Hello all!
this issue brings you a lot of tasty treats from some seriously talented artists! In this number you will find gorgeous illustrations, stunning paper art, captivating protographs, witty asemblages and charming sculptures. We can’t keep you reading this text for much longer so we’re just going to wish you a great time enjoying these colorfull and fresh pages filled with various visual delights.
artists featured in issue 23 are: Guardabosques Jamie Oliver Aspinall Efealcuadrado Crystal Kung Monsieur Plant Marie Thorhauge Tuomas Ikonen Livio Rajh Daniel Santalla Vedran Klemens
Guardabosques is a design and illustration studio formed by Carolina Silvero and Juan Elizalde, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They choose Nature as a subject, as they consider it an infinite source of inspiration. Also they like the idea of being able to educate and generate awareness of Nature with their publications, and not just aesthetic representations of the things they see. behance.net/guardabosques instagram.com/guardabosques facebook.com/gbguardabosques
Jamie Oliver Aspinall from schnuppe° designbureau, Basel Switzerland
Hello! I am Jamie from schnuppe° designbureau. I’d like to show you some of my vector illustrations with a mystery and fantasy touch. I’ve got a lot of other stuff in different styles on my website. So thanks for looking.
schnuppe.ch behance.net/schnuppe
Efealcuadrado is a pun with the abbreviation of my two similar surnames. I love to draw and paint as a way to express and communicate. I only know what I am today but not tomorrow. I’m an artist based in Madrid, finalist in Apila’s First Printed Award and selected and published on the Fifth Iberoamerican Catalogue at the FIL, Mexico in 2014.
facebook.com/efealcuadrado.art efealcuadrado.blogspot.com behance.net/Efealcuadrado etsy.com/es/shop/EfealcuadradoShop
Crystal Kung was born in Xi’an, China in1994, raised in Taipei, Taiwan. She is currently studying 3D animation in Taipei, but what she really likes to do is painting and drawing. Most of her works are about people she met on the street or stories she created. Apart from drawing, her greatest interests are traveling, playing with dogs and
Crystal Kung
watching cartoons. She hopes that she can be a freelance illustrator and live in different countries in the future. crystalkung.net/ facebook.com/crystalkungdrawing behance.net/crystalkung
Monsieur Plant Christophe Guinet was born in Paris and grew up between town and country, always keeping in touch with nature. As a teenager, he developed a passion for plants, especially the cultivation of orchids: attracted by their exacting needs and rewarded by the beauty and delicacy of their flowers. Later tastes evolve to urban cultures: skate, art and especially street art, fashion ... Eager to get more involved in creation, he gathered a team of creative talents to set up the «SEIZE» project. Graphic design, art, marketing & communication were now part of his daily life. His craft allowed him to realise what kind of world we are living in : worried by industrialisation,manipulation and how human thought was changing,he becomes more careful when collecting raw natural materials.Contemplative and passionate aesthete of the plant world, he uses his findings related to places and seasons, to create works of art with care and a concentration close to the meditative state. The artistic process is thus an integral part of the final work of art.As ephemeral and fragile as a bouquet of flowers, Christophe’s compositions show us the beauty of nature through everyday and cult objects.His care to minimise the harmful impact on the environment is in contrast to the escalation of consumerism and the race to keep producing objects which are ever newer, more technical ,more ‘hype’. Through his compositions, Christophe also expresses the idea that plants do not think ;they live from day to day, in a haphazard way.It is in this spirit of the moment that he creates ,with meticulous detail and patience,his unique plant compositions. His extensive travels have allowed him to develop his ability to project the nature on to different types of media: via collage, photography, graphic design, illustration or sculpture...
His creations represent what he«loves» as well as what he «hates». There is in his works of art both love forobjects related to urban culture and a dichotomy with the ethical logic in which it exists: in the end, nature will always triumph over man. Because of its strength and its beauty. His reflection revolves around love, life, death, and the ambiguity of the cycle of life in a society where(the subject of)death has become extremely taboo. It is interesting to see a work wither, die, follow the seasons.This reminds us of our own cycle: a flower blooms and dies then the cycle starts again the following year. We too follow certain cycles & states: childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age and death. This is inevitable and every stage of life should be celebrated and glorified. His latest project «Just Grow It! «Shows his real desire to create unlikely and poetic bridges between cult marketing products, emblematic of our time, and extremely detailed plant compositions in the style of Arcimboldo. Thus the artist returns capitalist symbols and trends to nature through art and as one living among the living. One can also read a subtle denunciation of our thoughts polluted by overconsumption and the ultra-liberal media hype in which we are soaked. The return to nature is effected by a work of craftsmanship, but, like us will return to dust. The final compositions are both poetic and disconcerting, since essentially they seem to contain opposing ideas. «Go back to the source; man is nourished spiritually and artistically by nature « seems to be the mantra of Christophe Guinet, which reminds us by its base-line» Think Nature! English. Text: Yasmina Cesco-Resia
«Just Grow It!» This project sounds like an echo of the famous Nike slogan, invites us to grow a creativity that is within us. The message is hijacked, forcing us to «cultivate our garden», in every sense of the word, it comes to farming, but also about (re) discover the beautiful in nature, not just in manufacturing. These sneakers, which are cults and iconic products of generations of urban youth are transformed into vegetable compositions, as if the state of nature had reasserted itself on industrialization. There there will of an artist to denounce the polluting chimeras of media hype and overconsumption, but the race to perfection of body, this dictatorship «be young, beautiful and healthy, or you do existeras Point». Dictatorship and the dictatorship of the living «beautiful» to make us consume more and more, see some collectible items on behalf of the supposed beauty. Hence the idea of color series also appropriating perishable and fragile natural elements like poppies or foams. He offers us his own improbable collection of plant shoes. The shoe is a very strong social code, he is the brand, mark a different identity groups, social classes, musical references. Here plant works voluntarily keeps the logo the better to mark the offset and tell us that nature creates what there is more beautiful. Christophe Guinet, man is part of a whole, from the smallest atom to the infinite universe, it seems to remind us through his works of Lavoisier this sentence: «Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed». It is very worrying that the man did not react more aggressively on its environmental impact. There is the issue there of course, but also the most poetic, that would invite all of us to contemplate, to rediscover the beauty of a single seed of a wild grass, the delicacy of a flower, smell a foam, a shell. All of these elements can be our «Madeleine de Proust» to us, because they refer to memories of childhood holidays, cabins forests, flower necklaces, simple moments and happy times so far for city dwellers. There is an obvious sensuality, giving us the urge to touch, feel and daydream to these works. These small pieces are assembled with such a martial patience and remarkable dexterity in hyper realistic composition, the result is both poetic and disconcerting. Text: Yasmina Cesco-Resia
Monsieur Plant is represented by SEIZE gallery www.seizegalerie.com monsieurplant.com
Marie Thorhauge is a danish designer, generation 1985, with a degree in art of character animation 2009. She is currently working freelance from Denmark with both vis. dev. for animation as well as illustrations. Marie started out working for the Irish Oscar nominated studio Cartoon Saloon as head of design until 2012. and in that capacity she earned a nomination for the 42nd annual Annie Awards for character design on the studio’s 2nd feature “Song of the Sea”. In the remaining hours of the day, Marie enjoys coffee, punning and long walks on the internet.
artbythorhauge.blogspot.com behance.net/thorhauge mariethorhauge.tumblr.com
Tuomas Ikonen
is an illustrator and artist from Helsinki, Finland. He spent his childhood watching Eastern European animations and reading underground comics and both of those worlds are still present in his works. He studied graphic design and has a Bachelor of Culture and Arts degree from Kymenlaakso University of Applied Sciences. After graduation he has been focusing mainly on illustration. As a painter he has been exhibiting regularly from 2003 and has works in many private and public collections. His illustrations and paintings have been presented in numerous publications and exhibitions all over the world, and lately his work has been seen in magazines, books and record covers.
tuomasikonen.com facebook.com/tuomasikonenart behance.net/tuomasikonen
LIVIO RAJH Digital creative currently working from Zagreb, Croatia. In 2009 graduated animation (M.A.) on Department for Animated Film and New Media at Academy of Fine Arts Zagreb. So far participated on many group exhibitions, festivals, contests and grabbed a share of prizes and merits. After working inhouse for different TVC production / post-production studios he’s now doing more and more character development and design, illustration and branding. Member of Croatian Association of Artists and Croatian Designers Society. behance.net/liviora jh liviora jh.com
My name is Daniel Santalla, I’m 26 years old and I live in northern Spain. I started doing photography by accident little over a year ago. I try to capture the serenity and tranquility of daily life and give that bucolic touch surrounding my photographs. I’m in love with the photography and the nature. I have turned this interest into my passion and little by little into my work. I discovered that doing photography helps me relax and escape the daily life.
facebook.com/danielsantallafotografia f l i ck r. c o m / d a n i s a n t a l l a
Vedran Klemens Hi! My name is Vedran Klemens and I’m an illustrator and graphic designer living in Zagreb, Croatia. After many years of experience as an art director and designer in an advertising agency I started a freelance career. I enjoy exploring techniques and styles, therefore every project is a new expedition for me.
vedranklemens.com
Editors: Rafael MilÄ?ić and pekmezmed Contact: mail@frrresh.org frrresh.org facebook.com/frrresh.mag instagram.com/frrresh_magazine
Photos and text: courtesy of each author unless stated otherwise