tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78157431062400225632024-02-19T01:51:07.468-05:00Manufactured Dissent: Interviews.7728.http://www.blogger.com/profile/01301901831519273051noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-47181750306440145112010-05-20T16:51:00.001-05:002010-05-20T16:52:49.582-05:00We've Moved!Check us out at our new home: http://manufactured-dissent.com.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-25763687361791660202009-12-16T14:16:00.010-05:002010-02-05T13:59:27.125-05:00Lindsey Meyers Interview<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGVjRB6I4MdMzRoEx5o2nps0cBCArdBpHBSyVe9PvA-2yFB6NUAqHNe0YBhPaAle0EmHvMXtjZoBkqZnRbfMi79xRN5kGOMKGUNv4YTxNnOfhKQ7hZdxWF4e6HC1Nt36cUpzM59NK6uH5S/s1600-h/FH000009-726517.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415915220055358114" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGVjRB6I4MdMzRoEx5o2nps0cBCArdBpHBSyVe9PvA-2yFB6NUAqHNe0YBhPaAle0EmHvMXtjZoBkqZnRbfMi79xRN5kGOMKGUNv4YTxNnOfhKQ7hZdxWF4e6HC1Nt36cUpzM59NK6uH5S/s320/FH000009-726517.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><br /><p class="mobile-photo"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;"><strong>MD: For the record, state your name, age and occupation:</strong></span></p><p class="mobile-photo"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">LM: Lindsey Meyers, 33, Photographer & Mixed Media artist</span></p><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_quote"><p><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><strong>MD: </strong><span style="color:#000000;"><strong>Tell us about your work.</strong> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">LM: I make photographs because it’s the only thing that I have that is really my own-it makes me feel grounded. I never intended to become a photographer and I basically shoot whatever I feel like shooting, despite having been told that I am better off shooting only one thing….<br />I like to move people with images and push the envelope… any way that is- that makes me feel satisfied- really and truly. I shoot only 35 mm pictures on my Canon that I have had since I was like 14- no post-digital/Photoshop stuff- just old school shooting.<br />My mixed media work is a result of a random trip to the art supply store and years and years of writing in journals, on the backs of parking tickets, gas receipts, leftover strips of canvas, etc. The pieces are large format photographs on layered canvas with gels, glitter and acrylic paints and whatever else my mood allows for… seems people either gravitate towards the photos OR the mixed media, and most seem to have strong emotions about both which is, again, just how I like it. </span></span></span><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></p><br /><p><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;"><strong>MD: What is your background? How did you get involved with art?</strong> </span></p><p><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">LM: I was born in the Northeast suburbs of Chicago and I don’t really have any artists in my family that passed on any traits, but being creative was always just a part of me and of life. And I come from a family of really funny people.<br />I studied theatre at Steppenwolf in Chicago and Choate in Connecticut, and then graduated from The Chicago Academy for the Arts with a Major in Theater and a minor in Music. We were immersed in creativity at the Academy- in every honest aspect of art really, from set making to costume design to writing to performing, so having that experience throughout high school really changed my life and affirmed my relationship with the Arts.<br />I also danced at Joel Hall in Chicago for a long time and studied at Columbia College in Chicago for a few years. I graduated from USC with a degree in Psychology- combining both art and Psych made perfect sense. And, thankfully, Los Angeles was the catalyst for my photography and mixed media just coming out and into the world. It took me by surprise actually- it was a time in my life where art really did save me.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;"><strong>MD: Do you have any upcoming (or past) exhibitions/ shows you'd like to discuss?</strong> </span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">LM: I have shown work at the Agora Gallery in SoHo and out in Los Angeles which has been very cool. And I participated in a group show in Swainsboro, Georgia which was also great… the small town community there is trying exceedingly hard to expose its young people and residents to art and is doing an amazing job. It’s a true grass roots art movement down there and I am honored to have been a part of it.<br />One of my favorite shows has also been down South at The University of Mobile in Alabama, where I was given the "Southern Humor Award" for my mixed media piece called "America's Sweetheart." That, in itself, was funny and flattering.<br />I recently participated in the Ravenswood Art Walk in Chicago, and have a rather steady gig going with the Flat Iron Association’s "First Friday" and "smART Show" series at the Flat Iron Arts building in Wicker Park. I am hoping to get going on some shows in Logan Square this coming year- my neighborhood has a lot of street energy and art is being made everywhere… so it would be fantastic to get involved in the movement over here in 2010.</span></span></span></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPnRzxLt5xQK071s4LA9uMS4w8um7hBZHSdNCbSggMR0kUoeA7s0sQp4nuoyEvnGNv6EJsBBtgUNePuV_AOuVYGupxgLHKHzzbwhLQPfoRGNLrX5Axm0nHujBXVwIAeL91jp_pwqgcOZbX/s1600-h/Check+My+Ride+%232-727848.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415915224284203570" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPnRzxLt5xQK071s4LA9uMS4w8um7hBZHSdNCbSggMR0kUoeA7s0sQp4nuoyEvnGNv6EJsBBtgUNePuV_AOuVYGupxgLHKHzzbwhLQPfoRGNLrX5Axm0nHujBXVwIAeL91jp_pwqgcOZbX/s320/Check+My+Ride+%232-727848.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;"><strong>MD: Is any of your work political?</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">LM: Much of my work seems to have a political edge to it whether intentional or unintentional. That is not always welcomed in the art world. I like to explore gentrification, socio-economic issues, race and gender issues, etc., and I love the different dynamics, in landscape and in content, both above and below the Mason-Dixon Line… it’s my little fascination.<br />I do try to focus on our being human and together and similar and not on what keeps on separated. I have found that the ideologies present in the city of Chicago are not such a far cry from those that people like to believe are only ways of thinking and being in the American South. People here hate to admit that.<br />I derive so much of my inspiration from the underground music scene and graffiti movement that I was immersed in throughout my teenage years and in my early twenties. Street art is and has always been political, and I have much respect and admiration for all of the street artists who have paved the way for artists like me and for work like mine. It’s empowering to say it, whether on a brick wall in an alley or through a lens and a moment in time.</span></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzjj5-4dzfahwkMxMnT3CtyKioG_8DR4qc0kjStEQK76kqamKfs670hSCtFY_G4_bZ-fHNAMeovqGvZyGLlQDqSg_Kuvw3e-W0An0jei97Jmomn0S8MnaClRy6AuH2cr1-FGjX0m7gi71E/s1600-h/000_2425_edited-729165.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415915231975302898" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzjj5-4dzfahwkMxMnT3CtyKioG_8DR4qc0kjStEQK76kqamKfs670hSCtFY_G4_bZ-fHNAMeovqGvZyGLlQDqSg_Kuvw3e-W0An0jei97Jmomn0S8MnaClRy6AuH2cr1-FGjX0m7gi71E/s320/000_2425_edited-729165.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;"><strong>MD: Have you held any jobs/ careers that you'd like to discuss?</strong> </span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">LM: I have done everything you can think of: dishwasher, waitress, coat check girl, nanny, school teacher, paralegal… the list goes on. I am a terrible, terrible waitress by the way. I always knew that I should stick with everything that made me relatively happy and usually paid the bills in order to get home and to create art on the dining room floor in the middle of the night. </span></span></span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />Other than washing enormous pots of bean soup, I have liked most of these jobs- by far, teaching was the best. I taught middle school in California and preschool here in Chicago, and both of those experiences dramatically changed my life as well. All in all though, being a stay-at-home mom to my girls and continuing to make art has been the best combination to date…. </span><br /></p></span></span><p><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><strong>MD: Any amusing anecdotes regarding your work</strong></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><strong>?</strong> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">LM: I usually get strange looks while shooting, and have had a range of shooting experience- from extremely scary to deeply and emotionally moving… usually I am asked if I am a cop or with a newspaper. It always makes me laugh to get asked if I am with the police though.<br />When I got told to “Fuck off” and was spat at on Milwaukee Avenue, I felt like I had gotten what I needed that day. But my best experience was talking to a Pastor named Andrew in Vicksburg, Mississippi- he was also pumping gas from the truck to the station. We discussed the light. I still carry his card in my wallet almost seven years later.</span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><strong>What are you currently reading?</strong> </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><u>Matzo ball Gumbo, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, French Quarter Fiction, Coastal Living Magazine (it keeps me dreaming).</u></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;"><strong>Favorite movies?</strong> </span><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">Harold & Maude, Paris, The Wedding Singer, Away We Go, Ma Vie En Rose, Revolutionary Road<br /></span></p><br /><p><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;"><strong>Music you like:</strong> </span><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Twilight Singers, Ed Harcourt, Kings of Leon, Explosions in the Sky, Nina Simone, Ray Lamontagne, and Patti Griffin. </span></span></span></p><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJbLhyQBkDrDL4DFErwXRLjPbmlYlHaJFLyzWP8rWClW9QuWWcYot1zzH-8lXkXLZ7OfGwkvzISRZG4SQATSuZHLnMU7R3eyqGC_JThyd_gZbNvASPf89RM5JGyRG5Vj2cRFKi89vSfg4Y/s1600-h/0017868-R2-048-22A-730664.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5415915242596695298" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJbLhyQBkDrDL4DFErwXRLjPbmlYlHaJFLyzWP8rWClW9QuWWcYot1zzH-8lXkXLZ7OfGwkvzISRZG4SQATSuZHLnMU7R3eyqGC_JThyd_gZbNvASPf89RM5JGyRG5Vj2cRFKi89vSfg4Y/s320/0017868-R2-048-22A-730664.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><p></span></span></span><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;"><strong>MD: What are some of your interests?</strong> </span></p><p><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;">LM: Traveling, baking, making music, hanging out with my girls, throwing parties and surrounding myself with good friends & family… nothing beats good eats and good drink and lingering well into the night.<br />And although it appears cliché, I enjoy being charitable. I always try to give to the Tipitina's Foundation in New Orleans, which raises money for NOLA schools and provides opportunities for musicians to succeed in the creative world. Giving back rocks- you can always spare a little something.<br /></span></p><br /><p><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><strong>Favorite visual artists?</strong> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Banksy, Sally Mann, Mackenzie Thorpe and Mary Ellen Mark </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#000000;"><strong>MD: If someone were to come to your town/ city (Chicago) to visit, what places/ bars/ parks/ events etc should they be sure to check out?</strong></span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;">LM: 3rd Coast Café in the Gold Coast, the Lakefront and Lake Shore Drive, Logan Square, Blues Fest, Country Music Festival, Rosa's Blues Bar in Logan Square and Café Spiaggia for the best peach Asti and gnocchi on the planet.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><strong>Your website(s):</strong> <a href="http://www.lindseymeyers.com/" target="_blank">http://www.lindseymeyers.com/</a></span></span></span></p></div></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-55014072926505961592009-11-30T06:43:00.018-05:002009-12-17T20:17:04.345-05:00Laura Prieto-Velasco<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsFZWkU4huTOUfMQr2OueilsjlOAwU-AHOTciyMsLScov260EnkC3NIT82szVMxOYGsw42FRSCqLy4VTBHdW7bGcd4GkMA94z1xhYREgDPFaUQ0O-Xo-c7lwtavnpDCQhOkE8mScC4TGpH/s1600/NEW+SPLASH-738526.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409861085645190898" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsFZWkU4huTOUfMQr2OueilsjlOAwU-AHOTciyMsLScov260EnkC3NIT82szVMxOYGsw42FRSCqLy4VTBHdW7bGcd4GkMA94z1xhYREgDPFaUQ0O-Xo-c7lwtavnpDCQhOkE8mScC4TGpH/s320/NEW+SPLASH-738526.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p class="mobile-photo">Laura's metalsmithing process is an enigma; she finds her best work is made when she is simultaneously being OCD and making a HUGE mess (it's all about balance, yes?)...instead of keeping a diary, Laura has been keeping a collection of daily detritus samples (pictures please!)...having worked with metal for the past decade, Laura's still intrigued and obsessed with the material; perhaps it's the crystalline structure? Its response to fire? Its recycle-ability? Even when working with other materials, Laura finds she treats just about everything she touches as if it were metal. One time, for example, Laura tried to rivet together a wood frame, only to fail miserably and leave some sweet hammer-marks on the surface (hey, live and learn, right?)...</p><p class="mobile-photo">Website: <a href="http://www.lauraprietovelasco.com/">http://www.lauraprietovelasco.com/</a><br />Blog: <a href="http://www.skrapmetal.wordpress.com/">http://www.skrapmetal.wordpress.com/</a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQCjNELZTvKH4LCDchvdqJzWxWfxKtscpZlKmVIptxbOW8b3CmLS2B5pwL9L8fOvXJ2GH0PE3yyhJX2e6HpoWmCK_cjms9oDEVfVANJSZEEYJvBCd9OExCVJZ9JRM8g2QlgtO6aJpkvGVl/s1600/Zombie+Brooch+1-739864.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409861095250697282" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQCjNELZTvKH4LCDchvdqJzWxWfxKtscpZlKmVIptxbOW8b3CmLS2B5pwL9L8fOvXJ2GH0PE3yyhJX2e6HpoWmCK_cjms9oDEVfVANJSZEEYJvBCd9OExCVJZ9JRM8g2QlgtO6aJpkvGVl/s320/Zombie+Brooch+1-739864.jpg" border="0" /></a></p>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-86714606287385939162009-11-11T10:57:00.012-05:002009-11-11T11:07:09.069-05:00James Swanson: Artist and the traveler<span style="font-family:times new roman;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402876435684190770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 131px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsm-zRwVmeE0MeE67hUZfflM1jQlAomQbNEfJYEUTqSfT-h9cuC4b_vLST2wHjNVqvM1AVvsMgd8urlMEwdu17rxEKZ4kuKH2OC8VaqzSXhFJB920jfMzvGXwGUbQ7FFQ-nHmQupNY4d-i/s400/BEACHWOOD_AT_HALF_MOON_BAY.jpg" border="0" /><br /></span><div><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;font-size:14pt;"><div><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;"><div style="font-family:times new roman,new york,times,serif;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>MD: Tell us about your work.</strong> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">JS: I've been working on a series of paintings called "Painting from Afar - the Artist and the Travelers' Journeys." I'm trying to travel the world in paint with the help and the travel experiences of friends, new and old.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">The friends are normal Travelers from all over the world, that as the Artist, I have somehow met through this project. The Travelers share their stories and pictures with me and I share the journey with brush on canvas with them. It's a journey with many twists and turns.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">I've met some wonderful and crazy people so far that I would have never met were it not for this idea. Like a couple who live in an RV and drive around the country fly fishing, or hill walkers in England who need to see what's over the next ridge, or a bird watcher in <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(0,102,204) 1px dashed">Seattle</span>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">It is a collaborative effort between the Artist and the Traveler to make the art. Each Traveler, story, and painting is blogged about from start to finish, with the blog staying with the painting to tell its story. I have been able to make some really nice pieces so far and have many pieces to paint, but I'm always on the look out for new Traveling friends, so come join me in this adventure.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402876758380289474" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 202px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidZFOwTZHaAPWjfS83mpRi3TpJrhAdMHLGFWNrMcefQQ675RNJIoBxXoxhgK_wRUL4v7TrvISsfh_2E01xu0caI21zg0RIztOe40olNaL57HsfXcj1HZOW0cP4UlTP1sZ4rDtsHXEsDfVD/s400/Matts_Church.jpg" border="0" />MD: What is your background? How did you get involved with art?</span></strong></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">JS: I started out my Art career as an Illustrator out of college, painting covers and ads for magazines, and was very successful at it, winning advertising and design awards for my work. I always joked that my art portfolio has traveled around the world, while I sat in my studio. That's part of how I came up with this concept.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">The others parts were a mix mesh of needs wants and wishes that this concept answered for me. 1 - I'm not a very good traveler myself, but I love history and research. 2 - I live in <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(0,102,204) 1px dashed">Chicago</span> and for a landscape painter, winter is a tough time to paint. And also being the Prairie State doesn't really help when things are pretty much flat to look at. 3 - I wanted more out of my paintings. I wanted them to have a real story and not just be a pretty landscape painting or portrait. I also wanted each painting to have its own unique idea but still be tied to the other paintings in the series.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">I'm just starting to send out feelers about this concept to galleries for shows, but the last art show I was in I won the Best of Show prize with one of the travel paintings.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>MD: Is any of your work political?</strong> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">JS: With my art I'm trying to pull things and people together, so I do try and stay away from political issues. But that being said, one of my paintings did have something to do about endangered wetlands in California. I just didn't know it at the time when I met the Traveler for the painting. Turned out to be one of my favorite paintings so far in the series.</span></p><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402877008741573986" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 319px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih3je2SzBJdTYk-iTHG8D0TwFi62Gxz-tGlzcIWtmijd5vTAwtS5SpPoJyuZ-xoAx4V6rv5aqSifu7lp8vdBSpNRiTCSrv9_BQ8NZoKgDWsDV6u5_4KeNkXMIXYNm4OxyB66lHzV2Yh1Um/s400/Time_Traveler_of_Loch_Ness.jpg" border="0" /><br /></span><p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">MD: What are you currently reading/ listening to?</span></strong></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">JS: Current books I'm reading besides the art books that I read over and over again such as "Oil Painting, the workshop Experience" by Ted Goerschner, would be The Saxon Tales series by Bernard Cornwell, Dirty Job by Christopher Moore and Death of a Maid by <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(0,102,204) 1px dashed">M.C. Beaton</span>. I listen to a lot of things when I work. When I start a painting I like to listen to classical music for the rhythm. But when I get down to finishing a painting I listen to books on tape; murder mysteries are always good.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">MD: Favorite comic strips/ comic books/ graphic novels?</span></strong></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">JS: Danger Girl by J. Scot Campbell. One of the best-drawn comics that I've ever seen.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402876897342650482" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 194px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhvokN5pMHaODfYqUgX2knGUksSZ7fKQ9DcIeEfuVVnR6qZl_FKEGEITMITYHT470dWo0u_-kUj28doGImA0WX6c2ODJGEMzM04Bm6_5fj6vC5uUIvtW-rjSyb3MgIwwvRwiJ39aUn-CRM/s400/Orange_Forest.jpg" border="0" />MD: Favorite visual artists?</strong> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">JS: NC Wyeth, Colley Whisson and Jim Dine.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>MD: Favorite movies?</strong> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">JS: The Commitments.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5402876611412050626" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCo5P-0ykYRbt_EFShw-VcU3Q2zSLcoVJkW26_mE7PmnkNnW-sKLbMPCSab52MQ4B6yAfAdFXaV4yWY_zh-MuOwHVVgqkFvbV0XmEnrEWmYSRUaYBTIK9wsnePjgHYnOAJWSY4-xTEywI-/s400/Loch_Dubh.jpg" border="0" />MD: If someone were to come to your town/ city to visit, what places/ bars/ parks/ events etc should they be sure to check out?</strong> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">JS: If you are coming to Chicago you must check out the museums and "the Bean" in <span style="BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(0,102,204) 1px dashed">Millennium Park</span>. And one of the best burgers in town can be had right there at Cafe in the park.</span></p><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Website(s):</span></strong></div></div></div><span style="color:#888888;"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">James Swanson<br />Theartistandthetraveler.org<br /></span><a href="http://paintingfromafar.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">http://paintingfromafar.blogspot.com/</span></a><span style="font-family:times new roman;"> </span></span></div></div></div></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-67187086990903517862009-10-25T07:28:00.008-05:002009-10-25T08:35:16.516-05:00Michael Brucks<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5v5qdCRgWiNtFGVzdbtYG9gWvEbK1KkMkX5xg9NooM0L5F-JUrqOrXAsOl4JLwrBtnC1af6nRWRRRcoAiESUCLXSzrBULPHUaQ2HCVDG8rhPlMa8k_nYnaywEZrmGjpqk4OpFV97ge9Ht/s1600-h/oracle1-718560.jpg"></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4hxm0IPOCVLppDAbByeABJ1Z8qyDQzE7HvVefWJSjJSwQO4zQHFEBu2jJW-KQg56i0_uaaW06yMuiafDHdlEohWImInkn0j5q9zuuE8KKHZKIQn7FZx6eYtRZhvWsVJEVU58iw987QXuO/s1600-h/oracle5-719699.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396513536331828978" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4hxm0IPOCVLppDAbByeABJ1Z8qyDQzE7HvVefWJSjJSwQO4zQHFEBu2jJW-KQg56i0_uaaW06yMuiafDHdlEohWImInkn0j5q9zuuE8KKHZKIQn7FZx6eYtRZhvWsVJEVU58iw987QXuO/s320/oracle5-719699.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSgyigmKLx30IizLyj0LbBJQ-riWnMESgvMLt2c961VwdP7nufveKe9rDZEcSK08L2pU_jMOUIDggD_ogSaeZV4q-Dnf_HAdLUv6Oi9VtOsrm0UnIXKj_9erEmYmhoohnlGiV1Ba1f4h8w/s1600-h/fire_tongue_page+4-720850.jpg"></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9lvy4mO6vKiwjI0Zg-0G9Sh9n8VBs3dWs6RgmkpFhWK0Ju-ZpR467sIHdgBWdPIVLTLzV0n0PY1Na7a8ACITS2rAD92SD2fsYZolwoX-xd5cMIBWpkmU1mFmDR-HjlMjZo28XXdHMDhri/s1600-h/oracle_tinman7-721956.jpg"></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><p class="mobile-photo"><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span></p><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>Tell us about your work.</strong> </span><p></p><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_quote"><span style="font-family:georgia;">This new series of work started with the idea of creating a cult but without an ideology. As if someone was lost in a forest and accidentally stumbled upon some ancient, long-forgotten world rife with all its symbols, relics and artifacts but no understanding of what it meant. I loved that idea. I wish I could discover that world. Instead I made it myself!<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>What is your background? How did you get involved with art?</strong><br />I'm from the suburbs. I went to Catholic schools my whole life. My older brother and I used to put on mock masses when we were little ones in the middle of the night. I loved cartoons on Saturday mornings. I once made a promise to god that I would NEVER give up my Saturday morning cartoons! Alas, I grew up and discovered girls. But I always loved to draw and create narratives. It's just in my blood. I had to do it.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>Do you have any upcoming exhibitions/ shows you'd like to discuss?</strong> </span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">The new work had been planned to be exhibited by a not-for-profit organization called Gen Art. We had some problems but I love the people there and I really hope we can do the show together. </span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5v5qdCRgWiNtFGVzdbtYG9gWvEbK1KkMkX5xg9NooM0L5F-JUrqOrXAsOl4JLwrBtnC1af6nRWRRRcoAiESUCLXSzrBULPHUaQ2HCVDG8rhPlMa8k_nYnaywEZrmGjpqk4OpFV97ge9Ht/s1600-h/oracle1-718560.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396513529349347074" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5v5qdCRgWiNtFGVzdbtYG9gWvEbK1KkMkX5xg9NooM0L5F-JUrqOrXAsOl4JLwrBtnC1af6nRWRRRcoAiESUCLXSzrBULPHUaQ2HCVDG8rhPlMa8k_nYnaywEZrmGjpqk4OpFV97ge9Ht/s320/oracle1-718560.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Is any of your work political?</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">No. I'm officially apolitical. So many people shouting "Obama this" and "Obama that". Do all these people truly believe their destiny lies in the hands of some random dude? My future belongs to me. Who cares who's president.<br /></span><br /><strong><span style="font-family:georgia;">What themes does your work generally revolve around? </span><br /></strong><span style="font-family:georgia;">I remember watching Dustin Hoffman on "Inside the Actor's Studio" and he was telling a story of having dinner with Sir Lawrence Olivier. They had just finished filming "Marathon Man" together. Hoffman asked him "why do we do this?" and Olivier said, "you want to know why?" and then leaned over the table and stared him dead in the eye and whispered intensely "Look at me! Look at me! Look at me!"<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>What materials do you generally work with?</strong> </span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">Paper, Canvas, Wood, Oil, Acrylic and Charcoal. I love wood. I love cutting it. I love the smell of it.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>Did you study art in school?</strong> </span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">Yes. I too have one of those useless Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts! I met great people in school. School is a great place to strike up friendships and socially interact. But as a witty American writer once said, "never confuse your schooling with your education."<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>Have you held any jobs/ careers that you'd like to discuss?</strong> </span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">I once heard that Bruce Willis said that he got laid more as a bartender than an actor. I was a bartender once.</span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghpPg3sW0t-Iqo2HMN889T3Z8YiCkiDI0GLCprcnClgbYG7ZUeNhP9JbmrSnwcmqDQRgHahDot9fd_TcYYDJhcLXbrBo2_slWV7jZCd4AO5tM9v_hs2cMcxeP_DyO0BGr1qW25ECGE0VSc/s1600-h/red+cipher+detail2-725605.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396513564955449554" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghpPg3sW0t-Iqo2HMN889T3Z8YiCkiDI0GLCprcnClgbYG7ZUeNhP9JbmrSnwcmqDQRgHahDot9fd_TcYYDJhcLXbrBo2_slWV7jZCd4AO5tM9v_hs2cMcxeP_DyO0BGr1qW25ECGE0VSc/s320/red+cipher+detail2-725605.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>Any amusing anecdotes regarding your work?</strong> </span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">The nicest thing anyone said to me regarding my work was "you're fucking crazy! (dramatic pause) but in a good way."<br /><br /><strong>What are you currently reading?</strong> </span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">I found an old book publish in 1885 on "legerdemain" which is an old way of saying "sleight of hand." But I really just got it for the old instructional illustrations. I love those! But I don't read that often. I mostly just sit alone in my studio and stare at the wall or walk around and pretend things and talk to myself.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>Favorite movies?</strong><br />Braveheart, Apocalypto. I love strong archetypes and I don't think anyone does it better these days than Mel. I don't care what anyone says about him.<br /><br />Trois Couleurs: Rouge, Bleu, Blanc. The late Krzysztof Kieslowski made this trilogy and he's amazing at creating these compelling, intimate moments that really hit me in the gut. They don't seem to have a clear logical explanation to them. I value the gut much more than the head. He's dead now, but he had guts!</span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU-DkgWqd8ie_r4FbBvfYOqOgpAIWwsyl5ke5zfdTeLkVSwBljdarfUu_lYomXuEc2GnwoV61Fg4cTBY1HkE0q29HU5u6gDNSr13Y_enM5wy1JymIta9uKH3jtMeCweLUl8fXZFnMaX50E/s1600-h/mayan+page2-723202.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396513548810696034" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU-DkgWqd8ie_r4FbBvfYOqOgpAIWwsyl5ke5zfdTeLkVSwBljdarfUu_lYomXuEc2GnwoV61Fg4cTBY1HkE0q29HU5u6gDNSr13Y_enM5wy1JymIta9uKH3jtMeCweLUl8fXZFnMaX50E/s320/mayan+page2-723202.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>Music you like:</strong><br />Aphex Twin, Underworld, Marilyn Manson, Eminem, Old Metallica<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><strong><span style="font-family:georgia;">What are some of your interests?</span><br /></strong><span style="font-family:georgia;">Close-up magic, filmmaking, languages, mimicking accents... especially strong Russian ones like Sean Connery did in "The Hunt For Red October."</span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>Favorite comic strips/ comic books/ graphic novels?</strong><br />I used to love when Jae Lee did Sandman. I remember always hunting for anything that Bart Sears drew. I never read the stories though. But after finding out that "A History of Violence" was a graphic novel, I changed my mind! Great story! Great movie!<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>Favorite visual artists?</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">Luigi Serafini created a series of works called the Codex Seraphinianus. What an amazing idea! </span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyb-gdMghKjevXjxmdLfqoKpHJ8bkM-zBNyk94tbPxkHWRdu581FllFB-BJFV6sSZOrzL3tRvZJIZBknZQI7sqoGhBF7ZOeNdM7yKazmiBgDtIrXQgOzRRjC8Tu5eqUj4jLLxcQTB_v5ZA/s1600-h/Rorschach2-724591.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5396513556239042658" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyb-gdMghKjevXjxmdLfqoKpHJ8bkM-zBNyk94tbPxkHWRdu581FllFB-BJFV6sSZOrzL3tRvZJIZBknZQI7sqoGhBF7ZOeNdM7yKazmiBgDtIrXQgOzRRjC8Tu5eqUj4jLLxcQTB_v5ZA/s320/Rorschach2-724591.jpg" border="0" /></a></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><strong>If someone were to come to your town/ city to visit, what places/ bars/ parks/ events etc should they be sure to check out?</strong><br /></span><span style="font-family:georgia;">There is a tree growing in an alley way on Leavitt street (in the city of Chicago). I used to remember the crossroad but now I forget. But you should drive up and down Leavitt until you see this tree growing in an alley. It's magical!<br /><br /><strong>Your website(s):</strong><br /></span><a href="http://www.michaelbrucks.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:georgia;">http://www.michaelbrucks.com/</span></a> </div></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-72147858618262605722009-10-02T08:02:00.012-05:002009-10-02T09:36:41.485-05:00Ellie Brown Interview<span style="font-size:130%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387989672532879810" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 334px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5e7HnQYbIQOAjAyUmtKuqLg1YuXSSjX2xdWMBFPjLGV2TY7CtgNyoJP-6gajtPWkmXjuoYzQRWUZs1yBl7hunW-DtXMkIyHqlRzjTxaL4UFbKKKptOarqKIvUXYWztgtABHPESn5eEcR_/s400/TheForgottenSmile.jpg" border="0" /><br /></span><div><div><div><div><p class="gmail_quote" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; WORD-WRAP: break-word"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>For the record, please state your name, age and occupation.</strong> Ellie Brown, 34, Professor and Artist Marketing Consultant.</span></span></p><p class="gmail_quote" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; WORD-WRAP: break-word" type="cite"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Tell us about your work.</strong> My primary medium was photography for many years, but now also work in altered books and mixed media. My subject matter varies, but always comes from a personal or documentary perspective. My largest project to date has been photographing my sisters for ten years which is now in a book called<i> Two Girls: My Sisters 1996-2006.</i></span></span></p><div class="gmail_quote"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div><p class="gmail_quote" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; WORD-WRAP: break-word" type="cite"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>What is your background? How did you get involved with art?</strong> I am from Boston and was raised by a mother who was an artist, so it seems that it was in my genes and I had no choice in the matter. I had always wanted to go to Massachusetts College of Art, and so I did and then later, I went to San Jose State for my MFA. </span></span></p><div class="gmail_quote"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div><p class="gmail_quote" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; WORD-WRAP: break-word" type="cite"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>What are some of your goals and/ or plans?</strong> Currently my goal is to get my </span><a href="http://popsicleartistmarketing.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-size:130%;">artist marketing business</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> off of the ground. I would really be happy to teach, help other artists, make art and continue to exhibit actively. </span></span></p><div class="gmail_quote"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span></div><p class="gmail_quote" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; WORD-WRAP: break-word" type="cite"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>You currently have a solo exhibition in NY?</strong> Yes, at </span><a href="http://www.centerforbookarts.org/exhibits/archive/showdetail.asp?showID=190"><span style="font-size:130%;">Center for the Book Arts</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;"> in NYC. It is up until Dec. 5th and I'm giving a talk about my work there on October 28th. </span></span></p><span style="font-size:130%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387989792293297602" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 289px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEscScdgxkYgtdwlf6HkKGFI1yPod8BJTD88lfUeMDmRjvDXIrxhowHXa3xpfjYTsPJqvWbtZD0MWH8mSQKVA-mmdXCaXSGVLsGf0ZdW9xuQQFPE1e5UBHxZZiY7bxG6rFW1sro_4UV2R3/s400/elliebrownfront_copy.jpg" border="0" /><br /></span><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; WORD-WRAP: break-word" type="cite"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Have you held any jobs/ careers that you'd like to discuss?</strong> I have had some truly terrible jobs which I don't care to relive. Some of the best jobs I've had have been teaching at various colleges when I have a class where the students are engaged and I feel like I have actually taught them something. </span></span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; WORD-WRAP: break-word" type="cite"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Any amusing anecdotes regarding your work?</strong> In my collaborative work, </span><a href="http://sevendayrelationship.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-size:130%;">Ten Days in the CAPSULE</span></a><span style="font-size:130%;">, I gained a strange degree of fame from people who were following the project and I have since become friends with some of them! </span></span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; WORD-WRAP: break-word" type="cite"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>What are you currently reading?</strong> The Happiness of Architecture by Alain de Botton.</span></span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; WORD-WRAP: break-word" type="cite"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Favorite movies?</strong> The Graduate may just be at the top of my list for its humor and cinematography. </span></span></p><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; WORD-WRAP: break-word" type="cite"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Playlist of a few favorite songs:</strong> Oh no, what genre? I was a DJ for many years so I always think in Genres. I'll give you a quick soul playlist since that was one of my favorite things to play. </span></span></p><ul><li><span style="font-size:130%;">Listen Here,<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span><span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"></span>Valorie Keys<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:130%;">Soul Time,<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span><span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"></span>Shirley Ellis<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:130%;">California Soul,<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span>Marlena Shaw<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:130%;">Nothing But A Heartache,<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span>The Flirtations</span></li><li><span style="font-size:130%;">Date With The Rain,<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span>Eddie Kendricks <span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"></span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:130%;">Move On Up,<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span><span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"></span>Curtis Mayfield<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:130%;">I Believe in Miracles,<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span>The Jackson Sisters<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:130%;">Tainted Love,<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span><span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"></span>Gloria Jones<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:130%;">Harlem Shuffle,<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span>Bob And Earl<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span></span></li><li><span style="font-size:130%;">Able Mable,<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span><span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"></span>Mable John<span style="WHITE-SPACE: pre"> </span></span></li></ul><div><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>What are some of your interests besides art?</strong> Looking at architecture, walking around cities, laying in the grass, people watching, good films, scuba diving, seeing everything I can in the world. </span></span></div><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387990240319612722" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 312px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj62nmaiqGd4XkL8PXf7t_oCVOf_Myyrsm42C1m2rQHYALsu3nYUP6CsCd5JRXgTtRyyAnv5I86TKCLXxm0orPeMEdKbWz0743nW6JjVJ4rDrKV0pcluhO9NGR1rf5MdtmO2GSFNQ5J5eEY/s400/GiveLovetheAir.jpg" border="0" /><br /></span><div></div><div><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Historic figure you'd like to have a drink with, given the chance?</strong> Mick Jagger circa 1965</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:130%;"></span></div><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" type="cite"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Favorite comic strips/ comic books/ graphic novels?</strong> I'm a big Daniel Clowes fan. I also just read Black Hole by Charles Burns.<br /><br /></span><p><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Favorite visual artists?</strong> That is a long list, sort of like music, needs to be broken down by genre for me. I'll just name a few random ones in no particular order: Olafur Eliasson, Spencer Tunick, Fred Tomaselli, Joseph Cornell, Kara Walker, Emmet Gowin, Sarah Morris, Sally Mann.</span></span><span style="font-family:Calibri;"></p></span><p><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></p><div class="im"><span style="font-size:12;"><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Websites/ Links:</strong> </span></div><div><a href="http://www.elliebrown.com/"><span style="font-size:130%;">http://www.elliebrown.com</span></a></div><div><a href="http://popsicleartistmarketing.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">http://popsicleartistmarketing.blogspot.com/</span></a></div><div><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/elliebrown" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">http://www.flickr.com/photos/elliebrown</span></a></div><div><a href="http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/731935" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/731935</span></a></div><div><a href="http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/336532" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;">http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/336532</span></a></div></span></div></div></div></div></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-16183090824109609602009-09-21T18:05:00.007-05:002009-09-22T10:32:37.114-05:00Rarebirds<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEielsb1Bge_4CCnFhXK3IIPT2xbJNHC3iwu9JLQ-VDNW2U_I7Tu8uuIEkB85NNOkoK8WBGucHtXBpMFj_he1IZrAfgaU0lFRTWPazHpjt4UoLat-lSdx9n640qyRtV3Z82P71lLkLZLxxqf/s1600-h/551519798_l-734202.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3vBRbX3rzdWxG8ajmV-jjNnCYITAgffeZJUmXFuTMFqWFKnwrwMXprdNyJn_fYp8FinlkxfnX-Ncmkchwhmh4Gbw5alu8kYZmpeqtuKQOslToqCMoDi_Y1rGCt2QmTYJ3pADq1p47sUI/s1600-h/510157097_680cb19292-731740.jpg"></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha4TzBaCmvun2u_cJLxA09pE7MTrAqNnkmj62jezbHRrjW5MHEirLFbsDE85KA1lyMfOVr_wo2oCAWNgdyRVlUjeuPm_Xi8Gk_3vBxQLDKNLREiyCSUgKHT_KwLa84rcwLjV6PLosdX53o/s1600-h/l_fd390856aa65dc798f6cf9cc3b8cc7e3-749945.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384060833296155538" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha4TzBaCmvun2u_cJLxA09pE7MTrAqNnkmj62jezbHRrjW5MHEirLFbsDE85KA1lyMfOVr_wo2oCAWNgdyRVlUjeuPm_Xi8Gk_3vBxQLDKNLREiyCSUgKHT_KwLa84rcwLjV6PLosdX53o/s320/l_fd390856aa65dc798f6cf9cc3b8cc7e3-749945.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLlFaRMXZCh3JL-CLQMWcKBgAFt9u7XxtLz7bhxDQ4LoxsXOASQwU0QCof7HxROBXnGX8kpUf5PiCs7Co4QiIBH1NL2nbVmwOUZICRAwOU25Q8TNGwdccWQDx9mihuY5G6hdvS1A7EkTIE/s1600-h/l_78fbf64bfbae4df11c81568d3daa9c88-746340.jpg"></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><em>We recently met up with Carolynne McNeel, lead singer of the Rarebirds. </em></p><p class="mobile-photo"><em>(Philadelphia) Performing this Thursday, September 24th at JD McGillicuddy's Regina Spektor after-party featuring Rarebirds & Broken Prayers. Doors open 10:30pm, $5 admission, 421 N. 7th Street - between Spring Garden and Callowhill.</em></p><div class="gmail_quote"><p>MD: Tell us about your music.</p><p>We sort of have a broad range - I generally categorize us as "bluesy indie rock," poppy at times, mellow and sort of country-ish at times. We'll go from really quiet to full-on rocking out, from one song to the next, or sometimes within a song.</p><p>MD: Have you recorded?</p><p>Yep, two albums: Flight Patterns (2005) [6 songs] and Burial at Sea (2007) [11 songs]. Hopefully we'll be recording our 3rd next year! </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLlFaRMXZCh3JL-CLQMWcKBgAFt9u7XxtLz7bhxDQ4LoxsXOASQwU0QCof7HxROBXnGX8kpUf5PiCs7Co4QiIBH1NL2nbVmwOUZICRAwOU25Q8TNGwdccWQDx9mihuY5G6hdvS1A7EkTIE/s1600-h/l_78fbf64bfbae4df11c81568d3daa9c88-746340.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384060820848812850" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLlFaRMXZCh3JL-CLQMWcKBgAFt9u7XxtLz7bhxDQ4LoxsXOASQwU0QCof7HxROBXnGX8kpUf5PiCs7Co4QiIBH1NL2nbVmwOUZICRAwOU25Q8TNGwdccWQDx9mihuY5G6hdvS1A7EkTIE/s320/l_78fbf64bfbae4df11c81568d3daa9c88-746340.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p>MD: Do you tour?</p><p>Rarebirds hasn't really toured per se. We do out of town shows here and there, but we stick mostly to Philly (due to kids and jobs, etc).</p><p>We did just recently play a really big outdoor amphitheater in Greensburg, PA (just outside of Pittsburgh), where we were treated like absolute rock stars, complete with signing autographs. That was a nice change from the bar scene in Philly (which I have no problem with either, just sometimes it's nice to branch out and play different sorts of venues and crowds). This summer we'll have played 5 different outdoor shows, ranging from quaint block parties to big festivals.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs4kQIfJisAa5ci3GgMyYCPk98HGphDwPKbkuS8Umdsu0z7W9OCFGf6OmuKKzrh_wOLLYgQxuXYhbhWGgpt0F3Py6Bf66Orgu_0s800IovZr_F2bQZ3EZiP4RpPx-MqIPE-i5-MjPyzS09/s1600-h/3161356209_ab806360e3-741934.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384060800698143106" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs4kQIfJisAa5ci3GgMyYCPk98HGphDwPKbkuS8Umdsu0z7W9OCFGf6OmuKKzrh_wOLLYgQxuXYhbhWGgpt0F3Py6Bf66Orgu_0s800IovZr_F2bQZ3EZiP4RpPx-MqIPE-i5-MjPyzS09/s320/3161356209_ab806360e3-741934.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p>MD: Tell us a little about the band.</p><p>CM: Rarebirds formed in early 2004 after my old band April Disaster disbanded in 2003. I took a brief stint at performing solo, and then as "the Carolynne McNeel Three," even after we started playing as a 4-piece, and the name was a misnomer.</p><p>When we set to work on our first record during the summer-fall-winter of 2004 we decided it'd be a good time to give the band a proper name, so that's where Rarebirds came in. </p><p>The band has a history of shared musicians from other local Philly bands. I started playing with Rory Connell (on guitar, sometimes bass) from Raccoon (which went on to become Dr. Dog, although Rory didn't continue on with Dr. Dog), and then with Dave Dworanczyk (Secession Movement), then Adam Herndon (Faux Slang, Run Runner, Barking Spiders, Elevator Parade, This Radiant Boy) joined the band playing bass. That was the line up for a couple years. Rory stepped down, and we introduced keys to the mix with Rick Hass (Faux Slang, Barking Spiders, This Radiant Boy) to fill out the sound.</p><p>In 2006, Keith Forsythe who had just moved to Philly from North Carolina (where he had played mostly in metal bands!) joined on guitar. That year we began recording our 2nd record which we produced and recorded ourselves. It took about a year or so to finish.</p><p>I don't remember exactly when, but Rick and Adam stepped down (probably some time in 2007). Each had many other obligations with different bands, jobs and getting masters/ doctorates. Adam stuck around and filled in when we needed a bass player, and we had Alex Yaker (Roomtone, Honey Church) who I also play with in Grammar Debate filling in on bass. During that whole time (fall of '07), we started playing with Lara Manogg (the Lara and Joe Show, which is a children's music show, and Elastic Medium) on keys.</p><p>Dave left the band, and in fall of 2008 we solidified our line-up with John Ziga on drums (whom I had played with in April Disaster... talk about coming full circle... he's also played in True if Destroyed, Rizzo Machine and Army of the Red Museum) and Ben Morgan on bass (Be Careful Little Hands, The Sand Family, Slipping Into Sublimnity, and Lexicon). You may also recognize him as MC Digga, the German rapper.</p><p>So our current line up is as follows:</p><p>Carolynne McNeel: guitar, vocals, occasional keys, violin</p><p>Keith Forsythe: guitar, backing vocals </p><p>Lara Manogg: keys, backing vocals</p><p>Ben Morgan: bass, backing vocals</p><p>John Ziga: drums, backing vocals</p><p>Lara is actually pregnant at the moment (due early October), so Alex Yaker is going to be filling in on keys for a few months.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC3vBRbX3rzdWxG8ajmV-jjNnCYITAgffeZJUmXFuTMFqWFKnwrwMXprdNyJn_fYp8FinlkxfnX-Ncmkchwhmh4Gbw5alu8kYZmpeqtuKQOslToqCMoDi_Y1rGCt2QmTYJ3pADq1p47sUI/s1600-h/510157097_680cb19292-731740.jpg"></a></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix2wTAZ_M5slq9pU2LZW3Jc1aZPzx_Q3g44hzqHSIOmEj4ojCpZQB_UkI8ddwnKF8-US9N4pbSvgyE2utI5i5QJ1BAyVqS7yNbAsbSGzS__J6CQGqGmt4zBkTOGXs_38OfQkEPXxQVRKxN/s1600-h/3161166145_bbbe6f97ae-737152.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384060781384050786" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix2wTAZ_M5slq9pU2LZW3Jc1aZPzx_Q3g44hzqHSIOmEj4ojCpZQB_UkI8ddwnKF8-US9N4pbSvgyE2utI5i5QJ1BAyVqS7yNbAsbSGzS__J6CQGqGmt4zBkTOGXs_38OfQkEPXxQVRKxN/s320/3161166145_bbbe6f97ae-737152.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p>MD: Do you have any other musical projects you're involved with right now?</p><p>I've played with Grammar Debate for about 5 years now - I play violin, guitar, keys and vocals (mostly backing vocals).</p><p>I also play with Roomtone on occasion (vocals and percussion) and I played in Ports of Call (which has since disbanded, earlier this year).</p><p>Ben has his alter-ego, MC Digga where he's a German Rapper - it's actually pretty amazing to watch!</p><p>Lara currently plays in Elastic Medium and the Lara and Joe Show.</p><p>John and Keith don't play in any other bands at this time (although I think John may be starting an all drum band with his 4 1/2 year old son).<br /></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcGYVWMhdVv1sKt8aCVqstPUCIJDiDGKCcLzdkrGVWcdfqtXWkranKE5i_lWuYRGuWIIOBRZDzSWyLSzE4lryD66ATCt0_rkR3Mo-zv0OcZIcogcF7guqnf4bOE9vmH0Z4UBaET7WtfE0K/s1600-h/l_7c24e1e4d8dd1c53e41bc68540c8da64-744145.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384060811022783010" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcGYVWMhdVv1sKt8aCVqstPUCIJDiDGKCcLzdkrGVWcdfqtXWkranKE5i_lWuYRGuWIIOBRZDzSWyLSzE4lryD66ATCt0_rkR3Mo-zv0OcZIcogcF7guqnf4bOE9vmH0Z4UBaET7WtfE0K/s320/l_7c24e1e4d8dd1c53e41bc68540c8da64-744145.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p>MD: What are some of your goals and/ or plans?</p><p>We mainly want to have fun and put out records that people like/ make them want to come out and see us play.</p><p>We're happiest when we have a really good and receptive crowd. I'd much rather play to an empty room with like 2 people in it who are really enjoying themselves than a packed room at a club where people are just standing there not showing any emotion whatsoever.</p><p>Of course I think we'd all love to be able to make a living doing this (wink wink- if anyone reading this interview wants to make that happen!) but at the same time we have a very realistic vision.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6rLV8rbH7vKt4VrjKL2HOc6ZFEHgiFiB3ZLf_SZwHMyUsW9TjbYr88Yqg6D9oRR0BzmcsbbS36coMOGydyw9vonVy9wKsrs1WVIyLUR1_NfHgWe0Iohp5yCQSye80Ta4y-w5sBu_UnctN/s1600-h/3161167511_b9d715c647-739768.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384060789979188738" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6rLV8rbH7vKt4VrjKL2HOc6ZFEHgiFiB3ZLf_SZwHMyUsW9TjbYr88Yqg6D9oRR0BzmcsbbS36coMOGydyw9vonVy9wKsrs1WVIyLUR1_NfHgWe0Iohp5yCQSye80Ta4y-w5sBu_UnctN/s320/3161167511_b9d715c647-739768.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p>MD: What are some of your interests (other than making music)?</p><p>Well, I am immersed in the arts. I have Mew Gallery which is a full time job (minus the paycheck to go with it!... the bar job and teaching is what pays the bills) so I'm constantly running the show there with my partner Lauren. We do everything from housekeeping, to keeping the books, to promoting all of our artists endlessly. So my own art generally takes a back burner to that. But i am driven to create, so I usually end up staying awake till 4 am making jewelry and anything else, whether the medium is fabric and my tools are needles and sewing machines, or whether it's encaustic and wood and I'm working with my hot plate and heat gun.</p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLlFaRMXZCh3JL-CLQMWcKBgAFt9u7XxtLz7bhxDQ4LoxsXOASQwU0QCof7HxROBXnGX8kpUf5PiCs7Co4QiIBH1NL2nbVmwOUZICRAwOU25Q8TNGwdccWQDx9mihuY5G6hdvS1A7EkTIE/s1600-h/l_78fbf64bfbae4df11c81568d3daa9c88-746340.jpg"></a></p><p>MD: Historic figure you'd like to have a drink with, given the chance?</p><p>James Brown, Amelia Earhart, Elvis, Ray Charles, Lee Harvey Oswald.</p><p>MD: Favorite movies? </p><p>Anything with Bill Murray! Aside from that I don't really watch a whole lot of movies. I do love old Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly movies though, and Alfred Hitchcock.</p><p>MD: Your websites:</p><p><a href="http://www.myspace.com/rarebirds" target="_blank">www.myspace.com/rarebirds</a> </p><p><a href="http://www.rarebirdsmusic.com/" target="_blank">http://www.rarebirdsmusic.com/</a> </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMhU7hs3nLV3xLsfQ8TO1z1qxBM9MqBGd3a7w-br2fr1kEbbTIO4AgQTmvVtRyKIzwx5AZuT8jgD_4wN76m9PWZIswm9cuOegXu-f98RPj2GbFIcsOMxljpzwoV5GZ1CCiu_h-LDunQcy_/s1600-h/l_fae45019d7f5421ba072f671662ab041-748028.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5384060830049733618" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMhU7hs3nLV3xLsfQ8TO1z1qxBM9MqBGd3a7w-br2fr1kEbbTIO4AgQTmvVtRyKIzwx5AZuT8jgD_4wN76m9PWZIswm9cuOegXu-f98RPj2GbFIcsOMxljpzwoV5GZ1CCiu_h-LDunQcy_/s320/l_fae45019d7f5421ba072f671662ab041-748028.jpg" border="0" /></a></p></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-3753083704463126312009-08-21T16:42:00.016-05:002009-08-21T17:07:30.704-05:00Joe Tagg/ Solaram<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372538722649737858" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiHKM5gXirxP-aQHARo1FpFSGfq54wHJaLOXViuKEz3mdbV6-a0rtbkUXBpbgR-3VyZMyCaoDnbIKO77WhPqYe1eZ_oVwOoSoyAapd6NEGEFJ082ZmPn7DjrHF2aSo5NKSAO3SWQZ3BFLa/s400/solaram.jpg" border="0" /><br /><div><div><div><div class="gmail_quote">JT: After 13 years of playing with The Three 4 Tens, I played my last show with the band on December 13th, 2008, at Mojo 13 in Wilmington, Delaware. It was a benefit show to help raise some money for the son of a good friend and colleague, Chris Tucker from the band, The Situation. Chris had passed away in an accident that summer. <p>The name of the new project is Solaram. I guess I started writing the bulk of the new material over the winter of 2008, with the exception of two of the tracks that I had left over from a few years back when I was playing with Himalaya. I started the actual recording part of it in February after I secured a contract with Rainbow Quartz. The album (Love And The Sweet Divine) should hopefully be out in October. I say hopefully, 'cause the date has changed something like three times already!</p><br />I've been working with Ryan Van Kriedt from The Asteroid #4. He's got a great ear! It's been great working together. Totally laid back. It doesn't hurt that we're on the same page as far as music goes, either. Ryan and I laid down most of the tracks. We had some help from my friend Mike from The Three 4 Tens and my friend Jeff on drums. Also, Brian and Jamie from Himalaya came in and did some guitars and pedal steel. All great players. </div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372538880021411010" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicnHNgjo9iyV47MgrjPNN8RkPvZGmqRwDGzp_QTFuyeY9jnMtqJ2t2B9D8QwhX4GpVEcDEzR-0Rv_DxJ1TbuQEpmqc1wrhFQbrpJWXXoyE1R9kAb_6VrYmwDkLYRPcteohIqdmu80Zr7ez/s400/solaram+c.jpg" border="0" /></div><br />MD: TELL US ABOUT THE MUSIC.<br /><br />JT: Well. I guess you could say it's a bit dark at times. I've lost quite a few family members and close friends over the past few years. Definitely rough, coping with all of it. I've had some other issues as well, and I guess this album captures that period of time perfectly, for me. My first love is, and will always be rock 'n roll, so the record's not this gloom and doom piece either.<br /><br />MD: A FEW FAVORITE SONGS BY OTHER ARTISTS?<br /><br />JT: I'm not too good with song titles. I have piles of cds. No cases or sleeves, all around the house. My girlfriend, Carla, hates it and lets me know often! I will say that anything by Zeppelin, The Beatles/Stones, The Who, The Pixies/Spacemen 3/Stone Roses...I can go on.<br /><br />MD: LAST CONCERT PERFORMANCE ATTENDED.<br /><br />JT: I haven't been getting out too much, especially since I started with this record. I know it's been a while...I'm gonna have to say Spiritualized at the TLA in Philly, last August!</div><div><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372538824570423570" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKwLGB-AWrlgzHb5q1kUnS5WtnKrWA1HKfrplTyaGLgFZTiO5UoAuGDJ5bgV433_uW7tYAYSHx19IuOCRluKDye-ULdMmJpUBnyJdaZYjGwWq3pNTg3YQDtseV6h67mpD6tOItumfqhTTi/s400/solaram+b.jpg" border="0" /><br />MD: WHAT ARE YOU READING?<br /><br />JT: I've been reading Songbook, by Nick Hornby. It's a collection of stories of different songs, and how they connect him with moments of his life. It's a pretty cool book, definitely worth checking out. Everybody has these songs...not necessarily these particular songs, but...<br /><br />MD: WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR GOALS OR PLANS?<br /><br />JT: Well, for the immediate future, finish this record and tour. I've already started work on the follow up. Other than that, maybe a couple weeks in Paris or Amsterdam or both. They're my two favorite places on earth.</div><div></div><div></div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5372538771885882130" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0OmB2Ut9DdjlBDhZMIhBVDiSFKE97JctAQtLMuvEjvj0P2RoRhHKnbne8krtTkFUkw56PRFPPaMMeYx2Z3_JH9y3mfVYB3RC37Agt1KR1kK-vQsgSSpdN1LrN-Qf_aj_FHk0Ih1Rjul-U/s400/solaram+a.jpg" border="0" /><br />MD: OTHER JOBS YOU HAVE HAD.<br /><br />JT: I've had a lot of other jobs. I worked at a movie theater, I worked with insulation in low income housing. I was an electrician's assistant, a carpenter's assistant. I worked at a wood shop, did demo work on houses in Jersey. House painting, clean-outs, moving furniture. The list goes on...<br /><br />MD: WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR INTERESTS?<br /><br />JT: I love film. I would love to score a movie some day. I also love to travel.<br /><br />MD: FAVORITE MOVIE?<br /><br />JT: 2001.<br /><br />MD: FAVORITE VISUAL ARTIST.<br /><br />JT: Jackson Pollock.<br /><br />Website: <a href="http://www.myspace.com/solaram09" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><span style="font-size:85%;color:#3366ff;">http://www.myspace.com/solaram09</span></a></div></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-47804685432358998772009-08-12T11:52:00.010-05:002009-08-12T14:14:36.000-05:00Mike Wolff / Mr.Doodle Interview<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC11eYOzqpgTkOXONx3X5NtacNnuBCupg1jjjdGy4hPMsMyzn9_Dtzdhy1N-A6bOzt4nY9O0VhTq31YaCo0mTyTDr3RMyFExeGOCWtb_pdi_TrBzIbpv6yRYu1PaTgxQmJIz9_ZYhJVSt4/s1600-h/marvins+dream-735725.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369121158296451378" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC11eYOzqpgTkOXONx3X5NtacNnuBCupg1jjjdGy4hPMsMyzn9_Dtzdhy1N-A6bOzt4nY9O0VhTq31YaCo0mTyTDr3RMyFExeGOCWtb_pdi_TrBzIbpv6yRYu1PaTgxQmJIz9_ZYhJVSt4/s320/marvins+dream-735725.png" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi420mTqZ2qns90Fu6HmIFgg4d39lRjwy4_DOi-YJTTCMOgJLlfz7VcgLz1SdU2C3SMFf0IdloJfO7njCvDno4_-sIpQ_Q5JQnFEaqAMcTCeDBgRLx3psYwJlOJDxS217BBJUk9AwzKHo5M/s1600-h/flower-monster-733032.jpg"></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><strong><span style="font-family:Arial;">Tell us a little about yourself.</span></strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC11eYOzqpgTkOXONx3X5NtacNnuBCupg1jjjdGy4hPMsMyzn9_Dtzdhy1N-A6bOzt4nY9O0VhTq31YaCo0mTyTDr3RMyFExeGOCWtb_pdi_TrBzIbpv6yRYu1PaTgxQmJIz9_ZYhJVSt4/s1600-h/marvins+dream-735725.png"></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-: minor-latinfont-family:Calibri;font-size:10;" ><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">I am Mr.Doodle; an artist, illustrator and designer, thoughtfully manufactured out of lego in the beautiful Sussex countryside some 30 years ago. I lived in a tree until the age of 10 when I discovered I had the ability of flight. These days I like to produce beautiful, weird, surreal, pleasurable, intricate, enticing and exciting images, objects and virtual environments. I like the colours green, yellow and orange in no particular order. Qualities I admire in others include open mindedness and integrity. In my youth I had a penchant for tree climbing and dressing as Superman. Nowadays I prefer to indulge in sophisticated doodling, meditation and cheese on toast eating. Which reminds me.... I think I've left the grill on. Oh... and since the passing of the millenium I have been on a quest. It's exciting!</span></span></span></p><p class="mobile-photo"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-: minor-latinfont-family:Calibri;font-size:10;" ><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:100%;"></span></p><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><strong><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">What has been inspiring you lately?</span></strong></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">That's a tricky one as inspiration springs from everywhere and everything. Right now I'm loving the work of Brosmind, Universal Everything, The Monsters Illustration Collective, Cristina Guitian, Kill Pixie, Micheal Rea and Sarah King to name but a few. I think looking at other people's work - especially your contemporaries - is a very good way of getting motivated and inspired to create, but in terms of the actual content of my work, inspiration is often found in the most mundane of places. Looking at clouds, watching people, toys, children's books, plants, dreams, meditating, just looking around at the stuff that surrounds you in life - and I mean really looking, often from a different or more objective viewpoint... The list could go on forever, but you get what I mean. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"></span><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal;font-family:Calibri;" ><strong><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Do you ever have creative slumps?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What do you do then?</span></strong></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">I think most creative people have creative slumps as you call them. It's very difficult to be 100% creative 100% of the time. I try to see this downtime as part of the overall creative process though. As a positive instead of a negative. The calm before the creative storm so to speak. I also find that meditation helps in maintaining a more consistent creative flow.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9s639bQ04jwlhs19unbwpGqcn64I6z_tifgyvDoh_CCBa7OHL45nWVYkKrUAKmBOq3YZFazjvJF7mwllJ6k-RdzYdlXfo4eYdHVLtWWC9M7hfjZ5OooktOJkbIHaqD6Sv8TJAJ8djs2aS/s1600-h/tree+dweller-734396.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369121156858725154" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9s639bQ04jwlhs19unbwpGqcn64I6z_tifgyvDoh_CCBa7OHL45nWVYkKrUAKmBOq3YZFazjvJF7mwllJ6k-RdzYdlXfo4eYdHVLtWWC9M7hfjZ5OooktOJkbIHaqD6Sv8TJAJ8djs2aS/s320/tree+dweller-734396.png" border="0" /></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><strong><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Describe your work setting.</span></strong></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">A desk by a window. A room with a view. Lots of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>stuff to inspire and use. The inevitable bank of white, black and silver technological equipment. Plants, books, wire, toys, tools and trolls. Gourds, pens, paper, stones, artwork on the walls, wooden objects, postcard and music... always music.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><strong><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Which artists have most influenced you and why?</span></strong></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">When I was younger I got twisted by Salvador Dali and other surrealists. Their art just seemed to make sense to me. It's likely that the surreal nature in a lot of what I do stems from spending ages looking at his work when I was back at school. Nowadays, with the internet we are exposed to so much more contemporary artwork and artists, so the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>avenues for inspiration and artistic influence are far greater than ever before. I have hundreds of artists' websites bookmarked, and admire a very wide range of creative people, so again it's difficult to name names, but those who are doing something unique or pushing the boudaries of their field are always a head turner. I also love to see other people who are embracing the world of the doodle.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi420mTqZ2qns90Fu6HmIFgg4d39lRjwy4_DOi-YJTTCMOgJLlfz7VcgLz1SdU2C3SMFf0IdloJfO7njCvDno4_-sIpQ_Q5JQnFEaqAMcTCeDBgRLx3psYwJlOJDxS217BBJUk9AwzKHo5M/s1600-h/flower-monster-733032.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369121152110466786" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi420mTqZ2qns90Fu6HmIFgg4d39lRjwy4_DOi-YJTTCMOgJLlfz7VcgLz1SdU2C3SMFf0IdloJfO7njCvDno4_-sIpQ_Q5JQnFEaqAMcTCeDBgRLx3psYwJlOJDxS217BBJUk9AwzKHo5M/s320/flower-monster-733032.jpg" border="0" /></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"></span><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><strong><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Other than art, what are some of your interests?</span></strong></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Reiki, cycling, cooking, tea drinking and exploring the inner mysteries of life</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><strong><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?</span></strong></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Maybe Australia. I lived in Melbourne for a while and loved it there. Anywhere with nice warm, sunny weather for most of the year would be ideal. Preferably somewhere with nice beaches also. I'm sure there are many amazing places around the globe that fit that description.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><strong><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">In what city do you currently live? What are a few must see spots you would recommend?</span></strong></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">I live in Brighton, England. It's a great city with so much to see and do. The most famous landmark is the Royal Pavilion, which looks like a bunch of giant onions on pillars, so you'd have to check that out. The seafront in summertime. Take a stroll through the North Laines with all it's funky little shops, cafes and other delights. If<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>you're planning a trip in May all the better, as the Brighton festival transforms the whole town into a cultural wonderland.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><strong><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Did you study art or are you self taught?</span></strong></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">I studied illustration at University, although whether it actually taught me that much compared to what I have subsequently learnt through self teaching is debatable.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><strong><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Do you have any upcoming events or exhibitions?</span></strong></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Not too many plans at the moment, but I will be taking part in an exhibition later in the year as part of the Spraygraphic artists community. I also want to exhibit in Brighton at some point, so will have to look into making that happen before the year is out.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzGcvC4XLFPSDUiDzMkRcGrogIAzfRloulMZyaa7UJa22lpmFVt3wNe30pkght09fsbc1-GETe_KYMbcwBS8fOSGuBIWo9uf1c4h64J1AKnYdJXrLJmVrEalEFsK6swODN781c1uKagS3K/s1600-h/muralEmail-737693.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369121168185700306" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzGcvC4XLFPSDUiDzMkRcGrogIAzfRloulMZyaa7UJa22lpmFVt3wNe30pkght09fsbc1-GETe_KYMbcwBS8fOSGuBIWo9uf1c4h64J1AKnYdJXrLJmVrEalEFsK6swODN781c1uKagS3K/s320/muralEmail-737693.jpg" border="0" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><strong><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">Favorite quote/ lyric from a short story, poem or song?</span></strong></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">I'm not really a fan of selecting a favourite this or that. There are so many pearls of wisdom out there to choose from. Saying that, I did hear this quote from Gandhi recently and it stuck with me. "Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behaviors. Keep your behaviors positive because your behaviors become your habits. Keep your habits positive because your habits become your values. Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny."</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;"></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><strong><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">What are you currently reading?</span></strong></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">The amazingly inspirational 'Ask And It Is Given' by Esther and Jerry Hicks, and a wonderful collection of short stories in 'Love and Obstacles' by Aleksandar Hemon</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"></span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><strong>Website:</strong> </span></span><a href="http://www.mrdoodle.com/"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;">www.mrdoodle.com</span></a></span></div></span>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-18416778955006309072009-08-05T17:50:00.013-05:002009-08-10T17:59:21.586-05:00Shawn Kilroy Interview<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366619418088127586" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 399px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1TTTIaENHjcYa4dCxst6AbRjuxMG8JrPjh15ZO06a-mH9BSk8gsv-_a-YJNA5QvLXRdJfLbo7crRCJ3p9hU-WCZbNmz9WsW2o0Qto33N-1zrz-YEQoKXqe0TmMpSfGoJELGNp6o1HJ1pq/s400/4photo_by_Dominic_Episcopo.png" border="0" /><br /><p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhI03pecZEcKOFPrwFyvIZufx94r4iPhelMVYsZM37e4RP7W7wkxmiMfGCWTgvc33lWeG2hs2ge7OlnUeasVxHTXpJphy9Sgn7fxz3LGWCXKR5vRe-IYA8UwW64FxoF_yKVJFFFRT-FBBb/s1600-h/1photo+by+Dominic+Episcopo-767079.png"></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiwYY-vevwJFzPSxPfRyawVawRDJ1tXDMTHh90IEdpJf_Gjy7fJE0RgXUJghWbasEhRtlqYm1iYRPdIy1S9_U43xKEavJnraDLiQqiDu-D3sKVRFguMn6cdJOe57sbt-DZf9an9UkFbRcb/s1600-h/2illustration+byu+Tom+Lessner-768512.png"></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><em>Shawn Kilroy is a musician, actor and filmmaker from Philadelphia...</em><br /><br />MD: Tell us a little about the bands you have played with. </p><p class="mobile-photo">SK: I have had the privilege of playing with many of my favorite area musicians over the years. In my earlier days, I played with most of the Three 4 Tens guys, who I grew up with. I have also played and recorded with members of The Cobbs, Manta Ray, Black Landlord, Vibrolux, and Illinois. My last album features Mike SloMo Brenner pretty heavily, as well as Seattle legends Rich Stuverud and Jebney Lewis. Jenny Prescott and my wife Heather Kilroy round out the rest of the disc along with North Lawrence Midnight Singer Joe Boyle. Kevin LeBree is always in there somewhere too!<br /></p><p>MD: Tell us about your music...<br />SK: Little bit of everything in there. Someone wrote an article saying I was an electro artist, and it kind of stuck and that's what I'm known for, but I also play rock and roll, psychadelic, punk, blues, disco, folk, fake-jazz and country & all kinds of pop music.<br /><br />MD: Have you recorded?<br />SK: Yes, I've released 3 full-length albums since 2004. The Neon Gate, and Thai Stick Dragon, both self-released. My newest release, this year's, Hessian Love Songs, came out on earSnake, Gemini Wolf's label. All available on itunes. 2 as Kilroy, 1 as Shawn Kilroy. <p><div class="gmail_quote"></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTfYF5byUJN3t2g__udvibcdFFwvdYbLWrltp21HyiaVH3PVLtCEf35jKp-35Pp8L9maFLHLF8gCKofJNKR_qHBp215KHF_mIELNDYQhGLngWPM_1MybQwtaMfZqVu5dEuFoV43GvPDGkS/s1600-h/3photo+by+Dominic+Episcopo-769275.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366616053499804770" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTfYF5byUJN3t2g__udvibcdFFwvdYbLWrltp21HyiaVH3PVLtCEf35jKp-35Pp8L9maFLHLF8gCKofJNKR_qHBp215KHF_mIELNDYQhGLngWPM_1MybQwtaMfZqVu5dEuFoV43GvPDGkS/s320/3photo+by+Dominic+Episcopo-769275.png" border="0" /></a><br /><div class="gmail_quote"><br />MD: Where do you record?<br />SK: The first record was recorded at my old South Philly rehearsal spot. TSD was recorded above the Rocket Cat Café in Fishtown back in 05 when it had more of a crack-house vibe. Now it's a nice apartment, but back then old paint was falling off the walls and windows as Warlocks had sidewalk meetings and I made my beats. Hessian Love Songs was recorded at Pete Rydberg's 1935 Studio down on Bancroft.<br /><br />MD: Playlist of a few favorite songs:<br />SK: Fugees - Ready Or Not<br />Joe Jackson - Steppin Out<br />Pink Floyd - Cymbaline<br />Stooges - Gimmee Danger<br />Sheryl Crow - Oh Marie<br />Go Go's - Lust to Love<br />Everything But The Girl - Missing<br />NRG - Need Your Love (Like the Sunshine)<br />Steely Dan - Don't Take Me Alive<br />BeeGees - How Can You Mend a Broken Heart<br />Iggy Pop - The Endless Sea<br />David Bowie - Soul Love<br />Duran Duran - Skin Trade<br />Visage - Fade To Gray<br />Bauhaus - She's In Parties<br />Led Zeppelin - Down By The Seaside<br />Barbara Streisand - What Kind Of Fool<br />Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Stranger Than Kindness<br />Neil Young - Will To Love<br />Tom Waits - Heart of a Saturday Night</div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><br /><div class="gmail_quote"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQgLk0Dx440fiePFD0EXd1jBDU70uSEFVC2QpshK0B9XBeQfoeANcjCVlTMilt_Rf9iLwescJb_uEt_7ysOaZ0fLQHcgOWVAhyKT5fKHCgZYHYEb_VcvL4ud30eR0dOYzbMAvkr_t52Ri8/s1600-h/Picture+9-774416.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366616073856277890" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQgLk0Dx440fiePFD0EXd1jBDU70uSEFVC2QpshK0B9XBeQfoeANcjCVlTMilt_Rf9iLwescJb_uEt_7ysOaZ0fLQHcgOWVAhyKT5fKHCgZYHYEb_VcvL4ud30eR0dOYzbMAvkr_t52Ri8/s320/Picture+9-774416.png" border="0" /></a><br /><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote">MD: What was the last concert/ performance you attended? </div><div class="gmail_quote">SK: Judas Priest, Heaven&Hell, & Motorhead. It was perfect. Metal gets better with age. More evil and witchy.<br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><br /><div class="gmail_quote">MD: What are you reading?<br />SK: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury<br /></div><br /><div class="gmail_quote">MD: Have you held any jobs you'd like to discuss?<br />SK: I'm producing radio spots for an ad agency in Voorhees. I like it. </div><div class="gmail_quote"><br />MD: Any amusing anecdotes regarding your shows/ performances/ fans?<br />SK: Johnny Knoxville kept staring at my wife's ass at a show he came to at Silk City. </div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote">MD: What are some of your interests?<br />SK: I don't have any interests. I'm not even interested in making music. I have to do it or I get sick. I'm sure that sounds pretentious and phony, but it happens to be true. I write, record and perform music so that I don't have to live out my bullshit. I try to put the worst of myself into the work. Sometimes it works.</div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><br /><div class="gmail_quote"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHWDjd1RXrYh8OapEBF5gu0LyzfOSaDh-rUSB9cr4qb7UYX685Na6jqYIx1csJDMnBS3QftrZrDElpF0jN6HjfWXBJjVE9fkPyOb60UpR7t4PuYtcZQjwucCf5cSU9PyXAMsX1kRY20GeC/s1600-h/Picture+8-772148.png"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366616065416558130" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHWDjd1RXrYh8OapEBF5gu0LyzfOSaDh-rUSB9cr4qb7UYX685Na6jqYIx1csJDMnBS3QftrZrDElpF0jN6HjfWXBJjVE9fkPyOb60UpR7t4PuYtcZQjwucCf5cSU9PyXAMsX1kRY20GeC/s320/Picture+8-772148.png" border="0" /></a><br />MD: Historical figure you'd like to have a beer with, given the chance?<br />SK: Barney Rubble, what an actor. </div><br /><div class="gmail_quote">MD: Favorite movies?<br />SK: Blade Runner, Flash Gordon, American Werewolf in London, Road Warrior. </div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">MD: Favorite comic strips/ comic books/ graphic novels?<br />SK: Blood: a Tale, Wolverine & Havok: Meltdown, and of course, The Dark Night Returns</div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><br /><div class="gmail_quote">MD: Favorite visual artists?<br />SK: ESPO, DERO, KAIR, PRAEZ, PEP, & MB.<br /><br />Shawn Kilroy's Website: <a href="http://myspace.com/thaistickdragon" target="_blank">myspace.com/thaistickdragon</a></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-56205466226596290752009-07-27T13:35:00.007-05:002009-07-27T15:25:15.459-05:00Tom Smith / Dr. Sizzle Interview<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoCrLXsTNxryTKfLFhChIiLXBye5agN7oLjPF1GaHQGeoGGo6q_bfjajDUnjddhFWwsl8johQznnSsBSPpl96nHvCuHobAI_yhzt6xYqnReS_TNDSXLj_v1isFasTk1II8kTurnZdhjK7-/s1600-h/selfPort-738868.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363210440769845474" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoCrLXsTNxryTKfLFhChIiLXBye5agN7oLjPF1GaHQGeoGGo6q_bfjajDUnjddhFWwsl8johQznnSsBSPpl96nHvCuHobAI_yhzt6xYqnReS_TNDSXLj_v1isFasTk1II8kTurnZdhjK7-/s320/selfPort-738868.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRW3Rmqejjt8W3OQUC1vcWm3iAt_UDHz7W6HWEukrnf9wO-QRSmU19SgmnXemGukXMK0JCbNvHwEdUQxF4fg6HXC2rZL9D2C4ObhbhzEfIOfp3vT5A02ZcYyeQnY1kFiznWI5pvfcJe20A/s1600-h/chicalg-736321.jpg"></a></p><p class="mobile-photo">MD: What is your background? How did you get involved with art?<br /><br />Dr. Sizzle: I always drew on stuff as a kid... copied the Sunday paper funnies and my Saturday morning cartoon favorites. Then by the 2nd grade I got into breakdancing which was married with graffiti art (somewhere around '82 think). Through Graffiti I quickly developed my cartooning skills and progressed into more realistic styles of drawing. I was always fascinated with drawing the human form: faces, hands, and dynamic poses. I guess I was born with an artistic passion in my soul. Lots of people tell me true artists are left handed because they use the right side of the brain which is the side that is most creative or some shit. I guess that makes sense. After taking high school art majors I realized art was something I was good at and could probably make a living doing, so I signed my good name to a student loan at the Art Institute of Philadelphia where I received my degree in Visual Communications / Graphic Design.<br /><br />MD: How would you describe your work?<br /><br />Dr. Sizzle: Well my current body of work would probably be described best as exaggerated realism. I don't know if that makes sense or not but it's kind of a distorted life-like caricature using Pin-Ups as my foundation. Instead of distorting distinctive facial features, I exaggerate the anatomy in whole, enhancing heads, hands, and other bodily forms in inflated proportions.<br /><br />MD: Have you studied art in school? What did you like best about the school you attended? What advice would you give to anyone considering going to school vs. doing it on their own?<br /><br />Dr. Sizzle: As mentioned previously, I attended AI where I thought I was being taught to be a better artist. The drawing and painting classes were minimal and they geared us towards computers and graphic design. In the long run it helped with getting a job. But I guess I was expecting to be more of an Illustrator. It was like pulling teeth to get info out of some of the teachers. Others taught me more than I can understand and still to this day am just realizing what they meant. As far as advice- choose your school wisely. Education is expensive and if you are serious about it choose a serious school and program. When it all comes down to it, you either have it or you don't. School doesn't give you talent – it just helps you sharpen your skills.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAa67OnznFW4ZSnh6gBjiJ3yTgXF8C75QgmP5iunZhj_qaWLceSU9hbQ-x6VBfPuTMpdYeoW1wv7Q_I39d9Iiq-6TCgxCa9vCTMv4nncoNeyvYchNR79IQQn_c4tksRv2Yllysc8mCr9SF/s1600-h/PattiPhone-738322.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363210437102079314" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAa67OnznFW4ZSnh6gBjiJ3yTgXF8C75QgmP5iunZhj_qaWLceSU9hbQ-x6VBfPuTMpdYeoW1wv7Q_I39d9Iiq-6TCgxCa9vCTMv4nncoNeyvYchNR79IQQn_c4tksRv2Yllysc8mCr9SF/s320/PattiPhone-738322.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />MD: How have you been influenced by the art community? Who/ what inspires you?<br /><br />Dr. Sizzle: To be honest I try not to keep up with the art community. It sickens me to open an art publication and see new artists being featured and it all looks the same to me. Art has become trendy and it's really another person's rendition of a style that already has been done. There are a bunch of artists out there that are setting these trends and I enjoy their works but I see others copying them to the point where they can't even enjoy their own creativity. So I really don't get influenced by the art community other than techniques that I might want to experiment with. To me, I see art as an expression of ones thoughts carried onto a medium or surface. Paint, Drawing, Sculpting or what ever your fancy, should be 100% your own visions. Don't paint to impress the masses or magazines- paint because that's what you paint even if it sucks. If you're passionate about it you'll make it great and people will appreciate it more than you're ripped off version of someone else's passion.<br /><br />MD: Do you have a career/ job (other than the art you create independently)?<br /><br />Dr. Sizzle: Yup, I am a motion graphics designer and animator for TV and video. I create the cool stuff people take for granted on TV. Like your favorite commercials, or music videos and even the show title open.<br /><br />MD: Have you had any careers not related to art?<br /><br />Dr. Sizzle: HA! I designed Hoagies while going to AI. LOL. Yeah, lots of odd jobs before I got my break in the professional world.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgERdWqXwfQPqC6m2iruxtlL4XZULdPfZawp-BcNT5t8tTRKkxuFpa-F7ySaq9sukhjsGpAnIsr0Lkkw4wMLUQflOv0ZKEHDCK4j8mv3JwSEcrtYNLImMXCBgtxyIm9d7h0wCLZtrlOPxs1/s1600-h/Senza-739583.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363210444847247762" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgERdWqXwfQPqC6m2iruxtlL4XZULdPfZawp-BcNT5t8tTRKkxuFpa-F7ySaq9sukhjsGpAnIsr0Lkkw4wMLUQflOv0ZKEHDCK4j8mv3JwSEcrtYNLImMXCBgtxyIm9d7h0wCLZtrlOPxs1/s320/Senza-739583.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />MD: How have you handled the business side of being an artist?<br /><br />Dr. Sizzle: It's tough out there. To put a price on something you spent a good deal of time on and expect someone topay that is really hard. If you're up and coming, or just not well known enough, you really have it hard. I have a hard enough time parting with my originals as it is and to price them to sell is almost impossible. I've been creating prints and selling limited numbers signed until I exhausted them to the point of selling the originals. Creating a website and swag helps a lot to promote myself and get the name Dr. Sizzle out there. It's really hard balancing time to paint, promote, work my day job, hold my family together … not to mention my nine million hobbies and other creative vices…<br /><br />MD: What are your goals? What are your plans for the future?<br /><br />Dr. Sizzle: My plans are to paint when I feel like it and not make it my job. It's important to me to keep painting a hobby and not my primary source of income. Once that happens it becomes work which is no fun. I paint for passion not for paychecks. Changing that would have a considerable effect on my art and my love for it. I plan to continue painting my Pin-Ups and<br />branch them off into a few directions and various series. I have a few products in the works as well as some videos and books planned, so stay tuned!<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif5E3w6NpkmHktUttQ69Hv4UFIXrpzmoBmEOv6QPzWXfUuWfC1LmPFQ1KFu4nkzNySxDrSQMEJUps8qbrBXLPdmGcbBHHGv6799Uh4E9nLJQuec7dDePpsoPyyU4YATd4-8Q3ZCKft-lkd/s1600-h/daynalg-737511.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363210436140482386" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif5E3w6NpkmHktUttQ69Hv4UFIXrpzmoBmEOv6QPzWXfUuWfC1LmPFQ1KFu4nkzNySxDrSQMEJUps8qbrBXLPdmGcbBHHGv6799Uh4E9nLJQuec7dDePpsoPyyU4YATd4-8Q3ZCKft-lkd/s320/daynalg-737511.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />MD: Do you have side projects you work on? Have you collaborated w/ other artists in the past?<br /><br />Dr. Sizzle: Being a graffiti artist, I have worked on much collaboration on a very large scale. It's one of the best feelings. I hope to get out this summer and do a few more.<br /></p><p class="mobile-photo">MD: What was one of the most memorable projects you've worked on?<br /><br />One is a portrait I did of Miss Mia Sinclair which took over a year to complete and is one of my largest brush paintings. Mia passed away last October 2008. I'm glad I had the pleasure of working with her.<br /><br />MD: What are the biggest changes you've seen in the art world since you got involved? Where do you see the art industry going in 5 years? 10 years?<br /><br />Dr. Sizzle: Well I have to say the "Lowbrow" art scene has taken the world by storm. It was frowned upon and was never really accepted into the gallery and art world but now it is pretty much dominating the globe. I suspect things will evolve full circle. As people start to realize there is a difference between Lowbrow Art and Lowbrow posers. People will eventually go back to a more Fine Art taste and talentless crud will wash away. Then again who am I to say what is good and what is not. Beauty IS in the eye of the beholder. So maybe the things I call trash and what people love and that will wash fine artists away AHHA. Who cares, art is art. People will express themselves whether someone likes it or not. I think if enough people hate you you're probably doing it well enough to piss people off it will eventually become the best thing the movement ever seen. Just like PUNK ROCK!<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRW3Rmqejjt8W3OQUC1vcWm3iAt_UDHz7W6HWEukrnf9wO-QRSmU19SgmnXemGukXMK0JCbNvHwEdUQxF4fg6HXC2rZL9D2C4ObhbhzEfIOfp3vT5A02ZcYyeQnY1kFiznWI5pvfcJe20A/s1600-h/chicalg-736321.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363210428799050706" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRW3Rmqejjt8W3OQUC1vcWm3iAt_UDHz7W6HWEukrnf9wO-QRSmU19SgmnXemGukXMK0JCbNvHwEdUQxF4fg6HXC2rZL9D2C4ObhbhzEfIOfp3vT5A02ZcYyeQnY1kFiznWI5pvfcJe20A/s320/chicalg-736321.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />MD: Favorite painter/ artist:<br /><br />Dr. Sizzle: I have tons of favorites, a few, in no particular order are;<br />Keith Wessner, Glenn Barr, Coop, Gil Elvgren, Rockin' Jellybean, Maxfield Parrish, Robh Ruppel, Kris Kuksi, Frank Frazetta, and many others.<br /><br />MD: What are you listening to?<br /><br />Dr. Sizzle: Old Punk from the early 80's<br /><br />Website: <a href="http://www.drsizzle.com/">http://www.drsizzle.com/</a> </p>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-1770630350621353652009-07-20T17:47:00.009-05:002009-07-20T17:54:57.967-05:00Shawn Dubin Q&A<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhydcmu1gDqK95K1bS2ZdxdQS67PvY2vj5Kzs-VHbrlEzEN0MSEDLdSOUcCfJ6nhk081YonAinyap_0OYbR42sGKey2cFvy4Ay0zw5DzjCRC4lR9yTcV_L-jfn7NlUfnFFjxgj6Oj8E7SUK/s1600-h/ue-736340.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360677687235407538" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhydcmu1gDqK95K1bS2ZdxdQS67PvY2vj5Kzs-VHbrlEzEN0MSEDLdSOUcCfJ6nhk081YonAinyap_0OYbR42sGKey2cFvy4Ay0zw5DzjCRC4lR9yTcV_L-jfn7NlUfnFFjxgj6Oj8E7SUK/s320/ue-736340.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqPZdg0sZAAiBL1oDYhpw7woWfMRdO9NEbIjWVZ-5FdwCKaTN_xVkdVVVns_WMV6DBeD5Xk62Aem0-YY9cnMBFLGPZgs5KY5cioWl8OU1mJkzavr5PTP__gj0GleV_0qt-2ZhMX5thfoQ_/s1600-h/thirteen-735422.jpg"></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;"><em>Shawn Dubin is a Philadelphia based illustrator and tattoo artist. He has published a number of books, including <u>D</u><u>reary and Naughty</u> and <u>Friday the 13th of February</u>.</em> </span></span></span></p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;">MD: You're currently working on a new series of paintings?<br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;"></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;">SD: They were initially based on memories from Halloween throughout my life, starting in the late seventies and stretching up to the present. Once the idea solidified a bit, I felt compelled to illustrate those old costumes that came in a box- paperboard masks with terrible plastic jumpsuits that tied up in the back. If you were lucky they came with a cape or your parents got you one separately. My imagination always made them far more amazing than they actually were. From there, the series branched out into other time periods and less kitschy costumes. I could probably spend the rest of my life doing these.<br /><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;"></span></span></span><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRNndmcP2-snCbXO_bTtJKoVPFuUdZ9CgbMLKWYz0gyfx5de2J72VPhZkQfbsTWfWpnn6-grTS8DHa7ITO9thPkH38d64OgBwl0_CXU75Z-oYbtY3Fzr9W5YCC8WLhaUwX3EcSxsgf2gIV/s1600-h/lobd-732285.jpg"></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">MD: You've got quite a collection of work. What's next? What are some of your goals and/ or plans?</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">SD: At the moment, my writing partner Jason Ridings and I are preparing a package to send out to a few major comic book companies for consideration and keeping our fingers crossed. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">Outside of that, I've started writing a follow up to the Untimely Endeavor (which is getting sent out to publishers for consideration this summer along with Land of Broken Dreams), begun work on the halloween paintings, plotting out a line of t-shirts/miscellaneous articles of clothing, and started writing something of a children's story. There are also more comic books in the pipes. It never ends.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">I'm also hoping to find a gallery that's willing to show my work in the next year or so.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvsH38IHfhLxERttkbcLargHcY46JbACeq8jMcXlNSSCSfGJjwYVUxJfj-4mUQ7ANf6AeES4maY1uN3gcdJ4aOgLdnNkk0Xf3Us_yWZ8Tzl1YofPd6XFKQu_L9ocJrrDP-Z_8t8yTyhl9f/s1600-h/fatherlp-731398.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360677666996323074" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvsH38IHfhLxERttkbcLargHcY46JbACeq8jMcXlNSSCSfGJjwYVUxJfj-4mUQ7ANf6AeES4maY1uN3gcdJ4aOgLdnNkk0Xf3Us_yWZ8Tzl1YofPd6XFKQu_L9ocJrrDP-Z_8t8yTyhl9f/s320/fatherlp-731398.jpg" border="0" /></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">MD: You've published quite a few books...</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">SD: I had the fortune of working with John Lafleur on the Dreary and Naughty series a few years back. The first two in the series (which is slated to run up to seven books) are still available online. The third book, The ABC's of Being Dead, is finished and awaiting publication. As of the moment, the premise is floating around in Hollywood limbo with talks of it becoming a movie one day. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">This summer, writer Glen Feulner and I are self-publishing a book called Worlds Without End which revolves around a female protagonist who travels throughout multiple realities, ultimately bringing about the end of each. Uplifting stuff. It will be available through Amazon, Borders, etc.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">MD: The Untimely Endeavor comes across as mournful and poetic, with really interesting backgrounds... </span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">SD: I wanted to explore the use of a "dip pen"; to illustrate something the way someone would have a century ago. I also wanted a chance to illustrate a number of different locales throughout the world that interest me while placing a fantastical character in each to stretch/warp the boundaries of the mundane. Naturally, I chose a well dressed skeleton named Wallingford for just this purpose. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">The first illustration came about as an accident one night while sketching and is now the second plate in the book. It created the flavor for what would ultimately become the overall plot: Skeleton finds shrunken head in soup, shrunken head engrains itself in skeleton's day to day life, skeleton reject and abandons shrunken head, skeleton searches the world over for shrunken head, skeleton finds shrunken head. Ultimately, it's a story about friendship, loss and appreciating what you have.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">MD: In addition to illustration, you're also a tattoo artist, yes? </span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">SD: I've been tattooing in Philadelphia for twelve years now at Moo Tattoo on South Street. Recently I've been doing a lot of work that's similar to my illustration style. I hope the trend continues.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyxqj68wGgTN0kf_CmhPntRnYP0v_aqKoEJj103ZpTjo1Jw5ukiQ_QKneHES_-yvLHvuLNc6SpwF-qOUhrRPC0bQqBxZqYJ84YklmJ1dDFDoSOvOgVyLgYAJtgsJiU4rgme4PMqapqgkKf/s1600-h/rech-734368.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360677680712293282" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyxqj68wGgTN0kf_CmhPntRnYP0v_aqKoEJj103ZpTjo1Jw5ukiQ_QKneHES_-yvLHvuLNc6SpwF-qOUhrRPC0bQqBxZqYJ84YklmJ1dDFDoSOvOgVyLgYAJtgsJiU4rgme4PMqapqgkKf/s320/rech-734368.jpg" border="0" /></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">MD: You've worked on a number of comic books. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">SD: I've been working with Jason Ridings (writer) for the better part of a decade on a number of projects. When we met I told him I'd never draw super heroes. He proved me wrong when we did a story called Guardians. It was a one shot comic chock full of super heroes of our making. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">We've also been working on Thirteen- an ongoing supernatural thriller which is much further up my alley. The first issue is completely inked with the other five issues in the initial run thumb-nailed and ready for production. Conservatively, we have enough material for this series to last at least five years. I'm ridiculously excited about continuing work on it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">My cousin, Alex Dubin, and I worked on a project called the Eighth Dwarf which re-imagines the snow white story through a darkened lens. The first run of the series is written and thumb-nailed through to completion. He had originally written it as a screenplay which, conveniently, lends itself to being story-boarded into a comic book format quite readily.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">I've also been working off and on for the last ten years or so on a vampire comic about a powerful family that stretches all the way back to the Roman Empire and their degeneration/search for humanity as their respective worlds fall apart. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">If none of these find a home with an established comic book company, the plan is to self publish and see where things go.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqPZdg0sZAAiBL1oDYhpw7woWfMRdO9NEbIjWVZ-5FdwCKaTN_xVkdVVVns_WMV6DBeD5Xk62Aem0-YY9cnMBFLGPZgs5KY5cioWl8OU1mJkzavr5PTP__gj0GleV_0qt-2ZhMX5thfoQ_/s1600-h/thirteen-735422.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360677683107902946" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqPZdg0sZAAiBL1oDYhpw7woWfMRdO9NEbIjWVZ-5FdwCKaTN_xVkdVVVns_WMV6DBeD5Xk62Aem0-YY9cnMBFLGPZgs5KY5cioWl8OU1mJkzavr5PTP__gj0GleV_0qt-2ZhMX5thfoQ_/s320/thirteen-735422.jpg" border="0" /></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">MD: Your miniature paintings have so much detail. What's your process?</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">SD: I use ridiculously small brushes and sit hunched over these little bits of illustration board for hours on end, nearly going blind. It's actually a good deal of fun.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">MD: Have you exhibited your work?</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">SD: Years ago. I'm in the process of looking for a venue to have a show some time later this year or early next year.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;">MD: If you were to build a house out of unorthodox materials, what type of house would you build?<br /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;">SD: A hobbit hole or a giant tree house attached to a sequoia.<br /></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">MD: Favorite movies? </span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">SD: I'm a big star wars nerd.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">MD: Playlist of a few favorite songs:</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">SD: Hard to pinpoint songs- but on any given day i'll cycle through some Arcade Fire, Neutral Milk Hotel, Howlin' Wolf, Pixies, Mulatu Astatke, Sinatra, Talking Heads, Johnny Cash, Radiohead, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, etc. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRNndmcP2-snCbXO_bTtJKoVPFuUdZ9CgbMLKWYz0gyfx5de2J72VPhZkQfbsTWfWpnn6-grTS8DHa7ITO9thPkH38d64OgBwl0_CXU75Z-oYbtY3Fzr9W5YCC8WLhaUwX3EcSxsgf2gIV/s1600-h/lobd-732285.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360677670158746130" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRNndmcP2-snCbXO_bTtJKoVPFuUdZ9CgbMLKWYz0gyfx5de2J72VPhZkQfbsTWfWpnn6-grTS8DHa7ITO9thPkH38d64OgBwl0_CXU75Z-oYbtY3Fzr9W5YCC8WLhaUwX3EcSxsgf2gIV/s320/lobd-732285.jpg" border="0" /></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">MD: What are some of your interests?</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">SD: Music (making and listening), gardening, travel, good food and drink (both preparing and ingesting), history, living...</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">MD: Historical figure you'd like to have a beer with, given the chance?</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">SD: Aleister Crowley.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">MD: Favorite comic strips/ comic books/ graphic novels?</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">SD: I really loved the Lucifer series put out by Vertigo. Collected the whole thing in trade paper backs and made my poor wife read it. She actually enjoyed it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">Also- The Preacher, V For Vendetta, Watchmen, Kingdom Come, Matt Wagner's Mage and Grendel, BPRD, Hellboy, Marvels and the current run of Captain America stories.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;">MD: Favorite visual artists? </span></span></p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;">SD: Salvador Dali, M.C. Escher, Maxfield Parrish, Heironymus Bosch, Edward Gorey, Shel Silverstein, Alphonse Mucha, Arthur Rackham... </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;">MD: What is your background? How did you get involved with art?</span></span><br /><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">SD: I've been drawing since I could hold a writing implement. Haven't been able to stop since. My mother was a big supporter early on and really nurtured the bug. My neighbor/surrogate big brother was also something of an artist. He'd sit me down and show me how to draw things like Popeye and Snoopy for hours while our parents watched television and talked.</span></p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;">I went to the High School for Creative and Performing Arts in Philadelphia before it was in the gorgeous building it now inhabits. Also went to the University of the Arts briefly.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;"> </span></span> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2E0OvocgQiwKrsATuCAdr_N-7amSvOZDNdG87xTPe1TE25kgXNntthgF897kOI8eQOayMXOZG0CTTWe4ZMzhFpol9tBpfJA0nzIXcrhZEa9xKocGP7sGk3Ds0G2zPxP6DxzuM0ZkAPPjY/s1600-h/dandn-729978.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360677663706951938" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2E0OvocgQiwKrsATuCAdr_N-7amSvOZDNdG87xTPe1TE25kgXNntthgF897kOI8eQOayMXOZG0CTTWe4ZMzhFpol9tBpfJA0nzIXcrhZEa9xKocGP7sGk3Ds0G2zPxP6DxzuM0ZkAPPjY/s320/dandn-729978.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;">MD: Have you held any jobs/ careers that you'd like to discuss? </span></span><br /><p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;color:#000000;">SD: I was a record store/book store clerk for Tower for more than two years. While there, I drew a bi-weekly comic that went out with paychecks based on experiences I and my co-workers had. For the holidays one year I did an entire comic called "Tower of Babble" in which we, the employees, locked the doors of the store and massacred the customers. My boss sent it around to other branches both here and in England. It was quite cathartic. Nowadays I'd probably be reported for disturbing behavior that may lead to a nasty incident. All in good fun.<br /></p></span></span><p><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;">Website: </span><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"><a href="http://shawndubin.com/" target="_blank">shawndubin.com</a></span></p>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-23001115107340476072009-07-16T12:26:00.023-05:002009-07-16T12:57:03.445-05:00Leo Boyd / Arg My Face<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359112840394040642" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 397px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0_knAB9bCLbUAax0bEmIJ-ZBtawQCPXwH0GAGJ0MomJ328RiXSvwobYIeiBQNwgBivimHz3eYSxkqAcfwCGkrP2vBiKa3j-TnPET3Gc7BjVy8cTmR5bzGMoYcCSAfxbfEU4xXwzfpAdji/s400/traffic-lights-by-numbers.jpg" border="0" /><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>LB: To me art is something that I'm compelled to make, something like the cup of coffee that I need to drink in the morning to wake up. It's a slap round the face and I have an almost physical drive to produce. The world we live in is driven by image and signs that jump up and down and shout at us, all vying for portions of our attention. There is a rubbish tip in our brains that is full of this stuff, from the Ladybird books of our childhood to the swine flu pamphlets we read and discarded just a few months ago. All this old information sits there, rotting, getting confused, and I feel I need to use it, to dig it up and paste it back together to create new and hopefully interesting pieces. Its psychic recycling I guess. I like my work to be funny. And dark. There is something satisfying about mixing the two things and it's always good to be able to laugh at the darker side of life. I also find the mundane fairly beautiful. I have a thing at the moment for traffic lights. To me they look like the strange totem poles of some technologically advanced society that worships three colored gods. I can't get enough of them.</div><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359112669307826514" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 267px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwe23lR5SDLLTIScLIKFOac20bkgh6HFQHxWYeDYvyrn2uteWifdlzfhFo0_594dOalxNdSurxTqXtlc6vmyMa0cWQpdZQUMB6iePz1sIugvqMLjGLeAjOYOFIzne2bL_xFmqKV5MyG6x/s400/robotoid1.jpg" border="0" /><br /><p>MD: What is your background? How did you get involved with art?</p><p>LB: My mum is an artist and we were always encouraged creatively. I have very early memories of drawing felt-tip pictures of superman and then covering them in a layer of cellotape so that they would last forever. The pictures didn't last but my creative drive is still going strong.</p><p>MD: What are some of your goals and/ or plans?</p><p>LB: To keep doing what I do and strive to get better at it. I'd also like to visit Mars.</p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359112780046785346" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 259px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaEHRmVKFbjb9T07ru12_9wBP4INyyX1j8qLwBXJvkDfN-Lysx0aBsUPIPNid9PNKvwyPuicReaAJrb9vv2LUiT6eaX7X-IOHyADVOU4QrsRzbOrDBv3Cdq_gVdaEtpsYNeolehxBIhQFy/s400/seaside.jpg" border="0" /><br />MD: Have you exhibited your work? </p><p>LB: Have just finished exhibiting in Bristol with three other Argists and am hanging an exhibition this week in Temple Bar with <a href="http://www.sullyproductions.net/">Eavan O'Sullivan</a>, another excellent artist (and Argist) who creates these weird collage animals that would be the stuff of nightmares if they weren't so cute. The show is called <a href="http://www.templebar.ie/home_nav_33_action_view_hid_1.html">What the Cat Dragged In</a>.</p><p>MD: Have you held any jobs/ careers that you'd like to discuss?</p><p>LB: At the moment I'm working for a community arts organization called City Art Squad but before this I have held a number of glamorous positions in Chicken Factories and mental homes. </p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359112601987402434" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJRhOcHWPEVJPMOXpWcRF5dhztmsGdbY9DU-HquJPg2jYxQztn4NVolj3eubLyu3sq-p3SdY5-Ij1eMYlrBRr6RY87Hg_5nUX77sleK4je10ribsdyaWq8syq6PgxmR5DfxdZIOZME8Q1C/s400/missing1.jpg" border="0" /></p><br /><p>MD: What are you currently reading? </p><p>LB: Just finished reading Light by M John Harrison and Nova Swing by the same author. Two books of brain twistingly good science fiction that will keep you on your toes for weeks after reading.</p><p>MD: If you were to build a house out of unorthodox materials, what type of house would you build?</p><div>LB: I'd build a tower out of MSG, coffee and twisted science fiction novels. That way I'd never sleep even if I wanted to.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359112894040303010" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 319px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUdZW820_X7QsgxZave6m3Tou6ltnHFzNiWi-9HtMVF1TPUbV1pOiu2E_cN69KL9WYG1QC4YtYuJSJXzIE3VbiLZ9a4f_OfL9AXg-WGlFGHrbB2dC3hKQhykJdiMtc9qWHH8Z_kUQXFKJK/s400/traffic-lights1.jpg" border="0" /><br />MD: Playlist of a few favorite songs: </div><div></div><br /><div>LB: I am a big Radiohead fan. I love their oblique use of sound and the way they can make even the most horrible thing seem beautiful. Check out 'four minute' warning on youtube to see what I mean. My friends get annoyed because I play Radiohead too often but I know that they love it really!</div><br /><p>MD: What are some of your interests?</p><p>LB: I love surfing but I live on the wrong side of the country to do it as much as I want to so I am hanging on for 2012 when the world is supposed to spin on its axis. Hopefully that will send some good swell Dublin way.<br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5359112454379745218" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 355px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbc0DMn6sxZENsbYrjqIUn1Q_FE95GDV-PbOaP_tenwX8jZydBu0dJ8GgCKV7Ij8mIrOLl7lOzTb-ufFkMnb8LnvLp0J7mQ9Bg4guHYHuBB9T0I6-kVbID57Og9prex0eZ5_UXI8Gmr7Yw/s400/aliens1.jpg" border="0" /><br />MD: Historical figure you'd like to have a drink with, given the chance? </p><p>LB: Oooo this is a difficult question. I mean I'd love to go for a few drinks with Lenin mainly so I could get some photos of me and him in the pub but you could say the same of most historical characters. Lichtenstein is someone who I'd like to have met and Patrick Moore too but he's still alive so I guess that doesn't count? </p><div>MD: Favorite visual artists? </div><div><br />LB: There are too many to list outright but I love the work of the Pop artists, the Dada group, Otto Dix, Sigmar Polke and the Futurists.</div><br /><p>Arg My Face Website: <a href="http://www.argmyface.com/">http://www.argmyface.com/</a></p></div></div></div></div></div></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-53826832835426071322009-07-10T16:06:00.004-05:002009-07-10T16:17:09.903-05:00Sarah Tomlin Q&A<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYhbGv3b5rVR6lLYm6kn3cDzdh0YruHtUA9IIkxOxN7s7z-nMZJ4wVdxEyMLzBxMthgXnvfZM4UOQeeOCLuOPNmjrTSblFzzONU4HYpNO0beVtJ0Es-b8iJseGUPr5eS2Kv34PPtreSxsB/s1600-h/046a-723181.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356941011415275474" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYhbGv3b5rVR6lLYm6kn3cDzdh0YruHtUA9IIkxOxN7s7z-nMZJ4wVdxEyMLzBxMthgXnvfZM4UOQeeOCLuOPNmjrTSblFzzONU4HYpNO0beVtJ0Es-b8iJseGUPr5eS2Kv34PPtreSxsB/s320/046a-723181.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Tell us a bit about yourself.</span> I'm 26 years young and have been married to my high school sweetheart for 6 years! We have 2 dogs, one of which is house trained. <span style="font-size:+0;"></span></span></span></p><div class="gmail_quote"><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"></span></span> </p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Tell us about your work</span>. My love of photography stretches into nearly every field I can find work in but I love to travel. I love seeing new places and finding beauty in God's creations. One of my favorite quotes is on my website: <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">"We look at the world and see what we have learned to believe is there. We have been conditioned to expect.....but, as photographers, we must learn to relax our beliefs." -Aaron Siskind. </span>I find that beauty is everywhere around us. All we have to do is appreciate it.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;"></span><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MMz0Btpo0lqOr1bZSE2z-4tFQ31ruE9vUFGJPG26JcLE0TW0gpRBkN9_X6rFTAY16LJPkSkt87_sgKqll212BAEq_2LoGTxWhFQpzCBygAhXjXpZvpqEFKOVOJjZNBfe-uUe7mNy0kXw/s1600-h/071-720908.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356940997041559538" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MMz0Btpo0lqOr1bZSE2z-4tFQ31ruE9vUFGJPG26JcLE0TW0gpRBkN9_X6rFTAY16LJPkSkt87_sgKqll212BAEq_2LoGTxWhFQpzCBygAhXjXpZvpqEFKOVOJjZNBfe-uUe7mNy0kXw/s320/071-720908.jpg" border="0" /></a></p></span><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAc27cz3Px7Efd5NW0Rs7iN89Y6-pve2vFU_GrWWK7RwOzNhmxtPNaPILsAn3JmzP1G2EGvpf8bIx2W-rCB32PwF3Sb4sLsIEYVMUq9uvrX0EjX7w6YsaPXmf_n3sSFFuHz5syCWY-eK0p/s1600-h/009-716842.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0MMz0Btpo0lqOr1bZSE2z-4tFQ31ruE9vUFGJPG26JcLE0TW0gpRBkN9_X6rFTAY16LJPkSkt87_sgKqll212BAEq_2LoGTxWhFQpzCBygAhXjXpZvpqEFKOVOJjZNBfe-uUe7mNy0kXw/s1600-h/071-720908.jpg"></a></span></span> </p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">What are some of your goals and/ or plans? </span>Ideally my goal would be to open up an art shop with my sister Christina! We both love the arts. Also, I would love to be on The Price is Right.</span></p><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><br /></span><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">What are you currently reading?</span> The July 13th issue of Time Magazine and celebrity twitters. </span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6wfERIyqHQpQitQqdy7scYmfvWOW1RP3rt2zg24lg5tku3P5yEhvn4qHJ2P0LhCO-1PcSRBlud_t5lbOXH3SF0V9-9HrCG66edUxIH5Bb4LAOCKce7qDxlwG94Fzw5AnUGSAF2LgQWNxi/s1600-h/008-715614.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356940975314745762" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6wfERIyqHQpQitQqdy7scYmfvWOW1RP3rt2zg24lg5tku3P5yEhvn4qHJ2P0LhCO-1PcSRBlud_t5lbOXH3SF0V9-9HrCG66edUxIH5Bb4LAOCKce7qDxlwG94Fzw5AnUGSAF2LgQWNxi/s320/008-715614.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAc27cz3Px7Efd5NW0Rs7iN89Y6-pve2vFU_GrWWK7RwOzNhmxtPNaPILsAn3JmzP1G2EGvpf8bIx2W-rCB32PwF3Sb4sLsIEYVMUq9uvrX0EjX7w6YsaPXmf_n3sSFFuHz5syCWY-eK0p/s1600-h/009-716842.jpg"></a></span></p><div style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;">If you were to build a house out of unorthodox materials, what type of house would you build?<span style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal"> Tree logs, rusted metal, stained glass, and toothpicks. I'd love to live in an old barn. Renovated of course, with central air and heat.</span></span></div><div style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"><br style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLV2fN1ni-Cgqk2UFoWflpFzQXq9kRjjRe-m5dy0UIBifWwN1USo7SkQSAMD70J3SqFvW6vT04mnu6jXOHkxh-nGZPCyYbo69CPWjs72hVoDCNzg7Ft-PB1s2JdETiD7tSuF7n0dy6sTKz/s1600-h/051-719812.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356940992277482754" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLV2fN1ni-Cgqk2UFoWflpFzQXq9kRjjRe-m5dy0UIBifWwN1USo7SkQSAMD70J3SqFvW6vT04mnu6jXOHkxh-nGZPCyYbo69CPWjs72hVoDCNzg7Ft-PB1s2JdETiD7tSuF7n0dy6sTKz/s320/051-719812.jpg" border="0" /></a></div></span><div style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Playlist of a few favorite songs: </span>Mad Mission by Patty Griffin, Lentil by Sia, and Spell by Marie Digby.</span><br /></div></span><div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Favorite visual artists?</span> I have to say that I am quite partial to photographers although I truly respect any type of artist. Loving what you do and putting your whole heart and soul into your work is the best part of life. Four people that DESERVE to be mentioned are Matt McClure, Rebecca Villarreal, Thomas Jack Hilton, and Thomas Krapausky. All of their website links can be found on the links portion of my site.<br /></span><span style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:100%;"><br style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Your website(s): </span>Sarahtomlinphotography.com</span></div></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-39620803725197890932009-07-04T09:50:00.012-05:002009-07-04T13:28:28.900-05:00Caleb Stine Q&A<img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 500px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 375px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2549/3673537282_58dbb4a1a7.jpg?v=0" border="0" /><br /><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>I recently had the pleasure of catching your performance at the Honfest in Hampden, MD. Great show! Tell us a little about Hampden/ the Honfest/ the show.</i></span><br /><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">Honfest is a celebration of the underdog, knowingly un-cool, 'laugh-to-keep-from-crying' attitude of working-class Baltimore, and it's a fun festival to play. People really seemed to like the new songs.<br /><p><br /><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">My 15 year-old neighbor who practices heavy metal on his front porch said "Man, I came and watched you for a whole hour and a half!" The highlight though, was the gentleman who liked the music so much that he put a Caleb Stine sticker on his cane. To me, that's a solid endorsement. Pretty cool.</span><br /><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>You just recorded a new album. Tell us about it. Where was it recorded?</i></span><br /><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">Here in Baltimore with my good friend Nick Sjostrom. We used the recording studio that he works at during the day, and basically recorded after-hours over the last year. The title of the record is 'Eyes So Strong and Clean' which means a lot of things to me, It's about attempting to stare honestly at the world. </span><br /></p><br /><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">That was the philosophy behind the recording. We tried a lot of new techniques, and I feel like I pushed it as hard as I could. This is, you know, the best I got right now. For better or worse. </span><br /></p><br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 500px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 375px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3351/3629899477_7fd029d47d.jpg?v=0" border="0" /> <span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>Your songwriting process?</i></span><br /><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">I have about 5 different processes I think! It's always changing, and over the years I've learned some different techniques to jumpstart those processes. It's key to stay open to the songs, so that when they come, you're ready. </span><br /></p><br /><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">This is the main skill of songwriting: learning to recognize the seed of a song. It'll come to you as a fragment of melody or rhythm, or a string of words, or a feeling. . . And usually you have to strike when you've got that first catalyst. You don't have to finish it right then, but you've got to capture the essence, or it'll be lost. </span><br /></p><br /><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">I think everyone has the potential to nurture and grow songs, it's just that most people have never considered it, or learned to notice the seeds.</span><br /></p><br /><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>What are you reading?</i></span><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">Well, yesterday I finished 'This Is Your Brain on Music', a Science/Music book that had some unique insights. I've been into the English Romantic poets again lately; Wordsworth and Coleridge are on the bed stand right now. Don Quixote is also sitting there. . . I keep coming back to that one. I seem to be rereading a lot of my favorites right now. . . The Dharma Bums. Oh, and I'm reading a collection of Raymond Carver short stories called 'Where I'm Calling From' that I'd recommend for it's sheer heartbreaking insights into everyday life.</span><br /></p><br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 470px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 500px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3321/3629896243_82bc4a75d4.jpg?v=1246723212" border="0" /> <span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>Favorite movies? </i></span><br /><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">I've got my old standbys: The Seventh Seal, 12 Monkeys, Rushmore. . . I've thought a lot about There Will Be Blood since I saw it. </span><br /></p><br /><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>Playlist of a few favorite songs:</i></span><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">Here's some recent tracks by friends that I really like:</span><br /><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">'Hell on Earth' by Deer Tick</span></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">'Sight, Flight' by Wye Oak</span></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">'Idaho' by Andy Friedman & The Other Failures</span></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">'Keep Good Time' by Tommy Tucker</span><br /><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i></i></span></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>What are some of your interests?</i></span><br /><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">Cookies. Chess. Drawing. Road-trips. Friends. My nieces.</span><br /><br /><br /><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 348px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 500px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2673/3686824517_121730dced.jpg?v=0" border="0" /><br /><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>Historical figure you'd like to have a drink with, given the chance?</i></span><br /><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">I'd like to down some whiskey with Walt Whitman. Or chug Budweiser with Thomas Jefferson. Or sip merlot with Billy the Kid. Or go shot for shot with Mother Teresa. Or swallow hemlock with Socrates. . .</span></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>Favorite comic strips/ comic books/ graphic novels?</i></span><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">I've always been fascinated by Chris Ware's work. And I read the recent biography about Charles Schultz, which has given me a Peanuts higher-awareness.</span><br /></p><br /><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>Favorite visual artists?</i></span><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">Wow. . . van Gogh, Norman Rockwell, Turner, Thomas Cole, Chuck Close, Rothko, Annie Liebowitz . . . there's a few off the top of the head. Also, I'm really lucky to have a ton of super talented friends like Katherine Fahey, Michael Patrick O'Leary, Christine Sajecki, Magnolia Laurie, and Scott Denison whose work I get to watch evolve up close.</span><br /></p><br /><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>If you were to build a house out of unorthodox materials, what type of house would you build?</i></span><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">I'd build it out of bagels.</span><br /></p><br /><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>Last concert/performance attended? How was it?</i></span><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">I saw Those Darlin's open up for Elvis Perkins last week, and they were both engaged and alive. I appreciate performances where the musicians are present and playing to the people that are actually there, not some imaginary gig at Madison Square Gardens that they wish they were at. And Elvis was great. After the first song he asked the soundman politely for more vocals in the monitor, and he remembered his name! That won me over right away. Plus his band was great. Really good arrangements, and they were listening to each other, playing off of what just happened. </span></p><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3349/3673534438_af19888fb1.jpg?v=0" border="0" /><br /><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>What are some of your goals and/ or plans?</i></span><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">Creatively, I really want to focus on writing. I want to be a better musician. There's just so much to learn and work on. In general, I want to live less selfishly and be more open to the world.</span><br /></p><br /><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>Have you held any jobs/ careers that you'd like to discuss?</i></span><br /></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">I don't know about discussing them, but I've learned a lot from everything I've done. From working at a Special Ed school to drawing story-boards for movies. It's been a rich work-life. I will say, I was the ideal employee at McDonalds when I was 16. I'd run the drive through and say things like "Thank you for flying Ronald McDonald Airways. As you pull up to the first window remember to return your trays to the upright and locked position. . . "</span> </p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"><i>Your website(s):</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">Calebstine.com</span></p><p><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;">Myspace.com/calebstine</span></p><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Times;font-size:100%;"></span>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-52634832679417892122009-06-30T17:44:00.007-05:002009-06-30T17:57:05.527-05:00Levi Leddy Q&A<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN-0-GxjTqnPmwRzfhKsB7IziNknK7yQGBcpS-lLv9uBPxNVY7Xjvz1bEvrgUPdVSncWtSpBakUdOOPYC9BXsnZ2EDcHVfEN8kKDcTiMs6ewJgZ45xbeBjPbvAj8Jor8r2PCUU3dL7KyLP/s1600-h/Affliction-763716.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353255243147779586" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN-0-GxjTqnPmwRzfhKsB7IziNknK7yQGBcpS-lLv9uBPxNVY7Xjvz1bEvrgUPdVSncWtSpBakUdOOPYC9BXsnZ2EDcHVfEN8kKDcTiMs6ewJgZ45xbeBjPbvAj8Jor8r2PCUU3dL7KyLP/s320/Affliction-763716.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><strong>Hometown:</strong><br />My hometown is Dallas, TX. I still reside in the Dallas area. I enjoy living here, but the summer heat and the allergies zap the energy out of me. </p><div class="gmail_quote"><strong></strong></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong>Medium:</strong><br />My medium of choice is acrylic paints. I occasionally incorporate spray paint in some of my paintings, it just depends on the painting. I paint on canvas, wood, masonite, plexi-glass, and just about any other flat surface. I just add gesso to these surfaces and it makes for a nice background to work with. I usually stretch my own canvases. It saves some money and makes me feel like I created the entire piece of artwork at the end of the process. </div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxLjRY0AjvG5CTH_cVeP9eO6zwcbPc1re4r-25SlYD0FijX6dxqPw81Y_oxbGhaBc5jJaOEJ_V9u56-xiezGSENsudx1pFb61u-p5qCnZ5OrpZtzUtvEBHkHUK05wVwhcPDRcZ9YQlbp2M/s1600-h/Cluster-F-764399.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353255244802968626" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxLjRY0AjvG5CTH_cVeP9eO6zwcbPc1re4r-25SlYD0FijX6dxqPw81Y_oxbGhaBc5jJaOEJ_V9u56-xiezGSENsudx1pFb61u-p5qCnZ5OrpZtzUtvEBHkHUK05wVwhcPDRcZ9YQlbp2M/s320/Cluster-F-764399.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong></strong></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong></strong></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong>Artist Hero:<br /></strong>I was inspired by my Great Uncle Karl and my Great Aunt Uzila. They were professional artists from Germany. My Great Uncle painted modern art and my Great Aunt was into impressionism art. As a child, I visited Germany a few times. They had an amazing studio. I always thought it was fabulous to be able to do what you loved as your profession. I have an original painting from my Great Uncle hanging in my house. It was created in 1972. It is a painting that I cherish. </div><p><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong></strong></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong>What's your studio like?</strong><br />I have an empty room that my 4 year old daughter Trinity calls "The Art Room." I keep all of my artwork and stretched canvases in my studio. The flooring is concrete, so I do not have to worry about ruining carpet. Trinity has her easel and her artwork set up in her corner. I do not paint on an easel. I usually use a laundry bucket to paint my smaller paintings. Very unorthodox.</div><p><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisE6tbGo-Ey5KUNd074nfyJxRtrkfSad7_8UwXwhG7todlYZqcKvXoXen5OQTguxfYvN19-j8X9IOBlNhp2H5GQcJpJVdRqrQ6ybCzmZOX7z6qw8awxHQKW8by6doWliGoWnjryFW8GnUs/s1600-h/Eminent-Domain-765144.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353255251510009810" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisE6tbGo-Ey5KUNd074nfyJxRtrkfSad7_8UwXwhG7todlYZqcKvXoXen5OQTguxfYvN19-j8X9IOBlNhp2H5GQcJpJVdRqrQ6ybCzmZOX7z6qw8awxHQKW8by6doWliGoWnjryFW8GnUs/s320/Eminent-Domain-765144.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><p><div class="gmail_quote"><strong></strong></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong>What are you currently working on?<br /></strong>I currently have 3 large canvases stretched. I am going to try and complete these three paintings by the end of the summer. Last year I painted several small pieces, so I figured I would change things up and go large. I am thinking of trying to incorporate a space-like atmosphere, combined with organic shapes that appear to come to life. The large space allows for more things to come to fruition.<br /><br /><strong>What are you currently listening to?</strong><br />I have been listening to a lot of Optimus Rhythm. They are a Seattle based band that incorporates rap and melodic beats. Very interesting music.</div><p><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGxmsPptz0ZcUq8qbBjOBad7f8T1O6iAmPwniKKQ73GqFbBKIZ0oJ85ZzFA7QMHsfaPp9OOofOpJJ5DoWd-wOqwzlsnqk440fes1zfXcV0llQHmYG81zhtuCAe6RlPSf39ib6WhoV-mr-k/s1600-h/In-Due-Time-768670.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353255261808787634" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGxmsPptz0ZcUq8qbBjOBad7f8T1O6iAmPwniKKQ73GqFbBKIZ0oJ85ZzFA7QMHsfaPp9OOofOpJJ5DoWd-wOqwzlsnqk440fes1zfXcV0llQHmYG81zhtuCAe6RlPSf39ib6WhoV-mr-k/s320/In-Due-Time-768670.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong></strong></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong></strong></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong>What's your dream project?</strong><br />My dream project would be painting a wall mural on a building in a downtown setting. In Dallas there is an area called Deep Ellum. There used to be a tunnel that included murals from many artists. The tunnel was torn down recently to make room for the rail system. It was so great to view all the amazing art as you passed through town. I would love to have the opportunity to provide artwork that people could witness on a daily basis. </div><p><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong></strong></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong>Day job:<br /></strong>I currently work for UDR.com as a Website Content Specialist. UDR owns many apartments and townhouses throughout the United States. The website allows the consumer to lease via the internet. I am in charge of organizing the photography shoots for our various properties. After I receive the photos, I adjust them and load them onto our site and our affiliate sites, I also work on design, drawing floor plans, and various content related issues. I really enjoy working for UDR. They are a fabulous company that truly values their customers. </div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong></strong></div><div class="gmail_quote"><p><strong>Favorite gallery:<br /></strong>My favorite gallery would have to be the Janette Kennedy Gallery in Dallas. I have shown many times at this gallery. Clockwork and The Art of Skateboarding were the most recent shows that I participated in. The crowd and atmosphere at this venue are always great.</p></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_quote"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRexqJ1K07jffYIRUwo6jdq_0i5oMPjtsKwszmMDfqNqWm0Z-IDILVYqxpFWfxjerj9cC_KAeBiaEXotJNcoVSg57GA41MC1wP_EfUJAdylmSj4KQryzKXPTA0EBc8dqjvC00uG0TWDtUy/s1600-h/Third-Night-Stand-767251.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353255258283407922" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRexqJ1K07jffYIRUwo6jdq_0i5oMPjtsKwszmMDfqNqWm0Z-IDILVYqxpFWfxjerj9cC_KAeBiaEXotJNcoVSg57GA41MC1wP_EfUJAdylmSj4KQryzKXPTA0EBc8dqjvC00uG0TWDtUy/s320/Third-Night-Stand-767251.jpg" border="0" /></a></div></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong></strong></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong></strong></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong>Forthcoming shows?<br /></strong>I have a solo show on Saturday, August 8th. It will be at The Whitney Gallery (aka The Factory Shoppe). The address is: 2650 Main St, Dallas, TX 75226. I will have over 40 pieces of artwork on display. It should be an amazing show. I have never featured all of my artwork at one time. Usually, I have my artwork scattered at different galleries. I am really looking forward to this show. </div><div class="gmail_quote"><br />I will also participate in The Art of Skateboarding 2, at the Janette Kennedy Gallery on November 7th. The address is: 1409 South Lamar, Dallas, TX 75215. Every artist is given a skateboard deck and given the freedom to create whatever they desire. It is truly an amazing show. The original Art of Skateboarding raised over $44,000 for the Scottish Rite Foundation. </div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong></strong></div><div class="gmail_quote"><strong>Website:</strong> <a href="http://www.artwanted.com/levileddy">www.artwanted.com/levileddy</a></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="gmail_quote"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhw69Map5mVIrWXyzpgARRWKd5RZJsZQCW6Tw4hJ71f8B5hzBQbA_njWqJDgLR2KfYJJi0K_F6jH51zoI4MLttXQA5GojaU_uvo_Rzr8sPNKbI6Bg-d7plNzGuO5TXfcrkklcWQaubczjy/s1600-h/Vortex-766529.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRexqJ1K07jffYIRUwo6jdq_0i5oMPjtsKwszmMDfqNqWm0Z-IDILVYqxpFWfxjerj9cC_KAeBiaEXotJNcoVSg57GA41MC1wP_EfUJAdylmSj4KQryzKXPTA0EBc8dqjvC00uG0TWDtUy/s1600-h/Third-Night-Stand-767251.jpg"></a></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-83788196129531525282009-06-22T18:07:00.010-05:002009-06-22T19:10:44.736-05:00Nathan Markham Q&A<p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdwXezyQi6fu3gKlHalN-6TaFTg3_rcQ3DS8J43YXASvMYNyvO2D6nZoKjCIgXBMgyWIhyOtV3ex5z_PAqHuP8LXl6aSbQKypNJCeXtJtxJa-udRPeq8sCmkfOIFC9DED_kn1RLOrd9TuT/s1600-h/102_3122-738358.JPG"></a></p><p class="mobile-photo"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWtQK7DKkGBwa6TnVfkL6SfiyyDojpqT-iPXRYYjys9Ej49cnJmclEWZ9Gr9P-SLexmmAdmvNgs6y5XZMHJnyNMtBlKe640ZCFZAAQ0ISGrwEE1wKOIBHxDbOPNmg2HagJfCrl48cO9XK/s1600-h/Mind+Studio-740965.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350292477427281074" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYWtQK7DKkGBwa6TnVfkL6SfiyyDojpqT-iPXRYYjys9Ej49cnJmclEWZ9Gr9P-SLexmmAdmvNgs6y5XZMHJnyNMtBlKe640ZCFZAAQ0ISGrwEE1wKOIBHxDbOPNmg2HagJfCrl48cO9XK/s320/Mind+Studio-740965.JPG" border="0" /></a><strong></strong></p><p class="mobile-photo"><strong>Hometown:</strong> Born in Louisville, KY 1975. I divided my childhood evenly between Sweetwater<strong>,</strong> TN<strong> </strong>near Knoxville and Hendersonville, TN near Nashville. </p><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_quote"><strong>Currently Resides:</strong> South Florida / Broward Co.<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Medium:</strong> I love Paint. Water based media, minerals, powdered and liquid pigments, clear and iridescent varnish and glazes - metallic spray paint and collage - on canvas, on panel , on paper.<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Artist Hero: </strong><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3675483/Niki-de-Saint-Phalle.html">Niki de Saint Phalle</a>.</span><br />Also I learned a lot about teaching painting from <a href="http://www.sandrareedfineart.com/">Sandra Reed</a> at Savannah College of Art and Design and Jo Shan Ma, her assistant.<br /><br /><strong>Paintings and Drawings I enjoy looking at:</strong><br />Puvis De Chavannes, Paula Rego, Turner, Redon, Rossetti, Hans Hoffman, Ignes, anybody's sketchbooks.<br /></div><div class="im"><strong></strong><br /><strong>What's your studio like?</strong> Chaotic at the moment.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiRL8i91fVJE9NK4Okl-NlxQ4rgnD9uctP_pzBoqXCCKn4I55b4OxZEb78EEDnbh4rpATnaweOGd_SBINfQZuSQ3u1TSNuOXKNzJF_A0ErNrAI4zM5tHghuXQv3GTf39Unqr9C3-kAytRZ/s1600-h/Eli+-+4+years+old+2007+-+16,228-744063.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350292493492777490" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiRL8i91fVJE9NK4Okl-NlxQ4rgnD9uctP_pzBoqXCCKn4I55b4OxZEb78EEDnbh4rpATnaweOGd_SBINfQZuSQ3u1TSNuOXKNzJF_A0ErNrAI4zM5tHghuXQv3GTf39Unqr9C3-kAytRZ/s320/Eli+-+4+years+old+2007+-+16,228-744063.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /></div><div class="im"><br /><br /><strong>What are you currently working on?</strong> I've really been experimenting with powerful "transient" pigments that can only be covered up with mediums that resist from the backside of a layer. Pigments that rise to the surface, so the first layer of the painting is very important (as it continues to bleed to the surface throughout the process.) Sometimes I collage with pre-dried pieces of acrylic paint scraped from a glass surface. The dried paint stops the bleeding. I used batik dye and wax with ceramic glaze the other day, that was interesting.<br /><br /><strong>What are you currently reading?</strong> <a href="http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Arts/StudioThinkingArtsAdvocacy.html">Studio Thinking: The Real Benefits of Visual Arts Education</a>, Studios by the Sea: Artists of Long Island's East End (Hardcover) and Primary Colours by Serena Mann.<br /><br /><strong>What are you currently listening to?</strong> My wife is from Barbados in the Caribbean. And has introduced to me (over 14 years) a fascinating array of old reggae, calypso, and Caribbean folk music. This is my favorite right now, but there are hundreds we've collected: "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqn-BJc1I2c">Carry Go Bring Come</a>," by Justin Hinds & the Dominoes...and I love the guitar sound on Eddy Grant's "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsgPouGgc2E">Do you Feel my Love</a>." I'm desperately trying to replicate it on my set up at home.<br /><br />I am also addicted to <a href="http://freshair.org.uk/" target="_blank">Freshair.org.uk</a> and their August coverage of the Edinburgh Scotland FRINGE Festival! Funny funny funny...and The Charlie and Lola Soundtrack (I am father of 2).<br /><br /></div><div class="im"><strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qJpxYKFL-3jP7wQz1e5fUiAX9UoSYt4It0qX72CPLS9uhnlYM7fAR7kvXVKhdCZoVjZ0E_JyDmi2DWhMh2bXKOXQyJ43nUVMV2pdHHvxRMMrtCO5zmbrs6Z2L6GW73oM71Pyduk1wxh8/s1600-h/Chosen5-742885.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350292486292226066" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qJpxYKFL-3jP7wQz1e5fUiAX9UoSYt4It0qX72CPLS9uhnlYM7fAR7kvXVKhdCZoVjZ0E_JyDmi2DWhMh2bXKOXQyJ43nUVMV2pdHHvxRMMrtCO5zmbrs6Z2L6GW73oM71Pyduk1wxh8/s320/Chosen5-742885.jpg" border="0" /></a></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>What's your dream project?</strong> Aside from what I'm doing now:<br /><br /><em>Seriously.</em><br />1. Starting a Non-Profit that provides Educational / Arts travel for children of low income families in South Florida. It's really difficult to get field trips that leave the state, it is not a small world after all....authentic travel experiences are usually a common denominator in the lives of kids who have grown up to become adults who give back to their own communities - they have a broader world view. It's not enough to escape poverty - inspiring kids to grow up and end it would be great.<br /><br />2. Building a summer cottage boathouse studio on lake Papineau in Ontario. Sweet. Maybe an Artist in Residence grant retreat. <a href="http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1915997" target="_blank">http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1915997</a><br /><em></em><br /><em>Not so Seriously</em>. <em>Slightly more dreamy.</em><br />3. My paintings somehow inspire a musical starring John Cleese, Daniel Day Lewis and Judy Dench!!!! That would be super.<br /><br />4. Appearing on an Episode of the now over "Monarch of the Glen" TV show.<br /><br />5. Or owning a really small T-Shirt company that uses quirky one liners. Like "I brake for High-lighters" or "Tacos make it easy" with a picture of a bulldozer on both.<br /><br /><strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmtrrA7NUn-hN0KJGdwV6klL9m9ifebuaYE02SP1SdmxOKTvEv1hzzo3TAfcjxYVxkLHE9Y-Yvvwf_tOg3O0Hojn2fW6eCQRAtxq0OxDaO0nmFhfUWOiBsaiaN91vHg0JCbwL3xny-u49H/s1600-h/Clearly-739572.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350292468006405682" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmtrrA7NUn-hN0KJGdwV6klL9m9ifebuaYE02SP1SdmxOKTvEv1hzzo3TAfcjxYVxkLHE9Y-Yvvwf_tOg3O0Hojn2fW6eCQRAtxq0OxDaO0nmFhfUWOiBsaiaN91vHg0JCbwL3xny-u49H/s320/Clearly-739572.JPG" border="0" /></a></strong><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Day job:</strong><br />Art Educator: Elementary Magnet School -<br />Subject: 3D Art/Murals/Stagecraft - Teaching partnership with Broward Center for the Performing Arts. During the summer, I work at interesting places, like: Children Services Council funded Summer Arts Camps, Lovewell.org, and Multiple Sclerosis Foundation National Headquarters Lending Library - MSfocus.org<br /><br /><strong>What else are you currently working on? </strong>Editing a book of travel journals - I'd like to publish it. I've been fiddling with it for 10 years. I wrote it in 1999-2000, on a "round the world" trip with my wife to 12 different countries.<br /><br />My wife is a photographer, she documented our entire trip with over 5000 photos and 24 hours of video footage. (This was before we owned digital cameras.)<br /><br />My recent paintings, video collaboration and show are based on one page from the India portion of those journals and the photos.<strong> </strong><br /><br />Also, I recently graduated with a MS Ed. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Nova Southeastern University.<br /><br /><strong>Favorite Gallery?</strong> I'm gonna go big and say - AGO in Toronto and National Galleries of Scotland<br /><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><div class="h5"><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Website:</strong> <a href="http://nathanmarkham.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><strong>nathanmarkham.blogspot.com</strong></a><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjokvbHm3-VSGFs-L7A54SMFPOcaY7ZwwPbhEDfIBSkLdkeRo1AH1FDxFSsAOIwouKQnIPI2SjKCivB-5B2PqCbi-S2cfHBTVhRHWOxrPJ74aXFFz38Xxljoqv5B2beh2mvpRnR72QX8ZNN/s1600-h/102_3123-742114.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350292482485167026" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjokvbHm3-VSGFs-L7A54SMFPOcaY7ZwwPbhEDfIBSkLdkeRo1AH1FDxFSsAOIwouKQnIPI2SjKCivB-5B2PqCbi-S2cfHBTVhRHWOxrPJ74aXFFz38Xxljoqv5B2beh2mvpRnR72QX8ZNN/s320/102_3123-742114.JPG" border="0" /></a> </div></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-68134336826220789762009-06-15T18:05:00.011-05:002009-06-15T18:19:43.976-05:00Shannon McLaughlin/ You Wanna Talk Jive<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347696884094803410" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 310px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_lWhVp2Du0xSEFF_SfdNc3xdHXmlIxBD4erqyfzKvL2edXJdEYMHySa7bsLF0YbDmtOrXgm1OXqXElL8Q6tayu2Mj1CRVqwFOHZqt7IIUWJxjhuQ9n0IRg_jiMPyjujgeh7hoxtBQ07Dw/s400/3280153523_c0e6ee0076_b.jpg" border="0" /><strong>Tell us a little about yourself.</strong><br /><div><br /><div><div><div><div><div class="gmail_quote">I'm a 25-year-old gal living in Philadelphia with my husband and our six pets. Several years ago, I graduated from Kutztown University with a BFA in Communication Design (concentrating in illustration) and am currently the Editor-in-Chief of a local monthly publication called Bucks & Montgomery Living Magazine. Writing and editing have always been one of my main interests, but illustration will always be my obsession. I tend to devote my evenings and weekends to illustrating, which is definitely a relaxing transition from the fast-paced publishing environment.<br /><br /><strong>Tell us about your recent artwork.</strong><br /><br />My most recent series, "say hello to my little friends," consisted of exotic pets drawn with colored pencils on cross sections of trees. As a pet lover, I'm around animals a lot, which is why exotic critters tend to seep into my work naturally. As much as I'd like to live in a world where I'm free to sip tea on my couch in the company of a fruit bat and ferret while watching Bravo TV marathons, I know that some dreams are too good to be true. Upon this bleak realization, I decided to surround myself with a fluffy menagerie of exotic pet illustrations.<br /><br />I'm also working on a series of illustrations of dogs that have been rescued from local animal shelters, as well as dogs that are currently in Pennsylvania shelters. I plan on eventually having a show exhibiting these works, with proceeds donated to the PSPCA, where I have recently become a membership benefit partner (<a href="http://www.pspca.org/donate/membership" target="_blank">www.pspca.org/donate/membership</a>). Ideally, I would like to use these illustrations for a children's book I plan on writing that will educate kids and their parents about the benefits of adopting the family dog through a shelter.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347697006382041170" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 264px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfnbEz-i57_PYEp37OpcmdD3kBOqGGnP7C7AKr5R0654R7wsL-6CEBoWPLo8SUqHKUyZt3bPFxVIxtqulMoj8K3wzmWBRohnNETH9aqLF6b2OHzESmmP5tNZdz_mNEmTK_5cIKxi1mb21r/s400/3358322395_221fe8697e_b.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>Have you exhibited your work?<br /></strong><br />Right now I'm expanding my exotic pet series for an upcoming show at the Philadelphia International Airport, which will be on exhibit in one of their main terminals from May through November 2010. I've already shown the series thus far in Philadelphia at Cafe Estelle (<a href="http://www.cafeestelle.com/" target="_blank">http://www.cafeestelle.com/</a>) this past April, which was a success. I completely adore the quirky employees over there, who are an absolute pleasure to work with (plus they have the best breakfast pizza everrrrrrrrr).<br /><br /><strong>What interests do you have other than art?</strong><br /><br />Apart from art, animals and writing, I'm also interested in music and I'm a huge pop culture geek. I'm completely addicted to Lost and wouldn't mind it if Sawyer walked around shirtless in my living room, that's for sure. I also love spending time with my husband (who shares my crush on Sawyer, shhhhh) and having quiet nights together with our pets.<br /><br /><strong>Have you collaborated w/ other artists in the past?<br /></strong><br />Most of my friends are photographers, so I haven't really been able to collaborate with any of them, but I'm definitely open to the suggestion! I've certainly been in my fair share of photoshoots with artsy friends.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347696825474282914" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 345px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcCZlWAfArOAoNj82DWmNFv0YglOVfprMnC9-cAH6tkLyWXG0bt-vvAMiLACF7bET506bT-vlPElbSv-O9IvxcBrginbR_-J3t2tnZoD9pLBO9kafVXqrTYF-APeCS_G6tfrcxPiLUWkYR/s400/3246846192_c85d5c006e_b.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>Who and what are your influences?</strong><br /><br />My brother, who is nine years older than me, was (and still is) a huge influence in my artistic career. He took me under his wing and taught me everything he knew about drawing and painting. From teaching me how to sketch characters from "The Little Mermaid" to touring me around art museums in New York and making sure I read Artforum every month. He always supported my interest in making people smirk by exploring odd subject matter. I also respect the fact that he has always been honest with me and doesn't hold back with constructive criticism. Family members usually want to hang every piece of your art on the fridge, even when inside they are thinking, "Dear god, that is one ugly ass drawing." It's nice to have someone to go to who will tell me when my work is great or where I need to improve. I've learned so much from him, from marketing my work to building a comprehensive website and learning how to "edit" my portfolio and to not just show everything I've ever created.<br /><br />I'm also influenced by my husband and friends who are always motivating me to keep on truckin'. Animals have always been inspiring to me, especially trying to get the word out about how important fostering and animal adoption is. Other influences include: flea markets, junkyards, vintage yearbooks and children's books, super bright & tacky patterns, trips to art stores, my Google Reader and browsing Etsy.com.<br /><br /><strong>Looking back, how has your style changed?</strong><br /><br />In college, my style was much more painterly and I tended to use mostly oil paints or make mixed media pieces that combined found objects and drawings with marker on layers of tracing paper. I think I went from going out of my way to try to be uber conceptual to now just drawing things that make me happy and come to me more naturally. I've always been pretty fascinated by brilliant, vivid colors and attention to detail, and I think that is still consistent in my work.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347696765239016194" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 261px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo0Uga9naLhhz6xlEcBBHMrwJSSGrfDuj276Tou7Yl6EeA1qGLYo6uXj36bwOlZ34VFKQOjO2aZb0NAqaz5cORAFZ17od-OD-q_sTuAVOtt3NWK-ofOivjHDNoAV1eJq1Tw9TbmsF4KMlG/s400/3195130962_acc0de3de2_b.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>Have you had any other careers? How have these influenced your career as an artist?</strong><br /><br />Apart from being an illustrator and Editor-in-Chief, I was also a salad bar bitch for a while at the Old Country Buffet, which I ended up creating a zine about. I was also a hostess at Red Robin, but I only lasted a few days there after memorizing their massive menus. I was a cashier assistant at Costco one summer but got tired of lifting everyone's giant-sized food out of their carts, so I quit that as soon as humanly possible and decided to draw poodles instead (super responsible, I know). Seriously, who needs a container of mayonnaise that big?<br /><br /><strong>Favorite films:<br /></strong>Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or Harold & Maude<br /><br /><strong>Least favorite films:</strong><br /><br />X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Oh my god, worst CGI evah!) or I Know Who Killed Me (so bad it's almost good)<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347696593285269106" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 294px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9hGQxQS_EVsOWpbwoIjQpvAnb4FtmyiRoSLKq3TllFKaauocHc3opzozmVpbYz_i7uthCyXbXkegG2Qr6Iu_6ObsqIJqZC107PMDHcHwopk1gLHngNIC7dxEdaXyxRb64cztFRPCawm0W/s400/3176417496_b57d38980f_o.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>What are you reading right now?<br /></strong><br />Several books on Italy since the hubs and I are planning our belated honeymoon for next Spring.<P><br /><strong>Favorite music:<br /></strong><br />The Flaming Lips, Ben Folds, Travis, Beck, Johnny Cash, REM, Bowie, Magnetic Fields, My Bloody Valentine, Ryan Adams, Whiskeytown, Rufus Wainwright, Remy Zero, The Pixies, Paul Westerberg, The Bad Plus, The Replacements, The Velvet Underground, Jeff Buckley and many more!<br /><br /><strong>Favorite comic strips/comic books:<br /></strong><br />I love graphic novels, especially anything by Harvey Pekar, Scott Mccloud, Julie Doucet, David B., Art Spiegelman and Marjane Satrapi.<br /><br /><strong>Last concert/performance attended:</strong> Travis at the Theatre of the Living Arts in Philadelphia last month.<br /><br /><strong>Website:</strong> <a href="http://www.shannonmclaughlin.net/" target="_blank">http://www.shannonmclaughlin.net/</a><br /><strong>Etsy:</strong> <a href="http://www.youwannatalkjive.etsy.com/" target="_blank">http://www.youwannatalkjive.etsy.com/</a><br /><strong>Blog:</strong> <a href="http://www.youwannatalkjive.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://www.youwannatalkjive.blogspot.com/</a><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347696946458390962" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 315px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFT_TifL9zMbkReHasi-bcWp7QcWeFcx5FIaoRZklBnEHXPh0h7eOqs1SN17O23um6isiSa6PE7qbEDZbz9mmIJCY_YDx632DiBugcDr8ClwDYHdnhxIQUMBI6Qm77MpJS8PZwxOIZ88YN/s400/3342673719_b7e0f66442_b.jpg" border="0" /></div></div></div></div></div></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-23009335862403618522009-06-07T12:55:00.027-05:002009-06-07T14:18:41.963-05:00Jen McCleary<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YIm7C8s39AeWSpGrF-Ch513lppf2HT9d3Hb0URne452XfXxJCjS1-2a8IDVVdEsvkeIsTcCIaveWyCtQ8oqLKRm-LcYvrHp7N44unCIYzSfEpbHPz66vElyBrNJyRaNB2_idaX7FyaUZ/s1600-h/forest.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344665958634968754" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YIm7C8s39AeWSpGrF-Ch513lppf2HT9d3Hb0URne452XfXxJCjS1-2a8IDVVdEsvkeIsTcCIaveWyCtQ8oqLKRm-LcYvrHp7N44unCIYzSfEpbHPz66vElyBrNJyRaNB2_idaX7FyaUZ/s400/forest.jpg" border="0" /></a><em>Jen McCleary is an artist who works with mixed media and digital collage. She also creates one of a kind jewelry using antique watch parts, optical lenses, and found and repurposed objects. By day Jen works as a graphic artist. In her spare time, she’s a coordinator for Handmade Philly.<br /></em><br /><strong>Jen, when and where were you born?<br /></strong>I was born in Coatesville, PA, in 1977. I lived in the same house for my whole childhood and my parents still live there today.<br /><br /><strong>What was it like for you growing up?<br /></strong>We (me, my parents, and my younger sister) lived about a 20 minute drive outside of the city of Coatesville. The city itself is one of those old, slowly dying PA steel towns with lots of problems, but where we lived it was still almost rural. Definitely suburban, but the houses weren't packed close together, everyone had lots of trees and there were no sidewalks and not much car traffic. I spent a lot of time outdoors, playing with my sister or kids in the neighborhood, riding my bike around. We didn't watch very much TV or play a lot of computer games or anything like that. If I wasn't outside I was probably reading- I was a huge bookworm (and still am). We were quite close to Hibernia County Park, and when I got old enough, I'd take off and wander around over there alone for hours. While I was away at college they flooded part of the park to put in a manmade lake. Some of my favorite trails are now underwater- it's interesting to think of the traces of those trails maybe still being down there.<br /><br />I've only realized in recent years how much certain aspects of how I was raised influenced me in a positive way- thinking about the whole DIY craft movement, the idea of making things by hand. My mom made most of my and my sister's clothes until we were teenagers, and my dad had a woodworking shop in the basement. They had a huge garden, which at the time seemed like drudgery, but now I appreciate the value of growing your own food, making your own tomato sauce and I wish I had my own garden. Right now I have in my apartment furniture that my dad made and jam that my mom made, which is pretty cool.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344659229826099266" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 194px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT1taNmW_Q4ToCoGL6FEMCTy7oa6gYoaOOYRMI1a4mCqnHGc6bM8SdGZH_ufMkqRy5FptaC9ibFmenuvocqmkQqTA6U8s2MGtxGXLYg4b7LS_V27-jZ2RXOZyIXLF0TIg4R8K5X_np_PNV/s400/smoke.jpg" border="0" /><br /><p><strong>What did your parents do for a living?</strong><br />My dad was an engineer. I can never remember which kind even though he's told me several times. I think he designed the electrical or heating/cooling systems for manufacturing plants or something like that. He used to bring home printouts of these amazing floorplans and flowcharts and things. I still have some of them, and have incorporated some of them into different collages. He retired from engineering a while ago, and now works as a teacher aide in an elementary school, providing one-on-one assistance for a boy with autism who is in a mainstream class.<br /><br />My mom trained as a secretary, and is the library aide for the library of the elementary school that my sister and I went to. She basically does everything the librarian does except teach classes. I think she started working there when I was in third grade, and stayed ever since. The library recently got rid of their old wooden card catalogue drawers, and she was thoughtful enough to ask if I wanted it. I love things with lots of little drawers. It weighs a ton, but looks awesome and is great for storing odds and ends.<br /><br /><strong>Were you involved with the arts as a child?<br /></strong>Definitely. I always loved art class the best, the feeling I got from making things. I also played piano for most of my childhood, although I think that was more frustrating for me than making art. Art was more liberating, more fun, whereas piano was stressful, it had to be "right." I stopped taking piano lessons around the age of 13, around the same time that I started focusing more on art. I went to ordinary public schools that didn't necessarily put a priority on the arts (the high school had a darkroom years ago but by the time I got there it had been turned into storage for football gear). But had some fantastic teachers who I can truly say influenced me for the better. My elementary school art teacher offered private lessons at his home studio one evening a week for four or five students. That was a great experience- we got to do stuff we never got to do at school- ceramics, screenprinting, woodblock prints. My art teacher junior and senior years of high school was wonderful too. At that point I was really focusing on art and knew I wanted to go to art school, and he was always helpful and encouraging and wrote some fantastic letters of recommendation.<br /><br /><strong>How would you describe your work?</strong><br />I like working in a number of different media and having multiple projects going simultaneously. Right now about half of what I do is digital (digital collages and photography) and the other half is more traditional (mixed-media collage paintings and handmade jewelry). I love the flexibility of working digitally, but if I spend too much time on the computer I crave the immediacy and tactile nature of working by hand with actual materials. It’s funny though if I mess something up in a painting the first thing that comes to mind is “undo! undo!” I think being able to hit that undo button on the computer makes it easier to try different things, but sometimes with the traditional media being forced to work through a mistake and go in a different direction has the same end result. My imagery comes from a number of places- I wander around taking pictures in the city, so there's a lot of urban imagery, but I also love and am inspired by nature. I like exploring dualities- natural/manmade, light/dark, etc...I like decay and texture and especially color... </p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344665414157122098" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 160px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTU5QiP2LVBw4UrnCEsHdmPiKXRSw6mcsey5na550cAQnAkwjbFQzFstLXEqebm_VthuYpZUmYQnS3oMhVQI3MDqi8Yb5qG3Q55sSrvy_X6K9c1M-aai2B4dQS8Cdfw0B5dWK1PVEfSAlY/s400/north1.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>Tell us about your education…what did you study?</strong><br />I studied Painting and Printmaking (double major, BFA) at Tyler School of Art. I spent one semester my junior year studying in Rome. Art school was simultaneously an amazingly wonderful and horribly frustrating experience. By the end of my senior year I realized that I wasn’t really a painter and I wasn’t really a printmaker. I was interested in<br />mixing things up, painting on prints, printing on paintings, making collages and books, and I didn’t really feel like there was a place for that. I didn't really find the class critique thing helpful at all- hearing twenty different conflicting opinions just left me confused and uncertain. It took me many years and a lot of work after I graduated to feel confident about my art, to feel that I was making the work that I needed to be making.<br /><br />When I was in school I hated the idea of using the computer to make art, but I soon figured out that I was completely wrong about that! I started exploring what I could do using Photoshop to manipulate images and starting to create digital collage work. I eventually figured out that I’d be a lot happier if I could do something more creative as my job, so I took a Continuing Education program in Print Design at University of the Arts. After that I got a job doing graphic design full-time at Penn, and took advantage of the staff tuition benefit to do a Master of Liberal Arts program. It was an interdisciplinary program, so although I focused on the general areas of art/art history/culture, I took classes from a variety of departments including English, Political Science, Sociology, East Asian Studies, and History. It was perfect for someone like me with varied interests. I just completed the program this past December. It was a lot of work, taking classes two nights a week, working fulltime, and also still trying to do my own art projects, but I think the difficulty of it made it more rewarding. I really believe in continuing to learn and grow throughout life, whether that is formal education or just self-education through reading about different things and trying new things. I think I'm going to start taking some more continuing education classes- I want to learn sewing and metalsmithing. </p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344664693416519250" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 160px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHQBxmwu83xgN_B4FaLPbfRUI40hfTwaCkPozFnWCdtvN3JVhTqkaXEA4J7B0OkxhQaJunDgve6rSFKgEgUV5S-kUemVE6npcz9sqXpCvsrUpqKx14vX4sOKmeinAjOnK-YDQvzpDD6OFL/s400/structure21.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>How have you been influenced by the art community? Who/ what inspires you?</strong><br />I’ve been pretty uninvolved in the art community, at least until the last few years when I joined the Philly Etsy Team/ Handmade Philly and got more involved with selling my work at various local events and shops. I've never been that comfortable with the traditional fine art world, which I think can be very insular and overly competitive and pretentious. I feel much more at home in the DIY/crafty/handmade world, which I think is more open and accepting and fun. I've never had to write an artist statement or feel like I had to justify what I'm doing and why I'm doing it at a craft show. I like selling my work at local art/craft events because it's fun to just set up a table and put stuff out there and see what appeals to people. It's awesome getting to talk to the people who are buying my work. I like the idea of art being for everyone, that it should be affordable and part of everyday life, not just something for wealthy people to invest in or something to go visit in a museum. I feel that the traditional boundaries between "art," "craft," and "design" are blurring and overlapping, and that overlap is where some really interesting things are happening. It's been cool to meet other people like myself who work in a number of different mediums. I think that whether you're making paintings or photos or dresses or cookies, it all comes from the same kind of creative impulse that should be nurtured whatever form it takes.<br /><br /><strong>Do you have a career/ job (other than the art you create independently)?<br /></strong>Yes, I work full time as a graphic designer at the University of Pennsylvania, since the summer of 2006. For the six years before that I worked as a production editor with an academic publisher, and before that I worked for a small internet/catalog music company. I worked for the music company part-time while I was in school, and was quite happy when my boss said I could work full-time once I graduated, since I was completely freaking out about what I was going to do to support myself. I think I started working before I even graduated from school- I had to take a day off to go to my graduation ceremony.<br /><br />I’ve pretty much always had some kind of full time job in addition to making art, and that’s a decision that I’ve very deliberately made. I don’t think there’s anything romantic or inspiring about the whole stereotypical “starving artist” thing. I have a pretty low tolerance for uncertainty and stress, so I can’t imagine that worrying about if I can make rent every month and fretting over the number of things I've sold or not sold would make me a better artist. I’ve always been afraid that depending on my art as my sole means of income would make it stressful, which would be awful since making art is one of the great pleasures of my life. So far things have worked out well enough. I like having the extra income from art sales and freelance work, and sometimes I do think about the possibility of trying to support myself entirely with that but I'm a long way away from that being feasible or even desirable. The main drawback to having a regular full time job is sometimes feeling that I lack enough time to focus on my art, but it’s just a matter of making efficient use of what time I do have. Luckily I seem to do well without very much sleep. </p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344659111561133682" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHP9WOga_z6rFdKZsMp1NyZxJHHIdyvjWNhvhHh2tcE6ko_YzTBeHRNda0W4P59rqaX3p_8Jd9ILg1X5nPyWqefx55AbMp4kfUODwIyB4SteyB2bKyjkkZs1pmAupMq286iwL1BsUzZgea/s400/thoughtpatterns.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>Have you had any careers not related to art?</strong><br />Yes, the publishing job. It was fine when I started out there, when I thought of it as just a "job" and not as a "career." It was something I did for money to support my art. But I was there for a while and did a good job so I kept getting promoted, which normally people think is a good thing. But it actually caused me a lot of stress, because I felt things shifting from a "job" to a "career" and I didn't want that. I felt like if you're in a management position in a certain field, then that's what your primary thing is, and anything else you do is just on the side like a hobby, and I wanted it to be the other way around. It was a good job that I liked for the most part, and I worked with some really great people, and I did get to use my design skills sometimes, so it was very difficult to leave. But I knew that I was not on the right path and was increasingly miserable. I decided I wanted to find a job that was more specifically art-related so I wouldn't have so much of an identity crisis about what my focus was. I got really lucky with a design position opening at Penn at just the right time. I was worried at first that doing creative work all day would leave me with little energy for my own projects, but if anything the opposite is true- it all kind of feeds into each other.<br /><br /><strong>Do you consider yourself an artist who works with contemporary social issues?</strong><br />Not really, not overtly or deliberately anyway. When I make something, it’s never like “I’m going to make a painting about X.” My process is more intuitive, experimenting as I go and letting a piece develop even in different directions than I might have expected. When it’s right, when something is working, I know it somehow. There are a number of social issues that I am interested in, which may seep into my work. I’m sure some of my images, particularly the landscapes, could be read as commentaries on post-industrial urban decay or environmental destruction or something, but it’s not deliberate. I like leaving things open for interpretation rather than being obvious about what something is supposed to mean. </p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344665496706988562" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0yIaY2A5oxVFuYW7DzQPyngnZKvqMCTdQgjguTrBG8BmMCn5le4ANat9bMDS28JE-igQfs-eXKmdnM0CEUZyxakp4c_HNzdCJ5CgZXrRUGIUi0dfuSzu_og2TLzYwsrxwU8cJPufl7V4a/s400/winter_1.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>What are your goals? What are your plans for the future?</strong><br />Right now I'm focusing on making some new work, new paper collages and watchpart jewelry. Things have been a little slow on Etsy lately, and it's so easy to get too wound up in the numbers, the "oh no, I've only sold X this month!" When I start getting like that I know it's time to step away from the business stuff and just focus on making stuff. That's why I choose to have most of my income come from elsewhere, so I can do that. Overall I feel like I'm in a pretty good place and I'm happy with how things are going so I'm not making any radical changes to what I'm doing. I hope to add shopping functionality to my own site soon, and maybe take on some more freelance design work. I'll probably look for more local shows to sell at and also new shops to consign work with. I have a bunch of half-finished projects sitting around- magnets and coasters, tons of unfinished collages...<br /><br /><strong>What are you currently reading?</strong><br />I just finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri. I love a good post-apocalypse story, but I wasn't blown away by The Road. It was ok, but I didn't love it. Lahiri is one of my favorite writers- most of her stories are about immigrant families from India, but even though they are about this very specific set of people, they are also about human relationships in general, love and loss and difficult circumstances. She has a lovely way of conveying all these tiny details of life and describing things, which I've also noticed in the work of other Indian writers such as Arundhati Roy. I don't know if it's a cultural thing or a language thing or what, but I like it.<br /><br />I just started reading The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro. I wanted to get his Remains of the Day since I'm on a mission to read all the Booker Prize winners, but the library didn't have it. I like reading one non-fiction book and one fiction book simultaneously. I'm about to start on a book called Maps of the Mind: Charts and Concepts of the Mind and its Labyrinths." I picked it up from the free book pile at my job. It looks really interesting- illustrations and explanations of different historical and modern conceptions of how the human mind operates. I like reading things from all different fields- science and philosophy and history, whatever catches my eye. </p><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5344664789702624850" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiccxz7K-eUWy3w27AkvGLsOazgGWhuPsddg71mosu5TLVLryMvacmemyBNFUdwz2KAfBnkz0hSxzR4YU2N-UzIAzOMF35JOnx0XMraj-ybIJu0xhaKNEkBMbk6FxOtGMH0DIO6vZxAJpoh/s400/timescape.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>What are you listening to?</strong><br />Right now I'm listening repeatedly to the soundtrack to a computer game called Neotokyo. It's by an Australian composer, <a href="http://cdbaby.com/cd/edharrison">Ed Harrison</a>. It's really excellent music that stands on its own apart from the game. It's mostly electronic, but has live vocals and instruments including violin, which I'm a sucker for since I play violin (badly!) myself. I mostly like instrumental electronic music, multi-layered, complex, and beautiful, and this definitely fits those criteria. It's the perfect music to paint to!<br /><br /><strong>What’s on your mind lately?</strong><br />Thinking about how I define artistic success for myself, because I'm not sure that the standard American equation of success equals fame and fortune really works for me. By the standard definition most artists are "failures" so I think we really need to rethink that. I think that success has something more to do with living a meaningful life and producing the work that you need and want to produce, but I'm still trying to formulate exactly what that definition is and how to implement it.<br /><br />I just started <a href="http://jenmccleary.com/2009/05/the-methodical-cookbook-project/">a new non-art project</a> for my blog, where I'm going through all my underused cookbooks one by one and making each and every recipe...should be fun and interesting...I love cooking, it's another creative outlet that is strictly a hobby. In the past I toyed with the idea of pursuing cooking as a career, but again I ran into the same problem that I'd lose the pleasure of just cooking for my own enjoyment if I made it my job!<br /><br /><strong>Do you have any upcoming shows/ exhibits?</strong><br />Yes, I'll be at InLiquid's <a href="http://www.inliquid.com/features/aftcp10/aftcp10-big/aftcp10.php">Art for the Cash Poor</a> at the Crane Arts Building on June 13-14. AFTCP is absolutely my favorite event to participate in, and this will be my fourth year. It's always a lot of fun and has a great mix of artists. I always have to exercise a lot of restraint to not spend everything I make on other people's art! I always buy something though, because it gets boring having nothing but your own art on your walls.<br /><br />Jen McCleary's <a href="http://jenmccleary.com/">Website</a> & <a href="http://jenmccleary.etsy.com/">Etsy Shop</a>.</p>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-90174555049808488272009-05-27T11:35:00.029-05:002009-06-07T14:20:25.769-05:00Mark Mattson Q&A<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340546638032731506" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 304px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv_6uanFIJpVjh2N-aHdbhbaYXQZS4bS0SRr7aUvC2zgP1NDwPPnXHNUGwxRT97CKFirGxMd8stqjyFd6vDYw3m1_pc39LEUxRXW7LdFgnxU0wAAOZprqVJ8wCp6cmp6_2vqpOXk4BDDVK/s400/il_fullxfull_16994908.jpg" border="0" /><br /><div><div><div><div><div><div><div class="gmail_quote"><div><b>What is your background? How did you get involved with art?<br /></b></div><div></div><div><br /></div><div>Well, first and foremost, I'd have to say it started with my parents. I'd spend countless hours in any museum possible with my parents; art's never <i>not </i>been around in my life, I suppose. My mom is an artist, among other things, and my dad really is, too, though he practiced architecture, and it's something I always took for granted, that art is everywhere, or at least was around us. I'd draw naked portraits of people in kindergarten, because of all those naked baby angel portraits floating around the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, and of all the nude portraits in books that I'd see. I didn't get into painting until high school, where, thankfully I had some fantastic teachers, worked on film, video, animation, illustration, design and painting in college, and have generally been making work steadily the whole darn time, really. I'd also probably still like to be a Berke Breathed/Bill Watterson/Charles Schulz hybrid-beast, who also paints.<br /><p>Some professional gigs I've had, and still do, include kids' book art director, advertising art director, product designer, video game designer, illustrator, muralist, and interactive designer. I've made many products containing Elmo and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and many products containing licensed characters of whom I will not mention. I would love to be that guy who gets to put his signature on every product in the universe that contains his own licensed character, no matter what product it is, but this has not happened yet. I am super-contact-able, however.</p><p><br /><b>How would you describe your work?<br /></b><br />I tend to boil down what I do lately as "things that should not have faces, but with faces."</p></div><div>Like, anthropomorphic versions of pretty much anything that speaks to me in its special humanized, anthropomorphic way. I think mostly I deal with relationships, and nuance, and miscommunication, and things not said, between people, or ketchup bottles, or whatever, and with subtly-expressed desire. Sometimes I'll say "Pop Surrealism", just for fun. Robert Williams said of that "cartoon-tainted abstract surrealism", which I like. He didn't say that of me, he's never heard of me, but he said that of the movement. Subtle heartbreak and terrific whimsy. But fun. How about that? </div><div><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340546406959987522" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 365px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZc6ptuQ8rUwhI5nKSQGjFY0YR9P8iqej6wy1otRlVklduPvF0wHmO5sJoYXNbjkWTvB5SR1UoHsoaR8opUIZdpppqqYm_ufgupH4HbjvRGJh5CLqs2n0tK2OFI7F0paluDwvurwdpk617/s400/il_430xN_30259033.jpg" border="0" /><br /><b>Have you studied art in school? What did you like best about the school you attended? What advice would you give to anyone considering going to school vs. doing it on their own?<br /></b><br />I graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design, where I studied illustration, painting, and design. I also went to arts-centered junior highs and high schools, Stivers and Colonel White, in Ohio; and I went for a time to NYU for animation. I attend lots of kids' book conferences, and video game conferences, too, where I take a lot of classes, still. Classes are fun! </div><div class="gmail_quote"><br /></div><div class="gmail_quote">The best thing about CCAD was to be able to focus, all the time, on art, and not be so stuck in my own brain all the time about it, which is a serious danger to anyone making anything. Everybody, or at least most everybody "gets it", that act of art-making, and it's not an anomaly that you seriously want to study something that the rest of the country probably thinks is bizarre and/or essentially unnecessary to everyday life. Dang, did I just say that for most of America? Edit that in post. I had some fantastic teachers in college as well; especially the ones that most students probably thought were bonkers.<br /><p>Well, it's not like you "need" an art degree to do art, but, for me, college was like a 24-hour master class of art and art history, with like-minded people, giving me perspectives and ideas that wouldn't have come from staring at myself in the mirror 24/7. I do plenty of that now, and it's really no good for anybody. No, but, being anything creative can be incredibly isolating, and getting a network of folks from school is an awesome first step to not going crazy. No guarantee, but still.</p></div><div class="gmail_quote"></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340546549848468770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 275px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXlH9B5J3xSthMRf6HVDIucaWACVbZGgX6E6G6DQ5SGoudtTXP8bNPnVAxGdbtqn_LZCu85SAHIZdS93O1bfjV4Zb1oGr_n4YZD7Fb9MR-LQwWkmddp6tMUzWTigqPbsHuPTzuiMmWddU1/s400/il_fullxfull_36729726.jpg" border="0" /><br /><b>How have you been influenced by the art community? Who/ what inspires you?</b><br /><div>As far as inspiration: children's television and literature, pop and contemporary art, video games, mass-market mail order catalogs, pictures of food, french comics, all-ages comics, educational filmstrips, New Yorker cartoonists, the Nintendo universe, humor writing, music. I get a lot from studying every parking lot in every strip mall in America, and highways, too. Night-time artificial lighting is intoxicating. <p>Going to galleries and museums really helps, because I'm in the same space as the work, which is hugely important to understanding my own relationship to it. And talking to people in the art community is hugely important, again, just to get out of my own stupid brain for a while, you know? No creative vacuums, fer cryin' out loud, which is something I always have to remind myself.</p></div><div><br /><b>Do you have a career/ job (other than the art you create independently)?<br /></b><br />I'm also an illustrator, game artist-designer, and full-time-dad to an amazingly amazing five-year-old.<br /><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340546482064104498" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 390px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7ltO4UfBnLrOQdwzZl6EewDG9GEIRs7R-MccFCaAIQ4V-LLgSs8IwDvWw4zNTil3D8g8E3sXDhH_eoY50EO4MqsofEkedmoYo5VFgdiwFXzjS45pfxT_A3oVlLhWH-pYF-5vag6mkzz9H/s400/il_430xN_70950176.jpg" border="0" /><br /><b>Have you had any careers not related to art?<br /></b><br />Not really, I guess; for a few years during and after college, I worked in a library, when I was avoiding the real world for as long as I could, but I was still making stuff on my own.<br /><br /><br /><b>How have you handled the business side of being an artist?<br /></b><br />This is one of the hardest parts, right? How in the heck does one handle that kind of thing? I, as many folks might tell you, am almost entirely right-brained, so that stuff came the slowest to me, as I'm sure it does to a lot of creative folk. I've always hated selling things, even when I was kid, it's all like door-to-door fund-raising to me. I should probably get an agent. Again, I am super-contact-able, all you art super-agents out there. <p>That said, I have as much online presence as possible; I maintain a blog (<a href="http://mattsonstudio.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">mattsonStudio.blogspot.com</a>), a more illustration-based website (<a href="http://www.roxmedia.com/mattson" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">www.roxmedia.com/mattson</a>), an Etsy Shop (<a href="http://mattson.etsy.com/" target="_blank">mattson.etsy.com</a>), a t-shirt and merchandise shop (<a href="http://zazzle.com/mattsonstudio" target="_blank">zazzle.com/mattsonstudio</a>), and I'm on Twitter and Facebook, and Digg, and Technorati, and all of that stuff, just to make sure I pop up in as many searches as possible, and to try and reach folks, you know? It's been so awesome to get to know people all around the world via internet means, through forums, and social media, and all of that; it's really gratifying, and it's really opened up a great way to reach people not in my zip code. But I love my zip code, too, no, really, 19119, I truly do. <p>It's also really helped getting involved with local creative groups as well: The Handmade Philly Team is amazing, and fun, and talented, and inspirational. It takes an art village, you know?<br /><p>I hand out a lot of business cards, and flyers, and try to go to a lot of conferences, which I usually find completely worth it, for a lot of reasons, too. I'm aspiring to be a lot more awesome with my guerrilla marketing methods, as well, and, yes, I'm officially registered as a business now, with paperwork proof, and everything; thanks a lot, Philadelphia city business tax, you're awesome, no really.<br /><br /><br /><b>What are your goals? What are your plans for the future?<br /></b><br />I only want to work on terrific projects, no matter what they are, and I want to be able to do that: I want not to be bitter at the end of my life.<br /><br /></p></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340546356297754722" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 301px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzNNDpJ2XIPBraYGbHuQnxx3gM751LboqyCnEm01cE3KagdofD1tTnyYVGP1eaW4awfwuFkRGCYvS_N__yGtivq0Vzl309L4k6jn-1cvFUNi312IvjgKsmAXlpbGHFnfUzNnbb8HfJ6IwF/s400/Elephant_lrg.jpg" border="0" /><br /><b>Do you have side projects you work on? Have you collaborated w/ other artists in the past?<br /></b><br />I always pretend that I am an electronic music composer, but that's probably another story. I always write, which I also love. I've done a fair amount of collaboration; I find it really rewarding, in general. Filmmaking is a totally collaborative process, as is game-making, and book-making. I'm always trying to collaborate on comedy projects, with varying degrees of completion, i.e., none. </div><div><br /><div>I co-made a wacky art publication in college, called "Stir", which I loved doing, thanks, CCAD, for the opportunity, and I've embarrassed myself numerous times with my songwriting collaborations. Again, another story. I'm game for anything cool, though.<br /><br /><br /><b>What was one of the most memorable projects you've worked on?<br /></b><br />Wow, I've gotten to work on some incredible projects, and I hope the best is still in my future, not in my "Diff'rent Strokes" past, sorry child cast of "Diff'rent Strokes", I mean no disrespect. Most infamous, perhaps, draw your own conclusions as to the quality and relative happy memory quantity of said projects, were making illustrated books starring "The Wiggles", and "Jay Jay the Jet Plane." End comment.</div><br /><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340546300832717330" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 280px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLIGyQB-jZK2GGnHo3eCYWb2YeE0lT3xnLsa4xCYLJYTvZPeucsvh9rwlul_Xu3kzPbaXd_yxJaeJG20q73IUxWUztTt1UYbn8UIJQRAvfDpocIvaF1wd6zzD3U7lDbGlH3PKyOZqh9Ogc/s400/burger_lrg.jpg" border="0" /><br /><b>What are the biggest changes you've seen in the art world since you got involved? Where do you see the art industry going in 5 years? 10 years?<br /></b><br />Um, this always depends; I've worked in different industries, of which some are dying and thriving at different intervals...I have no idea, really; I guess the constant wane of the print industry is always on the table, though. Illustration contracts seem cruddier now, maybe. Art was always hard, and it still is, and where are the answers?! Where!? Wherrrrrrre???!!! I wish I knew, but I think art will always matter.<br /><br /><br /><b>Favorite painter/ artist:<br /></b><br />Wow, this is like the hardest thing anyone can ever ask me; not even artists, just name your favorite anything, and I become a super stupid person; it's just how my mind works, I'm awful at any kind of favorite list-giving, whereas then I just seem completely without opinion, but really, I'm just completely and entirely daft with names, when asked directly. Really sucks at parties, when asked, like, biggest celebrity crushes, or something.<br /></div><br /><div>But, OK: I think if Ed Ruscha, James Marshall, Claes Oldenburg, Arnold Lobel, Philip Guston, Tom Wesselman, Louis Trondheim, Anselm Kiefer, Ed Keinholtz, Charles Schulz, Rosemary Wells and Robert Altman were hybridded into a science fiction mega-human, that would be the most amazing person who ever lived, at least creatively. This is where writing interview answers really helps. If I had to pick only one, I guess I'd go with Ruscha.</div><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340547482190335762" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 327px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1FUdOtHk9OrLqq7WvmDewHjsb4GljCWokegDWVf1sHLljIvqCr06MTIqqDkfs8tO8tuiuPncjRb0MxdxJyorzZBgI11XL3UXf_ijLFTmEAuXKbz3QqKbLHUiHZBnt9Uah5owBMveA7Rnk/s400/marsh2.jpg" border="0" /><br /><b>What are you currently reading?<br /></b><br />Right now I'm reading "Broken Angels", a sci-fi/noir follow-up to "Altered Carbon", by <span style="font-family:arial;">Richard K. Morgan</span>. I'm always re-reading "The House with a Clock in its Walls", because I love it, love it, love it. I'm usually reading several books at once, because of my rapidly deteriorating attention span, and I love reading The New York Times and The New Yorker.<br /></div><br /><div>I'm also always reading six thousand children's books, both for my daughter's sake, and my own personal obsession. If it weren't for the children's section of The Free Library of Philadelphia, we'd owe millions upon millions of dollars, just to support our kids' book habit in the house.<br /><br /><br /><b>Is there a book that has strongly influenced you?<br /></b></div><br /><div>"The Runaway Dinner" kills me every time I read it, which is a lot. It's by <span style="font-family:arial;">Allan Ahlberg and </span><span style="font-family:arial;">Bruce Ingman. I think anything I read by James Marshall or Arnold Lobel is a miracle of ink and paper, and I can't believe it, they are so fantastic.</span><br /><br /><br /><b>What are you listening to?<br /></b><br />Everything, curse you, so appealing "Shuffle Songs" Mode, eating my precious remaining attention span.<br /></div><br /><div>I'm currently really, really into M.I.A., Tim Fite, Andrew Bird, Talking Heads (still), and Lupe Fiasco, though.<br /><br /><br /><strong>Websites:<br /></strong><a href="http://www.roxmedia.com/mattson" target="_blank">http://www.roxmedia.com/mattson</a><br /><a href="http://mattson.etsy.com/" target="_blank">http://mattson.etsy.com/</a><br /><a href="http://mattsonstudio.blogspot.com/">http://mattsonstudio.blogspot.com/</a> </div><div><a href="http://zazzle.com/mattsonstudio">http://zazzle.com/mattsonstudio</a> </div></div></div></div></div></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-51831845823878616672009-05-21T17:02:00.007-05:002009-05-21T17:06:15.698-05:00Angela Davidson Q&A<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WlKI1XGzxWP01tibp6_pZx_TKrnLQVf5OvfkmikX2fOFP1jqKVdod-rRIzV4n3JmcHuTGlnzBlpZdwPsaMfaZwOo78nRudCKBuZPoRDAE3cLrQPdio1Dla6avfsWv6nETYShwMNrskX3/s1600-h/il_430xN_57740807.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338401396212036242" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7WlKI1XGzxWP01tibp6_pZx_TKrnLQVf5OvfkmikX2fOFP1jqKVdod-rRIzV4n3JmcHuTGlnzBlpZdwPsaMfaZwOo78nRudCKBuZPoRDAE3cLrQPdio1Dla6avfsWv6nETYShwMNrskX3/s400/il_430xN_57740807.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div> <span lang="EN"><strong>What is your background? How did you get involved with art?<br /></strong><br />My mom says I was born with a crayon in my hand. I don't remember not being involved with art.<br /><br /><strong>How would you describe your work?</strong><br /><br />I do all kinds of things, including painting, but the last couple of years I've been focused on making original crocheted creatures. I would describe them as whimsical, colorful, humorous, and occasionally demented.</span><br /><br /><br /><div><div><div class="gmail_quote"><div lang="EN-US" vlink="purple" link="blue"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338401216596474034" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7sOajjZSSBt0W-ZCvuXCCnx59qqwRp4yrBpaAFL6xrc1ls4mET0Djy4K-5GTnwGyRUnCa9kX8q8r6m-wiKqGRiu5dbInhl3Zadxfg0AR-b1-IkOlXhp_5zePWBAo8pj7G2y1RABBRcf_L/s400/il_430xN_28853331.jpg" border="0" /><br /><p><span lang="EN"><strong>Have you studied art in school? What did you like best about the school you attended? What advice would you give to anyone considering going to school vs. doing it on their own?</strong><br /><br />I went to University of the Arts and majored in painting and drawing for my undergrad. I loved being part of such a diverse artistic community. I would advise someone considering art school that you absolutely must be self motivated and self driven, otherwise you are unlikely to get anything out of art school besides massive debt.<br /><br /><strong>How have you been influenced by the art community? Who/ what inspires you?<br /></strong><br />There's a big difference between the art community and the crafts community. Both are a source of inspiration, but I have found the crafts community to be much more supportive. I love going to craft shows to see what other people are doing. I am also a little bit obsessed with street art- I love the color and the freedom of it. Most of my favorite art comes from people who haven't been corrupted by art school.<br /><br /><strong>Do you have a career/ job (other than the art you create independently)?</strong><br /><br />I'm currently in graduate school at UArts, studying art education.<br /></p><br /><strong>Have you had any careers not related to art?</strong><br /><br />I waited tables for several years, I worked at Whole Foods for a while, and a few other soul-sucking tedious and torturous jobs… </span></div><div lang="EN-US" vlink="purple" link="blue"><span lang="EN"><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338401284778066258" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 350px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRDXLhXcMLpafGhU1kKgryWNCeILGO8FmEIRIlWpHS3KHZeyUlGZ8vTHC3ddz4RqtH8scJ_G2-bADuCwOZYSuL61bdkfiP2BHmDtXpIFc7WUDGKOgEjhV_A8ybcQJRWfT-MF5CYX2ayXoJ/s400/il_430xN_37485639.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>How have you handled the business side of being an artist?</strong><br /><br />It's always hard to put a price tag on something that you put your heart and soul into. But I am learning as I go.<br /><br /><strong>What are your goals? What are your plans for the future?</strong><br /><br />I'm not much of a planner. I can hardly see past this afternoon. If you're not stuck to a plan, the possibilities are endless and you'll never be disappointed.<br /><br /><strong>Do you have side projects you work on? Have you collaborated w/ other artists in the past?<br /></strong><br />Not so much. When I'm really involved with a project, I have tunnel vision until it's completed.<br /><br /><strong>What was one of the most memorable projects you've worked on?</strong><br /><br />Recently, the crocheted giant squids, especially Big Al.<br /><br /><strong>What are the biggest changes you've seen in the art world since you got involved? </strong><br /><br />I would have to say technology has had an enormous impact for artists, for both creating and marketing. I see the digital realm taking over more and more and I have to say I'm a little bit scared. </span><div><span lang="EN"><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338401354921361938" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdzGjYB_tB0yvj2fQOUZKn7QJGTgUPZ4L67-sq8ndTs8WsF7HRiVI1PKs4aPBnQnWoar7KHy72fQHQzScHryyoK_rFVd0gNuyEn8_eqPP8BTDprwuSwEe9c0xP7DOnj9ML1sTuOQdDn8N2/s400/il_430xN_48314738.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>Favorite painter/ artist:</strong><br /><br />Definitely Frida Kahlo.<br /><br /><strong>Is there a book that has strongly influenced you?</strong><br /><br />Ummmm… not really. If I had to pick one, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Nothing beats a really great epic novel.<br /><br /><strong>What are you listening to?</strong><br /><br />I'm obsessed with the John Butler Trio right now. Other than that, I'm pretty much stuck in the 90s. Pearl Jam and Ani DiFranco will always be number one in my heart.</span> <p><strong>Website:</strong> AngDavidson.etsy.com</p></div></div></div></div></div></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-74959674661113337842009-05-13T16:36:00.031-05:002009-05-14T11:25:55.563-05:00Allison Ostertag Q&A<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335437345651178914" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEvgJ_BychnbnXTU3xE-lNRc2coGk19hcnyf76rDlprFJJTAg2BaPaHo3LqAwc0ehuY_DY1fRVn6Rpt2GK_WyBwhpN6cSvfRSvAApKIp8JfwOXKEAsDayB3n2FwaltpDtawBQ8Tb7NagY/s400/il_430xN_54484016.jpg" border="0" /> <div><div><div><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';color:black;" >Allison Ostertag is a photographer, painter and a non-practicing ceramic sculptor. By day she teaches inner city adolescents how to run fruit stands and about basic nutrition. In her spare time, she's a coordinator for Handmade Philly and has been an Etsy seller since 2007. </span></i></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';color:black;" ><strong><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal"><strong>I understand you were born in Philadelphia?</strong> Yes. I grew up in Overbrook in West Philadelphia and lived here until college, when I moved away to Alfred, NY, a very small college town in rural Western New York that has a fantastic ceramics program and I studied ceramics and photography. I also lived in St. George, Utah and New Orleans, LA and taught adult education and high school art and photography.</span></strong></span></p><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335437518429113330" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 267px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfy5iS_Apk7VUIIrcUkVs3UIfgMDOlVDOPKISYBakJjySOqpb8BJqglcn1AJWFcdtfBWKnKC8fZIc_BCt6C7fz6civUg1mhe6Icd7v4Da7LZuuL4DgsIq393_cH_0t5NJn7XXWi9lrS9g/s400/il_fullxfull_69958579.jpg" border="0" /><br /><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';color:black;" ><strong>What did your parents do for a living?</strong> My dad is retired from the recreation department where he ran centers around the city and refereed basketball games, played in volleyball leagues, ran summer camp programs and let me teach art on and off starting when I was 14. Now he volunteers full time for his neighborhood church. My mom is a therapist, but she was a teacher for many years, then got her master's in social work and worked with children with special needs, then started therapy with families of police officers and firemen probably 10 years ago.</span><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335437610681562578" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 270px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX5x25Buq7aQ0K7l6KSqzbqXBhGNsLV4VwuXM7mn1zCdoeZ2ieFvwiAoICWhyphenhyphen6_j-1n8RkBPuJcc8yhdt-4lYIxUqTHEwIVk8dwXohyphenhyphend5wNyn-356OkJaC30mzFTviHz79YTTiZiaUn2Y/s400/il_fullxfull_50081609.jpg" border="0" /></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';color:black;" ><strong>What was it like for you growing up?</strong> My childhood was crazy and nice. I'm reading Augusten Burroughs' "Running with Scissors" right now, and it reasonates a lot with me. My childhood and adolescence wasn't quite so crazy and berzerker, but it was far from normal. I did get to go to great schools that had programs supporting my art interests, including working with Susan Rodriquez, a renowned teacher and author with a doctorate in art who teaches at the University of the Arts and happened to teach at my elementary school.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';color:black;" ><strong></strong></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%;font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';color:black;" ><strong>Were you involved with the arts as a child?</strong> I know I painted in preschool when I was 4 or 5 and I don't think I ever stopped. I wanted to be a famous artist with a studio in New York. We kept sketchbooks for my art classes and painted and drew and we got to take photographs of our school with borrowed plastic cameras. We took trips to the art museum and the fabric workshop. I still have all of my sketchbooks.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335437471192341586" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 355px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFGASu0swlYuWLtO-yX11ykFph5N-8onFdsi2pg8yzvhAq0RrxmstcgqrmxwIUumFTC2CtnpLFfn1rQABzHdGmZFnS3FhKrNzrVb41RkEV0vbX8u5KOQJNcecnSvxQQFIUs4NPal04jsM/s400/il_fullxfull_69073556.jpg" border="0" /><br /></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';color:black;"><strong>How would you describe your photos? Your paintings?</strong> My photos are like alien documents to send back to the home planet. I want to see everything. They are a great way to get me outside. They are like an excuse to go exploring in the woods and travel and grow creatively. I'm starting a new series of photographs of tablescapes of food that I cook and eat, kind of combining my day work and art work. My paintings were purely started as therapy to chill out after the daily stress of teaching. I started buying cheesy paint by number kits that I thought would be funny, lighthouses and palm trees with sunsets, then I transitioned to painting on wood I found in the trash; pictures from house and garden type magazines found on recycling day in New Orleans' garden district. I love saturated bright colors and these magazines were filled with them and I painted simple compositions and shapes from the magazines. I enjoy painting.</span> </p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><br /></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';color:black;"><strong>Tell us about your education…what did you study?</strong> I went to Alfred, where they expect all students to learn many disciplines before concentrating on an area of study for their senior thesis, and even then I had a dual show of ceramic sculpture and photography made into sculptures with plexi and wood. They make everyone study what I would call "how to make things well" freshman year, which I wasn't prepared for, so I just struggled until the semester was over. Then they actually started teaching us specific things. That time was beneficial; it prepared me to think in the time between high school and college.</span><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335437709272575058" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOlNMbW4Mkg-PDUa2UiU0QfWWAW5pNL1ucEBz5DUjtgahRabT6moK7WMPud5scXEA221qozNT9Y8_nnGI4KIyhTErty80ajZyt1KZDWfrtVFxf1JP3mjPRrluqkBhwSfFp8sZ5X-hmoj0/s400/il_430xN_60568080.jpg" border="0" /></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';color:black;"></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><strong><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: normal;color:black;" ><span style="font-family:Calibri;"><strong>How have you been influenced by the art community? Who/ what inspires you?</strong> I love art and many artists and I enjoy seeing museum shows and gallery openings and meeting other artists, but the formal art community is a bit too pompous for me. It's like an insular group that brainwashes its members into following specific rules. The handmade movement, though, is more where I see myself, people who don't look down their noses at your art and know there aren't any rules and there's no reason why we can't be supportive of each other and work collectively. When I first joined the Philly Etsy Team (now Handmade Philly), I was thinking it was like Womanhouse in Fresno in the 70's and we were breaking all the ideas about how artists could work together and help each other meet our artistic and personal goals and those two things could go together, personal didn't have to be set aside for art, they could coexist and intertwine. I love this group and all of the people I've met through it.</span></span></strong> </p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><br /></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';color:black;"><strong>If you were going to have a career other than art, what would it be?</strong> I'd like to teach science, be an archeologist or a CSI or detective. </span><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335437255084770306" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiubB01xOHClwqWtYDsJ9LksZ5hhdX-53QTqUKGCc93cwJruaETTB0qeq5Z28mTxVoMBY0SYC3mgCGHTTZZa_W787eno-kFhZtYXIle-TJiEnSJ-ThQFdUveagj9HXCkmUHNTxYg_27ktM/s400/il_430xN_27110907.jpg" border="0" /></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';color:black;"><strong>Do you consider yourself an artist who works with contemporary social issues?</strong> Not at all. I was never good at political art. I've dabbled at sculptures of recycled coffee cups and thoughts of instillations of all my personal trash for a year and personal/emotional self-portraiture, but I don't feel like pushing my point of view <i>on</i> others. I am photographing natural spaces and animals I think need to be appreciated, enjoyed and expanded. If you like a beautiful picture of a landscape, and you then find out it's a public park and go visit and discover the beauty for yourself, that's going to lead you to help preserve that space.</span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';color:black;"></span></p><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335437292435764482" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXhW50E3Z6B2WqYM1GLPFbOqQHfK0BjVW0gBRylm6vBf_5MPAh7vlRnb9y5fxgiOLGuGy50PcO8s8jyw_ZmxNDOdR4_SV9pREqFH53nT_MXXPdUXjhG-bimxcc45HHVKy48aSROeJiH6c/s400/il_430xN_35756458.jpg" border="0" /> <p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';font-size:12;color:black;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><strong>What are you listening to?</strong> This American Life on NPR.</span></span></p><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';font-size:12;color:black;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><br /><strong>Do you have any upcoming shows/ exhibits?</strong> I'm showing my photographs and photo collages of Fairmount details and storefronts right now at Rembrandt's Restaurant in the Z Café. The exhibit is on display until May 31, when we are having a closing reception. </span></span><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';font-size:12;color:black;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Check out my blog for details: <a href="http://www.phillytravelnaturephoto.blogspot.com/">http://www.phillytravelnaturephoto.blogspot.com/</a></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';font-size:12;color:black;"><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></span></p><p style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman','serif';font-size:12;color:black;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5335437423339995026" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 274px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-htDAQ4YoNt_JyVvZr06yugWpzJb96je-_vtXtuFNRNF37IAAIoGthF1o28MAl0j1MxS_3WTp1NePWjRfVyZ0z8hPxKVCVgseBZXUJsBmeVaVF5IysbBnFHrYMkfDotnk6SOOpAbNIGY/s400/il_fullxfull_69075726.jpg" border="0" /></span></span></p></div></div></div>.7717.http://www.blogger.com/profile/06986149649882442387noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-49457802928816176172009-05-07T10:48:00.013-05:002009-05-08T06:23:08.399-05:00City Slides Q&A<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333111271581933730" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 299px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ7iydnR6TBiE9ao97U4SF2XAKhHjOk8k07nRDaYjl1x1MbSJaniJOpEUae_pgznDY_hHoy22riwXjt0yg0EPNYHQ3HuaNoHNetR7fo-J3PakVXrIk_GjQ7KuvvVN35UysUYH3Fn4cQYU/s400/l_e96b22d688e740c4ad48e5df4bff562d.jpg" border="0" /> <strong>According to my sources, Drew, you rode your bicycle from Baltimore to Philadelphia last weekend. Tell us a little about the trip.</strong><br /><br />The trip was pretty exciting for me. I got rid of my car and have been riding my bike everywhere for about three years. This trip was kind of the pinnacle of all that riding. I did it on my fixed gear Bianchi, so I am pretty proud of that (100 miles on a fixie is no joke). As far as the actual trip went, the first 50 miles was a lot of fun. Maryland has some beautiful stuff going on, and the Conowingo Damn is pretty awesome. The last 50 miles was a different trip, it was more about survival. I started getting some serious pains in my elbows and shoulders and had to make some adjustments to my bike in order to endure. Also, route 1 is basically a highway complete with exit ramps and tractor-trailers. It wasn’t your Sunday ride in the county (what we call the country side in Baltimore). I saw a lot of mono-cropping farms along the way. Lots of small towns doing their thing and that’s always good to see. All of the cops along the way smiled and made me feel good. There were also share the road signs the entire trip so I felt safer knowing that. Seeing the Philly skyline from the top of a hill in Media was like Dorothy seeing the Emerald City. I did it, am proud of that, and encourage everyone to get on a bike and get moving. <p><br /><strong>City Slides is a Baltimore based band. Tell us a little about the city and surrounding areas (Hampden, etc).</strong> <div><br />(Drew) Baltimore has adopted me with its big beautiful arms. I am from Gloucester City, NJ (across the Walt Whitman Bridge, next to Camden) and moved down here about 3 1/2 years ago for a job and girl. I lost the girl, but still have the job, so it’s all good. Baltimore is the city of neighborhoods. I live in Remington, kind of an in-between neighborhood. We still have our crime and all, but it’s getting a lot better. I live with songwriter MacGregor Burns and local rock-violin legend the VCR. If you’ve ever seen the Food Network show Ace of Cakes, I live a block south of that place. I moved here from Hampden, the quirky artsy sceney neighborhood north of Remington. I loved Hampden, and would def. go back, but the stars have placed me here. We actually do a pretty regular gig in Hampden on the “Avenue.” We busk outside, probably our favorite thing to do, and maybe the thing we are known for the most. Unlike a lot of other cities Baltimore’s street performing scene is small. Except for the performers down on the harbor doing their thing you don’t see much. I do, however, feel that is about to change. We are actually going to be busking the Station North Arts Festival this coming Saturday with a bunch of our friends. It’s complete freedom, it’s what the music we play is all about, if you consider us a folk band. <p>John lives in Govans, and has an amazing garden and raises bees. He lives with his many cats and dog, and beautiful wife, Lesley. John and Lesley are amazing people. Their home has felt like home since day one. They have that remarkable ability to make you feel welcome and relaxed immediately. John has been a huge influence on me as a human being. He has also helped my confidence; he really gets behind me when I come up with new ideas, or bring old ones out of storage. <p>Patrick and Atom live in a cozy neighborhood called Hamilton. Hamilton is the shit. Great art; bars; people. Almost all of my friends live in Hamilton, and if I had a family I’d take care of them there. The gardens that Atom and Patrick maintain there are top notch. You really have no idea, you’d have to come to experience. The local spirit in Baltimore is amazingly strong. I have never felt such strong support for local ideas anywhere else in my life. Hamilton encompasses all of this. </p></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333110340897904418" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 266px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYmnB8DpSD5eP9yHK_42CPlg1fIKKoHhd-ITBO190WMTdNV6iSLmlQfKHM5uWWzR3xPvSL2Cze23_UeBG30glls6u26L93Et8Mo1fxRaFryirAwAKtacch-3hHj7Xy5UWCObx3P_RThWM/s400/l_e749e10b307f42de99f1fdcf2eab348a.jpg" border="0" /> <div><strong>Tell us a little about each member of the band. </strong></div><strong><div><br /></strong></div>None of us owns a TV set. Okay, I’m Drew. I write the songs, sing the songs, and play harmonica. I am 26 years old and this is the 5th band I have been in. My previous bands primarily being punk bands, and of course a member of the legendary Baltimore band Good Guise. I am a strict vegetarian and bike advocate. I am currently involved in the urban gardening movement in Baltimore. I also cook, and organize events around the city. I definitely tell the worst jokes in the band, but make up for it with my serious winter beard.<br /><p>Patrick- You can find Patrick in a tree or dancing to good music. He likes talking and listening too. Patrick whistles with the birds and barks at the dogs. He plays accordion in Cityslides and has been playing with the guys since Good Guise. As a retired classical pianist, Patrick enjoys cleaning for others and rockin’ epic reggae jams on concert grand pianos.<br /><p>Decker- I'm 58, married to Leslie, born and lived in Baltimore, play a 1933 National Resonator guitar, I cut some fingers off my left hand Oct. 07 so now I have to use a bottleneck, I try to stay engaged with family community, do no harm and such. <p>Atom- Adam loves cheese and he does small things on a large scale. He is about to get hitched on an island this harvest season. He is a maker of many things and has many on-going experiments. As a retired falafel chef, he spends his days gardening in Baltimore city and rearranging rocks. Adam likes to write songs on guitar and in City Slides he plays the bass. </p><div><strong>Describe the music you write, record, and perform.<br /></strong><br />Our music is “streetgrass.” We aren’t schooled in playing any type of traditional music, and what we come up with comes straight out of our psyches. Therefore, we reflect our individual experiences and surroundings. Our songs all come from our work, whether it be gardens, children, biking, friends, family, the world from the radio news, it goes in the brain waves and comes out music waves. In the true spirit of localvorism we keep our sounds close to home. I am hugely influenced by two main artists: Propagandhi (Canada progressive thrash) and Bob Dylan. I want to take on the social ills of society in a poetic way. Crafting words that intrigue and, if successful, cause listeners to be proactive. I only write when I am inspired, which is hard to come by, but is never dry. Music for me has always been a way of inspiring people, and a cause for change. It’s not a new idea. My songs come from something I cannot explain and don’t even think about that much. I never try to write a song, it’s either there or it isn’t. As for recording, we haven’t gotten there yet. I do some stuff in my room on Garageband just so I can throw it up on Myspace so people can have an idea of what we are all about. We’d love to record, but are waiting for the right time. Performance is another thing totally. We are all very uniquely different and that is ever present in our performance. Right now we are very focused on doing original material that speaks of who we are, and what we are all about. It’ll show, come see us.<br /><br /><strong>Who designs the art for your CDs and flyers for your shows?</strong><br /><br />Various friends. We have the best friends, everyone is quite amazing. I am working with Philadelphia artist Emily Andrews for our CD cover. It’s getting there. I actually did a flyer today for a show we have coming up. Mike Clarke (commonseed.org) did this amazing poster for this huge event we just held called the Urb Ag Gala, or urbagala, for short.<br /><br /><strong>Have you had any careers not related to music?</strong><br /><br />We are all Renaissance men. (Drew) I am a teacher currently, teaching cooking and nutrition. I have worked in demolition, fence installation, dishwashing, landscaping, ticket-taking, web design. You name it, I’ve probably done it.<br /><br />Patrick- piano teacher, house painting, construction, sculpture, landscaping, gardening, cleaning, organizing...<br /><br />Atom- Stone Mason, Gardner, Chef, Recycling yard worker, Consultant… I have never had a career related to music (taxable income).<br /><br />Decker- I worked for Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus for 36 years doing building maintance, doing work for folks when they cant't afford contractors, grow plants, rob bees and putz</div><div> </div><div></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333111359011295938" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 265px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg73CiWiHka2cxcuapQZ2lfzwjP7IBPJWEwaXNmcehN00UkC7oNjRp3WO9gKdjJKLe_XA4OzoO-f068okpwg3MmPykD4xpYFcepV-XI1VOnhvRMlFhpy_Zc4sFVzvPs7Rj1aWP0eCFFgR4/s400/l_2104a31b7cdb482ba9901576830c9df9.jpg" border="0" /><strong>What are your goals, musically?<br /></strong><br />(Drew) All I want to do musically is discover my innermost artist, and never let anything get in the way of that. I just want to write the best songs I can write, and have fun doing it. I take it pretty damn serious, but am able to laugh at myself along the way. I’d like to sell out the 2640 space as a headlining group, and meet Bob Dylan (already met Propagandhi). Play for those who will listen, and that’s about it. I’d love to be in the position where I could write songs all day if I wanted. I’ll wake up in the morning and start something, then have to go to work and lose it, which kinda sucks.<br /><br />Patrick- I enjoy when we connect with the music so tight that we are one mind; flowing and growing together. I think it’s cool when this can extend to our audience, especially when we play on the street!<br /><br />Atom- keep it interesting and edgy without being obnoxious and preachy.<br /><br />Decker- I provide the dirt and then watch it grow, my responsibility is to do my best to support whoever is putting themselves up front, I'm honored to stand with these fellows, Drew is a powerful poet and he's growing rapidly as a songwriter, Atom is pretty much a legend within our circle with his creative nature, I sense the potential for some amazing art and relational growth reflected in our music.<br /><br /><strong>Do you have side projects you work on?</strong><br /><br />Drew- no, but I do poetry and short stories.<br /><br />Patrick- I have been teaching piano at a music school part time for about four years. I would like to write individualized curriculum for each student I teach. In this way, my students could get valuable customized attention. This means I need to learn all styles of music for piano; classical, jazz, reggae, blues, honky-tonk, etc. I have been recently bartering with a private piano student for cooking lessons. This has been a very unique experience I would like to cultivate. I write words and create music. One day the two will merge as one.<br /><br />Atom- Yes…..good guise band, solo stuff- Atom Fisher<br /><br />Decker- I play with some folks from my Church, we get down with the Lord from time to time for special music<br /><br /><strong>Favorite lyrics to a song?</strong><br /><br />Drew- my song? My favorite lyric is from For Rebecca, “It’s all in the same sentence, the beauty of remembrance.” That line is all about letting your guard down and letting love come flowing into your life, but love can be like a sentence and ends in different ways sometimes; exclamations, question, or just periods. I wonder if the person I wrote that for has ever heard it. As far as other lines go. I’d have to go with Dylan, “The ghost of electricity howls in the bones of her face.” Beautifully poetic. The kind of poetry where you know what he’s saying without thinking, but have no idea what he’s saying when you do stop to think.<br /><br /><strong>What are you currently reading?</strong><br /><br />Drew- Jesus, I am an addicted reader. Let’s see, luckily I am by my bed and my books are here. Finishing Seedfolks and A Confederacy of Dunces, picking at Rimbaud’s work and Vonnegut’s Bagambo Snuff Box (short stories). About to get into American Fascists and Finnegan’s Wake (a present).<br /><br />Patrick- Holy Bible, Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, how to fix your bicycle by helen garvy, Art & Physics by Leonard Shlain. Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss. <div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333111443458363234" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3nkwLSYu2pIAWJXQ0zvI_cptcOdcmc4D1hPcidiKITGvE-boV7TrZDRjfEVZ6LhsVY949OGVXYRecKdLQwAVurpp5zKP7t7wN7Abuzzndb5ky_uMQPzfjxcnfV25GP4yW3ziHdpLQnSI/s400/l_289cdcd17cad476ab90088602499c4fc.jpg" border="0" /></div><br /><strong>Is there anything that you would like to share with our readers?<br /></strong><br />Drew- Destroy your TV, get a bike, plant a garden, elect yourself, write a song, make your way to the Gawdenyu!<br /><br />Atom- Things are looking up. This “economic crisis” will breath life back into people, forcing us to live in community again.<br /><br />Patrick- climb a tree... or dance... or both... at once!<br /><br />Decker- Stay connected to your passion and respond to those things that are written on your hearts with an honorable pursuit<br /><br /><p><strong>Website</strong>: www.myspace.com/cityslides</p>.7728.http://www.blogger.com/profile/01301901831519273051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-29339004916112461732009-03-17T17:26:00.016-05:002009-03-17T17:46:07.424-05:00Morgan Craig<strong>What is your background?</strong><br />I was born in a suburb of Philadelphia. As a child, my family moved around, only to end up back in the Philadelphia area. My parents instilled a strong work ethic in me, which began with a paper route at 11, and led to my working full time throughout my high school and college years. I believe this has helped both with my development as a painter, and the formation of a cohesive body of work.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314288581078192370" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 266px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD4W0uRPT5J3wur3cv-5O4R0wyRXATS_7eG1L0QRt67sRWcrVhFLt1f1vtBo60IAlrR0ZamTP7RF7iv22KWQpqBIkSNHqNrYz_gZ0yqmjy8gp8xfG8J_bhkZ0dzuDGe5HME2f3YdXSc0w/s400/1368429454_07dd39963b.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>How would you describe your work?<br /></strong>The relationship between the interiors of buildings and the psychological makeup of the soul of man continue to be the fulcrum of my concept. For me, the interior of each edifice represents a multitude of semiotic messages written by the inexorable hand of time. In reality, buildings are as ephemeral as the ever-changing landscape, and the human form, prey to the vicissitudes of existence.<br /><p><strong>You’ve been to Chernobyl in Ukraine. Tell us a little about this trip. What series of events lead to you taking this trip?</strong><br />The Ukraine was a welcome sojourn from my daily existence in the occident. The trip provided me with an abundance of subject matter, as well as an experience I will never forget. Standing atop a high rise in the middle of an abandoned city, can be a truly overwhelming experience. It was very hard to remain focused on the task at hand-gathering source material-and not become engulfed by all of what had happened in the Zone of Exclusion. My heart goes out to all of those who perished, suffered, and continue to suffer because of man, his avarice, and his insatiable thirst for power. </p><p><strong>Tell us about a memorable experience you’ve had…</strong><br />When evaluating a building, always make sure that it is unoccupied. Early one Thanksgiving morning, many moons ago, I received quite a surprise, when two men with cell phones came barreling out of a building.<br />I had been considering the structure’s potential for quite some time. Because of its close proximity to a thriving-well, I don’t know if thriving would be the best word to describe it, but let us remain positive-neighborhood, I felt it was best to attempt to gain access at an early hour, on a holiday. I surmised that most would still be fast asleep. My girlfriend was filming a documentary of my process, and thus decided to tag along. I brought along my mastiff, Tolstoy, as well. </p>We were out of the car for no more than 5 minutes, when the men appeared. Lucid, I remained. Any sense of panic would have caused more of a mess. Calmly, I explained to the apparent “man in charge” my intent. After allaying any fears he had of my vandalizing the building, he proceeded to tell me a tale of schizophrenia, drug addiction, and living in an amalgam of buses. I was denied access, but the tale he wove was worth the foiled attempt.<br /><div></div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314288777326029858" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 290px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrqt3Fk1N6OFkLX4eZ1zH6ECUrUUUYMudS15NmzrLvHcAFFI3NnZmdAnqTSFH2fM9_NM9hC1QC4SvKR4qt370UDdZPBgP7f70RcW23JdT6dNPZhyphenhyphenii2tyQb6zAFmuYIJdv2cfyMQ6k6eE/s400/2458829477_ed8a91bb1b.jpg" border="0" /><strong>Do you have any other trips planned? I have a few trips in development, but nothing is indelible.</strong><br />What about industrial decay appeals to you? The amount of abstraction within a subject deemed representational; the relationship between something manmade, and the elements that Mother Nature has at her disposal; the ability to toy with fact and fiction weft together by the irrefragable hands of time. Structure is metaphor.<br /><br /><strong>What advice would you give to anyone considering going to school vs. independent study?</strong> </div><div>School provides a framework which forces one to produce, or fail. Unless you have incredible drive, independent study can lead to indolence.<br /><br /><strong>Tell us a little about your experiences as an art teacher.</strong> </div><div>I could write a book, no, make it a several volume set. I think we will leave it at that.<br /><br /><strong>Have you had any other careers, related (or not related) to art?</strong> </div><div>I briefly worked for a now defunct magazine.<br /><br /><strong>How do you stay involved with Philadelphia’s art community? Are you a member of any local arts organizations?</strong> </div><div>I’m a bit of a recluse, and, at times, rather socially inept, therefore, I find myself to be somewhat removed from the Philadelphia art community. I have rather incendiary opinions about some of those individuals involved in Philadelphia’s “art” community that, for the sake of singing your reader’s ears, I will keep to myself.<br /></div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314288660572487122" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 260px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD1aPnjKNCfXv2dEPWzGLnQWwKwIMWYCIThtFJMU-x7UP6LUuEy_7IrEOIv7WHHqCjfstMGLN84cm92mYWnFWL4DlcGlJyk_br2A1o5vs75W62WU8e0RUeJNiLDNu3VydLbdO76m7IvYk/s400/1368430304_c9138e9bec.jpg" border="0" /></div><div><strong>How have you handled the business side of being an artist?<br /></strong>At the nascent point in my career, I had a fortuitous bit of good fortune: I was able to sell several paintings on my own. I was grateful, but had the prescience to know that I needed to find gallery representation. I have received a tremendous amount of support from the two galleries that currently represent me: <a href="http://www.wexlergallery.com/">Wexler</a> and <a href="http://www.lawrenceasher.com/">Lawrence Asher</a>.<br /><br />I have also had some experiences with galleries and individuals who were duplicitous, and engage in a variety of subterfuge. Fortunately, I was privy to their game, either through friends, people who had already fallen prey to their deceptive ways, or my own intuition. Needless to say, I cannot name the aforementioned parties, as I would risk legal action. Suffice it to say, when journeying through the bowels of the art world, one must tread carefully.<br /><div></div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314288501333135250" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 266px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVktfDosvEGQxUxRqZOyJf_frsDQ8YE0GtQ9a-ghiNqhvhG58h6qQrpFuqnoJgpOfOGg1o59j2KXr2AlbmciEmzMI_QsF5ah9AOCecfvrEgMh4cfjgkANEQAzixr14uDIXc-hlhjXA9Pk/s400/1367533369_5e383d83d4.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>What are your goals? What are your plans for the future?</strong> </div><div>One of my goals has been, and continues to be to remain relevant to the discourse of contemporary art. I would also like to see my work continue to evolve, be it in size, scope, direction, or concept. The future is so unpredictable…<br /></div><div><strong>There are some inherent risks involved with exploring abandoned buildings and structures. Do you have a list of items you bring with you when visiting a new site (rope, rappelling hooks, flares, etc)?</strong><br />(laughter) Some things are better left unsaid…<br /></div><div><strong>What are you currently reading?</strong> The Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn.<br /><br /><strong>Books that have strongly influenced you?</strong> </div><div>Celine’s Journey to the Edge of the Night, Proust’s 7 volumes of Remembrance of Things Past, Cioran’s A Short History Of Decay, various works by Russian writers including Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Gogol, the existentialists, Lefebvre, Bulgakov, and countless others. Literature has always been a significant part of my life and work.<br /><br /><strong>Is there anything that you would like to share with our readers?</strong> </div><div>The George T. Stagg and the Pappy Van Winkle 20 Year are some of the best bourbons I have ever tasted. I recommend that you seek them out, and have a taste for yourself.<br /><br /><strong>Do you have any upcoming exhibits?</strong> I am involved in a group show in Reading, PA. There are a few more in the works, but nothing definite.<br /></div><div>Website: <a href="http://www.morgancraig.org/">http://www.morgancraig.org/</a></div><div></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Check out Morgan's current exhibit at the <a href="http://www.wexlergallery.com/">Wexler Gallery</a> in Philadelphia. Show runs from March 6 – April 25, 2009.</span></em> </div></div>.7728.http://www.blogger.com/profile/01301901831519273051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7815743106240022563.post-31317557077171949872009-03-09T21:50:00.011-05:002009-03-09T22:04:57.610-05:00Sonya Berlovitz<div><div><div><strong>What is your background? How did you get involved with theatrical costume creation?</strong> I grew up in the theatre. My dad was an amateur actor and my mom was a professional seamstress. They both encouraged my involvement in Community Theater as a child actor. Throughout junior high and high school I sewed most of my own clothes. As a young adult I was able to start sewing for a theatre company run by my sister and three other artists – they gave me my start in costume designing professionally. </div><div> </div><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 500px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 333px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3261/3142399242_18d021afa5.jpg?v=0" border="0" /><br /><strong>How would you describe your work? Do you have an area of expertise/ specialty?</strong><br />Many of my costumes have been constructed from several fabrics of the same color pieced together. For me this represents a kind of painting with fabric. Seams are sometimes left on the outside with raw edges showing, sometimes cutting across a costume at an odd angle so as to make the inner workings of a design visible to the eye, as if turning the process to the outside. I try to keep my designs fresh; unexpected; with details that sometimes surprise. I’d like the viewer to think of my costumes as a part of a theatre architecture that is revolving and evolving, never static. If I had to pick an area of expertise it would be in original works with a lot of movement.<br /><br /><strong>Have you studied fashion design in school? What did you like best about the school you attended? What advice would you give to anyone considering going to school vs. doing it on their own? </strong>BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Certificate from La Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne. I loved La Chambre for the discipline it taught me and that is where I learned to drape. I loved the Art Institute for encouraging my individual artistic voice. Well, since I have done both (I went to the SAIC when I was 30) - If you’re going to go to school choose one that is in a city and has a program that you feel passionate about – then figure out a way to afford it. There is great value in doing it on your own, but having the luxury of time you get in a school to research and develop your skills is invaluable. It’s a gift everyone should have.<br /><br /><strong>How have you been influenced by the theater/ fashion/ costume community? Film community? Who/ what inspires you?</strong> My background in fashion and painting has contributed strongly to my process. I often draw on both contemporary fashion and historical references as inspirations. By using this eclectic approach I believe I can speak more directly to the audience by giving them something with which to identify. I am constantly researching designers’ new collections; in particular the Japanese designers Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo. I am strongly influenced by the poetry in their work. For any given production I will look at film and other theatres’ versions to see what kinds of interpretations have been made of a story. It’s a way for me to have an inner dialogue about the work.<br /><br /><strong>Do you intend/ plan to continue to work in theatre? Do you see yourself working in film? Some other entertainment industry?</strong> Yes, I will always be working in theatre in some capacity. I have actually designed a few independent, lower budget films. I would like the chance to design another film, but since they usually require an overwhelming time commitment during a shoot, it’s often difficult to combine the two fields.<br /><div> </div><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 500px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 375px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3101/3143043022_4286187a2b.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>Have you had any careers not related to art? </strong>I have many times throughout my life taken on secondary jobs to supplement my income. Everything from waitressing to daycare.<br /><br /><strong>How have you handled the business side of being an artist?</strong> It’s difficult. I am not naturally an aggressive person and I think you have to have a bit of that to make a good business out of your art. Although, I’ve been a costume designer for 29 years so in some regard I’ve succeeded.<br /><br /><strong>What are your goals? What are your plans for the future? </strong>I am hoping to branch out into designing for more regional theaters outside of Minnesota. I would like to incorporate more travel into my work as I find it very regenerating and inspirational.<br /><br /><strong>Do you have side projects you work on? Have you collaborated w/ other artists in the past?</strong> I am almost always working on commissions for clothing I’ve designed. More specifically, I am currently working on two wedding dresses, one for a woman who has written a script and will be presenting her ceremony in a theatre complete with extras.<br />As a costume designer I am always collaborating with other designers, the director, actors and technicians. My longest collaboration was with Theatre de la Jeune Lune of Minneapolis where I had designed over 50 productions – most of them directed by Dominique Serrand, one of the five founding members of the company.<br /><br /><strong>What was one of the most memorable projects you’ve worked on? </strong>1929 for Theatre de la Jeune Lune in Minneapolis and Paris. It was the first production I designed and had a bigger cast than any project I’ve worked on since. More recently The Miser which was a co-production between American Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville and Theatre de la Jeune Lune. It toured around the country for two years with largely the same cast. All of the elements, design, direction and actors were in complete harmony on that project.<br /></div><div><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 333px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 500px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3622/3285061392_734043ba78.jpg?v=0" border="0" /><br /><strong>What are the biggest changes you’ve seen in the costume industry since you got involved? Where do you see the industry going in 5 years? 10 years? </strong>I’m probably aging myself by saying this, but younger designers today don’t seem as willing to work for little just to gain experience. There doesn’t seem to be as much value placed on the process.<br /><br /><strong>Favorite painter/ artist: </strong>Some of my favorites: Sonia Delauney, Picasso, Matisse, Egon Schiele, Anselm Kiefer, Maira Kalman, David Coggins<br /><br /><strong>What are you currently reading? </strong>Azar Nafisi’s “Things I’ve Been Silent About”<br /><br /><strong>Is there a book that has strongly influenced you? </strong>“New Fashion Japan”<br /><br /><div><strong>Sonya's Website:</strong> www.flickr.com/photos/sberlovitz/sets</div></div></div>.7728.http://www.blogger.com/profile/01301901831519273051noreply@blogger.com