Interview with Amy Casey

q)Name?

a)Amy Casey

q)Location?

a)Cleveland, Ohio.

q)Contact info…?

a) http://www.amycaseypainting.com/

q)How did you get started making art?

a)I have always been drawn to making things, for as far back as I can remember. A combination of two teachers in my high school sort of twisted my arm to get more serious and focused, especially towards painting.

q)How would you describe your art?

a)Landscape paintings missing most of the land, kind of both whimsical and depressing at the same time.

q)Where do you get the inspiration for your art?

a)Things I see around me, things I worry about. Also the work is very self informed, often paintings grow out questions I have about earlier paintings.

q)What other artists inspire you?

a)Lately I’ve been revisiting Henri Rousseau and Bill Traylor.

q)Where can someone purchase your works?

a) http://www.zggallery.com/

q)What is your main medium of choice?

a)Acrylic paint .

q)What are you working on now?

a)Finishing up work for a show at Limited Addiction gallery in Denver, Colorado

q)What advice could you give to someone who wants to be an artist?

a)Keep working, make things you are interested in.

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

a)Working a day job, sleeping, gardening, quilting and struggling to learn other languages. Squeezing my cats, Frankie and Wanda.

q) What does music, in its entirety, mean to you?

a)I think music can be both a great escape and also a way to think about things in my life, especially my past. But then I’m terribly sentimental.

q) What does art, in its entirety, mean to you?

a)In it’s entirety? I’m not certain. Generally, I’d say a way to communicate with other people and conversely an opening into a completely self contained reality in my head.

q) Are there some web sites that you would like to recommend? Artists, art communities, xxx,...!?

a)I’m not too superconnected..offhand, I can think of Amy Kligman, a painter met here who is now in St. Louis, www.amykligman.com and Scott Radke, an artist in cleveland http://www.scottradke.com/

Interview with Harma Heikens

q)Name?

a)Harma Heikens

q)Location?

a)Groningen, the Netherlands

q)Contact info...?

a) http://www.harmaheikens.nl/
http://www.hamzine.nl/
info@harmaheikens.nl
info@witzenhausengallery.nl

q)How did you get started making art?

a)I've been making things as long as I remember, but didn't think that had anything to do with "art". I always wanted to be an artist, though; I imagined that I would be painting large abstract canvasses when I grew up.

q)How would you describe your art?

a)Don't know.Conceptual cartoonism? I hope it's sort of direct.

q)Where do you get the inspiration for your art?

a)The newspapers, b-movies, t.v.commercials and everyday life.

q)What other artists inspire you?

a)Writers like for instance Elfride Jelinek, Michel Houllebecq and Douglas Coupland, grafic novelists like Charles Burnes and Daniel Clowes, film directors like Lucas Moodysson and Tim Burton and a lot of other visual artists, too many to mention, not always the ones that make work simular to mine, it is more about an attitude.

q)Where can someone purchase your works?

a)One can contact Witzenhausen Gallery in Amsterdam, however, there is not a lot available. The process of making these things is rather time-consuming, I do four or five pieces a year.

q)What is your main medium of choice?

a)Sculpture and installation. The sculpture is mostly made of light-weight synthetics (all water-based and friendly to the environnement).

q)What are you working on now?

a)An installation in collaboration with a poet. It is about consumerism and child-prostitution.

q)What advice could you give to someone who wants to be an artist?

a)Learn as much from other artists as you can, be open-minded. Even go to artschool if you get the chance and let go of everything you thought about art.But after that, forget about the whole thing again and return to the things you loved before, however stupid they may seem, because they are likely to be you true source of inspiration. q)What are you doing when you are not creating art?

a)Sleeping mostly, and watching movies.

q)What does music, in its entirety, mean to you?

a)A lot. And as long as there is music being made that I can relate to, it makes me feel like I'm part of a movement. I find that inspiring.

q)What does art, in its entirety, mean to you?

a)Pretty much everything, I guess. (That it, when you include all: movies, cartoons, literature,music....)

q)Are there some web sites that You would like to recomend? Artists, art communities

a)Lisa Yuskavage
Anya Janssen
Folkert de Jong
http://www.epker.nl/
http://www.martenwinters.nl/
http://www.romasteel.com/
http://www.bezembinder.nl/ (illustrated links)
and the Junxtapoz -magazine website, http://www.juxtapoz.com/, always provides a lot of nice stuff and an enourmous amount of interesting links.

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Interview with Lynne Perrella

q)Name:

a)Lynne Perrella

q)Location:

a)Columbia County in the Hudson River Valley, New York, USA

q)Contact info:

a) LKPerrella@AOL.com

www.LKPerrella.com

q)How did you get started making art?

a)I’ve always considered myself an artist, and think I was probably born with an art “gene”.
More importantly, I always got a lot of encouragement and affirmation for my creative
interests and that certainly allowed my fascination with art and imagination to flourish.
I often find myself returning to wisps of ideas that I had as a child…almost like trying to recover the images of a dream.

q)How would you describe your art?

a)I consider myself a mixed-media artist. My interests are in collage, assemblage, art
journals and one-of-a-kind books. I like to strike a balance between the solitary activity of working in my studio on my own projects, and also organizing art collaborations amongst colleagues and respected peers.

q)Where do you get the inspiration for your art?

a)I think one role of the artist in society is to use everything. I like to translate my everyday experiences into art as a way of creating Reflection and Reverie. As a lifelong
keeper of written diaries and visual art journals, I tend to work with anything at hand.
The smallest thing will start the flow of ideas……for instance, this morning in my kitchen I noticed a sticker on an onion that said “Jumbo Red” and I just knew there was an idea lurking behind those words. I try to be as open and receptive to my environment as possible.

q)What other artists inspire you?

a)One of the most meaningful things I have done in recent years is to make up a list of the 10 biggest art influences in my life. Just the process of listing, editing, revising and living with that list created a breakthrough for me. The list changes all the time, and the hierarchy shifts around……but some of the mainstays on the list are: Robert Rauschenberg, Jack Kerouac, Milton Glaser, Hannelore Baron, Andy Goldsworthy,
Romare Bearden.

q)Where can someone purchase your works?

a)Please visit my website at www.LKPerrella.com

q)What is your medium of choice?

a)I like to work with very low-tech materials. Acrylic paints, paper, canvas, string, glue,
found objects. Anything that has a well-worn, non-precious feeling to it. One of my neighbors is a master print maker, and he saves his used cheesecloth tarlatans for me. These wonderful “rags” have become one of my favorite things to use in collage and
assemblage.

q)What are you working on now?

a)Recently, I have been doing a lot of reading about the Ballet Russes, and Diagliev.
I have been doing a series of miniature paper “costumes” inspired by this research, using just about everything and anything in my studio. Great fun!

q)What advice would you give to someone who wants to be an artist?

a)I think that living an artful life is easy, once you remove the daunting titles and art jargon.
For instance, I think anyone who creates a beautiful welcoming dinner party for friends and sets a lovely table is expressing themselves as an artist. The way we arrange a room, or put a wardrobe together, or write a personal special thank-you letter, etc. These are all ways of expressing personal creativity, without the pressure or angst of questioning “Am I really an artist?”. On the flip side of that, I also feel that being an artist requires a strong work ethic in order to propel ourselves forward and keep the creative juices going.
Two conflicting concepts – But I think both are important.

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

a)I travel throughout the US, and abroad, giving creativity workshops. I do this about five or six times a year, and I consider it a big privilege to work with people who are exploring the depths of their creativity and taking risks. Also, I write books on my artform (my latest book, “Art-Making; Collections & Obsessions” will be out in February) and am usually working on manuscripts or articles.

q)What does music mean to you?

a)Music is my ticket, when I instantly want to go to a state of mind, or a mood. For instance, I have a 1960s juke box in my studio, full of 45 rpm records. If I want to turn up the volume on my energy and verve, I select some Motown or Doo Wop on my jukebox and let the music carry me. If I want to hide out and be quiet and reverent, I usually listen to chant music, like “Anonymous 4”. Jazz, from Miles Davis, usually loosens the tightness in my work and helps me feel the flow. When I come into my studio in the morning, the music comes on even before the lights!

q)What does art mean to you?

a)My answer to this question changes daily. Today, without question, the response is….
“Participation”. I think the arts are an open invitation to participate, express, contribute.
No matter how complicated, complex, and “techy” our world gets, I always sense that the arts bring us back to our most authentic emotions and allow us a positive opportunity to move ahead while honoring the past.

Interview with Sergei Sviatchenko

''7225''from series LESS 2,2006,collage, © Sergei Sviatchenko

q)Name?

a)Sergei Sviatchenko

q)Location?

a) Viborg, Denmark

q)Contact info…?

a)www.sviatcenko.dk
art@postkasse.com

q)How did you get started making art?

a)I was born in the family, where art and architecture books and magazines were my first toys. My father was a professor of architecture and artist and my very first things were made under his influence and presence.
After graduation from Kharkov Academy of Art and Architecture in 1975 I have worked as a practical architect, in 1983-1986 studied PhD “Means of Visual Information in Architecture” at Kiev School of Architecture.
From 1988 work fool time as a visual artist and curator.

q)How would you describe your art?

a)Art is the process for me, where news, ideas, emotions, feelings and doubts feed into my mind, and then develop into the finished artwork. Collage, photography, film are the most useful visual elements in my communication with the world.

q)Where do you get the inspiration for your art?

a)Mostly my influences are from other creative people who share my ideas. A few magazines, books, films and many other things you see every day, and of course, rock music.

q)What other artists inspire you?

a)My father – architect and great watercolour artist. My teachers at architecture school – you realize later in life just how good many of them were. The Russian avant-garde(1910-1934): Ivan Leonidov, Konstantin Melnikov, El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko, Vladimir Majakowski, Vladimir Tatlin. From the West – Salvador Dali, Robert Raushenberg, Tom Wesselmann,Josef Beuys, Julian Schnabel, Andrey Tarkovsky.

''4030''from series LESS, 2004, collage, © Sergei Sviatchenko


q)Where can someone purchase your works?

a)It depends of medium

q)What is your main medium of choice?

a)It depends of the period of time

q)What are you working on now?


a)Show (paintings) at Gallery NB (Denmark)
show (collage and photography) at Gallery Image (Denmark)
group show ROJO®out II in Barcelona
commission work (large scale collage) for Danish buisness academy.

q)What advice could you give to someone who wants to be an artist?

a)To look a lot of art magazines/freeze,artforum,...and work with a big enthusiasm.

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

a)Creating creative relation with my 3 kids, family.

''7236''from series LESS 2,2006,collage, © Sergei Sviatchenko

q) What does music, in its entirety, mean to you?

a)I can not live without

q) What does art, in its entirety, mean to you?

a)Art gives me a posibility to try to understand other people .

''4018''from series LESS, 2004, collage, © Sergei Sviatchenko

q)Are there some web sites that You would like to recomend? Artists, art communities, xxx,...!?

a)

www.senko.dk