Author: Mathias

Spot On | Emma Abad

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For some reason, I’ve never featured someone on here who’s (predominantly) working with collages. Well, every streak has to come to an end some day. May I introduce? This is Emma Abad. She’s a mixed media artist and Jersey native, who grabbed my attention by, well, just being awesome on my instagram feed. Her work merges photography, illustration and watercolours in beautiful image manipulations that seek to explore the relationships of identity and narratives encompassing our lives. “I’m forever influenced by narrative art. Creative stories without explanations or consequences that build self-discovery and awareness is an ever-growing process for me. There is a desire to always find an answer to a problem.” Indeed, there’s something incredibly mysterious, soothing and adventurous about her dreamy collages that resonates in between the layers and makes me want to play detective, uncover and suss out the hidden story fragments. Check it out, it’s pretty rad!               Check out more of her artworks & get in touch via social media. Emma Abad @Twitter @Instagram @Facebook

From the Visible to the Tangible : Unseen Art

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Imagine you wouldn’t be able to read what I’m writing right now. Unable to see what I’m seeing before me. Head to a museum or art gallery and not being able to marvel at this famous painting, this striking photograph, this stunning sculpture and sense the same excitement for the artist’s spark of ingenuity. The need to rely on other people’s description, perception and appreciation for an artwork rather than connecting the dots yourself. For some of us this might be hard to grasp, but for others this is just daily routine. Marc Dillon tries to change that, at least temporarily. His project Unseen Art strives to give blind and visually impaired people a chance to enjoy, experience and interact with art in a different way. Similar to Didu, an exciting new relief printing technique by Spanish designers Estudios Durero that adds palpable layers to paintings and photographs, the Finnish software programmer turns the visible into the tangible and recreates old and new masterpieces in 3D. He is currently raising funds to kickstart Unseen Art as a global …

The Show Must Go On

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Like so many, I was extremely moved by the emotional interview with the Eagles of Death Metal that surfaced yesterday. So here’s the short comment I wrote for TMRW over here.   While we’re all still shocked about what happened in Paris two weeks ago and with some emotional wounds only healing slowly, we don’t fail to be amazed by stories of human kindness and positivity in times of pain and tragedy once more. Think of the generous people opening their doors to strangers in need, cities showing solidarity by cladding their famous monuments with the French tricolore or the blindfolded Parisian Muslim man asking for people’s trust with a heartfelt embrace. Yeah, in times like these, it’s no wonder that we’re desperately looking for the good in others and assuring ourselves why it’s worth it to fight for a free society. Another one of these paradigms to not shy away from the terror and stand our ground is the heartbreaking VICE interview with the Eagles of Death Metal, the band that played the Bataclan club until …

Spot On | The Pixel Trade

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A warm bed, a hearty dish and a flight ticket to Marrakech for a stack of beautiful food photography. Sounds almost too good to be true? Well, that’s pretty much how it works if your name is Shantanu Starick. Dreaming of traveling to the world’s 7 continents, dissatisfied and constantly questioning how the creative industries worked, the Australian photographer dared to brush aside old principles and fight his constant struggle between work exposure, financial income and creative fulfilment. So by June 2012 he set up Pixel Trade and started offering his professional work in exchange for life’s simplest necessities – a place to stay, something to eat & the means to get to the next place without spending a single dime. And it seems to have been quite a smooth ride: From photographing weddings in California, artisan knife makers in Ireland, adventurers in the Ecuadorian jungle right up to ice cream makers in South Australia, Shantanu has been up to the task, experienced much and paid nil. Now in his 41st month and 222 trades later, he has now …

A Thousand Dawns – Cycling the Earth by Bike

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Here’s a short adventure feature I did for TMRW the other day & because it’s such a fab project, I had to just share it over here, too. Enjoy the ride and help make it happen! I don’t know about you, but there’s something that never gets old about Kickstarter projects. It’s the heart and soul it takes to bring an exciting idea to life with the help of others. And there’s countless causes I’d love to throw my money at just because they’re so darn clever. Rob Lutter’s ‘A Thousand Dawns’ is one of those inspiring endeavours I’d love to see bearing fruit. “In London, before this all began, I had lost my way. But, a journey that began as escape grew into a meaningful, emotional project based around creativity and charity. My dream ever since has been to share the story and the photography with others around the world: those in search of adventure or change or those who just love to dream and wonder, explore and ride free.” After a tremendous adventure …

The Good Deed of Listening

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Sometimes it’s worth taking the time to listen. Especially to those voices that are rarely noticed. Stories that want to be heard and harbour a surprise or two. And there’s so many of them roaming around our streets. A few days ago I found one of them. Motionless, almost dreamy he stares into the distance. The other side of the road. Shivering from the cold, he draws the blanket tight. I see him almost every single day on my way past the local shop. As a was on my way to grab a few essentials for a hearty dinner, I walked past like so many times before. The usual bad feeling hit instantly. Not today, I thought and turned on my heel.‘What can I get you, buddy?’ He gave me a sad smile, but a shine in his eyes. ‘Oh that’s lovely. How about a caramel latte with a splash of sugar?’ Slightly puzzled, I only gave him a nod. ‘Well, he knows what he wants’, I thought. Once I was back with my groceries, …

On The Bookshelf: The Boy Who Made Faces

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Probably every kid I grew up with has encountered, loved and dreaded the pretty dark and subtly evil stories by Wilhelm Busch. Does Struwwelpeter or Max and Moritz ring a bell? Well then you might see the connection here. At least for me, Marco Bevilacqua‘s little booklet The Boy Who Made Faces brilliantly catapults me back into this chapter of my childhood. Under his alias of Want Some Studio, the Edinburgh-based designer and illustrator creates artworks that fuse traditional hand crafted and digital processes, taking influences from street and pop art. The 70 page volume The Boy Who Made Faces contains 13 shrewd illustrated poems filled with heaps of black humour and reflections on the multi-media culture and shifting society we live in. Just take The Boy Who Ate Himself, The Mean Bean or Freddy and his Finger: Wilhelm Busch would’ve been proud for sure. Have a look at these fab teasers below: Check out more of Marco’s illustrations & get in touch on social media! Want Some Studio Twitter Instagram

On The Bookshelf: The Eighty-Eight Volume 2

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It’s been a while since I last introduced an exciting new magazine to the blogosphere, so here’s the newest addition to my mag stand. The Eighty-Eight  proudly refers to itself as the ‘adventurous magazine for the occasional thinker’, featuring essays, stories and pictures, girdled by engaging, playful designs and illustrations. Created by curator and jazz musician Jamie Cullum, editor Anna-Marie Crowhurst and art director Kate Monument, Volume #2 is jam-packed with great and unusual stories, quirky illustrations and cheeky commentaries you won’t easily find elsewhere. What about finding the true origin of Come on Eileen, taking a dip into the dark and dirty history of flamenco or rummaging a whole mini zine dedicated to Donuts? Exactly. And because I can’t feature all of the goodies, here are my 3 fav picks from the issue! Isobel Diamond & John Hooper: Kerala by Rail Some time ago, photographer John Hooper and writer Isobel Diamond set off to travel the vastness of the Indian land & chose the most common means of transport: On one of the 11.000 trains traversing the 71.000 miles of track. This amazing …

Short Film Gem: Mind The Gap

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There’s these days when I dearly miss London & all the things I left behind. One of them is taking the Tube every day of the week. The noise, the strange anonymity, the familiar faces, the colourfulness and yeah, even the musty smell, unbearable heat and brutal density. Loss is also a fitting term for Luke Flanagan‘s lovely short film that was shown at London Short Film Festival earlier this year & captures Tube melancholy from a moving and saddening angle. ‘Mind the Gap’ tells the story of Oswald Lawrence, stage actor and announcer of the iconic three words and his widow who would visit the tube years after his death to listen to his voice. Heartbreaking & beautiful. Superb work!

© Matiinu Ramadhan

Creative Findings #2: Of nature myths, wanderlust, empowerment & creators

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So there we are. Time for another bunch of creative gemstones I loved reading about and marvel at over the last few days. Maybe you’ll love em, too? Mighty mountain ridges have fascinated photographer Charles Emerson since his early childhood & I suppose he happily embraced the offer to travel the world and create such an impressive photo essay for Intelligent Life Magazine. The online release of ‘Myth and Mountains’ has now been launched by the good folk at Bristol’s Antlers Gallery and features breath-taking shots that literally look like impressionist paintings. Fab work! We all probably know him by the name of Walter Jr. And after his breakthrough role in cult series Breaking Bad, RJ Mitte’s career as an actor and producer has taken off big time. In the latest issue of Schön Mag, he talks about how he uses his media fame to turn his own disability into a voice of empowerment for others. Read it here via ReadBug. Oh, and no spoilers, promised! For someone like me who has worked with magazines before & tries …