June 2013

Table Of Contents June 2013

Artists Jao Deauna

4

Johnny Tang

62

Maggie Carberry

16 Hayward Myers

82

Fallen Manga Studios

34 Joe Pee

96

Adam Miller

48 Nicole Graham

106

Check Out 120 Find out about influential books, movies, and documentaries involving art.

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Founder/Editor-In-Chief

Darius Loftis

Associate Editor

Claudia Puccio

Contributing Writers

Marita Spooner

Marketing

Pete Cosmos

Graphic Designer

Darius Loftis

Web Designer

Nick Rachielles

Photographer

Nicklaus Pereksta

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4

Jao Deauna

Please explain how you were first introduced to comic books?

You’re a digital artist. Do you prefer that to the old school method of pen and ink?

When I was a little kid I used to go to my Uncle’s place in Greenhills, Manila to read American comics, like Marvel and DC comics, and some Vertigo series such as Sandman. At that time, reading a full story arc was difficult because of the scarcity of comic distributors, so I never finished a single story, but the art remained in my young mind. Nowadays it is so easy to access a CBR copy of your favorite series.

Wow, this is a hard one. Like asking a person which is better to use, a spoon or a fork? For me, digital gadgets such as tablets and programs just heighten the artistic capacity to portray his/her art style.

I would say the first teachers that I had were comic books. Ranging from the philosophies of the super heroes, humanities, physics, and all the applied sciences; all of these I got a glimpse of in comics. Even some Filipino traditions and folklores were magnified by local Filipino comics.

At the same time Japanese Manga further fuelled and influenced me on storytelling and visualization.

[Pieces like] the works of Katsuhiro Otomo, the maker of Akira;Vagabond by Takehiko Inoue, which is closely based on the life of Miyamoto Musashi; and Blade of the Immortal by Hiroaki Samura. I also love video game artists and creators such as Hideo Kojima,Yojo Shinkawa,Yoshitaka Amano; the list could go on and on. For European artists, I love Milo Manara, Moebius, Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri.

Do you have any formal training in art?

In sketching and painting, I don’t. But I do have a Bachelor’s degree in 3D and Visual effects.

I really do think art is innate - just like if you’re in love with someone - it’s automatic. Every artist has art inside of him. It is a lifestyle. I consider ever person an artist; it’s just that they are in love with different forms of art. I love visual arts.

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Page 7: Space monkey Issue 1 cover

I use different mediums in my art. It depends what project is on my table at the moment. I love to experiment with combining all the mediums but I usually do digital art because it’s what I call instantaneous art. Once you’re seated at the PC and the finished product is ready, it can be shared instantly on the net.

Are there any subjects, genres or concepts that you are drawn to?

I love Sci-Fi, especially Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi. I love the progress and the decadence of a civilization.

For me, life works that way; you build while you consume. Some of my works are Post-Apocalyptic themed like Xenozyte and Space Monkeys.

I also like drawing portraits and pin-ups for practice and studies. And I’ve done illustration for posters and digital comics.

Who or what would be your biggest inspiration?

My inspiration is multi-faceted in Visual art. Ranging from graffiti artists to comic writers to painters, to name some giants, Banksy, Picasso, Jeremy Geddess, Soi Milk, Charmaine Olivia, Artgerm, Ash Ryan Church, Whilce Portacio, Alex Maleev, Damien Hirst…etc. There are so many that I have a little notebook for the artists that I like or the art they have done. I draw inspiration from their works and make my own.

The characters in your work look anatomically correct. Do you prefer this style as opposed to exaggerated characters?

I study a lot of human forms and anatomy. I’m fascinated that every artist has different versions of a human body or their surroundings. But sometimes I do exaggerated works, if that it the term, like Picasso or Dali’s work. It depends on what I ate that morning.

Can you talk about the piece that looks Japaneseinfluenced? The one with the two women?

It was a commissioned work for a client, painted in the 3rd ply of a fiber-glassed skimboard then layered with a coating to protect the art. The inspiration comes from the old Japanese films I have been watching.

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Page 10: Fan art daredevil Page 12-13: Katipunan pages

I want it to be portrayed as Contemporary art since the trend is to make the old new and the new old. I do a lot of installation art and I like working on different kinds of boards; skateboards, skimboards, wakeboards, etc. For me, art on boards is like a good combination.

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on chapter 2 of my selfpublished The Gathering graphic novel. Also I’m doing ashcan comics on my Space Monkey. And I’m doing a run on Xenozyte and will try out Extinction series for Fallen Manga Studios. I’m open for commissioned works and would love to work with other artists with the same vision and passion.

Contact: igibuena@gmail.com

Page 14: XENOZYTE book cover, chapter I Page 15: Skim boards

16

Maggie Carberry Written by Marita Spooner

Through the Looking Glass: An Interview with Mixed-Media Artist Maggie Carberry There’s something special about standing in front of a piece of art and getting lost in it.You aren’t disappearing or anything.You’re just discovering something, or remembering something, or maybe being transported somewhere.

Maggie Carberry makes that kind of art.

Photographing buildings and places other people might miss, she prints them out, cuts them up, mounts them on wood, and creates a world that is all her own, but also completely accessible to onlookers. Sometimes dripping her work with encaustic wax, she’s able to mimic the warm and misty glow of nostalgic memories that recall childhood summer nights or a day spent traveling abroad.

Her “Daydream Dwellings,” project features architectural details such as repeating windows, zigzag molding, and sculptures in relief that allow your mind to wander and “take a break from the noise of the world.” Her recent book, Architectural Alphabet Soup, is an extension of this project.

Abstraks met up with Carberry in her studio recently to take a peak at her work and learn more about the Jamaica Plain-based artist.

Tell me about yourself. Where are you from and where do you live right now?

I always say I have gypsy blood. I grew up in New York, but I moved around a lot. I went to college in Washington D.C. and then I went graduate school in London. Then I went back to D.C., lived in Brazil for a while, and finally I moved up to Boston.

How’d you end up in Boston?

18 Abstraks June 2013 Page 19: Atlas, 12x16, gum transfer, collage, cardboard, wood, acrylic on wood, 2012

I ended up in Boston for a teaching job that I did for four years. I had always taught elementary school and when I took the job here, it was middle school and high school, which is what I thought I wanted, but it was really hard for me. I missed the little kids and so, after four years, I took a break from it, and it was the year that Boston let go of a couple hundred teachers and it was really hard to find a job.

It ended up being a gift in a lot of ways…so when the school year was starting, I was kind of left with what I had, which was my artwork. I don’t think I would have had the guts to take the jump, to really try to make it as an artist, if I hadn’t had that push.

And so, for the last three years, I’ve really been working.

In the last three years, I wanted to really focus and get more into the detail of the work, so I let the nature side go. I started focusing on the architectural aspect. And it was interesting that as soon as you become really focused, you start to get more attention because I’m now the person that does those architectural details, instead of just that mixed-media artist kind-of-thing.

I would definitely say [my work] has become a lot more developed, especially because I’ve had a lot more time to work on it over the past couple years.

Why architecture? What do you see in it that maybe other people miss?

A lot of what I see in it even I miss the first time.

It’s amazing what you can do when it’s sink or swim. I take the pictures and then I look at them on the computer and then I zoom-in and then you see all these details from twenty feet higher from where How has your art changed over the last three you were standing that you didn’t even notice when years? Were you already doing something like you were walking by. So a lot of times, even if it’s you’re doing now? not a travel situation, I’ll go back to the building and No. And travel is a huge part of it, partially because photograph it again to have clearer images.

I’ve moved around so much and partially because A lot of it is also the repetition. I call them my Daywhen I do travel, it’s the time I get to be present.

I’m not distracted by work, cleaning the house, and dream Dwellings because they’re kind of like these all that kind of stuff. When I travel, my camera is like fantasy, happy places where I’ll take just one window of a building and then repeat it and repeat it my sketchbook. I just take my camera with me and and kind of build my own building out of it. It’s the I take all these photos, often times without even repetition that lets you just look at it. At first you thinking about it. I’m just out there, taking a break. see the image, but then your mind gets to wander And then, when I come back and process them, off and maybe it’ll take you to a memory of your that is where a lot of the work comes from. childhood or another place where you’ve been.

[My work] has this kind of two-side thing: the I can see that. It’s a bit like something you can menature area of my work and then this architectural diate on. side. Just subliminally, when I’d travel, I was just always attracted to the details in the buildings and Yeah, yeah. Many times, when people buy my work, just that sense of place when you’re somewhere they tell me it gives them a little private space. If else. they hang it in their office, for instance, it gives 20 Abstraks June 2013 Page 21: Dormer, 12x16, gum transfer, acrylic, wood on wood, 2012

them a place where they can just zone out for a bit. There’s something calming about it. There’s something about—I don’t know—buildings. They’re there, they’ll usually be there when you go back, but the repetition and the rhythm and the patterns of the repeated windows, the repeated shapes…

And you call these your Daydream Dwellings. Is that different from Alphabet Soup or are they kind of the same thing?

That was sort of a take-off on it. I was invited to be part of an exhibit at the Brickbottom Gallery in Somerville. There were two rooms. In the larger room, the exhibit had been planned ahead of time.

It was something about photographs taken with a child’s eye-view. And so they had invited me and I didn’t really have to be a part of that whole child’s eye-view thing, but they saw a kind of parallel in my work.

There’s kind of a whimsy in a lot of things that I do and I had always wanted to do a book and so I took that as a challenge that my connection to the child’s eye-view would be to do an alphabet. And even though it was supposed to be an alphabet for adults, it still has a connection, because all adults remember when they were little kids and they had that alphabet book.

And it’s always funny, because things I think are above kids—it doesn’t matter—some of the words are complicated but the kids just have fun trying to find the letter in there or they find something else about it. It wasn’t as unappealing to kids as I thought it might be.

Were you an artistic kid?

Oh yes, it was my escape. Whenever there were things going on, we had this room up in our attic that had a little easel my older sisters had set-up. I 22 Abstraks June 2013 Page 23: Façade, 12x16, gum transfer, acrylic, wood, beads on wood, 2012

just used to hide away up there and draw for hours.

I don’t know—it was just kind of my happy place.

Did your sisters also draw?

Not the same way. None of them got really into it.

I have one sister who is very creative in that she’s not an interior designer, but her house would make you think so. But nobody else does the art thing.

What was it like growing up outside of New York City? Did the architecture there influence you a lot?

Not as much. We were in the suburbs. My father worked in the city and we went in often—whether we were picking him up or whatever it was—but we lived in the same house until we sold it about ten years ago. There was definitely something about the house.

My thesis in grad school was a lot about how in any new space we inhabit, the more nooks and crannies and cabinets that there are, the more it brings you back to your childhood. Like whenever I see a little closet, I always think of the one that was our favorite hiding spot when we used to play hide-and-seek.

For me, I guess, that sense of place has always been important, especially my house, but not necessarily the city architecture, even though we were so close to it.

And eventually you decided to study art education?

No, I was actually going to do architecture! I always did art in high school, but I was also a math and science person. I did really well on my SATs. My junior year my dad encouraged me to do a summer program at Cornell in architecture and they did a really good job of scaring it out of me.

Oh no! Why? It was part of their weeding process. We were in high school and there were rules that if you were caught outside your room after 11 o’clock, then you were sent home the next day. There was no bending [the rules]. Our teachers though—to give us a better idea of what architecture is like—would be like, “Well, that’s great, so go home, check in, and we’ll meet you back in the studio at one.”

And so we would have to go home and check-in and then climb out the window to go back to the studio at 1 a.m. It would be the T.A. meeting us there because the teacher would be in bed. We would be pulling these ridiculous all-nighters and this was like summer, in high school, and I was just like, “What is this all about?” They were trying to scare it out of people, I think. And they did. So I actually went to college for engineering. And I did that for a year or two.

Where’d you go?

Catholic University. They gave me a scholarship. And then one summer, my boyfriend’s sister was running a camp on the Cape, and I went there and taught art for the summer and I was like, “This is awesome. What am I doing?” I hated engineering.

So I went back and gave up my scholarship. I ended up taking summer courses to catch up. I went in for engineering and came out an art teacher.

What did you like about teaching art? How old were the kids at the camp?

The camp started at age five and supposedly it went to about twelve, but around nine or ten they started migrating to the tennis courts, which was fine, so it was pretty much four or five to nine year olds.

Page 24: Library, 12x16, gum transfer, acrylic, hand bound books on wood, 2012

But the camp was fantastic. It was one of those places where all the counselors lived there. I mean, not all of the counselors—some of them were local—but it was a country club, so they had dorms for the employees.

You crossed the street in one direction and it’s the ocean, and then you cross the street in the other direction and it’s a lake. The camp was on the lake.

Swimming was a big part of it, but our motto was: if you can’t do it at school and if you can’t do it at home and if it’s not going to hurt anyone, then we’re going to do it here.

We had one week where we had the guys from maintenance come with a tractor and dig a hole in the ground and fill it with loose dirt, and we had mud-pit week. The lake was right there so you’d play around in the mud, build a little tower on your head with grass, and then jump in the lake and wash it off and then go back in the mud-pit. People would be calling to make sure they found out when it was mud-pit week.

It was that kind of stuff. That camp was like a dream job.

Do you think you always held onto that child-like whimsy? Was the camp a good reminder of what kids were like?

Definitely. That’s why I like working with the little kids because I get to be goofy and have fun. And art is so magical for the little guys.You put out yellow and blue paint on a table and they’re like, “Oh my gosh, I invented green!”

They think it’s the coolest thing.

Did you become an art teacher after you graduated in ‘94?

June 2012 Abstraks 25

It took two years because I hadn’t done my student teaching since I did get into it so late. I thought I was going to go straight into grad school, but that didn’t work, so I went home for a year, and then ended up going back to Catholic to do my student teaching. Then I stayed down there and got a job until grad school.

And then in 2001, you went to London.

Yeah, I did my masters in printmaking. I feel like it’s easier now, but at the time, I couldn’t find a masters-in-art program that would let me go part-time.

It seemed like they all wanted you to be full-time so my thought was that if I have to give up my job, then I want it to be an experience.

I had a friend living in London and I went to visit her for a weekend and kind of toured around a little bit.

I like that there is some unpredictability to the process. I like that when I take a photo and when I run it through any of the printmaking processes, it transforms it.

The method I usually use is the gum-transfer method, where you only get one or two prints off of a Xerox copy.You use a wet Xerox copy and it starts to disintegrate, so you can only use it one or two times. And it doesn’t give a perfect print. It kind of gives it that antique photo look, which is why people don’t use it, but why I like it.

So are all these works here [in the studio] using the gum transfer? Do you print them directly onto the wood?

They are. But I print on paper and then I mount them onto the wood. And sometimes I cut them up, like in this cityscape, I printed a bunch of them and then sliced them up and rearranged them.

I applied and they took me.

How long were you there?

Just over a year. They do a really intensive master’s program where there are no vacations; you just go straight through the summer.

Did you know you wanted to do printmaking?

Well, it was kind of late in the year when I had decided to do this, so a lot of application deadlines had passed. I called them and they were still reviewing applications. It was printmaking that drew me to the school. I’ve always been a mixed-media kind of person. I didn’t have a ton of knowledge in printmaking, but it was my favorite class in college.

It was a combination of reasons.

Do you plan it out a lot? What’s your creative process like?

It’s 50/50. I plan it out in the computer and I print the Xerox copy to the size I want to work on.

Some of them carry through that way and some of them come out totally different. Like in this picture of a Victorian house, the front door was right here [in the center], but I printed two of them. And since there is a much better chance that I can buy a town house than a Victorian house, I gave it two doors, because I love that house, so I ended up making it that way.

So that house doesn’t exist?

No. Most of them don’t. Not exactly. I’ve redone them enough.

What do you like about printmaking?

Page 26: Mosaic and for Minaret, 12x16, gum transfer, acrylic, collage, glass tile on wood, 2012

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You really liked that house, so you made it a townhouse?

Yeah. So I could have it. I made it mine. A lot of times when I’m building up these little houses, I’m thinking, “I want to live there.”

Do you any other favorite buildings that you’ve seen over the years? Anywhere in Boston where you like to go back to?

I’ve done a lot with the Old South Meeting House steeple, with the roof going up and the windows wrapping around it. From one photo of the windows, I used the computer, multiplied it, and built it into something else.

And what happened after London?

I moved back to D.C. for a year. When I was leaving London, the middle school principal from my first teaching job had gotten a job as the principal of this charter school. She called me up and was like, “I heard you’re coming back; I need an art teacher.”

And it was a disaster. It was one of those schools where there should be a movie written about it.

The school was in an out-of-business Safeway, the storage was an out-of-business McDonalds, and we had some classes in the church down the street.

This school had so much potential. Last year, I worked part time in a charter school, and one thing I’ll tell you about those schools, especially the principal I worked with last year, they’re in it for the mission. He knew every single kid, he knew every single parent. But it’s tough…there’s a long way to go.

So then you went down to Brazil to teach?

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Yeah, that job just happened by accident! I found it on the Internet. I was really looking for a summer job that would let me travel. I don’t know what I typed into Google. It’s like this secret in the world of teaching that these schools exist—they’re all over the world; wherever there’s an embassy, there’s usually a school.

And they have these job fairs, where there are three hundred schools, where you can go for the weekend and interview. Often, you’re offered a job on the spot…or not. But you have to apply to the job fairs two months in advance and be accepted.

I couldn’t get into the one in D.C. so I pulled an all-nighter to get my portfolio together. I got the name of the person who was interviewing for the job, went straight to the print shop, and then went straight to the hotel, dropped off my portfolio, and then went straight to work.

I waited three days and I didn’t hear from them. But the next weekend they were going to a job fair in Iowa and because it was at a university, I could get in, so I called them. They said that they didn’t recommend it because most people had their interview set, but I flew to Iowa, rented a car, and drove to wherever the thing was. And when it opened, I went right to the school’s table. I interviewed with a whole bunch of schools that weekend, but they were still my first choice.

It was a two-year contract. I stayed for four. Sometimes I wish I stayed a little longer.

What was it like teaching art in Brazil? Do you think you picked up Brazilian culture in your artwork?

I did. Every time I move my style changes. Well, yes and no. It always has the architecture in it. I was in a new country and you kind of stop making new art because you have a new job and you don’t really

have time for it. And when I finally did, I didn’t have access to a press. It even took me a few years in Boston to find a studio.

MFA to get going again. Eventually, I found encaustic and I loved the way it works with the prints.

What is encaustic?

So I was painting in my bedroom and I was really embracing the digital photography when I was there. I also would do these photo collages and I think the Brazilian influence was that I started sewing beads onto them. And I have almost nothing because I did a show my last year there and it sold out.

I also used to have a lot more words in my work, especially when I was away. All my work in London, because I was so homesick, I always had my emails—letters to people at home—streaming through the background.

And then you moved to Jamaica Plain. Why Boston?

Did you have a job lined up?

It was a new city that was sort of close to home. I just figured it would be pretty easy. I got a job and I came up in July to apartment hunt.

What do you like about J.P.?

I love the J.P. community. What I love about J.P. is how friendly it is and how all the stores and restaurants always participate in the art walk. I am trying to get myself more into the gallery circuit, which I haven’t totally figured out. I’m part of a gallery in the South End - Galatea - which four years ago, was this huge goal for me.

The Egyptians used to use it; it’s been around forever, but it’s kind of become very trendy recently.

It’s bee’s wax mixed with resin, which is why it’s got that texture. The thing with encaustic is that you paint with it while it’s melted so it moves a lot, but the black and white image on the rice paper stays put. I like the combination of the two and how you melt them into each other and get the texture.

Your art is really textural—it’s stuff you want to touch, though maybe you shouldn’t.

I know. The Alphabets though are all acrylic because I started doing commission work and the commission work is really large, twelve-foot paintings.

There are people who do it with encaustic, but it’s really hard to do for a commission. Also, one of the reasons I made these acrylic was because I wanted more practice with it and I had twenty-six to do.

Do you find that there is something in your paintings that grab people time and again?

I like it when people relate [to my work] in their own way. I know a lot of times art is about saying something. And, yes, I’m saying something, but you don’t have to hear what I’m saying.You can read your own thing, if that makes sense.

What’s the next big project you have in the works?

How did Boston influence your artwork?

When I first moved here, I went back to some of the images I was working on in grad school. It took me a year or two to get going here again because I had a new teaching job and I didn’t know where to go for printmaking. I took a printmaking class at the

Page 29:Yurt, 12x16, gum transfer, acrylic, wood, canvas, brass, string on wood, 2012

I just came off a really stressful run. I did the Architectural Digest show in New York and before that I did an exhibit with kid’s work.

I’m thinking about next year and I feel like I’ve come a really long way in the past few years, but June 2013 Abstraks 31

one of the tensions is having it as my primary income source. I’m working too fast and worrying too much about selling them. I want to stop worrying about selling them for a while and just really focus on doing a great show. I will have another show coming up at Galatea, probably in about a year.

I’m thinking I’ll probably go back to full-time teaching next year so I can stop with the income side of this and just really work. I have a couple ideas brewing. Part of me wants to redo my alphabet book and make it more universal. I would also like to do a number series; I’d really like to do another book.

What attracts you to making a book?

It was such a sense of accomplishment for me.

Again, I make these paintings and I sell them and they’re gone and I make more and their gone. This book I now have forever. I think that’s part of it. I had a lot of people discourage me from doing it.

They said it cheapened the work, but I’m so glad I didn’t listen to them.

To learn more about Maggie Carberry and her work, visit her website maggiecarberry.com, where you can also purchase her book, Architecture Alphabet Soup.

Page 29: Zig Zag Relief, 12x16, gum transfer, acrylic, glass on wood, 2012

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34

Fallen Manga Studios

How did you start Fallen Manga Studios?

I started Fallen Manga Studios to brand the Comics and Manga that were being created by me and my team. It started as just me wanting to create Comics and Manga and through the help of my awesome team it has grown into a team of creative powerhouses. We now have a website and the titles are available on Kindle, in the App Store (Mad Dog Comics) and printed issues on Kablam.

We have grown to 2,000 twitter followers and almost 10,000 fans on Facebook; it truly has been shocking how fast we are growing. I have met and worked with some of the most talented people and they have taught me many things. I learned a lot about social media marketing from a Comic Store Owner here in Virginia named Will. He kind of took me under his wing and taught me how to build a website and how to properly use social media to create a fan base. Sitting at 10,000 likes on FB and 2,000 followers on twitter I still can't believe this is happening.

Fallen Manga seems to be made up of a variety of artists. How did you get all of these artists together as a team?

It began with one Manga, my first story Nephlim. It took 2 years to write the entire story of Nephlim, which is around 50 issues. I used freelanced.com and found my first artist Heather Matheny. She began work on Nephlim Issue #1 and I was bored so I figured why not make another story? So an idea popped up in my mind and I wrote it. Using Freelanced.com again I found another artist for the new story and it just kept happening until now I have 8 series and as many artists. Over the next year some artists quit, I replaced them and now the team I have is VERY dedicated to making our dream come true. Creating stories and actually making a real living out of it is our goal.

36 Abstraks June 2013 Page 37: Death Sin

Were you influenced by other major comic book companies like Marvel, DC, Image?

Oh yes! I am more of a Marvel Fan but DC rocks it too. I really enjoy the New 52 that DC has created.

As I got older I started to really give Image and Dark Horse a chance and some of my two favorites are Spawn and the Darkness. I tend to tell darker stories and these two really inspire me to tell these supernatural stories I want to tell.

Are you an artist yourself?

I am not, I tried I really did! Some of my artists say I am but I don't believe them! I took art all in high school but it takes me a long, long time to come up with something mediocre. I never had enough patience but I discovered a few years ago I had a talent for writing and creating worlds. When the artists draw my scenes and characters it looks like how I imagine it anyway so it all works out!

As a business owner, what are some of the ethics that you follow, especially for a Comic and Manga company?

Ethics is something that is very important to me and the other artists. A lot of trust goes into each partnering and a lot of openness of what the comic will be about and what it is going to take to create it. The time and how much effort will go into each story and how the artist will be getting paid from the project. Open communication is key especially since most of the artists are from other countries and have wildly different times they are available to chat with me or ask questions. Email is key!

Fallen Manga publishes original stories; can you tell us a little about the process working towards the final product?

The process starts with me thinking of a genre that 38 Abstraks June 2013 Page 39: Death Sin Page 40: Nephlim Page 41: Pantheon

I want to tell a story in. Once I settle on a genre or subject matter I begin to dream up a world that this story can take place in. Then comes the characters, making them different than anything I can imagine but at the same time keeping them familiar.

I love having some kind of dark vs. light element in my stories and you can see this theme in all of them. I also tend to create Hybrid beings: For Example: Nephlim, Fallen Angel/Human; Dhampyr, Vampire/Human; Asura, Demon/Human and even Robot/Gods! Something about the duality of these beings speaks to me and I just love telling stories of Good battling some Supreme Darkness. Maybe even being over taken by that darkness and the inner battles that these characters have to endure to come out of it stronger or sometimes tainted by it. One of the main themes I love to write is even if say you are born from a Demon and Human parent do you have to choose dark because of that?

Can you choose Light? And if you do what is that like being a being of Darkness that is trying with all its might to do the right thing? After that fun world building it's time to find an artist! Usually I use an online service to fish the story out and see who bites. Then I talk to the prospect and go over what is going to be expected of them and what the plan is for this particular story. If they agree to that we go onto the test phase and they draw a scene or character from the story with the reference image I have and if all is good we begin work. Contracts are signed by the new artist and me. Then they get invited to the exclusive Facebook group where all the artists chat and talk to each other and we begin the new Comic or Manga. What is great about having such a talented and creative force behind me is that they all get ideas from each other and even give tips and critiques, which elevates the project even more. Sometimes some good OL fashioned friendly competition arises and it pushes the artists to do even better! The #1 best perk is the comic gains everyone's social media exposure, which gains it new fans and readers.

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Your company produces anime, mange, and comics.

Can you explain the significance of this, versus just focusing on comics?

My love of this story telling medium began with Saturday Morning Cartoons then evolved into Anime Fandom. When I was younger I would sit in front of Toonami watching DBZ, Ronin Warriors, and Yu Yu Hakusho every single day. As I aged I found the wonder that is Berserk and began to watch more mature series. Even as a small child I watched Saturday Morning Cartoon Greats like Spider-Man, X-Men, TMNT and all those awesome shows. So when this writing talent emerged I set out to write a Manga, which became Nephlim.

Since then I continued to write and sometimes the visual style lent to Comics more than Manga so they were titled as such. Seeing how the company is made from artists from all around the globe who all love Anime, Comics and Manga it became clear that focusing on just Comics wasn't really the right move. More of our fans are from other countries where Anime and Manga are super popular too so we decided let's do it all! Recently we found an Anime Reviewer named Brigitte Bentulan who is a fantastic writer and her reviews are a great addition to the website. Plus she can draw great too! After seeing her talent for drawing she began work on a one shot story called The Waking Boy with plans to start an ongoing series with me after she finishes Waking Boy.

could be a good way to help out writers who have great stories to tell but are having a hard time finding a good artist to help them bring it to life.

We also have our 8 series in production and many of them are completing work on their second issues. We haven't released this news yet but you all deserve an exclusive on us! The big plan for this year is to put together an Animation team. We are making a 1 min 30 second animation trailer of our Horror Vampire series Dhampyr. We have most of the people in place to begin this project and have already begun work on it. Once it is completed we will launch a Kickstarter Campaign to adapt the first two issues into an Animation Episode. What blows my mind is that I envision these as Anime when I write them so to actually see it in this form is just a dream come true. Also we have a joint project coming up with Eclips Studios called Autroman which is their story drawn by our Dhampyr Super Star artist Hayward Myers. We are also on a web comic site called Tapstic (www.tapastic.com/ jordan) where we release weekly page uploads of our series. We are aiming for that #1 Rank Spot and hope to get there soon, feel free to read our stuff on there too! The rest of the year will be working on more issues of our series and continuing to create amazing visual stories. Thanks for the questions and please tell us what you think of the stories we are creating.

Contact: http://fallenmangastudios.com/

What are your future plans for Fallen Manga Studios?

This is going to be a HUGE year for us, in December we launched our website and are starting to see a lot of hits and repeat viewers which is super exciting. (www.fallenmangastudios.com) We also launched a new Art Service Program where you hire the art team behind our Grimm Legacy and MRP titles to draw your story. We are hoping this

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48

Adam Miller

You wear a lot of different hats in the art world; creative consultant, gallery director, and you are an artist of multiple mediums. Can you talk about what else you are involved in and how did you found yourself on these paths?

Mostly by saying, “yes” to everything I guess (laughs). I am certainly guilty of wearing lots of hats, some fit better than others, but they are all art related and that’s what makes me go. It’s a little long-winded to explain to people, but in addition to the roles you mentioned; I teach art courses at a couple private schools and I am the current coordinator of comic events for Montserrat College of art. I am also serving as the curatorial director for several city-based public art projects, I do promotions and event planning, and of course I’m still a working/showing artist, participating in galley exhibitions and doing freelance illustration and comic book work. In short, I write, teach, speak and photograph my way through the art world year round.

How would you explain your style? There is a pretty consistent look throughout; whether it’s your gallery pieces, your illustrations or your comic book work.

That’s really gratifying to hear you say. I’ve always thought that no matter the subject, I’d hope to leave a recognizable mark. Even with photography, I want people to see the work and know that I made it, the same for when I write. I want my stories to read like my paintings. It’s important to me. I work in a very non-traditional way; it’s an alchemy of sorts. I just dive in and get my hands dirty, I’m not picky about what I use as long as it gets the job done. All my pieces are a mix of painting, drawing, photography and collage. It’s that marriage of the mediums that allows me to tell the story, and there’s always a story. I love the figure and I love narrative. Like most artists, I see the world in par50 Abstraks June 2013

ticular way. Mine is with wings and stars and deep, rich colors, filled with big skies, curves and composition. I’d like to hope that after years of trying crack the code, I’m a few steps closer to solving the riddle; we’ll see.

You're the driving force behind ZombieBomb! Any updates on that project?

Actually yes, Rich Woodall and I co-created The ZombieBomb! Comic Anthology a little ways back.

It took life in the form of 6 volumes over the course of a year or two. We fulfilled all of our obligations with our original publisher and are hoping to find a new company to partner with this year.

We hope to give our books the larger audience we think it deserves. The support from friends and fans has been amazing since we wrapped the project people just refuse to let it die. I’ve got emails from over-seas asking about the comics, notes about ZombieBomb! T-shirts being spotted in Austin, promoters wanting to get ZB! Involved with different events, it’s pretty humbling.

In the mean time, we’ve launched a spin-off book titled “ZombieBomb! Presents”. I’ve teamed up with a genius of a guy named Haig Demarjian on the first two issues. They star his character “Super Inga”. Haig and Inga are both of “Die You Zombie Bastards” fame, a cult movie he produced a few years ago. Haig is a creative force of nature and an exciting guy to work with. The new books are a fun departure from the anthology, but still very brand consistent - tons of art, tons of fun, tons of zombies.

The comic pieces that you feature for this issue seem to have a singular dominant color theme as a background. Is there any symbolism behind this? Is this intentional or coincidence?

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Not any specific symbolism really, it’s more like a visual cue. I like to use definitive color fields as a way to attract eyes to a cover. The biggest job of a cover artist is to convince the viewer to pick up the book and put it in their hands. That’s the first step – if they don’t pick it up, if they don’t put it in their hands, they won’t read it. I try to look at my illustration as a tractor beam - the goal is to pull people in. In a sea of comic books, we have to stand out. Smart design, strong composition and bold colors are all essential in my opinion. It has to grab an audience and clearly communicate. I want people to walk in from twenty feet away to investigate what’s behind the cover. Those color themes you mentioned are a key ally in that effort.

Are there other types of artwork that you have branched out to recently, or have the desire to?

The past year and a half I’ve dove headlong into the photograph. Photography is one of my first loves. I initially chose it as my major in college, before ultimately switching to Illustration. Just on the heels of ZombieBomb! and heading right into a major case of bitter, comic-book burnout, I was asked to join a weekly photography group (52 Weeks Photography). I took that first picture and never looked back. It’s been an excellent creative outlet for my head, while helping to free me from the art desk. I’ve posted a photo a week for over 70 weeks in a row. It’s also opened the door to writing for me, which has become a real passion of mine and something I’m working hard at improving on. Whether in illustration, comic books, or photoessays, it’s all about the word and image, and both of those components making the other stronger.

Words and pictures - that’s the magic. I’ve since become an admin of the group. We have members all over the country and from as far away as Australia. It’s an amazing exercise in effort, commitment and visual problem solving. The group has been one of the only real constants in my weird art-gypsy life 56 Abstraks June 2013

(laughs). It’s challenging and I’m learning all the time, and at the end of the day, that’s the goal - right?

Through all this stuff I’m just trying to be better - a better artist, a better communicator, and a better guy. Either way, we’ll keep making art and keep fighting the good fight; hopefully in the end, the good guys win.

Contact: millerstrations@hotmail.com

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62

Johnny Tang Written by Marita Spooner

Johnny Tang is an artist just reaching his stride. The 27-year-old, Cambridge-based photographer studied at the Savannah School of Art & Design campus in Atlanta, GA before graduating and moving back to Massachusetts in 2009. He’s spent the past few years making his mark on the local art scene by developing a large body of work that explores the nature of individuals and society by contemplating themes ranging from self-awareness to self-destruction.

In series such as World of One, Tang uses Boston as the backdrop to depict his internal struggles with his own paradoxical nature. By taking multiple photographs of himself and layering them together in Photoshop, he literally becomes a walking contradiction, portraying the many different—and sometimes conflicting—qualities that often make up one personality.

Using a similar technique in his popular Bboy Monsters series, Tang celebrates his passion for break dancing by capturing friends as they twist and turn, finally stitching together their movements to create multi-armed, street-wise creatures that conjure up images of Kali on the dance floor.

Johnny Tang, drawing on his own heritage, also set out on longer-term, artistic endeavors, spending a year folding a thousand origami paper cranes for his Senbazuru project. Abstraks sat down with Tang in late March to talk about these works and others and what we can expect next.

What were you like as a kid? Were you artistic?

No. Not really. The way I like to tell my own story is that my father, he was the first person in his village in Taiwan to ever go to college—to ever graduate from college—and my mother, she came from a line of professors. So my mom is this city girl and my dad is like this country bumpkin.

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When my dad was going to college, he studied the things that he liked. And it just so happened that the thing he liked was engineering. He told me to follow my dreams and I kept telling him that it’s not going to work out the same for me as it did for him.

When I was going to school, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with myself. Initially, I started off at liberal arts school. I went to DePaul University in Chicago. I started off as a history major, but I took two history classes and I quickly realized two things about myself: I’m really bad at remembering dates and I’m really bad at remembering names.

At this point, I basically bombed my history classes, and I thought maybe I should stick to my strengths—to things I’m actually kind of good at.

And thinking back, I thought, well, I was pretty good at art in high school. I didn’t try really hard, but maybe if I tried hard at it, I could become more successful.

I’ve since learned that there is a lot more to being an artist than just making art. But at the time that was my thinking.

Then you transferred from DePaul to art school, right?

I did eventually transfer to art school. Initially, I didn’t want to do it. But my mom made the point to me that if I’m not studying art at an art school, I’m doing it wrong. In regards to how I got into photography, I was thinking, “What kind of art could I picture myself doing?” I really hate to draw. It’s not that I’m incompetent at it—I mean, I’m out of practice now—but I just really don’t enjoy the process. I feel like it takes way too god damn long. When you take drawing out of the equation, you’re basically left with graphic design and photography. And so I picked photography.

What do you like about photography?

To be honest, I see it more as a means to an end…I just want to be able to make the things that I think up in my head. And photography is just the medium I’m using to do that. If I was actually good at drawing and could do it quickly, I probably would’ve been an animator or something…but because I’ve handicapped myself…

Well, I really enjoyed your photos, especially the Bboy Monsters. I had to look up what Bboy was though, to be completely honest. How did you get into break dancing?

Actually, I’ve been dancing longer than I’ve been photographing. I started dancing in high school, when I was about sixteen or so. In Lexington, there 66 Abstraks June 2013 Page 66: 3 Armed Shinobi, 2012

is this huge Asian population and my school had this Asian club and every year they’d throw this Asian night, basically an Asian talent show.

One year, there were these guys there from a nearby town and I went to check them out. They were terrible, but I was hanging with them backstage, and I realized, as bad as they are, they’re actually putting in a lot of effort into learning how to do [break dancing]. It seemed like something that was worthwhile. And after I learned my first power move—a power move is a breaking term for any move that spins—I was hooked. It was the greatest feeling in the world.

Were your breaking friends into art too?

No, not so much. But the dancing has influenced

my art a lot. Mostly in terms of how I think about the creative process. I really like to make this stuff where it takes a long time to build it up, and then you make something happen that only lasts a couple seconds. That mimics the training regimen for a Bboy.You practice these really difficult moves for years in the hopes that in thirty seconds, you can kill it at a big competition.

I’ve since realized I’m not a very good Bboy and probably won’t be at world-class level by the time I’m thirty. I’m starting to focus more on the artistic stuff now. As far as the dancing goes, now I’m doing it more for self-expression and to keep in shape.

So you left Chicago and went to Atlanta for art school? Did you go right into photography?

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Actually, there was like a six-month period of time in between transferring when I was home, interning with the Copley Society over on Newbury Street.

I learned a lot there about the business aspect of art. A gallery is more or less a glorified store that sells this very specific product. It was good learning how a gallery is run. I think a lot of artists don’t know how much work it is to sell art. It was a great experience.

And you came back to Boston again after you graduated from school in 2009, right?

Yeah. Initially my mode of thinking was that I should come back. I owed it to my parents, friends, and breaking crew to hang out for a bit and be around them. I was just going to stay for a year, but as the economy tanked, I realized,“Oh crap. I’m probably going to stay here for a bit longer.”

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Then, in August 2010, I had a close friend pass away.

It really opened my eyes. At the time, I was fresh out of school and I was obsessed with trying to make things that other people thought were good.

After my friend passed away, my mindset changed.

I wanted to make things that I would want to buy, things that I thought were cool, things I would want to look at and keep on looking at.

The World of One series features these two characters again and again. One dressed in white and the other in black. Are these two different aspects of your personality? As you go through the series, the white and black aren’t interacting at first, but as you go on, they do, like in your photo “The Trip,” where you’re literally trying to trip yourself. Is that a conscious part of the work?

And that’s when you took the first photo in your World of One series, “Dichotomy.”

It’s a more recent development that I have the two sides interacting.

Yeah. The Dichotomy photo had a number of different inspirations. This idea of replicating yourself is a very old idea. There’s nothing original about that.

It’s popular in comic books too. There’s this popular Manga in Japan called Naruto and his power is that he can make copies of himself and he uses that to fight his enemies. And when I was growing up and reading X-Men comics, there was the Multiple Man.

Originally, that was one of the criticisms that this friend of mine had given me. He said it was great that I have all these pictures of myself doing stuff together, but none of them were interacting with each other. It was lacking something, so I started to think about how I could introduce narrative into this body of work. I was thinking about how I could make it more interesting.

As far as fine art goes and the idea of copying yourself, photographers have been playing with that idea as long as photography has been around. Earlier that year, a photographer named Peter Funch won an award for his work called Babble Tales. He took thousands of pictures on the streets of New York and collaged them together so it looks like [people] are interacting when they’re not. He’d Photoshop everybody on the street together who was yawning or everyone who was looking directly into his camera—things like that. And I was looking at his pictures and thinking, “Oh, that’s how you can do it.”

Initially, I was thinking of it in modernist terms, like if I have a lot of black ones and one white one in the middle, it will just look interesting. Now, I think of it more in terms of how I can explore paradox.

Another initial inspiration for Dichotomy came from the Singapore design group, Phunk Studios.They have this really strong black and white style.They did these long panoramic pictures that looked really busy and really insane, but it came together in a beautiful way.

And I wondered how I could translate that into a photograph and that’s how I came up with Dichotomy.

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That’s the name of a World of One photo: “Paradox.” You made Dichotomy in 2010, then you made “Battle,” which is like a bboy battle, and then you made “Paradox.”

I’ve always been interested in this idea of paradox—the idea of having mixed feelings about something and how you can love and hate something at the same time. I had this teacher in high school that told us, “All truths are paradoxical.” And that’s true with a capital T. The example [my teacher] gave us is that things that make us laugh, also make us cry. Like when you see a little kid and they fall down. Initially, when they start crying, it almost sounds like they’re

laughing. I think the laughing and crying functions in our brain are right next to each other. And I always thought that was interesting. Growing up, I thought of the world in black and white terms. There were good guys and there were bad guys.

More recently, I’ve been playing around with the idea of making the World of One series more allegorical, more didactic. A lot of the art I like tends to be more didactic than it is esoteric. I really like Buddhist art and how they use it to teach things about Buddhism. In art and religion in particular, I’ve always been interested in how every detail is meant to be some sort of teaching aid. I’m not a really religious person but I have a strong interest philosophy.

And is that where Foucault comes in? You bring him up a lot on your blog and this idea of being your own prison guard and being your own prisoner.

Yeah. [My photo] Narcissus, where I’m standing in front of the reflection pool, most directly addresses those issues. Narcissus, for me, is about how I feel when I sign on to the Internet. I’m bombarded with these advertisements telling me who I am and none of it is ever accurate. It’s like your reflection is running off and doing it’s own thing. And Narcissus is my way of expressing that feeling of us literally watching each other watch each other. It’s this cyclical kind of farce.

You said when you first came back from art school, you were trying to make work other people thought was good. But then you decided to reflect more on yourself and make what you liked. Have you succeeded in that? Was World of One the start of that?

Yeah. World of One—the Dichotomy piece in particular—was really the first time I couldn’t believe what I had made. When I finished it, I kind of

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sat back and was like, “Wow, I can sit here and stare at this for at least five minutes.” That’s when I knew I was on to something.

Before that, I really wanted to be a photojournalist.

I wanted to be a documentary type photographer, which is why I don’t really shoot with lights. I am trying to play around with this idea of how we read photographs. Everybody reads a photograph based on their own life experiences. But for us, in our culture, when we see that a photograph is really well lit, we think it’s been photoshopped somehow or it’s been airbrushed. When it’s lit in a more natural way, then we think, “Oh, that’s real.” I mean, sometimes the worse a photograph is, the more real it seems.

The stuff that I do is very processed in a very obvious kind of way, but it somehow still looks and feels very real. And part of that is because I’m not shooting with any lights. I’m playing with this visual language: How do you look at a photograph and how does it change your perception of reality?

It’s really interesting the way you manipulate your photos, especially in the Bboy Monsters series. It captures movements you wouldn’t normally get to see otherwise.

Bboy Monsters started off as a pet project. Initially, it was just that I wanted to do something that involved using the body. And I thought if it’s going to involve the body, then it might as well be about breaking, because that was my interest.

The Bboy Monsters started off as an inspiration by a Korean artist, Spunky Zoe, who does these amazing portraits of himself with a ballpoint pen. [His work] can be really creepy, with like an eye up on his forehead.And I thought, I can do that. I want to do stuff with the body too.And I feel like whenever you use the body in artwork, it makes it a lot easier for people to connect with.

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But with Bboy Monsters, I was like, how can I make a breaking picture that isn’t just a breaking picture?

So I called up my friend Jet Liem who has this really flexible kind of style, and I was like, “Do you want to do this project with me? It might not be successful, but we could give it a shot.” And he was up for it and we ended up making the Backscratcher picture, which I think is the first in my Bboy gallery.

I guess, not so surprisingly, that [Bboy Monsters] is the body of my work that’s gotten the most attention. I think that’s in large part because I did target the top guys. I targeted the most famous people in Boston and I did this for a couple reasons. One because I know them and two, since they’re better, they can hold the poses for longer. And I knew if they put it up online, they’d bring my art to a wider audience.

What’s the response been like? Have any reactions surprised you?

What’s been so surprising for me is that it’s not as much the Bboys who love it, but the people outside the breaking community. A lot of people see those pictures and it makes them see break dancing in a different kind of way. For me, the series is my valentine to the breaking community. It’s a way for me to encourage people to be more creative and to not just think about breaking in breaking terms, but to think about it outside the box.

In the last five or six years, breaking has been going through this period of modernism where there are a lot of Bboys trying to find the essence of what makes breaking, breaking. When I started, that’s not what I was concerned about. We were concerned with self-expression. We were in a post-modern kind of mind set. It was all about making your style very personal, not necessarily doing the best looking move.

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You wanted to be very original.

Nowadays, because of YouTube and the Internet, there is a lot more knowledge about breaking and how to do it, so a lot of guys look the same. I was in Hawaii two years ago and the way they dance there looks no different from how they dance in the Midwest. That’s garbage because when I started dancing, between Boston and Philly, there was a world of difference in how people approached the dance. And I always thought that was really interesting.

But it’s not like that anymore. Everything looks the same. Bboy Monsters encourages people not to do that. Each Bboy Monster is catered to the individual dancer’s strengths. I’ve known these guys for a while, so I know what their styles are like and I can say, “I know you have endless variations of things to do on your head—let’s start from there.”

The guy I shot in Times Square, he is world famous for spin moves. I really wanted to get that picture of him spinning—kind of like the Tasmanian devil— where he had like two heads and the bottom half is spinning while the top half isn’t. That was actually an idea I had for a really long time, but I didn’t have the means to make it happen. When I went to New York during one of my trips, I asked if he wanted to pose for the Bboy Monsters and he was like, “Yeah, why didn’t you ask me before?” And that was really cool.

Out of all your projects, which one do you think best summarizes you as a photographer?

It’s actually the Senbazuru series I did. The World of One and the Bboy Monsters I do because I can finish them on a shorter timeline than the stuff that I really want to do. The Senbazuru series is the origami crane stuff that I did, where I folded 1,000 origami cranes and burned them in the snow.

That process is something that really interests me—to create something with the intentions of destroying it. I have this book-burning project I want to get underway. The idea is that I’m going to hand bind about a hundred books and then I’m going to hand them out to people, have them fill it with their secrets over the course of a year, and then we’ll get together at the end of the year, throw a big party, and then burn all the books together.

And did it?

No! They didn’t burn! It turns out it’s very difficult to burn things in the middle of a blizzard.

Originally, I thought this would be really easy, but when I was testing it out and I was photographing them on a bright day, it just looked really harsh. It didn’t have the kind of feeling I wanted it to have. I wanted it to have this otherworldly sort of look to it.

I think it’s a great idea, but it’s going to take forever.

Did you enjoy doing the Senbazuru series?

No! I hated it! It was the bane of my life.

How’d you get the idea? Did you read about it somewhere?

I think I was in middle school when we read Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, a famous story about a Japanese girl, post World War II, who is dying from Leukemia, and she is folding a thousand paper cranes to wish herself better.

Traditionally, you’re supposed to wish that you’ll get better or some ailing family member will get better or something. Usually what they do is donate the cranes to a temple and string them on the outside wall. They’re supposed to slowly decay as they’re exposed to the elements, and as they decay, it’s believed the soul of the cranes will take your wish up to the gods to receive. Then the gods will decide whether or not to grant your wish.

For me, I was like, that sounds like bullshit—that’s going to take too long, so I’m just going to burn mine. I was like, if I make all of them in white, and photograph them in the snow, that sounds like a good idea. And when I burn them I will have fire and then I will have snow and it will look glorious!

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And it turned out—in order to do that—I had to shoot while it was snowing. The morning of, I was out early, photographing this stuff for about three hours in the middle of a blizzard, rearranging my cranes in different formations, because you can’t burn it twice.

It is kind of a one shot deal, especially after all those man hours.

It’s totally a one shot deal!

And it took me a whole year to fold all these cranes because I hated the process. I really don’t like to fold origami, kind of like how I don’t like to draw. I’m not an origami master. I can make three things. And a crane happens to be one of them.

So I’m out there in the snow for like three hours, trying to rearrange all these cranes and by the time I’m getting around to trying to light it, I’m soaking them in lighter fluid, and the wind is blowing, and I can’t get any of the matches to light.

Finally, I do get one to light and I throw it on there, hoping it will just explode. But it did nothing. It just simmered. It had a little bit of smoke coming up.

You could kind of see it burning, but not really.

It just turned into ash.

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So did you just accept what happened and the art that resulted?

Yeah. I mean, like I said, you can’t burn them twice.

You would need two thousand cranes for that and I was not about to make another thousand.

Had you used those cranes for your Craneface picture?

Yeah. I took Craneface as a celebration of reaching the halfway point. I hit five hundred cranes and I took the picture to mark the occasion. A friend happened to be visiting me and I asked if he wanted to help me out with this picture because if you just take a picture of five hundred cranes that doesn’t look like a whole lot.

So was that you or your friend covered in cranes?

That was me.

How’d you stick them on?

With tape.

Ouch.

Yeah. And it took like half an hour. The cranes on my hands were just piles and then we taped everything initially, stuffing them into my shirt.

What does the photograph symbolize?

People have asked me a lot about what I think Craneface means, probably because it has such an ambiguous nature to it. I never really approach my artwork from the standpoint of, “This will be very meaningful.” Initially, as an artist, I didn’t think that was my job—to give my art meaning.Yes, all my art is meaningful to me, but I’m really more interested in what it means to other people.

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Looking back on Craneface, I think that it symbolizes the crossroads I was at during that time. I was thinking whether I should be getting a nine to five job somewhere doing something completely unrelated to artwork or I could try to make a living through my artwork. For me, that’s what the cranes symbolize.

Origami is something you have to make by hand.

There is no way to mass-produce it unless you have a room full of grandmothers making this stuff for you. In Chinese culture, [origami] was thought to reveal the secrets of the universe.

The Craneface symbolizes my artwork basically.

This thing I make by hand, and by putting my face behind it, my artwork is assuming my identity. It’s a statement of wanting to be more known for my art than for my face. I suppose I purposely picked the suit because I see it as symbolic of bureaucracy and being part of that machine.

How do you think you want to be seen as an artist?

Or as a person? What impact do you want to make on your viewers?

I’m not exactly sure. I see my artwork as being like a mile marker on the road of life. I pack my artwork full of things I’ve learned in my life so far and how I think about the world and I hope, for people who come after me, that they will be able to see and relate to it in someway. Like somebody else has been here before.

That’s how I think of the process of art making.

It’s like reading a really good book, you know? You think to yourself, people a hundred years ago have the same kinds of concerns as I do now. They’re grappling with the same types of question I have about my identity and how we function in society.

Making my artwork right now, I’m trying to pack

it full of my suggestions for living and how I think about the world.

How have your parents reacted to your work?

Especially considering the cranes and their cultural context.

My parents have been very supportive of me and my artwork. But when my mom was helping me out with the burning of the paper cranes, she was flipping her shit. She was like, “You don’t know what will happen! It is very dry right now.You might burn the house down!”

I don’t think my mom likes any of the burning stuff that I want to do. She thinks the book burning idea that I have is really terrible and that I haven’t thought it through.

Is it just the physical risk or is she worried about something else?

I have no idea. Since it is going to be very destructive, she just, as a mother, has a fear of it. She basically doesn’t want me to play with fire.

Is your mom artistic at all?

I do feel like a lot of my artwork is influenced by my mom. She taught me how to draw when I was little and I watched her make art when I was little.

She would coach me on drawing, teaching me tricks with perspective, none of which I had the patience to develop.

She also tried to teach me things like Chinese paper cuts. And I have this great paper-cutting project that I wish I could get underway, but I have no idea how to do any paper cuts. I’m looking for someone to help me design stuff that I can put on Chinese take out boxes and use them as lanterns for photographs. That’s another dream project. I usually have ideas for artwork for years.

What is your ultimate dream project right now?

Right now, it’s the book-burning project, in part because I see it as really logistically challenging. I’m going to have to look up fire codes to figure out how big of a bonfire I can build. I’m not sure if I want to burn them all at once or if I want to have a fire pit and have people throw their individual books in one by one.

What do you think you’ve learned about art the hard way?

My mother actually went to art school.

She went to art school in Taiwan. She was working as an industrial designer when she met my father.

They were working at the same company. My mother studied arts and crafts in Taiwan. I didn’t know that was major.

My mom is actually the one who taught me to make origami and she taught me how to make paper cranes. I learned it as a kid. And I didn’t learn to do it very good. The origami things I learned to do is the paper crane, the balloon, and the frog, which is a lot like the balloon but with an extra step.

I think that one of the main things I’ve learned is that good art—great art—takes risk.You have to be willing to make yourself vulnerable. One of my favorite artists, Ai Weiwei, has a great quote, where he says, “Showing weakness is power. There’s no need to pretend, nobody is perfect in this world.”

When I read that, it really touched on something inside me. And it’s why the book-burning project is really important to me because I feel it really puts me out there, more so than the World of One stuff.

The other thing I learned about making art –and I learned this since working at the frame shop—is June 2013 Abstraks 77

that you really have to give a shit about your artwork.You can’t just make it thinking, “This will look cool” and that’s that.You really have to take care and notice all the fine details because ultimately when somebody buys your artwork or when somebody else sees it and they like it or love it; it will become one of the most precious things that they own. It’ll become like their children. It’s really how collectors think about artwork—it’s this very, very precious thing for them.

I feel like not taking your art seriously does that a disservice. I try really hard to imbue my artwork with, for lack of a better term, a soul, so that it can continue to be meaningful for people down the line.

What has the camera taught you about yourself?

It’s forced me to be more reflective of my actions, very much like a diary helps you remember stuff.

But for me, the photographs that I take are not necessarily of how I remember things, but of how I wish to remember them.

What advice would you give beginning photographers?

Just keep making work.You hear that a lot. And there’s a very good reason why. Because the worst thing for anybody who will be representing you, in terms of a gallery, is when you stop making work, and they have nothing to sell for you anymore. And the more work you make—and art making is a skill, just like any other—the better you will get at it.

Your work will change and people might like some periods more than others, but you will always be more concerned with the work you’re doing right now.

Are there any particular artists around Boston that you’re into at the moment?

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I really like Fish McGill’s stuff. He’s a local illustrator studying in the graduate program at MassArt right now. His stuff looks kind of like kid drawings, but much more complicated. I am really heavily influenced by Boston photographers, like Abe Morrell, who teaches at MassArt. Basically, the MassArt faculty that was teaching there five or ten years ago.

Abe Morrell and a couple others, like David Hilliard, those guys especially are pretty influential to me.

Do you have any gallery shows coming up or somewhere people can go check out your work?

Not currently. I will be in the MassArt Auction this year. One of my pieces is going to be live auctioned this year, which is really exciting for me. There will be an open reception in April. I think you might be able to just go to MassArt and check it out.

If you’d like to learn more about Johnny Tang and view his portfolio, you can visit his website johnnytangphoto. com.You can also check out his blog, with personal insights into his work, at johnnytangphoto.blogspot.com. www.johnnytangphoto.com 617.872.3796

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82

Hayward Myers

You were featured in our April 2011 issue, what have you been up to over the past 2 years?

I've actually taken the liberty to further my knowledge by studying all of the Adobe (Creative Suite) software. I figured I could expand my services as a freelance graphic artist by doing more than illustration work. I've learned how to create logos, brochures, magazine layouts, web template pages, and poster designs - all through schooling - which has worked to my benefit.

Outside of school I've linked up with the creator of Fallen Manga Studios, Jordan Troche, who has written a gazillion stories (wait, I know everyone uses it, but is gazillion a word?)...I can't exaggerate enough how many stories he's created, and has stored in the vault of his mind; and the scary thing is that the ones that have been published so far are insanely well thought out, and epic.

Dhampyr is one of the many stories that I have the pleasure of working on with Jordan, because it's "his dark mind meets my dark mind�, which I have fun illustrating. If you love vampires, werewolves, dark magic, and demons set in an alternate reality, involving historic/iconic figures - then this is an epic saga you must check out.

Would you say your work has evolved or changed in any way since you were last featured?

I would say my work has gotten a bit tighter in craft, but that is something that is inevitable I think.

The more you work and practice, the better the results. I find that I can't get away from the Japanese/Manga influence, mainly due to the Dhampyr material I work on, which requires a Manga based style. I know will always have a manga influence in my work, but I'm still evolving with a lot more to learn.

84 Abstraks June 2013

You created an exclusive piece for Abstraks and the Boston Comic Convention where all proceeds will go to the Boston Marathon tragedy. Could you talk about your inspiration when creating the piece?

To be totally honest, I created the Abstraks print days before the marathon bombing happened. The ironic/creepy thing about the image is that you see me in the debris and rubble with the Boston skyline in the background, as if something did explode.

I don't know why I designed the print the way I did, with the bombing taking place a few days later, but I figured this is my way to help the victims of the Boston Marathon.

A lot of the pieces featured for this issue are from the comic Dhampyr. Is this your main project, and how involved are you?

I'm very involved in the Dhampyr project. In fact, Jordan and I started an animation project involving other very talented artists who are also part of the Fallen Manga Studios family. We are putting together a Dhampyr anime intro to showcase and promote, with the intent of making short film animations of all of the Fallen Manga Studios stories.

Do you participate in writing for any comics, or are you solely an illustrator?

Yes, I also write as well as create images. I have a story that I am personally working on called "population 0", which is a zombie apocalypse shown from an urban, inner city perspective; you also have the perspective of many different people from other backgrounds, but the main setting is in "the hood".

I'm fortunate to work with Jordan on Dhampyr, because he gave me the liberty to add my own twist to this epic story as well. Since we are both likeminded individuals I may come up with an idea to 88 Abstraks June 2013

add to the story and usually we will run with that idea if it fits.

I think the collaboration between Jordan and I on Dhampyr is going to make the stories unique because we come from different backgrounds with different perspectives, which I think the story can only benefit from. We are both fans of Anime/Manga, monsters, and history, which this story has, so our brainstorm sessions could go on for days.

Contact: haywardmyers@yahoo.com

June 2013 Abstraks 93

96

Joe Pee

Would you mind telling the readers where you're from, and explain your experience with art?

Well I'm a Malaysian, now residing in New Zealand for my art career. I worked in an advertising agency before, and started my freelance career as an illustrator ever since I realized drawing is what I am chasing after.

Your work looks photo realistic, and influenced by video games. Is this a field you work in?

I have experience doing art for several games, which included concept art and illustration for Collectible Card Games. But what has influenced me the most lay in those games I played for the past 20 years. They changed the way I see the world.

Do you believe there is a difference between comic art and video game art? Or do you treat them the same?

I believe in "Art is art". Cover art, comic panels, storybook illustration, novel's in-page, character design, concept art and whatever I have involved before, they are all the same for me.

The work you produce has a lot of detail. Do you ever create pieces that are more simplified? Or do you just prefer this particular style?

I do have some simpler and vibrant art produced for other purposes like children book and apps. I create the art based on their purposes served and not limited by my own style. That's what I learned as a Graphic designer before.

What are your future plans from this point on?

Keep doing art!

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Nicole 106 Graham

You have a versatile style when it comes to drawing, I saw some tattoo influence, comic book, traditional. Is there any particular style that you prefer to draw in?

For the longest time I had no idea as I was still finding my art style so that versatility is just me playing around trying to find my comfort zone. Growing up I was constantly drawing; by the time I went to the Comprehensive School I took art seriously, as I knew what I wanted to do in the future. I always looked at other artists’ amazing work and tried to copy it, just to see what I could or couldn't do; liked or didn't like. I do love anime and manga but I don't draw in the traditional way, just not my thing, especially the older styles of anime. I love comic book art and I would spend hours reading a book just because most of that time is looking at the art and the digital colour. I don't really look at tattoos, to be honest, the only time I do tattoo art is if someone has asked me to or if it’s for a character. People have said to me I should be a tattoo artist but I don't see myself doing that, I use a rubber far too much to mess up on someone's skin forever, haha.

My style is more a realistic anime/manga style...I think, I still don't really know how to categorize it. There was one style of drawing I always went back to when I was drawing more character design images, and that was the work of Tetsuya Nomura.

I felt drawing in his style came easily to me so I began drawing more of his work to learn from. After years of drawing I did try other styles but I would always go back to his style. I do try and not do the same exact things, I do pick up other styles from other places I like and sort of merge them into one.

I have a large mental library of how to draw eyes, noses, hands etc. I do look at images for reference I think it’s silly if you don't, I find I draw better using references; it just makes things so much easier and makes the end result better than it would have if you didn't. I’m at a point now where I can finally say I like my drawing and the final photoshopped image.

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I like to have clean lines so I'm constantly using a rubber so if I go just an inch out of the intended line I wanted there are rubber shavings everywhere.

I used to do a lot of shading but now it’s just clean lines and thick outlines. So really my art style is just a bad copy of many others, haha.

Do you do a lot of your work on the computer?

Some of the work looks digitally colored.

Yes, I have been photoshopping since I was 16, so not that long really. I remember the first digital graphics lesson I had and they mentioned that we would be using software called Photoshop. I put up my hand and asked, "What’s Photoshop?" A few weeks later I knew more than the lecturer. I was then on it non-stop; everyone in class would come to me if they needed help. I think I fell in love with the potential of what I could become and that was exciting. From there I wanted to become better so I didn't do anymore traditional things such as painting, acrylic, oil paints, water colours, charcoal etc. The only thing I do miss is painting, but I haven't painted since school so I imagine I would be terrible at it now.

Throughout your work, I noticed you use the human form a lot, particularly women's faces; is there any significance to this?

I am more comfortable drawing women, I find it hard to draw men, but I have heard that it is normal to struggle with drawing the other gender. I try and draw things I can’t draw or feel I need to improve. I wanted to get better at drawing faces so I did a load of portrait images of women’s faces.

Drawing things over and over again really does help so if I have trouble drawing something I will just draw it until I get better or until I have a better understanding of drawing it; a sort of memory log on how to draw a particular area of the face. I still feel I need a LOT of improvement but comparing

my work from last year, it’s very surprising and I am just glad that the endless years of drawing and photoshopping are finally paying off.

What kind of work do you spend most of your time on? professional or personal?

I would say at the moment professional. I do have projects of my own that I work on in my spare time. I do get asked to do images or whatever for people as presents for others, websites, youtube channel, and just personal work they want. I am currently working on a comic book for Fallen Manga Studios, so I work on that as much as time lets me. I do ask for non-deadline work, but occasionally projects come up that have to be done for a certain time. I rarely turn down a project, as you never know where that will get you. But I'm so happy to get the work; it means a lot to have people wanting my work. I’m working on a portfolio of character designs and random images to get noticed in the gaming industry, as that is where I ultimately want to work. The constant need to better myself is because the gaming industry is forever growing and the level you need to be at just gets higher. Games deserve the best and I'm just trying to get there. It may take years but I always try and better myself, I just hope I will be at a stage were I feel worthy to be called an artist because at the moment I’m not convinced.

What are your influences?

Kingdom Hearts, a game that changed my life, I know that sounds so sad and corny but it really did. Playing that game made me the way I am with the stuff I like and the music I listen to. I did play games for as long as I can remember but that game made me sure of what I wanted to do when I was older. I’m real lucky to find out what I wanted to do at a young age. Before that there were passing phases, but gaming was the one constant in my life

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and wanted to be a part of that; I finally understand what it feels like to be passionate about something you truly love. Playing that game introduced me to my other muse and that is Utada Hikaru, there isn't a day that goes by where I don't listen to her music, she is a constant inspiration when I listen to her music. The other is the work of Tetsuya Nomura, his art style is amazing and I often go to his work if I'm stuck or if I'm having a block.

Some of your images have typography to them, some graphic design elements. Do you normally experiment with typography in your art?

I used to try different things but now I feel I have finally found a style and method, one that I really enjoy and am happy with; so I will probably never paint in real life again, but you never know. I do need to learn how to paint in Photoshop as I just love that look so that’s the next step, but I have a feeling I won't get there on my own, well not easily anyway. I will keep trying to paint and see how I get on.

Contact: nicoledgraham@hotmail.co.uk

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Check Out

Arguably the most recognized name in comics, Stan Lee has co-created over 500 legendary pop culture characters, including Spider-Man and the X-Men. Explore the life of Stan Lee from his Depression-era upbringing through the Marvel age of comics!.

Source: Netflix

120 Abstraks June 2013

Filmmaker Pablo Aravena scours the globe to document the changing face of urban graffiti and those who are elevating the form to new heights, from oldschool tagging artist Lee Quinones to painters whose work can be found in art galleries. Candid interviews with academics, journalists, musicians and the artists themselves -- and footage of them in action -- tell the story of an art form undergoing a worldwide renaissance.

Source: Netflix

June 2013 Abstraks 121

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Submissions for being featured: To be considered as a featured artist in Abstraks we ask that you send an email to submissions@ abstraks.com with attachments of your work, or a link to your work. While we appreciate all submissions, we cannot respond to all of them. We will review every submission and will contact you if you are selected.

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