Welcome to The SANTA BARBARA EDITION of The DEC 2014 / JAN 2015 BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE MAGAZINE. We are very pleased to bring you Interviews with two of America's strongest Literary Giants, from The East Coast, E.L. Doctorow & from The West Coast, SANTA BARBARA'S OWN: T.C. Boyle. Our Guest Artist is the ever controversial LAGUNA Teacher and Painter: F. Scott Hess. INSIDE THE SURF SCENE AT SAN CLEMENTE BEACH. Documentary Film maker Doug Pray explains his career in great detail. James Dean is our BUREAU Icon Essay with a Suite of Classic images from Magnum Photographer Dennis Stock. In The Gallery with Kris Kuksi in Los Angeles, Kota Ezawa in San Francisco, Dylan Stone in New York City, America Martin in San Diego. Interviews with L. A. Abstract Painter Andy Moses, Photo Journalist Guillermo Cervera, VENTURA'S Own Artist: BOMONSTER, Jazz Singer Judy Carmichael, Artist Linda Stark. Chicago: The Print Scene at 25 Years with Hiroshi Ariyama. Bay Area: The Contemporary Jewish Museum with a Fabulous Photo Essay by Arnold Newman. We bring you Inside The San Diego Surfing Scene at San Clemente Beach, CA USA. Plus Magnum Photos: Remembering Rene BURRI. Moises SAMAN and Peter VAN AGTMAEL on Location in The Middle East. Independent Photo Journalist Susan Wright in Sicily, Italy. Dina Litovsky's Fashion Lust from Photo LA 2015 and The Robin Holland N Y C Flashback + Rap Stars Wu Tang Clan Back In Action. All This and more. Most Links, Pages, Logos and website links are live internet connections. TAP THE DOWNLOAD LINKS AND GET 250 PAGES OF GREAT INTERVIEWS . REVIEWS . CONTENT : Tap and Visit now...
SCROLL DOWN TO CHOOSE FROM 4 DIFFERENT COVER DESIGNS FOR THIS EDITION
FEATURES INSIDE THE BUREAU'S 250 PAGE WINTER EDITION INCLUDE:
Dennis Stock / MAGNUM PHOTOS
BUREAU ICON: JAMES DEAN "The ACTOR"
By BUREAU of Arts and Culture Editor Joshua A. Triliegi
James Dean. He was not simply an actor in search of a project, he was a human in search of a world, a son in search of a father, an orphan in search of a mother, a new kid in search of a friend, a worker in search of wealth, a comedian in search of a tragedy, he was an outsider in search of the inside and when he got inside, he did what anybody with integrity and curiosity does, he searched for the exit and found it. But before that and most of all, James Byron Dean was an American in search of America. Maybe that is why we empathize with him so deeply and even then, cinema fans from around the world loved, admired and even worshipped Dean. He was more than an American. He was a symbol of truth in the eye of fakery, anger in the face of complacency, passion in the face of blandness. James Dean was ahead of his times and when the world caught up, he was already gone. He was beautiful, angry, funny, reflective, moody, original, sexy, expressive, quiet: he was small and he was large, figure that one out. He had studied the best and took from the rest, adding his own style of acting. Dean had the bravado of Marlon Brando on his right and the quietude and gentleness of Montgomery Clift on his left and he knew it. He had the urgency of a person fully aware of the ticking timepiece on the wall of life. A voracious appetite for learning everything that was worthy of learning: Acting, Dance, Photography, Music, Racing, Basketball, Philosophy and Filmmaking to name a few. Who knows what he would have done with his power had he stuck around longer than the twenty - four years that he walked the earth ? Because Dean was a method actor and delved deep into his roles, it is safe to say he would have become an outstanding businessman, in the same way that actors such as Mark Wahlberg has become or possibly an award winning producer in the way that Brad Pitt has become or possibly an activist for the rights of others in the same way that Martin Sheen and Sean Penn have done. He was extremely progressive in his own life, but also served the characters he played first and foremost to the utmost degree. His friends were from all walks of life. That may sound easy in these modern times, but in the nineteen fifties, that was rare.
" The list of musicians, actors, writers and performers
that owe a debt to James Dean is so vast that it would be
meaningless to even begin to categorize. "
James Dean was as they say, born cool. But actually, the truth is, he acquired his coolness from a compendium of individuals: poets, writers, actors, beatniks, hipsters, underdogs and over achievers, he was all of the above. Those he worked with found him to be mesmerizing, defiant, romantic and honest. Younger actors such as Dennis Hopper wanted to know his secrets. Older actors such as Rock Hudson found him to be more focused than any actor ever. Sal Mineo stated that Dean, "Never took any nonsense from anyone in a higher position, he would stand up to them no matter what the situation. It is no wonder we love him so, wouldn't we all want to do such a thing ? Demand that our parents be honest with themselves, as he does in Rebel without a Cause ? Exclaim to our wealthy employer that we are going to be, " …Richer than all the rest of you," as he does in Giant or to seek out the family secrets and successfully recover our fathers lost investment as he does in East of Eden ? Dean is confused and he is searching for clarity, he is angry, but he is looking for peace, his is young, yet he yearns for experience, he is hurt, though he blames no one. James Dean personified characters written by John Steinbeck, Edna Thurber and Stewart Stern, top of the line writers each with a streak, a sparkle, a deep understanding of the human condition and a flare for drama and reality. Dean dabbled in television and theater, but discovered that film was the big medium and he found his way to the screen with a steadfast and meteoric rise that was not unlike a freshman climbing to the graduates position by avoiding half the steps to the top and eventually jumping entirely into the abyss when he got there. The list of musicians, actors, writers & performers that owe a debt to James Dean is so vast that it would be meaningless to even begin to categorize. Every single scene in every single film is authentic. To this day, he is undeniable real, undated, fresh, as if the scene was shot yesterday. Dean's performances are so authentic and urgent that even the periods with which the films are set, have no real consequences to the viewer, the fact is, he was the perfect actor for the medium and for that, we are eternally inspired, enthralled and entertained to a degree that is almost impossible to describe. The James Dean legacy is beyond compare. After all is said and done, it is not about Dean's death, but his life, and so on the eve of the sixtieth anniversary of his passing, we celebrate the life of James Dean through the very real, beautiful and heartfelt images created by Magnum Photographer Dennis Stock. These images are soon to be celebrated in the new Anton Corbin Film entitled, LIFE.
[ PLUS AN ENTIRE SUITE OF IMAGES BY MAGNUM PHOTO'S DENNIS STOCK ]
GUEST ARTIST: F. SCOTT HESS: PAINTER
By BUREAU of Arts and Culture Editor Joshua A. Triliegi
F. Scott Hess is an American artist with an education and techniques informed by European Masters. Mr. Hess was born in Baltimore in 1955 and raised in Wisconsin. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, picking up ancient skills that were employed by the likes of Vermeer and Boticelli. Six years later, with a buying audience in Europe, he took a chance on obscurity in America, but soon found an audience at home as well. Mr. Hess's work could be described as narrative - figural with a heavy hand on the psychological symbolic field, though, I beleive, there is something much deeper going on in this man's body of work. There is an obvious shock value that we could affiliate with other great new artists born in and around the same time as Mr. Hess, such as Angus Young of AC/DC or even Johnny Lydon of the first punk rock band, The Sex Pistols. Some people in the audience may find trouble getting past the first few songs and for them, we are very sorry, if you stick around for the entire concert, you are bound to be changed. Utilizing history, poetry, dreams and a very keen discerning eye for light, situation and relationships of a social nature, with a healthy dose of very dark humor: Mr Hess is a social critic, willing to put himself on the front lines of the art world and bare his soul in the process. He is also a teacher and in turn many of his paintings work on so many levels that the casual passer by, the educated and the intellectual, will all see something entirely different while standing in front of the same painting. Mr Hess's references are steeped in art history at all levels, from Hopper to Velasquez, from Lucien Freud to Rembrandt, he is immersed in the core knowledge of previous painters and it informs the narrative, the style and the symbology in a way that a Jazz great like Coltrane or Thelonious Monk might apply a classical riff by Mozart or any number of composers of note, while still retaining an originality and strange interlude that we as the audience applaud.
" Mr Hess's references are steeped in art history at all levels, from Hopper to Velasquez, from Lucien Freud to Rembrandt, he is immersed in the core knowledge of previous painters and it informs the narrative, the style and the symbology in a way that a Jazz great like Coltrane or Thelonious Monk might apply a classical riff by Mozart or any number of composers of note, while still retaining an originality and strange interlude that we as the audience applaud. "
Mr. Hess, who went through a family separation at an early age and is fully aware of it's effect on his emotional make up, shares that anguish, that pain, that angst, rather than hides it. Hess is sort of the David Lynch of figural painters, taking on material, subjects and narratives that create a sense of mystery or allow us to peak into the darker side of America: Blue Velvet on canvas. Hess understands the process and indeed has stated that, although it is not entirely the most comfortable aspect of working, "The process is the most important." He has undergone various transformations and even sites being hired by a film director to teach an actor how to paint like DaVinci as an influential experience, one that brought in more earth tones to his palette. Mr Hess's work of the 1980s has everything in common with the New Wave of music at the time: The anger of Elvis Costello, the color of The B52s, the social commentary of any number of punk bands such as Black Flag or The Circle Jerks. Many of these bands focused on everyday life and what a drag it really is. Suicidal Tendencies had a song called, "Institutionalized" wherein a story is told by a boy who is sitting in his room, he asks his mother for a Pepsi, "All I wanted was a Pepsi …" the next thing he knows, they're threatening to take him to a psycho ward: this is Mr. Hess's world in the 1980s. The art transforms as new information comes in, each personal discovery effects the work visually, from having a dream, to reading a poem, to disagreeing with a critic, to learning about his personal geneology. He is a jester without a king and some might say, he is dangerous, he is blasphemous, he is obsessed with sexuality [ who isn't ? ] but if you look closer, at the craft, at the guts, at the naked truth as someone like Leonard Cohen might say, you will see a poet, you will see a narrator, you will see a social critic, you will see a boy, in his room and all he wanted was a Pepsi. [ Essay continued - ] With a Complete 10 Question Interview and Suite of Controversial Images.
The BUREAU PROFILE: Margie LIVINGSTON
BUREAU: What originally attracted you to modern art and share with our readers an early inspiration?
Margie LIVINGSTON: Two things attracted me to modernism: the grid and a spirit of experimentation. Working with the grid connects me to many artists including Mondrian, Sol LeWitt, Eve Hesse, and Agnes Martin. But I’m also interested in a much earlier version of the grid: Renaissance perspective which, as Rosalind Krauss wrote, “is inscribed on the depicted world as the armature of its organization.” The entwined histories of the grid and painting inspired one of my new works, Falling Grid with Underpainting. To make it, I wove a three-dimensional grid out of string, to literalize the perspective grid in space, and then covered it with paint. Of course, paint doesn't have much tensile strength, so when I cut the grid off the frame, the painting slumped under the force of gravity. This kind of experimentation, where I push paint to do what’s not expected, is at the heart of my practice.
BUREAU: The series of works that are sculpture crafted from paint are extremely interesting, share how this technique was discovered and where you are currently taking it.
Margie LIVINGSTON: Six years ago, I started experimenting with acrylic paint to discover its physical properties in order to exploit them for their own qualities, not pictorial qualities. I glued dried paint directly to the wall, like a decal. One of the glues I tested failed, and the paint skin fell on the floor. Instinctively, I picked it up, brushed it off, and folded it neatly like a blanket. This accidental discovery led to a new body of work where I poured out gallons of paint to make huge paint skins that I then folded and placed on shelves. The “Draped Paintings” hang on a peg like a coat or scarf. When I make them, my relationship to the paint is sensual, body to body, as I must caress the paint skins to shape them. I work with the weight of painting and the paint sags in response to gravity--just like we all do. That paint so readily took on the properties of fabric led me to my newest works. I tack paint skins directly onto stretcher bars and the paint literally stands in for the canvas. Body of Work, a jumble of these paint-as-canvas works held together with wood and metal brackets, will be shown at UNTITLED 2014 this year by Luis De Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles.
BUREAU: Do you subscribe to a specific thought process in your work, or is there a more tactile approach and please explain how theory meets reality in the actual creating of a work ?
Margie LIVINGSTON: My latest piece, Body of Work, provides a good example of my process, where the idea -- paint as canvas -- morphed and changed in response to the process of making. This piece came together using a combination of planning, model making, research, reflection, seat-of-the-pants problem-solving, and luck. Until I finally put it all together, I didn't know if the braces would hold. The stickiness of the paint is integral to its construction, but I didn't test that element at full scale until the final assembly, because putting two paint surfaces together creates a permanent bond. So I didn't know until the very end if I was making a prototype or the final work. This kind of problem-solving keeps things interesting. The white paint references Rauschenberg and Ryman, but a pile of white paintings reaches further back to the father of German Romanticism, Caspar David Friedrich, whose work I studied while in Berlin on a Fulbright Scholarship. The jumble of white paintings reminded me of his painting Sea of Ice (1823-24). As I worked on how to hang a pile of paintings on the wall, I made a small model out of foam core, balsa wood, and hot glue. The miniature paintings looked great on the wall, but I didn't like the way they hung there like a magic trick, denying the technical challenge of getting 18 canvases to hang together as one. This is when I added wooden and metal braces to hold them together, so its structure would be visible. I chose to use the utilitarian language of crating for this part of the piece, because I'm interested in the differences and similarities of making a painting and making a crate. During the three months it took to make Body of Work, I was imagining it hanging on the wall like a painting. The final twist came when I realized it looked great standing on the floor. As a sculpture built out of paintings, it blurs the line between sculpture and painting; it can either stand on the floor or hang on the wall with its ancestors.
Represented In Los Angeles, CA USA at Luis De Jesus Gallery : http://luisdejesus.com
Represented In Seattle, Washington USA at The SOIL Art Gallery : http://soilart.org
The SAN CLEMENTE PHOTOGRAPHIC SURFING ESSAY
While visiting San Clemente, the first thing one notices is that surfing is not a sport, it's a way of life. There are more shapers, boardmakers and individually owned surf shops in a one block radius than just about anywhere in the entire world, besides maybe Hawaii. There are beach breaks along cliff lines, jetty's, straight aways and rocky points that vary in shape, size and style with a consistency and rhytm that make for an all day experience. It's a small community with cool thrift shops, places to rent, variable landscape and a local vibe that is welcoming to tourism, surfers and outsiders. The folks at Greg Noll's Classic Surf Shop, T. Patterson's, Used Surf Shop , Basham's Surf Shapers Supply, Dewey Weber, Terry Senate, Drew Drophy & a host of other shops were surprisingly open and helpful as well as humble. Many are complete classic and original Surf companies that have retained their ownership in a world of Surf companies that have either sold out or gone corporate. San Clemente's Surf Community is owned and operated by real people, living the lifestyle true to form, surfing, shaping and breathing the waves day in and day out. This is a place one might surf all morning, go to work, surf again during your lunch break and then go for the big trifecta after work. The lifestyle is still affordable with a working class vibe, nice restaurants and an easy going atmosphere. What else can we say ? We love the place. Definitely a must visit for just about anyone who has an appreciation for beach living, is looking for a new board customed shaped or simply looking for a quick get away. A Coastal Location just South of Dana Point and North of San Diego.
[ The Winter Edition contains a Suite of Original Coastal Images of this Great Community ]
KRIS KUKSI: SCULPTOR
By BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE MAGAZINE Editor Joshua TRILIEGI
Picture if you will, The Titanic, after submission. The bodies and their souls: passengers, crew and stow ways. What would it feel like ? What might it it look like ? Imagine a world in all it's minute detail that could illustrate such a scene & you will begin to fathom the world of Mr. Kris Kuksi's sculpture. An accomplished painter who happened upon sculpture by hobbling together preexisting objects into new and original arrangements which set the bar a notch or two above any previous ideas of sculpture since, say, French Rococo or Italian Baroque architecture of olden day. Mr Kuksi subverts the ideas of religiousity, empiric nobleness and the wreckage of a post modern society into a sort of anarchy of the mind. One of the very few artists in our known history to tap into an ephemeral world with all it's detail, all it's nightmarish qualities, all it's passion, lust, violence and posture, in a tone and style that is wholly original. Mr Kuksi is steeped in mythology, astrology, greek gods and a modern history that includes Napolean, Beethoven and Oedipus. Comparisons are few, though, I would suggest Dore', Heronymous Bosch and the films of Terry Gilliam. Kuksi manufactures an overall visual schematic that provides a battlefeild of ideas which suggest the afterlife of a major event, such as, The Civil War, The French Revolution or the end of the world.
" One of the very few artists in our known history to tap into an ephemeral world with all it's detail, all it's nightmarish qualities, all it's passion, lust, violence and posture, in a tone and style that is wholly original." - BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine
He creates a fantasy world come true in mono and duo chromatic form, that is entirley haunting, fantastic and when he is really on his game: darkly humorous.The artwork utilizes themes that freely criticize war, religious crusades and ideas of empiric ideology, while at the same time, employing the very devices, symbols and gestures that originally propagandized and sold those ideas to a hungry public. Kuksi is like a fiction writer who has established identifiable characters who will then willfully act out scenarios of a horrendous and beautifully haunting plotline that leaves us aghast, enthralled and sometimes in awe. When Jack Nicholson was asked to describe the filmmaker Stanley Kubrik after working on The Shining, he famously replied, "Brings new meaning to the word: Meticulous." To echo those sentiments and ride Jack's wave a bit, Kuksi, it might be said, brings new meaning to the word: Obsessive. Like Kubrik, he is creating a world that hints at a larger literary and historical idea wherein each character plays a part. So far, Mr Kuksi has spent a large amount of energy and time tackling European history. When he has focused on American history, there are modern takes on issues of politics and religion, though the canon is scant of our own story, such as the Native American experience or African American slavery, which is indeed a landscape worth considering. Mr Kuksi, who was born in 1973 has discovered and mined a mature style and body of work that has captured the attention of both collectors of fine art and the general populist, it will be interesting to see where he takes us next, whether it be Heaven or Hell is simply a matter of opinion.
On The West Coast Mark Moore Gallery 5790 Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA USA 90232
On View in L.A. through Dec 20 2014 +1 (310) 453-3031 MarkMooreGallery.com
On The East Coast Joshua Liner Gallery 540 W 28th Street New York, New York USA 10001
Also Represented New York City +1(212) 244 7415 JoshuaLinerGallery.com
DINA LITOVSKY : Images
BUREAU PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAYS INCLUDE : FASHION LUST . BACHELORETTE . POLO & CHAMPAGNE . WEST INDIES PARADE Dina Litovsky has been published in esteemed magazines & newspapers such as: Time Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Photo District News, Esquire, Newsweek Japan, GQ, Wired, ELLE France and we are proud to have her work at BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine.
Dina Litovsky West Indian Parade Stregoica
Visit The Photographers Official Website at : www.stregoica.com
Also Visit Dina Litovsky Featured at Photo LA 2015 : photola.com
Exhibiting Works at Anastassia Gallery : www.anastasia-photo.com
The BUREAU LITERARY INTERVIEW
with SANTA BARBARA WRITER
T. C. BOYLE: A Piece of FICTION
BUREAU Editor Joshua TRILIEGI for BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine
There are fewer more solitary career paths than that of the painter, the musical composer or the fictional writer. Seldom do we see a collaborative experience in these particular practices and even rarer, a career of such bold variation and experimentation. The journey is singular, the pitfalls are many, the rewards are difficult to list or fathom and suddenly decades pass and the world suddenly knows your work, discusses your choices, often misunderstands your creativity or the entire goal of such a career path and yet, you go on, steadily, marching toward the next project, with bravado, with discipline and with a steadfast curiosity for what will happen on the next page, canvas or sonata. In the case of T.C. Boyle, the rewards have been numerous, a professor emeritus position at The University of Southern California, film adaptions, awards that include the Pen/Faulkner & Henry David Thoreau and an international readership that have included invitational festivals such as, One City One Book wherin an entire city such as Vienna is publicly given 100,000 copies of, in this case, his novel, The Tortilla Curtain, distributed freely citywide. T.C. Boyle's work is broadly fearless in its choices of subject matter, though, at the same time, it is racked with details of the psychological variety that take us directly into the experience of his characters. His stream of conciousness includes the type of minutae that assumes for the reader and emulates in direct communicato a mind at work attempting to deal with those very bold choices he has conjured for our entertainment.
" T.C. Boyle is of the school of artists that understand clearly that ART is entertainment and if indeed we are entertained, scared, troubled, thrilled, embarassed, shamed, turned on, turned off, nervous, and some where in all of that - educated, by what we read, see, hear: than it is good art and it will last forever, or at least, a very long time. "
T.C. Boyle is of the school of artists that understand clearly that ART is entertainment and if indeed we are entertained, scared, troubled, thrilled, embarassed, shamed, turned on, turned off, nervous, and some where in all of that - educated, by what we read, see, hear: than it is good art and it will last forever, or at least, a very long time. Because Mr. Boyle was once a musician, there is a rock and roll apsect to his show, one can easily picture him getting out of the shower singing the lyrics to a Rolling Stones song and making it his own with, " I know, its only Fiction Writing, but I like IT… " There is something very pugnacious about the man that immediately strikes me as likable. He has, what I call, the big fuck you, built into much of his work and definitely in his readings and performances which he professes to enjoy entirely and I believe him. Thats another thing I enjoy about T.C. Boyle, he knows his job is to write, present, tour and then repeat entirely. I must confess, he has written countless novels that I have yet to read and I indeed look forward to doing so, as I suggest for my readers to do the same. Discoverying a novelist is a once in a lifetime experience, reading that writer is an ongoing engagement of a very special variety. Once a reader has gone on a journey and enjoyed it, there is always a chance that there will be a new book or an earlier work to read. Mr. Boyle has a method and practice that goes like this, write a novel, promote it, write short stories, promote them, teach, get an award, make a speech, drive home, read the paper, write a novel, promote it: repeat. One can imagine that there is some sex and food and booze and reflection as well. He is unabashadly honest about the process of writing and his philosophy is entirely in tune with ours at the magazine, which is to lift the veil of creativity. He is a teacher and yet professes that, "No one can teach you how to be an artist." When it comes to rules, he throws them out, "There are no rules, whatsoever. Any textbook, you throw it right out. The way you learn how to do it is reading stories and finding a mentor." On the other hand, he corrected the grammar on all ten questions I sent for this interview, so, apparently, getting your punctuation correct is a given. T.C. Boyle's own influences include Vonnegut, Cheever, Flannery O’Connor, F. Scott Fitzgerald and especially John Updike. He is currently writing a novel.
[ The Article continues with a Ten Question and Answer Exchange / Download The Winter Edition Now ]
RUSSEL NACHMAN : THE PAINTER
BUREAU: The current paintings derive from a core story and literature, explain how that process works for you.
Russell NACHMAN: The basic answer is connective threads. In the case of my current show at Paul Loya Gallery, I was reading Stay, Illusion!: The Hamlet Doctrine,* when I first started thinking about possible themes for the exhibit. The book is an examination of Hamlet, combining literary theory and psychoanalysis. One of its themes conceives the temperament of Hamlet as a kind of impotent louche... which I found resonated with the insouciant temperament of my painting’s characters. As far as ideas based in literature, I have always found more inspiration in novels, poetry, and philosophy than I have in the theories of contemporary art (which I personally find circuitous). * by Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster
" My audience is that person out there, whoever he or she may be, who sees a painting, hears a song, reads a book that totally enriches their life, augments their thought, stirs their emotion, and adds to the quality of their life. That is what all the art I love has done for me and I want to return the favor."
- Russell Nachman
BUREAU: Your aesthetic is both post modern, punk rock and 17th century, that’s an interesting mix, how did this develop ?
Russell NACHMAN:I wanted to continue the art historical trope of the harlequin to best express my ideas and emotions via an “every-man.” My harlequin developed into a stooge wearing Black Metal corpse paint. The Black Metal death mask is meant to be seen in the same way that Japanese Kabuki face paint is meant to be seen—as an embodiment of a theme or emotion, not as an individual. Using these characters I want to explore the thoughts I have concerning what I see as a loss of relevance in the Other of religion and metaphysics. Now I’m not referring to a general mind-set, I am referring more to the current state of aesthetics, philosophy, science... basically the current state of serious thought. Historically, the underpinnings of expression most often had relationships to religion or to a metaphysics concerned with “something larger than ourselves.” Presently an ambivalent stance exists that dares neither to go forward nor to retreat. A stance curtailed by an understanding that it is almost certain that there is nothing to us but matter and energy (a “dead weight” of simple mass). The current theories of consciousness and free will rest on the basis of complexity rather than exteriority. To put it simply, you are an individual with free will because the mechanism of consciousness is so intricate and “un-mappable” that, as such, manifests identity. We are much more complex than toasters, and therefore, conscious, individual beings. I have reluctantly come to see this as a more probable truth than any metaphysical truth, however much I find a need for something more or outside to my being. As a result, I arrived at the idea of post-religious documents that are figured like Christian illuminated manuscripts, that depict a naive “f*ck it” bacchanal of existential aporia.
Represented By Paul Loya Gallery in L A at http://paulloyagallery.com/
Represented By LMAK Projects in N Y C at http://lmakprojects.com/
BUREAU MUSIC : WU WISDOM
By Jamar Mar(s) Tucker
The mid 80’s to mid 90’s is The Golden Era of Hip Hop, known for birthing, nurturing, and granting a stage for what everyday society viewed as bastardized children with bullhorns. Introducing aggressive instrumentals, containing soul shaking bass, eclectic samples and melodies. All drifting in the ambiance of properly pitched high hats and snares. The perfect ecosystem for the misunderstood minds to reside and convey the messages to spread amongst all that would and wouldn’t listen. The Wu Tang Clan was and is the epitome of all these things and more.1993 in the slum’s of Staten Island, better known in the language of the Wu as Shaolin. Nine young men would form and brandish the swords to carve their definitions of life, truth, prosperity and love into the world. To understand the wide array of creativity amongst these brothers in lyrical arms, one would have to first gain the knowledge and understanding of the culture that is Wu Tang. As expressed by the Corner Stone Leader, Teacher and Peacemaker of the movement: The RZA, from the 2008 film, Wu The Story of The Wu Tang Clan, "The Wu is the way, While the Tang is the slang of it, the sword style." Even further, the name W-U-T-A-N-G can be broken down in three different ways.
Wise Universal Truth Allah Now God
We Usually Take All Ni**a's Garments
Witty Unpredictable Talent And Natural Game
Key ingredients to the groups unique approach in creating the proper image to represents them as a unified, powerful, masterful Family, was the high interest they all carried for Kung Fu movies. The RZA, also known in the crews early years as “Prince Rakeem,” shared in an interview with Snoop Dogg on his GGN Network, some of the grassroots to studying and taking on the characters and lessons understood through the movies watched. He, along with his cousin, the late and wonderfully lyrical Rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard would cut school and spend most of their days watching these Kung Fu films in a local theatre. As life progressed and they started to grow, they carried this interest along with them. All the group members adopted a similar fascination, which made for a perfect, organic blend that is the nine man group. The members consist of the RZA, the GZA, Raekwon, Method Man, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Ghostface killa, Inspectah Deck and U-God. At the beginning of their extensive and World Wide music legacy stands one of the greatest Hip Hop classics of all time. “Enter The Wu Tang 36 chambers,” officially released on November 9, 1993 under Loud records. The album title was inspired by the Martial arts film “The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” (1978). The group regarded themselves as the lyrical masters of the 36 chambers. The album boasts classic hit songs such as “Protect Ya Neck”, “Method Man”, and the unequivocal, generation transcending “C.R.E.A.M” (Cash Rules Everything Around Me). [ ARTICLE continues - IN THE WINTER EDITION ... ]
RENE BURRI : MAGNUM PHOTO JOURNALIST
Rene Burri /Magnum PICASSO FRANCE
A BUREAU TRIBUTE TO RENE BURRI 1933 - 2014
Rene Burri might be called, a photographer's photographer. For Decades he got in the room with Politicains, sought out Artists, Writers and everyday people in search of the image that might describe our times. He went on the frontlines of several wars & came back with defining pictures that today, inform us in subtle ways, about our own history. The Rene Burri catalog at Magnum Photos is daunting, diverse and in many ways it is a complete and thorough as well as diverse group of pictures of a true life fully realized.
[ The Winter Edition contains an Entire Suite of Images by Rene BURRI Magnum Photographer ]
MARK RYDEN : THE PIANO MAN
Mark Ryden, Painter, Surrealist, Symbolist, Humorist: All this and more. Hyper saturated dessert palleted paintings with strange and hilarious combinations of ideas, including subjects & characters that include Abe Lincoln, Delicatessen Meats and in this case Jesus Christ and three peroxide like blondes sitting in for The Three Graces atop Jesus' piano while gazing deeply into a far off horizon line, just to stage right of the audience, which includes you, the viewer. Ryden's body of work is the first, in over a decade, to utilize humor with a master technique and a coquettish style that employs a post animation aestetich and carries it proudly into the realm of fine art. Here Ryden utilizes the Big Eye characteristic of the work of Keane from the 1960s and makes it his own. Half the time, or most of the time, in Ryden's world, we have no idea why Jesus is playing piano for these three young ladies, nor is there a hint of what composition he might be performing, rather we simply are given the facts in a rather blunt and observantly luscious style that, if anything, is reminiscent of the famous Halloween and Christmas claymation cartoon films of the 1960s that played year after year on American television sets. Mark Ryden took the West Coast Art World by storm well over a decade ago and, to my eye, has retained his notoriety and value for collectors and the average viewer. This work, entitled Piano Man was originally exhibited at The Michael Kohn Gallery in LA C A U.S.A.
Tap this Link to Visit Mark Ryden Art at Michael KOHN Galleries Site at : KOHNGALLERY.COM
BOMONSTER: ART DIRECTOR
BUREAU: We discovered your photographs and later realized you are also an artist, what inspires you to reproduce an image or an idea?
BOMONSTER: I have a career as a freelance art director. I think creative people have a way of looking at the world and think “I could frame that a certain way and it tells a really interesting story.” I have artist and photographer friends who are much better than me at what they do and I always wonder what makes them tick. I watch them find beauty in unlikely places and that has made me more receptive to looking beyond the appearance of things. Recently I was riding in the car with a director friend of mine through a rough part of L.A. All I was seeing was the ugliness of it all. My friend is always noticing what I would call “cool shots.” He pointed to an old man in a chair on the porch of his old home perfectly framed in the late sun by the silhouetted porch front architecture. It looked like an iconic Ed Hopper moment.
" I look at my own responsibility as an artist like I’ve just been handed the loudest microphone in the world and the world is listening to what I’m going to say next. I could use my freedom of speech and say lot of awful and immature things with that microphone, but in the end who benefits? "
Suddenly I saw what that old man saw. He wasn’t fixated on the grittiness and apparent despair that I was focused on, he was enjoying a moment in the sun probably thinking about his beautiful family like any other person who has lived a life. I think images that artists choose to present to the world have that kind of power to influence our view of the world around us. I look at my own responsibility as an artist like I’ve just been handed the loudest microphone in the world and the world is listening to what I’m going to say next. I could use my freedom of speech and say lot of awful and immature things with that microphone, but in the end who benefits? It’s not my role to piss people off and point out the bad all around us. It sometimes seems that the majority holding the microphone are doing that already through comedy, music, film, writing, painting, radio, TV, website forums and on and on so it makes me want to go the other way and seek the positive in a cool way. Being dark, nasty, rude and badass is easy. Being the encourager in art goes against the grain.
VISIT The Official BOMONSTER Website at: http://bomonster.com
[ INTERVIEW CONTINUES IN THE WINTER EDITION DOWNLOAD IT NOW ...]
AMERICA MARTIN IMAGE SHOWCASE at REDDOT 2014
ANDY MOSES The BUREAU ART INTERVIEW
By BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Editor Joshua A. TRILIEGI
Joshua TRILIEGI: Being a second-generation artist is both a gift and a challenge, I remember hearing people compare you to your father [Ed Moses] back in the day. Discuss what you have dealt with and how this has affected your own style.
Andy MOSES: Growing up with an artist Father has always made people make very strong assumptions about whom I am and where my work must be coming from. The truth is, both my brother and myself were consistently told that we could do whatever we wanted except be painters. We didn't grow up around the process at all as my Fathers studio was about five miles from our house and we were not encouraged to visit. Therefore I was never around the process of work being made growing up. I was however around finished work both in our house and at the occasional openings that we would go to. I was always intrigued by the work and always looked at it closely to try to figure out how it was done. We had a Sam Francis painting in our house for a while and I remember my Father always telling everybody that nobody knows how he does them. That intrigued me a lot - the fact that painting could be this mysterious and magical or even alchemical process. I went to Cal Arts in 1979 to study film. Once I realized how many chefs and how many elves had to be involved in film I realized I was a solo act. I had surfed a lot as a teenager and probably my favorite thing about it is that you could do it alone. You could paddle out by yourself and speak to no one and convene with the ocean. I had issues with authority as a teenager for sure and surfing was my escape. I was actually accepted into the art department at Cal Arts to make film. My teachers were John Baldessari, Douglas Huebler, Michael Asher and for one semester Barbara Kruger. Cal Arts was a very rigorous conceptual program that was extremely stimulating to me.
" I was never around the process of [art] work being made growing up. I was however around finished work both in our house and at the occasional openings that we would go to. I was always intrigued by the work and always looked at it closely to try to figure out how it was done. We had a Sam Francis painting in our house for a while and I remember my Father always telling everybody that nobody knows how he does them. That intrigued me a lot - the fact that painting could be this mysterious and magical or even alchemical process. " - Andy Moses / Abstract Painter
I continued to work in film but added performance and installation to my repertoire. I did one pretty controversial performance/installation called Father Knows best. I did some paintings that were essentially like props for various installations. It was during this period that I experimented for the first time with painting flat and flowing the paint on to create an effect that I was looking for. This type of painting was like a drug for me. Once I tried it I knew I was hooked for life. Shortly after that, there was an artist visiting from New York who asked me to work for him in New York. I had only been at Cal Arts a couple of years and really loved it, but I knew I had the painting bug and I knew that it was going to take some time to develop these paintings. During that time I wasn't interested in having them critiqued as I was teaching myself how to do them and I figured, I would know when they were ready to put out in the world, to be looked at, and then critiqued,. So I moved to New York at age nineteen. When I got there the job I had been offered was gone, but that artist hooked me up with another painter Pat Steir and I worked for her. It was during the fall of 1981 that I did my first painting that I felt was successful. It was black and white and looked like a galactic explosion. I began exhibiting this work in New York in 1985 and had my first solo show in 1987 at Annina Nosei which was a very prestigious gallery for a 25 year old to have a first solo show. I lived in New York until 2000 when I moved back to Los Angeles. Some people had heard of me through my work in New York. Others who saw my work in the early 2000's just assumed that I had started painting a few years earlier and that this was the first work that I had ever exhibited. I didn't really have to deal with comparisons to my Father's work in New York but when I moved back to L.A. there were certainly some. I know that those comparisons would have been much more intense if I had never left L.A. I feel that it has been a double-edged sword for sure. I have definitely benefitted at times and have been afflicted at others, for being a second-generation artist, but I am certainly not complaining. Everybody who has ever lived has some kind of cross to bear. I will be having a thirty-year retrospective at the Pete and Susan Barret Gallery at Santa Monica College in 2016. For the first time my New York and L A works will all be exhibited together. I feel like this show will put a lot of ghosts to rest, as people in L A will be able to see how the worked developed and evolved over the last thirty years.
[ INTERVIEW Continues with 10 questions and a Suite of Images in Winter Edition]
The ISRAEL & PALESTINE PHOTO ESSAY
With IMAGES By PETER VAN AGTMAEL
PETER VAN AGTMAEL / MAGNUM PHOTO ISRAEL & PALESTINE PHOTO ESSAY BUREAU WINTER EDITION
Text By J. A. Triliegi
The BUREAU of Arts and Culture Magazine and MAGNUM Photos is proud to present This Image Essay by Photojournalist Peter Van Agtmael working in The Middle East. Peter Van Agtmael visited both Palestine and Israel in August of 2014 and documented the struggles between these two groups of very strong minded people living at odds. How has WAR become a way of life ? What steps must be taken to equal differences ? Is this about Religion ? Is this about Property ? Is this about Revenge ? Or is this a War manipulated by the powers that be ? How long will we bury our loved ones over this ? How can some pray to a God one minute and throw a bomb or shoot a bullet another ? History and perspective all have vantage points which can be both liberating & damning. We need leaders that can create a peaceful resolution, not just in government, but in every community and in every family.
"Will We Ever See Peace in The Middle East ?"
How can we do that while we are burying our loved ones ? How will healing, forgiveness and tolerance ever grow, if we do not respect eachothers belief system ? Each generation passes the responsibility onto to the next and year after year, decade after decade, the fighting goes on, people die, the conflict continues. How can we put things into perspective ? On the one hand, Israel, as a property was a gift to the Jewish people, from the Palestinians. On the other hand, millions of Jewish people experienced a Holocaust that much of the world turned a blind eye to. From which vantage point of history do we choose to view this conflict from, the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s or from yesterday ? Some would say these differences go as far back as Kemet or even further back than that. How much does prophecy play a part in this war ? Will we ever see peace in the Middle East ? When will the people of both countries find a way to stop the bombing, stop the killing, create a dialog that might introduce an understanding ? Could it be that nobody is correct here ? Could it be that everyone is wrong ? Could it be that there is no winner ? Could it be that admitting, forgiving and letting go are the only true answer ? Only the two groups know the answers, meanwhile, these are certainly the questions.
GUILLERMO CERVERA PHOTOGRAPHER
[ For Translations into Any Language Utilize The translation button at the Top Left Column ]
Guillermo Cervera Rebel Fighters Libyan War 2011 Courtesy of Anastasia Gallery
BUREAU: When did you first become attracted to Photography ?
Guillermo Cervera: Todo empezo cuando era pequeno, mi padre que era militar de la marina entonces, y habia estado estudiando electronica en los estados unidos, escondia en casa una coleccion de Playboys Americanos de los 60s & 70s a todo color!!! Yo y mi hermanos los encontramos y los mirabamos ansiosamente cuando mis padres salian, un dia nos descubrieron, entonces y de un dia para otro desaparecieros y fueron sustituidos por national geografics, yo estaba fascinado con aquellas fotos. Ahi supe que eso era lo que queria hacer.
BUREAU: Can you remember the first few images that you saw as a child that impressed you ?
Guillermo Cervera: La primera y mas significativa fue una foto de aquellas antiguas de surf, no se de quien ni donde la hizo, pero salia un surfista dentro de un tubo de una ola, yo queria estar ahi dentro.
BUREAU: Why did you gravitate towards Photo Journalism and what do you like most about it ?
Guillermo Cervera: De joven cuando empece a aprender fotografia por mi cuenta y en contra de la voluntad de mi padre, un amigo me llamo por la manana despues de haber salido casi toda la noche de un sabado, y me dijo, vamonos a Bosnia, era febrero del 93, en plena guerra, y no se como ni porque pero nos buscamos la manera de ir y fuimos, alli despues de ver eso que era horrible, una guerra en europa que podia estar ocurriendo en mi propia casa Me fascine con el periodismo.
[ The Entire Interview Includes a Suite of Images/ Download The WINTER EDITION Now ... ]
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