Telling the Tale: Ediz Hasan Akdemir

What are your creative outlets and passions?
Right now I’m trying to do as much things as I possibly can. Photography, writing, painting, just basically those main things but also sculpting, interviewing people, seeing as many movies and reading as much as I can. "In order to write about life you must live it." You have to live life to the fullest, by staying home and inactive the more you destroy your creativity and the more your art suffers.

Are you working on any projects right now?
Not really, trying to get through school, reading as much as possible. [I have a routine] I do at least 2 hours of art, then read at least 50 pgs of anything an article, books, anything. It disciplines me in a way to be very committed to my work instead of someone who procrastinates.

How did you get into art?
Growing up, I was kind of a very awkward kid. I was god awful at sports. I was growing up extremely shy and I secluded myself in my room. I was a recluse. Doing things like acting, I could be other people, or drawing I could create my own world and creatures that would except me. It’s like being a god, you create things, the creation of different worlds, similar to writing.

Are you pursuing art as a career in any way?
Yes. I talked to my mom about it, ever since I got into van Gogh, I want to get into painting. My mom told me I’m guaranteeing myself a life of poverty, but that’s okay with me: I want to be remembered artistically. I don’t want a big nice rich man job, I want to have the full artistic experience. I want to have wild stories to tell.

What are you studying now?
I’m getting an associate in fine art, and then going into film or after that somewhere like national geographic. I love the national geographic. I’m just going to go for it and live the life, travel, and do it all before I pass away.

Tell me about your theater background?
I really got into theater ever since I was a little kid, ever since 6 years old. I wanted to be other people. You can be anybody, a drunk, prostitute, super hero. It releases you into another world. The audience doesn’t have to know you, or your flaws, just this beautiful connection where they only have to know your character. I can appear to be anything I want them to think I am. It’s creative lying which I like. I can make them feel anything I want for an hour.

Do you consider yourself a story teller, because to many people it seems like you are always in a character? It’s a charming quality in your personality.
Yea I do. I think that when I was little I liked making up little stories. The problem is when teachers tell me to write an essay, I always turn it into a person’s story or a personal story. I want to live my life as a story, and have stories that other people can tell about me.

Who are icons for you? Who do you look up to?
I recently really got into Vincent VanGogh during the last couple months of high school. I appreciate his method, style, views on life. When I was younger I looked up to the movies of Tim Burton. Writers I really like T.S. Elliot, Agatha Christie, Hemingway, some contemporary authors, Tim Obrien, Ronald Dahl J.K. Rowling

Next place you want to travel to?
It would have to be back to turkey. I have a lot of family there. They took me to so many museums, cafes, it wasn’t stereotypical middle eastern country. It was kind of Chicago, but people speak another language. They have these 500 yr old buildings and there is so much history. It’s a very beautiful country, and when you know people it makes a bigger connection. It’s reassuring to know you have people you can relate to outside of the U.S. We went to beaches, and there were cats and dogs running around everywhere, it was nice to see.

Featured Photography by Akdemir

The story of E.H. Akdemir

Certain people just don't fit in. They don't, but they were never meant to. It would have been a great loss if the awkward little boy known as Dylan had grown up to be just another Dylan and not the creative mind that is Ediz Hasan Akdemir. He continues to become more refined and talented at expressing himself, as he develops as an artist, writer, and person. Leaving the interview me and Jana both felt incredibly inspired, I'm sure you will too. The sad part about this interview however, is I've only captured the words, not his voice or wonderful manner of holding a conversation. He is a character, a storyteller, a man living in a limitless world.

Feliz Bicentenario Mexico!

Culture is a defining factor for many artists, including Jasmine whose interview and artwork is in the post below. The interview took place at Cafe Mestizo in Pilsen where she held her first gallery showing. Besides the nostalagia of her first show, it was also the Mexican community that she reflects in her artwork that made it such a perfect setting. I interviewed her before I started school but it seems perfect to post it today with the celebration of the 200th aniversary of Mexican Independence. There was a lot to take in at Pilsen, from the thrift stores to the murals, it was truly an experience that made me feel reconnected with my own culture and inspired by the bold personality and style that is Jasmine. 
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Me and Jasmine



It tasted like childhood memories

One of a Kind: Jasmine Luevano

Monica Cano: Tell me about yourself?
JL: My name is Jasmine. I just turned 21. I love cupcakes, anything sweet, gummy bears. Adopted, Mexican all the way even though I am Puerto Rican. I don’t feel like I am though, all my ideas come from my Mexican influences.

MC: What are your creative passions?
JL: Painting, photography even though I never got into it like that, and I love collages. I love music. I used to be a singer, I was in the choir too. Music is very important to me; I do show it in my artwork. I also love cartoons and comics!

MC: Describe your creative process in creating a new piece?

JL: Well, I mean I feel that a lot of my artwork comes from my emotion. There has to be emotion behind it, a certain situation. I’m more about doing it from behind a certain idea. I do a lot of painting, repainting, taking off, scraping. A lot of my work right now has overlapping things. It takes me awhile, maybe like a few weeks to get the final piece.
 
MC: How do you think your personal relationships affect your work?

JL: Lately its been good but there’s been times like heartbreak, or hard times with my family.
It increases my work, because it’s a way for me to vent. That’s the time when I got to lock myself in my room and do what I got to do to feel better.

MC: Are you working on anything new?

JL: I’m working more with oil paints, because I never did that before. They are so vivid, very nice, different than acrylic. I want to do more with the body, I’ve wanted to do nudes for awhile. Right now the only thing I’m doing is commissioned works for people who want specific things.

MC: A lot of artist express themselves in their room, tell me about your room?
JL: It’s purple, its like my own gallery. I have records up and my art work is everywhere. There’s paintings and my desk to work and a window to look outside.

MC: Who are some famous icons you look up to?

JL: Amy Winehouse, she is a crack head but she is my homie until the day I die.

MC: What [fashion] trend do you love right now?

JL: Gold chains, gold rings, gold everything.

MC: What is a rule you have when it comes to style?
JL: Whatever you wear make sure its you. Don’t try and look like someone else, just cause you saw it on someone else don’t try and put it on you.

MC: Describe your style and your influences/ inspirations?

JL: I don’t look at magazines. I’m a very picky person. I’ll probably come out with one thing from a store. I like shopping up north, forever21 is always a good place to be.

Some of Jasmine's Impressive Paintings

ICONS

My current obsession is from the collection of the limited edition Andy Warhol’s Interview books. Each book has a theme, my personal favorite is The Fashion. It’s a compilation of photographs, drawings, portraits, interviews, and discussions from 1972 to 1979. The book immediately brought to mind Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen's book Influence with it's interviews of some of the same figures that were prevalent in Warhol's Interview, including Diane Von Furstenburg and Karl Lagerfeld. Lagerfeld actually wrote the introduction to the Warhol book. Warhol's collection is of course more eccentric and sexual in it's questions. Influence on the other hand is more developed around the theme of how they came to be so successful and where the inspirations for their art comes from. I recommend both books because they are intriguing insights into the minds that have and continue to inspire and stun the world. It is a collection of the brightest and most beautiful.

P.S. I have attached some poorly taken pictures (dorms are not known for their goodlighting and cleanliness) of a few of the impressive portaits in the books. Copyrights belong to Interview and Influence of course.

Yves Saint Laurent- Interview

A photograph of Coco Chanel at work

Karl Lagerfeld- Interview

Diane Von Furstenberg in Influence on a cover from Interview, side by side with an actual interview of her in Warhol's collection.

 Illustrations of the Fashion Collections by Mats Gustavson

Artist Portfolio- Jana

A light painting project

Younger Brothers

The Diner Photoshoot

Zoo

Vacation

Portrait from the Diner

Jana Part Deux

Tell me a little about yourself?
My name is Jana. I like to be goofy. I like cake and ice cream.

What are you passionate about?
I recently started painting and I like that. I like photography, modeling, styling.

What do you think are your strengths as an artist?
I try to finish what I start for the most part, but there is that every once in awhile I don't finish it. I just let whatever happens happen. I don't stress it. If I mess up, I don't see it as a mess up, I see it as a guide to a new path.  When I worked on my journal [her art journal] I would just throw some stuff together and look at what looked nice. I didn't worry about messing up anything or making mistakes.

Are you working on anything now? Any ideas you've been thinking about?
I want to have a photoshoot downtown showing there can still be peace in a busy city. I haven't decided exactly how I am going to do it yet, but that's what I want to show.

What trend do you love right now?
I'm obsessed with see through lace, and I'm obsessed with cut outs right now. I've cut up all my shirts. I'll cut them randomly, like holes just randomly. I don't know if I'm going to have any shirts left for the wintertime.

Do you have any recommendations on how you can find cute things and not spend a lot?
Thrift store, I love shopping at the Thrift store. And no matter what, you always have a friend who has something they don't like that you're going to like.

Next place you want to travel? Why?
I want to go to Austria because that's where I'm from. I want to see what adventures are in store for me there.