Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 36 i Create! Magazine

connect on Instagram @createmagazine Dear Reader, Food can seem like such a simple thing, but our relationship to it can drastically differ from one person to the next. Food can be a site for building community, as we often gather around a good meal with family and friends to celebrate. Food can be a way of honoring our history and culture by passing down a recipe for generations. Food can create joy by awakening our senses or can cause struggle with the power it has over us. In this issue, we explore the topic of food and deliciousness through the eyes of seven artists. I spoke with life coach, artist and designer Jessica Dance, who creates miniature food out of wool. Alicia Puig chats with Elisa Sheehan about her abstract…

INTERVIEW INTERVIEW WITH CJ HENDRY It is true that, for many of us artists, our first experience creating art was simply picking up a pencil, a marker, a crayon and drawing whatever came into our heads. It seems so simple, yet can be used to create incredibly complex (and often timeconsuming!) works of art. For artist CJ Hendry, drawing is her favorite method of making, and once you see her work, it will forever change the way you see the medium. Hendry’s drawings are incredibly realistic, appearing as if they are actually three-dimensional forms coming right off the surface of the paper. With subjects like flowers, hair and toys, she draws with a precision so like a photograph, it is hard to believe that they are, in fact, drawings. My personal…

INTERVIEW INTERVIEW WITH ELISA SHEEHAN What started as a studio warm-up exercise over five years ago has turned into an ever-growing and expanding collection of celebrated artwork for artist Elisa Sheehan. She spent the freezing cold hours between 5 and 7 a.m. in her studio each morning, doodling in cleaned eggshells originally slated for the compost in an effort to warm up her body and mind. As her collection of eggshells grew, Sheehan turned to painting inside them and arranging them in elegant, minimalist compositions that are now her signature series of work. In this interview, we learn about the technical aspects of creating art with such a fragile material, how she expresses a love of color through her pieces and the new medium she’s been prioritizing recently. When did you…

Website: lisadariakennedy.com Instagram: @lisa_daria_kennedy Lisa Daria Kennedy grew up along the northeast edge of the Hockomock Swamp in Massachusetts. She received her BA from Roger Williams University in Graphic Design, a BFA in Illustration, and an MFA in 2D from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Her paintings have been featured nationally in group and solo exhibits and included in corporate and private collections. She teaches workshops on how to embrace the practice of daily painting and is an Associate Professor of Illustration at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, MA. She lives 9 nautical miles from Boston in World’s End in an old fishing camp with her Wheaten Terrier, Olive, and when she's not painting, she's paddling. Interview with Lisa Daria Kennedy How has your…

Website: nino.studio Instagram: @ninoyuniardi I was born in Indonesia and grew up exploring the crowded city of Jakarta, the backwoods of Java island, and later the contrastingly fresh air of Seattle. As a teenager, Salvador Dalí, Mr. Tino Sidin (an Indonesian artist cartoonist), and many design publications from around the world inspired my initial artmaking. I immigrated to the United States to pursue my interest in art and design, studied graphic design and art in Seattle and Art Center College of design in Pasadena. I'm now living in Seattle practicing my work in art and design. In addition to gallery exhibitions, guest speakers to various art courses and numerous private collections in both the United States, Australia, and Asia, my paintings and digital murals can be seen in various locations…

Website: alysonkhan.com My early forays into making began in 1996 and included sewing, collage, assemblage, and mixed media — essentially simplified joinings of hard edges of color, shape and texture. Working with humble, found materials, I sewed record bags for local DJs out of upholstery remnants; made collages out of huge pieces of painted vinyl wallpaper; and glued together wood wall sculptures out of offcuts scavenged from construction sites. My first painting show in 1999 was actually pieces made on large shards of glass from a shattered pastry case and vintage windows — the glass being my first teacher as it allowed for extensive experimentation. My self-taught methodology also reflects my math-mindedness and writing background, as I use an underlying grid structure to anchor the ethereality, and often work with…

Website: meredithwoolnough.com.au Instagram: @meredithwoolnough Meredith Woolnough is a visual artist from the coastal region of Newcastle, Australia. Best known for her nature inspired embroideries, her work is held in public, private and corporate collections worldwide. Meredith holds a degree in Fine arts (first class honors) from the University of New South Wales, a Masters of Teaching from the University of Sydney, and a Bachelor of Natural History Illustration (with distinction) from the University of Newcastle. She is also the author of the book “Organic Embroidery” published 2018 by Schiffer. ARTIST STATEMENT Meredith maps the frameworks of the various veining systems found in nature to create work that explores the balance, harmony and connectivity of life on earth. Inspired by the patterns, structures and shapes found in plants, coral, cells, and…

Website: andreasoosart.com Andrea Soos is well known for her playful abstractions that combine creative mark-making, patterning, and gestural application of colour. Working with a fresh modern palette, Soos’ paintings allow the viewer to freely journey around the canvas, enjoying the twists and turns of her engaging compositions. Soos works intuitively across each canvas, creating unexpected and tactful brushstrokes in her process-driven practice. Although she may not know the outcome of the piece when she begins, the artwork evolves as a visceral and therapeutic practice, driven by music and song lyrics. Viewers of Soos’ work connect with the many visual entry-points and feel at liberty to apply their own experiences and history to the marks on the canvas. Soos lives and works in Victoria, British Columbia, where she also trained for…

Instagram: @jeffnachtigall Nachtigall’s work examines popular culture narratives, riffing on the contemporary zeitgeist. Play is a cornerstone of his practice and often masks a subversive intension that both mirrors and critiques the politic of our time. His unapologetic approach is both sardonic and philosophical, firing a warning shot over the bow of ideological fixations. Formalism collides with punk rock sensibility in his pop culture mash-ups that explore the liminal space between the natural and built environment. The animal kingdom acts as our proxy. His paintings are noticeably devoid of the human figure, replaced by a colorful bestiary cavorting in landscapes that echo scenes from speculative fiction. Pragmatism is key to his methodology as he employs an egalitarian approach to his materials, subject matter, and mark making; disregarding and challenging traditional…

INTERVIEW INTERVIEW WITH ANGELA WELLS Multidisciplinary artist Angela Wells creates sculptures that are incredibly tempting, as they often come in the form of icing-covered cakes and other sweet treats. However, you don’t want to taste her three-dimensional sculptures and impasto works on paper — they are all made out of acrylic paint, which she uses to sculpt her enticing creations. Even her flower paintings, full of vibrant hues and layered texture, look good enough to eat! Like all art making, sculpting with paint comes with its own challenges. As the artist explains, painting with thick, impasto acrylics can be unforgiving — every stroke counts! Join us in conversation as Wells discusses her love of texture, her tattoo practice and how art allows her to express her femininity and queerness. www.angelawells.info I…

INTERVIEW Peter Anton’s mouthwatering artworks will have you reaching for your favorite snack. Although they appear realistic, his donuts, ice cream bars and macaroons are not something you want to ingest. They are made out of materials like resin, clay and paint instead of edible ingredients. For the artist, food and all its tasty details are his visual inspiration — especially sweets. Although he loves to eat desserts, Anton’s attraction to sweets isn’t just about their irresistible taste or aesthetics. He is interested in people’s relationship with desserts and the power food often has over us. With over 25 years of creating art under his belt, Anton has shown his sculptural work in galleries and museums all over the world. Learn more about his delicious-looking sculptures in this interview! peteranton.com…

Website: charleswilkin.com My work is a loose collection of thoughts and observations in many ways and less about one specific theme. I see it as a reflection of the world we live in, with all its ugliness and cruelty. But from that, I strive to extract the beauty and empathy hidden underneath and within us all, revealing the unknown, the unspoken and intangible things that make us truly human. For me, collage as a medium replicates this frenetic and inherent collision of people, culture, and emotions we all experience. I believe the true meaning of my work is derived directly from the intertwining of these associations, and the spontaneity of my creative process. This gives my work the freedom to live creatively in the moment, and the ability to respond…

Website: suyaotian.com Instagram: @suyaotian Suyao Tian lives in the Twin Cities and is an artist, designer, owner of Viewpoint Gallery, and adjunct faculty at Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She began her studies in Music Education at Qinghai Normal University and Xiamen University in China. Following graduation, she began teaching Music Education as Assistant Professor at Guangdong Tianhe Technical Normal College in Guangzhou, China. She later came to the US in 2011 where she began her studies in art and design. She started with her BA in Fine Art at the University of Central Arkansas. Afterward, she completed her MFA in Design and Branding Identity from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2017. From her MFA studies, she developed and established her company Modern Cover™ where she…

Website: taylorleenicholson.com Taylor Lee Nicholson (b. 1991, they/them) is a genderqueer new media artist and self-described “garbage person” who loves to mix kitsch and creepiness for comically grotesque results. Taylor transforms lowbrow, banal materials such as junk mail and tabloids into sculpture to explore themes of poverty, queerness, and Americana. Their personal story of experiencing the demolition of their childhood home is rooted deeply in the work. Taylor recently exhibited a body of work entitled YARD SALE at SPRING/BREAK Art Show LA. This solo exhibition was curated by Janet Loren Hill and Jonell Logan, who won the first ever Single/ Palm Award for “Best Curation.” The exhibition was also featured in Hyperallergic and Artnet. A visitor of the installation said “it looks like a redneck Pee Wee Herman lives here,”…

Website: maryamlamei.com Instagram: @maryamlameiharvani She was born in 1985 in Iran. She managed to gain the national emblem in 2015. After graduating in Graphics, she received the 2nd art emblem from the Iran Ministry of Science and Research. Maryam has been also inspired by the Iranian origins of "Flower and Bird (Golomorgh)" paintings in her works. In these Projects, she has created some beautiful works by a combination of historical methods of Golomorgh and her creation. She has gone beyond the traditional methods and makes her own style. She is one of the active members of Iran's Miniaturist Association, Tehran Visual Arts Association, and Zanjan Visual Arts Association. She has attended more than 20 Iranian painting exhibitions in the valid art museums, galleries, and cultural centers where the most important…

Website: lyzwendland.com Lyz Wendland (she/her/hers) is a visual artist living and working in Stillwater, Minnesota. She received her MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and her BFA from Minnesota State University, Mankato. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums nationally and internationally, including the Berkeley Art Center in Berkeley, California and the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art Museum in South Korea. Wendland has been the recipient of a Jerome Foundation Project Grant and a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant. She has received numerous faculty development grants and awards for her research on improving participation, color theory and sustainability. Currently, Lyz is Assistant Professor of Art & Design at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, Minnesota teaching drawing and painting. I said no to something I…

Website: smithsongallery.co.uk Nick Grindrod is a contemporary British painter based in Sheffield, United Kingdom. His saturated and sedimentary compositions materialise through his process. He attends to his paintings as if he is conducting an archaeological investigation, skilfully adding and removing layer upon layer to reveal stories of the past: weathered brick, exposed plaster, a faded sign. A patina emerges, creating a stratal depth of texture echoing the walls of his city, Sheffield, which speak of their industrial past. Stylistically the works pertain to geometric abstraction in which fields of clean-edge colour anchor the compositions. Initially working from sketches, but harnessing immediacy and intuition, Grindrod finds harmony and rhythm in interlocking shapes and repetition. His paintings emanate joy and dynamism: lifting from the surface, they sing with colour and soaring architectural…

Website: blakeneysanford.com Blakeney Sanford (b. 1979, Santa Barbara, CA; lives and works near Gaviota, CA) is a multimedia sculptor, photographer, and conceptual artist. Her work, in blue, explores the boundaries between natural and man-made environments: micro, macro, meta. A lifetime spent in rural environments informs her practice. Her passion for the natural world, coupled with an affinity for discovery and innovation, has led to diverse bodies of work which incorporate industrial materials, large-scale land art, immersive sculpture, and conceptual processes. Sanford studied studio art as an undergraduate earning her BFA in Human Ecology and is otherwise self-taught. She has exhibited in museums and galleries internationally, most recently showing her work in Egypt in conjunction with the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP27. ARTIST STATEMENT For the past decade I have…

INTERVIEW INTERVIEW WITH CATHERINE MCMILLAN Catherine McMillan is a full-time, self-taught artist from Ancaster, Ontario, currently residing in Seattle, Washington. She holds a BSc in nutritional sciences and a MSc in psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences and has been pursuing a career in the arts since 2017. Catherine was primarily focused on painting, exhibiting her hyperrealistic airbrushed stencil works locally and internationally before becoming a full-blown ceramics addict. She has an interest in capturing the nuanced and often unarticulated elements that somehow cue a strong emotional response in viewers. She also has a passion for creating exhibits using an overwhelming number of smaller pieces to amplify that strong emotional response. Her methods and process are both heavily influenced by her academic and research background. “I want a viewer who looks at my…

INTERVIEW INTERVIEW WITH JESSICA DANCE Jessica Dance does it all — she is a successful designer, artist and creative life coach. She creates little wool objects such as ketchup bottles, a computer, Nike shoes and plates of food. Each fabric creation is meticulously made, with an attention to detail that is often only found in the likes of miniature stop-motion sets. Working with clients like Vogue, GQ and Google, she has taken her art and transformed it into a desirable tool for creating design for clients — all the while still maintaining her unique style and creative agency. However, as Dance explains, with every success story comes trial and error, experimentation and failure. And we have to be open to that to grow. As a certified life coach, she helps others…

Enjoy a diverse selection of artists curated by The Jealous Curator in issue #36. Danielle Krysa has a BFA in Visual Arts, and a post-grad in graphic design. She is the writer/curator behind the contemporary art site, The Jealous Curator (est. 2009), and has curated art shows from Washington, DC, to Los Angeles, San Francisco to Toronto. Danielle creates her own artwork as well – mixed media collages which combine found images, paint, and as much humor as she can pack into each title. When she’s not in the studio, Danielle is writing books: “Creative Block”, “Collage”, and “Your Inner Critic Is A Big Jerk” were the first three, and her fourth book, “A Big Important Art Book – Now with Women," was released in October of 2018. Danielle has…

Website: justinrichel.com Instagram: @justinrichel Richel received a BFA from the Maine College of Art and Design and later studied the technique of icon painting at the Franciscan Monastery in Kennebunk, Maine. He has been awarded residencies at the Fine Arts Work Center, Monhegan Artist Residency, Kohler Arts & Industry, and RAIR. His work is held in the collections of the Portland Museum of Art, the John Michael Kohler Art Center, and Fidelity Investments. It has been exhibited widely at numerous museums and art centers including the Wadsworth Athenaeum, DeCordova Sculpture Park & Museum, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Fitchburg Art Museum, and Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA&D. Interview with Justin Richel How has your relationship with art changed over time? I began making art…

Website: deborahkraft.com Instagram: @deborah.kraft Deborah Kraft (b. 1988, Davenport, IA) is a painter, sculptor, and mixed media artist living in Chicago. Her twin obsessions are irreligious shrine-making and the aesthetics of collecting. In meticulous fashion, she interrogates the impulse to sort, catalogue, and assign meaning to objects. Interview with Deborah Kraft How has your relationship with art changed over time? I’m from Iowa. My idea of art growing up was pure naturalism. I wasn’t exposed to contemporary art growing up, and what was valued among my family and friends was my ability to replicate images faithfully from life. I studied art at Iowa State University, which was a highly technical experience. Students were expected to master draftsmanship first, and to introduce conceptual frameworks second. We received a solid art history…

Website: amyrunyen.com Instagram: @amyrunyen Amy Runyen is a contemporary painter who uses a collage aesthetic to create new creatures from human and animal parts. Her works explore human emotions and behaviors through her perception of the animal kingdom. She grew up in a rural area, riding horses daily and spending a lot of time with various pets. These early connections to animals fostered an interest and empathy for them that influences her work today. Amy’s fine artwork has been shown in galleries domestically and internationally. She has written and illustrated ten art educational books for Walter Foster Publishing. In the Pomona Arts Colony, she collaborated on the Envisioning the Future mural in association with Judy Chicago. She earned her BFA in illustration from Savannah College of Art and Design and…

Instagram: @milkshake.jp Born in Hyogo, Japan, and now based in Brooklyn NY, Mayumi Nakao moved to New York City in 2013 to study painting and the English language after graduating from Sozosha Design School for Illustrators in Osaka, Japan. Lately, her focus has been on improving her skills in painting while absorbing various styles in order to arrive at a more sophisticated take on representational art. For her, representation has generated a methodology of sourcing and technique that has evolved into a very personal vision, almost as if it’s her own genre. She recently obtained a certificate of fine art at the Students League, where she was inspired to paint in oil and to take her practice more seriously. Her latest paintings are based on family photos of American friends…

Website: nataliefeatherston.com Natalie Featherston is a contemporary realist painter specializing in trompe l’oeil — a French term meaning literally “to fool the eye.” Her work is inspired by the Dutch Masters and combined with a modern sensibility, where skill and execution of the painting pair with humor and whimsy. The Chicago Sun Times has described her paintings as, “Artful beyond just illusion and trickery, they are truly masterful still lifes made with both craft and wit.” Ms. Featherston’s paintings have received numerous awards from some of the most distinguished art organizations in the country, including the Art Renewal Center and the Salmagundi Club. Her paintings have appeared in The Artist’s Magazine, American Art Collector, Southwest Art, and Fine Art Connoisseur to name but a few of the publications that have…

Website: JMyszkaLewis.com Instagram: @j.myszka.lewis J Myszka Lewis is a visual artist who uses print media, embroidery, and painting to consider a variety of concepts that stem out of considerations of pattern and repetition. In addition to her individual studio practice, Lewis also collaborates with fellow artist Amy Cannestra. Under the name SPOOKY BOOBS, they create social interactions, installations, and printed materials to visualize the trivialization of women’s experiences, particularly expressed in American culture through misogynist language. J Myszka Lewis received her BFA from the University of WisconsinMilwaukee and her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has participated in many group exhibitions at places such as the International Print Center New York (New York, NY), Charles Allis Art Museum (Milwaukee, WI), Soap Factory (Minneapolis, MN), Museum of Wisconsin Art (West…

Website: opavsky.net Vesna Opavsky is of Slovakian origin and lives and works in Serbia and Belgium. She received the M. A. degree at the Faculty of fine art in Belgrade, Serbia with a thesis “Dichotomy and Synthesis of Digital and Natural.” In 2015 she has earned a D.A. degree from the same Faculty on doctoral thesis — “Art as a Keyword” — about optimizing art with keywords. Vesna Opavsky is also an experienced consultant in internet communication, presentation, and optimization. Using a combined digital technique with emphasis on the contrast between nature and technology, Vesna Opavsky has attempted to call attention to the importance of returning to nature as a way to heal the alienation of today's humanity. She organizes ecological interactive projects and happenings that the audience takes part…

Website: julia.blume.art.com Julia Blume is a New York based artist working in several media, including painting, sculpture, performance, and installation. She received her MFA from SFAI in 2018, after earning her BA and MA in linguistics from Columbia University and UC San Diego, respectively. Her work has been shown at galleries including Mizuma & Kips, Brian Leo Projects, Youngspace, I Like Your Work, RSOAA, Trestle Gallery, Field Projects, Paradice Palase, Established Gallery. She has also created site-specific installations and performances in a range of environments, including Peru, Iceland, New York City, and Arizona. She participated in residencies with Signal Fire, ChaNorth, and ArtsIceland. Interview with Julia Blume How has your relationship with art changed over time? Some years ago, I was mostly making paintings. During that time, I did a…

Website: amandamanitach.com A self-taught artist with a background in literature, Manitach merges an affinity for drawing and language in large-scale works on paper. Drawings are made with the fine point of a mechanical pencil to build a scrim of marks — countless lines woven to amass bold, block text situated in dense fields of graphite or nestled amongst cascading patterns inspired by the arsenic-laced, hysteria-inducing tangle of fin de siecle wallpaper design. Often pieces take the form of palimpsest, where drawings undergo multiple passes of mark-making and erasure, building layers of legible and illegible text intermingled with ornamentation. Manitach’s process is both laborious and meditative, ticking off the passage of time while leaving physical traces of the self, and perhaps a grand statement or two. The message varies: from screamingly…

Instagram: @annabukliewer Anna Bu Kliewer was born in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, and immigrated to Germany with her family as a child. She currently lives in London, UK. Anna is a mixed media artist working in both analogue and digital collage, creating still and moving imagery. Driven by her curiosity about other realities, time and space, she likes to challenge one’s perception of identity and environment by transforming found imagery into a new, surreal context. Anna's library of cut-out paper pieces has now reached over 20.000 and continues to grow. Interview with Anna Bu Kliewer How has your relationship with art changed over time? I’ve learned to appreciate it more, rather than be intimidated or feel pressure. Where do you find inspiration? What drives your work? I find inspiration in conversations with…