January 2nd, 2010

JANE & JEREMY

One Girl. One Boy. Together, Jane and Jeremy create various art projects that
are so lovely they make you feel all warm inside. Cutest couple ever.

How did Jane & Jeremy start?
In a small room, in a small blue house in South London, after another long day
at work, it was probably raining outside and it was then we decided we wanted
to do something nice, for ourselves and our friends! We were always working
on our own projects before we met and we just felt like it could all work together well
as we both liked each others work. We did it for our own sanity! Why not?

Where are you from and what is the relationship between you two?
Jeremy is from Australia and Jane is from England….we met on a dance floor in
London…I guess that was where the Jane and Jeremy adventure began! We are
still in London and we are together.

What inspires you?
That can come from anywhere, you just never know. We like our traveling, photographic
books, Ed Ruscha’s in particular, Gerhard Richter, Richard Prince, August Sander,
friends, conversations, music, finding nice things at markets and charity shops,
like booklets, old photographs, or ephemera.
One of Janes favourites at the moment is Fine little day blog and Jeremy still
thinks the talk by Damon Murray of FUEL Design goes down
as one of his most inspiring.

The Envelopes Book is brilliance. How did the idea start? How long did it take for you to collect all these envelopes?
Jane was doing work experience at ‘THE FACE’ Magazine many moons ago…..
“I got to do some good jobs, one of them was opening the post!! I liked all the
different envelopes they used to get from big fashion houses and creative people…
nice paper and designs, and handwriting. Instead of putting them in the bin I
put them in my bag and then decided to make a little sketch book from them.
Years later Jeremy found it and thought it was great, so we decided to make more
for our website….he’s the entrepreneur!”
Now we ask all our friends to save their envelopes for us!

Are you currently working on any new projects?
Yes, just about to release Palm Springs, a new book which is by our friend
photographer Noel Mclaughlin. We’re also working on two new books, with our
own imagery….one will be images of surfing inspired by the surfing film Litmus
and the other will be another photographic series.

Any advice to young artists?
Just work hard and get your work out for people to see it….working with friends
is great for that! And always have fun!

  

www.jane-jeremy.co.uk

January 2nd, 2010

MAGGIE LEE

ZINES ZINES ZINES. Maggie Lee is a lovely Brooklyn-based artist who creates
 and collects zines. Her work was recently featured at the Vice Photo Exhibition and
her ‘Frenching’ issues are filled with personal stories, photos and collections
 of her favorite things. What’s better than the art of self-publishing? Uh, nothing.

 
Where do you live and what inspires you?
I live in Brooklyn, NY and moved here for school in 2005.

New York fall weather, New York wind really makes me want to make anything/ everything. The summer is lazy and the air is heavy, and I find it difficult making any worthy work. The city in general really inspires me. It sounds cliche, I know, but there are new things happening constantly. Slow pace laziness really dulls me down, like being home in New Jersey.

How old were you when you made your first zine?
I was in the 8th grade. My first zine was called Smash Maggiezine and the first issue was called “no parents”. I wish I had it, but I probably burned it when I realized it sucked.

Are you currently working on any new ones?
I’m working on creating a new body of work, i’m not really sure where its going but I’m trying to go in a conceptual direction. The next zine I want to make will have color photos and black and white photocopy manipulation.

How did Zine Creamers start?
My friends were all making really great zines and I wanted to talk about them and have it for everyone to see. It’s really exciting, people from other countries send me zines. i love reading them, i keep them all. I havent done a zine creamers in a while, i’m going to do that right now actually.

Do you think that zines have a special sense about them because they usually come in limited quantities?
Zines are meant to be made in small editions, passed around, shared, displayed, and only for those who would really cherish it. Magazines are what’s mass produced and for everyone to see and read. Theres just really something special about the process of an artist or personal zine, its a work of art in a way, but i guess it really depends how its rendered, there are a lot of bad zines. But there are also great zines that come in large editions, i like those too but you dont see a lot of them. Its also difficult to make a lot of zines since the costs of production most of the time outweighs the actual worth. also, most of the time they are given away to friends.

Where is your favorite place in New York?
Its so hard to decide, either on my bedroom floor working on projects,
pho at Thai Son on Baxer and Walker in china town, or wandering the MoMA, PS1, or New Museum.

Three things you can’t live without are…
1. good people
2. mac computer
3. delicious treats

Any advice to young artists?
Always keep yourself aware of whats up and around. Keep on making work even if its terrible.

Frenching zine

2003-2005

supmaggielee.blogspot.com