Innovated Magazine: Issue 3

Visual Art Publication March 2011

t r a o h n i rt a the

lla i c s i r P of

i t c s ri G a o h Ain

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Innovated Magazine | Editors Note

Success & Inspiration Innovated Magazine is proud to have become such a reliable source to many designers around the world. We look forward to more growth and success with each issue we publish.

We have to say that we are proud to be launching our third issue of Innovated Magazine. We know that many of you have never heard of us; how could you...We are new to the scene.

We wanted to take a moment and introduce ourselves and maybe explain a few things about who we are and what our goal is. You see it’s very simple...We are here to enhance the art world.

Everyone at Innovated Magazine is devoted to the arts, it’s safe to say we have an obsession for design, music, and anything and everything beautiful and inspiring. That is what made us come together and start this publication.

Innovated Magazine is dedicated to finding Up & Coming talent from around the world and giving them a chance to display their work to all of our

readers. This is an opportunity for these amazing artists to tell their stories and experiences and inspire others with their words and amazing artwork.

We like to think of ourselves as an “artistic showcase of talent”. We expect these artists to use our services to the fullest and hopefully gain the recognition and respect they and their work deserve.

We have put a lot into our product and the artists involved have been more than amazing to work with, so we would like to take a minute and thank everyone who was involved in each issue and wish them much success in their artistic futures.

So, here we are, trying to make an impression in the art world. We hope that all of our readers enjoy all of the work we have put together and we look forward to working with some of you in our future.

team directors Mallory Lindsley-Çiçek

Semih Çiçek

Creative Director & Production Manager mallory@innovatedmagazine.com

Multi-Media Director semih@innovatedmagazine.com

Submit your work today.

Spotlight Articles: spotlight@innovatedmagazine.com *send us your work today to be featured in a future issue.

Latest Contests: contest@innovatedmagazine.com *check our website for information on latest contests.

General Inquiries: info@innovatedmagazine.com

The content of this magazine is copyright to 2 Innovated.

Redistribution or reproduction of any content is prohibited other than: You may print or download for personal and non-commercial use only. You may copy the content to individual thrid parties for their personl use, but only if you acknowledge the magazine as the source of the materials.

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© Copyright 2011. 2 Innovated, Brighton MA 02135

Innovated Magazine is published by 2 Innovated www.2innovated.com

6 INSPIRATION: SPRING TIME Landscape Photography

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Top 15 Landscape Photography Tips

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Ainhoart

...it is only when an artist delves into the depths of his soul in an honest confrontation with himself...

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Yusuf Ustaoglu:

Finding my rabbit hole

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After my first short flirt with the computer in my early ages, in 1999 I’ve fallen into computer games and design stuff...

Find out how the professionals do it. We have listed 15 tips for you to learn how to take the perfect landscape photo.

Priscilla Griscti:

The Language of Photography People are the main theme of my works.

I am interested in the world of human soul and what happens with people.

There’s no doubt that landscape photography is quite well liked – there is really something...

INSPIRATION: TOP 15

Egor Shapovalov:

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Andrew Smith: “Going for it”

It really sort of started by just playing around with a few ideas I had. I’ve always been a hands-on type of person.

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40 Melanie Beck-Hellmann: A result I loved

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Also when I was very young I started with drawing and I was not so bad at It. I really liked photography like forever as well.

Dayne Henry:

The coolest stuff I’d ever seen

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Nekranea

I always loved to draw, when I was a child my father was very young and very talented at drawing...

Seda Hepsev:

Ironic Statements

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Disguised under a serious tone, ironic statements or actions aim for an effect in contradiction...

From then on, I drew day and night. I drew in my sleep, at breakfast, during movies.

Was homework getting done? Nope.”

Jezabel Nekranea:

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Jason Rowland:

Spiraling into the world of Art It began with crayons,” he says. “They always tasted so good so I would eat them.

But in preschool I moved on to play dough.

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Taste of spring - By Aileenie

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Inspiration: Spring Time | Photography

VISUAL

Inspiration “There’s no doubt that landscape photography is quite well liked – there is really something about photographs of nature that genuinely rings true with audiences. When it comes to landscape photography, composition is important. One must locate the sharpness of contrasting things along with tones and textures to shoot pictures that really are impactful.”

Tips On How To Shoot High Quality Landscape Photographs - http://www.tahoeweddingbook.com

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Spring is pink - By Mirror_Lake

Tulips - By DaveJC90

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Inspiration: Spring Time | Photography

Spring... the Cannonball Tree is blooming again - By jungle mama

Spring glitter - By s.huffnagel

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Marmorera lake, Switzerland - By ceca67

Spring Flower - By Kingshuk Barman

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Inspiration: Spring Time | Photography

Rock Garden - By Mark Geistweite Dreaming of Spring Showers - By krmall

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almost time - By manyfires

Dammwild _ Deer - By vampire-carmen

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Inspiration: Spring Time | Photography

Ladybird - By yvonnepay615

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TOP15

1. Use a Tripod

Use a strong sturdy tripod to minimise or eliminate camera shake. For light travel tripods, try placing your bag on the tripod to give it extra weight for more stability. Using a tripod for will dramatically improve your landscape images by maximising the resolving power of your lens and providing the sharpest image possible. A hotshoe spirit level can aid with level images.

2. Maximise depth of field

To maximise image quality while keeping both the foreground and background in sharp focus, use middle apertures such as f8 or f11 on standard to wide angle lenses. Higher apertures such as f16 & f22 may suffer from diffraction and result in lower quality images.

3. Use the foreground plus depth

To create a landscape photograph with added depth and interest, use an object in the foreground such as sea shells or rock formations on a beach.

Super wide angles such as the professional quality Olympus Zuiko Digital ED 7-14mm f/4 lens give dramatic sweeping landscapes that takes the eye from the foreground object into the background and then circles back to the foreground once again.

4. Use slow shutter speeds for movement

To capture movement in nature such as a dramatic or rough sea, waterfalls, fields blowing in the wind, city traffic, rain or snow falling etc., experiment with slow shutter speeds with your camera on a tripod. The best option is to set manual on your digital camera or dslr and then vary the shutter speed and aperture according to lighting conditions. If the light is to bright for slow shutter speeds at 100 iso, either use a neutral density filter which can reduce the light coming into your camera by half or more or alternatively, return to the same scene during late afternoon or early evening for the best light.

With this technique, timing can be critical in capturing movement such as when waves break or traffic passes. Experiment for best results.

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5. Use dramatic weather

For dramatic moody landscapes in color and black and white, use dramatic weather conditions for impact such as storms, breaks in the clouds, dark menacing clouds, thunder and lighting, rainbows, reflections of dramatic scenery and clouds in the sea, sunrise and sunset.. Bracketing exposures is often necessary when dealing with dramatic lighting conditions.

Alternatively if your aim is to maximise shadow details at the expense of highlights, expose for the shadows and vice versa.

6. HDR High Dynamic Range

High Dynamic Range photography (HDR) has grown in popularity over recent years. HDR allows a photographer to increase details in both the shadows and highlights to a much greater degree than is possible in a normal photograph. There are two ways to create an HDR image. Either take three images using the auto bracketing feature on your digital slr camera and recombine them in a specialist HDR package or through the new HDR feature in Adobe Photoshop CS2 or CS3. Alternatively take one raw image and use a raw editor.

7. Look for patterns and lines

Look for patterns and lines in nature to add a sense of balance to the photo or to lead the eye into the landscape i.e. meandering stream leading into the forest or a mountain range.

8. Use scale

If is often difficult to sense the true scale of a landscape such as mountains or lakes without a recognizable object such as a house, boat or person in the photograph for comparison.

To create a dramatic landscape with scale, use people, objects, animals, buildings and other easily recognizable objects to give the viewer a true sense of the scale of the landscape.

9. Use the rule of thirds

All rules are meant to be broken for creative photography but quite often, rules such as the rule of thirds can provide some assistance when

Inspiration: Spring Time | Photography

Landscape Photography Tips

framing a landscape proves to be difficult. See rule of thirds example.

10. Keep the horizon straight

Keep the landscape straight by either using a grid in the viewfinder or a spirit level in your cameras hotshoe or tripod. Last resort is to straighten the image in adobe photoshop.

11. Experiment with different points of view

Break away from the standard views which everyone uses and experiment with different points of view from higher views to shots taken at ground level. Walk around the landscape for a better or different viewpoint.

12. Shoot at sunrise and sunset

For the best light, wake up very early and take landscape photographs at sunrise or wait until late afternoon or sunset for the landscape to be covered in golden light with long soft shadows.

13. Use a polarizer filter

For minimizing reflections on water as well as saturating sky colors, use a high quality polarizing filter on the front of your digital slr lens.

14. Experiment with different lenses.

Experiment with super wide angle lenses to maximise depth of field for sweeping landscapes upto telephoto lenses to isolate and compress part of a landscape using selective focus.

15. Panoramic images.

Many digital cameras come with a facility to combine 3 or more overlapping images to form one panoramic image. Use manual exposure to keep the exposure the same for each frame. Exposure variations through automatic metering can make it almost impossible to produce a natural looking image as exposure settings will change as the metering system detects differences in lighting between one frame to the next.

- http://www.whatdigicam.com Ghosts of Winter - By Neal The photos were chosen from Flickr and PhotoNet. You can find each photo/artist in their public forums.

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Ainh the art of Priscilla Ainhoa Griscti

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Priscilla Griscti: Ainhoa Art | Fine Art

I

was born in 1985 in Castellón, Spain, where my parents lived at the time in a little village called Oropesa del Mar. My passion for art began at a very early age, where I always felt that drawing was the best means with which to liberate my innermost feelings and emotions. Art has formed a part of my daily life from as far back as I can remember, and till today it has never left me. The intimate relationship that I have with art is also linked to my father, a prominent antiquarian, who would bring home unusual and fascinating pieces that would incite my imagination as I meticulously observed them. It was precisely these curiosities of the past that would continue to be my teachers in the future.

At school I would spend my breaks in the silence of the art room; a search for seclusion that gave me time for intense contemplation, in order to acquire a deeper understanding both of myself and my art.

I am primarily self-taught because I always believed that one’s best teacher is himself. In my opinion, it is only through self-analysis and introspection that one can come to proper terms with their own art, and in turn, create works that others can connect to. Thus I feel that a true artist should search deeply within themselves in order to unearth an authentic feeling with which to express on paper, and this should stem from their own spirituality.

The more direct and specific one is in their search, the more one can expand. Thus, the more personal one’s artwork is, the more universal it becomes; it is only when an artist delves into the depths of his soul in an honest confrontation with himself that others can truly relate and possibly find a reflection of themselves in the artist’s work.

“...it is only when an artist delves into the depths of his soul in an honest confrontation with himself that others can truly relate and possibly find a reflection of themselves...”

hoart

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Intrigued with spirituality as I am, I persistently search for inspiration through my soul, by inner self reflection and also by searching to discover precisely that spirituality in others. It is for this reason that I am strongly linked to the figurative in art. Having said that, not every person gives me inspiration, on the contrary, my choices are very particular. The individual that artistically inspires me must first have certain physical traits that comply with how I envision a work, but more importantly, it is about the inner intensity that a person has to offer. A person must be very much “alive” from the inside, one that speaks at great lengths with just their eyes, and whose physical movements outwardly project the inwardness of the spirit.

I believe that one does not choose to become an artist; it is a gift that one is born with. In time, this will eventually grow to become inseparable from one’s daily life. Hence, art to me is innate and it gives me a heightened sensitivity towards everything in life making me feel beyond what the senses have to offer. Such sensitivity is as much a gift as it is a curse, since it amplifies positive emotions as much as it amplifies negative ones.

This gives me a wide, infinite imagination that at times crosses the border between illusion and reality. At times, as I am drawing, it carries me beyond the norm and swings me from a beautiful fantasy… and as it moves with my emotions, it takes me to other extremes, such as those of negative energy… thus producing a variety of designs and drawings that can vary between fantastical dreams and nightmares.

Like most serious artists, my style and technique often changes depending on these artistic emotions that I am driven by during an artwork’s creation. When I feel serene and deeply self-composed, my works tend to be more linear and realistic, where I find myself being guided towards a strict and more concise approach to art. On other occasions, when I feel that my expression is more fleeting and temporary, my style tends towards Expressionism in its strive to capture a direct feeling and, in its technique, it becomes more aggressive and physically involving.

The latter often challenges me to tear parts of my work in an artistic manner, be it paper or canvas, because as with sculpture, it heightens the physical involvement and enactment with

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Priscilla Griscti: Ainhoa Art | Fine Art

the artwork, making its emotional experience altogether more personal. Generally done during or after the work is created, it releases my final touches and corrections in my drawing, thus trying to change the norm of art by shaping it to my own style and signature.

Nothing should be left unexplored in a work of art. I strive to never limit myself in any way when it comes to art. I have discovered that my more controversial works were born out of great fears that I dared to challenge. That is the most important thing in art, to never be afraid to express yourself.

I never begin an artwork with any preconceived ideas or meanings, since it is all a result of my subconscious. It is only after its creation that the work starts to speak to me. With time, such tears became symbolic to me. Ripping through a work made reference to one’s emotional scars, whilst stitching with ribbons represented its healing process. A torn piece of paper or canvas also leaves a void that needs to be filled, allowing light to penetrate through it, and life to slowly merge and form part of the work. Thus the viewer can no longer distinguish between illusion and reality.

One can say that my works start off by seeking perfection at its most ideal state, creating a stereotype that people wish to have and live in, a perfect state of being. Yet in the process of art’s creation, the truth becomes visible through the tears that destruct the work, creating an interplay between the good and bad experiences that one goes through in his life. Therefore my torn drawings are like jigsaw puzzles, with some parts to be seen and the rest being left to the imagination.

My personal inspirations come from everywhere. I adore theatrical performances, because they embody great drama and feeling. I am thoroughly moved by movie soundtracks of the most deep melancholy. I am greatly inspired by Zeitgeist films that I find intellectually challenging.

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Priscilla Griscti: Ainhoa Art | Fine Art

I simply adore watching stop-motion films that I feel are works of art in motion, in particular films by Jan Švankmajer, and the Brothers Quay. Reading about aesthetics and philosophy of art transports me into another world. I am crazy over Lady Gaga’s sense of style and fashion sense. I also love anything that has to do with children’s story books, poetry, and puppetry.

My artistic inspirations also stem from an endless list of sources. I am thoroughly intrigued by primitive art for its crudeness and simplicity, in particular African masks. My love for fairy tales led me to adore illustrations by Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. I can spend hours at a museum looking at any work

by Gustav Doré or Max Liebermann. Since I was young, I have always been addicted to anything that is Art Nouveau, from the smallest piece of jewelry to the biggest structure in architecture, my favorites being erotic drawings by Hans Bellmer and Egon Schiele.

The Pre-Raphaelites capture my attention with their romantic tragedy. Expressionism hits me to the core in its boldness and fearless power of expression with artists such as Edvard Munch and Alfred Kubin. Surrealism fascinates me by providing the key to an imagination that reveals things that are often invisible to the naked eye. I look to realism and hyperrealism for technique, whilst installations and performance art intrigue me with their contemporary and philosophical conceptions.

I am often asked where I see myself in the near future. My immediate wish is to have my works exhibited in a prominent gallery in New York, Paris or London. It is also very important for me to have my art exhibited in other countries around the world, as this will further enrich my vision in art and hopefully inspire me to create works that will capture the essence of different cultures. If I were to paint my future dream, the colours would reflect the places and cultures I have visited and the lines would be my travels and experience to get the final work together. Thus, my ultimate goal would be to create a unique style that marks my true reflection, and more importantly brings out a style that transgresses time and all types of conventions. It would be my dream to eventually be seen and appreciated by many

people in a prominent place, and this would be my Oscar for my achievement.

At the moment I am working hard to achieve my goal, and become a professional artist. One can find my works on behance (www.behance.net/ainhoart) or on facebook (www.facebook.com/ainhoarts)

PRISCILLA GRISCTI: AINHOA ART Fine Art Exhibitions: ARTPARIS Grand Palais 2011 - Paris, France March 31, 2011 – April 3, 2011 (Saatchi Online) Contact Details: • www.behance.net/ainhoart • www.facebook.com/ainhoarts • ainhoart@gmail.com

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the

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Innovated Magazine: Issue Three

Egor Shapovalov | Photography

e photography of

“People are the main theme of my works. I am interested in the world of human soul and what happens with people. I always found inspiration in the art objects of different artists investigated this theme.”

M

y name is Egor Shapovalov and I was born 50 years ago in Zagreb, the main city of the Republic (Croatia). I create works based on photography using various techniques. The aesthetics is the only thing which attracts me in photography. Aesthetics of the mysterious; hidden which is difficult to express in words, but so easy to feel. I agree with the opinions of most; that the best image is the one which is difficult to be expressed by the words. That’s why I chose the language of photography. The main task of my photography is to transport a viewer into a space where he will be close to paradox and mystery. I am nourished by a sense of mystique around the world. I am also inspired by the music the character of which is also mystery for me.

People are the main theme of my works. I am interested in the world of human souls and what happens with people. I always found inspiration in the artwork of different artists who investigated this theme. I was always interested in receiving images alignment and overlay. In this action there is something magical. When you impose one image to another you get quite different one.

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Egor Shapovalov | Photography

“In the work process I began to understand that I am more interested in non-classical beauty, and I am always glad to work with non-professional models, with the people who do not know how to behave before camera.�

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The picture is filled with a number of senses. It appears to be compound and capacious. I would like to develop this method in my art. Besides using multiple exposers and overlapping sections of photos on the main subject; one of the means I am interested in is erasing sense of time and space. I don’t like the objects character of time getting into the frame. So I choose the locations without signs of my time and other territorial signs.

The models clothes are also important and should not remind the time the shooting was done. All these allow to express the feeling of mystery. In the work process I began to understand that I am more interested in non-classical beauty, and I am always glad to work with non-professional models, with the people who do not know how to behave before camera. Usually I choose them by myself. I like to show the models being assured in their non-attractiveness their real beauty. To my opinion everyone is beautiful and everyone has his advantageous foreshortening.

I remember the moment I started almost completely using the square format for my photos. It was after I created the image of a man in old clothes standing on the water. In that moment I saw the advantages of fitting this figure into this format and realized that it was mine. Despite the fact

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Egor Shapovalov | Photography

that my last series is b&w, most of my works are in color. Color helps to bring the viewer into the state of mystery; I am trying to achieve that in my photos. Most often I choose rendering using the definite color. I came to this consciously since I began to understand the nature of certain states and that the color is the symbol in this work. For example, white is the symbol of spirit and purity, blue is associated with air and water and red is infernal. When I tint photos I leave the range of other colors to make it not so much artificial.

I’m always open for cooperation with art agencies, galleries, magazines and music labels (I always wanted to do music covers) and other interesting offers.

EGOR SHAPOVALOV Photography Exhibitions: “REMAKE” - Rostov-on-Don, 2009 “Hello, The Faun Space” - St. Petersburg, 2010 “HELLO, THE FAUN SPACE” - Rostov-on-Don, 2011 “Real Virtuality” - Vienna, 2011 Contact Details: • www.egorshapovalov.ru

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“After my first short flirt with the computer in my early ages, in 1999 I’ve fallen into computer games and design stuff (let say this was the rabbit hole in my life) so the things have never been the same again.”

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Yusuf Ustaoglu | Interactive Design & Illustration

finding my

rabbit I

hole

was born in the year which is the same with a disutopia novel’s name. I lived in an industrial city till my university years. All that time long while I was running behind my dreams with playing my K’nex and Lego toys on earth, I felt an interest in to the astronomy by looking up (thanks to my brother! Also for so many things) I have improved my hand skills with cutting paper and plywood and building things with them although I worked as a clerk on summer holidays so I have gained working discipline.

After my first short flirt with the computer in my early ages, in 1999 I’ve fallen into computer games and design stuff (let say this was the rabbit hole in my life) so the things have never been the same again. As a result of being interested in science and

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the choice in high school education my brains left side evolved much more than the other side.

On my first drawing experiences I was helping my classmates at drawing lessons. Other than that I was collecting the concept arts, screenshots of computer games and various illustrations from many artists. For 2-3 years I only copied their works before I draw an illustration that is completely mine.

Under the domination of 1, 9, 8 and 4 digits the right side of my brain couldn’t take it anymore and has started a revolution over the lands of my talent (no neuron was hurt while the revolution years). So it has raised it’s own flag and still waving under the cerebral cortex.

When it came to choose which profession to educate at the university, I studied City and Urban Planning (CAUP). In the first 2-3 years although I tried to change my department and the university with the fine arts but I couldn’t reached my aim.

CAUP wasn’t the best choice to make my dreams come true but I can’t deny those years were such a waste of time. In my CAUP education I have gained many skills on how to approach to a problem, analyzing the data to make information, calculating the advantages/disadvantages and managing things to work correctly or as is wanted to be. That planning skill adds a vision for your working style. Beside my education I trained my self on drawing and design and worked as a freelancer for many projects.

Both the drawing and the design became an ambition for me (cliche). So I can’t completely say that neither I’m an illustrator nor I’m a designer.

Having many other interests like photography, computer animation, short-films, fanzin, computer games, comics and doing things about them sometimes seems like a disadvantage in your professional career. But we don’t only live for a career, do we? Sure I need to handle and manage my life but I take it as a process not as a goal. So before I get into the fully professional working life, I’ll collect the things that inspire me.

As you can see I have too much talk (even not about how I make an illustration) but not too much work. So I accepted that I’m lazy and I’m a man full of ideas and carries three different notebooks with him to take down notes/ sketches/storyboards about any impressive

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Yusuf Ustaoglu | Interactive Design & Illustration

idea. But I believe that some day those written letters in my notebooks will become shapes, then into forms and may be resulted works!

Nowadays, I continue my education at the Computer Aided Art And Design (Master Degree Programme) of Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and work as an illustrator at Oyungezer Magazine which is about computer games and I draw the mascot of the magazine named as Goyun. Beside my freelance works as an interactive designer, I also have work experience at the digital advertisement agencies in new media field.

So I made some coffee and sitting beside the window to see the arrival of my muse...

YUSUF USTAOGLU Interactive Design & Illustration Work Displayed: Please contact Yusuf Ustaoglu directly for more information regarding his work.

Contact Details: • www.mavikam.net • posta@mavikam.net

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Andrew Smith | Industrial Sculpture

the art of Andrew Smith “It really sort of started by just playing around with a few ideas I had.

I’ve always been a hands-on type of person. As a kid I was always involved with very creative activities, Legos, tree forts etc. As I got older I had fun ideas for things that I thought would be cool, but never really saw myself as the one to actually create them.”

I

currently live in Lehi, Utah, about thirty miles south of Salt Lake City. I began creating my work 10 or 11 years ago. It really sort of started by just playing around with a few ideas I had. I’ve always been a hands-on type of person. As a kid I was always involved with very creative activities, Legos, tree forts etc. As I got older I had fun ideas for things that I thought would be cool, but never really saw myself as the one to actually create them. Around the time I started dating my wife I began actually trying to build stuff. She was always working on some sort of art project or something, and that sort of gave me the push to start trying things and it just built from there. Looking back, some of my early works are really quite embarrassing, but without them and that learning curve I wouldn’t be where I am now.

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“

For the most part, it was just part of growing up. He had a studio in the basement and another about 150 yards down the hill from the house, “the lower studio”.

As a kid I was always exploring the piles of junk he used for his assemblages. It really was impossible to grow up in this environment without letting my imagination run wild.

“

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Andrew Smith | Industrial Sculpture

I don’t have any sort of a formal art education, aside from a few basic design classes from a local community college. There are some things that I really missed out on in that area. If you want to talk to me about art history, famous artists, movements and etc. you won’t get very far. I think that is where the most value could have come from for me, however, it is far outweighed by the amount of experience both technically and creatively that just diving in an “going for it” provided me. There is a certain amount that can be taught as an artist and a certain amount that you are born with.

It would be impossible for me to talk about starting my art career without mentioning my father, Dennis Smith. As a professional artist, he exposed us kids to the world of art. He didn’t do this in a pushy or intrusive way. For the most part, it was just part of growing up. He had a studio in the basement and another about 150 yards down the hill from the house, “the lower studio”. As a kid I was always exploring the piles of junk he used for his assemblages. It really was impossible to grow up in this environment without letting my imagination run wild. When I was around 20 years old I started actually creating my own works. My father was kind enough to let me use the lower studio and even his junk to start putting things together. It was at that time I realized how much I loved creating my work.

His assemblages were very metaphorical and philosophical, without any sort of mechanical elements, (that wasn’t his strong suit). As much as I loved these static creations, I couldn’t help but want them to move in some way. Perhaps that is why my work became very kinetic and mechanical, I didn’t like putting heavy meaning behind my work. Since then, I began collecting my own piles of “junk” and as my dad has phased out of that area of his work, I became devoted to it full time. In 2005 my wife and I bought a home in Lehi, Utah about 5 minutes away and I spent several months hauling tons and tons of junk to my new studio.

I currently have a large 30x50 foot steel building I use as my studio. While the front half is primarily all an area for tools, and construction. The back half is mostly set up as storage, with shelves that are packed with all

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sorts of shapes and parts. Outside the studio is where I keep all the stuff that doesn’t have to be out of the weather.

I source my materials from all over the place. When it comes to my kinetic works, the core mechanical elements are almost always purchased new from industrial parts suppliers.

All of the mechanical movements in my sculptures rely on these newly purchased parts.

Usually this consists of mounted ball bearings,

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rod ends, roller chain, and etc. Most often these parts are rated and built for applications that far exceed their purpose in my sculptures. This gives them an almost endless life span, and greatly increases the quality of the work.

All of the “junk� elements are usually added after the fact. This is what gives the artwork so much of its look and character without having to rely on it mechanically. I collect this stuff from anywhere and everywhere, scrap yards,

Andrew Smith | Industrial Sculpture

antiques stores, auctions, military surplus, even the side of the road. I even have people drop it off at my studio.

Each project is different in its own way as to how I approach the design process. In general, if it is a commissioned work I usually work within the basics, dimensions of the space, type of piece (kinetic, water, rolling ball,etc.) color and general look and feel of the piece. Usually other than that, so much of what happens in a piece is more or less discovered during fabrication. There is a lot of trial and error. Trying different concepts and ideas in a piece. If it works, I will weld it solid, “make it final”. If it doesn’t, it gets cut off and I try something else. If I find myself struggling with an idea during fabrication, sometimes I will go and search through the piles of junk, sometimes that spawns an idea or concept that becomes part of the piece.

In fact, a lot of my favorite elements in my works are more or less “discovered” while I am building them. This keeps the work fresh, and the raw fun creative process can be seen in the final product.

That is why I tend to approach my work with a “form follows function” mentality. So much of the look of a piece is determined by how things are put together to make things function during the creation process.

I don’t like to overlay heavy thought or meaning into my work. That’s not saying it isn’t there or doesn’t creep in from time to time, but for me, it ruins the fun. Ironically, if my work had a meaning, it would be, that it has no meaning.

Of course there are times it isn’t all that enjoyable. Not only when I am struggling creatively, but as a lot of artists realize, making a living can be difficult. Many of us aren’t the best at marketing and getting ourselves out there. We would rather be where we are comfortable, in the studio.

I would love to be able to get to a point in my career that I could step back a little bit from some of the commissions and work on some of my own projects. I am constantly flooded with ideas for different creations, not all of them art related. But it is hard to push

them aside and know that I need to stay focused on the current project or deadline.

I really don’t aspire too much more than that. I am not seeking fame or recognition as an artist for the sake of being famous. I would just like to be able to stay busy enough to continue to provide for my family and to keep doing what I love.

ANDREW SMITH Industrial Sculpture Work Displayed: Rising Above It All | High-Rise Billiards | Long Road Home | Awl or Nuthin | Untitled Work Contact Details: • www.andrewsmithart.com • http://www.youtube.com/user/ASMITHSCULP • andrewsmithart@hotmail.com • twitter: @andrewsmithart

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“Also when I was very young I started with drawing and I was not so bad at It. I really liked photography like forever as well. I tried all this different kinds of arts, but I realized I was not very talented In any of those.�

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Melanie Beck-Hellmann | Digital Photography

A

result

I loved

H

ello everyone! First I need to say that It was always difficult for me to write something about myself. I try the best I can.

I was born In Germany 28 years ago. My real name Is Melanie Beck-Hellmann. I always was very inspired by different kinds of art as long as I can remember. When I was about 14 I wrote a book about me and my friends. Just for fun. Never thought about to publish. And It never will, cause It‘s really embarrassing. Also when I was very young I started with drawing and I was not so bad at It. I really liked photography like forever as well. I tried all this different kinds of arts, but I realized I was not very talented In any of those. I am a creative person, so It was very frustrating that I had not the skills to show what I wanted. I gave up practice and focused on my education and other hobbies I had. It disappeared from my eyes, but never out of my thoughts.

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Then, about some years ago, I first opened photoshop and discovered a whole new world for me. I started to create a mix of different photography In the beginning. Than I combined different digital media and got a result of something I started to love.

It took me a lot of time to learn the basics on my own. I did not have any formal art training or study. After that I opened my eyes for new perspectives. Above that I tried to put emotions and life to my pictures, which was much more difficult than I first thought. I recognized that I Improved fast at the beginning. On my learning way I came across something called photo manipulation. It became an addiction. I loved, and still do, what I saw before and after my work. Creating whole new characters and stories out of an ordinary picture Inspires the progress while I am working.

And that‘s what I am doing now. I am manipulating pictures to get the best out of them. Mostly I like to give them a fantasy, emotional touch. I give a lot of focus on colors to create an Impressing atmosphere.

In this genre I am inspired by books, movies or tv shows, sometimes stories I came up with by myself. I am inspired by lot of different things.

Sometimes It was a crazy dream I had, the other day I heard a fabulous song on the radio.

The other side of my works Is a lot about our earth, our nature. I don‘t wanna focus on that In this article now. If anyone Is Interested In an exchange about this subject you are welcome to contact me.

At the moment I am working on my skills In

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Melanie Beck-Hellmann | Digital Photography

“

In this genre I am inspired by books, movies or tv shows, sometimes stories I came up with by myself.

I am inspired by lot of different things. Sometimes It was a crazy dream I had, the other day I heard a fabulous song on the radio.

“

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Melanie Beck-Hellmann | Digital Photography

digital painting. The steps I make are small at the moment and my free time for practice Is less. But I will try to give my works more personal style. I planned to work with less photography and more painting to realize my Ideas more concretely.

People can find my work on my Deviantart account at the moment. You can contact me on my e-mail or note at Deviantart. I am planning a personal homepage, but It‘s still In very small shoes. My next project will be a calendar with a natural/fantasy theme about mystical creatures. I hope I can open the homepage when the calendar Is finished.

For the future I can see my art In fantasy book covers. I totally love books and reading stories. I can spend hours In a book store searching for Interesting stories while reviewing all the wonderful covers.

I‘d really like to work together on a project with other artists too. I could Imagine to cooperate with a photographer who‘s Interested In the fantasy genre. Still searching. A lot of Ideas...

In my everyday life I am a full-time early childhood educator and I really love what I am doing for my living. Mostly all my free time goes to my big passion (my apple, my tablet, my photoshop) and It‘s my biggest dream to be a professional digital artist In the future. I think I am a realistic thinking

person and I know It will be very hard making my hobby a professional business. If my dream would never come true I can live with that fact too. As long as I am loving what I do I won‘t give up. There are so many talented artist out there, but maybe there will be a little space for me too.

Sometimes, when I don‘t hang around In front of my computer, I do some other stuff too. I try to spend a lot of time with my family. I almost read In a book every day and still have fun taking photos with my Nikon. And everytime I get the chance I love visit concerts of my favorite singer and band.

Even If they don‘t let my Nikon In. If you made It to the end of this article: Thank you very much for your time. I‘m out. Melany Beek.

MELANIE BECK-HELLMANN Digital Photography Work Displayed: Doll | Humans 2011 | Lone Warrior | My Precious | Aurora Contact Details: • http://yumi-iko.deviantart.com/ • tokyowitch@hotmail.de

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coolest the

stuff

I’d ever seen

“From then on, I drew day and night. I drew in my sleep, at breakfast, during movies. Was homework getting done? Nope.”

Where it all started

I was about 12 years old when I decided to make art my career. I was in the 6th grade, and it was the era of IMAGE COMICS, which my Uncle Jon collected. He introduced me to some of the coolest stuff I’d ever seen: Spawn, Wild CATS, Cyberforce, Young BloodÉ all sorts of eye candy. He also threw in some Ninja Scroll (one of my favorite animes of all time), Battle Angel and a bunch of other stuff that just blew my mind. Up until that point, All I knew of was Ninja Turtles, Darkwing Duck, and Sonic the Hedgehog.

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Dayne Henry | Comic Illustration

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Dayne Henry | Comic Illustration

One day, my uncle breaks out some paper and a pencil. He starts drawing a character named Die Hard from the Young Blood series. This drawing was awesome. I tried my best to mimic my uncle’s pencil lines and style. From then on, I drew day and night. I drew in my sleep, at breakfast, during movies. Was homework getting done? Nope (not something I recommend to aspiring artists out there, get your education!). I was drawing ALL the time.

In High School is where I really got into it. I got my hands on an issue of Gen 13 by J Scott Campbell and a few issues of The Uncanny Xmen when Joe Madureira was the penciller on it. These two artists had such an impact on my style. The way Campbell drew his women, and how Joe blended manga with American comicsÉ just mind blowing. Anything those guys came out with, I would pick it up.

After High School, I did whatever I could to keep buying comics and art supplies. I’ve worked fast food, at a retail store, warehouses. On paydays, I would go on my usual run to Burger King and grab a big giant combo meal, then I would take the bus over to my favorite comic store, and pick up some books, and then head on over to EB Games and pick up something for my Dreamcast.

In 2000, my family had moved up to Victorville, California, and I really wanted to get into some type of school for the arts. I decided to look up what schools were closest to home. I got on the computer and found a course in Victor Valley Community college that struck me as interesting: The Digital Academy of 3D Animation. I applied, and a couple of weeks later, I was in.

Within a few weeks, I just knew that I couldn’t get into the 3D part of it. I was set on drawing, and at the time I just couldn’t wrap my head around the program. The class did however, have some Wacom tablets there, and all the computers were loaded up with photoshop. Since the class didn’t really offer any traditional training, I took it upon myself to make my own curriculum. I gathered up a bunch of my favorite comics like Battle Chasers, Danger Girl, and Spawn, an anatomy book on Dynamic Figure drawing by Burne Hogarth, and a book on perspective and just got to it. My mindset at the time was just to draw and learn as much as I could.

There at the Academy, I met some of the most amazing people, a few of which have become life-long friends.

Breaking In

I got my first job as a production artist with a screen printing company in Ontario, California.

I was about 19 at the time, and thought I knew everything. My first few weeks as a production artist, I began to understand that I really didn’t know too much, at all. The job chewed me up and spit me out, I just couldn’t hang in there.

They used Adobe Illustrator primarily for all the Illustration work, and trying to learn that was just brutal. After a few months, they decided that I was just not cutting it, being more of a liability than an asset. So they end up letting me go. But I didn’t walk out of there without another set of awesome friends, both of which are still very close and still continue to teach me so much.

After that, I got a job working at Walmart to have some sort of income. I really wanted to get a handle on Illustrator, so in between the job and downtime, I began to make up my own projects, taking some of the production mentality from the previous job and applying it to my work, as if I was working for a client, setting deadlines and goals.

One day I called my buddy Daniel, who used to work for the company that gave me the ax.

He is an extremely gifted artist, and had left that company to start his own thing. He had a spot in his office, and he took me in and taught me quite a bit about the behind the scenes work. He just threw me in it, and really made sure I understood what I was doing. I learned so much there, setting up files properly for print, meeting deadlines, and working with clients and meeting their needs.

Current projects & future plans

Currently, I work for Famous Stars and Straps, a clothing company in Ontario, California as a graphic artist. I get to work on some sweet stuff, namely a comic book called “The Wild Ones”. Most recently, some of my art was used for one of the company’s stunt riders, J Beats, sporting a nice bike wrap, helmet and limited tee design. He liked his piece so much that he got it tattooed oh his HEAD! True story.

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Dayne Henry | Comic Illustration

In addition to work, I still take on freelance projects, while developing some things of my own. Currently I’m working on my own comic book, Nancy Nitro, some concept art for an online video game and a couple of things for the vinyl toy market.

Inspiration

My wife has been with me through my ups and downs, and continues to stay strong and support me through all this madness. She keeps me going, and my little girl lets me know that I can do it as well. They are my everything, and they just keep me on my toes, and let me know that I can do just about anything.

I’m also surrounded by a great group of friends and family, who continue to support me through all my endeavors.

I’m currently available for freelance work, so if anyone needs some concept characters drawn up, tee shirt designs, album artwork, etc. - let me know.

DAYNE HENRY Comic Illustration Work Displayed: Giant Killer | Feeling It 2 | Madness Inked 2 | Feelin It Contact Details: • romidion.blogspot.com • dayne.henry@gmail.com • www.behance.net/daynehenry

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Jezabel Nekranea | Illustration & Fantasy Art

nekranea “I always loved to draw, when I was a child my father was very young and very talented at drawing, I remember him drawing wonderful places with fantastic buildings, creatures and vegetation, he had a unique style and an amazing skill to do it and this fascinated me, so I spent my early childhood drawing and imagining.”

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y name is Jezabel Rodrigo Yusta aka Nekranea, I’m an illustrator and fantasy artist who loves nature and magic. I was born in Madrid (Spain) in 1976, I used to live in the city center, but two years ago my partner and I moved to the countryside, this has changed my life and my art.

Most of my recent artworks are inspired by nature, I love to create very detailed pieces with plants, animals and magical and elegant creatures.

I always loved to draw, when I was a child my father was very young and very talented at drawing, I remember him drawing wonderful places with fantastic buildings, creatures and vegetation, he had a unique style and an amazing skill to do it and this fascinated me, so I spent my early childhood drawing and imagining. My father didn’t became an artist and he is happy about that, but being a professional artist became a goal and an obsession for me.

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“

Lots of things inspiring me nowadays, I’m very interested in mythology, ancient philosophy, nature and all kind of arts so I’m always searching and learning new things and it gives me lots of ideas to create new pieces.

“

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Jezabel Nekranea | Illustration & Fantasy Art

My mother is a creative person too, she attended at art classes and she participated in some art shows so probably my parents were my first influences.

I think that another of my influences in my early childhood were Disney and Jim Henson. Movies like “The Dark Crystal” totally blowed my mind. Watching films is one of my hobbies and inspirations, nowadays directors like Hayao Miyazaki or Guillermo del Toro are a big reference to me.

Animals are another of my passions since I was a child, they are a huge inspiration to me and they are very important in my recent work, I love imagining and painting magical creatures half human half animal. I love looking for information about different kinds of animals, watching lots of pictures and studying their physical characteristics, painting fur and feathers has became one of my favorite things.

Lots of things inspiring me nowadays, I’m very interested in mythology, ancient philosophy, nature and all kind of arts so I’m always searching and learning new things and it gives me lots of ideas to create new pieces. I enjoy of the classical masters of painting like “Jan van Eyck”, “Leonardo da Vinci”, “Sandro Botticelli”, “Caravaggio”, “Gustav Klimt”, “Alphonse Mucha”, “William-Adolphe Bouguereau”, “William Waterhouse”, “Everett Millais”, but I also love lots of contemporary artists like “Mark Ryden”, “James Jean”, “Greg Craola Simkins”, “Sylvia Ji”, “Audrey Kawasaki”, “Lorey Early”, and I still discovering new amazing artists every day.

Regarding my art training, I started to attend at painting classes when I was a teenager but I think that most of my art training is self-taught, specially in digital illustration. I discovered Photoshop, Freehand and Flash when I studied Graphic Arts, it was really great and it was the start of my digital training.

But I think Internet has been the most important, useful and powerful tool in my art training and in my professional career. Thank to Internet I could learning, working, sharing and discovering amazing artists, some of whom have become good friends.

At the beginning of my career I worked as graphic designer and vector illustrator. I also worked on two projects of cartoon animation shows, designing characters and doing some flash animations, I love cartoons so it was really funny and I learned a lot working on it.

When I was studying Graphic Arts I met my current partner, the great artist Felideus, he also was interested in graphic design, illustration and animation

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so in all these years we have studied and worked together on some different projects like cartoon animation, comic books and illustrated books.

All these projects have been a really good training to us and helped us to improve our skills and find our own styles.

Nowadays I’m working as freelance illustrator and character designer, also I’m working on some personal projects, I’m still studying and improving my drawing skills and my digital technique.

I recently started to learn how to sculpt using

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polymer clay and I also want to learn how to create ball jointed dolls so this is another of my personal projects.

I have many professional and artistic goals, I’d love to work in a big film production as a character designer or concept artist, publish some illustrated books about my own mythology with lots of creatures and places, make some traditional paintings and sculptures of my creatures and become one of the best illustrators of our time, so I’ll keep working hard to get all of them.

Jezabel Nekranea | Illustration & Fantasy Art

JEZABEL NEKRANEA Illustration & Fantasy Art Work Displayed: Flower Spirit | Bird Soul | Shinskra: Wind Spirit | Tree Spirit | Flora | Amaelsh: Forest Spirit Contact Details: • http://nekranea.blogspot.com/ • http://nekranea.deviantart.com/ • nekranea@gmail.com

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statem

ironic

“Disguised under a serious tone, iro or actions aim for an effect in con discongruence with the opposing d humour, irony makes a criti 58

Innovated Magazine: Issue Three

Seda Hepsev | Contemporary Painting

ments

onic statements ntradiction and dialogue. Unlike ical approach.”

E

veryone’s a Kid At a Kids’ Birthday Party” is my fourth solo exhibition at x-ist, and even though each show had thematic differences, I usually had one tonal basis: irony.

Disguised under a serious tone, ironic statements or actions aim for an effect in contradiction and discongruence with the opposing dialogue. Unlike humour, irony makes a critical approach.

Irony indirectly highlights the intended meaning with the use of certain mimics, gestures and tone.

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In my previous show, “Some Wrongs Do Make a Right” I portrayed people who came out with their eyes closed in passport photos, wedding photographs where barely half of the groom or the bride appears, banners where the person holding them are outside the frame, in short photographs which should be discarded or in today’s digital world simply “deleted” as mistakes. I presented the audience the “anti-frame” concept applied to the canvas, with different sized monochrome paintings of these photographs full of shooting mistakes stemming from the human condition. This time, in order to point out the incoherence between the ideal and the truth, I examine the representation of the body with poses and gestures that have no correspondence in our daily life.

The characters in these paintings are adults who have moved from the city to wellprotected gated communities and housing complexes. Just like the bedsheeted tents we used to set up as kids under dinner tables or in the middle of living rooms, the housing complexes actually create private “habitats” or personal space for these people. No one actually hides or escapes. They are only resisting, not hiding, since this assimilating structure in which they find themselves binds them into a community.

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Seda Hepsev | Contemporary Painting

The face-less figures reflect this integration since the face specifies an individual and becomes a border between people, whereas my characters voluntarily give up their identity in exchange for a “virtual” area of resistance and the sense of safety, provided by this assimilation. Their stagnant poses that almost turn them into statues add to this, and even though they are “one-minute” sculptures temporary, frozen and insecure, they reflect the motives of the characters. The audience is left to anticipate a movement as a catalyst to break through this uncertainty, just like a mother listening to the heart of her new-born baby.

SEDA HEPSEV Contemporary Painting Work Displayed: Please contact Seda Hepsev directly for more information regarding her work.

Contact Details: • www.sedahepsev.com • hepsev@gmail.com

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g

Jason Rowland | Stencil Art & Mixed-Media

“It began with crayons,” he says. “They always tasted so good so I would eat them. But in preschool I moved on to play dough.”

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alk through the home of Jason Rowland and one of the first things to catch your eye is the vast array of artwork that hangs in each room. “I was way too cheap to pay for anything to decorate the walls so I figured I would make it myself.” Jason is an alternative artist who recently broke onto the scene with his stencil and mixed media art.

Though new to the art community, he is worth keeping your eye on as he continues to develop his talent and expand his horizons.

Jason admits he has always loved art. “It began with crayons,” he says. “They always tasted so good so I would eat them. But in preschool I moved on to play dough.” Raised in a small town in Northern Indiana, Jason looks back with appreciation for his parents who

Art

into the world of

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fueled his artistic hunger with encouragement and a seemingly endless supply of paper and other supplies.

“I was sick and stuck inside a lot as a kid so I began drawing to pass the time.” His first real ‘public’ display came when he entered his elementary school poster contest and won. As a result, he got to meet the Governor.

“I think he was drunk. At least that‘s what my dad says.”

In high school, Jason took all of the art classes he could. He says it was in part to avoid having to take any of the hard classes. Besides that, art came easy and it was fun. After high school, he got his first job as a painter – a house painter. The lack of opportunity to express his creative side began to wear him down and Jason admits “I really started to get out of my head.” His life continued to spiral downward until he met Michelle Engle, who soon became his wife. “Michelle helped me to get my crap together.”

A few years after meeting Michelle, they had their first child, a boy. Becoming a parent has an

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Jason Rowland | Stencil Art & Mixed-Media

effect on all of us. For Jason, it was the beginning of a maturing process. “He helped me to grow up – almost all the way.” About three years later their daughter came on the scene. It was around then that Jason began drawing again. However, this time, simple drawing began to lose its appeal and Jason found himself getting bored.

One day, while reading a skateboarding magazine, he came across an article on stenciling. He gave it a try and has been hooked ever since. His first stencil was a dead bird that he put on his skateboard. Since then he has produced hundreds of stencils. His first weapons of choice are hand cut stencils and spray paint. “With this medium multiple paintings can be made with just one stencil, with unlimited possibilities for background and color. Each one is one-of-a-kind because of over sprays, drips, runs, and other anomalies.” Looking at his art, one can see the influence of graffiti and street art. “I’ve always loved those expressions and I wanted to find a way to have them in my house.”

After developing his stencil art, Jason took an interest in mixed media. He enjoys combining painting with acrylics, spray paint, water paints, ink, stamps, decoupage and more on one piece.

His first attempt at this form was a portrait of David Bowie titled “The David Bowie” where the entire face was made up of the word “the” which he had cut from newspapers and magazines. It took over twelve hours to paste all the words in place but the finished product was worth it and Jason had a new talent to add to his arsenal.

When asked about the most memorable pieces he has produced, Jason will tell you of the picture of Gandhi created with the bar codes he hand cut from soup and bean cans.

“Michelle, the kids and me ate a lot of soup and green beans in order for me to cover his face.”

The piece he is most proud of is a portrait of the bride of Frankenstein he produced on the screen of an old TV. “I found the TV in a ravine full of junk. It was a challenge to create the picture on the convex screen. Once it was done, some friends built a frame for it and we pressure mounted it with screws.” Once again, the effort was well worth it and this is a piece you should see for yourself.

At one of Jason’s shows you can expect to see other famous characters depicted in his

artwork. He has produced pieces featuring Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, JFK Jr. saluting during his father’s funeral procession, Pete Rose, Henry Kissinger and more. You’ll also see other easily recognized images and some people you may not recognize. “I like to focus on famous people or images, my family, or just weird things that catch my eye.”

As you can image of someone whose prized creation was produced on an old TV screen, Jason likes to use a variety of materials for his art. “If I have the money, I like to use canvas.

If I don’t, I’ll use wood, chunks of metal, press plates, paper – just about anything that is flat.”

He recently shared a showing at the Artpost Gallery in South Bend with the Art Duo, Dr. Funlaw. All of Jason’s artwork for that show was created on press plates that were salvaged from a local newspaper which he framed himself.

Jason’s work has also been featured in the “Frame Up Show” at Everybody Get Up in CA.

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This was a group show where all the contributing artists had to purchase the same style of frame from Ikia and create a piece to fit in the frame. He applied for and won a spot in “Drawgasmic,” curated by Cranky Yellow in St. Louis. He also had pieces on display at the “Orange Show” which is billed as Indiana’s Premier Music and Art Festival. “That was probably the coolest show I’ve done.” Most recently, Jason had three pieces accepted to show at the “BN ‘Post It Up’ International Street Art Expo to be held in Italy.

In a slightly different direction, Jason has also been producing hand painted wooden blocks which feature his original artwork. This project is somewhat different than his other work in that it is featured in Art-O-Mat machines – old cigarette vending machines which have been refurbished to dispense wood blocks or cardboard

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boxes. In order to have his work included in this, he has to produce this artwork on pieces of wood the size of a cigarette pack. Jason recently received a correspondence from someone who had purchased a piece of his from one of these machines at the Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

When asked when he first realized he was an artist, Jason first responded by saying it was when someone other than a family member bought one of his pieces. “I thought, wow, someone is going to pay me to have one of these in their home?” Then Jason thought a little then grinned. “Or maybe it was

Jason Rowland | Stencil Art & Mixed-Media

when I had my first piece stolen at one of the art shows I was at. Someone walked off with a big piece I did featuring the Jolly Green Giant.

Yeah, I guess when people start stealing your stuff you feel like you’re doing something that really is worth something.”

As a new artist, Jason knows firsthand the difficulties that come when attempting to find venues to showcase his art. “It’s especially difficult here in the mid-west.

My style doesn’t always fit with the nature scenes and landscapes that seem to be in vogue around here.” While discussing this one day with Michelle, the two came up with an idea to provide other artists like himself the opportunity to showcase their works. From that idea, “Art Murmur” was born. The first was held in Winona Lake, IN with several artists joining Jason in hosting an open house where people could browse their artwork. The success of that event led to a second being held in a downtown restaurant in Warsaw, IN. Jason dreams of “Art Murmur” continuing as a roving show where alternative artists such as himself can enjoy an introduction to art lovers throughout the area.

Though ambitious about his craft, Jason wants his artistic endeavors to remain fun. “Art is a way for me to de-stress. I’m a part-time artist and, right now, I don’t see myself leaving the family business to pursue a full-time career as an artist.” Sure, he likes the extra income it provides and the opportunities it creates for him and Michelle to travel and meet new people. But for Jason, it has never been about the business.

It’s always been about the love of art.

So why did he go public with his creations? “A couple of years ago, my cousin, who was about five years older than me, died. He left a family behind. His death caused me to re-evaluate my own life and my relationships. I suddenly came to the realization that life is short. I didn’t want to get to the end of my life and have a bunch of regrets for the things I didn’t do. When family and friends would come to the house and saw what I was doing, they encouraged me to get it out where others could see it. I decided to go for it and, since then, I haven’t looked back.”

Once you see Jason’s work, you’ll be glad he emerged on the scene.

JASON ROWLAND Stencil Art & Mixed-Media Work Displayed: Please contact Jason Rowland directly for more information regarding his work.

Contact Details: • http://www.imafraidofbeetles.com/ • rowland1964@yahoo.com • ETSY: Rowland1964

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