Alicia Rice

Name:  Alicia Rice
Website: See below

What do you do?
I am an artist!  But I mainly use documentary as my form of expression, as it combines two of my favorite things: working for change and film.  I really like to take pictures of the non-moving variety, too.

Where can we find your work?
http://www.indiegogo.com/khonkaenurbanlife

http://www.youtube.com/user/mayfliesmayfly

http://theadventuresofpbobbie.tumblr.com/

http://theadventuresofpbobbie.tumblr.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mayfliesmayfly/sets/72157604812251267/ 

What inspires you to create and how do you keep motivated when things get tough?
I am inspired to create because I have the ability to tell someone’s story when they might not be able to tell it themselves. As far as when things get tough, I was thinking about this just last night.  I have been working on my current project for about a year, and have been here in Thailand for the last 4 months.  Though I’ve been blessed with support from many people, I’ve had to work alone for much of this time.  Add in working in a different culture and health issues, and it’s gotten very tough. But, last night, I went and visited one of the slum community members who has been helping me.  He was someone faced with the threat of having his home away from him, and through that, has grown into an activist and community organizer.  He is generous with both his time and money.  And he has so much excitement when he starts to talk about people’s movements in Thailand.  When times get tough, I look at people like him.  This is a man who has faced more hardship that I’ve ever had and has not just survived, but flourished.  Yes, things can be difficult for me and my work.  But, I don’t do this work for me.  I do this work for people like him.

What do you think is more important content/finished product or technique/process?  
I want my work to help promote learning and create understanding.  Because of that, the end product is pretty important.  Without it, there wouldn’t be any way to reach others about stories and issues that people might not know much about. However, personally, the process is so amazingly important.  Being an introvert, going out and making connections is not something that I am drawn to do.  Making documentaries forces me out of my comfort zone, which is the best place to be.  It’s the place where the most growth can happen.  Without documentary, my ability to challenge myself is lessened.  

Who are some people who influence and/or inspire you?
The seemingly mundane, photographs that can make me cry, people who love me despite my faults, those who can overcome, Michael Whalen and Dorothy Fadiman, great documentaries and the people and stories I film! This might be a really cheesy thing to say, but doesn’t everything influence and inspire us?

If you could be any fictional character who would you be?
Buddy Glass!

When do you get your best ideas?
I get my best ideas when I’m with the people I’m filming.  I always get a rush of inspiration after I go out into the field and am able to see and hear what’s going on.  Sitting around and talking just doesn’t motivate me (though it doesn’t stop me from doing it).

What materials/tools do you use most to create your work?
For me, what I use isn’t very important.  Powerful stories can be captured from any kind of device.  While it’s nice to have shots that are beautiful, it means far more to me to have something that can grab at you and make you feel something.  I’m personally not using film as a way to make pretty pictures (though it is a plus), but using it as a tool to help others experience things they might not get to otherwise.

Are you self taught or formally educated? How do you think that has influenced or affected your work?
My university had a very small video production emphasis, of which I took every class I could.  We got to watch films and talk about them, learn about the basics, and create our own films.  I’m very grateful for having that opportunity. At the same time, everyone’s self-taught if you think about it.  You can learn about techniques in a book or a classroom, but in the end you’re the one who’s shaping your learning.  I think that’s especially true with art.  Every time you create, you’re teaching yourself.

What would your creative work taste like?
I think that it would taste like mashed potatoes and boiled chicken feet.  On the one side of the plate, you’ve got a comfort food that makes you feel nice.  On the other side, you’ve got something new and different that makes you uncomfortable, but isn’t too bad once you try it.

When you are not creating what do you like to do?
 For the past year, nearly all of my thoughts have been on this project here in Thailand.  I don’t think I really stop thinking about it, even when I’m not actively creating it.  So, get back to me in a few months.

 How did you learn to access your creative talents and gain the confidence to put it out there for everyone to experience?
It took me a really long time to call myself an artist.  I resisted in for a long time, feeling like I had to somehow earn the title .In high school, I would watch the KQED local art program Spark! often.  They highlighted dancers, writers, painters, photographers, and everyone in between.  The diversity of the work these people did was truly inspiring.  It dawned on me that art isn’t any one specific thing, something my teenage mind had yet to grasp.  And, well, I’ve been an artist ever since!

What advice would you give others just beginning their creative adventures? 
Failure is your friend, even though it might feel like they’re stabbing you in the back all of the time.

Zoya Scholis

Name:  Zoya Scholis
Website: zoyart.com & artforpersonalgrowth.com

What do you do?
I paint mostly. I also like to dabble in ceramics and assemblage, even some writing. I lead workshops.

Where can we find your work?
I participate in solo and group shows in California and enter national and international shows four to five times a year.  A group I started, abstract7 will be showing at the El Marie Dyke gallery in Pacific Grove in January of next year (2013), and probably at Presentation Center in Los Gatos in the spring or summer. We hope to get a gig at the Toll House in Los Gatos for their Art walks this summer. 
I'll be doing Open Studios at Fort Mason (San Francisco) this year. I've also given interested parties private tours of my studio from time to time. Otherwise, I usually have one large piece displayed at Kaleid gallery, 88 4th St, downtown San Jose. I had a window spot but that may change. Then of course there is my website: zoyart.com. 

What inspires you to create and how do you keep motivated when things get tough?
hmmm motivation. Seeing other art I like is inspiring. I make a point of going to see art in galleries and museums. Lately I really like the Oakland art Murmur. Looking in books, magazines or websites can get me excited too.

What do you think is more important content/finished product or technique/process?
Content and process are inseparable and equally important. One without the other might not even be art. 

Who are some people who influence and/or inspire you?
All the great painters from Velasquez to Cassatt to DiebenKorn, Joan Mitchell, Klee I could go on and on. Lately I'm interested in Jessica Dickinson, Maya Kabat and Howard Ikemoto.

If you could be any fictional character who would you be?
Fictional character? I don't read much fiction anymore except the short stories int he New Yorker. I don't think I can answer that question.

When do you get your best ideas?
My best ideas come as I'm painting. I can start with an idea but it always changes in the process. I welcome that.

What materials/tools do you use most to create your work?
I love oil paint with plenty of stand oil mixed in. It makes a delicious texture!

When I paint with watercolors I like to use atomizers and stencils, and Mop brushes. I wrote a book about it, Tape and Spray Watercolor, available on my website.

Are you self taught or formally educated? How do you think that has influenced or affected your work?
I have a BA in Studio Art from Cal State East Bay. It was a great time but only so much can be taught and I hate being told what to do, especially when it comes to art. This is ironic because I teach art. I think maybe 20% can be taught mostly by demonstration. 60% is practice and learning from ones own mistakes which can be supported by a good teacher, and 20 % is Divine inspiration.

What would your creative work taste like?
Oils, like salted ice cream, watercolors, like water mellon. It occurs to me, in winter I might have a different answer.

How did you learn to access your creative talents and gain the confidence to put it out there for everyone to experience?
It takes faith. Art is my religion.

What advice would you give others just beginning their creative adventures?
Take workshops with artists you admire and remember, copying may be challenging and fun but it is not art.

Andrew Marchbank

Name: Andrew Marchbank
Website: www.2elevated.com

What do you do?
I am a young aspiring artist with a focus in graphic design, painting, drawing and running my clothing brand; 2elevated. 

Where can we find your work?

www.2elevated.com

www.youtube.com/user/IITHINKII

What inspires you to create and how do you keep motivated when things get tough?
I am inspired by the things I see everyday from packaging on wrappers to formations in nature. I am particularly motivated to design for my clothing brand. Everyone’s individual style is expressed in what we wear everyday out into the world. I want to make clothes that express my style and will inspire people to care about what they wear. I have huge ambitions and have always been very self motivated. It is my goals I have set for myself that motivate me. The level of success that I have planned for my brand and myself require me to think big and to work hard at what I do. There is no time to stop when things get tough.

When and how did you first become interested in creating? How long have you been doing it?
I have always had a desire to draw even as a young kid. Things went to a different level for me when my parents gave me a book on San Francisco graffiti for Christmas in 2008. I immediately fell in love with the different styles and color combinations that made up these cool urban works of art. I was intrigued by the edgy artistic expression and the diverse nature of graffiti. I learned everything I could from YouTube videos and books. Graffiti lead me to drawing with a bigger purpose and eventually moving on to more elaborate paintings using oils and acrylics on canvas. From there I launched my brand 2elevated in 2010. I’m a young artist with confidence but humble enough to know that I have a lot to learn and am excited about my future.

What do you think is more important content/finished product or technique/process?  
Both are important however I am more about the content/finished product. I enjoy the process, yet at times I get frustrated, as I am incredibly impatient with my work. I tend toward clean lines and clear messages in my graphic design. My paintings and drawings have a bit more leeway as some of my creations are very imaginative and can be “busy”.

Who are some people who influence and/or inspire you?
Well my favorite artists are Greg Simkins, Alex Pardee, and James Haunt. These artists are extremely unique with their style. Their level of creativity inspires me to dig deep to find my own unique style and creative expression. Scott Sasso (10 Deep), Nick Tershay (Diamond Supply Co.), Jonas Bevacqua (LRG), Ryan Mante and Christian Lilleland (Breezy Excursion), all inspire me with their brands and how they created something so wonderful and passionate out of nothing. I can only hope to reach their level of success.

If you could be any fictional character who would you be?
Tony Stark, a.k.a. Ironman. Just cause who doesn’t want to fly around in a metal suit and fight crime?

When do you get your best ideas?
In class mostly. In fact it was in my sophomore English class where I created the first 2elevated logo and everything developed from there. Doodling on the sides of assignments and back of worksheets is where some of my best ideas are formed. 

What materials/tools do you use most to create your work?
My macbook is probably the tool I use the most. From Cinema 4D to photoshop and illustrator I use it for all my graphic design needs.  

Are you self taught or formally educated? How do you think that has influenced or affected your work?
For graphic design I am self-taught. I started to first work on Photoshop a couple years ago messing around with effects and trying to make logos. Later I started to use illustrator and by looking up tutorials online and through trial and error I have made all the logos for 2elevated, our website, and other local companies. By doing it this way it forced me to find out new things on my own to better develop my style. As for drawing and painting I had two art classes in high school so I got to learn more about colors, values, and more concrete things like that in a traditional way. However, I hate drawing still life and boring things for assignments even though I know they will make me a better artist in the long run. 

What would your creative work taste like?
I would assume like a pear because I like the finished product to be crisp with clean lines. I am also a perfectionist and that can be both a good and bad thing, but it makes my creations come out as clean and solid as possible, like a pear. 

When you are not creating what do you like to do?
Spend time with my friends mostly. Going to the beach, movies, barbeques, parties, or any other social gatherings. I also enjoy snowboarding and biking.

How did you learn to access your creative talents and gain the confidence to put it out there for everyone to experience?
Once I started creating and getting positive feedback my confidence reached a new level and so did my art. Whenever I get a complement on my art or clothing designs it pushes me to continue to create and share with more people. My confidence comes from the people around me and I cant thank them enough.

Murphy Adams

Name:  Murphy Adams
Website:   www.murphyadams.net 

What do you do? 
Primarily I make small, quirky paintings, but I also work in clay, mosaic and make art dolls.

Where can we find your work? 

Kaleid Gallery in San Jose, Studio Gallery in San Francisco, and a number of smaller shops, as well as my Etsy store Murphy Adams Studio http://www.etsy.com/shop/MurphyAdamsStudio .

I've also done several murals and public art projects throughout the South Bay and am currently starting a slab clay and mosaic project at Ace Charter School in East San Jose.

What inspires you to create and how do you keep motivated when things get tough?
I tend to be a bit of a hermit, hiding out in my studio at home, so when I hit a creative slump I just need to get out.  My work is about relationships, emotion, the stuff that makes us human, all squishy and pathetic and ding dang lovely at the same time, but if I don't get out and live it I've got nothing to paint.

I also get inspired when people tell me how they connect with my work, or how a specific piece seemed to be painted just for them. Again, it's tapping into emotion, and you can't do that alone, it would be boring.

What do you think is more important content/finished product or technique/process?  
Well I can't believe I'm saying  this, but the finished product. As someone who sells art, the end product is ultimately more important. Of course  experimentation and process has played a big part in developing who I am and who I continue to be as an artist. I still spend hours testing new techniques and combinations of materials.

Who are some people who influence and/or inspire you?
I love that SJ has this cool little, tight knit art community, it's very inspiring. So many artists here work really hard at surviving making art, and consistently create...friends like Christine Benjamin, Lacey Bryant and Katy Kindig  to name a few.

I'm also really into reading the Etsy Blog "Quit Your Day Job," where artists and craftspeople tell their own personal stories about how they've grown their art businesses and been able to stop working a day job...someday.

As far as influential art figures currently and through history, people like Alison Saar, Squeak Carnwath, Linda Barry, Maira Kalman, Reverend Howard Finster, Margaret Kilgallen, Joe Sorren, Jean Michel Basquiat, Mark Rothko, Frida Kahlo, Henry Darger, Jacob Lawrence... their creative expression always blows me over, makes me cry or just hits me hard across the face, in a good way.

If you could be any fictional character who would you be? Ha! Somebody kickass like Game of Thrones Khaleesi, the one with the dragon babies, Zena Warrior Princess or a Bond Girl.  If you watch Adventure Time, I'd like to be Marceline, but I'm the Lumpy Space Princess.  In other words, somebody completely opposite of my marshmallowy, goofy self.

When do you get your best ideas? Laying in bed in the morning , kind of lucid dreaming, I think about things that I've witnessed the day before, what's been said to me and what was meant by it, sometimes about the underlying meanings of things.

I  also keep a sketchbook in my bag at all times and I'll often sketch a situation that I've seen, or write down a phrase or title that gets stuck in my head. I like to listen to people, things they say when emotions run high are most interesting. I'm especially drawn to awkward and embarrassing situations, the immense power of love and hope and the sad but sometimes funny side of misfortune. Laughing inappropriately has gotten me in trouble more times than not, but it's those situations that provide substance for my paintings.

What materials/tools do you use most to create your work?
I like to start with good thick cold press watercolor paper, then I use a combination of acrylic and colored ink, sometimes some colored pencil and I love Tombow art pens.  I layer multiple jewel tone colors over colors with matte medium. I know, it looks deceivingly simple.

Are you self taught or formally educated? How do you think that has influenced or affected your work?
I started out as a fine arts major in college, but it was the 80's (I'm aging myself here) and abstract, minimal & light and space paintings were what was popular, so I wasn't taken seriously. My art wasn't art with a capitol A; I suppose it still isn't. In any case I got a degree in art history and worked as a gallery director and curator for much of my adult life. I took a few studio classes but I consider myself largely self taught. Overall I think it's influenced me in a positive way. No one got to tell me what to do or how to do it. Of course I missed out on the how to do things part and I admit that would have been helpful. However, I was able to draw my inspiration from the art that was important to me, form my own opinions and discover things outside mainstream trends. Outsider, visionary, and folk art is a big wow for me as is the bravery that children's work possesses, I would have never found that during a  traditional arts education. 

What would your creative work taste like?
Pigs in a blanket and a beer, and maybe some Hot Tamales candy for dessert. Something so bad, but really so good.

When you are not creating what do you like to do?
I sew, I'm a compulsive baker, my extraordinary husband Patrick & I raise chickens and keep bees. I like homestead-ish type stuff, we've been looking for a little farm down in the Santa Cruz/Monterey area where we can do more of that kind of stuff, and my man has promised me goats! I like taking my dogs to the beach, I love music and going to shows, I'm a word game junkie and I like TV, way more than I should. I also love hanging out with my kids Ivy & Kasten who are now 20 and 17; they're amazing, hilarious and creative beyond belief. Ivy is starting her 3rd year of a BFA program in illustration at PNCA in Portland, and I'm sure my son will follow his creative vision. Seriously, they're my greatest creation. Everything considered, I'm living the good life.

How did you learn to access your creative talents and gain the confidence to put it out there for everyone to experience?
Putting your art out there at first is tough. I had tons of support and encouragement from friends and family. The first time I showed my work I made 40 small paintings and nearly all of them sold. It suddenly hit me, after years of working in galleries, teaching art to kids and a multitude of odd jobs in between, I can do what I love doing most of all. It took me a really long time to come to that realization and to feel comfortable enough to call myself an artist. I wish that I made it happen sooner, but I had to get to the "why the heck not," phase of my life where I stopped worrying about failure. I also just think creative people are naturally more fearful & sensitive, and I needed time to get over that.

What advice would you give others just beginning their creative adventures?
It's not easy, but if you're the kind of person who puts creating above all else for all means go for it. Eat it, sleep it roll around in it. Your work should be completely your own, don't  try and be somebody else. Think about content, not just style. Most of all treat it like a business, put some serious hours into it, market yourself,  get yourself out there. Oh and don't be a flake, don't perpetuate the artist stereotype, it makes us all look bad.