Mind Breath Magazine International Issue II

International Issue 2 Starring:

Luc Sante Miza Coplin Nicole Reber Hannah Garrett Heather Clark Andrea Boerem Isaac Rosenthal Roland Kunos Christian Smirnow Sara Radin Felicia Podberesky Matt Sukkar Odetta Hartman Michelle Golden

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A LETTER FROM THE EDITOR CONTENTS

LUC SANTE NICOLE REBER MATT SUKKAR HANNAH GARRETT MIZA COPLIN ISAAC ROSENTHAL ODETTA HARTMAN CHRISTIAN SMIRNOW ROLAND KUNOS HEATHER CLARK FELICIA PODBERESKY SARA RADIN ELIZABETH SCHOLNICK ANDREA BOEREM MICHELLE GOLDEN

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CONTRIBUTORS ELIZABETH SCHOLNICK ERICA VAN RABENSWAAY HANNAH JUPITER

EDITOR IN CHIEF LAYOUT DESIGN LOGO DESIGN

KEEP IN TOUCH

INSTAGRAM: @elizabethscholnick EMAIL: MINDBREATHMAGAZINE@GMAIL.COM WWW.MINDBREATHPRODUCTIONS.COM

Thank you so much for taking an interest in Mind Breath Magazine!

Dear Reader, Mind Breath Magazine started in 2014 with the idea to create a physical element that incorporated artists from all walks of life. To have both more acclaimed artists with artists who haven’t been heard yet on a grander scale. The best part about the creative process of this publication is that I get to curate it to my liking.

This is also a very exciting issue because it is MBM’s second, but first international issue ever! It’s all so wonderful to also see how an artist who is studying the same medium has a different take on it, but might have one thing in common, like nostalgia.

Like a swimmer competing in the Olympics; they obviously have to know how to swim, but their methods are all different in how they achieve that right of passage of being a great swimmer. It’s been such an honor to interview and critique everyone for this current MBM issue.

Being that this magazine is so eclectic in its works makes it all the more fun to curate.

At first I had doubts. In art school we are asked to be cohesive. Though I am not in art school anymore, so, I get to break the rhythm a bit! This magazine is not cohesive in its works, or theme of art, but its importance of content is what locks anyone in. Life isn’t cohesive. Not every day has to be the same, so I tried the approach of different is better, and it has worked for me so far.

It was so fun putting this together with my friend and collaborator, who also designed the interior of the first issue: Erica Harper van Rabenswaay. It’s good to have people working with you on projects that get it, and understand what it’s like putting together a production of this kind. A very special thank you to all the artists who let me pick their brain for this issue, and for the supporters who helped make this issue of Mind Breath Magazine possible. I’m very grateful.

Warm wishes, Elizabeth Scholnick Editor in Chief

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LUC SANTE WRITER + CRITIC www.lucsante.com TWITTER@luxante I met Luc through a mutual friend as I was conducting interviews for a documentary about Old New York. I of course had done my homework and that is when I first encountered Low Life. I was blown away. His writing was right up my alley, and the way he expressed himself was wonderful and unique.

As soon as I saw that he came out with a new book about Paris I bought it without hesitation. Luc studied at Columbia University and since then has written many books. Is also a critic for New York Review of Books, and has written for: The New York Times, Harper’s, Granta, The Village Voice, Paris Review, Artforum, Vogue, The American Scholar, and more. It’s honestly such an honor and pleasure to know him.

I respect his work immensely, and I am so humbled that he answered my questions about his latest written work: The Other Paris.

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Q: What first got you into writing?

Luc: Well, a teacher in fourth grade told me I had talent, and I was off to the races. But really I think that is what took me from drawing (my first love) into writing, was the experience of learning English as a second language.

Having to learn the language slightly later in life gave me a particular relationship to individual words not available to a native speaker, whose words have seemingly always been there. I could (and in many cases still can) remember my first encounter with a word, and retain an appreciation for its appearance (I became a very good speller as a result, which I’m not in French), its weight, its idiosyncrasies, its shadings of difference from its synonyms. I learned to feel the language--tonally, musically, visually, socially-and it became like a huge keyboard I could manipulate at will.

then. A city was a carnival, filled with freaks (like me), with attractions for all personalities and (at the time) all budgets.

It could be grand and imperious, or anarchic and loud, or romantic and intimate--or all at once.

Q: Can you pick a favorite city? If so, which one and why?

Luc: Well, NYC and Paris both--in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Now they are cold and businesslike and weirdly similar, even if Paris does have the much nicer stage set. These days my favorite cities that I’ve spent time in are Tangier and Lisbon.

Tangier retains the feeling of permanent carnival, and the streets in the medina are so narrow they’re like corridors in a house, with that kind of intimacy. Lisbon is one of the last old-style European cities, with bustling workingclass neighborhoods, eccentric little shops, and a general feeling of improvisation.

A CITY WAS A CARNIVAL, FILLED WITH FREAKS LIKE ME

Q: What fascinates you about cities in particular?

Luc: I was born in a (small) city, and never forgot the carnival excitement of it: the signs, the newsstands, the crowds, the events. And then I saw NYC for the first time on Halloween, 1959 (as we were moving *back* to Belgium the first time) and saw hundreds of kids in costume running around unsupervised on the streets, also 42nd Street and its wild and lurid movie-theater facades as they were

Q: Your most recent work: The Other Paris, released last year is about Paris of course, but the Paris most of us have never come to know. There is always two sides of the story, and you chose to uncover the other half of the city’s love and rich history. What was the process of writing this piece?

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Luc: I was given a mandate by my publisher to write a book about Paris, and for a while I panicked, since there are tens of thousands of books about Paris in English alone. Then I realized that the one unwritten book was also the one I was both most interested and best equipped to write: the Paris of the working and marginal classes. My method was unsystematic (the only kind I know): read piles of stuff, let the reading lead me to more, look at pictures, watch movies, listen to music, and take notes, and put the notes on cards, and herd the cards into categories, and see what shakes out and let that form the structure.

the sadness of the people who played the shadows, and never were really acknowledged. How did you find all the material to write about this chapter?

Luc: Well, from a lot of different sources... Hard to sum up, really. But I especially loved writing about the chanteuses réalistes, whom I fell in love with in the ‘90s and have been wanting to write about ever since.

Q: In the dark nights turned into morning rays on Paris’s streets, bakery’s, bloody murder, prostitution and high society, hunger, power, and struggle. How I understood it, a city, like Paris; will go through all these changes, but still triumph. Changes are what makes anything happen, what moves cities to grow, human beings to change, for better or worst. What do you think of Paris now in its current state?

PARIS RIGHT NOW IS A MONEY CITY LIKE EVERY OTHER

Q: You cover Paris’s past in its darkest hour: in poverty, hopelessness, death, and yet still find the hope between Rue Simonle-Franc, Le Crapouillot, and everywhere else in between, what was your favorite discovery during writing, and journeying into the adventure of discovering more about Paris during these specific times?

Luc: I loved finding out that the first artistic bohemians started acting out and living in squalor as early as the aftermath of the fall of Napoleon, and that they pretty much invented the concept of popular fads. And I loved finding the works of a lot of writers I’d never heard of or didn’t know much about: Félix Fénéon, Francis Carco, the muckraking Bonneff brothers, the Communard feminist André Léo, and maybe above all the great flâneur Privat d’Anglemont.

Luc: Paris right now is a money city like every other. There are bits of life here and there, mostly up in Belleville and Ménilmontant because the presence of housing projects has kept thoroughgoing gentrification at bay to some degree. Perhaps the proposed project of Le Grand Paris-which would incorporate the immediate ring of banlieue into the city proper--will open the door a bit, rather than simply turn the inner banlieue into Brooklyn, if you know what I mean. We can hope.

Q: The chapter that interested me the most was Chapter 9 Show People the details in which you find out are incredible, it feels as if I am there experiencing

Q: If you could choose Paris in the 1830’s verses the 2000’s which would you rather witness?

Luc: I’d pick the 1830s because I’ve never been there. But

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1830 could mean a truly bitter experience of bad housing and bad food, too. It’s six of one and half a dozen of the other.

Q: Is there anything from Paris’s history that is no longer there that you would have liked to see for yourself?

Luc: I wish I’d experienced Paris without cars. I wish I’d been there for the first six weeks of the Commune. I wish I’d lived on a street there at the time when everybody knew everybody. I wish I’d experienced Paris in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when it was chaotic and straitened and hopeful and at times seemed blurred. I wished I’d truly experienced Les Halles (which I glimpsed in 1963, but I was 8 and we didn’t go inside).

CRITIQUE REVIEW Luc Sante’s writing is brilliant. His creative fire is indulged by a spark of lucid thoughts poured onto pages of what becomes intelligent literary magic. His knowledge of cities are irrevocably factual historic and timely secrets of places many of us have not been able to witness, but Luc dives into the darkness of pages and pages of other souls whom have come before us, and again rebirth them to the present within a consisted and respectful way to the history he seeks in his writings. He shares the richness of the past with the present as he did in The Other Paris. Luc gives a lot of homage to anything he writes about. He is a living legend of a truthful writer. One who critiques the ins and outs of the world, its history, and lays out a cinematic story for our minds to venture off to. The Other Paris was a pleasure to read. A book like: The Other Paris makes you want to go back to the city of love and experience the memories in between the souls, and the occurrences that once breathed.

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NICOLE REBER + POET + EDITOR www.nicolemariereber.com INSTAGRAM @nicolereber Nicole and I met at a release party for Packet Biweekly, and once I picked one of the issues up I immediately wanted to interview her. Nicole’s writing is extremely honest and memorable within each line. There is something about this California raised woman who loves pop culture that sticks out to me. She is a unique voice. She has been featured in publications such as: The Village Voice, W Magazine, Dazed, and Complex to name some. She comes with her words with elegance, and at times a sense of humor. As she stated perfectly in one of her works: “If I were to commit a crime I would steal from the K-Mart on Astor Place.” Um, I’ll definitely join!

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Q: Where are you from and when did you get to New York?

Nicole: I am from California. I grew up in a town called Camarillo. It’s kind of like a small rural town, and it’s about an hour north of LA. I moved to NYC when I was seventeen, and I stayed in New York pretty much since.

Q: What did you study at Pratt?

Nicole: I studied creative writing, and contemporary poetry.

Elizabeth: So, you always knew you wanted to write?

Nicole: My first job was working at a local newspaper. So, I was more on the journalism track back then. I did journal competitions in High School. All I knew was that I wanted to move to New York, and I knew writing was something that I was good at. Whatever it took to get to NY I did it. When I got here I took a lot of creative writing classes, and studied a lot of dark room photography. I love being in the dark room! I think that was really important for me to spend that time alone too.

Q: Do you remember when you saw your writing as more of your central path?

Nicole: I was really into music and celebrities, so I read hundreds of articles about the people I was into, like Foo Fighters, and Weezer for example. I think I started to see what I liked in writing from obsessing over certain people.

So, I developed a journalistic approach that way. Then when I got to Pratt I started writing poetry. Poetry was like music to me, and I like editing, and I like things that aren’t implied necessarily. The older I got I had too many interests and not enough focus to really hone in on being a writer. Like when I was in college I was interning at fashion magazines, and wanting to be a stylist. So, I thought I could be like a journalist, stylist and writer. But then I thought I have my own great ideas, and I don’t want to spend my life shining someone else’s shoes, figuratively and literally.

So I got creative, and I figured out a way to use the talents I have in a way that could sustain me, and give me more independence. So, that is when I started to see writing as more of a way to own what I was doing.

I also never wanted to make work that was just for intellectuals. I never want to make work that someone

could pin point. I think that’s the best kind of art is the art that you can’t contain, and have it not be predictable, or gendered. Like there is a feminine approach to what I do, because I am a woman, but I like my work to just speak for its self. I love expressing myself as a woman, but I also don’t want that to be the focus of my work.

Elizabeth: Well I think that is really important to state.

The artists that I am always more drawn to are the ones that are the most real, and it shows through their work. It’s important as artists to stay true to ourselves, and not listen to what everyone else is saying. The motto: If people don’t like it fine, if people like it fine. And like your poems, they are real and I can sense that.

Nicole: Yes, I agree, and what I do for Packet is those poems you read are from bigger poems, so I actually edit from my own work, verses, or lines that I think stand out to me that can be used for curating a show, etc.

Q: What is your process when you write? If you have one...

Nicole: It depends. I can get triggered to write, and then I will feel great about writing. If I am feeling down, I like to watch skateboarding videos.

Elizabeth: Me too!!!

Nicole: Really?

Elizabeth: I am obsessed with the skateboard culture, and surfing for some reason…

Nicole: Cool! I never watched surf videos. My dad used to shape Surf boards actually. He’s like an old surfer. I was around it as a kid, but as for style, for me, I think style can be more easily reflected in a skateboard video, more than a surf video. I think skate boarding is important because the language that skateboarders use when they talk, and what they do is very similar to music or to poetry. It’s about editing, style, being synced, showing attitude, and breaking rules. I like the breaking rules element to skateboarding.

The sport is aimed towards young boys, but there is some power in it that attracts me to it. I wish there was someone when I was thirteen telling me you can be anyone you want to be, you can start your own company. Go! I always felt that way, but really how skaters just go and make their own 13

thing happen inspires me to do just that. Go. Elizabeth: There is something very therapeutic for me about skateboarding. I have never met another woman who is as interested in its aspects as you are. I live across the street from a skate park, so I hear them on my block all the time. And growing up downtown in the city, skaters were everywhere: Washington Square Park, Tompkins, so the noise is calming for me. When I go to sleep and I hear them skate amongst the pavement, its almost so soothing that it puts me to sleep. Also watching them in action in their movements, there is something beautiful about that too.

Nicole: That’s beautiful. I am a fan of the culture, the clothing, and videos. I don’t know I just love it. I also love traveling by myself. I went about a month and half by myself through Germany, and Eastern Europe. Just walking around and being alone and having to process my thoughts, and entertaining myself, and you can’t really be on your headphones in a foreign country. You need to be really alert, especially as a backpacker. Architecture really inspires me too. As well as friends, and charts…

Elizabeth: What kind of charts?

Nicole: I’ll make personal challenge charts to get creative.

Going to readings really helps too, and I write a lot at

readings, not that I am not paying attention, but that I get so inspired that I get into the mood to write.

Q: Tell me about Packet Biweekly!

Nicole: We are on our 74th Issue of Packet. My friend Chris had the idea, so one of my main collaborators Chris Nosenzo. He lived above me in the dorms my Freshman year at Pratt. He was an illustration major at first and then a graphic design major. After college we started hanging out and talking more, and this guy who also joined later, Anthony we had a blog called: Currently Now. It was just a Tumblr with different things we all were fascinated by. Then some other people who graduated from Pratt started this Salon with the art that we were making, and I was doing a lot of collage at the time, and photo. So, we would drag are stuff to every persons house, and after a year of doing that there were a lot of conversations of work we were all seeing from our friends, but there wasn’t anyway for the public to see it, so Chris thought of the idea of Packet, and emailed me and Anthony, and we started Packet in the beginning of November of 2013. It’s every two weeks, no one else in America, that I know, puts out like we do.

No one, because I do all the fairs, the book fairs, LA, NY, Basel, etc, and no one has done anything like Packet yet.

It’s something that is very important to me. Encouraging people who need to be heard is very important.

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CRITIQUE REVIEW Nicole Reber’s poetry is a unique wonder of endless carefully chosen words and concepts that are personal and relatable to the reader who comes into contact with her writings. Her words are very relatable to 21st century moods and feelings. Her work is raw and makes you think. I find that Nicole’s poetry and writings are incredibly vivid, and it keeps your mind wanting more. In my opinion Nicole’s work is very timely and important. The generation that is now, and the generations to come will find Nicole’s work to be memorable in literature I believe. There is so much to take away from her work as a whole. Nicole’s work ethic is inspiring, and her pieces continue to manifest its way into the literary world with great acclaim which comes to no surprise.

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MATT SUKKAR FILM MAKER + PHOTOGRAPHER www.msukkar.com INSTAGRAM @mattsukkar

I knew of Matt in high school even though we went to two different high schools, in Manhattan the way of socializing was evidently you would meet a lot of your friends and acquaintances at house parties, so Matt was around and so was I. When I first started to see Matt’s art was when he started taking pictures and posting them onto Instagram. I then slowly got introduced to Vine. Which is an app that you can make a six or so second clip of whatever it is you want.

Every time Matt would post something it was interesting to me. I enjoy his eye and how he chooses to create an image.

His idea of New York City as a whole is pretty similar to the way I see my relationship to New York at times, so it was interesting to talk to a native New Yorker like myself about how he developed his eye growing up.

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Q: Already have known prior that you are a born and bred New Yorker, how do you feel the city has shaped you into the person you are today?

Q: What inspires your work?

Matt: The neighborhood I grew up in I think, had a really big impact on me. I grew up in the East Village, and my parents got there in the 70’s when it was not the best area.

It’s changed a lot of course. There were a lot more artists then, and a lot of the other people were moving there because it was so cheap. So when I came, I was exposed to a lot of it, and had a mindset that embraced creativity from a very young age. In the way that it was specific to New York and how it has shaped me, I would say that I was exposed to all different types of people. I grew up on Avenue A. My routine when I was a kid was Tompkins Square Park. That particular strip was very lively. I have memories from the stroller of seeing all sorts of people walking down that avenue.

My parents have a funny story of me; that I waved to every person that I saw.

Like crack heads freaking out on the street, but I would still smile and wave to them.

Laughs

Q: You’re a photographer, filmmaker, a bit of a performance artist, but you’re not to be categorized.

Your social media presence in itself gives your viewers a peak into your life, but the question is how do you view your artistic presence?

Matt: All living things.

Matt: I think that at the moment I just try and create whatever comes to me, and what I feel like doing. I don’t like to; how you said, pigeon hole myself in anyway. So I would say my artistic presence is dependent on what sparks my senses, and what I see in the moment that makes me want to create. It’s always an adventure and a journey all the time. I also never know what my next project is going to be. A lot of my subjects are my friends.

I establish a connection pretty early on. A lot of the friendships occur within the basis of the work I am doing at that time, and a lot of times when I am creating work it’s an excuse to make great friendships.

THE CITY BECAME MY PLAYGROUND

Once I got older I think the coolest thing about growing up in New York City was the age in which you as a person become independent. I started going home alone from school in 6th grade. So I was like eleven, and I went to school twenty blocks from my house. And as I got older the city became my playground. You have no supervision; you get into all sorts of trouble. You also grow up smarter and wiser, because you’re exposed to so much, but you also have the world at your finger-tips. You’re not dependent on a driver’s license to get you somewhere. Which allows for a lot more adventure in a different capacity.

Q: Where did you go to High School?

Matt: I went to LaGuardia. It was a pretty amazing school.

It was awesome because I was with a bunch of kids who all knew at a young age that they wanted to pursue the arts in one way or another. So I think a lot of the people who go and come out of that school are particularly cool and interesting. All talent aside though I think city kids grow up with a little more style.

Q: Your photographs are mostly portraits. What got you interested in photography?

Matt: When I was in high school, in my junior and senior years this photographer from NYU followed my friends and I around, and took our photos, and just shot us. For example if we were all hanging out he would just document us doing whatever we were doing at that time. He took all of these really cool pictures of my teenage years, and when we got them back it would always be so exciting, and I think having his presence around, and at the age he was he was looked at as a peer. So, it made it seem cooler. My dad was also a photographer for a really long time too. I never really thought to be a photographer though. I always wanted to make films, but once I chose to take my own, it was that same feeling of excitement. I only shoot film too. Dropping them off and really having no idea what to expect from them is a great suspense, and thinking some of them are going to be amazing and then they’re shit, and then there are ones that you thought would be weird, but then surprise 19

you is always the best.

Q: You are in Detroit a lot, and I remember you telling me briefly that you were working on a documentary about Detroit, its people, and musical spirits, and also highlighting the poverty there. How has this whole experience been for you?

Matt: I have been shooting Detroit for three years, and it has been a wonderful experience. I have made a lot of great friends. I already knew a lot of people there. I also have a lot of family there. It’s where my father grew up. It has only had a positive impact on my life. Detroit was such a different world than my world that I was used to growing up here, in NY, that from a very early age in my life as a photographer or a filmmaker. I was attracted to it based on that at first. I then got deeper into it and found out why. I am there a lot in the summer, and then I am there every couple

of months. I am also not in a rush to finish it. I’ll know when it’s done.

Q: What is your stance on social media?

Matt: I don’t want to be a hypocrite and say that I think social media is the worst thing that has ever happened to human existence, but sometimes I think that it is. I would say that social media is cool because it gives a voice and an audience to anyone that wants one. Some people that have a lot to say can use it as a platform to express some of those thoughts and ideas without needing to convince people in an office that you’re worthy of having a voice.

I’m not talking about myself right now, but when you see people who are really talented that get discovered off the Internet that in it ‘self is important.

CRITIQUE REVIEW Matt Sukkar’s photographs are mentally, and visually stimulating of a moment-by-moment account of his life. What is captivating is his presence in the work. Although he is not physically in them for the most part, it can also just be seen as another way of looking at someone who understands people’s motives. He has a way of documenting Matt’s life, (the photographer) and the lives of others without misguiding the viewer’s eyes to something that isn’t there. Matt creates a surreal timeless photograph every time. Matt’s photos sometimes remind me of Nan Goldin’s photographs with his captivating portraits and eye catching landscapes, and how he chooses to document his moments.

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HANNAH GARRETT + PHOTOGRAPHER www.hannahgarrett.com INSTAGRAM @hannahlynngarr I met Hannah while studying at SVA. In Freshman year we were in a writing course together. We connected immediately after that night of hanging out, and have been great friends ever since. She is always on an adventure to look for something deeper than herself. She captures magic within her photographs. Her connection to nature comes to no surprise as she grew up amongst it. Her commitment to a moment is deep, and it shows in her works.

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Q: Do you remember the first time you picked up a camera?

Hannah: My first introduction to photography was with disposable cameras in high school, and although disposable cameras are almost non-existent, and not logical in present day, they will always be one of my favorite forms of photography. Developing film and never really knowing what you were going to get was it for me, the greatest little thrill.

Learning to print from negatives in the darkroom of my high school was the turning point in which I fell in love with the medium. With total disregard for scientific logic, watching images slowly appear while focused in a tray of chemicals felt like magic to me. Dodging, burning, developing, the whole process became therapeutic. I use to crave the smell of those chemicals.

Q: What has been your main inspiration for your work?

Hannah: All of my senses- sight, sound, taste, touch, etc. directly affect my psyche. Perhaps each individual is more strongly influenced by one particular sense over the others.

Hence a chef is more influenced by taste and a musician by sound. Personally, I have always been greatly influenced by color, texture, and light. They are the founding factors and inspiration for my work. It is actually very simple-not really any fancy answer here. I am just attracted to beauty. Beauty found in the natural world. I am interested, and inspired by our relationship (or lack of) as human beings with the natural world.

Q: You’re originally from Saranac Lake, do you think since you were born into such a beautiful landscape that you are attracted to taking landscape photos?

Hannah: Growing up in the Adirondacks definitely instilled in me a great appreciation for nature and attraction to landscapes. I spent a lot of time outdoors as a child, and have always felt a strong connection to nature.

Q: I know you’re a big advocate for Global Warming. Does that also inspire you?

Hannah: Our world is being completely annihilated by human waste. I have no doubt that we are the demise of this world.

With the unstoppable increase in the human population, we are inevitably destroying some of the most beautiful and vital ecosystems on this planet. The way in which many people 25

exist in modern society is completely disconnected with the natural world. As a result, our planet suffers. Through photography I aim to preserve pristine landscapes unscathed by human influence. I can only hope that my images help to revive one’s connection to nature, a connection that is embedded in the very core of our being.

Q: What is it like living in Hawaii? And what has been the main concern for you as a creative there and watching the Landscape change due to pollution?

Hannah: I am constantly blown away by the magnitude of beauty the Hawaiian landscape encompasses. Having never been here before moving, I envisioned the cliché of paradise: white sandy beaches, palm trees, and turquoise waters. To my surprise it has been the dark side of the Hawaiian landscape that holds the most beauty. Miles and miles of hot, sharp, and jagged, lava rock. Molten Lava, Volcanic steam vents, Fogged out forests, scattered with twisted, distorted, alien-like plants. Whimsical Waimea. Deep dark bottomless Ocean, valley after valley of sheer cliffs and powerful waterfalls…

All here to remind you how insignificant you really are, just a minute particle of a much mightier entity. I have been to quite a few places throughout the world now, but I have yet to find a place with as strong energy as Hawaii. The soul of the land is pulsing and invigorating. Although there is little pollution in comparison to other parts of the world, the Oceans seem to be feeling its effects. There was a great increase in coral bleaching this past year due to warming Ocean water, which is detrimental to such a fragile and imperative ecosystem. The migration pattern of the whales seemed off and out of whack this past winter, again due to changing Ocean temperatures.

Q: You are an informed traveler, where was the last destination you traveled to, and where are the next places you want to travel to?

Hannah: The last trip I took was two months in Southeast Asia to Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines. All were beautiful countries with wonderful people. The Philippines was my favorite. I went to the Islands of Palawan, Coron, and many small unnamed ones in-between. For as long as I live I will never forget the diving parts of my trip. It is hard to even put into words the incredible beauty of the underwater world there is. So much life that has not yet been affected by mainstream tourism and pollution. I would really love to go to Iceland or Colombia next. Why? To hike, eat, drink, explore, and photograph of course!

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Q: What is the end product you would like to show the public when you have completed a body of work to your liking? (Example: Book, Show, ETC; will it be of just your landscape photography? What is next for you in terms of projects?

Hannah: I would love to make a book. I have always had a hard time as a photographer sticking to or focusing on a certain idea or project. I have a messy, scattered mind that is often in many different places at once. I think that comes out in my work. My prints are all different subjects, sizes, shapes, and often with little cohesive connection. I know as an artist, especially as a photographer, it is often expected to create cohesive works, purposeful bodies of work. I don’t really like to plan out projects; I would rather just focus on whatever comes my way moment to moment. It would be a challenge for me to stay focused on something, and not lose interest in one particular project, but maybe that is a challenge I need to face.

THE MIGRATION PATTERN OF THE WHALES SEEMED OFF AND OUT OF WHACK THIS PAST WINTER

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CRITIQUE REVIEW Hannah Garrett’s photos speak volumes of our Earths beauty. Channeling specifically the Hawaiian coastline. Having now lived in Hawaii for five years she has been able to not only enjoy its land, but also document its aura in a way not many of us have been able to come to contact with. Her work is also a huge reminder of the importance of nature and what affects it has for us as humans if not protected. Her use of lighting has an angelic vibe to it.

Making the images seem almost like fairy tales, but the Grim Brothers kind, a poetic verse to her natural gazes. Viewing Hannah’s carefully framed world of beauty you are in capsuled by its presence. Hannah dances her camera around the ins and outs of Hawaii and her travels, and she captures a very important time in our world. A photographer meant for the new generation of National Geographic. It’s a relationship that Hannah has made with her environment in which she encompasses that is very vivid in these works. A connection that can happen to anyone who chooses to fall in love with the world at large. Hannah reminds us of this, and to also not forget that we as people are only a small specimen of a much larger production.

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MIZA COPLIN + ILLUSTRATOR www.mizacoplin.com INSTAGRAM @dadshirt I had first seen Miza’s work online on i-D. I fell in love with her work the second I saw the details within the characters she brings to life. She is a funky, creative, smart, and genuinely a cool girl. Miza has been recently shouted out in Nylon Japan, and continues to showcase with Art Baby Girl and creates daily.

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Q: Where are you from?

Q: What got you into drawing?

Miza: Idaho!

Miza: When I was a kid I was super weird, and super Goth from a very young age. I use to draw a lot, and imitate fairy drawings, and I did that until I was thirteen. I was doodling a lot. I was in California for three years before I moved to New York. I was at a community college, and I don’t know, I didn’t draw at all for maybe like three years, and then when I moved to New York it was just being around a lot of illustrators that inspired me to get back into it. Being in New York in general actually. I had never been in a place that was that vibrant.

Where everyone was constantly producing art. So one month I just produced all this new art, and then it kind of took off from there.

Q: Tell me about your journey to attending Pratt?

Miza: About a year and a half ago I started drawing again. I was at a point where I didn’t know what I should do, and then I decided to go back to school. I only applied to Pratt because I wanted to go specifically for their animation program. Then I got in. It was so weird, a month or two later I then started talking to Grace (Art Baby Girl), and my involvement with Art Baby Gallery started unfolding, and that has been really awesome.

Q: What is your participation with Art Baby Gallery?

Miza: Actively showing in a lot of Grace Miceli’s projects. It started as an online gallery where she started only showing digital artists, but she spotlights one young artist every month, and she asked me to be in it in July of 2016, and shortly after that she had her first IRL (in real life) show. It was a great show. So, I am just lucky that she asks me to continue to collaborate with her.

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Q: A particular piece of your work stood out to me. It is where the woman who is highlighted in the drawing, and surrounded by a bunch of plants, and the Mother Mary in the corner with a little Devil statue that seems to come up in a few of your drawings. In many of your drawings the woman is represented as the Devil, why is that?

Miza: I wish I could say that there was a specific reason before it, aside from esthetics. The short answer is no, there

is no reasoning behind it. When I draw, and I am drawing certain characters specifically, and I think a lot of artists do this. They are assuming the wrong idea of the character that they are drawing, and I do like female Devils. I like the idea of a naughty, not in a sexual way, but sort of like a trickster.

An allusive instantly recognizable figure that is one of the bad guys, but it is still likeable. I like to create characters, but most of my work is mostly esthetic.

I don’t see anything wrong with. But I don’t look at my work as pornography. I also don’t see sexuality when I go to draw a nude woman, or anything for that matter. It’s just something that is present because I am a human, and humans are sexual beings, and because I like sex, and I like exploring it. More than sex I like exploring the idea of power. It’s so surprising to me that critiques out there would say it’s over sexual because I don’t see it as that.

I am also not religious. But, I think religion is fascinating, and as a human you’re surrounded by it. My dad was always into Catholic imagery. So it was just always there when I was growing up. I appreciate the power of spirituality, and part of the reason why I find it so fascinating is because I don’t have it. I have never experienced spirit, but I can see it in other people, and I think my images represent, or reflect that.

Q: What inspires you?

Q: Your work has been said to be expressive of over sexual tendencies. In an expressive sense, how do you channel your work?

Miza: I don’t see how something can be viewed as over sexual, especially my work. I guess someone could see my work, and see it as smut or something, but even pornography

Miza: Oh my god. I have so many feelings! I am inspired by other people’s artwork a lot. I am really inspired by people’s imaginations and their ability to make full worlds come to life.

I want to do that always. I am also inspired by: video games, cartoons, history, anime, and nostalgia, because so much of what we miss from our childhoods stick with you, and as you get older I find that we as people don’t really want to let them go.

Elizabeth: Yeah, I find a lot of artists in general cling a lot to their pass for inspiration.

Miza: Yeah. I think so. It’s a giant pool of recourses to draw 33

from! My emotions are also a tool I use to spark my creativity of whatever I am feeling at the moment of when I am creating something. Also, social media has become such a source of inspiration. I love how people take their own lives on there online platforms, and express it however they want to, especially their sexuality. New York is also something that inspires me. It’s like a movie. When you have never been here you have all these ideas of what it is, and then you get here and you feel it. It’s amazing. Even when you walk around it’s inspiring. I just want to keep exploring New York.

Q: What is the most difficult aspect of being an artist today?

Miza: Making money! Laughs But it’s true. It’s a hustle. It’s a very masochistic career path to choose, but it’s also great too.

I just try to not stress out about it.

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IT’S A VERY MASOCHISTIC CAREER

CRITIQUE REVIEW Miza Coplin’s works are undeniably important. Especially how we depict women in our society. Women, usually being looked at as “ornaments” for our imagination sexually. Many people not having spoken to Miza directly about her work would more than likely gravitate towards the sexual aspects of these illustrations. Yet many of us will seize to realize that it is mainly Miza’s imagination and her take on power as a woman, and women as a whole.

The Devil in her work might signify as a trickster, a naughty image of someone who maybe playing a chilling game with you. I view these works and I see strength. In her intrinsic detail, use of color, and bold statements. Miza uses religion and her takes on spirit, which makes it all the more interesting and embellishes these visions and thoughts through her characters. Miza’s work continues to have a strong affect in the illustration and art world, and will continue to do so.

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ISAAC ROSENTHAL + PHOTOGRAPHER www.ikesight.com INSTAGRAM @ikesite Isaac and I have known each other since we were little kids. He always has a camera in his hand, and it’s really been wonderful to see Isaac grow within his world as a photographer. He is an artist to keep an eye on. Isaac has worked for some prestigious companies and now entering the world of film as a director, and as a cinematographer.

I am so excited to see what Isaac does next. A born and raised New Yorker, his style strikes home for me.

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Q: What got you into photography?

Isaac: Growing up I always was a chronicler amongst my group of friends, and I took a lot of pictures. I never thought much at all of why I started until I was much older and started to treat photography seriously, but I was sure when I was taking those early pictures that I was documenting something important to me, that I would look back on later.

I was around thirteen when I started shooting. I had a point and shoot and my first real camera, a Pentax K1000. I really fell in love with the sound of the mirror slapping when I pressed the shutter on that camera; it was addictive.

Unfortunately I barely had money to get film processed so those early years I shot very little. But when I got a contact sheet from the lab, and years later I printed photos from high

school, it was an astonishing thing to see images appear in the chemical bath, as if it came from nothing. I think back on those times and I’m sure I never practiced any technique attempting to be a photographer. But framing the world in my head was a visual exercise I remember doing as a small child, so maybe photography was something natural I would have picked up along the way.

Q: Do you remember the first photograph you took, if so what and where was it?

Isaac: Yea - in my parents kitchen maybe 1994? I think one of the first pictures on that roll was of my neighbor’s kid, who must have been three years old. She put a bowl of something on her head. A lot of my first rolls of films are my friends and I smoking on my fire escape - skateboarding - drinking forties 37

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on rooftops - things like that. I remember shooting a portrait of Allen Ginsberg, a week before he passed away, and I had no idea about what being a photographer meant, and he asked me “How does it feel to be shooting a dying man?” I can’t remember how I replied, but looking back on that experience it was a moment that stuck out for me. In hindsight I might have unconsciously understood the gravity of making a portrait of him at that place and moment in his life. There is an honor in being allowed access into these special moments that photography can offer.

Q: I remember looking at some of your photographs that you had taken, and one which I always remember which is one of my favorites is the photograph where there are a few women in the down pouring rain hailing a cab. It is just so New York, so romantic, so beautiful, the moment feels real and captured at its perfect breath. Can you recall moments for you that you just feel this impulse, and take out your camera?

In your words can you describe that impulse?

a special feeling because you know it can’t be scripted and it’s your unique experience. I’m interested in creating unique images that stand the test of time, so I try to put myself in a loving state, and take pictures based on what and whom I encounter. And hope the world cooperates.

Q: Film, or digital, and why?

Isaac: I’m still yet to fully fall in love with any digital system, nor any analog to digital system. They both have their functions, and the beautiful thing is that no matter what combination of either I choose; I’m completely justified.

Ultimately it depends on the mood I’m in, but I’m obviously partial to film, who isn’t? With that said, I think digital is obviously the best medium for most purposes, because its the tool of the future. So I normally have my digital Leica on me these days. But I’ve been shooting my Fuji 6x9 a bit recently, and it has been really fun shooting street stuff with it. Under normal circumstance I think one should try to choose one format for a project and just go with it.

WHEN IT’S TRULY DONE RIGHT IT’S POETRY

Isaac: Being raised in the city, one had to be very aware of their surroundings.

I walked backwards outside my building once, and a drunken Bum almost stabbed me in the back with a scrap of wood. I realized early to question the surface of things and remain aware outside on the streets. It’s that practice of examination that has influenced my ability to recognize people and moments to photograph. At all times I’m always trying to be aware of people, so the impulse you refer to is my recognition or understanding of others, their lives, dilemma, joy, stress, ETC. Actually this impulse really isn’t about photography at all. It’s how I relate with the world, regardless of whether I have a camera or not. But in terms of photography, The more I practice the more I close the gap between being able to simply recognize it and photographing it well.

About that photo you referred to, you know its just circumstance. I was outside in a heavy rainstorm outside the MET, and these girls were trying to hail a cab. I was just shooting them and the other people trapped underneath the awning. I slowed the shutter down on purpose to give the rain and cars a bit more movement. So when that cab passed it just worked out that way. I was being aware of them and sometimes the universe just falls into rhythm, and your camera is there to put it all together in one moment. It’s

Q: Why photography?

Isaac: When it’s truly done right; it’s poetry, and I never started taking pictures to be famous or rich. I just want to take the best photos I can and have meaningful experiences.

Q: A lot of your work is very honest and raw, what is a day in the life for you when you are just out photographing for yourself?

Isaac: Thank you for the compliment. Honesty it is at the foundation of how I try to operate, in life. Someone recently critiqued some recent pictures and said I was rough around the edges… and I could relate to that. I guess that’s raw. I’m not so interested in perfection. I think imperfections are what are interesting. A day in the life? There’s not one day I can describe as the same. Days have lots of coffee in them. Lots of meandering, and lurking about on corners. But I guess a typical day of me photographing consists of two main things: I usually like to follow my intuitions on light. So I might walk towards areas where I feel like light might be. Sometimes I follow someone I think is interesting or hang by a scene I think might develop, but it really depends. There was a time when I was walking very quickly in the streets, really hunting, and these days I’ve kind of slowed it down. I try not to run up 39

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on pictures, but walk into them. So that means sometimes talking to people, sometimes that’s just me smiling as I’m hovering about while they try to ignore me, and sometimes its just snapping and keeping it moving. Mostly I really try not to upset people. I really don’t want to make pictures that way.

There are times when people get upset, and it works for the picture, but upsetting them is never my intention. Photography is a confrontation of sorts, but it doesn’t have to be a negative exchange.

Q: You are also a cinematographer, how did that love come about and if you are working on anything now please embellish what it is that you’re are up to.

Isaac: Shooting a film takes foresight, and a lot of previsualization, compared to still photography, it’s a completely different set of brain muscles to work out. There’s a ton of “successful” photographers out there who don’t know much about anything technical. But to be a great DP you have to have a lot of technical camera knowledge, and understanding nuances in light and color in the natural world, story telling intuition, and crew leadership skills. I got re-inspired to get into it by shooting a lot of video on fashion sets and commercials that I got to camera operate. In order to be great at being a cinematographer, you really have to know your stuff, and I like how that kind of knowledge really separates the men from mice in that field.

I’m making a documentary film right now, and it’s about my mother’s desperate need to make space in her freezer by getting rid of a soup that’s been frozen for 18+ years. But truly it’s about how people deal with the loss of loved ones, and what you hold onto that belonged to them and why. And it might have a point to make about hoarders in general but I’m not sure yet. I’m also shooting on an ongoing long-term project about my friend, Steven Tannenbaum who is a great film and theater director. But other than that I’m always down to make movies. I just love cinema and the art of constructing images together in film really is fun.

Q: Since you’re from NYC what do you love and what do you hate about New York if anything, and does a lot of your work inspiration stem from the city?

Isaac: I definitely have a New York style. And the life and pace in New York is one of a kind. But I find that the more I leave town the more I enjoy New York. So I try to leave as much as possible. Even it it’s for a few days. The best 41

perspective to have on NY is from the outsider who goes inside, it’s certainly where the romanticism of New York lives.

I think when you get too hammered down by the city and everything that can happen to you here… your life gets crazy, then it really affects your ability to relate to people; I get pretty grouchy for sure. So the more I escape the better mood I find myself in, and the calmer approach I have to shooting my personal work.

Q: As a photographer, what do you go back to that feels like it brings you back the most nostalgia? I feel like a lot of photographers are nostalgic, I know I am, is there something for you that you always go back to that grounds you?

Isaac: Autumn weather makes me nostalgic - a particular cheap perfume (don’t know the name) - and having coffee and a cigarette in Tompkins Sq. Park.

Q: What is some inspiration or advice you can give a young photographer that just got a camera that is excited to create, but doesn’t know where to start?

Isaac: My advice is to not seek out images; just make them.

They are right in front of you. Constantly. Whoever you’re eating dinner with is a good start. Just shoot everything and then start discussing what images are good and what is not.

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The true key is that in order to make pictures that are good; not only do you have to like what you’re creating; other people need to as well. So, having operating your own emotions attached to making images is helpful. There’s been plenty of images I thought were good, but were just crap and I realized that I was just attached to them because I experienced making them. But images need to stand by themselves, and they need to communicate everything without words or a story. So getting criticized is a very good thing. On the flip side - I was shooting for a client - and I made some images that I thought were appropriate for them and their look. I sent them along, but they said they hated them. But in fact I realized that was the highest compliment, because they just wanted something mediocre, so in that sense, someone hating your work can be the highest flattery.

CRITIQUE REVIEW Isaac Rosenthal’s documentation of life through his eyes are clearly enhanced through his lens of truths. There is depth and knowledge between him and his subjects that is so hard to capture these days, or I find not being captured enough. What the day brings to him is an endless deck of possibilities. His works are arousing to the eye and reminding me of many photographs that I see on Magnum’s Instagram. His preparation carefully handled quickly with appreciation and admiration for the souls pulsing in his work. Isaac, sincere and raw documents his encounters with his camera as he chooses to cement upon snapping the photo in which he feels most alive.

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ODETTA HARTMAN + MUSICIAN www.odettahartman.bandcamp.com INSTAGRAM @obhartman Odetta and I met when we were five years old at Third Street Music School. Our parents new each other from the neighborhood before we were born, so we grew up as neighborhood friends. After Third Street Music School I moved on to other things, but the Violin became a part of who Odetta is today. I can’t think of Odetta and then not think of music. It’s been really something to watch someone like Odetta grow from a five year old learning the Suzuki method to now having put out 222 and reaching over a million views on her song “Dream Catchers” she is following her path and it’s exciting to witness a dream come true.

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Q: When did you first start getting into music?

wanted to take very seriously as an artist?

Odetta: Picking up after my big bro Leon, I started playing the violin around age four, at Third Street Music School - where you and I became early friends! It’s crazy to calculate that I’ve been playing music almost as long as I’ve been walking and speaking.

Odetta: Music became compulsive & essential very early on, probably because I was born into a noisy household, filled with the sounds of jukeboxes & Suzuki songs. Choosing music was never a choice; quitting music was never a choice -- from the very start, it was seamlessly woven into everyday life. It will always be a necessary condition of simply being.

Q: Was it an instant love affair with music?

Odetta: Absolutely! Music has always been an absolute truth.

I’ve never considered life without it.

Q: How many instruments do you play, and what is your favorite?

Odetta: I currently play a handful of string instruments (5+) - most recently the banjo, which has become a primary songwriting tool. Next up, I’d love to master the cello - I think it has the richest voice, and it’s so romantic. I love experimenting with every kind of instrument I can get my hands on, even creating new ones out of found objects. There are unlimited designs, and I aim to keep studying different instruments and genres throughout my life.

Q: When did music for you become something that you

Q: What inspires you to create music, and what gets you through rough patches when you are making a song?

Odetta: Happy accidents, curious story lines, ghost melodies, alliterations, emotions, friends & adventures are the biggest sources of inspiration. Though there’s no formula for my songwriting, most generally, lyrics will flow out of a chord progression that inspires a mood, all in one sitting.

Songwriting never feels grueling: once the rhyme scheme, concept and melody are in place, it’s almost effortless to fill in the blanks. Recording, on the other hand, is my great struggle. Committing to one version or rendition of a song is incredibly difficult for me because I find power in improvisation and delight in dynamic expression. I’m extremely lucky that my partner / producer / soul mate Jack Inslee is a genius recording technician, for he has taught me a lot about studio etiquette and tricks of the trade. Through endless 45

experiments, I’ve learned that if I start approaching a wall, I need to make a cup of tea, breathe, then come back and break down the wall.

Q: Tell me more about 222 and how did it come to you, and what has been the best part of it all?

Odetta: Coming home from the beach a few summers ago, my partner Jack & I thought it would be fun to collaborate on our first recording together - a song called ‘Tap Tap’. We tracked in our bathing suits, on the floor of my bedroom, and it was a groundbreaking experience for both of us. Jack is a DJ, and an experimental sound artist - and I come from a background in classical and folk music - so it was an uncanny collaboration from the start. Jack has a brilliant ear and a true knack for production and it was my first time actually working with another person to craft the sound and atmosphere of a recording, and his perspective totally blew my mind! We approached the song as a sound collage, and he taught me how to sample field recordings to invent our own digital instruments. That was the auspicious beginning of 222 - once we established our common vernacular, we were able to tackle the larger project of a concept album that was entirely based on the challenge of me being the only instrumentalist on the record. The best part of it all has been falling deeper in love with music, by falling deeper in love with my partner.

among their catalogue. To start our partnership, we released 222 on cassette to launch the Northern Spy Tape series, and from there, have continued to enjoy working with such a passionate team. Our distribution company is amazing and has fostered an incredible relationship with Spotify, which has graciously featured our songs in their curated playlists - and leading up to SXSW, we enjoyed some serious support from NPR through their Austin 100 playlist. The positive feedback has been incredibly inspiring and we are thrilled that our bedroom recordings continue to reach new ears.

Q: You grew up in New York City, and have some southern love in your blood, what has been your biggest inspiration from your up bringing, and how have you connected that with your music, if that is something that inspires your work at all.

Odetta: Growing up in the Lower East Side, I absorbed so much from the extraordinarily vibrant community and I definitely feel it’s reflected in my music.

From screenings at Films, to the Poetry Project readings at St. Marks Church, from Cumbia in Tompkins Sq. Park, to experimental theater at PS 122 - and everything in between! My parents made sure my siblings and I were exposed to the full spectrum of cutting edge and traditional creative expression. Being from West Virginia, my mom comes from a lineage of classic country - and my dad was an original CBGBs kid, so you can get a sense of the diverse taste in music we all inherited!

YOUR ART WILL BE INVINCIBLE

Q: You were recently on NPR’s podcast, a song of yours from 222 ‘Creektime’ was on. That is kind of a big deal!

What has been your journey with the music industry thus far? Are you signed? If you are signed what has been your experience?

Odetta: It’s been a long journey! For years I put out records independently, but this new project clearly called for extra support. After playing a classic showcase for Brooklyn Music Collective and longtime collaborators: Mama Coco’s Funky Kitchen, our pal Emilio serendipitously introduced us to the boutique label: Northern Spy Records. Right out the gate, Jack & I really dug their Avant-Garde curatorial taste & support of experimental artists - and 222 seemed to fit into their roster, providing a new sonic variable that had yet to be represented MIND BREATH MAGAZINE

Q: Thinking back on life what was one moment specific to you that stands out when you were creating, and you thought “YES! MAGIC!” the last ‘aha!’ moment. What were you doing?

Odetta: Our show at SXSW this past March was pretty epic.

Jack and I worked out a 30-minute set of continuous sound, with electronic remixes serving as interludes between songs.

We’re obsessed with the concept of creating a complete atmosphere, a holistic soundscape, producing an effect that sometimes borders on hypnotism or entrancement. Amidst a massive thunderstorm in Austin, our set managed to convey

this true thesis, and from there, a ton of exciting opportunities have arisen. Needless to say, it was a pretty magical night.

Q: What is next for you musically?

Odetta: A new record is in the works! And music videos! And many, many live show’s - locally & globally!

Q: I heard through the grapevine you will be heading towards Europe soon, is touring globally in the future?

Odetta: Yes! Thanks to an invitation from BBC Radio 1, Jack and I are headed to London this July 2016, to play a bunch of eclectic shows, including a date at Latitude Music Festival! We also have some gigs lined up in Iceland and Paris. It’s going to be a grand adventure.

Q: Lastly, what advice would you give to a young musician? Who want to make music and share it?

Odetta: So long as you are creating something that is sincerely true to YOU, your art will be invincible!

CRITIQUE REVIEW Odetta Hartman’s album: 222, birthed one evening and became a wild dream. Caught in between the dream catchers of her mind and was brought to life as only Odetta could dream it. Listening to one of my favorite songs on the album, named: “Dreamcatchers” I closed my eyes and put my headphones on, and the first thing I saw was a spiral of colors, a woman in the clouds, and cowboy boots dancing, and slamming on enriched soil, a careful sought out, but experimental time machine of nostalgic wonders and new present happy times. A wonderful sought out work that makes you want to get out of your seat build a fire, poor some whisky in your cup, and blast her tunes between the rich detailed fields of the south, and the alley ways of the Lower East Side’s magical turbulence of musical wonder. Her definition of her expressions, reality, and fantasy through her music were executed beautifully.

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CHRISTIAN SMIRNOW + TEXTILE ARTIST www.smirnowstudios.com INSTAGRAM @christiansmirnow I first met Christian luckily through a mutual friend while traveling in Germany, summer of 2015. The first piece of Christian’s work I ever came to discover was that of the Industrial Garment. It was not just the clothes; it was the effortless and esthetic beauty of it all. I knew from then on that I would have to write about his work at some point.

Christian is studying at Parsons New School.

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Q: Where are you from?

Christian: I am originally from a small town close to Nuremberg in Bavaria, South Germany, but I have been living in Berlin since I was nineteen.

Q: What fascinates you about textiles?

Christian: I find it fascinating that textiles aren’t simply finished complete products in themselves. I consider textiles as a technique, and a principle for fusing materials together to flexible surfaces, rather than seeing textiles as only flat, soft fabrics.

Q: Tell me more about: The Industrial Garment, and how it came to be?

Christian: During my third year of studies, I was selected as one of nine students from across all the European countries to participate in the European Textile Trainees (ETT) program at the renowned Textile Museum in Tilburg.

Within five weeks I was able to develop a project on industrial weaving looms with the help of amazing product developers and technicians. I first started experimenting with double-layered woven products to create full-size garments that were embedded in the woven surface. Issey Miyake is well known for his project: ‘A-POC’ (A Piece Of Clothe), which used a similar process back in 2004.

I was wondering why that was, that Issey Miyake (and really very few other designers) had made these experiments, but never brought it to the level of actual research. This is where I started figuring out that there was space for innovation. So in the case of The Industrial Garment, textile technology, and garment making are fused in the same production step, which makes it eventually a speculation about the future of garment production.

I then finally started my Masters program in Textile/Surface Design. I had the space and time to give it shape and manifest the collection. I had great support by the Dutch designer: Camiel Fortgens, who I randomly got to meet at his graduation show at the Design Academy Eindhoven (DAE) in Fall 2014, who is my partner in crime now, and who contributed a lot to the conceptual and aesthetic components of The Industrial Garment.

Q: What are you working on now?

Christian: Right now, since August 2014, I have been lucky enough to receive a scholarship from the German Fulbright Commission, which made me start a second masters program at Parsons School of Design Strategies here in New York City. The Program is called MFA Trans Disciplinary Design, and there I can focus on the methodologies and theories surrounding contemporary design beyond making. I am currently highly interested as to how participatory design can engage the public, as well as corporate entities, and to develop thoughtful and thorough strategies that increase our social, ecological, and economic sustainability in our business activities. I am very much focused on social innovation in the food distribution sector.

A group project of mine, named: Good Fill, was already exhibited at the Open House Gallery in SoHo, New York, last November during the New York Social Innovation week.

And the same project was also awarded the New Challenge innovation prize.

I CONSIDER TEXTILES AS A TECHNIQUE

Q: How long did it take for you to finish it?

Christian: Given that I already had a clue about how the technology worked back in 2013, thanks to the ETT; the idea for: The Industrial Garment as a menswear collection had been forming in my mind for about a year and a half. When

Q: Will you continue to do more with fashion?

Christian: For sure. The Industrial Garment has enough potential to turn into a PHD study, and so many other things.

Q: What inspires you to create an article of clothing, blanket, or a dish cloth?

Christian: Generally my intention is always to create interesting and thought provoking woven textile surfaces that mediate between the user and an industrial process - or at least components of it. By having many of my designs be determined only by the aesthetics of the weaving structures 49

PHOTOS BY MARINA WILHELM

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and by the current limitations of digital weaving technology. I hope to make the observer curious about the principles hidden behind the product. The clothing collection is actually a means to an end, to be honest: It is a very valid and powerful way to make people understand new, revolutionary ideas when applying the outcomes of those ideas on the human body.

The collection of kitchen towels was my first attempt to create a unique textile product, whose aesthetics and function are entirely determined by the weaving structures. One of the designs can actually be bought at the German high-end household retailer: Manufactum, who acquired the license of one design in three different colors. The blanket, or throw, came out as a side-product of the kitchen towel investigation.

I had the aim to create a weave structure as a double-cloth on a Jacquard loom that would change its shape after washing and becoming more three-dimensional. In that sense, I wanted to increase the surface of the textile to make it have more moisture/absorb, and have it be heat-insulated unfortunately, this one design idea did not work, as the kitchen towel quickly turned into a throw.

Q: You are studying now at the New School on a Fulbright scholarship. That is quite impressive. How do you like New York, and has it at all influenced your work further?

Christian: Ever since I came to New York City, and started the Trans Disciplinary Studies, I haven’t really been pushing forward my practical design. I am now focusing on the theories and methodologies behind an expanded understanding of design, and thus I will become capable to analyze, conceptualize, and design new larger scale strategies (and services) in the realm of social innovation.

Of course though, I am visiting museums, galleries, etc. Just yesterday I went to Frieze Art Fair, and I was surprised and happy to see how many art pieces are actually wall hangings, rugs and carpets. I think I am well defined in my opinions, ideas and aesthetics about textile design, which sometimes makes it a hurdle for me to draw real inspiration from other’s works. I’m trying to become better at that, and leave my own little bubble more.

Q: Does Berlin inspire you? Do you feel that the architectural and simplicity, yet modern vibe in your work stems from your landscape growing up in Germany?

significantly shaped my aesthetics so much either. It is more the existing design scene of course. Being in touch with many Berlin designers, photographers, architects, etc., while going through my own creative academic education pretty much influenced my idea of what was good and beautiful in the design world. I am not sure why I am so attached to the industrial weaving machines. They have this intricate, powerful movement in many of their parts and often times the machines look so impressive, with their super fast moving parts moving up and down and from left to right.

Q: How would you explain your work to someone who would want to buy something of yours?

Christian: Smirnow Studios is a textile design studio specializing in innovation for constructed textiles, and weaving. My design process is highly driven by conceptual thinking and the prototypes I create are high-end materializations of rather complex processes. Hopefully, my textiles generate the users, or spectator’s curiosity as to how the textile has been produced and why it looks a certain way.

Textiles are everywhere - they are so much part of the fabric of our everyday lives (in every part of life as well) that we don’t even realize them anymore.

Q: What are your plans creatively for the future?

Christian: I am trying to tie my knowledge in making, and textile construction with the practicalities of design, strategic and social innovation. My research will be focused on how participatory design and weaving are often a kick-starter for social design projects in developing countries. Parallel to that, I will be working more on my existing projects and making them public. I am proud to announce that The Industrial Garment was selected as a New Talents Prize Winner for the 2016 edition of the DMY International Design Festival in Berlin, where it was showcased amongst many other innovative and traditional design projects in June of 2016. I really hope that I will be able to combine my textile and my making background with my development profession, to be able to create design interventions in the future that have a larger scale social impact and are ecologically sustainable.

Christian: Well, I did grow up in a small town - nothing industrial about that town at all. Berlin, I am not sure if it really 51

PHOTO BY LARS BORGES MIND BREATH MAGAZINE

CRITIQUE REVIEW Christian Smirnow’s textile geniuses’ is one to be reckoned with. His woven visions that are expressed on film, or on the physical plane are unique and attractive to the eye and to the touch. The process he goes through mentally and physically in making a dress, or a dish, or a washing cloth for your kitchen is an incredible process. His pieces are made to perfection. Woven to desirable physicality, and have an architectural vibration about them.

Carefully constructed he is here to bring life to new technologies that also have a social impact. Looking at his works, there is a decadent and refined way about all of the pieces of works he puts out. Christian’s work has a future in how we wear, and define ourselves in new times ecologically, and creatively. He conveys his imagination through the woven machines of his own reality, and his future in the textile industry will only progress as he continues to produce.

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ROLAND KUNOS + PHOTOGRAPHER + EDITOR www.rolandkunos.com INSTAGRAM @rolandkunos Roland was a character from the first moment we met each other in Berlin summer of 2015 while I was traveling. Roland has a deep understanding for the human flaw that is beautiful.

His love for people and their stories are what drives his esthetic. His life and thoughts of death, and manifestation are all worlds he meets the second he presses down on the button to snap the photo. Roland currently lives and works as a photographer in Berlin, Germany.

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Q: Where are you originally from and where are you living now?

Roland: I was born in Szolnok, Hungary, and now I live in Berlin, Germany.

Q: Why Berlin?

Roland: It was such a coincidence. Two of my best friends were already living in Berlin, and one of them called me one night when I was in the Netherlands visiting a friend, and said it would be nice if I’d live in Berlin too. To be honest I just freshly graduated from the University, and I knew I wouldn’t stay in Hungary, so I said okay… I’m moving there. I had never been to Berlin before, but in a month and a half, I packed everything in my apartment in Budapest and moved to Berlin.

Q: What got you into photography?

Roland: I think it’s kind of cheesy, but when I was fifteen I was addicted to Myspace.com. I started taking pictures of myself and sharing them. These pictures were really over the top. I used all the possible horrible effects, and the content was mostly about suffering in my own skin. It was honest from a teenager, but too literal. I think the big turning point

arrived when I turned twenty, and I finally started simplifying things, and stopped overloading my pictures with conspiracy theories, and overused symbols. It made everything more settled, timeless and pure. Creating something effortless, and not overdone is the only thing of what excites me to make photographs.

Q: What inspires you about people?

Roland: If they’re able to make fun of their weaknesses, because they’ve already spent time with getting to know them.

Q: Your work is very surreal, what do you like about black and white photography?

Roland: My work is always based on what’s surrounding me, or events of what happened to me, so probably the recreation, and reliving these memories causes the surreal aspects of it.

I am also openly colorblind. I came out with it on the last day of University. So in the beginning it was kind of the safe way to avoid mistakes, but since I’m using the past to reflect to my future, the black and white technique stayed.

Q: Wait, so what colors do you see?

Roland: Well, I see colors, but there are shades that I don’t 55

know if it’s green or grey, or blue or purple. I would love to see actually how other people see my work, because I can’t really imagine how it actually looks like.

Q: Film or digital, and why?

Roland: Both. Depends on the project. For my first solo exhibition I was only showing pictures taken by an analog camera, but these days I’m working mostly on projects of what’s inspired by social media, using a digital camera is a more relevant tool now I believe.

Q: What are you working on right now in your creative endeavors?

Roland: I have dabbled in a lot of different art mediums. I used to be a dancer for fifteen years. I was also painting, making sculptures, videos and taking pictures. It’s not easy at my age to be the best dancer, painter, sculptor, director and photographer. So my new approach to becoming a successful artist was to try to create something that contains all the art mediums I’ve ever worked with. So, my next solo exhibition is going to be a mixed media exhibition.

Q: Has there ever been a time where you were looking at something, and you had wished you had your camera, if so, explain when that was and what was happening.

Roland: Not really. I always know when I need a camera, because I’m always planning my projects. A lot of situations inspire me, but I remember them, and then I recreate them when I want them to show in my work.

Q: I know you also like to edit films, do you ever see yourself also filming, or editing a feature length film in the future?

Roland: Yes. I would love to, there’s already been a script in my head for four years, but the time hasn’t arrived to put it on paper yet.

Q: What inspires you to photograph?

Roland: My life. I’ve always said to everyone, that art should be about the artist: his life, his feelings and events that have happened to him. Otherwise it can’t really be honest or real.

Why would I talk about wars, or about living on the street, or anything else that I’ve never experienced. If I did that, we could call it a report, but not art. I had a really amazing MIND BREATH MAGAZINE

childhood with loving parents and friends and enough money to live a decent life, so I have different problems.

Feeling isolated, the fear of depression, my parent’s divorce, becoming an adult too quickly, waiting for a partner who loves me for who I am, or accepting myself. It can sound small compared to a war, but I am fighting with these problems every day. This is the package that I got, so I can only work with what life has given me so far.

Q: There is also a sense of love meets death in your work at given points, if you agree, can you elaborate on why that is?

Roland: I think it is the way I’m living. My life is really intense.

It’s constantly changing. When I’m happy I’m the happiest, and when I’m sad I want to die. Luckily I learned to keep it in balance, but I really think I need ups and downs to be able to work. I also have periods when I’m playing with my boundaries to find my limit. Then when I collect all the new information I need to start creating images. This is my working process, I guess. I’m always in the creating phase.

I AM ALWAYS IN THE CREATING PHASE

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CRITIQUE REVIEW Roland Kunos’s work stands by its self. Sometimes resembling the works of the late Francesca Woodman. With its dark mutilated and unsettling emotions that are present.

Roland identifies with his feelings and isn’t afraid to lay them out on the table creatively.

Bringing to life an array of light meets dark, where black conveys white and white conveys black. Within his documentation he portrays how one might feel if trapped. Yet balancing hope with creation with an approach to understanding a point of view from his perspectivethere is much to attend to through his eyes. A place were death and love meet only to be displayed into a poetic standstill of what it’s like to be in someone else’s mind. Whether Roland is creating a memory, a sexual desire, or a love for hope and life, he combines his own esthetic, faceless and uninhibited through his lense.

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HEATHER CLARK + PAINTER + VISUAL ARTIST www.healtheralayneclark.com INSTAGRAM @heatheralayneclark Heathers talent is nothing but amazing. I have known her for years, but I never actually got to know her work until utmost recently. One day we got into the whole discussion of the art worlds current status, and I then asked to see her works and what I saw was moving and interesting to me on many different levels of how I live life, and also how we live with our memories. Heather is an artist, but also works for a publishing company and continues to create in New York City.

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Q: Where did you grow up, and how old were you when you left home?

Heather: I grew up in Lumberton, New Jersey. It’s a pretty small town outside of Philadelphia. I officially moved out about a month after I turned eighteen to go to college. I think I emotionally moved out of the suburbs way before that though, when I was thirteen. I went to England with a choir I was in, without my parents, and fell in love with London. I knew I wanted to live in a city after that. I love the chaos and how there is always something to do. Silence kind of scares me.

I never even got my drivers license because I thought: “well what’s the point?”- I thought about Philly, but honestly Philly was too small, and too close to home. It felt a bit like high school. Plus I didn’t really like any of the art schools there.

Q: What is your earliest childhood memory?

Heather: When I was in pre-school I was at an assembly and talking to my two friends. We were told to be quiet so I stopped talking, but my friends continued. Then the teacher came over and made me move, but left them where they were

even though I wasn’t the one talking. I felt very wronged.

Q: What is your process for starting a piece of your work, weather it be a painting, drawing, or a list.

Heather: I either have an idea that I write down on a list on my phone, or I start looking through photos and use that as inspiration. A lot of my work is more about the idea of, or feelings attached to the object, or the image itself.

Q: I know many of these works that we are talking about are not your newer works of art, but they are all very relevant, and many relatable. When you have finished an individual piece do you feel that you have reconnected with your past childhood/ adolescents specifically?

Heather: I don’t know, not really? But also, absolutely… Most of them are memories from adulthood. I kind of feel like I never grew up though. I always say: “oh when I’m an actual adult...” but I’m not sure I’ll ever actually feel like one. I still feel like a child. I keep moving adulthood further and further away as I get older.

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Q: Would you agree that there is an influence of child psychology in your work, almost like art therapy?

Heather: Probably there is, it’s not intentional and I definitely don’t think about psychology, or therapy or whatever. But they feel a bit like it. They are very cathartic. But also I don’t include memories I don’t want to talk about because I don’t want to deal with them, or I am worried what the people they’re about will think or feel, which I did when I saw a therapist. I never did art therapy though.

Q: Do you believe art therapy to be affective, even if you haven’t experienced it, and if so why?

enough time. I’m always worried about missing things. I really needed to get my hair done. I’m very nervous and anxious about what other people think, about my loved ones dying, about a lot of stuff. I try to make the work feel that way, anxious and sad, but also I want it to be funny. I think I’m funny.

Q: Looking back on these specific works, how do you feel about them now as an artist, and as an individual, do they still spark the same feelings as when you made them?

Heather: I think it’s affective. I think it’s a good way to process how you feel about situations. Especially situations you don’t want to talk about with other people, or things they don’t want to listen to. It’s good to get your emotions out of your head.

Heather: Definitely. I give a lot of time between when I make a work and when I show it. I don’t like to put out things I’m unsure of. I guess I’m afraid of what other people will think of them and me. So I’m always 100% when I put something out there that I like it. I need my works to make me feel that I’m successfully getting those emotions across. It’s okay if others don’t feel the same feeling I do when I see them though.

Q: What are you working on now, and what can we expect further from you?

Q: What is the story behind your moms ‘White Boots’ do they hold some kind of meaning, if so what is that?

Heather: I’ve been working on this Harry Potter piece for a while, I’m writing out the books by syllable, making something super accessible, inaccessible, and untranslatable. I’m also interested to see if the words get longer as the book’s characters grow older. I’m doing more works on paper too, kind of always building on the same body of work. Maybe eventually I won’t like it anymore, but it doesn’t feel done yet.

Heather: Not any specific meaning I guess. I really love my mom and always wanted to be like her. We don’t really look alike but we have similar temperaments and senses of humor… my brother too, although we look exactly the same. The boots were hers, I went through a phase where I took all the clothing and jewelry that didn’t fit her anymore or she didn’t wear. Maybe I wanted to have more things that reminded me of her. I didn’t move away because I wanted to be far from my mom and dad, I loved talking to and spending time with them. I just needed something different from what I had. I like where I grew up too, it’s nice to go back and I had a good childhood. I just couldn’t do it.

Q: Could you see your works being shown in a gallery, book, or both?

Heather: Yeah definitely in both mediums. The problem with a lot of gallery stuff is my work is so small it won’t fill one. I mean I’m really not that concerned with how it’s presented though.

As long as it looks good and people aren’t literally touching them like it’s in a pile or something. They’re pretty delicate. I did a super small book about some friends I have in London called Out Fox The Foxes but I didn’t do anything with it. It’s just like this one copy I show them when they visit. I wouldn’t object to actually making something with it, and putting out copies.

Q: ‘My Roots’ is particularly strong because in essence hair is dead already. What does this piece mean to you?

Heather: It’s about anxiety and growing older. I never have MIND BREATH MAGAZINE

Q: What is your relationship with death? You have a piece of work that speaks of your father’s death specifically.

Did this piece of work at all help you through that period when you lost your dad?

Heather: I’m really afraid of death. I’m not sure if I’m worried about mine, although I’d rather not die anytime soon if I can avoid it. I am afraid of the people I love leaving me though.

I’m not sure why, I’ve always been this way. Even before my Dad died I would panic if they weren’t home on time or didn’t answer the phone when they should be available. I used to freak out if the last thing I said to them wasn’t “I love you” everyday. I honesty have no idea why. I’m still a bit like that. I

worry a lot. I think about everyone dying. I know it’s not good for me, but it’s just the way I am. I talk a lot to fill the quiet I think, to distract myself. I get immensely sad when I let my mind wander for too long. I read a lot. I think all of the pieces we are talking about helped me work through his death. In many ways it still is and I still am. I think you never get over that stuff, it just gets easier not to think about.

Before he died I was making these big abstract pieces, but after I saw this great Billy Childish show at ICA in London, and realized I didn’t need to do all these things that my teachers told me to do. Some men seem to think: women making small works on paper is bad, because it’s what women make, and I listened to my teachers. But it’s not bad, and not only women do it. And even if they do, and I’m making “feminine work” so fucking what? Big abstract stuff wasn’t doing anything for me.

I’m not concerned with fitting in with the bad boys art club, or whatever uninvolved people are calling it now. Not that I don’t like looking at big, abstract art. I just don’t want to make it. And I don’t think the two can’t coexist. People I know who make that kind of art don’t look down on what I do. I think it’s people outside of it putting these concepts into boxes, and thinking we can’t appreciate each other for what we have to offer.

I AM REALLY AFRAID OF DEATH

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CRITIQUE REVIEW Heather Clark’s paintings and tributes to her past and present are incredibly captivating.

Observing the moments of her experiences with loses and moments of her childhood are very healing to view. Heather takes something in which has happened to her personally and magnifies its detail in a simple yet dynamic manner. Highlighting truths in which we all have met at some point on different levels. Her honesty in her processes through creating is very present in her works. A moment. Silence. A word. Silence, as if her paintbrushes carefully articulated what it was like to be her at a young age. Whether or not Heather means to incorporate these thoughts and feelings. Heather’s work is intellectual and psychologically interesting. There is more than meets the eye and her work proves it.

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FELICIA PODBERESKY + ILLUSTRATOR INSTAGRAM @feliciapod Felicia’s judgment of style is someone who I look to for inspiration, vision and honesty. She is without hesitation a star in the making. Her eye-catching pieces have received the compliments of: Iris Apfel, Debra Messing, and Lauryn Hill to name a few. Her dreams are big, and slowly but surely she is coming up with a collection of timeless pieces for the eyes of fashion to see.

CRITIQUE REVIEW Felicia Podberesky’s illustration and design encompasses a beautiful homage to fashion and its history, and also of our modern times. For someone who literally makes their own clothes it is only a matter of time before the sketches you see of Felicia’s here printed will come to life, and on to the bodies of the people who will be fortunate enough to wear them.

Her illustrations, use of space and detail, and the colors are so unique. Her pieces reflect carefully constructed visuals that if thought of in a physical aspect in the means of wearable product you can only imagine the confidence spiraling out of you while wearing them. The shapes and constructive ideas that Felicia draws for women include confidence, and a woman who is elegant and inspired by her worth are well executed.

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THESE PIECES SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES

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SARA RADIN + WRITER INSTAGRAM @sararradin Sara Radin is a writer, curator, and youth culture editor for WGSN. Sara and I have been friends for a little over a year now. We met under collaborative circumstances as she helped promote the first issue of Mind Breath Magazine through her side hustle at the time: Culture Island. Ever since the first release party we became good friends. Sara and I always have some very interesting conversations, especially when it comes to dating in New York City. She once texted me one evening telling me about a guy she was dating and how he turned out to be a colossal nightmare. She then, shortly after that, constructed a place for women; who wanted to be heard, and who wanted their hearts to heal.

She birthed: It’s Not Personal which is a project dedicated to the female dating experience. She accepts submissions through her It’s Not Personal’s contact email. If you have ever encountered an interesting experience in the love department and want to express yourself creatively send your golden thoughts to: itsnotpersonalnyc@gmail.com and follow on Instagram: _its_not_personal_ --- the final work will become a book or a zine.

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THE HE(ART) OF NEGATIVE SPACE Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about negative space.

In art, negative space is the space around or between subjects in an image. At a young age, I learned about negative space while making still life drawings in art class. For hours, I sat in front of an arrangement of objects — a mixture of pots, fruits or plants — and captured their shapes, colors and shadows with pencils, charcoals and pastels on paper. “Pay close attention to the negative space,” my art teacher instructed. “It balances out the rest of the composition.” I squinted my eyes, honing in on the spaces between the objects — They were irregularly shaped and capturing them was always the most challenging part. It was then that I learned to look out for the in between spaces around me; how to find and appreciate their beauty. Little did I know that many of my first art lessons, were life lessons in disguise. At some point growing up and into adulthood, I lost sight of this lecture. I forgot to perceive negative space as a positive. Months ago, I was riding a taxi across the Williamsburg Bridge. I looked up just in time to see pieces of New York and the night sky coming through the empty spaces of the bridge. Negative space, I thought. Later I shared on Instagram “In art (and in life) negative space is just as beautiful as positive space.”

Observing that fleeting moment was a nice reminder of an art (and life) lesson I had long forgotten. What if our negative spaces were actually positive? What if our mistakes and struggles weren’t the things that broke us, but instead were the glue that holds us together?

Whenever I feel utterly lost, I try to remind myself of this concept. Little by little, I’m figuring out how I can use my lows to create my highs. I am actively pushing myself to find the beauty in the in between spaces. Next time you feel down ask yourself: How can I use my vulnerability as artistic inspiration? Art school may be long over but the school of life is never ending. It’s up to us to continue challenging ourselves to live artfully.

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ELIZABETH SCHOLNICK + EDITOR IN CHIEF www.cargocollective.com/elizabethscholnick You are a fucking canvas!” He said to me, “I will draw you and mark you and plaster you up!” Your mind. You see. You don’t know it yet. But I love you and I hate you. You’re art to me. The kind of art I crumble up and throw away each time it doesn’t work out. And you see this? And no one does anything! Come here darling… let me paint you with memories of all the colors of our ecstasy. But boy when you painted me white again I felt so good. It was a miracle! A weight lifted off me, but then you kept stroking and mixing your lights and darks and you just fucked it up again.

Your whispers of dusk and nightly draws. What were you searching for? I kept surrendering my canvas because your mind was destructive and I enjoyed the performance. Until my heart broke and I started wiping off your mistakes and lies and paint that tainted me with toxins from your brush strokes. Layers! Layers! Layers! I finally got to the core of it and I ripped the energy out and saw it floating around. I tore out of the material of our relationship and started painting my own body with colors I enjoyed. You know, I like baby blue and lavender and white. For their purity. Baby you knew nothing. You knew not the depths of my canvas. Because if you did you would not have covered me in shades I did not like. And you would have seen me and maybe not have touched me at all, because I was perfect the way I was. I just grew up. But I am still me. A canvas of multitudes. Layers you’ll never reach.

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ANDREA BOEREM + POET INSTAGRAM @andreaboerem Andrea Boerem studied poetry in the undergrad department at Columbia University and is currently in the MFA program at NYU studying fiction. We met at a bar one night listening to mutual friends play and we got to discuss her poetry.

Immediately interested. I said, send it over! Her voice is engaging and spontaneous. Andrea’s work is really a breath of fresh air in the literary world. I’m excited to see what she executes next.

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THE CANNIBAL’S LOVE SONG You, laid beside me; the feel of you was mush, boiled I think, although disappointed is, while I think, not the correct term. Bile, someone once says how shameful, and they spoke of you, indeed a cousin to bile, having followed after, having lust before me in such places as the Seafood Broiler when I was six, just days after I was born, in heaven, with the nurses.

I have tried you so many times; I have swallowed with milk and in my throat you appear in the form of a burrito, or was it a chimichanga?

Which packaging do you prefer? I should have asked, but hid you, beneath piles mashed like potato, under skins, cut you in eighths and tossed you beneath the chair, and for that I am embarrassed. There is longing for acceptance I recognize in myself, against peach or pickle, you, with cheese, and worry more about my bowels, but I cannot see my bowels, no more than can see my own chest, feel engraved the prick of children in my home, Florida days, hours spent turning your soul on a spit over, the exact weight of a raw breast in my palm.

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MICHELLE GOLDEN + ILLUSTRATOR www.michellegoldenart.com INSTAGRAM @michellegolden Michelle is a mixed media artist, self-taught, with additional New York vibes. It was of course a no brainer to include her last minute into MBM.

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CRITIQUE REVIEW Michelle’s collages and drawings capture an array of energy and color on a high intensity volt to the senses. Anyone can look at her work and see its volumes. This specific carefully thought out piece proves it; her work is intensified between the lines of her choices of placement and streams of constant creation. A meditative construction, in which she enhances a sense of interior thought and cultural importance on how someone would view one whole entire place in a moment. The dream like affect stands out in a peaceful effortless way specifically in her collage work. A brief vibrant layered moment in which we are fortunate to witness.

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