Artist spotlight: Sasha Sagan

This months cover, one of our
best so far:]

Artist Spotlight: Sasha Sagan- Shadow Play, By K.K.W

Sasha Sagan. 
Photo courtesy
of the artist. 

'The worst enemy to creativity is self doubt'. Although I knew little about Sasha Sagan, it was clear from the beginning that self doubt has little hold on her. She is not only an amazing ballet dancer but also a choreographer working at the Macedonia Opera and Ballet. From Skopje(capital city of Macedonia)She studied at Point Park University, is a fan of Sylivia Plath, and far as politics, she a creative liberal. Sasha, as a dancer and creative person, has a duality to her personality. An ability to delve into the classical and the past, while embracing the present. Bright eyes looking towards the dawn. 

Sasha Sagan
Photo courtesy of the artist.

She recently sent me a link to view "Shadow play", an amazing neo-contemporary pop-culture,  ballet performance. The idea is sublime in its simplicity and universal receptivity; almost every culture has some kind of shadow game/shadow play and every human being knows its shadow. Its high minded creative choreography is wonderful to behold, blending perfectly with the vivid music. The music at the beginning of the vid-clip is haunting in its emotion, coupled with the strange beauty of the dancing shadows. It pulls you in and lines you up for the 'twist', like a near drastic change-over that leaves you stunned. Pop songs from the 80's & 90's suddenly break through; first at odds with the beginning, but then fits together perfectly and your comfortable and elated(like an old man in hot bath:). After stunning you it quickly takes you away(Holiday)and doesn't let you go. The choreography and the dancers solid execution of their movements brings it all together. The forms the dancers take are really impressive, smooth, and powerful. It reminded me of Die Mobile's Schattenspiel, shadow-play, shadow-dance, schattentheater or Shadow light productions "The wild party". The shadows joining together like molecules in the creation of something beautiful- shadow play. Along with its charming ambience and grace, Shadow play's most stunning quality is the duality of its range, classical/modern pop-culture. Its amazing, and its quite clear that Sasha Sagan's work at the Macedonian Opera and Ballet is remarkable and wonderful. I can't wait to be there in person and see live. If you would like to know more go to:www.facebook.com/sasha.sagan?ref=ts 

"Art is the reason, art is the way"    

Sasha Sagan,
photo courtesy
of the artist.

Macedonian ballet performace.
Photo courtesy of the artist.  

Sasha Sagan.
Photo courtesy of the artist.

Sasha Sagan.
Photo courtesy of the Artist.

"See It Now": Skopje in Autumn Blues

An alternate cover for a special
post. On the cover, Tanja St
(Stoimenovska).
Photo by Harald Schenker.

"SEE IT NOW": Skopje in Autumn Blues. Written by Tanja Stoimenovska with photos by Harald Schenker. 

Skopje doesn't have a straight forward narrative. Its a city where carts pulled by horses and Mercedeses pass along the same streets? A friend once told me that Skopje was 'shabby, but charming!' Let me try to scratch under the surface and maybe reveal one or two things about what makes the city what it is-a place of many intertwined small worlds, different, yet compact. 

Ajvar. A traditional Home-made dip.
Photo courtesy of Harald Schenker.

To many Macedonians Autumn means ajvar. It is the favorite home-made dip, if one could describe it as such, made of peppers, aubergine and a great amount of oil. The process of making it is endless, an entire day to bake the peppers, to peel the skin off and then, to cook them again. Soul food, no health benefits. Often people join in producing it, friends, neighbors, families. I never tried to do it myself, but I am a fervent consumer. I can say with confidence that the result of this hard work, ajvar, is irresistible. A red, home-made dip, in garish red color, that goes well with any dish, any time of the day. Or night for that matter.

Making Ajvar. Photo by Harald Schenker.

Debar Maalo, a favorite part of Skopje for many residents. Old houses, small restaurants, green alleys, cars driving slowly...Its a place that is disappearing at a quick pace;

While I write these words a bull dozer is probably working relentlessly somewhere on a new construction site and tearing down a 1920's house making way for a new, grotesquely ugly building. 

Skopje's markets are a world of there own. Hustle and bustle, vendors praising their product, buyers trying to get a bargain...fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, cheese, cakes, clothes, pottery, and screws-one can find everything there. The market is a last resort if your desperately searching for something in shops and fail to find it. They will have it at the market.

MSU: Museum of Contemporary Art. If you want to escape the crowds and the noise of the city, this is the place to go. If you are lucky and the museum is open, as it features some strange hours, you can get a glimpse of Macedonian modern and contemporary art.

But even if its closed, as it is on sunday afternoons, it still has a great location on top of one of Skopje's hills, some what behind the fortress. The view from there on a clear, sunny day is amazing, offering a spectacle of the mountains surrounding Skopje.    

The distant noises of the city make you listen carefully, trying to distinguish the sounds of passing cars, church bells ringing, children shouting, and muezzins singing at the many mosques. The building itself stands as a symbol of the late modernism of the 70's, defying in dignity, the kitsch of the pseudo-architecture of the last few years.

Turska Carshija/Old Bazaar or Stara Carshija. Turska Carshija to me is the place where one can still feel the city's heart beat. It lies north of the river Vardar with its numerous narrow, winding streets where even a resident of Skopje could easily get lost. It stands there with its many mosques and few churches, with oriental bath houses turned galleries, jewelry shops and kebab places. My favorite spot is Kurshumli An, a caravanserai built in the 16th century. It used to accommodate travelers during the Ottoman times. The cattle and horses stayed on the first floor, the guests on the second. Today the place is used for exhibitions, as a concert venue or for cultural events. The mix of the old and the contemporary produces a beautiful, creative atmosphere.

As a final spot, walking down the old bazaar one bumps into a bar called 'Damar'. An island in Skopje, of good music, creative people, fancy dress parties. A world of its own giving color and breathing life into the dullness of the routine of everyday life. 

This will have to do for now. I hope I managed to portray a picture in your minds of this place in the Balkans, striving so hard to change, that at times it forgets what it really is. Love it, or hate it, it is my home. 

If you would like to know more: www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skopje

www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=577584612&ref=ts#!/profile.php?id=577584612&sk=wall 

"Art is the reason. art is the way" 

Biljana Vasileva: Q&A

Artist Spotlight: 

Biljana Vasileva, of Skopje. 

Interview By K.K.W

Biljana Vasileva.
Photo courtesy of the artist.

Head of  the Design & Production department @ MPM(Media Print Macedonian), WAZ Media Group. She studied at The Academy Fine Arts in Skopje(capital city of Macedonia). Born on December 9th, she loves cats. Biljana Vasileva is an artist with a wide range of skills, interest's, and things to say.

Biljana's current show. Image courtesy of the artist.

BV: I've been very busy Kerwin, ... Apologize for the delay...Hope you are o.k. 

SP: I understand Biljana, life keeps us all busy and duty calls(quite often it seems). And I've been well :]

SP: When did you start creating art?

BV: I remember I’ve been making portraits of people around me since a very early age. For the first time I started seriously being preoccupied with visual art during secondary school, at the age of 14-15. At that time I was introduced to drawing and painting skills and printing techniques, and that process continued during my studies at the Academy of Fine Arts. After the graduation (I graduated printmaking and graphic design) I started to search for my own, personal expression, released from the influences of my teachers, and with complete freedom in the choice of mediums and techniques I was experimenting with a combination of drawing and painting, collage and other mixed techniques. Experimenting, learning new mediums and at the same time intimate search for answers to deep and personal questions related to art, are my continuous challenges until now. 

SP: Who, as far as artist go, are your influences?

BV: I can’t choose some direct influences, but I’m closely attached to impressionists. I’ve learned a lot while studying and copying their artworks. I’ve also been under the influence of expressionists, 19 and early 20 century are somehow closest to my art personality. I admire Degas, Monet, inevitable Van Gogh, Rothko, great Picasso, Nicolas de Stael… Closest to me by narration is Francis Bacon with his sophisticated darkness and Zdzislaw Beksinski among newest artists.

SP: Most of the time there's a catalyst that leads to certain kinds of creative work. What was it that lead to those amazing ink drawings you posted to facebook?

BV: In my drawings it’s easy to recognize alienation and solitude; I was feeling this after my mother’s death, together with my deep sadness. I found myself alone in this world, without the protection I used to have and I was confronted with the transience of human life and I put these feelings on paper. From the other side, every time of my life is related to some kind of music which have influenced it. At the time I was creating these ink drawings I was listening almost all the time to Satie, Rachmaninov, Philip Glass’s minimalism and to the music of Macedonian composer Kodjabashia and they strengthened the atmosphere of alienation, emptiness and melancholy. I was simply putting on paper the stories born in my head while listening to their music.

SP: Are there any other mediums you've worked in prior
to the artwork in question?

BV: Except for drawing, painting and printmaking, I’ve been working in video art last year, and my professional occupation is graphic design. 

SP: What's next for you as far as creative projects?

BV: Lately I’ve been preoccupied with graphic design, a project I’m working on for the last few months. Before that I was working on a theater show, as an author of the video art and as a part of the whole process of creating the concept of the show, primarily visual aspect. I developed an amazing artistic collaboration with the director and choreographer of the show, my friend Gordana Dean Pop-Hristova. We became really harmonized, a creative tandem. And we are already working on some ideas about our next , most probably film project. At the same time I becoming more and more obsessed with a desire for classical oil painting. I can’t wait to find enough time and energy to jump into that challenge, to feel the smell of the turpentine again.

SP: Aside from art, what do like for enjoyment, relaxing? Tell us a little about Biljana, if you will.

BV: As a professional occupation I’m responsible for design and production in a large media corporation where I'm trying to insert a creative and artistic mark. Aside from my duties I enjoy visiting exhibitions, concerts and other cultural events with my friends; which are best occasions to keep together in this dynamic and fast way of living. I am animal admirer; I'm especially fond of cats and I adore my cat Pero which relaxes me and makes me laugh after work. There is a lot of music and internet in my life. Continuous learning and working on self-improvement together with continuous setting, and working on achievement; on new goals, is making me feel realized and fulfilled.

SP: Biljana, wonderful interview. And thanks so much for taking the time. I too am thinking about oil painting; when I'll have time and the smell of turpentine in the morning. Cheers! 

If you would like to know more:www.facebook.com/pages/Art-Without-Limits-Biljana-Vasileva-Artworks/126095270806279?ref=ts 

"Art is the reason, art is the way"

Biljana Vasileva.
Photo courtesy of the artist

Image #1. Courtesy of the artist.

Image #2. Courtesy of the artist

Image #3. Courtesy of the artist.

Meglena Visinska: Amazing

#1 Untitled. Image courtesy of the artist'
'#1 Shot and edited by me. Taken at my favorite place...
my mountain house above the lake Ohrid, 
where I can find the peace 
and escape from the awful cage (labyrinth called Skopje) ...' 

Meglena Visinska: Amazing.   Article by K.K.W

She's studying Business Administration with general Management @ the University of  American collage in Skopje. Born into a family with many artists(one of whom is considered one of Macedonia's greatest painters). Gifted from day one. As strong as she is beautiful,  and somewhat modest. All this matched by her wit and kindness. 

Meglena Visinska.
Photo courtesy of the artist.

Meglena Visinska.
#2, Photo courtesy of the artist. 
'#2 Is my favorite one....an accidental shot white I was on a boat ride, 
but when I look at it...it is my freedom that I see..'

#3, Untitled photo. Image courtesy of the artist.
'#3 Shot and edited by me. One of my best friends, 
taken on the top of the Vodno hill in Skopje, this summer'

They say 'one thing leads to another'; and at this point in life I'm beginning think its true. After meeting Ana Piponska in NYC, I came to know some of her friends on facebook. One in particular struck a cord in me from thousands of miles away. Her profile photos are always engaging, powerful, funny, showing you just a little of who she is, or how pissed she is. When I was unable to find any real amount of info on Macedonian painters, she sent me a few links. One of whom, Dimitar Kondovski, turned out to be one of the most popular posts I've done. Kondovski's work is amazing as is his granddaughter, Meglena Visinska. Although studying business she paints, draws, is a photographer, and has a serious amount of ability in graphic art. Since 2003 photography's been one of her main outlets. "I don't really consider myself a photographer"(she recently said). In a way she's right, more of an artist. Her photo's are at once bold and seem straight forward, but then again they have a strong graphic feel. Sentimentality, somber grace, sex-appeal[yeah, I said it, deal with it:], an emotional quality to her photographs. Like certain creative people who take up photography she knows how to get the best out of her subject. The ability to react to the moment, or plan it well. In image  #4 the subject is placed against the yellow background with a dark flower boarder, both compliment each other in a contrasting way. There's an excellent sense of light and dark while the subject gazes directly at you; her look suggesting both predator & prey. In image #1 the first thing you notice is color; powerful thought provoking color(according to science blue's & green's stimulate the mind). The icy blue mountains hover just above the green while the gentle dark leaves drape the scene.  Aside from all this natural beauty there's the bird cage; melded to the scene though almost invisible. The general symbolism is somber but not without hope; did the bird die, was it let go, or was it never there? Perhaps the viewer is meant see that to the artist her world(Skopje)is a beautiful cage? That at times she cannot help but feel this way? Any way you slice it, its some kind of wonderful. In image #2 the subject is reduced to a silhouette; an elegant shadow awaiting the dawn or the sun coming out to greet the shadow? Its no longer alone, for in the moment if only in that moment, these two are one. The subject becomes a visual representation of the artist; one with the scene if only for a moment, then the moment is gone, but the photograph,  is forever. What your looking at is not just photographs but her. An emotional reflection of the woman herself; the intensity of the fire,  that is her personality. If you would like to know more: www.facebook.com/meglena.visinska "Art is the reason, art is the way".    

#4, Untitled photo. Image courtesy of the artist
'#4 Shot and edited by me. Last year. My best friend Marija and .... 
just as you said...trying to get that predator & pray moment' 

#5 Untitled image. Courtesy of the artist.
'# 5 is actually not my picture... 
is just something that i found on the internet, 
and felt that it represent my feelings sometimes....
and my ability to just give away my heart 
for someone just as the picture shows'

#6, untitled image,  Courtesy of the artist. 
'#6 is shot and edited by me. One of my friends eyes' 

Meglena Visinska.
Image courtesy of the artist.

Meglena Visinska. Image courtesy of the artist

Meglena Visinska.
Image courtesy of the artist

Meglena Visinska.
Image courtesy of the artist.