Interview with Caio Locke

q)What is your earliest art-related memory?

a)As a child, seeing MC Escher’s House of Stairs in one of my first art classes.

q) Who has had the greatest influence on your work?

a)Conservation, design and architecture in my family background, both in the UK and Brazil, have been strong influences. At school, I was encouraged to focus almost entirely on etching, which has had a significant and positive influence on my painting style.

q) What are the main tools of your craft?

a)Imagination, travel, acrylic and oil paints

q) Is a formal education important?

a)It depends on the individual. I feel art education was of benefit initially, but then became inhibiting and interfered with personal inspiration. My work needed to develop in isolation once I felt sufficiently confident technically.

q) What is the biggest misconception about art?

a)That it needs to shock to be original

q) Which is more important in art - concept or execution?

a)They are equally important.

q) What theme or aesthetic are you most drawn too?

a)Atmosphere

q) What is your favorite piece of art in your home?

a)A mysterious tribal style blue and green ceramic

q) If you could collaborate with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?

a)Goya, Van Gogh, Max Ernst, De Chirico, Kandinsky, Escher, HR Giger and the Futurists – preferably simultaneously!

q) Which emerging artist do you think more people should know about?

a)Yours truly…

q) What has been your greatest achievement to date?

a)Committing entirely to painting

q) What has been your biggest roadblock?

a)Developing the ability and freedom of mind to fully express my imagination in a visual way.

q) How do you define success?

a)That my work is appreciated without compromise to my artistic vision

q) What will be the name of your autobiography?

a)I let my paintings speak for me

q)What is the best piece of (art-related) advice you’ve ever been given?

a)Leave enough space for the viewer to think

Interview with Paolo Morales

q) What is your earliest art-related memory?

a)Trips to the Metropolitan after school with my nanny.

q) Who has had the greatest influence on your work?

a)Photographing women has been the focal point of my work so if the mother is the primary relationship with a woman then my greatest influence is my mother. While she isn’t an actual subject of my pictures my mother represents the ways I relate to and see women.

q) What are the main tools of your craft?

a)As a photographer I use several types of cameras and supplemental lighting. My main cameras are a Mamiya 7 and a 4x5 field camera. In addition I use a Mamiya RB67. For lighting I use a Vivitar flash and a variety of strobe lights. I scan all my negatives and have them printed by at a lab in New York.

For color photography I use Kodak Portra 400NC and Portra 800. For black and white work I use Ilford HP5+.

q) Is a formal education important?

a)Yes. Having an MFA is ubiquitous amongst art photographers working today. Historically, persons in any field who have at least an undergraduate degree are more successful than those without one. Is art school important to being an artist? My answer still remains yes. Art school teaches you the current trends and ways to think about and produce work. School is great because it insists on production.

q) What is the biggest misconception about art?

a)The biggest misconception about photography is that cameras make pictures. People make pictures and the camera is the tool. A camera is only as good as the photographer who uses it. It’s like saying a paintbrush makes a paintings. No. People paint and the paintbrush is a tool. The second one is that photography is a depiction of reality. Photography is a depiction of particular persons perception. Photography does not depict truth—it is a lie.

q) Which is more important in art - concept or execution?

a)Neither. They are co-dependent. A picture isn’t any good if the concept is strong and the execution weak. There can of course be good technique (execution) and a weak concept, which is essentially aesthetically pleasing work.

q) What theme or aesthetic are you most drawn too?

a)My relationship to women has been a theme in my work since the beginning. Now I’m exploring photographing strangers. I’m interested in making well-composed and formal photographs. Yet I want to make pictures that are spontaneous. Strangers are fascinating because of serendipity. In fact that is why photography is so wonderful—anything can happen if the photographer allows for it.

q) What is your favorite piece of art in your home?

a)Family snapshots.

q) If you could collaborate with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?

a)For the past six months I have been collaborating with a friend who I met in art school. When I first met her I just photographed her for a year and a half or so and now it has elevated into shooting a project together in a nursing home as well as photographing each other.

q) Which emerging artist do you think more people should know about?

a)A photographer named Kate Hutchinson.

q) What has been your greatest achievement to date?

a)Being able to talk to strangers and having them let me photograph them.

q) What has been your biggest roadblock?

a)Learning to verbalize emotion and feeling and how to show affection.

q) How do you define success?

a)Professional success is financial independence. Personal success is having another person who you can rely on for emotional support.

q) What will be the name of your autobiography?

a)I can’t think of a reason why someone would want to read or buy my autobiography.

q) What is the best piece of (art-related) advice you’ve ever been given?

a)A professor once told me “pictures make pictures.” In other words, don’t think, just shoot. Another great line is “shoot drunk and edit sober.”

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Interview with Scot Lefavor

q)WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST ART-RELATED MEMORY?

a)Watching cartoons and having my mind blown.

q) WHO HAS HAD THE GREATEST INFLUENCE ON YOUR WORK?

a)Aesthetically and conceptually - Roy Lichtenstein. Context wise - people, music.

q) WHAT ARE THE MAIN TOOLS OF YOUR CRAFT?

a)Acrylic, spraypaint, enamel

q) IS A FORMAL EDUCATION IMPORTANT?

a)It depends. I have had formal education and I think I needed the direction and discipline (via grahpic design) at the time.That isn't necessarily true for everyone. And it costs a lot. Really depends on the person and what they want to get out of it. I don't really think getting a formal art education makes anyone more qualified.

q) WHAT IS THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION ABOUT ART?

a)The idea that it needs to be classified by genre. 

q) WHICH IS MORE IMPORTANT IN ART - CONCEPT OR EXECUTION?

a)Both are equally important to me. If the concept is to execute poorly, than I guess concept wins.

q) WHAT THEME OR AESTHETIC ARE YOU MOST DRAWN TOO?

a)Graphic Design and Advertising

q) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PIECE OF ART IN YOUR HOME?

a)A quick charcoal sketch on panel by Lucong (www.lucong.com)

q) IF YOU COULD COLLABORATE WITH ANYONE, LIVING OR DEAD, WHO WOULD IT BE?

a)Jean-Michel Basquiat

q) WHICH EMERGING ARTIST DO YOU THINK MORE PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW ABOUT?

a)Shannon Bonatakis (www.shannonbonatakis.com)

q) WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT TO DATE?

a)Having the continued mindset that I will not quit.

q) WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BIGGEST ROADBLOCK?

a)Letting things bother me and dwelling on them. IE: money, drama, stress.

q) HOW DO YOU DEFINE SUCCESS?

a)When you exceed what you set out to do and surprise yourself.

q) WHAT WILL BE THE NAME OF YOUR AUTOBIOGRAPHY?

a)How to barely get by as an artist and still have fun... for dumbies.

q)WHAT IS THE BEST PIECE OF (ART-RELATED) ADVICE YOU’VE EVER BEEN

 GIVEN?

a)To "get a real job". Always makes me try harder!

Interview with Tony Perez

q)What is your earliest art-related memory?

a) being in art class in kindergarten and being fascinated by the the deep red crayon I was using at the time and just going to town with it on the picture I was doing, have no idea what it was. Just remember that it was like the first time I noticed what colour was and how beautiful the deep red was.

q) Who has had the greatest influence on your work?

a) The internet, You can see amazing art from all over the world not just your home town or gallery. You can see that there are others interested in creating art and that have the same view from all around the world.

q) What are the main tools of your craft?

a) Right now it is an x-acto knife and as many different colour spray cans I can get hold off

q) Is a formal education important?

a) for every day life and for understanding that there is more to life than TV a diffident YES as far as art, or your enjoyment to create something artistic.... no sometimes it is better to discover the creation of art by yourself.

q) What is the biggest misconception about art?

a) that you have to make something that the majority of sheep ( people ) like. the first and only person that should like your work should be yourself,

q) Which is more important in art - concept or execution?

a) One without the other is pointless. One is only important if in the company of the other. hu... kind of like a wedding, you can make all preparations you want but till you say I do its kind of fruitless. In the other hand if all you do is say I do than all you are really doing is looking like a fool.

q) What theme or aesthetic are you most drawn too?

a) Right now it is people, how different we, but the more different we are the more we are the same, showing that every one is son, a daughter, a wife a husband ...... that hate or prejudice against each other has to be the most stupid thing we can do as humans.

q) What is your favorite piece of art in your home?

a) I would have say my kitchen window that looks on to the world.

q) If you could collaborate with anyone, living or dead, who would it be?

a) 5 min with Picasso or Andy Warhol, more so for their concept of what art should or could be, that it did not have to conform to the established norms. Living artists, there are so many amazing talented artists right now that just one would be heartbreaking

q) Which emerging artist do you think more people should know about?

a) Me! lol the word emerging is a fine line, if you are looking for a broad range of artist, many that are not currently displaying their work in galleries and some that are but have not had the due attention they should, than an hour around Flickr.com would give you a list longer than your arm. I am amazed every time I get on flickr.

q) What has been your greatest achievement to date?

a) Discovering art again after a few years of forgetting how important it was to me.

q) What has been your biggest roadblock?

a) Having to make a living to pay the mortgage and electric bill.

q) How do you define success?

a) finding and developing a style that is your own and not an imitation of someone else. if you create a body of work that is recognizable as your own then all else fulls in place.

q) What will be the name of your autobiography?

a) No idea, I would have to leave that up to some else.

q)What is the best piece of (art-related) advice you’ve ever been given?

a) action speaks loader than words