Interview with Kristen Soller
What do you love most about Miami?
I love Miami's atmosphere. I feel like it's an intimate place for being a 'city' and I love its tropical temperature. I could be having a horrible day and I just have to go outside to feel better. I'll take a bike to the water and take in the salty air.
How did you get started?
I have always been interested in art and drawing. I have been drawing for as long as I can remember. I have memories of just scribbling on walls and in books. I would illustrate my life, my future. I would tell stories to my parents about wanting to be a doctor or about my future place. I actually started out drawing really realistically, like people and portraits. Then, in the beginning of college I started doing more abstract things. I would say people I have met influenced me, like when I started dating David (Marsh) whose work is very abstract; he opened me up to that world. I started taking art history classes and learning more about artists that I like, Julie Mehretu, local artists like Liza Sylvestre and I like Louis Bourgeois and the emotional aspect behind her work
You are marrying a fellow artist, David Marsh, how much and in what ways do you influence or inspire each other?
As artists, we are total opposites. I find this advantageous because it's a constant conversation between us because of how easy it is to talk about what we like or don't like certain things. My fiancé was definitely influential in going into abstraction. He taught me that concepts and imagery don't always have to be obvious, that you free your mind more with it.
What are the themes you are exploring in your art now, doing abstract work?
I am still developing my voice right now. The questions I am asking myself as I create these pieces are about femininity. My work looks very feminine. I am questioning what is feminine work and what does it mean to use floral patterns. It is a conversation I have with myself. When I started doodling and developing more I started questioning what is this imagery. I respond by looking to sewing and embroidery and questioning fashion.
Can you elaborate on your work?
I feel like my work is very obsessive. I am trying to break free right now and have looser drawings. It is very meditative. I find it very therapeutic. I though I would become a writer. I used to write a lot of stories and I feel like my drawings have the same kind of meditation as writing. I used to be very into poetry. My obsessive drawings can look cursive in a way and I feel like that is liberating. Now I find that I am trying to move forward even more by making it more abstract and have less distinct lines. I do not write anymore. My drawings are my outlet.
Have you ever considered incorporating text?
I have actually. I think in phrases and stories. I am very much still a writer in my mind yet, when I express myself, it comes out in drawings.
Do you remember which story goes with which piece?
There is one drawing that I have that is very abstract. It has jellyfish in watercolor with very fine lines and I titled it “There is Something Deeper Lurking Underneath” and I had a drawing of a ball of thread and I called it ‘A Little Unraveling Could be Liberating.” A lot of my titles are lines from poems I imagine.
How important is the naming of each piece to you?
Naming is important to me as it is an integral part of each piece. Sometimes my drawings are born from phrases or thoughts in my head while other times titles are my own conscious response to a more unconsciously created drawing. Naming in itself is a conversation with myself about my pieces.
Are your works continuations, like stories and poems, or is each piece separate and conclusive within itself?
I am not sure. A lot of the titles that I have are emotions that I am trying to express and they are all related.
How does it alter your view of a piece if you hear a viewers interpretation at an exhibition and it is completely different from yours?
I love that. That is the beauty of art, have people see other things in your work. At the same time, when I look at my work it is so personal to me. I feel like I hide behind those images at the same time. A lot of times people look at my work and they say they are beautiful drawings. They are so flat and so detailed that people often do not know there was a feeling behind it. People look at art and think it is a way of looking into your emotions and thoughts. That is the interesting thing about abstraction and my work.
What range of emotions do you express in your work? What mood do you have to be in to draw?
My drawings are an outlet when I am frustrated or when I feel like my thoughts are obsessive. The drawing is a release of that. The emotions can be positive and negative. My drawings are mental mappings, in a way. Some people describe them as mandalas but as soon as I start drawing I loose myself in the work. The embroidery especially is such a tedious process that I literally just loose myself in the work which is what I want to achieve. When I look at my work I see the personal conversations with myself and also isolated thoughts that I have had and yet people think they are beautiful. I can appreciate that. That in itself is enough for me.
When did you start incorporating the embroidery?
Very recently. I use thread on paper. I wanted to figure out a way to make the drawings more tangible, more tactile. I started the sewing based on my questions on femininity which then opened up more ideas of fashion and also surface. How can I get underneath the surface. How can I get more personal about it? What I am trying to experiment with is trying to draw people in. The patterns are so interesting. You think it is a repeated pattern but it is hand drawn so there is that personal aspect to it. As I incorporate sewing and the patterns and I think about textiles it definitely opens up a different avenue for me as far as concepts. It makes me think of why people wear certain things and why girls cover themselves and how do people express themselves through fashion and what is underneath all of that. I am thinking of skin and surface. I started making different drawings of fur of different animals like the tiger. This is part of my current experimentation.
Do you separate the left and the right brain, the scientific from the artistic?
Me as a person, I definitely see myself as a right and left brain kind of person. People have said the drawings look scientific because they are so precise. It is a weird conflict because I feel like being so precise is keeping me from being personal. I do not try to replicate but I am interested in the process itself and when I am done and look at it I think “wow that really came together.”
Do you know when a work is finished or do you always feel like you want to continue?
I feel like I can go on forever. I have to force myself to stop or else I could drown in a drawing. Another artist I am looking to for inspiration is Yayoy Kusama. I do not want to achieve her aesthetic but I am interested in her process. She calls it “self-obliteration,” a process of loosing herself in a painting. It is not necessarily about her, it is about something bigger than herself. That is how I feel about my work. I am still trying to discover and develop my voice. I am hungry about fashion and textiles and patterns and embroidery. All of those things I want to incorporate in my work.
How important are colors to you?
Very important. I try to play with different colors and contrasts. Right now, I really like black and reds.
Do you choose colors based on aesthetic or an emotional connection and the characteristics associated with them?
I guess for me it is more about the emotional aspect. Reds are very strong and passionate and black is very bold. I feel like those are the best colors to express myself with at the moment. Even when writing, I love writing in black ink and red ink.
You use a lot of circular shapes. What do you like about circles?
It is part of that meditative process. There is something therapeutic and spiritualistic about it. Your thoughts are a cycle.
Your parents are from the Philippines. Are you inspired by your heritage and do you incorporate it into your art?
That is interesting for an artist who is still developing her voice. My parents never really raised me in the culture so in a way I feel kind of culture-less. I feel kind of whitewashed. My drawings are cold in a way because they are so precise and that may be partly because I do not have a cultural backing and there is not a lot of imagery from my culture in them. I don’t see an influence from that. My drawings are like isolated systems to me, rituals of some sort.
What are you currently working on? Do you have any exhibits coming up?
Not right now. The last one was the “Solar Intuition” group show in Wynwood with David and Brandon Opalka. I am in a period of creating new things.
Open Eyes
Jose Ortega y Gasset
Wynwood Art Walk June 2013
Create Your Own Life
Thomas Merton
Miami Free Art Fridays
Turns out I had an amazing time! Once I was accepted into the Facebook group I followed some leads but it turned out I was either too late or too early yet I remained determined to find something.
Washing Machine Gourmet...
Post title...
An Interview with Magnus Sodamin
How long have you been painting?
Since high school. I am 25 now and I started when I was 17. I always painted when I was a kid visiting my grandmother. She always motivated me a little bit to do something creative.
Where did you grow up?
I was born in New York but I basically spent my childhood in Connecticut. I am of Norwegian and Austrian descent. I have lived here in Miami since I was 13. I like Miami and I consider it home.
Who is Magnus Sodamin?
A multidisciplinary painter, magnifying intimate encounters that embrace his surroundings. The course of each work is alert, exploring the territory between science, spirituality, and natural phenomena, engulfing each moment as that of accepting uncertainty.
Do you have a formal art education?
I went to a science school. I was majoring in science at the time and then I guess I shifted gears. I had an art teacher who kind of became my mentor. He took me under his wing and got me into art and we made some collaborations. When I came to Miami and went to New World.
You are incorporating a new technique of abstract mirror imagery into your paintings
I am using that because there is a symmetry in my work and I was thinking that there is another level of unexpected value in that. I was interested in bringing that out in my floral paintings . In my paintings there are a lot of things people can imagine and there is always going to be that thing that people can dream into. It is another layer of that.
Take us through the steps of your painting process, you start by pouring paint and letting it run?
When color reacts to color in its natural flow the patterns become very natural and also part of the natural world. To me, that process is kind of exciting. I am picking the colors and I am pouring them but the reactions and the color changes are not something I could have predicted. I enjoy that kind of unpredictability. The next step is painting the flowers with a brush but sometimes I like to leave the paintings the way they are. Sometimes the raw ones are like a finished experiment. Sometimes there is no reason to challenge something.
How do you create the texture?
Sometimes the top layer of paint cracks because the paint underneath has not fully dried. Sometimes the paint will crack off my paintings. I do not think that it is a problem. It is part of the life of a painting.
Some of your paintings are more abstract while others are more figurative. Do you move back and forth between the styles or is that a progression?
I am kind of process orientated . There are different processes I get intrigued by and I get really into that. Then I start considering what comes first and what comes after. When I consider before I start making the painting then I find it a lot easier to make the painting. Some paintings might sit for a long time until I come back to them. It just happens, in a way, the natural process of it. I kind of go back and forth through the figurative and abstract elements of it. I feel that there is a balance between the two. You can see some of the abstract in the figurative and some of the figurative in the abstract. I always feel like I am more happy with my abstracts in a way because they stand on their own, they don’t need any reference.
What inspires you the most?
Traveling is the biggest inspiration. When you are away from your regular routine that is when you see the world differently. When I am traveling I feel like I need to get back to the studio though and then, when I am back at the studio, I wish I was still traveling.
What is next on the traveling agenda?
I want to visit Norway again soon and see my grandmother, family and friends so it is important to me to get back there for a bit. Go fishing.
What do you have planned next?
I am mainly in the studio really. I have a couple of commissions that I am working on and I am trying to get ready for the opening of the new Primary Projects space. I want o have work ready. I am trying to push myself further.
Ask, Seek, Find
Jesus
Matthew 7:7
Interview with Andrew Nigon
What defines the art of Andrew Nigon?
Chaos. Incompletion. Temper Tantrums. Christianity. Drag Queens. Circus Side Shows. The Color Pink.
Please share some of your artistic journey with us
While in undergraduate school I began working with clay. I liked the ability to directly affect a material with my hands and not be dependent on tools to manipulate form. I also began molding doll parts that I would assemble to quickly create human figures that would be deconstructed and reassembled. It was in grad school when someone suggested that, if I was interested in working with the human form, I should consider increasing my scale to life-size. Clay no longer seemed practical at this scale so I switched to expandable foam and plastic, but the process never changed. Since then I have continued an exploration of new materials or at least used familiar materials in new ways.
Tell us a bit more about your material experimentations
Experimentation is a way to keep myself on my toes. Once I understand a material I’m able to control it and control is something I aggressively avoid. In the studio, I maintain a process that is purposefully uncomfortable in order to set myself up for mistakes. The trick is to always be a novice with whatever material I am using.
What themes do you explore in your art?
I am trying to come to terms with chaos and unpredictability by finding an aesthetic that celebrates the volatility of the human experience. The further along I go the more I am convinced that God lives within madness instead of being an outside observer. Much of the work has a fractured look to it even in its completed state. This creates a visual situation where it is hard to tell if the piece is unfinished or just falling apart.
You are interested in gender, anthropology and religion. Can you elaborate on what fascinates you about those subjects?
To be more specific, I am interested in exploring various techniques to anthropomorphize the potential necessity for a religious experience. Without specifying any particular faith, I glean specific techniques used in ceremony and iconography that has the power to project divine sensations. More recently my work is focusing, in small part, on the mysterious power of Drag.
You have used casts of your own limbs for sculptures. Does this practice give you a closer connection with your work? Do you feel part of the final piece in a different way when you use yourself as a model?
I feel closeness to all my work and I don’t play favorites with the ones that look like me. What is weird is other people’s reaction to those particular pieces. A lot of people see them as self-portraits, which they are not. I think of them more as me’s in Halloween Costumes. Yes we look alike, but they are pretending to be someone/something else and there is a separation in that.
What is your balloon series “Knew Normal” about?
It’s the morning after. It’s about hangover and the heaviness of awkward regret. “Knew Normal” is an ongoing series that I have been exploring for a few years now. I started out filling balloons with expandable foam and tying them off. For the first day the foam expands, growing the balloon, but then, right before the foam sets, it shrinks slightly. This makes the latex wrinkle a little and the balloons start to look like old skin. There is a sadness to them when they hang in large groups but they are beautiful and peaceful as well. All good things come to an end, but the good news is that all bad things come to an end as well. Normal only exists in the past.
What else are you currently working on?
An eighteen-foot tall giraffe that is a companion piece to a life-sized elephant I made in 2010.
Happiness
FACIAL
HOMEMADE FACIAL MASK
EYESHADOW
EYESHADOW
Kerala Ayurveda Academy Community News
Interview with Rebeca Raney
Rebeca Raney’s world is filled with fantasy. The New York based artist creates characters inspired by her imagination as well as flora and fauna. She brings them to life via delicate, whimsical drawings and larger than life resin sculptures. Following the success of her Art Basel Miami Beach solo show last December and a collaboration with clothing line Madewell in 2012 Raney talks about her art, new plans for 2013 and her secret to happiness.
Share some of your journey as an artist
I have always made art and done so very happily. It was natural for me to attend consecutive art schools after high school. I first went to RISD for my BFA and then to SVA for my MFA. I take jewelry classes at FIT. Education plays significantly in my journey as an artist.
How would you describe your aesthetic sensibilities?
I appreciate craftsmanship. My drawings can be quick or detailed...I just make certain that the paper is of the highest quality. I have a deep enjoyment of using the best materials. Colorful things make me happy but so does quirky imagery.
The need to work expediently inspires my delicate drawings. I strive for an economy of line when it comes to drawing the figure. I also can get very lost in my drawing and that gives me a meditative satisfaction.
Do you make up stories for the characters you create?
I absolutely make up stories for the characters that I draw. Sometimes they are not explicit or overt but I think about them a lot and consider them to be sentient beings who are thoughtful in their own right. Many contemporary overtly CUTE works are all about the surface. They seem not to have a brain. I like Hello Kitty very much but I don't think she is really thinking a lot or working on her difficult relationship with My Melody.
Which characters do you turn into sculptures?
I choose to make sculptures from the drawings that most interest me. If I am curious about what the back of something might be like or how gravity will impact a piece I will consider making it in three dimensions.
The faces of the sculptures are often covered in intricate embroidery. What appeals to you about the embroidery?
Embroidery is an excellent way to express the emotional quality of the character. It is a very pretty rash that spreads over the sculpture's face. Sometimes, people are into the embroidery exclusively and don't need the clunk and fuss of the character. But the character needs the embroidery.
You create a world of happiness with your art. What is your secret to happiness?
Happiness has a great deal to do with doing precisely what you want. I am a person without faith and religion and so I concentrate on my time in this life on doing exactly what I want. Figuring this out is not always a happy experience. Once I hit on art making and making the kind of drawings and sculptures that I wanted to it was easy to allow my characters to wallow in and evoke pure joy. Happiness is designing your own life.
What are some of the latest projects you have been working on?
I'm collaborating on a line of jewelry with La Selva, an incredible clothing line that uses indigenous Mayan textiles to create gorgeous women's ready-to-wear.
You had a solo show during Art Basel Miami Beach in December. How has that impacted your career?
That show was emblematic of many. many months of the hardest work I have ever done. It allowed me to recognize that I am very capable. I understand that I am making the best work of my career.
Do you have any other news you would like to share?
I'm moving my studio to a wonderful, large space in Brooklyn. I plan to document the new work that I make there on www.raneytown.com.
BEAUTY TRENDS
The Best Beauty Trends from Fall 2013 Fashion Month
Fall 2013 Fashion Month has come and gone, and through the New York, London, Milan, and Paris runway shows, we were just as focused on the beauty looks as we were on the fashion. From minimalist makeup to vibrant hints of color to twisted, statement-making tresses, we've combed through the collections to bring you the very best beauty trends of the season.
Braided Ladies
GET YOUR GRILL ON
Get Your Grill On
Nothing says summer quite like an outdoor grill-out. Whether you're holding a chic soirée on a rooftop or enjoying a laid-back poolside evening, spice up your next get-together with this delicious unique burger recipe courtesy of Delish for vegetarians and meat-lovers alike, all perfect for warm-weather.
Crab Cake Burger
Ingredients
1 pound(s) crabmeat
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
2 tablespoons minced chives
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon celery seed
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
4 dashes hot sauce, such as Tabasco, or to taste
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
Directions
Mix crab, egg, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, chives, mustard, lemon juice, celery
seed, onion powder, pepper and hot sauce in a large bowl. Form into 6 patties.
Heat oil and butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until the butter stops foaming. Cook the patties until golden brown, about 4 minutes per side.
