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Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Interview with Serge Kliaving

q) When did you start to make art?

a)Around 1986. My first show was in 1987

q)Explain your inspiration?

a)I was first interested in social and political issues that I interpreted through pop images and photomontages. I am not dealing with that any more. For the last 10 years my work was and is inspired by my travelings and is a sort of travel sketch book.

q) In what way does your inspiration transform into ideas?

a)It doesn't . It transforms into paintings. Ideas are for viewers.

q) Could your ideas be portrayed in any other medium? If so which?

a)I am a painter and I love to paint. I'm not looking to express myself in any other ways.

q) What does being an artists mean to you?

a)It means everything. I consider it to be a vocation.

q) When does your art become successful?

a)When I can say: "this piece is not too bad". Then when a galerist says:" I like it, let's make a show". Then when somebody else says: "I want to buy it". It doesn't need to be a large public success.

q) Who prices your work? And how is the price decided upon?

a)Me and my galerists together.
q) What is your next; move,project,show etc?

a)Next show: in december at my galery in Paris. Next move: another travel, probably.
q) What are the pros and cons of the art market?

a)No comments. Not interested.

q) Which pieces would you like to be remembered for?

a)Mostly my black and white drawings of landscapes. Yet, the best one is still to be donne.

q) Who has been the biggest influence on you?

a)They are too many to name only one.

q)Other visual artists that you like…

a)Among many others: Munch, Rouault, Kieffer, Tarkovsky,.....

q) How much do you think hype affects the public perception of what good art is?

a)Nowadays, hype seems to be the one criteria. Hype is fun and audience wants fun. It's rather like going to Disneyland. But nobody knows if it's any good.

q) Last CD you downloaded ?

a)I don't own a computer so I don't download any CD

q) What makes you happy?

a)A good day's work

q) What makes you sad?

a)A bad day's work

q) Last book you read?

a)Terra Nostra, by Carlos Fuentes

q) What else do like other than art?

a)Nothing but music, literature, movies and travels.

q) Final thoughts...

a)I am not ready yet for final thoughts

q)Your contacts…

a)Serge Kliaving.
tel: +33-1-48-28-42-85
or at my brother's e-mail:
michel.kliaving@bluewin.ch

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Interview with Biljana Djurdjevic

q) Introduce yourself first please?

a)Biljana Djurdjevic, artist

q) Where do you live and work?

a)Belgrade, Serbia.

q) How did you start? How have you realized you wanted to become an artist?

a)Since ever I have been interesting in painting, I attended junior art school and after I finished my regular prime school education I attend high school in arts, when I finished that logical move was to go further, so I went to Fine Arts Academy in Belgrade.

q) What materials do you use and why?

a)Oil painting is for now my main mean of expression, simply because it is the most accurate way to explain my way of thinking.

q) Who is your biggest influence, both art and non-art related

a)For me very important is passion for work, of course some of them are more important then others, for sure German philosophy like Friedrich Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Schiller, writers like Kafka, Bulgakov, Bela Hamvas, David Bowie…

q) How do you dream up with your wacky ideas? What is your creation process?

a)I read a lot, from junky novels to pure art novels, am addicted to TV who works 24 hours per day, I hardly watch but I need to have it in the room, maybe it is compilation of my thoughts that I collect through ordinary day like seeing some old man struggling with his poverty and starting to fade from the face of earth without being seen at all, or seeing an other victim of paedophilia for this and other subjects unfortunately I didn’t need any imagination. Just a pure reality.


q) What haven’t you done yet that you definitely want to try someday?

a)A lot of things, I think I have compulsive behavior and through that I do make possible some things, everything will happened after all time is all I got.

q) Are there any contemporary artists that you love?

a)A lots of them, Anselm Kiefer ,
Dennis Oppenheim , Bill Viola, Louis Bourgeois….

q) How long does it take for you to finish a piece?

a)Depends sometimes couple of days, sometimes two years, depends how big is canvas very often it is unexplainable how can I produce very fast some canvas, mostly I can’t remember how I done it which is cool it looks like I am always starting all over again, like absolute beginner.

q) What music, if any, do you like to have on while you're working?

a)I am eclectic person though quite often I do listen to classical music like Vivaldi Gloria, or Mozart Requiem, Zauberflote; Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn, but then again I do listen in the very same day artists like Clash, New Order, Paul Weller, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Nina Simone, RHCP, Django Reinhardt …. A lot of stuff it is hard to comprehend what I like.

q) Do you do many art shows?

a)I have solid number per year.

q) Tell us about a recent dream you had.

a)I travelled through unknown places, like I was searching for something, even though all was new and unknown to me I felt like I new the way I am going. Colours are very vivid in my dreams and many things can’t be explain through plain words.

q) What are you doing when you are not creating?

a)I don’t have this kind of examples I work every day through whole year, I guess some free space I do provide for myself I use to meet my friends and swimming.

q) Do you get emotionally attached to your work and do you miss your work when it is sold?

a)No, the moment I finish work I don’t look at that canvas.




q) What new projects or exhibits are in your future?

a)New project is already on; until I finished it I prefer not to talk about it.

q) What is your favorite art related web site?

a)I don’t visit many I believe to give an opinion I should be good and regular observer, and alas I am not. Internet is something I can easily become addicted so I avoid to participate further then my needs are.

q) What is the strangest thing you have ever seen?

a)Seeing ordinary people enjoying their life, probably second one will be to see world without oligarchy.

q) What is the strangest thing you have ever done?

a)There is no such thing in my life; probably that is the strangest thing.



q) Any advice you can pass onto aspiring artists/designers?

a)Always work in the way you see, don’t aloud anyone to participate in yours feelings towards your art and be patience with ideas and realisation.

q)your contacts….e-mail…links

a)Biljana Djurdjevic
info@biljanadjurdjevic.com
www.biljanadjurdjevic.com

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Interview with Lauren Bergman

q) Well, first of all please tell us a little about yourself.

a)I was born in Washington, D.C. where I started taking classes at the Corcoran School of Art when I was twelve years old.

q)How would you describe your work?

a)My work is narrative female figurative that has at different times been called American Realist, Pop Surrealist, and Lowbrow. I am comfortable with any of those labels, although I don’t feel I fit in perfectly to any one of them.

q) Did somebody encourage you to become an artist?

a)My mother really encouraged me from an early age. I became a single mother when I was still in school and had to figure out how to support myself and my son and still pursue my art. So I have found that finding the strength to be an artist really has to come from a fierce place within.

q) What is your favorite medium?

a)I am working on a new series of paintings that are acrylic on heavily gessoed paper. So at the moment this is my favorite. I work a lot in watercolor on paper too.

q) Can you describe your process, from the seed of an idea to a complete work?

a)I generally see a painting completely finished in my head before I start anything. Then I do a somewhat detailed pencil drawing on the painting surface. I have started recently to work out compositions in Photoshop playing with scale, placement of objects, etc. and then working from the selected printout. After the pencil drawing is complete I rarely make any major changes to the composition in the painting process. Then I develop the palette. Once the color range is determined I just start painting layer by layer by layer until I tell myself the painting is finished.

q) Generally speaking, where do your ideas come from?

a)My ideas may come from memory, old advertising imagery, old master paintings, random photographs found in flea markets, etc. Basically my mind is always looking for things to incorporate into paintings.

q) How long does it take to complete a piece?

a)Generally it takes 3 – 4 weeks to finish a painting.

q) Who are your favorite artists…and who are some artists you are currently looking/listening to?

a)I have too many favorites to list… Today I am looking at the pre-Raphaelites
Waterhouse and Bouguereau, and the illustrators Elvgren and Leyendecker.

q) Are you represented by a gallery? Do you have any upcoming exhibits?

a)I show at O.K. Harris in New York City. I’m not sure when my next show is.

q) Do you have any 'studio rituals'? As in, do you listen to certain types of music while working? What helps to get you in the mood for working?

a)I always listen to music while I paint – rock from punk to emo…


q) Do you have goals that you are trying to reach as an artist, what is your 'drive'? What would you like to accomplish in your 'profession'?

a)I have so many finished paintings in my head that my goal is to complete as many as possible in this lifetime.

q) When have you started using the internet and what role does this form of communication play for you, personally, for your art, and for your business?

a)I’m not sure how the internet has affected my work or my business other than allowing me to see far more work of other artists, galleries, museums, etc. and hopefully exposing my work to a more far reaching audience.

q) Do you have prefered working hours? Do you pay attention to the time of the day or maybe specific lighting?

a)I work both at night and during the day. My current studio space does not have good natural light so I am working under full-spectrum stand lamps (the kind used in photography).

q) Do you do commissioned works?

a)My work doesn’t really lend itself to commissions, but I think it would be fun.

q)…Your contacts

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Interview with Celine Guichard

q)Something on you…whatever you want…

a)My mother has bought me a small electical iron. But as I am only four, she rips off
the electrical plug, in front of my very eyes, so that I can't plug it. She
meticuously rolls up the cord and stores it in the chests bottom drawer in her room.
My mother irons the laundry in the living room. And me I play in her room. I pretend
to iron. I'm ironing my dolls clothes. I am quick to notice that my small iron does
not heat up and so I am getting bored of ironing. But I'm disappointed at my dolls
chothes which are always wrinkled. So I open the drawer, and I prented that I am
mummy ironing. I prentend that I am Mummy who plugs the iron in. I have found the
cord. With my two fingers I am pluging it in the outlet. An intense swarming runs in
my entire body, it is very powerful, I am paralysed, electrified, I am all shaken
from inside. And then nothing.
I am recovering. I am bathing in my pee. I have three big smoking holes on my little
fingers. With a voice mixed with tears and suffocation, I am blundering through «
Tatitatatatatontonmamipapitati... »
I never iron my clothes.

q)How would you describe your art to someone who could not see it?

a)My images represent bearded women, a dogman with big bollocks, a zoophile and his
dog, a bat hung to someone's thumb, a woman with a disease of the gum, another one
with a terrible skin disease, a bouquet of vegetal parrots, a stain on a red even
surface, an old man with a eletrical train up the arse, a young woman who rips off a
handful of her pubic hair on a deserted beach, another one who massages her ego, a
bird with its wings tangled up in a woman's hair, she's broken to pieces, a naked man
with his cellphone, an octopus woman who gets her sex stroken, a skeleton's mask hung
on a chair underneath which lies a body covered with hairs, a transexual who wanks
himself on a chair, two red men and an keyhole eating animal, a woman with plaits who
has her periods, a salad eating cat...

q)What are you doing now…your current projects…

a)At the moment I am an artist in residence at the Maison des Auteurs d'Angoulême
(Charente, France), where I shall be carrying on until february, it is a one year
residency. I am working on a graphic novel. I am also preparing a solo exhibition for
november 20th in the same place.

q)Where do you get your inspirations…?

a)I don't know really. Here and there I guess.



q)What are your next projects…?

a)Carrying on. I have started to paint again.

q)What other talent would most like to have…?

a)Talent does not exist. I believe one specializes, that's all

q)Where have you show your art…?

a)In last July august, I have exhibited at the famous bookstore, un regard moderne in
Paris, and in september, I have taken part in a group show entitled « The bic show »,
in a parisian gallery.

q)Do you collaborate or have you collaborated with magazines,zines…or
other ?

a)Yes it sometimes happens, for graphic revues such as « Chutes », « zinc »,
les éditions hermaphrodites, les Éditions Marchand feuilles, and also for websites such as
leterrier.net, desordre.com, bonobo.net, leportillon.com, bonobocomix.com...

q)Favourite book?

a)I have several favorite books,
— « Les vies parallèles » de Louis Calaferte
— the novellas from Catherine Mansfield
— « The book of disquiet » from Fernando Pessoa
— "Scottature" from Dolores Prato
— Everything Haruki Murakami did
— The Larousse medical illustrated dictionnay, the 1925 edition
— « Cooking in 20 lessons » from Pellaprat
— « Jeeves » from Pelham Grenville Wodehouse
— « the capricos» of Goya
— "Hôtel Iris" from Yôko Ogawa
— Many books of Edward Gorey but especially "the curious sofa"
— « Tales of Moonlight and Rain» of Ueda Akinari
— « Mémoire d'une fouetteuse » de Faty
— « the Cabinet of medical curiosities" of Eric Bouhier
— « Nécron » of Magnus
— « Les Aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-sec » de Tardi
— Everything that Suehiro Maruo did
— « L'homme au Landau » of Jacques Lob

q)What materials do you use for your creations?

a)I use both traditionnal tools such as pencils and brushes, acrylic paint and chinese
ink and numeric tools such as Illustrator, Photoshop and Image Ready to fabricate
animated gifs.

q)Are there certain colours,shapes that you are drawn to?

a)I like the square. I don't think I am particularly drawned to any colour.

q)How important is self-promotion for an artist nowadays?

a)For an artist who is not represented by any gallery, nor any agent, there is no other
way than self promotion. With the internet this has become easier to show one's work
to a quiet large number of people.

q)What do you fear the most?

a)I fear myslef, life and big black dogs.

q)Music you like and you listen…

a)My musical tastes are quiet common, shitty actually if not shameful, and they have
very little interest in being stated, if it was not to do harm to my reputation.

q)A message for the readers…

a)No message .


q)Your contacts….E-mail…links…

a)http://www.celineguichard.name/


Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Interview with Ephameron

q) Well, first of all please tell us a little about yourself.

a)My artists' name is Ephameron, I'm 28 years old and I live and work in Antwerp, Belgium. I've studied fine arts and illustrative design and now I'm an independent artist. I contribute to a lot of group and solo expos all over the world which allows me to travel, and I also organize shows and underground book fairs myself and sometimes publish a magazine.

q)How would you describe your work?

a)I love to capture moments and feelings into a piece. I guess it's all quite feminine, colourwise and themewise. I like to do portraits of the people I love or make a drawing of something that inspires me. It's really very impulsive and I work rather fast, once I get started... Which doesn't mean it's easy :)

q) Did somebody encourage you to become an artist?

a)My parents are both art historians so there were always loads of art books lying around in the house. At school, I had good grades for the art classes, as long as it didn't involve drawing straight lines or painting between the lines so the teachers encouraged me to go to night classes. Afterwards, I knew I wanted to continue to art college and that's what I did!

q) What is your favorite medium?

a)A 2B pencil with a sheet of plain white 80g paper - the ones you use for your printer. I also love to do collages and paintings, but I have to be in the mood for it and need a lot of time to settle down into it. When I'm at home, I'm always running all over the place organising things so I get the most work done when I visit my boyfriend in France and have nothing to do all day but draw and paint. And answer questions for online interviews, hehe.

q) Can you describe your process, from the seed of an idea to a complete work?

a)I never think a lot about what I want to do or what I want to express. When I make an illustration for a magazine, I have a general idea in my head and just make loads of drawings from which I take the best ones to work with. When I create works for myself or for an exhibition, it's less difficult in one way, because you're free to make whatever you want, but more difficult as well because there's no boundaries. If you know what I mean?
After I've chosen a sketch to work from, either I continue on the computer and make a digital composition, or I sit down with paint and brushes, scissors and all kinds of scraps of paper to make a collage or painting, playing with colours and layers until I'm satisfied by what it looks like.

q) Generally speaking, where do your ideas come from?

a)From life. I'll be walking around town and suddenly see a person or a view and know that's what I want to do next. I also browse the internet a lot in search of images to work from, to combine different elements from different photographs into the perfect drawing.

q) How long does it take to complete a piece?

a)I usually take a whole day to make loads of drawings, choose which ones I like most and then take another 3 or 4 hours the next day to finish a digital or painted piece, sometimes I make two of them in one day. Sometimes it's longer, sometimes it's shorter... Depends on the complexity of the image and whether I'm inspired or not. Sometimes the materials don't cooperate and I have to start all over again...

q) Who are your favorite artists…and who are some artists you are currently looking/listening to?

a)I love different kinds of artists in different art areas. I like Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt and Léon Spilliaert but also love comic book artists like Dave McKean, José Muñoz and Nicolas De Crécy. There's a bunch of Flemish children's book illustrators like Gerda Dendooven, Isabelle Vandenabeele and Goele Dewanckel I adore as well, and many others. From the American illustrative art movement there's a.o. Evan Hecox, Cody Hudson and Jim Houser that are brilliant.

q) Are you represented by a gallery? Do you have any upcoming exhibits?

a)L.J. Beaubourg in Paris represents my art in France. I'll be showing there in February 2008. As for expositions in Antwerp, I'll have one at Lucy in January 2008 and one at Mekanik in February, after that I'll be going to Amble in Philadelphia in April and to Extrabold in Luxembourg in June. In between, there will be more smaller projects too, for which I send in works.

q) Do you have any 'studio rituals'? As in, do you listen to certain types of music while working? What helps to get you in the mood for working?

a)I have my iPod on "random discs" all day to make sure I don't have to get up to go change the cd! I'm too lazy for that. Making a choice also prevents you from listening to the cd's that are at the bottom of your stack, it's too hard. I think I even prefer working without music to changing discs all day... As far as rituals go, I need to know I'll have all the time in the world ahead of me to get started, and stay away from my computer! Being online all the time and having to write back to everyone is really distracting. And I have to be fed properly :)

q) What is your favorite a) taste, b) sound, c) sight, d) smell, and e) tactile sensation?

a)
a) taste: cinnamon apple crumble and Belgian fries (but not together, hehe)b) sound: slow, sad musicc) sight: the Pyla dune near Bordeaux, very early in the morning when you're the only one aroundd) smell: lily-of-the-valley flowers blooming in the gardene) tactile sensation: nothing beats the sunshine

q) Do you have goals that you are trying to reach as an artist, what is your 'drive'? What would you like to accomplish in your 'profession'?

a)I would love to be able to live off my art, do shows all over the world, visit places without having to worry about the monthly bills coming in. In the far future, I'd like to buy a lovely house and settle down while still creating art, teaching, making books and magazines,... For the moment, I'm really happy with the way things are going now, minus the financial problems :) One of the goals I'm trying to reach is to make people realise that fine arts aren't only conceptual. That there's loads of young people out there expressing themselves by drawing and making illustrations and who are the next generation of pop artists, but they're not discovered yet. It looks like we're headed in the good direction though!

q) When have you started using the internet and what role does this form of communication play for you, personally, for your art, and for your business?

a)I think I started chatting and emailing when I got out of high school. I used to sneak into the local university during summer and use their computers. My fine arts graduation project was a website, which won me a price in Belgium and gave me my first big break, so I think the internet has been immensely important to my career. Being able to communicate with everyone, finding information, showing my art on the internet,... I don't think I could live without it.

q) What do you obsess over?

a)Insects. Being late for trains. Getting my 8 hours of sleep every night. Loving someone and being loved back.

q) Do you have prefered working hours? Do you pay attention to the time of the day or maybe specific lighting?

a)Somehow, I'm only able to create by day. On a perfect schedule, I'd use the mornings to work on the computer, the afternoons to draw and paint and the evenings to hang out with friends. When the sun's out, I'm more productive than ever, even though it can be distracting because I'd want to go outside. Days inside when it's raining are nice too...

q) Do you do commissioned works?

a)Yes. I make illustrations for magazines, big wall pieces, designs for merchandise,... I love to do it because it opens up more possibilities with more people in other places.

q) Any tips for emerging artists?

a)Have a website! When you're sure of the quality of your art, make lists of all your favourite artists, magazines, galleries and contact them. Don't be sad when they don't get back to you, just work even harder. Organize your own exhibitions with friends, print magazines and invite other artists to collaborate. Networking is so important... It's what keeps us all going. Meeting people that are in the same frame of mind is so inspiring.

q)…Your contacts