Chakalah Crawford eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral 149 SPECIAL ISSUE about having fun doing what I love and including others in on the fun whether it be live paint sessions or “productive” parties, gatherings when a group of entrepreneurs come together and work on their businesses. Whereas, the physical aspect of my daily practice as an artist caterers more towards my individual growth. In particular, studying what techniques can be utilized to make a painting look better, what colors can make a painting look more lively, etc. My daily goal as an artist, is to continuously develop and pay more attention to the details of each painting so that it becomes a production that not only looks good to myself, but to those watching me. You recently illustrated the book 21 Days to the New You by Danielle Davis and over the years your artworks have been showcased in a number of occasions, including your recent participation to the group exhibition Art Walk of Lexington in Lexington, SC: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? And what do you hope your audience take away from your artworks? I honestly feel that my audience can see the diversity in my pieces. I do have a lot of culturally influenced artwork, but because I know that diversity matters, I am able to do other things like landscape, city views, paint pours, and more recently, resin designed coasters. My ability to pay attention to the audience each event caters more to, I am able to make sure everyone can go home with something special. My only desire is that my audience is able to relate to something, if not everything, that I’ve created. If my artwork can draw a person in because of the connection they build with a specific piece, my style or just art in general, then I’m pleased. More specifically, I think there is a good amount of people that aren’t yet exposed to the world of art, if something I do or say brings them closer to wanting to understand art, then that would be exciting. We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Chakalah. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? I am currently working on a third piece to my Wanderlust Song and Wander-Lust. This piece is currently my favorite and has already attracted so much attention. This piece has been influenced not only but the named two pieces, the outer portion of this painting has also been influenced by the brush stroke used in Vincent van Gogh’s masterpiece, The Starry Night. I’m really learning the importance of taking my time to create and not rushing myself to finish a piece in one sitting. In the future, I plan on being formally training so that I can learn more about painting portraits, full body paintings, as well as learning techniques that will aid in my growth as an artist. I am open to more possibilities of sharing my art with the world and I would like to say thank you for allowing me an opportunity to do so. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected]
SPECIAL ISSUE 4 Hello Deborah and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training and after having moved from Chicago to Los Angeles you studied Music and Art: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? In particular, how does your cultural substratum direct the trajectory of your current artistic research? While Studying my way toward artistic expression on canvas, or just paper, I was consumed with music as well as painting. At the end of rushed days, difficult study, myself and a group of other artists would hang out in places where there was live music. Some of us were bold enough to get onstage and sing no matter if the singing was good or very bad. It brought a lot of laughs. I found myself most creative after having that kind of fun. I’d go home turn on some music and paint without concern. I didn’t care if what I was creating was good or unacceptable. I had fun doing it with loud music in the background. For artist, having fun is so important. Regarding “Substratum,” a diverse-dysfunctional childhood which included my early adult years is my foundation. The ghetto I grew up in; drunks, addicts, ladies and gentlemen of the night, fighting Deborah Kennedy Lives and works in New York City, USA Peripheral ARTeries meets Deborah Kennedy, DKY, was born and raised in the ghettos on the Southside of Chicago. She grew up with six siblings. Her mother was Caucasian, her father African American. She is the author of the 4.5 star Kindle novel: Two Kinds of Color. It is based on fact and fiction. In January, some of her work will be exhibited in Hamburg Germany at the Werkunst Gallery. She will also be featured in the University of Southern California’s magazine, Broken Ink. Deborah lives in New York. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
Mardigras
11 SPECIAL ISSUE neighbors, my bi-racial siblings and confused-struggling parents influence my work all the time. You are a versatile artist and we have appreciated the way the results of your artistic inquiry convey such a coherent combination between emotional intuition and a rigorous aesthetics and the body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries has at once impressed us of for the way you provide the viewers with such a multilayered visual experience: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you usually develop the initial ideas for your artworks? I really don’t have a set way of painting. I pick up the brush and paint without any planning. After doing what I feel is done, I step back and look at the canvas. It is then I go into detail. I see the faces I didn’t intentionally paint. Figures of people just come to life sometimes. I don’t think I’m good at drawing or painting people, they just appear in my work which makes it a lot easier on me. Sometimes, I feel like I’m surrounded by ghosts, or, maybe, it’s all just abstract stuff. However, when I decide to paint people, to me they are not cartoon characters, like someone suggested, but something different with curious expression. Your artworks are marked out with geometric patterns, that you sapiently combine with unique variety of tones, that provide your works with a unique aesthetic identity. New York City based artist Lydia Dona once stated that in order to make art today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes? I didn’t know I was doing any of that. I’m so thankful for such a truthful explanatory comment of my work. Because of you, I know what I paint. Thanks! Sounds deep and serious which I like! If there is any such thing as a natural artist, I would put myself in that category. To be honest I was not a good art student. If an instructor said go left. I would go right. I say I create my work instinctively. We have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances that mark out your artworks, and we like the way they create tension and dynamics: how did you come about settling on your color palette? And how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in a specific artwork and in particular, how do you develop your textures? Where color is concerned, I love the deep richness of natural color by itself. If I see a color I like, or, create a color, I use it even though the art system says don’t do it. While not intentionally creating geometric schemes, it’s important to me to know they Deborah Kennedy eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
13 SPECIAL ISSUE Deborah Kennedy eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral are in my work. I just don’t analyze anything I do. I’m crazy over texture I can feel. I love to use oil and enamel together. I sometimes pile it on which can give a canvas a 3-D look and a great feel for the hand.
SPECIAL ISSUE 16 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries Your artworks challenge the viewers to explore realms of the imagination, how do you consider the tension etween the real and the imagined playing within your work? Sometimes, when I’m intentionally trying to
SPECIAL ISSUE 16 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries Green Sky
eries Contemporary Art Peripheral Deborah Kennedy agazine 17 SPECIAL ISSUE create something imagined reality creeps in. For me, reality says not to try to create something to sell because you think everybody else is selling that kind of work. Making millions. I once tried to create something like a multi-million-dollar artist. I just couldn’t understand why this artist was so famous. I couldn’t see it and still can’t. After failing to paint something I thought people would buy I learned that achieving greatness, and a so-called super network, is a challenge. I now realize through hard work and the persistence to make one see, feel and hear your creation enough to buy it means only one thing. You’ve won. You are an artist. I will never again let money control my artistic point of view. Husband and Wife
Urban Garden
SPECIAL ISSUE 18 With their powerful abstract evokative quality, your artworks seem to invite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with wide freedom to realize their own perception. Austrian Art historian Ernst Gombrich once remarked the importance of providing a space for the viewers to project onto, so that they can actively participate in the creation of the illusion: how important is for you to trigger the viewers' imagination in order to address them to elaborate personal interpretations? In particular, how open would you like your works to be understood? I believe most true abstract artist don’t think about what they are painting. They think about the finish. If it provokes them into staring at their creation, while being objective, it will provoke someone else to do the same. I would like for my work to be understood as: coming from a poorblack girl coming from the ghettos of Chicago. Look at what she can do with a brush. Paint baby! Paint! It's important to remark that you are the author of the 4.5 star Kindle novel Two Kinds of Color. As you have remarked once, your novel is based on fact and fiction: how does your memories and your everyday life's experience fuel your creative process? And how do you think your works respond to it in finding hidden, crystallised moments in the everyday? My mother was the thing I loved more than myself. As in my novel, Two Kinds of Color, she was this beautiful dark-haired white female who was totally abused while I grew up on the South Side of Chicago. This gorgeous woman made money, to take care of her eight children, through prostitution. agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
19 SPECIAL ISSUE eries Contemporary Art Peripheral Deborah Kennedy agazine
SPECIAL ISSUE 12 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
Two of her children were black, which includes me. None of us have the same father. My mother is still a major influence. She died from chronic alcoholism. Regarding my own psychological warfare, I’m striving to achieve something no one in my family can. Success means coming out of a pile, of you know what, smelling like a rose. I can finally say, “Look, Mama. I did it!” Over the years your artworks have been showcased in a number of occasions,including your recent show at the Werkunst Gallery in in Hamburg, Germany: how do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? And what do you hope your audience take away from your artworks? I figure if they didn’t walk out the door with it, they couldn’t have thought too much of it. However, if the pockets don’t say no, they walk out with a piece of my work. I am a part of those who have. We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Deborah. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? I’m not working on anything. I’m in survival mode. The rent, the lights. The bills are taking center stage. When it’s all under control I’ll pick up some canvas, oil and enamel and see what I can come up with. Thanks! 19 eries Contemporary Art Peripheral Deborah Kennedy agazine SPECIAL ISSUE
SPECIAL ISSUE 4 Hello Emily and welcome to Peripheral ARTeries. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit http://etsaidesign.com in order to get a wide idea about your artistic production, and we would start this interview with a couple of questions about your multifaceted background. You have a solid formal training: received her BA in Studio Art at UC Irvine and AA in Graphic Design at the Art Institute of Orange County: how did those formative years influence your evolution as an artist? In particular, how does your cultural substratum direct the trajectory of your current artistic research? Hello, thank you so much for your interest in my art and for this opportunity. I would say my artistic background began far before attending college. Like many others, my love for drawing started when I was very young. I took many community art classes throughout my childhood, and when I was eleven I started Emily Tsai Lives and works in Los Angeles, California, USA Peripheral ARTeries meets Emily Tsai grew up drawing and painting in the Bay Area. She studied traditional Chinese brush painting and other media all throughout her adolescent years. She received her BA in studio art at UC Irvine and AA in graphic design at the Art Institute of Orange County. Shortly after, she moved to Los Angeles, a city that continues to inspire her. Emily currently works mainly in acrylics because of its versatility. She explores the delicate line work of Chinese brush painting blended with the graphic shapes and vibrant colors inspired by her study of design. Her compositions often contain subject matter common in traditional Chinese paintings, including certain flowers and animals. She often explores ideas of ephemeral pleasures and loss of innocence; objects in her pieces are often in the process of melting away. Currently, she is based in Los Angeles where she spends her days painting and exploring new parts of the city. An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries
Emily Tsai
Bubbleforest
11 SPECIAL ISSUE studying traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy with an incredible woman in my city. From this, using watercolor on incredibly thin rice paper with traditional bamboo brushes became my main focus, which required intense discipline and patience. This practice made it much easier when I decided to transition to more accessible media like acrylics and oils on canvas, since good rice paper and brushes were expensive and hard to find in America. I studied Chinese painting until I left for UC Irvine, where I actually didn’t do as much painting as I thought I would. I learned more about artistic principles and experimented with other media including photography and performance art. After graduation I focused on graphic design and spent two years immersing myself in design and received my associates degree. After working as a designer for several years, my personal art is growing into what it looks like now, which is a mix of bold graphic shapes and colors with the delicate linework and subject matter of the traditional Chinese painting that I still hold dear to me. Currently created mainly in acrylics because of its versatility, your artistic production conveys such a coherent combination between emotional intuition and a rigorous aesthetics and the body of works that we have selected for this special edition of Peripheral ARTeries has at once impressed us of for the way you provide the viewers with such a multilayered visual experience: when walking our readers through your usual setup and process, would you tell us how do you usually develop the initial ideas for your artworks? When I’m trying to develop new pieces, I usually start doing many quick gestural figure sketches of different positions, or different variations of certain position that conveys the emotion I want. Then I pick which one I like, and then I build a background or story to that figure. Sometimes I have elements that I definitely want to include in my piece, like a peony or ice cream, and I will start with drawing a composition with those elements first and see what position the girl wants to be in within the piece. I like to do this part digitally, because I can move different elements around the canvas or to the background/foreground until I like what I see. Then I choose a color palette I like and finally get started on the painting. I would say this planning part takes longer than the final execution onto the wood panel. As you have remarked in your artist's statement, you often explore ideas of ephemeral pleasures and loss of innocence. In particular, objects in your pieces are often in the process of melting away: what did direct you to focus your artistic research on these themes? I’m in my late 20s, and the idea of nothing lasting forever and of personal growth are things I think about all the time, and I’m sure most other people my age do as well. I’ve always been drawn to sarcastic and cynical characters, and I wanted the girls in my pieces to convey that. They look simply cute and stylish, but there is a sense of bleakness to them. Although aware that the things around them are melting away, they remain peaceful in the scene. You sapiently combine unique variety of tones, that provide your works with a unique aesthetic identity. New York City based artist Emily Tsai eries Contemporary Art Peripheral agazine
SPECIAL ISSUE 12 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries Lydia Dona once stated that in order to make art today one has to reevaluate the conceptual language behind the mechanism of art making itself: do you create your works gesturally, instinctively? Or do you methodically transpose geometric schemes? In particular, how do you consider the relation between the nature of the concepts that you explore in your artistic research and the physical aspect of your daily practice as an artist? Eye the Beholder
13 SPECIAL ISSUE Emily Tsai eries agazine Contemporary Art Peripheral Like I mentioned, I usually start with clearing my head and doing many quick gestural sketches when I want to create a piece. It varies, and sometimes I let these gestural sketches reflect how I’m feeling at the moment, but sometimes I like to sketch things that are the opposite of my current emotion. Most of it is instinctual based on what I think the painting needs more/less of, and I’m just finding a balance.
SPECIAL ISSUE 16 agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries We have really appreciated the vibrancy of thoughtful nuances that mark out your artworks, especially Peony Drip, and we like the way they create tension and dynamics: how did you come about settling on your color palette? And how does your own psychological make-up determine the nuances of tones that you decide to include in a specific artwork and in particular, how do you develop your textures? Sunflower Daze
Conegirls
Dripfish
19 SPECIAL ISSUE eries Contemporary Art Peripheral Emily Tsai agazine This piece was a little different than my other ones, including the initial process. I started this one knowing incorporate the pink used in many traditional Chinese flower paintings but more saturated. I was also inspired from a Japanese kimono I had seen. From there, I developed the subject matter and general shape of the piece, also based on past Chinese paintings I’ve done. The textures came last as I complete the piece and I just go with what I feel will form a more dynamic composition. Peony Drip
Eye the Beholder
Eye the Beholder
Your compositions often contain subject matter common in traditional Chinese paintings: how do you consider the relationship between ancient cultural heritage and contemporary sensitiveness? Do you think that such apparently opposite ideas can establish a proficient synergy? I’ve always tried to combine traditional Chinese themes and techniques with contemporary mediums and aesthetics because I always felt like it was a cool way to represent my heritage as a Chinese American. The two ideas can definitely establish a proficient synergy, there is definitely a beauty to combining the the intricacies of traditional Chinese art and the minimalism of modern design and finding a balance with a final piece in order to convey both art forms. We like the way you artworks convey such a stimulating combination between figurative elements as flowers and animals, with such a captivating abstract feeling: how would you consider the relationship between abstraction and figurative in your practice? In particular, how does representation and a tendency towards abstraction find their balance in your work? I’ve only ever studied figurative art, so completely abstract art has always been difficult for me to do but it creates such interesting pieces so I try my best to incorporate it within my work. Nowadays I don’t really start my work with references when I do initial gestures. It’s when I need to do final touches and want to add more detail to an element in the piece that I use references. The relationship between abstraction and figurative is pretty much instinctual, if I think my piece is being too literal and isn’t as interesting as it could be then I might add some abstract elements to balance it out. With their delicate beauty on the visual aspect, your artworks seem to invite the viewers to look inside of what appear to be seen, rather than its surface, providing the spectatorship with wide freedom to realize their own perception. How important is for you to invite the viewers to elaborate personal meaning? And in particular, how open would you like your artworks to be understood? I would love the viewers to feel something personal when they see my work, but it doesn’t really matter to me what exactly that emotion is. I’ve never needed my artwork to have a specific meaning or story; I want to leave that up to the viewer. There is no right or wrong answer to what my paintings are saying. How do you consider the nature of your relationship with your audience? And what do you hope your audience take away from your artworks? In particular, how do you consider the role of emerging online technosphere in creating new links with worldwide audience? I just hope the audience feels drawn to my work and feels they are seeing something unique, and would love to talk to more artists about their processes. I love that platforms like Instagram exist because it’s definitely a way for artists to get their work seen by more people worldwide. eries Contemporary Art Peripheral Emily Tsai agazine 19 SPECIAL ISSUE
Eye the Beholder
SPECIAL ISSUE 12 We have really appreciated the multifaceted nature of your artistic research and before leaving this stimulating conversation we would like to thank you for chatting with us and for sharing your thoughts, Emily. What projects are you currently working on, and what are some of the ideas that you hope to explore in the future? I appreciate the opportunity to discuss my art with you. These questions really got me to think deeply about my practice. I ’m currently working on experimenting adding more textures and color schemes in my work. I also plan to practice being more subject-oriented with my process, like starting with a planned subject matter rather than being completely instinctual and gestural with my pieces so that my pieces have more of a purpose. Thank you so much for this opportunity and giving me this platform to show my work! agazine Special Edition Contemporary Art Peripheral eries An interview by Josh Ryder, curator and Melissa C. Hilborn, curator [email protected] Cotton Cloud Luffy Muffy
19 SPECIAL ISSUE eries Contemporary Art Peripheral Emily Tsai agazine The Splash