Artist Interview: Rima Neverland

Rima Neverland has a way with type. She incorporates it beautifully in her work, and her Beautiful Forever contribution is no exception. Today we're sharing her process and thoughts on tattoos!

What inspired the work you have in the exhibition? Specifically, why did you choose the subjects you chose?

I love Sugar Skulls. The colours, the unique hand painted texture, and the whole idea behind it. I love em! I figured I couldn't go wrong when doing something I plan on getting tattooed on myself in the future. My piece didn't come from anywhere deep.  I simply wanted to adress the idea of being true to yourself, and everyone/everything around. Nothing more to a human being than that.

Talk about the medium you used to make your piece.

I wish I was more complicated, but I used a pen,  paper, and then worked in Illustrator and Photoshop.  

Do you listen to anything while you’re working? What have you been listening to lately? 

I've been obsessed with the Local Natives, and the Shins lately. I am really indecisive though, so I usually turn to Songza, or Grooveshark for pre-made playlists. I can honestly say that I have a harder time getting things done without some good tunes in the background. 

Do you have any tattoos? Tell us about them! 

 I got my first tattoo when I turned 18. Now, I have too many, or too little depending on how you look at it. I have a reindeer on my arm inspired by my grandfather, a sparrow on the other arm for my grandmother. I love them both so much. I also have a tattoo of a cupcake, a tooth which to me represents constant growth, and a bunch of script and lettering. 

Whether you have a tattoo or not, it’s *possible* you have considered a tattoo you would like to have. What would that dream tattoo be? 

Hmm, this is a tough one. I have been thinking about getting roses on my shoulders for a while now so I think that will be next on my list. I plan on (hopefully) having a suit by the time I die. All my tattoos are inspired by life events, lessons, or people that mean a lot to me, and I plan on keeping it that way.




Read more about Neverland on her blog, see more of her work on her site or follow her on Twitter!

Artist Interview: Michelle Volansky

Michelle Volansky is an illustrator from St. Louis, Missouri with a style and penchant for all things pop and cute! Her style blog is a lot of fun (be sure to check out the Big Book of Cats).



What inspired the work you have in the exhibition? Specifically, why did you choose the subjects you chose?

I wanted to play with the idea of the kinds of things you feel so devotional to and that hold so much meaning that you would want them tattooed on yourself. Since these are temporary tattoos, I wanted to kind of glorify the sillier, but still awesome images that I love and worship--junk food and internet addiction! I think that's a fun play on content and current trends. You pay tribute to your mom with your ink tattoo but you pay tribute to your favorite ice cream with your temporary tattoo! :) Also, I always have to draw a cute, sassy lady! Always!


Talk about the medium you used to make your piece. 

I usually start my sketches on paper and either scan or recreate them on Photoshop. Sometimes I'll ink a drawing with a brush pen and use that line art. I love the flexibility and endless possibilities of working on the computer, but I always try to use scanned textures or hand-drawn lines for a more personal touch.

For this piece specifically, I knew I wanted the clean, bright colors of a digital drawing. I originally was working in a line-less style, but realized that for tattoos, there really needed to be strong outlines so the art would look best on different skin colors--especially since I was working on a pretty small scale. I didn't want the art to look like pink blobs from 6 feet away. I also tried to be mindful of my usage of whites and negative space.

Do you listen to anything while you’re working? What have you been listening to lately?

Always! I thrive on multitasking. Total silence stresses me out and my mind wanders. Lately I've found that putting on my headphones and listening to a podcast really helps me focus and work for longer stretches of time. My favorites are "How Was Your Week?" with Julie Klausner, Sam Weber's "Your Dreams My Nightmares", anything from NPR, and of course the LGAL podcasts! 

As far as music goes, lately I'm obsessing over Tegan and Sara's new album, "Heartthrob". Marina and the Diamonds, Icona Pop, Cassette, and Ke$ha are also on repeat on my iTunes a lot lately. Trashy pop music is my favorite!

Do you have any tattoos? Tell us about them! 

I don't! How lame. I don't deal well with pain and I'm really picky about tattoo art and placement. A beautiful tattoo is such a fabulous thing, though, and I love fawning over them. I often joke that I'll be the opposite of all the cool kids and wait until I'm like 50 years old to get a super bad ass, huge tattoo.

Whether you have a tattoo or not, it’s *possible* you have considered a tattoo you would like to have. What would that dream tattoo be?

My ultimate dream is an Alphonse Mucha full sleeve. Swoon! Go big or go home, right? A really great Mucha tattoo is rare, but they just slay me. A sleeve of cute silly things like my piece for the Beautiful Forever show would be amazing, too!

Michelle's work can be found on her website, her blog, and of course, you can follow her on Twitter!

Artist Interview: Katie Sanvick

Katie Sanvick's drawings are absolutely beautiful.  Combine this with her color-saavy application of bright-yet-elegant color, and you can see why her finished works are incredibly rich. She also does a fantastic job documenting her process, which she's shared with us for this interview!

What inspired the work you have in the exhibition? Specifically, why did you choose the subjects you chose?

The idea for the tattoos came when I was watching Dracula. There's a part in the movie where Dracula says "Listen to them, children of the night, what music they make" and it totally inspired me. I think Dracula was actually referring to the wolves, but I think bats are children of the night too! So from there I decided to make them look more like traditional tattoos with heavy line work but with a little spunk. I played a little with juxtaposing ideas of the dark foreboding Dracula and the nature of vampire bats, against the bright colors, and putting the bats on flowers and giving them smiles to make them extra adorable. They are meant to be worn as a trio because I split up the quote, but they stand pretty well on their own. 

Talk about the medium you used to make your piece.

I usually start all my work the same, I draw it out first with pencil on paper, then scan it in and finish up digitally coloring in good ol' Photoshop. I feel like I have more control over the sketch and can visualize much better on paper than on screen. After viewing literally thousands of images of bats and flowers, I picked my favorites, mixed and matched, and threw together some sketches. Once I scanned each final bat in I had to decide weather or not to keep the line work or re-do it. In this case, I ended up re-lining everything in photoshop. from there I messily slapped lots of colors on to get a feel of what palette I wanted. After what seemed like an endless amount of tweaking, I'm done!

Do you listen to anything while you’re working? What have you been listening to lately?

Oh definitely! I always fire up pandora for a few of my go-to stations. It's usually a lot of Fever Ray, M83, The Knife, Tyga and dub step. Depending on my mood, if the drawing is going really well and i'm pumped about it i always listen to some of that music that makes you say hell yeah- the kind you can't help but feel like dancing to, the feel good stuff. When I'm starting out I'll listen to softer stuff. Then, when I'm so engrossed in what I'm doing I don't even notice that pandora has stopped playing for like half an hour and I've totally been drawing in silence.. that's when you know you've got something good.

Do you have any tattoos? Tell us about them!

Yes! When I was 18 I got a small star on my wrist, it's the star preset brush in photoshop..cheesy, i know.

Then when I was a freshman in college, I got a tattoo on my forearm sort of symbolizing my new beginning. It was around the time when I decided without a doubt I would pursue art at any cost.. which was a great decision! There's an Aries symbol in there because I'm really into astrology, and the words "Vita Brevis ars longa" which is Latin for "Art is long, life is short". Funny story with that tattoo, the artist actually inverted the sun-opposite of the design I brought in and I didn't realize it until she started laying on color after line work. What a great mistake, I actually like it better this way!

(AN: Coincidentally, Katie Sanvick and Rodrigo Avilés from last week's interview share a bond in their choice of tattoo wording!)

Whether you have a tattoo or not, it’s *possible* you have considered a tattoo you would like to have. What would that dream tattoo be?

I'm always considering tattoos, I'm in the middle of designing a very sick nautical/marine/sailor sleeve involving an octopus and I'm totally stoked!

For more of Sanvick's work, visit her website  and follow her blog! She also has a Twitter!

Artist Interview: Rodrigo Avilés

Rodrigo Avilés is an incredibly dedicated and talented artist from Melipilla, Chile. We've had the privilege of having his work in a few of our shows, and I'm delighted to present his process–he's been very generous with sharing his work methods–and his Beautiful Forever Interview!

Avilés's first design concept of a tattoo design for Beautiful Forever, "a drawing symbolizing bad luck in love/gambling":

His second concept involved a bird and a Latin phrase. He like this idea, but he wanted to make it more detailed and specific to a particular type of bird. 

He did some research of bird species with the colors used in the second concept and settled on the American Robin. He sketched the new birds based on his research and added a little memento mori design with a bird skull.

The final designs!

His tattoos are available in the Light Grey Shop here.
What inspired the work you have in the exhibition? Specifically, why did you choose the subjects you chose?

I used birds in my images for the exhibition because lately I've been very inspired by ornithology books, those with engravings illustrating the different species (The Birds of America from John James Audubon came to my mind, for example). I like birds for their symbolic meaning, and because of their varied shapes and colors. I like classic Latin phrases because I feel that they have a sort of timeless wisdom–pretty fitting for something inked for the rest of your life.

Talk about the medium you used to make your piece.

I worked digitally on this one. The piece was drawn in a Japanese software called Paint Tool SAI. I like this software for its quality to create line-art and because the menu is pretty simple (compared to Photoshop). The drawing was later colored in Photoshop. Aside from digital, ink on paper is my favorite medium, sadly I didn't have time to make this piece with ink. Usually ink is pretty trial and error for me, so I went the secure route.

Do you listen to anything while you’re working? What have you been listening to lately?

Yeah, I love to listen to music while I work, and I like music from very different styles. Some albums that I've been listening lately: The Lions - This Generation (reggae, 2013); various Bill Evans albums: Portaits of Jazz (1959);  Explorations (1961);  Death From Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine; (rock, dance-punk); Naomi and Goro (a Japanese Bossa Nova duet); many of Doo Wop and Motown 50-60 classics; and a lot of Cumbia, a popular tropical rhythm here in South America. As you can see, I listen to music almost the entire day, hahaha.

Do you have any tattoos? Tell us about them!

I don't have any tattoos! I'm the typical "I want to get a tattoo" guy, hahaha. I tried to design one for myself but I'm very picky with what I want to wear on my skin for the rest of my life. That bring us to the next question:

Whether you have a tattoo or not, it’s *possible* you have considered a tattoo you would like to have. What would that dream tattoo be?

My idea is a tattoo of two images, on opposite sides of my body (arms or chest, not sure): one with a banner that says "ARS LONGA" and an allegory to the virtues of the Art, and the other that says "VITA BREVIS" with a representation of Death, and earthy pleasures. "Ars Longa, Vita Brevis" is a Latin phrase that means mastering a craft takes a lot of time, almost your entire life. Also it can mean that truly, works of art live longer than their creators. I also want to show my dichotomy between the desire to enjoy life, and the discipline and time spent working.

For more of Avilés's work, you can check out his site or follow his blog! He also keeps a sketch Tumblr!

Beautiful Forever, Sneak Peek!

We are so excited to finally leak a few images for our Beautiful Forever Exhibition!

Next Friday, March 22nd from 7pm-10pm, is our joint opening of two incredible shows Blowout and Beautiful Forever. The entire gallery will be filled with artwork made by tattoo artists, illustrators, designers, and lovers of tattoos. It will be a great combination of artwork to say the least!

Unlike real, painful, and permanent tattoos, the artwork of Beautiful Forever is not going to last forever! That's right, Beautiful Forever embraces the ephemeral, flashy, and clever designs inherent in temporary tattoos. This exhibition will include the work of 40 amazing illustrators who have taken this challenge to create fun-loving tattoos of candy, animals, mer-mans, and more!

You will not only be able to view this awesome artwork, but wear it too! We will have a temporary tattoo station so you can apply your new tat here at the show. We look forward to sharing all of our rough, tough and inked up sleeves with you all!

Itching to see what's coming up for out Tattoo themed month? Here you go!

Artwork from left to right, top to bottom:

Sisters by Jasjyot Singh Hans 
Safe Passage by Carey Pietsch
Demonic Victorian by Helen Mask
Owl and Bird by Angela Rizza
Children of the Night by Katie Sanvick
Candy Life by Michelle Volanksy



Click here to see our official Facebook Invitation!

Full list of artists in this awesome exhibition can be found here!