Creative Interviews : Steven Rodrig

Steven Rodrig, originally born in Havana, Cuba, describes himself as an inventive and environmentally conscious artist. He’s always been fascinated in experimenting with unconventional materials to create art. His imagination and innate technical process evolved while studying mechanical structure at his NY school.

Steven’s innovative sculpture, which he refers to as “PCB (Printed Circuit Board) Mixed Media”, is created from recycling and restructuring circuit and electronic parts. His subjects range from insects, flowers and still life to intricate cityscapes.   New York is his base.

It's a very unique art form and one that I had little knowledge of so I was delighted when Steven accepted my invitation to get involved with my 'creative interviews' series and a great big thank you to him for contributing!

Describe yourself in five words and how would your friends describe you (in five)!! 

Myself: unique innovative resourceful artistic obsure
Others: precise creative decisive calibrate odd

Data Head

How has work and this year been for you – anything new on the boil for 2012 

Now that I have conquered the human head shape in my RONIX sculpture, I plan on expanding on that. I need to be the first to create a female torso. 

Spider

What do you love most about what you do and is there a down side 

I love that whatever I create is the first of its kind since no other artist has attempted my approach to PCB sculpting (yet). So far no down side other than the predicable cuts and scrapes

In your portfolio what are you most happy with
Apocalyptic Data Hunter : RONIX is my crowning achievement.  It broke new ground on how to approach the human form using PCBs

Organic Data Transfer

What’s your perfect working day like 

Finding the perfect computer PCB board in the dumpster and not running out of coffee through the day.

Who influences you creatively 

There is an artist that I admire for his creativity, his name is Kris Kuksi. I had the opportunity to meet him and give him one of my early Data Books. His work is amazing and inspirational.

Throne

Have you ever or do you have a PLAN B
If I don't make it as the world's best PCB sculpture, I plan on working at McDonalds, this way I can work at the fry station and eat them all day long. 

Ornament

Where’s your own favorite place to work and why 

In my living room, I don't have a studio (yet), has a TV, radio and close the Loo

Sandal

How much time do you or can you give to make a piece of work 

I have spent as little as 1 week as much as 7 months. The process really depends on the right PCB, I could settle for any PCB, but then I could not look at the piece knowing that I didn't make it perfect.

Kris Kuksi

Who do you think I should interview next 
I really think you should see Kris Kuksi's work and interview him, I know you'll be impressed.

Steven's links -

Website

Etsy

Creative Interviews : honeycup

I'm still in Australia and have headed off to the lovely city of Melbourne this time. Honeycup is a web designer by trade and she recently had an epiphany that she needed to try and make the leap to creating my own products online, to utilise ALL her skills and talents.

Honeycup actually found out something new about herself - she loves designing her own products and she's beginning to think that she's a bit of an artist. So let's get to the questions as I say a great big thank you!

Bunny Rabbit Girl

What’s your local area like in terms of supporting creatives
Well I live in Melbourne, Australia. It's a very artsy city. We have lots of arts initiatives, and I think we have a very supportive community.

Now having said that my, 'very local area' is a very small suburb, but it still has creative initiatives. I have a local handmade shop in the next suburb and there is a craft market down just around the corner from me.



Fox and Deer

How would you describe yourself in five words

Kind, easy-going, perceptive, quick-witted and creative.



Give me the names of 3 objects or things you dislike most and why

I really dislike people cracking their bones. Aghh, sends shivers up my spine!



Bunny Bird Creature

Tell me about something you've achieved

My illustrations... I went on a quest to find something that I am good at, I think I have found that - he he!

What’s your ideal working day (I like to clean my house!)

I wish I started with cleaning the house, but cleaning is something I leave till the very end. It really depends, just like my personality, it's hard for me to stick to a routine. I need variety. Sometimes I will be writing class notes, sometimes I will be working on freelance design work, other times I will be updating my shop and orders and then some days I will decide to draw.



Deer Boy

Who influences you creatively

It's hard to say. I would say my influences in my art have definitely been from my childhood. So people like Beatrix Potter and A. A. Milne would come to mind. I am sure I am influenced by lots of creative things in my day-to-day life from books, magazines, art, galleries and so on, but it's hard for me to say what exactly influences me creatively. However, at the same time, I try and not get too wrapped up in what others are doing, so that my work really does come from within.

A A MiIne

Beatrix Potter

Fav movie - band or book and why
Book - Chris Guillebeau’s book The Art of Non-conformity. It's a book about not accepting the status quo in life and defying normal convention. If you are someone that is quite entrepreneurial then this book will be for you.

Orange Girl

Where would you go in the world for inspiration

France. I have always had dreams of living in the countryside in France.



What piece of work are you most proud of

Hmmm, it's hard to say which one I am more proud of. It changes. All of my illustrations have challenges when they are been created and so I am proud when I finish them. I think 'Bunny Girl With Circles' is my favourite, mainly because of the colour palette and she just seems so sweet!

What would you like to develop further or learn to do

I would love to master the art of coding complex websites. That's an art I have never quite understood. I hate not been able to win a challenge, but so far I haven't been able to beat it!



Bunny Rabbit

Who do you think I should interview next

brillianttreescollective.wordpress.com/ She's a lovely lass :)


Brilliant Trees Collective

Honeycup's contact details :-

Twitter: @nomuu
Blog: http://ammiki.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/nomuu
Facebook: http://facebook.com/ammiki

Creative Interviews : withwallpaper

I'm down in Oz for my last question and answer sessions and I'm delighted that Mandy Horne from Adelaide has taken up my challenge.... so let's hear from Mandy.

Whisk

What’s your local area like in terms of supporting creatives

I think it's hard to work as an artist wherever you are & there is never enough support. However, I live in a city that is well known for its many arts festivals and they are very well supported by the whole community here.

Adelaide is also well know for its fine wine and good climate, so the combination of these three things makes it an extremely appealing place for artists to live, although these things can also somewhat distract you from your work!

Toaster

How would you describe yourself in five words

As Popeye would say, I yam what I yam.

Give me the names of 3 objects or things you dislike most and why

I dislike dishonesty, greed and broccoli.
I also dislike bad design.
I guess all of these things are self explanatory as to why I dislike them, but I know some people inexplicably really like broccoli.

Still Life

Tell me about something you've achieved

I'm happy that I work as an artist and have never really deviated from that path.
Sometimes it's a struggle to keep going, but the freedom that comes with is something I couldn't give up now, and it makes me happy.

Bon voyage

What’s your ideal working day

I have no specific routine except to try and achieve something every day. I do get distracted easily and so the challenge is to get to work and stay working.

Who influences you creatively

Other artists from the past, present and no doubt future. There are some amazingly talented and creative people in the world & they inspire me no end.

Pen and Ink

Fav movie - band or book and why

I have far too many to narrow anything down!

Where would you go in the world for inspiration

I'd like to visit any city where there is a Guggenheim museum, for both the art and the culture of the different places.

And I'd really love to go to the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. It has a collection of over three million works of art and the building has an incredible history in itself. You would need to spend days there to take it all in.

Keys

What piece of work are you most proud of

The first piece of art I ever sold. I was about 18 years old and had done a large oil painting at art school. It was included in a student exhibition and sold for (what I thought was) quite a lot of money.

Many years later the woman who bought the painting recognised me in a cafe & told me she still loved it and had it hanging over her bed. Selling my first piece to someone who appreciated it so much has always encouraged me to keep going as an artist.

Flying Fish

What would you like to develop further or learn to do

I'd actually like to go back to using some of the printmaking techniques I learned at art school - especially lithography and screen printing. It's very satisfying to get ink on your hands, and I'd love to develop some of my work into fabric designs.

Lyrebird

Who do you think I should interview next

There is an English printmaker living in Sydney, Kate Banazi, who does great silkscreen prints or American artist Vivienne Strauss - I love the humour in her work.

Kate Banazi

Vivienne Strauss

Thanks so much Mandy for taking the time to do this - would love to think that I could meet you the next time I'm in Oz and there's always a kettle on the boil if you're ever in Scotland.

WEBSITE & PRINT SHOP

ETSY SHOP

TWITTER

Creative Interviews : Hazel Terry

I'm on home ground this week with a very special friend and it's been such a privilege to know Hazel. She's an artist and an art educator, passionate about all aspects of art, craft and design. Hazel loves finding treasure and magic and sharing the creativity and inventiveness of wonderful artists and makers in her amazing The Art Room Plant blog.  I've managed to tie her down to get these answers from her!!

Hazel with Freya

How would you describe yourself in five words

workaholic, scatty, kind, patient, happy

How would your friends describe you

Mad, Wild, Hairy, Scarey, Crazy

Superscoop

Give me the names of 3 objects or things you dislike most and why

Rubbish, I cannot stand rubbish and how the problem of people littering seems to be growing exponentially.

Polystyrene, I wish it and other non biodegradable human products could be uninvented, and in this I include nuclear products.

Inconsiderate or unkind treatment of people, animals, plants and the planet.

Mustaches

Tell me about something you've achieved

I don't know quite what to put here, I don't feel I have achieved my potential yet and that is probably what drives me to work so hard in so many spheres,at home, teaching and in my practice as an artist.

My proudest achievement was hand rearing a sparrow, I love animals and life, I hate to see it wasted.

Gran and Hen

What’s your ideal working day.

I suppose it is crazy, but this is how most of my days are, and though I think though they are possibly a bit on the full side, I seem to work best when I have a lot of plates spinning.

I get up early at 5am or 6am and hit the ground running. I get the most and the best work done before my family get up in the quiet daylight of the early morning.

I love my teaching work, I teach such a variety of people and a variety of subjects that it is very satisfying, especially when I get my students to work on a project that blows their minds and they all buzz with ideas, excitement and creative comeradery.

In the evenings after my family are fed and cleaned etc I get back to my work. Usually I work at the kitchen table or if I am painting, at the kitchen wall.

Maybe I am too noisy and sociable, I don't have or crave a quiet studio away from it all. The draw back of this is that everything has to be done and cleaned away before I can start.

Red Riding Hood & The Wolf

Who influences you creatively.

No one individual, movement or genre of art or craft, the full spectrum of art, craft, fashion, photography and design constantly bombard me with inspiration. I have often been in trouble with art schools and other establishments for not belonging to one class of art.

I got in trouble at Belfast (York Street) for trying to transfer to Fine art from Fine craft design. At ECA for making a film for my final Painting degree. People want to find a draw to pop you into, a label to slap on your forehead. I am too interested in too many things and I keep pealing off the label. Sometimes I do feel it is my downfall and if I channeled all that energy and effort into one form of practice, then I would have been more successful . . . but then would I be me?

Are you usually late, early or right on time

Always early, I do not like to be late

Bird

How do you start on a piece of work? (I usually clean the house!)
haha I clean the house! I need order to be able to work even though I am often accused of not seeing my mess, but I do see most of it and everyone elses.

I usually wake up in the middle of the night with an idea, sometimes I write it down in the dark in a wee book beside my bed. In the morning if I am free of other projects I start it, and then I work on it till it is finished. If ever I go onto something else, the original work is doomed, I rarely go back.

Skrimshaw

Where would you go in the world for inspiration

All over it, on the internet! The kitchen table - my daughter is at a great age and she is prolific, I love her interpretation of the world.

Away from it all, if I can I like to go away to very remote places and just be. I have had the luxury of a job with a decent length of holiday and the use of my great uncles remote house in France. This is heaven for me as the wildlife is abundant and every year something different features, hoopoes, hares, frogs etc. It is the tonic for my working life and a time when I always feel I get my self back and can be really free.

Early Work

What piece of work are you most proud of

Thinking about it , It would not be a piece of art work by myself, there are pieces over the years that I still love, but 'proud of' that is something different.

I am proud of collaborations with others and most proud probably when it does not involve people who are identified as being 'arty' or 'creative'.

November last year for example, when again on a night thought, we managed to get the whole college making and wearing mustaches for the male cancer charity 'Movember'.  It was spontaneous, fun and creative for so many different people and it made lots of money for a worthy charity.

Movember

Laughter makes me proud, maybe I am in the wrong profession!

What would you like to develop further or learn to do

My photography, I love people, so taking photographs of them is just the best fun for me, but I am not technical about my photography, I haven't read the manual.

Also I wish I could learn to remember names it is a large and terrible failing of mine.

Who do you think I should interview next

Piet Hein Eeek : Greenupgrader

Piet Hein the Dutch furniture designer.

Garbage : Greenupgrader

Garbage the French recycled lighting man.

Christien Meindertsma : Textile Source Blog

Christien Meindertsma, she is amazing. . . so many wonderful artists designers and crafts people out there.

Thanks so much Hazel. It's been a delight for me and it was great going through all your work. Cheers me dear!  First pint's on me!

Hazel's links :

The Art Room Plant

Flickr

Furniture & Interior Design Blog

Fashion Blog

Creative Interviews : Tushtush

Israel is my next port of call and Tali aka tushtush who's a freelance illustrator living in Tel-Aviv with her boyfriend. Tali illustrates for magazines and children's books and loves working in many techniques, taking pictures and dancing.  A great big thank you Tali for taking the time to answer these and allowing me to include your work.  And here are her answers:-

What’s your town or country like for supporting creative people

I feel like there's an art community here in Israel, but there's little support for young artists. There's little to no place here for emerging artists, and that's why I'm so grateful to Etsy for giving me the place to showcase my art to a global and receptive audience.

Describe yourself in five words

Independent, productive, friendly, joyful, creative.

Give me the names of 3 objects or things you dislike most and why

Goodbyes. Dark days (so most winter time). Cold (I'm a summer and heat kind of person).

Tell me about something you've achieved

My BA degree from the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design is one of my greatest achievements.

What’s your ideal working day

A sunny day, with no time limits on my schedule (no schedule, really).

Who influences you creatively

I have illustrators that I greatly admire (like Kveta Pacovska). Creative and talented people in general are a great source of inspiration! You always want to make something hanging around people who also have a creative energy.

Are you usually late, early or right on time

I'm a punctual person. Most times I'm even a bit earlier than the appointed time and I have to wait for the person I'm meeting.

Do you like to shop  Very much, of course!:)

Where in the world would you go for inspiration

Europe is very attractive to me, with all the history and beautiful art. I'd travel Europe if I could. I went a few times already and really enjoyed those experiences.

What piece of work are you most proud of

I don't have a specific one that I prefer over the rest, but I do like some over others.

What would you like to develop further or learn to do

I feel like I am still only at the beginning of my potential, and I want to gain more experience, learn more techniques, more artists... As an illustrator especially I don't feel confident enough. I know I can do better.

Who do you think I should interview next

Naomi Shiek - thetimeisnow.etsy.com She's my good friend and I found Etsy through her. I value her work greatly and think she's an excellent artist. She works in the papercutting technique.

Romantic Fashion Papercut - Naomi Shiek

Tali's Links -

tushtush.etsy.com
tosya.etsy.com

Creative Interviews : RitaReverie

Slovakian born Mira aka RitaReverie is now a UK based mixed media designer - a bit of a day-dreamer, fascinated - among other amazing things - by colours, touch, archaic language and imagined "biographic" stories of old books. She moved to London recently, to an exciting neighbourhood full of vintage shops and markets! Living literaly next to "the source" she realises NOW is the time for merging her big passions: recycling, art and old books and her original aim was to educate or spur people's imagination.  So a huge thank you to Mira for answering these questions and wish her all the best for her creative future - wherever it may lead her!

Give me the names of 3 objects or things you dislike most and why

Hard question! Usually I try to think about things I like as I feel that life is too short for filling it up with thoughts about things that I dislike. But one thing came to my mind immediately: moving homes. Uaaaaa..... just the idea of packing boxes with all my belongings really annoys me. Within the last 5 years I've lived in 4 cities/countries - Bratislava, Dublin, Barcelona and London!! And I think one more local move is coming. In a way I am getting used to these big change (there is an old saying in Slovakia: "man can get used even to a gallows-tree" haha), but I'd love to find a permanent home (with a big studio ...where I could do much larger paintings)

Tell me about something you've achieved

Last few years I feel that my biggest achievement was the realisation of the importance of art for my happiness, fulfillment and my life as such. After that quitting a stable job, moving to another country, enrolling art college, working hard in the office just to pay the bills and sweating in the studios to pass the terms was really demanding ...but easy! I think once we know what is really important for us, or perhaps what we live for, we will find some secret energy sources and ways to reach our goals. Well, I'm on my way still... but it's lot of fun!!! Another achievement which energizes me in my work is when I learn that I made somebody laugh with my creations.

What’s your ideal working day.

A day when I can lose the track of time and fully focus on the creation. Once there is no time pressure ideas come to my mind, paintings (or photographs, drawings, digital graphics) start appearing and one is inspired with the other.

Who influences you creatively.

Maybe this is a bit weird to say ...even in the art college we had to "get creatively inspired by 2 - 4 chosen artists" for most of the projects we were working on... but most of all I like to be inspired only by myself. My own thoughts, ideas, jokes, problems, aesthetic feelings, doubts, impressions I get of people, situations and places... I like doing things differently to anybody else. I know this is probably not possible, as they say everything has already been done before. But I still try not to get influenced. I love to look at what other artists and people do, but I make my stuff my way :)

Do you work with the music on/off - what's your routine

When thinking - music off. When playing without thinking or making things which have already been thought through - music on. My routine also is eating a lot before I start working. It's funny: I prepare my paints ...and suddenly feel hungry as a wolf, so I have to go and eat first! (pity that acrylics dry so fast!) It's actually a good survival mechanism, because once I paint I forget to take breaks so at least I haven't died of starvation at my palette yet.

Do you like to shop

Yes!!! And I feel guilty about it somehow... perhaps because I am so often on the move and know how hard it is to get rid of my lovely things, but even harder to pack them all and transport them!

Where would you go in the world for inspiration

To my head and my heart.

What would you like to develop further or learn to do

I would like to develop the ability to work in large scale, learn to loosen up more with the paint, even be more abstract perhaps. And experiment with more materials.

Who do you think I should interview next

my lovely customer Cat who seems to be a true artist at heart, is funny, and makes amazing ceramics

CatCeramics

RitaReverie's Links -

Folksy

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