OUTRE - ISSUE 00 by Marie Bendeck

INTRO

Outré: adj. Highly unconventional, eccentric, bizarre. There are many amazing, unique, bizarre, and talent e d artists out there that need to be found and need to b e showcased, if not in a galler y, in a magazine! Outré has been created to help these artists be know n to the world. To showcase all visual art for ms rangi n g from painting, architecture, graphic design, fashio n , illustration, sculpture, cinematography, photograph y, animation, to any other visual art for m we might encounter along the way, by any artist, anywhere i n the world... that is truly amazing, highly unconve n tional, super passionate about their work and real l y, really, really out there... For all the Outré peeps out there... this is IT.

OUTRÉ 05.2010

FILM Michael Bendeck: Full-Time Film Making!

PHOTOGRAPHY Laura G. Diaz Envisioning the Human Spirit Through her Lens

PAINTING ISSUE 00 MAY 2010

K -Radness:

www.outre-ma g.com

I n s i d e a n A rtist’s mind

COMIC ART Mario Rojas Art & Comics

PAINTING II

Satirical Hyper-Illustrative Propaganda Jesse Alan Willard

OUTRÉ 05.2010

Michael Bendeck, originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, passionate about film-making. His pursuit for a career as an independent film maker has lead him to create several experimental projects from short films (Trine, Radio, Cronophobia) to music videos, a feature documentary “Rock Honduras” (2005) and his latest a television program “El Rock Show” (2009). Tell us about yourself. I started out with photography. I had a digital camera and started experimenting with taking nature pictures. When I got into college I took a screen writing course and read some books about filmmaking. During this period a creative spark made me want to keep on experimenting with making videos with a digital picture camera and editing with a VCR. Soon enough I progressed into making short films with friends. Then I got into film school and there is where I learned my theoretical and technical of filmmaking.

What triggered your interest in film?

What and who do you find are the major influences on your work? Works by the directors: Kubrick, Iñarritú, Tarantino are some that have influenced me. Also what moves me is the ability to imagine something and see it come to life in the big screen.

What is your most favorite thing about film making? I would have to say that I love the whole process from start to finish. But if you ask me first I would put the photography, then getting that performance out of the actors and then the editing process because thats where you see your story come to life.

I started out by myself, selftaught, then I got into UCF Film where I graduated with a Film B.A.

OUTRÉ 05.2010

What has provoked you to continue pursuing your film career in a country that doesn’t have that much of a film industry? Do you find this to be a pro or a con? I want to tell stories from this part of the world. I believe audiences would be intrigued in learning and experiencing our stories and customs. Trying to start a film industry in the central american region is a challenge that I have chosen. Which one item of equipment would you say is the most important to you? The eye. What movie genre would you consider to be your most favorite and least favorite? Favorite: Suspense, Sci-Fi, Fantasy Film Noir. Least Favorite: Romantic Dramas. What projects have you worked on and what other projects are you currently working on? I’ve done a feature documentary and the lack of support by the local media. After that i ventured into tv and did a late night show with parodies and musical guests called “El Rock Show”. Im currently developing a film festival to promote local filmmaking. How do you feel about the independent movie industry in Honduras? Its is just starting out. More productions have to be made so it reaches a competitive level of other latin american film productions. Local funding for productions is almost impossible and is necessary for high quality products. Once there is a harmony between investors and local producers we will see a new wave of Central America cinema. How do you feel about the movie industry in America and internationally? Depends if you are talking about the Hollywood industry and the “other film industry”. Your industry depends on your market.

OUTRÉ 05.2010

How was it producing, writing, and creating your own tv show? Hell of an experience lots of creativity every week. Difficult but a learning experience. Hopefully will come up with a second season. El Rock Show was proof that you can have a high production value product with little or no money. Would you continue working with television or would you rather go full time with film making? Full time filmmaking. What would be your dream job as a film maker? Making a high budget film in Honduras. If you were chosen to dp a film with one of these directors: Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarantino, who would you choose? Tarantino.

CHECK OUT HIS WORK AT: http://www.wix.com/mikebendeck/portfolio

OUTRÉ 05.2010

Amazing photographer originally from Nicaragua moved to the beautiful city of Montreal in Canada in 2007 to pursuit a degree in Professional Photography. Her passion for photography began at the age of seventeen having great interest toward the art of portraiture, discovering through her lens and through the use of light the amazing qualities of the human spirit. How would you describe yourself in five words? Daydreamer, Perfectionist, Ambitious, Graphic, Unusual. How did your interest in photography begin? What were the first things you would photograph? vI was always interested in the arts and one day I noticed that I was interested on creating stories in my mind and I wanted to be able to show them as I saw them in my mind. One day I realized that it would be nice to experiment with photography. So, I got a compact camera when I was 17 years old and started practicing the composition and the frames. I was mainly interested in showing emotions in my pictures, therefore I started doing self-portraits to express myself. I figured out that I needed to know how to express myself before I started showing other people’s emotions.

What other arts have you been involved through out your life and career? I explored different arts to express myself like: ballet, theater, painting, dancing and writing. Which I think It helped me a lot to know how to express my feelings through the lens.

Who do you consider to be an inspiration to you, and your work? That’s really hard to say because I admire a lot of people’s work and they have totally different styles. Like Melvin Sokolsky, David LaChapelle, Roger Ballen, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, and the list goes on... The main reason I like them is because their work is simply incredible. Melvin Sokolsky is someone that makes dreams come true in pictures, Roger Ballen is beyond usual thinking, David LaChapelle a really imaginative contemporary photographer, Irving Penn and Avedon pioneers of innovative work.

OUTRÉ 05.2010

Do you ever find yourself in a “photo funk”, and, if so, how do you get out of it? YES! Really often. Sometimes it just goes away but when I feel that it is killing me, I start to go to art exhibitions, museums, listen to some music, take a walk, look at my surroundings. I do plenty of stuff that shakes my brain cells and make my ideas come. I even do some sports! How do you decide on locations and subjects? It depends on how my idea comes to my mind. Sometimes I see an interesting location and I just say to myself that it would be nice to shoot there. Sometimes my idea comes first and I have to find a spot that is similar to what I have in my mind. I have a preference for messy or unusual places. Sometimes when I am shooting photography it feels very spiritual and photo oportunities simply present themselves as a gift... Do you ever feel that way and do you think there is such a thing as someone really having a “natural eye” for photography? I always feel like it is a spiritual situation when I’m doing a photoshoot that I want to do. It doesn’t happen all the time when it is for a school assignment. I do believe in people having a natural eye for art but this doesn’t mean that people can’t develop it. Even if we have a natural eye for it, we have to explore it to get better.

OUTRÉ 05.2010

What is it that you like so much about portrait photography and why have you decided to pursuit ‘portraiture’ as your main subject? I think that I decided to do portraiture because the human kind is something that I want to explore in all aspects: the emotions and even the lack of emotions. Everybody is so different. Every human kind is like another planet for me and I don’t really understand human beings, including myself. So this intrigues me and makes me want to capture it and show my interpretation of it. What do you think about photographers using Photoshop? I use Photoshop and those photographers who claim that using photoshop is cheating, they cheated too! Photoshop is like the digital dark room and even film photographers worked their pictures, either using different chemicals, or different developing methods to create different effects. Photoshop is just another tool. An amazing one.

Which one item of equipment would you say is the most important to you? I would say the lenses, because you don’t need an expensive body to have good images, the image quality is more related to the lens quality than the body. And when you have a good concept, composition and lighting you don’t have to worry about having 21 MP.

Check out more of Laura’s work at: www.lauragdiaz.com

OUTRÉ 05.2010

inside an artist’s mind Karla Radvak, artist and designer, born and raised in the city of Orlando, FL, is full of amazing talent and lots of creativity. I was lucky to get together with her to talk about her latest artwork. Get ready to take a look into this marvelous artist’s mind.

OUTRÉ 05.2010

Tell us a bit about yourself. Describe yourself in five words. “A riddle trapped in an enigma trapped in a maze trapped in a girl...yet that is more than five words: lover. passionate. adventurous. artistic. giggly. ridiculious.” How were you brought up to become an artist? “I guess in high school, I had an art teacher, Gail Russakov that not only encouraged me to take AP art but also was a huge inspiration.” If you could choose to do one thing in your life from all of the art practices you have experienced, what would you choose to do? “I don’t know how I would go about getting this job but I would want to take over for Samantha Brown on the Travel Channel.”

RIDDLE

TRAPPED IN AN

ENIGMA TRAPPED

TRAPPED

IN A

MAZE

GIRL Who are your most favorite artists and how do you feel inspired by them? “Some of my favorite artist are Francisco de Goya, Francis Bacon, Barbara Kruger, Aubrey Beardsley, Otto Dix, Gustav Klimt, Honore Daumier, I love art so this list could go on for a while. I couldn’t imagine painting without music! My current must have artists, Andrew Bird, Beirut, The Horrors, Tapes N Tapes, Foxgang, The Bird and the Bee, April March, Sam Cooke, Ella Fritzgerald, Slim Harpo, and of course David Bowie. This list could also go on forever. Designers, OH BOY! This is a whole another paragraph because I’m totally inspired by fashion, fashion magazines and fashion photographers. ETRO!! Might be my favorite, the colors, patterns, fabrics & cuts are just incredible! I would like every piece in the collection, its that good! Tom Ford, Roberto Cavalli, Christian Cota, Jean Charles de Castelbajac, Zac Posen.”

OUTRÉ 05.2010

What was coming to your mind when you were creating this series of paintings? How would you title the series? “I have very insane dreams so bad my boyfriend will not let me watch horror movies before bedtime, apparently I’m also a five year old. Anyways he is a huge horror buff so I try hard to be supportive of this. On top of that, I had just started watching Dexter, the television series, so needless to say my dreams were very vivid and involved creepy characters (aka my paintings). I don’t really have a name for the series because my dreams started the painting but I really see them as a self discovering thing. I was also figuring out my style and painting technique which is what was most important thing I learned from these paintings. I guess if I had to make one up, it would be “fragments of my imagination” or something along that lines. That way it involves the visual aesthetics and the dream concept.”

Check out more of Karla’s Radness at: www.k-raddesigns.com

OUTRÉ 05.2010

Artist, painter, writer, illustrator, designer and comic book enthusiast and creator, was born 1979, in the city of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I was thrilled to meet him and ask him a few questions about his work... When and How did your interest in comics begin? I’ve been interested in comics for as far as I can remember. My kindergarten costume was Superman, and I kicked ass cause of my red rain boots and not a pair of Kangaroos like the guy who lost. I kept reading comics sporadically as much as I could find them, started my collection at 12 and wrote my first story at 13. School was a good place to write, classes were so boring. How where you brought up to become an artist and comic book writer? It’s a calling as far as I know. I used to think I wanted to be a painter, but found the art school/artist community environment to be quite pretentious. I don’t really give a crap about answering questions on the symbolism of my work. It’s just damn paint on a damn canvas. Get over it. So I switched to comics and found the environment unpretentious, fun and more fulfilling. I had stories to tell and amazingly enough found out people liked to read them.

When did you first start to conceive the idea of writing and pencilling an original graphic novel? How did the plot come about? Doodling in school I guess. Sketched up a main character I thought looked cool, made a scene for him, soon a second followed and a week later I had written and drawn my first story.

OUTRÉ 05.2010

GIRI #4: ...A Fun trip to Edo Period and bushido. What and Who do you find are the major influences In your work? I take a little inspiration from everyone. Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Jim Lee, J. Scott Campbell, Humberto Ramos, Rumiko Takahashi, Enki Bilal, Nobuhiro Watsuki, Hiromu Arakawa and several other giants come immediately to mind.

What are your most favorite comic book authors and titles? Of all times? Sandman, Preacher, Transmetropolitan, X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, Batman, The New Mutants, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Presently Geoff Johns and Robert Kirkman keep me on my toes.

Tell us about your recent comic book release? Giri #4. The book marks the middle of the seven book series. It works as an intermezzo from the regular storyline and instead focuses on the samurai who first owned the katana, it’s a fun trip to Edo period and bushido.

OUTRÉ 05.2010

How did you come up with the ideas for Giri and Dark and Gloom? Wow, lotsa places. Giri was my response to so many years of anime, manga , Akira Kurosawa, Bruce Lee and Street Fighter video games. Dark & Gloom was what I wish my teenage years would’ve been like. Girls, adventures, zombies, monsters and magic powers! Fun, fun, fun! Being in Honduras, where there is a very small comic book community, what encouraged you to print and release a comic book? Some guy released a comic before me and I felt obligated to put my money where my mouth was. To not only feel fulfilled as an artist but also create a comic culture in a place that lacked it and give the small Honduran community of readers a book they could call their own. If you were a super hero and/or villain, who would you be? and why? You mean apart from x-ray vision? Hahaha. I wouldn’t mind being Magneto, or even better, just Dream of The Endless to be on the safe side.

“Girls, adventures, zombies, monsters and magic powers! fun, fun, fun!” If you had the chance to have dinner and drinks with any of your influences, who would you choose? Definitely Gaiman, Moore, Ennis, Ellis, Lee and McKean. And at last what can we wake you up for in the middle of the night? How PG-13 is this interview? No, I AM awake in the middle of the night! And No, you may not wake me up in the middle of the day. More on the artist: www.hiccomics.com

OUTRÉ 05.2010

READER ART

“ O u t r é m a gazine... a m a g a z i n e for the v i s u a l a r t i st, great f i r s t i s s u e ! Creativi t y i s o u t there, we j u s t n e e d to find t h e c r e a t o rs and m a k e t h e m known! T h a n k y o u Outré for f e a t u r i n g me in the R e a d e r ’s Art section o f i s s u e 0 0!” - M B, O - Town, FL

Size Matters, Acr ylic 18 X 24 in. 2009

“minimalism, geometric figures, lines, structures, sculptures, for ms, colors, objects found, solid, transparency, and typography might be one of my most favorite elements to deal with when creating art. Outré...me? yes,... definitely...” - Elle, ATL, GA

Want to submit your art? Go to Submissions. www.outre-mag.com

OUTRÉ 05.2010

Structures Studies, Digital, 2008

CREDITS

S p e c i a l T hanks to all artists featured in t h e f i r s t i s sue, Issue 00 May 2010. Fo r c o o p e rating with the creator & d e s i g n e r of the magazine, Marie Bendeck, f o r m a k i n g this project possible. A l l w o r k p resented in this magazine is int e l l e c t u a l property of the artists, includi n g p h o t o graphs and artwork presented in e a c h d i f f e rent feature. A l s o, t h a n ks to A Comic Shop for their c o o p e r a t i on in the use of their logo to ad v e r t i s e t h eir company. P h o t o g r a p h in K-Radness feature is by M a r i e B e n deck. C o v e r p h otograph exclusive by Laura G. D i a z , s e l f - portrait “Lab Result.”

P r i n t e d i n the USA. © 2 0 1 0 O UTRE: a m a g a z i n e for the visual artist w w w. o u t r e -mag.com w w w. m a r i e-bendeck.com

OUTRÉ 05.2010