I know Justen from back in the day when he was a vis comm graduate student at OU and I was a sophomore. During critiques, I think we all trusted his advice more than our regular professors because of his keen eye for design as well as his awesome Brooklyn accent. We were all blown away and inspired whenever he showed us any of his work. What a class act.

Where are you from?
I was born and raised in New York City (mainly Queens) and came to
Oklahoma for college.

What do you do?
I teach graphic design at Oklahoma State University where I’ve
developed a program focusing on motion and interactive design. My
design work encompasses motion graphics (video, typographic animation,
etc.), printed work (including posters, logos, custom typography,
etc.), interactive work and illustration. I have also enjoyed making
sample based music for many years.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
My son, Hudson and wife, Holly. My grandparents, Anna and Arrigo
Ghedini (both artists) were huge inspirations for me. A laundry list
of assorted inspirations would include; Hipgnosis, R. Crumb, Ralph
Bakshi, Jack Kirby, Ghost, Saul Bass, Tehching Hsieh, Ivan Chermayeff,
Herb Lubalin, Weegee, Futura, Francis Bacon and old lady Pray. In
general, I am motivated by a sense of life being very short.

What artists do you respect right now?
I respect all the artists and designers I know. I’ve actually found
myself having a deep respect for scientists like Vilayanur S.
Ramachandran. Maybe it’s interesting because it’s outside art theory.

What are you sick of?
Joylessness disguised as professionalism.

What music are you listening to recently?
Bodega System, J Dilla, Thelonious Monk and the Odd Couple theme song.

What is your first creative memory?
I remember inventing the Star of David being a huge breakthrough for
me (I was playing around with triangles and thought I had invented a
new star).

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
The shag carpet room at Opie’s.

Anything else?
Shout out to the Renyer, Ghedini and Dirickson families. Thanks for
checking out my work.
http://www.behance.net/JustenRenyer

Preliminary type design and character study for upcoming motion design inspired by Justen’s home borough of Queens (NYC).

CD cover concept. Image and layout created in 2004, type designed in 2009.

Self-initiated project. Lunar phases. Birds.

Promotional video for Oklahomans For Reproductive Justice.

The Non has been causing quite a stir lately with all the hype for their new album Tadaima. I’m really diggin’ the new album art and the general direction these guys are going. Their mathy instrumentals are a welcomed sound in the local scene. Plus, it’s always nice to see something good come out of Edmond. You can download their debut album Paper City for free on their website for a limited time, and don’t forget to check out their two night album release party this weekend.

Where are you from?
Wil – I’m from Edmond, Oklahoma.
Tom – Oklahoma City, born and raised.

What do you do?
Wil – I’m a student at Oklahoma Christian but spend my time daydreaming about music.
Tom – Lots of music things and lots of airplane things. I love playing in the band and working on everything that entails, I love everything about it. I listen to huge amounts of music all the time, always finding new tunes from the past and present. I really can’t get away from it and would never want to. A life entails more then music, though. I’m a student at the University of Oklahoma and spend a good amount of my weeks flying airplanes out of Norman as a professional pilot major.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
Wil – I guess I read a lot of literature, which always makes me question all of my convictions on everything. I think being unsettled as a person keeps me moving, and as long as I don’t get stuck in my thoughts, I think I’ll always be able to find inspiration.
Tom – Every day I wake up is one for inspiration—everything influences us, musically or otherwise. From the coffee in the morning to texture of your mattress at night, it can make you think or feel a certain way and that can have an impact on whatever it is you do. My biggest sources of inspiration are my mood and thoughts at any given moment. They can make you play a certain way and think about the music you’re making from completely different angles within a matter of minutes. It’s amazing. Of course I have to mention music as an inspiration; something is constantly spinning wherever I am and I am hugely impacted as a musician by what I listen to and think is cool.

What artists do you respect right now?
Wil – In Norman/Oklahoma City, I am obviously a huge fan of Evangelicals and Sethy McCarroll, both in Gentle Ghost and as a visual artist. I will always love Kunek/Other Lives/whatever the band featuring Jesse Tabish and his talented band mates.
Tom – My big time all stars are John Frusciante, Weather Report, Modest Mouse, Jethro Tull, Yes, The Mars Volta, Led Zeppelin, Bela Fleck & the Flecktones, and Charles Mingus, among others.

What are you sick of?
Wil – Christmas music. It’s enough to drive me out of Starbucks for a month, which is actually a good thing anyway. So that too, I’m sick of Starbucks and all the money I wish I never spent there.
Tom – Petty problems being abundantly voiced by those feeling the need to do so.

What music are you listening to recently?
Wil – I feel fairly unoriginal for loving Animal Collective’s “Fall Be Kind” but it really is pretty amazing. I fell asleep to it a few days ago and I swear I had visions of a tight-rope walker (Bleed), flashing neon shapes (On a Highway), and strange pyramid tunnels (I Think I Can). Really great. Also, I am obsessed with Kaki King’s “…Until We Felt Red.” She’s brilliant. Her chord progressions are impossible and she’s able to make guitar sounds that are unique in a musical world of constant reference to other bands.
Tom – I just got bought two Midlake records the other day and that’s what I’m binging on at the moment. They’re an astonishing band from Denton, if anyone doesn’t know who they are. I had never heard them before but now I know what I was missing. The top five CDs sitting in the stack in front of me are by The Sugarcubes, The Clash, Dan Deacon, Return to Forever, and Tortoise.

What is your first creative memory?
Wil – I’ve been drawing since forever. In elementary school, I used to draw these extremely elaborate drawings of Star Wars-esque soldiers or medieval knights and whatnot. For class in second grade, my friends and I drew this super-bloody mural of a medieval-era siege, complete with people cutting off heads and getting boiling liquid poured on them. I’ve always wondered what my teachers thought of stuff like that, it was pretty morbid. But awesome.
Tom – The farthest back I can recall is a family road-trip where, for some reason, I had a really old child’s keyboard, the kind where you can hit only one key at once. I figured out how to play that thing on the drive and had a great time. This would have been in the mid-nineties.

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
Wil – It’s really hard for me not to pick anything other than The Library. It’s great when it’s warm enough to sit outside there, and the Sunday $5 pizza is just about impossible to beat. The atmosphere’s a little irreverent and you always overhear some way-out-there conversations by what seem to be brain-fried physics professors or something and that’s always great for a little while.
Tom – Lot’s to choose from! If I had to pick, I would say I either The Greek House or Midway.

Anything else?
Wil – Thanks!
Tom – Check out our new website and our new album, Tadaima!

Video by Nathan Poppe.

Hannah’s gorgeous prints and paintings have been used by bands like The Panda Resistance and Dead Sea Choir. She’s a bit of a recluse, but if you manage to get your hands on some of her work, don’t let go.

Where are you from?
I grew up in Tulsa, Ok.

What do you do?
I’m a painter.. I manipulate mediums, experiment with material, this is just the beginning of the process. Lately I’ve been making creatures, photographing them, and using them as references for my new pieces.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
Anthropology is a huge inspiration, bone and carcass collecting, the process of decomposition.

What artists do you respect right now?
I never get tired of Egon Schiele. Lately I’ve been really into Allison Schulnik and Kiki Smith.

What are you sick of?
I’m longing for a break, other than that I can’t complain.

What music are you listening to recently?
Recently Air.. The Cure/The Smiths always.

What is your first creative memory?
Obsessively drawing flamingos.

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
For drinks mainly the library, and Blu on occasion.

Anything else?
Nothing witty or informative is coming to mind.

I’m not sure why I had never seen Esteban’s work until recently, because he has some of the freshest photography around. His portfolio site has several wonderful projects that definitely deserve a look. I added a few photos from his People and Where They Live project at the end of the post.

Where are you from?
I was born in Caracas, Venezuela. When my family moved to the US, we started in New York, where I went to preschool with a famous actress, then Los Angeles. We left after an earthquake for Miami, then DC and Hawaii. I moved back to New York where I was living before I moved to Norman.

What do you do?
I photograph people in moments when they are being honest, not altering themselves or posing. I try to make the camera invisible and allow the viewer to create a direct relationship with the subject.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
Seeing a person who shows an honesty about them , a stranger who I see and think about afterwards. I know that I relate to that person somehow, but am not sure how. In some ways, that is the thing I am trying to find when I photograph, even when I am not photographing people.

What artists do you respect right now?
Reineke Djastra, Ira Glass, Todd Stewart, Andy Anderegg, Michael Wolf, Nigel Shafran, Thomas Struth.

What are you sick of?
Wedding photography.

What music are you listening to recently?
Chuck Berry, Ratatat.

What is your first creative memory?
Finger painting Batman.

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
La Luna, Blu, J-Pats.

Anything else?
Cops reruns.

Some of my favorite memories of high school include driving to the city and listening to a girl with a surprisingly powerful, absolutely beautiful voice play her own folk songs at Galileo’s on the weekends. I even bought a little 5-song CD from her, with a wonderful, hand-crafted paper case made from the pages of an old children’s book. Then the world fell in love with Samantha Crain. You will too, if you haven’t already.

Where are you from?
Shawnee, OK (that’d be where Pretty Boy Floyd layed that deputy down), but I seem to have vehement affairs with the cities I call home. I’ve been shackin’ up with Grand Rapids, MI, Martha’s Vineyard, MA, Concord, NC, Portland, OR, and Greenville, IL over the past 3 or 4 years.

What do you do?
Ah little of this, ah little of that….mainly making music, drawing pictures, shooting air rifles, and typing letters. I also spend a lot of time taking things apart to see how to put them back together.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
I am a VERY active sleeper. I used to walk and talk in my sleep but that has since been phased out and replaced with super vivid and invovled dreaming. So my dreams provide me with a wealth of material to write about. Other things I get inspiration from: science textbooks, silent movies, Radiolab, Anais Nin, traveling, astronomy and astrology, rap music, Buckminster Fuller, and flea markets.

What artists do you respect right now?
I assume that this is asking what artists I like right now….because, being an artist, its hard for me to really respect artists, knowing that the world has all the great art it probably will ever need and understanding that being an artist is pretty much the most egotistical and unproductive thing you could do with your life. I respect car mechanics and preachers much more than I respect artists (this of course makes me an impossible contradiction but Que sera sera)….BUT artists that are smothering my radar right now are Reinhardt Sobye, Jason Molina, Wes Freed, Joey Lemon (of Berry), Kyle Field, Michael Hurley, Dr.Dog, Phil Elverum, Nate Henricks, Theodore, Zeb Dewar, and Tim Lowly.

What are you sick of?
Expectations, bad string arrangements, greed, and Taylor Swift.

What music are you listening to recently?
Leadbelly, Withered Hand, Mount Eerie, Student Film, Roger Miller, Eric Satie, Bunk Johnson, Cass McCombs.

What is your first creative memory?
Drawing on the driveway with a melting purple popsicle.

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
I don’t really hang out in Norman much…If I am in Oklahoma, I’m probably in Shawnee and my favorite spots there are Hamburger King and Benedict Street Market.

Anything else?
I’m recording a new album right now….it’ll be out in the spring of 2010. Also, http://www.oklahomafood.coop/

I first found out about Sarah’s secret life as an artist a few months ago when she told me about her upcoming Emergent Artist show at Mainsite. That show is opening this Friday from 7-9 and also features work by Danford Mitchell, Michael Lortz, and Eric Wright. It’s a pretty big deal. You might want to swing by.

Where are you from?
Oh dear. I was born in Chicago but came to Oklahoma City via Memphis, Albuquerque, San Francisco, and Virginia Beach. I went to high school in Edmond, USA. These days I like to call Norman my home.

What do you do?
So much, but I’ll try to be brief.

I cook for children in a Waldorf initiative (based largely on principles from this program) 5 days a week. We eat really well. The schoolhouse is nearly finished and kindergarten starts in January. Most of the rest of the time, I make collage paintings. They’re a continuation of a project I started about two years ago- what I call a “dream map”; taping and sewing together my photographs, some painting and text, lots of ephemera and paper “trash”. It was out of control in many ways, and it got too big to work on in my space, so I started these paintings, which are more controlled and easily read. They’re loose chronicles of my dreams and waking life, and they are very stream of consciousness, so much so that I’m often surprised (and ideally delighted) by what arrives.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
So much. Life! To be more specific (and verbose) I have always loved JMW Turner; I just drool over his color and gestures. Hannah Hoch’s work was introduced to me at the beginning of my foray into “collage-painting”, and I just found another person in a Modern Art textbook (aptly named “Modern Art”) but I forgot her name, which is so typical. She’s got these moody, foggy, ephemeral watercolor color blocks bleeding into each other… and I want that. Tapiès and early Paul Klee. I’ve had the great privilege to travel often; I’ve seen many great things inside and outside of great museums and all of that wonderful stuff is still floating around in my head. I’m also motivated/inspired by chance and chaos, trees and their falling leaves, the moon and her cycles, dreams and patterns, patterns in my dreams, my past, present and future, outside, walks, complementary colors, maps and the seasons. Words and their communicative value and formations are important too. I like to use them texturally (ha!) aesthetically, practically, and symbolically.

What artists do you respect right now?
My Mother, Leslie Lienau, forever and always. Jean Lancri.

Everyone who’s serious about and loves what they do and strives to do it well. We are all capable of being artists, and art is all around us. I absolutely believe and respect that.

What are you sick of?
Negativity, apathy, processed food that masquerades as “healthy”. Eat real butter folks, you’ll live till you’re ninety. I really shouldn’t get started, ‘cause I really am sick of negativity. It’s way too easy for me to be attached to it.

What music are you listening to recently?
I could listen to “Ballad of a Thin Man” everyday. Same goes for Jerry Garcia and his pals, especially early 70’s Grateful Dead and all of the “Jam Sessions”, Dylan’s Desire Sessions, Blonde on Blonde, Blood on the Tracks, The Rolling Stones, Del McCoury, The Roches, Janis Joplin, Ravi Shankar. I always love to hear Hilary (Penny Hill), and the other night I heard John Calvin and his band play. Holy Shit, I love it.

What is your first creative memory?
I’ve always been surrounded by painting. The smells of oil and watercolor paint, charcoal, turpentine, all those wondrous, vaguely toxic painting smells are the first things that come to mind. As for myself actively creating… early memories involve playing “dress-up” and “make-believe” alone or with my sister and brother and our friends. I am very fortunate to have always had the opportunity to use my imagination liberally and elaborately.

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
The school for most meals ‘cause I know just what I’m eating and it is very good. Otherwise, Pepe’s, The Earth, Forward Foods, Misal, and, of course, home. I’m so glad that Gray Owl is open and thriving.

Anything else?
Isn’t there? I’m eternally grateful to my friends and mentors for giving me love and critiques. There has been lots of positive growth these past two years thanks to you all. And thanks to you! One thing I used to dream about was being interviewed for something I’d done. Hopefully I’ll have this chance again in other venues, but I may now say “check.”

Riley Harmon and I went through the foundation art classes at the University of Oklahoma. He is someone who I am excited to see where his creative works take him. I will one day be able to tell my kids I knew Riley Harmon.

Where are you from?
The threshold of city and country in Shawnee, Oklahoma, transmitted to
Pittsburgh, PA

What do you do?
I make and break things. Sometimes I mash potatoes and jello 2gether.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
Dreams, Theories, Books, Music, Movies, People I meet, and the stories
they tell me. Personal experiences to be shared for others to consume.

What artists do you respect right now?
Cory Archangel
Levi van Veluw
Olafur Eliasson

What are you sick of?
Lag

What music are you listening to recently?
Sasha – Invol2ver
Prefuse 73
NIN – Ghosts I – IV
Telefon Tel Aviv

What is your first creative memory?
Contraptions of paper towel rolls and duct tape.

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman/Pittsburgh?
Norman: The Library, The Earth, Tom’s Kitchen
Pittsburgh: Greek Gourmet, Brillobox, New Amsterdam, Kazansky’s

Anything else?
If / Else

Thomas Shahan has recently become somewhat of a local celebrity around Norman. He was featured in the October issue of Popular Photography Magazine and interviewed on the Today Show a few weeks back for his macro bug photography. Not only is he a great photographer, but he is a spectacular printmaker and all around artist. Check out his vintage guitar website here, and his Youtube page here.

Where are you from?
Tulsa, more or less.

What do you do?
Macrophotography, Astrophotography, draw/paint, buy/sell/collect vintage electric guitars, make music… I have no job.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
I’m not sure if I can answer this one – everything is worthwhile and equally inspiring.

What artists do you respect right now?
Most people I respect are not artists. Wayne Maddison, a Zoologist who specializes in salticids, has done some amazing work with documenting and studying the jumping spiders of the world.

What are you sick of?
Many more things than I will tell anyone – there’s no benefit to complaining.

What music are you listening to recently?
Exuma, The Shangri-Las, The Band, Del Shannon, The Chocolate Watchband, Bee Gees, The Ronettes, The Kinks, Bo Diddley, The Carpenters, The Seeds, The Small Faces, The Zombies, Wilbert Harrison, The Move, T-Rex, Procol Harum, Gary Glitter, Cat Stevens, The Sonics, The Gants, Paul Revere & The Raiders, The Music Machine, Fairport Convention, Love, Family, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Los Saicos, Hank Williams, Cliff Carlisle, Son House, Charley Patton, Johnny Horton, Tammy Wynette, Canned Heat, Sonic Youth, Captain Beefheart and The Magic Band, Little Richard, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Slim Whitman, The Troggs, Shirley Collins, Beach Boys, Tommy James & The Shondells, The Stooges.

What is your first creative memory?
Maybe not a “creative memory”, but my earliest memories are some dreams I had about the animals in my backyard when I was about 4 or so. I wasn’t afraid of them – I just felt they were more intelligent than me.

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
I don’t really go out at all – so I can honestly say I don’t have an answer to this one.

Anything else?
Forget The Beatles – The Kinks were the greatest group of the 60’s (next to the Beach Boys of course)

Penny Hill is the stage name of one of Norman’s beloved singer/songwriters Hilary Pitchlynn. By herself or teamed up with some wonderfully talented friends, Hilary bends hearts with her beautiful, willowy voice. That’s the best way I know how to describe it.

Where are you from?
I’m from Norman town, born and raised.

What do you do?
I do the bulk herb inventory and stocking, transport recyclables to the center and work a couple of shifts every week at the Earth Natural Foods Store. I also pick up two kids from school everyday and hang with them until their parents finish work. I pretty much work in a barter system… trade for rent, trade for car, trade for food pretty much. I like to keep things as simple as possible.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
I use anything and everything for inspiration. Often I find myself writing songs about other people’s lives: their joy, pain, trials and triumphs. When I do that I usually end up writing the song about me and my life (I’m kinda vain like that I guess). Mainly people inspire me though. Life is really really hard sometimes, but everyone has to live… no one is a victim, or we’re all victims of the same tragedies. I believe what we see in others is always a reflection of ourselves. Plus it’s easy to be inspired by people when I know so many cool ones.

What artists do you respect right now?
I really respect independent artists who work day jobs and just make music and art because they have to or they’d die. I feel that way about my music, but sometimes when I’m not so productive in my work I want to stop. I can tell myself I’m awful at what I do and I’ll never get anywhere. Then I realize I am here right now. Where else would I go? What else would I do? I respect artists who just do it no matter what.

What are you sick of?
I’m really sick of perfectionism – my own mainly. I’m sick of overanalyzing my performance. I’m SUPER sick of being compared to any other female singer songwriter just because I’m a woman. I’d like to think we’re all different enough to stand alone. I mean how many times have I gone to a bar to watch a band and it’s all the same skinny white boys from the night before and the night before that. For some reason no one connects them together because it’s either reggae or rock or drum and bass or whatever. They get a genre but for some reason we women have to be in our own genre.

What music are you listening to recently?
Shit. Music? I hate the stuff. No, but really I don’t listen to nearly as much music as I could. I spend quite a bit of time sitting on my bed staring at the wall before I turn my head and realize I have an ipod full of songs and a player to hear them through. I mainly listen to music at the store, but if I choose to put on the tunes it will generally be some folk. Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, all the greats. I like to use music to manipulate my moods. If I’m sad I always put on subdued rainy weather stuff. When I’m happy I put on something bigger, sometimes even something made within the last ten years. If you’re looking for musical influences I would name Ani Difranco and Kaki King (shame on me, those are both women). These women set me free from my expectations of what the guitar should sound like when I play. I am forever grateful for these musicians and have even been blessed enough to see both of them live.

What is your first creative memory?
I used to draw carrots a lot. I suppose I thought that I drew really good carrots so I just always drew bright orange carrots popping out of the ground. I remember making up songs all the time for sure, belting it out at the top of my lungs while jumping over cracks or weaving through parking meters. I also made frequent appearances in my sister’s home made movies. She would write the script and I’d act it out. I adored her (adore her) and would do anything she wanted. I think it was called “the Ashley and Hilary Show.”

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
The Earth Cafe and Deli, for sure. I’ve probably eaten there more than anyone. Seriously, I challenge you to find someone who goes there more than I do.

Anything else?
I think I might have overextended my middle finger typing all of this and I can’t think of a single other thing to say. I don’t do well without prompts.

Curtis pretty much taught me everything I know about printmaking and being unbelievably tedious. His obsession with repetition is something I find incredibly inspirational. When he is not too busy teaching people to be creative he works with printmaking, though his prints often end up as some sort of sculpture or installation. Check out more at his portfolio site.

Where are you from?
Renton, Washington.

What do you do?
I make art and teach.

Who or what do you use for inspiration?
At various times I’ve looked to music, hedonism, reading, drugs, and comedy for inspiration. Now, I generally try to keep my eyes open and hope that something interesting sticks.

What artists do you respect right now?
Anyone who makes art these days has my respect. There are so many (bogus) reasons not to.
Here’s a list of contemporary artists, each of whom bring me joy:
Tom Friedman
Vim DelVoye
Nina Katchadourian
Will Rogan
Fred Tomaselli
Jeffry Mitchell
Lesley Dill
Lari Pittman

What are you sick of?
everyone’s iphone

What music are you listening to recently?
Since I discovered youtube (yeah, that was me who discovered it) I’ve been traveling backward in time musically and looking at stuff I remember from way back when.
Here are some examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-GueNOKolo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oskM5XD_Yc4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8dC9M6OCkE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HTI76H0Ojc

What is your first creative memory?
Probably drawing Muhammed Ali in kindergarten. I remember seeing pictures of him and Joe Frazier after one of their fights and being freaked out/ fascinated by what a pummeled face looks like. I was probably five years old or so.

What is your favorite food/drank spot in Norman?
Home, The Earth, Sweet Basil when I can afford it

Anything else?
Breakfast burritos.