Art Nouveau Magazine Issue #1:Iconoclast by Kendrick Daye

art nouveau

art is everywhere

issue 01

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

rt Nouveau Magazine started in the winter of 2008 with one goal: to shell out engaging, quirky, insightful and often controversial coverage of contemporary art and culture. We believe art is everywhere. That’s why our content flows from old masters to lowbrow art, from high fashion to street wear and from commercial music to indie music effortlessly. It’s almost 2010 and our goal has only changed slightly now that we’ve decided to publish quarterly print issues. Now, we want to shell out that same coverage online but add to our reach with a physical product.

I never thought we’d go to print. Not just because it’s a recession and that magazines are folding left and right. But, I staunchly, and sometimes arrogantly told people “print is dead” when they asked me if we’d ever go to print. Going to print was like all my ideas, something small that turned into something grandiose. I guess it was a natural progression, even if only to serve as a creative outlet for my ideas that had begun to outgrow Wordpress. Whatever the reason is, it’s here. And I hope you enjoy it as much I do. Stay tuned, where we’ve been doesn’t compare with where we’re going. Trust me. I give you the first print issue of Art Nouveau Magazine, the Iconoclast issue. Art is everywhere. Best,

ICONOCLAST.

Editor-In-Chief/ Creative Director Kendrick Daye kendrick@an-mag.com Photographers Kendrick Daye, Shannon Sinclair, Carter James, Nikita Gale, Sarah Cooper Contributors Corinne Stevie Francilus, Bev Hamel, Herman Singh Published by Nouveau Media www.an-mag.com Follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/andashmagdotcom Advertising info@an-mag.com

Cover Illustration by Gabriel Moreno

CONTENTS ART NOUVEAU

08. I Ain’t Saying She A Goldigger by Kendrick Daye 10. Morty The Jumping Jellybean fiction by Herman Signh 12. FIne Art & The Recession by Bev Hamel 14. Mister Mister: One On One With Artist Branden Collins 16. Of Montreal: Benoit David Is An Odd Fellow. 18. Another Man’s Trash: The Homeless Find Home In Hugh Leeman’s Paintings 30. Send My Regards To Madrid: An Interview With Illustrator Gabriel Moreno

MUSIC NOUVEAU

22. The Artist Way: How Vasily Kandisay Changed Contemporary Art With Music 24. Distant Dreamer: Corinne Stevie Indie Hip-hop’s Savoir 26. Almost Famous: Spree Wilson Has Made Arrived

Fashion NOUVEAU

38. Street Styles from Vienna to Atlanta 40. The Satoralist: Fernando Frisoni Goes Unisex For New Collection 42: New Day: Tim-Bret Day Is Bored With Fashion Photography--So He Redefines It 44. Saga: photography by Carter James 54. She Wants To Move: photography by Shannon Sinclair 60. Vexed & Glorious: photography by Kendrick Daye 74. Gypsy Threat: photography by Shannon Sinclair 82. Eyes Better Not Wander: photography by Kendrick Daye

CONTRIBUTORS Corinne Stevie Francilus

Illustrator

Corinne is a whimsical Illustrator, Muralist, Designer and Musician from Miami, Florida. She lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She is a lover, a cynic, an intellectual, a fighter, an extremist and an optimist. But above all, she is the epitome of the word “artist.”

Shannon Sinclair Photographer

California native Shannon Lee Sinclair began documenting the different bands, graffiti artists, rave and skate subcultures of the San Francisco area as a teenager. In early 1999, Shannon moved to New York City to pursue a career in fashion photography. Her experience in photographing live music, and it’s culture has rooted her expression in fashion and beauty photography. Shannon currently lives in Brooklyn, NY, with her husband and young daughter.

Carter James Photographer

I moved to Atlanta at the age of three. Living in the big city opened my eyes to what I could be. Art played a major role in my life. I took every and any art class given. My senior year of high school, I was head photographer of the Yearbook and Newspaper, and realized photography is my passion. I’ve worked with various stylists & production groups such Project X, building a portfolio of fashion/beauty/editorial work.

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Art is everywhere www.an-mag.com

ART NOUVEAU

I AIN’T SAYING SHE A GOLDIGGER

Words Kendrick Daye | Illustration Corinne Stevie Francilus

f this country got a dollar for as many times as I’ve been bombarded with Amber Rose trivia from someone I know we would have been out of this recession.

A week ago my friend Corinne started mentioning Amber Rose. “Did you see the Robocop video?” Um, No. I don’t find the song remotely interesting. And most Kanye West videos always end up looking like a failed attempt to be artsy, so I doubt a visual will help. Come to find out the reason she likes the video is cause Amber Rose is supposedly in it. “Who is Amber Rose?” I ask. She’s “a stripper,” she tells me. So. There are ho’s everywhere why does she get a trophy for hoing. That’s like giving someone a trophy for breathing. Um, that’s what you’re supposed to do. A day ago I’m on Yahoo Messenger and a friend IMs me a link to a picture from her shoot for Complex Magazine’s new issue at the time. “And I’m like this is her?” She looks like any average video ho. Except that she seems to be channeling Demi Moore in G.I. Jane. I instantly go to Wikipedia to research her. I mean there must be something about her. You don’t date Kanye West and be BFFs with Rihanna and not be cool right? Wrong.

Come to find out she was a stripper. Her biggest notch on her resume is appearing in a video by Ludacris called “What Dem Girls Like.” Her “bio” on Wikipedia even says she’s “known for her relationship with musician Kanye West.” I don’t get it. This is cool? Being famous for who you’re blowing. I’m just saying. Maybe we should rethink our criteria for an idol. I mean if a chick whose claim to fame is that she queefed in a porno and likes to eat pussy our standards are getting pretty damn low.

“I’ll do anything for a blonde dyke, And she’ll do anything when the times right.”

- Kanye West - “Stronger“

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Morty The Jumping Jellybean

By Herman Singh Illustration Corinne Stevie Francilus

n July 14th at 23 past nine in the evening there was a can filled with jellybeans. They weren’t ordinary jellybeans, they were jumping jellybeans. Of all the jumping jellybeans there was one who could not jump. His name was Morty the unjumpable jellybean. Morty asked the other jumping jellybeans, ‘to where will you all jump?’ To which they replied,’We shall jump out of the can that binds us together’. ‘Yes yes but to where will you all jump to’, said Morty. ‘Who knows maybe Singapore?’ they said. ‘But what if you jump out of the can and are immediately in Singapore?’ asked Morty. ‘Well’ said one of the jumping jellybeans, ‘then it shan’t be a very long journey’. ‘But what if what’s out there is worse than what’s in here’ retorted Morty. ‘Well’ replied the rest of the jumping jellybeans in unison,‘that’s a chance we have to take, for we were born to jump and we would be cheating ourselves by not jumping as nature intended us to’. Morty was out of ideas. He didn’t want to be left alone while the rest of the jellybeans jumped to a place of hope whether it be to a better or worse place. Hope was all the reason the other jellybeans needed to jump out of their enclosed prison. ‘Times a wastin, let’s boldly go where no jellybean has gone before,’ cried the jellybeans. The jumping jelly beans then began to jump. They jumped higher than they had ever jumped before. They jumped so high, you’d think that they were almost a fingernail away from touching the heavens themselves. So one by one the jumping jelly beans lept out

of the can. Then they began to jump in twos, threes, fours, fives till there was only Morty and the cylinder cell. Try as he might, Morty could not jump for all the jelly in him, at best all he could do was roll but was nowhere near jumping. He then asked himself why did he really want to jump out of the can. Was it because all the other jellybeans were doing it and he didn’t want to be kept out of the loop. He realized his reason for wanting to leave the can was not good enough for him to leave even if he could very well jump. He realized that he was alone in the can. He was alone but not lonely. Morty never really did mix around with the other jellybeans before. Hell, he didn’t even know the names of the jellybean with whom he slept in between. In fact Morty worked his sleep pattern around the waking hours of the rest of the jellybeans. He would sleep during the day and be awake during the night just to avoid the rest of the jellybeans by having minimal contact. The other jellybeans had always thought that Morty was a lazy jellybean for sleeping all the time. But little did they know Morty loved his solitude more than anything else in his little can world. But now with nothing but solitude facing him, Morty felt confused. What was solitude to him now without company to contrast the solitude? What would solitude mean now to Morty? It was like a world filled with only beautiful objects. How could those objects be considered beautiful without ugliness to contrast that. No, no Morty wasn’t facing solitude anymore, it was something else. Morty began to ponder this quandary he was in. He thought he could create alter egos in his head to share this predicament with and hopefully one of them could come up with a solution. Or perhaps he could

make up imaginary friends to keep himself busy. But Morty knew his mind wouldn’t allow him to lie to himself in such a manner. Besides would he really want someone as neurotic as himself to keep him company? But why not he thought, all this while all he had was himself anyway. The only difference now was that he had way more space than before. But given this new optimistic premise, Morty couldn’t help but wonder what was beyond the can. That’s when it happened. Some strange force had pushed the can over. Or perhaps the can had seen Morty’s situation and felt sorry for it or maybe the earth’s gravitational pull had gotten stronger and forced the can to tilt over,

well whatever the reason, now Morty had a chance to roll out of the can and see what the other jumping jellybeans were seeing, hearing, smelling, touching and feeling. All he had to do was roll his way out of there. But Morty could not think of a reason to get out of the can. He thought of all the reasons he could come up with. Then he thought up a thought. A thought no other thought had thought of. It was the thought of all thoughts. It was unthought of. It was thoughtless yet thoughtful, all at the same time. So Morty laid there facing the big hole of light, just as the big hole of light laid facing Morty the unjumpable jellybean.

IT’S THE ART ECONOMY, STUPID Fine Art and the Fickle Economy By Bev Hamel

If Horatio Alger were alive today, most likely he would say “Buy Art, Young Man, Buy Art.” Why you ask, should not be a question. So okay, the economy sucks. Businesses and banks are closing left and right. The jobless rate is climbing everywhere. Our government is doling out billions of dollars into the automobile industry, yet they fail to consider that the jobless don’t really need cars, because they can’t find jobs. History is only repeating itself. We’ve been in this position many times before. The good news is that typically after a new president takes office, things will change. Though Alger may say, “don’t hold your breath,” unless you 18 Nouveau are Art viewing a piece of fine art in which case, he would say “buy it.”

ome of the best pieces of fine art are sold during a recession, and for considerably less then they would have gone during bull market times. And, at the same time these pieces sell for millions of dollars more then what the original purchaser paid. To quote Peter Scott S. Sahlman, head of Sahlman Fine Art Consulting, it is suggested that “art be recognized for its potential as a balancing or stabilizing asset, in addition to its ability to provide aesthetic pleasures . . . The liquidity of art - or, the ability to convert it directly into cash - is often limited. However, many investors over the years would attest that such risks are manageable.” Imagine that Sotheby’s barely managed to bring in $125 million against an estimate of $225 million. It was not so sad to watch for one consignor, a Mr. Bryant, a New York collector who had placed a piece of art work, an abstract made in 1955 and was purchased by him in 1996 for $1.7 million dollars from Sotheby’s competitor Christie. Sotheby’s was so confident that they guaranteed Bryant $18 million on the sale, which in actuality sold for $10.1 million. Even paintings by Monet, Matisse, and Warhol and other familiar and famous artist failed to bring in their estimates. The problem lies in defining Fine Art other than the age old adage that “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” I’d consider myself an art aficionado. I made my first purchase at the age of five; a trunk full of papers for exactly 25 cents. My father later sold the papers for an untold amount of money. Later in my life, I became a vicious bidder at auctions and amassed numerous items that ran the gamut from ‘Objects de Arte’ to ‘El Junqué.’ I was so driven that I had to seek storage for my possessions. When the owner of the building where I was storing my possessions decided to sell, I bought. Suddenly, I was now a dealer. I personally do not like the sound of this word. It reminds me of Las Vegas and that my new vocation bordered on the edge of being a ‘crap shoot.’ Although I am not in the same league as the Keno Brothers, I learned that the true meaning of Fine Art has different meanings for many people. And, I firmly disagree on what some propose the meaning of fine art is, which supposedly describes an item that is for aesthetics only, and not one made for utility.

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Take for instance Luke Skywalker’s light saber which was recently auctioned and sold for a whopping $240,000. Okay so it was used by Mark Hamill. Hamill wielded it for purposes that had a utilitarian value, at least in the movie goers’ minds who became enamored by the entire Star War series. The toy manufacturing world took notice and went nuts reproducing and selling sabers such as this for a few bucks to several hundred, along with every conceivable reproduction of items used in the films. But, in every single category that one can imagine or identify, there is only one item that could be an original and the thrill of owning this first item is what makes history repeat itself. Even when several copies or renditions are known to exist, there is only one, a first. The thrill to any collector is owning an original. When the item is signed by the artist there is provenance, or record of ownership of the item, the value sometimes has no ceiling. Such as the ruby red shoes that Dorothy (Judy Garland) wore in the Wizard of Oz. She had to have several pair of shoes (of course it is a known fact that shoes are objects d’arte to women). One pair sold for $15,000 at a 1970 auction, resold in 1988 for $165, 000 and in 2000 for $666,000. Rumor has it these will soon go on the market again. Whatever falls into the category of Fine Art as an aesthetic article can only be defined by the eye holder, and the value that eye holder is willing to pay. Fine Art is everywhere. So buy it, before the fickle economy shatters once again.

MISTER MISTER

One on One With Artist Branden Collins Words by Kendrick Daye

tlanta based artist, Branden M. Collins a.k.a Mister Collins is truly a Renaissance Man. He is a graphic designer, artist, illustrator, photographer and member of The Big Up! creative collective, a group that features Atlanta singer Brittany Bosco and Alex Goose. He takes time off from working on his book Strange, Strange World of Mister Collins to talk to Art Nouveau Magazine about his book, his art and whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s next for him.

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How are you? Better today than yesterday. So I guess good! You’re originally from Cleveland, Ohio. Tell me about growing up in Cleveland. It was great. I love that place. It’s really interesting there because it’s the Midwest so you get a little bit of everything. Some areas are suburban, some rural, and some very metropolitan. Growing up there gave me a real appreciation for different types of people, cultures, and ideas and a genuine respect for them. It’s definitely made an influence on who I am as a person & artist. When did you start creating art? I’d like to think that I was conceptualizing projects whilst still in my mother’s belly. I basically came out swinging. What genres if any would you classify your art as? I have no idea. This isn’t because I don’t technically know which genre my art falls into, just that I choose to avoid classification. I’m an illustrator, a graphic designer, painter, sculptor, photographer, musician, etc. I love art in all its forms and believe that I can do pretty much anything related to it that I simply put my mind to. You went to Savannah College of Art and Design, tell me about that. The experience at SCAD was less about the curriculum and more about the connections made with the immensely talented individuals that attend the school. Those relationships became long lasting and have become the foundation for The Big Up! creative collective. Tell me about your Mister Collins series. Mister Collins! Ha. Well. With the Mister Collins series, I really challenged myself to push a few personal boundaries. I referenced several artists/ musicians from several decades & genre and tried not to so much duplicate their work as to digest and understand it’s meaning. One challenge I constantly face as an artist is the “me” factor. That is, creating art that’s interpersonal and doesn’t connect socially at all. With this series I had hoped to use the personification of simple ideas & human emotion (joy, sadness, pain, calm, aggression, etc.) and characterize these. In this way eliminating classifications like “Black Art” or “Contemporary Art.” I want to simply touch people, in a simple

way. Make people think about society at large, think about themselves and how they relate to one another. Contrast, just like in art & music, is what makes life worth living. It’s what makes things interesting. There’s so much more to it than that, but like I said, it’s about simplicity. You have a book you’re about to release called The Strange Strange World of Mister Collins Tell me about that. Yes! This book will be based off of a journal that I’ve been creating for a couple months that includes my own personal drawings, writings, a tape recording, that’s right, cassette tape, some of my favorite objects, and just random thoughts. The book opens three ways and is made entirely of record sleeves and record covers. It’s all too easy to find and digest things in today’s world so I want this book to promote social interaction on a not-so accessible scale. I want it to be something people have to find and pick apart, like lost treasure. My philosophy, one of them anyway is “Time changes everything.” So the time and journey that these record covers have made from the minds of musicians some 20-30 years ago, to songs, then to actually being made records in a store, to somebody’s home, then to being thrown away, end up in a thrift store decades later, and finally little ol’ me comes along and I transform them into my own personal diary of sort. I’m going to hand this book off to a complete stranger for them to dig through my personal life bundled in a book. That, to me, is quite a journey. That’s what is intriguing about this project. I love it. What’s next for you? Continue working with Brittany Bosco & The Big Up!, they’re my closest friends and my team. Continue doing freelance graphic design & illustration and make it my full time career. Continue creating art, music, three-way art/book/magazine/journal things. Make that a full time career. Have a few kids, and a huge dog maybe. Abscond to some foreign land and learn more about myself by learning more about people. Possibly get trashed at some “Woodstock-esque” music festival. And enjoy my life. Not necessarily in that order.

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OF MONTREAL Benoit David Is An Odd Fellow By Kendrick Daye

ontreal based artist Benoit David has to be an odd fellow. He creates reversed illustrations on Adobe Photoshop. With a vision as clear as a Miami sky his message is stark—the frailty of the flesh reveals inner purpose and strength. Benoit David tries not to have a process to creating his work. Having a recipe to creating his work is something he’s “afraid of.” So, he takes photos, puts them on his computer and improvises. “When I realize I’m doing this or that, I stop and do things differently,” Benoit says. “That’s how I learn to use my software tools, slowly, one by one.” In his art Benoit leaves everything to intuition adding and removing as he goes back and forth until the image “talks” to him. The work is shocking. Heads literally in lodged in a nude figures anus in one piece, a figure with a woman’s legs for a face in another. He isn’t the least bit disturbed by the images. “I don’t see anything shocking in bending and stretching flesh,” Benoit says. “I see the body as a medium and I play with it.” “I guess it’s all a question of context,” he says. “Seen with very serious eyes, my game can seem cruel.” Benoit studied arts at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal. He’s been mostly painting and drawing since 1990 until last year when he began creating these photoshopped pieces.

Having just begun to love the medium when he discovered how to use transparency to his advantage. “I work with digital images for many reasons,” he says. “It’s about doing more with less. I’m sure that the fact digital photos represent more constraints than painting or drawing has also something to do with me being comfortable with the medium.” In future work Benoit wants to try many things. His motivations come from a desire to change what has been a constant in his work. Like the size of the image, the recentangular format. “I try to find unusual models,” Benoit says. “My first idea was a controtionist, I will get back to old ideas, scenes and adding drawings, vivid colors but for sure, two things will remain: the medium and the subject.”

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ANOTHER MAN’S TRASH The Homeless Find Home In Hugh Leeman’s Work Words by Kendrick Daye

ugh Leeman is fully immersed, no doubt passionately attacking his canvas with a brush when I call for scheduled interview. He tells me he’s left wet paintbrushes and an unfinished canvases to speak to me. “I think I’ve always been creating art to some extent,“ Hugh says. It shows. At age 18, the Northern Indiana born artist moved away from home and started bartending in the Virgin Islands. At 25, he speaks with a stark amount of discipline. Ask an average 25 year old what they did last night and they’ll likely tell you they partied. Ask Hugh Leeman what he did last night and he’ll likely tell you he stood on a wall and plastered it with his images. Hugh’s wheat pastes and portraits of black homeless men are more likely to be seen on billboards, street signs and buildings in San Francisco than a gallery.

It may be awkward for some to find out Hugh is white. Homeless people can be any race and gender, but Hugh chooses to document only black homeless men because “.“ “It just happened inadvertently,” he explains. “When I look back on the series, It’s a statement just out of circumstance.“ Whether or not viewers will take this as truth is a question. But, a suitable answer is the work itself is strong. Vibrant, urban yet still contemporary. Where his work is going is what has me the most curious. Hugh plans to begin working on raw steel using Renaissance chiaroscuro effects. He allows the pieces to rust naturally and then paints realistic portraits utilizing parts of the rust. He was inspired by the 19th century Japanese technique Gyotaku. “It happened by accident,“ Hugh says of the inspiration for the new work he’s set to create. “It worked out and I was really into it and I spent another year thinking how can I do this with these portraits?“

“There’s some sort of liberation in putting my wheat pastes on street signs in wealthy neighborhoods,“ Hugh says. “It’s like hey, here’s something that’s outta place, look at this and engage my work on a deeper level, ‘cause there is a story here.“ Living in the Tenderloin District, the inner-city ghetto of San Francisco, exposes Hugh to his subjects. His work carries the stories of those urging to be acknowledged.

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THE ARTIST WAY

How Vasily Kandinsky Changed Contemporary Art With Music By Corinne Stevie Francilus guage, and it’s purpose was for expression, meditation, and communication.

asily Kandinsky was a Russian painter, printmaker, and art theorist considered to be at the forefront of the German expressionist movement. Kandinsky’s abstract works were the evolution of modern art in the early twentieth century. Although his most prolific works were his abstract paintings, his works were not always abstract; in fact he gradually went from realism to abstraction. The ten prolific abstract works were assigned the title of Compositions. The title Compositions came from the influential hold that music had over his work. Music played a major role in the transformation of his paintings going from realistic to abstract. Born in Moscow in 1866 into an educated family, Kandinsky initially studied law at the University of Moscow. At the age of thirty Kandinsky decided to abandon his other studies and fully purse painting. In Kandinsky’s decision to become an artist, two experiences made an impact on his career. The first event was viewing a French Impressionist exhibition in Moscow in 1896. At this show he saw Monet’s Haystack painting. While looking at Monet’s painting he realized how a painting could hold a viewers attention even if the subject matter isn’t recognizable. It was the combinations of color and form that gave him an emotional response. Kandinsky believed that the emotional connection between the viewer and the painting was more important than the image. Kandinsky began his studies in Munich, Germany. Munich was then the Mecca of art for Russian artists. It was in Munich where his individual style developed into a mature, non-objective abstract language. His abstraction developed from a color figure and then transformed into a pictorial element. For Kandinsky art was a lan-

The second experience that left an impression on him was watching German musician Richard Wagner perform a piece called Lohengrin at the Court Theatre in St. Petersburg. Kandinsky realized that music can evoke pictorial images, colors and moods. That was the experience that united painting and music, which lead him to create the series of compositions. For Kandinsky the colors in a painting should have the same power as the sounds in a piece of music, and painting should be as “abstract” as piece of music. He related color to the keyboard, the eyes to harmonies, and the soul to the piano. Music influenced Kandinsky’s thinking. He believed that music was superior to realistic paintings because he believed that music touched the inner soul and the listener’s imagination. Kandinsky wanted to create paintings that touched the viewer’s soul the same way his favorite musical compositions touched him. The artist began to create the first Compositions toward the end of 1909 in his early forties. When he began using the term “Composition” he was making an obvious connection to his love for music. He was fascinated by music’s emotional power. When you look at the Compositions and Improvisations paintings you can see how music influenced them. In the sketches for Composition IV (1911), there are shapes that resembled figures.

Kandinsky used layers of colors and bold lines. It feels as though one could almost tell where the Composition IV began. Painted in center of the canvas is a dark blue curved shape. Layered on top of that are two bold black lines. He arranges everything the same way a musician would compose a song. Every mark and color is set in a specific place to convey a certain mood. The mood of the painting seems joyous because of use the color yellow and the rainbow off to the left of the canvas. He often tried to make a connection between colors and feelings the same way his favorite musician Scriabin made the connection between tones in color and music. Scriabin applied this theory to his orchestral work. In article written by Jerome Ashmore called “Sound In Kandinsky’s Paintings” He mentioned that when Kandinsky was faced with the question of “How does

spirit manifest itself? Kandinsky simply answered “By Sound”. He wanted to represent sound from his paintings; the inner spiritual sound. He achieves representing sound by creating movement with lines, colors and forms. Composition VII was created in 1913 and it said to be one of his most prolific and complex paintings. This work clearly showed his artistic development toward the abstract. The painting began as sketches of just words and lines. The sketches resembled formulas or scientific calculations. The next stage of sketches consisted of drawings, watercolors, ink drawings and oil paintings. It seems as though Kandinsky allowed the process to take over. The studies for Composition VII went through many stages. Each study reflected completely different forms of thought through lines, colors and forms.

DISTANT DREAMER Words and Photography Kendrick Daye Makeup Nnebuchi Nwankwo

18 Art Nouveau

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orinne Stevie is a lover, a cynic, an intellectual, a fighter, an extremist and an optimist. But above all, she is the epitome of the word “artist.” From her studio apartment in the heart of the Midtown area of Atlanta, surrounded by unfinished canvases and paintbrushes dipped in cloudy cups of water the emcee/ painter jokingly explains, “Corinne Stevie is none of the things you’ve seen at the same time.” Clearing her throat she asserts herself and says, “Corinne Stevie is the oddity.” From the epicene beauty of Grace Jones to the sheer lyrical genius of Lauryn Hill, Corinne is exactly what fans of Hip-hop have been patiently waiting for while Foxy and Kim flirt with jail time, Queen Latifah and Eve flirt with Hollywood and Missy Elliot and Ms. Hill herself flirt with obscurity. Corinne is the difference between Rap and Hip-hop. But, don’t think you’ll catch her dissing the current music scene. Stevie is more than content reveling in it, whether true to form or not. “Hip-hop right now is just in a different place,” she says. “I’m bringing back a memory of a feeling of a time in Hip-hop.”

The Miami native is always eager to speak about her love for art and music. These mediums of self expression become intertwined for Corinne with one constantly fueling and pushing the other. When she’s not painting or studying illustration at the Atlanta campus of Savannah College of Art & Design, she’s using her Mac mini to record music in her home studio.

It’s these creative songs—each essentially pieces of artwork—that find a home nestled together on Corinne’s debut album, The Oddity. Synthesizer heavy dance tracks juxtaposed with nostalgic Hiphop odes create a one-of-a-kind sound that permeates the 11-track project. From dance music (“Time Travela” and “Set Me Free”), to old school Hip-Hop (“I Can Go Across The Globe” and “Mornin’ Sunrise”), to new school hipster rap (“Hackerz” and “Club_Kidz”) Corinne does it all with the lyrical skill of a polished emcee not afraid to transcend genres. “I want to do something else, I want to create my own genre,” Stevie said of the sound of her music. The Oddity was released online Oct of 2008. Corinne released her second project, Strawberry Fields in the Sky online in Feb 2009. Lead single “A Day in the Life” has been downloaded over 2000 times. She released a new EP, The Other Sistah in September. She plans to continue to tour throughout 2009 with stops in Mississippi, Alabama, Miami, Boston, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York City and more. Right now she’s producing and working on her next album entitled Amalgam. Finding a purpose or a mission is something every artist tussles with at some point. Bouncing her head to her theme song--Santogold’s “L.E.S. Artistes”-Corinne’s mission is stark. She looks to the future and hopes for two things: money and that her work will inspire others to be themselves. “I want my work to be inspiration,” Corinne says. “I want to encourage people and say you can just be everything, just express yourself and be who you are and not be afraid to see your different sides.” Well, mission two accomplished.

“When I can’t write a song, I’m drawing,” Stevie says. “My art is very intertwined with my music and if I didn’t draw I don’t think my music would be as creative and if I didn’t write songs I don’t think my art would be as creative.”

EVIL ANGEL

Words KENDRICK DAYE Photography Nikita Gale

MUSIC NOUVEAU

espite getting props from Jay Electronica and Dallas Austin, working with artists like Jazmine Sullivan, Cee-Lo and No ID and licensing music played to Wal-Mart, 26-year-old musician Spree Wilson still works like an underdog. From his new home in Brooklyn, New York, where he has recently relocated from Atlanta Spree tells me the reason for the move was because he felt “he had done as much as I could do in Atlanta as an artist.” When Lil’ Wayne and Jay-Z pretend to play guitar on stage is cool—when a rapper like Spree that actually plays guitar isn’t. Because of this Spree was often considered the odd man out in the Atlanta Indie Music Scene. “I had a lot of press, a lot of placements as far as music is concerned,” Spree explains. “[But] I still felt like I felt I wasn’t getting booked for the big shows.” Tired of waiting to be booked for the “big shows,” Spree started an unofficial pact with friend and rapper Small Eyez. Together with Atlanta punk band Tendaberry, the collective began booking their own shows at Lenny’s Bar, a popular performance venue for musicians in Atlanta. “[We ] started doing shows ourselves and built it from the ground up,” Spree says. Growing up in Nashville, TN as an only child who had imaginary friends, made elaborate obstacle courses in his house, went to art school and preferred listening to Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys Spree is used to be an outcast. “I was always the weird kid,” he says. “The friends I did have kinda looked at me like ‘what the hell’ they were like ‘we over here listening to Dr. Dre ‘The Chronic’ and you talking about Led Zepplin, you get kinda ostracized at that age.”

In the fall of 2001, Spree entered college at Clark Atlanta University. He majored in Film, and was taught by Dr. Herbert Eichelberger, the same professor who taught film legend Spike Lee. When I asked him about his time he pauses for a brief moment and starts to say, “I hated it,” before catching himself and saying he “hated school” and always had. “It was a cool experience, The Mass Media [Department] was,” he says. “My experience at Clark not so much, but a lot of people have those kinda stories.” It was around this time when Spree began producing tracks. After growing tired of waiting on his roommate, who was a producer, to give him tracks to record to Spree had two choices, he could continue to wait on his roommate, or he could step outside himself and create so he wouldn’t have to ask anyone else. He chose the second option and is now producing for other artists as well as producing his own tracks. While a student at Clark Atlanta University, looking for a job in The Little Five Points area of Atlanta, Spree came upon Dallas Austin’s boutique Rowdy. Spree was eventually hired and would take his guitar to the store and play. This caught the attention of Austin himself one day. “Dallas came in and he was like ‘oh man’ you play guitar,” Spree recalls with a laugh. “So we started talking about music and he said ‘all cool’ and walked out.” A few months later the store closed. Spree called the former manager of the store, who was also the head of Austin’s publishing at Rowdy. Spree called and got and internship at Rowdy. The rest as they say is history. Fast forward a few years and Spree is rubbing shoulders with Kanye West and NO ID. He’s just released his EP Evil Angel online. The EP, which features two features from Novel, a co-sign by NO-ID and a cover of Jon Brion’s “I Believe She’s

Lying” pretty much speaks for itself. When I ask Spree about “Evil Angel” he is coy only acknowledging, “it’s been along time in the making.” “It’s a very eclectic piece of music,” he says of the EP. “Hopefully it can change people’s perception of what an artist is capable of doing. Sometimes we tend to put pigeonhole [artists] where they’re only allowed to do a certain thing.” “I didn’t put out Evil Angel to break any type of mold, that’s just the way I express myself,” he later explains. Today’s music industry goes well in the favor of artists like Spree Wilson. A time when nobody is selling albums, record labels are more lenient with what an artist is allowed to create. Spree acknowledges this saying, “it’s a terrible time for the music industry [but] I think it’s a good time for music.” “At this point you’re allowed to make whatever you want, nobody’s selling,” Spree says. “As far as you making money off of it, you’re going to have to find really clever ways to make money off it, that’s the only downside to it, cause we all wanna get paid for our work.” After success that most artists would die for what’s next for Spree Wilson? Creating more work of course. He’s currently working on his debut album “The Beauty of Chaos.” He’s nine songs in and currently talking with labels to distribute the record. “People always think when you talk about money you’re talking about being rich, no, if you’ve been doing something your whole life and that’s the only way you can provide for your family it has to be a way they can be compensated for that, you wouldn’t go to McDonalds and make them work for free,” he later says.

send my regards to madrid An Interview With Illustrator Gabriel Moreno By kENDRICK daYE

ART Nouveau

abriel Moreno’s work is a lush, chic fantasy world oozing with stylean obvious inspiration from the illustrator’s home of Madrid.

“There is always something going on,” Gabriel says. “Everything influences my work but I would say the people and the relations have a lot more to do with it.” Gabriel spent time studying Fine Arts at the University of Sevilla. The first three years there, like most college students, he partied every weekend and slept during the week. The last two years something in him changed and urged him to catch up with all the time he lost. “I didn’t stop drawing,” Gabriel says. “I learned about painting and engraving. That is really important and influenced what I do today.” Art was always in Gabriel’s life. He’s been drawing since he was a kid but never thought this could be a career until recently. “Since I was a kid I really liked drawing,” he explains. “I never thought I could live off it but here we are.” Trying different approaches and proving himself with different techniques is what keeps Gabriel motivated. While painting in the University he decided to take the CAP, an exam to become a teacher, and missed the deadline for submission. He decided to move his work in galleries and since then has been interested in engraving. “My work is realist and based on traditional techniques,” Gabriel says. “It is applied to a contemporary concept and aesthetic.” Gabriel’s illustrations have him in demand by big clients like Snickers, Universal Music, and Rolling Stone Magazine among a myriad of others. While some artists find it difficult to manage the business side of art while being creative, bridging the gap between art and business has never been an issue for Gabriel. “I never saw a gap,” Gabriel says between the distinction of art and business. “Art is business, I work for big clients and I try to give a creative solution, the commercial side gives me the freedom to make my personal artwork.”

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Trying to describe art is really complicatedâ&#x20AC;? - Gabriel Moreno

Gabriel’s future work will be interesting. He plans to explore new fields like sculpture, fashion, animation and short films. “Trying to describe art is really complicated,” Gabriel says. “Technologies democratize the art, I don’t consider illustration as art, I consider myself a craftsman that works by different orders adapting my work as a creative solution to different needs. I only feel close to art when I work in a personal project as concept but honestly when I do it I still feel as an intruder.”

ART Nouveau

Art Nouveau 19

1. Res from Vienna

2. Jamal from Atlanta, GA

4. Marquis from Atlanta, GA

5. Christopher from Vienna

3. Kirsten from Vienna

Street Style

Photos 1&5 by Alkistis Tsitouri & Aris Karatarakis Photos 2&4 by Kendrick daye Photos 3 by Daliah Heeger

ANTI-SOCIAL SOCIALITE

FASHION NOUVEAU

BY KENDRICK DAYE

AVAILABLE AT BLURB.COM

THE SATORIALIST

Fernando Frisoni’s Gets His Cake And Eats It Too Words by Kendrick Daye

ernando Frisoni’s designs say a lot about his outlook on fashion. For Frisoni, fashion is simple but detailed, futuristic but classic, edgy but safe, loose but tight, chic but unpretentious. These juxtapositions are exactly what Frisoni’s line represents. Not entirely left or right, black or white a comfortable middle ground that works for everyone. The Brazilian-born fashion designer started his self-titled label in 2008 after a successful fashion label collaboration with Nicola Finetti. “I had all these ideas,” Fernando explains. “I believe you should not hold on to good ideas.” These good ideas have paid off, leading his line to be the closing show at this year’s Austrailian Fashion Week.

Fernando’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection is inspired by purity, maritial arts, futuristic and simple and organic shapes and fabrics. The line also has many unisex pieces like Harem pants and leggings for men. “I’m just doing what I would like to wear myself,” Fernando says. According to Fernando style is “knowing who you are, what you want, and when to start and finish.” If Frisoni’s line is a reflection of his style, maybe Fernando should give lessons on it.

FASHION NOUVEAU

NEW DAY

Tim-Bret Day Wants New Subject Matters In Fashion Photography Words by Kendrick Daye

im-Bret Day started as a rock photographer. “The Eye’s of Laura Mars,” a 1978 thriller film starring Faye Dunaway and Tommy Lee Jones inspired Tim to shoot fashion. “The models, fur coats were so camp,” Tim says. “I also remember buying ‘sleepless nights’ by Newton, and honestly I knew that’s what I wanted to do. To this day I love the team ethic in fashion, hair make up, styling, models, etc.” Tim graduated from the London College of Printing. Although his work at times can rival a Michelangelo painting, he doesn’t see himself as an artist. “I don’t see myself as an artist,” Tim says. “I have no concept of value. I love making images that are there at the time the archival process is not for me. I lose interest in them as soon as they are finished.” Tim-Bret Day’s flesh-filled photography are widescreen epics reminiscent of the work of Sam TaylorWood and Peter Greenaway or more recently Terry Rodgers. The UK photographer’s images are, antiquated but polished. “I think there’s usually a lot to look at,” Tim says of his work. “I don’t do ‘less is more’, I think that works one way, but not for me, like classical painting I want people to notice the image–not who the model is or the styling, although they have to be good, it’s about intrigue.” Tim wants to approach his work based on feelings.

possible’,” Tim says of the campaign. “The creative’s at the agency just defended everything we wanted, and everyone helped in it. People generally want to criticize too much, it’s harder to just believe in a project – but it does really work when you do.” Tim’s process of creating an image is simple. He draws to recreate the image as accurately as possible. Then he shoots the subjects, models or friends in costumes and add them in until he has the narrative he wants. “With the Agent Provocateur witches poster we shot Daisy, peaches and co in one set up,” Tim says. “I left the camera where it was changed all the girls into different outfits and shot the right hand side separately.” In the future Tim plans to move his images to film. This seems like a natural progression since most of his images have a film like quality to them. “I think photography is going to change massively towards moving high definition HDR images,” Tim says. “I’m not one for film and print although I do love that way of working – I feel it’s like someone I once loved – I never want to go back.” “At a time when there are so many fashion photographers around, I wish clients and agencies could believe in the photographer and discover new icons. I’m bored of the same old faces, bring on the new subject matter.”

“It’s strange sometimes I get asked to re-work something I’ve done and it never really works for me,” Tim says. “I like to have a spontaneous idea and just follow it through with my heart.” Out of all the projects Tim has worked on, and he’s worked on everything from MC Smirnoff, Adidas and David Beckham, the first Harvey Nichols womenswear project he shot was the greatest. “I had no limits apart from ‘show as much product as

FASHION NOUVEAU

! A G A S

rakido

Came apher

gr Photo N nS t iCO Hawki Stylis y l Jimm Mode

18 Art Nouveau

VEXED & GLORIOUS

Photographer Kendrick Daye Model BRENTEN WILLIAMS

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GYPSY THREAT

Photography Shannon Sinclair Make-Up Masha Gvozdov using Makeup Forever Model Rila Fukushima at Trump Model Management Hair Francky L’Official Styling Karen Levitt At Ford Models Set Design Bryn Bowen & Ian Savage for W.A.R.S Clothing Pepper+Pistol

EYES BETTER NOT WANDER Photography Kendrick Daye Model Titus Williams

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