Formerly Known As Magazine Issue Three by Formerly Known As Magazine

FORMERLY KNOWN AS

FORMERLY KNOWN AS MAGAZINE ISSUE THREE

2015 Formerly Known As Magazine. All material in this magazine may not be reproduced, transmitted, or distributed in any form without the written permission of Formerly Known As. Formerly Known As Magazine reserves the right to accept or reject any article or material and to edit this material prior to publication. The articles published reflect the opinions of their respective authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the publishers or editorial team. The rights of the artwork remain that of the artist. Formerly Known As Magazine retains the right to reproduce any submission received either in print or online, to reproduce submitted work as it appears in the magazine, and the right to reproduce the artwork in any container specific to that agreed upon by the artist. The entire content is property of Formerly Known As Magazine and cannot be reproduced in whole or in part without written authorization of the publishers.

MADE BY Emma Gaudio Natalie Della Valle Julian Trompeter Daisy de Montjoye Milan Tessler Chahinez Bensari Constance Cordier Hope Christerson Austin Graff Arshile Egoyan Solomon Brown Sylvana Tishelman

FEATURING Bernardo Berruga Tom Buchanan Natalia Ramirez Lauryn Welch Massimiliano Audretsch Lindsay Hawk Dylan Kelly Seamus Gallagher Paul Koneazny Maxwell Deter Solomon Brown Maximilian Hagard Brown Collin Gribbons Sophie Day Mazen Khaddaj Adrianna Crisol Pineda Fernanda De Icaza Emmanuel Desir Lucy Henshall

(5) (9) (11) (13) (17) (19) (23) (25) (27) (31) (35) (39) (43) (47) (51) (55) (59) (63) (65)

Front Cover: Mazen Khaddaj Table of Contents: Sophie Day Info page: Massimiliano Audretsch Back Cover: Solomon Brown

BERNARDO BERRUGA ♥ 21 ♥ cancún

How would you describe your creative process? usually become very interested or inspired by a particular topic for a period of time and find ways of incorporating it into my work somehow. I have been drawing and painting since I was three years old, and have a very visual mind so usually I just imagine things I think would look a certain way and feel the urge to materialize them so others can see it too. One of the most exciting parts of the creative process is the transition from theory to action, because I have to actually create what I envisioned in real life and most of the time the final outcome is not exactly what I initially intended.

Who/What has inspired your work? Are there any specific artists that have influenced your work? ’m inspired by a lot of artists both old and new, and even ancient. I really liked Impressionism as a child and always loved cartoons and mythology from different cultures. Honestly though, I’ve been interested in art all my life so I give some credit to everything I’ve been exposed to in particular. Lately I’ve been enjoying the work of artists like Kaws, Nychos, Alex Yanes and Ken Sugimori.

What is special to you about the medium(s) that you work in? love working with color paints, especially acrylic paint because it dries much quicker than oil and can be applied to many different surfaces. I also like to use different mediums such as coarse pumice, metallic pigments and gels to change the consistency of the paint for a visual effect.

What are the major themes in your work? How do you come up with them - do you brainstorm, experiment, or go straight into it? lot of my work has to do with dignifying nature and accepting reality for what it is. Although I’m not at all religious, I like the use of primitive images or symbols to represent abstract ideas, such as feelings and dreams. Some of my most recurring subjects and themes are animals, biology, women, geometry and ancient mythology from all around the world, particularly from Mesoamerica, Europe and Asia. As far as the process goes, I brainstorm, experiment, and improvise all the time and don’t have a defined method of approaching my work. It’s more about getting the idea out of my head in its appropriate medium and usually specific to each case.

How do you see yourself or your generation as a whole redefining the boundaries of both popular and underground culture through art? rt is always at the forefront of cultural progress as it is a byproduct of innovation, and our generation is diversifying the norm of what art is by making it more accessible to everyone through the Internet. Easier access to sharing information and the increasing use of technology to express ourselves artistically is already redefining art and the way we approach it. Being able to share artistic expression more efficiently is also blurring the line between pop and the underground.

I am a thief, living in the city of my birth. It is a squeezed, over-snowed city near the neck of where one famous lake drains into another, where the water is perpetually brown and unreflecting. In the midst of this meeting several rivers also insinuate themselves and coddle the kill, so that it becomes wide enough to mandate a bridge, a bowstring arch that leads from the downtown to its outer satellites. The city is populated by college students squatting drafty war-time homes along what were once its proudest, chestnut-strewn avenues, and the sullen white families who lay claim to having been displaced to the city’s outer rim, though to my knowledge they’ve always lived there, in anemic bungalows beneath the power-lines, with broods of children always the same age, squalls of freshly shorn heads. Between these two groups are stretches of highway, a empty downtown, several abandoned asylums that arouse seasonal interest, and a large, rambling slum, where urine matures in puddles on the corners, and whose inhabitants are a mystery to me. I am a thief and I feel I can lay claim to that name because I commit the act several times a day. It is my sole preoccupation. I steal the sole meal of my day, each morning upon waking. In fact this was where my theft began, a cork for hunger. Before it I was a wretch, grinding in my bed like a mewling in a pen. I felt hunger like a raw stone in my flesh, I drank tapwater by the handful to sate it. It felt to me like a persistent adolescence. But now I eat to sickness every morning, often so that I cannot stomach food for the remainder of the day. My body is lapsed and loosened, I lose track of its shape regularly. I’m startled by its dimensions when I glimpse them. I do not miss hunger, except perhaps for its reliability. I miss the pressure of time. The other things I steal are sundry. I imagine they go unmissed. I steal medicinal creams for my hands, as I suffer from dermatophagia. It’s painful and I wash my hands with cold water because of it. Once in the pharmacy I was secreting tubes of lucid blue cream into my coat, and an old woman put her hand on my arm and said to me: “Oh, you’re a wolf-biter too.” Additionally, I steal: scarves, birdseed, tree ornaments. Women’s jewelry, new novels. The day’s paper, which I tear to shreds and feed to the river. The smallest, necessary bits of expensive electronics. All things frustrating and useful, the things that go missing. I slide them up into the sleeves of my shirt, or let them sit cupped in the hollow of collarbone. I am careful to move slowly, elsewise I’m liable to jingle. Do I negate? Am I abrubt? I would say that I am not (that I do not) I enjoy stealing things that might otherwise populate the life of someone else. I feel closer to them for owning the things they do not, even if I dispose of them soon after acquiring them. I have their things by the hatful. I do not, however, steal from the people in the city. I do not reach into their clammy pockets or into their red-raw beltlines. This transgresses something for me. To take things they already own, that is only taking things. I find things in their thingness quite sad, don’t you? Like knotted underwear on the floor, improperly loved. They feel rooted, expired. There is a film on everything, I bet, that is owned, and cleanliness is important to me.

NATALIA RAMIREZ ♥ 20 ♥ montreal How would you describe your creative process? hotography has been nothing but a process for the past few years of my life. It has been an evolution of vision in that my idea of what I wanted my photography to mean has slowly transformed and, in turn, has taught me how to see. More than anything, I’ve learned to notice what isn’t immediately obvious; the more photos I take, the more my eyes learn to linger, to meditate, to be patient. I guess my creative process all goes back to that—to taking my time when I’m shooting, and noticing how light hits certain objects or how interesting people can be when they don’t know they’re being photographed. It is about trying to capture things as their essence feels to me, so that the second I press the shutter is as thrilling as going back to look at that moment. I am carried through the experience by sensation, and more than reminding me of something that happened, I think it reminds me of something I felt.

What is special to you about the medium that you work in? think I’ve recently realized that my favorite feeling is nostalgia. Looking back at what I have slowly documented, I long for the moments that have brought me certain moods, or for the person that I was when I took it. Things seem to happen so fast and change so quickly these days, and it’s hard to take a moment to sit and think just for the sake of remembering. Photographs kind of keep my passed existence in check, reminding me to just pause sometimes. They’re also a substitute for my shitty memory. It’s pretty nice.

What are the major themes in your work? lot of my recent work has been centered on humans as they’re not expected to be shot. I’m also particularly fascinated with shadows, lines, and patterns, and how these come together when light shows or hides itself in a certain way. I often think of it as a distortion of reality, because instead of photographing visually “flat” figures, I like to find reflections in windows on the streets, or weirdly bent profiles in corners. Sometimes I’ll be in perfect light to shoot a friend’s silhouette, and kinda giggle when they’re smiling but don’t know their face won’t actually be seen at all. For me, this is about keeping still some remainder of their existence in their surroundings that they might not have noticed, but that happened as if it were fleetingly imprinted into the world, and got left behind. It has all come up from this change in vision, in seeing how things look when you stop expecting them to look like anything at all. And I take it from there, I guess.

Who/What has inspired your work? Are there any specific artists that have influenced your work? ’ve developed what I feel is an intimate connection with Bonnard after reading John Elderfield’s essay on his paintings. I’ve been looking at work by the Nabis painters for a couple years now because Vuillard and Bonnard use patterning and camouflage in ways that run parallel to my work, but I didn’t understand how Bonnard was manipulating vision or how camouflage factored into his content. The way his partner Marthe disappears into the bath paintings seems to be a bittersweet, somewhat tragic metaphor for how Marthe was always contradictorily present and absent in his life. The essence of Marthe was always illusive. I’ve been painting about performative identity through patterning and camouflage, but usually evade that kind of emotional specificity. I think Bonnard not only is a master of optics, but is also a way in to thinking about why I find performed identity necessary.

Why are you making art? can’t help myself. It’s cheesy to say this, but it’s the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to sleep. It wasn’t always this way though. Over the past year I’ve seen major changes in how I think about going to the studio, and how I think about making work. Art has integrated pretty fixedly into a lens in which to view the world. I can’t go a day without taking like thirty reference photos and sketches or looking at art online.

What is special to you about the medium(s) that you work in? fall somewhere between performance art and painting, and I think this combination in itself is special to have. Painting has the oldest art history of any medium so there is a lot of rich content and theory to draw from, but performance lets me think about painting observationally and durationally in cuts, tracks, layers, and key frames, allowing for a fast-paced, collaged, contemporary approach.

Art or Fart? “A horse farts: Four or five suffer On the ferry-boat.” -Senryū Karai

How do you see yourself or your generation as a whole redefining the boundaries of both popular and underground culture through art? want to say that our generation is more egalitarian about art than previous generations. I would like to say that we are more inclusive of alternative histories of art beyond the European white male canon. We are more concerned about respecting personal identity than past generations. Right now we’re seeing increased interest in once sidelined areas of art such as textiles, crafts, and zines. I think along with the Internet come artists with a willingness to make art inclusive rather than exclusive, but I realize I am being optimistic and it’s impossible to tell yet how this will play out.

How has growing up in the Internet age affected your creative output? How do you think the Internet has changed art, both in creation and consumption? think we’re really lucky to be experiencing this point in the history of art with the Internet waxing as an influence. There is a timeless and placeless quality characteristic of our generation because of the Internet. We have access to virtually unlimited imagery from all over the globe and can synthesize these sources however we please. From personal experience, I can pull up images of the textured skin of a stargazer fish, and collage these patterns with the color and composition of a Doron Langberg painting, and nobody misses a beat.

LAURYN WELCH ♥ 24 ♥ purchase 14

MASSIMILIANO AUDRETSCH ♥ 22 ♥ düsseldorf

LINDSAY HAWK ♥ 20 ♥ richmond

DYLAN KELLY ♥ 22 ♥ toronto ‘I don’t want you kids spending all your time on that Unimind this summer,’ Mary said sternly to her two children from over the sink. The pair, sitting motionless on the rug, their eyes glazed over, gave no reaction whatsoever. ‘Kids!’ she hollered, putting down a plate, ‘Did you hear me?’ ‘What was that, Mom?’ asked Sara, the older of the two, her eyes focusing as she hit the ‘disconnect’ button on her digipad. Her brother Timmy fell over, drooling, his full attention engaged in maintaining the telepathic link in his brain that was presently downloading trillions of terabytes of data per millisecond from the network. ‘I said I don’t want you to sit around all day on that Unimind. It’s not good for you, all this directly experiencing other people’s thoughts and emotions all day.’ ‘The Unimind!’ boomed Old Ron from his easy chair, shutting the antique book he had been reading. Ron was old in disposition, as well as in numbers; he had never really outgrown the archaic 22nd-century practices of his youth. ‘Never felt the need to have one of those things installed,’ he continued, ‘Never saw the point. When I was your age we used to just holographically project things onto our retinas. What was wrong with that? Nowadays everything’s all – feely. A little bit too feely, if you ask me.’ ‘Glaaargh!’ foamed Timmy, his eyes rolling back in his head. ‘Really, Grandpa, it’s pretty much the same principle,’ said Sara, tapping her temple with her forefinger. ‘The new-generation chip’s just routed to your ocular cortex to stimulate the nerves directly, that’s all.’ ‘Humph!’ went Old Ron. ‘And I suppose the government’s on this Unimind too, aren’t they, and they keep an eye on everything you think, feel, say and do, eh?’ ‘Well, it’s more like we keep an eye on them, really,’ said Sara, remembering one of the more interesting scandals that had broken recently, involving a priest, a senior-ranking politician, twelve Thai boys and an exciting amount of crystal meth. Of course, politicians had special blocks on their Unimind chips designed to prohibit the Average Joe from reading their

minds, but effectively all that really accomplished was to make people all the more curious and determined to hack the encryptions and find out what was being hidden from them. ‘Umph, umph, umph,’ mumbled Timmy from the floor, twitching a little. ‘What if, God forbid, civil war breaks out? The Man’ll know all about who’s thinking impure thoughts, and they’ll round you up like dogs.’ ‘There’s, like, a billion of us, and only a handful of them,’ Sara pointed out. ‘They’ve got hired guns.’ ‘With grossly underpaid people behind them. And all those people all have friends and family, and they’re on the Unimind too, part of the mass psychology. That’s the whole – ’ Sara paused suddenly, a tingling behind her left ear alerting her to some important development on the network. She reconnected her brain, and after a few seconds between worlds she re-emerged with a huge grin on her face, as Timmy simultaneously also snapped back to consciousness, equally enthused. They turned to each other excitedly. ‘The people down at – ’ ‘I know, I just saw –’ ‘And they all – ’ ‘I know! I can’t believe –’ ‘– will change everything – ’ ‘– forever –’ ‘Nothing will ever be –’ ‘– the same again –’ ‘What is it?’ Old Ron and Mary chorused, feeling left out. The children ignored them, caught up in a fervour. ‘It’s going to be –’ ‘I know –’ ‘Yeah, you know –’ ‘We should –’ ‘Let’s go!’ The children hopped up from the carpet and, barely pausing to say their goodbyes, they charged out the front door at top speed for some unknown destination, whooping and laughing. The two adults, alone now, exchanged a baffled glance. Then, wordlessly, Mary went back to the dishes, and Old Ron went back to his reading.

SÉAMUS GALLAGHER ♥ 19 ♥ montreal Who/What has inspired your work? Are there any specific artists that have influenced your work? here are so many artists I’ve come to know online that make such great work (Adam J. Kurtz, Kendra Yee, Gabriella Bowden). It’s very cool and very weird to be Internet friends with people that actually make work that inspires you.

Why are you making art? ecause I’m terrible at everything else.

What is special to you about the medium(s) that you work in? love the convenience of pen and paper. I’m trying to get into more painting on larger scales but it always feels like there’s more at stake whenever I use anything other than cheap printer paper.

How do your surroundings affect your art? Do you have anything that helps you create (substances, music, etc)? y favourite setting to make art is late at night, with a bottle of wine, and Kate Bush blaring from my laptop.

How do you see yourself or your generation as a whole redefining the boundaries of both popular and underground culture through art? think this generation is redefining who and what matters in the art world. A really great thing about this generation and being in the Internet age is that oppressed groups that are less likely to have their work exhibited in museums or art galleries can create their own art spaces online with more of a focus on inclusivity. There was a Guerrilla Girls piece that pointed out that less than 5% of the artists in the Modern Art Sections were women, but 85% of the nudes were female. I think that the major difference between the older generation and this generation is whose voice we should be placing importance on. Also this generation created memes so...

How has growing up in the Internet age affected your creative output? How do you think the Internet has changed art, both in creation and consumption? ’m a pretty shy person and most likely wouldn’t have any form of success without the internet. There’s definitely a freedom of the anonymity that comes with posting work online; but it’s also kind of a double-edged sword. I have the freedom to post my art on something like tumblr using a pseudonym, but then anyone has the freedom to rip it to shreds anonymously. Overall the internet has had a hugely positive effect on my creative output. It’s an especially helpful environment if you come from a small city where the art scene generally consists of moms painting sunsets and stuff (no hate @ moms that paint sunsets).

What are the major themes in your work? How do you come up with them - do you brainstorm, experiment, or go straight into it? lot of my work has to deal with mental health and queer issues. I like finding a way to be funny when addressing serious issues without trivializing the severity of things.

PAUL KONEAZNY ♥ 32 ♥ philadelphia

Who/What has inspired your work? Are there any specific artists that have influenced your work? ome artists I look up to are Sigmar Polke, Robert Kitaj, Ed Paschke and Edna Andrade.

How do you see yourself or your generation as a whole redefining the boundaries of both popular and underground culture through art? he marginal and the popular are having an increasingly easier time fitting together and exchanging.

How do your surroundings affect your art? Do you have anything that helps you create (substances, music, etc)? like a place with a little character where I can be alone, and I usually put music on.

How much of your work (if any) is informed by your conception of the history of art? If so, are there particular movements or periods that you are able to take a lot from? or a while recently I was thinking of myself as Neo Tubist or Nu Futurist. How has growing up in the internet age affected your creative output? How do you think the internet has changed art, both in creation and consumption? here has been quicker creation and quicker consumption. For me, more source material. What are the major themes in your work? How do you come up with them Ââ&#x20AC;&#x201C; do you brainstorm, experiment, or go straight into it? go straight into it, and then reflect. The major theme is language.

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MAXWELL DETER ♥ 19 ♥ NYC

How would you describe your creative process? he creative process depends on the work trying to be made. If it’s a sculpture, weeks of sketching and planning have to been done before any physical work can begin. On the other hand,while illustrations and drawings come more freely, organically, naturally, they also take more time. You add something, go away, come back, analyze what you did with fresh eyes and add something else.

What do you think of the millennial generation? Has its creative output been significant as a whole or for you as an artist? ell like it or not I am part of the millennial generation, so like I said before everything I have been exposed to has in some way affected me. As a whole I think my generation has potential to do anything, we are in the right place and the right time, which is now.

Who/What has inspired your work? Are there any specific artists that have influenced your work? nspiration can come from anywhere at any time, living and the city and growing up downtown has definitely had a huge impact on my personality and then in turn has affected my work. Every new experience in some way will influence what I make, whether it’s traveling to a different country, having an adventure with a new person, and being exposed to an artist from the past you never knew about. But a few specific artists that have completely influenced me are: Francisco Goya, Ken price, Edgar Degas (his sculptures), Marcel Duchamp, and Catherine Lepp. Those are just a few I can think of now.

How much of your work (if any) is informed by your conception of the history of art? If so, are there particular movements or periods that you are able to take a lot from? recently been fascinated by many of the art movements from the early 1900’s and from then after. For example: Dadaism, Futurism, Russian Constructivism, Bauhaus, Surrealism, and Fluxus. All these art movements were the reactions of the artists of the time they were surrounded by. There were started by young artists in cafés, bars, and social clubs. Sometimes they would be serious and other times just having a good time with friends. I really enjoy this idea that art is a social experience, and when creative people get together in a relaxed and artistically fueled environment amazing things can happen. If I have learned anything from reading about the movements listed above it’s that all you need is fertile environment with people who think in a similar way for something inspiring to grow.

SOLOMON BROWN ♥ 18 ♥ NYC

How would you describe your creative process? find myself working on projects when I should be doing schoolwork; drawing perverse things in my notebook has become an expression of my objection to responsibility. I find that my art inherently emulates my psyche. My sketchbooks and photos become like a journal, depicting things I believe subconsciously anguish or capture me.

Who/What has inspired your work? Are there any specific artists that have influenced your work? rowing up in the Lower East Side, I spent most of my time in the park skating with people of all ages and backgrounds, most of whom were artists. One in particular who always supported my artistic aspirations is my friend EJ. He’s a very humble, independent artist from Ave D, and he definitely influenced my style and perspective. I’ll save the hip-artist name drops for the other party people.

Why are you making art? initially started filming and shooting when I was younger; the things I captured made me realize in retrospect the importance of the present. Every time I look back on my work, I feel a strong sense of nostalgia, which is gratifying.

How do your surroundings affect your art? Do you have anything that helps you create (substances, music, etc.)? find it difficult to concentrate on a piece for too long, probably a product of our generational ADD, although I’ve also been significantly impacted by city life. The loud pack makes the block quiet, that’s when I get my work done.

I What is special to you about the medium(s) that you work in? use whatever mediums are accessible to me. I lucked out when I found my Yashica in the closet, only to find a Hi-8 camera some years later. Very convenient…

How do you see yourself or your generation as a whole redefining the boundaries of both popular and underground culture through art? reative output is growing exponentially, redefining the margins of contemporary culture and art respectively. The millennial age has the advantage of accessible apps and equipment, not to mention the asset of social media for publicity. Hopefully, amateur artists can receive the exposure necessary to end the oligarchy we call “popular culture.”

MAXIMILIAN HÅGÅRD BROWN ♥ 20 ♥ NYC

How has growing up in the Internet age affected your creative output? How do you think the Internet has changed art, both in creation and consumption?

think growing up in the Internet age has provided me with constant inspiration and ideas to build my work off of. I frequently discover new artists or get put on to stuff that my friends share with me. So, the exposure to weird and different shit that comes up through social media or other information outlets gives me infinite platforms to build my own work off of. But again, despite the liberties and access that the Internet has provided us with, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s become something that I think has unnaturally engrained itself into the way we as a society function: our culture in the developed world is shifting to an intense reliance to smartphones and the Internet. So, in many ways I think it also negatively dictates the way people choose to socialize, communicate, and work with one another. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a paradox in many ways because despite its role in making communication the most accessible its ever been, our generation is now far more wrapped up in promoting their personal lives or connecting with other people through social media or communication technologies rather than confronting the burden/awkwardness of meeting new people.

Who/What has inspired your work? Are there any specific artists that have influenced your work? would say my work has definitely been inspired by my upbringing in New York. I was really fortunate to grow up in the East Village/LES of Manhattan, so I was exposed to a lot of unique cultures, music, ethnicities and history that I experienced through street art, food, or just the people around me who I met on a daily basis. So looking back, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m fortunate to have lived in NYC during a time when the community aspect of the East Village was still strong and getting to witness people of diverse backgrounds coincide and inspire one another.

COLLIN GRIBBONS ♥ 21 ♥ NYC

How would you describe your creative process?

y process is very regimented. I start by rough sketching based on reference work I pull from various sources and

then I trace and redesign it until the entire piece is cohesive. The tracing process helps to make a clean, finished product with min-

What are the major themes in your work? How do you come up with them - do you brainstorm, experiment, or go straight into it?

he most apparent theme is my work is my use of black. Black has a certain bold silence to it that conveys a power-

ful message to the viewer, without outwardly saying anything.

imal lines as I’ll clean up and take out some unnecessary parts

An unintentional theme is also my use of religious imagery that

each time.

comes from my references. It’s interesting because many people see the combintion of religious imagery and blackwork and bring

Who/What has inspired your work? Are there any specific

their own interpretations into the mix, which is cool to see.

artists that have influenced your work?

draw most of my inspiration from classical iconography and blackwork tattooing. I’m influenced mainly by Maxime Büchi,

Thomas Hooper, Guy le Tatooer, and Alexander Grim at the moment. Maxime’s design work, Thomas Hooper’s elegance, Guy’s linework, and Alexander Grim’s overall aesthetic make for perfect reference and inspiration.

How do you see yourself or your generation as a whole redefining the boundaries of both popular and underground culture through art?

think our generation is blurring the lines between what is considered popular and what is considered underground, since

our generation is exposed to so many sub-cultural movements through the Internet (compared to previous generations). In turn

What is special to you about the medium(s) that you work in?

ight now I work in acrylic and ink as I build my portfolio, but I’m looking to make my way into a tattoo apprentice-

ship soon. Tattooing is special and something I’d like to move into as a medium because you are creating a work of art for someone that will alter them permanently. It is also unique in that you give the client a permanent customized piece of art for a relatively low price that they cannot resell.

I think artists are working these influences into our generation’s art.

SOPHIE DAY ♥ 18 ♥ NYC

How would you describe your creative process? hen I’m working on a photo series, it develops over time. The project takes a more refined shape and meaning with every shoot. For example, with my female censorship project, the idea that female sexuality is something to embrace and reclaim rather than stray away from through fear or shame became more clear with time. When I’m shooting, I’m not overthinking it, just rolling with it and learning from the outcome.

What is special to you about the medium(s) that you work in? hotography is something I picked up when I was a kid and had always loved and taught myself over the years. I remember fucking up and exposing rolls of film, without a teacher I had to just learn from my mistakes. And since I much prefer working in film over shooting digitally, the trial and error made me resilient and I love the process.

Why are you making art? urrently a lot of the drive is social change, but I’ve always loved working with my hands and making something of beauty and meaning. There’s a human drive to CREATE something, whatever that may be. I use it for myself to think things out, calm my anxiety, or work towards a bigger goal, like affecting the people who see it and making them think.

What do you think of the millennial generation? Has its’ creative output been significant as a whole or for you as an artist? How do you see yourself or your generation as a whole redefining the boundaries of both popular and underground culture through art?

ith all this instant access to everything and the social media culture, everyone and their mother is an artist. I think that discourages some people, but it’s inspiring to see everyone on their shit. It’s hard to tell what is popular and what is underground at this point— there is so much art and everything seems to fall into it’s own category. In particular, with what I do, the accessibility and popularity of social media is very beneficial. You make your own platform for youself. You connect and collaborate easily with other creatives and artists and easily present your work and ideas for anyone who is interested. A big part of my work is starting a discussion about the way we view girls and women, and female bodies. My work is controversial and I get a lot of opinions for sure. But that’s all a part of starting the conversation and redefining the lines of art and the norms of our culture.

How do your surroundings affect your art? Do you have anything that helps you create (substances, music, etc.)? usic for sure. For drawing or writing alone it helps to focus me, and it can be a huge range of music too depending on my mood and work. When I have been shooting for this project, I always sit down with the girl before and have “girl talk”. We talk about the message of the project and their personal journey with self-love, identity, body image, femininity, love, and lots more. The girls I shoot range from strangers to acquaintances to close friends, but after these talks we’re on the same level and you can feel that connection through the camera. I also shoot topless to change the dynamic of power and stay on the same level as the girls I’m shooting.

MAZEN KHADDAJ ♥ 29 ♥ beirut

How would you describe your creative process?

he creative process is a combination of several phases that all lead to a final artwork. Usually it starts with an idea or “The Inspiration” that itself is the main stimulus to create. To me, there are 2 types of inspirations; the first is the instant inspiration that comes to me right away. It falls on my head like a brick and its impact is really overwhelming. The second type of inspiration is a collective one; it is a combination of several ideas merged in one to convey a certain concept.

he second part of the creative process is the execution of the art piece that starts with sketching the idea and making it alive with lines and figures. It is the most exciting part to stand in front of a blank canvas and unleash my emotions and passion.

he third part is the painting or coloring process. Here my passion in paint and colors comes in. I feel in color! Whenever I finish a drawing, I directly see it in color. The colors you see do not always reflect the ideas that the paintings talk about. Sometime the concept is dark and scary and the colors are bright and vivid. This is what in a way distinguishes my work. Regardless of how I attack society and expose extreme feeling, the painting still looks colorful and pleasant.

Who/What has inspired your work? Are there any specific artists that have influenced your work? am still wondering about my style till this moment. My first collective was year 2001 and my paintings had the same style as I have now. Picasso is a true inspiration but so is Paul Klee and Frida Kahlo. Yes my shapes and forms are outlined and flat, yet I do not think that my work can be put under the category of cubism only. I come from a graphic design background and I feel that graphic design has empowered my style in many different ways. I feel that sometimes my work is graphic, and in some cases na誰ve (as in Na誰ve art).

How do your surroundings affect your art? Do you have anything that helps you create (substances, music, etc.)? iving in Beirut has been my inspiration so far. I am surrounded by a great deal of extremes, which is also mirrored on a personal level sometimes. All the conflicts that happen in our society, identity, sexuality, politics and religion affect me on various levels.

What are the major themes in your work? How do you come up with them - do you brainstorm, experiment, or go straight into it? he themes I tackle are divided between personal experiences and general ones. They swing between ideas revolving around identity, love, feelings, war, and explore sexual, religious, and political realms. Each inspiration comes with its own theme. The inspiration or the setting is what sets the theme not vice versa. I can say that the themes choose me rather than me choosing them.

How has growing up in the Internet age affected your creative output? How do you think the Internet has changed art, both in creation and consumption? he Internet keeps you updated on what is happening around you and what is new â&#x20AC;&#x201C; especially in art. This widens our horizons and imagination. The Internet also helps exposing your own art and getting in touch with people that share similar interests. Every work of art needs the right coverage and doing it online makes it faster and more widely accessible.

ADRIANNA CRISOL PINEDA ♥ 20 ♥ montreal

Who/What has inspired your work? Are there any specific artists that have influenced your work? y interest in photography didn’t stem from a particular artist or photograph. I really only started because I was given a bunch of gear. So I guess my work was initially inspired by the times I’ve accidentally taken a photograph that makes you look at something a little differently. I eventually tried to do this intentionally, learning from the photos that I thought were good, trying to figure out what made them good. Then I started to do the same with the work of other photographers. It’s only recently that I’ve actively looked to others for inspiration. Lately, I’ve been really into Ambroise Tézenas and Amos Chapple.

What is special to you about the medium(s) that you work in? think part of the reason I find film photography so satisfying is that it forces me to be much more intentional than I probably would be otherwise. It’s really made me pay attention to what I do because buying film and getting it processed can be quite expensive/ time consuming. I also get super excited when I finish a roll because I usually end up finding something that I’ve totally forgotten about.

How has growing up in the Internet age affected your creative output? How do you think the Internet has changed art, both in creation and consumption? think it’s made me more critical of what I do, in terms of art and everything else. Being able to put your own stuff up on the Internet means that there’s a lot out there. I think my struggle as an artist (lol) comes from trying to differentiate my work from mindless crap with Valencia or Kelvin or whatever filter just thrown on, but also not wanting to be pretentious about it, because what do I know anyway?

What do you think of the millennial generation? Has its creative output been significant as a whole or for you as an artist? he millennial generation is a bit too much for me to deal with to be honest. But maybe that’s part of why this generation’s creative output has been significant for me. That everyone makes some sort of art has forced me to think about what makes someone an artist, or whether I consider myself an artist. I’m still not sure, maybe someday.

Why are you making art? i WILL be #instafamous mom, JUST WATCH ME.

FERNANDA DE ICAZA ♥ 21 ♥ mexico city

How would you describe your creative process? take photos all the time, it has become a very organic process. When I shoot, I close my mind to the outside world which kind of heightens my sensitivity to what I see. I then cannot think about anything else but what is in front of my eyes. I barely talk to anyone at that point; it’s actually better if no one’s around, or like just me and my subject. I observe more than i click on the button [of my camera], which is also a way to not end up with too many photos at the end of the shoot. I’m very fond of natural light which I use as often as I can.

Who/What has inspired your work? Are there any specific artists that have influenced your work? y mom is a dancer, my grandfather was a painter. I think the passion I have for what I do comes from them. I am very admirative and respectful for who they are, and what they do. Graciela Iturbide, Josef Koudelka, Sebastiao Salgado and Gueorgui Pinkhassov are great photographers that profoundly influenced me in constructing my [artistic] ‘eye.’

Why are you making art? don’t know if what I do can be called ‘art.’ Taking photographs is how I manage to express myself in the most accurate way. Taking pictures is for me another way to speak with the people that surround me, and also a way to think and integrate myself with the environment I find myself in.

What is special to you about the medium(s) that you work in? think photography has become a very powerful way to foster change. Having a camera is like an ‘excuse’ for being in every kind of place, at any time of the day. Photographers are privileged in the sense that they can witness things/events that others could not even [dare to] imagine. This power should be used meaningfully, for a good cause.

How has growing up in the internet age affected your creative output? How do you think the internet has changed art, both in creation and consumption? owadays, the image can have a tremendous impact on society. We’re constantly surrounded by pictures, thousands a day. But after a while, we actually remember very few of them. It gets harder and harder to stand out in this digital era where we can all be photographers.

What are the major themes in your work? How do you come up with them - do you brainstorm, experiment, or go straight into it? ntil now, my work has been mostly focusing on portrait. But i’ve recently got into doing the ‘Making Of ’ for different kinds of events from differents fields, from fashion and cinema to dance performances. I’ve been very attentive to which steps a creator goes through before getting to the work he finally exposes to the public. Later on I might dedicate myself to documentary photography, to be able to point out and try to change certain things that need to evolve in society.

EMMANUEL LOONEY DESIR ♥ 17 ♥ NYC

MAJOR

“Bless Haile

THEMES:

Get’N

it Selassie

money,

M.O.B.,

be the

being

wavy

ass

Jah first

live

muthafucka. Rastafari, itâ&#x20AC;?

LUCY HENSHALL ♥ 21 ♥ edinburgh

How do your surroundings affect your art? Do you have anything that helps you create (substances, music, etc.)? n terms of working environment, I love to be relaxed, messy, play music. In Italy working with Agathe [Adriaenessen], we were in the middle of a small Southern Italian town, with total freedom in our space, playing music and would drink cold beer in the afternoon while we painted. Sharing our thoughts and energy with each other as well as our setting and being in our very own space; this was probably the best atmosphere I have ever painted in. I think this might have shown in my work, it was colourful and relaxed. In Edinburgh my studio space is small, but I have an amazing view of the castle and easy access to materials. All the walls are white so it always feels fresh, I don’t know how this affects my work at all, but it is noted.

bviously, my surroundings are determined by my location, and for me, my location determines my subject matter, and so in that way it is very influential. In Italy, Agathe and I sketched and painted a lot of semi naked people from the beach, cactuses, the garden of the house, rocks by the sea. In Edinburgh, I have painted swans from the lake on Arthurs seat, I have worked a lot from my fashion photography which is part of my life in the UK and just people in general, like from parties, the street, a lot of people in my favorite café (Lovecrumbs), and of my friends.

How would you describe your creative process? How much of your work is informed by your conception of the history of art? If so, are there particular movements or periods that you were able to take a lot from? paint big paintings with oil and acrylic onto canvas. [Art history] does affect me. I study History of Art as well as painting at Uni, so often there are unexpected things I discover about a work of art I find so fascinating that I can’t help trying to implement it in my work. As an example, I recently painted three paintings, one predominantly blue, one red and one green, because I fell in love with Frantisek Kupka’s “The Yellow Scale.” Even though it’s irrelevant to everyone else other than myself, the context and attitude of the painting, represented in its use of yellow, is what I was engrossed by, and felt the necessity to bring this influence into my own work, even though it would serve a totally different purpose. A movement that has influenced me, or simply art that I like made within a historical context, is German Neo-expressionism (Baselitz, Lupertz, Fetting, Kiefer). I am still endeavoring to fully comprehend them.

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ARTIST CONTACT INFO Bernardo Berruga

berberruga11@gmail.com

Tom Buchanan

thomasthorbuchanan@gmail.com

Natalia Ramirez

@nataliaramirez21 / natramirez.vsco.co

Lauryn Welch

laurynredwelch@gmail.com / http://www.laurynwelch.com

Massimiliano Audretsch www.contorted.de Lindsay Hawk Dylan Kelly

www.lindsayhawk.com

SĂŠamus Gallagher

@shameusseamus / www.amajor7.tumblr.com

Paul Koneazny

www.paulkoneazny.com

Maxwell Deter

www.maxwelldeter.com

Solomon Brown

solomannyc@gmail.com / www.dunions.tumblr.com

Maximilian H. Brown

maximilian2010@gmail.com

Collin Gribbons

collingribbons@gmail.com

Sophie Day

@sophieday.nyc / www.sophieday.nyc

Mazen Khaddaj

www.mazenkhaddaj.com / info@mazenkhaddaj.com

dylantuzyk@gmail.com

Adrianna Crisol Pineda a.crisol.pineda@gmail.com Fernanda de Icaza

@fericaza / www.flickr.com/photos/fernandariosdeicaza

Emmanuel Desir

emmanuellouisdesir@gmail.com

Lucy Henshall