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I’m a sucker for clean, bold, and fun illustration; the kind of work that just makes you feel good. We all need to feel good in crazy times like this, right? Well the work of Mariya Pilipenko is sure to brighten your day up. Her illustrations are simple, colorful, and always seem to bear a feel good message or vibe to them. I ran into the Mariya’s work at the PHILA MRKT, it’s been a while since we featured an artist from there, and I was immediately smitten by her work. Her extremely whimsical style pours vibes of warmth and home right into your heart. I was extremely excited to chat with Mariya about her work and her answers did not disappoint! She went into some great detail about her style, process, the progression of her work, and her influences. There’s all sorts of great stuff to take in with this one along with the joyous nature of her illustration. Enjoy! 1. I always start by asking about background, so what got you into art? Any schooling? Big inspirations? What helped shape you into the artist you are today? I was extremely fortunate to grow up with a creative family and in particular, a creative mom. I think she noticed I loved to paint and draw from an early age so she really fostered that interest by putting me in art classes. I grew up in Ukraine and remember doing folk crafts at a community center with other kids and doing fun crafts with my mom at home. When we moved to the United States, the only class she could find similar to my Ukrainian classes was an oil painting class taught by Sergei Lukyanov, a master folk artist from Moscow. He was a big inspiration to me. He had a perfect balance of traditional technique and a capability to take risks and experiment. He introduced me to the tedious folk art style of Fedoskino (a traditional Russian lacquer miniature painting style), but also encouraged me to break the rules and pave my own way. I went to his studio every weekend from when I was 6 years old to when I moved to college. Naturally I wanted to go to an art college, but that seemed like such a wild decision to an immigrant family. Luckily I was accepted into Tyler School of Art where I ended up in the graphic design program. I didn’t intend to become a graphic design major, but I really loved the idea of creating art for a more utilitarian purpose. The graphic design program at Tyler was very illustration friendly and I was able to learn a lot about what it meant to be an illustrator, which got me to where I am today. 2. Your illustration work is very simple, clean, and decorative. How did you start to develop your style? How has it grown over time? I love basing my work in the folk art I grew up around. Folk art historically had some utility in making every object more valuable by adding visuals that tell a story. The process of simplifying things to their essential form, then inserting all of these playful and imaginative details is so exciting to me. It allows you to obscure the world to be much simpler and positive, and it’s moving to follow a tradition that has existed for centuries. Working in that style didn’t fully click until I was in college. Growing up I felt really apprehensive about projecting my culture. In my first years at school I was trying to stick to the status quo of whatever design trends were popular at the time without much of my own perspective. My work didn’t feel authentic to me and I eventually hit a point where it felt natural to lean into my cultural background for my assignments. Since then I try to squeeze as much folk art into my work whenever I can. In my professional career after school at Hallmark Cards and Paperless Post I learned to keep those traditional roots in my work while knowing when to tone it up or down for what each project asks of me. 3. What goes into selecting colors for you? It seems like you have a few selected color palettes or colors that you like to use together, do you use color to set a specific mood or narrative? When I was in school I would always find inspiration from vintage children’s books. The pages in those books were so bright and fun, but also have had time to dull, which created more complex hues. I’d scan in illustrations, color pick from several images, and adjust to what felt right for my work. Over time I created a palette from the colors I used the most, ending up with an assortment of earthy, bright tones. It’s fun to think that these colors have had a part in history and now live in my illustrations. 4. Speaking of mood, your work all seems to have a very soothing, happy vibe. What are some of the things you employ to maintain the calm, upbeat nature of your work? I don’t think I purposefully aim to create upbeat work, it’s just where my brain naturally goes! Art that can make people smile is so powerful; it has the ability to change someone’s mood, as cheesy as that sounds. If a piece I made makes someone laugh or smile or get lost in the details for a moment, I get such a sense of satisfaction. That is probably what helps me maintain that upbeat nature. I like my artwork to feel like a little escape from the world. 5. You also do work as a designer, does this creative work help or alter your illustration work in any way? Does working in a creative field and having a personal practice keep your creative mind sharp or does it sometimes get exhausting? I love my job at Paperless Post, and in the future I would like to move toward being a freelance illustrator. What I enjoy most about my design job is the range of styles I get to work in. One day I might be making elegant wedding invitations and the next day I am creating cute illustrations for a kids birthday card. Switching these styles up keeps my brain sharp and I can really test and improve my skills. However, in the freelance illustration world, having many styles isn’t exactly a positive. My in house design work makes it difficult to market myself to art directors, which is key to succeeding in freelance. That is what I have struggled with, because I enjoy the variety of ways I can work. I’m trying to find a way to blend all these approaches into one cohesive style without having to sacrifice something I love. I’ve had identity crises at a few points in my career where I debated if I needed to pick a lane. It can get exhausting walking the line between the worlds of my 9 to 5 job and freelance career. Recently I’ve been more compassionate towards myself and not overthinking things as much. It feels as though I have to fit myself into the mold of the industry, but I’m allowing myself to just create what I enjoy and hopefully the industry can mold to me. 6. Finally PLUGS! Where can people find your work? Any shows/events coming up? Anything and everything you'd like to share, fire away! You can find my work at mariyapilipenko.com and on Instagram at @mariya.pilipenko . I have an online shop where I sell prints other things at https://www.etsy.com/shop/MariyaPilipenkoShop . I will be participating in SALUT! 5, an art show put on by the Drink & Draw Society from June 7 to July 1, 2020 in Portland, Oregon!

The first time I saw a painting by Alex Garant I found myself rubbing my eyes to make sure my mind wasn’t playing tricks on me. Her depictions of the human figure, most notably the face, are skewed in a way that’s reminiscent of the moment after dizziness where the eyes have to refocus and connect the broken imagery. This freeze in time between double vision and our eyes refocusing is one of the most intriguing manipulations of human perception I’ve ever seen. Garant has tremendous ability as a painter, her representational skill paired with her skewing of the form takes rather straightforward, simple imagery and turns it into a really fascinating piece. The idea of small visual and conceptual touches to push a simple image to the next level is one that a lot of painters toy with but few master. Yet Garant is an artist who’s stepped closer and closer to that mastery with every series and individual work. From the very first time I saw Garant’s work, I knew that I had to hear more. So I was thrilled when she agreed to this interview. We dive into the origins of her style, what it means to her, and how her work has developed/she’s planning to develop it further. It’s a really interesting read that gives some great detail to these amazing works. Enjoy! 1. I always start off my interviews by asking about the artists background, so what got you into art? Any schooling? Big inspirations? What helped shape you into the artist that you are? What started your venture into portrait/figure painting? I grew up in Quebec City, Canada. I started painting and drawing at a very young age. I entered my first art contest at 5 years old and took my first oil painting class when I was 7 years old. I believe my interest in art comes from my mother who also loved to create. She would draw those beautiful faces with a pencil and allow me to colour them with wax pastels. It was such an enjoyable activity for me. When I was younger, my favourite works were the Pope Series by Francis Bacon. The first time I saw it, was the first time I found myself fully fascinated by an image. It was enigmatic and mysterious. I looked at it for several hours, trying to emerge my mind into its meaning. 2. Do you typically work with a model on your paintings or do you reference from somewhere else? I like to work from my own references as much as possible. In the past, I booked models to come to my studio for photoshoots. That way, I can capture 100-200 photos with different angles and lighting. If you do this with multiple models, you end up with a great database of reference images on your computer. Over the years though I find myself using those references for light and form and not necessarily the exact facial features. 3. You've got an incredibly unique style of skewing the human form in your work so how did that begin? How has it developed with your body of work? I believe I was always attracted to patterns and symmetry even in my very early works. Over the years I played with sketching by superimposing elements, and I created my style via my personal journey and my experimentations. 3 (cont’d) Your trademark skew is in the eyes but you've gotten pretty wild with your distortions, how do you decide what paintings you're going to push it a little further with? It is all about pushing my concept further, I want to keep my unique visual voice, but I want to find an infinite pool of variations for it, to me it makes my entire career a long but yet consistent story. 4. You're fairly open about your process on your feeds and I found it pretty interesting that you lay out pretty detailed drawings and then dive right into painting details and final tones. Do these drawings really help lay out exactly what you're going to be doing? I have the tendency to draw very stiff composition, very still portraits even if the final result emulates some sort of vibration. By having a detailed sketch, it keeps me focused and organized in my thought process. It's almost like giving yourself a game plan. 4 (cont’d) Have you always painted this way or have you gradually dialed in your tones in a way that allows you to jump right in like that? I have pieces where I worked a very detailed underpainting first but now I usually just prep my surface with tinter gesso and a pencil sketch. 5. While atmospheric elements are always very simple in your work, they're still present. How do you decide what is going to exist around the primary figure? Just like the skewing, how do you decide which works you're going to really go crazy with the atmosphere and which works you're going to keep it simple? To me, my portraits are all about finding a connection with the character. I do not intend to elaborate in scenic contexts, I wouldn't want to accidentally reveal too much haha 6. What drives the variation in canvas shape? I've noticed that the circle canvases and even some diamond canvases have been appearing more frequently in your recent work. So, what drives the difference in shape? Does the canvas shape dictate the image, pose, or reference used? That is just for fun, and sometimes at the request of a collector or gallery. 7. You sometimes allow your drawings to exist on their own so how do you approach drawings differently than paintings? Did you have to restructure your trademark skews of the figure so that the effect came across similarly? When I draw I tend to be a bit less controlled than when I paint. I like to let my movements be a bit more impulsive rather than calculated. DRawing is more about a concept/brainstorming moment or a basic technical understanding of shadows. In my experience painting is to apply all those capsules of understanding into a controlled form. 8. Your work is incredibly smooth, clean, and refined but do you feel that it loses any of its qualities when shifted to something like a print or product? How do you decide which works are made into products? Sure sometimes, nothing will ever compare to an original painting where you can truly witness the brushstrokes, movement and intentions of an artist. However, prints are a wonderful way to make one's imagery easy accessible on a greater scale. 9. You're gearing up for your September solo show at the Museum of Art & History in Lancaster, CA, is there anything new that you're going to try for this show? Or is there a piece/idea that you're particularly excited about for this show? This exhibit will be a very personal introspection process, I want to push traditional portrait influences and mix it with a bit of quirkiness, and sprinkle everything with a passive dust of nostalgia. 10. Finally, PLUGS! Where can people find your work? Any shows/events coming up (I obviously just hinted at a big one)? Anything and everything you'd like to share, fire away! Lots of new prints on my website store alexgarant.com and you can also find a full list of upcoming exhibits on my site :) May, Small Works, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne, Australia June, LAX / ATL (Humans Suck), ABV Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia* July, 'Monochromagic 3', WOW x WOW Gallery September, The New Vanguard III”, Lancaster Museum of Art and History * September- December, Solo exhibition, Museum of Art and History, California October, Lucid group Show, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne, Australia November, Tapas Group Show, Thinkspace Gallery, LA December, SCOPE Miami Beach 2020* 2021, March, Solo Exhibit, Beinart Gallery, Melbourne Australia

In the large quantity of artists that I follow, a lot of them end up being professors/teachers, and fortunately some of them share the awesome student work that’s produced in their classes. This was how I came across the promising work of young artist, Rachael Vince. Vivid color and with a keen eye for representation, Vince creates brilliant paintings and drawings that are flush with emotion. She’s also begun sculpting and making jewelry and while the style has shifted, her natural talent shines through once again. As students, artists are forced to challenge themselves and make new things they might not make otherwise and it’s really interesting to see how Vince is navigating this journey. She’s certainly got a tremendous amount of talent, so she’s definitely someone we’re going to want to follow for the future. I got to have a chat with Vince about the origins of her work, style, and how she feels that she’s developing and it was very insightful. As well as giving great insight on her work, she also talks about the current fiasco of shifting art school to online and how that’s been going for her and her classmates. We’re certainly in a crazy time so it’s great to see how artists are managing. Enjoy! 1. I always begin by asking about background, so what got you into art? What made you want to pursue it at university? Big inspirations? What has helped shape you into the artist that you are? I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember. I don’t come from a family of artists or anything, creating just always felt natural and I feel like most artists would agree. Art has allowed me to visually articulate my thoughts and emotions in ways language could not. As someone who has always struggled with communication, painting definitely opened up a new world for me. I’m constantly imagining ideas for future projects, and there’s no better feeling than being able to translate these ideas into physical works of art. I started out drawing from observation--a practice that became comforting and meditative. Somewhere around Middle School, I began painting. My first paintings were mostly acrylic landscapes or abstract pieces, but once I discovered oil paints I never really touched acrylic again. Despite my obsessive art-making, I didn’t seriously consider art as a profession until High School. I’m very thankful my school had a great art program where I learned all the foundation skills that got me into college. I’m currently studying at Tyler School of Art as a painting major but also experimenting with metals. Living close to the Philadelphia Museum of Art meant lots of trips there (so many). I remember being completely blown away the first time I visited. I realized the level of detail and mastery I saw was exactly what I wanted to achieve in the future. Artists such as John Singer Sargent, Andrew Wyeth, and Lucian Freud have especially impacted my work. I’ve always been drawn to darker more surreal imagery. My goal for the future is to slowly leave behind what I feel comfortable with and begin to navigate my own interests and style. 2. You've got quite a touch for representational work, is this something that you've always been interested in and honed over several years or is it a newer discovery? Realism does have a strong presence in my work, however, it’s something I plan on departing from in the future. I feel like it’s important to understand how to paint realistically before you explore other styles because it teaches you control over your materials. If you don’t have the control you might not convey the exact message you're trying to convey. The only issue is once you’ve trained your mind to paint realistically it is very hard to break away from that. I’m just now learning to change my habits--experimenting with color and loose brush strokes. The perfectionist in me needs every inch of my paintings to feel resolved and detailed, yet the art style I’m drawn to is more impressionistic and undefined. 3. Your representational work features a variety of subjects from portraiture to still lives to scenery, is there a subject you prefer or favor? How do you approach representing these things similarly and differently? I have to say of all the subjects, portraiture captures my interest the most. The subtle color shifts in skin and complexities of the human form are infinitely enjoyable to paint. Portraits are also a very challenging subject matter which is great practice. You can capture so much emotion in a portrait that I don’t always feel while painting a still life or landscape. In regard to approaching landscapes, I tend to paint through an impressionistic lens while still retaining a certain degree of detail. Because I’m often plein air painting, I only have time to add detail where it’s necessary for the composition. When I’m painting portraits from a photograph, it’s easy to become obsessed with capturing every little detail of the skin--thus resulting in representational works. I’m slowly working on weaving this loose plein air quality into my portraits. Although my process is different, I treat all subjects similarly in the way I break down color and form--emphasizing these subtle shifts in light and color. 4. You've been loosening up your colors and getting a little bit more whimsical with your drawing and painting work. Is this something you'd like to pursue more heavily or are you just experimenting? I am experimenting with pushing color further in my work. I think this is the start of me trying to separate myself from old habits. For a class assignment, we could only use two colors and couldn’t use the actual colors we saw. It resulted in some really eerie landscapes which were very intriguing and vastly different from my usual style. I think if there’s one thread that connects all my pieces it’s vivid color choices. Even in my more neutral pieces, I try to pull out as much color as I can. This thread will most likely continue as I don’t plan on switching to black and white anytime soon. 5. You've also been venturing into sculpture/accessory making, has this been an exciting venture beyond painting and drawing? Is this something you'd like to pursue further? My grandpa was a jeweler and inventor. When I was younger I was unfamiliar with the process of working with metal, so it always felt distant to me. I have vivid memories of sifting through his tools and trinkets--hidden treasures buried throughout his workshop. Something about his whimsical creations inspired me to explore accessory making. I’ve recently been learning to create jewelry through the Tyler metals program and really enjoying it so far! Something that I always felt was lacking with painting is not being able to interact with or touch the work. Jewelry provides this tangible aspect which I find appealing. If I could find a way to incorporate painting into my jewelry, I would definitely pursue that path further and see what I can make of it. 6. As a Tyler student you're in the midst of this online art school experiment during these crazy times, how has it been for you so far? How has the student-professor and student-student dynamic shifted? Just tell us about the experience. It sure is a crazy time to be an art student. I’m currently taking drawing, ceramics, and metals. So far it seems like ceramics is the one class that I straight up can’t make anything for unless we’re making pinch pots… metals will be challenging, especially since I’m not an organized worker. It’s just a very unfortunate situation because students are paying for all these tools and resources that we need to create art and we’re suddenly cut off from that. Disabled students who need assistants to help them work now find themselves limited in the type of work they can make at home. Glassblowers, potters, and printmakers are especially affected by the switch to online. I just wish I took advantage of those resources while I still could! Despite the whole home studio struggle, I think this will force me to think more creatively as I try to problem solve. I’m in the process of creating a neckpiece with hundreds of found acorn tops and connecting them with silver jump rings. I will also include a mini oil painting in this piece, so maybe this was the push I needed to venture out of my comfort zone. With classes transitioning to Zoom, the student-professor dynamic has shifted considerably. The largest issue is the lack of one-on-one support. My professors have been very helpful and present, however, It’s difficult to stay engaged when you’re just watching a video of a lecture at home. I think it’s the small things like feeling free to ask questions and hearing other student’s opinions which really helps you learn and develop. Although you can ask questions through zoom, it’s difficult to feel comfortable doing so. With a few of my classes, one-on-one conversations have been completely cut off--severing any meaningful dialogue with my professors. The student-student dynamic is gone as well. None of my classes require us to interact so for the most part we just don’t. Art school simply does not translate to an online format like business or English can. 7. Finally, PLUGS! Where can people find your work? Any shows/events coming up? Anything and everything you'd like to share, fire away! I post all my art on my Instagram @rachyvince4 !!

Brian Wooden is one of my favorite artists not only because his work is super rad, but because he utilizes so many different styles so beautifully. When I first started following Wooden’s work, he was doing these large scale black and gray paintings or bodies or busts on unstretched canvas. Soft images emerging from a pile of loose brush strokes, these images popped right off of the surface especially when he’d add streaks of gold that burst right though the image. But diving into his work some more, I found his more illustrative, graffiti style work and his work that blended his representational work and his illustrative work. All three styles were so elegant and could stand alone while still totally fitting in with his portfolio and touch. So many artists get popular doing one style and when they go into something else it comes off cheesey or just fails completely, but time and time again Wooden has shown his talent and ability in all of the styles he employs. Whether it’s a cleanly displayed wall piece, a loose hanging canvas, or a painting directly on the wall, his work always has incredible pop. Wooden’s recent show “Lxxse” was a real deep dive back into his illustrative roots and it looked to be an incredible experience. I was thrilled to talk to Wooden about his work, the show's recent success, his various stylings, and what’s to come. He gave a great interview that reveals a lot about what goes into each series or style of work for him. Enjoy! 1. I always open with the way back background. So what got you started in art? Any schooling? Big inspirations? What helped shape you into the artist that you are today? I started drawing before I can really remember. It was just one of those things where maybe someone compliments you in the right way at the right time and next thing you know, you’re “the art kid”. I was a nerdy little guy and kept watching cartoons after a lot of my friends grew out of it, so things like Ren & Stimpy, Rocko’s Modern Life, and Spongebob were big influences. I wanted to be an animator for a long time. At the same time I was taking art classes and learning how to render images from a more classical perspective. 2. Your imagery seems to be heavily focused around the human form, the objects humans closely interact with, and even past artistic representations of the human form (i.e. Greek/Roman sculptures). So I'm curious to know what got you started down the path of your figurative work and how you decide what imagery you use. Do you stumble upon inspiration and dive right into your process or is your imagery heavily curated? I was always really into classical sculpture. There's a stoic quality that’s so opposite of the over exaggeration in animation. I love the ambiguity in a lot of the forms as well; often they were depicting images of what they considered beauty projected onto human forms rather than a specific person. There is a safety in that for me. As I get to know myself more, I’m getting better at staying away from stoicism and ambiguity. 3. You implore a lot of painting styles, mediums, and techniques in your work; how do you manage/control the shifts in medium or style in your work? Do you start work loosely and refine from there or do you bounce around from space to space? I try not to approach pieces from the same technique too often. I find myself rushing through it when it’s too familiar. I’m trying to be better about slowing down and soaking in the process more. I can be very impatient. 4. Going further off of that, you seem to work in series so how do you navigate from series to series, style to style? What's the process like in creating a new series? And once you've gotten started on something do you dive right into the fullest and then move on to the next? Or do you bounce around several projects at once? A series will come about just from stumbling onto something that I really like stylistically. Some sort of visual consistency that becomes the vehicles for expression. Then you start to think about everything in terms of that style, and the more stoked on the style, the more stoked you are on everything. If a style isn’t genuine or doesn’t flow, it makes the world seem more difficult to navigate. The more truth to your style the more it flows. I’m really trying to focus (or not focus) on flow. 5. As well as several mediums and styles, you also work atop several different surfaces, so how does a difference or change in surface alter your approach to creating a work? Do you find that certain elements of your work lie best on certain surfaces or is it all versatile? Siting one surface specifically, what got you started in painting the large, unstretched canvases? And what is the process like working with those? I started painting on big drop cloths because I wanted to work large and could afford huge canvases and didn’t want to have to go out late at night all the time to paint walls. Some surfaces are much more pleasant to paint on than others. Obviously smooth and flat is nice,but shitty surfaces can look really cool sometimes. 6. Is there a difference in approach when working on a mural or something that's going to have a heavy interaction with the public? Does this alter your process at all? The problem with public art is that someone usually owns the space you’re painting, so they typically want specific things. Some of those people are great and let you do your thing, but there are always the ones who really want their input heavily involved. It’s like the people who go into a tattoo shop like “I want a tiger morphing into a clock wearing my moms wedding dress and I just want it to have meaning...” and they end up with a shitty tattoo. The best art comes from trusting the artist, so when someone has a lot of money invested or a big wall attached to their business, it’s harder to trust someone else with it which is understandable. 7. You seem to have a very interesting relationship with color, lack of color, and how those two interact with one another? So how do you decide what colors will splash into a black and white piece? What do the colors mean to your more illustrative pieces? Is there a narrative meaning to your color use or is it primarily aesthetic? Or does that vary? My battle with color is a long one. I often eliminate it for long periods of time so I can ease it back in to try and understand it better. Focusing on the individual colors and what vibe you get from them. I tend to over analyze those things so I’m trying to think less about it and feel it more. One at a time. 8. You've also got an illustrative/graffiti inspired side to your work that stands on its own and that you marvelously weave into your representational work. How do you manage this push and pull between illustrative and representational? Do you find that your more illustrative work lends better to certain surfaces? Illustrative stuff is really where my heart is. It’s fun to make something look very real sometimes but being able to use lines and color to create your own reality from scratch is very freeing and fun. It flows for me more. 9. Going off of this, your recent interactive exhibition "Lxxse" seemed to very much be a break from your own work. How did this project come about? Was it refreshing to take a break from certain avenues of your work to explore others? Now that you've Lxxsened up, what's next? “LXXSE” was the opposite of a break. I spent more energy on that most things I've ever done. It was a big step forward for me in terms of creating things I wanted to create and not get lost in what sells or what other people want to see. The whole idea of “looseness” comes from relaxing into myself and relinquishing the stress and tension that comes along with trying to cram yourself into an expectation. Being able to build a full skate ramp in a gallery was a dream come true also. I hope to have more shows like this in the future and build on the feeling that fueled it. 10 Finally, PLUGS! Where can people find your work? Any shows/events coming up? Anything and everything you'd like to share, fire away! I mostly use Instagram to update consistently. That’s @brianwooden. There is also brianwooden.com but I suck at updating that. Nobody uses real websites anymore right

Whether it’s clean and simple or scratchy and detailed, Nate Hissong creates scores of compelling illustrations. His scenes are minimal in subject matter, but they always get a message across. Sometimes it’s just his simple little characters, giving you a fun quip to ponder over and other times it’s striking figures that address the plight of current social situations. The element that reigns through Hissong’s work, no matter the style he’s using, is that it provokes thought. It may be fun, it may be serious, it may be somewhere in between, but even in his simplest illustrations he’s giving you something to think about. To me, that’s what makes a good illustrator. A good image is the easy part in the grand scheme of things but if an artist can leave the viewer thinking and wanting more then that’s what pushes them to the next level and that’s what we see in Hissong’s work. There’s a lot to digest in Hissong’s body of work and he’s a very young artist, so there’s certainly a lot more to come. I was thankful to get to chat with him about his work and also the current state of things. As a student at the University of Delaware, he’s in the midst of experiencing the confusing switch to online art school. So as well as his awesome work, we also talked a little bit about what’s going on with that and across the board he gave some really interesting perspective. Enjoy! 1. I always open with background, so what got you into art? What pushed you to want to pursue it at university? Big inspirations? What initially got me into art was the copious amounts of animation and video game characters I grew up with. Not unlike many artists, instead of paying attention in class, I just drew the whole dang time. It's always been one of those things that I just can't help but do. I even tried being a business major here at UDel at first, but then in the spring of my sophomore year I just couldn't take it anymore I HAD to make art. Luckily it seems like it's been working out considering I'm here answering these questions! My end goal is to be a professor honestly, I just want to focus on helping others find their own voices with art, and to also have a small group of people forced to listen to my terrible jokes so I can get a lot of pity laughs. 2. You've got a very distinct illustration style, so how did you begin to build that and develop it from there? You repeat specific characters or styles of character in a lot of your work, is there a specific narrative or lineage to those characters? My illustration style, oh boy... that is something I've been trying to understand myself for a while. The only artistic training I've had outside of the collegiate setting is from my mom since she was a public school art teacher, so she taught me my way around a pencil and paper. I think the moment I really started finding and developing my own style was after making an art Tumblr account back in early high school where I posted fan art for anime and video games (good luck finding that). There were so many helpful artists on there that gave so many useful and easy to understand tips to a young teen artist like me. My illustration style is a product from learning on the world wide web I think. Ultimately there is an overarching narrative with my characters, but it's something I still have to take some time to figure out naturally. I guess all these characters are just little parts of my personality! 3. Speaking of narrative, you tell a lot in your illustrations. Whether it's sharing emotion, telling fun stories, or even tackling current political/social issues. So how important is narrative to your work? Does the subject matter you're tackling alter how you approach the illustration or the style you use? Art is communication between humans, it's something so powerful and universal, and through narrative I'm able to express even more with my work. It could be a punchline to a dumb joke, it could be an existential thought I had in a breakdown, or it could be just how I'm feeling looking out the window with my morning coffee during a pandemic! All of these moments bear a story in themselves, a part of the greater human experience. I'm starting to get corny so to answer your question - yes! Narrative gives an extra layer of my personality in my work, when needed of course. The decision of what subject matter I pick for a piece is immediately followed by the question of style for the piece. As an example, I recently made a 3D model comic instead of just drawing it due to the nature of quarantine where this small, clean space that we all have to stay in becomes like a reverse Schrödinger's cat. Is there still anything more outside our perfect little boxes that we're growing to hate? 3D modeling made it feel more in touch with what I wanted to make. 4. How important is diversity in illustration style for you? You've got two sides, one simple and clean, one more detailed but a touch looser. Do these two styles represent two sides of you as an artist? Or are they two different types of storytelling elements that you employ? Or something totally different? Diversity is important in my illustration, but I think both of my two main styles represent me as an artist. While my styles of work tend to be separated by visual characteristics of the rougher ones being darker or more serious and the simple and clean ones to be fun or cute, I think they both are avenues of creation that I've grown so used to that I swap between them whenever I want. Somedays it honestly might just be I'm not feeling one style! I'm usually wearing black on the days where I'm drawing rougher, so I guess you could say I've been wearing a lot of black lately. 5. You're currently an art student, so how has this online art school experiment been going for you? How has the dynamic between you and your professors/other students shifted now that you're all remote? I'd love to hear about the experience so far. Oh boy. I'm in four studio classes right now which have had either an easy transition into an online format like illustration and 3D modeling, but sculpture and printmaking are going to be interesting for sure, especially in my apartment over a webcam. Finding a balance with working on four different artistic mediums in a small living space will be the challenge that I, many other students and artists are going through right now. Professors have been nothing short of amazing during all this though, they've been reaching out and trying to keep us posted as best they can as they work this all out. Either way, this pandemic is tough on all of us. Our everyday world has become one of limbo, I'm sure you've felt it. Where we are now is not the same as before and it will be different after it's over. Nobody really knows what's happening overall and that's just what we're stuck in now! 6. Finally, PLUGS! Where can people find your work? Any shows/events coming up? Anything and everything you'd like to share, fire away! People can follow me right now on Instagram @nateomancy ! I check my messages there frequently so it's a good spot to check out my work and get in contact with me!

Explosively colorful and with striking dimension the abstract work of Ellen De Vylder is extremely compelling. Her approach to color application creates a surface with a collection of colors, textures, and sheens that pull your eye in and out of the space. Colors and textures merge throughout, building forms that interact with one another in the grand scheme of the space and it’s really beautiful. Color scheme obviously plays a huge role, as each work evokes certain emotions in the viewer. But more than just the colors, the way they’re applied and the way they interact creates such an experiential piece that goes so far beyond just the image. De Vylder throws herself at the mercy of the process but her ability to apply color deliberately and then go in to refine certain elements reflects a level of control that is uncommon in such abstract and chaotic forms. Her work draws you right in with its pop but the subtle narrative or emotion that’s created by the fields of color will create an experience that’s truly reflective of how amazing these works are. I’ve always found that for abstract painting to be interesting the artist must let the process reveal itself and be a little crazy, but while still retaining a level of control or the ability to go in and amplify certain things. This is exactly what you get in De Vylder’s work and I was thrilled that she let me give her some questions to hear more about what she’s doing. She gave a really great interview that reveals a lot about how her paintings are made and what she’s reflecting in her work. Enjoy. 1. I always begin with background, so what got you into art? Any schooling? Big inspirations? What helped shape you into the artist that you are today? As I am an only child with 2 working parents I spent quite some time alone at home. So, to keep busy I was always crafting and drawing. I spent a lot of time in craft shops and art supply stores growing up. I bought a lot of supplies and art books too. I always wanted to go to a school for art but my parents thought it was better that I became a teacher, so I did. Before I got married I took air brush classes for 2 years. And 2 years ago I just took out all of the paint and brushes I had stashed away for so long and gave it a go. My biggest inspirations are great artists like Pollock and Joan Mitchell. I think my family and the support of my friends helped me shape myself into the artist I am today. 2. What got you into experimental or abstract art? Did you just start throwing paint at canvas one day or were you more strategic? Yes, the anxiety of not being good enough at painting and wasting some expensive paint is the thing that held me back the most. But one day I just took a leap of faith as one might say. I am never strategic, I let the paint do it's thing. 3. How do you decide what colors are going to go into each work? Do certain colors and their relationships lend better to your work and style? I don't have a specific colour scheme, as a lot of artists have, I just like how some colours look good together. I get my inspiration from magazines, nature and sometimes even fashion and take a lot of pictures of colour combos I see around me. 4. How does a work begin? Do you just dive right in and throw some color at the canvas or do you plan out how you're going to attack the work? Does it vary? The colours I choose are often a reflection of the mood I am that day. Or when everything around me feels "black" I tend to use some happy colours to brighten my spirit. So my way of approaching my canvas has a similar touch to my mood of that day. 5. Do you lay in one color at a time or are you constantly revisiting colors, adding little bits at a time? Do you work wet on wet? Or do you lay in a color, let it dry and then revisit step by step? How do you refine a work or know when it's finished I begin with one colour as a background and day by day I add some layers of colours. Sometimes I do let colours blend into each other. When I am at a point where I don't have a clue what I should be adding to it, I just hang the painting in my hallway for a couple of days and do nothing with it. After a few days I usually know if it is finished or not. 6. Further into refinement, gold seems to be a very important refining detail in your work. How do you decide when to go in with the gold? What does gold mean to your work? Is there a narrative meaning to the gold in your work? I use a lot of gold or silver indeed. I just like how it looks in combination with other colours. And I love how it makes the painting look different when the light of the day hits the shimmer on different times. 7. How do you manage and control the texture of your work? Is texture a byproduct of your process or do you deliberately build it up? I deliberately build up layers. It creates a depth in my work and I use it in almost all of my paintings. 8. Your process has to be somewhat chaotic, so how do you manage the chaos of your process? Do you take control of every element that you can or do you just throw yourself at the mercy of how the colors fall onto the surface? As a person I am quite chaotic myself, that reflects the state of my studio when I am at work. After some practice I kinda figured out what happens when I throw a colour. I do get surprised a lot too when the paint has dried. 9. Is there a difference in approach in rectangular vs. circular work? Are there any other shapes that you'd try and tackle? Any other new avenues or experiments that you're planning for your work? No, I usually pick the shape that I am into for that day. I love working with square and circular shapes tho. Sometimes I just have to go with the shape my clients wants me to. That is often a challenge but I love it. My mind is constantly thinking about new things. It is the first thing I think about when I am awake and the last thing when I fall asleep, so now all I have to have is more time. 10. Finally, PLUGS! Where can people find your work? Any shows/events coming up? Anything and everything you'd like to share, fire away! My main gallery is Instagram and my website for the world to see. I like the fact that you can reach out to more people around the globe.. I do have a show coming up next year in my hometown and I am glad to welcome people in my home gallery to have a look. But I just go with the flow and see where all this is taking me

Red is a color that bears its own brilliance and oil paint captures the depth of that brilliance perhaps better than any other medium. The power of the color red was the first thing that jumped out at me when looking at Kristen Margiotta’s body of work, but there was much more beyond that. A fabulous painter who balances the realistic and painterly qualities of her work with elegance. Margiotta’s work is dim and dictated heavily by the color red, it sets the tone for every painting and the vibrance it brings gives light to every element. Her subject matter ranges from simple portraits, to flowing red curtains, to hearts amidst flames, all of which are flush with her signature color and touch. Margiotta’s work is exciting because it blends hints of the old masters with contemporary flare. She’s got a stroke and overall touch that really plays to the strenghts of oil paint as a medium and there’s so much she can do with it. I was thrilled to get to hear more about her work and her answers did not disappoint. She went into amazing depth and gave a lot of information that makes her work even more awesome. Enjoy! 1. I always open with background, so what got you started in art? Any schooling? Big inspirations? What shaped you into the artist that you are today? I've been making art since I was a kid, early memories of coloring and really enjoying the act of creating art from preschool/kindergarten. I remember taking oil painting classes in the summertime up in the Poconos. One day classes, but they were fun. I was always the only kid (prob age 7/8 when I started) in a class of adults doing Bob Ross style oil paintings. And my parents were supportive enough to let me oil paint at home at a young age, as well as doing any kind of art at home. Teachers would always ask me in grade school/middle school to make displays or anything creative that was needed for classes. I continued in high school where I started to get some formal training. During my middle school and high school years I sort of abandoned painting and fell into drawing. Pencil , pen and ink, specifically the technique of stippling-making drawings out of tiny little dots!-what kid decides to do that for fun?! I did! I was really into comics too, drawing X-Men, and stealing my brothers metal album covers to draw from. Stuff like that. After high school, I decided to continue on to college and focus on illustration. I wasn't into painting yet, so I fell into illustration because I drew, I could be an illustrator and not have to worry about painting. Now, I'm an oil painter for a living. Who also illustrated books, all in oil paint too. Go figure. Sometimes I think back on what I've done, and even now and I ask myself, "who decides to do this for fun?!". It's kind of a crazy lifestyle when you think about it, but I love it. In terms of inspirations, definitely lots. Big fan of the old masters, Caravaggio is one of my favorites, and love the Baroque era. I still remember the first time I opened up my social studies textbook in 5th grade to the chapter on the Renaissance. It was the photo of Michelangelo's paintings in the Sistine Chapel, pre restoration. It was so dark and had such a presence, even just seeing it in a text book. My mind was blown. Loved Stephen Gammell's illustrations in Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which made a lasting impact on me. Marshall Arisman is a big favorite of mine. His presentation when I was in college at University of Delaware, around 2002, changed my life. What a force that man is. Sargent is another favorite, master of simplification, color, and beautiful shapes in his paintings. Carlo Dolci, well known painter during the Baroque era, painter to the Medici family. You won't learn about him in school, but I'll tell you, his paintings are celestial. Nothing like seeing his work in person. I'm always telling my students about him. Old horror movies, childhood cartoons, anything old world and spooky I was into. I was raised Catholic, so every week being exposed to the visuals and stories in church and school, all of that imagery, the blood, suffering, I'm sure played a role. All that stuff impacts you whether you plan for it or not. 2. What drew you towards oil paints? How did this manipulate and develop your painting style? So I started taking formal oil painting classes at University of Delaware, I believe sophomore year. Foundation painting, so mostly still life. Man I wish I could go back and be a student again, just spending all that time trying to understand paint, working from life, how to color mix etc. . .It was a bit overwhelming and to be honest I hated painting when I got back into it. I always tell my students if you hate something, come back to it later. Might not be the right time. But I think I just needed more time with painting. Continued with painting in my illustration classes, figure painting, etc. . . all through the rest of my college years. I was still a realistic painter at this time but also worked slightly with distorting the human figure, elongation, fantasy elements, that kinda of thing. Really dark palette, warm hues, similar to my palette now. I was really into the tradition of it all, from stretching and priming my own canvases, doing the drawings for the paintings, underpainting, and then eventually working on the final oil painting. There's nothing like oil paints. They're buttery, and rich, and way they reflect light can't be compared to other paint mediums. Plus, there's the traditional aspect of it, the greatest artists that lived, the old masters, painters from Renaissance, Baroque, used oils. So there's that connection to that part of history using oils too. I believe it was Junior year of college where we had to complete this project that was based on ourselves. I don't remember the title of the project exactly, but that's when I shifted from realism, into my big eyed works, and my little red hair girl Cherry was developed. I continued exploring my big eyed characters and more childlike illustrations, while still painting realistically. I was looking at a lot of Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Brom, Frazetta, the old masters, lots of Caravaggio during these years too. After college, I just continued with my more childlike big eyed fine art / illustration style and abandoned realism. Almost 10 years after college graduation I fell into painting realistically again, painting portraits, and working with symbolism. I saw Michael Hussar's work, especially his alla prima portraits, and my mind was blown open again. I said to myself, "I'm going to go paint with him", and have for years, starting around 2014. He was the force that inspired me to return back to portrait painting and realism. I can't believe I had stopped for so many years once I got back into it again. As far as style, I'm currently in the stages of evolving as an artist. Art imitates life, I'm a firm believer in that. Could I keep pumping out works in my big eyed series-I totally could. Will I return to that series, most likely someday. But I'm not there right now. Not where my heart is at. Circumstances in my personal life have forced a massive shift in me personally, which is purging itself through my painting. I'm really looking forward to seeing what work develops at the beginning of this new decade, and I have ideas, just need to get to work! 3. Based off of your feed, it looks like a lot of your work is painted from life so how does this dictate your process? What is your model/painter process like? Is it very collaborative? Or more rigid? So this is where things get interesting. I do a lot of portrait studies from life, either in my home studio where a model comes over, or at events like Oddball Art Hall, which is a cool art event I help to host with my friend Pat Higgins at Oddity Bar in Wilmington, DE. The event combines art shows, usually 15 artists / month, with live figure drawing/painting, and a DJ who spins vinyl only. It's a fun event that's helped to forge many of the relationships amongst the local artists in the area, and I tend to do live painting from a model there too. When I invite models to my house, sometimes I ask them if I have an idea in mind, but usually I just ask them to do whatever. The importance of working from life is to keep your eyes in training. You lose a lot working from photos, your eyes can see so much more, the subtle shifts in color and value. Even shapes in general, so working from life is kind of like a guitarist practicing scales constantly. It's the preparation and practice for a finished painting. Even though I abandoned painting realistically in my personal work for many years, I would still keep up with life drawing / painting with my students, stressing its importance to understanding what you see. How light falls/ reflects on objects, the importance of training your eyes to see from life etc. . . I think back on why I stopped, simply because I made a choice, but I feel like I abandoned part of myself. But now, I'm sort of back with a vengeance so I believed it served a purpose. No regrets. 4. You've also got a series of more whimsical and illustrative paintings, how does this process differ from your life paintings? Do you find you get to be a little looser and more organic with your process when working more illustratively? So this body of work is actually what my career for the last 15 years was built on, the illustrative whimsical paintings, similar style that I used for book illustrations and also for fine art paintings sold in galleries. It's interesting talking to people, because many people know me from that body of work, and saw the evolution into my more recent work, which really feels like I'm picking up where I left off painting in my college years. There's many people who found me through my recent work and thought that's what I've always done. I think I'm just doing a damn good job of confusing everyone! But the big eyed / whimsical work is a very different process. I start with rough thumbnails to organize ideas and composition. Then I would get references, and sketch from them or photograph them and work them into a final drawing. Then I would do the final painting / illustration from this drawing and references. The recent self portrait of me as "Medusa" that was displayed at Modern Eden Gallery, San Francisco, used this process. I worked from a photo reference of myself and snake references, which I compiled into a final drawing that I worked from. I actually painted my skin from life, looking in a mirror. The alla prima portrait studies I do from life are much looser and emanate a very different energy because they are quick. They're like a test. How much information can I get done, while learning, and have it look like something when it's all over. And they're exhausting by the way. Constantly studying the model, color mixing, and maintaining the whole process of it all. Exhausting but so worth it. Try doing all of that under the red lights of Oddity Bar during Oddball Art Hall, with all of the noise and distractions-whoa! Talk about a test! 5. I've got to ask about the color red, it's across a massive portion of your body of work. So what does the color red mean to you and your work? What do you think it adds to the visual and narrative qualities of your work? I love this, that people see that. Ya know, being an artist is the weirdest thing. We pour our heart out into what we do for the world to see which is a vulnerable thing to begin with. Especially with what I do because I'm not making art to be cool, or making cool art, if that makes sense. There's some deep emotional stuff that comes out in what I'm doing. At the same time being vulnerable to the world through the act of creation, at least for me, trying to analyze why I do this. Where does it come from, the subjects, the colors, etc. . . I've always loved red. It's POWERFUL, so raw and real. You feel it. Each color emits a feeling, but Red is different. It can have negative and positive associations, love, and death for example. I'm a redhead too, and a fire sign, Sagittarius, so it makes sense to me, that that color is an extension of who I am, that naturally it would come out through my painting. I also love how rich red oil paint looks by the way. It's so juicy! I get artists, and also my students who come to me or message me about what reds am I using. I'm not using any special magical red, and I do think there is a challenge to manipulating that hue. Whether it's my fine art whimsical paintings, or my current realistic work, red has remained a constant. 6. Finally, PLUGS! Where can people find your work? Any shows/events coming up? Anything you'd like to share and anywhere people can find your work, fire away! I've been more recently active on Instagram : @kristen_margiotta. You can also fine me on facebook @KristenmargiottaArtandIllustration and my website is www.kristenmargiotta.com May 8th, this year, I'm doing a 3 person show with Rachael Bridge and Maria Teicher, badass artists at The Convent, in Philly. Stoked to get some new work prepared for that. And you can find me at the Oddball Art Hall every 3rd Friday at Oddity Bar, Wilmington, DE.

Cabin fever is certainly lingering as we’ve all been stuck in our houses for about a week… although it feels like 10 years. It’s a strange time and we’re going through events that not many can say they’ve experienced before. So, I guess the question that’s begging to be answered as we’re all stuck in our homes is, “what is there to do?” While this certainly isn’t the best of times, I think this quarantine will be a marvelous opportunity for people to express themselves creatively. Artists are extremely fortunate in that we’ve got a built in outlet for when we’re stuck inside with nothing to do. As an artist who does a lot of self reflection in my own work, I’ve done some pretty interesting stuff with the thoughts that have come up in quarantine. So, artists I think this is a time where we’ve really got to get to making and if you don’t have or can’t get to your usual facilities, maybe it’s time that you try something new. If you’re a sculptor who can’t get to the shop, get to drawing or painting. If you’re an oil painter who suddenly has to paint at home and you don’t want to gas yourself out then maybe try acrylics, or ink, or anything. If we take the non-creative approach to being stuck inside we’re going to burn holes through the back of our heads by going from computer to TV to phone all day every day, so explore your creative outlets however you can, wherever you can. If you’re a non-artist reading this then maybe this is the time that you try something you’ve always wanted to try. There’s a plague in modern thinking that people shouldn’t do things because they’re afraid people will think they’re bad, or corny, or any type of negative response and that shouldn’t matter. Take the time to try something that you want to try, even if it’s just for you. We’ve got a whole bunch of unexpected free time here so toss previous thoughts aside and just make something, anything. Again, if we try to just occupy ourselves with TV, or social media, we’re going to drive ourselves mad with monotony. I’m not quite sure how this blog is going to read or come off but I guess my main goal here is to give some words of encouragement. Make the best of a bad situation here, people, and don’t let your creative process suffer because you’re stuck inside. In fact, do the opposite, take the time that you have to explore it and make it flourish. This is going to be one hell of a social experiment when we get through this but I think that if artists, and even non-artists, take this time they’ve been given and focus their energy on their craft, some really beautiful things will rise out of this dark time.

I’ve always been a huge fan of figure drawing and I find that the talent is often underrepresented. But artists like Jimmie Arroyo show just how beautiful, clean, and detailed figure drawings can be. Softly toned with incredible detail and texture, Arroyo elegantly captures the human form in his work. He balances the techniques he uses really beautifully; shadow is built from hatching and is then accented by erasing and white pencil refinement. The combination of these techniques mimics the softness and feel of skin in a way that’s not often seen in black and gray work. Arroyo also allows his lines to go loose when they need to and he’ll often taper off the detail in or around the form to highlight certain aspects. He turns a simple representation into an interesting composition by doing things like loosening up lines to highlight certain areas or adding subtle elements to suggest some sort of narrative and that’s what really takes his work to the next level. Arroyo is a student of the human form and his ability to capture it and focus us on the forms he was interested in is really stunning. Building up all of the aspects of the human body with just line is no easy task but this body of work shows exemplary skill in just that. I was extremely excited to chat with Arroyo and hear all about what goes into his process and building up his drawings. It’s a fascinating interview with some great insight on his work and figure drawing in general. Enjoy! 1. I always open with background, so what got you into art? Any schooling? Big inspirations? What helped shape you into the artist that you are? I started drawing at a very young age, possibly 4. Drawing the same things every kid draws like dinosaurs and superheroes. But I really got into it, loved creating. I don't have an academic training background, I went to art school, but it was all about art business and not much technique. I'd say my main goal is to simply enjoy what I'm doing. I tend to struggle during the process, so when it flows, it's a great feeling. Consistently working over the last 2 years has helped me feel better as an artist. Taking long breaks has negatively affected my work and attitude towards creating. 2. As a more specific background question, what drew you towards figure drawing? How did it develop into your primary means of making art? I've always loved drawing figures and portraits. Not sure if I saw it as a challenge, or the satisfaction of capturing a likeness, but I can remember doing portraits when I was very young and it kept with me. I tried still lifes and landscapes, but couldn't find the same motivation. 3. Is all of your work done with a model in person? What is your model experience like? Is it collaborative or do you have a pretty solid idea of what you're after? Or does it vary? Although I do love working from life, it's more practice for me. I make way too many mistakes to do a full piece from life. The majority of my models are people I know, so we take pictures for references. I may have some ideas for poses, but the models have freedom to play with the idea. Models do not get enough credit when it comes to figurative work. Also very grateful for the models who send me pics for references. All the models put their trust in me which I can't thank them enough for. 4. What is the drawing process like? Are you working through multiple poses until you find the perfect one to finish or do you dive right into the more detailed aspects right away? When I suggest a pose, I'll take pics and have the model make changes as they feel. I'll move around them, suggest changes in positions, and hope to get some great references. Then I'll look them over on the computer and find the best one or combine more than one for the best result. 5. You show a tremendous amount of detail and shadow, all done through hatching. So, how do you manage the layering of lines without things getting too muddy? Do you begin by shading out the base shapes of the figure? Or do you start with the more minute details and then get more broad? Yeah, I go from bigger shapes and then move on to details. A lot of the hatching work is done with erasing, I'll do an amount of shading and drawing, then I'll pull out the lights with erasing. I go back and forth with this until the desired effect. It's my favorite technique for stretch marks and cellulite. 6. Further, you mix in some white to assist the details in a good chunk of your work. So what do you find this adds/gives to your drawings? Is this a final touch or do you add it in as you see fit throughout the whole process? I'll use white when working on toned paper, very rarely on watercolor paper. When working on highlights, the white helps it pop. On watercolor paper, I'll only use it if I can't erase out the highlight. I use it during the process as it helps me see darks and lights as I work. 7. You also add in some other colors or imagery into your work on some occasions. How do you decide when to add a splash of color? Is it spontaneous or do you go in knowing you're going to use it? More image based, what is the significance of the butterflies? There are some drawings where the color is added first as a base, and other times I'll add. The majority of the time it's a spontaneous decision. I use moths more than I do butterflies, mainly because they aren't generally viewed to be as pretty as butterflies, which I don't agree with. I'm also not always looking to offend the viewer so moths and butterflies add an element of fantasy to an erotic subject. 8. Fabric is one of the primary atmospheric elements of your drawings. What significance does fabric play in your drawing process? What do you think it adds to your work? Fabrics add texture to the drawings, although I do like a figure by itself, fabric will add darks and lights, different shapes which can flow with or against the figure. 9. Finally, when we first spoke you mentioned that you struggle to work and it never comes easy. So I'm interested in what this means, what does it take for you to start and more importantly finish a drawing? How do you find that motivation? I do tend to struggle while I work, and I find it funny when people say "he makes it look so easy". I make so many mistakes, with measuring, scale, value, that erasers have become an essential tool when I work. I've been asked to do live demos or videos, but itll b more about erasing and cursing at myself. I talk to myself, trying to tell myself what to do, and I think it helps. Starting is easy since I have reference photos that I'm excited about, and I do get excited about finishing when I see it come together. I draw every single day, I can be sick, tired, holiday, I make time. 10. And lastly PLUGS! Where can people find your work? Any shows/events coming up? Anything and everything you'd like to share, fire away! I only have my work on Instagram (@jarroyoart) for now, need to get a website going and hopefully get some prints available.

I first came across Danielle Schlunegger’s work at a collaborative exhibition with Rebecca Reeves. The exhibition was at the Convent in Philly (fabulous space) and it featured these really interesting, highly detailed shadow boxes and resin casts. The theme of water seemed to be present throughout and the way that Schlunegger created such immersive and interesting pieces at such a small scale really blew me away. I was particularly drawn to her shadow boxes that presented small rooms, flooded by luminescent blue resin, and with ships or aquatic life taking over the space. I remember as I studied and ogled over one of these awesome pieces Jeremey Hush, curator of the Convent and rad illustrator himself, was kind enough to open one up so I could take a really deep look inside. Extremely well crafted miniature home and aquatic elements, water that really seemed to flow through the space, and internal lighting that added life to it all, it was just so cool. It’s well documented that I’m fascinated by people working at a small scale but Schlunegger’s work takes it to another level with all the detail she includes in such whimsical work. Every piece tells a story, some are straightforward, some feel like a novel, but no matter what they’re thought provoking and that’s what keeps you looking at this work. I was really taken by Schlunegger’s work and I’m glad that I snagged a card from that show long before I began working with Plebeian so that I could do this feature today. She gave some extremely in depth answers that make for a great read paired with her incredible work. Take a look and see why I was so fascinated by this work because I’m sure you will be too. Enjoy! 1. To start off, I always like to ask about an artist's background. What got you started in art? Any Schooling? What drove you to sculpture? Anything that you believe has shaped you into the artist you are! While I was always drawing and telling stories as a kid, my childhood was also filled with cake decorating (my grandmother made wedding cakes!), crafts, music, books, and building projects that exercised all of my 3D sensibilities. I was an only child and my parents and grandparents always had projects to keep me busy, so I was always making something. There are a few specific points in my life that felt really special and influential to me becoming an artist. My parents worked in construction when I was growing up, and would often go with them to job sites. I used to make stories out of the scraps and debris. I mined for solder drippings and discarded “coins” from electrical boxes while walking through the framework of future walls and rooms. These places were surreal playgrounds to me. Thinking back on it, I realized what a powerful experience it was to see my parents build things from start to finish and be a guest in these often-unknown spaces. The next big moment for me was in high school art class. While I was learning about shading and light theory something in my mind clicked. I went home from school one day and set up a still-life and I drew until almost dawn. I felt like I intuitively understood how to draw the way light hit the objects because I was thinking about the drawing in a three-dimensional way. It just flowed out of me! I struggled in so many other subjects in school but drawing and making things with my hands felt like pure bliss to me, and “artist” quickly became part of my identity. I was fortunate enough to have the support of my family and was able to (through many grants, scholarships, and loans which I’m still paying off) attend art school for my BFA. My first year of college at CCA I took as many different kinds of classes as I could, but I realized that sculpture would let me combine all of my interests. For me, sculpture could be anything: it was objects, stories, and above all else it could be an experience. Through exposure to installation artists like Mark Dion, Kiki Smith, and Luis Bourgeois, I realized that I wanted to make work that was immersive, and took someone viewing the work into another realm or state of mind. 2. What initially inspired the nautical theme in your work and how does that change from piece to piece? Further, how do you apply that theme to each work? Is there a difference in imagery decision when working from one piece to another? I have always loved anything from the ocean, especially sunken ships and the deep sea! I grew up near the beach and at one point in my life wanted to be a marine biologist/scientific illustrator. I didn’t start making art around ocean and water themes until I read Two Years before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr. I became a bit obsessed with ocean voyages and naturalist expeditions in the 19th century, and it really inspired my work on a then-ongoing body of work entitled The Marcus Kelli Collection (2012), an interactive traveling museum I created for a fictional 19th century naturalist. As I was doing research for future installations around this work I began experimenting making coastal diorama scenes as a way to narrate the story behind the larger installation. As time went on, I also read John Moallem’s Wild Ones, The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf, and The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Colbert. These books piqued my interest in examining what it looks like when conquest and conservation overlap, and I started to think about how ships and sailing vessels have transformed the world, not always in positive ways. My own initial feelings and experiences made me feel that ships were marvels of engineering, representative of fantastical voyages and the intrepid spirit of humankind. The more I dug in, however, the more I realized that view was short-sighted, and the reality is that ships can be also be heavy symbols of slavery, colonization, and the capacity for human evil. These are big, difficult things to talk about, so I feel most apt to speak about it through the lens of my own experience around climate anxiety by linking the symbol of the ship and the age of discovery to a pivotal point in history that triggered the climate collapse we currently face. When I get an idea or a concept in my head, I usually either need to make a very big installation that takes a few years to tease out all the details and logistics, or I make lots of small pieces around the same concept as a way of exploring how the imagery permeates through a body of work. This was certainly the case in my work for Slipping Below, where the imagery is driven by the controversial symbol of the ship and rising water that represents feelings of anxiety and hopelessness around climate collapse. After reading The Sixth Extinction, I became obsessed with bleached corals as they reminded me of the romanticizing of fallen civilizations and pale broken roman statues. I wanted to combine that concept with the double edge symbol of a merchant ship, so I sculpted the coral into the ship’s masts for Extinction Event/Monuments. Sometimes I like to bring very disparate objects or ideas together like in my piece Domestic Conquest. I knew I wanted to talk about how past conquests still inform and affect peoples’ lives by using a combination of battling ships disrupting a private space in someone’s home, like a bathtub. 3. Shifting more towards process, how does a piece begin for you? with your style are pieces carefully drawn out and executed? Or do you allow yourself to freely create and develop? Maybe a combination of the two? When I get an idea for a piece, it’s often an image that pops up in my head that I try to sketch as soon as possible, or at least leave a note describing it for myself until I can. My sketches are usually pretty loose and not always very detailed. I like to allow myself the opportunity to use the sketch as a jumping off point and allow the piece to change, but every so often it’s very close to my original idea. For a more complicated project like some my man of war and jellyfish dioramas, I will do small tests to figure out how to get the color or technique right. Other times I start with materials; sorting or rifling through things I’ve collected to see what clicks and works together, and ideas are spurred from there. 4. How do the more straightforward scenes you create differ from the shadow box-type frames, and resin ships in terms of narrative and process? How are they similar? Do you consider these three avenues of your work as separate paths or facets of one overarching style/theme? The core of all of my work is about having an immersive experience and being transported in some way, but I like having different avenues of working. Once my job at the museum took off, I started focusing more on miniatures and dioramas in my own work. Miniatures are incredibly captivating because they allow the world to be encapsulated and examined from all angles. My small bell jars are usually fun and whimsical studies of larger pieces. Oftentimes I just enjoy creating multiples of little scenes and figuring out how to replicate them easily with mold making. This kind of work is easy and fun for me, and sometimes it’s nice to just make something for making’s sake. I want to have work that is affordable to other artists and folks who can’t spend too much money on art all the time. I like to think of them as little desktop escapes, a place to get lost in all the little details and go somewhere else for a few minutes. These are my bread and butter: simple experimental pieces that are easily reproduced and based on the idea of museum souvenirs. They are a nice way for people who like my work to own a little piece of it. My shadowboxes and larger sculptural ships feel different and more like serious conceptual work to me. I’ve tested my techniques and styles in the smaller pieces, where-as with these I’m more concerned with trying to tell a story or convey a feeling. The ships in particular are technique heavy and took a lot of testing to get correct. These pieces are less about fun and escape than they are about confronting overwhelming feelings of climate-based anxiety. But sometimes humor and hope still leak in because of my sculpting style and color choices. The whimsical nature of miniatures is something that makes the work feel accessible and draws people in, allowing them to mentally explore before coming on an adventure with the more serious conceptual pieces. 5. Are there any new projects in the works? Do you think you'll continue to push your current work styles or is there something new you're looking to try? Maybe both? I’ve recently been very inspired by underground rivers and flooded caves since I’ve read Robert MacFarlane’s book Underland: A Deep Time Journey. I have been a bit haunted by the following passage about a cave diving experience in Budapest he had while writing the book: “I took a series of deep breaths, lifted my arms above my head, joined my legs, expelled the air from my lungs in a rush of bubbles, and slowly sank…Ahead of me in the water was the black mouth of a tunnel entrance, leading away into the rock, more than wide enough to engulf me, its stone edges smooth. The pull of the mouth through that eerily clear water was huge. Just as standing on the edge of a tower one feels drawn to fall, so I experienced a powerful longing to swim into the mouth and on, until my air ran beautifully out.” The mental image from this passage has been lingering in my head for weeks - I’m just not sure what to do yet. I’m definitely wanting to make more shadowboxes using more raw-looking “building materials” like bricks and ceramics, and also quite separately wanting to work on a small series where floating furniture and debris are used open ocean nurseries by young sea life, speaking to how intertwined human consumption is to the natural world. There are a lot of concepts I didn’t have the skills for a few years ago that involve embedded LEDs in resin and other complicated elements. I have been making test pieces for these and I‘m hoping to get back to some of my original ideas, but realistically I’m probably going to be spending a lot of time organizing and setting up my studio space in my basement before I can get to most of these! 6. Finally, PLUGS! Where can people find you? Any shows coming up? Anywhere people can find and see you! I have a show coming up at Idle Hands on April 11th with artist Zoe Keller that I’m very excited about! I have a few pieces available at Arch Enemy Arts, PA @archenemyarts Ghost Gallery, WA @ghostgallery Antler/Talon Galleries, OR @antlerpdx The Convent, PA @theconventphilly You can check out most of my recent miniature work and exhibit design on Instagram @Naturalistandco and older installation work over on my website www.schlunegger.com

Well, it appears that the COVID-19 epidemic is going to be shutting down colleges nationwide until the spread is controlled. For schools who haven’t pushed forward spring break and are going to continue classes, they’ll be moved to an online alternative. That’s all fine and dandy for a math class or a lecture, but what’s to become of art school over the next few months? How is an art school supposed to function online? Because for the life of me, I can’t even fathom it. I guess we’re going to go even deeper into the conceptual wasteland that we’re currently in and just completely forget about craft and process. But even if classes do go full on conceptual, the idea of that makes me glad I’ve already graduated, students won’t be able to make much unless it’s a drawing class. Forget about sculpture and ceramics unless students are going to be expected to stack pencils or make 1” pinch pots with the clay corner they snagged on their way out of the studio. Even painting, most college painting classes are oil focused and not many people have the ventilation required to paint in oils in their homes. So digital artists rejoice, because you’re the only ones who are going to be learning anything creatively for the time being… students of sculpture, ceramics, and painting are going to be relegated to drawing pictures and chats about history or concept. In all seriousness though, I’d really like to hear from students how this unfolds. Is it going to be even remotely productive? Are professors going to just give up? Like I said, I cannot wrap my head around a way that professors of things like sculpture can effectively shift their curriculum to an online outlet. So students, let’s chat about this. You can DM me on Instagram @forresthinesart or email me at forresthines@plebeiandeli.art and let’s discuss the process of how this is going. You’re going to have a lot of free time in the coming month aren’t you? If I get enough participation and interesting results I’ll publish them as a collection.

Loose and refined in all of the right places with images effortlessly flowing across collaged surfaces, these are just some of the primary features that drew me towards the work of Jodi Cachia. She’s another artist I discovered at an art market and when I first came across her work I was fascinated by the way she built and manipulated surface. I was also intrigued by the diversity of imagery that could exist on those surfaces and still fit her style. Cachia’s work surfaces are layered levels of material, often a light beige tone, that are cut, torn, and folded before being layered together. The way that she builds up the surfaces of her work adds so much depth and minor detail to the final piece before an image is even present. The imagery then adds on to this as she effortlessly blends the surfaces together by cleanly illustrating across them. She organizes the chaos of her collage by allowing images to smooth out the broken plains, or by adding an element that creates a more deliberate interaction between them. With all of the different things that her imagery does, it’s no surprise that she has a range of image styles. Sometimes working in clean, lifelike illustration and other times allowing things to be gestural and loose, her imagery is always effective. There’s also a variety of detail elements that she uses to aid the primary image; some lifelike illustration, some whimsical, and some hard geometry. All of these elements accumulate to form a detailed, chaotic yet controlled final image with a ton to take in. Cachia’s work really stood out to me as there was just so much going on but it all seemed so controlled. So obviously I had to hear more about it and I was thrilled to get to hear the background and processes behind her work. She gave a great, really detailed interview that I’m sure will spark your interest in her work as she sparked mine. Enjoy! 1. I always start way back at the beginning, so what got you started in art? Any schooling? Big Inspirations? What helped shape you into the artist that you are today? I can’t remember a time that I wasn’t interested in art. I have some very early memories of keeping little drawings in my toy box, and one time “rendering" this silly bowling trophy my mom had won - I thought it looked exactly like it! Growing up I guess I just enjoyed making art. I remember winning some kind of award around 5th grade… painting and drawing always appealed to me. In high school I was lucky enough to have a really serious teacher for art major. Until then a lot of kids took art class just to have a period to slack off. This guy taught at a college level and made it known on day one that he’d have you working! I still look back at that time as one of the most productive in my life. At one point I was going to quit that class to take a much less demanding screen printing one - simply because I was a lazy high school kid. He got wind of it and took me aside. He told me I was better than that, not to take the easy way out, that I had talent and should stick with it. That made a big impact on me. The next year I continued that class and doubled up on the printing class to complete 2 years in one. As far as influence - I don’t really recall having any. I mean, I think an artist is influenced by everything around them, but I don’t recall being crazy about any one person’s artwork. That seems weird now that I think about it! I did love flipping through the poster racks at the mall and would always check for new Iron Maiden ones. I loved the band (still do!) but was also obsessed with the Eddie character and seeing him portrayed in the artwork. I also thought it was super cool how the band’s symbol always appeared somewhere in the image… which turns out wasn’t the band’s symbol at all, but rather the artist’s signature - which now I think is even cooler. Linear symbols were appearing in my work from time to time before I even realized it… I’ve come to think of them as visual representations of various energies - but maybe that symbol planted something in my brain way back then :) 2. There's a very refined and a looser side to your style, but the imagery is always somewhat macabre in nature. What did or what does inspire the imagery that you use? What or who were some of the big influences in the styles that you depict said imagery? I’d say it’s a combination of things… I’ve always had a thing for vultures and was drawing them for a bit, then at some point switched over to crows. At that point I became infatuated with their feather patterns. At the same time I was doing some printmaking which lead me to start manipulating paper. Once I lost access to a press I kept drawing crows and continued to alter paper and started experimenting with collage… it was about that time I felt something click and I felt myself developing a style. For me aesthetic is mostly about mood. I guess I felt the subject matter and the overall mood starting to match up. Both of those things are derived from my personal likes. Crows are just a small part of my interest in animals, nature, energies, and how we relate to them. Music is a big part of my life and the mood it inspires is it’s greatest gift I think. Various styles of dark or heavy music have always been what resonates with me, so I suppose that’s just what’s bound to come out visually. I find more depth in these moods than say, happiness. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a happy person, but when we’re happy, things are easy. More sullen moods bring about contemplation, making an effort to find solutions. Sadness inspires reflection, makes you search for the positive. The process of making art is one of answering questions - starting with nothing, conjuring an idea, figuring out what to make of that idea... I don’t make art for the purpose of working through my emotions, but I can’t deny the similarities between the journeys, and maybe there is some subconscious stuff working itself out as I go. What I do know for sure is just like hearing a heavy riff hits me deep inside and ultimately brings me tremendous joy, so does completing a piece of art that conjures a similar feeling of satisfaction. 3. I'm curious how you lay out a piece, there's a lot going on in your work so where does each piece begin? Are you rigorously laying things out or is your process just a go-with-the-flow situation? It depends on the piece. I’m mostly working in 2 different processes these days. If I’m working in pen and ink, I at least layout the main areas before the pen hits the paper. This medium isn’t forgiving - at least not the way I’m working. For those pieces I will collage the background, shoot a pic of it and print out a bunch of copies. I sketch on those to come up with the layout. This is often a chance for the background to kind of tell me what wants to live there. When I go into it with ink, the strokes are very deliberate and it can get pretty stressful wanting every one to be perfect. At one point I got burnt out on it, which is when I switched to a more abstract style. I needed to loosen up - work more organically. This process is still based on manipulating the materials - just in a different way. Instead of planning ahead, they speak to me as I go. I like using materials that don’t typically go together. That’s something I like in life too - take these things that don’t belong, stick em together, make something even better! It creates a give and take and it’s my job to keep pushing back and fourth until they live happily together. I get something out of both processes. Now I take turns between the two ways of working when I feel I need change. 4. Further, there's a very interesting layering of colors, shapes, mediums, and materials in your work. So how do you decide the layout or use of materials in your piece? Is everything a set hierarchy where you use one element at a time or are you surrounded by everything you use in the piece and layering it according to how you think it will help each step along the way? Does it vary? I guess I inadvertently started to get into this in the last answer! I always start out with paper, but after that it’s anyone’s guess. Charcoal often comes next, but I have that, acrylic, watercolor, pens and pencils all around, ready for the grabbing. I’d say I tend to work the surface with one material until it feels like it’s ready for the next, but I switch between them frequently. I’m mostly working intuitively when I’m creating a piece that mixes a bunch of media. 5. Your work crosses over to a lot of different materials/products (bags, pillows, etc.). Are the works featured on these products designed specifically for said products? Does something potentially becoming a product alter your making process at all? if so how? Most of the time the products are an afterthought. When I started selling my work at markets and events I quickly got the idea that I wanted to offer more than just prints and originals. It seemed to me that a lot of people appreciate art but need it to have a separate function in order to justify spending money on it - so I started looking for products that would compliment my existing work. Since then I never start a new piece thinking, what can I make that will look good on a tote bag? I just look at my shop once in a while and think about what I could add to it. The exception to this are the designs I’ve made for screen printing. I’m slowly building a clothing line called All Creatures Created Equal (third design is currently printing as a zip-up hoodie :) Those are designed specifically with the product in mind. 6. Finally, PLUGS! Where can people find your work? Any shows coming up? Anything you'd like to share and anywhere people can find you, let it rip! One of my goals this year is to exhibit in some new towns. There’s a really awesome traveling expo called The Oddities & Curiosities Expo that I’ll be showing at in several cities - Indianapolis in April, Columbus in May, Detroit in July, Chicago in August, Richmond in November. I’m also creating a piece for a show in Long Beach, CA this October at the Dark Art Emporium fine art gallery - I’m super excited about this as they show great work, and I know the person curating this show, Buddy Nestor, has invited some really awesome artists to participate. In my hometown, I’ll be at the Philadelphia Oddities Market in March, as well as the Darksome Art & Craft Market in April. More events will definitely be booked as time goes by. I post regularly on Instagram @jodicachia and list events on Facebook.com/jodicachia and my online shop is always open at jodicachia.com - where there is also lots of other stuff to peek at :)