Minimalist Futurism Fashion Editorial
Akiko Higuchi/Photographer
http://www.akikohiguchi.com
Dori Sligh/Make up
http://www.dorisligh.com/
Claire/Boss Models
http://www.bossmodels.com/
Style Editor
Sherah Jones
For Creative Sugar
The Artist & The Muse
Photographer: Edwin Chad Florez
MUA/Hair: Eve Kleiminova
Wardrobe Stylist: Tara Denman
Wardrobe assistants: Christian Riley and Andrea Jones
Model: Olga Kubrak @ Major NY
Kevin William Reed: Trash Artist
I once visited a group show called Anatomically Incorrect in Brooklyn. It was there that I first saw Kevin’s work–discarded materials restructured to create layers and shapes, hanging from the warehouse walls. Pieces that were once throwaways were revived, revisited and brought to new life as 3-D installations that had creature characteristics. Simply put, Kevin’s inspiration is the usage of industrial waste or trash.
He said, the concrete walls of the warehouse were particularly challenging to hang on, but the space was exactly what the work has always been looking for and it felt really at home.
This home was at the Alternative Arts Association’s annual big show. The AAA is a not-for-profit arts organization whose platform is to bring many different forms of art together. Dance, music, performance, video, two-dimensional, three-dimensional, you name it. It was all inspired work.
What’s your name and where are based? Kevin William Reed, based in Brooklyn, NY (Bed-Stuy)
Title, how do you describe yourself? Artist. Which inevitably leads to the question what kind of artist? But for me the specification isn’t necessary. Artist suits what I do without restriction. I’m a creator of things but no longer limit myself to one discipline or structure.
What do you use to create? While I can’t specify a medium I can certainly tell you what I use to create. I’m really into trash. Specifically industrial waste/scraps/leftovers and the possibilities therein. I’m really interested in a Baroque sense of drapery, folds upon folds upon folds, aesthetic elegance/ornateness. However, I tend to find this in the mundane, the wasted. I’m excited by the uncanny valley that is created when two polar opposite aesthetics (garbage and Baroque sensibilities) combine to create an object or a space that is at once beautiful and full yet also derelict and uncomfortable. I think that puts the viewer in a really crazy place. I also love acrylic paint, spray paint, woodblock prints (there’s something really crazy about using a chisel to carve an image rather than just drawing it. Makes drawing seem wimpy. That said I’m also an avid drawer, but chisels, man.
How do you describe your work? Sustainable, aggressive, creepy, billowing, excessive, raunchy, rowdy, dangerous (six-foot, razor-sharp, coiled saw blades), loud as fuck, mindful, unimpeded.
What inspires you? Scumbags (and their environments), Legends of the Hidden Temple, sewer rats, R. Crumb, Hellraiser, sunlit forest floors, raging water, Versailles, hallucinogenic memories, dive bars, T-Rex, velociraptors, Mario ghosts, queer culture, the 90s, Ki-L, my tattoo artists (Becki Wilson & Jason Flanell), getting home covered in dirt, swarms, razor blades, bowl socks, my Grandma, porcupine quills, platypi, Bed-Stuy, Where the Wild Things Are, the Subway, abandoned places.
What motivates you when you may not be inspired? Eg, music, etc. My own sense of stagnation, of not doing enough. There are definitely some bands that I’ll throw on if I’m not feeling it at the moment (Handsome Furs, Cold War Kids, Django Django) but the only thing that really gets me going when I’m out of it is my need to constantly create and one-up myself.
Why do you create? As a way to cope with my brain. Lots of detrimental and circular thoughts up there. When I begin to create something, even if it’s trivial at first it always sorts out my thinking. Then my work is able to serve as the medium with which I can communicate those thought. So I guess, in a backwards sort of way I create to articulate my thoughts and vantage point, but out of necessity (peace of mind) not out of a need to be heard (necessarily).
Describe any elaborate activities, rituals you may have done while seeking inspiration. Weird question. I don’ think I perform elaborate rituals to seek inspiration, I think the rituals come from being inspired. I used to walk about 20 blocks of Brooklyn bordering the Navy Yard 5-7 nights a week in search of some sort of discarded material that I could bend, float, drape, pinch, break or paint with and it eventually became the strangest thing I did as I would get waist-deep in a dumpster filled with human trash (the majority of which is half-eaten food I soon found out) fiendishly throwing materials to collect. The few individuals who got to witness it never really saw it in the jovial light I did. To them I was a dirty gutter kid with a fiery glow of excitement in his eyes and armfuls of trash.
When did you know you wanted to be an artist? I don’t know if I ever knew. There was just never any other option. My life is very up-in-the-air and I have very few constants, but I think that is what I always knew from the time I was a self-cognizant child. I never saw one concrete thing for myself or an endpoint or a settling. I guess I always knew I would be living the life of an artist, I just didn’t necessarily know that’s what it was until later.
What do you hope to accomplish in 5 years? To make the best damn chocolate chip cookies anyone’s ever tasted, make an exorbitant amount of work, take over an abandoned church for an art space, show in Eastern Europe, and take over the world.
Which is your own favorite piece or body of work? Describe why. Right now my favorite piece is the giant woodblock print I completed after the trash work you’ve seen. This is both because it’s my most accomplished print and the newest direction I’ve moved in (hypersexual) but also because it got STOLEN in the last show that it was in (after it had already been sold) so there’s a weird enigma surrounding it, tthe most backhanded compliment ever?
Who is your favorite artist? Describe why. That’s a nearly impossible question to answer. There are so many artists that I am inspired by and naming one or even a few would do injustice to the league of inspirational artists I’ve come across. However, if I could be any artist throughout history it would be Hieronymus Bosch cause that dude was crazy and did whatever the fuck he wanted within a ridiculously Catholic and controlled society.
Any words to live by for an aspiring artist starting out? Hear everyone. Listen to few. Follow none. And do whatever the fuck you want.
Stylist: Sherah Jones
Photographer: Elena Shkoda
Canvas Revolution – Michel Bellici
“I get pretty aggressive with the canvas, sometimes like, Fuck! I ripped the canvas.” Michel Bellici says to me about one of her new commissions, a 4×5 foot canvas.
“I’ll throw baby oil on it just to make mess. My best work is when I struggle with the piece, that’s when I care more about it and give it the passion it deserves. It won’t let me alone until all of a sudden it clicks, and then satisfies the drama of its creation.”
The sun is streaming through thunderstorm clouds while I speak with Michel on the phone. The clouds are pendulous in moody purples; about to burst into a deluge. She is describing how she has noticed that her creative process is evolving into an organic flow of channeling, rather than her traditional, trained practice of study in Italy at the renowned Lorenzo de Medici School of Art in Florence.
“I’m moving from nature based figures directly into the human form.” Nearly all of her most recent work contains a human figure.
“Walking the street, taking the train, watching the sunlight through the buildings, seeing how people interact with each other. I witness it and absorb all that emotion, then channel that into a canvas. I intensely watch them.”
Studying at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and living in the art scene of Northampton early in her career, she felt that moving to New York was completely necessary after returning from study in Florence.
“Being in Brooklyn is incredible. I love Bushwick! The people that were born and brought up there are like family. Open arms. I love their Bushwick, old Bushwick”.
Her enthusiasm for everything New York is contagious, and we banter about all the fabulous experiences one has in this amazing place. Michel goes on to reminisce about her newbie days as an artist.
“The first college I went to, I had a professor that said I should quit being a painter. So I did, for like 5 years and it was the worst thing I could’ve done. When I was studying in Italy, it was Rosa- a teacher there in Florence- who got me started again. She said to take some charcoal, make a powder out of the sticks, and use my hands to create. I did, and my art came as a storm!”
After a full day of classes, I would line my villa with paper, and just paint. I made some amazing work, and that was it; my whole life changed, and I became me. I feel like I was truly born when I was in Italy.”
Michel considers herself a creator of figurative abstract expressionism. She paints only with her hands and fingers; sometimes using small rags- old t-shirts for days long past. Without a barrier between her hands and the canvas, Michel’s work is evident of emotions that are all together powerful and vulnerable, raw and exposed, revealing and hidden.
“I chose painting because I had to. There never was a thought process to decide to be an artist. I just am. I’ve tried to focus on other things, or have a normal job, but no matter what I always need to paint. I start to ache if I haven’t painted. My life is totally awesome- I just wish for more canvas because I paint non-stop.”
For more about MICHEL BELLICI, visit: www.studiobellici.com
Basquiat Tribute – Not Your Samo, Samo
Model – Amira – New York Models
Photographer: Gavin Rea
Stylist: Sherah Jones
Hair: Aleksandra Sasha Nesterchuk
Makeup: Colleen Runne
Photo Assistant: Yves Francois
Stylist Assistant: Jade Ford
Jill English: Treatise In Emotive Articulation
In the constant battle that occurs in my artistic mind, I’m torn between representational works, and abstract. Of course, my mind leans heavily toward the abstract, but in the artist, Jill English, I not only found a balance between the two worlds, but a new appreciation for the form of a face. A true sense of deep expressive humanity pours through all her canvases.
It’s a beautiful morning while I speak with Jill; I imagine endlessly rolling grasslands, and long black highways cutting through the landscape. Bleak perhaps, but a haven of inspirational support for her work.
Without fail, I ask the question I ask all the artists I profile-
Why art?
“Sometimes I feel as though art is a big piece of gum that I’ve stepped on. Once you’ve stepped on it- good luck getting it off! Art chose me.â€
“The highs of being an artist are obvious; a painting that moves people, a fabulous art show, a donated work that raises money for a good cause. Behind the scenes, however, there are all of the hours I’m haunted by an image that brews within. I see beauty and I want to pour it all over a canvas– the bigger the better! Inspiration does not always strike when it’s convenient and I am a slave to it!â€
Her monumental smile brightens the room, as she answers-
What is your greatest inspiration for your work?
“Beauty. I recently finished a series of abstracts based on some rock sculptures I photographed in Hawaii. The anonymous artist who built the sculptures left a shiny mark on my soul- such beauty and so temporary.â€
“The beauty theme is not always jewel-tone and happy. I took all of the old love notes I had from my first love, soaked them in water until they were pulp and mixed them with paint to create a work I titled, “When A Man Loves A Woman.†This piece was an act of remembering the beauty and letting go of everything else.”
Amazingly cathartic! What attracted you to the style you work in presently?
“I have been on a black & white kick as of late. The work is a fusion of both my realism and abstract styles. I take a gorgeous subject and a blank canvas and I build the form with random paint splatter until it feels right! I have wanted to accomplish a blend of my styles for sometime now.â€
Jill, I simply must know- What are your processes in creating your work?
“I like to paint large. So my first process is to clear a space in my studio that allows me the room I need to get to work. In more cases than not I let the paint tell me where it wants to go, therefore, the canvas is not always on an easel. Sometimes it’s flat on the floor, other times it leans, but every time is at the mercy of the paint.â€
“I collect things that make texture in my studio. A child’s toy car with wheels dipped in paint and rolled across a canvas is one of my latest fascinations. I don’t need to be unique – that does not drive me. If bubble wrap gets the job done then I’ll use bubble wrap. I am driven by the voice of the canvas and by the heart of the paint!â€
Fantastic! That is what I hear from most all the artists I speak with- a deep calling from the canvas…If you could change anything about your work, or style, what would it be?
“It would be far easier on me to fit the mold. If I could create a body of work that paired up nicely and people knew immediately- that’s a Jill English -then everyone would know where to slot me and all would be right in Jill’s art world! But that is not the case. As I mentioned earlier I am a slave to inspiration and there is no common denominator.â€
In a world of many “artist’s†being unique is essential- What makes your work unique among your peers?
“Texture! All of my work is textured. At first glance one might look at my portfolio and say she doesn’t know who she is as an artist! I say, look closely and be surprised! My work is for the thinking set!â€
“Everyday the world tells us, “Look but don’t touch!†Materialism, things, stuff everywhere… but don’t touch! I poke fun at this by creating work that beckons to be touched!â€
“There is more depth to my work than merely poking fun. I use a variety of materials to create texture on a canvas like, leaves, junk mail, coffee grounds, gesso, and so on. With that said, I’ll leave it to the viewer to figure out the rest on a piece-by-piece basis. The story is there for inquisitive souls.â€
What is some advice you’d give to emerging artists?
“Get a day job! I am married to an incredible artist. He is a man who can play any stringed instrument and a man who can paint me into a corner. He also happens to be a physician. We both knew from a young age that if we were going to be able to indulge our artistic inclinations that we had to be able to pay for it. Art is expensive. The cliché starving artist is not sexy or glamorous. Our world today is digital and contrary to the way things may have been, art is even more competitive now than ever before. I am one of millions of artists online. I am a tiny drop in a sea of talent that is so vast it could overwhelm me if I let it. But I don’t let it. I don’t have to. I have a job that pays for my art! I understand this is not popular advice. I too was young and idealistic and thought my voice was too strong and too passionate to be denied. I am happy for those who can truly make a living doing the art that they love but for the rest of us, we work two jobs!â€
Sound advice! Jill- How has your work contributed to the forward motion of art today?
“I would like to think it has…. I do not teach art, but a few times certain children have strongly connected with my work and so I have invited them to my studio to paint. One boy in particular, Ian, loves using the shop vac on blow mode to blast paint everywhere and create works that “look like exploding bombs.†He is amazing. He will do incredible things as an artist. I plant seeds when I see the ground is fertile!â€
That is incredible Jill! How do you see the future of your work panning out?
“Interesting question Kenneth! I have done (and still do) the gallery thing, I sell online, and I participate in shows every now and then. One goal I have is to sell a painting in every country on the planet. I have a distance to go before that goal is met but I am making a dent! I sold a few this year to Bahrain—so exciting! Outside of that I can only control the work I produce. I meet every blank canvas with the intention of besting myself and touching souls!â€
Indeed! If you could meet any other artist to chat with, who & why?
“Modigliani. His work resonates with me! I am a huge Pollock fan as well but it is Amedeo Modigliani who strikes a chord with me. I think it is because he paints beauty with truth. His works are beautiful but haunting and soulful and I feel like there is a story with every work. He makes me want in! I have questions for him!â€
And, much like James Lipton from the Actor’s Studio; my final question-
What’s your favorite color?
Vermilion red! ….(long pause and a sigh) Phthalo blue! Burnt umber, Black!
For more information about Jill English visit- JillEnglish.com
Jessica Slagle: Otherwise Known as SLAGLETRON
Multimedia Collage Artist Jessica Slagle describes her work and influence.
slagletron.com
Film + Editing by Sabrina Scott
Original Music by TGX
DH Dowling : Art Makes Us See
I grew-up in a perilously small house in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts. My mother and father were painters. My dad could not afford a studio so he painted in the kitchen, often with Bartok or Beethoven blaring, and while meals were being prepared. My parents habitually discussed light and likeness, color and composition. At an early age I learned to observe the world around me with a thinking eye, and developed a deep and abiding respect for artists.
When I’m shooting, I look for ghosts hidden in plain sight. I use many different cameras; it doesn’t matter which one. Cameras are tools like paint brushes. Ideas are more important than lenses. I am not obsessed with beauty. Beauty isn’t art. Art disturbs the molecules. Art makes us see. I flow with my intuition. I wade into this river willingly. The water knows more than I know. The current is strong. It is always a struggle.
I am the editor-in-chief of Mental Shoes magazine. I design and develop book covers, logos, and on-line magazines. I have directed long-form media and TV commercials for NY and Los Angeles production companies including Richmel Productions and Pacific Ocean Post, and for corporations such as Warner Brothers and Reebok. My work has garnered Telly awards, a Mobius award, a Mercury Award, New York Festival Awards, Monitor Awards, ITVA awards, and Society of Technical Communicators Awards of Distinction. Next summer, I am curating a group exhibition at Stephen Romano gallery in New York.
