AD 262 | John Wentz
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
John Wentz is a contemporary artist whose work is an exploration of process and technique. Working within the classical idiom of the human figure, his goal is to reduce and simplify the image to its core fundamentals: composition, color, and mark-making. Paint application and brush strokes are broad and simplified as a means to connect and convey these ideas to the viewer with an abstract sensibility. John was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. His interest in art began at the age of 6 when he first discovered Batman and Spiderman comic books. After years of copying comics...
info_outline
AD 261 | Tim Bettinson (Vancouver Sleep Clinic)
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Tim Bettinson is a 27-year-old singer-songwriter and producer most recognized for creating and living behind the lustful, ambient guise of Vancouver Sleep Clinic. Across his catalogue, elements of anthemic indie rock, intimate R&B, and sophisticated folk provide a sweeping film soundtrack for Bettinson’s gentle vocal and expansive storytelling. Emerging from his native Brisbane, Australia on the strength of a series of singles including “Someone To Stay," “Middle of Nowhere," “The Wire,” and the bedroom-produced viral cover of “As It Was," Tim now roams the world with a laptop...
info_outline
AD 260 | Saman Kesh
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Iranian-American filmmaker Saman Kesh has the most Vimeo staff picks, ever. He attributes this accolade to excessive consumption of rocket fuel and a knack for combining the human experience with a healthy dose of controlled chaos. After his music videos won him YDA Silver at Cannes and two Best Video at SXSW, his foray into advertising was an epic international Superbowl spot for Taco Bell. Since then, he has worked with major brands like Zoom, Google, Citibank, Uber, and most recently picked up a handful of Clio awards for his work with Toyota and Nintendo. Saman has written and directed...
info_outline
AD 259 | Daniele Bolelli
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Daniele Bolelli is a writer, martial artist, university professor, and podcaster. He was born in Italy and currently lives in Los Angeles. Topics discussed in this episode: Daniele’s podcasts History on Fire and The Drunken Taoist (00:05:55) Daniele’s writing practice (00:08:51) Family and navigating personal struggles (00:15:03) The origin of Daniele’s passion for history (00:30:59) Reflections on legacy (00:35:02) Unpacking success, values, and the nature of quality (00:40:46) The complexities of meritocracy (00:53:32) Discussing personal values (01:08:19) Thoughts on the...
info_outline
Photo Roulette | Yoshinocast #15
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Yoshino is a multi-hyphenate artist and the host of Artist Decoded. Yoshino’s essay “Photo Roulette” can be read at . Yoshino’s Links:
info_outline
AD 258 | Wesley Stringer
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Wesley Stringer (b. 1985) was born in Oklahoma City and has worked as a photographer for the past 13 years. Stringer began photographing while a BFA student at the University of Oklahoma. His practice is concerned with the natural environment, both in its untouched state, as well as how it relates to the spaces people occupy. The printed image is as important to Stringer’s work as the physical and textural presence: his photographs frequently take the shape of handmade books or boxes. In addition, the artist prints many of his photographs on translucent gampi paper and mounts them by hand to...
info_outline
AD 257 | James “Munky” Shaffer (Korn + Venera)
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
James “Munky” Shaffer is best known as co-founder and guitarist for American rock band Korn. With a career spanning three decades, his latest project Venera ventures into experimental electronic territory. Venera L.A.-based James Shaffer and Atlanta-based Chris Hunt converged as Venera in early 2022 in Downtown Los Angeles while working on songs for singer Xhoana X. Their kindred interest and backgrounds in dramatic texture, electronics, and experimentation inspired an improvisation-based recording process that seeks to explore a sonic universe defined by evolving atmosphere, cinematic...
info_outline
AD 256 | Paul Yoon
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Paul Yoon is the author of four previous works of fiction: Once the Shore, which was a New York Times Notable Book; Snow Hunters, which won the Young Lions Fiction Award; The Mountain, which was an NPR Best Book of the Year; and Run Me to Earth, which was one of Time magazine’s Must-Read Books of 2020 and longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he lives in the Hudson Valley, New York.
info_outline
AD 255 | Johan Van Mullem
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Johan Van Mullem (Belgian painter born in 1959) persisted in his youthful search for wrinkled faces, seeking the beauty he recognized in an experience engraved on the faces and in the hands. Since then, the face remains the major subject of his work but over time reversing the imprint of it on his own face while these subjects seem to rejuvenate, disappearing or emerging in a halo of light in old-fashioned sfumato, offering the gaze an escape into the world of emotion, because Johan van Mullem's work is an invitation to introspection, to a journey whose omnipresent emotional charge...
info_outline
AD 254 | Jacqueline Castel
Artist Decoded by Yoshino
Jacqueline Castel is an internationally award-winning director, screenwriter, and curator based in NYC. Her short film work has been featured at more than fifty festivals worldwide, including Sundance, SXSW, Rotterdam, BAMcinemaFest, Sitges, and Fantasia. She has written for and directed cult auteurs John Carpenter and Jim Jarmusch, and collaborated on a film with David Lynch for his Festival of Disruption in 2018. Her most recent short film, a portrait of Cannes award-winning actor Caleb Landry Jones, debuted on NOWNESS in 2021. Castel’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The BBC,...
info_outline
https://www.patreon.com/artistdecoded
About David Kassan: Raw, poignant and profoundly honest, David Jon Kassan’s work aesthetically captures humanity in its true form. As an artist, Kassan acts as an empathetic intermediary between the subject he portrays and the viewer. More than simply replicating his subjects Kassan seeks to understand them. He seeks to capture the essence of those he paints, imbuing them with their own voice. They communicate with the viewer interpersonally and we see them through our own eyes. Our gaze transcends the picture plane and permeates deep into the subject’s psyche. We are moved by Kassan’s depictions, captivated by powerfully expressive hands, pensive faces, and flesh that appears warm to touch. Kassan’s portraits pulsate with the lives of his sitters – the weighty streams-of-consciousness of past experiences, feeling and introspection.This is what reality means to Kassan – preserving the realness of nuanced emotion and expression emanatingfrom the people he paints. Kassan’s technical mastery of oil paint combined with adept draftsmanship enables him to fluently represent what he sees. This is evident in the stunning flesh tones Kassan achieves. Transparent layers of oil paint are built up, forming an intricate lattice of veins, blood and skin. Through this light enters and is reflected back, infusing the subject with veridical luminosity. We can also sense movement and life beneath the undulating creases and folds of clothing. It is the artist’s intent to control the medium of oil paint so that it is not part of the viewer to subject equation. Kassan facilitates an interface between subject and viewer with which he is conscious not to interfere. The technical aspect of his work is thus a means to an end; an end rooted in the viewer’s experience.We find inherent contradictions in Kassan’s work as it oscillates between representation and transformation, reality and abstraction.
Topics Discussed In This Episode:
- Kassan's journey creating paintings based on his interactions with Holocaust survivors, and his recent emotionally transcendent experience exhibiting these works at the Fisher Museum of Art at USC.
- How his early paintings of his family allowed him to develop a closer relationship with them.
- Wanting his students and followers to understand more of why he paints other than how he paints.
- The power of overcoming great trauma, and how it inspires Kassan artistically.
- Grappling with the issue of how people dehumanize one another.
- The balance between the emotional, and technical process of painting.
- Making artwork that doesn't necessarily follow trends, or the desires of a gallery.
- Working with the Shoah Foundation, and how they help genocide survivors.
https://www.instagram.com/davidkassan/