Artist: Jaybo

Jaybo (1968) is a runaway, setting out and wandering along in a physical as well as in a creative sense. In his youth, he ran away from his house in southern France, settling in Berlin-Kreuzberg at the beginning of the 1980’s. When he founded the streetwear label “Irie Daily” and the cultural magazine “Style” at the beginning of the 1990’s, his influence on Berlin’s youth culture and fashion scene could be clearly seen. Even today, urban subculture is the driving force behind his artistic activities.

Nailing down Jaybo’s works to a specific artistic genre seems nearly impossible in the face of the creative impulsiveness and eager experimentation that provide the key to understanding the allure of his works, works which meaningfully negotiate between the genres of pop art, graffiti and street art and which also unselfconsciously contain implicit elements of Dadaism and Surrealism. – Eclecticism? Jaybo is too one-of-a-kind not to be Jaybo – the artist is constantly in the picture!

WS: jayboisms.com

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Artist: Ben Slow

I paint what I sees – in the urban environment, in the media and in the people of the city that I love.  Working from my London studio, I find an exciting dynamic in the contradictory relationship between the glamorous pop images and the raw, unrefined urban context in which such icons are celebrated.  The point of my work is to reduce the silhouette to its most elegant and minimal, while simultaneously embellishing its energy, depth and texture.  The process is as symbolic as it is aesthetic.

I have never stopped expanding my methods and technique, often using found materials as my canvas and defining with whatever materials I come across.  Anything can be used for some sort of mark making if you have the imagination, and the effects of such improvisation are what makes my work so distinctive.  Texture is a vital part of my work and the expressive portraits are richly detailed through a deceptively intricate process of layering and colouring.  This is particularly noticeable in the large scale works such as those at the Royal Albert Hall or in the various street pieces.  The larger the piece, the more room there is for his expressive techniques to run free.

WS: slowben.com

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Photographer: Brett Adamek

Images below all from a body of work under the guidance of Miksang photography.

Miksang, at its most basic level, is concerned with uncovering the truth of pure perception. We see something vivid and penetrating, and in that moment we can express our perception without making anything up—nothing added, nothing missing. Totally honest about what we see—straight shooting.

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Artist: Erin Currier

Part portraiture, part collage constructed of disinherited consumer “waste” collected in thirty five countries, part sociopolitical archive, but wholly humanist, Currier’s work has been featured in numerous solo shows, including a major exhibition at the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela Embassy in Washington, DC. Her work is exhibited and collected internationally. She lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

What began as a natural integration of my sociopolitical beliefs with a sheer joy of art-making, has since developed into a full-fledged artistic praxis by which I integrate the human realm I come in contact with in the course of my travels- its individuals, cultures, and struggles- with its refuse, in order to comment on and participate in the issues I feel most passionate about. I have travelled to 35 countries, immersing myself, to the best of my abilities, in the daily life of countries like Nepal and Nicaragua, cities such as Istanbul and Caracas, studying languages, getting around on foot or by bus, sketching, documenting extensively, making friends, and collecting disinherited commercial “waste”, after which I return to my studio to create series of works. Aesthetically, Latin American Muralist traditions, Eastern Spiritual Iconography, and Social Realism inform my work. In addition to drawing its subjects from the so-called developing world, my work often draws its aesthetic from the “Global South”, as well as its philosophical influence, in the form of Paolo Freire, Eduardo Galeano, Augusto Sandino, and Edward Said.
The more I travel, the greater my sense of urgency as an artist to address social inequality and economic disparity through my work. Above all, I am a humanist artist, politically active and unapologetically narrative in my repertoire of practices, and for whom art and the social world are inseparable.

Website: erincurrierfineart.com

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Artist & Photographer: Neil Craver

As a youth in North Carolina; I begun my path as an abstract painter and figurative sculptor; my motivation grew from my interest of psychophysical effects of chroma. Photography holds all the intrinsic values of all the other arts; but it is the foundation of the origins of existence. My creations are the exploration of my inner facilities; in the pursuit of contemporary knowledge expressing “original thoughts”. “Nothing can exist without the photon, and every aspect is controlled by it’s usage.”

Statement: OmniPhantasmic*

*Omni-
1. A combining form denoting all, every, everywhere; as in omnipotent, all-powerful; omnipresent; omnivorous.

*Phantasmic-
1. Something apparently seen but having no physical reality; a phantom or an apparition. Also called phantasma.
2. An illusory mental image.
3. In Platonic philosophy, objective reality as perceived and distorted by the five senses.

This project is meant to be consumed with your emotions, and not simply perceived with your sense organs. I wanted a transcendental meaning behind them; not only with the use of chromatics and aesthetics. But with my intended focus be on the philosophical theories, I wanted a “subliminal composition” to create an under tow of messages to stress the strong influences of unconscious elements affecting and driving people’s lives. And with the creation of a strong undercurrent of incommunicable thoughts, would be the stage for illuminating the subconscious intellect into a perception; not deception.

The visual aesthetics are purely symbolic in their thought application and structure; with decomposing forests of broken memory connections, and tumbling of vertigo into the correct positions of phenomenal reality. The shallowness of the area above the horizon line indicates the division of the limited amount of information consciously perceivable (atmosphere-above) and the larger mass storage of all the sense information, rationalizations,and prejudices of the subconscious below (hydrosphere-below). The nexus of contingents between drowning and floating, falling and flying, dying and living are some of the main unphysical-intangible themes in this series.

A dominant temporal element of composition would be the use of the female form. I used the intrinsic values of this object to exploit and illustrate the submerged network of the unconscious condemnation and restriction of the nude form in popular society. With this formation of energies being repressed in the subconscious state, one’s behavior could start to dissolve the foundation of the self. With no outlets for expression, one could only predict the unconscious wishes could turn into anxiety and transform into synthetic states; such as phobias,aggression, and other maladjusted personality disorders.

What you can perceive and process is an extremely finite portion of what you receive from the physical environment. And to truly grasp the vexing questions of your inner facilities, you must open yourself to a flood of unrestricted information. So one must dive into the cloudy placid waters of the subconscious world to uncover a linkage between the conscious and the subconscious mind. Once the excavation is started; the illumination of the self imposed restrains of values, ideas, and moral codes will dissolve. When the subconscious floods pass society’s imprisonment; starting a process of uncontaminated awareness; a penetrating understanding will unfold!

WS: neilcraver.500px.com

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Artist: Paige Bradley

Every now and then, I stumble upon an artist whose mind works in complementary patterns to my own. Paige Bradley is one of them. Immediately I felt drawn to to her work; “Expansion” (see below) is universally beautiful and powerful. An obvious spiritual undercurrent inspires this work.

When artists choose similar motifs without ever having met one another, or seen the other’s work, I am reminded of the concept of universal consciousness. Which, not coincidentally, I believe, is the very motif I recognize in Bradley’s work that consumes my own: fabric. She addresses her usage of this motif in relation to her piece “Into The Light” (view here on her website):

My fascination with fabric as confinement leads me to explore the abstract with figurative sculpture. Each figure is contained, but struggles to break free from self-inflicted boundaries. These figures, wrapped in extraordinary tension, bring to mind fears of ostracism, fears of not belonging and hiding from. The figures struggle to reveal themselves in order to become understood and known.

For Bradley, fabric is a metaphor for limits. “My sculptures show the human race as a singular individual searching for connection but finding only alienation,” her general statement reveals.

As for me? My general statement notes that “Whether plant matter or manmade textiles, the 3-dimensional texture” of my work “is a frequent metaphor for the fabric of physical reality.” It allows me to access what I consider to be “the undercurrent” of my work, which is the nature of consciousness. In my working series, Awakenings, I expand on the implications of the fabric of reality as connective threads between all reality. Each work in this series possesses an intention of mine, created so that it might radiate through the threads.

And here are the differences. Bradley is working in sculpture; me in mixed media and painting. I work with actual fabric in fluid materials that continue to evolve even after I am done working; she represents fabric by molding it into a tighter, more solid form. I am fascinated by how fabric connects; she, how it constricts. And so, though abstract and mind-expanding we both are, our interpretations are different. Method inspires medium; process is as important as product, if not more. Our unique processes produce complementary, but not identical results.

Learn more about her:

Focusing on tensions and liberations in my work, I feel most of our emotions are locked into a  existential cocoon. My sculptures show the human race as a singular individual searching for connection
but finding only alienation.

My recent work has become a symbol of struggle — both being contained and liberating ourselves from  self-inflicted boundaries. Fears of ostracism, avoiding distinction and hiding from greatness are all thoughts that come to mind. These fears create sculptures wrapped in extraordinary tension. The figures struggle to unveil themselves in order to become understood and known. These bound figures give me a sense of unrest as if too much life is jammed into too restrictive of space. I feel as if I am trying to live my truth free and unveiled in a society that would
rather keep us contained.

From the moment we are born, the world tends to have a container already built for us to fit inside: a social security number, a gender, a race, a profession, an I.Q. I ponder if we are more defined by the container we are in than what we are inside. Would we recognize ourselves if we could expand beyond our bodies?

Would we still be able to exist if we are authentically “un-contained”?

I attempt to expand my sculptures beyond the human flesh of the figure and create the brilliance within us. Simultaneously, I cannot help but to see a dangerous dichotomy between falling apart and expanding beyond our limitations. When devastation becomes deliverance, ashes from the past can become the foundations of the future.

WS: paigebradley.com

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Artist: Robin Venable

Bio

I am originally from Nashville, TN, with short stints in Jefferson City, TN and Tallahassee, FL. One of the earliest examples of my artistic leanings is a picture that my mom took of me in Sunday School - 4 years old, red paint, paintbrush in hand, white smock over a Sunday dress, and a huge smile on my face. I love medieval manuscripts, transparency, and ornate designs. I also love Nutella, Madeleine L’Engle, and Eternal Sunshine.

Artist Statement

In the wake of the vacuum created by postmodernism, there is a hunger for spiritual renaissance.  Human souls crave inclusion rather than exclusion, so I seduce the viewers with texture and intimate scale in the hopes of recreating my own religious revelations for them.

I place figures in ornate patterns from another time.  Almost lost in the complicated surfaces, the figures work to emerge and take full form.  Similar to the decorations in a precious reliquary, the portals of a cathedral, or an illuminated manuscript, the patterns point to our attempt to make sense of life’s complexity.  Dark and light battle over the souls of the figures as the figures become more integrated into their rich and complex spiritual history.

This history is fully realized in the misty deposits of pattern and imagery.  Layers of tracing paper and acrylic paint create a visual archaeology that calls the viewer deeper and deeper into the work.  The semi-transparent layers recall and represent the old and the new, the past and the future, the excellent and the penitent - because that is what makes a spiritual experience the richest and most precious.

My paintings and drawings grow out of the need to express my own spiritual journey.  I allow myself to be heavily influenced by religious icons and paintings of dramatic ecstasy and turmoil so that I know what is most effective to the viewer.

My grandfather’s religious expression is also an important influence on my work.  Towards the end of his life he created huge panels that he called The Bible Panorama.  On these panels were illustrations and texts of the end times as described in the Book of Revelation.  His fervor and dedication to recreating all the fantastic imagery found in that book are inspirational to me because he was so determined to prove the absolute importance of it all.  The figures cry out to their Lord – some in rapture and others in eternal unrest.

WS: robinvenable.com

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Artist: Sarah Hickey

Statement of Practice

I love painting women. Women who reside in the glittering, exotic worlds of ornamentation and beauty. Some are accompanied by owls and assorted avian, others are paired with the more risky of the animal kingdom. Hair-filled and fur laden, they feel like the perfect accessories to each Goddess’ ensemble. 

Most recently the women have been sporting horns. Not the devilish horns associated with satanic worship, but bull horns or stag horns, which resonate with the hybrid pagan Gods worshipped before Christianity. To me they represent strength and bullheaded determination, the potential to defend or protect the herd and to warn off potential competition – all attributes usually associated with masculinity.

Despite their organic crowns these women are not overtly aggressive. They wear them as a badge of honour or status, as if to say: ‘I may seem immersed in this timid floral lace landscape but I have these horns, this pride, this potential for danger, this potential for strength’.

I love the physical and metaphorical layers of a powerful woman. And I like the celebration of all that is fantastically feminine; the frilly bits that we were told not to like in an earlier version of feminism.  Like a glossy magazine can do, I want to embrace all that lovely, floral, fluffy stuff that surrounds feminine mythology.

I want these women to have their own animal magnetism, a confidence in their own sensuality, skins filled with colour and flowers. Traditionally male figurative artists have dominated the portrayal of women in Art. There is often a masculine sexual edge to their work, a sense that the woman in the image is being objectified or desired in a sexual way. I feel that the women I portray are desired, but not in the same way. They are sensual rather than sexual. They are seductive, not out of desperation or need, but as a by-product of who they are.

I believe the act of creating art feels like a conversation with spirit, a deeper energy of understanding. We are more than this physical flesh and bone. Perhaps my fascination with all that is beautiful, adorned, and embellished is a reflection of who we are on the inside. It is a more adequate portrayal of who we are at a soul level. Julia Cameron (New York writer/artist) expresses this idea so eloquently; ‘We are ourselves works of art, and as we work to bring forward the art within us, we express our inner divinity’ (‘Walking in this World’ by Julia Cameron p.40).

I look forward to being a part of the growth and development of these women as they alter and expand across time.

Background

After completing bachelor degrees in fine arts and education, and then five years of teaching art in Queensland high schools, Sarah Hickey started to produce art again after a long hiatus from her own creative practice. She attributes her ’creative recovery’ to reading a series of books by Julia Cameron who has made it her mission to unblock artists through a series of workshops and books. Cameron emphasizes the spiritual connection to making art and the need for us to continue to do the making through the times of self doubt when our inner critic is alive and well.

WS: sarahhickey.com.au

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Artist: Julia Barello

Julia Barello received an MFA from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1992.

Her large-scale installations are made up of recycled MRI and X-ray scans. From these discarded medical images, whose original purpose was to convey information about the human body, Barello cuts out organic shapes—leaves, birds, and flowers. The resulting wall installations consist of many layers of translucent color.

She is currently Associate Professor of Art at New Mexico State University.

—artistaday.com

WS: juliabarello.com

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Artist: Ruben Ireland

Ruben Ireland is a graphic artist and illustrator based in London. Using a fusion traditional techniques and digital processing, he creates thoughtful dreamlike images that carry emotional weight as well as a relevance to daily life. Tols includes ink, acrylic, dirty water, foods, weathred paper as well as Photoshop and a wacom tablet.

WS: rubenireland.co.uk

Artist: Ross Bowns

I am inspired by the vagueness and deficiencies found in our interpretations of our own experiences. My work explores the fragmented nature of perception in which there is an inherent incompleteness and I am interested in capturing that interplay between our internal conditions and the nature of perception that shapes the events that we encounter.

There is a reciprocal conversation between event, perception, and condition; a circular dialog in which new information is constantly changing our condition which, in turn, shapes our perception. If we could listen in we would hear a conversation that, at times, may appear fluid and coherent, yet is full of vague references and half formed expressions. Instead of being complete, the communication between the experience and our condition is fragmented or disjointed. I focus on that disconnection and I look for the ways that perception obscures, distorts, excludes, and manufactures the details of our experiences.

Currently, I focus on the human form as the subject to explore this aspect of perception. I also use this subject to examine how the body acts as a medium that feeds back into the loop of perceived experience.

WS: rossbowns.net

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Artists: Mirabai Ceiba

Photo: Fiona Webb

A gentle yet expansive spirit pervades all the music of Mirabai Ceiba…. Their concerts are group celebrations for peace—joyous and loving occasions that embody the duo’s profound belief in music as a universal language uniting all the world’s peoples, cultures and traditions.

Mirabai Ceiba is a duo consisting of guitarist/singer Markus Sieber and singer/harpist/keyboardist Angelika Baumbach… Markus is East German. Angelika was born in Tucson, Arizona, and grew up in a small village near Mexico City, the daughter of a Mexican mother and German father.

Markus and Angelika first met at a street fair at Scotland’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival and quickly fell in love… the newly formed couple decided to share their love with the world through uplifting music steeped in spirituality, tenderness and beauty.

Together, Angelika and Markus have forged engaging new style of world devotional music blending Gurmukhi mantras from the Kundalini Yoga tradition with original songs in English and Spanish that reflect a Native American influence and also draw words of wisdom from Rumi, Thich Nhat Hanh, Guru Nanak and Yogi Bhajan. Through exquisitely crafted recordings like their CD A HUNDRED BLESSINGS, Mirabai Ceiba weave a beguiling tapestry from these diverse influence and sources. And that’s what the music feels like: a beneficent and abundant gift from the universe. In concert, they inspire all present to chant together in a spirit of compassionate love and Oneness.

Even the name Mirabai Ceiba embodies the influences of both India and Native Latin America. Mirabai (1498-1547) was a Hindu mystical singer. Her songs express the longing of the individual self to be one with the universal self, represented by Krishna. For Angelika and Markus, the name Mirabai “is the exploration, the devotion, the inspiration in all the different aspects of divinity.”

And the Ceiba is a sacred tree of Latin America which is never cut and grows very tall. “We wish our music could be like the Ceiba tree,” say Markus and Angelika, “with roots deep in Mother Earth and branches extending far and wide into Father Sky.”

WS: mirabaiceiba.com

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Artist: Aurora Robson

Aurora is Canadian, but grew up in Hawaii and has lived and worked in New York for 20 years. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn with her husband, cinematographer Marshall Coles and daughter Ona.

In addition to her work as an artist, she is Director/Co-founder of Lumenhouse, a photo studio, artist in residence program, exhibition space and community/cultural event space located in Brooklyn.

She is also the founding Director of Project Vortex, an international organization of artists, architects and designers working with plastic debris - working with Project Kaisei to reduce the amount of plastic debris littering our oceans and shorelines.

WS: aurorarobson.com

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Artists: Anne Moran & Robert Brown

Our current body of work is focused on contemporary, abstract wall sculpture, emphasizing rich color and exquisite design to create focal points of dynamic beauty. We achieve a wide range of color from heating copper sheet with a torch. There is a large amount of spontaneity to this process which inspire and direct our designs. We utilize the metal’s reflective quality, which underneath oxidized pigments, produces a luminescent richness unique to this medium. Our wall sculpture can be designed any size to fit your specifications. We have created many custom pieces for hotel lobbies, financial institutions and medical facilities throughout the United States, working closely with architects, designers and art consultants. We live in Wilmington, North Carolina with our two daughters.

WS: moranbrown.com

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Artist: J.M. Culver

I am an emerging figurative artist working with the narrative and abstraction. My work focuses on the process of drawing and painting, having a sense of immediacy and depicting an honest reaction to the subject matter.

I am interested in exploring relationships, allegories, and ambiguities of the human condition. My intention is to create subjective narratives that evoke an emotional response and develop a dialogue between the art and the viewer.

I am originally from North Carolina now residing in Minnesota. I received my BFA in Painting in 2006 from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. I work full time in my studio and regularly exhibit my artwork. 

WS: jmculver.net

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