Slow

Hello Children,

I'm afraid the first day of class is a sign of the trend expected through these next 16 weeks.

Slow progress. Especially until the Orphan bill has passed or failed, I'm holding off production until I completely understand the consequences of the possibly new legislation.  No need to put everyone's work at risk.

Art Horde's Exclusive Interview with Award-Winning Artist KenA Kasch

1. What do you do?

I make paintings that represent our time and artifacts to educate future generations.  I specialize in oil, acrylic, latex and watercolor painting.  I mainly make money.  I'm taking classes at CCAD, as well.

2. Where are you from?

I'm from Fort Wayne, Indiana.  It's the second largest city in Indiana, located in the northwest corner.  I currently live in Columbus, Ohio.

3. Most influential books, movies, music, plays, poems, photos, artists?

Reading The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins and The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore laid the foundation for my ideologies of art and life.  Music by 2Pac and Kanye West continually inspire me.  I'm currently reading A Life of Picasso by John Richardson.  My artist forefathers are Kehinde Wiley, Shepard Fairey, Andy Warhol, Barbara Kruger, Robert Indiana, Jeff Koons and Tracey Emin.

4. Does your work have a consistent message?

Yes, my paintings are overtly about self-promotion.  Our world is a struggle of ideas and a struggle for power.  The only intelligent way for an artist to handle this competitive environment is to explicitly present the subject matter, just like an advertisement.  I, the artist, represent myself in each painting, so I present and advertise myself in my paintings.  It's fundamentally the same as Facebook.

The human struggle for power manifests itself in competition for money and status.  While a painting is only a decorative product like a flower, it presents the owner with a high level of status, and it lasts for a long time.  If you are powerful enough, you could own a KenA Kasch painting.

5. Does your cultural background influence your work?

Yes, I went to one of the most ethnically diverse high schools in the United States.  I had friends in each of the communities (Black, White, Mexican and Burmese).  This allowed me to learn about many cultures and think about life from several different perspectives.

Black American culture, mainly rap music, has had the greatest influence on my artwork.  Rap music deals with self-promotion, status, controversy and money.  My work deals with these things, too.

6. What are your addictions?

Besides painting, I'm addicted to Mountain Dew Code Red, rap music and greatness.

7. Earliest exposure to art?

I have drawn and painted my entire life.  I was first exposed to the breadth of art in my elementary school.  It was a fine arts magnet school; we had a variety of classes in art, as well as classes in singing, band, acting, speech, ballet and creative dance.

8. What tools or mediums do you want to work with but haven't yet?

I look forward to learning printmaking because it's an efficient way to mass-produce images on a flat surface.

9. Have you been commissioned?  For whom and what?

I have painted several murals, mostly decorating rooms with a theme.  The exception was a 25-foot mural I painted for the WaterFurnace headquarters facility in Fort Wayne.  It depicted their worldwide manufacturing process.

10. Besides artmaking, what do you do?

Sleep.

Jordan Who?

Hi everyone, my name is Jordan Edwards. Here are my attempts at answers to some basic questions.

1. What do you do?
I am currently a sophomore at the Columbus College of Art & Design majoring in Graphic Design and Advertising. I am minoring in Copyrighting and Art History. Aside from schoolwork, I find myself doing a wide array of branding related work as well as web and print design. When not immersed in pixels, I enjoy working in graphite and colored pencil.

2. Where do you come from?
I was born and raised in Central Ohio (Delaware, to be exact) so the choice to attend CCAD came pretty easily for me. Columbus served as a second home for me growing up with many aunts, uncles, cousins and other obscure relatives living just outside the outerbelt.

3. Most influential.. books, movies, music, plays, poems, photos, artists?
It's no secret that I am an obsessive fan of the Harry Potter series. I've read (and reread) the books countless times and the movies play on an almost-constant loop while I'm working. Of course, that means I also enjoy the Potter movies but I also enjoy action-based and sci-fi films. I have come to appreciate the art of film making more and more while attending CCAD so I'll see just about anything (that doesn't mean I'll enjoy it, though).

I believe that I am most influenced by stories that wrap you in layer after layer of detail. For me, back-story and mythology are key because it gives my obsessive brain something to grip on to after the credits roll or I've turned the final page. I like to think this love of detail comes across in my art as well. I try to stretch an identity to the far reaches of the company, branding anything that will stand still long enough, and in graphite I tend to render (some say over-render) as meticulously as the deadlines will allow.

4. Does your work have a consistent message?
I try not to "preach" with my artwork. Message-based art is great for some but it's not for me. My pieces tend to be straightforward and to-the-point. Any deeper meaning is oftentimes found after the fact and treated like an added bonus.

5. Does your cultural/ background influence your work?
My background consists mainly of old, white men arguing about religion and politics so you can imagine why I refrain from letting it influence too much. Personally, I prefer things clean-cut and simple. One could say this preference comes from being raised to clean up my messes.

6. What are you addicted to?
As of right now, I am addicted to LOST (see Question 2, paragraph 2 for the reasoning).

7. Earliest exposure to art?
From as far back as I can remember I've wanted to be an artist. I remember watching the animators working on The Lion King during my first-ever trip to Disney World. I'm sure that played some part in my eventual career choice.

I was always the kid who preferred rainy days because I could draw during inside recess.

8. What tools/mediums do you want to work with but haven't yet?
I think sculpture is fascinating. I've always admired people who can think in three dimensions. I would love to work with clay or something of the like.

9. Have you been commissioned? If so, for who and what?
Most of my commissions have been for brand related projects. I worked with the Administration of the Buckeye Valley Local School District to develop a new brand identity (including logo and extensive web design). I've also done work for The Central Ohio Symphony creating a new branding solution for their 30th season. I recently began working with Campus Apartments (based out of Philadelphia) to develop branding and signage solutions for their Seneca building in Downtown Columbus.

10. Besides art, what do you do?
Sleep. It's a rare things for CCAD students but when I get the chance I'm on it.
You might also find me playing the saxophone with some friends at local coffee shops, enjoying a burrito at Chipotle or watching entire seasons of LOST in single sittings.

The Interview Expectations

What I intend to do for the interview, since I'm getting a lot of questions about it is that I am going to have a general set of questions- and after that a set of specific, personal questions for everyone.  Because I've been reading the answers and there is more that I'd like to investigate with each person.  I haven't had a lot of time to spend on designing since I've been blogging and reading interviews (correcting spelling) and whatnot, I do ask for those who have not submitted a completed interview that they copy and paste the questions and work from there... spell check for fuck sake annnd let's use complete sentences?

Professionals will be receiving this and not that I want to be a hard ass but.. I'm not going to put anyone in the magazine if I have to fix everything you're giving me.

But I am very thankful for everyone that is giving me 100% of their effort.

10 Questions with Steve Vanscoy

1. What do you do?

Right now I'm a sophomore at CCAD majoring in Advertising and Graphic Design and minoring in Media Studies but I'm focusing on the photography portion. Photography is my main hobby when I'm not busy staring at Adobe products. I'm also into music a whole lot and I really enjoy singing and playing my guitar.

2. Where do you come from?

I hail from a small city suburb of Akron, Ohio called Tallmadge. It's a very calm city and really doesn't have a whole lot of interesting places to visit. It's pretty typical, but it was a nice place to grow up.

3. Most influential.. books, movies, music, plays, poems, photos, artists?

Music is really influential for me, I usually enjoy classical music or acoustic folk music to listen to when I'm working. Also, when it comes to the type of art I create, I'm very influenced by what I see around in magazines and the web and what comes from my peers.

4. Does your work have a consistent message?

I'm not sure if there is a consistent message to my work, a lot of what I do depends on my mood or if I'm trying out something new.

5. Does your cultural/ background influence your work?

I don't really have a rich cultural background other than some Native American and I don't really take influence from it so I'm not sure that I can say there's any influence from my background. There might be some psychological influences though. My mom was really big on cleanliness when I was growing up and I love doing very clean minimalistic work.

6. What are you addicted to?

In terms of life or art? In life I'm addicted to cigarettes. In art I'm addicted to illustrators (I'm pretty envious of their abilities), typography and pen and ink.

7. Earliest exposure to art?

I've always had some type of exposure to art. My great grandfather was a painter, and I remember when I was just a wee child my mom and I would sit down together in the living room and draw still lifes.

8. What tools/mediums do you want to work with but haven't yet?

Well, off the top of my head I can't think of any mediums that I want to work with but haven't. I would, however, love to up my skills in digital painting and water colors.

9. Have you been commissioned. if so, for who and what?

I've not really been commissioned for much, but I've done some corporate photography work, I also have a wedding to shoot set up for September and I'm currently designing a logo for a coal mining company in Montana.

10. Besides art, what do you do?

Other than art I just live. School and in turn art pretty much consumes me you know?

Keep em Coming!

Wow thank you so much guys for posting your answers on the blog and to me privately. I'm going to bug the crap out of everyone else to keep this nice flow of information going.

Interview with Tyrassic aka Tyler Colton Bolyard

1. What do you do?

I'm a Sophomore Illustration student. My background is mostly in fine art as a painter, because I love working with oils, although my second love is graphite. Lately, I've been getting more and more into digital painting, because it is the industry standard in the concept industry, which I plan to obtain a career in. I also love sculpting and matte painting, and want to do more of it in the near future.

2. Where do you come from?

I was born and lived in Amherst, Ohio in my early years, but since the 3rd grade I have lived in Milan, Ohio. Milan is a small town near Sandusky, and is the birthplace of Thomas Edison. I graduated from Edison High School and then went on to attend the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) for one semester before transferring to CCAD.

3. Most influencial.. books, movies, music, plays, poems, photos, artists?

Books are very influential to me and to my work. I have an ever expanding library of art books that I go to for ideas all the time. Some of my favorites include: Three Dimensional Drawing, Dynamic Figure Drawing, Anatomy for Fantasy Artists, Animal Anatomy, The Art of Star Wars Series, Bold Visions, In the future, and the Secret Life of Salvador Dali.

Any type of sci fi and/or fantasy movies I enjoy watching.

My music is also very influential in my work with an itunes library of over 10,000 songs, I'm usually always listening to something while working.

Some of my favorite and most inspirational artists include, in the order than I think of them: Salvador Dali, Norman Rockwell, Winslow Homer, Ryan Church, Peter Chan, Keith Thompson, Alex Pardee, Aaron Horkey, Audrey Kawasaki, Iain McCaig, Greg Simkins, Christian Alzmann, Chet Zar, Muttonhead, Travis Louie, Puddnhead, Carlos Huante, Colin Fix, Dermont Power, Mike Correrio, Peter Konig, Wesley Burt, Dan Milligan, Justin Kaufman, William Whitaker, Shawn Barber, Marko Djurdjevic, Jason Manley, Rick Baker, Bobby Chui, Matthew Archambault, Jordu Schell.....

4. Does your work have a consistent message?

Not really, most of my pieces have different meanings or messages for different reasons.

5. Does your cultural/ background influence your work?

No I come from a town in the middle of nowhere, not much to be inspired from haha.

6. What are you addicted to?

I'm currently addicted to eating Nutella, Pizza, and mocha frappuccinos. I'm also addicted to vegging out on conceptart.org, blogger, and ImagineFX.

7. Earliest Exposure to art?

I would say middle school, we took a trip the the Toledo Museum of Art and was mesmerized from then on.

8. What tools/mediums do you want to work with but haven't yet?

Special make up effects. I love creature and character design for movies and am always reading up about it. I want to get more into traditional and digital sculpting and modeling as well as possibly mask making and animatronics.

9. Have you been commissioned. if so, for who and what?

Yes. I am currently working on a project for a Columbus company called Comtex. They commissioned me to do an oil painting to be displayed in their new expansion that is to be revealed this April. The painting is to be done on a 5'x10' canvas that I constructed. I have also been commissioned in the past to do graphite portraits for various people.

10. Besides art, what do you do?

When I have the time I play guitar, skateboard, snowboard, golf, and relax with friends.

Interview with the illustrius Justine!

1. What do you do?
I do a lot of blog reading. Goooodness do I love blogger. Okay seriously, I do graphic design mostly but love doing crafts, interior design and I'm very interested in fashion.

2. Where do you come from?
I was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. I love the mother land. My parents are a very supportive family and influence my designs in no way whatsoever haha.

3. Most influential.. books, movies, music, plays, poems, photos, artists?
I'm highly influenced by music and my blogroll. The kind of music I play while I'm working totally influences my design process. The blogs i follow are constantly inspiring me.

4. Does your work have a consistent message?
Recently it has. If I were to relate my work to something people out side the field can relate to, I'd call it, "Comfort Food". Comfy, casual.

5. Does your cultural/ background influence your work?
YES. I'm half mexican from my dad's side. I think the colors and grass roots style of Mexican art is amazing.

6. What are you addicted to?
Mexican food and turning all the product labels forward in my cabinets.

7. Earliest exposure to art?
Kindergarten

8. What tools/mediums do you want to work with but haven't yet?
Wacom. I'd love to own one.

9. Have you been commissioned. if so, for who and what?
Yes, I've worked on a couple freelance projects in my early graphic design days. Website and graphic design for a local Reality Agency in Lakewood, Ohio and a little later worked for a T-Shirt company in Rocky River, Ohio.

10. Besides art, what do you do?
I sing, I dance, I make muffins.

Interview Questions

Address accordingly:

1. What do you do?

2. Where do you come from?

3. Most influential.. books, movies, music, plays, poems, photos, artists?

4. Does your work have a consistent message?

5. Does your cultural/ background influence your work?

6. What are you addicted to?

7. Earliest exposure to art?

8. What tools/mediums do you want to work with but haven't yet?

9. Have you been commissioned. if so, for who and what?

10. Besides art, what do you do?

You Made It!

Thanks for showing up!

Art Horde is for uploading artwork, critiques and the freedom to do a little designing on this blog yourself.  So please feel free to rewrite some code, show off your pieces and blog as much as you want.