Artist Survey #19: Chelsea Wilde

Better late than never I always say! This artist survey features the responses of my dear friend and collaborator, Chelsea Wilde. I met her and her husband, Joel, when he requested a pin for the Alley Art show. From then on the three of us became fast friends, collaborators and conspirators. Take a look at the images and words below then take a look at Chelsea’s site and studio in downtown. There has been a lot of collaboration going on between us, or at least us talking about collaboration, so expect to see a lot more of her work in future posts.

{Medusa : Photograph}

{Picasso : Hand Beaded Cuff}

{Honey Bee : Photograph}

{Finch : Pen, Sharpie, Colored Pencil}


Name: Chelsea Wilde

Location: Twain Harte, CA

Medium(s): Film, digital, & Polaroid photographs. Pen & Ink. Needle & Thread. Piano keys & vocal chords.

What do you consider yourself (artist/designer/other)? An old soul. A make-believer. A fort builder. A Photographer. A musician.

Where can we see your work (place/publications/url)? Various blogs & a few online shops,  www.etsy.com/shop/liftedindustries , on Courtney Love’s neck,  www.newresolutionphoto.com, and my studio in downtown Sonora, CA.

When did you start gaining interest in artistic forms of expression? I most likely made cave paintings in the womb.

Who/What inspired your interest? Being an only child in a mixed-up family of artists and musicians.

Where do you first remember being exposed to art? Home, for sure.

What is your day job? Photographer.

Why do you create? To keep my brain from exploding. The ideas have to go somewhere.

Is there any recurring theme in your work? Whimsy, conflict, and wicked fashion sense.

What do you want from your work? Satisfaction & growth.

What do you want viewers to take from your work? Inspiration & unanswered questions.

How often do you work on personal projects? I make all my work personal.  If I can’t, I don’t do it.

How often do you work on commissions or commercial work? Not as often as I’d like.

Does your art support you financially? It’s getting there.

Do you feel preoccupied with your art, do you think about it often during the day and night and do you anticipate your next session? I don’t think of much else.

What do you do in your spare time besides your art? Cook, kayak, discover delicious pairings of beer & tobacco, build forts, explore forests, and hang out with a bunch of animals.

Which musicians are you currently interested in? Peter Wolf Crier, BRMC, Mumford & Sons,  David Bazan, Maps & Atlases, Meursault, Born Ruffians, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Pelican, etc. etc. etc.

Are there any events you are looking forward to attending? Local art shows & musical fantastic-ness!

How long do you generally take on a piece? Planning & creating for a conceptual shoot typically takes me a few weeks, at most.  If I create the wardrobe, it can take a week to several months.

Have you jeopardized or risked the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of your art? Nothing important, that’s for sure.

Do you work on multiple projects at once? Guilty. I prioritize, though. Secondary projects take up my free/break time from primary ones.

Do you have trouble parting with your finished work? Polaroids and OOAK pieces, yes. Everything else makes my heart dance a bit.

Returning Show 2

{ Poster designed by me }

The second installment of the Returning Show kicks of this weekend at the Stage 3 Theatre in downtown Sonora. The show features artworks by several young artists who were raised in Tuolumne County. The reception will take place from 5-7pm this Saturday the 19th. There will be snacks and booze as well as art you won’t see anywhere else in the county. This isn’t the usual water color of flowers, photograph of the Red Church or oil painting of an old barn. This is art with a bit more of an edge. A happy cyclops, a dia de los muertos party, and Jesus with a .45 are just some of the subjects you will see here. So come on by and get yo art on before you drink the weekend into oblivion.

Artist Survey #14: Lindsey Lutts

I met Lindsey during preparations for the Returning Show. The punk rock attitude captured in many of her photos contrasted nicely with the clean photography of other artists (check out her web page for more examples). She grew up here in Sonora and has since moved to the Bay Area. Despite the distance she is always willing to make the drive up to the foothills to help with our struggling youth art scene. Look for her work at the next foothill art event.

lovedeath

necklace

(Ocean Necklace by Lindsey – Silver hand made chain mail all soldered
with turquoise and hydrologic press silver charms etched in acid.)

boat

Name: Lindsey

Location: San Francisco

Medium(s): Photographer, Metal Artist/ Jewelry, Ceramics, Knitting, Graphic Designer

What do you consider yourself (artist/designer/other)? Starving Artist maybe because I am still trying to figure out how to do it for a living. It’s hard to consider myself an artist when everyone thinks they are an artist. Anyone with a finger can push a button on a camera. It takes a lot to stand out in the world today and to not blend in with the masses.

Where can we see your work (place/publications/url)? Photolindsey.com but it is very out of date. Myspace.com/photolindsey has weekly updates of musician/band photos.

When did you start gaining interest in artistic forms of expression? Ever since I can remember.

Who/What inspired your interest? Almost anything can inspire me, a color or combination of colors, a smell that reminds me of a time, a feeling, the way light falls upon something, and pretty much every kind of art.

Where do you first remember being exposed to art? My family has always encouraged me be artistic from the time I could hold a paint brush. We made ceramics, paintings, and various crafts all the time. When I was 12 I took an underwater photo with one of those plastic disposable cameras that came out pretty cool. I think it still might be my favorite photo I have taken. Right away it stood out so my Grandma took it to get enlarged at a photo shop. Someone there saw it and bought a large copy for his law office wall. When my Grandma called me from the print shop and asked me if she could sell it and than brought me a check, I realized that this was what I was going to do for the rest of my life.

What is your day job? Accountant (yeah boring I know). I have worked in many types of photography jobs in the past but sold out for the higher paying job. I am not sure if I would recommend it but I have learned a ton that will help me when I decide to start my own business.

Why do you create? It is the only thing I do that makes me completely one hundred percent happy. It is my escape from the world but it is also my interpretation of the world and how it affects me.

Is there any recurring theme in your work? I go through different phases and if I figure out what they are at the time I am shooting them instead of after, I go with it and try to stick with it. It is usually just one word like decay, serenity, or sound…

What do you want from your work? I don’t think I want it to give me anything but I will give to it. Does that make sense at all? Haha

What do you want viewers to take from your work? To see me. Also if my work provokes a feeling inside someone no matter what the feeling is, it is successful.

How often do you work on personal projects? Always. I consider it all personal.

How often do you work on commissions or commercial work? I work for a small magazine photographing bands and submit to many other magazines monthly. Some of my photos will be in AMP Magazine’s next issue. I recently set up a studio in my house so I am starting to shoot a lot more band portraits, families, kids, and pin ups.

Does your art support you financially? No, that is my ultimate goal though.

Do you feel preoccupied with your art, do you think about it often during the day and night and do you anticipate your next session? Yes, like right now I am at work and really need to be at home working on some Riverboat Gamblers photos for a magazine. If I wait too long, other photos will be used.

What do you do in your spare time besides your art? It is really hard for me to go anywhere without a camera. I am trying to think of an instance when I do not have one with me. I think I am always working and looking for things that inspire me. It could be something as simple as a color or texture or something amazing that is just about to happen around the corner and I am ready for it. If I did not have my camera I would miss it. I have this strange kind of fear that I am going to miss something and in turn am constantly shooting. I do other things in my spare time but they always end up becoming about the photos that I can get while doing it.

Which musicians are you currently interested in? Gaslight Anthem, American Steel, Get Dead, Dead to Me, Samiam, The Clash, Drag the River, Devil Makes 3, Johnny Cash…

Are there any events you are looking forward to attending? Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas next week. Hundreds of bands and record labels form bowling teams and come from all over for a crazy week in Vegas. There are tournaments and shows going on the whole time. The teams all make their own uniforms and come to bowl and drink 24 hours a day. This is one of my favorite things to photograph every year.

Have you jeopardized or risked the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of your art? I don’t think so but I know a lot of people who have. I have only lost parts of myself and my time by not doing more art.

Do you work on multiple projects at once? Always. Imagine trying to take just one photo, or trying to choose just one after a shoot.

Do you have trouble parting with your finished work? Sometimes. I make handmade jewelry and that is much harder to part with than a photograph. A photograph can be duplicated in its raw form but Jewelry can not. I once spent over 200 hours on one piece and don’t see myself selling it anytime soon.

Found God

This is a photo I took inside a dilapidated structure in Chinese Camp, CA.

found-god

{Found God : Chinese Camp, CA : 2006}

Artist Survey # 10: Ben Deutsch

I have known Ben for the majority of my life. We attended the same elementary and high schools and his brother and I were good friends growing up. He is a multi-talented kid who had tried his hand at many different art forms including music, screen printing and now photography.

mt-doom

oak-and-vineyard

lake-adelaide

Name: Ben Deutsch

Location: Sonora, CA

Medium(s): photography

What do you consider yourself (artist/designer/other)? artist

Where can we see your work (place/publications/url)? Hopefully, if I play my cards right in a local gallery.

When did you start gaining interest in artistic forms of expression? Oh, about four or five years ago when I started venturing out more and more.

Who/What inspired your interest? My surroundings. sometimes you see things that just have to be photographed.

Where do you first remember being exposed to art? As a young child. color crayons, finger paints… you know

What is your day job? Right now… trying to find a day job.

Why do you create? I have no idea.

Is there any recurring theme in your work? Not intentionally.

What do you want from your work? Satisfaction.

What do you want viewers to take from your work? I want them to see what I saw, and feel what I felt when I took the shot. The idea behind it is to show people something that they haven’t seen before, or a new perspective of a common object.

How often do you work on personal projects? Most of the time.

How often do you work on commissions or commercial work? I haven’t yet.

Does your art support you financially? Not at all. Quite the opposite actually.

Do you feel preoccupied with your art, do you think about it often during the day and night and do you anticipate your next session? Yes. Taking the shot, developing the film, printing the picture, and mounting it can take a couple weeks. It’s hard not to think about it when you’re not working on it.

What do you do in your spare time besides your art? I’ve been known to spend hours sitting around playing music. I also have this inherent fascination with fishing.

Which musicians are you currently interested in? At the Drive-In, Chuck Ragan, Austin Lucas, Minus the Bear. Ask me again tomorrow.

Are there any events you are looking forward to attending? Dentist appointment?

How long do you generally take on a piece? On average from start to finish… 3 weeks. Although I have film that I shot almost a year ago that I am just now making prints of.

Have you jeopardized or risked the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of your art? No

Do you work on multiple projects at once? All the time.

Do you have trouble parting with your finished work? No, because it usually goes somewhere where it is appreciated.

ProArts


(Dignidad Rebelde activist printmakers/mixed media artists)

The ProArts Gallery of the East Bay Area is putting out a call for entry for artists in the Greater Bay Area. I believe “Greater” being a loose term for most places in Northern California. If you go to their Call for Entry page you can get the info and applications for their latest annual events. Check out the ProArts site and and see what they are all about. They might be something you are interested in participating in. Here are some or the artists that caught my eye while browsing their members:


(Anthony Holdsworth painter)

Here is what they are saying about one of their events:

Show your art to the largest and most diverse art audience in the region. The Directory of East Bay Arts and East Bay OPEN STUDIOS is a straightforward way for artists at any stage in their career to get their work seen by art patrons, curators, other artists, business leaders, community leaders, and art enthusiasts. After nearly 30 years, the annual East Bay Open Studios (EBOS) continues to bring visitors from all over the Bay Area to local artists’ studios for the opportunity to see the best art made in the East Bay today, likewise, the publication, Directory of East Bay Art extends the reach of the event and provides a year-long reference, a Who’s Who guide for artists.


(Christina Koci Hernandez Photographer)