The Collective Issue 001

Chantal Vaca Founder/Creative Director

Adriana Vaca Editor

Emma Sielaff Event Planner

Heather Schwartz Social Media

Casey VanDuyne Social Media

Cory VanDuyne Social Media

Taylor Chism Cover Artist

call your mom someday you will die gender is a social construct

LEARN TO SAY: i was wrong

LEARN TO SAY: i’m sorry

LEARN TO SAY: thank you

LEARN TO SAY: i was wrong

LEARN TO SAY: i’m sorry

LEARN TO SAY: thank you

UNHOLY SUJUD

encaustic with casey lowry

Q: What is encaustic?

CL: Encaustic is a material made of beeswax and tree resin, mixed together, and it was originally conceived a long time ago. That's how they sealed ships to make them waterproof. I think they used them for mummification too, the encaustic. I saw it in a gallery, I don't know, five years ago, and I had never seen anything like it. I did some research, and liked it. I like everything about it. I like that they’re natural materials, I like that I don't have to clean a brush, ever.

Q: What is the process for creating one of your pieces?

CL: I either start drawing directly onto the wood, or I collage things together onto the wood, or a combination of both. If you use things like oil pastels, or china markers, the encaustic will kind of melt it on, which is kind of neat. And there are things you can't use. Like you can't use acrylic paint. It has to be oil paint. If you paint with oil paint, and you paint the encaustic on, as soon as the encaustic is cool, which is five minutes later, the oil paint is dry. You have to put the encaustic in a double boiler, which is a pot of water with a second pot on top, because if the encaustic gets too hot, it starts bubbling and releases toxic fumes. When I have the drawing that I like, I go about kind of just melting the drawing, and the wood grain, the lines together, and try to make the drawings fit into the wood grain like they were meant to be together. After you paint on the encaustic while it's hot, you can heat gun it. You have to heat gun it to add layers, and cool it down.

Q: Do you often find that it’s easy to find pieces of wood to match your drawings?

CL: Yes, it's amazing. I'm not smart enough to always be able to fix it to fit them together. I'm convinced that, no matter what you pick to draw, and what wood grain you pick, it doesn't even matter which it is, they'll fit together, somehow. You just have to look at it long enough. I'm just seeing something that's already there. I'm not doing anything other than that.

Q: Where is most of your artwork drawn from?

CL: It's usually just things I find beautiful, or things I think are worth looking at more than once, which is usually nature, and it's really just a process of me examining it from lots of different angles, and then the process of drawing it, or painting it, just spending hours looking at the lines of a certain thing, or just like, just me really investigating the thing, really.

Q: You speak a lot about investigating, is this what drives you, the process of creation itself?

CL: Yes, yes. I'm interested in the beauty of whatever particular object I find, and then just looking at it as much as possible, and finding what I find beautiful in it, and just working through it, I guess, is trying to express what I feel about it is really what's going on.

Q: Why do you make art?

CL: I couldn't tell you, other than I have to do it. I feel like I'm supposed to do it. I feel like, really, in my element when I'm making something. I feel like that's what I'm supposed to be doing. And if I go a long time without making something, it's not very good for my sanity. For me to be healthy and happy I really need to be creating as much as possible. When there's a big lull, I don't feel good about it. I have pent up something that has to be released.

Q: How would you describe your relationship with creating art?

CL: This is like the grossest way to explain it, but it really explains it the best way: I have to make art, just like I have to shit. Like I don't have any say in whether I have to do it or not, it's just a requirement. It's necessary to function properly.

Q: What’s going through your mind when you’re creating?

CL: I don't think too much about it. Yes. That's why I also don't know what they're gonna look like before I start them. I just sort of start doing it. And then, whatever comes up, that's what has to be done next. And it dictates its own steps. And so, to me, I'm just participating in something other than forcing it down. Whenever I start trying to force something, it's not so good. I've burned some things. You can't just throw them away. You gotta take them out in the yard and burn them, because you're trying to force them through. It's better if it just comes together.

“I have to make art, just like I have to shit. Like I don't have any say in whether I have to do it or not, it's just a requirement.”

I LOVE MYSELF BECAUSE

The collective visited a houseshow party in urbana, Il on NOvember 11, 2017, and asked the attendees why they love themselves.

Morning

I settle into the warm shadow of your body on the mattress. Through closing eyes, I watch you fumble through drawers of clothes, naked, half of a bum burning between your teeth.

Slow limbs drag themselves to the top of the dresser, until you are perched at the edge. A depleted box of smokes between your legs. The corner of your thumb is raw, and the lines of your fingerprint, charred.

Fluttering through summer’s dying breath, your smoky sigh floats toward the window. My ankles tangled in cold sheets, I lay still and inhale the decay, ebbing at the butt of your cigarette. Eyes drift shut to the sound of the merry-go-round spark wheel.

october

smoke rises past my mother’s bedroom, and I wonder if she can hear me cussing over the wet wood, hissing and cussing and gurgling.

the grayish ringlets floating past the glass, through the screen, under my mother's nose, carrying the scent of my father’s breath hissing rum and Coke.

he gazes through the fire like some oracle, reading and taming its bend and bow, –to live my life through you. the breeze exhales: rustles what little hair he has left, billows out a cough.

flutters into the trees disguised as fireflies. his calloused fingers grate the soft skin under my elbow.

–you will be happy

and I wonder if my mother is letting the tears slide across the bridge of her nose, fall onto her right cheek, and ride the cusp into the threads of her pillow as we cuss and gurgle and burn.

PERSONAL SPACE:

an exploration on how the mind embodies itself in its surrounding. how does your space represent you as an artist?

“As a musician, I like to decorate my space with prints of some of my favorite artists. I also have political posters from campaigns and politicians that I have supported. I try to create an aesthetic that makes me feel at home and embodies who I am and what I stand for. I feel satisfied when I see the room that I’ve decorated.” -Keegan Gulick

“I consider my place a sanctuary and an extension of myself. My walls are covered with fabrics, collages, fake plants, colored lights, and my art, because that is what differs between a house and a home. Some may say I’m a hoarder, Or a maximalist, if they’re being kind. But, to be able to cultivate a space that immediately helps stabilize you as soon as you walk in really makes life seem a little steadier.”

-Skylar Chism

“My room is who I am. It’s filled with whacky posters and bright objects, which inspire and embody my artistic style. My room is my mind in tangible form, as well as another outlet for me to express myself in. My space is who I am and it’s where I am most comfortable.” -Emma Sielaff

“I hang up tickets, wristbands, drink wrappers, and art given to me by my friends. Surrounding myself with influential and talented people has always guided me to inspiration. I’d like to give a shoutout to my Disney princess sheets. Often, my friends say my room looks like both a teenage skater boy and a little girl decorated it. I think they’re right.” -Sofia Fey

“Being a person with a certain tolerance for chaos, my personal space reflects how I conceive my sense of self. Me reading and drinking coffee on a couch amongst a mess (and a whole bag of toilet paper) is the creative version of myself I like most. Surrounded by my very own disorder, reading and writing comes easiest to me and, strangely, where I feel most like myself.” -Gabriel Perez

Taylor Chism

I'm just a graphic artist trying to get my name out into the world. If you want to help support the cause please feel free to follow my Instagram.

Instagram: @majestic_platypus

pg: 34-35

Joshua Barker

The what is more important than the who. Art made by Joshua Barker comments on the de nition of art and welcomes contestation. Art made by Joshua Barker a liates with no movement. Art made by Joshua Barker is art because it declares to be.

pg: 09

Emma Sielaff

I just want to spread happiness in the world, and that’s what my art aims to do. I’m an illustration artist who experiments with ﬁlm photography, collating and graphic art. I love sunﬂowers, turtles, and strawberries.

Instagram: @emsieloaf

pg: 12-13, 28-29

Elena Sotos

I am an artist from Chicago who experiments with printmaking and mixed media. My work often describes my views on relationships, both my own and others, as well as the psychology I observe in society. My latest piece, an ambiguous charcoal self-portrait, is currently on view at the University of Illinois’ website.

Instagram: @elena.sotos

pg: 07, 10, 18

Anna Korol

My work explores the concept of self-identity. I hope to illustrate the complicated path in ﬁnding oneself in a world that constantly pushes against it.

Instagram: @annakorolart

pg: 24-25

Emma Lee

If I’m not stuck at Grainger Engineering Library, I probably have my head in a book or am chilling at a co ee shop on campus. I work largely with digital photography as well as have experience with ﬁlm.

pg: 32-33

Adriana Vaca

There’s signiﬁcance in reevaluating daily tasks, objects, and places. Taking the mundane and turning it into something new. It’s like when you say a word over and over again: suddenly it becomes strange and unfamiliar. That’s what I like to do with my art.

Instagram: @adri.vaca

pg: 04-06, 11, 36-37

Rubab Hyder

I am a South Asian woman who believes in the move towards a radically loving and communal society. I love mangos and roses and subverting capitalism.

Instagram: @redmilklover

pg: 14-17

Mew Tachibana

Member of MEW3MEW artist collective. I’m a visual artist with a focus on both traditional and contemporary Japanese art. Working with digital art and oil paintings, I explore subjects such as mental health, loneliness, alternative personality, and imaginary friends.

Instagram: @mew3mew.art

pg: 38

Soﬁa Fey

I like to write, take photos, and play music. My favorite things to write are poems, plays, ﬁlms, and short stories. I recently co-wrote a ﬁlm entitled “A Corner for August” and my play He Follows was workshopped at the Station Theatre. Currently, I’m writing a cartoon and poetry book.

Instagram: @soﬁzzleyo23

pg: 08

Emily-Nicole Pease

I'm an author and artist from Hawthorn Woods, Illinois. I currently write for Buzz Magazine and have edited for other publications.

Instagram: @coalie12

pg: 30-31

Skylar Chism

All I want to do is create, feel, and indulge in beauty. To express love, and be able to relate to another human being. Through all mediums I explore, I crave the world more. One day I’ll look back and know it wasn’t all just a dream.

Instagram: @_hivemind

pg: 20, 39

Chantal Vaca

I’m constantly stuck between caring too much and feeling like nothing actually matters. My art is an exploration of these two mental states. I work with digital and lm photography and graphic design.

Instagram: @babichanti

pg: 21-23, 26-27

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