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Wednesday 24 October 2007

Interview with Tina Winkhaus

q) When did you start to make art?

a)I do not know, friends always said that I'm an artist, I never felt that I'm doing art, actually I started to be aware of me beeing an artist about four years ago.
q)Explain your inspiration?
a)Peoples I see on the street, state of my mind
q) In what way does your inspiration transform into ideas?
a)I see a picture, a outside situation, in my head, I try to sketch it and than I take pictures of it, I put them together and a picture will turn out.
q) Could your ideas be portrayed in any other medium? If so which?

a)No

q) What does being an artists mean to you?

a)Nothing special, I job like every job else, I mean you have to be good in everything what you do.

q) When does your art become successful?

a)I will tell you when I have a picture of mine hanging in museum of modern art in New York city.
q) Who prices your work? And how is the price decided upon?
a)Ask my manager.

q) What is your next; move,project,show etc?

a)I will have a solo show end of january/february in Hamburg: Found Gallery

q) What are the pros and cons of the art market?
a)Pros: you never know what happens
Cons: you never know what happens

q) Which pieces would you like to be remembered for?

a)Hard to tell, at the end I do not want to die without haven't left over something of my mind.

q) Who has been the biggest influence on you?

a)The man I love

q)Other visual artists that you like.

a)Not at this age of mine anymore

q) How much do you think hype affects the public perception of what good art is?

a)Hype is the evil of culture, today you do need a good manager and soon we will have a tv show like:Germany search for their super artist, so each country will have such a tv-show, this will be the end.

q)Last CD you downloaded ?

a)David Lynch soundtracks

q)What makes you happy?

a)Success

q) What makes you sad?

a)No money

q)Last book you read?

a)’’Luna Park’’ Bret Easton Ellis

q) What else do like other than art?

a)Everything besides art
q)Final thoughts...

a)Never stop

q)Your contacts…

Thursday 18 October 2007

Interview with Daniel C.Boyer

q)Something on you ...

a)I'm Daniel C. Boyer; I was born in 1971 in Hancock, in Michigan's frigid Keweenaw Peninsula (USA). I first started making automatic drawings and paintings in1987 after reading "Manifestos of Surrealism" by André Breton and joined the Surrealist Movement in the United States in 1992. I have a degree in Politics and History from Curry College.

q) When did you start to make art?

a)As soon as I was able to walk my art was constructing towers with kindergarten blocks but it wasn't very long after that my mother got me "the little table"and I (accompanied, not long afterwards, by my sister)used to go down in the mornings, every morning, to draw.

q)Explain your inspiration?

a)Most of the work I do is either automatic or from various methods of "forcing inspiration," such as fumage -- I usually use pens or markers to flesh out forms suggested (really almost demanded) by the smoke and flame the candle I earlier moved across the paper. I almost always work automatically even in computer graphics; in bitmap editing programs I automatically run filters.(Of course the point is that it really isn't art, but for many years (1998-2005) the main drawings I made were entoptic graphomanias, "surautomatic" drawings done using a process developed by Romanian surrealist Dolfi Trost, in which dots are made at the site of impurities in a blank sheet of paper, and lines are then made between the dots.) That work of mine that is not automatic usually comes from dreams: for example, I had a nightmare in which I painted a painting called "The Rapist" and then, upon waking, I painted the painting I'd done in the dream.Sometimes I'm influenced by politics (cf. my portrait of Emiliano Zapata) but this is a very minor influence.

q) In what way does your inspiration transform into ideas?

a)In addition to the methods of working I stated above,certain tools have really lightened my work load. For example, it occurred to me I could use an electric toothbrush for painting in gouache, and now I can tell the toothbrush "Do this painting while I'm gone; I'm going to the coffeehouse!" Seriously, unusual and even common place tools in themselves can suggest, even demand a whole chain of consequences that is the painting working _itself_ out.

q) Could your ideas be portrayed in any other medium? If so which?

a)Not really; my paintings and drawings are (with a veryfew exceptions) impersonal. When I was in high-school and freshman year of college I was the singer and guitarist in a band, and the music was intensely personal, but my drawings and paintings could have been done by anyone.
q) What does being an artist mean to you?

a)Being an artist, _stricta sensu_, doesn't mean that much to me, but I cherish the ability that painting and drawing has to open up the unexpected, its exploration and discovery. I'm very sympathetic to the argument that if you know everything about a painting before you begin, the (existence of the)painting tends to become redundant.

q) When does your art become successful?

a)If it expands the realm (or, really, the _expression_of the realm, as the realm is really limitless) of imagination.

q) Who prices your work? And how is the price decided upon?

a)I price my work (with the exception of some auctions),and, as you can't really say that a painting has instrinsic value, it's just (perhaps unfortunately)decided by what comparable artists (in terms of their exhibition record, not the quality of their work) are charging, the medium, to some degree the size, and a certain degree of whimsy.

q) What is your next; move,project,show etc?

a)I have a number of groups shows in which I'm going to have work coming up in Canada, France, Brazil,Argentina, Honduras and Ouisconsin. I'm working on some blacklite pen drawings. (I've already painted some with blacklite paint, including"The Trophy Wife.") I've long had an interest in extremely low-contrast work; not only my invisible ink drawings, but back in my student films("The Erotic Life of the Eskimo").

q) What are the pros and cons of the art market?

a)The only pro of the art market is the extent to which(and it certainly could be argued, and perhaps with a greater or lesser degree of success, that other alterative methods would be or are more helpful -- I remember in 1980s New-York how I saw the stunningly graffiti-covered subway station at Bedford Avenue and the cars were colourful riots, the streets are full of posters, lacerated and intact, stencils, drawing spinned to the chain-link fences that characterise South Colorado Springs and its cracked concrete and no-tell motels, and down those streets mailmen carry the mail-art, franked with artistamps, in which I've also been heavily involved) it provides spaces for people to see creative expression(s) (and, true, these spaces might have some significance to the overall feeling of an exhibition's installation, and this could particularly be true with respect to"installation art"). The con is that it tends to restrain artists' creativity -- the gallerist telling you, for example, to have "consistency" in your work! I like inconsistent work, fuelled by exploration,inquiry, adventure.

q) Which pieces would you like to be remembered for?

a)My gouache "The Rapist," my entoptic graphomanias, and my invisible ink drawings.

q) Who has been the biggest influence on you?

a)André Breton.

q)Other visual artists that you like.

a)Allison Boyer, Joan Miró, Trish Youens, Wolfgang Paalen, George Booth, Crockett Johnson (in his Barnaby cartoons), Eric W. Bragg (I'm not simply a pseudonym for him, despite the rumours), Fernand Brose, Ithelli Colouhoun, Salvador Dalí (but not so much the Marquisde Púbol), and whoever did the cave-paintings discovered by Robot.

q) How much do you think hype affects the public perception of what good art is?

a)There's a great deal of influence, with the limitation that some artists are the "next big thing" in the "artworld" without really being known by the "man on the street." (There is even a slight reservoir of public skeptism about some of this hype.)

q) Last CD you downloaded ?

a)I don't download music and I'm not that keen on CDs(the last records I bought, though, were by 7 Seconds).

q) What makes you happy?

a)Vienetta, deep-dish pizza, the annoying habit dogs have of wagging their tails, Wellesley's hills, the smell of autumn, ice hockey, watching elephant football.

q) What makes you sad?

a)The belief that tragedy is "inevitable," and thus, in some sense, justifiable, and the use of this to perpetuate tragedy. The loss of love (but what is really lost?). The receding time, bound inexorably to the myth that time is unidirectional.

q) Last book you read?
a)_Marley and Me_.

q) What else do like other than art?

a)Visual art doesn't hold a candle to music -- visual art tends to be rather flat (in comparison); you never have that feeling of your hair catching on fire, your voice catching, of almost being in tears... My favourite records are by The Cure, The PsychedelicFurs, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, The Glove (I adore _Blue Sunshine_ on blue vinyl) and I'm becoming more interested in Love and Rockets, New Order and Siouxsie and the Banshees now. I'm also listening quite a bit to Old Skull (despite the reviews, they are not "unlistenable"!).

q) Final thoughts...

a)Don't be afraid of the legend on the map "Here Be Dragons." Keep pushing ahead. The horizon is and maybe golden but the next horizon is more golden than that.

q)Your contacts.

a)c/o
Van Weyenbergh Fine Arts
468 N. Camden Drive #220
Beverley Hills CA 90210 USA
(1) 310-933 5573
(1) 760-200 9724

Friday 5 October 2007

Interview with Emma Rendel

q) Well, first of all please tell us a little about yourself.

a)I have lived in London for 7 years, but I'm from Sweden originally. I am an illustrator and make graphic novel-ish books, that I up until now have self-published under the name Awkwardbooks. I am a member of the Le Gun art collective. I am working on a graphhic novel about gay finnish farmers that will be published by Jonathan Cape in summer 2008.

q)How would you describe your work?

a)Stories.....mostly.... People tell me that they are dark and sad, I think that they are actually quite humourouos.

q) Did somebody encourage you to become an artist?

a)No, my family wanted me to have a real job.

q) What is your favorite medium?

a)Pens and pencils

q) Can you describe your process, from the seed of an idea to a complete work?

a)I get an idea. It starts going around in my head until it is a whole finished story. Then I start drawing.Or, someone tells me they want a drawing of a cat on a table, so then I do that.

q) Generally speaking, where do your ideas come from?

a)Conversations I hear in the street, snippets of memories from films, books, my childhood, something someone has told me.
q) How long does it take to complete a piece?
a)An illustration, about a day. This new book I am working on, about six months.

q) Who are your favorite artists…and who are some artists you are currently looking/listening to?

a)I like country music, Karin Mamma Andersson, Matti Hagelberg, Joseph Yoakum, Mathew Newton, Jockum Nordstrom, Emma Akerman, Bosch, Nils Dardel, Aloise Corbaz, Karl Fredrik Hill, Tove Jansson and many more.

q) Are you represented by a gallery? Do you have any upcoming exhibits?

a)No I'm not represented by a gallery or agent. Yes I'm working on a show to go along with the new book I'm working on.

q) Do you have any 'studio rituals'? As in, do you listen to certain types of music while working? What helps to get you in the mood for working?

a)I listen to the radio. I prefer programmes where people are talking, even if it is gardeners world. But the best thing is if they read from books

q) What is your favorite a) taste, b) sound, c) sight, d) smell, and e) tactile sensation?
a)
a. candies
b. country music
c. art
d. my finnish grandmas house
e. swimming

q) Do you have goals that you are trying to reach as an artist, what is your 'drive'? What would you like to accomplish in your 'profession'?
a)My goal is to be able to live of my work. My drive is that I'm not very good at anything else. And that I get new ideas all the time. I would like to publish lots of books.
q) When have you started using the internet and what role does this form of communication play for you, personally, for your art, and for your business?

a)It means that I get e-mails from people from all over the world. It's great! And it's much easier to contact people over the internet that you are too intimidated by to call.

q) What do you obsess over?

a)Every line in every drawing

q) Do you have prefered working hours? Do you pay attention to the time of the day or maybe specific lighting?

a)No.

q) Do you do commissioned works?

a)Yes
q) Any tips for emerging artists?
a)Only do it because you are really interested in what you are doing, all other reasons will make you disappointed. Network if you're that kind of person, it could make your carreer. Be prepared to be poor.

q)…Your contacts