GAS Featured Artist: Karla Van Vliet by Sylvia Van Nooten

Karla Van Vliet’s newest book Fluency: A Collection of Asemic Writings has just been released from Shanti Arts. She Speaks in Tongues, a collection of poems and asemic writings which is forthcoming from Anhinga Press, Fall 2021.

Karla is the author of From the Book of Remembrance and The River From My Mouth, collections of poetry and paintings, published by Shanti Arts, and a poem length chapbook, Fragments: From the Lost Book of the Bird Spirit, published by Folded Word. She is an Edna St. Vincent Millay Poetry Prize finalist, and a three-time Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee. Her poems have appeared in Acumen, Poet Lore, The Tishman Review, Green Mountains Review, Crannog Magazine and others.

Karla’s paintings have been featured in Women Asemic Writers, UTSANGA.IT, Still Point Art Quarterly, Stone Voices Magazine, Champlain’s Lake Rediscovered, and Gate Posts with No Gate: The Leg Paint Project. She is a member of WAAVe Global (Women Asemic Artists & Visual Poets) and Asemic Writing: The New Post-Literate.

Karla is a co-founder and editor of deLuge Journal. She is an Integrative Dreamwork analyst, artist and administrator of the New England Young Writers' Conference at Bread Loaf, Middlebury College. Karla lives in Vermont, USA.  www.vanvlietarts.comwww.vanvlietgallery.com  Instagram: karlavanvliet

Karla Van Vliet’s work contains poetry within its movement and flow.  At first the pieces struck me as lovely and simple, but this is deceptive as they are deeply moving vignettes of emotion with the layers of words over clarifying color creating a conversation.  With Karla, asemic language becomes a truly unique expression of a self that expands to allow others to experience her voice. 

1)What is behind your artistic vision?  (Why do you do art?)

 

My first art was dance, I started to move in gesture before I could speak, before I had that skill. But I moved to what moved me, my father playing Mozart on the piano, or shady grove on the banjo. I came late to language. Yet I had so much in me to express. I thought I was a strange and awkward person due to trauma, and in a way that may be true, but I’ve come to believe that I was born an artist, someone who sees the world in a unique way. I’m just coming to terms with that now, although I have lived a full life of following my artistic path. First a dancer, then a painter, then a poet and now both writer and painter. I once lamented to my daughter that I was sorry I didn’t have the funds to buy her all the things she desired (we had been out school shopping), that perhaps I should have taken a job at the bank instead of being an artist. Then she spoke truth to me. “Mom”, she said, “but you have to paint, it’s who you are. If there was no more paper in all the world, I would give you my wall to paint on.” She was right, of course. 

 

I’m not sure all artists work to express some truth in themselves, to discover that truth. Perhaps they do. But I do. When I started writing poems, I wrote to express in code (poems are perfect for this) what I could not say straight. When I paint, I believe I’m tapping into what wants to be expressed before it has come into words, or what is there that wants expressing without words. I started asemic work when I had a dream of asemic script over the moon. I have had this dream image over and over, the dream insisting on the image. I hadn’t really been aware of asemic writing before that dream. I am a dreamwork analyst and have worked with my own dreams since 1991. I have built my life on the truth and the path that comes from dreams and I understood it was an imperative that I paint that image. All of my asemic work has followed from that dream.

 

I often define asemic work as the gesture of writing, that it kept my hand in the practice of writing when I had no words. I’m thinking now that I have been emphasizing the wrong word, writing, but it is gesture that is at the heart of it. Gesture, writing, painting, dancing, I was born to create gesture in expression of what moves me. 

2) How does being an artist help you communicate with the world? 

 

And does that gesture help me to communicate with the world? I’m not sure it does. I’m not sure I care if it does. Of course, I want people to like what I put out there.  I love it when people are touched by my images and words. But would I stop if they were not? I think I could not stop. First and foremost, my work is a communication with myself. Perhaps that is selfish. Perhaps it sounds like I only care for myself. But I care deeply for people in the world, I would give you the shirt off my back in an instant if you needed it. I listen to people’s feelings and experiences with compassion and non-judgement, and strangers often tell me their deepest secrets and traumas. But does my art help me to communicate with the world? Looked at in another way, perhaps it does. Perhaps it shares who I am, or an aspect of who I am, that otherwise would not be shared. I am a private person but I have never locked up my poems or paintings in the drawer of my desk. I have spread them far and wide. People have called me brave for doing so. I’ve never seen it that way. It seems the safest way to share myself with the world. A blessing for that.

3) Have you built or joined a community of artists around the world? How did you do this?

 

I live in a very rural area of the world. Given that, I know a lot of artists, Vermont is full of artists, musicians and writers. But it is also limited in many ways, no large cities, few galleries, or museums and none really that are cutting edge. The community of artists that I have connected with through the asemic groups and other artist and writing groups on fb have been a godsend. I am inspired by the work I see every day, encouraged by the response to my own work but also to the work of others. Encouraged that there are so many out there interested in art and writing, pouring themselves into their own work, sharing their work, connecting and supporting each other. It’s brilliant. Like an artistic diaspora come home.

GAS Featured Artist: Lawrence Barrett, presented by Sylvia Van Nooten

Lawrence Barrett’s work is a geometric work of color and line, planes that stretch out and circles that embrace. To me there is a depth in each piece that releases something in the viewer, like reading a poem that speaks directly to the heart yet not with written language. His poetry and art are amazing meditations and a place to contemplate quietly. Sylvia Van Nooten

Q: What is behind your artistic vision?

A: The interplay of shapes and colors, space and textures, positive feelings, emotions and ideas, happening simultaneously. Art for me is a meditation. I like to think that I am creating/experiencing layers upon layers upon layers of flow and integration emanating from some superconscious moment. It’s as if each piece is like a therapy session washing/cleansing me in color. It’s very personal, but public; like a confession.

Q: How does being an artist help you communicate with the world?

A: My art levels me on a plane of positivity with zero anxiety; and that’s how I begin my adventure with every piece; that’s the place from which my art speaks.

Q: Have you built or joined a community of artists around the world?

A: I have obviously contributed my art on Face- Book. I have helped to create local drum circles and bands. I have participated in numerous poetry readings. I like performing on the local stage. I like watching art live as it happens. I think being in a collective of artists, local or virtual, encourages and spurs artistic growth. All feedback is good.

 Hear Laurence read on GAS video show #3.

Barrett, a retired U.S. Army and Iraqi war veteran, as well as a native Marylander and transplant El Pasoan, is the author of five self-published works:  Radical Jazz, Love Poems for the End of The World Threads of Latitude; Drum Song; and Theory of Stealing Bicycles. He has an MA in Human Resources from Webster University and has resided in El Paso for the last twenty years. Lawrence has been published in El Paso Magazine (Nov 2008), Mezcla:  Art & Writing from the Tumble Words Poetry Project (2009), Calaveras Fronterizas (2009), Dining and Fun (2010): An Anthology of Beat Texas Writing (2016); and online at the Newspaper Tree.  He has been interviewed by Paperback Swap; and three of his books have been reviewed by Unlikely Stories. Lawrence Barrett has been a featured reader at the Barbed Wire Readings hosted by Border Senses. He has presented poetry workshops for the El Paso Writer’s League and the Tumble Words Poetry Project. He has had the honor of reading his poetry twice on the Monica Gomez “State of the Arts” Radio Program. His works are available at Amazon.com

GAS Featured Artist: Paula Damm, by Sylvia Van Nooten

Paula Damm

Paula’s work is a powerful statement about women’s traditional ‘work’ and art.  I’ve often wondered how many brilliant women artists expressed themselves through their textile art but were never recognized as artists.  Paula reflects on that question in her work, in a sense, speaking for and to these women in our collective past and in the present.  I find poetry in her work and voices, voices we need to remember and acknowledge.  Here is Paula Damm in her own words.  ~Sylvia Van Nooten

1)What is behind your artistic vision? 

(Why do you do art?)

Truthfully, it has taken a long time to realize that what I do IS art.  Or rather, as I allowed myself more personal confidence and freedom to expand what I have done for years, I believe it has BECOME art.  To explain, I have always created things with fiber/thread and needle. I always thought of it as being a continuance of honoring the history of women's work this knitting, sewing, embroidery, weaving.   A few years ago I found a bubbling up of dissatisfaction with my “creations” - an acute and discouraging feeling that they were successfully rendered but empty because they were designed by someone else - and copied by me. This coincided with a visit from my sister, Terri Witek, the amazing poet. During her visit she was describing merging poetry and weaving. I had no idea what she was talking about.  We spoke about words, space, void, marking, and pattern, the hidden and the revealed.   I felt the electricity happen and the world opened up. Our collaboration from this visit was actually accepted in Deeper Than Indigo:Southeast Textile Symposium, St. Augustine, Florida (2018). A poet’s statement written on my weaving fiber, fractured and woven into 2 delicate indigo pieces with gold (her words) scattered throughout.  The magic had begun for me.  I gave myself permission to look at my “women’s work” in ways I never would have imagined.  It was life changing.   I realized that all the weaving, sewing, knitting, embroidery I had done throughout my life was my preparation for my future as an artist.  Plus my gratitude to my sister is everlasting.

2) How does being an artist help you communicate with the world

Social media has been great for people like me who are emerging as artists.  I put things out there and I get some likes.  I would get hearts and comments!!  Not tons, but enough to validate and encourage me forward.   I have “met” many other artists and have been inspired by them and their work.   Being in the middle of a pandemic also spurred my creativity and gave me time to work consistently since the school where I am the nurse went remote. 

3) Have you built or joined a community of artists around the world? How did you do this?

As I have said, social networking has been a godsend and people have been very gracious in allowing me to participate in their groups.  I was astounded at the international reach these groups have - really, I was very naive - yet most were kind and welcoming.  I felt embraced when I joined  GAS: Poetry, Art & Music, Women Asemic Artists & Visual Poets//WAAVe.   I am most proud to have built a community through my TogetherVoice project.  I reached out to people from around the world and asked them to send me an audio clip of their voice saying TOGETHER in their language.  I then changed their voice into a sound wave and embroidered it onto a lovely piece of vintage linen.  When I received a request to participate from individuals in the Casina Project in Milan Italy I was blown away.  The piece contains the lovely voices of women in a prison in Milan, Italy and individuals from the Casina Project as well as my mailman, family members, friends, other artists -   I cried and realized this piece was no longer mine but belonged to everyone, whether they have participated or not.  My latest masks using a plaster cast mold of my face were a direct result of viewing Miya Turnbull’s masks on instagram @miyaturnbull.

GAS Featured Artist: Kristine Snodgrass, presented by Sylvia Van Nooten

Kristine Snodgrass is an artist, poet, professor, curator, and publisher living in Tallahassee, Florida. She is the author of Rather, from Contagion Press (2020) and the chapbook, These Burning Fields (Hysterical Books 2019) as well as  Out of the World (Hysterical Books 2016) and The War on Pants (JackLeg Press 2013). Her poetry has appeared in decomP, Versal, Big Bridge, 5_Trope, Shampoo, 2 River View, Otoliths, and South Florida Poetry Journal among others. Kristine’s asemic and vispo work has been published in Utsanga (Italy), Slow Forward, Asemic Front 2 (AF2). Her work was just featured in the Asemic Women Writers Summer Exhibition Online. Snodgrass has collaborated with many artists and poets.

I “met” Kristine Snodgrass on the Facebook page,  Asemic Writing: The New Post Literate several years ago.  At first I was intimidated by her credentials and hesitated to get to know her.  Once I got past my own neurosis I found her to be the most supportive, listening, creative and FABULOUS person.  She is not necessarily aware of how much she supports and encourages other writers and artists, but she does.  Her work, both the poetry and art, is enigmatic, deeply thoughtful and with an underlying playfulness that adds to the richness.  In her own words, here is Kristine.  ~ Sylvia Van Nooten

-What's behind your artistic vision? 

I think my answer may be similar to other artists: I do it because I have to. It is not just expression, or a politic, or an outlet, it is my life. A good friend once told me that I had an integrity to my art that was great. My life and my art are the same. There is such a small boundary between what I make and who I am. I think for many of us, we are caught in a gray area that seems liminal, and that is all consuming and becomes a place of ecstasy. I have said this before about ecstasy. Do you know that song, “Starry Starry Night”? Listen to it. Go ahead. There is a recognition there of Van Gogh and his love that cost his sanity. In the song there is a lyric, “With eyes that know the darkness in my soul” referring to VG and his ability to see the human consciousness and if that is the case, if he could see that forever in us, how torn up and diseased he must have been? How years later one observer could look at him, really look at him and understand this. And the loneliness, too. This is the artist. And I don’t want to liken myself to Van Gogh, not at all, but to lay light on this condition. Maybe I see that darkness, too. I think I am misunderstood, mostly.  I don’t know what ppl think about me. I think I make ppl angry. I think I have been angry, too. If I can show them what I see, then that is good.

-How does being an artist help you communicate with the world?

I think I am horrible at communication. People are always mad at me. I don’t know what that has to do with my art. Maybe I suffer and the art is supposed to take that over. The art is something I almost can’t control. So my body must be trying to tell me something, or tell the world something. I often have this fantasy of being in a big space, like a warehouse, and rolling around on the floor in many buckets worth of paint. Yellow, blue, orange, pink. I don’t even have to be naked! What communication! I miss being in public spaces, arting and reading poetry. I think that COVID has made me realize that there is a touching we need from others. I need to see and feel an audience, or watch another poet or artist. Don’t get me wrong, all of the work I am doing now long distance or distanced is so wonderful, I just miss that here, now thing. 

-Have you built or joined a community of artists around the world?

YES! My best friends are artists around the world. I have met so many people in Facebook groups! I also am on Twitter and there are some really cool folks there. I would say, without hyperbole, that being on Facebook in the asemic groups has changed my life. My work has grown so much in such a short period of time. I have been able to collaborate with so many wonderful artists, and to share work through mail and the Internet. I have met dear friends and also some really great mentors. It is so weird because we “hate” social media, you know?

 

GAS Featured Artist: Amy Rodriguez, presented by Sylvia Van Nooten

Amy Rodriguez is another friend from the asemic world.  Her art is exquisitely rendered, layers of color and shapes that speak pure visual poetry.  I have several of her works and what strikes me is how powerful they are in person, as if I am hearing words I can’t quite comprehend but can feel deeply.  Below, Amy describes the processes that create these pieces of loveliness. 

-What's behind your artistic vision? 

Art is an active meditation.

I create with the intention of holding up a mirror to the unconscious, but when mirror faces mirror, what is seen? My paintings are maps to unseen worlds, foreign realms, pockets of consciousness inexpressible by other means. Painting is a way for me to move past space, time and understanding. To express essence with color. To inspire contemplation in myself and others. To usher in the birth of something new. The Sun is a source of great influence and inspiration in my life and it features prominently in many paintings.  

Most of my work is done with India ink, water and sometimes pencil. I adhere to a process of layering color, washing, drying and layering again. Washing the pages feels like a sacred ritual and I will often wash 3 times before the final period of drying.

I add the asemic elements of my work last, writing from the depths of dark, empty voids. Each stroke is an act of processing, moving through the trauma and grief I have experienced in this life, toward clarity, light, sweetness and peace. 

Some of my greatest influences are the marvelous immensity of the known Universe, our beautiful Mother Gaia, the philosophy of Zen, and the writings of Carl Jung. 

"I was being compelled to go through this process of the unconscious. I had to let myself be carried along by the current, without a notion of where it would lead me." -Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962), p. 196

-How does being an artist help you communicate with the world?

I have always had a strong desire to share 'beauty medicine' in
whatever form I am able. A lot of my drive to create comes from that inspiration. I often choose bold colors because I find them uplifting and hope that those who view my art feel uplifted as well. 

-Have you built or joined a community of artists around the world?

I first encountered other Asemic artists through the Asemic Writing: The New Post-Literate group on Facebook. I was honored to be invited to become a member of Women Asemic Artists & Visual Poets // WAAVe Global after connecting with several wonderful women involved with the group such as Kristine Snodgrass, Sylvia Van Nooten and Nicola Winborn among many other creative and talented women. I am inspired daily by these outstanding Artists and feel grateful to be in their company, forging a new path together. 

In 2020 Amy was a featured Artist in The Attic Zine No. 7, Green and Purple 1 issue. Her work was also featured in Red Fez Issue No. 126. This year she was proud to be a part of the upcoming first edition of WAAVe Global Gallery, published by Hysterical books in the summer of 2021.

More of her artwork can be seen at: 

https://www.facebook.com/amyrodriguezarteclectic

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/6-amy-rodriguez?fbclid=IwAR0ajUtsc5nI2qkFlQoG-pk71IsY1tV5NzWi_zjHDA-hg9XywxwiG8K3Heo

GAS Featured Artist: Alicia Starr Ryan, by Sylvia Van Nooten

I first saw Alicia Starr Ryan’s work on the Facebook page, Asemic Writing: The New Post Literate.   I instantly stopped scrolling down the page, caught by the tension and beauty of the image.  Alicia does this, she creates art that is both perfectly balanced yet unsynchronized, she draws the viewer in as we concentrate on the contrasting elements, each detail adding another thought to the image.  I’m honored to present her here with her own words and paintings.  The following four pieces are from Poisonwood Bible Notes.

In Alicia’s Words:

I found a photograph in an album my mom put together as I grew up. One photo stood out among countless others. Looks to be first grade. I was sitting in the first row. The class was making what appear to be Valentine cards. The entire class was facing the camera while I was busy focusing on my masterpieces. My art journey began.

When We Were Close

Some of us--poets, musicians, visual artists--begin our works with one word, one chord, a scrap of paper, a mark, a stroke of color that carries us on a journey, an adventure. It is as if we dare ourselves to take a chance to make something work. Most often this is my jump-off into the project at hand.

Looking back through the years of “art” it became apparent it was often the media directing the outcome, not so often an idea. The various collections are obviously period pieces and easily identified as such. Whether a painting, collage, performance art, they all have a period and memory associations.

Eleven years ago a friend introduced me to IUOMA (International Union of Mail-Artists), an eye opening connection to the international art community. After eight years of college majoring in art, this community revealed a newfangled world - mail art. I have met outstanding creative people through these exchanges. Artists who introduced arty slides, artistamps, rubber stamping, book making, and the official word for scribbling, “asemic writing”.  Cheryl Penn, to name one of the people from the early group I exchanged with, offered encouragement and inspiration. Her art calls led to what I consider my best work. She pulled me into making books.

(Many thanks to Sylvia Van Nooten for her invitation to take part in this project.

And Picasso Gaglione for the kick in the bum to follow through.)

Alicia doesn’t necessarily have preferred medium.  She uses mostly mixed media, collage and paint.  She writes, “Painting over images enables an ownership of sorts.” 

On her process, “Collage altered by scratching with an Olfa knife because it is difficult to control the end result. With that said, some types of paper allow writing words, mathematical equations by using the scratching method. I enjoy the surprise of what may be considered mistakes. Just painting. I tend to paint over almost everything. Add, cover, add, cover, add.” 

GAS Featured Artist: Nicola Winborn by Sylvia Van Nooten

Nicola’s artworks have been published internationally in Art in a Box, Circulaire 132, Rubber Postcard, South Florida Poetry Journal, Sonic Boom (cover artist also), Stampzine, Utsanga and X-Peri. In 2019 she founded Attic Zine: The International Book of Colour, a loose-leaf assembling zine, which she continues to edit. She is also the Founder/Curator of Marsh Flower Gallery, an online exhibition platform, hosting artists from around the world. Nicola posts regular news about all of her creative adventures on her Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/nicola.winborn

 

Title: watching the river 1

Details: Mixed media and collage on paper, April 2020

Commentary: In this series, I have brought together my collage work, Asemic Writing and some rubber stamp art elements too. The six 'drawings' shown here form part of a wider body of 30 images, all generated during the first Covid-19 'lockdown' in April 2020. I created them in memory of my non-biological father William James Edward McClellan - each piece is dedicated to him. As a young man, he was a merchant seaman and he survived The Battle of the Atlantic: as an elder, he loved to watch the river and the comings and goings of its ships from the windows of his flat in Liverpool. 

Title: watching the river 2

Details: Mixed media and collage on paper, April 2020.

Commentary: This piece includes 'regular' writing as well as Asemic. The words around the blue circle read: "a great lover of ships" in continuous letters. 

Title: watching the river 3

Details: Mixed media and collage on paper, April 2020.

Commentary: I loved the phrase "sailing craft" underneath the image of the boat, so I decided to keep it rather than cut it off when I was selecting collage elements for this image. 

Title: watching the river 4

Details: Mixed media, collage and rubber stamping on paper, April 2020.

Commentary: The skyline 'silhouette' in this piece is an outline of some of the waterfront buildings near The Albert Dock in Liverpool city centre. I wanted to reference the beauty of my home city in an implicit fashion and so I opted for this veiled yet visible reference to architectural landmarks which I have always loved. 

Title:  watching the river 5

Details: Mixed media, collage and rubber stamping on paper, April 2020.

Commentary: This piece (along with No. 4 and No. 6) also includes rubber stamping: the radiating 'Ws' were made with a commercial letter 'W' rubber stamp and a black ink pad. 

Title: watching the river 6

Details: Mixed media, collage and rubber stamping on paper, April 2020.

Commentary: Here I wanted to render an unknown archetypal 'landscape' through rubber stamped collage papers: the boat travels through this beautiful dreamlike world. 

Nicola Winborn: Interview 

I met Nicola online on an Asemic Art Group about two years ago.  I was just starting to post my work there and she was the first in the group to encourage me.  She helped me so much with my confidence.  Building people up is one beautiful part of Nicola, another is her art.  Looking at the six pieces she submitted for this interview you can see the depth and range of her talent.  I’ll let her speak for herself and I encourage everyone to visit Marsh Gallery and experience the artists she showcases.  ~Sylvia Van Nooten

Q. 1: What is behind your artistic vision? Why do you do art? 

I have loved using art materials since childhood: in some of my earliest memories I am playing on the floor of our family living room with paper, brushes and watercolours. A tin of paints felt like a magic box to me back then and still does! I don't think the thrill of art will ever diminish for me, it will never become stale. The world of art, whether it's creating my own work or experiencing other people's, is unbelievably exciting for me, irresistible. It's also essential to me and far from a 'luxury', as some tend to see it in our overly utilitarian world: in short, too big a part of me dies if there is no art in my life. It is as necessary to me as breathing: I see art and creativity as life itself, not some optional add-on that is somehow 'self-indulgent' and can therefore be thrown away when personal and/or political agendas become brutal, blind. 

Q. 2: How does being an artist help you communicate with the world? 

I tend to work in mixed media painting/drawing, with emphases on Collage, Mail Art, Rubber Stamp Art, Asemic Writing and Slow Stitch. My methods are often eclectic and will fuse disciplines together: for instance, in 2022, I will be showing some textile pieces online on Marsh Flower Gallery, which join Asemic Writing, Textile Painting and Slow Stitch practices together. It's important for me to allow myself to experiment in this way, since my brain seems to be wired in a fashion which starts to see all kinds of ways artistic methods can be brought together, and so I have to create outlets for this. I often feel that visual art is predominantly an instinctive communication with our world and, since we live in cultures dominated by rationalism, this felt side of our lives is too often dismissed or ignored. However, our instincts are a very important part of our species. In my own creative experience, artistic communication is a place of flow, emotions, visions, the unconscious, and it has vital messages for us. I have discovered that visual art is a mode of communication with its own language and dynamics; it takes time and patience to get to know this terrain and to find one's own voice within this great and powerful river of creativity. 

Q. 3: Have you built or joined a community of artists around the world? How did you do this? 

I have helped build new communities of artists around the world and I have also joined existing international communities, in fact, often there's a bit of both going on. Take Attic Zine for instance. I founded this handmade, international assembling zine in September 2018 and it is a unique contribution to this genre in a number of ways, especially as that it is the first ever zine to make colour its primary focus and organising principle. However, it is also a publication very much indebted to and part of existing artistic traditions, especially the world of Mail Art. Mail Artists are part of what is known as the "Eternal Network" - a constantly growing and evolving international community of extremely talented artists, who use the world's postal services to communicate with each other, exchange art, collaborate and create group international projects. And so I feel that I have become part of this beautiful "Eternal Network" in recent years, and I have been made so welcome in this community, since it is made up of the most kind, rare and special people you could ever meet! I feel honoured to have had Attic Zine embraced so fully by artists from all around the world: fellow creatives genuinely love this publication, they find its concentration on colour to be exciting, joyous and novel. Recently, my friend the wonderful artist Kimm Kiriako, described Attic Zine as a "community". Her words made me so unbelievably happy, since I do indeed see Attic as a great coming together of many artists. It's a place where they can share their love of the colour spectrum and celebrate the great pigments of our world through their own unique creative contributions and each other's. 

Social media has been key in the setting up and running of Attic Zine. I would still be able to organise it without this platform, however, it would have taken much longer to get established and I wouldn't be able to get as many issues out per year as I do. Online life has turbo-charged the development of Attic Zine, for sure, and I am most grateful for this! I've also been able to make contact with other artists easily through social media. My idea for Attic Zine grew out of me becoming friends with Picasso Gaglione and Darlene Domel, editors and founders of Stampzine. Picasso saw my work online and invited me to make pages for Stampzine: this recognition and endorsement gave me a huge confidence boost at a time when I was just beginning to rediscover my creative self. After making my first set of Rubber Stamp Art pages for Picasso and Darlene, something clicked in my brain. Alongside making these zine pages, I'd also been making a set of books in boxes - I made a Book of Red, a Book of Yellow, a Book of Orange etc. In fact, I worked my way through the entire rainbow, and the seven books I created in this way sit next to me in my studio each day. One day, I was looking at my books in boxes alongside my copy of Stampzine and the eclectic, fusing side of my brain went into overdrive. I remember thinking to myself, "Imagine having books of colour made by the whole world, not just me". A light bulb illuminated and next thing I knew the seed of Attic Zine was born within me. I then began to communicate with and run my ideas past Picasso, who was so supportive and kind to me when I was getting Attic Zine off the ground. Both him and Darlene are angels in my life, they are such dear friends.