ISSUE 1 , VOLUME 1 MARCH 2012
ART & PRODUCTION Manfred Westreicher Creative Director Brett Davis Photography
EDITORAL Brett Davis Editor
Interviews 4-9
James Marable Original Thought Required
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Tamara Harkavy ArtWorks
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Rosie Kovacs Brush Factory
Submission 28-41
Adam Leigh-Manuell Photography
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An interview with James Marable of Original Thought Required always on main street, but never mainstream
Are you a native of Cincinnati? Where’d you grow up and where did you go to school? I’m actually from Dayton, Ohio. I came to Cincinnati to attend UC where I majored in marketing.
What makes OTR so “fresh”? OTR is so fresh because we’re all about self expression… What’s fresh to me is rooted in originality and that’s all we try to get across to the world.
Can you give me a brief history of the store? What inspired you to start the store? Why did you choose to locate it in Over-the-Rhine? The idea for Original Thought Required came about during my senior year at UC… At the time I was a little frustrated with the selection of streetwear here in Cincy. I was tired of having to travel to cities like New York, Chicago, and LA to be able to shop at their unique boutiques. At the time we had nothing comparable. As time progressed some cool shops opened here, but I still believed in my concept and kept working towards it. I’m personally inspired by individual creativity and that’s basically the basis for the store. We are all about embracing the creativity of our city, state, country and world. We specialize in carrying independent brands that you won’t find in chain stores or malls. I chose the OTR neighborhood because I believe in the independent nature of Over-the-Rhine.
How would you describe the products you carry? Casual designs by independent brands that you can wear to class, after work, to hang out and anywhere your day takes you.
Is there a story behind the name? I wanted a name that represented the independent spirit of the neighborhood while embodying the original designs and all inclusive environment of the shop. 4
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Who’s your main clientele? We have a broad clientele group from a personality stand point, but to get to the point we mainly attract 18 to 30 year olds who are open minded and seek out original designs and fashion. Where do you find the designers featured in your store? I find the various brands we carry through traveling to other cities, visiting trade shows, internet research and networking around Cincinnati. Original Thought Required also carries its own brand, aTYPICALsOLE. Who does the designs for aTYPICALsOLE? I am the lead designer for aTYPICALsOLE. It was a brand I started a couple years before the store actually opened and I wanted to carry it on as our house brand.
Model: Alex L. T. @ Wings Model Management
How would you describe the local art scene? Who are some of your favorite local artists? I feel like we have a pretty strong art scene here in Cincinnati. We have quite a few up and coming artists and I can’t wait to see where they take ith Some are my favorites are Mreeuh, Ryan Leary, Aidin Gargari and Jaret Jameson.
I noticed that on top of owning the store you are also the store DJ. What’s currently playing on the OTR rotation? We’re listening to The Natives a lot (they’re def our favorite local group), Dirty Projectors, N.E.R.D., Drake, Kanye West, Jay-Z and Dom Kennedy.
What does OTR have planned for the Spring and distant future? Top Secret! DXIII
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FEATURE: INTERVIEW
An interview with Tamara Harkavy of ArtWorks founder and director, tamara harkavy, talks artworks past, present and future
Tell us a little about yourself. I grew up in Cincinnati, in North Avondale. I went to North Avondale Elementary school and then Walnut Hills. I left in 1975 and went to Arizona State. I spent a long time there, then I moved east to the Washington D.C. area and finally back here in ’91 to go to graduate school at the University of Cincinnati. How did you come up with the idea for ArtWorks? I stole it. All good ideas are borrowed and made better. I was registering at UC for a Masters in Urban Planning and Economic Development. In no way did I want to work for any kind of municipality or city entity. I happened to have done my thesis for a person named Roxanne Qualls. She was a council member at the time and my thesis was about displacement and gentrification in Over-the-Rhine. In the middle of my thesis, she became the mayor. So I got very lucky. She was involved with something called the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative and they always had an eye towards younger people and promoting graduation rates in the city. After I graduated I had a job at Downtown Cincinnati Incorporated (DCI). I got a call from Roxanne’s office and they said we are going to Chicago to see Gallery 37. Gallery 37 had a $4 million budget and employed 700 kids every summer. They had satellite outposts and a set of big tents set up in the middle of the city. It was really exciting. We saw it and we said, “We have to do this in 10 MARCH 2012
Cincinnati.” That’s how ArtWorks started. We had to make our case for funding. We wanted to hire artists. They started by painting furniture. It was still more of a make work model. We had to pay kids minimum wage, but it was a step towards what we were becoming; what we would become. Kids came from all over the city. It was diversity in a soup bowl. We just threw everyone together and mixed it up to see what would happen. Along the way we went back to Chicago. In 1999 there were cows in the streets and they were all decorated. And we said, “We have to do pigs.” So we came back and we did pigs in the summer of 2000. I think that’s when we really came out of the proverbial hole in the ground and people started to know ArtWorks. There were 400 pigs in the streets. We didn’t know what we were doing. It was incredible. Why did you start ArtWorks? I founded ArtWorks in 1996 to address a couple of things. We were founded to address teen unemployment and to address the need to create meaningful work rather than what the government called “make work”. And along the way we discovered there are in fact some incredibly creative minds in Cincinnati, both teenagers, emerging artists and established artists. So we’ve been organically growing what I call “The Great Experiment” to the point where it’s at today and we’re really at a crossroads right now; where we find ourselves as the leader of employing
visual artists in the city and employing teens and creating art that really has a tremendous impact and transforms our environment. So we’re at this crossroad where we think it’s time to go to the next level for this organization. To offer more opportunities to artists, not just teens, but professional artists. To put public art out on the streets. More than just murals. More than just pigs. We have employed almost 2,500 teens and 500 artists over the past sixteen years. The work that we have done has been incredibly life-changing and transformational for both the kids who we’ve employed and the artists who
we worked with and institutions and the partners and the landscape. As times change ArtWorks has been very fortunate to remain relevant in the landscape. It’s a mouthful, but here we go ArtWorks Part II. What projects is ArtWorks working on currently? Recently we added a program called Springboard. It’s an eight week business training course. So let’s say you have an idea, you want to open a storefront in Overthe-Rhine. It’s a new bakery or you want to launch a business in journalism and you want to monetize DXIII
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it. Springboard helps you understand how to create this enterprise so that you can make money and you can employ people and become an economic engine. Springboard has forced ArtWorks to think about how we impact the economic sphere as an engine for change and a platform for young creatives. This economy demands a different way of thinking about how you’re going to be gainfully employed. That entrepreneurially spirit and the creative spirit become an opportunity for something new to enliven the city. So we’re an economic engine who employs creative folks, who in their entrepreneurial spirit can make this city a better place. Also, in April a group from the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce came to us and said, “We are working on a public art project for the World Choir Games and we would like ArtWorks to work with us on a public art.” Somebody said, “Lets just do the pigs again.” Why? First and foremost there are 200,000 people coming into the city, so it’s a great way to tell people who Cincinnati is. There’s also a whole generation that still hasn’t seen these pigs. And I think that’s worth a trip downtown. Pigs are a great marker of who we are and what we are. The decorated art of the pigs becomes something fun. This time we’re having schools and companies painting them and they can keep them. Hopefully there will be hundreds of pigs in offices, in schools, in restaurants, etc. How has ArtWorks evolved over the years? We started out on my dining room table with some volunteers under the hospices of the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative. After the pigs we split off and became a separated nonprofit. Each year we have grown in the transformational impact on our city and our participants as well as in the scope of the projects that we’re doing. And here we are on the corner of Jackson and Central Parkway in this gorgeous old/new neighborhood. We feel we have become a leader in the creative spirit of the city in providing these great opportunities for artists. I had no design or direction in mind when I started it. And the best thing we’ve done is the murals, starting in 2007. When you bring art outside into the public sphere that many more people see them. We’ve done forty-six or so murals. 160 million cars drive by our murals annually. Putting art in public spaces goes a long way to blight reduction and creating civic pride. We can point to wall
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after wall after wall. We have literally reduced blighted areas with just paint. There are eighteen different neighborhoods that once we painted the wall, they’ve cleaned up the parking lot, they’ve planted, they’ve put lighting up. Avondale is a great example. It’s a beautiful mural and one day we got a call saying, “Thanks for putting the lights up!” Well we didn’t do that. But the building owner saw the value in the mural. Those little touches are very transformative and I think they are very positive for our city. How do you find the students that participate in the ArtWorks’ programs? We have an interview process every spring. We’ll interview around 400 teens. Ages 14-21. We outreach to schools, youth groups, church groups, neighborhoods. It’s intensive. You have to fill out an application, do a drawing test, get a letter of recommendation, show proof of age and income. And then you have to come down for an interview. It has become very competitive. Maybe we will hire 100 to 130 teens. We have decided not to grow for the sake of growing. We look for creativity and ability to commit. Our attrition rate is a scant 1%. In 1997 I hired a woman who was on her way to be a Walnut Hills graduate. Her name was Colleen Stanton now called Colleen Houston and she was an apprentice, but now she is the Director of Programs. She is the COO of ArtWorks. Just goes to show that this “Great Experiment” fostered some great students and many great artists. So many kids go on to be gainfully employed in the arts. Or they become doctors, teachers, engineers. For many ArtWorks was their first job. It’s a great way to be exposed to the world of work, to develop a work ethic and to understand diversity. What can we expect from ArtWorks in the future? Expect more collaborations, more public art. Last year we yarn bombed Central Parkway. People were honking and smiling. We want to create more civic fun. The city can be fun with art. ArtWorks is always looking to add talented artists to their roster. We’re looking to deepen our well of talent.
Location
About
3025 Colerain Avenue Cincinnati, OH 45225 in
A project of the 2008 ArtWorks Summer Program.
Camp Washington.
In partnership with the Camp Washington Business Association and the Camp Washington Community.
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Location 1109 Vine St. Cincinnati, OH 45202 in Over-the-Rhine About A project of the 2009 ArtWorks Summer Program In partnership with Park + Vine and the Over-the-Rhine community. Mural dedicated September 2009 The Central Parkway mural draws immediate attention to the corner of Central Parkway and Vine St., and the city as a whole. This four-story wall features a jaunty image of a true Cincinnati Original - former Vice Mayor and Over-the-Rhine resident Jim Tarbell. He is dressed as local character Peanut Jim, wearing a tuxedo with tails and tipping his top hat. This is ArtWorks first head-to-toe portrait and serves as a welcoming addition to the gallery of ArtWorks’ murals along Central Parkway.
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Location 1005 Walnut St. Cincinnati, OH 45202 in Downtown Cincinnati About A project of the 2008 ArtWorks Summer Program In partnership with Accountability & Credibility Together (ACT) and the Downtown community. Mural dedicated September 2008 As an ode to the vibrancy of the Downtown community, the Downtown mural depicts three figures looking out of their windows, trying to see what’s happening in the neighborhood around them. The figures represent the diverse residents of Downtown. The architectural details of each window are painted in a trompe l’oeil style, as if they were actual windows of the building, and are inspired by actual architecture found in Downtown Cincinnati. This mural adds to an increasingly vibrant Central Parkway corridor, and is ArtWorks’ third mural on this thoroughfare.
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Location CET 1223 Central Parkway Cincinnati, OH 45202 About Nationally renowned illustrator and Cincinnati resident C.F. Payne was commissioned to create this mural design that will be ArtWorks’ largest mural to date. The “singing mural” features a huge cast of characters,who represent popular figures from Cincinnati, public television, the entertainment world, and the performing arts. They are, from left to right: Top: Patricia Corbett, Grover, Phantom of the Opera, Sir Elton John, Beverly Sills, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra tuba player, Cab Calloway, Madame Butterfly, Johann Sebastian Bach. Bottom: Nutcracker, Leontyne Price as Aida, Maestro Erich Kunzel, Cincinnati police officer, Mr. Rogers, Pagliacci, Ruth Lyons, a child, Mr. Redlegs.
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Location 7117 Vine St. Cincinnati, OH 45216 in Carthage About A project of the 2008 ArtWorks Summer Program In partnership with the Carthage Civic League, Inc. and the Carthage Community Mural dedicated September 2008 The Carthage mural is an old-fashioned postcard from the Carthage community to Cincinnati. This mural encompasses the side of Valley Drive Thru and measures 80 feet wide by 16 feet tall. A banner boasts salutations in English and Spanish: “Welcome to all” and “Bienvenidos a todas.” Bold block letters spelling the community’s name each hold unique images of what makes Carthage unique within the City. No other mural has depicted so much detail about a community. Images showcase all things Carthage: the Hamilton Country fairgrounds, the train yard, a fire station, an ode to veterans, and the Cincinnati Bridge that sits above I-75. Also included are images of vibrant, busy residents, bicycling and swimming at a community pool. Atop the mural is a map, showing Carthage’s placement at the intersection of all major highways in the City.
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An interview with Rosie Kovacs of Brush Factory handmade brighton designs
Self trained or school? I have had ideas about what fashion is and could be since I was a little girl. Inevitably I ended up in fashion design school at the University of Cincinnati, DAAP program. Where do you live and work now? I live in Brighton (a neighborhood north of Findlay market downtown Cincinnati). I have been here for 5 years or so. I work above my living space in an old bank. I am a freelancer, so half of my time is spent on client work and the other is spent on my own line. I am a stylist, designer, tailor and project manager for a local manufacturing company. I wear many hats, but they all build on one another. What is Brush Factory? Brush Factory is a brand name. My partner, Hayes and myself use this name that was inspired by our studio in an old brush manufacturing company building. He makes furniture in the original wood shop that was once used for making brushes. Awhile back, I had a boutique/ studio downstairs from the wood shop. How did you first get involved in design? I became obsessed with styling in high school which eventually let to a more acute understanding of color, line and shape and space. 24 MARCH 2012
Where do you find inspiration for your work? Every day situations. I carry a notebook and jot this and that down as I think of it. Some of it makes sense and some if it does not. The idea is to put all of the pieces together into something that tells a story. How would describe your style? I can’t really answer this question at this time in my life. Lots of people ask me this. I think it takes a long time for one to become comfortable and a true individual. I am comfortable, but I do not have the ability to step outside myself and assess what it is I see. Perhaps I should do more ‘self portrait’ paintings and drawings. What do you think sets you apart from other designers? I don’t think I have that ability yet. There are so many designer out there. I just try to stay true to myself and the truth will set me apart. What’s your favorite piece that you have designed? My camo kamikaze pants and cropped biker jacket. Both of which are not in the collections. I’m not sure why! Why is it your favorite? I feel like myself when I wear them but they are a bit extreme for others.
Model: Erica T.
What projects are you currently working on? I am designing my spring 2013 collection. I have been looking at a lot of imagery crystals, fibrous textures, Filipino men, and Amish families.
of BadGirlVentures (a local business class/contest for women that I entered to participate). Perhaps an NYC trade show this summer and I am going to California by next October. Got to stay inspired!
What do you love most about your job? I have freedom. Any advice for young and/or aspiring designers? Never forget your roots. What are your plans for the near future? I’m going to Guatemala on Sunday. When I come home, I will find out who the finalists to be in the spring session
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SUBMISSION: PHOTOGRAPHY
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Leffe Adam Leigh-Manuell
Photographer Adam Leigh-Manuell Designer Kelli Martin Hair Amanda Fiehrer Makeup Artist Galvin Mason
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