Interview with Novemto Komo

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

a)I was born november 1981 in Indonesia. Been drawing or I could say doodling since I was 5 years old. First child from mix culture parents. Love traveling and staying and different places ... love coffee and cigarette.

q) Had you always planned on being an artist [or had you other hopes]?

a)I never brave enough to be an artist ... I used to study as marketing and got my diploma in software engineering and planned to be web designer or software developer or photographer that I've been doing during those studies till I got some approval from some people for my illustration during my study at multimedia design.
Well, here I am ... love to an artist forever.

q) Do you have a preferred medium to work on? Why?

a)Mmmm. .. Not really. I love mix media. I love experimenting different media and at this moment ... doing my new favorite media ... human canvas.

q) How would you describe your style?

a)My style, got influences from street art, tattoo. Well, I could say, I am experimenting.

q) Do you go through any certain processes while trying to produce your work?

a)Quiet some, such as research, talking to people ... simply my daily life.

q) What are you working on at present?

a)I am doing personal project on short movie. Using loads of artwork.

q) What about recent sources of inspirations?

a)Been inspired lately by the woman I love, who worked as a doctor. The traffic and loads dirty business.

q) What are some of your obsessions?

a)Pain ... ahahahha ... no ... freedom on expressing things as usual ...

q) Which galleries have you shown at and which galleries would you like to show at?

a)Some of I've been showing :
3, Singapore
Candid Art, London
spot- Taipei film house, Taiwan
etc ...
Some I would love to like Tate, London .... any gallery though.

q) If people would like to contact you, how would you like to be contacted?

a)Feel free to e-mail me

q) Do you have any suggestions or advice for artists that are just starting out?

a)Keep doing what you love to .... be smart ... think .

q) Who are your favorite artists?

a)Too many to say ... love loads of artist

q) What books are on your nightstand?

a)Transformation of intimacy

q) To what weaknesses are you most indulgent?

a)Love and smoke

q)….your contacts…

a) komo@niuku.net

www.niuku.net

Interview with Christina Mazzalupo

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

a)5’3”. Born in Connecticut, USA, to an Italian-American father and French-Canadian mother. Went to catholic school for 13 years. Infatuated with animals. Can no longer eat macaroni because wheat makes me sick (I find this part of my life to be a travesty). Play guitar and sing in a band. Hope to come back in my next life as a lion.

q) Had you always planned on being an artist [or had you other hopes]?

a)I did poorly in all of my art classes in high school because we had to do crafts and draw flowers which I am terrible at. I didn’t realize I could actually “be an artist” until I was in college at age 19. After having 4 other areas of concentration and being bored with them all, I finally felt at home when I began taking art classes in my third year at school. I did a lot of writing and poetry from high school onward. I always felt the need to express my thoughts.

q) Do you have a preferred medium to work on? Why?

a)I seem to work best with pencil or ink on paper and watercolor. I also really like collage. I love to paint but it is more challenging for me and doesn’t come as naturally as the others.

q) How would you describe your style?

a)I feel like an outsider artist who can’t be classified as “outside” because I have been educated in art.

q) Do you go through any certain processes while trying to produce your work?

a)For years my work was primarily fed by emotional turmoil. Now that I am older and less addled with emotional turmoil, I have had to be open to new sources of inspiration. One of these has included doing a lot of research on things I find interesting and finding ways to bring them into my work. There is a lot of downtime where I don’t make anything. Then I will make a ton of stuff very quickly. That’s how it is for me. It all happens in bursts.

q) What are you working on at present?

a)I just finished the work for a solo show that is opening on May 30th at Mixed Greens Gallery in NYC. Right now I am taking a minute to breathe. This summer I plan to paint, finish a book project I am working on about a character named Astrid, and make and sell more tee shirts. Also, I might take bluegrass guitar lessons.

q) What about recent sources of inspirations?

a)I am always attracted to things that are coming from an imaginative or psychological place, indicative of the artist’s personality. I have been truly inspired by artists such as Mark Ryden and Henry Darger, Robert Rauschenberg and Squeak Carnwath. People like George Widener amaze me. When I first saw Marcel Dzama’s work a couple of years ago I felt like I had found a long lost brother. Another favourite artist is Amy Winfrey who makes animations. Some people I find brilliant include Nicole J. Georges, Matthew Gray Gubler, Edwina White...and quite a few others whose names I can never remember. I am also constantly inspired by animals, and lately quite inspired by science.

q) What are some of your obsessions?

a)Animals, coffee, soft shirts, chocolate, being tidy, sharp pencils, the way the paper in new books smell, and the sea.

q) Which galleries have you shown at and which galleries would you like to show at?

a)I love Mixed Greens always and forever.

q) If people would like to contact you, how would you like to be contacted?

a)ail: Xtmazz@aol.com. I have telephone phobia.

q) Do you have any suggestions or advice for artists that are just starting out?

a)Don’t try too hard to fit in. Just do what feels good to you. That is always the right way to go.

q) Who are your favourite artists?

a)See above.

q) What books are on your nightstand?

a)The Merck Manual, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, crossword puzzles, Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf by Sonya Hartnett, and No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July.

q) To what weaknesses are you most indulgent?

a)Coffee, Chocolate, Vanity, Television.

q)….your contacts…

a) www.human-suit.com/

Interview with Sille Jensen

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

a)I am the daughter of a painter, and I have been drawing as far back as I can remember, though my work doesn't look like my fathers at all.
I got my formal education at an art-school in Amsterdam, the Hogechool voor de Kunsten, where I graduuated in 1995.

q)Had you always planned on being an artist [or had you other hopes?
a)Yes - and yes: Though I spent a lot time of teen years with a pencil or brush in my hand, I had some years before I went to Art Academy when I felt the need to experiment with other media. So I did radio, I photographed a lot and experimented with computer images. But I never felt really comfortable working with those media - not the same way as when paint or draw.

q)Do you have a preferred medium to work on? Why?

a)I like the physical and sensous side of working with classic media like oil paintings, charcoal- , pencil- and inkdrawings.
I think it is because it gives you a sence of touching the subject you work on, whether it's an abstraction or thought or a more tangible object.

q)How would you describe your style?

a)This is a really hard question - I can think of a lot of things that it isn't: It isn't naturalistic or realistic.
And though I can see that it sometimes could feel related to the style of some classic modernistic painters, I don't think that is it, either.
If there was something called post-modern expressionism, maybe that could apply to my work.
It could be very limiting to put your work in a specific category, though, so I try not to.

q)Do you go through any certain processes while trying to produce your work?

a)Yes, but it's still not quite clear to me how it works exactly.
But I usually start with some vague, abstract thought that I'd like to explore. Where those ideas come from, I can't explain. They just present themselves, and if they stick, they are usually something I can use and try to examine in my work.
Then I usually, but not always, make sketches from that idea in sketchbooks or on scraps of paper.
I also collect photos and other pictures form newspaper and magazines, that I might use in my work. I like to search for strange connections between images from our every-day life or pop-culture and motifs from the Art History.
Then I have to trick myself to start painting, as a new, blank canvas can feel very intimidating.
So I usually have a stack of little canvases ready, and I start painting on them - just other sketches, or studies of real, but harmless objects, like flowers. In that way I can persuade myself to start painting, and while I'm concentrating on my little canvas, I suddenly switch from the small painting onto the bigger, serious one - and back again, sometimes.
I usually work with series, more paintings on one subject or idea.

q)What are you working on at present?

a)Right now I'm in the phase of making small, vague drawings in my sketchbooks for a new series ...but I don't know what it is called yet.

q)What about recent sources of inspirations?

a)I listen to music in very different genres, but right now I listen a lot to alternative rock with some kind of tradiitional inspiration.
It is music that I can instantly relate to, but it also had depth and you can understand it in different ways or deeper levels also.
I like that.

q)What are some of your obsessions?

a)I am a collector and have too much of everything. I like flemarkets and junk shops, and I can't help buying all sorts of junk just because I'm fascinated with the fact that somone once designed an object this odd.

q)Which galleries have you shown at and which galleries would you like to show at?

a)I have shown in Denmark only, and I'd love a show abroad. Also; I'd love to have a show with other artists I'm connected with on MySpace - perhaps a virtual one?

q)If people would like to contact you, how would you like to be contacted?

a)Become a friend on MySpace, visit my website - or just drop me a line at mail@silles.dk

q)Do you have any suggestions or advice for artists that are just starting out?

a)If you are admitted to an art school, you have to strike the right balance between being open to influence from your teachers and friends, and to stick to yourself. It's difficult, but you should never be afraid to experiment and imitate, and at the same time have the guts to explore what's inside.

q)Who are your favorite artists?

a)Right now: Munch and van Gogh. Piero della Francesca. Vermer and Rembrandt. Balthus.
Cézanne and Picasso. Paula Modersohn Becker. Cindy Sherman. Louise Bourgeois.

q)What books are on your nightstand?

a)Short stories by a friend. Crime and punishment by Dostojevskij (my second go at it, and I'm not sure I'll make it), glossy gardening magazines.

q)To what weaknesses are you most indulgent?

a)Going to another fleamarket instead of doing something usefull.

q)…Your contacts…

a) http://www.silles.dk/
http://www.myspace.com/sillejensen
recent piece in New York Arts Magazine:
http://www.nyartsmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=144728&Itemid=721

Interview with Victor Giannini

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

a)I’m a 24-year-old writer, artist, and skateboarder. I was first inspired to draw by 80’s Nintendo games and comic books. I love philosophy, sand, adrenaline, liquor, friends, tea, books, pens, cats, oceans, nature, steel, sunlight, and the moon. I believe contradiction is a guiding force in life, and that two “things” that contradict one another can exist simultaneously. That is a guiding force in much of my writing and artwork, and when I’m tearing my hair out and trying to make sense of ugly things.

q) Had you always planned on being an artist [or had you other hopes]?

a)For most of my childhood I wanted to design videogames. Then I wanted to draw comics. Ultimately, I discovered what I loved about both mediums, which was the stories they told. Since about 14, I’ve been dead set on being a writer, so that I could write comics, videogames, books, etc. I hold this to be in line with being an artist, so yes, I’ve always planned on being an artist in some form or another. However, as far as visual arts go, I’ve been drawing since I was 2 or 3. My notebooks from school are really just endless sketch pads. I draw my own comic book series, posters, and skateboards. It’s pretty much exactly where I want to be.

q) Do you have a preferred medium to work on? Why?

a)I stick to pen and paper. Usually a mix of Micron pens and Sharpie markers. Since college, I’ve taken to scanning my black and white art onto my Mac and digitally coloring it. I worked in black, white, and red (for blood) pretty much my whole life until 18, when I bought some prisma color markers. That’s translated into the digital coloring, which I find very fluid and open to experimentation. My favorite canvas is a blank skateboard.

q) How would you describe your style?

a)Childish homo-erotic violence? I’d prefer 80’s era videogame/skate/punk content with some 60’s psychedelic colors. I’m often expressing that idea of finding comfort in contradictions, hence the often gory and grotesque imagery coupled with fanciful, happy, colors. I’d like to think that as soon as you see my art, you know I grew up loving skate art, comics, and videogames. There’s a lot of us out there, and I want to give crazy weird kids something to have fun with like I had.

q) Do you go through any certain processes while trying to produce your work?

a)First I just have fun with pencil, trying to draw something that interests me. That often entails showing the “inside” and “outside” of a creature, which translates into dissection and gore. I am also interested in conflict, so that comes out a lot. If I don’t think something is challenging, disgusting, or cute, I often won’t find the motivation to follow through. If it somehow combines all 3, I work like a possessed demon and give little head to real world concerns. My girlfriend is very patient with my late hours and rambling.

q) What are you working on at present?

a)I recently finished a line of 3 skateboard decks for Substance Skateboards. I’m currently continuing the 2nd volume of my comic series, Skeightfast Dyephun, and editing my first novel, “Counselor”. I also do some t-shirt designs here and there for Daydream Silkscreen when my fingers aren’t aching. I just finished a series of illustrations for a cool magazine, but I don’t want to jinx it…

q) What about recent sources of inspirations?

a)Mostly music and caffeine. I like to listen to a mix of classical, jazz, metal, punk, and 60’s rock while drinking a lot of coffee or tea, then pop in a skate video or actually go skating, and see what kind of things slip into my head afterwards, when I’m all worn out. Most of my friends are talented artists, so every time I see a project they’re forging ahead on, I get inspired to get back to my desk and do the same.

q) What are some of your obsessions?

a)Food, sleep, writing, skating, martial arts, cats, the Joker from Batman, Metal Gear Solid, alternate realities, politics, psychology, grass, comics, the beach, revising, exploring… most everything I do I have to be obsessed with or I’ll quickly lose interest. I’m not good at operating on “medium”.

q) Which galleries have you shown at and which galleries would you like to show at?

a)None, really. I recently showed one piece at Ashawagh Hall in East Hampton, NY. Before that I participated in a great show in Wainscott, NY, called Chiaroscuro. It was a very do-it-yourself kind of thing thrown together by my peers. Because my ultimate destination for my art is comics and skateboards, I rarely have any original pieces fit for galleries, nor the resources to get them printed for one. I honestly don’t know very much about the fine art world in general, and don’t have any ambitions to get into galleries. I’ll take the opportunities when they come, but it’s just not something that’s on my radar. Magazines, comics, skateboards, posters…those are my galleries.

q) If people would like to contact you, how would you like to be contacted?

a)E-mail is the best. I check it often, and love communicating through writing. Otherwise, I’m usually online in an instant messenger program, and I’m open to talking to strangers. I could talk on the phone, but I’m pretty phone shy, and would actually rather meet a stranger and talk in person than over the phone.

q) Do you have any suggestions or advice for artists that are just starting out?

a)Don’t be afraid of pain. Read and see as much as possible, talk to people who love things that you hate, stay up late, go for walks, and don’t eat cats.

q) Who are your favorite artists?

a)Simon Bisely, Eduardo Risso, Juanjo Guarnido, Yoshitaka Amano, Jim Phillips, Dave Gibbons, Scott Meyers, Geof Darrow, Terry Moore, Frank Miller, Jim Woodring, Justin Sanz, Jeff Smith, Darick Robertson, Katsuya Terada, Charles Burns, and tons of skateboard artists I’ve seen over my life and not even known who they were. Oh, and every 2-D videogame to come out between 1980 and 2000.

q) What books are on your nightstand?

a)There’s a whole ton of them. Piles of books. The rogues gallery: Philip K. Dick, Hunter S. Thompson, Jorge Luis Borges, Russell Hoban, Kurt Vonnegut, J.R.R. Tolkein, Junot Diaz, Douglas R. Hofstadter, and Albert Camus. I like to revisit them randomly before I go to sleep, so they’re strange word play and brilliant ideas can filter around in my subconscious.

q) To what weaknesses are you most indulgent?

a)Social pleasures. I can usually abandon most obligations if I have an invitation to a good time with lots of drinking, breaking silly laws, and late night sentimentality. Things that ease anxiety, like liquor and beer…sunlight. Very cute cats. Games of chess with devious opponents, and interviews.

q)….your contacts…

a)Email: Victor.giannini@gmail.com

Screen name: FacialDefecation

Interview with Jonathan Ryan Storm

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

a) My full name is Jonathan Ryan Storm.I live in the mountains of madness in southern Vermont, where it's now spring.

q) Had you always planned on being an artist [or had you other hopes]?

a) Early on, I was a young craftsman of tall tales. Once I told my visiting grandparents that my friend and I had built a ski mountain behind the garage, but they couldn't see it because it was closed for renovations. Beyond that, I always wanted to draw.

q) Do you have a preferred medium to work on? Why?

a) Black pen on white paper usually. Lately I've been using pencils, or trying to anyway.

q) How would you describe your style?

a) Repetition. Drawings of migraines. A hammering out, so to speak.

q) Do you go through any certain processes while trying to produce your work?

a) Since I work on a small scale, I try to slow things down like my heartbeat and breath. Willard Wigan taught me that.

q) What are you working on at present?

a) Pieces for an upcoming group show in Brattleboro, Vermont.

q) What about recent sources of inspirations?

a) Stan Brakhage, D.T. Suzuki, my girlfriend and Islands Fold. Last week's surgery might be the biggest inspiration ever, though.

q) What are some of your obsessions?

a) some of my obsessions? Details. Coffee. Chewable Acidophilus.

q) Which galleries have you shown at and which galleries would you like to show at?

a) Albus Cavus in its many different guises. I had work traveling with J&L to galleries in Atlanta and Seattle. Does my house count as a gallery?

q) If people would like to contact you, how would you like to be contacted?

a) jonathanryanstorm@gmail.com

q) Do you have any suggestions or advice for artists that are just starting out?

a) eat good food, exercise, and stay up late.

q) Who are your favorite artists?

a) Stephen Wiltshire, Luke Ramsey, Jim Woodring, Elvis Studio, Diane Arbus, Kim Hiorthøy, Jordan Crane, Brendan Leach, Anders Nilsen, Kevin Huizenga, Dan Zettwoch, The Front. I bet my cats would be great artists. John Cage knew what was happening.

q) What books are on your nightstand?

a) The Secret Life of Plants. Cat Fancy Magazine.

q) To what weaknesses are you most indulgent?

a) It used to be soda pop. Now it's Polar Seltzer. Cranberry Lime!

q)….your contacts…

a) jonathanryanstorm@gmail.com

Interview with Pam Glew

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

a)I’m a 29 year-old artist based in Brighton, UK. I spend my days in my studio, making artwork on flags, fabric and old books, I exhibit internationally and also run an etsy shop (pamglew.etsy.com). I also watch too many horror films, which I loosely justify by calling it ‘research’.

q) Had you always planned on being an artist [or had you other hopes]?

a)When I was a child I wanted to be a nurse, but found that I fainted at the sight of blood. When I was about 6 I really wanted to be an air hostess (that was before cheap airlines, I remember them being immaculate and quite glamorous), but my ears always hurt on the plane, so that was another crushed ambition.

q) Do you have a preferred medium to work on? Why?

a)I mostly work on ‘used’ materials.
At the moment I am making a series of work on vintage American flags as a kind of statement about fear culture (and the exaggeration of terrorism which I feel is quite over-hyped). Another reason for working on flags, particularly the American flag is that they are so beautifully made, of all the national flags that I have seen, the US flag is the most exquisite, with embroidered stars and stitched stripes. I have also made work on union jacks and the French flag, as a canvas they have such resonance.
I also work on used patinated copper, antiqued books (mostly horror books like The Omen) and old brocade fabric.

q) How would you describe your style?

a)I think my work is a combination of street art and confessional art. It looks like urban street art, as I use spray paint, stencils and use a high contrast aesthetic. The confessional art element is more to do with my use of materials, I like experimentation and finding new processes, so it has a similar look to confessional art. I use stitch and often darn up the holes of really raggedy flags so my hung flags are a nod towards women’s work/ craft skills but with a dark sense of irony, using images of women from horror films works as a juxtaposition with the medium.

q) Do you go through any certain processes while trying to produce your work?

a)Yes, I sometimes think my work is ridiculously time consuming. It all starts with watching a film, mostly obscure 1960s thriller/ psychological horror like Roman Polanski films like ‘Repulsion’ or ‘Rosemarys Baby’, but sometimes more recent video nastys like ‘House of Wax’ or ‘Kalifonia’. I watch the film, pause it and take loads of photos, mostly close ups when a character is looking terrified, but they need to be looking beautiful at the same time. Towards the end of the film the female characters start to look too dishevelled and covered in blood, so I tend to use the early shots! I then Photoshop the images, adjust them to black and white and add elements so that I end up with a striking, high contrast image. The image has to have impact and a bit of tension.
The flags are washed, sometimes dyed black and then the image is usually painted on with bleach or discharge paste (which removes the dye) and then washed again, The work then needs to be ironed and attached to a dowel top and bottom.
The work on paper is similar, but I use stencils for them and spray paint with white Montana spray paints, I find spray painting a great light relief, fast and instantly gratifying.

q) What are you working on at present?

a)My ‘Fear’ series. I’m having a solo show in Brighton in may which is called ‘I fell in love with a video nasty’, so that will be mostly American flags and horror film images. I’m also working on some small text based work, sewing on words onto scraps of flags.

q) What about recent sources of inspirations?

a)Horror films, bad video nasties, American foreign policy and cinematic images of women. Music is a great source of inspiration for me, I listen to my ipod in the studio all day; Radiohead, The Doors, Arctic Monkeys, Bat for Lashes, Tori Amos and Roots Manuva have all inspired me in some way.

q) What are some of your obsessions?

a)I’m currently into typefaces, fonts, especially old fonts used on signs for Motels, Diners, Fairgrounds and Circuses. I don’t know where this current obsession is going to take me. I’m also experimenting with sewing words and slogans.
Etsy.com is my favourite way to spend time when I should be working.

q) Which galleries have you shown at and which galleries would you like to show at?

a)I have a group show in Carmichael gallery in Hollywood USA this month, which is a collection of street art from around the world. Fairtrade Gallery in Brighton is my fantastic local outlet who really support my work, I also show with Art-file in Oxon and at the Affordable Art Fairs in London and Bristol. I’m represented by Art-el, who are a great street art online gallery, they had an amazing graffiti/ street art show in a disused police station in December last year.
Ultimately I would like to show in Lazinc in London, they represent Banksy and Micallef and I think they are the ultimate great space, their gallery used to be some kind of S & M dungeon. I would like to show in more interesting spaces, I like commercial galleries but I also like buildings with character, I had a show in an old Victorian church recently, so more of the same would be good.

q) If people would like to contact you, how would you like to be contacted?

a)Email is good: pam@pamglew.co.uk

Myspace www.myspace.com/pamglew is something I check sporadically!

q) Do you have any suggestions or advice for artists that are just starting out?

a)Keep doing what you are doing, make sure its good and that you like it. Be critical and refine your style, but really just persistence would be the main advice. I have been doing art for 8 years and only nearly making a living from it now, so it’s about being in it for the long haul.

q) Who are your favorite artists?

a)A real mixture of street art, fine art and photography: Antony Micallef, Tracy Emin, Annette Messenger, Yoshitomo Nara, Miss Van, Nan Goldin, Ron Mueck, Ghada Amer, Camille Rose Garcia & most recently Ian Francis….

q) What books are on your nightstand?

a)Too many unread ones, I like Chuck Palahniuk, Lily Prior, old fairytale books and 1950s housewife manuals.

q) To what weaknesses are you most indulgent?

a)A good chai latte and a blueberry muffin. I also love travelling, shopping, sweets and trashy old zombie films.

q)…your contacts…

a)Email: pam@pamglew.co.uk

Website: www.pamglew.co.uk

Shop: www.pamglew.etsy.com

Blog:www.pamglew.blogspot.com

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pamglew/

Myspace: www.myspace.com/pamglew