Art Archives - Page 42 of 82

April 7, 2016April 7, 2016

Morg Armeni Solo Art Show

Our Italian contributor Ilaria Pauletti attended the opening night of artist and tattooist Morg Armeni’s first solo art show in Rome. Ilaria chatted to Morg about the art she has showcased and the process behind it…

Morg’s gallery of artwork title ‘Morgasmatron_redemption through delight’ has been curated by Marta Bandini and Elettra Bottazzi, at Parione9 in Rome. The exhibition displays some of her most recent works and some of her deepest emotions.
In fact, Morg portrays her journey through life, love and suffering, while giving the feminine figure a new role.
The skills in detailed paintings and the refined technique allowed the artist to play with different materials: oils on canvas but also on wood and thin paper.I think every person could relate to one piece more than to one other, but they were all connected to me, from the least to the most recent.

How do you feel when you start a new painting? And when you finish it?
When I start painting I feel like I’m in a round room with many doors that I can open, behind each of them is a world of meanings and symbols for me to use. It’s the feeling of having infinite possibilities.When it comes to the end I feel like a mother taking care of her child. If everything I have created is in its right place, I feel at peace but I am also inspired to create my next piece.

What piece of work, that you have shown in the gallery, best represents you?Probably the work that represents me and how I am now is The Creator. Undoubtedly because it is the last oil work I’ve painted and also because it touches the issue that I want to always keep in mind. We are the creators of our present, and we can go beyond our difficulties or the feelings of fear of sadness that limit us. We can become again our sacred temple of love, for ourselves and for life, creating our present and, consequently, the future in the most natural and harmonious way.

Do you find painting therapeutic? I find that facing your own ideas and convictions, represented in a figurative way, through painting, often puts me in front of sides of myself that I would not otherwise see. The hours I spend in solitude painting, often means I realise that I have some unresolved issues that I need to work on. This is very therapeutic for me. Often, looking retrospectively at my paintings makes me see more clearly the emotional situations that I’m going through and my growth, or at least the direction that I’m pursuing.

How important is to be yourself and get literally naked for art?
I think it’s everything, but I also believe that it is a time consuming process. Initially, when your painting technique is immature, you need to take inspiration from the great masters and sometimes imitation can distort your own style and nature. With time we can break away from this and this is how we find our true selves. I believe this is the most real art expression.

Morg’s solo show is at Parione 9 until 17th April

Photos by Diana Bandini

April 3, 2016

The Art of Oleg Dou

Oleg Dou a Russian artist who uses photography as a medium for his work, creates sad yet beautiful pieces of art. Oleg concentrates on old classical facial shapes mixing them with real world objects to create multi-textured works which often shock and produce fearful responses in his audiences.

Sketch for the “Sometimes it is sad”

Sketch for the Butterfly

Unicorn

Sketch for The Bird

Pet

Paper 2

March 29, 2016April 10, 2016

Interview with Sasha Mezoghlian

26-year-old Sasha Malvina Mezoghlian lives and works in Balmain, right in the heart of Sydney at her studio The Darling Parlour, alongside her husband Moses (a.k.a Dave). We chatted to Sasha about her love for all things floral and how she began tattooing…

How long have you been tattooing? This will be my seventh year of tattooing but I really feel it’s only the last few years that I have been finding my feet and knowing what I really love and really want to tattoo!

How did you start? What did you do before? I started dating this guy and he had been tattooing for a few years. I had no desire to tattoo and felt like I would never be able to even if I wanted to. I had a dream to be an athlete and after a bad injury I was told I could never do that again! My life turned directions so quickly and my partner suggested that I could maybe start tattooing. It sounds easy enough but I had no idea how hard it would be and I feel in love with it straight away!
Tattooing has been the only job I have ever done. And I think of it as a total gift! (I married that guy early last year, best thing I ever did).

Do you have a background in art? I struggled at school a lot, being dyslectic and having trouble reading I naturally focused more on the art classes and the physical elements in school! But again I wasn’t one of those kids that picked up a pencil and was amazing! I have had to work really hard at making my designs ready to put on skin.

What drew you to the tattoo world? I suppose if I really think about it, it’s the element of freedom and passion that fascinated me and it was something that I just really wanted to get good at!

Describe your style, how has it changed? My style now would be girly traditional, botanical and illustrative. But it’s forever growing and changing and I feel like I keep adapting my style. It has changed a lot in the last few years and it has just come with practice and experience and knowing what I like to tattoo. Also my customers always have the best ideas!

What do you like to tattoo and draw? I love anything floral, colourful, bright bold and eye catching! Also anything cute!

What inspires you? Nature, the amazing people I work with, my heritage, my amazing husband who is the smartest man I know! My family and trying to live a spiritual path. Oh and coffee!

What would you love to tattoo? Flowers everyday!

Do you have any guest spots or conventions planned? I’m planing to go to back to Melbourne soon and hopefully Brisbane. If all goes to plan I hope to go visit my beautiful friends in Norway again! Which is where is all started for me.

Can you tell us about your own tattoos? Most of my tattoos have been done by my dear friends and people I have met over the years travelling with my husband including a goldfish on my left arm by my good friend Shiryu from Japan, a whale by the amazing Deno from Madrid Spain, a diamond with wings from my old boss Pero from lucky 7 tattoos Norway and a watermelon and lemon fun times by my good friend Leonie New from Mans Ruin in Melbourne.
All of my tattoos have so many memories and I remember where I was and what I was doing and they mean so much to me! I am incredibly blessed and feel so lucky and grateful to be tattooing and to have a job that I love so much.

March 24, 2016

Illustration: Melly Em Clark

24-year-old Melly Em Clark is an full time illustrator from Lincoln, UK. We chatted to Melly about her art based around themes of feminism, fashion and body positivity…

Inspired by Things&Ink Melly created a tattooed babe just for us…

Do you have a background in art? How and when did you start drawing? It’s hard to remember when I started drawing as it feels like something I’ve always done! I was encouraged from an early age to be creative by both my parents and my schools-school provided great projects and my parents always took me to creative activities outside of school, so I’ve always been motivated to make things. While I struggled in other subjects, art always felt fun and something I was confident doing- it was only when I was nearing my GCSEs that it occurred to me that I could make art for a living. I studied Illustration at the University of Lincoln and graduated in 2013, and last May I took the plunge into full time self employment! While at times, I feel limited by Art being my only strength, my love for drawing is still strong and I still find it incredibly fun!

What inspires you? Content-wise, I am inspired by inter-sectional feminism and pop culture. There are many feminist artists, writers and creatives that I look up to, and strive to be like-this is always a drive of mine when creating new work. Like most people, I’m constantly devouring films, books, television and social media, and can find inspiration from any and all of these. Style wise, I love 20th century fashion illustration by artists such as Rene Gruau and Lucia Lerner. While I don’t agree with a lot of the messages portrayed in mid century advertising, the vivid colour schemes and sense of playfulness are always something I try to recreate in my work. Contemporary artists I admire are Jon Klassen, Grayson Perry, Johnny Hannah and Meg Hunt.

What medium do you use? How do you create each piece? My work is predominantly digital-I start by hand drawing each piece, taking time to draw each section separately and arranging them together in Photoshop. Then comes the process of colouring in the piece digitally. I used to paint every piece by hand and simply edit in Photoshop, and while now I work in digital techniques, I still like to keep the texture of paintings, and include a lot of hand painted textures in each piece. As I have a tiny studio, working digitally works better for me, but I still like to crack out the paintbrushes once in a while and I love supporting artists that continue to work in traditional mediums.

What kinds of things do you draw? This can really vary- most of my work focuses on themes of body positivity, but I’ve also made pieces based around themes like baking, fashion trends and inspirational quotes. I try to keep my work feeling positive and playful, whatever the content. I design prints to sell in my Etsy store, but my ‘bread and butter’ comes from custom artwork, which can vary from family portraits to logo design, so my drawings can differ daily!

Your illustrations focus on body positivity is this something you like to advocate? Body positivity is something very close to heart. Like many people, I’ve spent many years hating my appearance, and my general outlook on life has improved since learning to love myself. As I can struggle to articulate my thoughts into words, I started to create artwork that expressed a body positive theme-my first ‘bo po’ illustration was a piece entitled You Don’t Need Abs To Be Fab. Once made, I posted it online and the reaction was bigger than I could have expected. Since then. I’ve aimed to make art that helps people feel better about themselves, even if only in a tiny way. I know so many wonderful people who advocate a body positive lifestyle, and I’m definitely inspired by them. I think we all deserve to feel great about ourselves and love our bodies, and it’s important to me to get that onto paper.

Can you tell us about your tattoos? What was your first, do you still love it? How do they make you feel? I have eleven tattoos in total, my first was just before I turned 21. To symbolise my Irish heritage, I got a small claddagh design on the inside of my wrist. Since then, I’ve embraced the idea that tattoos don’t have to have a story behind them, and have covered myself in tattoos with no tale or theory behind them. Over three years, the quality of my first tattoo isn’t great and I would love to have it reworked-it’s a simple line drawing and I would love for it to be more intricate and colourful. My biggest tattoos are floral designs, but I have a few other pieces, including a kraken taking down a ship, heart finger tattoos, a stag, a fox, a kewpie, and an Adventure Time inspired tattoo, all of which I’m still head over heels with!

Do you do commissions? Where can people buy your art? Most of my custom artwork operates via my Etsy store where I have listings for personalised portraits, business design packages and invitation design, as well as my pre-made art prints. Alternatively, I can be reached at mellyemclark@gmail.com for commission enquiries!

Follow Melly on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tumblr for body positive art work…

March 21, 2016

Interview with Sophie Adamson

We chat to 30-year-old tattoo artist Sophie Adamson who works out of The Projects in Plymouth about the bright tattoos she creates and her love for skulls…

How long have you been tattooing? I started tattooing about four years ago.

How did you start? It all started for me when I saw a local studio were looking for an apprentice, I nervously took along my portfolio of designs. The feedback I received was equal in good and bad. I made it my mission to stalk them, returning each week with new artwork until I was given a trial. I’ve never been so excited and terrified.

What drew you to the tattoo world? The idea of producing custom artwork for people feels very special

Describe your style, how has it changed? Feminine. Id say my work was quite traditional moving towards neo traditional. Over time it has become more detailed and a little more natural looking.

What do you like to tattoo and draw? I always enjoy tattooing flowers! And I love sketching skulls a lot, I really need to tattoo more of them!

What inspires you? My biggest inspiration growing up was my nan, Joyce. My nan loved her garden of beautiful flowers and bird watching, I was always fascinated by her pressed flowers, botanical books, her collection of fancy teapots and all her trinkets and costume jewellery. She was my biggest fan and always spoilt me to lots of art supplies and her inspiration has stayed with me.

What would you love to tattoo? I’d love to tattoo more of my lady face designs and take on larger pieces featuring ladies. I want to start working with darker colours while still focusing on jewellery and skulls.

Can you tell us about your own tattoos? My favourites are my ornate cameo inspired frame on my hand, by Matt Drury. My first tattoo machine on my arm by Dave Crossett. A large realistic robin on my thigh by Radu Rusu, and a bunch of art and tattoo supplies on my shin by Caroline Derwent.