Category: magazine

As I tidy and throw away redundant materials from the Slide Library here at Cardiff Metropolitan University prior to a move to another campus it really helps when I know that what is going into the bin is not therefore lost to history. the old audio arts cassette has been binned but every volume from that magazine of sounds and sound art is available still! On the Tate website here.
Explore and listen to this innovative audio cassette-magazine featuring exclusive contributions from more than 900 individual artists
including Joseph
Beuys, Ian
Breakwell, Tracey
Emin and Andy Warhol. Audio Arts was  established by Bill Furlong in 1972 and includes soundworks, interviews and  coverage of exhibitions. You will find all 24 volumes from Audio Arts published between 1973 and 2006
including  the Audio Arts supplements which focus on particular themes and
individuals, from the state of British art in the late 1970s to a feature on
Damien Hirst in 2003.
Read more here

Dr. Alexis Hope thrives when free to create playful experiences that help people find joy, self-compassion, and connection with others. Her practice centers on designing spaces for artistic freedom, exploration, and community support. As an experimental designer who works across disciplines, she believes that anything can be the material for creativity. Currently, Alexis is a co-founder and Chief Product Officer of focused.space, a company helping people to reach their personal, professional, and creative goals in community with others.

“My practice often involves teaching and learning, mentoring, and taking creative risks. I’m here to have fun and bring others along for the ride,” Alexis shared. “This approach turns out to be a great match for co-founding a startup, which is what I’m up to now! Our members [at focused] include a lot of creative workers, freelancers, and fellow entrepreneurs whose struggles I can really relate to. We help people feel motivated and inspired, and provide lightweight structure and support to help them make progress on their work, and feel good doing it.”

Prior to co-founding focused, Alexis spent a decade at MIT, where she received her PhD at the MIT Media Lab in 2021, working with the Lifelong Kindergarten research group. As a designer, Alexis has worked across a variety of domains – ranging from cameras for deep-sea exploration, creative learning technologies for children, artistic tools for zero-gravity environments in orbit, hackathons to improve breast pumps (…what?!), low-cost ultrasound machines for providing prenatal care in areas with limited resources, and more. She’s currently a 2023 United States Artists Fellow representing the field of Art & Design.

As a musician, Alexis taps into her creativity in another way, singing and writing songs for two bands: Calico Beach Party and Double Bitch. “I’m really passionate about making music. When I sing and play the guitar, I really feel ‘in my body.’ My mind empties and I go somewhere else for a while.”

“For me, my work and personal life are extremely fluid. I take inspiration from everything. I don’t hesitate to take a long walk in the middle of the day if I need to. I’ll spend an hour talking to a stranger. focused helps me do all of that, while also making sure I accomplish the goals that really matter to me each day, the ones that are going to move the needle. I try to be really in tune with my energy levels and important commitments each day, and ride the wave.”

Today, Alexis Hope joins us for the weekly Friday Five!

1. Sexual Healing by Nienke Helder

Nienke is one of my favorite designers, and her area of expertise is sexual health. She is a rare mix of empathetic, thoughtful, and casual when it comes to topics that can feel taboo. (That’s something that really resonates with me from my own work on the “Make the Breast Pump Not Suck” hackathon). Her project “Sexual Healing” really inspires me – it is a collection of sensory objects for people who experience sexual problems after a traumatic experience. They are beautiful, functional, and really change the narrative around sexual trauma and healing. The objects help people find pleasure again, tuning into and prioritizing their own sense of safety and joy. I think her approach helps people who have experienced trauma see themselves differently. Instead of being a problem to be solved, you are someone who deserves to feel good.

I can’t wait for this book to come out. (Ed. note: The book is now available.) Ali brought together over 40 contributors from 16 different countries to explore the intersection of design and feminist theory. I contributed a short case study about one of my projects (the “Make the Breast Pump Not Suck” Hackathon), and I’m really excited to read everyone else’s contributions. It’s the perfect book to help us reimagine the role of design in shaping culture.

My friend Julie finds a way to be creative with any material. She’s formally trained in jewelry design, electronics, leather-working… you name it, she’s done it. But over the past decade, she’s been really focused on a pretty unexpected material for design: bacteria. She runs a company called Amino Labs – they create educational materials and kits for people to invent new things with biology. You can use bacteria to engineer new smells, pigments, biomaterials, medicines, and more. Julie lives in the future and every kit I’ve ever bought from them inspires me.

Chelsi is an artist and designer who uses code as a material. At heart, she’s an experimentalist. To me, she is a constant reminder of the value of play in building a strong design practice. Chelsi uses her Instagram like a journal, sharing the small visual delights that she creates each day – you can feel the joy and learning radiating out of every pixel! She also recently completed a larger project called Illuminate, an interactive piece that brings people’s movement to life in the space. It’s so lovely.

5. Reversible Bracelet by Biba Schutz

Biba Schutz is my cousin, and also happens to be one of the most creatively inspiring women I’ve ever met. She’s in her 70s, lives in NYC where she has her studio, and makes really incredible jewelry. She has a rare combo of playfulness and hard-won technical sophistication that blows my mind. The piece above is one of her most popular bracelets, it’s a reversible (!!!) chainmail cuff with a perfect magnetic closure. I don’t know how she figured out how to make it, but it’s a dream to wear.

 

 

Work by Alexis Hope:

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✓Join us for the art event you’ve been waiting for in Mesa, Arizona from October 25-28, 2023 and enjoy a terrific lineup of educational workshops, a marketplace to shop, and community building activities. Whether you’re looking to learn a new technique, gain knowledge from a top instructor, or meet other artists, you won’t want to miss Art Fest Mesa!

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In March of 2023, The National Gallery of Art, in Washington D.C., announced the acquisition of Fog Bank (2020), a mixed-media work by the highly respected Native American artist Emmi Whitehorse (Diné, b. 1957). It’s the first work by this artist to join the collection, part of a belated but welcome trend among museums and cultural institutions to address the lack of representation in their archives of contemporary Native artists.

Subscribe to Artists Magazine now so you don’t miss any great art instruction, inspiration, and articles like this one.

A Mix of Materials

Whitehorse was born in New Mexico, a member of the Navajo Nation, and grew up in a family where only the Navajo language was spoken. Rather than pursue a traditional, informal, craft-oriented approach usually associated with Native creators, Whitehorse sought a formal art education at the University of New Mexico where she earned both a BFA and MFA with a focus on printmaking and art history. The fact that printmaking usually requires paper rather than canvas as its base may explain why Whitehorse is more comfortable working on paper, which she then mounts on canvas. Working on paper also provides a bit more flexibility in being able to rotate the work around on a flat surface as she applies the richly saturated color. There’s no correct top or bottom to her work, a strategy that’s meant to avoid, as Whitehorse says, “the Western tendency to schematize.”

The process Whitehorse used to create Fog Bank is in line with her general practice. She uses her hands to scrub in the first layer of powdered pastel pigment, virtually embedding it into the paper, giving the surface an atmospheric, ethereal quality. This is then sprayed with a fixative. In addition, she uses brushes to apply a turpentine wash and a thinned oil stick application. Sometimes, as in this piece, Whitehorse works on two, side-by-side sheets of paper. Each work seems to have a single dominant color aura. In Fog Bank a crystalline blue epitomizes the misty melding of sea and sky. On top of her radiant surfaces, the artist draws marks and shapes with Conté pencils and Conté chalk. Whitehorse has described these forms as an “intricate language of symbols [that] refer to specific plants, people and experiences.”  

Thinking About What is Underfoot

In the artist’s statement about her work at the Tamarind Institute, a well-respected collaborative printmaking workshop, Whitehorse says: “My work is about, and has always been about, land—about being aware of our surroundings and appreciating the beauty of nature. I am concerned that we are no longer aware of those things. I hope that the calm and beauty in my work serves as a reminder of what is underfoot, of the exchange we make with nature. Light, space, and color are the axis around which my work evolves. The act of making art must stay true to a harmonious balance of beauty, nature, humanity, and the whole universe. This is in accordance with Navajo philosophy.”

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About the Artist

Garth Greenan Gallery, in New York City, represents the work of Emmi Whitehorse and several other important Native artists. Whitehorse has had solo exhibitions at major institutions like the Jocelyn Art Museum and the Tucson Museum of Art. Her work has been featured in group exhibitions at the National Museum of the American Indian, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Denver Art Museum. Her work is represented in numerous public collections, including the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

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“The lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime” Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary, August 1914

National Library of Wales Cymru 1914 archive

Millions of
people are expected to participate and hundreds of local authorities, iconic
buildings, national organisations including the BBC and the Royal British
Legion, parish councils and places of worship have already pledged their
support. Iconic landmarks such Blackpool Illuminations, the Houses of
Parliament, Eden Project, Imperial War Museums and Tower Bridge will turn off
their lights; the Royal British Legion has launched a campaign for at least one
million candles to be lit across the UK and theatre productions including those
of the National Theatre’s War Horse, both nationally and internationally, will
invite their audiences to take part in LIGHTS OUT after their curtain calls.

Bedwyr Williams’ work Traw will be a large-scale video and sound installation  at the site of the
North Wales Memorial Arch, Bangor. The memorial takes centre stage in front of
images projected onto the enormous facing wall of Bangor University’s new
Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre.

Bedwyr Williams is one of Wales’ leading visual artists. In 2013 he represented Wales at the Venice Biennale.

Commenting on the
project Bedwyr Williams said: “As a young art student I walked past the
memorial arch in Bangor many times and I have to admit that I never gave it a
huge amount of thought. Working on this project I’ll never be able to walk past
this place again without thinking of the lives lost fighting in the First World
War.”

We hope you’re ready to change up your desktop for the month because October’s Designer Desktop falls perfectly in line (pun intended) with the colors of fall. The pattern is designed by Annabel Inganni, Founder and Creative Director of Wolfum, a textile studio creating tabletop and home goods. From rugs and wallpaper to coasters and board games, Wolfum is known for its mesmerizing patterns that will make even the most die-hard minimalists have a change of heart.

This particular design chosen for Designer Desktop is “Adam,” named after Inganni’s dear high school friend. She explains:

We attended boarding school in Western MA in the ’90s, so this print is reminiscent of the cool urban/hippie vibe that the Berkshires (and our progressive school in particular) capsulated so perfectly in that era. A mixture of Baja inspired, earthy colors and linear structure that was embraced by us “city kids” out in the wild. I love the saturated, autumnal pallet that is at once structured and freeform. It is textured, vibrant, and cool.

Download this month’s Designer Desktop at the bottom!

Other Wolfum designs:

Download the desktop with the links below!

DESKTOP: 1024×768  1280×1024  1680×1050  1900×1200  2560×1440

MOBILE: iPhone XS  iPhone XS Max  iPad Pro

Learn more about Wolfum here and follow along on IG here.

View and download past Designer Desktops here.

Over the years, the works of art celebrated in the annual juried AcrylicWorks Art Competition—presented by Artists Magazine and American Artist—have continually demonstrated impressive creativity as artists explore the potential of the medium and expand its possibilities. This year is no exception. The 114 works included in the 10th-anniversary special edition, The Best of Acrylic:…

Blad Moran is a freelance artist out of Kiev, Ukraine. Focused on work as a concept artist and character designer, Moran’s work has garnered her tens of thousands of followers on Instagram with her quirky, distinctive style.

Moran’s signature is in her faces. The way she illustrates the dynamic ways people can convey emotion through facial expressions. One of my favorite expressions in life is one that Moran’s characters display frequently, angsty displeasure. Many of Blad Moran’s characters are shown in varying states of displeasure with a lot of these on display in her sketchtober posts on Behance. Take entry twenty-one for instance, paired with the caption, “When you sprouted over the summer”, Moran’s humor shines through in this sketch of a dance team with young girls where one of the girls has sprouted up to twice the size of the rest of the team. Amongst the four girls are four totally unique faces of disgust, disappointment, despondence and displeasure. Moran doesn’t waste any part of the piece, contorting lips, eyes, cheeks, everything a person uses to convey emotion and Blad is a master with them. You can see this level of expertise across all of her work running through the entire range of emotions. And no matter what mood you’re looking for, with Blad Moran, it’s almost guaranteed to make you chuckle.

Etsy, a much-loved online storefront that showcases small businesses, is a perfect platform to explore the diverse artistry and creativity offered by Black artist from around the globe.

Here, you can find everything from original paintings to unique prints that are ready to be framed and adorn the walls of your home.

In the collection below, we gathered an entire gallery’s worth of Black art to shop, along with some information about each of the artists.

HuffPost may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Every item is independently selected by the HuffPost Shopping team. Prices and availability are subject to change.

Scratch Platform is a brand new event in Cardiff and the showing of work on
Sunday August 31st is the first of what will be a regular event happening every
other month. The idea is to give Live Artists, Sound Artists, Cabaret
Performers, Poets and other artists who perform an opportunity to show their
work (whether it is ‘finished’, ‘polished', in development or otherwise) to an
interested and supportive audience. The showing will start at 7pm and the venue
will be open until pub closing time!

Any work that is designed to be performed to an audience needs at some point to
be performed!

It will be free to take part in and free to watch. There are no ‘rules’ as such
other than that any piece shouldn’t last longer than ten minutes - in order to
give everyone a fair chance. There will be no competitive element and we want
to encourage a very open, pressure free and supportive environment.

It’s a lovely intimate venue and we are able to provide some technical
assistance- we have a PA, lighting rig and access to a projector and screen.
Will will also be filming the event to offer the performers a copy of the documentation
(this will be free, basically bring a memory stick or external drive and we
will copy the footage to it).

At the end of each event we will have a performance from an invited artist. On
August 31st this will be Foxy and Husk

We hope to draw artists and an audience from the artist communities in Cardiff
and further afield. There will be an opportunity for the performers to display
business cards, CV’s and other information that they might wish to share. We
will also offer feedback forms that members of the audience can fill in.

If you would like to show your work then please can you send me your technical
requirements (will you need music playback for example or a microphone(s)?) and
give me a very brief breakdown of what your 10 minute piece will be.

bring your friends!

When designing the Dif Lamp, Bangkok-based designer Taras Yoom (born Taras Zheltyshev) looked to his education as a medical professional as a point of reference. The purple tubes of the unique floor lamp are inspired by the vascular system and the light pink orbs resemble blood cells – their passengers. Early on in his career, Yoom simultaneously worked part time in a laboratory and an architectural firm, and over time his projects began to blur the line between visible reality and the hidden processes of organisms. This drove him to work within the theme of human physiology and the Yoomoota art universe that the artist has since created.

Within Yoomoota, the Dif Luminaire “is made from terrestrial cells sent to our planet by the hero Thymus in order to protect it from infectious agents (Viroids and Bagds). These light pink cells are kept in Thymus’s backpack in the form of living and non-living objects, whose appearance scares enemies away. On Orginion (the planet of our body, where biochemical and physiological processes are described), similar luminaires are used as charms. They are activated when infections attack the cities during dark nights,” he explained in detail. “The Dif Lamp provides physical protection to the inhabitants during the night and moreover, serves as [a] significant guide and support. That is the light, which illuminates the darkness and allows us to defend against irrational fears, which all of us encounter.”

The larger Yoomoota universe reflects our inner worlds, a parallel universe with its own planets and inhabitants – a projection of our bodies and minds. Everything that exists on a global scale in reality is represented. The story is told through sculptures, collectible design, paintings, mixed media pieces, storybooks, and NFTs.

To learn more about Taras Yoom and Yoomoota, visit yoomoota.com.

✓Join us for the art event you’ve been waiting for in Mesa, Arizona from October 25-28, 2023 and enjoy a terrific lineup of educational workshops, a marketplace to shop, and community building activities. Whether you’re looking to learn a new technique, gain knowledge from a top instructor, or meet other artists, you won’t want to miss Art Fest Mesa!

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In the Fall 2022 issue of Watercolor Artist Magazine, we asked 5 great watercolor painters the question “What are the three tube colors that are always on your palette?” Here, we’ll focus on one of those artists, Laurin McCracken, whose upcoming Art Fest workshops will allow artists like you an opportunity to learn directly from him. Scroll down to read his comments on McCracken Black, a color created by Daniel Smith to his specifications.

Don’t miss the opportunity to work and learn with Laurin McCracken himself! His Art Fest workshop—The Art of the Still Life: Painting Silver & Crystal in Watercolor Realism—is filling up fast!

McCracken Black

Three of the colors that are always on my palette are Daniel Smith’s phthalo blue (red shade), Aussie red gold and McCracken black. I find phthalo blue (red shade) to be the most versatile of all the blues. It’s a very rich color that can be used full strength to create full-bodied blues or thinned out to be light—as might be required in a midday sky, for example. It’s also my go-to color when mixing greens, creating
a wide range of fabulous green mixtures when combined with cadmium yellow (dark, medium or light).

Aussie gold is a relatively new color in the Daniel Smith line that’s astonishingly rich. I use it often as an underpainting color for fruit to create a bit of punch. I also use this gold as a layer under dark colors such as quinacridone burnt orange, a combination that works especially well for subjects such as dark-brown antique bottles or on an old padlock.

I worked directly with the color chemists at Daniel Smith to develop the color McCracken Black. It’s a rich black that can be thinned out to a neutral gray. It’s what I use to create the dark black backgrounds in my paintings. The color is a bit transparent, so an underpainting can still have an impact. I apply it quite thickly, scumbling it as I paint. It dries to a matte finish and—in spite of its dark appearance—is nonstaining. —Laurin McCracken

This article originally appeared in Watercolor Artist. Subscribe now so you don’t miss any great art instruction, inspiration, and articles like this one.