Premonitions

Acrylic and ink on paper, Elizabeth Torres, 2016
Exhibited at Andersen Hotel in Copenhagen, DK

---

Lori Nelson is a Utahn living in New York City going on ten years now. She paints in the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn and maneuvers her bike through the cobblestone streets, under and around the cathedral bases of the massive Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. Lori loves to stand on the edge of the East River to see what has been hauled up out of the giant old garbage dump deep under the grey ribbon of water; one hundred year old china shards, rounded off factory bricks, chickenwire glass….New Yorkers of yestercentury, she is examining your refuse. In her work she strives to take ownership of the human narrative, but not too much so. Lori thinks of paintings almost as film-stills from really good and horrible movies that a lot of people feel strongly about for various reasons. Sometimes linking these stills up to create a larger narrative. The human story, with its layers of garbage, is her favorite read, certainly, and possibly her favorite movie.

http://www.lorinelson.com/

Tara McPherson is an artist based out of New York City. Creating art about people and their odd ways, her characters seem to exude an idealized innocence with a glimpse of hard earned wisdom in their eyes. She explores myths and legends, astronomy, nature, love, childhood and good old life experience. People and their relationships are a central theme throughout her work. Tara exhibits her paintings and serigraphs in fine art galleries all over the world. Named the crown princess of poster art by ELLE Magazine, she has created numerous gig posters for rock bands such as Beck, Modest Mouse, and Mastodon. Her array of art also includes a variety toys with Kidrobot, painted covers for DC Vertigo Comics, advertising illustrations for companies such as Wyden+Kennedy, Publicis, and Bernstein Andrulli. She also taught in the Illustration department at Parsons for 4 years.

http://taramcpherson.com/

---

Skinner is a self-taught artist living in Oakland, California who has meticulously crafted a balance of extraordinary mural work, bizarre and antagonistic installations while maintaining a prolific commercial career. Influenced by 80’s pop culture, human struggle, myths and violence, dungeons and dragons and the heavy metal gods, Skinner’s mind is one of psycho social mayhem fueled by a calculated chaos. His work has been shown all over the world in various museums, universities and galleries. He has been an ambassador of the alternative arts movement in countries ranging from Russia, Cuba, Japan, Europe and all across the United States. Don’t be surprised if you see one of his murals on a small side street in Scotland or some tiny village in Russia. Skinner has and continues to bring his own very specific weird art to anywhere in the world that can handle it. Skinner’s work has been celebrated in various publications including Blisss, Juxtapoz, Hi Fructose and Beautiful/Decay as well as numerous European publications. In the fall of 2012 Skinner launched his own art and apparel company called Critical Hit.

http://www.theartofskinner.com/

---

Tina Lugo was born and raised in the Bronx where she still resides. She studied at the School of Visual Arts where she obtained her BFA and worked with fellow artist, Nicolas Touron. Inculcated by waves of Saturday morning cartoons, characters portrayed in comic book literature, and videogame culture, Tina became instantly infatuated with the bright colors of the animated world. As she grew up, the social and sexual undertones of these cartoons unbridled themselves from the confines of her childhood memory. Tina began to realize that the sexual and often tongue-in- cheek humor she expressed had stemmed from what she had watched on early 90’s television and only fueled her passion to uncover the subversive and controversial qualities in the pop culture of yesteryear. The use of enamel and plexiglas in her work is to suggest that the smooth, hyper-gloss finishing of a world that allures us will always be beneath a transparent barrier we can touch but never enter-a replication of the voyeuristic qualities we all posses. Her style references and pays homage to her variety of modern influences which include: Takashi Murakami, Toshio Saeki, Hanna Barbera, Japanese animation, and Henry Darger.

http://www.tinalugo.com/

---

Arik Moonhawk Roper was born in 1973 in New York City, grew up in Richmond, Virginia, then returned to New York to attend the School of Visual Arts from 1991-1995. Since then he has built a universe of strange and familiar fantasy, horror, surreal, and psychedelic imagery. After starting out creating record and cd covers for a variety of bands, and various gigs in the commercial art world, he has continued onward and into more diverse areas of poster design and graphic illustration, and animation.

http://www.arikroper.com/

David M. Cook (also known as Bonethrower) is the architect of a mischievous microcosm. Amicable and unassuming, he hardly seems the “type” to consistently and skillfully crank out such a lewd labyrinth of work, but the cheeky hedonism comes all too naturally. Based in Brooklyn but originally from Louisville, Kentucky, David (who also answers to Bonethrower) uses no shortage of fine lines to design a world that is equal parts modern mysticism and memento mori—at the end of the day, it all sinks in like a psychotropic drug.

https://dmcook.carbonmade.com/

Glenn Barr’s surreal creatures, specters and tragic characters live in a seedy universe, drenched in the grit and haze of a post-apocalyptic urban dreamscape. His Detroit work has been labeled Pop Surrealism, Pop Pluralism, Lowbrow, Underground, Regional, Outsider, Ashcan or as he coins the phrase “B Culturalism”. Barr finds inspiration in the city streets as well as from pop and counter cultures that infuse a familiarity in his many parallel realities. With a nod to old master painting, pulp art, comics and animation, Barr’s paintings are mesmerizing in their narrative complexities and technical depth.

http://www.glbarr.com/

Grace Lang is 25 years old and living in Brooklyn, where she likes to draw, listen to tough music and dream about being Buffy or an alchemist. She holds a BFA in Illustration from Parsons School of Design, as well as a BA in Literature from Eugene Lang College for Liberal Arts. Her goal is to give her demons form and, in turn, the warriors who will slay them. Grace is interested in the relationships between our minds and our bodies, as well as foreign minds and bodies. Through making art, Grace hopes to find not-so-serious ways of addressing some of her own more serious fears, hopes and anxieties. Continually preoccupied with the concept of personal “demons,” her work reflects the internal struggles that plague us all, creating visual manifestations of those dark little thoughts that are at once frightening and sort of funny. Much of Grace’s work stems from the belief that these personal demons are not necessarily enemies but, rather, aspects of ourselves that can be utilized for good. With each difficult experience, our armor grows and we become the warriors of our own worlds.

http://www.grooseling.com/

SCOTT DAKOTA (  –  )

Hypnagogia/Pareidolia artwork series by Scott Dakota:

The artworks in this series have their origin in long exposure photographs I take, generally seeking an image starting point of “abstract calligraphy” and potentially fertile play of form. These are then overlaid in various interlocking symmetries in a search for “hidden narrative” – an artistic device which can either be cliche or effective tool, depending on the quality of the results. Almost any image will get some sort of “psychedelic” result when mirrored – but it’s actually quite rare that the results will produce a coherent “neo-painting” appearing from almost nowhere – that seems oddly specific as a slice of storytelling. Perhaps this is entirely chance, and perhaps it’s entirely pareidolia that enables the viewer to experience meaning and beauty here. If so, it’s at a minimum fun, and enriching as art.

Or — there may be entirely other levels of “why” going on at the same time. Current science does not have an effective handle yet on the aspect of life experience so many of us share so often – that some things that would seem to be chance, we know they are not chance. Physicist Wolfgang Pauli and pioneer psychologist Carl Jung laid out the initial foundations of the examination of “synchronicity” in the last century, and it may be that over time more of this will become explicable in research science. But science is always in the middle of growing, and in the mean time we live by what we know as experientially true.

I’m exploring questions about the fundamental nature of information itself. What is randomness? Is anything truly entirely random? And is all randomness of the same mindless quality, or are some kinds of randomness more fertile, more inter-connected than others? Are there in fact reflections of all things to be found in all scales? And if so, how does one tune an allegorical radio to get high quality reception?

A delight and a puzzle to me: as I continue working and testing this art series, distinct categories of subject matter seem to appear on their own. 1) folk tale type, origin mythologies, tribal style education and entertainment narratives 2) overtly shamanic imagery – totem and elemental spirit encounters 3) science fiction and futurist narrative, some mix of cosmological origins and far futures. All of these things being particularly interesting to me. Which might then be explained by personal selection bias – yet, these are just the things that show up when any of these images produce any coherent semi-literal imagery at all. The viewer is invited to speculate why this may be so. There is an additional category: some of the imagery is coherent yet terrifying, nothing you’d want to cuddle with. One could draw a comparison to how professional psychics tend to categorize Ouija boards – “sure, they work some of the time – but you never know who is actually picking up on the other end of the line”. The pieces that are in that category, I just don’t finish or show. Just like in real life, you make choices.—————————————————————-

Scott Dakota is a professional Composer, Performer, Studio Producer, Mix and Mastering and Remix Engineer, Music Instructor, Visual Artist, Audio Electronics Designer, Inventor, and Writer/Lecturer in issues of Sacred Sound and Consciousness

Member of:
The Moors (Castle von Buhler, Hyperium, Forest of the Fae records) – legendary cult favorite for the pagan-trance-celt-goth international underground
Valhalla Kittens – theatrical art-glam explosion voted one of the top live experiences in Boston
Garvy J – all-star indie rock posi texture-song, project leader Josh Hager is now a member of Devo

Highdreamwave – science and spiritual labcoat brainwave/consciousness ongoing research with fellow investigator Josh Hager

30+ album credits – has additionally variously produced, co-produced, mixed, mastered, textured, arranged, performed on releases by:

Jaggery, Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys, Lifestyle (see: Freezepop), Psylab (see: Living Light), The Bewitched, Sarah Rabdau, Emily Grogan, The Steamy Bohemians, Schooltree, World’s Greatest Sinners, Del Marquis (Scissor Sisters), Jack Dishel (Only Son), Annette Farrington (Opium Den), Daniel Anthony Stearns (microtonal legend), Joe Maneri Ensemble (microtonal legends), Castle von Buhler Records (founded by Adam von Buhler and Cynthia von Buhler, renowned artist, illustrator, theater director)

MARKO ESKALANTE: (Copenhagen – Mexico)

Mean Box

Mean-Box is the title for this series of limited prints, where the main thought is to confront the idea that television is a valuable information channel. Instead the intention is to portrait the television as a medium of mass-manipulation and therefore a main factor in the way we perceive reality as such. Is information always a good thing? Where is the line where information becomes manipulation?

We can define information in many ways such as: “Information is any type of pattern that influences the formation or transformation of other patterns.”^[1][2] In this sense, there is no need for a conscious mind to perceive, much less to appreciate, the pattern, but the pattern still develops.

In other approach and from the stance of information theory: information is taken as a sequence of symbols from an alphabet, say an input alphabet χ, and an output alphabet ϒ. Information processing consists of an input-output function that maps any input sequence from χ into an output sequence from ϒ. ^[3] Often information can also be viewed as a type of input to an organism or system.

So what about if this input or sequence of symbols as information was designed to manipulate our behavior, our thoughts, our dreams?

What if everything that you desire was actually designed for you to wish? – What will your thoughts be? What will be your dreams, nothing but pure designed illusions?

The Television is not only a technology or a medium of information, it is a world where the distant has become immediate and the immediate, infinitely distant.

A world that became the medium by which the “ordinary life” of an “ordinary occidental citizen” suspends to move to the world of the “ideas” for preferring and desiring the world of the “image”.

Television became the technology that supplies (and modifies) the role of thinking for the role of desiring and pretending, where people are manipulated to act, think, believe and do as intended.

But why do people keep “watching” television?

Maybe because televisions provide them with the security or believe that reality “is somewhere else.” But at the same time it provides them with assurance that the “elsewhere”, however, is not “that far” in other words is not impossible; is affordable: though distant is very achievable. To keep dreaming!

In this perspective, television is thought as a manipulative medium of information, where society is constantly bombarded with visual information designed to create necessities, to achieve, to consume, to obey, to follow patterns and therefore to control the spectator. In this belief the freedom of the individual is restrained and put into boxes. In this belief we are programmed.

This series of works contains messages that sometimes use criticism or sarcasm, but also sometimes understands and accepts the use of the medium by the masses and propose also a theoretical scenario where the Television is used as a correct way of giving information.

1. Shannon, Claude E. (1949).“The Mathematical Theory of Communication”.
2. Casagrande, David (1999). “Information as verb: Re-conceptualizing information for cognitive and ecological models”. Journal of Ecological Anthropology 3 (1): 4–13.
3. Stephen B. Wicker, Saejoon Kim (2003). “Fundamentals of Codes, Graphs, and Iterative Decoding”2 Springer. pp. 1 ff. ISBN1-4020-7264-3.

 Monika Mori

Parker Fritz

Selection # 16:

___

Chet Zar

Born on November 12th, 1967, in the harbor town of San Pedro, CA, Chet Zar’s interest in art began at an early age. His parents were always very supportive and never put any limits on his creativity. His entire childhood was spent drawing, sculpting and painting.

Zar’s interest in the darker side of art began in the earliest stages of his life. A natural fascination with all things strange fostered within himself a deep connection to horror movies and dark imagery. He could relate to the feelings of fear, anxiety and isolation that they conveyed. These are themes which had permeated most of his childhood drawings and paintings and are reflected in his work to this day.

The combined interest in horror films and art eventually culminated into a career as a special effects make up artist, designer and sculptor for the motion picture industry, designing and creating creatures and make up effects effects for such films as, “The Ring”, “Hellboy I & II”, “Planet of the Apes” and the critically acclaimed music videos for the art metal band Tool. Zar also embraced the digital side of special effects as well, utitlizing the computer to translate his dark vision with 3D animation for Tool’s live shows and subsequently releasing many of them on his own DVD of dark 3D animation, “Disturb the Normal”.

But the many years spent dealing with all of the politics and artistic compromises of the film industry left Zar feeling creatively stagnant. At the beginning of 2000 (at the suggestion of horror author Clive Barker), he decided to go back to his roots and focus on his own original works and try his hand at fine art, specifically painting in oils. The result has been a renewed sense of purpose, artistic freedom and a clarity of vision that is evident in his darkly surreal (and often darkly humorous) paintings.

His artistic influences include painter James Zar (stepfather and artistic mentor), Beksinski, H.R. Giger, Frank Frazetta, M.C. Escher, Bosch, John Singer Sargent and Norman Rockwell just to name a few.

“Chet’s art is beautiful & scary. His style has a modern twist crashing into a classical approach. I think Chet is a master painter on his way to making a great mark in our little world. Wanna do something smart with your money? Invest in a Chet Zar painting.” – Adam Jones (TOOL)

Artist website: http://www.chetzar.com

Dale Keogh

Was born in 1980, and was always fascinated with images and paintings, was strangely attracted to his year 2 art teacher, focusing on visual art there on after.Dark erotic horror with prismacolor pencil, ink, airbrush and graphite.

Matthew Couper

Biography:

Matthew Couper is a native of New Zealand who has been painting in Las Vegas since 2010. His artistic practice is rooted in his admiration for the anonymous devotional paintings that flourished in Spanish Colonial societies. By emulating the sincerity and devotional nature of these images, Couper has been able to create personal and idiosyncratic narratives that explore myth, religion, politics and personal experience. An artist who sees himself as a kind of ‘journeyman’, Matthew Couper works in an egoless tradition that existed and flourished before culture and religion became increasingly orthodox.

An artist with a Kafkaesque view of the world, Couper uses his art to narrate personal uncertainties, and frustrations. He has found more than enough strangeness in Vegas — and in America — to challenge and stimulate his secular piety. Couper is both an intuitive, a moralist and a visionary. – John Seed

Website:

www.mattcouper.com

Links:

PAULNACHE Gallery Representation: http://goo.gl/oUGN18

The Gravy, Artist Feature, NZ: http://goo.gl/36KCWP

Desert Inventory, film by Eric Minh Swenson: http://goo.gl/GEDPe6

John Seed, ‘Matthew Couper: A Devotional Painter in Las Vegas’ : http://goo.gl/ju3LFA

John Seed and Matthew Couper at the Auckland Art Fair: http://goo.gl/A23vkU

Gerald Barnett, Matthew Couper Ex-Votos: http://tiny.cc/z4sp3w

http://soundcolourvibration.com/2014/01/14/matt-couper/

Italia Ruotolo

Italia Ruotolo was born in Naples, Italy. After Classic Literature studies she graduated at the Fine Arts Academy of Naples. For many years she worked as  goldsmith and jewels designer. Ruotolo’s work is a broad range of pop art and art nouveau. Her source of inspiration is the world that surrounds her. In her work, there isn’t much distinction between high and low cultural level, because she’s aware that the contemporary man lives in a myriad of sensorial stimulation and is himself the product of continuing interlocution between the real and the mere appearance or mere fiction.

We find echoes of these contradictions in her work in constant search of a balance between past and future, good and evil,darkness and light .

Latest exhibition

“Pornsaints”–  Zurich 27.07.2010

“Pornsaints”– Amsterdam Friday 06.10.2011

“Interiora Art Show” -Rome 02.06.2011

“Rock’n Dolls”-Mondo Pop-Rome 09.16. 2011

“Modern Pin-Up Exhibition 4th Edition” at FineArte Gallery England

from october 2011

“Miami Art Basel” from 5th dicember 2011

“HIGASHI NO JOUNETSU” -Passion of the East 25.11.2011 –   GO Gallery Amsterdam

“Spring Fever” 03.03.2012 Alternative Cafè –Monterey-Baja California

“Sensorismos Enterlazados” may 2013 –Centro de Arte Bicentenario Poeta Hugo Gutierrez Vega – Mexico City-MX

 “L’innamorato”september 20^th 2013  Potter’s Wife Gallery-Fort Wayne,

“Broken Beauty” november 16^th 2013 WWA Gallery  Los Angeles 

Temple of the Soul: Bodies & Sacred System July 5-July 31 2014

Alexi Era Gallery 1426 Washington

The Bees Knees- July 19th,2014

Alexi Era Gallery-Saint Louis

Apricot Mantle

Dan Henk

Dan Henk (born December 11, 1972) is an American artist and writer, noted for his work in tattooing and painting. He has produced record-album covers, political cartoons, controversial articles, and a variety of other media. Growing up a disaffected army brat, his early life revolved around a punk rock subculture that included bouts of homelessness and societal rejection. Heavily immersing himself in the local hardcore scene, he produced artwork for the bands Shai Hulud, Indecision, Coalesce, Locked in a Vacancy, Beyond Reason, Zombie Apocalypse and various local record labels and venues. Currently residing in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania he’s currently writing, illustrating, and tattooing. A collection of his short stories will be put out by Damnation Books in 2014, and a limited edition chapbook entitled “Christmas Is Cancelled” came out courtesy of Splatterpunk in 2013.

Read a full interview with the artist by clicking here.

Søren Lind

Based in Copenhagen, Denmark, visual artist and tattooist Søren Lind, also known as Dr.Lind, is the owner of Enter the Dragon Tattoos. He specializes in oriental tattoos. Dr.Lind welcomed us to his shop and shared some of his stories and adventures with us. Read the interview and watch the video by clicking here:

Esther Perez Ramirez

---

Kevin Stapp

Selection #15:

___________

Bryan Anthony Moore

Bryan Anthony Moore endured a troubled childhood spent in Boise, Idaho, where he devoured influences ranging from vintage dinosaur illustrations to comics and skateboard graphics.

At the  age of 19 he joined the US Navy, where he fit in like you’d expect an artistic type to fit in to the military, that is, not at all. He studied electronics and traveled extensively, visiting Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Mexico, Canada, Panama, Colombia, Curacao, Cuba, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Hawaii and much of the continental United States while enlisted.

After his service, Moore enrolled in the art program at Boise State University, graduating with Honors in 2007 with a BFA in Illustration, and an emphasis in Art History. While at BSU he was President of the Native American student organization (Intertribal Native Council), President of Golden Key International Honour Society, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.

Moore exhibits drawings and paintings nationally and is currently an MFA Candidate at the School of Visual Arts in NYC, NY, where he is mentored by artist Alexis Rockman and David Ross, director emeritus of the Whitney Museum of American Art. Bryan has longstanding interests in Native American and Polynesian art forms, comic books, collecting toys, natural history and American history.

Bryan Moore’s work has been featured in Juxtapoz online.

http://www.juxtapoz.com/Gallery/top-list/best-of-reader-art-2012-part-1/

best-of-reader- art-part-one-introduction#bryan-anthony-moore

Email: bambamart@gmail.com

_____________

Brandy Lynn Magill

Brandy Lynn Magill was raised in Chugiak, Alaska. She learned to paint from her Nana, and excel best in music and art classes. Inspired to discover a bigger city, she moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida at age 20 allowing her to explore various artistic outlets. She studied fashion and quickly turned to fine art painting. She is currently enrolled at The Academy of Art online for a BFA in Painting.

Moving to Punta Gorda in 2012 to help with her family, gave her a chance to leave a full time job and refine her career path. Brandy is a spiritual person and loves to guide others on their path to health and wellness, she attended The Yoga Sanctuary in Punta Gorda’s, Yoga Teacher Training. Brandy is now a certified Yoga teacher.

You may have seen Brandy’s art around, she has been in local shows such as Veron Ennis’ Transference, HOWL Gallery & Tattoo – SWFL Lives, or at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center – Art & Poetry. She divides her time living on either coast of Southern Florida, she is an emerging artist in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Fort Myers.

Brandy is a firm believer that happiness and positivity can come from both Yoga and Art. The combination of spirituality and art is at the core of Brandys paintings.
__________________
Dean Fleming

Dean Fleming was born in Aberdeen, WA., U.S.A. and spent his teenage years playing in garage bands around the northwest. An interest in the visual arts led him to southern California where he attended Art Center College of Design.

His work is exhibited in numerous galleries in the U.S. and Europe.

deanfleming.com

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dean-Fleming/136083299760238?ref=ts

_______________

Einmaligkeit – Paris

EIN001 – Laurent Moulinat x Mr. Bibal:

First collaboration between a visual artist and a composer using experimental technics, Laurent Moulinat and Mr. Bibal show us a tinted romanticism project with a thoroughness borrowed to impressionism.

Video presentation: http://vimeo.com/84841362

Related music:

–        https://soundcloud.com/einmaligkeit/ciel-orchestral

–        https://soundcloud.com/einmaligkeit/ciel-mister-bibal

Pictures: https://www.flickr.com/photos/108373074@N05/sets/72157639807063384/

About Einmaligkeit:

Study group whose aim is to highlight experimental creative expressions mixing artistic composition and applied research, Einmaligkeit differentiates by searching new auditive, tactile and visual experiences.

Website: http://einmaligkeit.com

E-mail: info@einmaligkeit.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Einmaligkeit

Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/einmaligkeit

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/einmaligkeit

______________

Amy Guidry:

Rebecca Elizabeth Blow

Rebecca is a London based artist working predominately in the fields of painting and drawing.

The work begins from life with quick sketches and expressive linear drawings. Then back at the studio she develops the drawings, creating compositions using various elements of the drawn line. The paintings are essentially studies about the drawings, rather then realistic portraits of the subject.

From the initial sketches to the final pieces Rebecca aims to create a dialogue using elements such as line, texture, shape and colour.

Her expressive use of paint and vibrant yet subtle colours give her pieces a sense of depth and space beyond the canvas, yet her graphic mark making style serves to remind the viewer of the materiality of the two dimensional canvas.

After completing her Masters at Chelsea College of Art and Design in 2009 she is currently working from Coldharbour Studios, London.

Selected Exhibitions and Publications

2014 Hidden Treasures Year Book
2013 Passion Palette Pop up Bankside, London
2013- on going Carre Des Artistes, London
2013 Beaux Arts, London
2013 The Lloyd Gill Gallery, Bristol
2012 The Other Art Fair, London
2012 Parallax Exhibition, Chelsea, London
2011 Who Am I Gallery, Clapham
2011 Portico Gallery, West Norwood
2011 Mixed Media Exhibition, Candid Arts Trust, London
2010 Art in Mind, Bricklane Gallery London

_____________________________

Selection #14:

ARTISTS RESIDING IN COPENHAGEN:

LINTS:

Lints x South America from Lints on Vimeo.

NANNA VALLENTINE OLSEN:

INTERNATIONAL SELECTION:

(featured in the cover of this issue)

Michael Hutter:

1963 born in Dormagen, Germany

1970-74 went to a catholic primary school, where an old nazi teacher

introduced me to God.

1980 was saved from Christian delusion by discovering Aleister Crowley

and great Cthulhu

1983 survived and left school

1983 painted my picture “Old Temple”. Felt free to paint anything I want

since then.

Since 1983 private student of R. U. Pickman

1991 published “Der Rattenfänger und andere Bildergeschichten”,

Benecke Verlag, Germany

1999 came across legends about Melchior Grün in the library of a hidden

monastery in the Eifel region

2012 published “Melchior Grün, fünf Moritaten”, Luftschiff-Verlag,

Germany

2013 published „Von der Prinzessin und der Fischerstochter“, Luftschiff-
Verlag, Germany.

Michael Hutter is living in Cologne, Germany and working in his studio in

Cologne and his secret laboratory, somewhere not to close to Adenau,

Eifel region

http://www.octopusartis.com

http://www.facebook.com/kunstkrake

Andrea Valencia

Orkibal Orkibal

Chris Sedwig 

“Passing of the Ages” 10″ x 14.5″ Oil, Gold Leaf, and Minerals on Birch

“Sun” 5ft. x 4ft. Oil, Gold Leaf on Birch, 2012

Cecile Carriers

 http://cecilecarriere.fr/

Marcelo Inojo

Bodies fictionalized
A visual challenge of your ideas

A series of images created from close-up photo shoots post processed body until you are gaining significance as a proper and realistic fiction arise. It passes the limit of the figurative inviting the viewer to see his multiple interpretations of the images based on their visual and living experience.
I investigate the relationship between the decision and its subsequent concept generation, with very little relationship (in most cases) between what you see and what the camera captured.
To appreciate and enjoy these images you need a viewer complicit, wanting to see and with a time of contemplation far from the digital speed. It is an invitation to look beyond what you see and bring your look to your life experiences and feelings.

Author

On March 15, my mother gave birth in the city of Montevideo just the day of mybirthday, then it happened, the school, the Lyceum. Since 1991 working in a design studio, I graduated from the first generation Industrial Design Center (nowEUCD) and the National School of Fine Arts – Uruguay, and am currentlyteaching at both institutions.

Justin Penov

Anthony Ciambella:

Selection #13:

Daniel Martin Diaz

“The work of artist Daniel Martin Díaz “is broodingly personal” with “a compelling, esoteric edge.”
Los Angeles Times 

The artwork of Daniel Martin Díaz has been commissioned for the PBS documentary The Forgetting: A Portrait of Alzheimer’s, and two large altar pieces were commissioned for San Antonio de Padua Catholic Church in Guaymas, Mexico. Díaz’s work has been exhibited in more than 50 solo and group exhibitions in 17 states and eight countries, including three international touring exhibitions, and has been acquired for the permanent collections of nine art museums nationwide. Publications include Rolling Stone magazine, Spin magazine, Juxtapoz magazine, Low Rider magazine, New American Paintings, The Huffington Post, and Raw Vision magazine.

Drawing from old masters Jan van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer, Pieter Bruegel, and Hieronymus Bosch, both in subject matter and in the ancient egg tempera and resin oil painting technique, the works of artist Daniel Martin Díaz possess a sincerity that foregrounds his deep devotion to revealing a higher meaning through painstaking craftsmanship. Through his application of a limited palette on distressed wood, his handmade wooden frames, and his expressive use of Latin text, Díaz’s images thrust us into another time and place.

“I continue to be amazed and inspired by many artists both past and present, who have been successful in capturing the complexities of the human spirit. We run from those things that we cannot explain. These are the things that we must attempt to explain through art. All the beauty and tragedy that is life. The world between imagination and completion is an infinite one. It is a solitary journey, yet the many paths are full of wanderers who are also searching and eager to share their findings”.

__________________________________________________________

Robert Steven Connet

Robert Steven Connett  was born in San Francisco, California. A fascination with drawing and painting became evident early in life. A limited education. He dropped out of high school in his junior year, age 17. A GED diploma was obtained at the age of 18. No fine art schooling. In the years that followed, he held many and various jobs, everything from farming to fast food sales. After many years of no artwork, Connett began drawing and painting as a hobby at about the age of 30.

He continued to create artwork as a hobby for several more decades. His main money making occupation during this time was insurance sales. He sold automobile insurance in San Francisco for 20 years. In 1995 his home and all personal belongings were destroyed by a house fire. He spent several years recuperating from the damage. During this time he developed “slight” problems with alcohol and pain medications. In the years that followed, Connett began to take his artwork more seriously. He moved to Los Angeles in 1998 where he began a full time career as a fine artist.  He currently lives and paints at his Los Angeles studio home. He is happily married. He lives with his wife and her dog.

Robert Steven Connett
www.Grotesque.com
http://instagram.com/rsconnett
http://www.facebook.com/RobertStevenConnett

__________________________________________________________

Arabella Proffer

Arabella is an artist, author, and co-founder of the indie label Elephant Stone Records. Her loose narrative themes revolve around a fascination with punk rock, aristocrats, Renaissance fashions, aging socialites, pre-code cinema, gothic divas, medical history, and rock ‘n’ roll groupies. She attended Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA before receiving her BFA from California Institute of the Arts, and has participated in solo and group exhibitions throughout North America and Europe. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she has taken up residence in many cities including Laguna Beach, Los Angeles, and Boston. She lives on the shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio where she works out of a studio in an old Templar car factory. Her book The National Portrait Gallery of Kessa: The Art of Arabella Proffer was published in 2011 by Cooperative Press.

__________________________________________________________

Scott Holloway

Scott Holloway’s work represents themes associated with the historic fusion of religious dogma and scientific enlightenment of the Renaissance Period. The work is conceptual; and the viewer is encouraged to meditate on its hidden symbology – unfolding the search for the divine soul through anatomical representation. Conceptually Holloway approaches the work devotedly, but controls the formal presentation through analytical methods as was done by the great masters of the past. The final images of anatomy are presented as traditional icons to convey the sacred nature of the human body. Holloway’s work is about honoring the sublime  beauty and complexity of the human form even after death.

Scott Holloway is a prolific artist.  In 2006 he broke out of his local area and has exhibited or sold his work in New York City, Boston, Canada, Australia, Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, Anaheim, Philadelphia, London, Berlin, Italy and Denmark respectively

His work has been published in Art That Creeps, La Luz 25, Quadrant Fantasies, Catapult ArtMag twice, Lexikon der phantastischen Kunstler, Monkey Sapian, Book of Skulls and 20 Artists of Worcester.

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/scott.holloway.92?ref=tn_tnmn

__________________________________________________________

Mark Garro

Born and raised just outside of NYC, Mark Garro earned his BFA at Syracuse University on a full scholarship, graduating at the top of his class in 1984.  His work has been exhibited in galleries nationally and internationally, and appears on book covers, CD’s, magazines and advertisements.  Timeless themes such as Heaven, Hell, the Cosmos, genetics, spiritualism, and the passage of time, motivate his work. February 2014 will see Garro’s 4th solo exhibit at Copro Gallery, Santa Monica, CA and promises to be his biggest yet.

“Seeing and feeling only the obvious is the burden of the insensitive.

To interpret and observe the many layers of life, however dark or light they may be is the privilege of the perceptive.

To offer the viewer more than one plane of thought and imagery through painting is what interests and occupies much of my time.

Composition and color are crucial of course, but what about concept?  Concept is what stimulates the imagination and rivets the attention of even the most casual viewer.”

__________________________________________________________

CENIN

Cenin’s works concerns self alienation & actualization, the psychic state of infant hero, theafter-effects of a child’s separation from the mother through birth, the feelings of death – despairmelancholy, unfulfilled feminine idenitity, inner images of wounded mother & child, beingunable to speak, traumatic feelings of being born, life vs. death instinct, alienation, selfdestruction & reparation, sacrificial infant/fetus gods, divine child, lost & found reality, layers of consciousness, dramatization of simulations, infantile anxiety, Jungian archetypal symbolism,gnosticism, occultism, juxtaposition of depressive and manic, mental interconnectivity…

Review

Cenin’s paintings resonate spiritually with anyone who has the privilege to view them. Herpaintings, in my opinion as a vast phantasmogoria of sublimity that will send your brain intoreligious ecstasy. Her paintings are also very rebellious in tone – she’s perhaps the most revolutionary visionary painter since William Blake. And you can definitely hear echoedthroughout her paintings the William Blake poem, the beginning of a Little Girl Lost: “Childrenof a future age, reading this indignant page, know that in a former time, love sweet love was deemed a crime.” And I think that future generations will look upon her paintings and basicallyget the same message. Love is still deemed a crime, which is perhaps where the politics come in. Freud has frequently been combined with Karl Marx, but Cenin presents perhaps a more potentcombination of C.G. Jung and Karl Marx. You know, basically we’re not only alienated fromour libido because of capitalism, but we’re also alienated from our collective unconsciousness.And really her paintings serve as an impetus to allow for those repressed psychic elements toflourish and bloom. Her paintings really serve the same function as water does with plants. Imean they heal. But, as she said, they don’t only heal, they also serve to reveal, as she said: “auniversal structure that goes beyond the individual personal experience.” And also a lot likeWilliam Blake, she paints from innocence instead of experience. She is one of the greatestoutsider artists of all time. Her paintings are very truthful and authentic – which is unlike mostart these days, which, as Ezra Pound said: “they’re not made to live with and to endure, but tosell and sell quickly.” Which is – frankly a tragedy. But, anyways, yeah, she’s one of thegreatest painters who’s ever lived and I think history will place her alongside people likeSalvador Dali, or Rene Magritte, or Leonora Carrington, or Remedios Varo.”

Nicholas Anema

Denver, Colorado, USA

“The fetus [a theme in Cenin’s work] sees the world from 360degrees, and I feel that it has a grasp of everything going on in theworld and that it conveys messages to humanity, from a place everybody was once a part of, or will become a part of after death.It’s actually a character that I created to face the realities that peopleare not aware of.”*

*Today’s Zaman interview with Ahsen Utku (June 24, 2012)

http://www.camgaleri.net/artistes/cenin-burcu-corbac/

Cenin on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CeninArt

Cenin on DeviantArt: http://www.selfregion.deviantart.com/

Cenin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ceninvoncatlien

__________________________________________________________

Scott Ferry

I am a visual artist and author exploring my interests in haunted places, spirits, primeval witchcraft, alternate realities, death, possession and childhood. My interest in art started very young and I took it as a way to unleash my imagination where words were sometimes lacking. In the early 90s with my mind deep into Runes, Chaos Magick, Tantra and the outer realms I moulded my technique of using my pen on paper. Inspired largely by Austin Osman Spare and questing to unleash my artwork as living entities. “Form” becomes the sigil, the way to open doorways to other realms and knowledge.

My artwork has become a medium for my theories and personal discoveries and interests. The emptiness of forms such as the “body” is something that permeates my work extensively. Specifically my use of little girls as a representative symbol of a “body” that is empty of selves and opening the possibility of becoming possessed by others. “Possession” itself also influences my work and I research constantly for ideas about it in folk, cultural, and historical references.

My work is mostly done in watercolor and pen.

To know more about my work you may visit my Official Website athttp://www.scottferry.com
or my Facebook Fanpage at http://www.facebook.com/sicklyplaything

__________________________________________________________

Heidi Taillefer

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Heidi Taillefer began drawing at the age of 3, and was brought up in a family rich in creative talent. During 10 years of private art lessons as a child she developed her skills mainly in watercolor, and was strongly influenced by surrealism, combined with a general interest in technology and biology.

It was by the mid-80’s her work began to take on the markings of an obsession with technological development throughout society, whose imagery reflected what is now widely recognized as a growing hybridization of humanity with technology. Originally depicting subjects as machines placed in natural settings, her work acted as a nostalgic embrace of the past, as seen through the lens of a culture racing forward at high speed, fitted with massive technological advancement.

While pursuing a degree in Humanistic studies at McGill university,

Taillefer’s focus of study was the classics, which informs her work to this day as she parlays many mythological and cultural references into her paintings.  She has collaborated on numerous creative projects with the Cirque du Soleil most notably, as well as Infiniti Canada and Taiwan for whom she produced two internationally celebrated art cars. Her work is collected internationally though she shows mainly in the United States

Her work is reminiscent of some early 20th century surrealists such as Max Ernst, Paul Delvaux, and Giorgio de Chirico. In the painstaking depiction of disparate mechanical assemblies to convey a universal idea, to the appropriation of meaning to objects which highlight subconscious preoccupations, or an exploration of the metaphysical as a dream-like parallel to this world, she brings a contemporary spin to often classical icons. It is an original creative fusion of classical figurative painting, surrealism, contemporary realism, and mythology combined with popular figurative traditions ranging from Victorian romanticism to science fiction.

__________________________________________________________

Lindsay Carron

Through extensive travels and an insatiable need for adventure, Lindsay Carron has been inspired to use art to bridge cultural gaps, raise questions, and have a profound impact on those around her.  Her inspiration is sourced from observing behavior patterns in the daily life of humans and comparing it to those witnessed in animals in natural and artificial environments.  Her goal: providing a basis of understanding between the two groups of earth occupants.  The artist utilizes ballpoint pen to render life-size images of animals and humans.  According to Carron, the tedious, no-going-back approach of the ballpoint pen is both meditative and addicting.  It allows a time and space for contemplation and realization.  Carron is an art activist working and living in Venice, California.

Selection #12:

Valeria De La Pava

(1987) San Agustín, Colombia.
Photographer, mixed-media artist, resides in NYC since 2008. This current personal project is focused on the attempt to capture the reflection of energy, which often goes unnoticed by the human eye but is in constant movement all around us. From this series presented, only #3 has been digitally modified. To learn more, contact valeria.delapava@gmail.com

Energy in Movement, #1

Energy in Movement, #2

Energy in Movement, #3 – digitally modified.

Energy in Movement, #4

Energy in Movement, #5

Energy in Movement, #6

Lorena Ortiz

(1986) Bogotá, Colombia.

“Teoría de Interferencia, es una razón científica sobre el olvido. No tengo intenciones de comprobar nada, éste trabajo está en proceso, su punto de partida son diapositivas viejas que me encuentro, éstas las intervengo, garabateo sobre ellas con una aguja, también las pinto, destruyendo totalmente su primera imagen, luego las proyecto sobre mi cuerpo, en mi estudio. Sola. Me tomo fotos. Las cuales vuelvo a intervenir. Me es urgente que las imágenes vuelvan a proyectarse, que cubran de nuevo las paredes y junto con ellas tal vez otros cuerpos. Es así finalmente como olvidamos, un recuerdo sobre otro, sobre otro, sobre otro.. y de repente estamos en ese lugar común, en el baile del olvido.” – Lorena Ortiz.

Viajera de vocación , nacida en Bogotá, artista interdisciplinaria. El  dibujo la fotografía, el video y  la instalación, son algunas de las cosas que mas le gustan. No consigue separar su vida de lo que hace, a ella llega, a veces, un tema a tratar y luego un medio, otras veces es el medio el que  elige primero.

Ha vivido en Sao Paulo  y  New York. Su tesis  de grado fue  calificada como meritoria en La Universidad de Los Andes, ésta ¨contaba¨ las memorias de un viaje, a través de rollos velados dibujados, y la  superposición de la imagen sobre el cuerpo. Algo que mas adelante encontraría en La Universidad de Sao Paulo, como performance para cámara.  Luego de su trabajo de grado realizo una instalación donde  mengua completamente el tratamiento a su trabajo y pasa de lo efímero a lo concreto, manda a tumbar un techo y clasifica y superpone los fragmentos  dentro del espacio.  En el 2011 vive en Brasil donde se vuelve loca y  no hace obra. Sin embargo retoma el dibujo en el 2012 con el proyecto ¨Toda distancia es lo que nos aproxima, que nace como una instalación y poco a poco se depura en una serie de  retratos, cada retrato esta compuesto por millones y millones de patrones que repite hasta completar la figura. Las personas que dibuja son pacientes del centro psiquiátrico  de Itaim Bibi de la ciudad de Sao Paulo, los cuales participaron en este proyecto por petición suya. A ellos les realiza una entrevista acerca del universo y la mente y también los invitados a tomarse una fotografía tipo documento.  En el presente año Lorena continua haciendo sus retratos, y otros proyectos: Un documental junto al artista Andrés Vergara, sobre la  historia de Colombia desde  principios del siglo XX narrada  por los recuerdos de los Abuelos y Abuelas del país. Un libro ¨Lugares de memoria¨  ilustraciones collages y dibujos, junto  con dvd, que  contienen un atlas de lugares ficticios que ella recuerda juiciosamente. Y por último el presente proyecto, que es una Propuesta para una Instalación, que lleva por titulo, Teoría de Interferencia, en la que ella dibuja, raya, daña con agujas, diapositivas encontradas, para luego pintarlas y por ultimo proyectarlas y tomarse fotografías en su estudio en Bogota.  Lorena acude de vez en cuando  a una metáfora de la memoria que no es mas que una colcha de sucesos mitad reales y mitad ficiticios, también le gusta construir cosas cuando viaja, y constantemente tiene esa necesidad de que su cuerpo este presente en la obra,  a pesar que no tiene en este momento ningún tipo de afinidad con el performance.

En este momento Lorena esta buscando ansiosamente emprender algún viaje remoto.

OIX

Jolie Clifford

I was born in Cold Spring Harbor, NY where expressing yourself was not easy to do without putting up a fight. As a kid I had a hard time living here but not before long did I discover photography. Making photographs was the perfect outlet for me and I haven’t stopped since I started 7 years ago. A lot has changed in those years except for the knowledge that I will be in this forever. After finally graduating high school, I picked up a scholarship and moved to NYC to attend the School of Visual Arts and I’ve experienced and accomplished so much during my time here. If there is one thing that I have taken away from this journey, it is that “the obstacle is the path” and despite tough times looking me in the eyes; I can only look forward to my future and continue to create.

Focusing on twisted combinations and dual opposites (such as sweet vs. sour, happy vs. sad or life vs. death) she paints truths about being human. Varied influences are found within her work ranging from such things as nature,love, relationships, dreams, memories, humor, loss and health to name a few. These mixed influences cause a balance of light and dark that intermingle with each other creating a visual playground, bringing to life quirky characters that are beautifully rendered yet with a painterly hand giving them an innocent raw touch. Mason’s works are both horrific and humorous, yet speaks of what it means to be human.

Mason’s undeniable originality has garnered her attention from publishers and collectors alike, such as actress and poet Amber Tamblyn and the multifaceted Aprella among them. Her list of expanding accolades range from the ‘EdgyCute’ art survey book by Harry Saylor and the collaboration ‘Feedback Project’ where Adrian Stout of The Tiger Lillies, composed original music based on Mason’s artwork. Mason was also part of the 23 world renowned artists chosen to be a part of the critically acclaimed Lowbrow Tarot Project exhibition ( 2010) and book (2012) curated by Aunia Kahn. Mason also brings her social and environmental awareness to the public through various charity art shows such as theWhaleless Exhibition which toured throughout Germany and Italy and showcased at theMilan Civic Aquarium to more recent benefit shows for the Japan Relief effort at Sacred Gallery and The Dear Japan Project in New York City.

Angie Mason currently resides and works in Northern New Jersey with her husband and their very bad kitty in a spooky old colonial house they call home.

http://www.patrou.com

PAST ISSUES:

RED DOOR – VISUAL ARTISTS SELECTION #11:

LELAN GIMNICK – LOUSIANA
Erring on the Side of Throwing Caution to the Wind
The liberating joy of relishing in doing the right thing the “wrong” way.

article and original artwork by Lelan Gimnick, founding artist of Impossible Fantasy Studio
photography by Amanda Cooksey
Now, painting on old, reclaimed saw blades is nothing new. It’s been a folk art staple for almost a century. Usual fodder for such a support runs from wildlife to farm and country scenes to old world village vistas. The thought of putting contemporary abstract subject matter on such a pigeon-holed support seems like creative lunacy (even to other artists). Using anything other than oil on a saw blade sounds like inexperience or, at best, a bad idea. Adding paint thinner and drawing ink to a little bit of water for lighting effects? Forget about it. But as you can see from the images accompanying this article, it works rather nicely. I would like to introduce you all to the crown jewels of doing the wrong thing the right way. Or as I call them “3-Point Compass”, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Balance”, and “Studio Floor” – and it is with them that I illustrate my point.

MOO – MONIKA MORI – BELGIUM

Als Autodidaktin visualisiert “moo” – durch ihre intensive Interaktion mit Farben und Materialien in vielgestaltigen Techniken – ihre Empfindungen und Erlebnisse.
Die Künstlerin interpretiert – wie schon Goethe bemerkt – die Kunst als Vermittlerin des Unaussprechlichen. Sie kommuniziert durch ihre Werke und will, im ursächlichen Wort-Sinn, re-animieren! 

PAPER JAM – NY/AUSTRALIA

paperJAM is a collaboration between artists Hannah Lamar Simmons and Rebecca Kinsey. To learn more, visit http://www.paperjamart.com/

MARCIN OWCZAREK – BELGIUM

My art has always been focusing on condition of our globe and the condition of man. My antiutopian, critical photography is based on the antropological research. I focus on explorating and interpreting the impact of: new technologies, bio-science, unconsious, fears, morals, social situations, behaviors, habits, rituals, biological changes, the use of animals, depression in urban environments, destruction of the soil,overpopulation, deforestation, universal famine and – over human life. As a result, I create the image of the 21 century and the image of our current society.

In this way, by commenting behaviour of human individuals I want to indicate that:

Man is imperfect. Man is a savage, greedy rebel of Nature, living between the insanity and lunacy, away from his true nature. Man live in the play cage because he was captured by Illusions of this world: welfaretyranny, desire of possessing material things, consumption, jealousy, hate…what all in all led him to the broken relationship with the globe and other human beings.

As a result I stress the present process of dehumanization, mechanization and standardization of human race, false norms and illusional values that was given for the truth to the society by religion, governments,laws,propaganda, false mirror of the television…etc.

http://www.behance.net/MarcinOwczarek

J.JESUS SANZ – SPAIN

Imagenium_01 

“Las fotos se asocian como piezas en una cadena de montaje” es una frase de Gustav Klucis que, como El Lissitzky y Rodchenko, fueron artistas constructivistas que trabajaron frecuentemente con el fotomontaje.

Fotografiar, recortar u yuxtaponer fragmentos o escenas cotidianas de diversa procedencia, sin respetar la unidad de textura, de estilo y de espacio, unido esto a la “causalidad” de aquí surgen preguntas, ¿quien provoca la realidad?, somos nosotros los que provocamos una apariencia real?…

Los textos interactúan con un maquiavélico velo, unas nos dicen, otros nos cuentan, estas dicen y cuentan, ves y penetras en ellas.

Aquí comienza un ciclo de …

Fotografía: J. Jesús Sanz. www.euskalnet.net/juanje/

Textos de: Maika Campo, Hugo Larrazabal, Mónica Iglesias.

_____________________________________________

MARISA CONTRERAS – COLOMBIA

My work throughout the years

I am a self-taught artist, and I have been painting since I was a little girl. My art is a medium that expresses the reality that we can not express by words or  acts….

A regression or a dream. 

I express my feelings spontaneously releasing them through color.

Ultimately, my world’s energy and its circumstances influence my art. It is a mixure of the landscapes in my mind with the sensation of my memories.

Mi trabajo a lo largo de los años

Soy una artista autodidacta desde que era pequeña. Mi arte es el medio que tengo para expresar la realidad que no podemos manifestar ni con palabras ni con hechos…

¿Una regresión o un sueño?

——————————————-

Laurie Mc Clave

Laurie McClave has been drawing obsessively since she was a young child. Growing up in California in the 60s and 70s her extended family was full of artists, free-thinking Mad magazine readers and a sprinkling of Catholic comedians.  She dabbled in Drama, Clothing design and sculpture in the 70s and 80s before deciding to really get down and Paint….

She attended  The San Francisco Art Institute where she earned an honors studio spot.  While there she concentrated on figure drawing and painting and received her BFA in Painting in 1994.
After graduating and exhibiting work around the Bay area and across the country she relocated to the Pacific Northwest where she is painting and  raising her own free-thinking family.

Her work is currently exhibited at Pop Gallery in Santa Fe NM and Tasty Gallery in Seattle,WA.

“Her “Pantheon of Women” is a comment on iconic representations of femininity. These paintings are suffused with color, symbolism, and animal imagery.  Her style is slightly surreal and working with the female form, she adds a commentary to the modern iconic woman in art today.”

Jamison

Jamison – The McPickle

http://www.jamisonsarteschi.com/

Carolyn Collins

I only shoot when I am moved by the moment itself. Regardless of the subject, my camera simply becomes my translator of the moment as I experience it. Instinctively maneuvering myself and my lens to embrace the moment fully, through framing, perspective, and ambient lighting, I ‘dance’ with my camera. Like a first kiss, a moment cannot live again. Thus I only have an instant to capture that moment… no re-takes… either I caught it or I did not.

I am completely self-taught in photography, which has allowed my art to evolve independently. Drawn to images best described as the border between sleep and wakefulness, I find order in the world of chaos and record it without disturbing its natural environs in hopes that the viewer will experience that profound presence of simply being. It is the ethereal bridge I seek to capture… between seeing what exists and realizing what begs to be seen. Ultimately my photos speak to that part of our soul that questions, yet, expects no answer but feeling.

Carolyn Collins is best known for her contagious energy and smile… and for her intimate style of photography. Her voyeuristic glimpses, timeless documentaries, and pure abstracts stir the imagination, touch the soul, and instill a zest for life. “I’m horrible with names and facts, but I can recall the slightest smells, sounds, and sensory nuances of almost every person, place and moment that I have experienced.” Perhaps it is this abstract thought process that directs her focus to slightly different views of the world. “I still shoot using ambient lighting, manual focus and viewfinder only (no peeking to see if I got the shot I wanted) because I love the thrill of risk, the element of surprise… it’s an incredible feeling when I do capture the very essence of the moment with that single shot.”

Past issues:

Deivis Slavinskas

Jolene Blazejewski

Arabella Proffer

Arabella is a painter, designer, and co-founder of the indie label Elephant Stone Records. Her loose narrative themes revolve around a fascination with punk rock, aristocrats, Renaissance fashions, aging socialites, pre-code cinema, gothic divas and rock ‘n’ roll groupies. She attended Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA before receiving her BFA from California Institute of the Arts, and has participated in solo and group exhibitions throughout North America and Europe. Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, she has taken up residence in many cities including Laguna Beach, Los Angeles, and Boston. She currently lives with her husband on the shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio.

Contact: Purchases, exhibits or to be added to my email list: ArabellaProffer(at)Gmail.com

Matt Bray

past issues:

Genevive Zacconi

www.genevive.com

The idea was to introduce you to her  world right on time for the opening of her solo show at Last Rites Gallery this past December… but one thing we have learned to do through this magazine, is to not make it an apocalypsis when plans don’t go according to planned, and so, to begin the selection of visual artists for 2011, we present to you the work of artist Genevive Zacconi.

A young and energetic woman, Genevive has already paraded through the circus we call art industry, and made it her stage here and again. She spent 2 years away from the brushes while curating Last Rites, in collaboration with Paul Booth. Before moving to New York, she had directed Trinity, a gallery in Philadelphia, and been assistant for a year to one of her mentors, Ron English.

Like a young child in love, she explains to me her creative process, and how from the idea she develops a metaphor, which she later materializes through props, models, reference shoots and some photoshop images. Then comes the drawing process, extenuous and slow as a projection, the black underpainting and finally the color. Ah, the color. The thin strokes and layers that Genevive has developed as her style could be one of the telling signs when standing in front of her work. Passionate, yet invisible. Delicate, yet intrusive. Ambitious, but not enough to break your pupils or leave an aftertaste. The vanity of a woman is also displayed in the latter process of her paintings, when the final results display aesthetic beauty as expected by society on women, many times trhough make-up and cosmetic surgery, but re-explaining these situations as breakdowns or plastic beings. The Grisaille technique that she uses wasn’t acquired through her 1 year of Fine Art studies, but through the many of practice she has been collecting under her pockets. Patiently. Trial and error are her best friends, and hightened realism her approach.

With a clear influence of the old masters and modern subject matters as her playful toys, Genevive threads a tumultous world that narrates the issues of life, stepping away from the conservative effort many artists commit of creating happy paintings to please a specific commercial audience. She paints at night and confesses that it is mostly impulsive, a dark palette and aesthetic of pastels and softer brighter colors to contrast.

Not fitting in a regular gallery hasn’t really been a problem for Zacconi. With moderate prices that range from $400 to $5000, and an understanding that Fine Art is “one of the few things not filtered through corporations and marketing…”,  Zacconi would rather share her work with alternative audiences rather than become a commercial painter.  She repeats as if from a script embossed in her brain that: It isn’t censored. It isn’t filtered. It isn’t targetted. Art is her way to manifest the thoughts and ideas she is exposed to every day.

When discussing upcoming projects,  Genevive excitedly mentions that she’s preparing a new collection for a two-person show with Ewelina Ferruso, titled “Immaculate Deception“, opening July 16th @ Copro Gallery in LA. To see more of her work, visit www.genevive.com

Article by: Elizabeth Torres.

Special thanks to: Genevive Zacconi.

Shahla Rosa

Born in 1953,Toronto, Canada, grow up in the USA. after finish early education, she spent 15 years of her youth in Europe studing ART.

Vahge

A self taught artist, Vahge moved to Brooklyn, NY in the fall of 2007, where she currently lives and works. Her collages have shown in London, New York, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe, NM.  She has contributed album artwork for the Dresden Dolls, flyers for HEALTH, and artwork for the recent Katharine McPhee holiday album.

Contact Info:

ALL TEXTS PROVIDED BY VAHGE.

Mark Garro

Parkr Fritz

Winter Wonderland – a small peek of the collection. By Parker Fritz, Piqua, Ohio.

Lelan Gimnick

contact: www.impossible-fantasy-studio.artistwebsites.com

I’ve been painting for almost 20 years, and I’ve been in many different areas of the country throughout this time gaining influences and expertise in many different styles and techniques. I also really hate talking about myself, so I’ll tell you about what I do. Last year, I officially formed Impossible Fantasy Studio with my business partner, IFS photographer and Art Director, Amanda Cooksey. Our vision is a for-profit, community-active venue for local artists whose reach extends far beyond the confines of the walls and spaces where our pieces are displayed. We share the artistic opinion that the piece will tell each respective viewer/ collector the story meant for that particular person without a lot of effort on our parts to dictate the experience – we simply provide the setting. – LRG

Lelan Gimnick,
Artist and Founder,
Impossible Fantasy Studio

COMPILATION OF ARTISTS FEATURED ON VISUAL ARTS 2010-2011

Scroll over the thumbnails below to see the artist’s name. Click on any image to expand.

The most gigantic THANK YOU to each and every artist who appears below, for making the first year of Red Door a colorful and magic reality! Cheers to you!