learned from talking with Tyler Perry. He’s an English high school teacher for over 10 years, and he is also a poet.
He described teaching as a very emotional profession. His students had a lot of impact on him, and “there’s also a lot of frustrations that come from knowing how you want to teach, or how you feel students should be taught, and then the restrictions that are in place that seem to work against that.” Poetry became his way of expressing all the happenings around him.
“It’s a good culture, and there’s a lot of over lapping communities, and they support each other, I find. There’s also a strong youth scene.”
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“I didn’t have to come to conclusions, but I could express the experience. And in asking those questions, I find ometimes you can come to these answers to a different level of understanding that I wasn’t at before.”
Tyler B.
Tyler B.
He described Lessons in Falling, his first book, as a “poetic exploration of the educational process and the institution of the education.” He also wants to explore creative non-fiction exploring more into opinion essays, and the like, which dwells with education. He explained, “Some opinions need more elaboration than a poem can provide.”
Tyler B. Perry is a poet and an educator having his first book, Lessons in Falling, published in 2010 and is set to launch Belly Full of Rocks by mid-2016.
Tyler B. Perry is a poet and an educator having his first book, 30 Lessons in Falling, published in 2010 and is set to launch Belly Full of Rocks by mid-2016.
We were surprised to find out how exciting the Calgary poetry scene is.There are tons of poetry reading, poetry slam, and other events or festivals to share you work or hear other people’s work. Local bookstore such as Shelf Life Books, Pages, and Owl’s Nest does a great job of promoting events.
Ever since his master’s program, the challenge for him has been time – time to write, and time to get his writing done. http://tbperry.com
It is language at its most intense. Sometimes you walk away from a poem asking more questions about the world than you would’ve asked before you read it. Questions lead to possibilities.
Some events include Can You Hear Me Now poetry slam, Single onion for a higher energy event, Ink Spot Collectives poetry slam for a more competitive edge, Expressions, and Say Word. Perry wants to see his creative pursuit grow more – to go beyond writing poetry and exploring other genres. “I think it’s important to leave your comfort zone in any sort of creative endeavor. It’s hard to say exactly where that would go, but I’d like to say that I’ve pushed my creative boundaries a bit more.”
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On Belly Full of Rocks,
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Belly Full of Rocks is an upcoming book from Perry coming out in mid-2016. He provided us with some insights to what it is about.
It’s Another book of poetry, and it’s coming out with Oolichan Books. It’s definitely not a children’s book, but the characters come from the children’s fairytale. It’s my take on the characters in some of the well-known fairytales such as characters from Little Red Riding Hood, and mostly after the story take place so it’s sort of the aftermath. It’s mainly a first person poem – some of them are monologue poems, but I guess you call them persona poems from the points of view of the fairy tale characters.
The characters develop on their own way beyond and they’re all dealing with, in some cases, the trauma they experienced in the original fairytale. For example, the three bears. In the more, well known version of the fairy tale, goldilocks escapes. In the original, she’s actually eaten. I go with the one where she escapes, and it’s them dealing with the trauma of having been broken into and how it left an impact on their family dynamic. They’re a more frightened to leave the house or to leave their child unattended because they had someone in their house while they were out. I tried to take that human point of view of how would a person come to terms with the things or how would have the characters come to terms in these fairytales if we were saying it being realistic. Including the wolf.
It’s a series of poems, but it’s also kind of like a larger poem that’s just broken into fragments and the wolf plays a big part in it. It was fun to write, but it gets pretty dark at times.
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T.b. Belly Full of Rocks will be the second book coming up from Tyler B. Perry. A book launch will be happening somewhere in mid-2016. More updates will be in his website tbperry.com
Tyler B. Perry's top rated books based on Goodreads: 1
I’ll be right back: Tom Wayman new and selected poems,1980 - 1996
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Writing down the bones
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Things that keep Susan Musgrave and do not change
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Rooms for rent in the outer planets: selected poems 1962 - 1996
Al Purdy
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ClockďŹ re
Jonathan Ball
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Designated mourner
Catherine Owen
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The night children
Sarah Tsiang
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Clearwater
Kim McCullough
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Every blade of grass: a novel
Thomas Wharton
10 Ham on rye 35 https://www.goodreads.com/TylerBrendanPerry
Natalie Goldberg
Charles Bukowski
Inclusionism Manifesto written By Rich Theroux 1. The moment of making art supersedes the residue of the work itself 2.At it’s best art creates a connection between the artist and the viewer An inclusionist should (but is not expected to) consider the viewer as part 3. of the work Any form of art making is welcome as inclusionist work. Therefore, a true inclusionist should be versatile in all forms of art making
4. inclusionist is familiar with traditional mechanisms of art making and 5. An paradigms of interpretation. 6. An inclusionist is open to new forms of art. 7. An inclusionist is a considerate listener, attentive to his or her audience. 8. Appropriation of voice is not simpatico with inclusionism The statement, great artist steal, is an acknowledgement of the ceiling on 9. inventiveness and therefore, inherently derivative. 10.Optional: ________ is the best artist No one speaks for the dead 11. Once you realize the work is priceless, all they can offer you is chump 12.change.
Inside Rumble House : We spin a wheel to come up with 3 random ideas, but we really encourage people to ignore those ideas if they wanted to. They’re just there if you need something to go off from. One of the nice things about Wednesdays though is that you don’t have to take anything seriously. You can be cheeky and funny. Sometimes, it’s just fun to cut loose. Almost like you’re not trying too hard. Everyone can come from 7 to 9. Anybody can drop in and meet with us. We auction the work by 9. If the person sells a piece, then they split the sale with us, half and half. In the summer, we’re here all the time. When we’re here, you can come paint with us anytime. Thursdays, we have figure drawing. There’s a charge for that, but that’s to pay the model.Thursdays, 7 to 9. The first Friday of every month, we have improv.
A gallery, a studio, and a learning space Event type:Visual arts Great for: The art-curious or the art-lover Location: Rumble House Live Art, 1136 8 Ave SW, Calgary, AB T2P When: Every Wednesday, 7-10 pm Cost: Free for artists and the public. Includes a no pressure opportunity to purchase art at the closing auction.
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RICH I paint a lot of Jessica – my girlfriend. For me, it is not so much inspiration, but it’s more like I just constantly create. I’ve always been more hyper active that way. I’m not sure what drives it as a compulsion, but for me, I don’t ever get like a black out. I’ve never had a creative block. I get cramps but never creative blocks. That’s how I let the pressure out, by just making something. Jess is always near by, and she’s kind of a convenient muse, but most of the time, I’m just painting for the sake of painting. She’s quite convenient to have around that I can paint her if something’s not burning in my mind. It’s more of a default that I just keep painting. When I was in school, I had a hard time sitting still, and if you flip through my notebooks, there’s just – over and over again – this side profile of a pilot crashing on an airplane. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realize that’s how I would calm myself down – just drawing somebody in a really intense, focused position. Sometimes when you’re way too excited, you can draw somebody who’s calm to try and calm down. Sometimes, when you’re feeling bombed out, you can draw yourself happy. I don’t think I was consciously doing it, but I think it was modifying my moods by drawing certain things. I think a lot of people learn to draw off of themselves, but my self-portraits were always about my moods.
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JESS Jess is a visual artist and the co-founder of Rumble House. She studied Sculpture at Alberta College of Art and Design. It is ironic enough that she had failed art in high school and wanted to prove to herself that she is an artist.
The Art Scene In Calgary : It’s growing really fast, and there are a lot of really dedicated people that are busting their humps to push something. I’ve seen a late night plaza show across the river. There were 30 dancers, and 10 films, and comedians, and I think they have a $10,000 evening that they’re pulling together on just sweat equity. Every Wednesday. I don’t know what the cover is. 5 bucks or something, you can drop in and watch the show. It’s something you’d see in New York.
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+AJAY MUSODI +JEANELLE NISPEROS +MARY MARIENO
This section features Hip-Hop, Contemporary, and Ballroom dancers of Calgary.