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I’ve always admired clean, simple design that is still visually stunning. So, I was thrilled to find the work of Steve DeCusatis as the recent PHILA MKT. I was doing my usual, wandering around the event not looking for anything in particular and that’s when I came across DeCusatis’ work. His work is so clean and delicate, it’s pushed by the vivid color choice, and whether it’s simple font work, logos, or more image based design, it’s all so beautiful. It’s really amazing how DeCusatis manipulates the colors and print techniques that are used in his work to add levels of depth and intricacy to what seem like relatively simple images. Even though the event we met at was winding down, DeCusatis was nice enough to have a lengthy chat with me about his work, relationships with other local artists, and so much more. It was such an excellent conversation that I knew we had to push it a little more and bring it to the wonderful Plebeian audience. So we did, and DeCusatis gave an amazing interview that is a great peek into his work and style. Enjoy! 1. I always begin by asking about background, so what got you started in art? Any schooling? What swayed you towards design in particular? I grew up in NEPA and always liked drawing although didn't do it a ton. I feel like the combination of being inspired by my interests such as music, skateboarding, snowboarding, and BMX combined with the work ethic of the Hazleton area really helped drive my career. In high school I used to screen print custom t-shirt to see at Phish shows. Later, I went to community college for a year and really was sold on graphic design as a profession but I knew I needed to move to a larger city. I then transferred to Tyler School of Art in the Philly area to focus for four years on school to really try to "make it" as a designer. I worked really hard until I became good enough to compare to my fellow classmates and compete as a designer entering the "real world". I then worked at a variety of studios and agencies before starting my own company in 2011. I specialize in identity design and branding work. 2. You've got a very clean, simple, and bold design style, What is your process like? Does it begin with sketching and then it's refined digitally? Are you all digital? Or does it vary piece to piece? Stylistically I do tend to go more simple and clean but first I try to get to the roots of a concept or subject. I research and sketch a lot (small, rough thumbnails) until I hit on some strong ideas, and then typically refine the designs in Illustrator. I do a mix of custom typography and hand-drawn lettering and create lots of logos professionally. I also do create t-shirt designs and limited screen prints. 3. How does working with a client alter your design process? Do you make it clear that your style is going to be evident in their design or is that something that they know when they come to you? I think I have a fairly fluid style allowing me to work in a variety of styles, although I know I have my preferences and strengths. This adaptability allows me to design for my client (in a variety of industries) and for their audience. This is very important to me and for being a successful designer. Sometimes clients see a project or two of mine and like a certain aesthetic which could help drive a particular style. 4. You've made designs for a laundry list of products (prints, shirts, mugs, pins, etc.), does the design process change when you're making something that you know is going to be, say, a shirt? Or are you trying to make something that will sort of universally fit whatever it's put on? It's good to be aware of how and where a design will live in the world. I ask clients how a design will be used (print, online, apparel, signage, etc.) and definitely keep that in mind for production purposes. If it's something like a t-shirt, metal signage, something that will be letterpresses or embroidered, I'm very aware as I'm designing that I need to keep certain methods in mind... Keeping some colors a little more limited for things like screen separations, or break certain lines/images in specific ways for something like a neon sign or a stencil, let's say. Some of these factors I'm considering as I'm designing the artwork will absolutely effect pricing (how many colors, set up fees, size, etc.), timing, and even whether something can or can't be produced. Lots to keep in mind and having nearly twenty years of experience helps here. 5. We had an interesting conversation about your relationship with printers, you made it clear that this relationship is important to your work. Do you find that your design process becomes more of collaboration when working with a printer or how certain things are going to be displayed? Or do you lay out clear cut instructions? Does this change or vary depending on the printer or how often you work with them? I really like designing for print or anything tangible that will be produced. I love working with different printers depending on a specific project. It's more of a clear path rather than a collaboration although I do find it to be somewhat of a collaboration. You may get some surprises of how a color may lay down or how something looks on the actual paper, etc. You have to be OK that it might look a little different than initially imagined. Many factors go into sourcing the right printer for each job - cost, timing, capabilities, personality, materials, etc. Every project shown here was done with/by a different printer. 6. Going further into print, you work with a variety of different paper stocks, printing methods, etc. How have you developed your work in print to be so visually interesting beyond just the image (i.e. ink that shines or embossed prints)? Is this a product of the potential collaborative experience that I alluded to in the previous question? The more the world goes digital, the more important it is to make print work unique. It needs to feel special when you see it or hold it in your hands. This is something that was instilled in me even in my first design experience at SK Designworks. Paper and printing were just as important as typography choices and color palettes. I always try to recommend, if budget and time allows, using unique papers and some sort of print technique. Some common techniques I utilize from printers include foil stamping, varnishes, embossing/debossing, die-cuts, letterpress, silkscreening w/ metallic inks while some more uncommon production methods could include things like sign painting, and neon bending. 7. Finally, PLUGS! Where can people find your work? Any shows or events coming up? Anything and everything you'd like to share and wherever people can find your work, fire away! My site is https://www.stevedecusatis.com and I use Instagram often as well: https://www.instagram.com/stevedecusatis/. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn, and Dribble. Every fall, along with fellow creatives Josh Carter and Mario Zucca, we run an event called PhilaMRKT (instagram.com/philamrkt) which is a pop-up artist market held on Small Business Saturday. The three of us collaborate on the branding and promo every year.

The thoughts that bounced around my head when I first stumbled upon Shawn Huckins' work now feel blasphemous. And though I never uttered such thoughts, my opinion has changed so much that I must express how wrong I was. The front time I scrolled to a Huckins' painting on instagram it gave me a sour taste in my mouth. You see I thought that his works were just another case of someone attempting to make a name for themselves off of the work of others. Unfortunately, we see more and more of that now- a- days. The colors were so bold and vivid and the "edits/type" so crisp it felt digital. Viewing on the scree didn't help. I was getting a real buck the system, nothing is sacred vibe. Vandalizing famous works with mundane digital imagery. I was not happy. Then it hit me. These aren't printed on canvas. These are painted. And everything changed. Huckings' altered recreations, amplify the greatness of the works. Rather than detracting from the image, Shawn is building on another layer conversation. A back and forth across generations of people. A greater investigation into the duality of meaning to the audience of the original and the modern art viewer. Pressing low-brow images and references onto high brow, historical paintings. This is a conversation that I can't stop thinking about now. Thank you, Shawn. The work is of impeccable technical quality. I personally have never seen an artist with such a handle on the medium. Now that may seem a little overstated, however we must take into account the fact that they are done in acrylic paint. To achieve that level of realism and blending, whether in plains of flesh or fabric. All of this when the work referenced were done in oil. To be able to translate those works to acrylic is incredible. The colors are deep. The blends are smooth. The edges are crisp. I am sorry. Shawn Huckings is surely one of the artists I am most excited to watch in the coming years. I can't wait to see the conversations he invokes, the trends he represents, and the works he recreates.

Making enticing work that is simple yet deep and vivid is a challenging thing to do and artists will often unintentionally overwork their image thus devaluing some of the subtleties. But Ian Hodgson is an artist who can create an image that seems simple and relatively straight forward at a distance, but draws you in and as you inch closer and closer the work reveals new layers, details that could never have been made out at just a glance. Hodgson’s work is a marvelous combination of shapes defined by harsh lines and details barely revealed through soft shades. This parity creates an image that’s readable from afar but pulls the viewer closer and closer to try and reveal more from within the image. His work is simple in color, usually just black on white or white on black, occasionally sprinkling in a colored streak, but the push and pull created by the hard lines and soft shades is striking even without the addition of a bunch of different elements. Hodgson creates a diversity in line, tone, and shape that can give a lot of life to just a single color and when he does decide to add in a second color it feels extremely deliberate and adds another layer to the image. When I first found Hodgson’s work I was sucked in and constantly pulling up his images to try and find more within them. So, I was obviously thrilled to get to chat with him about his style development, process, and work as a whole. Hodgson gave an awesome interview and paired with his incredible work, I think it makes for a great read. Enjoy! 1. I always start off by asking about background, so what got you started in art? Any schooling? What helped shape you into the artist that you are today? I’ve drawn since I could hold a pencil, it’s something I have always felt compelled to do. Art education after school followed a bit of an erratic path for me (too busy rebelling and feeling at odds with the world to commit fully!) but after attending many life drawing classes and ad hoc courses I eventually settled into an art degree which helped convince me that I could and should do this art thing. 2. You've got a very unique style in your work, very subtle yet powerful. What were some of your inspirations in developing your style? Be it visual or otherwise. Are there still factors developing your visual language? I think that once I settled on drawing as my working practice and graphite as my main medium I found that this narrowing down of creative options allowed me to explore the mark making potential of my tools of choice. 3. What goes into your imagery selection? Are you drawing from life? Or is it all off of the top of your head? A combination? And is the piece affected by the model for the imagery or are you fitting an image to a plan? Many years of drawing from life has provided a good base to work from and has helped develop my understanding of proportion, perspective etc but I tend to draw more from memory and imagination nowadays. We are all bombarded with visual imagery, I observe faces in the real world, on screen, in photography etc, I watch how light emanates or plays over surfaces and store what I see to memory for use in my work. 4. Your work often features a contrast between softly blended shades and hard lines, what comes first or do you go back and forth? Is the interaction between the two planned out rigorously or does the interaction sort of reveal itself to you as the piece develops? I find that if I plan anything out to rigorously the work becomes a bit safe or stilted so I try and approach the creative process a bit more loosely. My starting point can be either a hard line or a soft ground and I try to build a dialogue between the contrasting elements as the work progresses. 5. You tend to work in very soft materials (chalk, pastel, etc.), is this because you can achieve the soft shades and harsh lines in your work with one material or tool? Do certain materials lend better to certain imagery or do you just have to experiment with each piece? I find the range of marks that can be achieved with soft/dry materials more than satisfies my creative output although I do keep threatening to splash out with paint again at some point so watch this space... 6. Your work very rarely features color, but when it does it really stands out, is the addition of color a narrative or strictly visual choice? How do you decide when a piece warrants color? I found using colour in the past a bit distracting, unable to restrict myself I could end up in some kind of kaleidoscopic trippy nightmare so I realised that removing the temptation and sticking to monochrome made more sense! I’m not sure what causes my decision to incorporate a random pop of colour here and there but I do like how the occasional addition can create a dramatic effect in a sea of grey... 7. Expanding on that, you often switch back and forth between white and black paper. What are the benefits to one over the other? Both in terms of visual and narrative. Or are these just two aspects of your work that exist separately? I think that both black and white paper hold equal merit. My work often focuses on finding light in darkness (literally or metaphorically) and the papers require different techniques to achieve this goal so alternating between the two can reset and kickstart the creative process. 8. Your work tends to focus heavily on the face, highlighting it with soft shades and expressions and then gesturally forming the body around it. Is this a strictly visual choice or is there a deeper meaning to it in each work? Further, is there any significance to eyes almost always appearing closed in your work? I try and explore emotional states through my figurative/face work, a kind of psychological portraiture. The less worked, more gestural representations of the body helps draw the attention back to the face. I usually draw eyes closed or looking down to signify a contemplative state or to represent some kind of internal dialogue. 9. In your opinion, does your work overall represent an established and deliberate narrative or reflect a series of different processes? The themes of identity, place, light and dark have been established for some time in my work and through this narrative framework my creative processes developed. 10. Finally, PLUGS! Where can people find your work? Any shows coming up? Anything and anywhere that people can find you that you'd like to share, let them know! I’ve been a bit reluctant to commit to many exhibiting opportunities due to a planned move from my home in Brighton up to Yorkshire at the start of 2020... I’ll be part of a show in Brighton in May of next year and will have representation in a couple of art fairs, details of which I’ll post on Instagram nearer the dates. Macy's stores across the United States are using my work in their menswear department displays and they have just commissioned a new piece which is currently being made into a huge Lightbox for their store in Stanford, California. I have representation with: Naked Eye Gallery in Brighton Hope Gallery in Batley Yorkshire Eric Buterbaugh Gallery in Los Angeles Website (in dire need of an update…!!) www.ian-hodgson.co.uk but Instagram @ian.hodgson is my preferred social media platform.

For those of you who know my work, you know that it features the human figure to some degree pretty much exclusively. If you don’t know my work, which is probably the large majority of you, now you know it features the human figure a lot. With the week long Plebeian content freeze last week I finally had some time to sit back and do a little bit of drawing/painting and I had to shake the cobwebs off a little bit. Rarely do I go several weeks without drawing or painting so I had to reassess my process in some ways, but coming back to making with a really clear mind allowed me to push what I’ve been doing a little bit. I’ve been experimenting with heavy linework over the past few months, predominantly depicting singular body parts like faces or hands but I wanted to go one step further and try to depict the full body. I don’t have the money to pay for a model and I’m sure there are ways for me to get in front of one for relatively cheap but I just use online references so I was really struggling with things not looking quite like the photo. I’ve always worked representationally but at the same time I’ve also struggled with liking my work because at the end of it if it didn’t look exactly like what I was referencing from I’d just get furious. But over the last week as I was forcing myself to sit down and just draw, draw, draw, I had a major break in that I finally said, “fuck it. Close enough.” I was getting so stuck on trying to “accurately” represent the model that even if the drawing looked good, I’d find one little flaw and despise the piece. But when I had my “fuck it” realization, it became clear to me that no one was going to see this person in the exact pose, especially not in the same space as the drawing itself, I can be a little loose with the drawing because I’m representing what I see. Shit, the drawing itself is just a pile of lines at its core so why is the chest muscle being a little bit more rounded in my drawing than it is in the reference bothering me so much? It was crazy, once I actually loosened up and started going for it in my drawings they actually got better. It reminded me of a conversation that I had with Brian Booth Craig while we were at his studio. He was telling us about his process and he said that since he sculpted his models in person and he had to pay them, once he got to a certain point he didn’t need the model anymore. My first question was along the lines of how do you remember what they look like? But his answer blew me away in that he wasn’t worried about that. He wasn’t going for a one-to-one representation, he was representing his perception and experience with that model. That blew my mind… but I finally got to that point in my work and it’s been magical. My drawing has gotten so much better, well in my opinion at least. Artists! Let this rambly blog be a lesson to you, don’t get too tied up in what you’re representing! Unless you’re a hyper-realist, you don’t have to be one-to-one with your representation, we’re not cameras. Artists should be striving to represent their experience, their version of what they saw. Being loose with what we see and allowing the mind to be creative in representation has given us some of the greatest artists, art works, and art movements throughout time. I’ve benefited greatly from being more loose in my process and I know that there are artists out there working representationally that need to hear this. Let the camera be a one-to-one representation, when working representationally show your experience, your relationship with what you’ve represented, be loose when you have to and be rigid when you want to. At the end of the day you’re working to show your vision and if that’s a slightly augmented representation of what you were referencing then that’s fine.

I was at a print shop event recently and they had a few pieces hung up on the wall. Of those pieces were a few really softly, beautifully done illustrations and comics. The pieces were bold yet elegant, the line work was thin and incredibly detailed, the color was soft but thoughtfully applied in order to make the right areas pop, and the narrative of the pieces were compelling. Fortunately, amidst the small display was a business card and that’s when I discovered the work of Oliver Bly. Bly’s work has a delicacy and whimsy to it that really makes it fun and engaging. He’ll hint to it himself but the narrative to his work is crucial and the energy it omits is one that really connects with the emotions of the viewers. Even in his single illustrations, they feel like a single moment in time perfectly captured in a world that does not exist. I got to interview Bly on his work, his narrative and his process and I truly think the final product is fascinating. It’s always nice to get a peek inside work that is so heavily driven by narrative and Bly does not disappoint. Take a deep dive into his work and enjoy this wonderful interview! 1. To start off, I always like to ask about an artists background. So, what got you into art? Any schooling? Big inspirations? Anything that has shaped you into the artist that you are today! I think most people start off as artists, when they are children. They play and commune with imagination all the time, and sometimes they bring things back from that world, and make things - drawings, songs, sculptures, things out of sticks or mud or trash. They act, role play… they are always using imagination to relate to, transform, and understand the phenomenal world - to communicate, express, connect, reveal - they are students of multiple intelligences. It is a fact of life. Artists just don’t put that away as they age, maybe. They keep visiting that place of imagination, and dreaming, and making things. An artist is sort of a person who fights to stay open, which is painful. Inspirations are always hard because there are a lot, and they are all over the place. A resourceful artist is a scavenger and always watching, picking, plucking, thinking, plotting, using every scrap of experience and perspective in their reckonings. If an artist is prone to being interested, then inspiration is always there. To keep my battery charged I spend a lot of time in the Wissahickon, reading, researching, spending time with loved ones. As I get older I’ve been growing smaller. I hope to someday be the shape of a marble, a compact ball of neat energy beeping gladly in the pocket of your old coat. That’d be a good life, and a good shape, I hope my inspirations shape me into that. 2. Starting with your straight forward illustrations, you've got an expansive portfolio featuring all types of subjects. What are your big inspirations for illustrations? How do they differ? What's the process like in making them (hand done vs. digital)? I work entirely digitally when I make an illustration or a comic, on a Wacom Cintiq plugged into a laptop. I use the Stumpy Pencil brush from stumpypencil.blogspot.com in Photoshop for almost all my ‘pencil drawings’. I’ve tried other pencil brushes but for whatever reason that’s the one I always go back to. My inking brush is one I made myself. I’ve been transitioning from an animator to a comic book writer and illustrator over the last few years. Part of breaking into the comic book industry is tabling at conventions and getting your work seen. Tabling at conventions can get expensive, so it’s necessary for me to sell prints to recoup losses and maybe make some money. So I draw a lot of super heroes, not really because that’s where my heart is at primarily, but because they are instantly recognizable and popular and people like to buy prints of their favorites. Only recently have my own characters been selling as well as X-Men characters and eventually they’ll take up more space in the spread. 3. You've also got a collection of visually stunning and fun to read comics, how do these come about? How does the narrative process impact the visual elements? Which come first usually? Thank you, Forrest. Usually I start with narrative. I’d rather write or tell a story than anything else. So I’ll sketch a concept, or a character, or a scenario in my mind. Then I’ll start scribbling a character’s form. I draw very raw - primal - at this stage, especially when I’m drawing anything spiritual, fantastical, or otherwise not of this world. I unearth from my gut and sculpt out an idea, sorting and probing and seeing what is in my subconscious, skulking about. Later I’ll get very meticulous and approach the design like an animator, mapping out how the three dimensional form performs in space - understanding its logic. Lastly I’ll do a heart pass, giving the character a spark of life - its emotional core, what makes it relatable, or the opposite, and so on. 4. How do the processes of these two avenues of your work differ? How are they similar? Do any illustrations ever spawn a comic series or vice versa? Sometimes. Usually illustrations come from a prompt, either for an art show, a commission, a work for hire. It’s rare I get to make something that I really want to make. My comics are usually what I want to be making, the illustrations and commercial animations are often what I need to be making to keep me alive well enough to make the comics. I keep the paid stuff off of my website, for the most part. 5. What is the print process like for you? How does a piece make it to print? How do the prints of comics and illustrations differ in process? Hmmm - I suppose, if you’re coloring a comic appropriately, technically speaking, you have a good grasp of the offset printing process and the kind of paper your book will be printed on. Mass produced comics are often on very thin paper, so you have to watch the saturation and combination of CMYK inks or you’ll soak the paper, or wind up with muddy tones. Some CMYK color combos perform differently on the computer screen than they do on paper, and really good colorists understand this and limit their palettes accordingly. I’m not really there yet, a lot of this wisdom isn’t codified on the internet, it exists as trade secrets that are passed on. For prints, I usually just run digitals - the printer I use, Fireball, has a really nice Indigo machine that makes just absolutely beautiful prints. They also can do gorgeous ink jet large format prints but that process is expensive and not really necessary unless I’m doing something bigger than 13x19. And, well, for the most part I’m drawing weird monsters or people fighting crime in their underpants. I’m not exactly Andrew Wyeth. My prints are what they are, my art is what it is. 6. Finally Plugs! Where can people find your work? Any shows coming up? Anywhere that people can find you, let them know! Art shows are rare. I’ll be doing some cons in 2020 but they’re not all locked down yet. I have an instagram which I update sometimes - @oliverbly Otherwise, just check in the pocket of your old coat. With some luck, I will be the little marble of energy beeping at you calmly and with great joy.

Moth spoke first. “It was a good deal, you know. You would have done the same, in my shoes.” Gorby drank, wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “You don’t wear shoes.” What do you remember? Nothing. Are there bones in your backyard, or just topsoil. Is the soil old bones, bones so old that they don’t remember they used to be bones? Moth wriggled his face bits. “I could wear shoes if I wanted to.” Gorby sneezed. Sneezed again. He had a lot more he wanted to say, it looked like. His jaw worked up and down, he took a couple deep breaths. Whatever he wanted to say, he didn’t say it. He threw some change onto the bar, hesitated, then scooped it back up and put it back in his pocket. A quarter gave him a hard time, so he had to push it off the edge of the bar and then pick it up off the ground. Moth pretended not to watch. He wriggled his face bits quietly. Do things remember what they used to be, what they used to mean? Are the eyeballs lodged in your skull captives? Do they scream in protest as a never-ending firehose of photons pours into them? Moth got up and left, patting Gorby on the back. He had seen enough.

some encouraging thoughts for you today: no one else can make the same art as you because no one else has had your exact experiences, and no one else shares the same exact thoughts as you do. however cliche it may sound- you are the only "you" that has ever existed and will ever exist. no matter how you look at it, that's pretty awesome. your originality is your best and most valuable gift, and it's yours all the time.

The art of pencil drawing is a dwindling one to say the least, while artists have and likely always will use a pencil to some degree, the use of it in the final pieces is fading fast. Masha Prilutzki’s work is a breath of fresh air in the world of pencil drawing. Prilutzki’s drawing ability is marvelous and her use of outside elements to invigorate her pencil drawings is brilliant. Her drawings themselves often bare a distortion of reality, usually a surreal interaction between human and some outside entity, but her subtle use of color and gold leaf add a necessary pop to already enticing drawings. Prilutzki has a vast body of work that she’s always experimenting with, finding new ways to use color, to augment reality, to take realistic elements and beautifully distort them. We were fortunate enough to go international and Interview Prilutzki on her amazing work. She gave marvelous, in depth answers that give a really nice insight into her work. For example, looking back at her drawings after discussing her background in costume design you really start to see some of the other elements she’s trained in come to life in her drawings. We hope you enjoy all of Prilutzki’s work as well as this fascinating peek into her process. 1. So first, I always like to ask about the artists background! What got you started in art? Any schooling? What helped form you into the artist that you are today? My way as an artist started at a very early age. I once saw a badly drawn cartoon on TV, and I remember my self deciding right then and there, that I will become an artist just so that I could create beautiful cartoons so that they would stop showing kids this horror. One should remember that I was born in the Soviet Union and I wasn't aware of the incredible world of Disney and that they basically saved the kids without me. Although my professional career ended up taking a different creative path, I am currently working on a series of animations for my husband's project. Regarding my education, my foundation is a school of Classical Academic Drawing. I had the good fortune of meeting amazing teachers that believed in me, and I believed them. From that point on, my story took an interesting turn when I dove into the world of fashion. I majored in Fashion Design with the goal of becoming a stylist and a costume designer for the TV and Film industries. I loved what I was doing and I had the honor to work in Fashion Magazines such as L'OFFICIEL and Marie Claire. After being the head costume designer of MTV Ukraine for a few years, I worked on a popular reality show and then moved on to the film industry. Visual art is my main focus now as I grow and work on making my mark as an independent artist. 2. You cover a variety of different subject matters, portrayed in a variety of ways, so what inspires your work from an imagery standpoint? The main inspiration for my work is always the Person - the Character.I enjoy bringing out human character and emotion. That's why all of my portraits are alive, with both their strengths and flaws as they are honest. For me, a person is a mirror that reflects the world that surrounds him and the reality he's engaging. Since people are different, each of them reflects his reality differently, and that is a very interesting process to observe. We are all like little pieces of a big puzzle, I just hope I'll get to draw as much of them as possible. :) 3. You use a variety of different mediums in your work, pencil, ink, goldleaf, etc., but how does each piece start? How do you decide which mediums you're going to insert into a piece? And how do you relate them to one another? I'm a drawer by nature, so I never really considered working with dry media or paint. I'm in love with The Pencil, and since everything in art starts with a line, I see the pencil as a cornerstone of art. A Pencil is an extremely powerful and universal tool, so I love the simultaneous control and freedom it gives me. In today's art market, there aren't a lot of pencil pieces, so it is also a goal of mine to evolve and popularize this genre. When it comes to using multiple mediums, that has more to do with different experiments I perform with my work. But, it also carries with it a conceptual meaning as well. This is how I separate between the Spiritual and Worldly in my work. For the Spiritual part (the character) I use a pencil, and for the Worldly part (things) I use color, paint, and gold. I still do my experiments, and I feel like I'm on the verge of something truly interesting. 4. Some of your work relies on smooth, blended shadows but others stay more linear, relying on hatching as a shading technique. What drives these two avenues of your work? Do certain methods lend more to certain mediums? Like I said before, a pencil is a powerful tool that allows you to use it in a variety of ways. When the goal is a quick sketch or to convey an emotion, rough hatching and lines that are more alive, sometimes dirty even. But it's a great pleasure to see how an image emerges from chaos. You see how from chaotic and dirty lines, someone's deep and sad eyes are staring right at you. I use the principle of contrast a lot in my work when I want to put an emphasis on something particular. 5. Going more into color, you use color very interestingly in your work. It often occurs as a highlight, sometimes as a singular leading entity, it's rarely just a standard representation. So how do you decide if a piece is going to feature color? And how do you decide the use of that color? Does this decision relate to specific imagery? For me, color is an aid, but not the basis. As I said above, I use color as a part of a concept, to separate the Spiritual from the Worldly. For example, one of my series is completely based on that concept, where I draw the people with a pencil and their clothes with color. Therefore, the use of color depends on my initial concept. 6. What goes into the planning of your more intricate, and less representational works? In a piece where you're really distorting reality is it rigidly planned out? Or is it just happening organically? In principle, you can say I do Realism. But, simply creating copies of lifeless photographs or people is not very appealing to me. Therefore, I deliberately create "distortions in reality." I do it by picking a part of a person's face or character, and then bringing out, making it louder in order to grab the viewer's attention. This is my way of controlling his attention in order to direct it towards the meaning that is important to me. 7. I'm always fascinated by the use of gold leaf, what got you started in using this additive measure in your work? Was it a challenging method to master? What do you find it adds to your work both visually and in terms of narrative? Gold leaf is not new to me, I studied it when I was in art school. Basically, when I started doing my experiments with pencil drawings, it was very easy to incorporate it. Actually the combination of a Pencil and gold leaf can be considered a classic since it has been in use for a very long time. The main difference is my approach to it, I mainly use it as backgrounds or as a way to fill some particular spaces, yet I also like to "draw" with it, using at as line. This is how I'm able to achieve interesting and detailed things with it. 8. Your work, while surreal, still features a lot of representational elements but you've also got quite the illustrative hand. Is a more cartoonish style something you plan on returning to at some point? Or possibly even blending into your current work? This question is spot on. You are right since I'm educated as a designer as well, it shows it my work. In the future, I have this crazy idea of combining not only different mediums but different "genres" as well. I see in it a promising direction for modern art. 9. Looking at your body of work, it appears that you work in series, experimenting with new things and seeing what happens quite often. Any new works experiments planned? Any other big plans as far as your work is concerned? Well, my work in the fashion industry has its mark on me, and I like to create my works in a series, similar to a designer creates a new collection. I think it is the right approach if you are trying to communicate something to your viewer through your work. I love to experiment and I don't see myself stopping. I have a few fascinating ideas and subjects I want to work on. Two of them are in working progress at the moment. One series with a red Pencil and gold leaf, dedicated to the subject of the human ego. And the other with a graphite pencil in academic realism. It is a bit unusual, you will not see human faces, but I promise, it is still related and very much about people. 10. Finally Plugs! Where can people find you? Any shows coming up? Anywhere that people can find you or your work, let them know! You can find me on Instagram: @mashaprilutzki This is where I usually publish videos of projects I'm currently working on. I also use this platform to engage with my followers, where we sometimes have engaging creative discussions, or I answer technical questions about my work. I try to make as many videos of my work process as I can because I want to share more than just the end result of what I create, but at the same time to be useful to upcoming artists that are learning to draw and trying to make their way into this profession. It is very important to see the process, it shows the core of it and makes art more accessible. I'm wondering a lot lately about teaching one day because I keep getting so many requests to do so. So there's a good chance I'll be creating an online drawing course of my own in the future. In the near future, I plan to finish the two new series, start working on new ones and enter a few art competitions. Updates about shows, new series of prints, and much more, will be published on my Instagram account and on my website: mashaprilutzki.com

Some months ago I visited MoMA PS1 with my brother. We were there to see the Bruce Nauman exhibition. While there we figured we'd stroll on up to the top floor and take a peak at the James Turrel piece, Meeting. Being that I had never experienced a Turrell room in person, I was rather excited. We reached the awkward top floor, with a mix of closed door offices and seeming unrenovated hallways, I got the feeling that there was no more art to see. And I was right. You see just my luck the Turrell piece had been indefinitely closed due to obstruction to the skylight view. Construction to a neighboring building graced the sky with a tall vent pipe accompanied by brightly colored scaffolding. I still was doubtful that we were in the right place. There was just a shot rope blocking one of the office doors. One the pole of the rope there was a printed sign informing us that we would not be experiencing Meeting. However, I didn't even get that. I go this: Now part of me want to make an argument that the scaffolding could have in an odd way elevated the work. But that would mean arguing against Turrell original intention. But also found the culprit one the way out:

over the weekend, my mom and i visited my grandparents and i brought my camera along with me. a few weeks ago my mom came to me with a project idea that involved interviewing my grandparents about their childhood. she wanted to learn about any memories, stories and long lost facts about my grandparents past before they were lost in history. we decided that it would be a good idea to individually ask my grandparents open ended questions and record their answers, questions like, "what is your earliest memory," and, "what can you tell me about the house you grew up in?" my grandparents absolutely lit up when they recounted stories of playing 'kick the can' with their neighbors in the street, memories of their first cars, and details about their parents. this project started with my mom wanting to know more about her relatives that she never got a chance to meet, like her grandparents on my nana's side, and her great-relatives on both sides, and it evolved into detailed stories about their childhoods. interestingly enough, my grandparents had very similar first memories. it was around 1945. my nana said she remembered the war being over, and remembers everyone running into the streets to celebrate. my grampy said he remembers right before the war ended, when someone knocked on the door asking his family to turn the light out in an upstairs room of their house. it was a safety issue when it came to paranoia involving enemy planes flying overhead. i filmed my nana first, asked her a list of questions, then filmed my grampy second, asking him the same questions. then, i filmed both of them together and asked them about their relationship together. they both grew up in Salem, MA and lived two doors down from each other their whole lives, but only started dating when they were 13 and 14 years old. their lives were coincidentally intertwined from the start, and it was really beautiful to watch them recount the start of their relationship. above, i have posted my list of questions for anyone who wants to emulate this project on their own for their own grandparents. (or any older relatives) i found this personal project extremely fulfilling and it was lovely to watch my grandparents really dive into their past and willingly share with me details of their childhood. i hope that everyone gets a chance to ask their older relatives about what life was like when they were kids, even if it's just a casual conversation. feel free to use this idea and my questions to learn more about your relatives!

Ugh… The holidays are such a busy time of year. Running around, shopping, seeing people, it’s the most positive form of busy but I hadn’t realized how deeply I’d been sucked into it all recently. We’re a small crew here at Plebeian, so we all have to wear a lot of hats in terms of the work we have to do. So lately with all of the new content that we’re pushing out I’m constantly sending emails, writing up interviews, getting in touch with people and organizing. With all of the amazing art that’s being released in either the gallery scenes or the craft market scenes, I’ve been all over trying to catch events, meet the artists, and put some faces to the Plebeian name. Again, it’s the best kind of busy but when you’re constantly running around, doing this or that, you can easily get lost in the fog of your work. Typically, I’d say I’m good at remembering how important my art is to me and I always prioritize time for it but lately I haven’t and I almost didn’t notice… I was moving some things around in my home office and as I pulled out my collection of recent illustrations I realized that it had been weeks since I’d done anything which is really abnormal for me. Like I said, I’m usually really good at prioritizing time to work on my art to some degree. But I think this has been different because in the past when I’ve been in a creative lul it’s been because things in my life were busy, I wasn’t thrilled with my situation, and I dreaded having to do anymore than what I needed. However, when I’m busy with Plebeian stuff, I’m extremely happy, I love doing the work, I love bringing you all content, I love talking to artists from all over the world. We’re busy because we’re trying to bring the best possible tools/products that we possibly can to all of you and I have no time sinking all of myself into that so that Plebeian can be successful. Yet, with that being said I am going to make more time to get back into my creative process. Art is what brought me here after all, and I’m sure it’s what brought a lot of you here. So what kind of “art writer” or interviewer would I be if I’m not digging into my own processes to push what I bring out to all of you. Time management is always the hardest when you have a full plate and I have a tendency to get hyper-focused on things and forget that everything around me exists. So, I’m going to use my recent realization and the coming slow down of the holidays to push my art and get back into the grind of making. It’s strange because I’ve never had a lul when I enjoyed the recent work I’ve been doing like I have lately, but hopefully that means I’ll be able to dive right back into where I was and make some solid stuff. I guess the point of this blog was to vent for my own personal reasons, but to also remind you all that sometimes we can get lost in the hustle and bustle of life. But even when we get lost in what we’re doing, whether it’s good or bad, don’t forget about your art. I think we have to do our best to never stray too far from our creative processes. Even if it’s just keeping your work close by, do something to remind yourself that you’re an artist and artists gotta art!

I think most artists know how hard the eyes are to represent in any form. Getting them symmetrical, catching those finite details, making sure one isn’t bigger than the other; eyes are just super hard. So I was obviously drawn into Jaime Shive’s work right away when I saw pretty much an entire booth of eyes looking back at me. Shive is an excellent painter whose whimsical portraits bring real life and fantasy together into awesome, fun to look at pieces. But what really pulled me into her work was her series of pendants, jewelry, and ceramic hands that feature eyes jutting out of objects looking right back at you. The pieces themselves are decoratively painted but these eyes that just burst off of the surface really draw you in. Shive’s body of work is extremely diverse but still holds the same style and touch throughout it. I was fortunate enough to get to chat with her about the development of her style, body of work, and all off the different things she does and I think it was an awesome interview. She gave great, in depth answers and we hope you enjoy! 1. So to start off, tell me a little bit about your background in art. What got you started? Any schooling? Big inspirations? Anything and everything that makes you the artist that you are! One of my very vivid childhood memories is of staying up late, like really late for a 9 year old, 2 AM or so, to finish a Crayola marker and colored pencil drawing I was working on. I can still picture the drawing clear as day. My parents never said no to buying books or art supplies so it was always something I pursued, although I didn’t take it seriously until high school when I had an amazing teacher who pushed me to stretch my boundaries beyond basic portraits and still lifes. I graduated in 1994 and went on to Tyler School of Art, where for some stupid ass reason I convinced myself I should major in graphic design. To my credit, I lasted until my senior year until dropping out, completely burnt out and disillusioned. For fifteen years after college, I didn’t paint. I did other crafty, creative stuff, but I didn’t paint. In about 2015, I started watching painting time lapse and tutorial videos on YouTube. One day I picked up my dried as hell watercolor palette I’d been dragging around since college, and started painting along with these videos. I produced the most embarrassing portrait I could imagine, but I posted it on Facebook. What happened was I got more likes and positive comments on it by far, than anything else I had ever posted anywhere ever. And it created this weird feeling of validation I don’t think I ever experienced before. Social media got me back into feeling confident and driven about art, which feels so lame to say, but its really true. 2. Starting off with your painting work, you've got this beautiful style that blends the real with the whimsical and sometimes macabre. How do decide what you're adding into these images? And how do you relate them? Is this process heavily planned out or do you just sort of dive in? With the paintings, I usually choose a selfie (I take reference pics for later use almost daily) and have an inkling of an idea, and then dive into my elaborately organized Pinterest boards for inspiration. I pull reference from a ton of sources and as I do, they just sort of fuse with the portrait in my head. I will create a reference image, combining Photoshop mockups, Procreate sketches, pencil and paper renderings, color studies, and then grid the canvas and transfer the final sketch that way, redrawing the whole thing so I can make changes in the moment if I need to. I then paint until I’m happy with it, sometimes changing nothing from the original idea, and sometimes transforming the original intent into something completely different. I always choose my canvas and media before I choose what I want to paint. I like to see the surface and materials I’m going to be painting with in my head as I’m generating ideas so I can visualize the final piece on the actual surface. I’m primarily drawn to using natural elements in my work - fungi, insects, small creatures like bats and birds, and fusing them directly with me, either crawling on, coming in, growing out of... I like to see it as me figuring out my place in the world, where I fit, how I fit, if I fit. I try not to ascribe too much direct symbolism to the elements I include in each painting as I’m working, working on intuition and going back and analyzing the finished piece like I’m looking at it from outside myself when it is complete. The naming process is important as well - after reflection on the finished piece I take some time to research each element I’ve included - scientifically, spiritually, symbolically, and wait until something clicks. I’m a strong believer that things name themselves (paintings, pets, and people included) and so I do my reading and research and let the painting tell me its name when it’s ready. [It’s really not as woo~woo and vibey as I probably sound, but that’s just what works for me.] 3. Next, I'd like to talk about the work that I got to see a lot of in person and that's these eyes and hands. Eyes are no doubt one of the hardest parts of the human anatomy to paint or draw so what drew you towards using this as a primary subject? How did it develop into these pendants and hand sculptures? What is the process like in creating these because it appears there's multiple mediums at work? Eyes have always been a favorite thing to paint despite how challenging they are (I’m improving gradually!). For the past 6 years I have been the event planner and online marketing manager for 3 paint-your-own pottery studios. I have a lot of unpainted bisque laying around at my house. One night I just got this image in my head of this hand with an eye in the palm, in a black dress with rose print and lace-trimmed sleeves. I happened to have a bisque ring holder in the shape of a life sized hand, and just started painting it with acrylic paint. And I hated it. It was flat and despite being on a 3-dimensional surface, it was still too lifeless for me. I took some air dry clay I had on hand and sculpted the eye, assuming it wouldn’t work, that the clay would just fall off. But it didn’t. After painting it, I added additional elements to make the hand look as “real” as I wanted - false eyelashes from my makeup drawer, lace trim from my sewing kit. Something just clicked, with the eye, the sculptural form, the incorporation of found elements - I feel like I hit on something that really resonated with me. I feel like a staring, realistic eye makes any piece more relatable to people. A ceramic box with centipedes crawling on it might not resonate with many people, but when you add an eye staring back at them, I think the dynamic changes. I set up a challenge for myself - how can I incorporate an eye into every single painted pottery piece I create? I love the challenge of creating a little universe and story for each individual piece. And I love incorporating found elements - shells, twine, hand placed gems and flecks of glass glitter, plastic toys and flowers. 4. What are the big process differences in creating standard paintings versus creating the eye pendants or hands? What are the similarities? With the pottery pieces, I feel like each is part of its own little world, separate from me, like a little stand alone narrative. My paintings, however, kind of all exist together in the same universe, explorations of the same interior landscape of my head. The pottery goes through a different planning process - find the story I want to tell, gather reference, create a life sized sketch, pull together all the found elements, and then paint. I know exactly what they piece is going to look like in my head, so it’s just a matter of taking the steps to make it happen on the piece. There has been some cross over as I learned to mount paintings on paper to canvas and wood panels - I’ve started incorporating the same 3D found elements from the pottery into my final paintings. 5. Are there any new experiments or directions that you plan to take your work? What's on tap for future works? Diving into new mediums including gouache and oil paint has been challenging and exciting, as well as painting much larger than I am usually comfortable with on new surfaces like stretched canvas and cradled wood panels. I am fortunate to have a handy as hell dad with a full in-house wood shop, and we love working on projects together. We have been planning and making custom wood framing for my larger pieces. I’m really enjoying the possibilities that incorporating 3D elements into my paintings opens up - I now have quite the collection of interesting little bits and pieces for use in future projects. Currently I’m working on a series of large canvas portraits in acrylic as well as some smaller watercolor pieces. I have about 5 projects going on and plans for several more in the works. I show both my paintings and pottery locally in the Lehigh Valley area, as well as Philly and NJ several times a year. I have also been working towards creating some public art pieces in Allentown and Bethlehem PA. 6. Finally, PLUGS! Where can people find you? Any shows or events coming up? Let us know anywhere people can find your awesome work! I occasionally live stream on Twitch when I paint, and post edited videos of painting and rambling videos on YouTube. Progress pics are usually posted on Instagram, and news and events are on Facebook. My work (and I) can be found online in the following places: My website and shop: www.jaimeshively.com Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Twitch: JaimeShive YouTube: http://bit.ly/JShiveYouTube