Interview with Antonella Pintus a.k.a. Anna Bolena

q)What is your name?

a)Antonella Pintus a.k.a. Anna Bolena

q) Where do you live and work?

a)Berlin/Germany

q)What is your creative process like?

a)I usually create sounds and images with a spontaneous attitude.

q)What is your favorite medium?

a)Music and video

q)What is your current favorite subject?

a)Animals

q)How long does it take for you to finish a piece?

a)1 day

q)What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

a)I really don´t know!

q)Are there any contemporary artists that you love?
a)Lars Von Trier

q)Can we buy your art anywhere?

a)Please, contact me!

q)Anything that people should know about that we don't??

a)I don´t care about it, sorry!

q)What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in
their level of artistry?

a)What you want is not what you need

q)What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?

a)Pain is my inspiration!

q)How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?

a)simply deep!

q)What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current
level of artistry?

a)Knowing myself

q)Is there a tool or material that you can't imagine living without?

a)TV

q)Who are your influences?

a)My mother

q)What inspires you to create?

a)The world´s madness

q)….your contacts…

a)http://antonellapintus.blogspot.com

Interview with Kareena Zerefos

q)What is your name?

a)Kareena Zerefos

q) Where do you live and work?

a)I currently live and work in Sydney, Australia.

q)What is your creative process like?

a)I spend a lot of time thinking about ideas, sketching little thumbnails and collecting inspiration and reference material before I officially put pencil to paper. Once I’ve done all of this I get all of my materials together and will start with a fine pencil drawing, then I work up layers of softer pencil, biro, felt tip, ink and gouache, and sometimes add a little letraset to finish.

q)What is your favorite medium?

a)Pencil, biro, felt tip, ink, gouache and letraset.

q)What is your current favorite subject?

a)I’m continuing to explore the themes of escapism and isolation in my work, although I’ve started to have more of an interest in looking at carnivals/ amusement parks to depict this.

q)How long does it take for you to finish a piece?

a)If I’m really motivated I can have a piece finished in a day. But it would have to be a particularly focused day.

q)What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

a)My first solo exhibition at the MTV gallery in Sydney.

q)Are there any contemporary artists that you love?

a)Cecilia Carlstedt, Audrey Kawasaki, Banksy, Kill Pixie, Carson Ellis

q)Can we buy your art anywhere?

a)I sell limited edition prints through the corner store on my website [kareenazerefos.com] and also through stupidkrap.com… for original pieces you have to keep an eye out for shows I’m involved in – I’m yet to have these available online.

q)Anything that people should know about that we don’t??

a)Lets see… I’m a tiny person, I collect tea sets and old photographs.

q)What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?

a)Indeeds it’s a cliché, but practice makes perfect… or at least close to it.

q)What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?

a)A couple of weeks ago I had a few days of creative block, so to break out of it I went and had a drink with my sketchbook and the bartender at my favourite little bar in Surry Hills, The Lounge.

q)How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?

a)Delicate, nostalgic and bittersweet illustrative work.

q)What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?

a)My background is actually in graphic design, I studied design at the College of Fine Arts, Sydney, but developed my illustration style when I finished university.

q)Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?

a)A sharp 2H pencil.

q)Who are your influences?

a)I love Egon Schiele’s work. Seeing his drawings and paintings in Vienna a couple of years ago really influenced my use of white space. I’m also influenced by music and film… the orphanage is a film I saw recently that I feel will influence some of the themes in my work.

q)What inspires you to create?

a)Stories, memories, dreams and a cup of tea with friends.

q)…your contacts…

a) hello@kareenazerefos.com
www.kareenazerefos.com

Interview with Yuta Onoda

q)What is your name?

a)Yuta Onoda

q)Where do you live and work?

a)Toronto, Canada

q)What is your creative process like?

a)I do not know if I have creative process...but I love spending time on line work. I love spending time on researching about the theme that I work on. It makes me more creative.

q)What is your favorite medium?

a)Acrilyc and water color on wood.

q)What is your current favorite subject?

a)I do not really have a favorite subject for now but I always try to be honest to my work. I always try to create something based on my feelings when I create personal pieces.

q)How long does it take for you to finish a piece?

a)It really depends, couple days, sometimes few weeks.

q)What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

a)I am happy that I am passionate about art today and hope not to lose this passion in the future.

q)Are there any contemporary artists that you love?

a)Too many...

q)Can we buy your art anywhere?

a)I will be in a four person group show at project:gallery in LA. The show opens on September 6th. Some of my works are available at the gallery as well.

q)What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?

a)I always tell myself that never be happy with your art aesthetic, be eager and keep exploring with anything you like. I am not the best person to give advice though...

q)What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?

a)Probably do something else. Have a cup of coffee, go take a walk...

q)How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?

a)My work is a mix of the Japanese style, shapes and patterns reminiscent of Art Nouveau. Surrealistic and Narrative.

q)What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?

a) I am currently taking Illustration at Sheridan College in Canada and it has been really interesting because they have taught me ways to think about the theme and twist ideas...

q)Is there a tool or material that you can't imagine living without?

a) Of course art supplies, and music.

q)Who are your influences?

a) So many...

q)What inspires you to create?

a)Everything I see in my daily life.

q)…your contacts…

a)http://yutajazz.blogspot.com/

http://yutajazz.carbonmade.com/

http://www.myspace.com/yutaonoda

Interview with Toon Hertz

q)What is your name?

a)Toon Hertz

q) Where do you live and work?

a)Liège in Belgium

q)What is your creative process like?

a)Generally,I got an idea and run directly into Photoshop,it's very spontaneous and fast: it's works or not,
after,I spent hours to finalise it,so, when I'm satisfied(never!), I stop.

q)What is your favorite medium?

a)Digital camera/Photoshop

q)What is your current favorite subject?

a)Weirdos with animals

q)How long does it take for you to finish a piece?

a)Difficult to answer, I works on many projects in the same time,maybe 8 hours.

q)What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

a)The next one!

q)Are there any contemporary artists that you love?

a)Mark Ryden,Trevor Brown,Camille Rose Garcia,Liz Mc Grath,Marion Peck,Tara Mc Pherson.

q)Can we buy your art anywhere?

a)In exhibition only for the moment.

q)What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?

a)Work again and again and again...

q)What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?

a)Anatomy,museums,

q)How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?

a)Dark visuals for kids

q)What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?

a)Fine-Arts and graphic school

q)Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?

a)Digital camera/Photoshop/graphic tablet

q)Who are your influences?

a)Dark culture,surrealism

q)What inspires you to create?

a)Victorian aera,Vampira,Robert Smith,Vintage Toys,movies soundtracks,taxidermy,Hammer films,Frankenstein,comics.

Interview with Chris Vicini

q)What is your name?

a)Chris Vicini

q) Where do you live and work?

a)I live and work in Gothenburg Sweden, I was born and raised in the United States. I have been living in Sweden for about two years now.

q)What is your creative process like?

a)It changes; there are a lot of variables, like, size of the project, material, and so on. Basically I want to feel pretty confident I am going to be successful before I start. If I am working with a material I’m not so familiar with; I will read all I can, and then make some tests. If the project requires representational forms ( my work often does ), then I will try to get as much reference material as I can, and then do sketch’s. The last step would be to create a small model. More and more I have been relying on small notebooks for keeping sketches and ideas. I don’t think I would ever consider presenting them, they feel to personal, but they help refine my ideas.
The process of making the actual sculpture depends on the material, and can vary a lot. I would say that most of work requires a degree of direct modelling and casting.

q)What is your favourite medium?

a)These days I am working mostly with porcelain. It is a very temperamental material, I loose a lot of work to cracking and warping, but it is also stunning to see, and to touch. Wet porcelain is so tactile, it’s really quite seductive. I enjoy working with softer materials, clay, plaster, wax, gum, anything, I can get my hands involved in, but in the end it really depends on what material will serve the idea best.

q)What is your current favourite subject?

a)In the broadest sense I draw most of my positive inspiration from Nature, Science, and Art. Religion has also had a strong affect on me, but I would have to say the experience was largely a negative one.
In my last exhibition, transformation was overwhelming theme, the work was for the most part, inspired by Ovid’s “The Metamorphoses”. I certainly thought a lot about transformation in the mystical, and metaphorical sense the way Ovid intended, but I was also very interested in transformation as related to natural selection.

q)How long does it take for you to finish a piece?

a)It varies a lot, size and material are big factors here. The last piece I made took about six weeks to make. It is made of porcelain, and it is a sculpture of an enormous hare calmly transmutating into a cluster of crystals.
I this case I was working in a very traditional way of sculpture making. First I made a small model, then a simple armature, and then building up the forms with clay. When you’re working with several hundred pounds of wet clay, there is only so much you can do in a work period, and then you have to wait till the material is ready for the next step. Once the modelling was finished I allowed the clay to harden up enough so that it had some integrity, but was still pliable. At this point I cut the sculpture into segments, and removed the armature. Then I began to remove excess material from the inside, until all that remained was a hollow skin several centimetres thick. The segments were then reunited so that the piece looks exactly as before, but is actually a hollow shell. The first firing took two days. It went slowly in order to release water and resist cracking.

q)What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

a)Well, I became a father about a year and a half ago, and I feel that I had to learn, and change a lot to be a good Father to my daughter. In terms of my Art, though, I have been working on a public project called the “The Everlasting Sunflowers” for over two years now. I don’t know that I can actually call it an accomplishment, because it’s not finished yet, but I’m quite excited about it. When finished it will be a garden of sunflowers, made of aluminium, that have been cast from the flowers which grew in the place they will be installed. It’s a strange kind of re-incarnation.
All the castings are done now, and I we have begun to re-articulate the different pieces. It’s a lot of work, but they look fantastic. I tried to represent as much of the life cycle of the flowers as I could. The largest are over six feet tall.
It’s also the first time that I have consistently used assistants. It forced me to let go, a little bit, and it allowed me to do a great deal of work, in a fairly short time.

q)Are there any contemporary artists that you love?

a)I really like Roxy Paine, Marc Quinn, Kiki Smith, and David Altmejd. I’ve realized that I tend to gravitate towards artists who make craftsmanship and attention to detail an important part of their work.

q)Can we buy your art anywhere?

a)Well Generally, I sell my work through exhibitions. I will have work at the Rohsshka Museum in Gothenburg Sweden this January, and I will have a solo exhibition in Malmo Sweden this fall. I also deal directly with collectors, and do commissions from time to time.

q)Anything that people should know about that we don’t??

a)Hmmm… Reading is fun, life is finite, the universe is expanding.

q)What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?

a)Nothing beats Practice. The more time you can dedicate to being in the studio the better. Also, do as much research as you can. The web makes it very convenient. Working a san assistant can be a great if you find the right person.
q)What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?
I’m a pretty compulsive worker, so my strategy tends to be (work through it). Reading a great book, or seeing a good exhibition, can be really uplifting and inspirational. There is no magic cure that I am aware of, for getting through a rough spell.

q)How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?

a)That’s probably the thing I like least about being an artist. It always feels artificial, so I try to approach it indirectly. I talk about what ideas I’m thinking about in my work, and what is really inspiring me at the time. Some people are more interested in the concept, while others are more process oriented. They are both strong aspects of my work, and I can direct the conversation towards their particular interest.

q)What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?

a)I have had a good deal of training, both formal, and Informal. I studied sculpture and ceramics, at different times during my university training. I worked for five years as an assistant to sculptor Dimitri Hadzi. He was known mostly for monumental outdoor pieces in stone and bronze. That was a very educational time for me. I also worked in a bronze-casting foundry for a time.
All those experiences taught me a great deal, but at this point I feel I really get the most from working in my studio. I always try to push my abilities a little further, and I’m still learning all the time.

q)Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?

a)I love technology and gadgets, but in the end I always find it really satisfying to simply use my hands. I think we take our hands for granted.

q)Who are your influences?

a)My experience working for Dimitri Hadzi, had a strong influence on me. His life, and energy, really kindled my passion for making art. He was a mentor and a friend. It is hard to say the direction my life would have taken if we had not met.

q)What inspires you to create?

a)That’s hard to pin down. I have felt a strong need to make things since I was a young child, but certainly I can say that nature has always been a tremendous source of awe and inspiration for me. Also, I am very much interested in history. High renaissance, mannerist, and baroque art are particularly appealing to me. Also I’m very interested in porcelain figurines, produced by Meissen and Sevres.

q)…your contacts…

a) www.chrisvicini.com

achilles6900@hotmail.com

Interview with Erin Althea

q)What is your name?

a)Erin Althea

q) Where do you live and work?

a)Los Angeles, California

q)What is your creative process like?

a)I usually start with one main idea (or maybe just a color or weird shape) and when that is down, I make the next move. The pieces are pretty much never completely premeditated, though. I guess I'm very process-oriented right now.

q)What is your favorite medium?

a)It's a toss up between acrylic ink and oil paint. FW Acrylic Ink (Daler Rowney makes it) is really versatile. It can be watered down and mixed in bowls or used full strength. You can of course use it on paper, but you can also use it on a gessoed surface. The inks can be very transparent or they can be mixed with white and become more opaque. I'm really interested in opacity versus transparency. That is probably why I'm in love with oil paint, as well. I like to glaze with oil over a surface where I've used either acrylic ink or paint (to get a beautiful and smooth transparency). Usually a matte or gloss acrylic medium will seal the inked area enough where you can use oil over it as a glaze. fun times.

q)What is your current favorite subject?

a)General confusion

q)How long does it take for you to finish a piece?

a)It completely depends on the piece...I've worked for months on a piece before (y' know, putting it down and picking it up, working on it little bits at a time, looking at it, putting it away). But sometimes the piece goes super fast and I only spend a couple of days on it. Those are exciting and fresh pieces for me! I think when I work on paper I am way more apt to commit to an image and it goes by pretty quickly. It's when I feel like working in lots of layers (usually on a wood panel with acrylic and oil paint) and feel the freedom (of the mediums) to take away, (sand things out or paint over things), I get really seduced by the process and it could seriously go on forever. But eventually it must be resolved and then it becomes something that can haunt my dreams and force me to figure out how to make it work. I love not giving up on a piece. Sometimes it takes awhile to figure it out, though.

q)What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

a)I'm in a group show in Brooklyn, NY that opens next month (www.tinyshowcase.com) that I'm super excited about.

q)Are there any contemporary artists that you love?

a)Marlene Dumas, Peter Doig (I just saw his show in London! so amazing.), Mamma Andersson, Brian Calvin, Amy Cutler, Laylah Ali, Marcel Dzama, Neo Rauch, Luc Tuymans, John Currin, The Clayton Brothers, and various contemporary illustrators.

q)Can we buy your art anywhere?

a)Of course! Email me to inquire about any pieces you see on my site that you are interested in.

q)Anything that people should know about that we don’t??

a)I'm 6 months pregnant with twin girls. Holy Shit.

q)What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?

a)Love yourself, love the work of your hands, and don't look down upon other people (especially other artists). Practically speaking...if you can't express what is in your head...seek the proper training (school, or whatever). Maybe a certain artist needs intricate training in perspective drawing and academic painting whereas another artist would be totally hindered by that sort of training and just needs help in sorting out their masses of confused and jumbled ideas.

q)What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?

a)I start new pieces and put aside the tough ones until I can deal with them. I always work on more than one piece at a time because the process rarely doesn't get frustrating at some point.

q)How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?

a)Ambiguous

q)What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?

a)I went to a great school: Art Center College of Design (in Pasadena, California). At the time, it was a smart balance of traditional craft (draftsmanship) and creative process.

q)Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?

a)Not really. I like lots and lots of different materials for all that those different materials can do. And I don't think that an artist should be restricted by their tools or materials. I used to think of myself as a "painter", but then I realized how restricting that title was to me. Whether it is a computer (I actually don't work digitally at all, but maybe someday I'll embrace it, who knows?) or a paint brush, these are just means to an end.

q)Who are your influences?

a)It isn't always very easy for one to see their own influences. I was lucky enough to have Rob Clayton (Clayton Bros.) as a teacher for a short time and I hear his voice in my head quite a lot. He had a lot of influence on me as an artist, but I don't necessarily feel as though his work is an influence. Maybe it is? I don't know.

q)What inspires you to create?

a)It's really fun and exciting to me and I get really crazy and depressed if I don't.

q)…your contacts…

a) www.erinalthea.com;

erinalthea@yahoo.com

Antonello Matarazzo

http://www.antonellomatarazzo.it/

Interview with Carl Juan Albutt

q)What is your name?

a)My name is Carl Juan Albutt and I illustrate under the nom de plume of CarlitoJuanito

q) Where do you live and work?

a)I live in a small town not far from Manchester and I work in my front bedroom or sometimes the back bedroom J

q)What is your creative process like?

a)It depends upon what I’m working on. I’m influenced by things that happen in my life.
Could be a song, situation, conversation or character I meet. I’ll generally doodle about it until I see something I like. I’ll then expand upon that. Either printing it by hand or just drawing it out. I tend to create the separate parts of the image, umm, separately lol. When I’m happy with that I load them into the computer and mess around with them some more. It’s a system that works for me. I’m much happier with scissors, paper, card, paint and glue than with creating everything digitally. I’ve tried creating everything digitally but I found it frustrating. It wasn’t hands on enough for me and the images looked too clean, if you know what I mean. I’m happy with serendipitous mistakes as some of them lead to better work or other ideas.

q)What is your favorite medium?

a)Print..especially the way I print, which is very haphazard as I don’t really know what I’m doing lol. I don’t want to know either as, again, some of the mistakes come out better than I planned….or worse. J

q)What is your current favorite subject?

a)Russian Soviet era history. Which led on to checking out Soviet era childrens art and animation. Most of it is beautiful and inspirational. You should check out the animation “hedgehog in the fog” by Yuri Norstein. It can be seen on YouTube it’s just incredible and wonderful. The fog sequences are amazing for their time. Here is the link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCsJZV7aCdY

q)How long does it take for you to finish a piece?

a)Again, that depends upon what I’m working on. Some take weeks while others take hours. I do know that if you labour too much over a work, or think too much about it, you can kill it though so I’m wary of that. God bless the step back option in Photoshop.

q)What has been your biggest accomplishment so far?

a)The last piece of work is always my biggest accomplishment, although I was chosen as one of only one hundred artists world-wide to take part in an exhibition in Hong Kong recently. That was pretty cool, even though I didn’t get to see it lol.

q)Are there any contemporary artists that you love?

a)Dubuffet I mentioned, Kippenburger, Ferdinand Cheval, Antoni Gaudi, A.R.Penck, George Baselitz, Robert Rauschenberg, R.B.Kitaj, Cy Twombly, Alexander Innes, Paul Geraghty, Philip Guston, Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze, George Grosz, Ralph Steadman, Karel Appel, Walter Sickert….the list is endless really.

q)Can we buy your art anywhere?

a)Yes, you can buy it direct from me. My website has a link to my Etny shop where you can buy t shirts and prints and assorted ephemera that will enhance your life.J

q)Anything that people should know about that we don’t??

a)Well, a lot of the time ignorance is bliss so, no. Although if you want to know how it’s possible to control your emotions, i.e. be happy all the time, then email me and I’ll point you in the right direction J

q)What is your best piece of advice for those who would like to rise in their level of artistry?

a)The best advice I ever had was just to keep at it. Your Art will constantly evolve without you being aware of it. Practise makes perfect, literally. Also, you gotta be your own dog. No one on the planet can draw/paint/create like you so why copy someone else? If you don’t think you have a style, you will. It will develop on it’s own as you meander along your artistic path. Also, immerse yourself in Art history, it’ll pay dividends both for your Artistic outlook and for your brains J

q)What inspires you to keep going when the work gets frustrating or tough?

a)Music. Also, I review my work quite often. As I said earlier, your art is constantly evolving with or without you being aware of it. When I look back at a piece of work I thought was great but now I see ,compared with more recent work, it’s just mediocre, it makes me wonder what I’ll come up with six months down the line. It’s exciting!

q)How do you describe your work to those who are unfamiliar with it?

a)Colourful, kooky, odd, and more than worthy of a quick peek.
Also, a lot of people have said it’s quite dark. I don’t really aim for that, it just sometimes kinda happens. I think it stems from living in Russia in 2001 through the worst winter since 1943 lol. THAT was certainly dark!

q)What kind of training did you have which helped you achieve your current level of artistry?

a)I studied Fine Art at John Moores Uni in Liverpool. The place that threw John Lennon out but now has a blue plaque that says he studied there lol.
I’m not sure how much Uni influenced me though. I went to work abroad soon after leaving Uni. I lived in China and Russia for a couple of years and I think the experiences I had along the way influenced me much more than anything Uni taught me. If you are talking technical skills then I think, again, that’s just down to practise.

q)Is there a tool or material that you can’t imagine living without?

a)Photoshop. It still amazes me….The internet too.

q)Who are your influences?

a)Lately I’ve been influenced by a little book I picked up about Folk art over the centuries. Ancient Peruvian, Bolivian, African Art and the like. This has led to the creation of a few of my more recent pieces. Also, while at Uni, through reading up on Dubuffet, I discovered Outsider Art. Along with childrens Art I think it has a kind of wonderful purety that is hard to capture when you have been schooled in the ”rules” of Art (which never made sense to me). It has nothing to prove and is never derivetive. The only way I seem to be able to capture it is if I draw with my eyes closed lol.
Also the Soviet era animations are a great influence.

q)What inspires you to create?

a)Seeing great art. I want to rush home and start drawing. Great music makes me want to create too.
I also post work on several forums as it’s nice to receive feedback. When I have made someone smile it makes my day. I recommend this to anyone starting out. A nice word or two can fuel you for days and makes you more confident that you’re doing the right thing

q)…your contacts…

a) www.carlitojuanito.co.uk

www.carlart.co.uk

www.flickr.com/carlart

www.myspace.com/swet_jesu

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=640706541#