2007-07 Vital Source Mag – July 2007
The limitless as limitation
Creativity has no limits. The freedom to express, within any given medium, is a liberating process and brothers John and David Jenson not only understand this process but are taking it a step further. What started as an idea in 2005, or rather a bouncing of ideas, later grew into what is now Soar Studios, an art-studio space that allows the freedom of expression to transcend across various mediums. Soar Studios encourages people from all walks of life to collaborate in the creative process while utilizing such diverse tools as screen-printing, digital media, sound, photography, illustration, carpentry – really anything that you can get your hands on. Their philosophy is kinetic, collective and maximizes freedom through exploring without limitation. With collaborations from such local studios as Lucky Star and Donebestdone, John and David’s idea for Soar is piloting the sky. So, ladies and gentleman, fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a hell of a ride. John and David were born in Edgerton, WI. After a few short years their father, Hugh, relocated the family to Eau Claire where he found work as an insurance agent. It was around 1976 when the family decided to move back to Central Wisconsin, first to Mukwonago then finally settling in Oconomowoc. Their mother, Kathleen, became the proprietor of a vintage clothing store and from the back-stock of all her threads was able to fashion purses and other garments to sell at local farmers markets. Undoubtedly, her creative endeavors were the first exposure the young brothers had to the creative mind. After graduating UW-Madison with a degree in industrial engineering, David improbably found work in New York as a proofreader/editor translating Russian text for scientific journals. Back home, brother John was freelancing as a designer and doing commercial art. The brothers kept in touch, bouncing creative ideas off each other that eventually hatched a plan. “Hey, why don’t we go into business together? We’re brothers,” John recollects asking David one day after a particularly lively exchange. So David moved back to Wisconsin and the two landed work for GMR Marketing, a local company that handles design work for such companies as Nintendo, MGD and Airwalk Shoes. “It was a team effort for GMR,” David says. “We collaborated on flyers and marketing tools for promotion.” Shortly after, the experience with GMR segued into graphic design work in the publications industry. However, disenchanted with commercial art and the various filters it goes through, the two brothers grew a craving for a broader form of artistic expression. So they branched off on their own and started the design team, Designaholix. Designaholix was really the fodder for what would later become Soar Studios. With the initial start up, Designaholix generated enough income through freelance projects to purchase new equipment and prepare for the launch of Soar Studios. The intended purpose was to allow a space for collective creativity to evolve where each step influences the next and opens doors to fresh artistic outlooks and experiences. The artistic […]
Jul 1st, 2007 by Blaine Schultz
Huey Crowley
Photo by Erin Landry Looking at the studio of Huey Crowley, one can’t help but wonder about the visual landscapes he visits in his mind. “Yeah, it’s a little messy,” he says with humility. There’s a huge canvas lying against the wall; paints, oils, acrylics, books and finished art pieces are scattered on the floor. He hands me a pile of little square cardboard art pieces that he’s been selling on the streets for $20 a pop to buy groceries. For being 20 years old, Huey is no amateur in the art scene. In just two years he’s done illustrations for Stuck magazine and done deck art for Toy Machine Skateboards. He is also a skater and currently a student at MIAD. To see more of Huey’s work, visit hueycrowleypaintings.deviantart.com and myspace.com/hueythebutt. How would you describe your art? Lately I’ve been working on a lot of pieces that are influenced by abstract expressionism, but I don’t want to consider myself just an abstract expressionist. I believe that abstract expressionism is one of the purest ways to capture a feeling as far as painting goes. With these paintings, I am trying to develop a language through my mark-making, to recreate a certain point in my life. When it comes to your paintings, what is your main source of inspiration? I keep reverting back to my childhood. But as far as things that inspire me go, sometimes just walking down the street looking at buildings in Milwaukee, there are different variations of light which I find quite beautiful. I’m also inspired by the objects themselves – the bricks, the old paint, the worn-off advertisements, the painted-over graffiti. The other day I saw some windows in a building that were completely covered with dust. There were about 50 windows where dust had been cleaned off from the inside, each one by a different hand and in a unique way. I get a lot out of stuff like that. I am also inspired by Willem De Kooning, among many other abstract expressionist artists, and the graffiti artist Jean Michel Basquiat. My dad inspires me as well. How would you describe your process of creating? Painting feels sort of like a game of chess. Sometimes I will just sit for an hour or so and look at the painting, trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Paint has a life of its own. I’m just trying to help it along to a finished point. Before I start, I’m never really sure what my painting is going to look like. I don’t sketch it out beforehand. When I am satisfied with the result, I will know, but I don’t believe that there can ever be a set end-point to a painting, or a feeling for that matter. What do you feel is your goal or message as an artist? If I wanted to, I could portray something literally, a story or a feeling. I could draw it, I could film it, I could write […]
Jul 1st, 2007 by Blaine Schultz
Josh Rouse
“The title was conceived during a 70-mile walk through the north of Spain in October. I thought it was a funny name and it’s similar to Aesop’s tale by the name of Country Mouse and the City Mouse,” Josh Rouse says of his seventh full-length album. Filled with reflective lyrics, the sounds around the words reflect the lyrics themselves. “Put on your winter coat my dear / they say the snow is coming hard / gonna be the worst in years / seems my old wool hat’s disappeared,” he sings on “Snowy,” his blue velvet voice against a backdrop of sparse organ notes and a snare being tapped like a naked tree bough against a frosty window. Rouse still manages to make winter feel sunny by popping horns into songs languid with reverb-y guitars and docile upper octave piano (“Italian Dry Ice” ) and by hooking quickly into “Nice to Fit In” with an upbeat tempo incongruous to lyrics about being alien to a new country and feeling out of place. Rouse uses his trademark classic ‘60s and ‘70s pop sound to pay accidental or intentional homage to pop-folkies Bread, infusing his music with many of the same folk qualities and plenty of jazz. Rouse’s vocal team-ups with Paz Suay (who also works with Rouse in the duo known as “She’s Spanish, I’m American” ) is a sweet addition. Suay’s accented but perfectly complementary vocals lend an even more velvet quality to Roush’s smooth delivery. Country Mouse/City House is a summer release, but perhaps this is makes it captivating. Its seasonal timing is askew – a cold front riding on the heat waves of summer’s usual overly tripped-out pop. Conflicting themes of wanderlust versus holing up at home with one’s sweetheart mirror the feelings of cabin fever normally associated with the winter months. It may not be the hit of the summer, but when “mitten weather” comes (as Charlie Brown once called it), this album will be the one to warm up to. VS
Jul 1st, 2007 by Erin Wolf
July 2007
July 3 Ash Twilight of the Innocents Infectious/Warner Circus Diablo Circus Diablo Koch The Rodriguez Brothers Conversations Savant Kelly Rowland Ms. Kelly Music World Music/Columbia Silverstein Arrivals & Departures Victory Velvet Revolver Libertad RCA July 10 Against Me! New Wave Sire Bad Religion New Maps of Hell Epitaph Beatallica Sgt. Hetfield’s Motorbreath Pub Band Oglio Crowded House Time on Earth ATO Gallows Orchestra of Wolves Epitaph HIM Venus Doom Sire/Warner Interpol Our Love to Admire Capitol Reel Big Fish Monkey’s For Nothin’ and the Chimps for Free Rock Ridge Music Kim Richey Chinese Boxes Vanguard Smashing Pumpkins Zeitgeist Reprise Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Merge They Might Be Giants The Else Zöe/Rounder The Unseen Internal Salvation Hellcat/Epitaph July 17 The Cribs Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever Warner Minnie Driver Seastories Zöe/Rounder Editors An End Has a Start Epic/Fader Label Federation It’s Whateva Reprise Mick Harvey Two of Diamonds Mute The Magic Numbers Those the Brokes Astralwerks Meat Puppets Rise to Your Knees Anodyne MxPx Secret Weapon Tooth & Nail Rooney Calling the World Geffen Suzanne Vega Beauty & Crime Blue Note Matt White Best Days Geffen Yellowcard Paper Walls Capitol July 24 Adema Kill the Headlights Immortal Peter Criss One For All Silvercat/RED Emily Haines & The Soft Skeletons What is Free to a Good Home Last Gang Talib Kweli Ear Drum Blacksmith/Warner Mobile Tomorrow Starts Today The Militia Group Sum 41 Underclass Hero Island Tegan & Sara The Con Vapor/Sanctuary UNKLE War Stories Surrender All Jon Vanderslice Emerald City Barsuk July 31 Luka Bloom Tribe Cooking Vinyl Recoil subHuman Mute Shivaree Tainted Love: Mating Calls and Fight Songs Zöe/Rounder The Thrills Teenager Virgin
Jul 1st, 2007 by Erin Wolf
Temporary Beauty
The phrase “art on wheels” conjures images of taxi billboards, tour vans with flaming skulls and purple ponies, fancy ice cream trucks with neon graffiti and occasionally even cleverly wrapped buses. But look a little further – specifically, further down – and these words might also encompass another, much more fleeting form – skateboard deck art. Primarily placed on the flip side of skateboard decks, these graphics are unnoticeable until the skater gives a peek of paint and sticker via a kickflip or railstand. Although it’s tough to appreciate a deck artistically while in motion, decks have still garnered appreciation for their intense graphics that are political, religious, gender-infused; smacking culture around with a flippant force that ranges from the shocking to the quirky and is seldom dull. For this reason, skateboard decks are becoming a focus for many an art gallery in the last few years, forcing them to stop rolling and stay put, fascinating many an art aficionado who might not otherwise encounter a seven-ply piece of North American maple on wheels. It’s authentic American art in its essence, with many of the artists being skaters themselves. Most involved in deck art start at an early age, while they are still learning how to drop onto a board and roll. Twenty-year-old Milwaukee skater and illustrator for Stuck Magazine, Huey Crowley, is a perfect example. “I started messing around with deck art when I was in 7th grade, and I made my first actual attempt for Black Market Skateboards when I was a junior in high,” he explains. “The deck was called ‘Fear of a Black Market Planet’ and had all the members of Public Enemy on it.” His art made it all the way to Japan to be mass-produced. A technical issue kept it from release, but it was enough to light Crowley’s fire. “From then on I was always making stuff for skateboard companies. Skater artists like Ed Templeton really psyched me up to do skateboard art. It’s nice to be able to go out and skate, and when you’re done you can come home and still keep the creativity flowing on a different scale.” Gene Evans of Luckystar Studio also started early in the mixing of skating and paint. “Skateboarding is just something we did in the trailer park I grew up in. I drew and painted on everything as a kid. I’ve always painted over existing artwork – something I still do to this day. I’ve been painting and trading painted decks since I was a kid [in the late 70s].” + Building a Better… Board Most young skaters start out on plain decks – or ‘blanks’ – because they cost less. “The more bland or boring decks (blanks too) are basically for people that just want to skate (or are poor like me),” Crowley explains. Mike ‘Beer’ of Beer City Skateboards owns a shop in Milwaukee that offers both decks with graphics and blanks. Beer said that his blank decks are about $15 – […]
Jul 1st, 2007 by Erin Wolf
