MentorMe is a free resource for creatives who wish to learn from their peers. This Q&A resource provides insights into their initial artistic journey, what obstacles they have encountered and how they found their personal style. In each guide a different group of artists and photographers will share their insights, personal experiences and advice with creatives that wish to grow and evolve in their artistic practice.
Beautiful Bizarre Magazine mentors encourage, guide and inspire emerging artists as they explore their creativity, develop their technical skills and find their personal style.
MentorMe Edition 2 Mentors:
Caia Koopman, Jim McKenzie, Kindra Nikole, Brian Viveros, Hannah Yata, Nicomi Nix Turner, Rodrigo Luff, Martin Wittfooth, and Derek Gores
In Edition 2 Beautiful Bizarre Magazine’s Mentors respond to the following questions:
- Have you changed your initial field/medium since beginning your artistic journey? Or have you remained true to your original medium and passion for what you wanted to create? If not, where has your artistic journey led you and why?
- What obstacles have you encountered as an artist, and what were you able to do to overcome or navigate those to become stronger and more effective?
- How did you find your personal style? When did you feel you have reached a place where your work was recognisable and you could continue confidently with the same work?
Below 3 of the 9 mentors respond to the following question:
Have you changed your initial field/medium since beginning your artistic journey?
Or have you remained true to your original medium and passion for what you wanted to create? If not, where has your artistic journey led you and why?
Have you changed your initial field/medium since beginning your artistic journey? Or have you remained true to your original medium and passion for what you wanted to create? If not, where has your artistic journey led you and why?
Hannah Yata: “I’ve stuck to the same medium (oil painting) since I started my career as an artist. Although I did do some experiments with other types of paints like acrylics and watercolour, ultimately oils felt like the most natural, raw, and genuine substance to paint with.
I think my artistic journey has led me somewhere strange and beautiful; discovering my roots and what it means to be a woman, what it means to be feminine, and to reconnect with nature in a more than human world.”
Have you changed your initial field/medium since beginning your artistic journey? Or have you remained true to your original medium and passion for what you wanted to create? If not, where has your artistic journey led you and why?
Jim McKenzie: “Everyday our surroundings are just a little more different than they were the day before. As humans we are constantly growing and changing. We ingest new information and experience that changes our perspective towards things day by day. I think the work I make follows along in the same flow. The subject matter, feeling, and medium changes all the time depending on the mood I’m in at that particular moment.”
Have you changed your initial field/medium since beginning your artistic journey? Or have you remained true to your original medium and passion for what you wanted to create? If not, where has your artistic journey led you and why?
Derek Gores: “I worked in commercial art for almost two decades, making merchandising art for bands (Depeche Mode, U2, Van Halen, Grateful Dead) as well as for sports before finally taking the leap into my own personal fine art.
I learned to speak in many visual languages, which helped once my inner passions were more fully formed.”
To read the other Mentors’ answers to this question or any other in Edition 2 please click here to download our FREE Artist Resource, MentorMe.
