With the opening of Microscopic Hinges just a few hours away, we sat down with Hagop to talk a little about the show with the Artists Republic 4 Tomorrow gallery in Laguna Beach, friends, life… and what’s to come.

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Artist Bio : Jennifer Hood is a mildly tortured creative based out of Newport Beach, CA. She is the co-founder of creative firm Hoodzpah Art + Graphics with her twin sister Amy Hood. Together they have cultivated a unique design aesthetic focused on illustration, editorial, and logo design. When not doodling lines, slinging paint, or manipulating anchor points, Jennifer is working on art projects, tinkering on a piano, reading smelling an issue of Esquire on the beach, attempting to hustle pool to no avail, or singing a pitchy rendition of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” at the local karaoke bar. According to The Velvet Underground, Jenny’s life was saved by rock ‘n’ roll. That’s debatable.

1. Please tell us about where you are from and your art background…

I was born in Huntington, then spent my youth growing up in Syracuse, New York and Bowling Green, Kentucky. Manifest Destiny pulled me back to my California breeding when I was 16 and I’ve been coastal town hopping here ever since. Art was always a constant. That one thing i always did that I didn’t even think twice about. It was a natural talent I enjoyed doing and got a lot of positive feedback on. Attempts to keep up with the extracurricular credit mis-match of swapping schools left little time for art as I got into high school but my sister and I would always make time at home. As young kids my twin sister and I (both artists) would make the family Christmas cards. We were constantly trying to create comic book series or children’s books. Of course in high school we did the poster designs for friends’ bands. No matter what I was doing, I loved the interplay between words and art. So as I got older and transitioned into college, that naturally led me to graphic design.

2. What things are driving/exciting/inspiring you these days? Do you feel these make change in your work?
For the past few years I have been obsessed with graphic novels. That and my neighbors. I live on the Balboa Peninsula. It’s an area of Newport Beach with a ton of quirky, eccentric people. Seeing them and wondering at what their stories are always inspires me to paint portraits or create a backstory for them via comic book. Just in the past month I’ve also become mesmirized by James Bond. Strange? Maybe. Unfounded? No. The style and design of the movies has made me want to start a series of paintings that are my best ideas for potential opening sequence scenes. That’s my next project. People in general are such a source of curiosity for me – be they real or imagined personalities.

3. How did you become a part of Splendor Device? I became a part of SD through a friend, Kelly Castillo, who approached my sister and i about designing a logo for them and being involved (Amy and I own our own design firm). When she told us about the collective we knew we would fit right in so designing the logo was just the cherry on top. Being a part of the group is infuriating and inspiring all at once. It makes me want to be better – or punch a wall in envy. Both good things for a competitive artist.

4. What are you looking forward to this year? just hired a designer onto our business. Our first employee! She’s great and will help free up more time so I can focus more on personal art projects and other things I have been wanting to do creatively. I also want to refine my painting skills.

Artist Bio : Jennie Cotterill is a painter/sculptor/illustrator/musician from the Midwest, living in Southern California. She received her MFA in illustration from California State University Long Beach and is currently working as the community outreach artist coordinator for Hurley, curating and installing art shows and painting murals throughout Orange County. www.jenniecotterill.com

1. Please tell us about where you are from and your art background

I am originally from Michigan, and have lived in Southern California for 11 years.  I received my BFA and MFA in Illustration from Cal State Long Beach, I have freelanced in illustration and animation.  I currently work for the art department at Hurley where I am a production artist, curator, and coordinator of events and collaborations between artists, schools, and the brand.  It is wonderful.

2. What things are driving/exciting/inspiring you these days?

LED strip lights are my most favorite thing in the universe this moment, and the fact that they are readily available WITH a cord AND a plug has me over the moon.  I electrocuted myself a few times on my last couple pieces–which involved regular old light bulbs.  (I was not ready to give up on lighting despite my complete lack of electrical understanding…and this is a match made in heaven.)  It is making my work better than ever, cooler (literally, temperature-wise: cooler) than ever, and more attractive.   More polished.  I’m so excited. Also, Carl Sagan’s series Cosmos has me pretty stoked at the moment.  Every episode has some brilliant visual/installation and I am sort of in love with him.  I know those are old, but there’s a lot to appreciate: men’s fashion, science, models of the universe…

3. How did you become part of Splendor Device? and why do you enjoy being a part of it?

Over the summer I called Kelly Castillo to see if she’d be interested in a project I was working on.  She told me she’d been organizing Splendor Device and had wanted to talk to me about that.  (Good things happen when people simultaneously contact each other.)  Kelly is one of those “connectors” Malcolm Gladwell warned you about.  She’s a force of nature.  It’s been wonderful to have the opportunity to meet and show with a lot of women who’s work I’d been admiring and hearing about.  Kind of like joining a parade or drafting behind a truck powered by a bunch of extremely talented women.  It feels like: this party is leaving, you’re invited, you can do this, are you coming or what?  This group has motivated me to create more work and be so much more active about exhibiting than if I were on my own.  Kelly is a personal trainer for your art life.

Also I am a huge proponent of girls helping girls.  I play music with girls.  I feel like art and music are still very much boys clubs.  Many people have tried to talk me out of that, but they are all men.  So I’m not quite convinced. I think a lot of that sentiment has to do with being taught to control your ego as a woman, while successful men are often unchecked, loud-mouthed blow hards who would rather talk about how great they are than actually make work that says the same thing.  I’ve never met a female artist who’s fat, lazy and resting on her laurels.  And for me, that raises a lot of questions.  Not least: where are our laurels?

4. What are you looking forward to this year?

I am looking forward to THIS show, for one.  Also looking forward to a solo show in August I’ll be having at F+ Gallery over in Santa Ana (thank you, Micah Kersh!)  I’m going to paint as many walls as I can and make better work than I’ve ever made.  And I’m excited about it.

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BIO: Jennifer Marie James born 1985, is a mixed media artist based out of Philadelphia, PA. She grew up in the woods of New Jersey and New York, making her imaginary room of canopies and vanities out of wild flowers and the mossy tree stumps of Black Maples. She later moved to Virginia (her original birthplace) and eventually ended up back on the northeast where she now resides with her 3 cats and 3 dogs and her red bearded boyfriend Lee

ARTIST STATEMENT: ” I use various mediums, but primarily love to use digital, acrylic and oil alone and intermingled together to achieve a life-like depth and a porcelain like softness in my subjects.  I use powerful colors  and subtle symbolism to shed light on the burden of buried emotions and hidden intentions that one can find difficult to face; a dissatisfaction in ones self but with a deep hidden explosive, personal power, emotional turmoil at the brink of self discovery, a life epiphany. The highs and lows of the creative female energy. Inner and outer beauty. Sweet lies. In these paradoxes, the beauty and the mess is carefully played with and examined hoping to unravel and enchant.”

Image: Jennifer James // “So Zen About it All” // 8×10” acrylic on wood

Please tell us about where you are from and your art background. I am living in Philadelphia currently and have been for the last 7 years, but I am from a few different locations previously including New York, New Jersey and Virginia. I have been creating art off and on since I was a young girl but seriously started pursuing it in 2006 when I started art school here.  I really appreciate the education I received in those 4 years, however I am primarily self taught being as the school was a little more focused on graphic design and the business aspect of art, I had some very supportive and awesome instructors in my time there though! We were not allowed to use oil paints in the school at all and digital painting was not taught either, so I ventured into those territories on my own in 2010 and am still learning every day!

What things are driving/exciting/inspiring you these days? Oh! Firstly, animals, I love them and have a big open valley in my heart for them. I am also very inspired by the color red and have been for the last couple of years for some reason! and pink. Red and pink together! haha. I have a shelf in my house dedicated to this color combo! I REALLY LOVE floral anything, as well as the charming, frivolous, excessively cute, pretty and divine spiritual aspects of all the beautiful little things in our lives that we must try to stop to appreciate and wonder at. Also I am nutso over all things vintage/ephemeral and kitschy not excluding nic-nacks, books and dolls and collect them obsessively.

How did you become part of Splendor Device? Kelly Castillo approached me and asked me if I would be interested in joining and I was very happy to do so! I love the work I’ve seen from her and everyone else in Splendor Device and feel very honored to be a part of this group and I look forward to all of the upcoming events that are being planned. It’s difficult for me to be there in person living on the east coast, but on my end I can see the level of passion and detail going into these shows and it is very inspirational. I wish everyone the best.

What are you looking forward to this year? Well, this year I am looking forward to expanding my work and really striving for greater excellence and craftsmanship in all that I do, down to every last little minute detail. I have found greater clarity in this past year and I really want that to reflect in my pieces. I’m teaching myself A LOT of different things including framing, printing, photo taking, promotion as well as my techniques and different mediums and canvases, it’s all very exciting and overwhelming at the same time, but that is passion!

Artist Bio
Mandy Graeves aka M has been displaying her uniquely cryptic visions in galleries and conventions across Southern California for several years. Her imagery often incorporates a mixture of sculpture and fabrication resulting in pieces that look like moments frozen in time.

Please tell us about where you are from and your art background

I was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t obsessed with art. As a child I always had a pencil in hand or clay under my fingernails. I have worked professionally as everything from a graphic designer to a 3D fabricator, but my true love has always been sculpture.

What things are driving/exciting/inspiring you these days? Do you feel these make change in your work?

Right now I’m obsessed by the work of Austin Osman Spare. His imagery is so profound and transcendent of his era. I am also greatly inspired by the art and music that my own friends are producing. To watch them evolve as artists definitely sparks growth in my own process.

How did you become part of Splendor Device? and why do you enjoy being a part of it?

This is my first show with Splendor Device. I was participating in a show at Rothick Art Haus and Kelly Castillo told me about the collective. I instantly wanted to join and I am so excited to be involved with such a fantastically talented group of ladies.

What are you looking forward to this year?

I am looking forward to travelling abroad this year. I can’t wait to cram all that imagery and history into my cerebral cortex.

(below) M // “Sin” 7 x 9.5″ resin stone and wood

THIS WILDE ABYSS
A selection of works from female artist collective Splendor Device

ARTISTS RECEPTION: Saturday, Mar. 02, 2013 // 6pm-9pm
Live Painting from guest artist Michelle Orozco and model Rachell Rellik
Special Musical Guests to be announced
ON VIEW: March 2 – March 30, 2012

Artists Republic 4 Tomorrow contemporary art gallery is proud to present for the first time in Laguna Beach new work from female artist collective Splendor Device. With over 70 members strong and growing, Splendor Device brings together young women artists from across the globe, sharing gallery walls, friendship, and artistic inspiration. These ladies are influenced by themes of the natural and supernatural, mythology, history, science and the occult,  and they are often introspective about what it means to be a young woman blazing a path in the world today.

With the help of Splendor Device Founder Kelly Castillo, Artist Republic 4 Tomorrow has invited 18 members of the collective to create work for a new show titled “This Wilde Abyss.” The roster of artists includes, Kelly Castillo, Amy Kaplan, Sara Haase, Jennie Cotterill, Allison Peairs, Kristi Bockrath, Elizabeth Caffey, Jennifer James, Jasmine Worth, Tyoni Aragon, M, Jel Ena, Amy Hood, Jennifer Hood, Valerie Lewis, Irene Garcia, Cory Benhatzel and Cody Raiza.

The theme comes from the relationship of a quote in John Milton’s Paradise Lost to the Phillip Pullman Trilogy His Dark Materials. In the Pullman trilogy, the protagonist of the story is a young female adventurer who’s travels through parallel universes allude to questions of physics, philosophy and theology. While new worlds are being created around her, she navigates the undulating landscape between good and evil, each chapter more tightly tying the bonds that Pullman seeks to make with Paradise Lost.

Paradise Lost - Book 2, lines 910-920:

Into this wilde Abyss,
The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave,
Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mixt
Confus’dly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless th’ Almighty Maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more Worlds,
Into this wilde Abyss the warie fiend
Stood on the brink of Hell and look’d a while,
Pondering his Voyage; for no narrow frith
He had to cross.

In “This Wilde Abyss” 18 artists from Splendor Device examine Pullman and Milton and inject them with female energy and a modern twist. The ladies are adventurers standing on the edge of a new world, breathing in fire, shore, sea & air, navigating the chasm between good and evil, while using their own materials to create new realms and beyond.

cover art : Jennifer James // “So Zen About it All”

Please enjoy her three new pieces made especially for the show – Birds – and the meanings behind each. For purchase inquiries please email torrey@ar4t.com

Be Yourself  (above)

This piece is about being your self, no matter how quirky, weird or wild you feel you want to express yourself, be it !  The birds represent freedom!

What ever combination of letters, that spell words, that become a definative label for your self, for others to gage a small image of what really lies beneath you. …. just be it!

In the end, even though your expressing yourself in your own language,symbology and colour, no matter what! even if we all spoke the same language, the symbols or words you choose,will still be interpreted in a way that is personal to the viewer and all their experienced emotional attachment to them. Its their story, and its your story ! So if by being a certain way, that makes you sing and fly and be free, Be it ! Accept yourself as you are or how ever you wish to create yourself to be ! As no matter how hard you try to fit in any specific ideals to please fellow friends, you will be the one feeling like you have no wings. So spread them far and wide and just Be you !

Face Your Fear (above)

Facing your fears, the most powerful experience on earth, to let go of what you have made up in your mind that hinders your love and happiness towards reality, whats really happening now. We all have fears and loves within us… In this image/painting, I have a little bird that represents freedom sitting on all the parts of a human that sense and are a little portholes to our “rooms” where we store our feelings from experiences within our bodies.

The Cat is the fear as we all know the majority of cats hunt and eat birds, so its symbolizing the birds sitting within their fear!

The birds are sitting on the head to represent the action of “think without fear ”
the next is the bird in the eye “see without fear ”
the tongue is to “talk without fear ”
the hand is the ” feel without fear ”
and the last one is the bird on the heart, its the big one, the double edge sword, its about the polarities of life, the ying and yang, the friendship of opposites……the universal law!

So question your mind stories if they serve your heart and life or not, usually your mind can only be negative or go against you in most cases, unless you have acquired a strong sense of self. Sift through the fast pace of society and break free ! THink with Freedom, see with freedom, speak of freedom, feel your freedom, and love your freedom of choice and will, and choose to be free!

Love yourself  (above)

This one is about the mirror image connection with yourself, to love yourself!
The two indian ladies are representing to love all you are!

The bird of freedom soaring up, which is symbolising emancipation, to the end of the human disease which is to resist everything, to fit into life and fight the flows and ebbs, instead of creating your own story! A story of the truth which is the one unfolding in you at every choice or action you take.

The triangle which is there for balance and represents change!  Turn your life into a colourful kaleidoscope, and be sure that with every twist it will change and turn into a new beautiful image to see. Whether it be in your mind first or not, know once you love yourself you can be in a beautiful mind story and a beautiful real life story ! Love yourself !

Lauren Over is an artist and illustrator who grew up in York, PA. Lauren studied Drawing, Painting and Printmaking at Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, and is currently working on her MFA in Painting at CSULA while doing freelance illustration and painting from her studio outside of downtown Los Angeles. She finds inspiration in the weeds and wildflowers breaking through parking lots, highways cutting through deserts, overgrown junkyards and decaying buildings and vehicles- the constant reclaiming of man by earth; our strange self-consciousness and search to understand the part of us that lives on-  through our complex languages of symbols and words.

1. The last time we talked, you told me you were inspired by the idea of three mythological birds and using new materials like dried plants and old maps… is using found materials a regular aspect in your works or something new? What are you currently putting in your work that is exciting / progressive to you?

I’m still interested in exploring birds as mythological figures- and now also how they’ve worked their way into our popular, consumer, material culture- one example being the names and symbol for automobiles (another love of mine)! Using found, more three dimensional, tactile materials is something I’d begun to play with years ago and then moved away from. I’m really excited to be going in that direction again. Eventually I’d like to move even more toward using found materials as the surfaces themselves, drawing, painting and collaging on them. I’m enjoying using bolder, bulkier materials and natural objects such as plants, rocks and wood. I’m also excited about the xerographic transfer process- through which photocopied images can be released upon paper and other surfaces. I recently discovered it, and am seeing how such thin, sometimes ghost-like images can create very rich, mysterious textures and dimensions!

2. After coming from the East Coast and now living on the West Coast – what are the major differences for you in those areas in the way of art influences?

On the West Coast, particularly Los Angeles, I’ve been much more influenced by public art, street art, and by seeing many artists collaborate on work. I’ve had my eyes opened to more DIY approaches to sharing art with the others, and I’ve found there’s a more open, encouraging attitude toward artists to participate in the creative community. Also in Los Angeles there are more opportunities for visual artists to become involved with the film, music and fashion industries, so that’s broadened my thinking into what my work may have to offer in these areas!

3. What made you decide to continue on in your art education and go for an MFA? Would you say that education is an integral part of a working artists career?

I’d been pursuing my MA in Art Education and working in that field, when I began to realized that my first love and the best fit for me is to work as an artist. I do believe very strongly in the power of and opportunities that the world of education can supply. But I think that ‘higher’ education comes in many forms, and often there are more direct and practical routes toward it! I feel the time, space, peer feedback and the mentorship of professors has helped me to grow in focused and various ways that I’m not sure I would have without it, or that would have taken a lot more work for me to make happen outside of school. It’s partly a personal and personality thing. I also think I might like to teach at a college someday, so the degree would be very helpful for me in making that happen!

4. What are you looking forward to in the new year?

I’m thrilled to be working toward making art in a fulltime way, pushing and exploring that as far, long and widely as I can. I’m very thankful to be an increasingly active part of the creative communities here in LA and beyond! I’m very excited to be involved with AR4T, galleries such as Ethos Gallery and The Hive, working with Mobile Mural Lab and Art of Elysium, and continuing to do illustration!

View more of Lauren’s work here.

About Lauren: Born in Torrance, California and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, I have always been interested in asking questions. Why aren’t horses pink? Who was the first woman to wear false teeth? What is a sty and why does it hurt so badly? These questions lead me to constantly seek out knowledge. I’ve always had an easier time reading books and looking at pictures than I’ve had in school. Because of this I am a great collector of information but little is retained. So I make things, like paintings and drawings and small sculptures, to better teach myself what it means to make green from blue and yellow or why some animals’ knees are on backwards. Returning to live in Southern California has been a great influence on my concept of nature and color. I’ve used the beauty of the outdoors and the changing hues of the ocean and sky to create dreamlike settings in my painted work. The weird subcultures of Los Angeles comic-book-readers have opened my eyes to new ways to create drawn sequential art. And having become an avid reader in my early adulthood, I am prepared to write long-winded titles for my work and short stories to support them.

Do you feel more connected to urban or natural settings?

Natural settings make me think and make me feel.

How do you think your artwork reflects this relationship?

I crave the outdoors in its most spectacular and unreal environments. Those that don’t really exist in my everyday life but manifest themselves in my subconscious. I always dream of being in lakes and forests or perched upon cliffs. This desire for something otherworldly yet naturally occurring on this planet is projected onto my work in a dreamlike manner.

What effect did nature have in encouraging your creativity as a child?

I’m not really sure, I grew up in the desert in Arizona and I always wanted to see something else. I think the one time I saw the kind of natural wonders that inspire me was a trip to Seattle around age 9 or 10. I remember it as something that I almost thought didn’t really happen. Animals were more inspirational to me. I remember making doodles of domestic animals, like dogs, a lot.

What book from your childhood do you remember especially inspiring your vision of the world?

The Phantom Tollbooth. It’s about a world that doesn’t exist. For example there was a place in the book called the Doldrums where nothing ever happened and time slowed down. The trees were droopy and little creatures who slept all day lived there. Another place in the book is a kingdom of words where merchants are selling pronouns, vowels, or new phrases. I always felt like these places were metaphors for everyday life, dreams, the system of education, etc.

Do you feel more connected to urban or natural settings?

I would say natural, even though I grew up in the city. It was a sizable city, but it was in the middle of Siberia, surrounded by a beautiful forest, with a river walking distance from our house. That kind of immediate access to wild, un-manicured nature, no mater where you were in the city, was a big part of our lives. It was hard not to have a great appreciation for it.

How do you think your artwork reflects this relationship?

Most of the imagery of nature that I use in my work come from memories of the environment that i grew up in. It definitely had a big influence on the themes that appear throughout my work as well as my color palette.

What effect did nature have in encouraging your creativity as a child?

Most of the school art projects that we did were inspired by nature in one way or another. I was in an after school art program taking classes in painting, drawing, and sculpture, and we were always encouraged to observe our environment and paint from life, which then informed non-observational work as well. I have also always had an affinity for animals and was always coming up with ways to include them in my work, which is something that stayed true over the years.

What book from your childhood do you remember especially inspiring your vision of the world?

There was a beautifully illustrated book of rhymes and stories by Kornej Čukovski that belonged to my dad when he was little. There was a story about the ocean catching fire, about a crocodile who ate the sun, and my favorite, about an old lady who didn’t take care of her house very well, so all her possessions left her. She had to chase them down and apologize and promise to clean and wash and cherish them, so they came back and all lived happily ever after (aw). But that story really stroke a chord with me as a child, as I already had this innate need to care for things, whether living or inanimate. Every time I saw the picture of the old lady trying to convince her kitchenwares, all dirty, hanging out in the ditch in the forest where they fled, to come back home with her because she misses them, I felt the need to go take care of everything I owned too, so that my stuff wouldn’t disappear. A couple of decades later, and that still resonates with me on some level. Having “pathos for the whole world”, as someone put it, is constantly finding its way into my work, whether it’s an animal grieving for its destroyed environment or collecting things of sentimental value.