TL;DR

Riftbound TCG, the new League of Legends card game, doesn’t just play well — it looks phenomenal. With original illustrations from Riot’s veteran artists and Fortiche (of Arcane fame), Riftbound captures the heart of Runeterra in bold, expressive, and stylized visuals. Champion cards like Yasuo, Jinx, Viktor, and Ahri are not only powerful on the battlefield, but literal works of art. Whether you’re playing or collecting, Riftbound is already shaping up to be a must-own visual collectible TCG. Here’s a deep look at how Riot is using art to make this game unforgettable.

🎨 A League of Art Legends

League of Legends has always been known for its high-caliber artwork — from splash illustrations and cinematic trailers to the art direction of Arcane. With Riftbound TCG, Riot isn’t recycling digital assets or cutting corners. Every card in the Origins set features brand-new, original art, created by celebrated League of Legends artists and visual teams that include Fortiche Production, the animation studio behind Arcane.

This means players and collectors can expect:

• Unique character portrayals that don’t appear anywhere else in the League universe

• Full-art and alternate-art cards with visually distinct treatments

• Custom card frames, icons, and rarity indicators designed around each champion’s theme

🖼️ The Champion Cards: A Study in Style

Let’s take a closer look at what makes these cards so visually compelling.

Yasuo – The Unforgiven

The Yasuo card previewed by Riot features:

• A wind-swept pose, backlit with swirling energy

• Ornate Ionian patterns embedded in the gold frame

• Symbolic icons representing his region and class

• A clear, elegant text box with thematic font choices

It’s not just gameplay-ready — it’s gallery-worthy.

Viktor – Herald of the Arcane

Viktor’s card includes:

• Fortiche-style animation shading

• A dark cyber-blue palette layered with tech-inspired sigils

• References to his Zaunite origins and tech-based summons

• A visible credit to “Fortiche Production” in the art frame

This transparency in artist crediting is a big move in TCGs and demonstrates respect for the illustrators who are elevating Riftbound’s identity.

Jinx – Chaotic Icon

Her Champion Deck box alone is a visual explosion:

• Graffiti-inspired accents

• Bold color shifts from pink to purple

• Oversized comic-style expressions on the sides

• Jinx herself, front and center, cackling with a rocket in hand

The card art itself mirrors her gameplay: loud, vibrant, and unpredictable.

🧬 Thematic Design Through Card Frames

Unlike most card games where all cards share the same frame, Riftbound’s card borders and layouts change based on the champion’s faction, personality, or combat style. This dynamic approach makes each deck feel like its own mini art exhibit.

Some examples:

• Ionian champions have flowing, nature-inspired accents

• Zaun and Piltover decks incorporate tech, steel, and circuitry

• Demacian frames look regal and knightly

• Noxian cards lean into jagged, aggressive shapes and crimson tones

This level of visual detail reinforces the lore and identity of each region — an art direction approach rarely seen in TCGs.

🃏 Foils, Alternate Art, and Collectible Appeal

Riftbound goes heavy on the foils — every booster pack includes three foil cards, and booster boxes average 6 or more Epic-rarity cards, plus at least 1–2 alternate-art chase cards.

Confirmed collectible features:

• Full-art variants of popular champions

• Possible Arcane-style alt-arts

• Shiny foils across all rarities

• Signature finishes and region-themed embellishments

If you love binder pages full of shimmer, or want a displayable copy of your main champion, Riftbound’s set will deliver that and more.

🖌️ Art-Forward Product Packaging

Riftbound’s art commitment doesn’t stop at the cards — even the boxes are beautiful.

Booster Box:

• Front panel features Jinx, Yasuo, and Ahri in full-color poses

• Side flaps show characters like Teemo and Miss Fortune

• Riftbound branding framed by intricate sigils

• Designed for both retail presence and collector display

Champion Decks:

Each deck comes with:

• Custom art of the champion on the box

• Matching themed playmat

• Custom printed deck box

• Holographic accents and bright gold edgework

Even unopened, these products look amazing on a shelf or table.

🖍️ For Art Lovers, Cosplayers, and Collectors Alike

If you love LoL’s splash art or are a fan of Arcane’s visuals, Riftbound TCG is:

• A portable gallery of champion expressions

• A new medium to collect and celebrate LoL characters

• A cosplay reference goldmine, especially for new poses and outfits

• A game where art is as much the point as gameplay

And if you’re someone who frames your favorite MTG or Pokémon cards, these are right up your alley.

🔗 Where to Buy Riftbound (and Own the Art)

You can pre-order Riftbound TCG right now, including all the visually rich products mentioned above:

• 🎨 Booster Box – Riftbound: Origins

• 💥 Champion Deck – Jinx

• 🧪 Champion Deck – Viktor

• 🥋 Champion Deck – Lee Sin

• 🏟️ Proving Grounds Box Set (4 Decks)

Final Thoughts: Riftbound Is an Art Piece Disguised as a Card Game

Riftbound TCG isn’t just Riot’s attempt to break into tabletop games — it’s their chance to curate a new collectible experience that merges gameplay and aesthetic beauty. Whether you’re in it for the meta or the visuals, Riftbound brings the League of Legends world to life in spectacular cardboard fashion.

For art fans, collectors, and those who believe cards should be beautiful — this game is your next obsession.

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Against a dark, monochromatic background, a figure appears. Wearing a distinctly red robe and not much else, their gaze is penetrative, their hand on their chest evokes an equally surprising look back at the viewer in return. The red halo around the person, as if a reflection from the clothes, adds mystery to the work, yet it gives nothing away. But while all these representational elements certainly inform the painting and add to the public’s possible interpretation of it, what struck me is the exquisite brushwork. The character’s face, the single stroke that comes to define their lip and thus the whole facial expression, the poignant white around the pupils. The way all these movements come together in perfect harmony to create poetry that is this painting.

Fly In League With The Night

It’s hard to believe none of the people in some 80 paintings in this exhibition are real. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (born 1977 in London) combines drawings, found images and imagination to give life to ambiguous characters based on these visual notes. Stemming from the artist’s scrapbook, they appear in everyday scenes, in intimate and timeless moments, becoming somebody and nobody at the same time. It is precisely because these people could be any people that we can relate to them so deeply. This is also why this artist is finally in the spotlight she deserves, amid the rise of figurative painting on the international art scene.

Indeed, that very first portrait I saw in this show is a great example of Yiadom-Boakye’s practice as a whole, which we can describe it as a threefold one.

There is the figure depicted, based on a color, a movement, or a gesture. These characters are usually depicted resting, observing, or dancing, in an intimate conversation. Sometimes there is nothing or very little accompanying them on canvas (or linen). The backdrop is usually dark, almost the same hue as the characters’ skin. Sometimes there is an animal, or an endless landscape – all designed to ignite our imagination and have us write out their stories ourselves.

I mention “writing” here on purpose, because aside from being visual narratives, Yiadom-Boakye’s artworks are also poetry, prose. According to the artist, fiction and narration are both profoundly present. “I write about the things I can’t paint and paint the things I can’t write about,” she says. The exhibition title itself, “Fly In League With The Night,” is taken from a poem by the artist, written especially for this presentation. The titles of the paintings can be seen as extensions of the prose, she says, as additional brushstrokes on the picture plane. And so, we have painting titles such as “Repurposed for Songs,” or “No Such Luxury,” or “A Passion Like No Other,” again providing very little actual context to the work and asking us to do it instead.

Finally, there is the act of painting itself. Yiadom-Boakye explores the potential of color, composition, light and tone, improvising in a conversation between paint, brush, and canvas. The paintings are generally dark in color palette, with palpable, thick strokes that examine the way the human eye perceives color. Because of that, and the way the artworks were lit inside Moderna Museet, I explored different points of view of each work, each angle giving me something I hadn’t seen before. Additionally, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye never uses a ready-made black, but instead mixes blues and browns to capture all the nuances and hues – something which can be seen in many of the paintings on display, if you pay enough attention.

Almost always, as well, there is a single or couple of elements that stand out in the paintings. Sometimes it’s a brightly painted piece of clothing, other times it’s the whiteness of a cigarette, or the subject’s teeth, or the redness of a parrot.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at Moderna Museet Stockholm

A contemporary artist, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye obtained her MA degree at the Royal Academy Schools in 2003. In 2010, the late curator Okwui Enwezor gave her an exhibition at Studio Museum in Harlem. In 2013, she was shortlisted for the Turner Prize. The exhibition “Fly In League With The Night,” which was previously shown at Tate Modern in London (December 2020-May 2021), is the most extensive survey of the artist’s career to date.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s Wikipedia page states that “her work has contributed to the renaissance in painting the Black figure.” While “painting the Black figure” certainly isn’t a new phenomenon, I would argue that it is one pushed by the mechanisms behind today’s contemporary art market. The white Western contemporary art canon has been showing an interest in Black figurative painters that center Black people in their work. It is a phenomenon that perhaps did start before the Black Lives Matter movement’s 2020 protests, but was definitely pushed by it into the mainstream.

As usual, the two sides of the mainstream coin will show again here: the Black painters will finally benefit from it by getting the spot within it that they deserve, but are also in risk of being forever referred to as “painters of Black figuration” instead of just “painters of figuration.”

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is not new to this business. In my opinion, her work is in no need of contributing to anything. Perhaps the artist’s own quote is best explains this view:

“Blackness has never been other to me. Therefore, I’ve never felt the need to explain its presence in the work anymore than I’ve felt the need to explain my presence in the world, however often I’m asked. I’ve never liked being told who I am, how I should speak, what to think and how to think it. I’ve never needed telling.”

“Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Fly In League With The Night” is on view at Moderna Museet in Stockholm, Sweden until September 19, 2021.

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Artiholics caught up with the artist.

You’ve been in the international news during the pandemic. Can you tell us about it? 

When lockdown started my work was due to go to the Tate for an art festival. The pandemic prevented this. Whilst at home in isolation I decided to fight back, so I began putting on impromptu exhibitions in my back garden.

Because of my disability, my teenage kids would help me install and inflate the sculptures. My neighbours started hanging out of their windows to see this exhibition appear over the garden wall, and even the local ‘bin men’ shouted over the fence that they loved the work. One of my neighbour’s young daughters, Florence, would draw me in my garden with the sculptures, which she would then post through the letterbox. This had such a huge impact on me. A little bit of magic in the bleakest time.

I then started to get interviews requests from newspapers in Germany and then TV companies arrived at my door. In lockdown, this attention had a regenerative effect on me and lifted me to create new art, in new ways. I never stopped working, as you can’t put breaks on the creative process. The attention I received seemed to boost this exponentially.

The 10ft tall, colour changing and illuminated ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ inflatable is a stunning example of your work – what’s its story? 

In 1963 the Ray Harryhausen film was released ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ and when I came along in 1969, my parents named me after this illustrious and dynamic hero. I was always intrigued by my name and where it came from. When I found out more about the story of the ‘other’ Jason and his voyage, where he set out to find the finest heroes in ancient Greece to set sail with him and reclaim the magical Golden Fleece, it fitted in well with what I was attempting to do with my art practice.

I had stopped making art just about myself and started to focus on making art about others in the disabled community, and making a conscious decision to make art with and about them.

I was attracted to the idea of replicating a great heroic voyage of discovery where I was collecting stories, which I would then reflect on and make art about.

I am very much a reluctant disability activist, although I choose to use humour and psychedelic colours to get my points across. The works I created are influenced by my working-class childhood, in Yorkshire, in the 1970s.

The surface of this sculpture is covered with the iconography of my own life and the stories which have been shared with me. It is also richly adorned by the names of all who have taken part in my work and my travels around the UK, working with deprived disabled communities.

I am not a spokesperson for these communities, I am just an artist who chooses to make these statements, to make art about those I feel some connection with.

I love the fact that this sculpture is linked so closely with my biography and with those I choose to work with also.

When people ask what my work is about I simply answer that it lies somewhere between the British children’s comic book ‘The Beano’ and the social commentary film ‘I, Daniel Blake’. Don’t be fooled by the bright colours, as the work is a trojan horse (or even a trojan sheep) in that the viewer is pulled in and then I can discuss the complex hidden stories.

And there’s an even bigger inflatable on the way?

Yes, there is a huge inflatable sculpture on the way, which will be unveiled at my solo show at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre in October. The sculpture is so big that it will allow the viewer to walk in and around it.

It shows a prone figure who is brightly coloured and highly decorated with tattoos, each with a significant meaning. I have designed it so that you will continue to find different things, regardless of how many times you view the work.

The figure represents a disabled person who is being changed on the floor, as they cannot access proper toilet facilities.

I wanted to create an accessible piece of work that told this story whilst being careful not to preach. Being angry does not work for me when making art, and I think the best approach is to get people on side by making them smile or even laugh first. It is meant to be absurd and provocative.

You use AR a lot in your work and have an iOS app, ‘Jason Residential’. Can you describe this work for us?

Most of my sculptures link to an augmented reality app, so I can animate and move the work and unlock further content, which adds to the sculptural work and is a piece of art in its own right.

Technology has democratised my art and allowed people to download my sculptures into their own living rooms or gardens. I get photos from people who have downloaded my virtual sculptures and it fills my heart with joy, especially when I was so isolated in lockdown. The technology set me free.

The ‘Residential’ app allows you not only to download my work but virtually walk around my head and see the creative process. Think of the film ‘Being John Malkovich’ but in digital form, as the app fully immerses the viewer.

Through the AR I can extend my practice by integrating my love of 1970s animation and popular culture, using the most up to date and cutting edge technology.

In lockdown, I loved the idea of the 70s movie ‘The Phantom Tollbooth’ as I wanted to escape the four walls I was trapped in because of the pandemic. I wanted to create magical portals, just like the tollbooth, through which you could see movies and animated characters who acted as strange and magical gatekeepers to this wonderful new work.

This unique approach was adopted by SHAPE Arts and developed by Hot Knife Digital Media to create the app Unfolding Shrines, giving a creative space to other disabled artists around the world. It effectively became a virtual artist AirBnB. 

What’s coming up?

I have a new sculpture being unveiled as part of the prestigious Folkestone Triennial in July and in August I am releasing my first virtual reality video game, which is going to be housed at Shire Hall Courthouse Museum in Dorset.

In September I will be taking part in a SKY Arts tv programme, but I can’t say too much about that yet, and I am unveiling two new inflatable sculptures. In October my work is going to be shown at 20-21 Visual Arts Centre in Scunthorpe. This will be so exciting as I get to unveil my largest ever sculpture.

Is there anything else you’d like to share? 

‘The Argonauts on Tour’ is showing across the UK in 2022 and is available to tour to venues internationally. If you are interested in showing the work, then please contact me at Jason@jwmartist.co.uk.

You can also see more of my work at my website www.jwmartist.co.uk and on my Instagram account wilshermills.

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My mother, Joycelyn Erho Calande, was an artist so art has always been part of my life. Going to museums, galleries and art shows was nothing foreign to me. I have always enjoyed “creating” so by the time high school was wrapping up it was pretty clear to me I wanted to pursue art professionally in some capacity. I ended up attending the oldest art school in the U.S., The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. At the time, at age 17 and fresh out of high school,  I was the youngest to ever be admitted. It was an intense 4 year art program focusing on drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture. By the time I was finishing college, I was doing commission work, showing in some Philadelphia area galleries and entering shows. 

 

 

I’ve never been big on having my art “say something”, that’s what books are for. That’s not to say there’s never a hidden (or not so hidden) message in some works. But mostly I feel as artists we are creating something unique, a different way to see and express something visually, we are sharing pieces of ourselves. Sometimes a pretty picture is just a pretty picture. And I think that’s where artists excel. We make the world a more beautiful and more interesting place. At least most of the time. 

What is your experience with the Chuck Jones Center for Creativity?

I’ve been a longtime collector of animation art. Specifically the original production art used to create the original Looney Tunes / Merrie Melodie cartoons. I’ve always loved the art form. Many of those animators were also fine artists themselves. I was lucky enough to meet Chuck Jones (and the Jones family) on many occasions as well as some of the other animation artists like Maurice Noble, Pete Alvarado, Marc Davis, Eyvind Earle and others. What I loved about meeting Chuck Jones is that he always made sure you left with more knowledge than which you came. After visiting Chuck’s gallery many times over many years, I began to participate in their annual Red Dot Art Auction. Artists from all over the world donate 12 x 12 inch works of art for a silent fund raising auction. The Chuck Jones Center for Creativity uses the money to offer art and creativity programs to people of all ages, but especially to the young and old. I believe September of 2021 will be the 11th Red Dot Auction and I’ve participated in almost every one, missing only a year or two. This year I’ll be donating 2 works of art….or maybe 3, we’ll see. But the auction brings two of my loves together, Looney Tunes and art. It makes me happy that my work not only raises money for a good cause but it’s nice to know the auction winners are living with my artwork, giving it a home, and enjoying it. Hopefully for some, those little 12 x 12 works will become treasured family heirlooms and bring decades of joy. At the very least my little paintings will hopefully bring some color and life to yet another bare and sterile wall in this world. 

 

 

How is the Covid-19 influencing your Art? How did you use the quarantine time?

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Now imagine taking a stroll in a park – let’s say the Morningside Park in Upper Manhattan – and seeing a large sculpture of a reclining figure. Instead of Buddha, however, reclining on the grass is Liberty herself.

Part of NYC Parks’ Art in the Parks program, “Reclining Liberty” is a piece by Harlem-based artist Zaq Landsberg. It is a plaster resin sculpture of the quintessential American figurative symbol, resting with her eyes closed. The materials she was made of are sturdy enough to support anyone who would climb, sit atop, or lean up against her. If you ever wanted to see and interact with Liberty, now is your chance; especially since the copper paint and an oxidizing acid really make it look like the actual Statue.

Morningside Park’s Reclining Liberty

The symbolisms behind the artwork are many: Landsberg intentionally combines the traditional Buddhist iconography with that of New York and the United States at large, questioning the ideals that the Statue of Liberty represents. The artist also considers the meaning and significance of monuments, America’s relationship with its own history, and the way certain aspects of it have been celebrated to the exclusion, and even detriment, of a large part of its own people. “Reclining Liberty” could also be perceived as a symbol of a country succumbing to a grueling pandemic, in which even the tallest of statues can be worn down.

Is Liberty simply tired from all the challenges of the contemporary moment? Aren’t we all?

About Zaq Landsberg

Zaq Landsberg specializes in large scale, site-specific sculpture that is often installed outdoors. Much of his work, by his own admission, involves “things that look like other things” – for instance, his “Peshmerga Fighting Vehicle” from 2017 is a replica of a real-life truck used by the military forces in Kurdistan, while the 2014 installation “SkyWatch” is an eerie, spider-like NYPD watch tower. He is also the creator of the “Republic of Zaqistan”, a two-acre piece of land in the American West.

Landsberg’s interest in the concept of monuments extends beyond “Reclining Liberty,” through artworks dealing with visual representations of historical figures such as Robert E. Lee and Christopher Columbus. This is also the second time the artist used the Statue of Liberty in his art: it follows the 2012 project titled “Face of Liberty”, in which half of her head was emerging from the Governors Island.

You can visit Zaq Landsberg’s “Reclining Liberty” in Morningside Park, near the West 120th Street and Morningside Avenue entrance to the park, until April 2022.

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To hear the phrase “the first woman to” do or become something is unfortunately quite common nowadays, and while the road to equality is still long, we salute those who help pave it.

We are also nevertheless very happy for Laurence des Cars, the first woman to lead The Louvre in Paris in its 228-year-long history. She was appointed on May 26, 2021 by the French President Emmanuel Macron, and will assume her position at the realm of world’s most visited museum on September 1.

While the name of Laurence des Cars only just became familiar to many, this experienced art historian has been around for a while. Born in 1966 to journalist and writer Jean des Cars, she studied art history at the Sorbonne and École du Louvre. Her first position as curator was at the Musée d’Orsay, of which she has also been President since 2014, along with the much smaller Musée de l’Orangerie since 2017. From 2007 to 2014, she was in charge of Agence France-Muséums, the French government body behind the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Des Cars is a specialist in 19th- and early-20th-century painting. As a teacher at École du Louvre, she organized many exhibitions for various museums, including the traveling show on Edward Burne-Jones (1998-99), Gustave Courbet (2007-08), and Jean-Léon Gérôme (2010-11).

During her time as head of Musée d’Orsay, Laurence des Cars oversaw the acclaimed 2019 exhibition “Black models: from Géricault to Matisse,” which looked at the representation of Black figures in visual arts, from the abolition of slavery in France (1794) to the modern day. The museum is also the first French venue of its kind to voluntarily return a Nazi-looted painting to its rightful owners.

“My heart beat much faster,” des Cars said to France Inter, after learning about her new role from the culture minister, Roselyne Bachelot, on May 23. She will be replacing the museum’s leader of the past eight years, Jean-Luc Martinez, who will now serve as a special ambassador for international co-operation on cultural heritage. According to a statement from the French culture ministry, Des Cars pledged to extend The Louvre’s opening hours in order to attract younger visitors, and to foster “a dialogue between ancient art and the contemporary world,” which will be particularly interesting to see, given that The Louvre has been a “classical” art museum under Martinez’s leadership.

In an interview with The New York Times, des Cars expressed her excitement to be the first female president-director of The Louvre. “Things are really changing for women in the museum world. Of the 70 curators in the Louvre, more than half of them are women. More women are heading museums, especially in Europe. And younger women are much more confident these days,” she said.

Although he grew the museum’s attendance to over 10 million a year, the previous Director Jean-Luc Martinez was criticized for a few decisions, including the Louvre’s partnership with the Uniqlo brand for a merchandize line, or the one with Airbnb, which allowed a couple to spend a night in the museum.

The Louvre Museum is a state-owned venue with the annual budget of about $291 million and more than 2,000 employees. Despite the fact that the attendance plunged by 72 percent to 2.7 million in 2020 during the pandemic, it is still the most visited – and the largest – art museum in the world.

As reported by The Guardian and the French Culture Ministry, about 67 percent of the country’s national museums are headed by women. Laurence des Cars will be joining the company of Catherine Chevillot, Director of the Musée Rodin, Tatyana Franck at the Élysée museum, and Sophie Makariou, President of the Musée Guimet.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/laurence-des-cars-named-louvre-director
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/26/arts/design/louvre-laurence-des-cars.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/26/louvre-appoints-laurence-des-cars-as-first-female-president

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Please tell us a little about where you are from? And what is your background as an artist? 

I was born in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, USA. It’s a suburb on the Southern side of Pittsburgh. My family rented three rooms on the upper floor of a house there. When I was eleven years old, we moved across the river to Dravosburg, which is yet another suburb on the Southern side of Pittsburgh. We lived in the projects there, and that’s where I lived until I left school.

During the time I was a boy, the steel industry was in full blossom. Everywhere around you, one was surrounded by fire, earthen ores, molten metal, lots of smoke, big machines and industrial noises.  It was really sexy. Today I still love to visit old factories and railroad yards with heavy equipment and huge machines.   

In Pittsburgh, there was some sort of philanthropic program that identified young, artistically inclined students in public school. Through that program, I attended fine art classes at Carnegie Institute for several years, and then later at Carnegie-Mellon University. I studied at CMU at night and on weekends throughout my high school years.  Later, I enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University in Boston.   

Carnegie-Mellon was a very classical fine art program. Hours and years spent drawing bottles and human anatomy. The Museum School on the other hand, was the exact opposite. No rules and run with scissors as fast as you can. In fact, pick up some knives and razor blades while you’re at it. It was a change of direction that electrified me.

So you can say that I had a fairly rich academic start to my practice. I’m really grateful to the instructors that I had. I’ve been working in my studio and exhibiting as much as I can ever since. Besides all of that art school stuff, I have two degrees in Electrical Engineering. Who would have known? I actually chose my engineering major based on a sculptural project I was thinking about using electro-magnetism. I could have used a good life coach when I was young.

The academics had value, but the art seed germinates only once you come to terms with the “why” of your practice.

What made you want to become an artist?

Well, since so much of my youth was spent in art school in one way or another, I was very comfortable in an artist’s skin right from the start. There wasn’t a someone or a something that triggered it all for me. I had my artistic heroes and sheroes, but I think it’s more that art gives me a vehicle to think deeply about things.  I become very mentally invested in certain ideas and concepts. Painting is my way of sorting it all out. Actually, my studio practice is a sort of neurosis of mine. You might call it an addiction or even a compulsion.  It’s something I feel that I have to do, something I’m driven to do. If I spend too much prolonged time away from working, I just feel a bit undone. It’s always been that way for me. 

Is there name/category for the kind of art you create?

Because of the materials that I use, my work has been referred to as Haute Pâte, or Matter Painting. There was a time, say maybe ten years ago, when the way I was using the material aptly fit that description. Nowadays, I can’t say that I agree or disagree with those labels.  I am using the Earth as a painting medium but the way that I’m using it is dry rather than some material mixed with paint. Does that qualify as Haute Pâte? It’s thick, gravely stuff affixed to the surface. There are probably people who feel very specific about those terms. As far as I know, I’m unique in what I’m doing.

If we talk about my subject matter, I’m interested in consciousness, and I approach that through metaphysics, physics, and spirituality. The images are mostly abstract, I think.  Sometimes even primitive. Abstract is more real than real, when you’re trying to ask hard questions, in my opinion.

Often there is a message behind art. What is the message behind your art?

When looking at one of my paintings, you’re sharing a snapshot of a moment of time of my stream of consciousness. Maybe that’s more like a babbling brook. You will literally see what I was thinking about at the time I painted the piece. It will have notes, formulae, lyrics, glyphs and so on that are relevant to the topic that I was analyzing and unpacking at the time. The paintings do not read literally though. The composition itself dictates what stays and what is erased. When I watch people looking at my work in the gallery, I’ll catch them trying to read the painting or identify the math. That makes me laugh to myself. There is no secret message to unlock.

Do you have a targeted audience for your art?

That’s a really interesting question. I’ve never thought about a target audience. Now that you bring it up, it’s possible that I’m painting just for myself. The target audience is me!  Isn’t that funny? I should send myself a survey to see how I feel about it. I haven’t noticed that my work is collected by any single sort of demographic. The most frequent feedback that I hear is that “it just makes me feel good.”  I can’t think of a higher compliment, actually.

You state in your artist statement that your body of work is also an attempt to tap into the core of human experience. Can you tell us more what you mean by that? What do you see as the core of human experience? 

It’s a somewhat contrarian view these days, but I think that no matter where you’re from, when you’re from, no matter your race, sex, or culture, people are pretty much the same once we strip off the learned beliefs that end up creating otherwise arbitrary differences.  Sometimes we choose to pick up and carry a flag for those differences, but at the core we’re basically the same. We are Humans, all of us together, motivated ultimately only by love or fear.

If you allow the assertion that we all share a common inherent “humanness,” then at a primal level we all experience the universe in the same way. Because I’m an artist, I’ll give you an example by way of what happens when we see something.

We tend to experience symbols and glyphs in the same primal way no matter who we are.  You can in fact observe this when you look at the ways that ancient cultures, separated by distance and time, used common graphical symbols. A cross, a figure eight, a spiral, curves vs. angles and so on work the same in one place in space and time as they do in another.  We see with our human mind, not with our eyes.  

Looking at this a bit more deeply, it would seem that our minds are connected at a core, root level. Think of islands in the sea. The islands are separated on the surface of the water, but underneath the sea they’re connected through the same Earth. You and me are islands, but we’re connected. A collective, consensus humanness. Interestingly, developments in quantum physics seem to be touching upon the mathematics that identifies how this happens at a quantum level. Physics is affirming metaphysics. So, to answer your question more directly, it’s possible that we are all that there is. At least as far as we’ll ever be concerned. That deserves looking at.

Are you currently working on new artworks?

Always! Constantly! Feet don’t fail me now.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m sort of driven in my studio practice. I’m running a race that never finishes. I started working on this series that I call “Multiverse” around the beginning of the year. This is looking at the ideas around parallel universes. I think there’s still some distance to travel with that, unless a new shiny penny comes my way.

Looking to the future, what are any upcoming projects and art exhibitions that you have? 

I’ve got a few of the early Mulitiverse pieces at the gallery in Atlanta. I’d like to exhibit a larger body of that work sometime this year, but at the moment there’s nothing scheduled for that. My next solo show on the books is in 2022.

On the horizon, I’m thinking about the role of consciousness in the creation of physical reality. I’ve been reading about string theory for some time, and especially the areas of math that involve the presence or absence of an observer. I’m having fun with that and I think there’s enough brain food in that topic that will lead to something soon for me. Then there’s a life/afterlife thing that I’m noodling on too. We’ll see what happens.

COVID-19 has impacted so many parts of our lives. How did Covid-19 impact your work?

You know what, I don’t think it impacted my work at all. I feel a bit odd saying that out loud, but that’s the honest answer.  

I spend eighty percent of every day alone, working in the same room. The social isolation is what my daily routine was anyway. I do miss going out and spending time with friends like I used to, but my work hasn’t changed because of Covid.  Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?

I’m an open book. Drop me a line.

Bob Landström’s Website

Instagram: @boblandstrom

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To see these masterpieces, you can to the MoMA or the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam – or you can see them projected in 90 million pixels across 500,000 cubic feet of a visual experience. Immersive Van Gogh, a digital art exhibition devoted to the Dutch master, is touring around the world with numerous venues in the United States.

Following the sold-out show in Toronto, and record-breaking run in Paris (glimpses of which you can see in Netflix’s show “Emily in Paris”), “Immersive Van Gogh” opened this May at a secret location in Los Angeles.

One of the most important artists in the history of visual arts, Vincent van Gogh developed a remarkable, memorable painterly style, drawing from his long history with mental illness combined with his unique sense of the world around him. His incredible swirls of colors and attention to detail continue to dazzle audiences around the world, now culminating in the “Immersive Van Gogh” experience. The visitors are able to “step inside” Van Gogh’s masterpieces, carefully selected from his 2000+ lifetime catalog of artworks, and accompanied by light, music, movement, and imagination.

Conceived as a one-hour walkthrough exhibition, “Immersive Van Gogh” was designed by Creative Director and Italian film producer Massimiliano Siccardi, and Art Directed by Vittorio Guidotti. It contains original, mood-setting score by another Italian, multimedia composer Luca Longobardi, that accompanies the Van Gogh artwork as it comes to life before the visitors’ eyes.

Chances are you’ve probably already seen dozens of images of “Immersive Van Gogh” across your socials. The exhibition provides an environment that flawlessly caters to our obsession with social media and the ever-evolving selfie culture (remember Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Room selfies? They were EVERYWHERE). Add to that the ongoing pandemic and our human need to socialize and be part of events, and you got yourself a blockbuster!

The “Immersive Van Gogh” experience has nineteen cities on its North American schedule, with shows already open in Chicago (until November 28, 2021) and San Francisco (until September 6, 2021). The Los Angeles iteration opens on May 27 at a yet undisclosed location “at the heart” of the city. The exhibitions will then open in New York City (June 10), Dallas (June 17), Charlotte, NC (June 18), Las Vegas (July 1), Phoenix, Minneapolis, Houston…

And speaking of the coronavirus, “Immersive Van Gogh” promises a safe space: through timed ticket admission, temperature checks upon arrival, hand sanitizer stations and social distancing markers across the exhibition hall, and of course masks, to be worn at all times.

Tickets for “Immersive Van Gogh” range in prices from $40 for off-peak time slots to $50 for peak ones. You might want to hurry: the first available time slot at the moment is in October!

Immersive Van Gogh LA Website

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You are an artist and you also perform in shows. Which side of the job do you like and enjoy the most?

I like when everything blurs together and it’s a lifestyle versus a job or a show. It is not just painting, not just performing. I like being ongoing. I paint on my face, then I smash the paint into a canvas, then I stack that onto my chest, then I slam it into a wall, while making a song. Then the song inspires me while I’m drawing. I let it all out, non stop. Sleep less/do more. When we dip back into this “human” life of roles and routine we become less in the moment.

You bridged the gap between the Art and Club world in the 90’s; can you tell us more?

I was a naive kid working clubs in ’93 for food money. I drew at all my events, jobs, even when I WAS A D.J. or did the door or ran events. From booking Wutang to Fat Joe, I was still  drawing all the people that came out. I filled sketchbooks and everyone was like YOOOOO! “Why don’t you just show your work?”  and I was like “ whhhhhhat???”

As a kid I had no clue. I grew up struggling and with no art education so the Club world x “my” people put me on, and then I started organizing art shows at the clubs. Once I saw that I could organize I put other people on. I did things every week back then. I was curating in a way, from dance shows, raves, punk, palladium, horrible bars etc but I left all that and moved on into showing and full time artist life around 18, 19 years old.

Your signature line work has made an impact on NYC. Can you tell us some of the details of what that line is and how it impacted NYC?

I don’t think it’s up to the artist to determine if the work impacts anyone. New York City is constantly changing, the lines are fluid and always moving, overlapping, changing, like this crazy place. Everyone has a line of work, I’m just channeling the rhythms  worked on as a kid and what I develop daily now, to hopefully make new language.

The lines developed from growing up here as a coping mechanism, drawing life, faces, places and movement. Everyone’s experience in New York is different. Growing up I was an extreme outsider to art. The line work I developed was without exposure to the art, even though I was born here. This kind of lifestyle is often overlooked in “art” storytelling when we think of NY. I hope we can start to think of other artists from rough areas that made it, but the common story is born into, or came for it???

I was born sick, as a kid I suffered from extreme illnesses and just became known as the kid that stayed inside and drew weird lines. Outsiders come from all over the world to New York to make art. I was an outsider in my own town, I just drew all the time and it took all the other New Yorkers to tell me to look at these drawings, to look at Warhol, that I was an artist and to go see a Chuck Close show. I was a strange street kid- I was always  getting into trouble living by the side of the road. My NYC story is odd, but many can relate; they just don’t all get the chance to speak and I hope that changes in this extreme twisted culture.

How would you define your work, technique, and what your message is behind it?

I work around the clock every day. I’ve always been this way since I was a kid. My focus has been being free, making, making, making- from doing collage, sculptures, drawings, paintings, masks, music, immersing myself. I like to throw paint on my clothes, cakes on my head and do jackass performances. I need to escape the system and all this man made bullshit construct by creating all the time and fully being lost in the moment. I don’t want to conform and be a part of anything.

You say that your paintings are inside paintings, can you explain to us what you mean by that?

I try to create paintings that are not one dimensional. Even if it’s as simple as strange Miss Piggy if you look closer you can see a skull, a flower and an exploding eye, then maybe yourself. I have to compete with life. People are busy. If I’m making work and want people to see, I have to think of my competition, this huge thing called life which has so many pictures.

There are layers into layers, pushed, smushed and splattering all around fields of color that shift, faces inside of worlds and if you move in close you can discover hidden levels. I’m doing my math, drawing from different angles, different foregrounds, and multiple perspectives. It’s not a straightforward story, it’s more like a painted Matthew Silver bit.

What is art for you?

Art to me isn’t described by the word art. It isn’t something in a box, destroyed by intention, it just is. All the rest is just human bullshit, needs and wants. The thing that works is when it transcends into the next dimension.

You opened the Alien X the living installation. What inspired this installation and can you share with us more about it? What is it about?

We just did an installation on our Lower East Side rooftop with the city skyline, and have another one coming up. We recorded the whole thing live and it’s available to watch. www.michaelalanart.com/thelivinginstallation

During our performances we are creating human paintings, that change and melt and transform on our bodies and in space. In short we slap ourselves up with anything you can think of. We create robots, slam materials on our head, scream and transform and meld our skin, wreaking and creating objects, blindfolded and covered in paint. We speak about the human condition and the artist as a clown and the underlying emptiness of capitalism. My 84 year old mother performs! Jadda cat is my partner. I am just a clown.

People think of New York and they think of Graffiti and Hip Hop and an underground performance scene. We are continuing that old school punk ethos. New York has been shut down and there’s not been too much going on and we are trying to contribute to its rebirth. We designed the show to be accessible in the open air or by live feed so that people have a way to experience art safely again. We also at random daily walk around as living art.

Since artists seem to always be creating or thinking of their next creation, please share with us any of your future projects and dreams.

I have so much work around me piled up and in progress, and series upon series and so many various styles that I can barely keep up. I just keep working and I let it guide me to where I’m going. I want to keep finding the new without an agenda.

 My next show is this upcoming Saturday, May 22nd.

www.instagram.com/michaelalanalien

www.instagram.com/thelivinginstallation

www.facebook.com/MichaelAlan1.0

www.michaelalanart.com

https://michaelalanalien.bandcamp.com/album/michael-alan-alien

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With the difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, virtually every in-person event on Earth was cancelled, art fairs among them. Directors had to get creative, inspired to find a way to keep art, hope, and inspiration alive by bringing the show to the public somehow.

A little background: Cube Art Fair is actually a Brussels-based enterprise, happening in the Belgian capital every year for four years now. It mainly focuses on American artists through a high standard of curation, presentation, and organization of a major gallery fair. Through Cube Art Fair, European collectors have a unique change to get familiar with the contemporary art scene in the United States, be it emerging or established.

So how does a Brussels fair end up in New York? The reason would be Gregoire Vogelsang, the man behind Cube, who moved to the Big Apple after managing an art gallery in Belgium for two years.

Now onto the NYC event! To visit Cube Art Fair 2021, you better get your legs ready: the artwork can be viewed on over 100 of the city’s many billboards and kiosks, from the heart of Times Square to the Lower East Side, Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, the Upper East Side and beyond. The whole of Manhattan is Cube Art Fair’s exhibition space! The billboard initiative seems to be part of Cube’s #staycreative campaign, which had already taken place in Brussels and Miami.

What not to miss? The Cube Art Fair definitely recommends seeing “Soft Stories,” one of the artworks appearing on a 12,000-square-feet billboard in Times Square. Created by Canadian photographer Laura Jane Petelko, the open series takes the symbolic inhabitation of animals as the point of departure and goes on to tackle the topics of intimacy, isolation, our relationship with nature.

On the other hand, the sculptural work of the American artist Sam Tufnell tries to reorient our understanding of beauty. His pieces present in the Cube Art Fair exhibition call out the macabre: there is a sculpture of a skull made of noodle soup, for instance.

Among other participating artists are Denmark’s portrait photographer Kenneth Willardt, the French-Mexican photographer Patricia de Solages, and Belgian wildlife photographer Griet Van Malderen.

Make sure you scan the QR code of each artwork, to find our more about it, or even to purchase it, in physical or NFT format.

Cube Art Fair is on view in New York City through May 9, 2021.

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Please introduce yourself and your artistic background.

My name is Scott Abrams. I don’t really have an artistic background.

What kind of art do you create?

I make art with oil paint, words, and other items that I glue onto canvas. The previous year, I used stencils to make a lot of work with animals in dialogue, mostly humorous. I also made a few minimalist pieces, with words on their own, and a large amount of work with items glued onto canvas.

What is the message behind your art?

Message would be too strong a word for anything that I do. My hope is to illuminate conflict in a way that can be a little bit funny and a little bit strange. 

How do you combine the language, the humor, and art?

Combining language, humor and art, that’s the magic. Where exactly one finds the kernel of an idea that eventually gets translated onto the canvas—it’s a mystery to me. I usually get ideas at night and in the early morning and put them onto Post-it notes, though lately my practice has drifted more towards drawing. In this aspect, I’ve been teaching my hand to follow my head. That’s probably where the humor comes from. 

What inspires you and your creations?

What inspires me? I try to create work that I find funny and that I love deeply, or once did.

You are also a writer and in college you studied literature and philosophy. Please tell us more about your literature background and how being a writer has impacted and is impacting your works.

Philosophy helps me get to the root of a problem. Literature helps me understand that the root is probably conflict. I love literature for its wild use of imagination, and it helps me understand things that I can’t see or experience personally. 

Being a writer was the starting point for me as an artist. Much of my early work was just writing in black marker. I did study literature in college and continued to read a lot after that. It gave me templates for what an artist is or can be as well as the framework of finding humor in conflict.
Not only are you an artist and a writer, but also a businessman. You established several companies in real estate and healthcare. Can you tell us more about that?

Business is challenging, but refreshing, too. I originally got a law degree, but I wasn’t cut out for it, so I fell into business because I had to make a living. I actually like the contrast between business and art. Some days you prefer thinking about money, some days about art. It’s like having antennas in many different worlds.

Are you currently working on a specific piece of art?

I am not working on any specific piece of art at the moment. I do work almost every day for about 4 to 6 hours. Mostly, I am trying to improve my ability to make images.

https://www.scott-abrams.com/

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My journey as an artist has been anything but linear. Although I loved the idea of a creative life, I had little going for me in that department aside from encouragement from my art teachers when I was younger. I didn’t go to art school and photography didn’t even become part of the journey until after the birth of my daughter. Feeling compelled to document her life, I bought a used camera and taught myself to use it to document this new life I’d hoped to make better than my own. I made a darkroom in my garage and spent almost every night experimenting as she slept. Finding that space to play with my artistic voice became like a drug and emboldened me to try all kinds of unlikely projects, none of which felt particularly inspiring until I was offered the chance to shoot stills for an independent film in Los Angeles. I arrived on day one with my beat up old camera and was told to find the cinematographer, who just happened to be the late and legendary John Alonzo (Chinatown). On day two he called me over to the grip truck, lent me his gear and told me to “stick close.” Thankfully, I did, and basically came away with a first-class education and a direction to head toward. I had no idea how to make a living with photography but knew then and there it was something I wanted to pursue further. 

I began to worry that I wasn’t doing my daughter any favors by dreaming, so I moved to LA to find work in photography. I managed to land a temp position answering phones at an entertainment firm in Beverly Hills. Within a few short weeks, I started filling in as photo editor, eventually taking over the position. I left four years later as director of the photo department, producing for various big name film, tv, and gaming clients, working closely with celebrity photographers and shooting many of the campaigns myself.

The culture of celebrity can be lucrative but holds little interest for me, however. I was always moonlighting on various personal projects and side hustles, shooting various nightscapes, avoiding anything with people. It was during these nightly escapades that I began to observe and appreciate the ever-changing and ephemeral nature of art of the streets. Hollywood was especially peppered with murals and graffiti, and although I was always working to omit their artwork in my photographs, my thoughts always drifted toward the person behind the work, their enduring spirit, flying in the face of traditional ideas around art, where it’s seen, and who gets to see it. I set out to photograph as many of these elusive figures as possible. 

Seven years later, Heroes & Villains (Zero+ Publishing) was published, just as my daughter was about to turn 16. I was thinking about my next project and she’d recently announced her plans to pursue a professional career in ballet. I asked if she’d be interested in sitting for a more formal portrait. Our time in the studio that day was pivotal in many ways. Having always loved dance — I had been photographing local dance artists initially for the Oregon Cultural Trust, and then for some of the dance companies directly. For me, capturing these artists out of context, not dancing, but simply being was something I wanted to explore. My daughter, with all the hopes and dreams she represented, was the perfect choice to begin that endeavor.

You resist being labeled as a photographer. How do you define yourself? 

Is it cheeky for me to say I’ve no interest in defining myself? While photography is my current medium, the idea that it defines me wouldn’t be true. I am many things. A dancer, a mother, a friend. “Photographer” seems so limiting. I guess I’d prefer to be thought of as someone who cultivates relationships with like minded collaborators? I’m interested in portraying someone as their best self. I like to strip away affectation and expected scenarios. In many ways I feel like an anthropologist who speculates on the future. I especially enjoy working with artists on the cusp.

What kind of works do you create? What do you like to photograph?

I make portraits. My approach, while on the surface may look simple and formalist, is a bit more nuanced and collaborative. I enjoy spending time within a specific genre of artists and having time to get to know someone before we work together. I like to immerse myself in a scene or a movement. I follow my interests, basically. Not in a social media way, but in a one-on-one kind of way. 

What makes one photograph stand out from another? 

That would depend on the viewer, I think. If you’re asking about my editing process, then that’s pretty simple. When I’m working with someone, there is almost always a moment where they’ve let their guard down. Those images tend to stand out for me.

What inspires you?

This is a question I find difficult to answer, mainly because it really depends on the day I’m asked. Other artists inspire me is the short answer. The long answer could lead me down a rabbit hole, but I generally like to read nonfiction. Mostly memoirs and history books. Right now I’m reading Mediocre by Ijeoma Ouelo. 

You are from the East Coast, how did you land up in Los Angeles? What do you like about LA and its art scene?

I grew up in a small town in Maryland and quickly became disenchanted with what I felt were limited prospects for my future. I did what any normal teenager does and sought out adventure, usually hopping on the train to DC or Baltimore to see bands, art exhibitions, or hang out on M Street in Georgetown. I’m close to my Aunt, who was an artist in New York, and when she moved to LA, I ventured out to spend what I expected to be a few weeks helping out. In a relatively short time, I felt surrounded by prospects, the energy and ease really meshed with my personality. LA has a reputation as a place for reinvention and possibility. For me, it continues to deliver, especially within art and culture. While sometimes seeming to dwell in the shadow of Hollywood, I believe the opposite is true. Instead, I think the scene here flies in the face of it.

What is the focus of your current practice?

Mainly two projects with the dance community: one focused on a single artist over several years, and the other, a more comprehensive overview of dance artists who come through or live in the LA area. 

How did Covid-19 impact your art?

Given that my work largely relies on human interaction in the studio and dance artists touring, the shooting component of these projects ground to a halt. Compelled by the state of things and using this as a backdrop, I dove into the archive, noticing and experimenting with themes and patterns that reflect what I feel is our collective state of mind. I also created an outdoor studio at home and collaborated with friends and family on some editorial projects. 

What are your future projects?

As a result of the experimentation with some of my existing imagery, I’ve been learning new software to integrate these stills into what I’m hoping will be something visually interesting.

Otherwise, I have some ideas but given the uncertainty around everything, I really don’t know.

Tatiana Wills’ Website

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To wind up at the Metropolitan Museum of Art must have been an interesting journey. Could you please tell us a little about yourself and the journey that brought you there.

I’m a chemist. I studied chemistry in Italy and then crystallography which is the discipline that studies crystalline materials particularly minerals; I obtained my PhD in Italy. Then I came to the US for a postdoctoral period at the University of Michigan continuing along that line with regular chemistry. That’s where I started looking for an alternative career in the industry.

Simultaneously, I discovered American art museums and found that they are very interesting and different than European museums, especially the Italian ones.

There is a degree of integration among different professions and also a broader array of professions within the museum. I discovered that there were scientists working in museums. Here in the US I found they have science labs that we are supporting the restorers, conservators and the art curators in their investigation which was a big discovery for me. Very few people were hiring scientists in museums and it was just a few university laboratories doing this and there were no scientists in museums, and even now there are no scientists in museums in Italy.

So I always had the thought to do this but I always left it as a thought thinking it would be nice but I can’t.

I discovered this field, then I just picked up the phone and started calling all the labs in museums. I spoke with their scientists and asked about an opening. I had a list of 12 it names to call. I still remember in fact my wife Jennifer, who at the time I was dating, said who told me that since I had a list of contacts to just pick up the phone and call.

And I wondered how to do that because I wouldn’t do that in Italy. She reminded me that this is not Italy and this is how you do things in America. So I just called them.

Everybody was very nice. There weren’t many opportunities. But the last person I called was the scientist at Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He said yes and he informed me that they had a fellowship I should apply for and so I applied. I actually went there on my own. I took a Southwest flight that probably stopped in 16 places before getting to LA to go for the interview.

They offered me a job that paid very little. I could manage and so, after a lot of trouble to get the Visa permit, I started in LA. I still remember when I went there for my interview because it was March and there was still snow on the ground in Ann Arbor, Michigan where I was living at the time. I got to LAX (which is not the best place in LA) but when I saw the palm trees I said, I’m going to get this job. So I started it and that September I moved to LA. I spent two years there as a fellow which is basically a very Junior position but it was an extraordinary experience because I really had a fantastic mentor, great colleagues, and it was really so integrated. There I got to work on everything from paintings to ancient Egyptian silver and bronze sculptures, Modern art. So really that was how I learned. After two years, I had the opportunity to get a research position at the Freer Gallery in Washington DC, which is the collection of Asian art of the Smithsonian. There I started working on a special project on Japanese art.

Then, after two years LA County Museum of Art called me and told me that the person I worked with there had retired and asked if I was interested in the job of senior scientist there. After some time there the Met museum called. Even though I loved Los Angeles, I could not say no to New York. New York is where things happen and and my task at the MET was really to create the first scientific research department in the all history of the MET. The MET had a few scientists, but they were working on different conservation areas, in different environments. So they asked me to come in, bring them together and create a bigger structure. Therefore, I gave up surfing in the morning before I went to work and I moved to NYC.

I’m still here, 16 years later.

You are a very successful scientist, what is your role/job description at the Met museum?

Now every day the first thing I do is to arrange the calendar for the following week because out of 16 people on my team I can only bring in six people every day because of Covid-19 occupancy restrictions, so I’m just like the guy who takes down bookings for the tennis courts or something like that. It’s not very exciting and you can imagine everybody wants to be here. A lot of my work is administrative. I created a team, I assembled a work structure; as a non profit we have to do a lot of fundraising that is looking for grants to secure positions to take care of the maintenance of equipment and to purchase new equipment. My biggest priority right now is really helping museums and the Arts to achieve more representation and more diversity.

We’re lucky that in the sciences we have an amazing pool of talented scientists of color, so we can take advantage of programs that existed in the past. We increased the minority representation in the sciences and our task now is reaching out to these candidates letting them know that this is a great career and they can join the museum and contribute and help us become more representative of America. To do that I just need to do a lot of knocking on doors to get money.

Because today is a very quiet day I could come in to do the interview with you and also work in the laboratory. I’m thinking it’s a luxury for me. I can shut off the paperwork and go to the laboratory where I’m putting together a new instrument that will allow us to do more work in identifying materials in works of art. Tomorrow I have a new Junior scientist who’s a PhD candidate here at City College and who works with me.

I also work on Japanese art. That’s my skill, my passion. I’ve done a lot of work to study artworks such as the famous Great Wave by Hokusai. If you Google me you’ll see that I talk a lot about that. Our job is to discover how those prints were made, and also to really look through materials, through the technology, through the identification of artists pigments and processes, and understand more about the society that produced these works.

Our aim would be not to just stop at the surface or under the surface, but scrape down and tell a story that really says something new about Hokusai and understand art through the lens of the components and physical nature of the object.

How do you apply your scientific expertise to the artworks that the museum deals with? Can you give an example?

For example, in Hokusai’s Great Wave (you can look up in our collection website) you see there’s a beautiful and dynamic live representational force of nature in the Great Wave where tiny little men are about to be washed out by the wave. One of the things that was very interesting to me was the use of blue. Now the woodblock printing in Japan in the 1800s was the most advanced color reproduction technique in the world. So even though it was a pre-industrial society, there was no steam power, no machine, etc., they could achieve amazing results in several fields.

They were able to achieve amazing color quality, amazing quality control over print that were sold at a very low cost. It was commercial illustration, it was not art. You start seeing prints like the Great Wave, my own hypothesis is that we have the beginning of artistic prints in that they go beyond even what was already highly achievable at that time in the sense that the depth of color and the color range is amazing. Our brain processes variations in light (expressed in drawings with light and dark shading) as variation in depth in space. Hokusai and the master craftsmen who printed this work knew this intuitively, and they took extra care with lighter and darker shades of blue to create depth and movement. The observation is that these works are truly exceptional, and trying to deconstruct them to see what makes them amazing in the use of color and then going into analysis to prove this theory is part of the work. Therefore, we use a variety of tools, and the most important ones are the eye and the microscope, as you really want to get close to it and observe it. I’m not that good but my colleagues that work in conservation really have highly trained eyes and they can very often tell me what I’m going to find. They are always right. And then we go on with non-invasive analytical techniques. These are instruments that allow us to identify the materials without removing particles from the work, eventually it may be necessary to do what we call micro sampling, that is removing microscopic fragments.

We have a fiber optic instrument that shines just like regular white light and we capture the reflection of the color, and we can see through a spectrometer broken down in each wavelength rather than the eye which has only three receptors, the eye sees blue, green, and red.

Blue, green, and red are amazing colors because we have color vision essentially by seeing these three colors. This instrument instead has hundreds of receptors so we can really get a very complex picture that gives us the fingerprint of a certain color. We can tell whether it’s Indigo or Prussian Blue.

So what we discovered was how those two pigments were mixed which makes the printing more complex, time consuming, and ultimately more expensive, if you see that the publisher chose to go through this route and created something that clearly has more added value, more artistic quality. Then, this is not a normal print, and I think that that is an important statement to make because it says something about the time that was done and what people wanted and it gets a bit more complex. You can imagine that landscapes are important to those who love to travel. And that’s normal for us. We don’t even think about it. You have a landscape in front of you and say, oh I would like to visit the place or I visited that place. I think about older times like special feudal society when they were not allowed to travel and could not just pick up and go with money; but also needing to be authorized by their local sovereign lord. You could not just go somewhere else and not work for him.

So what we see in Japan in Tokyo is that people had a little bit more money and

people started traveling. So maybe it’s a pilgrimage. Maybe it’s going to a famous sanctuary or famous art place. So if you’re a person of means you travel and you commission a painting that shows a famous place.

If your personal means are less you may buy a print and maybe still travel so the print could be a souvenir. If you’re somebody who cannot travel at least you can afford the print because now you see the landscapes around you. There is always a correlation of what you see in paintings and what you need to make that painting.

Before the 1820’s (The Great Wave is from 1830s) you cannot find landscape prints in Japan.

Quite simply because they didn’t have a blue color that you can use for print that would give you the bright blue of the sky and the deep blue of the ocean. All they had was indigo, which is the color of blue jeans, a bit of a dull color. It doesn’t really work. If you make it really concentrated it comes out a dull grey-blue.

If you want to you can make it a little like the blue sky but it won’t be the real blue sky and so at some point Prussian blue from Europe arrived in Japan. And that’s about 1820 the moment it arrives you have landscape prints. This is not a coincidence.

We traced the use of colors which is the very basic step into looking at a piece of art with the curators or art historians. We then join in and so it’s a little bit of a forensic conversation, a little bit of art historical background. We go in through a step-by-step approach using not the eyes but microscopes, for non-invasive analysis as well as x-ray laser based infrared tools.

Have you ever come across a forgery?

We generally don’t comment on forgeries and similar issues. There are other issues which are not outright forgeries, but it’s where a piece has been restored and and so a part is not original and some of them could be historical and some could be very new. So it’s more about deciding which one stays and which one goes. I know it’s a very fascinating topic, but I am sure there are actually less forgeries than you think. We haven’t seen many those. We also have the opposite which is when we have an object that may be classified as a reproduction or a copy and with true analysis we can tell that it’s actually the real thing. That’s far more exciting because instead of condemning something you can actually bring it back from obscurity.

What do you think of the art world right now during Covid-19? What has the impact been as far as you see?

I can tell you only what I know about-that it is certainly a crisis.

This is hitting all of us really hard.

I say it’s a catastrophe because right now the MET is losing an enormous amount of money. We’re trying to stay open and we really wanted to stay open, not so much to find revenue. As you know, we have a particular admission policy where New Yorkers and New York State residents “pay as they wish”.

The fixed price ticket is only for people outside of the State of New York. But with Covid the only people who come to the museum are New Yorkers and New York State residents. Our revenue is very small right now and really I would say the decision was to open because we think we represent something for the city for our members, for our public, and we wanted to be there.

The reopening was not about the money. As you look at museums closing around the country it’s very sad and I hope that museums can stay open and will decide to stay open if they can.

It is a great time now to visit and experience the museum because there are only very small crowds. Everybody is wearing a mask. Everybody is distancing. You can relax in the galleries.

What has been the most challenging part of your job?

We are a frontier profession but the field is still making advances that are considerable. Also we are at the border between different disciplines so it’s really a matter of communication. It’s really learning the language of other professions while communicating our work in a way that is responsible and relevant to others, and fighting every day for our own relevance. Really the ones at the table are the ones being part of the messaging in every sense.

What has been the most enjoyable part of your job?

I like to talk all over the world about my profession. I’ve been honored to be with scientists who achieve far more than me and we talked to school children and we see them get excited when we bring them here in the labs. We want to do more and more of that. That is absolutely enjoyable.

Then, the other part that is amazingly enjoyable is being in the lab and developing something new, creating a new instrument, making a new discovery. That is something that by itself is worth all the work that you put in.

You most likely do not work alone. What kinds of things do the team members do to assist you with your work?

The staff is highly specialized: chemists or geologists. Most of them are with PhDs where 80% are women, 20% men. Every year we have two to three postdoctoral fellows. We have had over 200 since I came here: interns from High School to graduate, undergraduate to graduate, and post graduate fellows to high level scientists coming.

That’s a very broad crew. We have people specializing in different areas. So I have a person who specializes in analysis of paintings, a person specializing in organic material now. This is sort of the oil, the tempera order. We have a person specializing in organic analysis for the rest of the collection. We established it recently, three people who are in charge of the environment. They study air quality, temperature, humidity, and light conditions.

It’s a luxury to have so many. We’re probably the largest in the US in a museum.

These types of diversity of scientific training and discipline is very important when you think of an art museum like the MET. We collect anything and everything from ancient Asia art

to the contemporary world. There isn’t another museum in the world that has a collection so broad and I don’t mean this to brag. For example, the British museum has the widest archaeological collection but does not have the diversity of art that the Met museum has.

It doesn’t matter how big you are, but it’s about the diversity.

The post Meet Marco Leona from the Metropolitan Museum of Art appeared first on Artiholics.

Hi Ann! Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background. How did you come to the art field?

Thank you for letting me share my art expressions and experiences. It’s been an interesting journey!

I grew up in Southern California and I have two brothers and a sister. My dad is deceased; he was a great man. My mom is very active in all aspects of life. She’s an amazing person.

I started painting after I had my gymnastics accident. I tried to do a summersault off a balance beam, I landed on my neck and pinched my spinal cord. I have a C1-C2 spinal cord injury which means I’m unable to use anything from my neck down and normal breathing is impossible. I spent nine months in the hospital learning how to adjust to my new normal way of life. It’s a life time of learning. Since I was five when I had my accident, I didn’t have any prior knowledge of art.

Thelma Steinberg, a family friend taught me how to paint. She put the paint brush in my mouth and I started painting. We started in junior high school. I had a lot to learn but I throughly enjoyed painting with Thelma.

You paint with your mouth. When did you start painting?

Yes, I do since I don’t have the ability to paint with my hands. I started painting when I was ten years old, five years after my accident.

Were you painting with your hands before or is it something that came to you after?

No, I didn’t paint with my hands before my accident. I was using my hands for every day use and to play tennis, snow & water skiing. We have an active family. 

What do you enjoy about painting?

I enjoy designing, colors, and composition. I call it ARTITUDE, I made this up for myself; it’s putting my attitude and thoughts into art and ignoring my to do list and ignoring the rest of the world while I am painting. I noticed when I didn’t block out my other responsibilities my mind was distracted and my thoughts were partially about the painting and partially about my other duties. I didn’t have my best painting days when I was doing this. This is how Artitude evolved; now my painting time is more enjoyable and I am in the moment.

I find art is healing; it’s creative, peaceful, and emotional. Art gives me a positive emotional feeling when the scene is evolving and is becoming the design that I had envisioned. This is not always the case so I do appreciate the days when all of the elements come together on the canvas.

How are you inspired?

I am inspired by the beauty of the world, the natural and man made beauty. True, not all of the world is beautiful but I am encouraged to emphasize the positive attitudes of people and cultures, animals, nature (from the tallest to the smallest forms), the oceans, lakes, and trees. I am inspired by the world around me such as the beauty in a garden, going for walks, the creativity and beauty in people’s homes. I see beauty in magazines, books, movies, colors and design in award shows, staging, beauty of the beach, the amazing colors of a sunset, the activities at the park. I love watching people laugh, talk, and interact with one another, seeing the kids play, watching the animals play with each other, the positive energy and activities in a stadium, the space shuttle is extremely exciting to me. Life is art, and when my world doesn’t make sense an abstract painting will be created.

How extensive is the role of Art in your life?

Art plays a very active role in my life. When I am designing and experiencing life, I see art everywhere and I try to capture it in my mind and I’ll take a photograph of what I see to reinforce my memory.

Who is your favorite artist?

Claude Monet. I think he uses vibrant colors and I admire his brush strokes and the movement in his paintings.

Do you have a particular genre that you prefer?

Definitely Impressionism.

How extensive is the field of artists, people who paint with alternative ways other than their hands?

I don’t know, but I do know that there are many other people such as I who paint with their mouth, as well as people who paint with their feet. Art is healing and people will do what they have to do to create a painting. It’s fascinating and impressive what people can do.

Have you ever felt discouraged or frustrated? What would you say to someone in a challenging situation?

Yes, at times I get frustrated at my situation!!! At times it’s difficult not to do something for yourself; it would be so much easier and faster to do things independently of other people. My spinal cord injury, SCI, creates problems: for example, I sit a lot and that can give me pressure sores which are difficult to heal and there’s not a lot of options to heal them. It can drive you crazy! I don’t wish what I have on my worst enemy.

For me, my mind is critical in handling every situation. I would suggest to other people to have a positive attitude and outlook on life. My motto is “inch by inch life’s a cinch, yard by yard it’s hard, and mile by mile it’s a pile.” In essence chew a little of life at a time; this reduces stress and the feeling of being overwhelmed. Try to avoid being angry; it takes a lot of negative energy which is not good for your body. Learn breathing techniques to relieve stress and anger.

Use your mind to control your emotions, attitude and thoughts. Stay positive and think positive thoughts and be involved in activities that are exciting for you. For example, be involved in writing music, poetry, a script for a play or for Netflix, make a viral video, paint, watch and write about sports and if you are able to be physically involved in sports, then play sports. It’s also good to volunteer somewhere, help other people, believe in God, be around good people, be good to other people, take good care of yourself. Keep busy!! Keep your mind thinking about the next positive step. It’s fine to be angry for a short time then let it go and move on. Be patient, use your humor to laugh and to enjoy life. Kindness matters! Be grateful for what you can do and for what you have.

Basically accept, adjust, and move forward; this is your new normal. Don’t give up and don’t give in. If need be ask for help. It might be hard but it’s fine, yet don’t cry wolf. Lastly “no” whining, screaming or complaining.

What do you think of Art therapy for people?

Art therapy is extremely important.

I know for a fact that art therapy has saved people from depression and suicide. Art gives people a purpose and a way to express their feelings. It’s even more important for people who have had an unfortunate accident or a life changing disease. For people who are in rehabilitation, art allows people to think about what and how they are going to paint instead of their situation which often brings sadness and frustration. A person’s outlook can go down fast and art can keep their mind in a positive direction.

My friend was an artist before he had a stroke after which he wasn’t able to move his right hand, his painting  hand. He was seriously depressed. Thank God he eventually learned to use his left arm to paint. It was hard for him and he missed what he had, yet he was grateful that he could paint again. He is an amazing artist.

Can you cite a specific example from your life when art was helpful? 

Yes, art lets you use your imagination. For a history class the teacher asked me to paint a person in history and to report on what I was painting. I painted Abraham Lincoln and talked about his accomplishments.

The post The Inspiring Story of the Fine Artist Ann Ruth appeared first on Artiholics.

In the fair city of Perugia, after the long period of social restriction that even Italy had to face, the Alessandro Berni Gallery has scheduled—from today until October 18, 2020—the exhibition Life Scroll, a solo show by Kentaro Chiba, a Japanese contemporary artist.

Life Scroll is the title of a complex, ever-changing, daily scroll drawing that began in 1991 and is still ongoing. Now, it is 19 meters (62 ft) of parchment that is unrolled along the perimeter walls of the beautiful space in the historic center of Perugia. It is the only work on display that narrates 29 years of daily activity in which signs and drawings alternate in a non-stop meditation, and the result is a strip full of meaning that allow a glimpse into the feelings, life, thoughts, and emotions of the artist. The piece is loaded with contradiction, because it consciously contrasts Western perspective expression and mirror projection with the Eastern contra-perspective, which is more of a birds-eye view and isometric projection method.

It is an abstract space-time dimension in which the artist’s daily activity follows, translates, and communicates in an incessant stroke—alternating scenes of life with animals, surreal architecture, expanses of water, imaginary cities, insects—flying over forests and almost organic grids. There is not a single black and white stroke that does not need the communicativeness of color that would distract from deep introspection and intentional, conscious, automatic drawing.

The viewer must leave preconceptions behind and let himself be accompanied in the exploration of this dream landscape, letting his gaze wander to travel in the artist’s conscious and unconscious, which merges with his own.

The human and artistic evolution of Kentaro Chiba is all there, translated into these 19 meters of parchment, a living document of an existence dedicated to artistic expression, growth, observation, and translation into signs.

Life Scroll is 29 years of creativity condensed in 19 meters of walking in someone else’s life. It is a rare experience of communion, curiosity, and understanding.

You can see the visual installation of Life Scroll here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

We are faced with a work of art that has the characteristics of free sincerity, which is more typical of nature than human nature.

Life Scroll touches deep feelings during its dialogue with the heart and mind.

Alessandro Berni Gallery is an independent reality linked to the most prestigious international fairs such as Scope Miami and Scope Basel, Aqua Miami, the Dubai World Trade Center, and others.

Kentaro Chiba (Tokyo, 1953) received his BA in Fine Arts from the National University of Yokohama, Japan 1978 and his MA in Fine Arts from Nottingham Trent University, UK. In 1998 and 1999, he studied at Central St. Martins Art College UK as a guest student. He lives and works in Fujisawa, Japan.

Among his awards and participations: 1992, Artex Tokyo (Golden Prize); 1994 Osaka Triennal (special award) 1999, Liverpool Biennale, United Kingdom. 2017, Artifact Gallery, New York City; 2018 The Silent Witness, group show Onishi Gallery New York City; 2019, Life Scroll, solo exhibition, Milan, MyMicroGallery; 2019 The Silent Witness – group show – London Camden Image Gallery; 2020 Life Scroll, solo exhibition, Alessandro Berni Gallery, Perugia.

The post Life Scroll, the Living Draw by Kentaro Chiba, on Show appeared first on Artiholics.

Where are you from? Please introduce yourself.

My name is Margaret Zox Brown. I was born and bred in Manhattan and have lived here for basically my entire life.

When did you start painting? What kind of art do you paint?

I started painting in my late 20s. It felt like an exciting leap for me since I had been drawing for my whole life. Painting was a new and challenging medium, and I was introduced to color. I immediately was taken with color and it became (and still is) a focus within my art. I would say that my art is Representational Expressionism.

What medium do you use for your paintings?

Almost all of my paintings are oil on canvas. I have also added oil paint to Conté drawings on paper, creating mixed media pieces. Oil paint and oil painting mediums are what I love most.

How did the lockdown impact your creation and what did it mean for you going forward?

Before Covid, I was heavily immersed in painting a series of New York Characters. Because I could no longer find my subjects nor go to my Garment District studio to paint, I had to rethink everything. After doing a few colored pencil drawings and watercolors at the dining room table, I knew I just had to find a way to paint in oil again to express all that I was feeling during this unique time. I made a temporary, makeshift studio out of the studio apartment above where I live. Eventually that apartment will be joined with our living space but during the lockdown it would be sitting empty. So I made it into my studio. I started painting oil paintings that reflected, once again, my world and the emotions I felt around what I chose to highlight with my art. I also changed from titling each piece to now during this Lockdown series, dating the paintings in order to chronicle how I was feeling throughout this time. I have learned a lot about myself and my intention with my art through this Lockdown series. I realize that I have always been painting the magnificence of the quotidian and connecting with the world by sharing it. And while my world is of course smaller, it is actually so much larger because we all are going through the same thing and we all are experiencing a world of life at home. I am so happy finding beauty within the moment. I have no idea where I will be emotionally in the future, but for now, even as the world starts to open up, I can see continuing to paint what I have been painting.

Most artists’ work has a purpose or a message. What is the message of your art? What emotions and feelings do you want to convey visually in each painting?

My intention with my art is to find the true beauty in the quotidian and to share that with the world. Life most definitely has ups and downs, but I prefer to express the beauty, both aesthetically and emotionally, that I see and I know we all can share.

Tell us about the favorite work of art you created and why it is.

I have many favorite pieces because I have been painting for a very long time and have gone through many different series. Also, I always love where I am in the present the most. So to answer your question, for now I would say my favorite painting is, “April 28th – May 17th, 2020.” This is a painting that is part of my Lockdown series. It is a painting of my husband and dog, snuggling together on the couch. I feel that this painting encompasses so much emotionally and uses so many artistic elements to achieve this that it is pleasing on so many levels. It reveals a sense of love and comfort and life and warmth. All these wonderful feelings of home are brought about through: subject, perspective, color, line and form, light, paint application, layout and design.

Do you have any future projects that you would like to share with us?

I am continuing with this series and continually receiving press about it.

Whose art work do you admire? Whose artwork has impacted you? What direction do you see for the world of art?

I admire many artists for varying reasons: Gauguin for his color, Matisse for his flat picture plane, Alice Neel for her figures, Morandi for his capturing of a moment of pause, and many contemporary artists whose work and careers I follow and applaud. I see the art world definitely continuing to thrive. Everyone needs art more than ever now. It is not only a documentation of the times we are living in but it also provides culture and optimism and a sense of community. And I believe that even if viewing or experiencing art might not be in the way we all have known, the internet is the perfect place to share and discover and enjoy art.

Margaret Zox Brown’s Website

The post New York City Artist Margaret Zox Brown Creates Lockdown Paintings appeared first on Artiholics.

Please introduce yourself. Who are you and where are you from?

I am Jonathan Latona (30) Film Director/Writer/Cinematographer and I grew up in South Florida, born and raised around Ft. Lauderdale/Miami Beach, specifically, in a small area called Coral Springs in Broward County. It’s a very large town with small ambition. Not many people who come from there have aspired to do much except have a family and live their life. My early life was my mom and myself, along with my dreams and ambitions. She worked as a social worker for a variety of different positions, most notably for Alzheimer’s patients. Life was difficult. There were many discussions on what comes next, a thought that never occurred to me in high school. All I was doing was seemingly wasting time, participating in Drama Club and acting in the high school theater plays, which inspired me to go to acting classes where they were working off Eric Morris’s technique of Method Acting (Meisner and Stanislavski based). I thrived in my extracurricular activities, which destroyed my school work when I was already a poor test taker. Eventually, after I couldn’t get over a certain score in the SAT & ACT’s, my mother and I moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, where I enrolled at Cape Fear Community College.

We needed a fresh start. My college life at Cape Fear was my beginning. Even moving from Florida—a feat I wasn’t sure was possible— to a quaint state like North Carolina was a dream come true! I was finally out of a state that had nothing but what I thought was bad energy all around, and ended up in a place where art could potentially thrive. Upon arriving in Wilmington, it was still a hotspot for film & television. I was able to learn from the people who were veterans in the film industry who worked on productions since the 80’s (which at that time was thriving in Television with CW shows like Dawson’s Creek and One Tree Hill). My first semester in college was a joke. However, after that I started classes I wanted to take, like Film Introduction.

My first Film class with David Kreutzer was everybody’s dream in a pseudo film school. There wasn’t a degree course. There were only certificate options at the North Campus, which was away from the downtown campus; I was eager to go every day. The downtown campus was the campus. People who went to North Campus didn’t do much in the school and would only see it as a chore. I actually wanted to be there, so I sat through the mandatory classes and got to the classes I was eager to take. By that summer, I started to take my schoolwork seriously and arranged to enroll in classes so that in the fall, I could take all film courses. At that point, I took film school seriously. I was the only kid in my entire class who took the Intro Film class so seriously that by my second semester I was recommended for an Internship to work as a Production Assistant on One Tree Hill. I got that position. My Internship was on Tuesday.

It was at the Internship that I was able to obtain a crash course in what the process was really like. After some trials and tribulations, like almost failing a semester and getting my first real camera, I was well on my way to making films. Somehow, some way, I was going to master this process so that I could make my own films someday soon.

Thanks to the help of my professors, I started filming local bands in the Wilmington area. This led to music videos, which led to short films in my early twenties.

What inspired you to become a director and writer? Was it always your dream?

Becoming an Actor was always the “dream” but I didn’t really have an idea of what that meant until I started Drama Club in high school. Eventually, I realized that I was more in love with the filmmaking process and started researching filmmakers. When I moved from Florida, I realized that I could work on my own films. I would sit in the library at Cape Fear on cold nights when the sun went down, dark clouds overhead, reading about the illustrious careers of filmmakers I admired, like Martin Scorsese and David Lynch, among others. I would always gravitate towards those two extremes because I realized that you could tell epic stories, but still have artistic sensibilities. David Lynch has always done it for me, that mystery and awe encompassed in his films still hold up, even if they are surreal. In many ways, that’s the point. You want the visualization to be memorable; otherwise what was the point of going to see the film in the first place? Movies growing up were all about the spectacle in beauty and art; they actually motivated you to think differently about the world. Movies are supposed to give you hope, something to look forward to. I didn’t realize that movies were something that people could do, or that they were trying to do. I didn’t realize that there was a way to look into how movies were made and see that they’re very different from normal careers. When I shifted all my attention to making films in my early twenties, everything in my life changed.

How do you develop your scripts? What is the inspiration for your scripts?

There have always been various ways I think about the scripts I’m trying to write, but today I think the best ones are the ideas that I constantly think about in my head, no matter how long they’ve been circulating. I think about 4 of my scripts on a daily basis, just so I don’t forget. I am currently working on my second feature and have one more completely ready, and then there’s the one that’s partially written out, and another one in the notes phase (still). That’s not to say I’m not busy working on those, but I’m keeping busy everyday. The inspiration comes from a million different sources, depending on the idea.

Your latest featured movie Doug just came out. Tell us about the birthing process of this film.

I met Doug Burch back in 2015. I had just moved to LA and a friend of mine told me I needed to meet this one guy who was “working all the time”. I was told that he could help me find something related to a film job in LA. I worked as a camera operator on a commercial Doug was making about blow up hospital beds to be used in the field. Afterwards, we all got together and bonded over lunch. Eventually, Doug told me he was working on a feature film he was writing and was about to film it. I told him I wanted to work on it. Doug agreed to have me on board, and the two of us started filming his feature film THE LOST ONE in Long Beach at some hair salon. This was the beginning of our incredible journey together! One night, after watching the show LOUIE, starring Louis C.K., I got inspired to make my own film in that Cinema-Verite style. If Louie could do it, why couldn’t I? One afternoon, I pitched Doug my idea of a fictionalized version of himself, navigating Hollywood as a once popular TV Actor turned into a Hollywood footnote sideshow of a character. Doug loved it. Over the next three years, I would write DOUG and go through countless drafts of the same story, repeating the process over and over again. Writing the same beginning, keeping the middle then trimming the fat, then rewriting everything, then salvaging and trying to find moments—little nuggets of gold that could follow. Little by little, the chips fell into place. After about 4 and a half years, I was able to present Doug with a draft of a film that would eventually be the version of the film we made. All in all, the script wasn’t finished until the movie was shot, and even then, the editing process helped dictate the importance of every scene. I believe I kept most of the final draft intact, and added a few extra moments here and there that are “unscripted” yet have a place in the written world as outlines for improvisation. In many ways, filming this project made me think differently about all my other films before. I only now realize that a large bundle of that time was spent overthinking, overanalyzing elements that would never come to fruition. The pain I experienced writing DOUG was unlike anything I have ever experienced before. I was hurt. I was angry, going through a nasty breakup, trying to regain the strength to do things again. I knew that this was a new life, however, and one to take seriously. In many ways, DOUG was my thesis project. I never did get that degree.

Now that DOUG is on Amazon, I can finally have something to tell people about and feel confident they’ll give my film a chance. Every filmmaker stumbles through the trials and tribulations of getting their work seen by the public. It’s impossible when you don’t have a name actor, even more impossible when you aren’t from money, or when you’re doing everything yourself. DOUG is a very special project because it’s one where I have to continue to unravel the steps of the process constantly, just to figure out how to make a better film. In the beginning, I would tell myself “I wish I did this, I wish I did that or I didn’t forget this” but with DOUG, every decision was precise in the moment and exactly what I wanted. I never experienced that before.

Now with the film complete, I just hope that people can easily navigate through the streaming services directly to my film. I’m very proud of the film, I’m extremely proud of the fact that a Grand Jury for a Film Festival thought it strong enough that Doug himself can win Best Actor. That was a Win in my book as well. The film does exactly what I wanted it to do. I made the film I intended to make. In addition to that, getting my film onto Amazon was a lot like how one can get their film onto Youtube. There’s nothing to it, no real strings attached. Just good old fashioned follow the rules and get your film onto a streaming platform. Amazon helps the filmmaker think differently about how they can present their film to their target audience, but how it spreads is purely on the filmmaker. Unless you have a distributor handling everything, or a sales company backing you up at AFM (American Film Market), then you’re on your own. I know what I signed up for, my only hope is that people tune in and check it out. It’s a long game. Until something better comes along, it’ll always be the long game. I own my film. I can do whatever I want with it, and at the moment, handling it as an exclusive film you can watch for free with Amazon Prime, or buy from my website has taught me a lot about how I can market myself and my work as a filmmaker. Every step from here helps.

Since you have such a creative mind, what types of future projects are you percolating in your brain?

The projects I’m working on are always projects that relate to humanity, at some level. At the moment, I am not at liberty to say what exactly, just that you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Has the pandemic impacted your career and, and if so why/how?

The Pandemic has not affected me in the slightest. I’ve been busier than I’ve ever been before. Not sure why. Maybe it’s the timing, who knows. At the moment, I am trying to get as many opportunities I can as a freelancer and then continue, project to project and see what happens. I am currently open to collaborate on photo shoots, music videos, feature films someone else has written and act as a Cinematographer (in addition to my own work). The list goes on! The way I see it, I’m finally in this spot and was slowly gaining momentum just for the world to stop spinning? No way! I’m moving forward and can’t let a Pandemic be a factor to slowing down. This is the perfect time to edit, get some writing done and work on creative projects. Somehow, some way. Art always thrives off the negativity. Imagine what an entire generation will come up with once this is over! You can see it now: Amazon and streaming services are flooding with content from all over the world. Independent voices are finally being heard now that the major studios have halted production. Time does not slow down. Neither will the Independent artist. This is the perfect time to get things done.

What is your time table for future projects?

I am currently working on my second feature called DESTINATION HOLLYWOOD. It will (hopefully) be done in 2021 but we shall see.

How has your work evolved over the years?

My work has definitely gotten more sophisticated over the years. I used to write stories that seemed pompous and arrogant. The ideas weren’t anything special, filled with clichés and looking back, impossible to make yourself. It wasn’t until I started making films on an every day basis that I realized you didn’t have to be so complicated. Less is always more, and I was just starting to realize that in my mid-twenties. I floated my own ego after making several shorts that I didn’t know what making a feature would be like. I wanted to make a film I had written in my screenwriting class; however the idea wasn’t one hundred percent. In fact, it wasn’t even well thought out. I acted in it (against my better judgment) and by the time I would be on camera, I would crash. You could see that on camera. It wasn’t a smart idea for the performance aspect. Nobody ever saw any of the frames I was working on, but I managed to shoot the entire film. Later, I held a candlelight vigil and threw it all away. If only I knew then what I know now, right? That was a learning experience, and one that I’m still trying to perfect. It’s an idea I will revisit, with a whole different outlook on the story and design. This particular one needs time to heal, and I have other ideas I can be working on. In many ways, I realize now is the time to get things done and act on your dreams. Better now than later in older age, when you can’t do as much as you once thought.

What do you see on the horizon evolving as director?

If I look hard enough, I might be able to see my future career. Right now, it’s trying to produce one film at a time. At this rate, I should be okay.

How has the position of director changed over the years?

Over the years, my role as a Director/Cinematographer has become less hazy and more direct. I have learned how to have stronger communication, not only with actors but also myself. On set, everything becomes clear and the more direct I am with what I’m trying to achieve, the better for the actor’s performance. I’m still learning. I feel this occurs project to project. That’s the beauty of this craft: we can mold it to be however we desire. Filmmaking is all I have ever aspired to do in life, so I’m making the most of it. I’m discovering that there are no rules when it comes to filmmaking, film language and getting your idea out there. I used to think all my ideas were too surreal, now I’m realizing that they were too difficult to follow because there would be no real way to make that film. I would have to figure out what I can make, how I can achieve it and start filming. I didn’t discover this until my third or fourth year in Wilmington, NC and by that time, life got in the way. Navigating through life until you are mature enough to make those hard-boiled, down the line decisions that the studios pay for is the key to making the dream a reality. I’m still learning, but I have a long way to go until I become that A-list director. I hope I get there. Until then, all I can do is continue making films the way I have been and hopefully, with enough word of mouth networking, I can finally make the one script festering in my head after all this time.

DESTINATION HOLLYWOOD COMING SOON

DOUG NOW ON AMAZON

IG: @Johnnyboyfilms

www.jonathanlatona.com

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Ana Schmidt is a contemporary landscape artist and an urban planning architect based in Bilbao, Spain, though she has also lived with her family in Bochum, Saigon, Bangkok, Barcelona, and now Bilbao; she has traveled across 25 cities around the world. This becomes an important role in what she brings into her works in both her professions. Ana has received a Master of Science in Architecture from the Polytechnic University of Barcelona and ARC Living Master from the Art Renewal Center. Ana has constantly studied the works of old masters from the history of art. Whether it’s the color application, the idea of depicting the concepts, or even the techniques right from step one it looks like Ana has her hand over it very well and depicts her concepts, idea, and stories onto the canvases. Ana’s skills of observation and capturing the realistic landscapes on the canvas in a beautiful painting might remind us of the 20th-century landscape artist Richard Estes.

Well, Ana Schmidt is one of the artists of the present times who brings back the concept of landscapes and makes us realize the aesthetics of the thing which may be right in front of our eyes, called as “landscapes”. Ana’s command over creating realistic artworks captures the viewer’s attention just in a single glance. Ana has exhibited internationally in different cities of the USA, Germany, Spain, and UK. She has exhibited her artworks at more than forty exhibitions. Ana’s solo exhibitions include Mall Galleries, London, 2019, Arte Contemporanea Gallery, 2015, Rieti, Italy; Cervantes 6 Gallery, 2015; Oviedo, Spain; l´Occhio Gallery of Art, 2013, Venice, Italy; Torrene Areto Exhibition Space in Getxo, 2012; Spain and Basque Architectural Association in Bilbao, Spain, 2010. Ana has received multiple awards for her artworks, such as First Award at the Columbia Threadneedle Prize 2018 at the Mall Galleries, London, Second ARC Salon Award in the landscape category, USA, 2018, first and third Award in the landscape category, American Art Award 2017, USA, Third ARC Salon Award in the landscape category, USA, 2015, Acrylic works: Radical Breakthroughs Award, USA and won many more in Spain, Italy, and other countries.

Here is how Ana describes her Landscapes; “Landscape can be seen as a throwback, but it is also a distinctly contemporary concern. As the historian Simon Schama writes in his book Landscape and Memory (1995), it is “a text in which generations write their recurring obsessions”. This text continues to be written and reworked today in our cities and throughout the territory. The idea of landscape, whether approached in a literal way or a more esoteric view, is the common thread of my works. Sometimes it is a redesigned landscape, sometimes purely depicted: from human-height views to panoramas that represent entire cities; they offer a meticulous vision of the metropolis and question issues such as one’s own experience of urban life, urban growth, economic inequality, etc. They embody the different realities in the contemporary city: “the banal and the impressive coexist in the same territory.”

Ana talks about her profession as an urban planning architect concerning her theme of urban landscape paintings. Ana believes that architectural buildings have a lot to say about cultures, a reflection of society and traditions which she brings in her landscapes. Ana says, “Of course, my academic background and actual practice as an urban planning architect is at the base of the choice of these topics. Almost every landscape is a cultural landscape, is a place in which man has intervened and therefore is the reflection of a society, of its customs. The city is more than a physical structure. It is, among others, a state of mind, a moral order, a pattern of ritualized attitudes and behaviors, a network of human connections, and a body of customs and traditions with particular practices and discourses. Urban landscapes are, therefore, in addition to real environments, environments of signs that are constructed in the interaction between our own subjectivity and that of others, they are relational constructions. The city, the landscapes I paint are a metaphor of the human mind and condition.”

Ana feels that people are losing their roots with modern times. The spectacular urban marketing policies that have proliferated in the last years in almost any city are global. Nowadays, cities have icons, the marketing-icons that distinguish them, but these icons do not represent the identity of a place, of the people. On the other hand, planning policies create a confusing pattern at the fringes of the cities such as conflicts over land, complex highway connections that leave empty land, a new hybrid landscape, banal at times, but where people use it, stroll around and write their narratives and graffiti tags on the walls. Well, this present scenario seems to be visible in her paintings.

Well, if we observe closely there is more to Ana’s realistic architectural buildings: the foreground and background consist of elements such as foliage, cracked walls, haze, puddle, objects which are used in day to day life, etc. These places are empty; it looks like a lot has happened here in the past, which brings in the memories, emotions, and feelings attached to it. As a viewer, there is a freedom to create our own stories while looking at the painting and imagine the moments one might have had in the past that reminds of different people, incidents, and objects. The time and people pass by but the land remains.

Talking about the medium and material, Ana works in acrylics on canvas. Well, at first glance the realistic landscapes seem to be in oils. Ana describes her painting technique when she says, “The technique is very similar to that of the ancient oil painting, although the drying process is different. I use a very limited palette to achieve my colors. Over a red-brown layer, I draw the motifs and paint them with a succession of layers, alternating the opaque layers with the transparent ones. I use a glazing medium to increase flow and to obtain a clear and transparent glaze. I use a wide variety of brushes and I apply the paint fairly diluted since in my paintings the stroke is not perceived.” Ana’s color palette also includes Prussian blue, cobalt blue, yellow oxide, and cadmium red.

Ana Schmidt’s paintings have been featured in many art magazines, which includes Catalogue The Columbia Threadneedle Prize, Figurative Art Today, Mall Galleries, Federation of British Artists, 2018, 13th International Art Renewal Center Salon Catalog, International Realism, ACC Art Books, 2018, Acrylic Artist Magazine, winter issue, Beauty amidst the ruins, 2016, Guía Leonardo, 2016, Arte y Libertad, XI 2016, Fine Art Connoisseur, Sept/Oct issue 2015 and Catalog NordArt 2015 are some of them. Ana has been working constantly on her upcoming projects, “I should have shown a selection of urban landscapes at NordArt 2020, but due to COVID restrictions, the event has been suspended and will be held in 2021. I am still working on new pictures related to this subject, the urban landscape. Nevertheless, I am also working out a new series, in which I want to recover the human figure as a central axis of the narrative,” explains Ana.

It’s not always important to go beyond what already exists to create something unique, as beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. Landscapes will always stay an integral part of every human’s life since that’s the only place where he is born and spends his entire life.

www.schmidtana.com

ana.schmidt@bizkaia.net

schmidtana.com@gmail.com

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“The emotions are sometimes so strong that I work without knowing it. The strokes come like speech.” – Vincent van Gogh

Yes! We all feel a thousand emotions in our lives, and some of us get affected by it a bit too much, and as artists, they create a new direction in the art scene. Atom’s art has a lot to say about the same. Atom Hovhanesyan was based in New York City, a young, talented, and passionate artist truly in love with painting and drawing.

Atom’s father had seen him painting for more than 24 hours tirelessly until the last days of Atom’s life in his studio in NYC, which is also supposed to be the place where he left this world. Atom had called his style of art “Post Divisionist and Abstract”. It truly justifies his artworks. Born in Armenia, where his father Ara Hovhannisyan was an electrical engineer and his mother Gayane Davtyan was a personnel manager in an urban trade corporation and also created artworks as a hobby. Well, it was Atom’s mother from whom Atom inherited his artistic skills. It was in July 1997 when Atom’s parents along with Atom and his sister immigrated to the USA.

Atom was based in New York since the age of 16 in 1997. He was an academic learner in the field of fine art, He studied at the Art Students League, National Academy of New York and Grand Central Academy. Atom seems to be inspired by every art movement as can be distinctly seen in his art pieces. Atom’s realistic anatomy and portraits could be related to Renaissance, and his abstract works to Cubism, Impressionism, Divisionism to Post-Impressionism; Van Gogh looks like his favorite. These were the words by Atom, while he explained his medium of works, “Traditional choice of materials and medium, grind my colors. In the abstract works: my goal is to create a unified atmosphere and sense of luminosity. Bits and pieces of forms from memory are utilized as building blocks for constructing the composition.” 

Atom’s professional life was a combination of varied professions. He had also pursued economics at St. John’s University. Atom started working at the age of 16 and paying his expenses. He was also appointed as a General Manager at Prime Grill, Beverly Hills, CA, one of the most luxurious restaurants that attracted famous Hollywood celebrities. Atom worked there from 2006 to 2008 which was the only time he had spent outside New York. It was in 2009 when Atom decided to pursue his passion and love for art as a full-time artist.

It is good to know that Atom’s every artwork and writings are being well preserved and highly valued by his family, which now manages everything he left behind, which are more than 200 artworks. Atom’s father shares that Atom had gifted many of the artworks, which shows he was a kind-hearted soul. His artworks are also in private collections. Atom studied anatomy, figure drawing, portraits, and life drawings under the guidance of various mentors namely; Phil Michelson, Michael Grimaldi, Tom Torak, and Dan Thompson. Atom studied works by different artists right from Cubism, Impressionism, Divisionism to Post-Impressionism including artists like De Kooning, Kandinsky, Picasso, Seurat, and Cezanne and Van Gogh. Atom visited museums, bought the monographs of the masters, studied and combined the study of different art movements in art history including the era of Leonardo Da Vinci and Raphael to excel the human anatomy and realistic rendering style which could be seen in some of the portrait paintings made by Atom.

The decade of Atom’s artistic career had many art exhibitions. He exhibited at Pechersky Gallery, Moscow, Russia in 2014; Novomoskovsk Art Gallery, Russia 2014-2017, Annual Exhibition Art Students League of New York 2015-2016, Kunstmatrix.com online exhibition Berlin 2018, Artpal online exhibition New York 2018 and Jose Art Gallery 2018. Atom also participated in multiple private art shows in Manhattan, NY in 2016 and 2017. He was also represented In various events organized and managed by “FED” Inc. Harlem, New York City, from February to July 2019. His works were also exhibited in San Diego Expo May 2019 and Clio Art Fair Exhibition March 5-8, New York 2020. Atom’s artworks have been featured in Artist Portfolio Magazine, Issue 38, 39, 41, 42, and 43. Also featured in SPOTLIGHT ART Magazine Issue 15 and 16 along with the Important World Artists 4 Book May 2020, 4 pages in Premium Presentation.

Atom shared a good bond with his family. Atom’s mother accompanied him to museum visits and his father always insisted to support him financially. But as Atom always wanted to be independent and not to burden anyone, he resisted any financial help from his family. Atom also helped his sister Ellen Davtyan with the interior design of her house and gifted her many of his early Artworks. As we begin to talk about the roller coaster of emotions that flooded Atom’s life, it is noted that he had been through heartbreak and betrayal in both his personal life and professional life. Atom’s beloved girlfriend and many of his business colleagues had betrayed him which had broken his trust many times; he who saw the world as transparent and value being true to everyone did not see this happen with him. The time when the real world hit him hard, he had unconsciously gotten those trapped feelings into his artworks. The paintings of a woman, the dark colors of his palate, and the endless strokes say it all. One day something deep inside had given him the courage to take his own life. Maybe he was in search of a better world with the honesty which he deserved!

Atom would always be remembered for the unique style and presentation of concept as a unique artist of the current art world. The style that combines different eras, yet in harmony. Atom isn’t physically here with us today, yet his presence and energy is still alive and resides in his every art piece.

For Atom’s original artworks, artist statement and bio visit www.artbyatom.com

Email arahov62@yahoo.com (Ara Hovhannisyan, Atom’s father)

Instagram @artbyatomhov (original works updated by Atom’s parents) and @atom_hov (created by Atom)

In collaboration with Grishma Khodaria

The post Gone Too Soon, Yet Explored a New Era of Art appeared first on Artiholics.