Issue 2 by Art Dogs

ISSUE 2 JULY 2014

Orla Dill

Augusto Macola

Aleksandra Swann Vit Raiser

Franck Saucian

Joleen Kuyper Artist Contact

franck saucian rabid graphic designer visual artist

layla kuyper bad bitch public relations photographer

louise lynch malbona hundo editor photographer

Donegal is art. Carved by waves and glaciers, by man and woman. Always the land and the sea and the sky. Donegal is storied. Rich and tragic and glorious histories lap and twine. There a king, there a saint, there a pauper. Donegal is a muse. It is a canvas, it is a palette of ever changing tones. Donegal breeds art. The isolated, the everyday, the not-seen-in-galleries, the art that dare not speak its name. We have this compulsion, an itch, an energy. Sometimes a fear, a fever, creating maniacally in the wee hours and burning it the next day. Art is love and joyous, quietly crafting meditatively. This vision, the voice in our mind or the fire in our core, exalts civilizations and topples them. At its essence, it is breathing, it is life. We create for ourselves, we have no choice. Art is a bone buried in the backyard of the mind. Art Dogs is a free online magazine exploring the creativity and passion of artists based in Donegal. Curious, playful, and full of buried treasure.

art dogs we dig

VISUAL ARTIST

ORLA DILL

For

as long as I can remember I have been creating art. Paper has always been my weakness, if there was a scrap lying around it would get doodled on, I just could not resist drawing. When I was in school this made doing anything, especially homework, very difficult. Creating is like going on a journey, I love seeing where my imagination will take me and I feel a great deal of satisfaction when I finish a piece. When I want to create, I simply pick a colour and a medium, whichever one I feel most drawn to at that moment and begin to draw. I love seeing a white canvas or a blank page transform into something completely different right before my eyes. I really enjoy creating the details in my work. I do not usually have a plan when I begin, I make it up as I go along. Sometimes I will get inspiration from things I see during the day, I am particularly drawn to colours and how they blend together. One day when I was at work cleaning with a blue cloth, I noticed how the stains had created subtle shades and I thought they would be beautiful in a painting, so I incorporated that cloth into one of my pieces. In other areas of my life, I usually like to have a plan, so I guess art allows me to be spontaneous, to just let go and have fun. I do not have anywhere specific where I work on my art, it can be anywhere: the kitchen table, the floor in my room or in my sisterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s room, outside in the sun and even in my car. There are times when working on a piece consumes me and I do not want to leave it, then I work on it in bed. Until recently, very few people had seen my work. I was scared in case they would not like it, it is very personal and sometimes the thought of others looking at it still frightens me. Last year I had my first exhibition and since then I have found showing my work to others less scary. For me creating is like day dreaming. With a small bit of paper and a pen, I am transported into my own inner space and everything around me just disappears. It is a total escape from the world; it is just me and my art.

VISUAL ARTIST

AUGUSTO MACOLA

When

I was growing up in Africa we did not buy toys, we made our own toys. Naturally then, creativity started young because you wanted to make something better than what your mates had. That kind of crafting early on was my starting point. I moved to Ireland in 1996 and had my first exhibition in 1998 as part of the World Culture Festival in Dun Laoghaire. I exhibited for Oxfam because of my African background; they wanted to link with the experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland and I was proud to be a part of that. I completed three years of training in Dublin which included wood carving, metal work, photography, painting and art history. I do a bit of everything, I do whatever I can. I do not limit myself to just one thing. Since moving to Donegal I have focused on paintings, mosaics and ceramics. It is important to be honest with yourself, doing what you want, rather than trying to copy others or to make something commercial otherwise the only time you will feel valued is the next time someone tells you it is â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;goodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and then without that validation, you are shit. You can hide behind your work by making technically amazing pieces; people mainly judge you by techniques such as the execution, the composition and the presentation. I am always happiest doing what I want but this can result in feeling vulnerable, you cannot hide, your weaknesses are revealed but there is learning in it for others and myself. I have a family so I try to create when I have time. I am quite a content person; I am not making art for the buyers, so I am not under any pressure to deliver on time. I am basically just living and doing art. Where I create is not that important but I mainly do it in my basement. I do not have much discipline, I start and stop as I please. I have three kids so I cannot cut myself off. I hear my kids laughing and playing and I want to be there with them because that is more important. I love chaos and I create in chaos. I need that environment to make something beautiful.

PHOTOGRAPHER

ALEKSANDRA SWANN

When

I think back over my life now, I realise that photography has always been a part of it. I love the idea of catching a moment and being able to document my life, from the everyday moments to the big events. Nothing has escaped being photographed - tours, holidays and family celebrations. I have taken thousands of pictures. Shortly after I moved to Ireland I picked up a brush and started painting landscapes. For a short while, I even tried sketching and drawing faces. It did not last long however, this form of art did not give me the same outlet or satisfaction. I missed photography. After a while I started to pay more attention to the quality of my pictures, especially the colours. I decided to invest in better cameras to try and improve my pictures but there was still something missing. I was still not fulfilled and I could not express myself completely. One day I met a photographer who upon looking at my photos said â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;you have somethingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and I decided to try and figure out what that was. I felt inspired and I decided to buy a DSLR. That was the moment photography turned into a real passion for me. It opened up a whole new world of possibilities and so began a new adventure in photography. It has been two years now since I bought it. At the beginning I was inspired by the magical world of macro and the beauty of the Irish landscape. Later I began to explore portrait photography and I loved it. I especially love working with children. Photography makes me happy. I have made amazing discoveries and had some very exciting moments. I have also had some hard days. Photography can be too demanding and at times, a difficult road to travel, leading to instances of self-denial, selfdoubt and at worst tears. Despite this, the passion and feeling I have for it is so strong that it will not let me give it up. Photography gives me joy and satisfaction. It fascinates me.

PAINTER

VIT RAISER

After

a particularly turbulent time in my life six years ago, I began a process of self-discovery and I came to Ireland. I simply wanted to spend a lot of time by myself, to explore who I was and most importantly, I wanted to figure out what I would like to spend my life doing. Around four years ago I decided to try to paint, so I went out and bought some acrylics and some stretched canvas. I started to paint my first abstract creations. I wanted to find the authentic drive that is at the core of my soul. It has taken me a while to get to that point but I am finally there. When I paint I feel free and in touch with my true self. It is like tapping into a source of endless and massive energy where everything feels possible. I can literally shape the world by creating something new. I can see how the concept of creativity surpasses me too. When I look at the world around me, I see how many things other people have created: a chair, a kettle, a window, a house, a fence - it seems like creativity is buzzing all around us. I believe that creating is an essential part of me and of every single human being and of life itself. That is why I do it. It makes me feel completely alive. I paint at home in my living room which results in it being cluttered with paints, brushes and other stuff. I feel safe and free to do whatever I want there and it suits me perfectly. When I decide to paint, I do not have a plan, I have a feeling and I choose colours I would like to use according to that feeling. Then I simply start painting and playing and then there is a point where it takes off and leads me in a certain direction. I just go with it, shaping brush strokes and using colours. Somewhere inside of me, it all feels, just right.

VISUAL ARTIST

FRANCK SAUCIAN

From the moment I was able to grab something that I could

make a mark with, I have been drawing. I grew up with an intrinsic need for images, colours, textures and lines. It is an organic and biological need that comes from deep within me, it defines me. I remember getting picture books for my birthday and Christmas and being fascinated by them, I would spend hours studying them and trying to copy the images. I was given some oil paints when I was 14 and I did not know how to use them properly. I ended up making strange three dimensional paintings but then I discovered Turpentine and I was hooked. Later on I went to Art school and I learned more from the other students than from any of the teachers. At the time conceptual art was in fashion and it made it hard to be a painter - but it did not stop me. Ideas come to me naturally, sometimes the medium I use will lead me in a particular direction. For the last 3 years or so I have mainly worked on my doodles and sometimes I use Photoshop to transform them, introducing subtle tones and colours that can add another dimension to my pieces. When I am drawing, I can pretty much do it anywhere, I always carry a sketch book with me. I paint at home in the kitchen and I do graphic design work on the computer. My drawings all start with random marks on the paper until the page is saturated. After that, I look at it and search for shapes that ignite my imagination. It is a very intuitive but simple creative process and I am always surprised by the imagery that arises from simple squiggles on paper. It is like finding shapes in the clouds. I draw most days and when I keep a good routine I feel deeply connected to myself. It is a safe haven. When I have not being doing anything creative for a while and I start to paint again, it feels like air entering my lungs after having spent too much time under water. Art is breathing. It takes over me. I am possessed, obsessed.

WRITER

JOLEEN KUYPER

have been writing stories since I was about six but I have been making up stories long before I could write them. It would have started for me as soon as I learned to formulate thought in the shape of words. So I think I have always been a writer, I just had to learn to read and write to discover it. Creativity is like an itch that I need to scratch, a burp that I need to belch out. Words roll round and round my head until I put them down in a particular order. Sometimes it is a random idea for a story, other times it starts with a line of poetry, something intensely personal perhaps, that I need to get out. I love words and what we can do with them. I write usually on my laptop for prose but for poetry I prefer to write by hand. I generally just write what I have in my head. Later I edit and if it is a longer piece, I take a proper break from it before editing. I do not delete or throw anything away, which means I still have reams of bad teenage angst poetry, unfinished stories, unedited attempts at novels, and notebooks with random ideas written down lying around in both hard copy and clogging up my Dropbox. Maybe one day I will go through them for ideas and turn them into something wonderful. I write mostly in bed, surrounded by crackers, cheese, chocolate and usually at least one child who may be asleep or possibly trying to chew the laptop or paper. Not quite the glamorous writer lifestyle I might have envisaged when I was younger, when I imagined myself perhaps sipping espressos somewhere in view of a warm ocean, fingers tip-tapping away as a breeze lifted the languid heat. If anything, it has taught me to be a little more succinct. A few years ago I was at my most prolific and successful period with writing. At the moment, I am not doing much but the urge will take me and until I get some words down, I will feel unsettled. Sometimes I find myself attempting poetry in a Facebook status or strange word symmetries in a shopping list. I guess working with words is at the very essence of who I am.

Featured Art Form

The Prose

Creativity is an energy. It is not born, it does not die, it only transforms. The sixth artist featured in each issue will be a writer. Writers craft images, words which inspire images within us. The visual form is deeply connected with all other forms of creativity, it grows from the same tree, is rooted in the same terra and gains energy from the same earth. It reminds us how everything we create is inspired from the art that we adulate, the art that we revile, the art that is imprinted and the art that we forget.

Joleen Kuyper has composed a short piece of creative prose inspired by Franck Saucian’s image from this issue’s submissions. This picture is featured on the front cover.

Fire.

Ominous Pilgrim

Anger. He swam in it, waded through it, washed onto its fierce and fiery shores. Anger toward the world for turning, for things turning out the way they had, at stern voices wrapped round empty promises. Others did not sense the fury that was rising with bile to his lips. Their minds dulled by various vices, their faces placid and controlled did not know anger well enough to see it on his. He gave off heat, that was what could have given him away, he felt. The anger at its core was hot, a volcano bubbling inside him, indigestion and indignation all in one as he radiated a dangerous glow. Soon it would be over. The fire would consume all before it was quenched, but then it would be gone. Everything would be gone. All over. Calm, sweet, cool emptiness awaited. He had expected to want to savour things, toward the end, but as it approached he no longer loved anything enough to savour it. His earthly appetites were long gone, consumed by the furious fire in his belly. Hatred, heaving its way to the surface. Ashes. All that would be left, would be ashes. Grey and bland and suffocating, covering everything in their blank blanket. And then everything would be as it should. He didn’t dare even imagine that calm peace that would follow, in case the imagining of it would quench his fire. He focused on his anger, then focused his mind. He did what he had to do. Fire inside. Fire outside. Bright. Instant. Everything, Nothing.

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Orla Dill

https://www.facebook.com/orla.dill.Art

Augusto Macola

Aleksandra Swann

https://www.facebook.com/FotoOlex?fref=ts

Vit Raiser

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vit-RaisersArt/154041421325932?fref=ts

Franck Saucian

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Effess-ArtGraphic-Studio/220214758091064?fref=ts

Joleen Kuyper

s u b m i s s i o n p o l i c y Art Dogs are on the prowl, we have got the itch and we are hunting, digging and searching for artists, we want to celebrate art in all its forms all over Donegal! Have you been creating? Has your work been seen by only a few eyes? perhaps even just you and your dog? Are you nestled away in the hills whittling wood into the wee hours? Painting, drawing, doodling or sculpting in your spare time? Excellent. We want to hear from you! We are looking specifically for artists who may or may not have exhibited their work before, artists who may not even consider themselves artists. People who create because they must, because it is core to who they are. Does this sound like you or somebody you know? For submissions please send us some photos of your work, a little bit of information about yourself and where you are based. We will come and photograph you and your work. E-mail: artdogsmagazine@gmail.com Facebook: facebook.com/artdogsmagazine We look forward to hearing from you! Woof.

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Artists retain full copyright over all artwork featured in Art Dogs magazine and has been published with full informed consent and permission. All other content is