LET US ROLL

Art & Literary Based Blog

[letusroll]

Women Artists A-C

Happy International Women’s Day! Over the coming week, we will be publishing an A-Z list of women artists of whom you may not have heard. From classical to contemporary the following artists hail from across the globe, bringing with them bodies of work that are unique, empowering and, ultimately, inspiring. Check out our first segment, covering three artists, below...

Mequitta Ahuja Born in 1976, Ahuja is an American artist whose work is a sublime mixture of past and present. The canvas is rendered somewhat like a patchwork tapestry, in which the artist unites mixed patterns, colours, and forms to create an ageless and dazzling world. As the Saatchi Gallery have observed: ‘To enter a room of her work is to enter a very personal cosmology in which Ahuja fluently appropriates ancient works of myth and legend, such as the 15th century Persian manuscript The Hamzanama and Hindu miniature paintings.’ (Image: Autocartography I, 2012)

Melanie Bonajo Dutch artist, Melanie Bonajo, possesses a body of work that is both uncompromising and empowering. Her realistic depictions of the female body are a reaction against the limitations it has been subjected throughout the history of art - and, indeed, history itself. In her 2012 project, Herstories of the (Social) Naked Body, Bonajo gave her subjects a piece of clay to mould around their body themselves. The process enables a form of liberation, in which the woman can reclaim her body and the way in which it has been controlled throughout the past. (Images: Herstories of the (Social) Naked Body, 2012, Family Affairs, 2013 (top))

Virginia Chihota Born in 1983, Chihota is a Zimbabwean artist working in Libya, where she moved four years ago. Her work explores themes of displacement and isolation whilst the figures float precipitously within it. Her work, as Chihota herself states, ‘is an expression of a personal response towards relationships, a world of boundless desires yet we always encounter limits. Everyone is a relative and also everyone is relative … I see the essential need to go into our relationships and research on were we have gone wrong, the dark yet true side of life to find answers to our way forward if we allow ourselves. It is in my work that I have all the space and freedom to compliment, ask questions, give suggestions, ask for forgiveness.’ (Image: Mistakes in the Right Lines, 2013)

[letusroll]

Surrealism’s Revolt

From the moment Surrealism was ‘born’ in 1920s Paris, it possessed an ever-expansive nature and the power to trigger controversy. The Surrealist movement itself was first fully breathed life into by a small band of creatives, lead by André Breton. Influenced by psychoanalysis, Breton and the Surrealists proposed a variety of ways to achieve immediate expression. They believed the conscious mind impeded creativity, whilst an awareness of our unconscious state enabled raw imagination to flourish. These ideas would be challenged by the French intellectual, Georges Bataille. Instead of revealing the base and intense truths of desire and human nature, Bataille believed such ideas actually idealised and sublimated them. Bataille was a key figure in the publication of DOCUMENTS, a magazine that confronted these ideas of Breton’s Surrealism head on. The publication’s success, in this respect, was confirmed by Breton’s furious reaction in his Second Manifesto of Surrealism (1929), in which he named Bataille explicitly.

DOCUMENTS, which ran for fifteen issues between 1929 and 1930,  contained a variety of creative rubric, named on its cover as: ‘Doctrines, Archaeology, Fine Arts, Ethnography’. More than just a reflection of contemporary culture, the magazine challenged and attempted to deconstruct it. One instance is the ‘Critical Dictionary’ section of DOCUMENTS, in which short essays were published on a particular word ranging from ‘Man’ to ‘Abattoir.’ The meaning of each word was undermined and rewritten, focusing instead on the functions of language rather than its definitions. In challenging ‘mainstream’ Surrealism, the magazine moved away from idealising human desire and thought. Instead, DOCUMENTS confronts its audience with a raw and even violent insight into the mental and sexual impulses that define human life. This makes for a uncompromising publication which visually captivates its reader, whilst at the same time provoking her. DOCUMENTS received in the Undercover Surrealism show (2006) at the Hayward Gallery - the images here taken from the companion book to the exhibition. Keep reading below to see the visual world of dissident Surrealists...

Images courtesy of Undercover Surrealism, Georges Bataille and DOCUMENTS, Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre, London. All rights reserved.

[letusroll]

Exploring the Art of...SALTRAM

At Let Us Roll, our desire to explore and discover is constantly increasing. One way to help us quench our ever-growing desire is through the latest segment on the blog: ‘Exploring the Art of...’ We have decided to document our visits to places from galleries to estates and share the general artwork available at each stop. To introduce this section is the Georgian estate of Saltram, a place tucked away in the South of England and which you may recognise as a location used for the film adaption of Austen’s Sense & Sensibility (1995). Perhaps most striking is that the majority of possessions within the grounds are authentic, having belonged to the ‘Parker’ generations who once inhabited it. This extends to the art collection of the house, which includes paintings by Angelica Kauffmann, Peter Paul Rubens, and Joshua Reynolds. Not too shabby at all. Read on to peruse the wonderful work of Saltram, as well as the artists and stories behind each one.

Also head over to our Flickr account to see each image in all their glory. If you have time, please let us know if you would like to see more ‘Exploring the Art of...’ (or less!) via our Tumblr or at [email protected]

Above are a few of the various works by Joshua Reynolds, the eighteenth-century English artist who specialised in portrait painting. Lord John Parker, who inherited the Saltram estate from his father in 1768, was a close friend of Reynolds and employed him to buy artwork to decorate the house. The artist would go on to paint many family portraits of the Parkers, all of which still hang on the walls of Saltram House. The first painting is titled ‘Theresa Parker and her son John’. We can see cherub-cheeked John again a few years later, alongside his sister Theresa in the following work. (Just to make for a confusing household, John and Theresa Parker named their son and daughter after themselves.) The third image is a detail from ‘Admiral Paul Henry Ourry’ (1748). In the full portrait, a young slave can be seen near the edge of the canvas, looking up at his ‘employer’ with intrigue and wonder. Indeed, this is a common characteristic of eighteenth-century portraits, used then to stress the power and domination the aristocratic man possessed and which now remind us of the dark inequalities that prevailed then and still linger today.

Most refreshing about Saltram’s art is its considerable collection of paintings by a female artist. Angelica Kauffmann, a Swiss who came to London in 1766, was a rarity at a time when formal artistic training for women was highly restricted. Although a founding member of the Royal Academy, Kauffmann (alongside fellow female founder, Mary Moser) was banned from the committee’s dinners and meetings. This, however, did not restrict Kauffmann in becoming both a strong voice within the RA and a highly skilful artist. Above you can glimpse ‘Venus directing Aeneas and Achates to Carthage’ (c.1768) and ‘Interview of Edgar and Elfrida after her Marriage to Athelwold’ (c.1771). Following that are details from Kauffmann’s portrait of Joshua Reynolds, with whom she was intimately acquainted. Their relationship was depicted with contempt and ridicule in Nathaniel Hone’s 'The Conjuror’, which he submitted to the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition of 1778. Testimony to Kauffmann’s influence within the institution, the piece was removed once Kauffmann refused to show her own work alongside it. More can be read about Kauffmann and Moser here.

One of the more interesting family members of Saltram was Frances Talbot. Remember the little cherub-cheeked John Parker painted by Reynolds? He would marry Talbot in 1809 after his first wife, tired by his numerous affairs, eloped with Arthur Paget. Frances would accept both her stepson, Henry Parker, and his three illegitimate children as her own, whilst also having two children with John Parker herself. Sadly, Henry (pictured above in a painting by Benjamin Burnell) would die at the age of eleven after inhaling a wheat of corn which lodged in his lung. A year later, the daughter of Frances and John would pass away after choking on the stone of a plum. Frances corresponded regularly with Jane Austen and, when Austen’s first two novels were published under ‘by a Lady’, was thought to be their author. Her husband is also believed by some scholars to have been Austen’s inspiration behind one of her most notorious characters, Fitzwilliam Darcy. Frances, depicted in Frederick Say’s painting above (1830), was herself a creative person and an enthusiastic amateur painter - a detail from one artwork can be seen above. Her collection of watercolours, which are all copies of original works, worked within the typical style of aristocratic female painters of the period.

Above Images of: ‘Vincenzo II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua’ by Peter Paul Rubens (c.1604-1616), ‘Lady Catherine Parker’, attributed to Michael Dahl (before 1743), ‘A Group of Six Men’, attributed to Bartholommeo Passerotti (17th C), ‘Earth’, after Jan Brueghel the elder (1568-1625), ‘Three Huntresses’, studio of Rubens and Snyders (17th C).

[letusroll]

Introducing...Let Us Roll (akin)

LUR is an arts-based blog intended for the fellow culture vulture, a place where we wish to share information and stories about works and their artists. Whilst we are passionate about the creative world, we realise there exists within it an expansive infinity of artworks, oh so many of which we simply do not have the time to write about. 

This is where Let Us Roll (akin) comes in. It is our newly launched sister blog, through which we share all and any artists tickling our fancy and capturing our attention - but without the worded input. Whilst this saves our keyboard from extra heavy-typing abuse, LUR (akin) allows us to share more art and may work in a format preferable to you, the fellow culture vulture. Stay with the main LUR blog to find out more about specific artists, movements, and moments in time. But if perusing purely visual output is more your cup of tea, simply start scrolling away here!

(Images via: Eddie O’Keefe, Marion Strunk, Hanna Putz, Alice Lancaster.)

[letusroll]

Details from: The Dancer (1916-18), Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907), Flower Garden (1905-07), The Kiss (1907-08), The Maiden (1913), Mother and Child (1905). 

[letusroll]

The Tragedy of Modigliani

On this day in 1884, the Italian sculptor and painter Amedeo Modigliani was born. An artist now revered for his portraits and nudes which are exhibited internationally, Modigliani was dismissed throughout his lifetime whilst his work was exchanged for meals. 

Despite being born in Tuscany, Modigliani mainly worked in France, where his fortunes and prospects would plummet dramatically. He first moved to Paris in his early-twenties and settled in Le Bateau-Lavoir, a base for artistic residents. Within this creative environment, Modigliani began to work prolifically but was waging many personal battles. One he desperately desired to conceal was his diagnosis with tuberculosis; contagious and often led to early graves, its victims were isolated and excluded from society. In order to alleviate his pain from the illness, Modigliani spiralled into drug addiction and alcoholism. Alongside this, he suffered much conflict regarding his own artistic endeavours and in one frustrated attempt to move forward with his work, the artist destroyed a great amount of his early pieces.

Hardly a rarity in male artists throughout history, Modigliani was intensely inspired by the female form. The subjects of his nude paintings are often positioned provocatively with pensive faces, creating a mixture of forcefulness and vulnerability in each work. His partners often served as the artist’s inspiration. His final muse would be Jeanette Hébuterne, who met him in 1917 at the age of nineteen. Their relationship caused intense controversy amongst her religious family, who renounced their illegitimate affair. Within a year, Hébuterne gave birth to their first child and the family moved into an apartment. Upon discovering she was pregnant for the second time, Hébuterne and Modigliani made plans to marry despite the fierce opposition she faced from her parents. Sadly, their ideas for the future would never be realised. Modligiani’s battle with tuberculosis intensified until he passed away in 1920. Jeanette Hébuterne, heavily pregnant and deeply distraught, committed suicide the day after his death. It would take a decade for her family’s anger to dissipate enough to allow their bodies to be buried together in Père Lachaise Cemetery, Paris.

Amedeo Modigliani’s life is one characterised by struggles and hardships. His artwork followed in a similar vein during his lifetime; his only exhibition stirred public controversy and was closed on its opening day by the authorities, concerned about the sexual nature of the artworks. Now Modigliani is a name universally recognised and esteemed throughout the art world. His surviving work has been displayed in major retrospectives internationally, whilst his life has been subject to a range of films and books. Amongst the latter includes the biography Modigliani: Man and Myth, written by the artist’s daughter, Jeanne Modigliani. 

Portrait of a Woman in a Black Tie (1917), Seated Nude (1916)

[letusroll]

Gaudier Brzeska’s Sketches

In January 1911, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska came to London at just nineteen years of age. The French sculptor was accompanied by his partner, Zofia Brzeska, whose name he adopted upon moving. It was within this city Gaudier-Brzeska would work prolifically, creating over one hundred sculptures and thousands of drawings over the following three years. It is a feat made all the more impressive, considering his incredibly short life: Gaudier-Brezska was killed in the trenches of the First World War, aged 23. Despite the brief nature of his life, the artist’s work endures and continues to be a source of intrigue and inspiration. Testimony to this is the recent digitisation of Gaudier-Brezska’s sketchbooks from 1910 to 1914, made available by Tate. 

Sketchbooks are a curious entity. Like a writer’s journal, they reveal an artist’s thoughts and processes on a more personal, intimate level. In the four books published, Gaudier-Brezska is confirmed an experimental artist, who developed his Vorticist style gradually over the years.

Explore the sketchbooks for yourself via the Tate website here.

Images via Tate.org.uk. All rights reserved.

[letusroll]

Mary Ellen Mark & Youth

The American photographer, Mary Ellen Mark, has passed away at the age of 75. She leaves behind a body a work that continues to shock, intrigue, and enlighten. Though also known for her portraits and advertising photography, Mark was particularly renowned for her photojournalism. She was drawn to the more marginalised figures of society, photographing those who danced upon its fringes. Her work drew attention to the various plights of human life - prostitution, drug addiction, homelessness, youth. Indeed, Mark’s images of children are perhaps the most provoking and touching examples of her work. Her 1983 series of the homeless youth of Seattle, for instance, captures at once the grit and vulnerability of her subjects.  As Mark once commented to TIME Magazine, “I don’t like to photograph children as children. I like to see them as adults, as who they really are. I’m always looking for the side of who they might become.” Here are a few of our favourite images, ones that reveal a young generation dealing with the struggles of the streets alongside the pains of adolescence. Images that are captured with a sense of respect, understanding and, above all, honesty. Images that transform the invisible into the unforgettable.

To view Mark’s photo essay on the homeless children of Seattle, ‘Streets of the Lost’ click here.

Images: Amanda and her Cousin, Valdese, North Carolina (1990), “Rat” and Mike with a gun, Seattle, Washington (1983), Tiny in her Halloween costume, Seattle, Washington (1983), Tiny Pregnant (1983), Patti's tender side is reserved for her boyfriend, Munchkin (1983), Tiny, Seattle, Washington (1983).

[letusroll]

Interview: Katrin Braga

There is a world to discover in the images of Katrin Braga. The Icelandic-born photographer has a platter of work, which dances between landscape and human, fashion and documentary. In every shot, however, there is a delicate but candid beauty that characterises Braga’s work. Where the photographs are feminine and ethereal, they are also forceful and earthly. We caught up with the photographer herself to find out more about her work, her inspirations, and about being on both sides of the camera...

Tell us a little about yourself… My name is Katrin Braga and I’m a 22 year old photographer from Iceland currently based in Vancouver, Canada.

What first sparked your love affair with photography? Being able to capture moments from my life.

Your work seems to move between fashion and documentary. What interests you about the two forms? Do you prefer one to the other? I like fashion photography because I can create a make believe world with the help from really talented people. Documentary photography is usually the exact opposite, you are documenting life as it is on your own.  

The classic question: what inspires you? The people that I surround myself with and the amazingly talented people that I collaborate with.

You’re currently based in Vancouver. How has living in a different country impacted your work, if at all? It has changed my work drastically. I feel like I’ve grown a lot and gotten a different perspective on what I want to focus my photography on.

If you could be invisible for the day, camera in hand, what would you photograph? The Wodaabe tribe.

What do you prefer to shoot with: digital or film? In my fashion work I like shooting both film and digital but my documentary/landscape work I like shooting with film.

You’re also familiar with being in front of the camera, having modelled in the past. Do you think that’s helped at all in being behind the camera? My modeling work was really minimal and many years ago. But I feel like it helped me understand how to make models feel more comfortable when they are in front of the camera. You feel like you are so exposed and if the photographer doesn’t communicate with you in a nice manner you can feel very vulnerable and insecure. So I try to become friends with the models to make them feel more comfortable.

How have your experiences as a photographer developed you as a person? It definitely has made me less shy because I have to communicate with people a lot when shooting.  

Describe your work in one sentence. In development.

Check out more of Katrin Braga’s captivating photographs here.

[letusroll]

Window to the Soul

Details taken from: Frida Kahlo’s ‘Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird’ (1940), Ford Madox Brown’s ‘The Irish Girl’ (1860), Pablo Picasso’s sketch of Francoise Gilot (approx. 1946), Paul Cezanne’s ‘Le paysan’/‘Peasant’ (1891), Johannes Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ (1665), Vincent Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait (1889), Henri Matisse’s ‘Self-Portrait in a Striped Shirt’ (1906), Laura Knight’s sketch of Elizabeth II (1950), Francis Bacon’s Self-Portrait (1969), Lucian Freud’s ‘Head of a Girl’ (1976), Fayum Mommy Portrait (1st-3rd C.), Elizabeth Catlett’s Untitled Portrait (approx.1947).

[letusroll]

Kahlo’s Love Letters

Something every prominent person must deal with is the interrogation of their private life. Nearly all of us are guilty of clicking the ‘Personal life’ section of a Wikipedia profile or reading a quasi-news article on a trivial celebrity story. We are, by nature, inquisitive and curious folk slash prying nosy-parkers. That is perhaps one reason why the intimate correspondence between Frida Kahlo and José Bartoli is estimated to sell for up to $120,000 at auction tomorrow.

After all, Kahlo is now considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century, famed for her vibrant self-portraits. Her work was not the only colourful aspect of her life, her marriage with fellow Mexican painter Diego Rivera being particularly volatile. Both artists were known to have separate living quarters and carried out a string of affairs throughout their relationship. One of Kahlo’s extramarital relationships began between 1946 and 1947 when she met the Catalan artist José Bartoli in New York. Within weeks, the two began writing to one another in amorous terms. As Kahlo wrote in one letter: “From the little bed where I lay I looked at the elegant line of your neck, the refinement of your face, your shoulders and your broad and strong back ... if I do not touch you my hands, my mouth, and my whole body lose sensation.”

Their written correspondence was highly charged with passion and intensity. Another letter addressed to Bartoli reads: “I will love you from the landscape that you see, from the mountains, the oceans and the clouds, from the most subtle of smiles and sometimes from the most profound desperation, from your creative sleep, from your deep or fleeting pleasure, from your own shadow and your own blood. I will look through the window of your eyes to see you.”

The letters exchanged between Kahlo and Bartoli are striking in their intimate language, a reason why some have condemned the auction as a “grubby violation” upon private matters. Of course, when we read words not originally intended for our eyes, we are transported from reader to voyeur, perhaps even trespasser. If we know an object to have ever existed in a exclusively private context, there will always be an element of conflict in beholding it.

However, it is worth keeping in mind that Frida Kahlo as an artist and Frida Kahlo as a woman are two identities that cannot be entirely separated. To judge such an innovative artist, whose paintings carry a heavy personal element, we must take note of the innovative woman behind them. As Kahlo herself simply stated: “I am a bitch. I am an artist.” Her Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (pictured above), for instance, is constantly read in terms of her biography and personal emotional state. As Natasha Walter aptly remarked, “when you look at Kahlo's art, there is no getting away from the woman herself.’

Perhaps then, the release of the intimate letters between Kahlo and Bartoli is not a transgression against the sacred privacy of the artist. Their correspondence instead serves to show Frida Kahlo as a complex and emotive genius, whose work does not only gain our aesthetic appreciation but ignites a desire and an interest that goes deeper than the surface of a canvas.

[letusroll]

Interview: Josh Bryan

Arm Josh Bryan with a single fine-liner and you will be amazed at what he can create. Take his series Triangulations, which contains a variety of instantly recognisable faces. Look a little closer at the style of each one, however, and your intrigue will increase to new levels. Each drawing is entirely constructed from triangular shapes, forming the 23-year-old’s unique style. His geometric approach lends the Triangulation series a sense of depth and texture in each individual drawing, as well as an air of mystery about these familiar faces. We spoke to this British talent to find out more...

Tell us a little about yourself... I'm Josh, I'm 23 and I'm from Southampton, England. I've just graduated from university with a BA Hons in Fine Art.

Your Triangulations series seems to have really blown up on the internet world. Did it take you by surprise? I really appreciate the reception my work has gotten. I didn't realise at the time of posting them that it could have reached so many people.

What first drew you to the geometric style that you use for the portraits? My love for geometry probably originated from the technical drawings my dad would bring home from work at his architects office. I've always loved the composition of lines and shapes in everyday surroundings.

How did you go about deciding which famous faces to use? Is there a reason you chose more recognisable subjects? The people I pick were originally just faces I thought looked good. The fact that they were famous people allowed me to pick a composition I liked from a lot more photos.

Each piece is so intricately penned. Did you find your patience was tested during the process? Patience was definitely tested but the process of drawing is the most fun. The fact that my drawings take a long time really allows me to look really close at a particular triangle and then also looking back and seeing the drawing as a whole change.

The classic question: if you were invisible for the day, armed with pen and paper, what would you draw? If I were invisible for the I would draw animals at the zoo.

Which piece from your Triangulations would be your favourite - if you have one? If I had to pick a favourite I would pick my latest drawing, my 'Heisenberg' drawing. Probably because I've learnt the most from all my previous drawings, I feel it's the most accomplished in the sense of my style, composition and technique.

What are you currently working on? I'm constantly trying to evolve this style of triangles, but at the moment I'm just concentrating on practising my drawing, sketching things I haven't in a while or ever before. Just looking for something new to take my fancy.

Finally, the best piece of advice you've ever been given. To go with the flow when creating - everything I enjoy about art comes from the the process of making the work. You can't ever really understand things or learn something about yourself if you don't try. If you like something, use it for inspiration and put your own style on it. Just do it.

Check out more of Josh Bryan’s wonderful work here. 

[letusroll]

Coveting Book Covers

We’ve all been told that old aphoristic saying to never judge a book by its cover. Yet that is all we can do when faced with the beautiful medley of editions found at BOOK/SHOP. Book cover designs are oh so important in tempting you into the ivory pages within, and our reading-list just quadrupled thanks to these vintage copies. Here’s just a few of our personal favourites, including ‘The Drawings of Roy Lichtenstein’ (above). 

All images via BOOK/SHOP. All Rights Reserved.

[letusroll]

Moments in Motion

Romain Laurent probably did not expect a side-line project to have garnered so much love - but when you create inventive GIFs, there's no hiding from Tumblr. We are, of course, talking about Laurent's 'One Loops Portrait a Week' series, which has gathered a plethora of attention and intrigue. Uniting the power of curiosity with the humour of the absurd, Laurent's portraits will inevitably entertain and fascinate their viewer. These are GIFted moments of motion, for sure.

Check out the rest of Laurent's at his site or his Tumblr page.

[letusroll]

INTERVIEW: Mouni Feddag

Mouni Feddag is a Nottingham-based illustrator with a world to share. It is a world you might be familiar with - one of busy streets, cluttered rooms, make-up tutorial videos - but Feddag rejuvenates it in her vibrant and resplendent style. She has an eye for peopled scenes worthy of comparison with L.S. Lowry: take the reluctant party-goer in one illustration, for instance, begrudgingly clad with a festive jumper whilst wistfully checking the time. Such an eye for detail completes Feddag's colourful work with a warm humour, of which we simply cannot get enough. Describing her own artistic style in three words as 'sincerely, mockingly loving,' this illustrator is not only one to watch, but one to listen to...

Tell us a little about yourself... Hello, my name’s Mouni – you say it like ‘Moony’ (it’s Algerian, my dad was from there) – and I draw things. I suppose I’m an illustrator.  

Which materials do you prefer to work with, and why? The cheapest, simplest thing to hand, just to save time. At the moment I only use lead pencils (and some watercolour lead ones), black ink, and inkjet paper. And I colour everything in digitally. 

Do you draw from first-hand observation or within your own environment?  Nowadays practically always at my desk. But drawing outside seems a very healthy thing to do - we should all try and do it more often! It’s just that with Google Images nowadays… 

You moved from the UK to study your degree in Germany. How has living in another country impacted your art? My family actually moved to Frankfurt when I was nine, and I’ve been back and forth between there and various cities in England ever since. Studying in Germany was wonderful. It surely had an impact in lots of ways, but I do think in particular that towards the end it really solidified my ‘style’, made clearer what sort of things I wanted to make, basically because I got so tired of seeing so much needlessly solemn, melancholic, or over-conceptual work in many of the classes I happened to take. That got me a little determined to make silly, pretty things, to balance that out! People would react with the term ‘British sense of humour’ now and then, and I would feel rather special and exotic. 

What inspires you? I like many things! Really, my main aim when drawing is either to prevent my own boredom, or to not need my brain, so that I can focus on my podcasts while being productive.

A classic question: If you were invisible for the day, what would you choose to draw? Strange humans in their homes!

You've recently graduated with a degree in communications design. How are you finding embarking on a career in the wide world of creative industry? My feelings on that swing back and forth throughout the day, if not the hour.

Your work is very much a world of delightful vibrancy. How do you go about choosing the colours for each piece? Oh, thank you! I'm actually terrified of picking the 'wrong' colour. So now I draw things in black-and-white layers with a lightbox, then colour each of those in Photoshop. But the typical number of layers has been steadily rising. At first it seemed a genius solution, now it’s more like systematic madness, maybe. 

What are your hopes for the future? World peace and many Twitter followers.

You can peruse more of Feddag's work here - something which we, as you might guess, highly recommend doing.

[letusroll]

Weekend Reading

1. Paris Review's Hemingway Interview  Paris Review's discussion with the American author is brimming with interesting thoughts and ideas (so do not be put off if you're unfamiliar with Hemingway's work).  

2. Documents, by Charles D'Ambrosio Beautiful, complex, and heart-breaking. To attempt to describe D'Ambrosio's essay in any more terms is to detract from the perfection with which he does it himself. 

3. Patti Smith on Writing Poetry For Smith, 'the act of writing poetry is torturous – and sometimes magnificently transporting'. Read more about the Just Kid's author and her thoughts on the medium over at Dazed.

4. Interview with Marina Abramović Abramović is perhaps the most famous living performance artist, and there's a good reason for it. Read up on her work and words in this 2010 interview.

5. Roy Spivey, by Miranda July Miranda July is a woman of many talents, her latest work being an app to bring strangers together. Discover her literary prowess with this short story.

[letusroll]

Sensual Heaven

Michael Howard's work is at once both soft and intense. The London-based illustrator - also known as NVM Illustration - creates images containing a plethora of emotions: passion, solemnity, strength, vulnerability. Just take a look at his Eden series, which embraces moments of intimacy and beard botany (what's not to love?). The quiet eroticism and natural scenes within the series bring to mind the poetry of Walt Whitman: 

I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you, And you must not be abased to the other.

Loafe with me on the grass, loose the stop from your throat, Not words, not music or rhyme I want, not custom or lecture, not           even the best, Only the lull I like, the hum of your valvèd voice.

I mind how once we lay such a transparent summer morning, How you settled your head athwart my hips and gently turn'd over           upon me, And parted the shirt from my bosom-bone, and plunged your           tongue to my bare-stript heart, And reach'd till you felt my beard, and reach'd till you held my feet.                                                               (excerpt: Section 5, 'Song of Myself')

Check out the rest of the Eden series and more of Howard's work here.