Inspirational 19

Welcome to the 19th issue of the arts magazine Inspirational. In this issue inspirational interviews four leading contemporary artists, as well as featuring another. We will also be talking to ArtSwarm, the experimental art TV channel, as well as the regular review.

Interview: Bianca Biji Hopper is a Romanian mixed media artist based in Brussels. She is a spontaneous artist, working with a creative freedom many would envy. 

Interview: Willemien de Villiers is a South African textile artist and writer. Violence against women is a consistent theme in her work, and her protest through embroidery stand is a vital one. 

Interview: Jim Arendt is an American textile artist who explores ordinary lives lived through the catalytic shifts and changes in the labour market. His portraits are telling, a window to the personal story, rather than the abstract economic. 

Interview: Christine Mauersberger is an American textile artist who produces complex mark-making narratives, countless stitches that are maps of the mind. 

Feature: Jaya Suberg is a German mixed media digital artist. Her work focuses around the beauty and tragedy of life, its inner and outer realms, its transience and its endurance. 

Art TV: ArtSwarm is an experimental YouTube arts show created by artists for artists and more. It regularly features new videos, new music, new poetry, new art. It is a visual vehicle for the experimental and the new. Its founder the artist and writer Mark Sheeky talks to Inspirational about ArtSwarm.

Opinion: Mark Sheeky gives a fascinating in depth view of the state of the cultural world we live in, wrapped up as it is in social media, personal tastes, hates and likes, connection and division. It’s a world in flux. We are going somewhere, but where? Mark helps to explain all.

Review: Rosie James. The book review for this month’s Inspirational is Stitch Draw by Rosie James. Stitch Draw is a comprehensive guide to figurative stitching, giving techniques and tips regarding free style stitch.

Inspirational…celebrating creativity

John Hopper (editor)