Posts Tagged ‘Juxtapoz’
Masquerading Marionettes: Interview with Scott Radke
If magical marionettes with soulful eyes and anthropomorphic tendencies wandered through a dark forest in search of an unspoken mystery, they would have certainly wandered out of Scott Radke‘s rear window. Radke is a painter and sculptor whose marionettes bear cherub faces of concern and curiousity with spindly limbs and stocking caps. Some wear organic outfits of twigs and earthen tones while others are disguised in animals skins of swan suites or octopus hoods. Radke animates his transfixed creations with explicitly human expressions and naturalistic spirits. It is not surprising that his marionettes have been featured in films including Voices In My Head, a BBC documentary directed by David Malone; Desolation Sound, starring Jennifer Beals; God in the Machine, starring Thomas Jay Ryan; and Birthday Massacre’s music video, Blue. Radke’s work has been published in Bizarre, Juxtapoz and Hi-Fructose.
1) Can you remember the first sculpture or drawing that you made as a kid growing up?
Hmm. The first thing that comes to mind is a drawing I did of birds flying. I remember drawing them with four wings which is what they looked like to me when they were flying and it was the only way I thought it would look right when I tired to draw them. I did not really sculpt until I was in my 20′s and that started with sand sculpting.
2) What inspires your art?
Faces, happiness(believe it or not), love, and nature quite a bit.
3) What was your first gallery show and how did it happen?
I started out showing in bars and small galleries here in Cleveland. I lived in a great little part of town called Tremont. It changed my life. Everyone was so supportive and friendly and open to my work. Outside of Cleveland, my first show was in 2003 at CBGB’s 313 Gallery. I was in New York and I just went in and showed Micheline my work and she set up a show for me.
4) How did you support and promote your art early on?
Here, in town, I would show wherever and whenever I could. It was not until my roommate Vic Sabula, set up a website for me in 1997 that things took off from there. I’d say 99% of whatever happens for my work happens because of my web presence.
5) You illustrate and sculpt. What made you to decide to pursue sculpting more?
I don’t consider myself a great sculptor or painter but when I combine the two, I feel right at home.
6) If you could go back in time, what advice would you give yourself ten years ago from now?
Stop fooling around, don’t take things too seriously, focus and for Gods sake, eat something.
7) What are some upcoming or current projects that you’re working on?
I am just moving along doing what I have been. I just finished a set of dancer type things and I am not sure what I will do next. I have some work in the Beyond Eden Art Fair in LA thanks to Thinkpsace Gallery.
The Nature of Things to Come-Artist Dan May
Only artist Dan May can make something so amorphous absolutely adorable. He creates creatures that look like an embryonic hybrid of Sendak’s Wild Things and places them in illuminated worlds of fuzzy color. Dan May’s solo exhibition The Nature of Things to Come is currently being held at the Copro Gallery in Santa Monica, California.
The Girl in the Castle: Interview with Illustrator Nicoletta Ceccoli
Italian illustrator, Nicoletta Ceccoli, creates dreamy dimensions inhabited by delicate creatures caught in a fantastical fresco. Her work is sublimely surreal and evokes a feeling of looking at an ethereal microcosm. In addition to her prolific painting collection, Ms. Ceccoli has illustrated several children’s books and has also been commissioned for commercial work. Whether illustrating an ad which befittingly highlights the sleeping comforts of an aircraft or collaborating on The Joy of Spooking for children, Ceccoli’s work beautifully retains her signature palette of cotton candied hues and porcelain characters.
Nicoletta Ceccoli is a three-time winner of the Award of Excellence from Communication Arts and was awarded the silver medal from the New York based Society of Illustrators in 2006.
1) Do you remember one of your first paintings or drawings as a young child?
A portrait of my favourite doll. I called her ‘Birillina’. I still have that doll on my shelf in my studio between my favourite objects and toys.
adoration for the Mexican artist Remedios Varo, too… and for the comics of early 1900 like Little Nemo by Winsor McCay-so imaginative and full of whimsical surreal inventions. Paul Klee once described an artist as being like a tree, drawing the minerals of experience from its roots – things observed, read, told and felt – and slowly processing them into new leaves.The principle of ‘originality’ is more about a kind of transformation of existing ideas than the invention of entirely new ones for me. Words like ‘inspiration’ can easily convey a false impression that ideas or feelings appear spontaneously and of their own accord. My own experience is that inspiration has more to do with careful research and looking for a challenge; and that creativity is about playing with what I find, testing one proposition against another and seeing how things combine and react.
