From the ‘Brazil’ series by Seren Moran

Ironically enough, my parent’s actually forced me to study art.  I was a super creative and artistic child and won all kinds of awards for my art citywide and even some pieces went statewide as early as 5 years old.  But during my adolescent years I was pretty rebellious and ended up dropping out of high school.  My parent’s were convinced that had I had an artistic outlet, I wouldn’t have acted out as much.  So when I decided I wanted to go to college, they said they would only pay for my applications if I applied as an art major.  So I did.  The agreement was that I only had to try it for the first year and could then change to any major I wanted.  But of course I fell head over heals in love with art within the first few months, and haven’t fallen out of love since.

2. What do you learn through your work?
As time goes on I find that my art really is just an extension of myself, so it’s hard to separate between what is me and what is my art.  What I learn in life is reflected in my work and what I learn in my work is reflected in my life. They are really just one in the same.

3. What is most satisfying to you about the creative process?
Being able to be and do anything.  I love that in art there are no rules, and even if there were you could break them.  I can act on all my impulses and be whoever I want without having to worry about how that translates to acceptability in society.  It’s extrodinarily satisfying to know that you can truly create something from nothing, and I honestly don’t know how people live their lives without some form of art.

From the ‘Brazil’ series by Seren Moran

4. If you have artistic/creative role models, who are they and how do you relate to them?

I’ve actually found that most of my artistic role models are non visual artists.  I have friends and collegues that I really admire and who inspire me. These are poets, actors, musicians, directers, and writers, yet few painters.  I think my inspiration comes more from the way people think, feel and how they view the world, rather than which art form they use to express their creativity.The creative process and artistic mind are similar regardless of medium.  I will say that my brother is a huge role model, and I really can’t imagine being where I am without him.  He is an actor and director and I couldn’t feel more proud or lucky to be his little sister.

5. Can you describe your technical processes? How do you make the images, what materials do you use, etc…?

It really depends.  I don’t have one way of working, and I like that.  Sometimes I work from life and do sketches that then turn into paintings, sometimes I take photos and paint directly from those withtout sketching at all, sometimes I sketch from my imagination or from photos and then paint, sometimes I make collages and paint from the collage using that as a sketch, and then sometimes I just paint, with no plan or image ahead of time.  In regards to medium, I’m in love with oil paint.  In Brazil and some months prior, I was forced to paint in acrylics which initially was frustrating but actually turned out for the best.  I experimented with more geometric styles and linear forms that I might not have otherwise.  And now I actually do a lot of my paintings with an acrylic undercoat and paint with oils on top, which I am loving.

6. You have traveled quite a bit. How does this influence your work?

Greatly! My environment influences my work regardless of where I am, traveling or not.  If I am present and in the moment, then where I am, who I am with and what I am doing in my life are always going to be reflected in my work.  So traveling has of course changed my work significantly.  Adjusting to a different culture, language, lifestyle and country has had a huge impact on who I am, how I view the world, and therefore my art as well.  I think one of the contributing factors to my “Brasil Series” being so stylistically different than my other series’ was that literally the style and way of my life was so different when living there.

From the ‘Brazil’ series by Seren Moran

7.  Where do you see yourself and your art practice in say 10 years?

Honestly, I just hope I’m still painting.  However that happens, whether I’m successful as an artist or not, I just hope that regardless of what job I have, family or not, that I am at least painting…even if no one sees it.  That’s what matters most to me.  But of course it doesn’t hurt to have some recognition along the way.

8. How do you feel about contemporary art and your contribution to it?

Gosh, “contemporary” art… I suppose I could ramble on about what that even really means, but all in all I have mixed feelings about most of what I see in regards to “contemporary” art.  Not always, but at times I feel that a lot of art today is becoming overly conceptualized.  I don’t think there is a better or worse between conceptual art and emotive art, but I find more and more artists becoming highly concerned with the ideas behind their works which for me often times falls flat and doesn’t move me.   Something primarily conceptual can certainly cause you to feel and something primarily emotive can certainly cause you to think, and in my eyes both are equally important. I’m contributing by allowing the emotive aspect to take form and the thinking and relecting to happen afterward, by myself and my viewers.  This is the most organic and honest way I have found to approaching my art.

From the ‘Brazil’ series by Seren Moran

9. What is the most important thing you want viewers to come away from your work with?

Anything a viewer takes from my work is important, whether it’s a feeling or idea, bad or good.  The worst thing someone can say about my art is that they don’t remember it.

‘Revenge’ by Leslie Supnet

1. When did you first begin to draw seriously? Or rather…take your drawings seriously enough to consider sharing them?

It was after meeting my partner, Clint Enns, that I decided to share my work and have an exhibition at local gallery in 2007 – Semai Gallery, owned and operated by Winnipeg based artist Takashi Iwasaki. Clint was very supportive, and encouraged me to think about actually having an art practice. In return, I did the same for him, pushing him to make films.

2. How did drawing translate into animation? Was there a sharp learning curve?

As my arts practice started to emerge, I became interested in artist-run centers and creative communities in Winnipeg. I signed up for a circuit-bending workshop at Video Pool Media Arts Centre, and after that started voraciously taking workshops there and at the Winnipeg Film Group – animation, filmmaking, Super 8 and 16mm experiments and editing. Definitely the animation process became easier over time.

‘Hand Cranked VHS’ by Leslie Supnet

3. Can you describe your technical process a bit. Do you sketch out ideas? How do you turn your drawings into animations?

I usually think of an experience, or emotion I would like to concentrate a drawing or animation on, then think of a good title that conveys that experience. Humor has always been a healthy way of coping with grief or tragedy for me, so I try to infuse that in my titles which then carries over into the animated narrative. This is how some of my drawings turn into animations — there’s always a back story in my drawings.

4. If you have artistic/creative role models, who are they and how do you relate to them?

Margaret Kilgallen is someone I look up too. She was a San Francisco visual artist, street artist and musician who passed away, loosing a battle with cancer in 2001. The way she drew from folk art, hand painted signs in her neighborhood, and the beauty of every day life, and created art that was sincere which didn’t need art-speak to justify its existence was really inspiring.

‘Sunny Day’ by Leslie Supnet

5. What is most satisfying to you about the creative process? 

Figuring out a way to communicate an experience or feeling with colour, movement and light. And intuitively knowing you’ve hit on something, that usually I can feel in the gut area. I really really really enjoy that! It’s like that moment you get a joke. Pure joy.

6. Your work seems to have ‘characters’ that are pulled from various sources. How do you define these roles for your ‘cast’?

The characters in my drawings and animations started off to be fairly generic, with the intention to be as universal as possible, rather than be specific. Hence the lack of hair colour, and ambiguous ethnicity in my early characters. But when someone thought I was only drawing Caucasian blondes, I knew I had to address that with specificity. So with my animation Gains + Losses, I decided to draw upon characters in my own life and experience, the central character in that work my cousin who committed suicide in March of 2010. Since then I’ve drawn upon people around me, and also base a lot of the characters on myself.

7. You have also studied mathematics. How does that influence your work?

I graduated with a BSc in Statistics. I’m not sure if that education influences my work at all, on a conscious level anyway.

8. How autobiographical is your work?

Most if not all my work draws on personal experience. Though personal, I focus on experiences most of us go through – loss, grief, longing, loneliness, awkwardness and love.

‘The Nature of Schemes’ by Leslie Supnet

9. How do you feel about contemporary art and your contribution to it?

Since I started animating, I’ve been focusing more on the black box than the white box. I really do enjoy experimental film – making it, watching it (other people’s work!) – over anything else at the moment. I really like the nature and experience of experimental moving images – accessible, ephemeral, hard to monetize. I find it more freeing than making art objects that often gets a value attached to it to be sold to whoever can afford it.

10. What, if anything, do you want viewers to learn from your work?

What I hope people take from my work is a sense of empathy and connection.

11. What can you add that would help us understand you and/or your work better?

I’m an introvert, and spend a lot of time looking inward for answers. I trust my intuition and feel that when I listen to myself, it’s the most honest thing I can do.

Above/Below not only references the intensity of the night sky that our urban location restricts, but also harkens to a prehistoric picture of stars as punctures in the mythological fabric of a night sky. The result is a phenomenological experience of light and shadow that reveals a latent capacity for the makeshift and the frivolous.

Rebecca Najdowski

Clint Enns

PH: How did you first become interested in exploring film, cinema, and photography?

CE: I first began making films in 2006 and I was an avid cinephile for many years before that.  The first film I made was for the One Take Super 8 Event in Winnipeg, Manitoba – an event where filmmakers shoot a roll of Super 8 and the first time they are seen is unedited in an audience full of people.  My partner, Leslie Supnet, pushed me into making it and I had a blast.  Since that time I haven’t been able to stop making films.

I began taking photos in 2010 when my friend Ashley Gillanders, a Winnipeg photographer, shared a disposable camera with me.

In 2011, I made photography a part of my practice while taking a course titled The Practice with Toronto filmmaker Mike Hoolboom at York University. The course was about exploring cinema and our practice through Buddhist philosophy, which may sound cheesy, however, the course was totally amazing.

PH: Can you articulate what you are looking for when creating your work?

CE: I really believe in fun formalism, that is, entertaining films and videos that explore and experiment with the formal elements filmmaking.  I attempt to make works that not only experiment with form but distance themselves from the supposedly “boring” world of avant-garde film.  I am interested in experimenting with the medium itself and its underlying structure.  Currently, pursuing a Masters degree in Cinema and Media Studies at York University has lead me to theorize about medium specific explorations.

PH: What is most satisfying to you about the creative process?

CE: In general, I love making films and videos, however, the most satisfying part is when a work breaks your expectations and you produce something better than you imagined it would be.  It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it is like “Oh shit, I made that it.  Awesome!”

Clint Enns

PH: If you have artistic/creative role models, who are they and how do you relate to them?

CE: The support and camaraderie of the Winnipeg film community means the world to me.  There is definitely something happening there.  Filmmakers and video artists like Michael Snow, Guy Maddin, Shana Moulton, Wendy Geller, George Kuchar, James Benning and Owen Land have had a huge influence on my own practice, specifically their use of humour.  I think the use of sound in Benning’s work is incredibly clever and humorous.

On that note, I believe humour and satire is an effective form of critique.   For instance, consider the way in which Owen Land makes fun of Hollis Frampton in Wide Angel Saxon or the structuralists in Film in Which There Appear Edge Lettering, Sprocket Holes, Dirt Particles, Etc.

Some people take art making too seriously.  Relax, it’s only art.

PH: How does your study of mathematics influence your work?

CE: Mathematics has helped me to develop problem solving abilities.  In addition it has provided me with an interest in abstract structures.

On a practical note, it has provided me with the ability to write basic code and at the very least it has provided me with the ability to hack other peoples more complex code.

Clint Enns

PH: Your work references history and specifically film history while adding a contemporary twist. What specifically about film inspires you as opposed to, for example, painting history?

CE: Cinema speaks to me more than painting.  I like how the field is fairly new and rapidly evolving.

Some people view seminal avant-garde films as sacred, however, to me, they are another database of found footage.  With that being said, I reference historical works in order to develop a dialogue between my work and the original.  It is also a chance to pay homage to the my favourite films and filmmakers.

PH: In addition to appropriating imagery and technology, how big a fan of video games are you? Thoughts on the evolution of gaming technology?

CE: I like video games, however, I wouldn’t consider myself a gamer.  I am more interested in game art and game technologies than I am in playing video games.  I am convinced that the evolution of gaming technologies, especially in regards to game art, is directly linked to our understanding of the underlying structure of digital video.  Furthermore, I feel that video games provide us with a better reflection of contemporary culture practices than television at this point.  In regards to my own practice, I view video games as another source of found footage.

PH: Where do you want to see your art career in, say, ten years?

CE: I hopefully will be alive in ten years.  If I am there is a good chance I will be making making, watching and writing about films and videos.   In addition, I will continue to be an active member of my local film and video community.

PH: How do you feel about contemporary art and your contribution to it?

CE: I believe strongly that making contributing to the experimental film and video scene means more than just making experimental films and videos.  To me this taking part in the community through writing, programming, interviewing, reading, theorizing and watching.  If artists aren’t interested in each other work and aren’t creating dialogue, how can we expect others to be interested.

Clint Enns

PH: What is the most important thing you want viewers to come away from your work with? What, if anything do you want them to learn through your work?

CE:  My videos are experiments and explorations.  With that being said, they aren’t intended to be instructional.  I hope people enjoy them.

PH: What can you add that would help us understand you and/or your work better?

CE:  If anyone has any questions about my work, feel free to contact me.

The Bay Lights is a monumental light sculpture inspired by the 75th anniversary of the Bay Bridge. Artist Leo Villareal will network 25,000 individually programmable LED lights to create  patterns across the western span of the bay bridge. It may be the world’s largest LED light sculpture!

After it is officially lit on March 5, 2013, it will be on display every day from dusk to 2 a.m. for two years, viewable from San Francisco and points north.

More info here: thebaylights.org

Public call: Day of Museum Solidarity – March 4, 2013

Call on museums and galleries across the globe to demonstrate solidarity with threatened Bosnian cultural institutions.

February 20: Sign up to participate
March 1: Take action, upload image
March 4: Promote the collective action
Organizer:
Dr. Azra Aksamija and the international platform www.cultureshutdown.net

March 4, the date of this Day of Museum Solidarity, marks the six-month anniversary of the Zemaljski Muzej’s closure. This crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina requires political, economic, and institutional solutions. By participating in the Day of Museum Solidarity, you will make an important and much needed contribution to resolving this crisis. This call is supported by CIMAM and more than 40 museums, galleries and universities across the globe. To participate, follow the simple directions provided on the CULTURESHUTDOWN website.

Beti Bricelj

1. How did you first become interested in painting the geometries that you do? Was there a conscious decision to engage in abstract work rather than another kind?

The decision to dedicate myself to abstract painting of geometries was most likely a subconscious one, made when I completed my studies at the College of Visual Arts in Ljubljana. However, I think that my living in Australia where I spent valuable time doing research into the ancient Aboriginal art of painting for my diploma thesis actually crucially influenced my artistic development. Aboriginal art gave me the opportunity to encounter typical simple geometric elements and patterns, which Australian Aborigines used to enforce their deepest beliefs about nature, rhythm and cycle of life. Incidentally, a significant leap in my artistic growth was caused by a review of my first exhibition in Melbourne, which drew parallels to optical art. From that point onwards, I consciously started to devote my time to geometric abstraction in its fullest manner of expression.

2. Can you articulate in words what you are looking for when creating your work? 

I find myself constantly in the process of exploration, searching for new solutions in terms of composition and colour, which, from series to series, lead me to new options, new work and new opportunities for reflection. I place high importance on studies of colours, and I strive to harness the physicality of colour, its vibrations and influences different colours have on each other. I try to make use of all available artistic elements in order to produce paintings with an added value. This means that each individual work of art does not only represent a carefully thought out geometric abstraction, but also serves as a tool to include the observer as a personified reflection, thus allowing him or her to find something more in the observed art, respond with different associations, emotional states of being, and, to put it simply, be drawn into the work and react to it. Through this interaction, the observer becomes trapped in two different systems of perception – mine and his/her own.

3. What is most satisfying to you about the creative process? 

What I love most about the creative process is the phase, which I reserve for the development of an idea, as it is this phase that simultaneously leads to the budding of new ones. They appear like sparks, which need to be caught and recorded for future use. All this is an intense game of exploration during which only one sketch can produce several solutions or possibilities of expression. The exact geometric compositions inevitably contain my own personal perceptions, experiences, as well as views of the world and nature – this intimate approach to creation eventually softens up the mathematical exactness of the developed form. Even though the final version of my paintings is often already visible in my sketches, the leap from the rough idea to the final result – a painting that suddenly becomes alive – always manages to excite me.

Beti Bricelj

4. If you have artistic/creative role models, who are they and how do you relate to them?

I have never idealized anyone in my life, yet I am sure there were people present during my artistic development who influenced me in an abstract way and whose artistic expressions and thought have left a mark in the studies of colour, which were important for my own growth.

5. Can you describe your technical processes? How do you make the images, what materials do you use, etc…? How do you decide on a specific composition? Do you make sketches?

The manner in which I paint is above all a careful thought process, originating from a net system, which allows me to develop my ideas. The compositions are created from basic shapes subjected to change as I go along. The sketches are in their initial phase merely compositions made up of lines.  They represent the first step – a black and white version. This contrast is extremely important, as it allows me to get a glimpse into the visual effect my idea might have. The first step is followed by playing with coloured surface variations, which may turn out to be numerous. My most commonly used technique involves painting with acrylic colours on canvas in different sizes. On the other hand, when I work on series featuring small-size paintings, which I decided to name “Point of attention”, I also paint with acrylic colours on wooden surfaces. Sketches are, at all times, of crucial importance on the path to the final result.

All of my paintings, when seen as final results, do not allow mistakes and demand extremely exact and disciplined work. Since I possess the nature of a true Aries, I also tend to be driven by my stubbornness and perseverance.

6. Your pieces each have a unique visual movement (grouped in series, for example “geoLOM” ). How do you decide on a specific approach to a series? 

Each series possesses its own specific characteristics. The decision on the structure of any of my series originates from the very first idea for the first painting, which, in its initial form, is only a sketch. This sketch then goes through the creative process and becomes a sort of a continuation of the initial idea. The geoLOM I.,II. series featured smaller sizes of painting that demanded of me to resort to a different approach. I had to put crucial emphasis either on rhythm, the composition, colours or the net basis, thus creating a unique movement in each painting.

With the GEOtransFORM A series, for example, I explore the animate nature of the inanimate world. I ponder on the primal and elementary characteristics of the Earth (gea – geo), I reflect on the origins of the world and, on the other hand, I think about the cold, exact geometry, which, through a transformation of the inanimate, can pass over to the animate flowering, and to crystalline and pyramidal structures. “Geo” as a word, a prefix or even as a concept suddenly becomes a living artistic organism within the painting, as well as a language or a way in which I achieve several associative states and produce symbolic messages.

7. Is there a specific artistic philosophy that you adhere to?

Actually, this is how I view constructivism where everything is determined. There is only one possibility for the unpredictable to happen – and that is a spontaneous, unplanned line or a stroke within the initial sketch, which I use for the creation of a new idea. 

Beti Bricelj

8. Where do you want to see your work progress to in the future?

I remain curious in facing new discoveries and I keep wondering where this path might take me; what will be the results of my artistic endeavours. I would like to see my art being introduced to other fields like ambient art, urban artistic living, and architecture. The latter was actually the first to give me a great opportunity to contribute in terms of design, as in 2007, I was asked to provide an idea on the colour compositions for the façade of the business and commerce building Epicenter B2 in Slovenia. For me as a painter, this project represented a large and a demanding challenge.

9. How do you feel about contemporary art and your contribution to it?

I see myself as a part of a larger diverse whole, which thrives on its own versatility and grows in a very specific era of individualism.

10. What is the most important thing you want viewers to come away from your work with? What, if anything do you want them to learn through your work?

The most important purpose of my paintings is to make the observer stop and be immersed in the art, and to be compelled to think, contemplate. My art encourages logical thinking, and stimulates perception in terms of finding one’s own reflective and associative explanations for the observed objects. It is important and it is considered as an achievement, if the observer of my art stores my paintings deep within his/her memory.

11. What can you add that would help us understand you and/or your work better?

My art possesses limitless possibilities for interpretation. My purpose is to stir emotions within the observer who has to be open-minded and, above all, not burdened with explanations.

Beti Bricelj