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?

The post Meet the Artist Eric Calande appeared first on Artiholics.

More than half a century later, the whole month of June is celebrated as Pride Month every year, in honor of the Stonewall Riots, attracting millions of participants around the world. Through parades, picnics, parties, workshops, symposia and concerts, the LGBTQ community continues to honor the achievements of its pioneers, while at the same time drawing attention to the still very current issue its members are facing every day. Pride Month also celebrates those lost to hate crime and the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

In visual art, many individuals and groups contributed to the LGBTQ activism, be it through direct action or by creating priceless archives, documentations, or portrayals. With the Stonewall Riots, queer art gained in power and rage, fueled even further by the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s through posters, signs, and placards – notably the Silence=Death Project, for instance. The unforgettable, poignant art made by Keith Haring, Isaac Julien, Catherine Opie, David Wojnarowicz, Glenn Ligon, Robert Mapplethorpe, or Félix González-Torres, does not cease to inspire newer generations of queer artists – young people who are successfully building upon their legacy by documenting the ever-expanding identity politics.

For Pride Month 2021, we have picked out 6 art exhibitions to see, online and offline, throughout June and beyond.

Tom of Finland at Fotografiska New York

The raw, explicit images by Tom of Finland are the epitome of gay liberation, in the sense that they show the unapologetic, tongue-in-cheek male-on-male desire. Extremely lean bodies, nude or in leather/uniform, with emphasized genitalia and lustful looks make up some of the most memorable imagery of the 20th century. The iconic Finnish artist, born Touko Valio Laaksonen, challenged the notions of homosexuality in a conservative society by offering provoking, yet positive portrayals of individuals who existed, and had every right to, within it.

The Fotografiska museum in New York is celebrating the 100th anniversary of Tom of Finland’s birth, with an extraordinary exhibition. “The Darkroom” is an exciting study of the artist’s life and work process, consisting of photographic portraits he used as reference images for his famous homoerotic drawings. Tom of Finland created most of these works in secret, as homosexuality was punishable by law until 1971 and was classified as a mental disorder until 1981 in his home country of Finland – giving these works an additional value.

“Tom of Finland, The Darkroom” is on view at Fotografiska New York until August 20, 2021.

and I will wear you in my heart of heart at the FLAG Art Foundation

At The FLAG Art Foundation in New York, there is a splendid group exhibition, featuring the works of 35 contemporary artists. “and I will wear you in my heart of heart” centers around the gesture of care and nods to a line from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” It features paintings and textiles that portray tenderness between lovers, friends, family, but also moments of solitude, at the same time exploring identity, cultural histories, and personal experiences.

The exhibition also appears to be an homage to a very hot trend within the visual art world at the moment: figurative paintings. Alongside the veterans of the genre, such as Peter Doig, John Currin, Derrick Adams, Joan Semmel, or Lisa Yuskavage, there is Salman Toor, whose successful exhibition at The Whitney Museum closed in April, or Louis Fratino, a rising star on the international scene, as well as the new icons of Black portraiture, like Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Jordan Casteel.

“and I will wear you in my heart of heart” is on view at the FLAG Art Foundation in New York until August 13, 2021.

Art After Stonewall, 1969-1989 at the Columbus Museum of Art

The year 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots with a series of exhibitions taking place worldwide. One of them was “Art After Stonewall, 1969-1989”, a show which traveled to Grey Art Gallery and Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, New York (2019), the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, Miami, Florida (2019–20), and the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio (2020). This last venue is now offering a virtual display of the show, for those who missed it.

The exhibition represents an excellent overview of queer art made in the first two decades after Stonewall, through more than 200 works of art. Pieces of conceptual, performance, and video art demonstrate the immense impact that the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBTQ) movement had on the society. From images of sexual liberation, expressed in the artworks of Robert Mapplethorpe or Tee A. Corinne, and the gender plays as seen in Vito Acconci’s “Conversions” or Adrian Piper’s “Mythic Being,” to the heart-wrenching imagery showing the devastating realities of AIDS and HIV, as seen in David Wojnarowicz’s “Untitled (One Day, This Kid…),” “Art After Stonewall, 1969-1989” is both a tribute and a reminder – that many of the issues the queer community struggled 30 years ago still persist today.

“Art After Stonewall, 1969-1989” is on view online at the Columbus Museum of Art website.

Sunil Gupta at The Photographers’ Gallery

In Sunil Gupta’s first major retrospective, The Photographers’ Gallery is showing five decades of pioneering photographic work. All the key series shown together for the first time, alongside some never-before-seen works, focusing on the themes of identity, family, race, migration, and the complexities and taboos of sexuality. The exhibition spans from the 1976 “Christopher Street” series, in which Gupta documented the burgeoning gay scene in Greenwich Village, to large-scale narrative portraits such as “From Here to Eternity” (1999), produced following the artist’s diagnosis as HIV positive in 1995, to “Reflections of the Black Experience” (1986), which illustrates aspects of Black people’s experience in London, to name a few.

An Indian-born Canadian photographer based in the UK, Sunil Gupta is also a committed activist, who used the camera as a tool for raising awareness and fighting for gay rights on an International scale. His artwork is an impressive portrayal of body politics, identity search and experience, and the ongoing issues within contemporary societies.

“From Here to Eternity: Sunil Gupta. A Retrospective” is available as a virtual exhibition at The Photographers’ Gallery website.

Laura Aguilar at The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art

There are so many aspects to the touching photographic work of Laura Aguilar, perhaps best expressed in her seminal triptych “Three Eagles Flying” from 1990. The artist is standing naked, tied up with a rope and wrapped up in the American and Mexican flags while two more examples of these hang proud on her each side. Aguilar’s multilayered work imminently shows her struggles with her ethnicity, sexuality, and acceptance of own body, expressed through images rather than words due to her innate auditory dyslexia.

At The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, “Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell” puts together more than 70 works produced by Aguilar over three decades. Both personal and political, the artworks on view tackle feminism and queerness, at the same time offering candid portraits of the artist herself, her friends, and members of her Latinx community. From early photographs conveying political activism, to the nude self-portraits Aguilar continued to make until her death in 2018, the show in New York celebrates this important artist in a unique, unmissable way.

“Laura Aguilar: Show and Tell” is on view at The Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York until June 26, 2021.

Leonard Fink at Google Arts & Culture

When we talk about the most seminal figures of queer art, and those who contributed to the visual archives of the gay liberation movement, intentionally or not, we can’t not talk about the legendary photographer Leonard Fink. An amateur artist with a camera, he documented his own LGBT life and culture in New York City, from 1967 until his death in 1992 – so much so that he was proclaimed “the unofficial Mayor of Christopher Street.”

While not much is known about him, his images speak volumes on the culture of the West Village’s gay bars and piers, or the Pride Marches atmosphere, which he photographed every year from 1970.

Fink’s work is held in the archive of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in New York City, parts of which are now available in an online exhibition at Google Arts & Culture. The artist took thousands of photographs, depicting gay life after the Stonewall riots, and the cruising that regularly occurred on the piers 40 to 52 on West Street (in which he often participated himself), for instance.

Fink never intended for his photographs to be seen by the public, which we can sense in the intimate, almost diary-like one of his images. After his death, the LGBT Community Center National History Archive received over 5,000 prints and over 25,000 35mm negatives, that are now of incredible historical importance.

See the works of Leonard Fink online, on Google Arts & Culture.

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Yet, you’re highly likely to have seen his work. Jerram exhibits extensively both at home in the UK and around the world, and his art has also become a go-to for news outlets communicating complex scientific ideas. Perhaps you’ve seen one of his frighteningly fragile glass microbes in the news, or encountered an enormous inflatable moon at a festival.

Pianos, hot air balloons, treasure hunts, sound installations: this multi-faceted approach makes Jerram’s work a little hard to define, and his name tricky to place. At its heart is an ongoing interest in perception and space. Some works, such as the installation piece ‘Retinal Memory Volume’, are explicit in this interest. Others, like the giant slip and slide ‘Park and Ride’, take a more sideways view on the topic.

Yet all of Jerram’s works elegantly combine his artistic research with nuanced scientific and technical understanding – but in a way that shows a real, deep connection to his audiences. You can’t fail to be moved by this work (sometimes literally – in the case of the slip and slide).

And this is why the world needs Luke Jerram right now.

The Art of Science

In February 2021, 10 million doses of the Coronavirus vaccine had been administered in the UK. To mark the occasion, Jerram created a new work in his series of glass microbes – a sculpture of the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine.

Eight weeks before the start of the pandemic, Jerram had worked with his team of scientific glassblowers to create another sculpture, of a then little-known virus called COVID-19.

As the pandemic hit, this highly detailed and realistic work was used by media outlets around the world to help their audiences understand Coronavirus.

Jerram has been creating his Glass Microbiology series of sculptures since 2004. These works blow viruses and microbes up to one million times their size, a feat which can be achieved by using the same highly specialist glassblowing techniques used to make scientific equipment.

“Scientific glassblowing is done with borosilicate glass, starting off with cold glass which is melted over a flame. It’s called lamp work.“ Jerram explains, “The glass team are able to make things incredibly accurately, to the millimetre. It’s a very defined skill set. There are only about 90 professional lamp workers in the country left. It’s very much a dying art. We’ve really pushed the boundaries of this type of glass – some of the artworks are even too fragile to stand up to gravity. The glassblowers have received OBEs for their work in the arts and their signature is on each artwork as well as mine.”

The sculptures make the microbes alarmingly real to their viewers. More real than many popular scientific images, in fact, which were the prompt for Jerram to start the project:

“I was reading a story about HIV in a newspaper and the illustration used was a brightly coloured diagram. I did some research and found out that viruses don’t really have a colour because they’re smaller than the wavelength of light. So back in 2004 I found a glassblower I’d worked with before and we made a small HIV sculpture as an alternative representation of the virus.”

The Science of Culture

Jerram is known as a scientific communicator. But his work does much more than simply explain – it engages with ease and authenticity.

What is so compelling about his projects is their universality – elegant ideas that quickly become part of our general culture. It’s hard to imagine a city without street pianos, for example, an idea pioneered by Jerram with his 2008 installation ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’.

These works offer a moment of meaning and connection. They make space for you and welcome you in.

Jerram’s moving new installation is titled ‘In Memorium’. This work is an open-air artwork designed to offer a space of solace in a time of social distancing. Flags made from NHS bedsheets are arranged in the shape of a medical logo. The fluttering memorial can be explored by visitors who need a place to grieve, to think, and to be thankful for those that have risked their lives during the pandemic.

What’s that name again?

So whether or not Luke Jerram is a name you’ve heard of, his work is a vital voice in the world right now.

His work goes beyond simply grabbing our attention and helping us to understand complex scientific ideas. This art offers an opportunity to feel part of a society and a culture that we have been distanced from for so long.

It’s thoughtful and compassionate, and just the tonic we need as we step blearily towards a post-pandemic world.

For opportunities to see Luke Jerram’s work worldwide see www.lukejerram.com.

Venues include:

Glass Microbiology
‘Infected’, Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, Netherlands, ongoing
History of Science Museum, Oxford
Barry Art Museum, Norfolk Virginia – COVID19 sculpture
Clear as Crystal: Colorless Glass at the Chrysler Museum, USA, until 3 July

In Memoriam
Harrogate, UK, 28 May  – 7 June
Edinburgh, UK, 26 June – 9 July

Museum of the Moon
Canadian Museum of Nature, Ontario, from 5 September 2020,
Longleat, UK, 19 June – 12 September,
Milton Keynes International Festival, UK, 22 – 25 July
WOMAD Festival, UK, 22 – 25 July

The post Why The World Needs Artist Luke Jerram Right Now appeared first on Artiholics.

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 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/

The post Meet the Artist Scott Abrams 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.

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

The post The Art of Directing: Interview with Director Jonathan Latona appeared first on Artiholics.

“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.

Kai, how did you become an artist and when? Are you from a family of artists?

I’m not sure if I ever planned to become an artist. My dad is an artist and my mom is a photographer, but I think it kind of just happened. Growing up, my family moved a lot. Things weren’t always easy. We didn’t have a TV. We lived a simple lifestyle. One constant was my dad’s art books. Whenever we moved, he brought them along. So, if I wasn’t playing sports or drawing, I had my nose buried in those books. My first official piece was Morons. I created the piece to encourage my father to quit smoking. At the time, I had a real fear that this bad habit would cut his life short. The artwork resonated with him. He quit smoking and gave me a few hundred dollars for the painting. He asked me to use the money to help others the way I helped him. I did what I had learned from the books, printing posters by hand and placing them up on random walls. And, that’s how I became a street artist.

What brought the “Beaux-Art de Paris” experience? What were the best and worst moments?

My decision to attend l’École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts was driven, in part, by ego. I was at the dinner table with my family and we were discussing art. My father and I were arguing about which artist had a larger impact on the history of art as a whole. At some point, I said, “I think I know a little better than you, Papa. I’m currently at Cal-Arts.” He laughed and responded, “You’re in an art school in America. If you really want to study art, go to Paris, the art epicenter of the world.”  So, my father and I placed a little wager whether I would be able to get into Les Beaux-art de Paris. I applied and was selected as one of three American admits. I was also the only American to study there for the full year.  I loved studying in Paris. It was the hardest, but most beneficial, year of my life. I had no money. I lived in a tiny “maids-room” with no heater and not much to eat. But I’ve never learned so much. I spent all day in class and night in the classrooms, not only to learn but because the school had central heating.  I learned all the fundamentals needed to make art with my hands. It was the exact opposite and an incredible complement to what I had learned at Cal-Arts because all the theories and philosophies of art were lived and experienced as a practice.

Can you highlight five key moments in your career?

Several years ago, I traveled the world on less than $8,000 USD, creating street art just for the love of art.  Meeting Bernard Markowicz and putting together my first solo show at his gallery, Markowicz Fine Art, in Miami.  Having Le Touquet honor me and my art in their Artist Hall of Fame. Creating my Imaginary Friend (or, IF as its better known), which is the centerpiece of my current work. The final moment is not really limited to one occasion, but really, anytime I’m able to inspire or elevate someone through my art. It’s my favorite thing about being an artist.

We noticed the city of Le Touquet in France honored you in its Hall of Fame. Can you tell us how that happened and what it meant to you being so young and being recognized as a “famous” artist? As a Los Angeles artist, what was your connection with Le Touquet and its museum?

Le Touquet invited me to put street art up in their city and inducted me into their Artist Hall of Fame. I was actually able to add my handprints to their growing ring of honor. 

Why is the concrete medium so important to you? Do you see a link between your art and the ART BRUT movement?

I love working with cement. There’s something magical about taking dust, adding water, and being able to create something permanent. I’m a street artist at heart. But, the context and medium of my work is very important to me. The use of cement keeps me grounded. It’s a red thread from my early efforts to my recent works.

How did Covid-19 affect you and your art?

Covid-19 forced me to take some time for myself. It was my first substantial timeout in five years. It gave me the time to reflect and study what is happening in the art world. It gave me the opportunity to think about where I would like to go next.

What are your next steps and projects?

That’s the question, isn’t it? What’s next? I’m excited to share something new and different soon. I have several projects planned. But, inspiration strikes all the time.

So, keep your eyes and heart open!

The post From Street Art to Contemporary Art, an Unusual Path in the Market appeared first on Artiholics.

Please, introduce yourself. When did Love Ghost get started? Why the name Love Ghost?

Finnegan Bell – singer/Guitar Player, Ryan Stevens – Singer/Bass Player, Daniel Alcala – Guitar Player, Corey Batchler – Keyboards, Samson Young – Drums. Love Ghost has been a band since 2013, a few members have come and gone through this journey, but this line up has been the same for half a year. We are called Love Ghost because at the time I was obsessed with both Love and Death, but Love Death did not sound right, so we decided on Love Ghost.

How would you describe the kind of music you play?

It is a combination of many genres, but we like to call it Trap Rock. Honestly, it is a mixture of Grunge, Emo, acoustic/singer-songwriter, R&B, Punk, Trap and Hip Hop.

Your new single “ll Be Fine” just came out and even if there are some dark themes in the song, there is a message of hope for the listener.

Can you tell us more about the creation of this song and its message? What does it represent to you?

The song was made fast, like in a day. It’s really an acoustic song with trap production. I know what it’s like to have no one there or to feel like everyone hates you. I’ll be “Fine” is about depression and I hope it’s helping people that struggle with depression and people that feel ostracized. What “I’ll be Fine” really represents to me is having an internal voice that tells you that you will be fine, even when no one else does.

How is the pandemic impacting your music?

It sucks that there are no live shows, but we are making lots of music on our own, so that is good. We also do have a live stream coming up on the streaming platform sessions live on Saturday September 12th at 7:00p.m., and we are really excited about that.

What are some future projects and dreams for the future?

We have tons of unreleased music, and we want to have hella collabs in the future. As a band we are writing all the time.

Who/what has influenced your music individually and as a group?

We try to take inspiration from everywhere. A few people who inspire us are Kurt Cobain, Lil Peep, Tupac, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Machine Gun Kelly, Juice Wrld, Alice in Chains, City Morgue and Lil Bo Weep. We also listen to a lot of underground music on
Soundcloud- so it is always changing and growing.

Apart from the group, do any of you have individual projects that you are working on?

We are all song writers in this band. Daniel has Qing and Corey has Little Trauma.

Could you describe the creative process you have when developing a song?

Sometimes one of us comes in with a fully formed song, and the others give feedback and fill-in their parts. Sometimes all of us meet to write together, and we start with nothing, and by the end of the session we usually have the start of a cool song.

Has there been a performance that you each particularly remember that stands out from the rest? And why is that?

Yes, the festival we played in Ecuador. The love we received there was insane and made it very memorable.

What do you do for refreshment when you are not performing?

We write music, watch cartoons (shout out Scooby Doo, Disenchantment and Seis Manos), Ryan, Daniel and Samson also play video games.

http://loveghost.com/

The post Meet Love Ghost appeared first on Artiholics.

I’ve been known to call myself a most outgoing hermit. Maybe a thought shared by other artists, I don’t know? I do love people and being around others, but I also cherish my quiet time to reflect and simply observe the world around me. I do stay informed with news and current culture and events, but am the kind of person who likes to talk first-hand in working to know what is real – the under the skin feelings, and in the heart stuff, that drives us as individuals. So yea, I like to listen as much as I like to talk and create.

Perhaps it’s an outcome of an adolescence where I never really fit into any one group. I bounced from clique to clique in wanting to find myself (I guess, a normal thing for many teens). Or maybe it was the carry forward from a 20s when I was in demand and labeled a wiz-kid artist, my eye for fashion and special effects feeding my ego in my quest for approval. Or could it be the subconscious of a somewhat emotionally suppressed upbringing? Not that there wasn’t affection or that I faced any abuse in my childhood. I had parents who took good care of me, even to the point of spoiling and supporting me in just about everything (yep, even the police raided high school parties and all). But with all dignity recognized to my parents and sisters, deep emotional or spiritual conversations where a rarity in the home of my childhood. And not putting you in the shoes of a therapist, and for the integrity of sharing what makes this creative mind tick, something inside me has pushed me to share this in defining my origins of why I am so fascinated to better understand the dynamics of human connection, and I’m guessing the reason why I got into arts in the first place.

You are an established photographer in the fashion industry and entertainment world in LA, where and when did you start your journey?

I’m the youngest child with two older sisters, one 8 years, and the other 11 years older. There was always a distance between us because of the age gap. Plus, they both left home by the time I was 13, so, in a way, I spent a big part of development years kind of like an only child in a British household (sarcasm, humor, table manners and all). My father was a dreamer and survivor, who as did my mother, lived through the blitz and mid-century anti-Semitism. Their example to me was a blend of move forward care taking, stiff upper lip thinking, and keep-it-quite intimacy. So I learned early to dream quietly, to push through whatever was in front of me, and to be independent. I know… a strange way to answer a question of how I got into fashion and entertainment, but relevant for defining what I do, how I live, what I see, and why I create.

So per that fashion thing? I don’t really consider myself a fashion photographer… probably more of a portraitist, beauty, and observational photographer (and I’m not describing myself as a fine artist for a reason. I’ll get to that in a minute). To start, I’ve always been driven by emotion, spiritual connection, and, for better or for worse, the feelings I absorb from others. Scary at its worst; a rush beyond all rushes at its best. So to talk about my journey is to expose both the blessings and phantoms that drive me in all that I do. If you had to define me in a simple phrase, you could describe me as an openhearted wall dropper– more interested in who a person is and how we relate, rather than what they do or how deep their resume is. It’s weird; I even look at inanimate objects with the same perspective.

Regarding that “I’m not a fine artist” statement, well, it just feels too constrained and limiting. A lesson I’ve learned throughout my life and career, that being, every time I try to categorize myself, I lose myself. And the result, my work becomes forced, and my imagination becomes replaced by looking at category rather than into my heart, or better yet, toward the heart of others. Most likely, (that besides my subsiding hairline); is the stuff that keeps me young and breathing. Never wanting to stop my quest for the unexpected discoveries of life and intimacy in trusting my relationship with others. An outlook that prompts me to reach into my fears and comforts to face, and own, what I intake, see and feel in every chapter of my evolution. The stuff that comes at me becoming the literal source material I harness for all that I do, and in how I communicate with those I work with.

So here’s the strange artistic dilemma, the conflict that never fails me to see and feel the world around me, and better yet, trust and own emotions within myself. As I see it, the greatest key to vulnerability with others, as well as the hangman’s noose I’m always muscling through. It’s not an easy thing to be in the moment in expressing what’s in my heart. I’ve had some pretty amazing moments with people, as well as some painfully embarrassing slip-ups. But I accept this life view with open arms, for I believe that living on the edge of open-heartedness, is where branches to honestly create can grow to their fullest. Best I can explain it. All in all, it just happens, but as I sit here thinking about it, I guess it’s all about emotional integrity (not genius, concept, bravado, or over-production), and with this acceptance, my feeling is, the purest place for art and expression to happen has to come from trusting ourselves. Like I said, not so easy a thing to do, but a discipline I am now just starting to fully realize and own. And per that journey thing, I’m not sure if it ever started for me, or will even end anywhere in the near future. It’s more like a soulful thing that is simply part of me from the inception of who I am. And in that, even when life sucks, I still feel purpose in what I see, do and create. So, I’ll simply say this, The journey is truly the present. I know, sometimes I sound like such a guru!

How do you like to work with models and other creative minds?

Most importantly, I do my best to divorce myself of all preconceptions and predictions. To realize that everyone I work with, just like I do, brings to the table more than what is first viewed on the outside; regardless of what may seem apparent. I like to be organic, spontaneous, and live by the mantra of Less-is-More. Especially when it comes to photographing a person. I think we all have hidden children dwelling within our hearts, and each of us are carrying so many joys and pains that we are dealing with; and, to be able to tap into the intimacy of a quiet moment with another person, is something that I am at a loss to fully explain. I’ve had a lot of people open up to me in the most humbling ways. So in honor of them, I feel it my responsibility to do the same.

Photography is a very powerful drug. I think that’s why it gets abused in so many ways– the “can you drop your top a little bit” stuff that really infuriates me. My role, as I see it, is to build trust and protect all those in front of my lens, in my life, or under my pen. And if I broke that rule, I know I would not sleep at night, and the integrity of my work would cease. For me, it’s all about sincerity, empathy, and honor in viewing others. Models, Creative minds, the guy at the supermarket who screamed at me, whoever; and in that, is the place I find the deepest creativity, peace to openly interact, and ability to be in the moment.

Would you please describe for us the different seasons/phases you have been involved in with your photography? Where do you see the evolution of photography progressing towards?

Boy, you do ask the probing questions. I’m going to take a second to look at this from an external perspective. Promise I’ll get back to the direct answer, just feels a little less self-serving, and maybe a better way to get to the truest answer. I get the opportunity to talk to a lot of artists, students, and creators, in that, 35 plus years of countless conversations and dealing with a vast set of perspectives, lifestyles, and personalities. The full range of what can be expected within the artistic community. From the kind and fulfilled to the lost, depressed, angry, and disenchanted. So when I share my perspectives, know that they are a mix of my own personal observations of other artists grounded by my quest to find my place as a human and creator. I’ve been rich and in demand, I’ve also been homeless and forgotten. Weathered through a lifetime of swinging doors in navigating my own set of personal, economic, social, political, cultural, and professional challenges. Each phase affecting me in all areas of who I am, how I feel about myself, and my dreams of where I am going. Being a creator is a fragile thing, we live in an A plus B never equals C, or anywhere near the same outcome vocation. Add that to the pressures put on us by our own fulfilled and unfulfilled dreams, the opinions and prejudices put on us by the critiques and attitudes of others, and it becomes easy to find ourselves wandering in the weeds. Yep, I’m one of those philosophical guys. The talker and presenter, but still, the social hermit I trust to keep me centered. But here is the silver lining of it all. A consideration brought to my attention by a stranger I once photographed and interviewed on a Los Angeles street. A clinical psychologist, she asked, “how much of what you do you consider therapy?” I’ll leave it at that. If you are truly a creator, you know exactly what I’m saying. So there it is, Again, back to my earlier thoughts regarding the journey. For me, the season is never-ending, and in looking back, all the feelings and knowledge of what I’ve personally been through are all equal subtexts to all that I create now. Per the future, well, that’s an organic thing that only time will prove what will come to be.

You are currently expanding your art to the new horizons of fine art. Would you please tell us more about this expansion?

First, thank you for calling my work art. Some don’t view the photographic process quite that way. And please know how thankful I am for all the commercial projects I have been, and continue to be, commissioned to produce. Also, gratitude to the creative minds, and friendships, who have trusted me with their vision, reputation, and livelihood. But the rawness and vulnerability to create wholly personal works is a truly remarkable therapy that is beyond assignment, storyboard, or layout. And now pushing into my 50s I have so much emotional history to pull from. A gift and responsibility to care for after having spent a lifetime honing the creative skillset I’ve evolved. So in this opportunity of fine art, I have walked into a rebirth of sorts. A release to put my rubber to the road in listening away from all expectations; the ones of my own making, and those programmed into my head based on the compliments and rejections that come my way. And being a glutton for self-growth and a good old emotional shake-up, expanding into the world of fine art is a natural progression for me. I’ve dabbled with it over time, but never with an honest effort. But something about now feels so not forced. And to be the creator I’m claiming to be, to ignore the promptings of my deeper self would be a sin against my evolution. It’s an exposed and financially risky place to be. Yet in the challenge, I have to admit this is probably the purest and most honest heart-set I’ve felt in a long time, and in looking back, I can now clearly see, why I had to wait until this point in my life to start this journey toward what I hope will be a valuable and meaningful chapter.

You are creating a new series of work, called HEAL. Can you share with us what inspired this new series of work and what you hope to accomplish with your message to the world?

I’ve always been inspired by music, something I can see when I relax my mind and close my eyes. I know, sounds so cliché. But it’s a real thing for me, and in opening up in this interview, a part of my psyche I feel compelled to expose. It’s a bizarre thing that happens in my head, it’s not like feeling the rhythm, beat, or cadence of a musical piece, it’s a visual experience. At its fullest leaving me dream like control to create, view, and move dimensional pictures in my head. And per the music itself, I’ve even awoken at night with fully composed symphonic orchestrations building in my head, but without the musical skills, they are trapped there. So with this reveal, can I put the question so many ask on the table? If you could do it again, what would you do? For me, knowing what I know now, I might have studied musical composition. Perhaps I’d be a composer or conductor now. But, no regrets here, love where I am and what I do. OK, onward to “HEAL.”

It started very vicariously as being a father to an emerging and very disciplined ballet dancer; I’ve been graced to meet some amazing artists. And in this experience, I’ve fallen in love with the movement, emotional depth, physicality and musicality of traditional and contemporary ballet. A trust that is allowing me to connect my emotional self and musicality in a profoundly sensory, emotional, and spiritual way, and the deeper I push into letting go to the project, the more organic and personal the project is becoming.

HEAL is a double meaning title, one part reference to the physicality of dance and reference to foot position, but more passionately, the emotional implications of the title. For it is, that in all of us are hidden, unexpressed or dreamed for feelings, and yes, even reason for healing. And who better to emote the fullest depth of human emotion and relationship than a dancer, who in a most touching way, can own and emote a feeling from head to toe. My hope is, that as more-and-more take the time to look into the frozen frames of the Heal photos, that they may too reflect on what they see in that photo. Perhaps better yet, to relate to what they feel from that photo, and from there, to reflect on how they treat themselves as well as those around them. As the title suggests: to HEAL whatever is in need of forgiveness, to accept the reality we are all dealing with a unique set of inner joys and pains, and to be released to our own calmness by knowing that not one of us is alone in dealing with our feelings and relationships.

And as per what the most amazing choreographer, dancer, and my good friend, Shamika Jones suggested as she helped me conceive the project, “There is grace in that.”

What do you like about photography?

A still frame, if not overly manipulated, is about as honest as artwork can become, especially in regard to capturing a human portrait. There is no cover-up for misplaced technique. No secondary chance to replay a moment. And in the telling of emotion and form, there is nothing like the pureness of an honestly captured photograph, and the larger that photograph is reproduced, the deeper it can be examined. The harder it is to make it lie. But that’s just the final destination. What’s most captivating is the process of making that photo. Now, I’ve directed film, produced, and photographed large commercial productions. Told a ton of stories through both still and moving picture. Processes and adrenaline rushes for sure, but again, to create a meaningful still frame is an experience like no other. For me, as you might presume from what I’ve shared so far, the emotional and spiritual part of photography is the drive for why I create. The self-growth and listening to others all a big part of why I make pictures, and admittedly, a selfish therapy. An important corner stone to the person I am, the human I want to be, and my link to a medium that has, and continues to, guide me to openly and deeply look at the world and people around me.

Who is your audience for your photography?

OK, here you go, and perhaps a welcome surprise. A short answer, I don’t know. Like I’ve framed, I’m a work in progress.

Black and white photography vs color photography. Do you have a preference? And if so, which one and why? And what does the choice depend upon?

Without a doubt, for portraiture, Black and White all the way. It does not lie and if done right, captures the purest of emotion and expression. I do like color for drama, and for some of the still life work I’m doing. A little saturated color does a lot to deepen the depth and texture and history of an object (Yes, inanimate things have a connection to someone too. Hey, I can say that. After all, I’m a weirdo artist).

You must be thinking of some future projects. Could you describe them to us? Will these projects involve more fine art photography?

I’m one of those people who has a mind that never stops moving. The guy who writes into the early morning hours, or wakes up at 2 am to take a photo of a plastic gas can. Yes, the dude who can drive his family nuts with what if’s, and did you see that’s. Give me a Styrofoam cup, and I’ll turn it at different angles, look at it in different light, and then make a claim that the cup has a unique history and story to tell. I know, super nutty, huh? But that’s just me. Take it or leave it, and luckily enough for me, I have friends and a family that let me live in this world that I see. Per those future projects, whatever they look like, my guess is, most likely they will be centered around opening conversations which get us all to consider what might be in the hearts and minds of one another, or ideas that push us to examine ourselves, or at it’s least, to make some sort of statement per the impact we as humans have upon each other as well as the world we share. Stuff like my “Dreams” project, where I film people telling about the dreams they have in their sleep, or the photographs of “Rubbish” and “In•an•i•mate åbjekts” that tell of our human footprint and our impact on the planet. Even the documentaries I’m directing and producing focus on what is, “Under The Hood” in each of us.

You host a podcast called Sidewalk Ghosts. What is it about?

Got to say, I love you tons for asking about Sidewalk Ghosts. It’s more than a podcast, it is an effort of purpose that has reshaped my life for the better. And my most sincere hope is that it will do the same for all who the project touches. Bottom line, in 2011 I challenged myself, regardless of where I was, or how I felt, to interview and photograph a stranger every day for 365 consecutive days. Not one day missed as I blogged an essay and the photographs for the world to read and see. Three months in it caught fire as WordPress featured it as one of the top ten daily blogs to follow, and as comments and subscribers from around the globe flowed in, I fell in love with the world. Now, almost a decade later, 100s more interviews behind me, a book written, a non-profit formed, a speaking outreach and podcast growing, Sidewalk Ghosts has become a mission I hope will touch the hearts and minds of many. A community-forming advocacy based on three fundamental principles:

1, “There is an extraordinary story living within each of us.”

2, “If we seek to truly see each other and grow our connections from a place of sincerity, empathy, and acknowledgment of others; what we create, and the impact we leave, will have long-lasting reach and effect.”

3, “Every moment of every day… your individual impact truly does matter to someone else in the world.”

Now as I approach the 10th anniversary of this journey, I find myself grounded as an ambassador to what I feel a very timely and much needed message. One that, as an artist and human, has helped me to be more committed to recognizing what I have to contribute through and beyond my medium. The payoff (if I have to look for one), my life and work are becoming even more balanced and purpose-based. An awakening I have to consider when I think about just how far the works I am leaving behind will reach (ie, fine art, film works, books, articles, posts, speaking, podcasts, and outreach).

Leaving behind? I know, sounds morbid and maybe a bit self-aggrandizing. But in trusting you, here is my motivation. I’m not on a quest for fame or on a downward spiral toward my deathbed. I’ve got a lot of good years to go and am in my creative prime. So to the world, I pledge, “my friends, you’ll see no razor to my ear.” But here is the thing I wish to share with my artistic allies. A notion I wished I grabbed onto in my 20’s (but even then, I was doing all I knew with what I knew). And not standing on the guru’s soapbox, I’m humbling myself to be as vulnerable as I can in this written interview. So, I stand exposed (OK, I hear a snicker from the back of the room in that statement). On a course to do all I can to be true to the artistic, healed, and damaged voice within myself. My integrity on the line as I set an example to my family, and the sobering mirror to do my best to stand with credibility in all that I do and say; and knowing there are only two unavoidable obstacles, those being, taxes, and death, that when I meet my maker, I wish to be as close as I can to debt-free. And in that, to know, that I did my best to honor the gifts of art that I was given; and if lucky enough, to know I have forwarded the same to you. Pass it on at www.sidewalkghosts.com

www.richardradstone.com

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Before we get into the informational questions, could you tell us something about you that would be surprising and unique? Tell us about yourself and a curious fact in your life.

I am the only boy of a family of eight children. My little 5′ tall Irish fairy mother gave birth to a girl every year for 5 years straight. My father was working as a salesman for a pharmaceutical company. He was injecting my mother with Vitamin B and Folic acid to “build” her blood back up after all those babies. They did not know my mother was pregnant with me when she was receiving large doses of Vitamin B and folic acid. The result was that I had an energy level unmatched by anybody else.

What an interesting start to your life. What was your pathway like to become a photographer? When did you decide to become a photographer?

I studied radio, television, and film at Pennsylvania State University. I worked in local community television production for a few years. I left the industry and returned to pursue neon body-painting photographic art. The pathway to my art I cut for myself. I do not like to follow and copy other people’s creativity. I prefer to invent my own. Perfecting the technique was accomplished with much trial and error.

Please tell us what the inspiration is for your photography.

I like to make beautiful things, which I do through stimulating other people’s creativity and inspiration. Everyone has a creative side. I attempt to access and amplify it through my art.

Describe for us what is “Glow-Art”? And how do you create it?

GLOW-ART is a portal to experience the ethereal through the use of everyday earthly items. It is a God-source inspired photographic art. I do not create it. I push the buttons; the creativity comes from above, I am simply the conduit. I created GLOW-ART.COM to expand the conscious and the unconscious feelings and thoughts of my audience.

How do you create your designs? Can you tell us about your creative process?

To create the design I blend contrasting colors. The contrast between the colors is what brings out the thought evoking process.

You are a photographer and now you are also a fashion designer. How did you connect these two artistic worlds? What inspired you?

Transforming from body painting photographic artist to fashion designer was a financial decision. I do not want to make an income from photography the way other photographers do. I chose to cut my own path. Fashion design I believe is a natural avenue to promote art. The fashion and art worlds are both beauty driven, so merging the two is a perfect decision.

You recently have been part of NY Fashion Week. How was that experience for you and your career?

I loved New York Fashion Week. I love all fashion shows. New York happens to be driving distance from my home in York, Pennsylvania. I pursue any and all fashion shows I can afford and can travel easily. Fashion shows have an amazing energy you don’t find anywhere else. The models, the designers, the photographers, the audience are always very positive and vibrant.

COVID-19 is having an impact on every facet of life. How is the Covid-19 situation impacting you?

I maximized the quarantine time to create, design, and market my product from home. I shot photography quite a bit less and less and built much more apparel.

What is on the horizon for you concerning your creative outlets of photography and fashion apparel?

I will continue to bring awareness of  GLOW-ART to people through fashion shows, and photoshoots with other photographers and their models. I hope to bring awareness of my apparel through involving other more traditional photographers and BY working with models from their area. I will happily bring a garment bag full of GLOW-ART apparel to a photo shoot to enhance the work of other photographers and models.

Looking farther down the road into the future, are there any future projects percolating, either in your current fields or with an eye to branching out even further?

I am building a studio with a dark GLOW-ART studio and other spaces for more traditional photography. In my studio I am building model’s quarters to host traveling models. This enhances the ability of the model and regional photographers to create by having the model and studio in one place with all the tools to make great photographic art.

Ron Vestal: GLOW-ART.COM

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New York City is known for its impressive skylines, rich culture and vibrant communities. Considered a melting pot of different cultures and traditions. A diversity represented in its population and also in its art. Many artistic expressions are constantly created to showcase those unique backgrounds and languages that make it a city like no other.

This multiculturalism feeds artist with inspiration, opportunities, and a platform to amplify their message through their work. If you make it here, you can make it anywhere says the famous Frank Sinatra lyric in reference to New York. A phrase that has become a popular invitation for those who come from the outside. It doesn’t matter what language you speak or where you are from, New York City has a cultural history built with the contribution of all those that have come from different places and it will keep growing from the ones that keep arriving.

As a way to celebrate the city’s immigration diversity as well as a celebration of the artist, Kasmine Gallery’s rooftop is presenting a new exhibit consisting of three remarkable sculptures by Robert Indiana (1928-2018).  Indiana was an American artist creator of one of the most renowned works of art of the 20th century on the theme of love. On view from the High Line with access on 28th  street, for the first time, the three sculptures are exhibited in one place. Each sculpture is a reproduction of Indiana’s famous LOVE series. Expressed in three of New York’s most significant dialects: English LOVE, Spanish AMOR, and Hebrew AHAVA.

Indiana’s LOVE composition consists of the word LOVE in bold serif lettering of VE stacked underneath the L and off-kilter O. The original image, green and blue with a lively red script, was used for the Museum of Modern Art Christmas card in 1965. Followed by exhibits of iconic paintings, drawings and small sculptures in the 1960s. Later created as a public sculpture for the first time in 1971. Subsequently, with a series of love theme creations displayed in many museums and parks all over the world.

The three versions of the installation in this exhibition have a similar arrangement of the word in each language. AHAVA created in cor-ten steel, LOVE in color blue, red and white, and AMOR has a vibrant red and yellow.

Indiana was considered a leader in the pop art movement. A movement that originated in the United Kingdom and the United State during the 1950s. Popular imagery and mass culture art were included as a contrast to traditional fine art. Focusing on realism with the use and incorporation of advertising, comic books and day to day objects like Campbell’s soup cans, pop art challenged the ideas of abstract expressionism.

For Indiana the work done with the LOVE series was a return to his beginnings as a sculptor, painter and poet, as stated in his website, for Indiana, “ The Love Sculpture is the culmination of years of work base on the original premise  that the word is  an appropriated and usable element of art.”

The exhibition is accessible to view from the High Line on the 27th street until September 2019.

Written by Monica Herrera

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The museum notably houses “large scale, site-specific works and installations by contemporary artists as well as housing a selection of works from the Foundation’s modern art collection.”

Jenny Holzer is an American neo-conceptual artist. In the late 1970s she began focusing on public art, using text as her primary mode of expression. Her main focus is the delivery of words and ideas in public spaces. Holzer chose this particular mode of expression because she wanted to offer content that people- not necessarily art people- can understand. Her medium which can either be as a T-shirt, a plaque or an LED sign is in form of writing and the public dimension is integral to the delivery of her work.

Her earliest text Truisms (1977-1979) is made up of over 250 single-sentence declarations that bring together a wide range of conflicting, theoretical, philosophical and political positions. Holzer’s practice has been seen to rival ignorance and violence with humor, kindness and courage.

For more than 40 years, Jenny has presented her ideas, arguments and sorrows in public places and international exhibitions including: 7 World Trade Center, the Venice Biennale and the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao among many others. Holzer also exhibited at the Guggenheim Bilbao museum.

Holzer’s “Thing Indescribable” which is basically a survey of more than 40 years of her work is currently on display at the Guggenheim Bilbao from March 22^nd to September 9^th 2019. This exhibition is curated by Petra Joos in collaboration with Holzer and it is the largest that ever happened.

The show is highlighting Frank Gehry’s architecture through site-responsive installations. Holzer’s works include Truisms and inflammatory essays posters with text in five languages, cast plaques and painted metal signs that reference her beginning in street art as well as engraved benches and stone sarcophagi. Drawings from Holzer’s archive will complement these early works.

The exhibition will include a selection of works on paper and sculptures by artists who have been influential to Holzer’s practice, including Rosa Bonheur, Paul Klee, Louise Bourgeois, and Paul Thek among many others.

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The internationally recognized museum is hosting an exhibition titled “Habitat.” The title was borrowed from the magazine “Habitat” which was founded and edited by Lina and her husband Pietro Bardi. The magazine is a publication that innovated in graphic design and critical writing on art and architecture in Brazil. It is a crucial part of the exhibition because it includes texts by and about Lina.

The exhibition will be curated by Julieta Gonzalez, artistic director, Museo Jumex, Cidade do Mexico: Jose Esparza Chong Cuy, former Pamela Alper Associate Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and Tomas Toledo, chief curator MASP.

The exhibition is meant to address the life, work and legacy of its designer Lina Bo Bardi; an Italian-Brazilian architect, curator, set-designer, editor and influential thinker. Lina arrived in Brazil and immersed in the country’s diverse culture and was able to turn her South African Habitat into the setting for the creation of a unique and radical idiom.

The exhibition also interprets the production of Lina as a process of “unlearning” Western knowledge and perspectives which began with her arrival in Brazil and deepened following her travels throughout the North East of Brazil and during the period that she lived in Salvador in the 1950s and 1960s.

It seeks to position Lina as a versatile and multi-disciplinary intellectual and a true-thinker of her culture. It also re-examines her contributions to the fields of architecture, design, criticism, museology and curatorial practice.

Lina is the author of two iconic buildings, the MASP and the Sesc Pompeia which is basically a cultural and leisure center. Both buildings speak of the striking features of Lina’s architectural skills and thoughts. Apart from being the author of the MASP, Lina also conceived exhibitions at the former headquarters of the Museum on 7de Abril Street from the time of its foundation in 1947. She also organized some exhibitions at the MASP such as “A mao do povo brasileiro” (The Hand of the Brazilian People) in 1969 and the Africa negra (Black Africa) in 1988. A special section of the “Habitat” exhibition is therefore dedicated to the MASP.

The exhibition and the publication are organized into three sections: Lina Bo Bardi’s Habitat, From Glass House to Hut and Rethinking the Museum.

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Christie’s is a British auction house founded by James Christie in 1766; its headquarters are in London United Kingdom. Christie’s has been staging numerous auction sales of different art and collectibles worldwide and has been able to break records. On Wednesday, Christie’s did as per the norm and staged yet another sale that was described as “unbelievably strong” by London based dealer Anthony Crichton-Stuart of Agnews Gallery.

There was strong bidding in the room and via phones that led the house to a $40m sale (with fees) that included works from New York Dealer Richard Feigen’s collection. The total came in north of the pre-sale high estimate of $34.1m; 79% of lots found buyers. Immediately following was a sale of 25 works from the estate of the venerated late dealer Herman Shickman and his wife Lila that brought $10.5m, just above the pre-sale low estimate of $9.9m, also with 79% selling.

The sale was led by record prices of $10m for a Double Portrait by Jan Sanders Van Hemessen’s, almost tripling his previous high of $3m and $6.5m by Jan Van Der Hamen Y Leon still Life smashing his previous high $1.1m. In addition, Annibale Carracci’s Madonna & Child with Saint Lucy and the Young Saint John the Baptist sold at $6m doubling from its previous high of $3.4m. Lorenzo Monaco’s “Prophet Isaiah” realized $3.6m doubling its previous auction.

New York based dealer Henry V Zimet of French & Company placed the winning bid on a Willem Kalf still life with the price $2.8m more than tripling Kalf’s previous record. Zimet however thought it was a great deal although they thought it might go for twice as much.

A Luis Melendez still life; Artichokes and tomatoes in a landscape,estimated at up to $4m was withdrawn from the sale and sold privately, on the other hand a Fra Bartolomeo Madonna and Child tagged at up to $2.5m was not bought by anyone.

Old Masters brought $905m at public sales last year, a number that was more or less the same as that in 2008 and 2009 but down drastically from a high of $2.13bn in 2011.

Auctions are not all about record-breaking and the great deals; they are also accompanied by different challenges including the problem of supply and dealers feeling the need to increase demand by luring younger buyers to get on board. Auctions require a bit of energy in order to hype the bidders; different auction houses acquire different ways of making the sale “interesting,” for instance Sotheby’s which is Christie’s main competitor recently recruited Victoria Beckham aka Posh Spice to hype an Old Master sale. Dealer Nicholas Hall partnered with Modern and contemporary titan David Zwirner to mount an exhibition at Zwirner’s New York gallery last year.

Christie’s has de-emphasised the “old” in Old Masters rebranding its spring sales as Classics Week in order to attract the social media audience. Christie’s has made many notable auctions including the Collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller which realized the highest total for a private collection and became the most significant charitable auction ever realizing $835.1m in May 2018 and the November 2017 sale of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi that sold for $450.3m including buyer’s premium among many others notable auctions.

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Paris is one of the world’s most visited capital cities. The city takes pride in its iconic monuments including the Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame Catholic Cathedral among many other famous landmarks. The Notre Dame cathedral is consecrated to the Virgin Mary and is considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. The 850 year-old building was built in the 12^th and 13^th century and it receives almost 13 million visitors each year. It is still a functioning catholic church and the site of many important religious and ceremonial events.

Unfortunately, a massive fire engulfed the iconic landmark on Monday April 15th. The fire broke out during the time when Catholics were celebrating Holy week. The fire began at around 18:30 (16:30 GMT) and quickly reached the roof of the cathedral, destroying its stained-glass windows and the wooden interior before toppling the spire.

The building’s spire and roof collapsed but the firefighters worked to prevent the bell towers from collapsing. The fire chief Jean-Claude Gallet said that the main structure including the two bell towers were “saved and preserved” from total destruction. . The cause of the fire is not yet clear but officials said that it could be linked to the renovation work that began after cracks appeared in the stone.

The President of France Emmanuel Macron called it a “terrible tragedy” and vowed to launch an International fundraising scheme to re-build the Cathedral. The rebuilding of the Cathedral is set to happen within five years just in time for the Olympics that will take place in Paris in 2024.

While visiting the scene, the president said the Cathedral was a building “for all French people,” including those who had never been there. “We’ll rebuild Notre Dame together,” he said as he praised the “extreme courage” and “professionalism” of the fire fighters.

Thousands of people gathered in the streets on that fateful day around the cathedral, observing the flames in silence, some were weeping while others sang hymns and said prayers.

Some of the treasures inside Notre Dame were reported saved although it is not clear on what was saved and what was lost. According to Notre Dame’s top administrative cleric, Monsignor Patrick Chauvet, a centuries-old crown of thorns made from reeds and gold, and the tunic worn by saint Louis, a 13^th century king of France, were safely retrieved.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has suggested an international competition for designs for the new spire, to replace the 19^th century design by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc which collapsed during the fire.

The cost for rebuilding is going to be extremely enormous, but hundreds of millions have already been pledged by individuals and businesses from all over the world. In the meantime, plans are in motion to build a temporary wooden cathedral in the square to continue Catholic services on the grounds. Architects working on preserving on the cathedral have made efforts to cover it before the rains that have been forecast cause further damage.

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In 2020 the island of Vallisaari off the shore of Helsinki, a short ferry ride from the Finnish capital, will play host to the very 1^st edition of the new Helsinki Biennial. The biennial will be overseen by Helsinki Art Museum director, Maija Tanninen-Mattila and curated by the museum’s head curators Pirkko Siitari and Taru Tappola.

 In a release, the director Tanninen-Mattila said, “Helsinki is an open, welcoming city, which the Helsinki Biennial will mirror. We hope that this unique, informal setting, will be a fruitful source of inspiration, bringing international art to locals and creating more visibility for the art produced in Finland today.”

According to the Helsinki Mayor Jan Vapaavuori, the biennial will illustrate the unique characteristic of Helsinki and the surrounding archipelago. It will also highlight commitment to art, architecture, design and urban culture in all its forms. The biennial is set to open up new worlds to anyone who visits Helsinki.

It is said by the event organizers that the inaugural biennial will foster a “sustainable approach to exhibition making,” while ensuring that everything in display embodies Helsinki’s ambitious cultural vision.” Helsinki is committed to further developing the city’s art scene both on grass roots and institutional level.

The biennial which will be free and open to all will be built around new site-specific installations on the island commissioned by Helsinki Art Museum and created by artists both local and international. It will also have a presence on the mainland and in the museum itself. The goal is to communicate the diverse and dynamic nature of the contemporary Finnish art scene and engender links and collaborations with the wider global artistic landscape.

For artists, the island will provide a lot of historical and environmental context to work with. The land is a former Finnish military outpost that was once used as the Russian Base in the Finnish War of 1808-1809. Today, it is one of the most ecologically diverse areas in the region, home to a number of rare plants and animals; its ecosystem is described as “very fragile.” The island is a short 15 minute ferry ride and was opened to the public in 2016.

The curatorial concept for Helsinki 2020 will be announced in autumn 2019. Further details of who will actually be showing their work in the Biennial will be released to the press later this year.

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A Brown & Co Buttons is a factory in Croydon, South London specializing in plastic, metal, glass, pearl and olive wood buttons and wooden toggles. The company has been in existence for the past 100 years and has been making huge sales ever since. Unfortunately, the company is closing down due to a slump in sales.

The owner of the family-run company Stuart Brown, was afraid that the “hundreds of thousands” of unsold buttons in the warehouse which could have fetched around $1.9million would have to be thrown out. Amy Clare Tasker made an online appeal on behalf of the company last week and tweeted: COSTUME DESIGNERS: I’ve been asked to share this call to save buttons from landfill. Brown & Co Buttons (a 104 year-old button factory in Croydon) needs to dispose of 30 tons of buttons as the factory is shutting down.” The tweet has been shared 5,219 times and there are suggestions for the buttons to go to schools to be used in art classes.

Ai Weiwei a Chinese contemporary artist and activist used social media to express his interest in taking the hundreds of thousands of unsold buttons being offered by the company. Ai is best known for his vast works in visual arts including sculptural installations, woodworking video, photography, ceramics, Lego and inflatable rubber; his interest in the buttons could possibly mean that he is developing an interest in textile art. He responded to Tasker’s tweet asking, “Can I have them all?” In 2010, Ai created sunflower seeds and filled Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall with 100 million hand-crafted porcelain sunflower seeds. Could it be that Ai wants to create similar works with the buttons?

Ai is however not the only artist who expressed her interest in the buttons, another artist, Delaine Derry Green who uses buttons in her pattern-based artworks also expressed her interest in them.

Sarah Janalli, the factory owner’s sister-in-law whose contact details were included in Tasker’s tweet responded to the floods of responses saying, “Thank you so much. The responses have been overwhelming and we can’t cope with any more enquiries but SUCCESS! No buttons will go to landfill.”

It is yet to be known whether the company has responded to the interest of Ai or of Delaine but the negotiations between Ai and the company are ongoing.

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Any career or profession is just as important as the other, the point is that we do what we love and love what we do. Put our knowledge and skills to practice.

Personally, I have so much respect for ‘our men in uniform’, the police. The fact that they take risks for others’ sake cannot go unnoticed or unrecognized.  It is not just because it is their responsibility to guarantee us safety and security, but their dedication to it matters just as much. This field of profession just like any other has shortcomings. We could say, not every single officer is committed to their work but truth is a good number are. ‘You hit them up on their hotline number and boom! They show up for inspection on whatever it is.’

They face challenges as well, amongst them are the so many prank calls and raised-false-alarms, but, they say ‘police is your friend, so if you notice anything suspicious, do not fail to report’.

Now a recent incident of police officers forcing their way into a London Art Gallery took place right after they had received a report of a suspected corpse in the building. Cameras at the Factory Art Gallery in Dalston show the officers breaking through the glass door and then approaching a figure suspected to be a dead body just near a tied rope hanging from a ceiling. After quick inspection, they then discovered that the ‘corpse’ was actually a mannequin made out of paper and wires wrapped in clothes.

A police spokesperson confirmed that the officers and paramedics responded to the witness report of the suspected corpse at the gallery, “Officers and LAS attended the scene. Officers were required to force entry inside. Upon inspection, the person turned out to be a figurine constructed from clothing and wires and was part of an art installation.”

The camera footage shows the police officers’ arrival circa 7 am on Tuesday, and after a few attempts to force the glass door open, they opt to break their way in using a crowbar. One officer is seen approaching the said corpse and rummaging through it, leaving, then other officers and a paramedic are seen walking in it to check as well.

The involved mannequin belongs to 36 year old Kollier Din Bangura, and was as a matter of fact part of his exhibition on the experiences of refugees who settle in Britain. The artist says he has used the mannequin in other showcases before but was yet to have witnessed such an incident. “I have used the same dummy before in other shows but this is the first time it’s caused police to be called” said Bangura. “When I came to the studio and saw the smashed glass, I immediately thought it had been vandalised. But the police left a note behind explaining what happened.”

The handwritten note reads, “Police forced entry by smashing the window due to getting calls from members of the public regarding a dead body inside the building. If you have any issues please write to the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.”

Mr Bangura added, “It’s a mistake by a member of the public who has seen it through the window when they are walking past. Or it could even be a prank by someone who wants to sabotage my work. But fair play to the police, they broke in and if it was really someone wanting to hang themselves they gave themselves a chance at saving them.”

He however notes that there were posters on each door, indicating than art exhibition was taking place and regrets why they did not look at them and contact the owner of the building before breaking in.

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