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Welcome to ISSUE NINE!! This is the first issue where we have unpublished work by the creatives featured in the issue and a custom illustration on the cover. (Thanks to Molley May!)
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AMYLEE
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DANIEL CABALLERO
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ETHAN BERGER
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CHRISTINA LUO
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GRACE RUSSELL
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OLIVA EZINGA
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MOLLEY MAY
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ELISE HORI
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SLANEY HOPKINS
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JOY DANA
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EMILY LOVITCH
WWW.DPRINTONLINE.COM
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SARAH HOLDEN
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MYRIAM MORENO
I also, want to thank everyone for having patience with us while we took some time to get this issue out. We hope everyone enjoys the issue. Let us know your thoughts on the issue on Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #inkarrowsmag! ALEX LUCAS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ALEX LUCAS | FOUNDER, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF BRONTE BILLINGS | EDITOR DIGITAL PRINT | PRINTER
CONTACT: INKARROWSMAG@GMAIL.COM SUBMISSIONS: INKANDARROWSTEAM@GMAIL.COM FOLLOW US ON TWITTER & INSTAGRAM @INKARROWSMAG
COVER ART BY MOLLEY MAY
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Introduce yourself; tell us a little about you and your creative genre. I’m Amylee. I am a French artist. I love painting and combining the theme of portraiture with flower motifs. I’m very inspired by great names of Figurative Art such as Klimt, Mucha, Manet, Berthe Morisot. Impressionism touch inspires me a lot. How did you decide you wanted to paint full time? In 2008, since a Parisian Art Gallery decided to exhibit my paintings. In the meantime, I decided to spread my artwork on the Internet and I developed my blog on www.amylee.fr My blog is entirely dedicated to Arts. I bring professionalism, expertise and especially a new look to a painter’s job. I publish articles on my paintings but also tips in art supplies, marketing and social network. Why do you enjoy painting? The escape power and freedom afforded in painting.
What inspired you to combine flowers with portraits? A colour hunger and I’m very greedy of vibrant colours. You’ve said you have found inspiration in fashion. What are some of the designers that inspire you? I find in fashion designers such as Christian Lacroix, Marc Jacobs, Manish Arora, Kenzo very of inspiration. What is the most challenging feature to capture in a portrait? The most challenging part is to capture light and colours under the skin. Where can people find and see your paintings? I’m on current exhibitions in : Wil, Switzerland (Kunsthaus Rapp Gallery) Graz, Austria (Lendnine Gallery) Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland (Breeze Art Gallery)
blog : www.amylee.fr website : www.amylee-paris.com www.facebook.com/amylee.theartygirl twitter & instagram : @the_artygirl
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LINKS www.ethanjberger.com www.chedrncompany.com INSTAGRAM @Ethan_Berger93
​ y name is Ethan Berger. I am a documentary and commercial photographer based out of M New York, New York. I was around 8 or 9 when my grandfather inspired me to paint. I then got into photography. After many years of pursuing photography, I took pre-college courses at the International Center for Photography in Manhattan. This really made me want to study photography in greater depth. I am a graduate of Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida now working in New York. I currently am the President and CEO of a clothing company, Chedr N Company, an urban clothing line from New York. I use a Nikon D4 and use mostly natural light and fill flash. I also use studio lighting equipment depending on what I am shooting. I get a lot of my inspiration for my work by traveling and learning about different social cultures. Brothers is a series about bikers, biker clubs, and the lifestyle. Traveling around the United States meeting and documenting different kinds of people and learn their stories was the inspiration for this work. My portraits are a collaboration between my subjects and myself and as I photographed them we were able to forge a relationship of trust. This trust resulted in my caring about these people as much as my photographs and gave me access to a lifestyle that is otherwise difficult to enter. Going to school for photography was a great experience because it really helped me learn about the history of photography as well as where I stand as a photographer. It also taught me to think outside the box and to push myself to create something new.
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INTRODUCE YOURSELF: TELL US ABOUT YOU AND YOUR CREATIVE GENRE.
WHAT MADE YOU INTERESTED IN CALLIGRAPHY & LETTERING?
Hello! My name is Christina. I’m a calligrapher and designer, born and raised in Vancouver, Canada. I love puppies, sun showers, tattoos and milky tea. I studied communication and publishing in university, and started Fox & Flourish in my fourth year mainly as a lettering-focused creative outlet. After graduation, I had a few commissions lined up and decided to pursue calligraphy as a full time gig.
I have always been drawn to lettering, but unknowingly so. In grade school, I wanted to become a graffiti artist and graduated from writing “tags” of my friends’ names on lined paper to experimenting with lettering in design programs. I would admire Asian brush calligraphy, and the distinct handwriting of teachers and artists - to the point of trying to replicate it. I never thought someone could make a career out of just lettering until I saw just how big this culture is in other parts of the world! Once
The style I work in is mainly described as “modern calligraphy” and when I began offering these services, there were only one or two other practicing modern calligraphers in my area. Word spread quickly within the wedding industry (for stationery/day-of collateral like place cards and seating charts) and now I receive opportunities to work on other creative projects such as logos + branding, editorial work, and personal commissions like tattoo designs.
I discovered that calligraphic principles were the underlying root of this industry, I tried to teach myself through watching blurry Youtube videos. I took an italic and blackletter focused class with Martin Jackson, and familiarized myself with the pointed pen through a basic online course and an advanced class in Los Angeles. I think I was particularly fascinated with the precision involved with the pointed pen, as well as the variety of styles that could be achieved with just a simple variance in posture and motion.
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WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INSPIRATION? There are so many brilliant and talented lettering and calligraphy artists out there who endlessly inspire me, but I prefer to gather direct inspiration from things that are not necessarily within the calligraphy world. I love wandering through old streets and finding typographic treatments on hand-painted signage, store windows, and mailboxes. I’m also deeply inspired by cultural media like films (especially the title/end credits), vintage logo engravings on mid-century furniture, used books and manuscripts (especially the inscriptions between the margins). CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS? This is the part that I think differs quite a bit from a traditional illustrator or designer. I very much view myself as a service provider as opposed to an artist, where the client has certain words they need written in a specific way and I’m the robot that executes! I typically request that the client chooses a writing style they are drawn to from my portfolio or another visual reference, as well as answer a questionnaire about the project. From there, I take to my paper and go straight into it with ink - no pencil or guides. Once I have a good number of pages filled with ideas, I’ll scan them all into Photoshop and clean up/rearrange until I have the perfect word formations to present to the client.
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IS THERE A MEANING BEHIND YOUR BUSINESS NAME ‘FOX & FLOURISH’? Foxes are my spirit animal! I won a public speaking competition in the third grade reciting a two-page essay about foxes, and proceeded to also adopt a puppy that looks exactly like a little fox. I mentioned earlier that I love sun showers, and there’s a Japanese myth that translates this phenomenon as “a fox’s wedding,” where the rain keeps the humans indoors so the woodland creatures can have a wonderful celebration. As for “flourish,” it is a calligraphic term as well as a word for “to grow” or to be dynamic. The two together made perfect sense because I love alliterations. WHAT MADE YOU START DOING CALLIGRAPHY WORKSHOPS? WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ASPECT OF THE WORKSHOPS? I never thought I would be a teacher of any sort. However, a photographer — and now great friend — was relaunching her website and asked if I would host a workshop as a part of a promotional giveaway. My gut reaction was, “Absolutely not.” But she managed to convince me that it would be a good experience and I left the workshop feeling like I just changed the lives of all the students by adding this new skill to their repertoire. It was an addicting feeling to share my love and sm all expertise of calligraphy with so many souls at once. We begin with practicing shapes, and I love seeing that even with such arbitrary forms, the students’ style already begin to show through with how large/small or wide/condensed their shapes look!
WHAT DOES YOUR CREATIVE SPACE LOOK LIKE? I share my studio with a jewelry designer and we made sure it matched both our businesses’ aesthetics. Our space is in this beautiful historic building with marble floors and a spiral staircase, and upon entering the studio, the immediate feeling is calm: light-filled and pale blue walls. It’s a tiny space but we make use of it with lots of storage. I try to keep my tabletop relatively clean but of course the life of a calligrapher often equals controlled chaos, with different pens, nibs, bottles of ink everywhere…and LOTS of paper. Keeping the decor minimal and neutral allows my mind to focus on the project at hand (although I’ll admit I’m very inspired by Scandinavian and Japanese influenced workspaces).
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TYPE OF CALLIGRAPHY & LETTERING? DO YOU PREFER THE MORE TRADITIONAL SCRIPTS OR MODERN LETTERING OR A MIX? While I do not practice it professionally, I’m currently smitten with the Spencerian script. It’s a pointed pen style that was taught as the professional hand before printers were a thing, and it’s so beautiful in its control! My heart lies in a mix of lettering - forms that have their roots in traditional scripts but have been adapted to fit into a modern context.
CHRISTINA’S LINKS: WEBSITE: www.foxandflourish.com FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/foxandflourish TUMBLR: www.foxandflourish.tumblr.com INSTAGRAM: @foxandflourish
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website: www.gracerussell.co.uk twitter: @Gracie_25
Introduce yourself: Tell us about you and your genre of work. I’m a freelance Illustrator based in London. My work combines disparate pieces of collage with paint and charcoal to create evocative imagery that is both playful and controlled; the careful interplay between the figurative and abstract give my illustrations a unique visual language with an organic quality. I graduated with a First class BAHons degree in Illustration from the University of Westminster and won the Achievement Award in my first year. In 2014 I won the V&A Illustration Awards Student Category. My work has also been exhibited across the UK including the Victoria and Albert Museum and The Ideal Home Show. And whilst living in Canada I ran creative workshops for kids and teens.
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What inspired you to become an illustrator? Where do you get inspiration for projects? It wasn’t until fairly late in my academic career that I decided I wanted to be an illustrator but from an early age I’d been interested in art and design. My Grandfather has always been really creative, he used to make my lots of crazy things for me like a train (big enough to sit on) that chugged along in and out of the flower beds in his garden, or an army jeep that me and my sister would drive around in! He also taught me to paint and I spent a lot of my childhood with him watching Bob Ross. When working on a personal project my default source of inspiration is the natural landscape. There are so many natural, uncontrived images and compositions to be found in the environment that it offers an endless supply of inspiration. I’m a big outdoors enthusiast too. I’ve traveled around the USA and across Canada and the legends and history embedded in the national parks are really important to me. Inspiration when working to a brief derives from slightly different sources however. The text is the most important reference - I like to read between the lines (if it allows) and draw tangents to unusual places. What is your creative process like? The process always begins with reading any literature available, be this the brief or other text, which I’ll read a few times. I’ll pick out parts and deconstruct it whilst creating a series of marks that emit the tone of the piece, which I’ll later use to determine possible compositions and general directions to take the illustrations in. Colour and textures will also be decided on. Then I’ll re-visit the brief again to ensure that the illustrations are communicating all the essential information and the message hasn’t been lost in the visuals and finally, providing this is all satisfactory, it’s on to the task of creating the final images.
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Every piece of your artwork is unique and tells a visual story. Do you create a theme/ story before you start or is it something created organically? Both? I think it’s important that an illustration isn’t an analytical representation and while the general idea of the story will be obtained from the brief beforehand, by keeping a fairly ‘random’ approach to creating the illustrations I find that more elements to the story develop. Ultimately, the goal being that the image will provoke the audience to look deeper and infer their own story from it. I can see why you had the winning entry for the V&A Illustration Awards 2014 in the student category with your book covers for Robert Macfarlane’s ‘The Wild Places’. They are minimalistic but tell a story. Can you tell us about your process in creating the covers? Thanks so much! The Wild Places was a book I really connected with, I love walking and being in the natural landscape and Robert Macfarlane writes so beautifully that it made it easy for me to be really free and ‘organic’ with the whole process. The project set up my whole future way of working so its pretty much how I described above; I begun by making a series of marks whilst reading the book, I didn’t even look at the page whilst I whilst creating them, I simply focused on the words and tried to immerse myself in the environment Macfarlane was describing. These marks and motifs were then translated into shapes and textures that I cut from magazines, things I’d painted, ephemera, anything that emitted the right quality, and dropped onto the page. I continued with this element of play and worked into the page with charcoal and paint so that each component was feeding off of one another as if a process of ebb and flow. I wanted this delicate balance of playful and controlled to echo the book’s philosophy and portray how an environment is made up not only from its aesthetic and physical presence but one’s own journey, memories, experiences and physical, emotional and spiritual responses to them.
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LETS TALK FREELANCEING // What made you choose the freelance life rather than work for someone? I guess it wasn’t necessarily a choice for me whether to go freelance or not. I think you find that now most ‘in-house’ illustrators have a very clean, polished style that is heavily dependant on digital tools and techniques. And whilst I admire this type of work and style immensely, it’s just not the way or style that I work in. That being said, I think I would have always chosen to be freelance. I’m pretty independent, I like to push myself and I like to do things on my own. I went traveling on my own and I don’t think I really considered going with anyone else. I’m not too sure why really, I guess the sense of accomplishment is so much greater when you’re doing it on your own. What are your favorite parts of being a freelancer? Your least favorite? There are so many great things about being freelance. As I mentioned, the sense of accomplishment and saying ‘that was all me - I did that’ has to be one of the best, but also the variety of briefs I get to work on and the clients from over the world that I get to work with makes every day and every email so exciting. Plus this could hopefully mean that in the future I can be based anywhere in the world. My least favourite, and I imagine this is true for anyone running their own business, is that it can be very hard to stop working. Taking an hour lunch break wouldn’t be thought twice of normally, but as a freelancer, doing anything other than work and building your business seems to leave you feeling guilty. I have to remind myself to take breaks and get away from that head space as you can go a bit mental, but I’m a bit of a gym addict so its nothing a few ‘clean and jerks’ can’t solve!
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What have you learned from being a freelancer that could help people looking into being a freelance illustrator? Perseverance is really important but so is honesty. It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight and it’s not an easy job, especially starting out. You have to really ask yourself am I willing to put everything I’ve got into this and make the necessary sacrifices to get there? You have to be prepared to give up most of your free time including weekends, you have to be willing to wake up at 3am and talk to clients on the other side of the globe and you have to be able to pick yourself up and carry on when clients turn you down. But the promise at the end is earning a living from doing something you love. What is a typical day for you when you are working? I’ll check my emails over breakfast around 6.30am, consuming about three coffees and then walk my dog, Bear. Then I’ll grab the list of things to do that I’ve written the night before and get started. What this exactly entails depends on the particular project I’m working on and where in the whole process I am, generally speaking though I’ll try to do the bulk of ‘creating’ during the day and I’ll normally be working on a couple of projects/ images at once. In the evening I’ll go to the gym for a couple of hours and clear my head then when I come home I’ll continue working. I use this as a kind of quiet time, working on the details of an image or making adjustments using digital tools because I find I have too much energy to do this during the day. I really find it hard to sit down for too long, I usually end up with my headphones on dancing around my desk, throwing bits of collage onto the page. Definitely another perk of freelance life.
A Few Random Questions // Favorite places to go? My favourite place in the world to go is Yellowstone NP, but to visit regularly I love Exhibition Road in London - the V&A museum, Science museum and Natural History museum just steps away from one another, it’s like a hub of inspiration. Battersea Park is a great place to go for a run or sit and draw too; the eclectic mix of dogs and people are so fascinating, and, of course, Battersea Cats and Dogs home is a two minute walk away which could put a smile on anyones face. What are 5 things you couldn’t live without? Living out of a backpack for a good part of the last two years I’ve recognised that I could live without most things but a few non-negotiables
are my dog Bear, a sketchbook, a gym membership, my i-pod and books - physical books not on a tablet. Second hand books are even better too, the smell, the weight of the paper, the little notes people have left… definitely books. What does your workspace look like? My workspace is a desk surrounded by a huge bookcase and lots of eclectic objects that I’ve picked up whilst travelling. Including national park badges, an old compass, carved wooden animal slingshots, ceramic pots I made in Canada, vintage lino cutters, wooden boxes and a drawing easel my grandfather made, a telescope, a giant elephant and some wooden tree stumps to name a few. And my dog will generally be there too.
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WEBSITE: WWW.OLIVIAEZINGA.COM + BEHANCE: WWW.BEHANCE.NET/OLIVIAEZINGA + INSTAGRAM: @OLIVIAEZINGA
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INTRODUCE YOURSELF; TELL US ABOUT YOU AND YOUR CREATIVE GENRE. I’m Olivia, and I am a photography student at College for Creative Studies in Detroit. I consider myself a storyteller through the photographs I create. My work has surreal and dreamlike qualities, and I love fabricating scenes that wouldn’t make sense in real life. HOW DID YOU GET INTERESTED IN PHOTOGRAPHY AND PHOTO RETOUCHING? I picked up a camera for the first time in middle school, and I went from there. I went through various phases throughout the years of what I liked to photograph until I found that creative portraiture and retouching are my favorite things. Retouching is something I’ve been involved in for the past year or so—I absolutely love taking a simple portrait and turning it into a finished and polished piece. It never gets old! WHAT IS YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS? When I get inspired to photograph, I jot down all the ways I think I could convey my idea—from props and clothing to location possibilities, to certain effects I want to create in post production. I am often surprised with the end results because the final pieces are often far from what I had originally envisioned in my head. That’s what I love about photography and being a storyteller—there are so many directions to go in with just one idea. WHAT ARE SOME THINGS THAT INSPIRE YOU? I’m inspired by the natural light that drenches my apartment each morning. Scraps of unfinished poetry that I uncover in old notebooks. Orchestra performances that send chills down my spine. But really, anything that strikes me and evokes emotion can be turned into inspiration. WHAT PHOTOGRAPHS ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF AT THE MOMENT? That changes all the time! If someone views one of my photographs and is able to say that they connect with it on a deeper level, then I know I’ve done something right. Then I know it’s a piece I can be proud of. A FEW RANDOM QUESTIONS // HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR COFFEE? A caramel mocha with 2 extra shots of espresso is the way to go! Coffee is divine. WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE SPOTS IN DETROIT? Coffee shops are my favorite places to hang out! Stella Good Coffee makes top notch drinks, plus their atmosphere is lovely. I’m a people watcher, so I spend time at Campus Martius downtown, just to enjoy the city and the people that call Detroit home.
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WEBSITE: www.molleymay.com
LET’S DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT AND START THIS INTERVIEW WITH A RANDOM QUESTION. IF YOU COULD HAVE AN UNLIMITED SUPPLY OF ANY FOOD YOU LIKE, WHAT WOULD YOU PICK? I would definitely have to pick halloumi! I’m a real cheese fiend, but halloumi has to be my favourite, I eat it by the plateful. INTRODUCE YOURSELF: TELL US ABOUT YOU AND HOW YOU GOT STARTED AS AN ILLUSTRATOR. Working creatively has never been out of the question for me, I’ve always drawn and made things so working in the creative world always seems so natural. When I was younger I was fascinated by animation, in particular, stop motion, I remember spending hours after school watching films and carefully recreating the characters I saw in plasticine. I can’t remember the exact moment I decided I wanted to be an illustrator, but it definitely had something to do with the copious amounts of picture books and stories I consumed! I was lucky enough to be read to from a very young age and so many of the illustrations I saw then remain in my mind when I’m illustrating today.
INSTAGRAM: @molley.may
WHAT IS YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS? My process is pretty chaotic, I don’t really have a set way that I work. Usually, I spend days mulling an idea over in my head until I start getting really exciting about it, then I just start drawing. I like to work in a combination of gouache and colouring pencil, laying down the paint in washes first then using the pencils on the top. I’ve just started really appreciating sketchbooks and I’m trying to draw in one everyday, however, when working on bigger projects I tend to rip the pages out and work on loose pieces of paper, it helps me to not feel too confined and my work stays fresh. WHAT INSPIRES YOU? I grew up in the Somerset countryside in a beautiful, historic town called Frome. Whilst living there I didn’t think I was inspired by my surroundings at all, but since moving away it’s clear that I was! I love to draw plants and flowers and wobbly, wonky buildings, all of which are in abundance in my hometown! I’m always very inspired by books, I am most inspired when I have time to read a lot.
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CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE COVER YOU DESIGNED AND HOW IT INCORPORATED THE THEME ‘HAUNTED SUMMER’? When I heard that the theme was ‘Haunted Summer’ I instantly thought of the colours, I knew straight away that I wanted to use blue and yellows. I wanted to try and capture the last long days of summer when everything starts to feel heavy and haunted by the sun. I added in the house because I love the mystery that goes along with houses that stand alone in the middle of nowhere, when I drew it I could imagine little, hardy children living there and having adventures in the grass. WHAT IS THE EASIEST THING ABOUT BEING AN ILLUSTRATOR AND WHAT IS THE MOST DIFFICULT? I think the easiest thing about being an illustrator is that practicing and honing your skill is never anything but a pleasure. Every opportunity to draw, whether for enjoyment or for work, is a joy and another chance to learn and develop as an illustrator. However, the most difficult part is trying to stay positive about your work, many people I know who are illustrators, myself included, experience times when nothing you draw looks right or your ideas all feel boring or perhaps nobody is currently interested in your work, it’s hard to keep drawing when this happens, but you just have to keep on picking up pencils.
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WHAT WOULD YOUR DREAM PROJECT?
DREAM
JOB
OR
I would love to write and illustrate my own children’s books more than anything else. To take on such a big project and for it to be successful and published would be such a wonderful thing to do. RANDOM QUESTIONS // DO YOU LISTEN TO ANYTHING WHILE YOU WORK? IF YOU DO WHAT DO YOU LISTEN/ WATCH? I always like to work with something on in the background, usually I play the Series of Unfortunate Events audio books by Lemony Snicket, I used to listen to them when I did my art homework and it’s formed this connection in my brain that means when they’re playing I work really hard! However, recently I became somewhat addicted to Ru Paul’s Drag Race, that was playing constantly for nearly a month! WHAT ARE BOOKS?
TWO
OF
YOUR
FAVORITE
Since we’re talking about favourite books, I don’t know if I could ever choose, there are so many that I love! If I had to choose I think I’d pick ‘A Secret History’ by Donna Tartt, but I recently read ‘American Psycho’ by Bret Easton Ellis which was unlike anything I’ve ever read before!
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INTRODUCE YOURSELF: TELL US ABOUT YOU AND YOUR CREATIVE GENRE. I’m Elise Hori. I am a Japanese-Brazilian artist based in Sao Paulo, Brazil. YOUR WORK SEEMS TO TAKE A LOT OF INSPIRATION FROM NATURE AND SPIRITUALITY. WHAT ABOUT THOSE TWO THINGS INSPIRE YOU? I see my works as a reflection of subjects I take a lot of interest, which is Nature and Spirituality. They often come as answers to my inner dialogue or as a way of honoring what I highly regard. I like how Nature and Spirituality go together and enjoy watching nature’s wisdom being translated in the language we may call spirituality when they are actually the same. Nature itself as we know it, for me is the most powerful and organized intelligence there is and when we let ourselves immerse into it and connect to it, we are able to go beyond our conditioned minds and get in touch with its nurturing wisdom and the force that moves it all, which is love. WHAT IS YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS LIKE? My creative process is very intuitive and spontaneous. Once I let my rational
mind interfere in the process, I am hardly successful in the outcome. So I try to apply the same principle in my daily life as well, and as much as I am successful at letting go, stopping the conditioned mind to drive my decisions, I’m good. It’s a long way to go, though.
WHAT MADE YOU INTERESTED IN PATTERN DESIGN? I enjoy creating patterns from my drawings. I see each drawing I initially create as cells of the new body emerging as a new life in the pattern design. DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAY? On a last note, I would say, take a deep breath, lay on the grass, notice the uniqueness of each tree, gaze the infinite sky, smell the delicious scent of flowers, notice how graceful they are, immerse yourself in nature, receive it all and take full advantage of what’s there for us. Nature is restorative, healing, uplifting and it brings us balance. It’s all good. When we start paying deliberate attention to nature, soon we are able to see beyond mere objects we’ve learned to regard them as.
FIND MORE BY ELISE ON HER FLICKR. www.flickr.com/photos/ehori
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www.slaneyillustration.com
Introduce yourself; tell us a little about you and your creative genre. Hello, I’m Slaney have recently finished my Illustration degree at Plymouth university and I am currently taking baby steps into the world of freelance illustration. I love simple things and enjoy naive art and colour.I am inspired by illustrators Laura Carlin and Pia Bramley. What inspired you to become an illustrator? I love drawing and at A levels I studied graphics and textiles and i just took the risk of going to study illustration and it paid off. I am excited for what the future holds. What is your creative process like? I have a bit of a manic creative process. I love experimenting . in university this freedom really helped me but since graduating I have found I love pencil and the graphics tablet and I am developing my style in both these areas. I have to stay away from Pinterest as I get extremely overwhelmed.
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What are some things that inspire you? Everything but mostly nature and friends. How do you use your sense of humor to inspire your work? Much of my work expresses a sense of me and using my sense of humor in my illustrations helps me think of ideas, I am very dry with my sense of humor and maybe sometimes laugh at things i shouldn’t, it also makes me laugh at really silly things i went skateboarding with my friends and as I sat drawing as I can not skateboard at all and I was watching my friend and he skateboards with completely flat arms which seem to trail behind hi it looked funny so I gave it a go to draw him.. How do you use your art to create a story? I feel that my work ends up with natural narrative, and i try to express more things in my illustrations then just what meets the eye, There is always a story behind all artworks.
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A few of your projects have dealt with the environment, is this an important issue for you? Yes, As I work as a Forest School Leader along with having a very hippy mum, i feel like that these influences my work in many ways, I try to learn about ways I can help the environment and for me, I try through my illustrations. Describe one of your favorite projects. This one is tough, I would say for my had to be my final major project as it was a personal project. It was extremely emotional due to the subject area of palm oil and deforestation and overfishing I found it very scary but my passion of the subject area came out and the drawings flowed. How does your life influence your art? I am influenced by everything, I think my life is very revolved around family, friends and the outdoors as a volunteer I work at a local forest school with kids and we do a lot of bushcraft activities, my mums, a complete hippy and these combined I feel my work always ends up facing nature in some form.
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What inspired you to take a sketchbook around with you for a month? I had a year off drawing and doing this was a way to get back into it felt strange, but I really enjoyed it and relaxed me so much. How did you decide on what to sketch? Just anything that’s around me or makes me giggle or smile. But I sometimes find it quite difficult and sometimes very daunting as I always constantly have ideas but I doubt my ability to draw is starting to have more faith and just go for it also learning to finish images.
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FAC E B O O K .C O M /J OY DA N A F OTO G R A F I E I N S TAG R A M : @ J OY DA N A F OTO
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INTRODUCE YOURSELF: TELL US ABOUT YOU AND WHAT YOU DO. Hi! I’m Joy Dana, 21 years old from Karlsruhe, Germany. At 14 years old I started with concert photography. I’m in love with music, the live moments, and my camera! HOW DID YOU BECOME SO PASSIONATE ABOUT GIG PHOTOGRAPHY? When I started I didn’t even realize that I got into it so much. I shot the first concert and I couldn’t stop and haven’t stopped. It’s the music and the photos. It’s adrenaline every time I walk up into the photo pit or on stage. The beat; the feeling that happens when the music starts. I can’t describe it, it’s just magical. And of course, that passion about editing the photos afterwards and seeing the results, sharing them with the bands and the fans. WHAT IS IT ABOUT MUSIC THAT INSPIRES YOU? Music is always there. I’m really passionate about music and actually shooting “music” is the best thing that could have happened to me. I guess everyone has this special bond to music in any way and it’s hard to describe what music does to you. And live music is even more special because it’s directly there with you, around you. You feel it and your heartbeat takes the rhythm of the music when you’re standing there in front of the
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speakers. It’s special. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST GOAL THAT YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE WITH YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY? To be working as a concert photographer full time. It’s already my part-time job, but that would be a dream come true. And of course having a great time, make new friends, travel the world and live a lot of special moments. WHAT’S IN YOUR CAMERA BAG? Of course on top List: Camera - Canon 5D Mark II, Lens - Sigma 24-40 f/2.8-, some extra akkus [batteries], memory cards, business cards. And stuff like my phone, money, ear-protection, lipstick, sagrotan [hand sanitizer]… CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS FOR EDITING THOSE, SOMETIMES, ROUGH CONCERT PHOTOS? I always start editing the photos right after the concerts. Night time is the most creative time I think. The whole editing process turned into a ritual for me. I put on some atmospheric light and the music of the band I just shot. Listening to the music of the artist, I just shot, as I edit is somehow very important for me. Then I just switch through the photos. While at the concert, I always have some moments
when there’s some great moment or light and I just see that this will be one of the final images. I pick some photos and then start editing them with the Photoshop RawConverter (I really should get into Lightroom!). There I do a lot of editing. And as you said: sometimes rough. I always love the challenging photos the most. The ones that show a great moment but are totally over- or underexposed. I take my time to turn them into a great shot. WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST PET-PEEVE WITH GIGPHOTOGRAPHY? WHAT IS ONE THING THAT YOU LOVE ABOUT IT? I actually hate, really hate, people in the pit with iPhones or iPads who got an accreditation. That’s not cool! What I love about it is the combination of photography and music. The mood of the audience is always great too. BESIDES BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER, YOU ALSO ARE A GRAPHIC DESIGNER. WHAT MADE YOU INTERESTED IN DESIGN? I’ve always been drawing since I was a kid. I then decided to get an education in graphic design, which I finished in 2014. Now I’m studying Intermedia Design. I think it’s great to combine design with photography. I can do my logo, website and everything.
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Introduce yourself; Tell us about you and what you do.
How did you become interested in graphic design and
I am a recently graduated BFA student with a degree
illustration?
in New Media and Design.
I specialize mainly in
I have always had an affinity for the visual arts. I was
traditional and digital painting and illustration, as
always drawing or painting something. For a long time,
well as digital vector-based commercial design for
the only things I ever drew were anime and manga type
print and branding. I’ve also recently discovered the
illustrations. I started studying art half-way through
joys of pyrography and stamp carving. Right now I do
undergrad because I was dissatisfied with my first choice
freelance graphic design work for various clients and
of major. Then I got to experience formal training and
personal projects, as well as working part time at a
my abilities, as well as my creative interests, began to
Chinese restaurant. The projects I am most attracted
expand. I was interested in animation at the time (and
to are narrative-based and involve character design,
I still am), and was told by professors that many people
world building, and story-telling.
who are interested in working in the entertainment arts should build a foundation in design first. The more I practiced graphic design the more I grew to love it. I learned that good design is practical yet quietly powerful and that deeply impressed me. I love finding ways of marrying good design with compelling illustration.
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What inspires you to create?
On your site, you talk about that you are drawn to not
I draw inspiration from just about everything around
only to humor and fantasy subjects but also the dark
me, but the main source would have to be the books I
and creepy. How do you find a balance between those
read. I honestly don’t read that much, but when I get
subjects in your work?
absorbed into a really good book, it leaves a little piece of itself with me. It compels me to think harder about it
It’s hard to say why my interests lie in such divergent
and try to see its awesomeness in everyday things. My
subject matters. Perhaps I am merely moved by my
favorite book of all time is Watership Down by Richard
own selfish moods and I make humorous stuff when
Adams, and my favorite author is H.P. Lovecraft. I also
I feel good and scary stuff when I feel low. Though I
get inspired by movies with particularly strong visuals.
do know that I started making creepy stuff almost
Labyrinth, Dark City, Spirited Away, theTV show
immediately following a bad study abroad trip. I had
Hannibal, are all things that really amp me up and
low self-esteem at the time and was very anxious and
make me think and want to make things. It’s also worth
afraid about changing my major and what recent
mentioning that some of my favorite visual artists are
events meant for me and my future, so I usually tell
Aubrey Beardsley and Yoshitaka Amano, who both
people that the creepy stuff helps me work out my fears
worked prolifically with narrative illustration. I guess
about life.
you could say I find great stories the most inspiring.
As for everything else I make, I do think I am a naturally positive person and all the fantasy and whimsy spouts
Could you tell us about your creative process?
just from my own musings and daydreams. I’d like to
I’m still very much in an experimental phase of my art
think I have a rich inner world that balances all my
career so I don’t really have one creative process. I’m
creative influences.
still trying out a large variety of things to get a feel for what my professional artistic voice should be. Though
Where can people follow you and your work?
practically everything I do starts in my sketchbook. I sketch and scribble and erase and fill pages with
Main artist site: emilylovitch.wix.com/emilylovitch
thumbnails and concepts and thoughts. From there I
Art blog: glyphoteque.tumblr.com
move the sketch to my surface of choice where I ink it, or
Society6: society6.com/glyphoteque
color it, or paint it, or burn it, or carve it. And I’m always listening to music while I work, usually electronica or synth pop.
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www.sholdenillustration.squarespace.com www.behance.net/scribbleillustrate twitter @scribblesarah
INTRODUCE YOURSELF: TELL US ABOUT YOU
something about getting your hands dirty and being
AND WHAT YOU LOVE TO DO.
involved in the creative process in such a tactile
Hello! My name is Sarah and I love to create! I am an
way that is so satisfying to me. I have never found
English illustrator and designer, currently situated in
a better way of creating the sense of depth that you
Leicestershire. I have a passion for all things beautiful
get in something completely hand made.
and spend a lot of time trying to create beautiful things.
DO YOU THINK BEING AN ILLUSTRATOR HELPS YOU WHEN YOU DESIGN?
WHAT MADE YOU INTERESTED IN ILLUSTRATION
One definitely influences the other and vise-versa. I
& PRINTMAKING?
think having done a degree in Illustration I approach
I couldn’t pinpoint what exactly made me interested in
design problems in a less obvious way. Also, I bring
illustration or printmaking. Perhaps for illustration it is
in the textures and more tactile elements from my
my eternal love for stories. I have always been a huge
illustrations into any designs I create, which hopefully,
fan of fairy stories or fantasy such as The Chronicles
give an extra element of interest to my designs. I
of Narnia or Lord of the Rings. With printmaking, it
really enjoy mixing layered textures with clean lines
was more of a “one try and you’re hooked” situation.
or shapes. I think this is where one has influenced
I remember falling in love with the entire process the
the other.
first time I tried screen printing in school. There is
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WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INSPIRATION?
WHAT IS YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS?
My biggest inspiration is nature. Especially plants
It normally starts with a big idea and then spirals
and flowers. I love the shapes they create and their
from there. The actual process differs from piece
unique patterns that appear to have so much order
to piece. I’m not a big sketcher. I usually have one
but when you look closely it’s completely random.
image in my head and that is what I want to achieve.
The colours you find within nature are another source
It will develop as it is created, but there is one key
of inspiration. The sheer range that can be found
thing that stays the same as the original idea such
from subtle lilacs to blinding greens are everywhere.
as the subject matter or the colours. I am much
The best colour combinations I’ve ever found are
more experimental with the mediums I use, even
always in a field or someone’s garden. I am heavily
with printmaking I am constantly changing how I
influenced by both the Arts and Crafts movement and
approach the task and what different final results I
Art Nouveau, both of which are centre themselves
can achieve. That’s the exciting bit!
around the natural form. Patterns are another huge inspiration for me. Everything from the geometric Aztec patterns to eternal mandala circles fascinates me.
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Myriam Moreno
Introduce yourself; tell us about you and your creative genre. I was born on September 20th, 1990 in Valencia. I grew up in Lliria but spent my early years traveling around Europe with my parents. In 2004, I enrolled at the Academy Weronika Zerdzinska-Pawlak, which I recognized the painting as a choice for the future. In 2006, I started the Arts Bachelor in IES Camp del Turia, Liria. During these formative years, I did some specialized courses with Beatriz Ferrer Carbonell. In 2008, I enrolled at the Faculty of Fine Arts of San Carlos in the UPV. At the same time, I attended several courses like experimental video, window dressing, creative printing, bookbinding applied to artist book or management and exhibition design. I did in 2010 my first solo exhibition “The Nothing, the Infinite”. In 2011, my second solo exhibition “Walls” in the Hall / Youth Center Campoamor. And in 2012 my third solo exhibition “Soft” in the Sala Dinámica Hall My work then
www.myriammoreno.com www.facebook.com/myriammorenoartista
begins to display a very sensitive and personal style. That same year I was awarded a scholarship PROMOE UPV at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. In China, I finished my degree and made collective exhibitions at CAFA and one solo exhibition in LAAC Center. In 2013, I was invited to join Space ART ROOM XXI project, driven by the Documentation Centre of Valencian Contemporary Art “Romà de la Calle” (CDAVC), which had an exhibition at the Museum Centre del Carme in Valencia. On her return, I began studying Art Jewelry and Object in the Superior School of Art and Design (EASD), Valencia. In 2014, I was invited again to work with the CDAVC this time with a solo exhibition, “Serpientes en la piel”. My work is presented in different manifestations such as performance, sculpture, installation, painting, collage, jewelry … In my work the concept is as important as the holder, the materials used are of great significance, possess its own energy. I use organic materials such as wood, bones, insects, seeds. Each element contributes a specific substance.
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Where do you get your inspiration? The snake is a universal and timeless symbol, an element that connects us and makes us reflect about our origins and our deepest self. Is not an easy task to express all the hidden meaning in these snakes in the same artwork, and I do not pretend to. I started to see connections and how this archetype and its meanings are repeated in most cultures: their relationship with creation, fertility, the Goddess and the struggle between good and evil, the cosmic balance, health, disease ... it ended up becoming my main topic. In my artistic work I dissect its many connotations creating metaphors that can be applied to something more tangible: agriculture as a source of civilization and relationship with Mother Earth, Pachamama or Coatlicue “Rice fields” (Valencia 2012), Tantrism and self-improvement “Flying snakes” (Beijing 2012) human interaction and language while connecting to the sound of water and nature “The sound of the serpent” (Beijing 2013), the power of action and instinct survival “Prepared and alert” (Beijing 2013), sexuality and fertility “What will” (Valencia 2014), personal or collective experiences with skin “What apprehended” (Valencia 2013, 15 in process) And it is that in the end I only intend to create honestly, connecting with those messages and expose them. Show what is in ourselves, things that we have forgotten.
What is your creative process? Sometimes I found first the material and then I see the connections between what I want to express and the possible meanings for the objects and materials. But normally I think first in what I want to say and then I think about materials, shapes and spaces. I write it down, I don’t make too many sketches I like to work with the materials, make small models and investigate with different styles. When I find the style and I know how to apply the materials then I think in the final works. I think it’s more natural work in that way than mastermind too much the things, it’s when you start to work when you find your way.
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