Interview with Maria Rozalia Finna

q)Please introduce yourself.

a)My name is Maria Rozalia Finna

and I make art.

q) Where do you live and work?

a)I live and work in Melbourne which

is the arts capital of Australia.

q) How would you describe your work

to someone who has never seen it?

a)That is hard to answer...everyone

sees things in their own way.

The feedback i usually get is 'cute,weird,

trippy'...you tell me?

q) How did you start in the arts? How/when

did you realize you were an artist?

a)I used to draw a lot as a child, I prefered

drawing and colouring in to playing with toys.

I had craft books and fairytales that had

a big influence on me.

I'd spend lots of time constructing odd crafty

objects, sewing, drawing fairytale characters

like Snow White and Alice in Wonderland,

and inventing characters of my own.

This was my own private world that I really

enjoyed, its another dimension of invention

when you create, even if you are just a child.

I went on to various 'Art Institutions' when

I completed my secondary education...And then

had some wonderland adventures of my own..

q) What are your favorite art materials and why?

a)That depends on my mood. Digital art can be

really fun,it take less time to create and

also have some wonderful effects.

Oil painting is my prefered medium thought,

it does take longer to bring into the world

and a good studio space is essential but it feels

natural to me.

Sometimes i draw, but it's usually just to

take an idea to the next level.

q) What/who influences you most?

a)Really..that would take too long to answer,

there is a whole universe to consider after all..

At the moment i am interested in fertility,

botany, science and microcosms.

I've been thinking of buying a microscope

and a telescope too, but I'm afraid that i would

spend all of my days and nights

peering through the lenses mesmerised by the

wonders of the world. I have a habit of getting

lost in light, colour and movement.

q) Describe a typical day of art making for you.

a)When i worked on my last series of oils called

'Trinity' I'd wake up at midday and spend a few

hours getting sunshine and just being a part of the

world. I think if you are painting from morning

to night and are confined to your studio all day

you will drive yourself mad.I normally started

painting late afternoon and worked into the night.

I am like a night owl, night is when i light up like

the moon and feel most inspired and productive...when

the streets are quiet and people are sleeping.

There is something magical about the night, even

when you hear the word 'magic' you can't help

but think of the stars

q) Do you have goals, specific things you want to

achieve with your art or in your career as an artist?

a)Really just to do what i want to, when i want

to and how i want to...which may sound vague

but i think freedom is important.I believe

humans are multi-faceted and multi-dimensional

which i believe is the nature of psychedelia.

To be able to express whatever i so desire,

all the sides that have as yet gone unseen in the

3rd Dimension is a lifetimes worth or work.

q) What contemporary artists or developments

in art interest you?

a)Gregory Jacobsen is interesting to me at the

moment because he expresses feeling so well,

and makes me feel so clean.

I think there is more room for sound art/installations

in the art world, atleast here in Melbourne.

At my exhibition i asked my friend Robert

Bravington AKA Oracio to create a sonic interactive

installation which he did and it was great. It

was called L.E.R.S.A (Lights, Electronic, Resonance,

Sound, Analysis). It conveyed in an audio and

visual sense that everything is made of an inherant

frequency or vibration. It was really cool.

q) How long does it typically take you to

finish a piece?

a)That all depends on how long i want to spend

on it, i mean you could go on for years if you didn't

have a deadline, which i would love to do.

The last paintings i did had a three month

deadline, i didn't have any option but to complete

the three paintings within three months, which

i did part time.

I worked on all of them at once. The paint was

barely dry when they were hung on the wall.

q) Do you enjoy selling your pieces, or are

you emotionally attached to them?

a)I used to be attached but I'm not anymore.

I'm happy to move on. I think to let new things

into your life you have to let go of things.

q) Is music important to you? If so, what are

some things you're listening to now?

a)Yes it is! It keeps you sane while you paint

and are floating free in your own mind for

hours and days and months.

My favourite kind of music is probably ambient

and experimental electronica.

When I paint I find Aphex Twins ambient works

and Boards Of Canada to be the best music

to work to.

I do like big heavy round beats as well, and I need

a good dose of hip hop. Beats in general are

quite primal and grounding,

I think that they connect you to the earth...

whether you know it or not.

q) Books?

a)My favourite book is 'The Neverending Story'

by Micheal Ende who was the son of one of Germany's

first surrealist painters. The last book I read was

The Deathly Hallows by J.K.Rowling, I'm a

Harry Potter fan.

Most recently I have been borrowing books from

the library on science and botany. I think nature

is the most interesting and inspirational

thing to read about.

q) What theories or beliefs do you have

regarding creativity or the creative process?

a)For me it is to just enjoy the trip. Everything

I create (and I imagine all artists can relate to this)

I live and feel at the same time. It maifests itself

around me and/or comes from out of me.

Either you become the art, or it becomes you...

or maybe both. Its like some type of alchemy.

q) What do you do (or what do you enjoy doing)

when you're not creating?

a)Well…my favourite place to be at my friends

house who is a musician and has something like

50 analogue synthasizers. It's like being in

Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.

There are certain sound frequencies that

really stimulate and excite me. That studio

is a beautiful place.

I also enjoy connecting to nature and the rest

of humanity as well as animals.

I am a huge cat lover, one of my favourite things

to do is to meet new cats, or just stop to say 'Hi'

to the neighbourhood felines and molest them

a little with my crazy love.

I feel I understand them and they me.

q) Do you have any projects or shows coming

up that you are particularly excited about?

a)I am working on a colouring book at the moment

which I am really enjoying actually. Its called

'Microcosmas' and its full of characters that are

very micro(and macro)biologically

fertile. It's about creation really. They are mini

universes giving birth like Goddesses do. I will be

very excited to see them coloured in by other

people.

I plan to create an installation based on this

theme as my next project and then move on

to my next series of oils.

q) Do you follow contemporary art scenes? If so,

how? What websites, magazines, galleries do

you prefer?

a)I do pop my head in to the Juxtapoz online

magazine here and there to see whats going on

in the 'Lowbrow' scene. Most of the blogs and

galleries I visit online are based in L.A.

I think L.A has some wonderful galleries. It's

probably my favourite art zone.

q) Ask yourself a question you'd like to answer,

and answer it.

a)

Q. What is your favourite word and why?

A. 'Special' because it can be used in so many

ways and it's most common use is beautiful.

q) Any advice for aspiring artists?

a)Tell the universe your creative intentions

so that she can get the world ready for you,

she supports the arts.

q) Where can we see more of your work online?

a)There are links on my website

www.mariarozaliafinna.com

to my blog, flickr, myspace art and myspace

music page.

Interview with Marvin tiberious Crushler

q)Please introduce yourself.

a)My name is Marvin tiberious

Crushler 

q)Where do you live and work? 

a)I live in rock city Milano, I work

in rock city Milano and in

different countries of Europe

q)How would you describe

your work to someone who has

never seen it? 

a)My work is based on a the Powerfull

tenderness that is used institutionally by

Rennasaince people and naturally by

street people.  I try to mix and study

the two approaches to life and line.  

q)How did you start in the arts?

How/when did you realize

you were an artist?

a)My mother was a Contemporary dancer

and my dad was a hitchiker, I grew up

in an artists squat so I suppose art was

just like a favorite coat always in my

backpack.

q)What are your favorite art

materials and why?

a)I like every thing out there, I recently

went drawing on the street with a sugar beet,

it really stays on cement but only lasts

like 3 drawings and then becomes like

a fleshy mush.  

q)What/who influences you most?

a)I really like my friends I paint with

or sing with or hop trains with, these

little poems that people give away are

better than any Van Gogh or internet

q)Describe a typical day of art

making for you.

a)Holy shit dude, eat one banana together

with five people on the top of a Naples

ghetto while painting a huge figure, mixing

everyones styles and the neighborhood

Postman who keeps his goats in the abandoned

school we climbed to the top of comes round

with a rifle but ends up giving us a bunch

of bread and goat cheese

q)Do you have goals, specific things

you want to achieve

with your art or in your career

as an artist?

a)I never think about this, my mother

really gets on my ass about this and some

important people have told me to have goals

and specific plans but then you walk out

into the streets and it's like a freestyle poem

much bigger than you or the way you walk so

lets just hold on to the term career and try

and focus on serious things like line or

color, yeah I'm fucked.

q)What contemporary artists

or developments in art

interest you? 

a)I like to be exposed to many details,

I think many contemporary movements and

ideas have values that are only expressed in

application but are never questioned to that

point so you just have to appreciate a detail,

most of the developments that have touched me

profoundly have come from poor honest people

being themselves and thus questioning everything.

q)How long does it typically take

you to finish a piece?

a)My process is very random because I have

made paintings that are 80 meters x 12 meters

in the middle of a three day rave party and I

lost like 5 hours plotting to kill the dj but have

also made little cutsy hand sewn baskets to

hang in the street with my grandma which took

like an hour to make but like 4 hours to install

because the security guys were all on my

ass so I really cant say, variable!

q)Do you enjoy selling your pieces,

or are you emotionally

 attached to them? 

a)Yeah I like to sell things because I am a

volcano, I live in a house of creations that is

waiting to explode, sometimes I think if I make

one more drawing the entire building will sink,

I am attached to some things but then I think that

I am more attached to the smell of the metrò in

Paris after they clean it, if I had a bottle of Paris

metrò smell on a hot August night I would'nt

even sell it to the best gallery goon on earth.

q)Is music important to you?

If so, what are some things

you're listening to now?

a)I play the saxaphone, my grandmother

was so poor that she would give us a song for

christmas instead of presents, she'd teach

you every note and word at the kitchen table

on christmas morning, music is the soul of man

and his only explaintion for many things

philosophy dances around.  I listen to everything

except everything, there is alot of NON music going

round,sometimes in Italy I think music does'nt exist,

not on the radio or in the street and bars anyway,

I really like the "red worms farms" from 

Italy and Ronin 

q)Books?

a)I read a bunch of stuff in two languages because

I find books on the street in Italy, I got a few spots

behind book store where I know on Wednesday

there are free books, this wednesday I found a crazy

book by a french accademic from the 17th century

who explains how the popes were the first rulers to

use a new kind of mental force and not physical force

and how this lead to Rennaisance painting, I was reading

this shit on the Milan subway and pissing my pants

because I did'nt have a ticket and was thinking how

to explain to the controller guys that a subtle chain

of historical dogmas had sucked up my ticket money

but they never asked.

q)What theories or beliefs do you have regarding

creativity or the creative process? 

a)I like to think that it's all good but seriously there

has to be discipline and willingness to listen, these

are the most difficult things to nurture 

q)What do you do (or what do you enjoy doing)

when

you're not creating?  

a)My girlfriend says I talk in my sleep about new

projects so it's fair to say that I dont really rest so

much but I like to get some shitty beer and dance

my ass off or talk to tram drivers about the Milan zoo,

that's what this guy the other day said about San

Lorenzo square, "a fuckin zoo" he kept saying,

"there's every type of animal." It's just a square full

of drunks but after he said it was the "Milan zoo" I liked

to imagine how every type of animal would hang out

looking for weed and sex.  I guess I like that normal

ordinary poetry goin round.

q)Do you have any projects or shows coming

up that you are

particularly excited about?  

a)I am gonna do some shows in old laundrymats

during mi-art, I got some official shows in May in

San Francisco and in June in Naples and Milan, I am

hoping to be on the streets for awhile, I'm doing some

projects about immigration and local identity in Milan,

even though I'm a bastard foreigner I pay rent so

kiss my meneghin ass.

q)Do you follow contemporary art scenes?

If so, how? What

websites, magazines, galleries do you prefer?  

a)I like to look at magazines at a big bookstore in Milan,

or shows in big galleries, I have'nt found one big thing

that totally gets me interested, I like the little things,

the details are nice, I think alot of people that get big

are worried about their perfect ass and aint shakin it,

we only live up to 70 or 80 years so I dont understand

all this defending of territory or substance, I think like

90 percent of scenes are defence walls so it seems like

a waste of energy to get to that 10 percent of discussion,

I know alot of people who love to defend, I think this is

a contemporary measure of beauty but far from timeless,

so yeah I like textbooks, free books and talking to bums.

q)Ask yourself a question you'd like to answer, and

answer it. 

a)Hey Marvin, what is Urban Identity and how

fictional is it's crisis?  I think if you hang around

cities enough you learn that colors and economic

backgrounds are a common denominator that

arrive to a certain point and then the Polis is just

an innaccurate collective of interests like getting a

beer or feeling the closness of skin, the warmth of

something real.  Using  terms like Urban to describe

aethstetics or a form of poetry is just a packaging

much easier to live without, if we want to really explore

the nature of cities we should be prepared to spend

enough time together inside of them to realize that

most of street life is fiction, its like Puccini out here

still,we're chasing that dream, that diva or lucky star,

America or BROOKLYN!, Urban Identity is not a rap

star thing or a marketing status. It is who is doing

the dishes or running your local venues, Urban identity

is you particpating and being aware of how

you are participating.

q)Any advice for aspiring artists? 

a)It is REALLY important to encourage others

and the small things that they give away, one of

the most amazing things about art or this type of

sensibility is that it is all, so believe in all, make

your distinctions not to be above something but

to be in it, BE IN IT! be in your city, be in a conversation,

be involved to the point of singing, crying or painting

yourself away to a common voice that REDUCES

INSECURITY for all.  I do'nt know if I have ever achieved

such a thing but it is enough to try, this is my only way

of defining art, enough to try, enough to try and open

all the ways of being here, not to be right or wrong but

to have a lot of fun with alot of people, alot of

interpretations of the same line or thought that I thought

was mine but is really, all.  So yeah, get funky with the all,

don't close yourself in gallery or punk or profit or prophet,

do it all, no lifestyle is infinite! 

q)Where can we see more of your work online? 

aI been doing lots of video art here:

www.myspace.com/marvin_crushler

also

www.flickr.com/marvin_crushler

or

www.ryan-spring.com

Interview with RIVER KUO

q) Please introduce yourself.

a)Hello! My name is RIVER KUO.
I am from Taipei TAIWAN.

q) Where do you live and work?

a)I am now living and working in Taipei TAIWAN.

q) How would you describe your work
to someone who has never seen it?

a)My creation is originated from real life experience.
I tried to turn them into virtual imaginative elements
in my works and construct a personal Utopia.
The colorful images are overlaid in intersected spaces
to create an illusion both with pressure and sweetness.
It is all about my observation and attitude toward life.
All the fragments in life are transmitted to
a unique sense of humor and of ridiculousness.

q) How did you start in the arts?
How/when did you realize you were an artist?

a)I am not the so-called “good student”
when I was a little boy.
I always love to draw and scrawl on
the book when I was studying at class.
I remember one day, my mother asking me
“if you don’t love to study so how about
doing something else, like painting,
because you always love to scrawl everywhere!!!”

q) What are your favorite art materials and why?

a)Any kind of pencil / pen / acrylic / watercolor
/ canvas / paper…..these are my favorite and
commonly available materials I use.
I enjoy using very simple materials directly
to exhibit my artwork. Just want to straight
show the quality of material but not fancy
complicated makings.

q) What/who influences you most?

a)Family, my first art teacher,
and the daily life experience!

q) Describe a typical day of art
making for you.

a)For me, there are many different
ways to see, to think and to feel all kind
of things in my everyday life, even a very
small thing.
And there are also many different kinds
of ideas and experiences to share or
understand the life experience.
So for me, everyday seems become
very interesting and important, all because of art!

q) Do you have goals, specific things
you want to achieve with your art or
in your career as an artist?

a)Actually I thought about this question
lots of times, but I never figure it out even now.
It seems a very major and serious problem
for me since there are still lots of things
I want to see and try, so for the moment
I would not to think about having goals so early.
But now I would say I’ll do my best
at this moment to share my works and try
to do different things first in my career as
an artist and a designer.

q) What contemporary artists or developments
in art interest you?

a)I think nowadays environment is very different
and complicated, especially in art and design,
which I really care about. I enjoy the situation
of the developments, when
contemporary artists combine lots of different kind of systems,
for example ”design”…Today many great artists are
also very great designers!…… Because of that,
it seems that art becomes more and
more interesting and multiple, even more tolerant.
To me, it is easier and easier to understand
and to close to contemporary artists!

q) How long does it typically take you to
finish a piece?

a)It always depends on my personal mood,
sometimes it takes me just a week to finish a piece,
but sometimes it spends me more than half a year
to finish it.

q) Do you enjoy selling your pieces, or
are you emotionally attached to them?

a)I have an agent company to manage
all of my artworks. Truly some works
I will keep them myself but not for sale!

q) Is music important to you? If so,
what are some things you're listening to now?

a)Yes, music is very important to me,
especially when I am doing my work.
I love to listen to different kind of music
because they give me different mood
to create and influence straight on what
I am doing at the moment. I am now listening
to “homesleephome (cover songs)” and “MARZ (wir sind hier)”

q) Books?

a)Not really, at least for right now!
But I enjoy reading books from the Germany writer
“Patrick Suskind”.

q) What theories or beliefs do you have
regarding creativity or the creative process?

a)I didn’t have any specific theories or beliefs
on the creative process. But I really enjoy
observing the change of the nature because
it offers me lots of creative elements and
makes me to experience the change of the creations.

q) What do you do (or what do you enjoy doing)
when you're not creating?

a)Sometimes I enjoy travelling in different places.
Sometimes I love to spend all the time just hanging
out with friends. Sometimes I do noting to be lost in reverie.

q) Do you have any projects or shows coming up
that you are particularly excited about?

a)My new book and art toy will be published
and distributed recently. And I had joined
a very interesting international group
exhibition “CowParade Taipei 2009” and then,
I will prepare the solo exhibition in 2009.

q) Do you follow contemporary art scenes?
If so, how? What websites, magazines, galleries
do you prefer?

a)I didn’t follow contemporary art scenes
because I only did what I really want and love to do!
But I do enjoy reading different kinds of
magazines or websites, and searching for
the different kinds of exhibition because
the most important thing is, it makes me
know the world is full of novelty.
There’s no distance between us just like now
I am sitting at my studio in TAIWAN having
an interview with Claudio Parentela from ITALY.
It is really amazing!!!
I would like to recommend several websites about art and design:

1-David Hockney
http://www.hockneypictures.com/

2-Maison Martin Margiela
http://www.maisonmartinmargiela.com/en/index2.html

3-hint magazine
http://www.hintmag.com/

q) Ask yourself a question you'd like to answer,
and answer it.

a)Am I afraid to change? Yes, I am!

q) Any advice for aspiring artists?

a)Only doing what you really love and want to do.
Experience all the details of life, even a very
small stuff! Turn them into your own unique thoughts.
Do not follow the trend and create your own style
to build up your personal art language .

q) Where can we see more of your work online?

a)This is my personal website / www.riverkuo.com

Here is my personal blog / http://blog.roodo.com/riverkuo/

This is an online gallery (U.S.A.) http://wheattoast.org/