It's almost Christmas and you still haven't come up with any original gift ideas?
What if, instead of rushing to Amazon or any other large retailer (and run the risk of someone buying the same present), you looked to craftspeople, not necessarily well-established, but who combine talent and originality with quality?
It just so happens that I would like to introduce you to an 'ultra-stylish', if not downright atypical, designer from Lyon, with whom I had a long conversation to produce this video, which I hope will inspire you to check out her TikTok and Instagram accounts, where she displays and sells her creations.
Please note these are one-off pieces. So if anything catches your eye, don't wait too long before placing an order. Alternatively, she also takes commissioned orders. And if you happen to be in the Haut-Jura mountains, near Saint-Claude, you may even meet her at local fairs.
In the deepest ocean, The bottom of the sea, Your eyes — They turn me.
"Weird Fishes (Arpeggi)", Radiohead (2007)
Last summer in the Polaroid Android series, I had introduced you to my my artistic crush for Chester Calayag, a young Filipino painter I met on W.A.S.T.E., Radiohead's official network. A tortured artist, yet he had a special way of making you look at the bright side of things through his off-beat humour and good spirit. Ultimately, it appears it was all but a front to conceal the deep-rooted ill-being that consumed him and that his art proved unable to fully exorcise.
Sadly, Chester decided to leave us on January 11.
Slowly we unfurl as lotus flowers 'Cause all I want is The moon upon a stick. I dance around a pit, The darkness is beneath.
I was greatly shocked to hear the news all the more since I had exchanged messages with him only a couple of days prior to this tragic event and he was delighted to have been included in a private group I had created on Twitter to celebrate the New Year.
“It's nice to read articles like this, and knowing that once in his life he experienced to be acknowledged” wrote Jhen Calayag, Chester's elder brother who broke the tragical news to me.
“Thank you for your time and the appreciation you showed to Chester. I'm so grateful to all the people who appreciate my brother especially when he was still alive. Please, keep on praying for his soul.”
Oh my god, I had not realised how much it had meant to him. I was genuinely moved when he surprised me with an oil portrait he made based on my profile picture stamped with “Gut Feeling”, which happens to be my dominant trait for those who know me well.
In Rainbows
As explained previously, Chester was a big fan of Radiohead. “He had a tattoo of Radiohead on his left arm, and before he died he made a doll of himself with a cassette tape of Radiohead [of Pablo Honey, their first album] as his head holding a guitar” Jhen remembers, obviously touched that I informed the Radiohead community of his tragic loss and posted some of Chester's paintings where they got featured in due place.
On W.A.S.T.E., Jo does recall first seeing Chester's comments “that were often accompanied with a "heh heh" and a :) or similar”.
I'm moving out of orbit Turning in somersaults: A giant turtle's eyes, Jellyfish swim by...
”My initial thought was ‘what's so amusing? This guy's a bit weird!’. Then, bit by bit, I began to realise that he wasn't a weird guy at all. He had a marvellous, sometimes irreverent sense of humour, was sensitive and creative. His ‘Hi, how are you?’ posts were genuine. I got the feeling that he sincerely wanted to know how we were. In hindsight, maybe he was reaching out and needed to say show he was (but wasn't able to say, by what I can make out).”
“Chester's creative posts, showing his work were always like receiving a present. Like his character, they portrayed the unique, the beautiful, the sorrow, hurt and also humour in his and in our lives. He was so very talented and generous in his art. I particularly remember those long limbed figures (Radiohead, I think?) that were genial!”
“So, it's a shame I wasn't in contact with Chester for very long. He left a mark, definitely. It's such a tragic loss to his family, friends and fellow W.A.S.T.E. members that he felt unable to carry on. He will be missed, sorely missed. The world needs more Chesters, though of course he was a one-off! Bye, Chester and thank you.”
In Limbo
I jumped in the river and what did I see? Black-eyed angels swam with me, A moon full of stars and astral cars — All the things I used to see. All my lovers were there with me — All my pasts and futures. And we all went to heaven in a little row boat, There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt.
According to his family, Chester was apparently suffering from the same ill as Thom Yorke in his younger years: depression. And that's probably because some of his lyrics mirrored his own feelings so well that he worshipped Radiohead's music.
“We thought he was suffering from depression, but he always answered he was fine” Jhen Calayag explains. “Really depression has no face. Although we saw sadness in his eyes, that sometimes he would choose to sleep more and keep quiet, he still managed to smile and have fun with us and with his friends. He really appreciated little things especially lately before he went.”
In pitch dark, I go walking in your landscape. Broken branches Trip me as I speak. Just because you feel it Doesn’t mean it’s there...
- "There There", Radiohead (2003)
“But only God knows what was really in his heart and mind. We are still clueless about the real reason why he took his own life. It's so shocking that his journey in this world ended in his own hands. Maybe he really wanted to free himself from the heartache and pain some people caused him. Everyday it feels like it's getting harder and harder to accept that he's gone. He had a lot of plans.”
“He was a good person, friend, son and brother. I don't remember if there were times when we had a fight or argument about something. He respected me as his older brother. I know that whenever I did something he didn't like, he was still there to support me. I still have a lot of things I'd like to say about him.”
“I didn't really talk with Chester very much” B apologises. “I did recognize him as a beautiful soul, so I 'friended' him. It's a tragedy that he left too early and by his own hand... he must have suffered deeply. He'll be missed. I hope he's flying free and happy now, in perfect peace.”
There's an empty space inside my heart Where the weeds take root So now I'll set you free...
“I pray he finds the peace that he was searching for” writes Jean Dotson. ”I pray his family and friends find comfort in his passing. I have to believe, he has gone on to a better life. yes, he was so gifted, so expressive, so wonderful to have him in this life, if for only a brief time. the demon of depression can no longer haunt him. Blessings and Peace!”
“As a man and a fellow human being, I just wish more could be done to stop this happening again. So many good, talented and often too young people who are no longer with us. My sincerest thoughts are with the family of Chester. May he find the peace in the world he now inhabits that he sought on earth” concludes Ian The Trickster
Last Flowers
I, for one, would like him to be remembered for his bright side even though his dark side took him over, because that is what every human being should choose to nurture within. We are both light and darkness, but as gardeners of our inner sanctuaries, it is our utmost duty to ensure a good balance of whatever grows in it.
Even though it's certainly the hardest thing in the world in our egotistic societies ruled by psychopaths who ridicule emotional distress and make hypersensitivity look like a flaw. Strength lies not in feeling nothing but in no longer exhausting your energy in responding. Sadly, I do not have (yet) any perfect method to offer. I'll let you know when that happens (and for free). Do not remain confined in your own private hells pretending everything is okay. Weed out.
Painting is another way to give life.
- Chester Calayag
Many thanks to Jhen Calayag and everyone who took the time to share their feelings.
And most of all, a huge thank you to Chester for crossing and illuminating our paths down below with his art, just like a comet crossing our horizon way too fast.
Do you remember, three years ago I had shared my artistic crush for the work of Argentinian illustrator Gaston Viñas. Here is my new one for a Filipino artist named Chester Calayag. Painting is the only way he knows to make a living, but “really not an easy job” he says. “As far as I know since I was a child I've been earning things with this yes given and learned talent. But as I grew more the struggle is getting different especially nowadays it's easy to make a good art. Sometimes you don't need to think of any concept or say something. Well that's not how I was raised or that's not how I understand art.”
Most of his paintings deal with everything and anything he sees, his own story and interpretations about his own life and how he sees the world. “Doing a painting is another way to give life” he explains. “Music already did this, now it's time for art to give a hand.” His work is influenced by a variety of artists from Renaissance, fantasy/surreal and many modern arts. Dali, Varo, Klimt, and also some local artists and Stanley Donwood, Radiohead's friend and illustrator, a band he's a big fan of too. For music really inspires him a lot and is always giving him the energy to start the day, to start working everywhere he goes.
His striking style can sometimes be quite upsetting. Chester is a visionary artist. Both tortured and full of love, and fully aware of the painful struggle every man has to face to balance his inner darkness and light, just like the strong contrasts he enjoys so much in his painting. “Light is very important for me, maybe to all of us. but it's really hard to find.”
“I believe that nothing is impossible” he says. “There's always a possibility in everything, we just have to find the way how to do it. There's always a way, a right way. and i'm happy I found mine. it was like a portal into something inside ourselves”.
Since pictures speak for themselves and can express much more than words can ever do, I invite you to browse the gallery below by clicking on each thumbnail to enlarge. You may also wish to pursue by visiting his websites as indicated at the bottom of this page.
Here, you can see some of my works, and I hope it can give you inspiration even just a little or anything positive — anything that can help you on your way too.
I know what you're thinking. “This pretty lady won't help global warming”. Your view not mine. Personally, I couldn't care less. She, on the other hand, should be more careful as she'll sure catch a chill fooling around in the snow, wearing no mittens nor earmuffs. Evil to him who evil thinks. “Don't get any big ideas, they're not gonna happen. You'll go to hell for what your dirty mind is thinking”. Not my saying, Thom Thumb's.
I made this graphic a very long time ago and I hope, today, it brings eyecandy to your soul and lifts your spirits in these shady and troubled times we're all going through. Let's wake up the chloroformed butterfly within, bursting to emerge from its chrysalis.
No colour is more cheerful than yellow. Being the colour of sunshine, celebration and joy, it has the ability to comfort and brighten any place. Yellow truly is a warm and inspiring colour. Like the sun shining his soothing, life-inducing rays on Earth, yellow is the colour of life and movement. (source)
Just to put you in the mood of tomorrow night's upcoming full moon, here is a fairy-like scrapbooking page designed with a picture of my two second cousins Margot and Victoria (who have since grown up a lot), along with the almost eponymous melody by Claude Debussy you may listen to HERE.
Art is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory or performing artifacts – artworks, expressing the author's imaginative or technical skill, intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power.
Who never pondered about real art seeing other people or even the media go into raptures over some piece of art while they remained totally unimpressed and nonplussed? I think there's much more to it than a simple matter of taste or education. Try as we might to figure it out, define it or fit it into well-defined boxes as we do with about everything, art will always remain purely subjective and constantly changing. Anyone claiming to fully grasp the whole concept of art would be more of a smug and an hypocrite. That said, you may sometimes wonder what's wrong with you. Like when you studied and spent hours gazing at the paintings of the Impressionists at the Louvre and then took a look at some coloured dot on a blank canvas stamped “work of art” at the National Gallery in London (with a shocking price tag), it certainly does make one wonder. As pointed out with great humour and derision by French comedian threesome les Inconnus in the above popular 1980's parody (sorry no subtitles available). Not in order to disparage some sort of extreme “provocative art” form, but in my humble opinion, to remind us that it's mostly the commercial considerations deliberately attached to it that makes it both “elitist” and difficult to grasp for the average man. Shouldn't art rather be an intuitive thing and assessed as such? I would very much to hear your views in the comment section below.
Ey@el
Art has taken many forms over the course of our history, and our definitions of it have changed dramatically, too. Plato believed it to be an imitation of nature, and we held on to that notion for many years, but by the 19th century, photography had largely filled this role.
In the 20th century, abstract art presented the idea that art was far more than simply representation. Art is a mysterious beast, and its interpretation remains incredibly subjective, yet, as a society, we still find boundaries within studio walls that keep our brains from bursting over the question: What is art?
The art world says that anything can be art, so long as an artist says it is. Just think of the artist Marcel Duchamp and his infamous white porcelain urinal that challenged our notion of art to its core. It was the “loo that shook the world,” signed “R.Mutt” and titled Fountain. And that was back in 1917. So should we really be surprised that some people call splashing a bunch of paint on a wall art? Or someone sitting for700 consecutive hours?
FR
