Tviga Vasilyeva

The white forms in these photographs are the sculptural manifestations of audio footage that was recorded along the border between Russia and Finland. Here the unique old-growth forests stand, The Green Belt of Fennoscandia. Recently these ancient trees are being logged for their valuable timber. There are only few remaining areas of ancient forest in Europe with the vast majority of the vanishing old-growth forests remaining are in the North of European Russia.

Tviga Vasilyeva

“The soundwaves are actual objects, each is 6 metres high, reminiscent of the height of a tree, despite looking like digital intervention. I recorded them when the forest was still there. Then, when the trees had gone, I put the ‘sounds’ back to where they used to exist, sounds that look like trees that will never be heard again.”

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Source: www.artistaday.com

arTistic Visions

What is it that makes a truly effective piece of graphic design? Is it just the skill that allows an artist to balance shape, color, texture, typography,photography and negative space to send a message – or is there a bit of magic to it? Creative talent is a tricky and elusive thing for most of the population, but some lucky people have it in spades.

These 15 graphic designers have managed to create work that stands out in a crowded field, using a diverse array of techniques, programs and materials.

Joshua Davis

Joshua Davis is one of the most influential talents in the history of graphic design, with an incredibly vast portfolio of work that has made a deep impression upon many other graphic artists worldwide. Davis, who is now a professor at New York’s School of Visual Arts, pioneered a type of graphic design that utilizes Flash-based programs that he created himself to build images of “dynamic abstraction”, as Davis himself describes them.

“Working this way allows me to generate an infinite number of compositions,” Davis explains in an Apple Pro Profile. “I set the boundaries and the rules, but whatever comes out at the end is a surprise. I don’t know what’s going to happen. It could look cool. It could fail. It could be life-changing. There’s always a surprising sense of discovery with this process, because I’m setting up an environment and allowing a scenario to live within it.”

Pawel Kaminski

There’s a sense of movement and urgency in every single one of Pawel Kaminski’s designs, something that gives them a vitality that can’t be ignored. Kaminski, of Poland, is quoted by SpeckyBoy as saying “I wouldn’t attribute my design passion to any serious philosophy, I feel this is a good way for artists and designers, you have to be open to most adventures from life. And sometimes a simple lack of words can be easily expressed through illustrations and art, design what you love.”

Pawel Kaminski

If there’s one element that ties all of Chuck Anderson’s creations together, it’s light. Anderson’s work is bursting with light effects that make his designs crackle with intensity. The prolific young designer has worked with an impressive range of clients including Paste Magazine, ESPN, Reebok, Absolut Vodka and Honda.

Anderson told Abduzeedo, “I don’t think I really have a set source of inspiration. To be honest, I just really love creating things that are striking and fun and vibrant. Things that jump out as far as color goes. You’ll see in my work a lot of times really intense light and color – I really enjoy creating things that feel supernatural and like they came straight out of my imagination.”

Dries Schaballie

Graphic design, concept art, art direction, illustration, 3-D modelling – Dries Schaballie does it all. Co-founder and director of Sevenedge Interactive Media, Schaballie has a fascinating portfolio of works that are alternately dreamlike, gritty and playful.

Simone Magurno

San Francisco-based, Italian-born graphic designer Simone Magurno has worked with Nike, Microsoft, Xbox, Target, GAP and many other clients and her work has been featured in Computer Arts Magazine and Digital Arts Magazine. Her designs, which are often web-based, have a clean, slick, modern quality that really allows the content to shine.

I Love Dust

The team at ‘I Love Dust’ design – one part Icelandic, five parts English and one part Chinese – can’t be separated from one another when it comes to their work, but their designs speak for themselves. Specializing in graphic design, illustration, motion graphics and product design, this team of creative powerhouses has one of the most distinctive styles in the biz.

Erik Finsrud/The Norik

Erik Finsrud, known as ‘The Norik’, went to school for audio engineering but fell in love with design somewhere along the way and now spends his days creating colorful graphic art for clients like Spike TV, Nestle, 1800 Tequila and Universal.

On his website, Finsrud notes, “Design to me, is about stripping away arbitrary distractions from the communicated message. Aesthetically I feel a design should be stimulating to the point of curiosity. A lot of my work also falls into illustration, which I feel is more about creating a visceral experience, although I still have a tendency to apply the minimalist principles of design.”

Paul Lee

Graphic designer Paul Lee of Los Angeles has worked with Lexus, Acura, Google, Adobe and Sony. His work has a characteristic elegant iciness to it that makes it all the more memorable, and results in a cohesive portfolio that reads almost like one continuous piece of sophisticated design.

David Mascha

Vienna-based artist and designer David Mascha who has been working with several different design studios since 2005. Mascha’s work has been displayed in exhibitions in Asia and Europe, print magazines and books and has also appeared on lamps, furniture and clothing. Mascha has a whimsical abstract style, employing bright colors and bold patterns and shapes against stark backgrounds for maximum graphic effect.

Kevin Lucius

Kevin Lucius is a graphic designer from Columbus, Ohio. Among his more recent work, an interesting retro modern aesthetic has emerged, mixing vintage colors, textures and imagery with clean, modern shapes.

Julien de Repentigny

Bold, exciting, fresh and most of all, fun: all of these words can be used to describe the work of Montreal graphic designer Julien de Repentigny. Typography takes center stage in three-dimensional designs created from materials like paper, ice and candy. Such unusual physical methods of creating his work might just make him the antithesis of completely computer-reliant graphic designers.

Kofi Ansah

Ghana-born, Italy-raised and UK-based graphic designer Kofi Ansah is only 20 years old, but his eye-catching work leaves little doubt that he has a long and distinguished career ahead of him. Ansah is currently an undergraduate student at the Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication in Chislehurst, Kent.

Formtroopers

Creative partners Toke Blicher Moller and Jeppe Bingestam, a.k.a Formtroopers, run a full-service progressive design studio in Denmark with a particular focus on motion and graphic design. Clients include MTV, The Discovery Channel, Pepsi and Warner Music.

Rob Morris

Australian graphic designer Rob Morris describes his style as “heavily influenced from the modernist school of design, employing simple shapes and clean typography.” His work has appeared in online design galleries, magazines and books worldwide and his clients include government departments, Broadway.com and rapper Jay-Z.

Justin M. Maller

Another Aussie, Justin M. Maller, has an altogether different style that focuses on his immense talent for illustration – but also, coincidentally, did design work for Jay-Z.  Maller, based in Melbourne, has produced concept art for a diverse array of companies worldwide and is the creative director of depthCORE, an international modern art collective.

Source: weburbanist.com

In addition, with limited space available at the River ArtWalk, a number of businesses, including Shady Kate’s Boutique, Books ‘N More, and others will welcome both visual and performing artists to set up in front of their businesses, along Highway 62.

On Saturday, from 10 a.m to 3 p.m. a “Kid’s ArtZone” will be held at Aunt Caroline’s Park, (Hwy 62 at Indian Creek Rd).  In addition to an interactive art environment, a featured Native American “stick game” is set for 1 p.m.  (Limited parking)

On Sunday, Aug. 9, kids of all ages can celebrate Smokey Bear’s 65th birthday at the Jackson  County  #4 Fire Station, in Shady Cove.  Help Smokey Bear blow out all his candles.  The celebration runs from noon to 3 p.m.
Call Erin at 878-2666 for further details.

This year’s artwalk features 100 fine artists from throughout Oregon.  Out of state artists include Liz Rosier, Lake in  the Hills (Chicago), Ill., with others representing Washington, Arizona, Nevada and a recently relocated artist from Hawaii.

The main entrance is at the Edgewater Inn Conference Room and includes several award winning artists, including, western artist Carl Seyboldt and Gail O’Dell, of Eagle Point; Karen Cain-Smith, Shady Cove; Kim Ragsdale, Trail; and, David Irwin “Images in Nature”, Butte Falls.  Alice Zelina Berger (EP) will display and welcome guests to the Breezeway and “on the Green” Shauna Engbrecht, Marybeth Hines (EP), and Janet Rawlings (EP) will be featured.

Gates #2 & #3 located at the Rogue River RV Park includes artistic local talent, including Judi Steadman (Manzanita Mania), Scott Lang, Jim Kanitz, Debby Elder, Dorothy L. Dierks, Leona Haiker, Laureen Bong, Material Girls, and Christy Allwardt, of Shady Cove.  Linda Steen, Linda’s Unique Creations; Cathy Spires, Braunda Gilchrist, Connie Drane & Idabelle Andrews, Lorie Easlick, and Dianna Clark “Sky Creations” from Eagle Point; Lori Paxton and Ruthanne Bray, will share a booth from Butte Falls.    Guests may enter at any of the three gates for a unique artwalk experience.  Stroll the 700′ scenic pathway paralleling the Rogue River; the art venue continues under the Shady Cove Bridge connecting the two River front properties.  Free admission (donations accepted).  Be sure to sign guest book for opportunity to win a special gift of art.

Music is featured throughout the River ArtWalk during the two-day event.  “The Relief” Band, Eagle Point,
will play vintage blues on Saturday ( 2:30 p.m. to closing at 5:00 p.m.), on deck at the RV Park.    While music continues throughout the art venue, Sunday morning will feature  “Accordionist Uncommon” by Richard Gyuro, of Eagle Point.    At 1pm, “The Diamonds & Denim” Band, is set to close out the weekend event. Julie Millard Griffith (Sam’s Valley), lead guitar and singer, describes her band:  “Whether you’re rollin with the flow, or just wanna be country down to your soul – come enjoy”  Umbrella tables are set up for guests enjoyment – and pavement is available to spring into 50’s or country dance . . .

Courtesy shuttles, including the nostalgic Molly Trolley and Upper Rogue Community Center van, will pick up guests throughout Shady Cove.  Look for FREE “Park & Shuttle” signs.

For general information and a list of participating artists visit: http://www.upperrogue.org “click” on River ArtWalk information, call: 541-821-4700, or email: chamber@upperrogue.org

Rachel Q. Landers earned a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art, with a concentration in Scientific Illustration from the University of Georgia in 2006. She currently lives in Gainesville, Georgia.

Rachel’s artwork, by moving away from realism, acknowledges that viewers bring a lexicon of experience and concurrent emotion to a painting. She would like her artwork to encourage discourse – facilitating storytelling and a sense of community. This holds a significant place in her art and philosophy.

Tying together aspects of life and nature with spirituality, Rachel creates mystery, in essence – possibilities. When creating her art, she feels it is challenging as well as freeing to accept change and adapt to what emerges. By layering perhaps unusual combinations of shapes and colors which contrast and resolve, her work represents life with its undulating tensions– and sometimes surprising beauty. She wishes to broaden her outlook visually as well as in day to day interactions. It is an optimistic process.

But the similarities between piano and paint remain noticeable to him. Like a good piece of music, each of his paintings contains a story. There’s lyricism and there’s emotion.

“I really construct them over a series of layers, and the story kind of builds up within each painting,” Jensen said. “They’re very deep. They have a composition to them. These words are also used in the building of music.”

Jensen will be bringing another batch of stories — in the form of his paintings — to Vail’s Masters Gallery for his 38th art show here.

About five years ago, Jensen made the transition from painting a lot of florals to contemporary art. He was challenged by the free-form, chaotic style of painting.

While he still incorporates some florals into his work, the paintings he will bring to Vail are largely abstract.

One piece he’s excited about is called “Alizarin Crimson,” named after the paint he used. By using only the color red, it was kind of like tying one hand behind his back, he said.

“It’s an example of me limiting myself to smaller color pallette and making it be very interesting,” Jensen said. “It’s all done in red. Red is a very strong color emotionally right off the bat. People respond to red. To make this painting very interesting I probably used 50 shades of red and a lot glazing. Glazing is a laborious process of building a painting up so it looks like it’s liquid, maybe out of water.”

Coming to Colorado is actually a homecoming for Jensen, who was raised in Fort Collins. His father is a sculptor, and he grew up surrounded by creativity.

“I was raised in kind of an unusual household where art was always going on. Just the smells and feel of materials and projects being made, ever since I can remember,” he said.

Jensen now lives in Palm Springs, Calif., where he has a studio in an old movie theater. He stands in the middle of the big space, and all the paintings are flanked around him as he works on them.

“I needed a lot of room, and it’s very theatrical, and my work really has a lot of theater to it,” he said.

Staff Writer Edward Stoner can be reached at 970-748-2929 or estoner@vaildaily.com.