RED DOOR – 5TH ISSUE

MOLLY CRABAPPLE – NY

The drop hollows the stone – A Friday the 13th with Molly.
Gutta cavat lapidem.

By: Elizabeth Torres.

This past Friday the 13th (August) of 2010 was one that will be tough to beat. After researching to find the perfect artist to feature in our 5th issue of Red Door Magazine, I was able to schedule an interview with the woman the New York Times baptized “A Downtown Phenomenon”, Molly Crabapple. It wasn’t a quick pick. As the director of Red Door Magazine, I get to be picky, bitchy and discerning, but over all things, absolutely demanding when choosing the artist whose work will appear on the cover, and whose story will be presented to you. It’s my responsibility, because I am for the best. It’s an eternal search for world-threaders!!! I not only look for artistic quality, but for a specific drive, a something-else that has led each featured artist to become the inspiration of our readers.

Each one of us defines success in a different way, but no one can deny that there are basic factors that represent it: economic stability, an established name among the field of work, a list of achievements, current projects and upcoming ones, and a cause. or a reason. basically, an eloquate answer to the resounding -Why?- of fans, media and critics alike… and over all things, movement. Because one cannot succeed, or make a difference, or exist, just by sitting still and waiting for life to happen.

So I did my research and invited Red Door’s friend, Lola Bruise, another promising young woman a prolific artist and burlesque dancer of New York City, to play photographer for this interview. I grabbed my red notebook and my pen, she grabbed her thick eyelayes, her suspenders, camera and hat, and we headed to the financial district for our meeting with Molly.

How should I explain our meeting? There is something absolutely intimidating in the eyes of this woman. She just turned 27, for the muses sake! She just turned 27, as in, this past September 13th! (Happy Birthday, by the way). She just turned 27 and is already an internationally renown exhibiting fine artist, a big fish in the artistic community of New York City, a published author, a speaker and an entrepreneur.

Molly Crabapple has earned her success, and she isn’t shy about it either. She considers herself a workaholic, and I can completely relate, because, well, young leaders know exactly what they want, and they don’t let anyone tell them other wise. And artists? same story. It’s perseverance what gets you to completing a painting, finding a style, overcoming your own obstacles, delivering a message.

Just entering her studio is a bit over-whelming. It’s a good experience indeed, but it takes a bit to adjust one’s eyes to the quantity of colors, shapes and characters dancing on the walls. She greeted us in a deliciously-casual dress, and continued to put her make-up on while Lola and I clumsily walked through the studio, almost devouring each piece. Her work is as ambitious as she is. It is an immediate extention of her personality. Very young, very bright, very non-conformist, and definitely detailed. Her fascination with the burlesque and circus scene mixes with her very opinionated, very political and very empowered creative process, to deliver a unique style that has placed her among the top artists of New York’s modern art community.

Molly’s talents are many and they have all been cultivated for several years. She is an illustrator for places like Marvel Comics, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal- as well as Neil Gaiman, Amanda Palmer, The Box, and Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.

There are brushes, and pens, and ink, and notebooks, and dresses, and make-up, and photos, all over the place. Papers of many sizes, and dozens of unfinished drawings. A blond, long-haired, equally succesful and equally alive artist is also part of her permanent collection, and he respectfully smiles and sits by the computer during our interview. We’ve invited him to be a featured artist for next year’s Red Door Magazine, so, if you don’t know who I’m talking about right now, I’m not gonna spoil the surprise.

I catch Molly smiling at him with confidence as she continues telling us her story. This is all about her, and I won’t have enough space to tell you all about her anyway. She transports us back in time to the beginning of her career as an artist, when she was just a child, mimicking famous actresses and characters, and always a loyal servant of creativity. Less than five years ago, Molly dropped out of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology to pursue her true passion full time. It wasn’t easy, but her smile reassures me, it was worth it.

She leaned towards her love for artifice, the cabaret settings, the glitter, the circus freaks, and became a fire-thrower, a burlesque dancer, and the creator of her own world. She owes much to this scene, to the rawness and complete honesty of the performers, to the mockery and the alternate reality developed in these shows.

For a while, she earned her money through fetish photoshoots, sometimes nude, which gave her enough money to promote her art, and enough time to focus on creating.

“My time as a burlesque dancer showed me plain women emerging from the club’s dressing room as goddesses. Through paint, feathers and pasties, they made themselves gorgeous. It’s beauty as a garment, a shell, a mask.” She tells us. “But as with any mask, there’s a face underneath. And the face in my work is smirking. For any mask, or mask like society, has a weakness. If you want to crack it, you only have to laugh. Thus, my characters have arched brows and sarcastic smiles. They want to let you in on a secret. It’s all terribly silly, isn’t it?”

Her art, in spite of the bright colors and burlesque scenary, is based on a more classic, victorian-style, and inspired by Pieter Bruegel and Tolouse Lautrec, as well as influenced by the work of Arthur L.Guptill. I’ve heard her name be mentioned in a couple of well-known gallery openings lately, and collectors, I’m sure, are enjoying her prolific career. When she is not traveling for her exhibits and interviews, she is working on The Puppet Makers, a web series for DC Comics, or on the promotion of her book Creator of Scarlett Takes Manhattan.

As if this weren’t enough, she’s also a globetrotting speaker at places like the Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo’s Pixel Art Fair and South by Southwest Interactive, and, surprise, surprise, the creator of Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, a worldwide movement of alternative drawing salons in over 100 cities.

I am envious of Lola for her lens. For being able to visually capture this moment. I’m sitting in front of a non-stoppable star, and I’m trying my best to take my own mental pictures and to savor each of her words as slowly as I can.

Gutta cavat lapidem is a phrase that I always repeat to myself, when I’m working on my books, on the magazine, or on my latest pieces of art. It means, the drop hollows the stone, and is the most direct metaphor of perseverance I’ve ever heard of. I can certainly say, Molly Crabapple is that drop, and New York City played the role of the stone. It is a skillful, intricate and unconventional game that Molly plays well, and full-time. As she flirts with the art scene of New York city, she develops an empire of creativity and circus freaks, and a very promising collection of art pieces that will certainly continue to pay off for her years of hard work and dedication.

I invite you to visit the official website of Molly Crabapple, wherever you are, and see her work and dedication with your own eyes. There’s a constantly updated blog full of beautiful women, erotic new creations, and exciting new ventures. There’s a portfolio and a press file that is astonishingly professional, and more importantly, there is the face, flesh and bones, daring eyes and powerful smile of a 27 year old woman who remains a child in heart, and, in these times of absurd politics, embarrasing religion issues and recessions, is able to dream and conquer the world, one day at a time.

Special thanks to:Molly Crabapple http://mollycrabapple.com/

Photo by: Lola Bruise and Andrea Piñeros.

RED DOOR – 4TH ISSUE

JASON D’AQUINO – NY

I’ve always considered myself a clumsy person. Stubborn as I am, there are things you have to recognize, no matter how cliché it may sound when one confesses to be that girlfriend who keeps bumping into walls or forgetting to look both sides before crossing the streets. It’s a harsh reality, indeed…It gets worse: I have learned to accept the fact that small and delicate objects, such as needles, piercings, earrings, fine-point pencils and pens, or even nailpolish, become absolutely obsolete in my hands. No, it isn’t something I’m proud of, but I’ve managed to live without learning crochet, and the five years of Art School were survived in spite of my embarrasing print-making skills and watercolors.

This is why my ego is so deliciously hurt when I cross the path of a miniaturist. It is twice as painful, when it comes to an illustrator. I find this to be an art full of fetishes, intricate secret lives and whispers, the patience of a magic card castle builder, the skill of an artisan, the wisdom of an ancient enchanter…or a spider.

Jason D’Aquino is a master of the absurd. His creative process includes collecting antique materials such as 18th century animal-skin vellum, antique ledger pages and the matchbooks you see on this page. None of these pieces have been stained in any way: all the surfaces have naturally aged, and were of little or no value until found by D’Aquino, who adds his inner visions, his tattooing conception of images and his child-like execution of a composition, for a genuine result worthy of high-end galleries and private collections.

Working on these old and delicate materials not only means patience and dedication, it means being absolutely sure of what you already see, before imprinting it on the “canvas”. Erasing much would immediatly destroy the surface, which means plenty of sketching before each of these pieces is created.

Jason D’Aquino says he gets his inspiration from abandoned buildings, some of his own dreams, and even walks to the flea market. His collection on matchbooks came as a desire to easily demonstrate the quality of detail on his works to his viewers, so that people would be able to compare it in scale, to something they easily recognize. Using the matchbooks as reference for the size of his drawings is a very daring thing to do, but Jason manages to do it well. The effect, in the end, is quite astonishing.

Many of his original graphite drawings are political in nature, and others immediatly show us his background as a tattoo artist, due to the shading and outlines typical of this form of art. D’Aquino is the co-owner of Blue Moon Tattoo in Buffalo, New York, and among his upcoming projects, currently prepares a hardbound volume of his work.

When visiting his website, a tiny little spider will crawl accross the screen to welcome you. It reminds me of his hands, the delicate threading of lines and shadows that are executed on his found objects, and transformed into unique art pieces, as fragile, as misterious, and as perfect, as a spiderweb.

Article by: Elizabeth Torres.

Special thanks to: Jason D’Aquino  http://jasondaquino.com

RED DOOR – 3RD ISSUE

MORGAN O’HARA – NY

“Movement produces life produces movement. This work began as a search for relationship and meaning”.
– Morgan O’Hara

Installation: Time Lapse: Backstage Transmission. By: Morgan O’Hara.
Location: The Lab Gallery, NYC.

A few days ago one of my close friends and colleagues left the city for good. He packed his brushes, his oil paints, a few sketches on the works, his drawing table and his upcoming projects and headed to Florida, leaving me with just these words: “Elizabeth, New York is a monster. We all arrive with our big egos and expectations, thinking we’ve made it -This is it, the capital of the world!…- then time passes by, and no one notices: NY numbs your limbs, your eyes and your soul…until nothing surprises you. The symptoms aren’t many, but its effects spread fast and one day, you are sitting still, a walking dead, worthless as if the muse had never touched you… what could be worse than realizing that art does not marvel you anymore? If this is the case, run! run! run away from here!”.

I wished him well and slowly whispered one of my favorite poems by Kavafis: …This city will always pursue you.You’ll walk the same streets, grow old in the same neighborhoods, turn gray in these same houses.You’ll always end up in this city. And then, headed out to meet the artist who had the guys at the Lab finding 30 volunteers for her upcoming show. Yes, it’s true that New Yorkers have developed an acute lack of amazement. It’s true that in this city, you can find an”artist” under the shadow of every building, and they will assure you that their stuff is the work of the gods. I, too, often find myself absolutely dissappointed after an entire day of Open studios in either Dumbo, Tribeca, Chelsea, Long Island City, and Hell’s Kitchen, trying to remember ONE PIECE that stuck, with no positive results. This is because many artists are focused on their need to be hype, to be popular, to sell, to sell, to sell, to make it… seldom do you find one absolutely married to art, simply because of its magic, because of the need to create, because it has become their only language.
But this isn’t New York’s fault. It’s humanity’s fault. I’m sure it’s happening in London, in Tokyo, in Berlin, in Madrid and in Bogota with equal strength. This whole globalization sickness has led us to think we have seen it all…

Right before knocking on her door, ten minutes late, as usual, I closed my eyes and asked: New York, Please surprise me.

Her name is Morgan O’Hara. She opens the door slowly and thanks me for being late, adding that she was able to rest five minutes more. Organizing an installation of this size and detail really takes its toll. It’s a sincere comment, and we laugh together. Immediatly, I am pulled to her world of lines, to the delicate abstract figures rushing back and forth as desperate shadows would, aiming to find a new dimension.

There’s pencils by the window. Papers of all sizes spread in the many tables accross the room. There is a fistful of butterflies laying on the table, mixed with little stones and grass; Her childish smile brightens up the room, as she explains that she has just returned from Michoacán, Mexico, where she had spent 5 weeks sketching the migration of the butterflies. The Purépecha Indians (the native people populating most of the Michoacán State) believe that these butterflies are the souls of their dead people arriving to enjoy from the altar and ofrenda, and it feels almost magical to imagine her two hands following this sacred ritual of nature. Yes, I said two hands. New York, once again, has managed to surprise me.

An empowering woman of Irish background, Morgan O’Hara was born in LA and raised in a fishing village in Japan until the age of 14. She speaks 5 languages, has 7 years of psychology, and also studies buddhism, geography and music. Her aikido practices led her to finding balance between the right and the left side of her body to the point where she found it necessary to use both hands when drawing. “It was an organic process”, she adds. Morgan O’Hara spends 10 hours a day creating art. I must correct this paragraph – she spends 10 hours a day looking for the most immediate sign of life: movement. She spends 10 hours a day tracking invisible patterns in real time.

This is the second time that an artist exhibiting at the Lab Gallery is chosen as our featured artist. Her work speaks for itself.

About LIVE TRANSMISSIONS, O’Hara explains that “the best ones occur when the role of observer-participant and participant-observer merge. The drawing on paper remains in life much in the way that a footprint on the beach takes its place. The drawing is a bit more material than a heartbeat but resembles it in its circular flow”.

I am renewed because I see in Morgan the artist that I’m always anxiously looking for. Not the one discussing the latest sold painting for thousands of dollars, nor the celebrity who just began collecting their work. I see passion in her eyes, and the maturity that only a disciplined servant of the muses acquires after years of dedication. For a moment, I understand this is not a coincidence. I have found the time keeper, delicately tracing the foot prints of life on our modern space and time present.

In the wisdom of her lines, the wrinkles of the many characters she researches, are finally tangible. The value of her research goes farther away than modern masterpieces. It is a testimony of the cosmic maps all around us, otherwise impossible to break into. The heavy influence of the Japanese culture reflects in her work so appropriately, that blank spaces become shelters or windows for our eyes to understand the flapping of two tender wings, the movement of a speech, the dance of a shoemaker, or even the reflection of light under water.

O’Hara’s prolific career is not an accident, and she knows it. She speaks of her work with tender respect, as if walking by the hand of a child. She knows it does not belong to her, and the expression of her face as she speaks, tells me that she is alive and willing to be marveled. Morgan O’Hara has been a New Yorker for almost twenty years, traveling back and forth to her studio in Italy. But the babel has won her over, and her upcoming plans include making of New York, her full-time home. Other projects in her agenda, include English national ballet rehearsals and performances in London at the center for Recent Drawing, being artist in residence in Northern Ireland at the University of Ulster, tracking movements at the Roger Albert Hall, traveling to Chile and Argentina, a performance at the Photography Association in Japan, Shukugawa, in Southern Japan, a Life Transmission in Vietnam, and returning to Italy to pack her studio and track the movements of steams and forests.

As if all the reasons listed above (in words or in images) were not enough to surprise a New Yorker, Morgan is also linked to the international Jazz and music scene, due to her many collaborations with musicians, including Malcolm Goldstein (violin), Anthony Braxton (reeds), Joe Fonda (bass), Booker T. Williams, Elliott Levin, Ulrich Krieger (saxophones), Lutz Rath (cello), Giuseppe Englert (organ), Maurice de Martin (snare drum), Peter Zummo (trumpet), Dietmar Diesener (trombone), Jon Gibson (clarinet, PVC), Amy Rosen and Armando Cavagnis (mattressmaker).

“Morgan works not simply to forget herself, giving herself completely to the work, but consciously forgetting herself, trusting to her pencil and the lightning-like gesture, procuring from the subconscious the idea and essence of things”.
-Nellie Rakovsky
Former writer and lecturer The Hermitage, Leningrad, The Soviet Union The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The energy surrounding Morgan O’Hara tells me that the muses are loving her company. There are no limits to the fountain of cosmic inspiration to an artist of this level of engagement with the arts. These capsules of existence that bloom from her pencils, are a magnificent proof that life remains in the particles of every second and millimeter. Now we can see it too, for it is encoded in her artwork. Humanity. Action. Celebration. Dimensional measure and pleasure. Transformation. Awareness. Time traveling. New York. These are all synonyms of Morgan O’Hara.

Article By: Elizabeth Torres.

Special thanks to: Morgan O’Hara

RED DOOR – 2ND ISSUE

GRIMANESA AMOROS – PERU/NY

Grimanesa Amoros – La Incubadora

In the 2010 babel that we’ve grown used to loving, seldom do we find a creation that can stops us in our tracks for more than 10 seconds, let alone revive memories of childhood, motherhood, the warmth of birth embraced by the universe, and the coldness of reality when returning to the speed of the city we inhabit, as a window that separates us from the miracle taking place somewhere inside us.

Grimanesa Amorós, is the true representation of a succesful artist. And by success I cannot only mean achieving fame and economic success,for this, among artists, is only the compensation of a more difficult relationship with the task of creating, of attesting to the world around us and attempting to materialize an idea… I say succesful and I talk about that specific and intangible look of fulfillment that can only be seen in artists who have dedicated hours and hours and hours of discipline and sacrifice to their work, and who have therefore, made love to the muses and brought to life magnificent pieces.

A persevering, passionate, strong and empowering woman, Grimanesa spoke to us right before the opening of her exhibit “La Incubadora”, which can still be seen at the Roger Smith Hotel’s space: The Lab Gallery. What she shared with us was so intimate and powerful that we couldn’t find a better person for this month’s featured artist spot:

“La Incubadora” is an installation that fits perfectly in the Lab Gallery, and which features the installation “You cannot feel it, I wish you could”, comprised of eleven “clones” of a new kind of human body: a pregnant female torso with the same male head attached to each of them.

The isolated sensation that takes over the viewer, who is forced to stand outside and go around the “incubator” space, reminds each passerby of the fear of adulthood, of solitude, the nostalgic blurred memories of warm times in the womb. At the same time, the materials with which Grimanesa created each one of these sculptures, a combination of Avaca paper and bee wax, and the masterful use of lights, sand and music to create such an intimate environment, create a delicious confusion that can only be proof of the effect of this fantastic work of art.

The casts were taken from a mold made from the artist’s body one week before she gave birth to her daughter. Grimanesa shared with us that the entire installation idea came to her in the form of a dream, and that she saw each sculpture moving around, having a life of its own. The unique sensations of being a mother, together with the curiosity of her partner, who was curious during the entire pregnancy for his unability to bear a child and his desire to be an equal part of the process, contrast beautifully with the exterior landscape of cars and busy new yorkers, the grey lights of winter and the numbing cold that makes us wish to be one of those casts, or quietly sleeping inside them.

The floor beneath and around the body-casts is covered with soft, pale sand referencing the earth as a foundation for biological manipulation. Renowned musician Meshell Ndegeocello, followed Grimanesa’s magical creating style: She placed her fingers on the sands around these sculptures, and almost as if becoming part of the fairy tale, immediatly told the artist: I got it!, and composed a piece that is now an essential part of the exhibit.

Grimanesa also shared with us during our interview, the importance of her relationship with her partner, the need of balance and fulfillment in order to create, and how this led her to focus full time on the tasks of motherhood after her daughter was born.

One can only help but distinguish the touch of South American art in her work, probably because of the finished look on the surface of the materials, or the combination of the light and the sand, which reminds us of the sea and of our past. Indeed, Grimanesa’s eyes shine immediatly, and with no difficulty she changes her dialogue to Spanish, and proudly says: “Mi esencia es Peruana”. Born and raised in Peru, she currently resides in New York City and often travels back and forth due to her exhibitions.

Amorós utilizes her art as an agent for empowerment to involve viewers from all different backgrounds and communities. She says she does not wish to influence, but to cause a reaction. Among her mentors or artists admired, she mentions Nox Martin, professor at the Art Students League of NY, as well as Miguel Gallo, from Peru, and Jack Lo.

Article by: Elizabeth Torres

Special Thanks to Grimanesa Amoros, and The Lab Gallery.

RED DOOR – 1ST ISSUE

DIEGO LA TORRE – SPAIN

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