musetouch_issue_24

musetouch 

Visual Arts Magazine 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUSETOUCH 

ISSUE 24 SEPTEMBER 2012 

Natalie Shau Mike Worrall Alyssa Monks Steve Richard Hans Jochem 

Olga Larionova Brad Kunkle Sergey Ivanov Dorian Vallejo Mandy Rosen 

musetouch.org

Dear readers, 

It makes me happy to celebrate the second birthday of the Musetouch Visual Arts Magazine 

together with you. I thank you one more time for your eternal kindness and support. 

Without you, this would not exist. 

I also invite you to help us gather the founds for the existensa of the magazine, for 

organizing the team who will help me with creating the magazine and especially answering 

to your emails...it is making me devastated and deeply sad cause it is impossible 

for me to do everything by myself. By donating for Musetoch you will also help us 

build the web site that will make possible for all of you to present your creations and 

to sell it without any provision taken by Musetouch. By donating only $5 you will make 

it happen for this beautiful magazine to stay alive. 

Special thanks goes to my dear friends Steven Diamant, president of Arcadia Gallery, 

NYC, Lucian Dixon, Dragan Lopusina and Ian Furniss who helped me by donating for 

Musetouch, to Ljiljana Bursac, Nini Baseema, Kiyo Murakami, Jelena Grujic, Natalie 

Shau, Bolek Budzyn, Thierry Bruet, Dejan Bogojevic, Gines Serran, Mark Sadan and 

to all of you. 

Maia Sylba

MAKE IT HAPPEN FOR MUSETOUCH 

www.indiegogo.com/musetouch

MUSETOUCH MAGAZINE September 2012 

Editor 

Maia Sylba 

Graphic designer 

Dejan Silbaski 

Contributors 

Nini Baseema 

Kiyo Murakami 

Ian Furniss 

Cover 

Sylwia Makris 

Designer of the hat : Katarzyna Konieczka 

MUSETOUCH is a magazine about visual arts. It has been created by Maia Sylba out of a love and passion for 

art with the hope that people will be able to use the publication and website as a platform to showcase their 

skills and gain recognition. 

Facebook 

facebook.com/musetouchvisualartsmagazine 

Twitter 

Linkedin 

Mail 

twitter.com/musetouchmag 

linkedin.com/in/maiasylba 

maiasylba@gmail.com 

Submission Guideline 

If you want to contribute to the next edition, you can send us an email with your data and a PDF file that 

shows your works, also a link of your website if you have any. 

We would love to see your art so don’t hesitate to contact us and welcome. 

All artwork in this magazine is copyright protected under the MUSETOUCH Magazine brand or remains 

property of the individual artists who have kindly granted us permission to use their work. 

musetouch 8

Steve Richard 

Beautiful and Dark 

Hans Jochem 

The Glorious Pain of 

the Artist 

Mike Worrall 

Mystery Element 

010 

Sergey Ivanov 

Hidden 

220 

Natalie Shau 

Eternal 

044 

260 

Olga Larionova 

Beauty Revealed 

Brad Kunkle 

Gold 

098 

Mandy Rosen 

The Gift of Dreaming 

302 

Alyssa Monks 

The Moment 

134 

Dorian Vallejo 

Natural Born Artist 

334 

174 

372 


Steve Richard 

“Although I have been shooting for over 30 years, for the past decade I have been obsessed with 

creating images that will eventually be part of a larger series of work, and it is rare for me to create 

anything that doesn’t fit into a particular series. It is also very important to keep the framework 

for my images very simple with only subtle storylines. For me art should plant a seed and 

allow the viewer to create or develop the narrative from what they perceive instead of being beat 

over the head with one. I also find it way more exciting and challenging to create a strong image 

or series of images using only a minimal environment and very little extraneous information.” 

Steve Richard 

musetouch 10 

steverichard.com

Beautiful and Dark 














musetouch 24




















Mike Worrall 

The enigmatic, dreamlike paintings of Mike Worrall are often inspired by historical themes. 

Informed by his work in film, Worrall deals with the sublime in his hyperreal depictions of 

the mysterious. As in a dream, the quiet façade and the beauty of the large scale oil paintings 

masks the intriguing content and enormous energy underpinning the works. 

Mike Worrall 

Based on the Central Coast of NSW, Australia, Mike has been a practicing artist since the 

early 60s and exhibits both locally and internationally. 

Mike Worrall 

Mike is also represented in Paris, France and is a permanent artist at La Galerie L’Oeil Du 

Prince, Located at no 30 rue Cardinet, 75017 Paris, France. 

“I have been painting since the early 1960’s and am almost entirely self taught. I still retain the 

basic technique and style developed in these early years. I am committed to exploring the subconscious 

and I like Paul Delvaux and Max Ernst amongst others. 

Mike Worrall artist 

I’ve worked in the feature film industry as an Ideas Artist. You can see my work on Alien III 

website. I was told by Roman Polanski that a painting of mine he had, gave him the idea of making 

the film Macbeth. He based the second scene on the painting. I have works in the collections 

of Victor Lownes, Alan Price of the Animals, Roman Polanski, Nicholas Roeg, Vincent Ward, 

Alex Proyas and many others. 

Since moving to Australia in 1988, I’ve exhibited regularly with Wagner Gallery Sydney, and 

have a one man show every two years. 

As a child I was always intrigued by paintings involving some sought of mystery element. So I 

have tended to be drawn in this direction myself. Get the viewer guessing and wondering what 

it’s about! Quite often I’m not sure myself but for some inexplicable reason it might work as a 

picture. I might not understand it myself even. It may be an expression on a face or just a pose or 

location. 

I’m a firm believer that I should not have to attempt to explain the enigma to people and that the 

picture should retain some mystery for a lasting interest. This I hasten to add is not so with all 

work off course! I’m only referring to my surreal content paintings! 

I’m interested in Dreams and Subconscious thoughts and the weirdness of how we go from one 

thought to another in an almost drifting process. Dreams are a great source of material for me. 

Not that I wake up and paint the dream that I may have had, even if I could remember it, I’d 

then have to most likely make up the details. My paintings are more deliberate and constructed 

with the element of change. 


Mystery Element 


When I was younger I did a lot of disturbing horrific subject matter and themes, dealing with 

Shock & Horror, such as Bruegal’s Triumph of Death and skeletons! I even did a painting called 

“After the Rape” in Preraphalite realism. I cringe when I think of it nowadays as it must have offended 

many people! Although I don’t remember anybody saying so. 

I think most people realized that I was trying to show the Pathos in such a subject. These days 

I’m still interested in death of course, but I think I’m more subtle. I have always had a fascination 

with beautiful subjects, especially women and I love painting them, especially getting a 

good expression or gaze! I rarely use a model for a painting. I prefer to make it up and invent a 

woman out of my head. This doesn’t always work out well and I often as I call it reach the top of 

the mountain then with too many strokes of the brush start the descent down the other side into 

the abyss! So I either scrap it or resort to using a model. 

I am an Intuitive painter. If it doesn’t work in an Intuitive way, I can’t progress. I don’t suppose 

that’s all that unusual really, I suppose all artists are intuitive!” 

Mike Worrall 


mikeworrall.com




















































Natalie Shau 

Natalie Shau is mixed media artist and photographer of Russian and Kazakhstan descent 

based in Lithuania (Vilnius). She found interest in fashion and portrait photography as well as 

digital illustration and photo art. 

Despite her personal work, Natalie also creates artwork and photography for musicians, theater, 

fashion magazines, writers and advertisement. 

She also worked as an art director for a short 3d movie of Kamel Ouali musical “Dracula” 

Some clients : Lydia Courteille jewelery, Kamel Ouali, Kara expo, Island Def Jam, Ogilvy & 

Mather, Sony BMG, Century Media, Nuclear Blast, Trisol, Metropolis records, Peaceville Records 

( Cradle of Filth ), Michael LAFON, Actes Stud, Simon & Schuster Books, Cadbury, Le 

Livre de Poche... 

Galleries : Kat von D’s Wonderland gallery ( USA ), Corey Helford Gallery ( USA ), Vanilla 

Gallery ( Japan), Dorothy Circus Gallery ( Italy ), Cabinet des Curieux ( France ), Last Rites 

Gallery ( USA ), STRYCHNIN Galleries ( Germany ), Phillips de Pury & Company gallery ( 

USA ). 


natalieshau.carbonmade.com 

www.facebook.com/natalieshauofficial

Eternal 


























musetouch 124










Brad Kunkle 

Born in rural Pennsylvania, Brad Reuben Kunkle spent his younger years exploring and romanticizing 

the beauty of the sparse countryside and the deep forests around him. From an 

early age he was drawn to the worlds of Maxfield Parrish and the Pre-Raphaelites --worlds, 

he says, “where a subtle, supernatural beauty seems to be hiding under the breath of women 

--worlds where something beyond our natural perception is waiting to be found.” 

He studied painting at Kutztown University mostly under George Sorrels, who was taught by 

a pupil of the 19th century Academic painter, William Adolphe Bougereau. Filled with academic 

principles, Brad felt confident in his ability, but stifled by the structure of schools and 

dissatisfied with the boundaries of traditional imagery. In an effort to discover his own artistic 

sensibilities, he worked as a commission-based portraitist, and began an almost decade-long 

journey of continued self-instruction and independent study. 

Brad was searching for an unnatural quality in his paintings, and it was ironically discovered 

by reducing his processes to the elements of painting he felt came most natural to him. 

His minimal palette is inspired by the grisailles of early European masters and the haunting 

quality of antique photographs and daguerreotypes. “Grisaille has a mysterious quality to it, 

and that mysterious quality is also at times carried into the way I will treat an object or a dress. 

Sometimes I like to give just enough information for the viewer to finish the details of what they 

are seeing.” 

As a decorative painter in his mid twenties, he leafed entire walls in copper. He was beguiled 

by the shifting, life-like nature of the surfaces, and began to incorporate gilding in his work. 

This proved to fulfill the unreal quality he had been looking for to convey his moody, romantic 

ideas of human nature and ritual. 

“The use of gold and silver in my paintings serve two main functions --the first being symbolic. 

Gold and silver serve as symbols in many ways but to begin with, they are ‘material’ symbols in 

harsh contrast to the spiritual or intangible aspects of life. The shifting of the leafed skies and 

wallpapers are also symbolic of the ever-changing world we live in. Furthermore, gold is the 

single most controversial element in the history of mankind. It causes wars, brings death, happiness 

and beauty - symbolizes love, power, greed, and religion...it’s symbolic properties are just as 

malleable as it’s physical properties. 

The second function of the leaf is to react directly with the viewer. As one walks across a room or 

dims the lights, they are affecting the painting and the painting is affecting them. The paintings 

become a living, breathing thing to me when the leaf is shifting and the oil is quiet. The art literally 

becomes interactive and can give the work a supernatural quality. The use of grisaille, or an 

adaptation of grisaille, against the leaf can give the sense of a very surreal space and unnatural 

depth within the paintings.” 


Gold 


In an old wooden box that holds his paints, he keeps a slip of paper with a quote from Pablo 

Picasso. “You must always work not just within but below your means. If you can handle three 

elements, handle only two. If you can handle ten, handle only five. In that way, the ones you do 

handle, you handle with such ease, more mastery and you create a feeling of strength in reserve.” 

“I paint to connect with the part of being human that is beautiful and slightly dark, stripped to 

it’s truth and always changing --The part of being human that appears to be romantic, but feels 

very real.” 

Brad Kunkle 


bradkunkle.com






































Alyssa Monks 

Born 1977 in Ridgewood, New Jersey, Alyssa Monks began oil painting as a child. She studied 

at The New School in New York and Montclair State University and earned her B.A. from 

Boston College in 1999. During this time she studied painting at Lorenzo de’Medici in Florence. 

She went on to earn her M.F.A from the New York Academy of Art, Graduate School of 

Figurative Art in 2001. She completed an artist in residency at Fullerton College in 2006 and 

has lectured at universities and institution nation wide. She has taught Flesh Painting at the 

New York Academy of Art, as well as Montclair State University and the Lyme Academy College 

of Fine Arts. 

“Using filters such as glass, vinyl, water, and steam, I distort the body in shallow painted spaces. 

These filters allow for large areas of abstract design - islands of color with activated surfaces - 

while bits of the human form peak through. In a contemporary take on the traditional bathing 

women, my subjects are pushing against the glass “window”, distorting their own body, aware of 

and commanding the proverbial male gaze. Thick paint strokes in delicate color relationships are 

pushed and pulled to imitate glass, steam, water and flesh from a distance. However, up close, 

the delicious physical properties of oil paint are apparent. Thus sustaining the moment when 

abstract paint strokes become something else.” 

“When I began painting the human body, I was obsessed with it and needed to create as much 

realism as possible. I chased realism until it began to unravel and deconstruct itself,” Alyssa 

states, “I am exploring the possibility and potential where representational painting and abstraction 

meet - if both can coexist in the same moment.” 

Monks’s paintings have been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions including 

“Intimacy” at the Kunst Museum in Ahlen, Germany and “Reconfiguring the Body in 

American Art, 1820–2009” at the National Academy Museum of Fine Arts, New York. Her 

work is represented in public and private collections, including the Savannah College of Arts, 

the Somerset Art Association and the collections of Howard Tullman, Danielle Steele and Eric 

Fischl. 

Alyssa has been awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant for Painting three 

times and is a member of the New York Academy of Art’s Board of Trustees. She is currently 

represented by David Klein Gallery in Birmingham, Michigan. Alyssa currently lives and 

paints in Brooklyn, New York. 


alyssamonks.com 

facebook.com/alyssa.monks

The Moment 














































Hans Jochem 

Hans Jochem illustrates in his painting works, mainly portraits of women, which are shaped 

convincingly as lines, sometimes a start, sometimes accurately carried out as a striking calligraphy 

and in surfaces, then again resolutely and voluminous. The frame of his work is particularly 

very rich and hides a great love for the painting itself. Nevertheless he embraces the 

knowledge that no single work is really completed. That keeps on going, even if he pulled his 

hands away from it. Even if: over and over again the most recent painting carries the promise 

for what lies ahead and will really fulfil his intentions for the first time. It is however a bittersweet 

illusion, the glorious pain of the artist. 


www.hansjochem.com

The Glorious Pain of the Artist 




















musetouch 240




















Sergey Ivanov 

Sergey Ivanov is a professional photographer living and creating in Moscow, Russia. He is 

passionate about fine art, but also commercial and especially wedding photography with deep 

mening hidden behind every pose, color, light and expression. 


seriv.com

Hidden 










































Olga Larionova 

Olga Larionova was born in 1979, in Khotkovo, Russia. In the year 2000 she graduated from 

Abramcevo applied art college, Ceramic department. In 2008 she graduated from I. E Repin 

Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, studio of easel painting, professor S. 

Kichko. 

Expositions : 

2005 - Personal exposition in the I. E Repin Institute exposition hall. 

2007 - Group exposition of “ Academy of Arts “ Foundation in World Art Center Delft, The 

Netherlands. 


academart.com

Beauty Revealed 
































Mandy Rosen 

Tell us who is Mandy? 

I am a 23 year old girl born and raised in Huntington Beach, California. Since the age of 14 

I have lived in Italy, Costa Rica, New York, and various cities in Arizona. I attended the University 

of Arizona and received my BA in art history. Last summer I lived in New York City 

working on set at Victoria’s Secret as an intern to fashion photographer Russell James. 

How did you first get into photography? 

I purchased my first camera, a FugiFilm finepix s700, at age 20 for $99.00. It was love at first 

sight. This was my first DSLR and allowed me to do things that I had never been able to do 

with a camera before, such as working with shutter speed and macro settings. I began taking 

my camera with me everywhere and would take pictures of any random thing that caught my 

eye: a crack in a window, a close-up of a spiderweb, the reflections in rain puddles, a beautiful 

landscape, you name it! After about a year of this random photojournalism, I discovered 

the world of fine art photography and began concentrating on that instead and creating selfportraits. 

What cameras or techniques do you use? 

Currently I use a Canon 5d mark ii with a 50 mm 1.4 lens. 

What do you know now that you wish you knew when you started? 

Definitely how to Photoshop! 

What are you trying to say with your photographs? I sense the message behind each of 

them... 

My passion is levitation and fine art photography. It’s a way for me to escape reality into an 

ethereal realm; where I can defy gravity, walk on water, play a different character, and make 

dreams come true. Anything I imagine I can create. As a young child, I was heavily influenced 

by my grandmother, a very talented storyteller who filled my cousins and I with the most 

vivid imaginations. In her stories my cousins and I were apart of the “cousin’s team;” where 

we embarked on wild adventures, used our magical powers to conquer evil, and transported 

ourselves to any part of the world through a magic bubble. Her stories serve as inspiration for 

my work, and allow me to exercise my creative freedom. Every image I create is dedicated to 

my beloved grandmother, who gave me the gift of dreaming. 


The Gift of Dreaming 


What do you hope to achieve with your photography? 

I hope to do celebrity portrait photography and one day open a school for fine art photographers. 

What’s your dream photography project? 

To do a shoot with Katy Perry where she is flying through a land of super enlarged fruit and 

floating on clouds. 

What’s the biggest life lesson you’ve learned through photography? 

To be patient! It took many months for me to learn Photoshop and the ways of shooting in 

various lighting conditions. 

How do you see yourself in the future? 

Always dreaming, always happy:) 

MS 


mandyrosenphotography.com




































Dorian Vallejo 

Who are you Dorian? 

I’m an American born artist. 

When did you realize that you are an artist? 

That’s sort of a convoluted question or rather the thoughts encompassing my answer are. The 

short and somewhat romantic but true answer is, that I began drawing so early that it has always 

been a part of me. My earliest memories are of drawing on pieces of paper, on the floor, 

by the foot of my father’s easel while he painted. When my mother was cooking dinner he 

would sit me on his lap and we’d draw together. 

At a certain point I entertained ambitions of being a professional athlete, but by the time I 

was serious about a career, I knew exactly how I wanted to spend the hours of my life and to 

what purpose I was devoted. I’ve been tweaking, an exploring the definition of the word and 

concept of “artist”, ever since. 

How do you see? What is it about the scene or subject that speaks to you, makes you feel and 

causes you to create a painting or drawing? 

There are variations but for the most part, I’m searching for a representation of the heroic 

or the ideal in a poetic sense. One of my favorite philosophers says something like, art is the 

representation of life as it might be or ought to be. Through me, that manifests itself in an attempt 

to create something beautiful in a symbolic sense. Not meticulously copying what’s in 

front of me but instead, using it as point of departure. 

From where is your inspiration coming? 

Ah, the famous question. Over the years, having gone to lectures given by the many artists 

I’ve admired, invariably some version of that question comes up. Usually it takes the form of, 

“where do you get your ideas?”. For some reason, it’s always amused me. Honestly, I’ve always 

felt there are so many tangents of creative inspiration in the air, one need only to reach out to 

grab hold and go for a ride. That said, I have many ways of accessing sources that inspire me, 

and do my best to be open to new avenues of stimulus, as I become aware of them. I sketch 

from imagination, I hire models to work from life, I make time to draw the people I love, I 

have an ever growing collection of art books, I study photography and film and try my best to 

look at the mountain of art that has been and continues to be created in the areas of art that 

interest me, I read and write; all, on a fairly consistent basis. From this pool, images and particular 

streams of thought begin to rise and take shape. 


Natural Born Artist 


Imagination is the word in some way crucial for your art … how does or should, that word 

relate to an artist? 

First, I should say I don’t have any “rules” about what “should” relate to any artist. For myself, 

the world of imagination and symbolic fantasy is a creative vehicle which allows for both penetrating 

philosophical exploration and playful expression. 

Is it important to remain true to yourself and your individual vision as an artist? 

Such a major question… the short answer - YES, absolutely. For me, ideas and concepts that 

form one’s ethics are concrete. I see the whole purpose regarding individual vision or some 

semblance of truth as summed up in the oft repeated quote “know thyself ”. I don’t know any 

other way to honestly engage that quest but to be genuine and sincere; true to self and the 

individual, as an artist and a human being. 

How do you see yourself and your art in the future … what do you wish? 

I have some specific goals I’m working on at the moment that I’m not ready to reveal but 

more importantly as a working modus operandi, I’m constantly trying to improve on my 

previous performance. With that in mind, the vision of my future, simply put, is to do the best 

that I’m capable of doing. Since none of us know the limit of our potential, I’m pushing to see 

what I’m capable of. 

What do I wish? I genuinely wish to produce works of art that I hold in the same regard as I 

have for for the other great artistic achievements of humanity and that my efforts might inspire 

someone else… nothing too humble:) 

MS 


doriansportraits.com

















natalieshau.carbonmade.com

To draw public support and to popularize the Russian Academy of Arts I. E. Repin Institute of Painting, Sculpture 

and Architecture, Saint Petersburg “Academy of Arts” Foundation has been founded in 1996. 

General objective, pursued by The Foundation, is domestic and foreign promotion of I.E. Repin Institute’s students 

and graduates through expositions and media projects. 

Web site of the “Academy of Arts” Foundation (www.academart.com) has been created in 1999. To familiarize 

the broad audience, comprising museums’ and private galleries’ personnel, collectors and amateurs of fine arts 

with the avenues, explored by The Foundation, it was further revised and updated on 2002 and 2011 years. 

Website organized as online galleries of the artists graduated, teaching and studying in the I. E. Repin’s institute. 

Main goal of the gallery is providing the best creative artworks by academician artists all around the world. 

Foundation’s online gallery united over 50 well known figurative artists with recognizable manner and progressive 

style from Saint-Petersburg. 

Worldwide promotion of Saint-Petersburg modern figurative art is main strategy of the Foundation’s activity. 

Outstanding paintings of the most of participants in Foundation’s projects combined classic traditions of figurative 

paintings with contemporary mentality. 

In the nearest perspective of the our activity is creating of wide database of I. E. Repin’s institute graduates for 

last 50 years. We also provide online exhibitions of the best works, artists and important art themes on the www. 

academart.com 

Vadim Moiseev 

General manager 

“Academy of arts” Foundation 

academart.com 


musetouch.org

musetouch_issue_24

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?