Kelly McCallum graduated from the Goldsmithing department at the Royal Collage of Art in summer, 2006: a jeweller’s interest in scale and attention to detail is apparent in both her wearable objects and her sculptural pieces. Her work is influenced by both story-telling and natural history, employing Victorian taxidermy as well as insects, precious metals and other treasures from her personal collection of curiosities. She has exhibited in many different countries, including Canada, the United States, France, Korea, The United Kingdom, and Poland, and her work has been displayed at The Victoria and Albert Museum and Liberty of London. Her Work is innovative as it refuses to fit easily into one category it is conceptual, and challenges the viewer, or wearer’s assumptions and preconceptions.

San Francisco-based street artist Victor Reyes is well known for his vibrant, aesthetically beautiful, free-flowing handstyle that are highly coveted and admired by many artists in the world of art and design. Looking at his work makes you want to re-learn how to hold a brush and spray can. REYES is a force to be reckoned with in this world. I thought it would be a great idea to run an interview with him here to talk inspiration, his body of work and how he goes about producing it, and all the other good stuff. Let’s not waste any time and get right to it, shall we?

Honey: What’s on your mind right now?

Victor Reyes: I have drawing on the brain currently.

Honey: You have a very recognizable style that can’t be mistaken for any other artist. How did you come up with this style?

Victor Reyes: My style has been distilled through many places, graffiti, illustration, contemporary art, and pattern making, however I would say classical reference is a constant inspiration.

Honey: I’d love to learn about your creative process. What goes through your head when you are about to start a new piece? What can you share?

Victor Reyes: When starting new work I usually dig for reference and make decisions on composition and palette. Once I have some guidelines I usually abandon part of the plan and let improve take over.

Honey: Have you experienced fluctuations in your productivity through the years?

Victor Reyes: My productivity has gone through some phases, sometimes I loose my way or get down about an aspect of art and I take a few to reset, however that’s part of being me, so I roll with it.

Honey: What other media have you tried or wanted to experiment with?

Victor Reyes: I have tried a range of mediums which include illustration, pattern making, paper making, painting, print making, wood sculpture, apparel design ,adobe suite, Photography, and Graffiti. In the future I am looking forward to studying book making and auto cad with CNC output.

Honey: How many works do you currently average in a year?

Victor Reyes: In a year I usually produce a long list of work I could not begin to add up however here’s a rough I feel safe to qualify. Hundreds of drawings, fifty Design Products, a solo art show, thirty Graffiti pieces, four large scale murals and a few print releases. I should work harder though.

Honey: What brought you to where you are as an artist today, what decisions that you made created the opportunities that you have at this time in your life?

Victor Reyes: I made the decision to make art and paint Graffiti when I was fourteen. Since I started early, there were great opportunities to meet people and build networks with other artists. I also got to sell large works and attract big name clients, and travel to exotic locals.

Honey: Does the impact of your work change when it is being viewed in a gallery as opposed to in the streets?

Victor Reyes: The impact of my work in the streets is based largely on taking over large space and painting on the fringe where I am always breaking rules. Graffiti requires athleticism and cunning. All these elements communicate to the viewer and there is a credit you earn with people from doing this regardless of their prejudices. However a gallery show is more of a cerebral methodical process where viewers glorify or scrutinize the work by purchasing or criticizing what they see, really these worlds are at opposite ends of the universe and the economy is more the judge of the sacred.

Honey: Is there anyone you’d like to work with creatively in the coming year or so?

Victor Reyes: Yes. I want to work with Martin Scorsese, do you know him?? I give good type, I am thinking some opening titles.

Honey: Of all things someone could say about you, what would make you feel the best?

Victor Reyes: I would love for people to say I am a good person, however that is not always true.

Honey: What significant social change would you like to see happen in your lifetime?

Victor Reyes: Seriously, I would love to see social change for the good where ever possible, universal health care, subsidize college education, Equality for all people however I am sure it’s up to me like most everything else.

Honey: Any plans to come to NY?

Victor Reyes: I am planning a show in New York for September more details coming soon.

Honey: What does the rest of 2012 have installed for Reyes? Anything you are working on at the moment that you are excited about?

Victor Reyes: I am excited about this business here “The Jungle” new paintings by Victor Reyes “Known Gallery” late March 2012.

Honey: Any words of advice you’d like to pass on?

Victor Reyes: My advice to myself everyday is work hard and stay positive, this is a challenge…

Honey: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to interview you, it’s a great pleasure. Anything else you’d like to add?

Victor Reyes: Thanks for interviewing me, you have great taste.

Links here:

http://reyes78.com/
http://twitter.com/reyes78

If you like holding hands, this case is for you- Dokkiri Hand Case. Wow ok.

Fred Harper‘s life goal at the age of 14 was to be a caricature artist in a carnival or amusement park. Fred achieved this lofty goal by age 19 as a summer job at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, OH. Time to make new goals! Fred graduated with a BFA in painting at Columbus College of Art and Design and painted hundreds of murals for “The Limited Express” until he got his pencil in the door at Marvel comics. He painted posters, pin-ups, and covers as well as drew interiors for titles such as “Conan”, “Spiderman”, and “Doctor Strange”. Fred’s shown his work at CBGB’s 313, The Museum of American Illustration, and Banning and Low galleries in Washington D.C. (two solo shows!). Fred’s work is in the private collections of the rich and powerful… not that he could call in any “favors”… but his illustrations have appeared in such great publications as “Time”, “The Wall Street Journal”,”The New York Times”, “Playboy”, “The Village Voice”, “Sports Illustrated”, and just about every issue of “The Week” magazine.

British artist Susan Stockwell ‘work takes many forms from small elaborate studies to large scale installations, sculpture, drawings and collage. It is concerned with issues of ecology, geo-politics, mapping, trade and global commerce. The materials used are the everyday, domestic and industrial disposable products that pervade our lives. These materials are manipulated and transformed into works of art that are extraordinary.’

Yasumasa Morimura (b.1951, Osaka) appropriates universally well known images derived from art history, mass media and pop culture to create unconventional and bold self-portrait renderings in photography, performance and video. Through the extensive use of props, costumes, make-up and digital manipulation, Morimura masterfully transforms himself into recognizable subjects that punctuate the western cultural cannon. His series include works based on seminal paintings by artists such as Frida Kahlo, Van Gogh, Velazquez or Goya and on pictorial sources from history and the mass media. His unsettling deconstruction of iconic images and masterpieces challenges the assumptions already placed on such works/images while commenting on Japan’s complex and conflicting absorption of Western culture. His ability to satirize and simultaneously create an homage of his source material is what makes Morimura’s work particularly forceful and effective.

” I make figurative sculptures that are reminiscent of dolls. They are personifications of internal struggles that define the human condition. My inspiration comes from personal experiences and those of people I know. Each figure begins as a portrait and then expands to address a more universal theme often having to do with fantasies relating to power, repressed sexuality and violence, feelings of loss and mortality.Each sculpture is sewn and assembled using a combination of natural and synthetic materials such as leather, latex, dried fruit, bones, human hair, fur and pantyhose. Stylistically my work aims to balance the empathetic quality of a handmade object with the surreal aesthetic of theatre and animation.My aim is to capture and suspend, through metaphor, a moment of discovery, a transition between innocence and knowing, or a turning point from which there is no return. My figures often appear to be at once infantile and aging both disconnected and active. They are struggling to make sense of the world and the conflicting messages found within it.” – Melissa Ichiuji

Abrahan Jimenez was born in Mexico City in 1977. He studied Graphic Design in Mexico City. He has participated in many graphic and visual art forums. He was awarded the FONCA Grant by CONACULTA in 2009. His art has been featured in shows held all over Mexico, including the Alfredo Salce Biennial at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Morelia, the First, Second and Third Biennials at the Merida Museum of Contemporaty Art, as well as the Rufino Tamayo Biennial.

“Interrogated/Deflected is a perfect miniaturized version of a much larger original sculpture that I made. Made from a three dimensional digital scan and cast in sterling silver, it is sculpted as if all of the white has been removed from a zebra. I am interested in the combination of a aggressively questioning something through dissection and the idea of deflection implied by the different reflective surfaces of the piece. I used silver for the sculpture because it has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any earthly element or metal. As in many of my works, it is important to me that the object has an unfixed identity and could be seen as a type of conduit. Cloning, genetics, and the idea of originality are themes revolving around this work.” – Michael Joo