| ~*~Vaughn Belak - Evil Grin Designs~*~ |  | ◊Vaughn Belak◊
Evil Grin Designs : http://www.evilgrindesigns.net
Vaughn's Myspace : http://www.myspace.com/Vaughn_Belak
The following interview was conducted by Kat (Razor Heretic) and permission was obtained from the artist to post it in this online publication. The closing statements were contributed by Kat as well. Please be sure to click on the thumbnails within this article to view enlarged versions of a few of the artist's paintings. |
How long have you been an artist?
"Well, I sort of started taking it a bit more seriously about 3 years ago, but I have always been scribbling in the margins or scrawling on something."
What types of art do you do?
"Monsters, lowbrow, tattoo designs, mostly very creepy cartoon/graffiti types of images." | |
 | What do you use to make your art (types of materials)?
"Most of my stuff is acrylic on canvas, but I do throw in with markers and colored pencils now and again. I used to do a lot of cut and paste collage type stuff and may lean back that way sometime soon."
What is the best thing about being an artist?
"The independence." | What is the worst thing about being an artist?
"For me? That there's only one Halloween a year since this is my biggest time of the year."
Anything else you want to add?
"See more of my creeps at www.evilgrindesigns.net, which will be getting a complete overhaul in the next month or so."
Vaughn is a really fantastic friend and artist, and I hear from Ronna..a great husband too! I hope everyone checks out Vaughn's work and buys some too! I had to include my favorite photo of Vaughn and Ronna in this article. I hope you enjoy his art and creativity as much as I do!
Contributed By : Kat (Razor Heretic) |
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| ~*~Kristen Farrell Art & Clothing~*~ |  | ◊Kristen Ferrell◊
♠Kristen Ferrell Art & Clothing : http://www.kristenferrell.com/
♠Kristen's Myspace : http://www.myspace.com/kristen_ferrell_art
Presenting the Infamous artist of the month, January 2007. The following interview was conducted by Kat (Razor Heretic) and permission was obtained from the artist to post it in this online publication. The closing statements were contributed by Kat as well. Please be sure to click on the thumbnails within this article to view enlarged versions of a few of the artist's paintings. |
♥How long have you been an artist?
"I've played around with art all my life, and majored in art in college (my main study was intaglio and relief printmaking)... but it wasn't until my senior year of art school when I began doing gallery shows did it occur to me that I might be able to do this for a living. So I guess I've been a "professional artist" for about 6 years."
♥What types of art do you do?
"I was trained as a printmaker, and that's my real love. My father and I actually built a full scale 800 lb. etching press that currently lives in my kitchen. But because of space limitations, I haven't been able to make any prints for years. So for the past few years I've been mainly painting and doing pen-and-ink work. But because I bore easily, I'm always looking for new things to try.... my new endeavor is making life-sized dolls of the creatures in my paintings and drawings.
Click each one to view larger
  
I also started a small clothing and accessory company that is based on the images in my artwork. Because of the work I've done for bands and magazines, there is a really young audience of people that show up to my gallery openings. Since the kids usually can't afford the pieces on the walls, I started taking those images and having them printed on shirts and handbags so that everyone that came to the openings could walk away with something that made them happy... the next thing I knew stores started wanting to carry them. This has kindof become it's own monster (but a wonderful and happy monster that has allowed me to quit my day-job and work on art all day)."
 | ♥What do you use to make your art (types of materials)?
"As far as my artwork goes, I paint with acrylic paint (I love oils, but because of my little one, I don't like having the fumes in the house). And I make paintings on anything I can get my hands on. My work is relatively small, so the objects I can use are pretty limitless. Kewpie dolls, wooden plaques, jewelry boxes, rat traps, children's stacking blocks, etc. I spend alot of time in hobby stores and hardware stores searching for new things to paint on." |
♥What is the best thing about being an artist?
"I have been extremely fortunate with the opportunities and gallery support that I've been given, and the fact that I get to do this for a living it exciting- but also totally humbling. It's wonderful to be able to stay in my pajamas all day and vomit my neurosis onto my little pieces for a living. Plus, I'm able to set my own schedule and spend as much time as I want with my son. Not many people can say that they love what they do for a living... and I'm truly grateful."
 | ♥What is the worst thing about being an artist?
"The pressure. Since this is what I do for a living- it's completely up to me as to how much I succeed or fail. The higher my demand is, the more work I have to produce... which is sometimes really difficult when I run out of ideas. And in this line of work, you can't miss your deadline. ESPECIALLY being a woman in the art world, you have to prove yourself a little more. So trying to balance out creating art, and running the clothing business (which entails coming up with the images, doing the marketing, the shipping, the web design/maintenance, trade shows, accounting, |
production, catalogs, etc.- because I do it all myself)... it gets a little overwhelming. BUT I'm not complaining. I would rather be doing this than any other job in the world."
♥Tell me a little about you and your Family?
I was born in Kansas City in 1976 to a couple of teenagers who didn't need to be parents, and was adopted shortly after by the greatest people in the world. I was an ill-behaved adolescent, and was sent to live in a group home for "troubled teens" run by fanatical Southern Baptists in Branson, Missouri (to which I cunningly escaped after 2 years of thier attempts to teach me that dancing, music, and the "Smurfs" were results of Satanism). In 1998, at age 21 I got pregnant and married all in one shot (well... knocked up first, then married). That marriage didn't quite take the way that marriages should (some fellas just aren't as ready for fatherhood and the married life as they'd like to think they are), so divorce soon followed. I spent the next couple years doing the single-mom thing, working 2 jobs and putting myself through college. Before I graduated, I met Brad Logan (who was living in Los Angeles). Upon graduation from the University of Kansas, my son, Sullivan, and I moved to LA to be with Brad. We lived there for a year, Brad and I got married, and due to the fact that he's always on tour I went bonkers in LA and moved us all back to Lawrence, Kansas. Brad was able to tour as much as he pleased, and I was able to raise my son in a less financially stressful environment so I could focus on my art career. Now that all is going smoothly with my career, we're looking to move back out of Kansas so that Brad doesn't go bonkers living out in the sticks.
♣Kristen is an amazing and talented artist. Her clothing line is fantastic! I hope everyone checks out her art and clothing line. Please take the time to view her websites. She puts her heart and soul into her work as you all can see. It was a pleasure to have Kristen do an interview for A Mommy's World & Peripheral Gravity. Check out Kristen's myspace for the list of stores you can find her clothing line in, and where her next events will be held!
Contributed By : Kat (Razor Heretic) |
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