My New Instagram Account

 

Portrait taken in the Camera Museum at the Galleria Taal

 

Visit my Instagram page: www.instagram.com/atommagadia

Movie Making is hard work. More than a year ago, after I finished shooting and editing my first feature film "Dagsin," I thought that I would be able to come back and regularly write on this blog, but I was wrong. Making and finishing a movie was just the first part of a long drawn process that also includes Marketing, Promoting and Selling the project. At this point, we are just beginning to submit "Dagsin" to Foreign Festivals, and are in talks with various distributors for possible Domestic and International Commercial Exhibition.

 

After the initial salvo of releasing our Trailers, I was caught up in the Cinemalaya Film Festival proper-- a 3 months long cycle of Press Releases, Press Conferences, TV/Radio interviews and appearances, print articles, Premieres and Gala events. On top of these, since Atom & Anne Mediaworks is an Indie Production Outfit, Anne and I also had to personally supervise the project's Social Media campaigns. We were literally swamped and we were drowning in work. When Cinemalaya ended, both of us have been working none stop 24/7 for a year and a half, and we were both burned-out! It was also time for us to work on the other projects we have placed on hold to concentrate on "Dagsin."

"Camera Obscura" effect at the Camera Museum in Taal.

 

Among those responsibilities I have neglected are this Blog and my Photography. I recently decided to open an Instagram account to simplify my process. Writing articles for this Blog takes quite a bit of time and deliberation. With Instagram, I am hoping to post pictures on the fly; on whatever catches my eye! Finally, Photography (maybe a few videos too) for the sake of Photography, with as little or no captions at all. Right now, if you visit my Instagram page, you will notice that most of the photos I have posted there were actually shot on my IPhone. Spontaneity in my life (and work) has been sorely lacking in the past year and a half. I miss it terribly and I am hoping to rectify it!

 

I will continue to post articles on this blog about my work and musings on Photography, Cinema and Visual Art, but if you just want to see my images without the thought and stories that go with them, then subscribe to my Instagram account. There, you will be able to see not only examples of my formal work (both still and motion), but also view my random doodles, experimental photos/video, family pics and casual sketches.

--Photos shot by Aria Magadia

Christo's Big Air Package

Christo unveiling Big Air Package

Christo, the world famous environmental artist, unveiled his latest large-scale installation work "Big Air Package" last Friday.  It is the largest indoor sculpture ever erected.  It will be on display at the Gasometer Oberhausen in Germany from March 16 to December 30, 2013. 

 

Big Air Package: on top, inside and concept drawing 

 

The sculpture is made from 20,350 square meters of semitransparent polyester fabric and 4,500 meters of rope.  Encased inside a 117 meter high industrial complex (Gasometer), the inflated balloon-like piece has a total weight of 5.3 tons and a volume of 177,000 cubic meters.

 

Erecting Big Air Package

 

The balloon fills the enclosed space of the Gasometer, leaving a small passage around the sculpture to walk around in.  Air fans create a constant pressure of 0.27 millbar to keep the sculture inflated, with airlocks at the base to allow guests to come in and experience the art piece from the inside.  Light coming in from the skylights on top and 60 additional projectors create an otherworldly atmosphere and ambiance for the visitors.

 

At the opening of Big Air Package, March 15, 2013

 

Acting like a gigantic tent diffuser, the viewer is transported into an experience with pure light.  In Christo's own words, "you are virtually swimming in light when you are inside the Big Air Package... the inner space is probably the most unique aspect of the piece...when experienced from the inside, the space is almost like a 90 meter high cathedral."

Blood Art

Vincent Castiglia in front of one of his "blood" paintings

Vincent Castiglia is an artist who fully epitomizes our current culture.  With the rise of the "vampire" in popular entertainment, and our shifting focus on the organic and the sustainable, he is the perfect artist for our time.  This Brooklyn born artist stumbled on a concept that will surely have a cult following in years to come:  painting exclusively using human blood.

 

 

The concept seems shocking at first, but you will be pleasantly surprised by the quality and craftsmanship of the artwork.  Vincent's "blood" paintings are comparable to the drawings of the great master illustrators from the Renaissance-- Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Durer, but with a more modern-gothic phantasmagoric twist.  Using the human figure (anatomy) as his starting point, Castiglia examines the human experience and comments on our collective psychological and existential dilemas.

 

Using blood as paint, Vincent's illustration/paintings have a quality akin to classic ocher, the color used by the earliest artists.  Mixing his blood with water, he applies the mixture to paper very much like watercolor paint. Some of his paintings are huge (seven feet lengthwise), which can take up to 30 vials of blood and several months to complete.  Vincent believes that by using his own blood, his work literally comes "alive" with his own psychic/life force; dissolving the barrier between him and his artwork in the most literal sense.  The resulting masterpiece is not only unique, unusual and rare, but also visually stunning and viceral.  His art has the capacity to engage (or assault) us on multiple dimensions, from the most primal (by his use of blood), to the emotional and finally to the conceptual.  The caliber of his work earned him the honor of being the first American artist invited by the H.R. Giger Museum in Switzerland to have a solo exhibition.

 

The artist's paint tubes and brushes

      

Drawing for Drawing's Sake

I have always been facinated with the 'interior lives' of Artists and the processes by which it contributes to their 'Art.'  Danny Gregory's book, "An Illustrated Life," gives us a unique glimpse into Creativity and the creative process through the personal sketchbooks and illustrated journals of Visual Artists, Illustrators and Designers.

This book is 'eye-candy' for the visual connoisseur. It includes more than three dozen hardcore sketchbook fanatics, including comicbook illustrator Robert Crumb.

According to Gregory, "the approach is a varied as the lives the pages record. Some journal keepers are methodical... Others are wildly improvisational... " "A sketchbook is a great, nonthreatening place to begin to draw.  It is also an ideal place to develop ideas, experiment and break away from restrictions imposed by our increasingly digital workspace."

Before I studied how to make Films, I first learned Photography... My love of photography was initially sparked by my childhood doodling and facination with creating images.  I believe that all visual artists can benefit from sketching and keeping visual journals, because it cultivates our 'ways of seeing.'  These personal diaries can become mirrors into our deepest creative wells... a treasure chest for our own brand of art. 

Bryce Wymer, Illustrator/Designer Broadcast/Motion Design - "Of all my many works, my visual journals have the strongest purpose and are the truest form of Art. They are the few places where my thoughts are expressed solely for my own expectations, a vehicle for self-exploration..."

Butch Belair, Freelance Photographer/3D Illustrator - "Representing the quality of the light in a scene is something I struggle with... I find myself drawing, just to be drawing, in and of itself. I have no expectations of it other than as a way to unwind and possibly learn."