Posted on Jan 17, 2008
January Artists
 | Jessica Snow
New Media Artist |
Art school?:
Nope.
Where do you live?:
Burbank, CA
Where do you say you are from?:
Manhattan Beach, CA
Describe your style:
Vividly Feminine
How do you work?:
Like a priestess and mad scientist. The priestess part is that I treat inspiration like a sacred communique that I continually court and worship. Of course, applying this wildly unfettered imagination to technology requires I employ something eerily similar to the Scientific Method:
1. Spark of an idea (Make Observations)
2. Imagine it to the fullest (Make a Hypothesis)
3. Pre-production work (Design an Experiment)
4. Production/Video Shoot (Conduct an Experiment)
5. Edit/Revision Cycle (Gather Data from Observations)
6. Review/Double-check (Analyze Data)
7. Finishing/Compression (Reach a Conclusion)
8. Put it out there (Publish the Results)
what/who inspires your art?:
I get inspiration from so many places, it is f-ing everywhere. Out of respect for your time and mine, I will restrict my answer to include only what has been inspiring me in the very recent past:
Whiskey River, Theresa Duncan/Wit of the Staircase, Pierre et Gilles by Pierre et Gilles, The White Goddess by Robert Graves, Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins, Dita Von Teese, Pippi Longstocking, M.I.A., Regina Spektor, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Bjork, Hummingbirds, Hawks, Dolphins, Alan Watts, Cinderella, Carlos Castaneda, Dave Eggers, Daniel Pinchbeck, Andrea Zittel, EV Day, Gwen Stefani, Pronoia by Rob Brezsny, The Moon, Airplanes, Cindy Sherman, Inga Muscio, His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman, Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, Dream House by Alison Habens, Sunlight, Fine Perfume, Guy Bourdin, Flora & Fauna, Rose Quartz, Pomegranates, Tori Amos, Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, Encyclopedia Mythica, Hundred Dollar Bills, Katie West, Sylvie Fluery, Naomi Wolf, Wild Horses, Gold Rings, Polar Bears and Outer Space.
Rant/vent/chat:
Random Pep Talk -
You are as liberated as you want to be. Do not let the desires of others shape your desires for yourself. Do what you like. Entertain no ambivalence about your mysterious powers. They belong to you to use them as you choose. Have fun cultivating your imagination and creating an environment where you bloom like a miraculous self-fulfilling prophecy. Make your art an act of love. If you can't manage to do all this, invent an alter ego to do it for you.
 | Shalon Goss
Photographer |
URL: http://www.myspace.com/shalongossphotography
Art school?:
I never did attend and official school for art/photography, I shot a lot and learned by trial and error. I paid attention to light and situations in life, in movies, in other artist's work. My brother, Bryten Goss, a master painter taught me a lot about light, my equipment, and art in general. He also set a hell of an example as an artist, and he and my mother have always been my biggest pushers to keep shooting and keep learning. If I was going through something in life my brother would always tell me to put it into my work. He never critiqued my work but instead in a subtle, very special way would acknowledge just the right things at the right moment, or would ask just the right question about a piece I shot. It was from this that I found an important part of my style; I saw clearly my way to get a communication across through a photo every time. My mother, Rose Goss, who is a writer, painter and photographer and has a great eye also would always point out beautiful shots in life and films and helped me to really understand composition and the importance of communication in a shot, not just a pretty picture.
Where do you live?:
Los Angeles
Where do you say you are from?:
Los Angeles
Describe your style:
I like to leave such things up to the viewer. I can only give a technical answer which is, in regards my fine art photography, I shoot with 35mm film, using a Nikon F4, I shoot mostly black and white, people as my subjects, and I use real environments, mostly my own and other people's homes. I also shoot editorial, and with that I do it all, color, B&W, film, digital, etc.
How do you work?:
I am always coming up with ideas and I keep track of them all and I don't talk about them too much. I shoot a lot, but when it comes time to put on an exhibition I come up with a theme, sometimes I get the theme from an idea that I've already had. Again, I don't talk about the theme too much and just start shooting. I choose a model and location that fits the idea, or I get an idea from thinking of a model/location. I shoot shoot shoot, I pick the best of the lot and then spend some time with the photographs, then away, then with, and do this until the "one" pops out at me, unless of course it popped right away. I try to shoot exactly what I want while I'm shooting so that little or no retouching is needed. If retouching is needed, it's done in the darkroom.
what/who inspires your art?:
Life is inspiration for my art, all the bad and the good inspires my urge and my final product. There are of course people and other works of art who inspire ME, but that inspiration that I feel, more than the person or piece of art itself, is what I use. Some of those who have inspired me are, first and foremost, my brother and his work, and my mother and her work. Also Annie Liebowitz, Helmut Newton, Weegee, James Nachtwey, Alex Prager, Mercedes Helnwein, Arthur Conway, Caravaggio, Ayn Rand, Hemingway, Charles Bukowski, Lolo Dahl, history, Renoir, Degas, Jon Singer Sargent, good films are very inspiring for me, and really any piece of work that makes me feel something inspires me, and same for any life experience or lack thereof.
Rant/vent/chat:
I think I already did. Thank you.
 | Sabrina Mueller
Illustrator, Painter, Printer |
Art school?:
University of Duisburg-Essen (Folkwang)
Where do you live?:
Munich, Germany. (good beer!)
Where do you say you are from?:
I was born and raised in the "Ruhrgebiet", which used to be an area of industrial concentration in Germany. Nice, dirty and honest. I like it there...
Describe your style:
I like to mix different techniques, when they sum up in a poetic way.
How do you work?:
With daylight and coffee. And I need all my things around me, the sewing machine, the paint, to mix everything. I do
stone-printing a lot, it´s a wonderful printing technique and has really no boundaries in combining all kinds of styles.
what/who inspires your art?:
Poetry. Music. Stories. Words. I collect them. Stuff that surrounds me and effects me.
Rant/vent/chat:
love what I do...
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