MIXTURE MAGAZINE

mixture magazine

Paul Goodnight
EXCLUSIVE: THE ARTIST
THE INSPIRATION
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This is the Spirit of

Inspiration...
What inspires you? A piece of music? A work of art? A book?
A poem?

Maybe it was the Pixies performing “Where is My Mind?” at

the Paradise, or the Mighty Mighty Bosstones rockin’ in the New
Year at the Middle East. Quite possibly it could be Ansel Adams
“White Branches, Mono Lake” at the Museum of Fine Arts,
or Henri Matisse’s “The Terrace, Saint-Tropez” at the Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum. Was it one of Dennis Lehane’s
novels, Robert Lowell’s “Waking in the blue” or reading Henry
David Thoreau for the first time? Perhaps it is the Trident
Booksellers on Newbury Street, or the Comedy Connection at
Faneuil Hall. The Red Sox at Fenway Park or the Celtics at the
TD Bank Center. It could be the grand architecture of the old
State House at Boston Common or the incredible John Hancock
Tower at Copley Place.

Great places, great bands, great works of art, books, and

poems. New England is electric.

Mixture Magazine takes you inside the minds and studios

of today’s leading artists to find the inspiration behind the
amazing works that propel creative change. We bring you the
art that makes Boston, a soulful, creative place with the spirit
of the artists who are inspired by it.
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featured
Paul Goodnight

Serius Black

Handsome Boy

Donald Gerola

Ideology
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featured

Reason

Wispers

Provida

Big Ness
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mixture magazine
The Source of Inspiration

Credits

C reati v e D irect o r • Jaymes Leavitt

D e s ign I ntern • Christiana Gallagher

M anaging E dit or • Rich Future

 Wispers
Aint no Plan B

N ot many people are built to last in the music industry of today.

It is even harder if you are a rapper. One can’t simply rely
on skill anymore; you have to be dedicated to the daily grind and able
to master writing catchy club anthems without losing one’s street image.
Wispers is truly one of a dying breed. Since starting Code of Silence En-
tertainment (C.O.S. Ent.) in 2003 Wispers has caught the ear of industry
heavyweights such as DJ Sickamore, OG Ron C, Riggs Morales & Jon
Gottlieb thru the releases of his singles and mixtapes. He estimates about
15,000 of his cd’s have hit the streets over the years building his reputa-
tion as of the leaders of the new East Coast era. All this while serving time
in federal prison and witnessing the death of his brother in shooting that
nearly left Wispers paralized. Wispers is the man every girl wants and
who every rapper wants to be. For years Wispers has been preparing to
tell his story and now the world finally seems to be ready to hear it.

Born in Boston, Wispers first began writing lyrics in order to share them
with his sister who was born with a hearing impairment. His lyrical ability
soon earned him a reputation but Wispers also began earning a bigger
name on the streets. Getting arrested serveral times as a teen Wispers’
mother moved him all around Boston and it’s surrounding cities to New
York and Florida in hopes of saving her son from the streets. The experi-
ence of living in so many different regions gave Wispers the ability write
songs that everyone would like. Wispers helped start Split2nd Entertain-
ment and was fast becoming one of rap’s most promising talents but it
wasn’t paying the bills. Wispers found himself in prison and once released
he was no longer the label’s main focus.

Most people would quit after so much struggle, but not Wispers. Within a
month Wispers was back performing shows and recording more than ever.
In Summer of 2008 Wispers released “Champagne” and “Power” on Digi-
waxx via Seawood Records/Risk Music Group. The singles marked the
beginning of a new phase for Wispers. A phase marked with an unheard
of hunger to make it.

Since their release Wispers debuted a brand website (www.iamwispers.

com) and recorded 60 new songs. He has chosen the best 15 for his new
mixtape “Step Your Game Up” and has begun recording material for his
debut album which he has titled “Ain’t No Plan B”. The title signifies his
new approach to the music industry and how failure is not an option.
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ProductionLive Online
Covering New Englands Talent
www.productionlive.ning.com
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P aul
G oodnightThe Artists Inspiration
M ixture Magazine sits down with renowned
artist Paul Goodnight in his studio at the
historic piano factory in Boston. We spoke to him about
his recent projects, finding his identity, creativity, culture
and his source of inspiration.

What is your source of inspiration?

My inspiration usually comes from travel people and

places; it is not hard to find and it’s around every corner.
My life and music inspires me. The guy sitting on the
stoop gets me inspired. The last piece I did was on jazz
musicians that had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina.
Many musicians had been displaced had been really put
out to pasture, so to say, and had to find out how to make
a living. I did a whole series on these musicians. That
is why a lot of people would go to Bourbon St. to hear
music. It is not hard to be inspired. People inspire me like
my teachers, John Biggers and Paula Healy who is now
my inspiration because I am still in school. John Biggers
is from North Carolina. He is truly one of my mentors.
These guys can say certain things that keep you inspired.
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People whom are not artists can inspire me. Movement
inspires me. Inspiration is easy.
Talk about living in Roxbury and how the arts impacted
the culture there.
It is funny because when I first started, I did not want to be
an artist that stayed in the same place and did the same
thing that other artist did. I never thought I was going to
be recognized, and I was kind of in the mix. I wanted to get
out of Roxbury so I wouldn’t paint the same thing everyone
else was painting. I went to live in Haiti. When I came
back to Roxbury I realized that there were things here that
are interesting and that this is my neighbourhood and this
is the place that I know most. I was born in Chicago and
I grew up in Connecticut and moved to Boston. Roxbury
was not my only influence. I spent a lot of time trying to
get out of Roxbury and I soon realized that my biggest
support team was here.
Did you want to be an artist when you were growing up?
I wasn’t going to be an artist when I was growing up. I
was not sure what I wanted to do. Come on… who
wanted to be a painter when you didn’t know anyone who
was successful at it. There were two things I knew about
artists. One, that to be successful you had to die. This was
not much of an ambition for me. Two, you had to starve to
be a good artist. So Starving and dead did not seem like a
good combination to me in order to do this work. This is
a calling. After Vietnam the veterans were in a suspended
aria. I came out of Vietnam with no way to communicate.
I had lost my voice in Vietnam, so consequently all that I
could do was draw. I knew I always loved to draw but I
never took it seriously. It became my voice. There was a
mural at the Roxbury YMCA that I remember coming down
to and I would stop there trying to figure out what I was
going to do with myself after this Vietnam dilemma blows
over. I would look at that painting and say to myself, “That
is what I wanted to do. I want to do this. I want to paint a
painting so large that everybody would stop and look and
ask questions about it.” I was delirious at the time. Gary
Ritchie was the guy who did the painting. I don’t know if
that thought was real and I did not know whether or not
I had the luxury to think like that. That is what I wanted
to do and that became my calling. It never left. I did
not think of being rich and I did not think of anything but
doing a painting that large. I did not know what it entailed
but that was the real connection.
Can you talk about finding your identity as an artist?
I was fortunate when I was young to have been able to
travel. In travelling to Russia, throughout the Caribbean,
Central America, South America and Africa, I was exposed
to a lot of art. A lot of it I found to be very interesting
and I was attracted to the colour, texture and the form.
Travel, for me is also a really good way to get something
that had some substance to it. Seeing how people live
and experience the culture and to really get a sense of
this has formed my identity. That is how I developed my
work. It was a process. In the process you think you are
developing, but the process is actually developing you.
And if you push it too fast, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t have
an evolution. It doesn’t have a growth period. You have
to allow the creativity to get the proper exercise. The only
way to work out a muscle is to exercise. That was, for me,
a hard lesson because I think that a lot of young artists
who have a lot of talent want to go in quickly and identify
themselves. They do it and they just get stuck.
What is the creative process?
The creative process is an evolutionary process. The idea
to create is that you are creating out of nothing and the
creating never stops. If you get into creating a stylized
art, you know that is as far as you can go. Some people
want to do that for example there are cartoonist’s that
have their style and they are happy with it. For me… I am
not happy with dong something over and over again. I get
bored with it. It has to be something that develops. It has
to constantly develop. I do a lot of studying of the old
masters and people I am interested in. I try to incorporate
that into my work. You have to have a foundation, and a
lot of very talented artists don’t want to take the time to
develop the foundation. They don’t want to develop the

fundamentals and structure. They go off on their talent, and
they find that they get stuck at a certain time or place. What I
realized is that I could be a very successful artist when I was
young but I couldn’t do the things that I wanted to do because
I did not have the structure. I went back to school and really
learned the developmental process. The rehearsal and the
exercises I needed to do over and over again so when I go out
of the box or when I wanted to make something my own, I had
a real legitimate place to come out of. I think the ingredient
that makes a good painting or any thing is texture. It shapes
the interesting way that you make a design.
What effect does creativity have on culture?
Historically the creative minds like Michelangelo and those
guys helped identify what the Vatican was supposed to be.
The Vatican became one of the richest places to go. It was
a series of people who had the money to make Catholicism
one of the only religions or the best religion in the world. And
that was based upon what the Vatican was putting out there.
They had some of the best artists in the world, at that time, to
do sculptures. The Sistine Chapel, which Michelangelo did,
Davinci worked there… Rafael...there were all of these great
artists. There was a sign of intelligence if you had a portrait
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or great art in your mix. It is part of history. It is a part of
culture and it identifies culture. It speaks to their spirit and
who they are politically. Art and satire have always been
one of those components of a particular period. If you look at
artists, they were always the ones opening books when books
were closed. In terms of politics, identifying that maybe, for
example, demonstrating that war is no good. Educationally,
if you learn about a certain country like Egypt and the tombs,
for example, it is all art and all of the things we believe worth
preserving. You can walk through a museum and get a history
of a particular place without even reading anything. Most
civilized countries always identify themselves with the arts
some way or another. The arts make up a civilization and the
arts are always a part of a culture.
What place do you think the arts are right now in America?
Well, right now because being in a recession period, the arts
were one of the first things to suffer. Music was taken out of
schools. Sports have suffered. The creative process is the first
thing to suffer because people do not understand creativity.
The arts are one of the first few things on the chopping block.
This includes music, books, painting and dance because they
rely a lot on people who have disposable income. When that
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dries up people stop buying art. They take care of their necessities first. It is
up to us as the artists to be resourceful enough and creative enough to make
things work. I do a lot of freelance work I do a lot of commissioned work. I also
never forget that the reason why I am in here is that there is a certain freedom to
doing my own thing and I love basically doing that. I also live in a neigborhood
where there are pictures all over the place. I try not to worry about the economic
climate because there is enough to occupy my mind to pass over this period and
I will grow with it.
You mention art in sports would you consider art a sport?
No. I think art is art. I mean there is sport in art and there is art in sport. You see
Michael Jordan doing what he is doing and it’s like an incredible ballet. I love
sports. Oddly enough, I used to be a boxer and I know a lot about boxing. If you
look at my sketches there is a nice rhythm to it. It is all about bold movements.
The only reason I did this is because I have a nice connection with movements.
What’s the price point on your pieces?
The prints range anywhere from $45 to $700 and originals go from $800 to $3000.
The most expensive painting I have sold was $75,000. That was a good day and
night! Andre Agassi bought it.
How do you feel being an internationally renowned artist?
That is so far outside of me. The thing that I really know is the people around
me. I am really like an organic guy and I don’t think of myself as extraordinary.
Every once in a while, I get an extraordinary sale and that may put me in another
bracket but it really doesn’t. It is ordinarily where you are supposed to be. While
I am working I teach and I learn and I love what I do. I have been very fortunate to
be able to do this and if I die tomorrow I will still consider myself very fortunate
to be able to do this job during these times. I haven’t been rich and I never think of
myself as being rich unless you call rich being blessed to do what you want to do. I
work hard at it and probably couldn’t work for somebody else.
What do you think your work with the World Cup does for your brand in terms of
being involved on a global level?
I was one of five artists chosen from each country to do a piece replicating soccer
and South Africa. They have a series of artists that do artwork for the Olympics every
year and then they figure out who does what. I don’t know how they do that art is
so subjective!
Believe it or not, Boston has the most soccer viewers in America. Of all sports, you
may not have realized, soccer is one of the most viewed. With the Bruins, Red Sox
and the Patriots you would think that there is enough sports in Boston! This summer
the World Cup is really going to have a big break out piece. Addidas hired me to do
a piece for their t-shirts, an auction and some prints for sale. I also did the World
Cup piece for South Africa. Each one of these pieces is going to be shown in each
country that is participating so it is a travelling show that will go on for about a year.
It can’t hurt! The Addidas label connecting to the t-shirts is a very good help too. It
gives me an audience that I would not have had before, especially with sports.
Now how do you feel about that mix of Corporate and Creative?
If you ask me to do something with heavy liquor or cigarettes or something of that
nature I will not do it because I do not believe in it. When you get a corporate brand
and they put your image on that brand it cannot hurt you as far as merit. Most of my
clients allow me to be who I am because that what they want. They want a fine arts
piece and they dress it up graphically to sell whatever it is they sell and of course
they pay top dollar. It can’t hurt. The audience may not know who the artist is but
can identify with the creative and then they find out who the artist is and they are like
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“ Yeah! So that’s who did that.” So it expands. TV and Movies

as well, it has all helped me.

What is a mixture to you as an artist?

I think of colour. I think of people. I think of the synthesis

of life. I also think why we don’t mix and why we separate
ourselves as part of the pattern of divide and conquer. When
you mix something, you blend two things together and hope
that it works. And that is what I think of.
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REASON
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A Passion For Writing

H
ow did you get into poetry?

First and foremost I go by the name reason. My real name is Ayobami I am from Nigerian decent and my mom and dad are straight from Nigeria. I was
born and raised in Roxbury Mission Park however. In My past my parents were kind of strict so they kind of kept us in line. I am one of three siblings and they
tried to keep us in line doing our schoolwork and to keep us out of trouble. I took shelter in different arts. I used to draw and I also did poetry and short stories
and whatever to keep me entertained and out of trouble. Sports were also another activity that I took up. That’s how I found my passion for writing and it did not
actually take hold until a couple years back when I realized it. I was also a little shy and I needed to break away from that because I had the idea that I wanted
to do some public speaking. That is how I chose to step out and share some of my work. And I have a little skill with it so I am enjoying what I do and this is
just fun for me.

How can people see your work?

I am on Facebook under the name - Ayo ‘Reason’ YaYo I am also on twitter http://twitter.com/reasonthepoet. I have plans on publishing a book later on in life
but I am still in school now so that is my first priority right now.

Where are you performing?

Anywhere I can find an open mic! Right now Boston is not very prominent with the open mic but it’s getting better. I find myself at Verve Lounge a lot. I have
done shows at Saints, 360, (when it was open) UNH, Northeastern and the Blue Wave. I actually had my first paid performance at the MFA for the MLK Day
open house. Anywhere there is an open mic for poetry you can bet I will be there!
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Provida Clothing and Accessories

P atrick, Tell us how you got your start in the footwear and accfessory business?

I started a t shirt company about two tyears back and I was doing a lot of marketing for it. My
girlfriend and I had an idea about a shoe store. So we saved up and opened it up. I had built
a lot of connections in the business and I used that to help gain business for the store.

Was there an event or something specific that inspired you to do this?

Well my son was born and I had to provide for him. I have a lot of sisters and I have been
surrounded by women all my life so I kow what they like and I know what they want and I also
know how to deal with their personalities

How do you find the merchandise for the store ?

I find wholesalers from all over the country
Georgia, California, NewYork, florida. All the
fashion states.

Who picks the items you feature in the store?

My girlfriend and sister chooses the shoes and
handbags and I pick out the jewelry most of the
time..i learned from them though

How do you forcast the trends and how do you

know what women will like?
I always take note of what peole are wearing
and I ask women who are fashion concious what
they like.. I hear it a lot from the people who
come to the store and my customers too. I am
very observant and I listen to what they are say-
ing. That is the hardest thing about the busi-
ness...Deciding whats gonna sell the fastest

How can people find you?

I am all over Facebook and I just opened up a new website. have a web site
http://www.providafootwearandaccessories.com/
Email
providaclothing@yahoo.com

Provida Footwear and Accessories

574 N.Main St.
Brockton, Ma, 02301

By phone:
857-492-6204

Business hours:
mon-thurs 10-6pm, fri-sat 10-8pm, sun 12-5pm
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KJ
GraphicDesigner

GMG Clothing
KJ How did you get into the Graphic Design Indus-
try?

I am from the West Indies and I basically got into

the fashion industry after living in Boston and
being in the Nightlife scene promoting night clubs
promoting events and putting on fashion show in
the night clubs. I worked with the fashion indus-
try and with a lot of high-end brands and also in-
between brands. It gave me an idea to put some
stuff out. In terms of graphic design and fashion. I
started a line called GMG Clothing. Right now we
are in the stage of branding ourselves and putting
the products out there. We are doing club shows
and club promotions. Pushing the GMG Lifestyle
and creating the brand.

I have been around for 3 or 4 years. I travel a lot and

I am in NY New Jersey and Connecticut. I spend
most of my time in Boston.

You can check out the mixture magazine store and

at http://gmgclothing.com
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STAR CHIC
The New Boutique from Bianca Wheeler

Bianca how did you get the idea to start your boutique?

W ell I knew a long time ago that I did not want to work for someone else
for the rest of my life. I had a strong vision and a lot of creative ideas.
I knew I could get an idea together. Something I have passion for and I could make
a future out of it. I love retail, and I love fashion so it was idea for a boutique. I
came up with a name and I dit’nt know anything about opening a retail store at the
time . I had to teach myself a lot! Everything I know right now I tought myself. I
researched everything. I went to retail workshops in NY that taught me how to
open and run a successful store. I talked to other boutique owners and went off on
my own. I also bought a lot of books. So I wrote a business plan, put it on the back
burner for a while and now it’s up and running. Its called Starchic.

The boutique is kind of everything except the clothes. It’s all accessories hand-
bags lingerie and bathroom products. You could have the prefect dress but the
outfit is not going to speak with out the correct accessories. Come to my store and
you can find everything you need to complete your wardrobe. I like to embrace a
lot of different styles. I love the rocker style girl, the casual girl, the sporty girl and
business minded style as well. I want everyone to be able to shop there.

How do you find the merchandise and choosing what goes in to the store?

The world we live in now! It is inspired by the world, and driven by the public. It is
driven by celebrities and the media. A lot of women go to magazines to get inspi-
ration for fashion. I look at what is going on at the time and I predict what style to
feature in the store. I pay attention to how fashion is changing. I buy from many
different designers. I dont want to carry just the same names you will find at Mar-
shals or Filenes or the next boutique around the corner. I want to make sure that
I bring all different styles together. I look at designers from Chicago, Miami and LA
and bring many different styles to Boston. I find fashion bloggers and merchandis-
ers and ask them if they sell wholesale if they do we set up photos. I am very picky
too it has to be great quality.

We would like to have a storefront by the end of 2010. I would love to be on Washington St they call it the SOWA neighbourhood. I love that street!
I am starting the website first and I just want to have an online presence as well so I have to get that up first. I am just going to start off with jewellery, handbags
and shoes. It is going to be up soon… it is still under construction.

How can people contact you? I have an email address Email: bw@starchicboutique.com and a Star Chic facebook page.
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Donald Gerola
To be an artist takes Passion...
and a whole lot more!

D onald Gerola what was the art scene like when you got your start?

I was doing work in some of the famous office suites like Hayworth
corporation, Henry Miller, American seating and I did some churches outside NYC
and then I did underwriters labs. The art movement in NYC at the time was raw. It
was real and original. Galleries down in SOHO were right on the edge. And then
when I left the city, I guess it was in the mid eighties, it just died away. I bet a lot of
people in the art world would reprimand me and criticize me for saying that but that
is just my take on it. The seventies were just alive. Soho was raw and wild, new
and dynamic. The best cutting edge pop galleries on earth were in NYC. I had a
gallery and studio in NY. In the mid eighties.

Did you grow up in NY?

No I did not grow up in NY. I grew up in NJ and then went to college in Ohio and then
came to NY in 1974 and that is when I started my career. That whole era was very
inspiring. I spent a lot of time there. Connected with a couple of famous designers
there in NYC, and got into the hottest design shows. Not the galleries. The galleries
pissed me off. OK Harris was like if the hottest international artist got in anywhere
it was that gallery and I was brought in by the brother in law of Ivan Carp. You
don’t get into these places unless somebody brings you in. You walk in the door
and they will just show you the door to walk out. Somebody real important brought
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me in. I sat down and they looked at my
slides, he put them in the slide projector
and the slides got stuck. He absolutely
flipped out, absolutely went ape shit in front
of me. Here is this famous bizarre guy that
owns one of the hottest galleries on earth
and he said to me “you are not meant to be
here” he did not even look at the slides he
just absolutely flipped out. There was this
man next to him. He must have been the
best looking man I have ever met and he
looked at my slides and he thought it was
amazing. That is how I got in to begin with
because I was doing things nobody else
was doing. Ivan picked the one piece,
which was the best piece I ever did in my
career at that time, and he said it was ‘Pre-
Cubanist’ and he did not like it. Well, there
was no such thing as ‘Pre-Cubanist’ art.
Picasso started the Cubist movement that
was it! I was doing sand frescos. Similar
to the work here (looking at a large panel
on the wall) and there is no one in the
world that knows how to do this technique
period. It’s all sand. Layers of sand with
color. And that is how I got into the famous
design shows being around OK Harris I
said to myself “I don’t need this shit” plus
they got 80% of sales and you had to sign
an exclusivity contract for two years which
meant I could not be handled by anyone
and if they did not sell it meant you were
a starving artist. So I got into Cassa Bella,
they met me at in international art expo in
NY. I was doing giant aerial sculpture then,
and I was the centerpiece. I am still to this
day the only artist in any of the international
art expos in the United States who had
two mobiles hanging. I never met the right
brokers, the right marketing people so we
were never able to do anything with it. Being
the centerpiece of the international art expo,
having a centerpiece aerial sculpture artist
would die for. I was there. It is however
all about marketing. I am curious in Boston
now… is there this new resurgence like
what has been happening in the art world
and there is new set of galleries looking for
the next new sculptor the next new artist?
You know this country is fucked up as far
as art goes. All they know is pasteurized
American cheese! It is all just Calder and
Lichtenstein and I am just sick and tired of
it and Picasso… and it’s like the same two-
dozen artists everyone has been talking
about for the last 50 years. I am just sick
of it. You know when you go to RISD, and
RISD will respect their artists and yet Roger
Mandel is being thrown out and replaced by
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MIT John Mayer. The new president of Media Lab at

MIT! And what does RISD get? They don’t get an artist,
painter or sculptor as president they have a media guy.
They are competing with Brown and they want to be the
big boy on the block. Anyway Roger Mandel looked at my
portfolio and just flipped out. I come to him for a second
meeting, he asked me what I was there for and I told him
I wanted an endorsement from RISD. I am almost 60
years old and he said it would not make any difference.
We argued for like a half hour literally screaming back
and forth he just refused to listen to me and what I
wanted and what I came there for. He was adamant
that any kind of endorsement from RISD wouldn’t do me
any good and went on to say that artists come to him for
endorsements and it does not do anything for them. I
asked why then do they give BA and Masters to students,
if it’s just a worthless document and this argument went
on and got more heated. The reason I got there was I
did a monumental piece for the city of Pawtucket and his
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son Lou Mandel is a famous architect who was on the
board and literally begged me to get one of my pieces
and here is his father fighting with me so there is so
much beurocrasy which you know about I am sure. So
here I am…my career in NYC. I had my 15 Min, and
then I dropped out to move to Pennsylvania. When
you drop out of an art career you lose the following the
designers, and architects. I went out to the mountains of
Pennsylvania to do all this work you see outside. It took
seven years to do it, 10 to develop it and then I come
back in the world and all these architects and designers
that I knew are now retired, gone out o business or dead.
Now its like I’ve just hatched. Now it feels like I am new
again and I have re hatched and I am started over again
I just want to scream.
Rhode Island seems to me a dead end for the arts. I
mean I speak for anyone in the arts except for RISD; no
artist should waste any of his/her time here. The mayor of
Providence has totally no interest whatsoever in modern
sculpture. So how can a city go anywhere if they do not
have any beautiful modern sculpture? You don’t see
any Litchenstines, and Picassos, any unnamed artists
local artists nothing here. I was one of the few artists in
the history of Providence who was willing to install these
things. Remember, some of these cost $10.000 to move
around. At my expense, and the zoo was interested some
people from Parks department were interested, some
of the arts people were interested. The mayor was not
interested. It’s a dead end street. Newport totally I got
him on public radio at a town meeting I wanted to loan
some of these things to the city the marinas down there
and he said that Newport was totally against modern
art now and in the near future. I mean that is a tragic
thing for a mayor to say. So you got the two big cities
in RI Providence and Newport against modern art? I
don’t belong here anymore. So what happened I started
doing was moving up to Mass. The Springfield Museum
is doing a major installation in March and all of a sudden I
am heading out to Cape Cod. This is a waste here. This
is just my studio now. I have to get to where I want to
get now because there is no more time. This is it. This
is my life. I sold everything I had about four years ago.
Some of those big sculptures cost 100.000 to build. Not
looking back and thinking this is the dumbest thing I ever
did. And that is tough. So the world is looking at these
things and asking, “gee I wonder if anyone is going to
get hurt. What about liability? And I’m like what are you
sick? How many humans in this world get out of RISD
and Mass College of Art and are able to make it as an
artist and sell their paintings for thirty years and acquire
this beautiful piece of property in the country see these
waterside sculptures (points to picture on wall) and then
one day wake up and realize that people are scared of
large things they are unfamiliar with and it is crazy.
You heard of Woodstock NY? The sequel to it is in
Pennsylvania. On the Delaware River, I was surrounded
by waterfalls, streams and ponds for almost 14 years.
And that’s where this was all born. All these sculptures
were rusted. They weren’t painted. They were all on the
stream and around the walkway sand. These sculpture
were all on stream-beds around ponds and I sold Milford,
got 700,000 dollars, and that is what fuelled all this.
Artists today cannot survive solely on grants it is
impossible. The grants are like 50 to 100 thousand
dollars. And that’s not even going to pay for one of
these sculptures. Even a grant that is 200.000 will only
cover a fraction of the cost to build these things. What
about my time? My studio? My life or my family? It is
really sick out there. So somehow you have to do self-
funding or get a benefactor like Jackson Pollock. He
had backing. This is what I am looking for. I can’t go
any further. I have sung my song.
Take a look at this sculpture magazine. A lot of this
sculpture is not going to survive the test of time. I am
not saying it’s good or bad, it’s not going to survive
time. You know the work of the Egyptians, Picasso,
Lichtenstein; they are going to survive time. This other
stuff will not survive. This stuff we are looking at now
is just performance art, of the minute but most of what’s
in here.

So what do they consider when purchasing art? Public
art is just that. They consider it Public art so when they
want to acquire another piece what they will do they will
have a competition. So if you are a sculptor. I am a
sculptor. They find all the sculptors, Call them in and
they say “Ok we want it to be this high and this wide
and it has to fit here” I mean n it is so. I mean it’s like
putting apples in a press. They keep squeezing it and
squeezing it and squeezing it and processing it and that
is what ends up being public art. You never get some
one like me that produces a model and building a great
sculpture because my heart tells me to do this and you
find a city that wants to buy it. That’s what Picasso and
Lichtenstein did they did not say to themselves, hey
I need a little money let me go get a grant and come
up to Boston to get a grant says we want it to be non
representational to be this high to have this dimension
out of this material to be flat on the north side its sick.
There’s nothing creative about it. It drives me nuts!
I am one of those who are young at heart. I have been
fighting the system all my life I am like the wolf. And
that’s why Alan Barta, who is doing a documentary on me
thinks that I have a chance or that I just might be the next
Joseph steel. If I get the right Exxon or whatever behind
me and fuck the museums! Because when you think
about it was Rockefeller who was responsible for the
modern art movement. He was responsible for Jackson
Pollock; he was responsible for Peggy Guggenheim to
go whoohoo!! Rockefeller was sponsoring the modern
artists and what Rockefeller was doing was his business.
What he was doing was going around he was doing
projects... I am a banker and I have charisma. I have
ties and jackets and I want modern art in my provincial
banks so my banks are cooler than the other banks. And
that is what was going on I don’t know if you know that
or not. That is what was happening there. And he had
all his scouts going all over the place looking for the best
artists who were doing radical cool things. They weren’t
going to pace gallery or any of the great galleries. They
were actually scouting out looking for people like you
who knew people like me. And that is how they found
Jackson Pollock. And all these radicals like Motherwell
MIXTURE MAGAZINE
and Arnold Knot and they were buying a few of the
Pollocks and the Mother well’s and they were sticking
them in their modern banks with drapes. So that’s what
was going on then. Peggy Guggenheim got wise to it
and literally owned Jackson Pollock. And then put the
museum up. So that’s what I’m looking for I’m still one
of those raw un-pasteurized talents out there that trying
to break the rules and the only difference between me
and the art world is that I put my money where my mouth
is I sold everything in the world and I am building these
things. So that is where it is.
These sculptures here in the studio are all models. The
problem is that when you go from 10 feet to 20 feet you
have all these structural problems. If you don’t know
what you are doing from an engineering point of view,
this thing at 20 feet is going to look like a big piggy mess.
The trick in sculpture is when you go bigger not to make
these things look powerful and ugly but to make them
lift and beautiful and light oh my goodness look at that it
is this graceful cat tail 20 feet high. When you go from
20 to 30 feet the structural problems are phenomenal.
From 30 to 40 feet they are extraordinary. Those big
babies out there. It is unbelievable. This is not territory
for art students. This is territory for and artist and has
an engineering background at the same time. Which
culture had, at one time, throughout ancient civilization.
We start from a sketch to a drawing to more CAD drawing
and then it gets blown out studied, modeled and then
built and sold.
How did you first start getting into metal work?
My dad was a famous mechanical engineer; he died when
I was a boy I went off to school for engineering at North
College of engineering. I quit in the third year because I
did not want to work in an office and have somebody tell
me what to do all my life. I did not want to live the life I
saw my father had. I wanted to be free. It was 1974 I
was down in Florida and I just woke up one morning and
I saw this magazine it was called paint contractor and
MIXTURE MAGAZINE
they had these beautiful murals that they were doing in
New Mexico and in California. I looked at these things
on the sides of buildings walls in Chicago now I never
did any art never did any drawing in my life and I looked
at it and I said I can do these better than they can! I
just like that just packed up and moved out of Florida,
came up to New York City and I started doing these
beautiful graphic murals. And nobody did them better.
I was like the finest! I did them so perfectly for giant
corporations it just took off and after a short amount of
time the vice president of American Chair and Seating
brought me down to Washington DC and I was going
to do a mural for the government
in the Ray burg building and that
project fell through, because they
were redoing all the congressional
offices down there the contestants
for the project were Hayworth,
American Seating and Herman
Miller. My agent at the time was
with Hayworth and he wanted the
commission from the government
so they used me because the
government was interested in me.
They wanted that type of mural in
their offices and they were more
interested in me than my agent
and I was the worm on the hook
and was getting used and I lost the
project because Herman Miller did
not get the commission and I after
that I was so pissed of at the world
that’s when I broke away. I moved
from the NY side of the Hudson River to the Jersey side
rented this giant old studio and started to do these huge
paintings. Giant… just giant canvases and that’s what
I did. I decided at that point I did not want any more
agents any more brokers. I just painted canvasses for
quite a few years because going from murals to canvas
was pretty extreme. We had accidents. We had floods.
We were flooded by the Hudson River my whole studio
was flooded out and we were bringing bags of sand in
and I remember the patterns designs the water would
come through and make in the sand. We were young
and stupid and crazy and we would get high at the end
of the flood and just tremendous amounts of stuff was
ruined and we would clean it all out and open it and
make flood gates and that is when I started exploring
sand because it is so wonderful. After 3 or 4 years
I developed this fresco technique then one year it
was just hot. I was in Casa Bella which was the most
famous interior design show in NYC and I would paint
these pieces and they would sell for 5 to 10 thousand
dollars everyone was buying these you know Billy Joel
was out in the Hamptons and through my anger and
stupidity I bypassed the galleries so
I did not get the fame of the gallery
but I made a lot of money. I am not
going to kiss some ones ass.
When you chose your subject matter
is something that has affected you
personally?
No I am not thinking of anything.
It’s like the universe is pumping
these things into my mind and I am
just putting them down. There is
no thought process. I see these
things and I have to put them
down. It’s not like I am deciding to
do something non representational.
Non-representational is something
you are not familiar with. If you are
going to do a sketch of the tree line
you do a sketch and just do it or the ocean or a boat. But
something non-representational? Non representational
is what you don’t understand so you put a line here and
a line there and this comes and goes CAN’T EXPLAIN
IT. It is just a gift. I have a psychic connection to the
universe and it is a gift and it is just there. There are
places that I know where and when to go to. I have
always wanted to go to New Mexico as a child and
when I was there I would transform those feelings I get
from when I am there and translate it into designs.
 MIXTURE MAGAZINE

The material is very difficult to work with. It takes a lot of time and patience and knows how to do the
type of work I do. It’s not forgiving. This one small piece of metal here is like $1000. If the design was
wrong or if the piece does not fit or if it doesn’t work right I just lost 1000 dollars. All of these things
were cut out of virgin steel. None of this was found in junkyards. It is all brand new metal that has
been cut through and welded.

Where do you do this?

Mostly in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Yeah what I’ll do is ill come into these industrial steel shops
for like a week or two three two months ill actually buy them for a unit or two where I will run the shop
for a specific period of time and we get into a lot of egos where the shop owner is saying it cant be
done I am not going to do that. And I go wait a minuet I am the engineer here I am paying you and
this is the way it’s going to be so a lot of heated words and sometimes a couple have almost come to
fist fights. Your life is on the line for this thing. You tell me it can’t be done and I’m the engineer I say
it can be done and yet it is dangerous they have never done it and I’ve never done it before so we all
respect each other. It’s a major production huge industrial bridge cranes and forklifts and welders that
you never see in any artwork. Huge welders that they use to make submarines with. Dangerous. We
should have shot footage. Alan Barter my media guy now is doing a documentary he has devoted so
much time into writing and producing documentaries on me and marketing them.

Something like this would sell for 12,000 dollars as garden sculptures. This metal has to be strong
enough so it can support a human say a kid tries to climb it and does what he is not supposed to do.
This stuff weighs a ton.
MIXTURE MAGAZINE

DJ
Big Ness
 MIXTURE MAGAZINE

I n Rhode Island there is a new DJ on

The scene and his name is Big Ness. He is
one of the hottest new DJs around and is
an amazing addition to the nightlife scene
in Providence
MIXTURE MAGAZINE
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IDEOLOGIE
Mixture Magazine Interview with
Mui Romano and Mark Gringnon

M y Name is Mui Romano I am from Mexico originally and I have been doing a lot of travelling
recently and I have been in Europe Mexico Australia and Asia for the past couple of years.
I think that is a big inspiration of what we do and how we do it. And why we do it. It is a connection
of people more than any thing, between cultures and arts which all inspired us to do this. Based on
those connections that not only took into consideration the environment, but the people who are in-
volved. Using that communication where in a broad perspective you can say anything to anyone and
hopefully somebody will pick up on it and we think that it is possible to try to do and we think is has
been a good time so far.
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How did you and Mark meet?

Mark graduated about a year ago and we both met at school and we had
this idea together and now we have been doing it for two years now.
Building the company through fashion through our Suffolk university
courses we came together and formed a business plan and build the
marketing plans and built it into a business. Then we were very pas-
sionate about it.

All of this came out of an existential practice. Asking yourself ques-

tions who am I what am I why am I here and what difference does my life
make and then there was a lot of philosophy and spiritual search that
really go us to the fundamental factors which formed this company that
is love hope awareness education and Art those factors being true to
us to every sense of the word.

Mark Grignon How did Ideology start?

Ideology started out more of like a social movement than a clothing

company at first. It was about how we can express our positive way of
life and our positive messages and how we could get that to as many
Mark Gringnon people as possible. We got bored with everything we were doing to get
the movement started and we wanted to go into fashion. We went to the
trade shows and saw what everyone else was doing. We decided to go
with T-shirts because that is the most commonly worn article of cloth-
ing and pretty much everyone wears a t-shirt every day. We wanted to
have our customers be the carriers of our message. Our customers are
like a mobile canvass. Fashion is very personal and people wear things
that say something about themselves. Weather or not you are even
thinking about it or not you wake up every morning and put on some-
thing that you bought at one time that made you feel a certain way. Ide-
ology clothing expresses a positive message and you feel great about
it. There is more of a sensation when you are wearing a t-shirt with a
positive message. Right now we are doing more than just t shirts we
are doing hoodies and a bunch of different cuts for women. Tank tops
and stuff like that. The t-shirts are not cheap they are quality garments
and made from the best materials.

This is our first go at it and it has been very interesting hearing the feed-
back from customers and seeing what sells and what does not sell. As
a social movement we want to get the message out to as many people
as we can. There are kids our age, we call them the Obama generation
who really fall in line with what we are doing so those are our initial
target market. We sell to a lot of older people too who I would say are
like Ex-Hippies who fall in line with what we are trying to do with this.
These are people who tried to do the same thing 40 years ago and they
can connect with us and like what we have to say.

What is actual message behind the Ideology group?

Ideology started as a movement for social change. We want people to

Mui Romano
learn and educate themselves with what we are doing. Lets say you
have the Ghandi shirt or the Einstein shirt and you read the quote and
 MIXTURE MAGAZINE

ask yourself what that means to you. Why did he say this? Why should it be important to you? How will this make a difference in the grand scheme of the world? Why
does this matter? We are very detail oriented in everything we make. Everything has a very specific meaning and message behind it. You can actually learn something
from it. We think that this is important with what we do because it is unique. Most companies give you a shirt and then that’s it! There’s nothing you ever hear from them
again. We pride ourselves with giving the customer something they can come back to over and over again. We want them to come into our family and be a part of what we
are doing. Be a part of our facebook. Be apart of our twitter page. Be on our website and interact with us write on our blog. We work with a very creative group and we
welcome contributors to our movement. It’s about social entrepreneurship. There
is an end result other than just financial. At the end of the day the message lives
on. If one person wears our t-shirts and changes the way they think about the
world and fashion then that is positive. A boutique owner who carries our 100%
organic products decided to carry more organics that synthetics and that is a posi-
tive change even if on a very small scale. It works. We donate a small percentage
of our sales to the Acumen Fund which is the worlds biggest NGO. They are like
us who promote social change but they go into places like Africa and Asia and
they find social entrepreneurs and they invest into their projects and they teach
them how to run their business so they become sustainable.

Our website is www.ideologyorganic.com. In Boston we have merchandise in a

boutique called Stills, which is in Danbury. There is a store opening in fanueuil
hall called the Local Collection that will have our products. They sell mostly fine
arts jewellery and artwork from local artisans. All of our art is from local aria art-
ists so they love what we are doing.

Do you have any plans for upcoming Ideology business?

We eventually want to have our own stores. We would like to make snowboarding
jackets and snowboarding gear all organic. We would like to also do other art re-
lated project like skateboards and surfboards and stuff like that. We would like to
get our products to as many people as we can all over the US, Mexico, California,
Seattle Oregon, Canada. And we are trying to get as many places as possible.
Like in Philadelphia we went to like 20 stores. One carried us but the other 19
did’nt but they know about us now so that s a good thing.

Social entrepreneurship is amazing. There is one statistic that today you hear
college grads say that their diplomas are worthless. There are no jobs and the
economy sucks. We are in a recession yadda yadda yadda ...and we’re sitting here
talking about how everyone can make a difference. That is Ideologies big thing.
No matter who you are you can make a difference. It’s more about your will power
and your drive. Are you willing to work hard enough to get that? Passion obvi-
ously had a lot to do with it because if you are not passionate about what you do
you, you will not put the time into it. The statistic about how many people actually
graduate from college is 1/1000 of 1% of the global population ever graduate from
university. That is such a small number! There is no way if you have a college
degree that you can’t create some sort of an impact on the earth. You have such
an advantage over everybody else! In America people get kind of closed minded
even in a big city where a lot of people doing really big things. It is easy to look
at that guy with the Bently and say “Hey, I am not making enough money” and in reality in the grand scheme of things you are so fortunate to even be sitting in a city as
great as Boston right now regardless of what you have. The street people have more money that the average person does in Africa. Everyone is fortunate in this country.
I am Canadian originally and My Partner is Mexican we are both well travelled and we have a global perspective of what’s out there. I think that makes us aware of what
opportunity there is out there. It is our responsibility to do something because we are so fortunate.
MIXTURE MAGAZINE

SIRIUS BLACK
H ow did you get into the arena of poetry?

I am from Detroit Michigan. About the time I was 10 we moved to Charlotte

North Carolina and I graduated High School and College in Charlotte. Ended
up moving around states wit ha project I was working on with Hewlett Packard
so my girlfriend at the time moved to Chicago and I was on the road at the
time and she ended up moving to Boston. I ended up getting a transfer to
live in Boston. I was going to get the whole grown man thing and get my life
together. I ended up breaking up with her and was still on that life path but I
enjoyed doing poetry because it helps me deal with things that I sort of expe-
rience from day to day life. Love, justice and day-to-day things. Sometimes
I may not understand it so I write it down. It sort of incorporates emotions
into it. I put my own experiences into my writing. I know these are things that
people can also relate to. I do it mostly so people can feel like they are not
alone in what they go through. Secondarily I am always trying to figure out
women. And these poems are sort of personal journals of what I have gone
through to figure women out. Somewhere along the lines I realized that you
can never figure out women but I realize as much material you can reference
as possible it is poems. So

I do get a lot of inspiration from external sources too. I would write on things
like stories people would tell me and I found it became this amazing kind of
peace for me. Media plays a lot in it too like what happened in Haiti I started
writing a lot about Haiti just different things that go on in the world. I do a lot
of reading of old religious text and things on conspiracy theories. I research
the planets history as far as development of civilizations and things like that.
 MIXTURE MAGAZINE

- I am always trying to figure out women

Current events make it into my writing but more of my influence is from books and my research.

How has the poetry scene in Boston influenced you?

The scene in Boston is interesting. People always say we are an interesting community. Where I come from, in Charlotte,
people regard poetry differently. It is more of a community. We would go to a poetry spot to another on a weekly basis and
we would interact a lot more. We would read each other our work and get feedback from one another. People are visibly
working together all the time. There are musicians amongst us who would meet for incredible sessions. Soon after I left
we ended up winning the National Poetry slam. I see Boston as having enough talent to take it to that level l and shine on
a national stage. I also see Boston as a place where it is every man for himself. I always tend to work with people who will
work with other people. I always hate to be associated with satellite poetry groups who have a problem with other groups.
There are rifts there that I don’t like and the people who can see beyond that are the ones who are making moves and tak-
ing it to the next level. I am willing to work with anyone as long as they are positive people.

Where can people see your work and tell us some new things that you are planning.

Every Fridays we are at Soul Café. Last Wednesday every month Blue Wave. As far as online .You can go to Facebook /
Sirius-Black

What is the story behind the name Sirius Black?

Lie I said I read a lot of Text on ancient religions and world history. The star system Sirius is actually the North Star. What
people see is actually three stars Sirius A, B and C where the North Star is the brightest. Sirius is a really important con-
stellation because there are many cultures that believe that there were people who came from Sirius to Earth and that the
y are the big part of the reason we had an evolutionary jump. I did a lot of studying of these concepts and they are pretty
cool to me .So one day my girl and I were watching Harry Potter and it was like the first Harry Potter and there is a character
Sirius Black and I am like whoa! That name! That name is awesome and he sounds like he can really mess some people
up! At the at point I chose that as my pen name and it kind of stuck.

Any plans for publishing your work?

I am recording a lot of work in my own home studio… so I plan on releasing an album. The life and times of Silky Johnson.
It is like an ongoing love story. That is coming before the end of the summer. Silky Johnson is another alter ego. I also
plan on publishing a book in the next two years. I have a lot of material but I don’t use a lot of it so I need to edit it down. I
want to get a couple books out there… that would be nice.
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emH$Bmf
M arvelous Mason how did you get into the fashion industry?

Well, I started in retail actually. I started at the back end of the retail environment in the stock rooms and I learned how a store operates. I
learned the different merchandise of fashion like separating a tank top from a camisole. I made my way on to the sales floor and started inter-
acting with guest and it just became a natural occurrence I moved up the ladder that way.

Did you build your contacts through being in the industry?

Pretty much, I actually started the concept of Handsome Boy in 2000 and I was working for a high-end retailer and we dealt with a lot of high
profile clients, entertainers, athletes and lawyers. I gave them ideas as far as fashion to expand their wardrobe, I was pretty much their per-
sonal shopper. They would call me and tell me what they have going on and I would purchase or put looks together for them. I built a rapport in
that sense and it also gave me the knowledge and contacts for what I should do next.

What was the first big leap you took when starting the business?

Actually it was getting the first piece made. The ideas and the concepts were in my head and I just needed the time to actually make the prod-
ucts. I was still in retail…it was a pay day and I had my check in my hand and I said you know what …I am out of here! I knew I had bigger plans
for myself, I walked out on the job and the following week I had my first products made.

Where did your inspiration come from to do the designs?

I was watching a old re-run of the Five Heartbeats and the movie gave me an
idea to create the brands “Mason Head” logo. I made all concepts and designs
around the logo. I knew I wanted a brand that was unique, fashionable and fun
to wear. My experience in retail and experience with multiple brands gave me a
better understanding of what the consumer wanted.

Is there anyone in the arts who inspires you?

I am into fashion, twin brothers Dean & Dan creators of D-Squared, a great fash-
ion line that pushes the envelope. I worked with their products in the past and I
always admired their collections to date.

What really gets you in the mood to do what you do?

Seeing people I don’t know in the products I created is motivation alone to cre-
ate. Along with the everyday hustle of operating a brand and seeing the suc-
cesses.
MIXTURE MAGAZINE

Is there anything else besides the clothing industry that inspires you?

I am inspired by all things vintage. I collect furniture, old albums to cowboy boots. I love going to vintage shops and seeing what was cool
before our time. Since the Handsome Boy collection is based on a vintage concept, these things allow me to express the different variations of
my influences. Vintage shopping always inspires me and always tips a creative spark in my mind.

What are your plans for Handsome Boy Clothing.

Handsome Boy is now in our seventh year and everything is looking amazing. We just wrapped up the brands Spring / Summer 2010 short
commercial titled “The Urbane Renewal”.

As a brand we are focusing on smaller boutique style collections, putting out our strongest pieces and those that move for us. Producing
product in shorter runs allows more exclusivity and keep pieces collectible. We are expanding the product catalog with polo shirts and more
accessory items for the upcoming fall season.

What are some of your major accomplishments

About a year ago we wrapped up the movie Business is War (www.biwthemovie.com) directed by the late Kemal Gordon, where I was the
Wardrobe Director. Not only did I have the opportunity to create looks for scenes, I also had the opportunity for some product placement
throughout the film.

Having celebrities wear the products in their music videos and TV shows is an accomplishment on it’s own. We have been successful on
getting the products on celebrities such as TI, Fabolous, MassPike Miles, even athletes like Dhani Jones. Some of these artist have thier own
clothing brands and still request to wear our products is a accomplishment.

Our twitter page is www.twitter.com/iamhansomeboy and you can follow us there.

We are on Facebook, Myspace and we have a blog space “The Daily Handsome” that we do which is
basically lifestyle images we like to showcase about what inspires us.

The new spring/summer collection is out and available for purchase on our website. www.handsome-
boyclothing.com
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JAYMESLEAVITTPHOTOGRAPHY

WWW.JAYMESLEAVITT.COM
MIXTURE MAGAZINE

mixture magazine
The Source of Inspiration
© 2010 Mixture Magazine
For all inquiries please send email to
editor@mixturemagazine.com
For consideration in upcoming editions please
send artwork and a brief description to
submissions@mixturemagazine.com