Blog Archives

Blog Post #6: Starting the research for my article

10/21/2019

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In our last weeks class season (October 14th, 2019) all the students had the privilege of interviewing Jason McDowell (MIAD Alum, Illustration), creative director for On Milwaukee. During his presentation Jason talked about his experience at MIAD, life after graduating, exploring new jobs, how he started working for OnMilwaukee, writing articles, learning new art forms, portfolio work, and all his different job titles. Some of those jobs include Ad Designing, photography, web design, logo design, branding, creating emojis, icons, and many more. Aside from that Jason gave the class some advice on how we as students should take advantage of as many different classes MIAD has to offer because after graduation there could be many unique opportunities relating to previous classes. In addition he added this could serve as an advantage for future projects as well as valuable to future employers due to the knowledge obtained. Jason also told the class not to take grades so serious and find our passion even if it means sacrificing abit of school time to work on it. After hearing this I felt a sense of relief because even though I’m currently a student, I also been balancing school with my own passion and at times I had to sacrifice one or the other to move closer to my goals. The last bit of advice we got from Jason related to our own articles (for OnMilwaukee). Things to keep in mind were understand the message as well as your audience, have a strong title, apply humor/knowledge in your writing, and keep it informative. I had an easier time knowing which Milwaukee tattoo artist I wanted to interview/write about because either I’ve have met them in the pasted or been informed through MIAD professors. I figure the best way to contact the artist was though email and see if they would let me interview them in person. I would also like to video record the interview and edit it if possible.

Artist to interview include: Adam Werther, Nina Gorman, Luke Van Dyke, and Simon Teigeiro.

Interview Questions:
Who is_(Artist)?
How long have you been doing art?
When did you find your passion?
What art mediums do use?
What inspires you?
What artist inspire you?
How did you become a tattoo artist?
Whats the story behind the artist and stylistic tattoo identity?
How do you view the tattoo culture evolution today?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Waiting for responses, to be continued…

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Blog Post #5: Thinking about my article...

10/20/2019

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During one of our class seasons I remember meeting with my triad group (Liz and Laura). We talked about ideas for our article final project for On Milwaukee and how it could relate to our class intro copy. All three of us settled with the idea to focus on our own interests as art students and interview Miad alumni who are practicing the similar careers interests in the Milwaukee community.

In thinking about my own interests, I want to write about local tattoo artists because its an art form I’ve been heavily inspired and passionate about for the pasted 6 years. It’s an industry I feel I could understand better, immerse myself in, and not only that but also grow in as well as became a great tattoo artist. I also find it interesting to talk about what happens when art, design, fine art, and body art come together to create a new way of thinking and communicating.

I feel in the time we live in today (2019) there is still a level of a (segmentation) traditional way of thinking and a notion of body art not being accepted by society today. In my article I would like to explore or bring more positivity awareness, contexts behind self expression, meaning behind the body art today, and stories of MIAD grads as tattoo artist. I would also want to write/ comprehend what happens when an artist decides a creative, structured, art education and fuses that with tattoo culture. Dose that serve more of a propose, are they excepted in society, dose it become an art form with context and meaning?
Over the pasted few years I’ve met and been informed about a few artist that have graduated from MIAD and choose the path as tattoo art.

Adam Werther - He currently owns, runs, and works in his own tattoo studio in the Milwaukee Community. His shops name is Adambomb and is a private custom tattoo shop with an hourly rate of $150. I would like to interview him about his personal work, life after graduation, and starting a business.

Nina Gorman - She currently works for a tattoo shop called Moving Shadow ink. She started working there right after graduating MIAD and has become a successful tattoo artist with an hourly rate of $120. This tattoo studio is in the Milwaukee area and has won many awards for best tattoo shop 3 years in a row. I would like to interview her about her own tattoo style, working with clients, and working alongside of other tattoo artist.

Luke Van Dyke - He currently also works for Moving Shadow ink. He started working there right after attending MIAD for 2 years and dropped out to pursue a career as a tattoo artist. I've met him a few and worked in the same tattoo shop a couple years ago. I would like to interview him about the pros/cons of being a tattoo artist today, reasons behind not finishing school, and why he choose tattooing as a career.

Simon Teigeiro - He currently works in a tattoo shop in Denver Colorado. He graduated MIAD in 2017 and soon after started working in a downtown Milwaukee studio called Sanctuary Tattoo Gallery. I remember having a class two years ago with Simon and found his mural work very interesting. I would like to interview him about why he choose tattooing as a career, life after graduation, and the direction he’s taking his art.

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Blog Post #4: Reflecting- Class with Todd Mrozinski

10/13/2019

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Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make Todd’s talk on Monday. However, I did some research on Todd and read some of my peers’ blogs. From what I read, I understood that Todd’s message entailed writing about art, creating art, and inspiration. He also talked about listening to yourself and how inspiration can influence your next art piece. In thinking about his work and the article I want to write about, I feel it ties in perfectly. Not only does this inspire me, it is related to a passion of mine and my desire to want to put art into context. I’ve constantly been inspired by many different artists. I definitely see similarities between Todd and artists I’ve been motivated by. Like these artists, Todd looks like he’s been a significant artistic player in the community. I have my own aspirations after graduating, but I would also like to someday become a part of the artistic community in the Milwaukee area. For the past six years, I’ve been very curious to know who graduated with similar intentions to myself, of becoming a tattoo artist and becoming successful at it. Now I have the opportunity to potentially interview an artist I’ve been inspired by.

If I were to meet any one artist, it would be Salvador Dali; simply because of how unique his persona is, but also his art- it was so incredibly different. I would want to meet him to see how he talks about art, and to ask him how he goes through his artistic process. I just want to know more about him- why did he choose surrealism? He seemed ahead of his time, with his use of perspective, place, subject, dimension, and the way he distorted reality - how did he see reality?

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Blog Post #3: Artist Website Research

10/13/2019

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This blog post is about tattoo artists and how they display their pieces on their sites. I’ve researched artists from Milwaukee, Illinois, and a MIAD grad that went into a tattooing career shortly after graduating.

The first tattoo artist’s website I researched was Adam Werther. He got his BFA at MIAD with a major in sculpture and minor in drawing. Upon scrolling through the home page, it consisted of photos of sculptural designs, drawings, and tattoos. It also displayed a video showing a behind-the-scenes tour of his studio, pictures of his work with location and contact information at the bottom. I found it rather simple; I thought there would be more written context about the artist or a bio (this info was nowhere to be found). Shortly after this, I Googled him and found out a lot more about Adam through other websites that talk about tattoo artists. I even found an article written about him published back in 2015 from OnMilwaukee.com. I felt like his website could have been updated by connecting other websites’ information into his own site. His work I think was displayed very well showing video and photos side by side in a simple ways. I clicked on one of the pictures of the tattoos and it took me straight to his Instagram page. I think it was very smart to have his site and instagram linked. I would be very curious to interview him and find out more context about life after MIAD.

The second tattoo artist website I researched was Jose Perez Jr., who is a very well known artist who was self taught in his craft. Jose owns and works out of Dark Water Studio in Willow Springs, IL, a southwest suburb of Chicago. Going through his website, I was very impressed to see the level of content displayed. It included a home page, about me, booking, portfolio, videos, seminars, webinars, news, blog, merch, and FAQ. By far, Jose’s website has more context than Adam’s site, both written and visually. I don’t have my site yet, but I feel like I could draw a lot of inspiration from Jose’s site. I think it really informs his viewer and audience without being too overwhelming.

The third tattoo artist’s website I researched was Nina Gorman. This one’s just for fun because I wanted to review her and her shop. She got her BFA at MIAD with a major in drawing. Upon looking for her own website, I didn’t have much luck. However, I did find some information about her on her shop page. I’m sad to say that it is just about the same as Adam’s site- it didn’t give much context about the artist.

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Blog Post #2: Online Journals Research

10/3/2019

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OnMilwaukee.com

The first thing I notice when I went on OnMilwaukee.com is a bunch of ads for Miller lite (slogans, banners, etc.) which made me distracted from doing my research and almost made me want to drink a miller lite beer to continue. But nevertheless, I snapped out of it and told my self “get it together Alex”! From there I began looking for articles that related to my topic, so I went on lifestyle/entertainment. Scrolled through for about 15 mins and couldn’t find anything that caught my attention or related to what I was looking for. So I decided to search up murals articles and found some interesting stories. One example:

I found an article called “New murals add a burst of color to East Tosa's main street.” It was about six-mural project that took place on North Avenue (68th and 70th), from Lake Michigan to Wauwatosa (project is being led by Wallpapered City), commissioned by Wauwatosa's Tourism organization and TripSavvy. The idea for these projects was to bring more art into the community through menagerie of both flora and fauna. This was also allowing the people of this area to engage more with the space and give life using color, form, subjects, and artist from different parts of the globe. Artists included Christina Thomas from Wauwatosa- she painted a mural of a female, butterfly, and nature on the Heartland Information Services building. She described her artwork as signifying growth, solidarity, reverence for nature with a strong female voice. Another artist was Ivan Roque from Miami, Florida; he painted a giant fish on the side of TosaYoga on 68th Street. Adam Hernandez from Columbus, Ohio, painted BelAir Cantina. Dan Leonard from Ireland painted a mural on Cranky Al’s building. Eric Ricks from Liberia painted a 3D anamorphic mural on the Nobleman. I think they all did a great job and hope to get a chance to check them out soon before it starts to snow.

This article made me want to go out and be a part of the community, and perhaps have my own mural somewhere in the Milwaukee area someday.

Journal Sentinel

After spending so much time reading articles from OnMilwaukee, I decided to move onto the Journal Sentinel. Immediately, a couple of advertisements popped up, making me almost want to exit out of the site. The site felt like it needed more structural work and less overwhelming content. I went to the entertainment section to check out what articles they had, but (again) didn’t have any luck finding anything interesting relating to my topic. So I went to the search tab and looked for articles about tattooing. The following caught my attention the most:

The article was called “An Army veteran who was captivated by tattoos as a child is the owner of the first tattoo shop in Grafton.” Fredrick Meyer grew up West Bend, and was influenced at an early age by the idea of tattoos through his family members, who had a few. Fredrick was always surrounded artists, including his dad and older sister. It wasn’t long before he started drawing on himself with washable markers all throughout middle school and high school. This helped him gradually get better at his art skills. One day, his big sister’s boyfriend (who was a tattoo artist at the time) taught Fredrick how to tattoo and pierce. His first tattoo he ever did was on him self of a Walmart smiley face that is now faded and scared. After graduating high school, he joined the army and continued to tattoo- but this time it was his fellow soldiers which gave him some practice. After finishing up his time there, he applied at a tattoo school in Louisiana and learned even more about the craft. Fredrick got homesick and moved back to Wisconsin were his opened up his own and first ever tattoo shop in Grafton. I think this story is interesting to me because as a tattoo artist for 6 years, and I’ve always wanted to have my own collective of artists and studio which I hope to have a couple years after I graduate college

Milwaukee Magazine

Upon opening this site, I really enjoyed the simplicity, as well as not having advertisements jumping at me left and right. I felt it had nice structured formats, enough images with content and comfort to move around the site freely with out wanting to leave. Everything I saw looked really interesting, I wanted to dive in and read all the different categories and articles. The Lifestyle section stood out to me, mostly because living a life you enjoy can sometimes require maintaining your looks, home environment, and health. I think this magazine it gives good information to feed off of and learn from.

Shepherd Express

At first scroll through I definitely noticed a lot of advertising for all kinds of firms and companies, and it seemed they wanted to focus most on the Best of Milwaukee 2019 award. For those owning a business, this looked like a great opportunity to get exposure and bring more customers in. I’ve heard about this program for the first time 5 years ago while I worked at a tattoo shop, Moving Shadow Ink. They would always ended up winning Best Tattoo Shop in Milwaukee. I have high ambitions to get this award one day after graduating from college.

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Blog Post #6: Starting the research for my article

Blog Post #5: Thinking about my article...

Blog Post #4: Reflecting- Class with Todd Mrozinski

Blog Post #3: Artist Website Research

Blog Post #2: Online Journals Research

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