loBURN Magazine Volume 1

V01: April 2013 FEATURING:

JOE COLEMAN STEVEN JOHNSON LEYBA

ROBERT EARL REED

CRYSTAL BARBRE

RICK ZAR AND MORE...

catapult-mag.com

loBURN MAGAZINE CONTRIBUTORS

WETHEPEOPLE: Assistant editor

LANAGENTRY Designer and creative consultant

TaTOMIRPITARIU

Assistant editor and contributing writer

HopeBellgren Assistant editor

JulieAntolick Winters (Joe Coleman interview) Assistant editor

BrittFleming Contributing writer

LanaMagnuson Designer

KimWilliams Howes Assistant editor

ALEXCROEL A narrow view of art is like a narrow view of anything. loBURN uncensored, aims to open the lens that you may finally see.

Cover image JOE COLEMAN “A Doorway To Joe”

INSIDE:

06 . . . . . . . . . .

HOLLY BERRY 10 . . . . . . . . ROBERT EARL REED 01 16 . . . . . . . . . . . D. HWANG 20 . . . . . . . RICARDO ACEVEDO 24 . . . . . . . MEESHA GOLDBERG 26 26 . . . . . STEVEN JOHNSON LEYBA 48 . . . . . . . . . . . . RICK ZAR 56 . . . . . . . . . . . . . GARY LEE 48 64 . . . . . . . . . . . LITTLE OZZY 68 . . . . . . . . . CRYSTAL BARBRE 80 . . . . . . . . . . JOE COLEMAN 80 92 . . . . . . . . . DONNIE GREEN 98 . . . . . . . . . . NORBERT KOX 104 . . . . . . . . . ROBERT BAUDER 110 . . . . . . . . . . . JAMIE WEST 104 114 . . . . . . . . LANA MAGNUSON

DEATH BECOMES HER

by Lana Gentry Photo by Dennis O’Neil

© Holly Berry

Holly Berry’s business may be about death but her creative process is teeming with life. She’s involved in all kinds of activities including drawing, writing, modeling and more. In this imaginative photo shoot with Dennis Oneill, Holly explores darker living realms in a modern day aquatic Goldfinger-like incarnation. While no one can deny that death is a mystery, these pictures prove that life can be a taboo and mystery as well if approached with the kind of passion Holly Berry exhibits.

© Holly Berry

Photo by Dennis O’Neil

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Holly Berry

Holly says, “My own pursuit of happiness extends beyond myself as I believe I am part of a greater whole.

Sometimes my artistic expression takes the form of supporting others through difficult situations such as the loss of a loved one. My decision to pursue funeral directing as a profession was a practical one.

I love that it is never boring at work. Various cultures regard death differently and in ours it is considered very unnatural. I find this strange and feel compassion for people I work with, as it just makes the inevitable more painful. I want others to know they are not alone.

I was born in the year of the horse. I could say that much of me was defined by the high glaciers, deep forests, and wild things that resided in the forests where I grew up. When challenges arose I could always find solace in nature. I came to identify most closely with the tranquility of cool clear water, which became my metaphor for happiness and serenity. I found I could share this cool, clear water with others through my art and I’ve dabbled in various media such as painting, flower arranging, and poetry. I like to see where the currents will take me...”

© Holly Berry

© Holly Berry

© Holly Berry

© Holly Berry

© Holly Berry

© Holly Berry

© Holly Berry

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Robert Earl Reed

Robert Earl Reed

by Lana Gentry

I learned a philosophy…that music does not have to be note perfect to be appreciated as art. I learned that less is more. I learned that there are no boundaries except those that we put on ourselves when creating art. I learned that if I truly wanted to be an artist, I had to get out and do it.—Robert Earl Reed 1. To me, your music is raw and real. How would you describe your music? Does it belong to any genre?

Well, “genre” is such a well-worn and -used term in art. Though many genres of music, visual arts, and written word have influenced me, I really don’t have a “home,” if you will, in the world of categorization. However I have found a home in the genre-defying world of Triple X Music (http:// givememyxxx.com), a place to call home thanks to Shooter Jennings and music historian/writer Adam Sheets. Triple X Music is comprised of a group of artists who do not adhere to traditional boundaries or formulas to make art. It is music made on our terms with our own sound (and mostly with our own money). When you listen to the music of Fifth on the Floor, Hellbound Glory, J. B. Beverley, Powder Mill, North Mississippi Allstars, Shooter Jennings, Dallas Moore, and Jimbo Mathus, to name a few, you will immediately feel the authenticity of the entire experience. I’d like to think my music conveys just that— realness.

THE most important thing for any artist, I think, is to not try to sound like anyone other than themselves. Sometimes being pigeonholed in to a specific genre can and does make the art suffer.

I take it as a huge compliment when my music generally can’t fit neatly into any one description.

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Robert Earl Reed

2. Your album Carlene was recorded with Jimbo Mathus of the Squirrel Nut Zippers. What was that experience like for you, recording with the likes of such a respectable gent in the business, and what do you think you learned from this seasoned pro?

Well, if it were not for the belief that Jimbo had in me as an artist, we would never be having this conversation. I will always be indebted to him and my co-producer Justin Showah for this but the album Carlene was a journey. It really didn’t start out to even exist as a project. It evolved from our collective minds over a three-year period. Fate has a funny way of steering things. Through a series of happenstances I wound up meeting Jimbo. I had never sung, never performed, never written music. The original plan, at least to my mind at the time, was to write songs and hope he liked them enough to cover them. I was shocked, to say the least, after the second session when he told me I needed to sing my own songs. Thus, he and Justin took me under their wings and together lovingly stitched together a work I will always be proud of. I would literally write a song, come in to the studio, give them my words and chord progressions, and creation would ensue. The experience of working in this manner was magical. Soon talk turned to actually releasing an album. Over the course of the three years, I found my voice and songs kept coming. I learned a philosophy from Jimbo that music does not have to be note perfect to be appreciated as art. I learned that less is more. I learned that there are no boundaries except those that we put on ourselves when creating art. I learned that if I truly wanted to be an artist, I had to get out and do it. I had the incredible fortune of being able to turn myself completely over to Jimbo and Justin and let them run wild creating on my songs. From mule jaws and sweeping the control room to hauling phenomenal artists out of bars and WICKED guitar licks from Jimbo, it all was in the realm of something meant to be. It was catching lightning in a bottle over and over. It was the purest form of creation that I’ve ever been a part of.

3. Tell me about this latest project and how you think it differs from the last.

The creation of Carlene will never be repeated. It can’t. For better or worse, I am different as an artist now. It’s almost like looking back over your high school days; you can’t relive them. You may look fondly back, but you are older now and you have moved on. I’d like to think that my second album, Something Wicked will pick up where Carlene left off. The evolution of me as artist will continue. I am a voracious writer but my attention span can get in the way. We will be entering the studio with about thirty songs in demo form. This time it will be creation on the fly, but in a much shorter time frame. I have grown musically and lyrically but the subject matter will still be raw and edgy. The production itself will be tighter. I now know what I sound like and now it’s time to harvest the fruits of that development.

4. Sometimes I hear an early hint of Johnny Cash in your style. Was he an influence?

That’s a fine compliment. This will sound very trite, but I’d like to think that EVERYTHING I’ve ever said, seen, read, heard, smelled, felt, or tasted influences my art. Mr. Cash is there. So are John Prine, Bobby Hebb, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Pink Floyd, 2Pac, Alison Krauss, countless folk songs, etc. I played violin when I was a child. I loved Beethoven and Mozart. The songs really come from some place in my mind. They bleed out; the words first and almost immediately the melody. It’s like being channeled to me, so it’s hard to put a finger on who the influence is. I’m quite sure that they are there, but I never set about to create something “like” what someone else did.

5. Of all the songs you’ve written, is there one that feels the most personal, and if so, what is it and why?

I take a lot of flak from my family and friends for baring my soul. I try to show the good parts and the ugly parts. I am warned that this one or that one might not approve. I am warned to think of what others might think about me. HOGWASH....THIS is not art. This is pretending to be someone or something that I am not. I am often asked, “Why don’t you write happy songs? Are you not happy?” To this I answer that life is not all about happiness.

If you are unwilling or afraid to look at the underbelly of life, then how do you know if you are happy or not? I fight chronic depression.

It is a hard battle. Holding the demons at bay can be quite a task. I have found writing helps me in my down periods. I wrote a song some time ago entitled “Me and My Reaper,” which will most likely be on the album Something Wicked in some shape or form. This song is full of truth about where I was at the time. This was the first song I ever recorded in a studio. This is the first time I ever played my own guitar and sang my own song. It is dire and dark, and in some ways I am still there.

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chapterEarl Robert titleReed

6. Your songs have a poetic depth. You are a balladeer. Did you ever write poetry or prose before you embarked on making music?

I did in high school and received a good deal of praise. But after high school, when I ventured into the world, I was too busy trying to feed my need for self-gratification to do anything creative.

7. Clearly some of your work is autobiographical, but would you say most of it is?

I would to a certain extent. However, I am a very empathetic person. This is a good thing but can also be a bad thing. Sometimes it has led me to care more about someone than they cared about themselves. Sometimes I dwell on their position in life and wonder…why? Many times a song will grow from what I feel from them and what emotions are conjured from my mind when I place myself in their shoes.

Then on the flip side, I fight clinical depression. It has been and continues to be a challenging battle.

Many, many songs help me verbalize the frustration and anger that are spawned from the condition and communicate to others how I feel.

Social issues as well permeate my mind—poverty, violence, bigotry, hypocrisy, religious intolerance, religion—are all muses for my writing.

8. What’s next for Robert Earl Reed?

I recently co-wrote the song “In the Garden” on Jimbo Mathus’s pending White Buffalo, to be released in October on Fat Possum Records. I am, as always, writing voraciously. I have two screenplays that I am working on, one for a short film entitled The Oracle and one for a play entitled Hey Sam. I am making my first foray into filmmaking as director of the music video for “In the Garden.” I am writing a series of stories for Paraphilia magazine entitled “The True Stories of Robert Brock”; the first installment has just been issued in the August publishing of Paraphilia: Tagada (http://paraphiliamagazine.com). I am working on getting in to the studio to record my sophomore album, Something Wicked. (Label execs! Help me!) I am writing almost a song a day and looking for artists who need songs. A nd I hope to be able to continue making art of all kinds.

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chapter title

D Hwang 1. Tell me what the word art means to you.

For me, “art” is just a tool to enact my karma and every day sullage from within. Also at the same time, it is a way to meditate.

I don’t express or tell about the outside world through my art. It is only focused on myself and is a quest to find out more about my inner true self.

“GARATICA time. No.3” © D. HWANG

2. What is like living in Korea and being an artist?

3. You have been described as dark and unsettling. Why do you think this is?

Living as an artist is very tough life. It doesn’t matter if you are Korean, American or anything else. However, in South Korea, no one is interested in “fine art”. I can tell you, there is no true real contemporary fine art scene in this country. After the Korean war in 1953, South Korean people have been rushed only to redevelop the economy and make a living. That’s been true for over 50 years now. We didn’t have time to enjoy and taste art. South Korea is now a powerful economic country we are not poor any more.

Developing a culture requires a lot of time, but I hope the Korean people can finally take time to relax and enjoy fine art. It will take time because developing culture requires a lot of

Have I? There are already too many artists who paint and draw the bright side, but this universe has both sides - a “Yin and Yang”. There is also true beauty in the dark side. In the darkness, finally we have true rest. We will all die some day. Darkness it not a thing we should avoid because it is the final destination to which we return. I want to know and get to close to death before I die and want to explore this through my art.

“Herman Hesse” © D. HWANG

“GS-02” © D. HWANG

“BUJUS” © D. HWANG

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D Hwang

4. You are about to release a film. Please tell me about it.

It is called “ The Painter”. It is about a closed and shadowed place, “The Korean Art Scene”, and what’s it like to live inside that.

For a long time, Korea’s art scene was a field that was hidden under a veil.

To exist as an artist and not compromise to gain the popularity of the people or to work for mere artistic vision is simply asking for a rough, hard way of living.

This film is not a fantasy about the romantic lives of painters of the 19th century, but a painter’s serene self-narrative about the conflicts of living in the 21st century, which has lost its romance and purity when addressing art.

His life includes no passionate romance, exaggeration for artistic catharsis, and no overnight drunken debates. Only the dose of loneliness and cold reality that is shoved into his face daily and the calm feelings of sorrow which are dryly melted into his works.

This is a story not only about painters of fine art, but all pure artists in all genres who refuse to climb the ladder of compromise and choose to stay true to their art.

“zde 18.19” © D. HWANG

5. You work in many mediums such as film, sculpture and paint. Do you prefer one more than the other?

Painting. Painting is the basic element for every other form of visual art for me.

6. Tell me what’s next for you. What are your plans for the future?

Well, I don’t know.

I’m thinking I’ll move to Berlin next year, stay there for a few years, and have shows.

Also I’m planning to make another movie this year.

Thanks so much for your time. www.D-Hwang.com

Ricardo Acevedo

“Stop Light by Ralife” © Ricardo Acevedo

Ricardo Acevedo

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“It’s All Bull” © Ricardo Acevedo

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Ricardo Acevedo

“WOE” © Ricardo Acevedo

“Green Handed by Ralife” © Ricardo Acevedo

“Furies by Ralife” © Ricardo Acevedo

“Fab-9” © Ricardo Acevedo

Ricardo Acevedo Graphic Design/Art & Photography, Austin, TX / 512.577.0258 raworxcreative.tumblr.com www.linkedin.com/pub/ricardo

“The thing we must seduce is the light” RA ‘06 “Lilith-04 by Ralife” © Ricardo Acevedo

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Meesha Goldberg

Key to the Piece

by Lana Gentry

Who among us doesn’t want to own the key to a particular piece? Art can be like an advent calendar or a lock that longs to be opened, revealing the artist’s intentions. In this issue’s ‘Key to the Piece’ Artist Meesha Goldberg shares her vision and intentions behind her drawing.

““Four Queens”, 24” x 18”, Pen & Ink”

Meesha Goldberg I am drawn to the mandala because it expresses totality and wholeness which is the state I yearn for when I create: a psychic resolution through the play of symbols and images and a formation of a personal logic. The mandala unfolds kaleidoscopically, bursting forth from its center while being contained by its rings, the circular vertebrae, the page. Chaos can be brought into harmony through repetition, symmetry, or parts fitted into the whole like matryoshka dolls. This mandala is a celestial map of nature’s divisions: the moon’s quarters, the four elements, the zodiac’s splitting of space, the day, the night, and the cardinal directions. I’ve mapped the symbols for these phenomena along the vertices of geometrical forms and stars. The geometry is a metaphor for how the world exists: the whole divides into parts, and the parts, like vines, extend from the root to reach farther out in all directions. ~Meesha Goldberg

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Steven Johnson Leyba

This interview on request of the artist will remain unedited.

Steven Johnson Leyba

by Lana Gentry

What can be said of the man who terrified San Francisco and the world during his reign in the eighties as a shocking but honest artist/provocateur. For all that could be and has been said about him, he’s a peaceful man with a seemingly violent force of expression.

Controversial fluid artist, activist and founder of “ Sexpressionism” Steven Johnson Leyba talks about his life as a performance artist, Satanism, his relationship to La Vey, Burroughs, the meaning of portraiture and why he fears the food supply.

1. A s a Satanist and artist who includes a lot of related symbolism in your visual art and performance art, tell me what your views are on the state of Satanism today.

Most people now understand the basic philosophy of modern Satanism. Satan means adversary. Satan is the archetype of the rebel and fearless questioner throughout history in all human achievement and advancement in science and the arts and this is what I have always identified with. Anyone whom has ever challenged society with new ideas and ideals has been labeled Satan or the devil or evil at one time or another. LaVey’s Satanism, the Satanism of the Satanic Bible is about personal liberation and critical thinking. Some still see Satanic symbols as evil itself and that is because they are symbol illiterate. To me the Baphomet symbol of the goat in the pentagram still means spiritual and sexual and human potential through following your own human nature. I use this Satanic symbol in my work because it still evokes and instills the totality of the symbols in all it’s connotations and denotations but also there is humor in this symbol being so extreme but it can be very vital if used in a profound way. I am often asked; “Leyba you are not a Satanist anymore?” and I reply, “I’m not a Satanist any less. I am a Satanist and so much more.” and so I started the Coyotel creative movement and the Coyotel Church, which has no joiners only doers and creators backwards priests and priestesses, and Indignantaries.

What is lacking in the modern Globalist world and in the arts and sciences is also what is lacking in Satanism and that is critical thinking. Critical thinking is shunned amongst many sects of Satanism.

“Authorities” now define what was once lived and defined by the practitioners just as contemporary art is policed by the art systems “Postmodernism” markets representatives and not defined by artists.

Those artists not part of the art world are policed by whatever underground art ghetto or self proclaimed expert middleman of whatever trend of the moment. What was once “the productive elite” now call themselves “elite” yet no one seems to be doing anything of any interest within Satanism anymore and the creative people who were involved left in droves because of the new generation of do nothings.

They lack the skills or inclination to build their legacy and contribute to Satanic culture and by being compliant and apathetic they diminish it. It is as if being a Satanist is a great achievement unto itself and that has been the downfall of all religions. Just like all dominate cultures they stop being fluid and vital and suppress free thinking so as to protect the doctrines and laws. Most Satanists seem so content being middle class drones acting like they are the illuminati elite when in fact they are slaves to their corporate masters like most sanctioned rebellious movements and most artists and most people.

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Steven Johnson Leyba

It’s easier to follow fashion than to follow ones vision or as Joseph Campbell says “bliss” but sadly many people have no vision and those people in Satanism are policing others. They once questioned the status quo and had spite and contempt for being marginalized then they sought legitimacy by the dominate culture that marginalized them. So here we are at a time that Satanism is in many ways main stream so now what? We have the world looking at us now and they are listening and what do most Satanists do? NOTHING. I had to go beyond Satanism to grow. This does not mean in any way I denounce any of my work or views in my past only people and doctrines that stand in my way now. I have only evolved in my hunger to know and experience life in its totality. I do appreciate the fact that LaVey’s Satanism is a philosophical and intellectual attack on Christianity the problem seems to be not with Satanism itself but with Satanists. It makes me yearn for the days of “Satanic Panic” and ritual murders and baby sacrifices. The whack jobs had more passion and intent than today’s Satanist and they certainly were not boring.

Reminds me of what my dad used to say to me as a kid, “Do something even if it’s wrong”.

So Satanists have dropped the ball now that they have their legitimacy and audience. Early in my carrier as an artist I felt the need to combat Christianity because of it being such a subjugation and controlling device now I see the Christian control system being played out globally in media, celebrity “culture”, stock markets, banks, multinational corporations and the military industrial complex. In many ways Satanism became dogmatic and controlling to me.

For me Satanism became authority over my work so I became combatant with other Satanists but even that grew banal, time consuming and boring. Satanism as defined in the Satanic Bible teaches self empowerment and action and blatant defiance of any and all authoritarian repression and that includes Satanism itself in every era and always just as one has to always fight to know what is true and to be truly free. It doesn’t teach sit on your ass and be a Satanist then be pretentious about it. LaVey would have hated that. It could and should be great but too bad about the Satanists acting righteous like Christians. Modern Satanic churches have excommunicated the very Satanists that actually apply the philosophy.

Satanism has become the means to and end for many rather than a vehicle for innovation and public discourse. Now we are in the age of not only the “Christian Satanist” but also the “Pop Satanist” the “Cyber Satanist” and the “LaVeyan Satanic Fundamentalist”. The State of Satanism today is controlled and contained and bought and sold on the market place of sanctioned rebellion with rule abiding rebels. I am more interested in fighting this War against mediocrity wherever it is and whatever it calls itself with my art when it stands in my way just as Burroughs often stated, “Sabotage all systems of control”.

Or like it says in The Trickster’s Koran “We are not going to tell you what to do but you better do it!”

“LaVey-Alchemical”

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Steven Johnson Leyba

2. Y ou have a wide variety of subjects in your PAINing POORtraits series. Tell me about this work and about it’s consequent film.

“Crazy Bennie- Alchemical POORtrait”

It all started when I was sick in bed for many weeks. I had broken up with a girlfriend who hounded me for a month sending me images of destroyed paintings and descriptions of the various paintings she had murdered and how she had done it. I was devastated and I had gotten sick from trying to get healthy by eating more fruits and vegetables so nothing was making sense in my life.

I was feeling like many curses were working because a body of work was being destroyed and so was my body. In this period of a few months sick in bed I kept finding out more and more people whom I had once cared about or loved had destroyed my paintings. Why all this? What is the lesson here?

I had already been joking to a few people about how emotional painting was, how emotionally painful to create and now painfully destroyed. Genesis P-Orridge had been calling my portraits “P-O-O-R-traits” and I realized I was painting people’s bad traits in a way. Meaning human traits not normally painted in portraits. So was born the movies title “PAINing POORtraits; DESTRUCTION OF THE IMAGE” I understand an immediate need to destroy art from someone you loved once but now hated but to destroy your own image? a painting of oneself?

“Alexis- Alchemical POORtrait”

In this age where everyone speaks of their image even their online image?

How could they do that? Did they want to destroy the image I had of them in my mind? Me? Themselves? Was this a death curse thrown at me or a suicidal act? I then started a series of portraits called “Alchemical POORtraits” calling it that to capture the person’s essence and emanation and not concerned with their likeness. In the series I have painted many people including David Lynch and David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets who appears in my first movie receiving his POORtraits and David is the Magician in this movie who is a Jungian trickster spirit guide whom appears in flashes. Early on in the series I decided to paint a body of work that was to be destroyed on film to see what the psychology is here for someone to destroy their own image and part of the artist in the process. What I discovered was astounding. Everyone had a statement and they ritualized the destruction. I did not give them any direction just to destroy the piece on film and convey their intentions. The destruction of their image (paintings) I created of them became a rite of passage. In the film you will see my reaction to some of the destructions. The paintings were chopped, hammered, thrown, burn and even chainsawed.

Performance artist legend James Luna took a chainsaw to his portrait on the La Jolla reservation.

My father whom just passed away Crazy Bennie chopped and stabbed his with a machete and the destruction for him was to honor the ancestors. I miss all the destroyed work but somehow the destructions helped me reclaim something that was lost from the murdered paintings I did of X’s.

From all this loss I had to reach down deep. In my last movie “What is Art?” I asked the question “What is more important the artist or the art?” and most agreed it was the art but when I asked myself this question post destructions I had to say neither. The act of creation is more important than the artist and the art. I was very happy about this conclusion because you can destroy all my art all the art in the world but you cannot destroy the act of creating. I can create more art and others can create. The 1st and 2nd act in the movie is about the destruction of my work. The third act is about the destruction of my body from eating healthy food. I am taking on the most hated corporation in the world Monsanto.

You will have to see the movie to see how this unfolds. My co-director Adam Cooper Terán and I will be submitting the movie to film festivals early 2013.

Check out our facebook page www.facebook.com/painingpoortraits

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Steven Johnson Leyba

3. Y ou seem to have a fascination with artists as well as art. You explore their views on art in your film WHAT IS ART? Please define art as YOU see it for the reading audience.

I am fascinated by why people feel the need to create. In the movie I have 84 artists give insight into what they feel art really is. I am a staunch believer that not everything is art. I wanted artists to talk about why they create but also art they love and hate. What I found was reluctance to not only talk about art they hated but a great reluctance to speak about the passion of creating. Artists have been condition through the left wing political correct indoctrination that says “it is not ok to speak about what you feel is good and bad art or what you feel is TRUE ART” Expressing views about what is True Art implies there is false, that there is bad art or that some art is better than others. The implication in this Postmodernist era is that mantra “everybody’s an artist”. No not everybody is an artist some create things that are not art. Who’s to say? Well why not artists? Why artists to be silent while the art system, the galleries, the art magazines and the universities and the auction houses control the language around art? The unspoken rule is that artists should shut up about art. Why? Why not trust an artist rather than an “authority” on art? We create the art so why not listen to us about art? Why bow to the art police? One of the people I interviewed was a random artist in a mall in the small town of Roseburg Oregon. I went up to him on a whim and had my camera so I asked and he was up for an interview.

I admit my mind was prejudiced because he was creating typical dragon and puppy art. I wanted to nail him on what art was, what True Art was. His name was Shane Slayer and he was no idiot he blew my mind with his views on art but his art didn’t convey the passion of which he spoke in my opinion.

At one point of the movie he said he would be devastated if someone liked him but didn’t like his art.

I loved the guy and his passion for art but hated his art. Some very profound people are in the movie like Genesis p-Orridge, Barron Storey and the legendary H.R, Giger.

The movie pieces together a “TRUE ART LIST” by various things artists in the movie stated were the requirements for successful art.

TRUE ART Awareness (mindfulness) Authenticity (genuine) Intention Action Unique Markings

I have gotten so much hate mail and hostility even a death threat for creating a True Art list. Many have said to me “who are you to say what art is?” and I’d always reply “I am a passionate artist who creates art I believe in and believe is masterful works. Why should I not speak of what I am passionate for?”

Keep in mind traditionally artists spoke about their passion and other artists. Dali did, Picasso did. It wasn’t till the end of the Modernist era and the beginning of Postmodernism that it was frowned upon to speak of the passions of art. I believe it was an intentional strategy to squash that mode of expression for several reasons. One in pop psychology focus on having subjects draw what they felt and somehow that set the mind set that any kind of expression was as good as any other. A child’s scrawl was as good as a Rembrandt. Picasso spoke of the pure intention of a child’s drawing but I believe given the chance to speak about children’s drawings in general he would say some were terrible and not for lack of skill but for lack of intent. They did it half ass and didn’t mean it. Saying some art is better than others is the equivalent of saying someone is inferior because they are the wrong sex or the wrong race or religion.

Postmodernism says all art is good art and who are you to question? Also by making a TRUE ART LIST I am constantly shamed by people saying I am wrong that I am creating dogma. But go to any art school there are many lists and criteria to reach a certain goal in art. My goal is to get past this crutch that says it’s OK to be mediocre and those that excel need to shut up about their passions. When someone tells me to shut up about it that I am being oppressive it’s almost as if they are saying I am a racist or sexist just for speaking out about art. All artists should make their own lists of goals for TRUE ART. What people don’t see is the puritan dogma already existing in western cultures view of art. The bottom line is you know when someone means it stop feeling like you are destroying someone’s creativity by saying “it could be better” You can see the full movie for free at http://youtu.be/C_f0dTYgWl8 You can purchase the DVD at http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00JJPGLV (continued on page 38)

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chapter title

Delphyne Veyrat D Rebirth

The Rebirth Of Narcissus

Underground

D’ Urbet

The Lunch Of The Libra

Loeuf

Untitled

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chapter title

MONA

RUFF © Mona Ruff

© Mona Ruff

© Mona Ruff

© Mona Ruff

© Mona Ruff

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Steven Johnson Leyba

4. In recent years, you have become heavily involved in discussing the subject of food engineering as well as how you feel it affects the planet and it’s inhabitants. Could you summarize your intention and your views for me here, as an introduction for the reader?

What if I told you that we are guinea pigs and that most of the foods we eat even the fruits and vegetables, especially the fruits and vegetables in Americans are genetically altered and our bodies may not recognize them as food. That the new science of GMO foods “Genetically Modified Organisms” are created by using viruses and bacteria like E-coli to splice the DNA of Flounder Fish into strawberries for example. Scorpion genes in cabbage, trout in tomatoes and who knows what else? Would you think I’m a nut or a conspiracy theorist? Well it’s the truth. GM corn and wheat are in EVERYTHING so this epidemic of food allergies is going unaddressed not to mention European studies that suggest GM foods cause organ failure. Some reports state some of our DNA may be shut off by these foods and there is possibility of the foods DNA merging with your bodies. This is what we eat and the number one producer of this is the Monsanto Corporation. Monsanto has stated that in twenty years they want to own 100% of the food. In 1992 Vice President Dan Quayl whom everyone said was “stupid” was smart enough to start the “Quayl Commission” that was created so that NO GENETICALLY ALTERED FOOD IS REQUIRED TO BE TESTED OR LABLED. Here we are in 2012 and before the Supreme Court is the Organic Farmers Alliance (they started the organization Millions Against Monsanto) that is suing Monsanto so that the GM foods have to be labeled. NOT TESTED just LABELED. Several judges stepped down because of conflict of interest and the one judge whom should of stepped down Clarence Thomas whom used to be a lawyer for Monsanto says there is no conflict of interest.

I remember Clarence on television in the 80’s his sexual harassment trial was televised and he was called “Long Dong Silver” because he wanted his secretary Anita Hill to watch porn with him. Just as Dan Quayl’s stupidity was a diversion this trial was also. Apparently he told Anita Hill that there was a pubic hair on her coke can. This was televised. Simple bread and circus. These are the kind of mentally ill assholes run the show. Keep in mind when Clarence awards Monsanto with the right to not label that is the end of the story it is the supreme court so it cannot be appealed it will be forever a reality that we don’t know what we are eating and it can and is changing all the time. What we are eating now may take a long time to kill us but what will we eat that’s unlabeled tomorrow? A people that does not know what they are eating does not know who they are. Monsanto has sued many farmers over their GMO seeds blowing into organic farmers fields and one. What is happening with this is genocide of many of the plants we eat. GM seeds will contaminate all organic foods, till there are no natural crops left.

Monsanto threatened to bomb Africa when they refused GM seeds. All over the world many countries are burning Monsanto seeds and fields. Mainstream European news calls GM foods “biological warfare” and it is.

I discovered this when I got sick after I started eating healthy. I started eating mostly fruits and vegetables.

I went to the doctor and he told me all the vitamins and nutrients my body wasn’t getting which was perplexing since I had been eating healthy. I began to do my own research and I found out much of the fruits and vegetables we eat are genetically modified then I found out about Monsanto and how hated and insidious they are and why. I was shocked to what extent Monsanto goes for world domination over food and our bodies. They gave the world Agent Orange and remember it was used as a herbicidal weapon in Vietnam and we all know what wonderful things that poison has done to people.

I created a body of anti-Monsanto work even did many public curses on them and they know and have responded. I used their logo in my 13th hand made book titled “Monsanto”. Rather than typical protest art I have tried with my paintings and performances and spoken word rants to create a combatant visual language and to make sincere authentic works that address the issue. It’s not enough to just bitch or even to just sign a petition we must imagine something better and to imagine and then paint ourselves out of this.

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Steven Johnson Leyba

5. Y ou are widely known as a fluid artist, and have received much attention for using the blood of your genitals as a part of the medium used for portraits.

Would you explain to me why you do this?

The late part of the 20th Century artists turned back to the human body. Modernism went as far as Pollock and said the human form will never return to art but the body did. Artists used their own bodies its fluids. Human sexuality and bodily fluids are what everyone uses to first express him or herself when they first come into this world. Why is it off limits to artists? It’s their fucking body. What is wrong with the body and what it produces? Why is sex such a problematic and difficult issue in art? These are things artists embraced.

Why do I use my body’s fluids & secretions? Why not? The formalist defense would be I use the penis blood to randomly flatten the realistic image. The historical defense would be that many indigenous cultures had blood rituals. The Mayan actually pierced their penises in ritual magic. I see my art as ritual objects. Giving of oneself like blood is an ancient offering and is the opposite of prayer. When one prays they are asking something for nothing when one gives blood with intent and manifests it into art it’s a practical application of magic. I love the idea of putting myself literally into the art. One would never have a problem authenticating my art they would just have to check the DNA. The ritual is the process and the art is the aftermath. So many people get hung up because of penis blood or the sexual aspect of my art. OH NO THERE IS A PENIS THIS CAN’T BE GOOD. This is mind boggling that humanity is still hung up on sexuality even in the age of the internet where anybody can see any kind of sex act and the moment an artist takes this out of context and uses their body and or sexuality it is suddenly wrong and people go and protest. They don’t even look at the finished art to judge if it’s any good or not. Why? If they cannot get over the medium they are not worth my giving them the message.

This proves there is something in the human experience that is problematic and must be addressed especially in art. People get all hung up on what painting has blood or shit cum or piss. This is a litmus test for me. The medium is not the message just part of it but the act of creation is more important than the art produced. The act of creating is often overlooked or dismissed. My art is the aftermath, the chalk outline and the crime scene and what is at a crime scene? Lots of blood, shit and piss and cum. I am not someone who feels the need to defend or justify. I prefer art that challenges and makes me feel uncomfortable and challenges me. If the art doesn’t speak to you then go look at paintings of flowers or cartoons and that art will keep you just where you want to be. In the same place all the time.

6. M uch has been said about your association to Bill Burroughs. Would you mind sharing a bit about Bill Burroughs and what you feel created a bond of mutual admiration between the two of you?

His disdain for control systems and his staunch sardonic satire and blatant aesthetic attacks on control systems of our time even the internalized ones we are conditioned to have. Burroughs was such an icon that people forget how dangerous his ideas are to the system. His whole body of work was addressing CONTROL. “Question, is control controlled by it’s need to control?” answer, “Yes”. Right away Burroughs saw me as a peer. It was amazing I was just starting my fine art career in 1992 when we met at his house in Laurence Kansas. He saw what I was doing visually and felt it was valid and needed.

We had a correspondence and I kept sending him color Xeroxes of new works and he would give me feedback. This was an incredible opportunity to be a friend with one of the most creative minds of our time. He saw art as warfare and I was in my twenties and idealistic and was mastering my techniques and looking for wars to start. With Satanism the enemy for me was Christianity and then Burroughs taught me that all kinds of wars are being fought with all kinds of weapons for all kinds of reasons all the time. “Sabotage all systems of control” He helped teach me to chose my battles and that helped make my work precise, original and problematic to many systems even the art system. I see Burroughs as the most important of the Beat movement and he took the novel and reinvented it and changed everything just as James Joyce did in his time. Burroughs felt what I was doing in visual art was as good as what he was doing with words and in the same vein. Images are direct and the mind thinks in images and symbols and Burroughs has said, “Words are a virus”.

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Steven Johnson Leyba

“Hollie- Alchemical Transsexual”

7. W ith regard to the recent premature passing of model, actress, artist and pioneer Hollie Stevens, you have called her your best friend, and have included her in many of your works. What was it about Hollie Stevens that made her such a suitable muse for Steven Leyba?

She was an incredible human being whom radiated authenticity. Rarely in life do we meet someone so genuine in who they are and how they lived. Hollie made an impression on me as a human being and there are so few in this life and even fewer in the art worlds. She was unique in her beauty as well as her sincerity. Often times people get by on their beauty and they are what they do so they never become a true human being. Hollie was the most beautiful person I have ever met, seriously I am sure you would agree but also she was incredibly humble, funny, smart and deep without being a downer.

She was also the most positive person I have ever met in my life. The way she died was incredible it filled me with so much life to see so much honor and fight in her as her body quickly wasted away to a very aggressive cancer that she only had barely more than a year. She wasn’t her disease and she wanted more than anything to live. She always embraced all of life in its totality and that includes even death. She was a painter, a performance artist a writer and a clown porn star and those things were not who she was they were her customs, rituals and mediums to convey who she was and what she was about. She was also a wonderful trickster who used her mediums to put the mirror up to everything and all of us so we can laugh at it all. There is no one to compare. Never was and never will be. We were not only best friends but also kindred spirits and collaborators. No one will ever fill her shoes in my life. She filled me with so much I feel her in all that I am and do. She was my greatest muse because she could embrace it all and still be a fucking amazing and wonderful person without giving into all the traps and stagnation and repetition so many of us fall into. I so often get caught up in projects and what I do. I forget to have fun. Even now when I think of Hollie I think of her saying “don’t forget to laugh more” which meant, laugh more but also to live more.If the art doesn’t speak to you then go look at paintings of flowers or cartoons and that art will keep you just where you want to be. In the same place all the time.

“Hollie- Sexgoblins”

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Steven Johnson Leyba

8. L eyba is now and has always been considered by many to be an offensive artist. What artist or artists offend Leyba the most and why?

Some have called me the most controversial and problematic artist alive, some have called me an attention seeker. But what does that mean? What do they mean? What artist does not seek attention?

Shouldn’t all art touch us and move us and challenge us on some level to enhance our lives? I didn’t become an artist to win a popularity contest. No one offends me; well not in the way I offend people.

In my offense people have thanked me for challenging them and making them think. I have had reviews where they go on and on and on about how this is shock value and that is shock value and then it ends “but he is a master artist on so many levels”. So why is it no longer viable to offend to force discourse? Or has free thought and expression been bread out of the human race?

The opposite is true for the art that offends me. The art that offends me is art done badly and art done technically well that is also bad and soulless without conviction, intention and passion. I am offended that artists self censor and pre sell out to some imaginary markets. Where are the art crimes of passion? Transgression used to be an art form. Where is the Duende? Where is the fire in the belly?

Instead we have artists that would be better off just modeling or remaining computer programmers or going into advertising art. I wish I were deeply offended and not offended because I am annoyed and disappointed. The biggest disappointment is knowing that most artist don’t mean it and that offends me the most. I can’t think of a single name of any living artist that offends and challenges me.

Why is it that the highest profile artists are also considered outlaws and rebels? Really? We see more and more rule-abiding rebels. It is said that the best artists speak of their times and so few are doing this. I believe True artists are truth speakers and truth seekers. Artists playing the role at artist is a disingenuous act that reflects our times so maybe being a mediocre phony is the new art of our time.

You don’t win popularity contests by telling the truth about art, life and society. But I am grateful I can do exactly the art I want in the way I want when I want and make a living at it. Even that offends people. People deserve and need to be offended on a deep level.

9. A s an American Indian artist, do you see the symbols and represented customs that find their way into your work as being related to Satanic representations in your work...or are they completely different?

My work is Satanic in the way that I have personalized it and have reclaimed the symbols and made them my own. I have made my own culture and customs with my painting, writing, philosophy with Coyotel, writing and now movies. I believe it is important to use art as a weapon as well as aesthetic visual warfare. It’s interesting how not only the Native community but also the Satanic community give me grief for making it my own. As a Native and as a Satanist what I do is create a vital fluid body of work in the spirit of my ancestors and Satanism. This is seen as a cultural affront to many and well it is. I don’t follow dead traditions, rituals and customs. Collectively people tend to sacrifice the present vitality of life in ritual and symbols and customs to the sanctity of tradition. Much of tradition is death worship. If the tradition does not contribute to your personal culture it diminishes it. Traditionally indigenous cultures made rituals, symbols and customs that embraced new ideas, ideals and creations. They celebrated life as it is being lived and that was the best way to honor our ancestors. Today tradition be it native or not, regional, or global it is policed by the priests of cultures and multi-national corporations that only acknowledges death and death adoration. America used to really embrace innovation, progress, passion and vision. Mostly this is a relic we present and display as proof we are free thinkers at the expense of those actually thinking now. Dead customs and ideas are easily marketed and controlled even revolutionary ideas after the fact once they are safe. I create art as part of my daily life I don’t look to global markets and fashion trends to give me vitality.

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Steven Johnson Leyba

10. What is next for Steven Leyba?

More books to write, movie making and more exploration in portraits and hand made books to see how far I can push it. I am looking for a place to have my hand made books on permanent display, a Leybary. Basically a Leyba Library that has my hand made books on permanent display. It seems my books are to unusual and original or complex for much of the establishment however people always respond to art they can touch. Turning pages on a hand made book invokes powerful feelings in people at a time that they say the book is dead. If anyone has an idea or wants to help me manifest the Leybary please e-mail me leybaart@gmail.com

My website is www.stevenleyba.com My first book can be seen at www.books.google.com My latest book The Trickster’s Koran which is a compilation with other artists and writers witch includes the philosophy of the Coyotel movement will be available on Amazon soon but can be purchased now at www.lulu.com

Bianca Olson

Ian Ward

Daniel Adams

John Watson

49

Rick Zar

Goatboy in window of Copro Gallery for Conjoined 2 Š2012

RICK ZAR

1. How did your interest in working with neon begin and could you explain a bit about the process?

RZ~Sure. In 1981 I graduated from high school and was introduced to Los Angeles artist Larry Albright. I worked part time cutting glass beads for his crackle neon in his backyard in Venice, CA and went on to work full time for him from 1981 until 1992, fabricating miniature neon and large scale lightning/plasma effects for the entertainment and film industry. Some of the more iconic projects I’ve worked on include Pee Wee’s Playhouse, The Abyss, Batman Returns, Star Trek II and III, Star Trek Next Generation, the refurbishment of the mothership model from Close Encounters of the Third Kind for the Smithsonian Institute, as well as several private commissions of Larry’s for Michael Jackson, which I actually got to install in his bedroom!

Basically, neon is made by bending prefabricated glass tubing into a desired shape and then processing those tubes using vacuum technology and extremely high voltage.

Once this is done rare gases such as neon, krypton, argon, or xenon are introduced and the glass is sealed with the gases inside.

Add electricity and you have light. The whole process of producing signage or art is much more complex of course, and the actual bending of neon tubing is truly a difficult craft to even begin to master. It is completely a dying trade due to L.E.D. lights taking over the sign market.

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Rick Zar

2. How do you see this medium changing in the coming years with regard to creative expression?

The medium has basically never changed in its 100 or so year history. With one or two possible exceptions, it has been locked into its own unique box since its invention. Unless one is technically curious and pretty patient, it is damn boring to watch someone make neon, art or not. It is a rather slow laborious process and very shop oriented. Its other main drawback is the restrictive requirements for installation. I’m hoping that my current work will help change some of this. I have sidestepped these two areas so to speak and am now producing some unconventional neon sculptures that are dynamic in every way; the glass production being exciting to watch, extremely mobile, and very temporary if need be, while breaking the limitations on scale versus production time.

“Siamese Twins” ©2012

3. Who are your influences in this area? Are they limited to neon artists, or do artists in other mediums influence your concepts as well?

“One-Eyed Jack” © 2012

In the area of neon art that would be James Turrell, Brian Coleman and Dale Chihuly, however, throughout the eighties I had worked with many important neon artists while at Larry’s studio: Lili Lakich, James Turrell, Michael Hayden, Brian Coleman, and many others. I am definitely much more influenced by artists outside of neon, mainly because almost all neon art has failed to move me. My main inspirations outside of the neon genre are George Stone, Agnes Martin, and Christo and Jean Claude.

“Dragon Lady”

“Plasma Goddess” ©2008

“Night Rider” ©2010

“Orb”

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Rick Zar

4. You are the son of artist James Zar and brother to artist Chet Zar. What was it like growing up in such a creative family? Did you play against one another for ideas, or do each of you keep creatively to yourselves?

It was a real blessing to have James come into our lives when he did. He was always painting and also spent time with me lifting weights and throwing a football - great dad stuff that didn’t happen with my birth father.

As children Chet and I drew all the time together. We always had sketchbooks going and also put together monster models. It was pretty apparent early on that Chet had some great talent, as well as patience, which I had a hard time applying to drawing at that age and so I switched to guitar when I was nine.

It’s funny because I recently started drawing again and it is a blast. There is definitely stuff there for me, and I have now been playing the twelve string guitar for forty years and working with neon and glass for thirty. We always shared our art with each other. There was nothing but support in our family.

“Neon Study 1”

“Neon Study 2”

“Neon Star” ©2008

5. Share any coming projects or ideas you have in the works.

Chet and I have a collaboration planned for the next Conjoined show in January at the Copro Gallery.

I also have planned two live neon sculpting installations in LA early this fall. I will be making my own tubing and lighting and sculpting it on site. The sculptures will be mostly abstract so I’m aiming for a temporary install about one-hundred feet wide by fifty feet tall. Two-thousand feet of lit glass total made in about six hours. Huge light, very red, very bright... then gone. I think the large scale, the small tubing, and the kinetic elements will look quite different from anything anyone has ever made with neon and be very fun to watch.

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Rick Zar

“Voodoo” ©2010

Erick De La Vega Fine Artist and Photographer

left: Photo by Erick De La Vega, Models Alley Shiver & Deanna Deadly top: Photo by Erick De La Vega, Model Alley Shiver Photo by Erick De La Vega, Model Alley Shiver

facebook.com/artoferickdelavega • erickdelavegaimages.tumblr.com • modelmayhem.com/510291 erickdelavega.com

“The Disorderly Fashion of Swinging”

GARY LEE

by Britt Fleming

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Gary Lee

Your work is quite bold. Most of the color appears to be limited to black, white and red, with heavy emphasis on line. What do you feel led you to develop this particular style of drawing?

I started drawing fetish art towards the end of 1998. The color palette back then was all over the place, so, at the time, color wasn’t a big deal. I was more interested in the subject matter and color was just something I had to add so the drawings didn’t look like pages from an erotic coloring book. As long as the boots were black, the rest did not matter. The first time I started using the predominant black, red, white and shades of gray was a happy coincidence of intersecting ideas. I was working on a drawing called Reservoir 1 (attached) in 2005 which started off as an idea of a dominatrix against the backdrop of a dam wall. Only this dam had blood not water. After completing Reservoir 1, the final result must have hit a nerve because I’ve been drawing the same world in the same colors ever since. I made the sky black and up to now I’m still not sure where these characters live. I believe it to be either in a void, deep underground or some starless planet. Perhaps it’s in a closet at midnight. Thinking back, it may have been the setting that has influenced the colors and the fact that I keep drawing the same world over and over is why I haven’t mixed up the palette.

I’ve been a huge Tin Tin fan since I was small enough to read; the drawings are simple but the placement and execution is perfect.

In primary school, a Taiwanese friend showed me manga like Dragon Ball Z and I fell in love with the style immediately. Later, during college I was exposed to the work of Aubrey Beardsley and I admired the way he could communicate so much with only a few strokes. The fact that some of his work is just downright bizarre didn’t hurt either. Like my initial attitude towards color, I never gave much thought about what style of line to use. I think I subconsciously borrowed from all my influences when I started drawing fetish art.

A few years ago, someone commented on my work regarding the ligne claire style. I had to go and look that up and much to my enjoyment discovered that was the same style in which Tin Tin was drawn!

Overall, I don’t feel the style was pre-thought, it was just a number of influences that stewed over time and at some point red, black and white was added to finish it off.

“Reservoir 1”

Do you work in other media besides pencil? If not, what is it about pencil in particular that appeals to you?

I’ve tried acrylic, charcoal, and sculpting. None of them agreed with me; my two or three ventures into sculpture was a shameful disaster. I like

“Atropos”

the immediacy of pencil, although I do prefer a technical pencil over traditional pencils. I was always getting into trouble in high school and college for this preference but I never gave it up. I blame this on my lazy attitude towards creative interruption due to sharpening. By sticking with this tool I imagine it helped to shape the style that has developed – although I sometimes wonder what the drawings would look like if I could paint in oils.

Being a graphic designer, I’ve been asked if I’ve ever tried creating these drawings on computer, but I’m too old fashioned in my approach. I grew up scribbling on paper, tables, and walls and I feel that by attempting to create my drawings on a computer would be like cheating. If I made a mistake I could always “Undo” or revert to an older file and it kind of takes the excitement out of getting it right the first time. For me, using traditional materials gives the work a personal touch and it’s more of a challenge. I tend to have a shaky hand and pulling off a single, unbroken curved line is a small thrill. There’s also a sense of separation that I get between a mouse and a screen which becomes more intimate when my hand glides across the surface of 250gsm cartridge paper. In essence, I like the pencil because I’m a traditionalist who sucks at making things in three dimensions.

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Gary Lee

I’ve been to Congo and Liberia, but never to South Africa. Tell me about the country, the city and how you feel living there affects your work. I’d also be interested to know how your work is received there.

I’m something of a recluse and I have not seen much of South Africa. Being more of an armchair traveler, I’m aware that SA is a very beautiful country and that I should really get out more to see just what makes the tourist flock to our sunny destination. Johannesburg, the city in which I live has a tremendous sense of space and light. Places are far between and there are trees everywhere, both in the cities and suburbs. With this said, I don’t feel that my external environment has influenced my work. The settings in my pictures are the exact opposite to my real surroundings. If anything, I am more attracted to the architecture and settings of Giorgio de Chirico but without the dreamy coloring.

I grew up during the last of the apartheid era but being so small at the time I wasn’t as aware of it as my parents. Even though apartheid was abolished shortly after Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, its after-effects are still being felt today. The SA art scene has reflected these feelings but I’m an outsider where this is concerned. I don’t feel that being a South African has affected or directly influenced what I am doing because my drawings are more of a release of my own internal emotional weather. I have submitted my art to some of the local galleries in my area but they seem to prefer art that is more mainstream and safe. I may not be approaching the right galleries and have not pursued it any further so I’m not sure just how big the local erotic art scene is. I’ve found that my drawings are better received abroad. There seems to be more of a tolerant attitude towards deviant sexual content overseas so I’m more focused on the overseas exposure. In a sense, I too am playing it safe.

“The Mezzanine”

“Grotesque”

“Clique”

Your work is strongly erotic. Is fetish art what you’ve always been drawn to creatively?

I’ve always had an obsession with boots, especially high heeled thigh boots. I was in high school the first time I drew a picture of a girl wearing boots and I was so embarrassed by it that I hid it away in my cupboard. It was like opening a door and finding something new and exciting but it frightened me at the same time. I was scared that people seeing the drawing would see it the same way I saw it. It took a while to overcome this way of thinking and, it was only around my time at college that I decided that I couldn’t care less what people thought. Humans are sexual beings, the sexual behavior may differ but there is a certain norm and when it starts moving outside those boundaries, people’s reactions are always going to be different. As long as no one around you is getting hurt, including yourself, you should allow yourself to accept and explore your obsessions. Denial for me would have been a life half lived. I don’t know where this obsession came from, I’ve had it for as far back as I can remember. For me, being male and having such a passionate interest does makes me feel even more of an outsider.

It’s strange because if I was a fashion designer this wouldn’t be an issue at all. Society puts labels on things to create some kind of map; but if you’re a creative person, I think you should burn it. If it’s inflammable, bury it and try to forget about it. My drawings are a release for my obsession. I’ve come to think of the creatures who share the space of the dominatrices in this gloomy world as self-portraits, sexually frustrated and slaves to their mistresses. In some way I think the dominatrices are also selfportraits, the yin to the yang. They may represent me attempting to take some form of control over their repressed desires. I often wish I could see a parallel universe where I was born a woman just to see if all of this would have still happened. Prior to drawing fetish art, I used to like drawing robots and copying just about anything and everything. This was all stabbed, cut up, and left for dead by an army of 6 inch heels.

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Gary Lee

When embarking on a new work, do you rely on photographic images, memory, models or strictly imagination?

It’s mostly from memory (thank you the Internet) and imagination. I never have a preconceived idea of what I’m going to do. I’ll just sit down in front of a blank sheet of paper and start drawing. I like the spontaneity and almost surreal way of working. For me it’s the closest way of tapping into your deeper thoughts. In rare cases I’ll see a picture in a magazine or even a person in public that sparks an idea.

It may be a certain pose or something someone is wearing that gets filed away for later use. I don’t think I’d get much done if I had a real life model dressed in some of these outfits.

I do own two pairs of thigh boots and I’ve only ever used them once for reference. It was more about the feeling of liberation and sharing the same space as them. They currently stand on a glass table in the corner of a room, and it’s always interesting to see peoples expressions at such a taboo display.

“Alice”

Your work strikes me as being highly animated, perhaps suitable for film work. Have you ever thought of taking your work in this direction, or are you satisfied with your stationary work?

I’ve thought of doing a graphic novel but I haven’t sat down to flesh out a proper story. I was tinkering around with an idea that this world I’ve created was on an island deep under the earth and all the dams were filled with blood from our world. The blood was basically menstrual flow that seeped into the earth and rained down on the island. All the blood that was stored in these dams were funneled to a central point on the island to keep a vast god-like creature asleep. All the dominatrices were caretakers of this island and they had to make sure this creature never awoke. It’s a Lovecraftian-like story which I have yet to realize in fullness. I’ve thought about how this would work on film and even 3d animation but, if I had a choice, I would want either old school animation or live action. Preferably live action. One of my favorite films of all time is The Cell. The sequences where the viewer is transported into the serial killer’s head are so bold that I am still amazed that something like this could have ever been approved. It was like seeing everything I was into put onto film. I would probably want my entire movie to be a surreal experience that feels like looking through the window of the subconscious. This may end up being self-indulgent but I’d imagine there is a market for it. If I had millions to burn I’d ultimately want to create a theme park of this world. Preferably on a remote island somewhere, slumbering creature included, but without the rain of menses. For now I’m satisfied with 2d work, but it’s nice to dream of the possibilities.

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Little Ozzy

by Hope Harris-Bellgren and Lana Gentry photo by Jamie West

Gimmicks be damned. While his small stature created an opportunity for Ozzy Osbourne impersonator Linn Doak to take his show on the road, few would deny that his big voice and commitment leave his audiences longing for more. loBurn caught up with him for a few minutes to get the dirt.

LB~ When did you start impersonating OZZY and how would you say your act has been generally received?

LO~ Little Ozzy was founded in April 2010.

LB~ What was it like meeting Sharon Osbourne when you performed on America’s Got Talent?

LO~ Since I am a huge Ozzy fan, I have followed Sharon as well. Meeting her was one of the coolest things I have ever done. It was very spiritual for me and quite an honor.

LB~ If you could meet Ozzy Osbourne today, what would you say to him?

LO~ If I could meet Ozzy I would say that I am a huge fan and I have followed you since I was a child. You were the biggest inspiration to me musically in my entire life. Now hire me to do something for you!

LB~ Your vocals are an impressive emulation. I’d love to know if you ever work on originals, or does your act even leave time for such things?

LO~ We are in early talks about doing a CD with Ozzy music. We will be buying the rights to record and sell 4 or 5 Ozzy Songs and the B side will include Little Ozzy original songs in the same vein.

LB~ What’s next for Little Ozzy and the band?

LO~ The next step for Little Ozzy is playing nationally at casinos, venues, and events. The goal is flying out of my hometown in Virginia at least 3 weekends a month for a show somewhere in the country.

littleozzyrocks.com

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Laurie McClave

“She Talks to the Trees”

“The Morrighansm”

© Laurie McClave

Crys

“Vitamin R girl with beers and sunglasses” 24” x 36” © Crystal Barbre

stal Barbre

by Lana Gentry

As an artist who paints a lot of edgy sexual content, do you believe that it is more difficult for women to be heard in this manner?

We live in a society that constantly floods us with sexually charged images. In advertising, movies, music, and television—we’re awash in sexual imagery, but our society is still very reticent to talk about sexuality in any sort of in-depth or introspective way. This dichotomy makes it very hard for any artist, man or woman, to use sexually charged images in their work. Sexual imagery seems to be accepted as long as it is benign and doesn’t challenge the feelings and ideas around our established notions about our sexual selves.

I think men and women have separate and unique challenges in creating work with edgy sexual content. Men who create this kind of work are often assumed to have questionable motives.

They are often charged with exploiting images of women and using sexual imagery for their own ends. I have a lot of sympathy for men that are trying to explore sexual themes because they have to work on a very short leash or are assumed to be chauvinistic or exploitative.

Women, on the other hand, work from the opposite side of the spectrum. We are expected to create “feminine” work, which is absent of hardcore sexual themes. We like to think that modern women have overcome archaic expectations and that we are free of the Puritan belief that women

don’t enjoy sex and that, if we do, we have loose morals or have no respect for ourselves.

Unfortunately, my experience tells me that these old ideas still hold true.

It is an idealistic notion that women can now be accepted as complete and layered individuals with all the sexual desires, flaws, and challenges that men have. My experience tells me that this notion, while desirable, is not yet a reality. Women have come a long way in establishing themselves as individuals independent of the expectations of Victorian ideas of “femininity,” but the old ideas still hold a very firm grip on much of our society —whether consciously or not.

It is my hope that by continuing to explore my own assumptions about sexuality as a woman and as a person, with curiosity and desire to examine myself and my constantly changing social landscape, I will be lucky enough to find other people who are willing to engage with me about their own discoveries. I’m not trying to create “shock art” but instead am seeking to act with full agency as a sexual being without being told who I am, what I am, and how I am supposed to act. I refuse to bow to historical gender expectations and limitations. I hope my work can, in a small way, help do this for others as well.

© Crystal Barbre

Is there anything in your childhood or background that you think has significantly contributed to the content of your work, or is it merely imaginative?

There is nothing that has influenced my work more than the experiences I had growing up. I work under a giant tent of my childhood and the shadow of it falls across some aspect of every piece that I create.

Every person’s childhood is the thing that forms how they will look at the world around them. We spend our entire lives either confirming or running away from that view of the world. I think I’ve been doing a little of both as I’ve done my growing up.

I was raised in a place almost completely isolated from the outside world. We lived in eastern Washington in a cabin, made by my father out of torn-down barns and trees from the 60-acre property surrounding us. I didn’t go to school and we had no electricity or other contact with almost anyone outside of our small family unit. It was a very religious Seventh-Day Adventist upbringing. There were very strict male and female roles drawn in the sand and sex was something not to be discussed. There was always an umbrella of shame and sin surrounding sexuality so it wasn’t a concept I ever consciously explored until we moved to the city when I was a teenager.

Without going into too much detail, I’ll say I’ve had to fight to escape some of the more abusive moments of my past and art has been the vehicle for that survival. But as I’ve grown, art has allowed me to do more than just survive my past. It has taught me how to question myself, my assumptions, and the world around me. It has given me an opportunity to be an individual that feels like I have the power to choose my own life, instead of being a victim tossed around by fear. Art is a powerful weapon and I hope to be able to use it to combat some of the coldness and powerlessness that many people still feel in their lives. To me, trying to be a better artist means to be constantly attempting to hone my skills to be able to get to a point where I can connect with other people who are hurting or living with past scars and be a piece of the puzzle that gives them a sense of hope and maybe a beginning of understanding of how to find their own escape to a place more lit with joy and fulfillment.

“Its Not the Kind of Bird That Sings...” 46”x50” © Crystal Barbre

“The Devoted” © Crystal Barbre

“Vulpes Zerda” © Crystal Barbre

“Breakfast of Champions” © Crystal Barbre

“Panthera Leo” © Crystal Barbre

You juxtapose images of animals with humans in much of your work. I am curious to know if you consciously understand why you do this.

Certainly! I am very conscious of why I use animals and people together in my work. The reasons vary from series to series, piece to piece—but the main reason has to do, again, with my upbringing.

Growing up in such an isolated environment, I had very little interaction with other children to play with except my younger brothers. I spent a lot of time with animals on and around the property, making them my friends and playmates. I really understood them as other beings equal to myself, not as them as animals/me as human. I saw them alive with as much character and emotion as many of the people that I knew. This carried strongly into my work unconsciously at first. As time has gone on and I’ve had a chance to do more research about how other societies interact with the animal world, I’ve used animal imagery with a more conscious symbolism.

I also think it is easier for people to project themselves into a painting with an animal face than it is for them to see themselves in a human face that isn’t theirs. This is one more tool I can use to help emotionally draw people into my work.

“Dama dama deer head with ewoman body in lingerie” 21”x 60” © Crystal Barbre

“Giraffa Camelopardalis” © Crystal Barbre

How often are you met with resistance among friends and family when they view the bold and raw nature of your paintings?

My friends and family have been incredibly supportive of my work. I wouldn’t be able to be on this journey without them.

Strangers, on the other hand, are often another story, but luckily I enjoy constructive dialogue with people who have a difference of opinion. It only helps me and my work grow.

“The Augur” © Crystal Barbre

You recently posed nude yourself in a beautiful portrait by Deborah Scott. How different was it being on the other end of painting and in such a provocative way?

I was trained in classical realism at Gage Academy of Art in Seattle. A good half of your training as a Renaissance-style painter is working with nude models, so it became second nature for me to be comfortable with a nude model in a room full of people.

Once nudity becomes a normal part of your workday, it is easy to make the jump into letting yourself be comfortable posing for others as well. As an emerging artist, you don’t have the money to pay a model, so you often end up modeling for your friends, as they do for you.

There is a kindness to the human form in painting that I don’t think carries through as often in photography. I think I would have a much harder time posing nude if the finished product was a series of photographs but painting seems different.

I think it has something to do with the borrowed history that painting carries; it is easier to accept all types of the human form as beautiful and judgment is suspended a bit. There is always a provocative and sexually charged undercurrent in nude portraits, but I think it is translated through the pencil or paint in such a respectful way, especially in the hands of an artist that I respect, that it is easy—if not an honor—to pose nude for a work of art.

“Carrion” © Crystal Barbre

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Crystal Barbre

Would you say your work is more favorably received by women or men, or do you see any disparity in those numbers?

I don’t really see the acceptance of my work divided in that way. I think men and women like my work for different reasons. There seems to be a slightly bigger fraction of women that recognize and respond to the powerfulness of the women characters in my work, but people seem more divided by their definitions of morality than by their gender.

Clearly your skill could have led you in a more conventional direction than the uncharted path you’ve taken. Do you still also fancy the idea of doing more traditional works as well, or are you exclusively attached to the idea of creating more honest, provocative works?

The direction my work takes always depends on the task at hand. If I am doing a commissioned piece for a client, it is imperative to take into account what kind of work they are looking for. I often have to tone down the content of my work depending on who I am creating a piece for. There are different kinds of work: work I do for myself and work I do for clients. That being said, I think a little weirdness and darkness come through in every piece I do, but it is my job as an artist to make that piece resonate with my audience. Just as in a conversation you have to think about who you are talking with and how to talk to that person to get your point across and I think art is the same way. There is a time and place for everything and sometimes very provocative work isn’t appropriate for the venue or client I’m working with. I don’t see it as censoring myself; I see it as developing the skills to be able to communicate with a wide range of people and to be able to reach them from their space, not necessarily to force them into mine.

However, if I’m creating work that is truly mine, I don’t compromise. When I paint what I would consider my work, I don’t find it necessary or appropriate to tune my view of the world to that of other people.

I want to make the most beautiful work that I can and touch as many people as possible but, at the same time, stay true to the vision of the world as I see it. It is my chance to be uncompromising in my world view, and I can only hope others will find something to identify with in it as well. I enjoy doing group shows and commissioned work for people, but, if I don’t allow myself the time to create these more personal works, I do start feeling like my real artistic self begins to shrivel. It is a delicate balance and one that can be easily lost if I’m not constantly honest with myself and the direction of my work.

I’m learning that it is sometimes necessary to sacrifice opportunities to do work that might be more financially/promotionally beneficial in exchange for taking time to focus on work that satisfies the fire in my belly that made me an artist in the first place.

With the world changing drastically with regard to art and a resurgence of darkness in images, do you think traditional galleries are becoming or will become more open to the idea of showing good art regardless of unconventional content?

Yes, certainly! It seems to me that there is a trend in more traditional galleries of showing work with a “weirder” and “darker” edge than they may have shown in the past. I find this very exciting and encouraging, not because I think any artist needs to have the validation of a “traditional” gallery to feel like their work is worthy, but because I think it shows that our audience is asking for work with more depth of content.

These are tough times. During the recession of the ‘80s it seemed like the population in general took a shining to film, art, music, and fashion that had a darker edge. It represented their external struggles and was a creative outlet for the despair of the times. I think there are a lot of similarities between then and now. Though I’m not glad that life has taken a hard turn for many people these last few years, I think it is an opportunity as an artist to be able to take the underlying distress and hopelessness of these times and turn them into something beautiful.

“Rabbit Hole Mural” © Crystal Barbre

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Crystal Barbre

Who are the artists who exist today that drive you in terms of honesty and courage in art?

There are so many it’s hard to nail down just a few! I have been so lucky to have such an incredible network of artists surrounding me. Here in Seattle, Sharon Arnold, Kirsten Anderson, Laurie Kearny, Laura Hines, Deborah Scott, and Siolo Thompson are six incredible, hardworking women that are constantly taking the world of art into their own hands and making it what they believe it can be.

These women are warriors of the art world, and I am constantly inspired by how they affect the artistic environment around them. Chris Sheridan and Robert Hardgrave are two Seattle artists whose work and influence also continue to be an invaluable part of helping me learn and grow as an artist. Seattle has a very exciting pool of hardworking, fearless artists right now and I feel blessed to be able to be a part of it and have the chance to watch it grow into something more exciting every day.

Nicola Verlato, Martin Wittfooth, Jenny Morgan, Brad Kunkle, Roberto Ferri, and Jeremy Geddes are artists whose work I am constantly blown away by. The work they do is something I can only hope to aspire to someday. They set the bar for me in a way that keeps me constantly pushing myself to grow technically and conceptually.

What’s next for you?

I’ll be spending some time finishing some commissioned works and pieces for some exciting fast approaching group shows. After that I’ll be hunkering down for a few months to focus on creating an entirely new body of work. I’ve been considering the direction of this new work for over a year now, so I’m thrilled and petrified to see how it actually develops in the studio through the course of the next few months. That prick of fear has always been the thing that makes me feel like I’m doing something right, so we’ll see how things go!

Sto “A Doorway to Joe” 2010 Acrylic on panel 85.5 x 41.5 inches (including frame) 2007-2009

oryboards an Interview with Joe Coleman by Lana Gentry

Legendary artist Joe Coleman has been classified and reclassified as just about every type of artist one can imagine, but he continues to defy any real classification on his journey as a masterful technician of paint and imagination. He speaks here about his engaging and controversial works which serve as historical and mythical storyboards and about his indescribable muse and wife, Whitney Ward.

“Each portrait is in a way a self-portrait. When I delve into somebody else, it’s really only a reflection of myself because it’s hard for me to know what another human being is. I have to base it on my own experiences and feelings. I always thought it was a little bit like method acting, where I take aspects of the person I identify with and I kind of become the person that I’m painting while I’m painting them.” ~Joe Coleman

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Joe Coleman

LG~ To me, you are the ultimate example of someone who’s been considered an outsider artist for a portion of his career. You are a great inspiration to outsider artists and to many other artists in general, but I think you defy classification in the eyes of most. It would seem that the classification of “outsider art” is changing and has become less inclusive of more successful figurative painters like you. What say you on the subject of outsider art, and do you believe you still fit into that category?

JC~ I never thought I did fit into any category, whether it was outsider art, low brow, pop surrealism, or even folk art, which my work was called really early in my career. I think they are feeble attempts for people to try to come to terms with art they’re not used to. It’s kind of condescending. I feel the term “outsider” in some ways is seen as a lesser art form. It’s like it’s not good enough to be considered fine art, but the only thing I was ever concerned with was the work. If someone was willing to show my work, whether it was in an outsider show or in any show at all, the fact that someone was willing to show my work or publish it, in magazines like Raw Vision or Juxtapoz, then that would be my only reason for being part of a so-called movement; but I don’t believe in those terms. I have no agenda about that. I do exactly what I want. If you’re willing to take it on, ya know, then I’m willing to step aboard.

LG~Can you tell me a bit about your show at Dickinson Gallery?

JC~ That show was based around this really large self-portrait that took me three years to paint, and around the major work—the self-portrait called Doorway to Joe—I did these little icon paintings that were both the smallest works of mine and the largest works that I’ve done. The little ones almost serve as moons or asteroids or something that are surrounding the bigger piece, almost as if they had broken off from the really large self-portrait called “Doorway to Joe,” because they all relate.

With this gallery, Dickinson hosted the third show that I’ve had and is my main gallery now. It’s an Old Masters gallery, which is kinda nice because now I’m showing with a lot of the artists I was inspired by like van der Weyden and some others, a lot of other Christian artists from the medieval period and early Renaissance.

LG~ How do you think doing a self-portrait differs for you emotionally from one in which you render someone else, or does it differ?

JC~ Maybe slightly. You know, each portrait is in a way a self-portrait. When I delve into somebody else, it’s really only a reflection of myself because it’s hard for me to know what another human being is.

I have to base it on my own experiences and feelings. I always thought it was a little bit like method acting where I take aspects of the person I identify with and I kind of become the person that I’m painting. They become me and I become them. It’s kind of a process. Right now, I’m working on an interesting challenge. It’s a companion piece for the large self-portrait in the last Dickinson show.

This is one of my wife, Whitney, that’s the same size, and it’s an exploration of her life that I’ll be working on. I’ve been working on it for a year; I’m almost halfway into it. I have no idea what it’s gonna look like when I finish. There are things I discover talking to family or friends so it grows for me day and night. It’s an experience for her to see how I see her and to see how it unfolds from day to day. It’s hard for her sometimes, and other times…well, she feels very flattered but some of the stuff is hard for her to look at.

“A Mother and Two Children” 2010 Acrylic on found triptych Overall (open): 4.5 x 6 inches Overall (closed): 4.5 x 3 inches

LG~Yes, because your work is so honest.

JC~ Yes. LG~ You paint the uncensored guts of life.

What do you think compels you so often to present less socially desirable characters in society in paint?

JC~ I guess I’m always interested in the losers in life or the very worst of humanity. I collect objects related to crimes, religious artifacts, and pieces from pathology museums. I think it comes a little bit from my Catholic upbringing.

he losers, mostly get a chance to speak about T their side of life through me. You know, I don’t judge them at all. I try to be open and let them tell their stories. I try to be as sympathetic and as non judgmental as I can when I’m painting because their side of the story is really valuable. It’s in all of us, no matter how disturbing the person’s life is or how horrific. Even the horrible things they’ve done in their lives, there’s still a part of all of us in that and I search for that. If I can accept the worst in humanity then maybe I can forgive myself.

“I Am Joe’s Fear of Disease” 2001 Acrylic on panel, with medical paraphernalia, mounted on hospital gown, 34x40 in. Collection of Mickey and Janice Cartin

LG~ Most people who have an interest in art are familiar with the eccentric collection kept in your home known as the Odditorium. Does anything ever leave that collection once it comes in?

JC~ It has left when I did an exhibition. Actually, there are a couple of exhibitions that I’ve done where I’ve brought some of the objects from the Odditorium and set them up with some of my paintings; for example, a show at the Tilton Gallery in New York and one at the KW Institute in Berlin. In fact, they had a whole floor of just the Odditorum at a museum show I did in Berlin a several years ago.

It had four floors of my work, but one entire floor was devoted to the Odditorium, so I shipped an enormous amount of it there from a storage space in Baltimore because I can’t fit everything here.

So some of the stuff I hadn’t seen I got set up for that exhibition.

LG~ But once you collect it, it never leaves your collection, right?

JC~ No, I don’t sell anything. Nothing ever leaves the collection. Nothing is for sale. I only buy; I don’t sell. But a lot of things come without me even buying them to the museum.

LG~So, things people think you would enjoy, I guess.

JC~Yes, I’m the caretaker of the objects nobody else wants.

LG~ You have a reputation for past public performances that include attaching explosives to yourself. Do you still engage in these kinds of activities?

JC~ No. I haven’t done any of those performances in many years. It’s interesting to me now, with all the suicide bombings, perhaps I had a sense that something in that was gonna be a part of the future.

A vision of the future. In those performances before, I let myself be possessed and let it drive me.

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Joe Coleman

“The Child I Never Had” 2010 Acrylic on found triptych Overall (open): 9.125 x 10.125 inches Overall (closed): 9.125 x 5 inches Collection of Simon Dickinson Gallery

LG~So, a channeling of sorts?

JC~Yes; that’s the best performance that there is.

“Pandora’s Box” 2010 Acrylic on found triptych Overall (open): 8.375 x 10.375 inches Overall (closed): 8.375 x 5.125 inches

LG~ Y our lovely wife, Whitney Ward, is known as a creator in her own right. Does she offer any advice with regard to your creative projects?

JC~ She’s so important to me that I talk to her about everything. She’s an inspiration to me as well and “muse” is not even a good enough word. She’s one of the best.

LG~So you trust her implicitly….

JC~ Oh, yeah, absolutely.

LG~ Were there any of your works from your own collection which you felt unable to part or sell?

JC~I myself have not, but Whitney has put her foot down about selling certain pieces.

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Joe Coleman

“Captain Beefheart” 2010 Acrylic on artist board and painted frame 24.25 x 21.5 inches

LG~I don’t suppose you would want to share the names of those pieces?

JC~ Yeah. It’s really understandable. The first time was with the piece Lovesong, which was about our courtship; I had already sold it to somebody and I had to buy it back, although she didn’t know that.

She’s not gonna keep the big one of her this time, but she already knew that when I started and she’s okay with it.

LG~ Any upcoming projects that you would want like to share?

JC~ I am working with a museum right now. I’m still looking into it. I do have some upcoming projects, but all I can really say is that [the museum] is in Paris.

LG~ Well, I guess we’ll be following the information listed on your site, which we would likely do anyway! Thanks so much for your time, Mr. Coleman. It was truly an honor to speak with you.

JC~Thank you.

C hristopher U lrich

“Last Judgement” Resin on oil on wood 37.5” x 73.5”

www.christopherulrich.com facebook.com/christopher.ulrich.artist.page ulrichart@gmail.com

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Donnie Green’s E

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by Lana Gentry

Be it controversial or conventional, Donnie Green continues to bring his prolific and imaginative metamorphosis to life.

With every year bringing a new style and a new way of seeing his art, he continues to test the boundaries of his ever-changing vision…

“Candy Cone” oil on masonite, 11”x14”, ©2011

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Donnie Green

1. As an artist who is deemed politically incorrect, are there any boundaries at all in your own mind that have made you unable to create something that inspired you?

DG- Oh, absolutely. All of the time. But, political correctness… what is that? I just like to have a good time with it and not worry too much about boundaries. Boundaries are for the real world.

2. You seem to fall between the lines of classification. Do you classify yourself as any particular type of artist?

DG- I’ve given up trying to classify myself and am quite comfortable falling between the cracks. I’ll leave the classifying for the classifiers. I like to paint and have fun with it. Call it what you want.

Classification limits the elements of surprise; I won’t be contained.

3. Your earlier works contained a lot of geometrical forms and Celtic knots that held everything into a tight, linear kind of framing. Do you ever miss the structure of that process and would you ever revisit that style again?

Lemmy and Iggy” oil on canvas, 16”x20”, ©2012

“Stuck in the Middle” oil on masonite, 9”x12”, ©2012

“Ether” oil on canvas, 30”x30”, ©2001

“Footjob” oil on canvas, 8”x10”, ©2011

DG-The psychedelic mandala paintings with all the crazy knot work were an expression of my need for balance and structure during a specific point of my life. Those paintings taught me a lot about overindulgence and self-control.

4. Your more creative or intuitive works vary greatly from your more traditional portraits. Because you are so expressive in your showpieces I have to wonder, do you find yourself able to enjoy working within the confines of conventional portraiture also?

DG-Only when it serves me, is a means to an end, or represents something close to my heart.

5. There’s been a lot of discussion about your Anne Frank series. Could you expound on the inspiration behind that series and how you feel it’s been received?

“Westboro Baptist Jesus” oil on canvas, 16”x20” ©2011

DG-The Anne Frank paintings were lots of fun. Sometimes I just like to cross reference historical or tragic characters with pop cultural icons and other mischievous elements. That’s just how I like to roll. I think for the most part it was well received. Even most of my Jewish friends got a kick out of it. C’mon, Anne Frankenberry… what’s not to love?

6. Do you surround yourself with anything in particular in order to invite the mood of creativity?

DG- I have to be in a very cool, comfortable environment surrounded by things that inspire me.

Sometimes there is music, sometimes there is a movie or a combination of both, and sometimes it’s silence that allows me to get my groove on. It also may depend on what I’m drinking.

7. What do you have in the works currently that we might like to know about?

DG-I’m currently working on some pieces for a West Coast solo show next year. I’ve got a few other tricks up my sleeve as well. Stay tuned, lots of trouble brewing in these parts.

“Anne Frankenberry” oil on canvas, 9”x12” ©2010

“Pain in the House of 1000 Pleasures” oil on canvas, 16”x20” ©2008

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Norbert Kox

“The Black Widower” acrylic on Warner Sallman print, 20”x16”

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ORBERT KOX

A

t first glance, he strikes a remarkable resemblance to Ernest Hemingway, a feature recognized by British film maker Jan Bednarz who solicited him to represent Hemingway in a brief film called “End of the World”. This title may seem well suited given the fact that Norbert Kox, the recent honored recipient of Wisconsin’s Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award whose past recipients include Frank Floyd Wright, is an apocalyptic visionary painter. Mr. Kox is perhaps one of the most misunderstood artists in the history in the art world, often finding himself the subject of contempt among contemporary Christians. He’s been the subject of documentaries, books, is an author, and has been featured in the “Disinformation” series. He never intended to instigate controversy but, rather, he possessed a driving need to communicate his passion on the subject of blasphemy and biblical misinterpretation. He doesn’t really belong to any particular category but it’s easy to see how these stereotypes occurred. His paintings are rife with symbols of death, biblical charts, and the repeated desecration of the traditional Warner Sallman

by Lana Gentry

Christ, which Kox views first and foremost as a stolen idol from another artist and also as an antiChrist false image about which the bible warns. (http://nhkox.homestead.com/sal1.html) With an impending, comprehensive video interview on the horizon which was done in my home, I wanted to at least share in this first issue, a preview of the artist Norbert Kox who is rife with enigma, controversy and so much more.

Norbert Kox has had an interest in art since childhood and has received international acclaim for his work which includes paintings, sculptures, and photography. These works have been exhibited internationally and have been the subject of many magazines, books and more. His work has been discussed and exhibited many times at the American Art Museum in Baltimore Maryland where he was inducted in 1995 as well as others.

He was recognized by the Bahamanian government in 2009 for his many contributions and shows there.

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Norbert Kox

Sallmanstein, 2004, acrylic on canvas panel, 10” x 8”, by Norbert H. Kox. Answer to the false christ created by Warner Sallman in 1940.

“Divine”

“Thou Wast Perfect” acrylic on canvas, 10” x 8”, c. 2012, by Norbert H. Kox.

Jel ena “Tears and Wounds”

“Medusa’s Dream”

“Beast”

“Last Eucharist”

“Whisper”

From top: “Revelation of the Clown” A4 2012 Charcoal, chalk, compressed charcoal+ white pastel, charcoal + carbon pencils.

“The Harvest” 2012 39.4x24.5cm charcoal + white pastel on paper “Vomit Choir” 2012 A3 Charcoal, carbon + pastel on paper “The Hopeworm Devours a Rotten Heart” 2012 (size A2) drawing size 36 x 55 cm Charcoal, chalk, white pastel on paper.

“The Queen of Hell” 2012 19x24 cm. charcoal, chalk, pastel, carbon on paper.

PAUL McCAROL

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Robert Bauder

“MR. B”

by Lana Gentry

It’s hard to nail down a particular style when viewing to his work. He waxes and wanes like the moons of his many moods. He solidifies a style only to abandon it for another as he charts his emotional course. There are no other portraits like his. Tiny bits of light are grabbed and splattered onto his subjects to bring the darkness that surrounds them into focus. His process is complicated and so is he, and that’s what makes Robert Bauder’s work so captivating.

“I would say any mood of an overwhelmingly extreme nature has a tendency to interrupt my creative process...as does the complete absence of emotion.” ~ Robert Bauder

“Hell”

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Robert Bauder

At what age do you remember becoming aware of having a need to create?

RB – I have been creating art as far back as I can remember, but becoming aware of a need to create art was something that came to me about 7 years ago. In the distant past, art was something I did for the simple enjoyment, but nothing else.

Now I create not only for the enjoyment of it but also because I have emotions and thoughts that I feel I must share with the world...almost like it is something that I have to do.

In a world dictated by style and trend with regard to art, how difficult does an artist such as you find it to access his inner voice?

RB – Accessing one’s inner voice isn’t difficult, really, but owning it and having it recognized as your own is a different story. It is easy to lose your mind to style and trend, but once one is able to apply who they are (as a human being) to their art, as opposed to applying what they want to be (as an artist), it is in that moment that their voice naturally develops into something unique to themselves...something that expands into a body of art. This has been my experience, anyway.

3. Most who know you consider you a master manipulator of light and dark.

Has this element in your work always been present, or did it come later?

I have always strived to contain these two elements in my work, as it has a way of giving my subjects their own personality and a dramatic quality...a quality that is otherwise lost. Also, the dynamic play on lights and shadow is what I use to give visual depth and value to structures in my work, allowing the

viewer to almost touch the subject, in a sense...to literally feel my thoughts.

You’ve been candid about depression in the past. Do you think depression can serve as a catalyst for an artist’s creativity, and if so, how has it best served you?

RB – I have lived with depression for most of my life, which dominates me for the most part. When I create an image, whether it is an expression of personal emotion or thought regarding an external subject, the world around me shuts off. It is in that moment that I dominate my depression: it is my moment of relief.

Your portraits in particular seem to access an emotional side of your subjects. Is this something you recognize in your own work as important, and if so, why?

RB – Emotion is one of the most important elements that a painting can contain. Any good artist can create a two-dimensional or even a threedimensional image, but emotion is what puts it in the fourth dimension; it’s what turns an image into an experience, whether that is a sensation of relating to an emotional state of a subject or getting lost in an environment. It is, in my opinion, the absolute most important element that a piece of art can possess.

Are there moods you experience which interrupt your process, or do you find yourself generally creative no matter the mood?

RB – I would say any mood of an overwhelmingly extreme nature has a tendency of interrupting my creative process...as does the complete absence of emotion.

“untitled” charcoal

What kind of restraints do you feel exist in the art world today that prohibit outsiders and unusual thinkers from being able to present their works?

RB – In my experience, there are many restraints that exist, such as socially enforced censorship, preservation of the egos in other artists, [and] protection of the reputations of galleries/publication sources, and of course there is the belief that art is only as good as its popularity. I could give more examples, but it is easier to say that the art world is a dirty place, full of people who are eager to bury you in a blink of an eye. “untitled” charcoal

“untitled” charcoal

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Robert Bauder

“untitled” charcoal

Given your taste for both paint and charcoal, if sequestered on an island with only one medium, what would be your choice, and why?

RB – I would choose paint, obviously because an island would most likely have trees, but also because there is no substitute for color. Color is a language of its own and is a joy to use—not to mention a great way to apply further emotion to a piece of art.

What is next for Robert Bauder?

RB – I am currently working on my series titled “Gold Plated Politics,” which will illustrate the corrupt nature of large government, coated in religion and laced with greed. I am also working on my “Suicide Portrait” series, which will illustrate a physical representation of the subject’s psychological dynamic, as opposed to just painting the shell that encases who they really are.

Curated by Buddy Nestor

Black Vulture Gallery 208 E Girard Ave Philadelphia, PA 19125

Over 60 Artists

Opening Reception June 7th, 2013 6-11 Live Music by Clamfight • Beyond Dishonor • Decap Attak

“Speaking in Tongues II”

Group Art Show

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Jamie West

e i Jam

t s We

“Finger”

Virginia based Photographer Jamie West loves expressing herself through self-portraiture among other things. Despite the fact that she’s a loving mother who indulges the daily actions of domesticity, she never saw this as a reason to suppress a more erotic side of herself. Her creativity and interest in art, music and photography have remained pure. Jamie is a gifted photographer with a wide range of interest in subjects, but when she feels she has something to say “Car”

“Girl Next Door”

personally, self portraiture seems to say it best.

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Jamie West

“Blue Painties”

“Lashes”

115

Lana Magnuson

Little Red Wagons

by Lana Magnuson

B

ertrand Russell once wrote a story about two poor orphan Russian sisters that had finally been adopted by a French couple when they were nine and twelve years old. The girls were well off now and living with this affluent family that loved them and took good care of them in every manner. However, they could never break themselves of the habit of hoarding potatoes. I can still picture them crystal clear, wearing bonnets and long printed dresses with black string-up boots, perhaps petticoats that dragged in the earth behind them. They wore fulllength, lace-trimmed aprons with intricate patterns that tied behind their necks and were able to be lifted up from the bottom to serve as a sack for all the potatoes they could collect in them. They are in an expansive prairie scene, my view is from afar. It is silent and serene.

I had a lot of charlie-aches when I was a little girl.

My mom made scrambled eggs to cure them. I ate them huddled up and watched cartoons while the other kids played outside. When it was a school day I followed my brothers and our older neighbors around, they showed me what to do and when.

One girl said in the first grade that I had a long chin, like a witch. I remember being on the other side of the bathroom wall when she said it. She didn’t know I had heard her. Her name was Lisa.

I remember not knowing how I should feel having heard her say that about me and kind of trying to

force my body into an emotion that did not come natural. Another first grader was standing next to me watching my face expectantly to see what I would do about it. I did nothing but listen for more bad news about who I was. She said I had such dark circles under my eyes that it looked like they were black and blue. I touched my face gingerly with my fingertips as I leaned against the cool blue porcelain of the dividing wall. I felt scared and bad and alone.

Also, I remember seeing a photograph of a war victim when I was little. The photo mesmerized me and I sought it out whenever no one would catch me. She was a young German girl who was suffering from hunger, poverty, illness, and I don’t know what all. Her face was ashen and dirty and she looked real sad with vacant eyes. I wanted to make her look at me but could never get the angle right. I saw it in a book in my brother Merlin’s room in the attic. I remember I desperately wanted to be that girl; poor and suffering. At the same time I knew it was a wicked wish and thought maybe I shouldn’t be wishing it, that I might later on regret it.

But I think without knowing it I was jealous of her for having a reason to feel so bad while I was without.

I went over to that girl Lisa’s house one day and the whole time all I could think about was my big, long witches chin or how my swollen eyes looked black and blue to her just weeks before. I think we ate a pizza at her kitchen table with her mother asking us questions about school.

I often wonder who I might be had my childhood been even a little different. I saw my best friend get raped the day we went out hunting for rabbits. We had long hobo sticks that we tied brightly colored blocks to in order to entice the rabbits to come closer. We had carrots in our pockets. Just as we were about to divide the territory of the empty lot a teenage-boy pulled up on his ten-speed bike and asked us what we were doing. We very excitedly told him. He pondered our method, cocking his head to the side with his palm resting on it tapping a fore finger to his temple. He appeared to be giving our idea considerable thought and said he was sure we would catch more rabbits if we went down to the bottom of the empty lot to find them. That he thought the rabbits were too afraid to come to the top of the hill, they felt safer down below.

At the bottom of the hill the boy told me to go to the right while Monica and he would go to the left.

Within moments I heard Monica crying. I ran over to them and saw what looked like the boy spanking Monica. I wondered what had she done. The boy shouted at me to go away, go find those rabbits.

I didn’t want to be spanked but I ran up the hill and towards home dropping my rabbit stick in the dry grass. My legs could hardly carry me up that taller and taller slope. Everything went silent and the sun was so bright and bouncing off everything making a glare. I found it hard to see. It was a slow motion dream run where I passed Monica’s house and continued on to the bottom of the block where I lived it not wanting to get her in trouble. My whole

body was trembling with fear and apprehension.

By the time I got home and told my brothers what was happening the boy was gone. Monica lay in the tall fields of scorched, damaged grass weeds hysterically crying and alone. Her clothes were strewn about and there was blood both on her face and in that field. My brothers brought her home while I sat stiff-straight on the couch covered in a blanket for the rest of the weekend too afraid to touch my feet to the floor.

One time, much later in life, on a walk by the river I found a worn-down steep earthen path that lead to the river bank and decided to see what was at the bottom. It went nearly straight down with thin slate rocks covered in soggy leaves. I was careful not to slip and knew the path back would be twice as hard.

I was completely out of shape. At the bottom there were a few railroad tie steps and then just the woods and river. The quiet, quiet woods. It was strangely quite how the trees could muffle the sounds of traffic and such from above. I took a wider arch out to the clearing next to the river and smelled the smoke of a forgotten campfire still smoldering. I stepped closer and closer to the circle of charred logs until I was staring on to the camp of what I was immediately sure was homeless people. The people I could not see, only their makeshift beds, pillows and blankets; rotting forms of discarded foam and moldy rubber sheets. There were empty bottles laying about and soiled paper plates with plastic silverware used over and over again. It was all so close to the fire I was afraid it would catch and burn.

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Lana Magnuson

I was chilled to the very bone then, afraid for them as well as my own safety should they find me in their camp. I was now an unwelcome intruder.

Were they lurking in the woods examining me as well? Could they see the pity and terror in my eyes and face? Did they watch me frantically scurry back towards the railroad tracks up the slippery hill desperate not to miss a step, or catch my foot on a jagged rock falling down in the mud and leaves to become their victim? Once again I could not gather any speed; each step was like walking on the moon so disoriented was I. The sunlight was twinkling through the leaves of the trees blinding my eyes. Birds were chirping. Or did they just laugh at me when I finally reached the top on my wobbling, unsure legs, safe, but panting for breath? I still feel real sure I escaped something that day though I could not tell you what. I stayed on the couch for the rest of the week, safe in my apartment except for work, covered in a blanket, not letting my feet touch the floor. Tip-toeing to the bathroom or to make some toast.

I am no longer a child but instead an adult with dreams of places I have never seen. Yet I returned to them night after night and know exactly where I am going. Usually these are small and claustrophobic rooms with ever expanding additional rooms filled with debris and clutter. I am forever sorting through it all trying to make some sense or order to it, only to discover yet another room with additional items and multiplying debris. I carry these dusty items back and forth, examining them for their worth. Guessing at

names and figures. I get wore out easily and when I come back to the room in the next dream someone has put everything back to disarray. I have to start all over. There was also a time when I was much younger that I didn’t dream about places but people instead. They hurt me and made me angry, I could never fight back. Then one day I did start to fight back. I just started smashing chairs over their heads, screaming and threatening them with homemade weapons; broken bottles or kitchen knives. I thought that meant I had grown up. I was very loud and unruly.

There is one dream room now though in particular, the only one that is not cluttered with the so many things that I have to clean and rearrange so as to make the space habitable. In this one room where I am not working but instead I am merely trying to see out the long-tall night covered windows I can relax. The sky is dark-dark blue but glows with the reflections of a downtown that is silent. Half of the windows are always open letting in a billowing breeze. There is nothing else in the room that moves or can be moved. The pure white curtains waver in the wind. I am always a little afraid they will become soiled if it rains but I cannot reach them to shut them. So I just lay on the expansive bed on my back, my head turned towards them and watch them blowing and I hold on. It is the most perfect blue sky and there isn’t the clutter of things to occupy my dream thoughts.

This room is so large and empty and this dream is especially quiet.

”Hannah” by Jeff Kromer or just Jeff Kromer 24 x 18”

So perhaps I have escaped something.

Something dark and ugly that seemed about to consume me. Somehow gotten to the other side of it by jumping through hoops and barrels, pointing chairs at people and warning them. Or is it still there lurking just on the fringes of sight like so many potatoes that won’t stop multiplying under and inside of the earth.

Just waiting for me to collect them in my fumbling hands with trembling fingers.

Waiting for me to pick them up and gently brush them off while evaluating them for any potential worth. Then packing them away again to wait for another day when I come back and they are littering the attic floor where all the books are and dust and rubble, and broken boxes of cardboard lay strewn about collecting even more dust and filthy yet intricate spider webs.

I never saw that war victim photo again, that girl with the vacant eyes. Did she escape? Did she find an affluent family to take care of her and love her? Did she find a home in one of my cluttered rooms? Or is she silently waiting for me still to collect on that wicked wish?

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Sean Glover “Untitled” 11” x 14”, colored pencil

Julie Bossinger John Watson, “untitled” graphite

Gareth Swift “Heather King”

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chapter title

loBURNmagazine.com facebook.com/loburnMagazine volume 1 | May 2013