As an artist myself, I’ve always found it a struggle to put onto paper and consistently express what I see in my creative mind onto paper. I’m sure many artists know what I’m talking about. The Artists way links creativity to spirituality by showing how to connect with the creative energies of the universe, and has in the four years since its publication, spawned a remarkable number of support groups for artists dedicated to practising the exercises it contains. With the basic principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, the author Julia Cameron works through to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks we may not even be aware of, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions and other inhibiting forces, replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity.

“The need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist. The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all.”

“Art is an act of the soul, not the intellect. When we are dealing with people’s dreams – their visions, really – we are in the realm of the sacred. We are involved with forces and energies larger than our own. We are engaged in a sacred transaction of which we know only a little: the shadow, not the shape.

In our human lives, we are often impatient, ill-tempered, inappropriate. We find it difficult to treat our intimates with the love we really hold for them. Despite this, they bear with us because of the larger, higher level of family that they honor even in our outbursts. This is their commitment.

As artists, we belong to an ancient and holy tribe. We are the carriers of the truth that spirit moves through us all. When we deal with one another, we are dealing not merely with our own human personalities but also with the unseen but ever-present throng of ideas, visions, stories, poems, songs, sculptures, art-as-facts that crowd the temple of consciousness waiting their turn to be born.” – Julia Cameron

If you’re an artist of any kind, whether it’s what you do for a living or whether it’s what you WANT to do, I suggest you get this book.

Filipino artist whose paintings stem from mythical roots of forgotten Phillipine folk tales, myths and legends. Kinda reminds me of the famous persian Shahrezade of One Thousand and One Nights, as he hasn’t run out of stories to tell.

Turkish artist Esref Armagan has a genetic mutation that caused him to be born without eyes. This seeming defect has given him the most remarkable power. “Noone can call me blind. I can see more with my fingers than sighted people can see with their eyes”. While he paints a landscape, he cannot see and has never seen light.

This artist is changing everything science has assumed about vision. What scientists find astounding about his paintings, is his use of colour, shadow, composition and most importanly; perspective. The way he draws objects receeding into the distance has mystified scientists. Its the way he deals with 3 dimensional space that has got them particularly excited. When scientists scanned the activity of his brain when he draws, they discovered that visual regions of his brain that shouldn’t have any activity due to his blindness, reacted and lit up dynamically whenever Esref was painting perspective. The scan proved that vision involves more than what is brought in through our eyes. Vision also involves our ability to understand space. Up until now, we have misunderstood vision.

In an ambitious experiment to see if Esref truly understands perspective, perception psychologist Dr John Kennedy from the University of Toronto asked Esref to draw a particular bulding in Florence, Italy designed by the most important architect of the renaissance, Filippo Brunelleschi. This building was the source and origin of the discovery of persepective as it unveiled the equation of perspective to the architect in 1413. The complex geometry of the building makes it extremely difficult to draw, even if you can see. As Esref sat in front of the building with no prior clues about the building or what he’d be asked to do, he was given a carboard 3d model of the building which he felt with his hands. As he drew the building, he set his place in history by outdoing Filipo Brunelleschi, a renaissance master. This man proves that you don’t need eyes to see.

I hope that puts your idea of vision in a different perspective.

An artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s. At the age of 19 he moved to New York city from Pittsburg where the freshly born Graffiti scene influenced him heavily in his work. Haring achieved his first public attention with chalk drawings in the subways of New York. Around this time, “The Radiant baby” became his symbol. His bold lines, vivid colors, and active figures carry strong messages of life and unity.

Contributing to the New York New Wave display in 1981, he had his first exclusive exhibition in the Tony Shafrazi Gallery. That same year, Haring took part in Documenta 7 in Kassel, Germany. By 1982, he established friendships with fellow emerging artists Futura 2000, Kenny Scharf, Madonna and Jean-Michel Basquiat. He took part in the Whitney Biennial in 1983, as well as in the São Paulo Biennial. He got to know Andy Warhol, who was the theme of several of Haring’s pieces including “Andy Mouse.” His friendship with Warhol would prove to be a decisive element in his eventual success, particularly after their deaths. Haring died in 1990 of AIDS-related complications.

By expressing concepts of birth, death, love, sex and war, Haring’s imagery has become a widely recognized visual language of the 20th century.

We absolutely LOVE this lady. She’s been caught jumping all over cars, drawing on shop walls and is the only female who has ever won the internationally renowned urban street art competition ‘Secret Wars’ against a sea of men.

After winning a scholarship in Spring 2007 to set up a small business of her own, Miss Led has not stopped, and has created a portfolio that most can only dream of including; a host of magazine work which has seen her illustrations sitting alongside reviews and fashion articles globally, commissioned wall drawings in Flagship stores such as Diesel clothing, shoe illustration for Reebok and air miles that any one would be proud to own.

We look forward to watching more work emerge from this artist! Check out her Alice in Wonderland print

Imagine describing a state of being passionate. Words like enthusiasm, zeal, fierceness, spirit even energy are mentioned. If these qualities can be found in any one, Ibrahim Yaqut Abdel-Baaith could surely fit the bill. As unique as his name, Ibrahim is an upcoming actor who has established himself as a thespian–a maestro of the arts, while solidifying a career as a top male model. His daring sense of style, his magnetic swagger, his strong rooted ideas or his charming sense of humor can be to blame for his long lasting success in the fashion industry. He insists that he is living his dream, not pursuing it, therefore he emanates such youthful exuberance that it’s nearly addictive. Life hasn’t always been harmonious for Ibrahim, being a native Philadelphian and having his in & outs with street life. A high academic achiever nonetheless, Ibrahim overcame the stereotypical path many urban youth followed and made it a point to face any challenge. He got his first break in being chosen out of thousands in a nation-wide model search. That’s all it took for major agencies to recognize him and expressed great interest in his all-american, edgy look and personality. After graduating high school, Ibrahim came to New York to visit over 30 modeling agencies and to attend Pratt Institute’s open house. The rest is history. Ibrahim has appeared in over hundreds of commercial and high fashion ad campaigns, editorials, catalogues and catwalks. A wide variety of clients such as Old Navy, Abercrombie & Fitch, Marshall Fields, K-Mart, Marc Ecko, Kangol, Mecca, Indigo Red, Calvin Klien, Columbia Records, Macy’s, American Eagle Outfitters, Nordstroms, Target and MTV made him a regular amongst print advertisements and department store campaigns. He’s also been featured numerous times in GQ, L’uomo Vogue, XXL, Vibe, The Source, Stuff and Essence magazines. He’s graced the catwalks from NY to Milano for Armani, Nautica, Vivienne Westwood, Tommy Hilfiger, Sean John, Miguel Androver, Custo Barcelona, Enyce, MTV’s fashionably Loud, and celebrity fashion shows for the NBA. Among some of his achievements was his nomination as “Top Male Model” alongside Tyson Beckford at the 2003 Urban Fashion Awards. Ibrahim has also been featured in many music videos for artists such as Destiny’s Child, Rah Digga, Q-Tip and GhostFace Killah. He’s had the pleasure to work close with an endless amount of household names, some of whom he cares to mention like Winky Wright, Beyonce, David LaChapelle, P-Diddy, Michael Kors, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, Tracy McGrady, 50 Cent, Slick Rick and Russel Simmons. At the present he has a print campaign and commercial running for Polo Ralph Lauren’s line for JC Penny titled American Living, airing during the Oscar’s. He also appears on Project Runway and MTV’s special for the making of the Sean John runway show.

Equipped with a Pratt bachelor’s degree in illustration and film making and with no end in sight for his road to success, Ibrahim left New York to pay dues grinding it out in Hollywood. Rarely seen is a young ethnic male who can break into the acting industry and book a lead principle role in a Disney Channel film. Entitled “Life Is Ruff” he co-stars with Disney child stars Mitchel Musso and Kay Panabaker and popular TV actor Mark Christopher Lawrence. Along with booking principle roles in national TV commercials such as McDonald’s, Target, Macy’s, Denali, Old Navy and JC Penny earns his position as a union actor. Over the years, clients have been known to consistently rave about how much fun it is to work with him and how delightfully intellectual and articulate he is. Ibrahim is known to enthusiastically assist different clients and photographers in creating the image of a lifetime, by being the actor that he naturally is. Not only is he an inspiration to other models, but he is a live example of how rewarding it can be to live out your dreams and desires without exceptions. “It is not the accumulation of extraneous knowledge but the realization of the self within that constitutes true progress,” is the mantra he lives by. Being a practitioner of many genres of art (martial arts, painting, writing, film, dancing), Ibrahim starts to create his own projects by shooting documentaries, starring and co-directing short films, and painting large canvases live in various venues! While gracing the pages of our favorite magazines, live painting and MMA fighting balances his free time and energy, making him a well-rounded, passionate force to be reckoned with.

French artist Fafi lends her innovative style in a follow-up spring and summer women’s collection with adidas Originals. In a look at her footwear releases for this season, they once again incorporate some of her iconic imagery over some of adidas Originals’ most popular women’s styles. The collection will hit stores worldwide in March; however, some pieces are already availabe in parts of Asia and Australia.

I’m obsessed with Japanese woodblock prints & Japanese mythology. You can definately see where the deep roots of the surreal nature of Japanese anime come from. I had a dream last night about being covered in samurai & geisha tattoos, which then started climbing out of my skin & came to life. Might sound like a freaky dream, but I kinda liked it. Probably a combination of watching too much miami ink and checking out Japanese art at the British museum the day before. Here are some of my favourites.

Sweet Dreams

A photoshoot for Russian Elle last year. An owl and a Japanese model with a blonde mohawk & Frida Kahlo eyebrows. Nice.

If you buy into the notion that life is a journey, you might also have noticed that apparently, not all travellers are created equal.

There are some who carry a heavy load, dealing with what they are dealt, dreaming of what they are not, all to avoid drowning in the stormy seas of desperation and disappointment that separate the truth from fantasy.

Then there are those whose effortless motion and confident action confront us all, causing our jaws to slacken and eyes to widen, and forcing the sharp intake of breath that we then hold while the spectacle unfolds. These people display bravery beyond question, and their actions reveal the limits that are, for them at least, imaginary.

For these extraordinary individuals, even gravity seems to pause a while and possibility floats as they do – a beguiling vision seemingly within reach of us all, if only for a moment. These masters follow their elegant arcs to a chorus of acclaim through 360, 720, 1080. It’s a mastery by degree.

But then there are those of an altogether different order. In a realm beyond even the masters, we find the Artists.

At their most straightforward, the Artists are special, not because they are somehow more gifted than the masters, but because of their passionate disregard for convention, their deep awareness of what it takes to succeed, and an unnatural compulsion to explore whatever lies beyond reach. They are obsessed with the pursuit of their goal, giving everything they have, overcoming all obstacles, and as they chase down their visions of perfection, we ourselves are rewarded with something truly beautiful, something measured not in degrees, points or awestruck gasps, but in soul.

They are individuals and they are often misunderstood. While others may follow them, recording and commenting on their every move, they remain solitary, driven figures, undeterred by the subjective opinions and surface assessments of others, cutting words from those who cannot yet see the beauty, the soul. While the Artists carve new shapes and textures on the face of the world, not everyone respects or understands them: they don’t know what it takes, or even what it is. Undeterred, the Artists keep going further in every every respect, cutting through the dark and fearlessly lighting for the rest.

They change the way things are and, as they do, they change us. So what is the essential difference? What name shall we give to sheer defiance? Its Artistry.

Artistry is not the preserve of the supremely gifted or the technical master. There are many talents and technicians who will never be Artists. Artistry demands something more. It belongs to those who make all necessary sacrifices to relentlessly direct every atom of themselves towards their passion, to those who suffer for their Art.

And while all of this may sound grand and inaccessible, everything that is required to transform us into Artists is present inside every one of us. Artistry is born of attitude, not genetics or resources. Yes, in some people it shines brighter than in others, but only because they make it so. So remember this as you read on and consider the Artists of here and now, of then and there:

Artistry is open to all. Provided you are prepared to earn it.

source: relentless