I have had the privilege of being in an article written by Dylan Klempner for Arbus magazine. You can find it in the October/November issue, which is still in the stands. Grab a copy as soon as you can because the next issue comes out in December. The story starts on page 56. Click on the link: http://vpub.boyd-printing.com/publication/?i=85389
I have been busy with a few projects lately and some are still under wraps. I will, however, mention the annual AIGA Always Summer Poster Show. The requirement was to pick your favorite song this summer and make a poster of it. I chose a song from the Blade Runner soundtrack called “Mail from India” by Vangelis. In one scene from the film, one of the characters, Rachael, greets the main character, Deckard, played by Harrison Ford. She shows him a realistic robotic owl while having a brief dialogue. From this, I started visualizing the image I was going to work with. I decided the poster should be in the design of a stamp enlarged to a standard poster size 18×24. It’s a stamp from India, hence the name of the song. The owl is the centerpiece sitting on a letter as if to have brought it from afar. On the letter I wrote that brief dialogue Rachael and Deckard had upon meeting. I decided to design my own typeface instead of using existing ones designed by others.
I chose to make this image into a stamp design because I am an avid stamp collector or philatelist, as we’re called. I have been passionate about it since the age of 7 in Romania. Growing up, these international stamps were my only window into the world of illustration and graphic design…themes of Soviet Constructivism style, communist propaganda, historical figures, the Cold War, space age and the Olympics, among so many others. I was entranced studying these images as a child, learning how the illustrations and typeface design were executed. Collecting stamps, French comic books and of course constantly drawing…that was my childhood.
The past few months have been productive and exciting. Back in December, I landed with my good friends at none other than ART BASEL MIAMI. I couldn’t have imagined a Fine Art venue of this magnitude (the largest, most significant in US). The entire time I was surrounded by the giants that inspired me. Works from Picasso, Monet, Kandinsky, Rivera, Miro, Klee, Pollock, Krasner, Warhol, Basquiat, Brassai, Lichtenstein, Le Corbusier, de Kooning, Rothko, Bacon, (insert entire art history book), etc…I’m exhausted. There were also the alive ones: Koons, Christo, Botero, Frankenthaler, Stella, Ruscha, Hirst, Wiley, Condo, LaChapelle, Kapoor, etc. I even small talked Steve Martin and Adrien Brody. Great guys. When I came back in town, I was inspired to push my visual boundaries and went to work like a mad man.
As weeks rolled by I worked on new canvases exploring new subject matter, generating, composing imagery from the
mind. I don’t usually paint from pictures so sketching new ideas is my humming engine. My latest canvas, measuring
4.8×8 feet done in oil, depicts the latest state of the US economic corruption or what has always been at the core of American consumer/financial business, this iconic greed for more.
In other news, I was recently in a juried show at The South Gallery, Scan Design and also displayed during the Jacksonville Art Walks at my Studio 111 Gallery. There are a few more events coming up so I will return to keep you guys updated.
Hello again world. I know it has been several months since my last entry, but I have been busy…as always! These past few months I have invested most of my time and energy into my working art studio/gallery. I’m located on E. Bay Street in beautiful Downtown Jacksonville. On top of spinning my creative wheels at the studio, I have also been busy displaying my work in several gallery shows around town. My most recent shows were the JCVA Fall Show at the Modis Building, AIGA’s “Always Summer Poster Show” at our studio, and the Wilson Center for the Arts’ “The Figure Unveiled” at The South Gallery.
Of course, I am also involved displaying my work in the Jacksonville Art Walk, which takes place the first Wednesday of each month. The studio is always open to greet visitors during Art Walk and by appointment, so come and see the exciting things I’m doing. This past event, the November Art Walk, I was invited to join other local artists in a drawing marathon to support research for prostate cancer. All finished works from the night were/are for sale, with the proceeds going to the cause.
As always, I am steadily working in my studio. My most recent piece, which can be viewed in the “Art Gallery” section of this blog, is a politico-sci-fi style acrylic measuring 48×60. I have titled this “Departure.”
Final product for the Always Summer poster show, 18x24.
Quick sketch concept for my Always Summer poster, 11x14.
My, Always Summer, poster for the 2009 show, 11x17.
I have been rather busy the past few months. In February and March I submerged myself in work, maintaining a large part of my focus on a mural project. The Jacksonville Speech and Hearing Center asked me to paint a mural inside their building which was completed in April. The subject matter was children at play in a park-like setting. The mural was a serious undertaking for me and I learned a lot in the process. In January I was also involved with Community Connections for Disney and Hands On Jacksonville, where I took part in another mural. Since completing the murals, I have been focusing on painting works in acrylic on canvas as well as large 24×36 figure drawings, for exhibits.
My mural in its final stages.
I have finally decided to start a blog documenting my visual arts activity, ongoing projects and thoughts on the art/design world at large. So!…Enter Philip Cozma, into the blogosphere …
I’m an artist and industrial/graphic designer enjoying life in Jacksonville, FL. I have recently established my working studio and art gallery in our beautiful downtown here, called Studio 111 Gallery. It has been my ongoing passion, the majority of my life, to pursue and develop my craft in a wide variety of visual art fields from industrial design to illustration, fine art drawing and painting, sculpture, graphic design, etc. So…Welcome to my visual arts blog! I will keep this first one short, just a Hello World for now.
Sono Io, PHILIP COZMA
