My interviews for BOND magazine in London with some of the greatest people in the world continue with Dr Rachel Armstrong working on an intersection between biology and architecture and Larry Richard, California based Marketing Executive with passion for environment and arts.
“Agile architectures will wrap themselves around existing bones – the steel frames, the concrete girders. Agile architectures will be like biology, but they won’t be biology. A habitat that can communicate both with its inhabitants and its surroundings.” Dr Rachel Armstrong
“Corporate boards don’t always act in the most responsible way, in my humble opinion. Their primary responsibility is to their shareholders, and I get that. Mostly, that translates to a need to generate maximum profits. But I’m encouraged to see how corporations and non-profit organizations have been working together to raise awareness of the interconnectedness between higher profits and environmental accountability.” Larry Richard, Common Ground
Posted: April 23rd, 2012
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Published
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BOND magazine,
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From articles I’ve written for BOND Magazine Autumn 2011:
“These ‘iconic’ people are usually very intense, obsessed or, I would say, possessed artists, scientists,or saints. Their lives are not the ‘normal’ people’s lives. They live in the ninth degree of intensity in their minds, sensibilities, so their life styles are determined by that intensity. It’s their normal state. Even if, as in the case of many musicians, that intensity has to be sustained by some kinds of outside substance, a good example being Amy Winehouse. For the muses to enter us and to do their work through us, in the arts, very often the body must be eliminated, and all of the doors must be opened.” Jonas Mekas, The God Father of American Avant Garde Cinema
”RITE OF SPRING is about a girl who creates digital worlds which she more and more merges with until she becomes completely absorbed. It is not a sacrifice for the upcoming spring, like in Stravinsky’s ancient concept, but rather the immersion of the ‘chosen one’ in virtuality, her fusion with music and space, as an up-to-date ’sacrifice’ for uncertain future. A metaphor for deliverance and for the anticipation of the eternal happiness, which are promised by new technologies and old religions.” Klaus Obermaier, Choreographer, Composer and Media Artist
Thanks to my London based illustrator’s agent Phosphor Art I got a chance to present some of my work during Clerkenwell Design Week at House of Detention between 24 and 26 May 2011. Forbo Flooring presented my work on their vinyl flooring pieces during the event as well.
Awesome news approached me at the end of last year when I was selected to design a cover for Creative Review Handbook. I was given a brief called simply “collaboration” so my reaction was very character based, fun and contemporary to express my views on leadership. The book was launched in April 2011.
I produced many other works and sketches, it looks like my style is going through some transformation.
Click for portfolio of 3D illustrations here.
I have also worked with courses producer lynda.com on their DVD packaging and web illustrations.
Click for portfolio of 2D illustrations here.
Posted: May 3rd, 2011
Categories:
Artwork
Tags:
3D,
challenge,
course,
creative review,
figures,
illustration,
leadership,
lifestyle,
love,
lynda.com,
postcards,
win,
winner
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From BOND magazine issue 2 / 2010 where I’ve written interviews with three amazing creative business leaders:
“Society pushes us to label ourselves but you don’t have to do it. As soon as we define ourselves we make borders and limits. I don’t think we are happy the next day with the self-definition. I am not a designer, I am not a programmer, I am not a businessman and I am not a cook and I am not a driver and I also don’t have a company and I am not owner of anything. I am a man on this planet and of indefinable activity.” Juraj Andrascik, online game development company owner famous for multi award winning games across the globe
“Children are our future so the more care we take about their engagement with new technology and the more we research the impact the better. Complex psychological and sociological analysis would be very useful to predict situations so we can act according to results.” Marian Ferko, game development business owner well known for 3D action and strategy games
“The mainstream is films that are “amusement park thrill rides”, lacking any deeper content, packaged harmlessly around a popular message such as world peace or environmental responsibility. Screening in a cinema is insufficient because it’s framed as transient entertainment value. There needs to be a will to discuss films with a deeper social content.” Ondej Svadlena, digital animation film maker
Map of England by YetAnotherFace (of Petra Stefankova)
Fallen warriors lay under the walls. Horses ridden by the symbols of nation pride cross a muddy river. Sneaking shadows follow. Fires. Picasso painted Guernica using dramatic symbolism of multi-layered messages. Goya represented the tragedy of Spanish revolution.
And I always wanted to work in social and event illustration, because I miss more of this kind of reflection to important events in today’s illustrative imagery. You will argue that photography does the job. I disagree. Can you always see what is behind the surface? Can you approach people’s hidden emotions? Can you tell what are the points of view or discourse on action? Do you read the relationships of the objects in the photographer’s interaction? Illustration gives a deeper subjective insight. The role of the artist is almost an investigative one. She documents the situation in a way that reveals things caught by the intuition. Artist’s views are critical or questioning, analytic or synthetic and highlight details normally kept unnoticed. The illustrator watches the surrounding from the centre of the action and makes it stop in a macro emotional freeze, the final illustration.
The photographer doesn’t tell you whether he is scared, amused or careless. You may find it easier to read his journal, because it just isn’t in the camera lenses. Human hand instead tells you quite a lot on what the owner’s body and soul get to experience. For example a simple drawing of cats. The animals are not identical when pictured by a frightened person and somebody acting in peace with himself. Clearly this subjectivization creates an emotional background, position and atmosphere. It’s a perfect immediate commentary of the human living this era. We are ‘now’ and now is ‘we’, so let’s remember it. What the future history interprets is, well, another story.
More 3D illustrations by YetAnotherFace
Memories Book (Fighting Cancer)
Who is the person who made this picture? What feelings did she have? What is her opinion on the matter? Does she relate to the topics she illustrated? How? What is her intellectual possession or qualities?
All this and more can be reflected in a single picture. Illustrators are media people, they work in message delivery. The message however has to be individual. It has to reflect the person who created it. Maybe she experienced something what others haven’t had a chance to yet. Or maybe she has something to tell and the greatest thing to do is to share the story. She doesn’t have to use words. She can use pictures to start a conversation.
Every person has a number of valuable thoughts and experiences, sure, illustrators have them too. They have also been given a chance to speak aloud using advertising and publishing worlds as mediums for impact. It would be a shame not to use such opportunity and extraordinary potential. In popular terms visual art is another form of social entrepreneurship and visual journalism that uses communication of emotional level.
Personal value of the illustration can cause that you’ll be starring at the picture for hours with no need to read accompanying text. And you will always return to it for the strength of the message that the picture sent you. Imagine powerful personality illustrations to communicate through world-selling publications. They can both be emotionally and intellectually distinct, they stand out from the crowd of meaningless plainly entertaining or decorative visuals. They engage with the audience in the same way the singer does with a song.
Of course it increases the requirement for illustrators to be fully active in the happenings and knowledge flow around them. It needs them to care, be informed and interested, which means to grow and learn on a wider level. Illustration is aesthetics, illustration is technical execution and craft, but illustration is also a meaning, in which illustrators transform what they see through own perspective and pitch it to a discussion.
Such illustration is matchless. Such illustration is individual. And there’s no other on this planet who can create the same because it’s unique to the creator. Only her. Her – him, it matters.
More 3D illustrations by YetAnotherFace
Posted: August 31st, 2010
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My latest press involvement in Prague raised a topic around young ladies and their dealing with stress, building confidence, self-picture and belief. I am glad that I had the opportunity to share my experience through a mass media channel. I really went through all kinds of these things. In the past when I had to experience life changing situations it took me something like two years to get used to the new position and challenges and feel good enough and easy in it. I had to test my skills and my potential to fully believe that I am capable of doing things. Even though teachers used to tell me that I would never be an artist and despite some people sending me e-mail messages advising me to fuck off from the creative industry and do something else. My first public speech made me frozen and shaky. Although I was perfectly prepared as if doing an exam for life.
With time, everything got much easier. From introverting artistic position I got slowly to loving public speeches and socializing, meeting new people and talking a lot. I have done a lot of presentations for companies, universities or conferences. Although I still have stuff to learn, I don’t feel like talking on every topic of this planet when I don’t feel the need to and there are situations when I am still stressed, the more I do these things, the less tension I have, more relaxed and confident I am. Most recently I met this extraordinary woman during Women’s Social Leadership Awards in London, her name is Dr. Rachel Armstrong, who became my great example for showing the inner personality power to the world. Amazing public speaker with passion sending her message all across the room. She inspired me a lot so I tried to apply similar energy when I was giving advice to aspiring illustrators at Futurising in London. And it worked perfectly! Passion and confidence inside me was transferred to people I was talking to. They got excited themselves and I believe they took me for an example in similar way I took Rachel. The event appeared very successful to me after such experience. It was quite a journey.
So, let’s believe in ourselves more, it gives us energy and passion to create great things which we are made for.
Posted: July 2nd, 2010
Categories:
Thinking
Tags:
conference,
Dr. Rachel Armstrong,
Futurising,
london,
presentations,
Press,
public speaking,
self-belief,
women,
Women’s Social Leadership Awards
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Illustration by YetAnotherFace of Petra Stefankova
Inspired by Susan Jones and her posting on artists as social entrepreneurs in Artist Fellows group I’d like to contribute with my point of view on the role of the artist in society. To me being an artist means that I have a voice, my artwork is a step to communication, it opens doors (and hearts of my audience), gives a chance to speak out. Some artists communicate through visual language only, others feel a need to engage different aspects of it through public talks, presentations, media coverage, writing and so on. I mean talking about art as a source of pleasure and entertainment shouldn’t be the only thing we can do. Through this public voice we have a certain level of influential power and for this reason we should use it for a broader range of social activities. I am perfectly clear that many artists aren’t confident to talk about social issues and make contribution but maybe we should focus on training them in similar way we train leaders. Visible artists are leaders and they need to stand for their beliefs and should have a chance to share knowledge and experience more frequently, they actually have this option through being watched by media more or less constantly.
Young people are excited by celebrities in pop music or film stars, but we rarely hear these people talking about life and work – and we need visible people to talk about what’s behind success, what’s behind failure, what it takes to build a business or to become a star, we need to motivate, influence new generations to make the right decisions rather than allow them to take themselves on the wrong path. Today’s society is very intellectually advanced and all the facts and experiences should be shared more easily, artist is the medium. I know there are books where you can read all the stuff about techniques of success, books on happy society and contemporary issues like earning money versus taking care of relationships, but I don’t think they end up in hands of youngsters so easily. Not everybody is into philosophy and spends hours reading, so that we have to find other channels to some fun and light-hearted communication. When the artist has a show somewhere, a few people talk about the pieces, some of them get the message, some of them don’t, but that’s not enough to me. The artist is a public figure and should feel some responsibility taking up this role.
(More 3D illustrations by YetAnotherFace)
What it means to draw for living especially using my surrealist 3D expression I realized while I was working on some recent commissions. There is a huge difference between the funky vector style I use for editorial or advertising and 3D style called Yet Another Face, it’s not only the aesthetics but the process is much more complicated both emotionally and intellectually. Digital doesn’t mean that the computer does the job for me. This personal method of expressing unconscious and matching my own personality with commercial purposes of the client’s brief requires engaging my soul to the deepest. I go through some kind of meditation beforehand, try to relax my mind as much as possible and allow my hand to leave some spontaneous marks on paper. Getting into such stage is sometimes however very hard and eventually the crisis comes from time to time, so I have to push myself a lot. The best and most successful artwork is the one I create without pushing and with all the love I can give it to put this right. I need to enjoy the process to the full and every stage of it. The problem is – deadlines are mostly very strict and I can’t take the advantage of a painter working on a single canvas for months. Taking this less seriously doesn’t help really, because with this style everybody gets the message – when I don’t give complete myself into the picture they somehow feel it, but can’t explain why it is so. Just feel something isn’t right about the picture, the connection between the person getting the message through the visual and my state of mind is purely emotional. So that with every picture I deliver I have to run at my best. Last time it really affected me and I felt totally drained, the level of intellectual activity was so high, that I wasn’t able to interact with anything else and even a single thought about usual stuff like what to cook couldn’t pop into my head, the space for other things just wasn’t there after months of working at my best. That was something, I can tell you. It’s good I have recovered from that though.
(More 3D illustrations by YetAnotherFace of Petra Stefankova)
Posted: May 25th, 2010
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Artwork
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automatic drawing,
creative process,
digital,
expression,
graphics,
Microsoft,
surrealism,
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Yet Another Face
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I was given a chance to learn how to crawl across life and work situations directly from the greatest masters of social interaction and business relationships. It means a lot to me. Every newly discovered understanding is like a diamond to keep.
When I was a child I tended to live inside my own creative world, I felt like I didn’t belong where I actually was. I created a mental distance from most living creatures around me at the times. My arrival to the UK however changed everything from scratch, I reworked my attitude. I had to think differently, open myself to others and learn new social skills. Turn from an introvert artist into a confident business person or at least find some balance between those two. Even now there are situations which are pretty complicated to me, but I have to keep going and do my best whenever I encounter a difficulty. Not every time I manage to be 100 percent, sometimes 50 is quite enough, but I know that next time I can do much better.
One of the things I understood lately is this. Let your business partner be a friend. Act as if he was one. Talk as if he was one. There’s nothing worse than a cold and distant business meeting. Breadth helps to generate positive vibe around you and your friendly attitude helps to create the relationship stronger, more relaxed, open and mutually accepted as beneficial. Life is about people around you. Business is about people around you too. If you understand this then you can do anything in the world and be very successful at whatever you put your hands on.
Yesterday I read an article ‘Freedom of expression‘ by Bill Ivey, director of the Curb Centre for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He writes about happiness and well-being dependent on so-called expressive life opportunities. Expressive life means from his point of view a real possibility of providing individuals and communities with satisfaction. Considering that right to be creative and right to be surrounded by creativity have strong impact on individual feelings Slovak government should reconsider its arts sector policy. Cultural vitality is as much important as, say, community healthcare, housing for the poor or the preservation of virgin forest, as Ivey puts it.
Read more in How Greed and Neglect Have Destroyed Our Cultural Rights by Bill Ivey published by University of California Press.
http://www.amazon.com/Arts-Inc-Neglect-Destroyed-Cultural/dp/0520241126
What I totally love about British society is the networking mechanism, supportive entrepreneurs community, talent spotters, proactive people developing tools and online and offline enviroments for social engagement and general progress. And they are willing to get even better than they do today. Charities, organizations and small businesses create buzzling spaces for discussion, ideas, exchange and collaboration. It’s much easier to get social and meet people who get to turn the wheels of the economy than it was ever before. Politicians and top management representatives don’t play a role of the unapproachable impersonal entities acting independently from the rest of the population. They get engaged and talk to you face to face open to your ideas and keen to apply collective knowledge to their work for the good of all. I am excited. I am in a learning mode every day absorbing as much as possible, then trying to give something back. When I was invited to join the RSA it was a shock I couldn’t believe. Now it kicked off many great opportunities to meet people and open my insight into things, all aspects of life and work. It makes me want more of it. And give more in return. Thanks guys. It’s a great value you created.
Posted: May 25th, 2010
Categories:
RSA
Tags:
britain,
british,
business,
collaboration,
exchange,
ideas,
london,
people,
politics,
Royal Society of Arts,
RSA,
society
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