Artist Spotlight: NATASSIA NICOLAU

NORTHWESTERN NOIR is the upcoming solo exhibition of artist Natassia Nicolau's incredible paintings.The show opens Tuesday June 10th, 9 pm, at the Tin Can. We've been working hard to get the show ready, and Natassia sat down with Magic Brotherhood to answer some questions about her work and background.

MAGIC BROTHERHOOD: Your upcoming show at Tin Can is called Northwestern Noir. Please tell us a little bit more about your title choice.

NATASSIA NICOLAU: Northwestern Noir seemed to embody the feel of most of my artwork. I've always been drawn to the muted colors and quietude of a light rain, and the short time I lived in the Northwest was one of the most visually inspiring of my life. I'm a California native and I love the sunshine and beaches, but there's something about the dim light and fog that will always feel a little like a homesick nostalgia for me.


MB: Where did you grow up? Did your upbringing influence your artmaking?

NN: I grew up all over Southern California. From the desert to the edges of LA, from the blight of the Orange Curtain to my current home a short drive to the border. My dad is an architect, and that had a huge impact on my appreciation of the arts. But mostly art was an escape from the experience of a high school in Irvine that was largely made up of people who were nothing like me. I always preferred being in my own headspace to trying to compete in a game that I didn't know how to play. It wasn't until I got out on my own and met other artists and performers that I really started to delve into the creativity, and I'm grateful to San Diego and its wide array of characters for opening me up to that.


MB: Where did you study art? Did this have an impact on you as an artist?

NN: I studied animation at LCAD in Laguna Beach for a year, with designs to break into the video game industry and change everything about it to my liking. It didn't take long to learn that the industry doesn't bend to you, you have to bend to it to even hope to break into the extremely competitive field. I learned more than I can quantify, if nothing else to try to hold myself to the incredibly high standards of the other students there. And I also learned that I'm not very good at doing what other people want. If there's one thing I'm a rebel about, it's when people tell me there's a certain way things should be done when it comes to my art. So I create art for my own gratification now, and take on projects that inspire me, and nothing could make me happier.


MB: What are we going to see at your opening Tuesday June 10th?

NN: A whole lot of muted color palettes! I had (and to be fair, am still in the midst of) a slight obsession with portraiture because I'm fascinated with the structure of the human face and the subtlety of expression. My favorite medium at the moment is ink and inkwash, because of the limitations they present. And my greatest weakness is landscapes. So there'll be a little bit of all of those things.

MB: Who or what inspires you?

NN: The answers here might be obvious, but music and places more than anything. I'm lucky to have a lot of inspiring friends who are artists here in San Diego. And one of the most motivating things to me is hearing someone else talk about the things they are passionate about. A solo trip to Big Sur never hurts either.

MB: Who are you favorite artists?

NN: I'm a big fan of clean illustration, so Alphonse Mucha, J. C. Leyendecker, and I'll take the whole book on Art Deco. I also think that concept art is a grossly overlooked art form, and takes an incredible amount of knowledge, instinct, and speed to create almost-classical digital paintings. A sadly disproportionate amount of it goes uncredited, too.

MB: Favorite musicians?

NN: My forever go-to's for a night of arting are Tom Waits and Nick Cave. The list of favorites would make this a very long article, but if I had to pick my most recent listens I'd say: 16 Horsepower, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Neutral Milk Hotel, Timber Timbre, Josh Tillman, Left Lane Cruiser, and The Kills.

MB: An homage to Mr. James Lipton-- favorite curse word?

NN: I'd love throw some artistic-outcast oddball answer out there, but the truth is I say 'fuck' a LOT. So, fuck.





MB: What can we look forward to from Natassia Nicolau in the future-- distant, near, tomorrow, anything exciting?

NN: A few things to put in your calendars! June 14th will be the album release of Buried by The Midnight Pine at The Hideout, which will feature my artwork on the cover (and excellent music, so you should go for that reason above all else). Al Howard is very soon releasing a book packed to the brim with short stories and illustrations by yours truly. I'm working on a short graphic novel titled Alice is Leaving, which has been on hiatus for a while but will be back on track soon. And I always post current projects and information about future shows at http://na-ni-co.tumblr.com

For more info, check out Natassia's tumblr
and be sure to come to Tin Can Tuesday, June 10th, for the opening of NORTHWESTERN NOIR featuring the music of the talented SISTER JUANITA.

WRITER SPOTLIGHT: Sean Burdeaux

Sean Burdeaux and I were in the first grade together, we were the only two left-handed kids, and we've been good pals for a very long time. We were in our first band together and later collaborated on some other musical experiments. Sean, my fellow lefty, certainly possesses the necessary right-brained attributes for making obscure, comedic, one-of-a-kind, creative weirdness, and I truly love seeing the genius that transpires from all of his undertakings.

With that being said, on Tuesday, April 8th, Magic Brotherhood will bring you WORD: A Night of Spoken Lit, Art, & Music featuring live readings by Sean Burdeaux along with fellow creative writers Yesi Padilla and Tashi. He has also collaborated with visual artist Sergio Sanchez on several paintings which will be shown that night, and for the duration of that month. 

Show starts at 8 pm, live reading at 9 pm, and be sure to give your ears some goodness by catching Idyll Wild perform at 10:30. 21+, no cover, Doods Foods served til 10. 

TIN CAN | 1863 5th Ave.

Check out the interview Magic Brotherhood had with Sean about his upcoming exhibition, creative endeavors, plus info on the other artists contributing to the show!

MAGIC BROTHERHOOD: Your upcoming show at Tin Can is called WORD. What can we expect to see/hear at this show?

SEAN BURDEAUX: This show will be an amalgamation of visual art, poetry/spoken word, and music. I will be releasing my book titled "Pharmaceuticals, Lemonade" and am excited to read both excerpts from the book and some new stuff I've been working on.

MB: The show features writers Yesi Padilla and Tashi as well. How did the three of you develop a creative relationship? Have you ever collaborated on a project before?

SB: Tashi is a prolific writer with a fantastic sense of rhythm and rhyme. We've shared poetry over the years and her stuff is second to none. I saw Yesi perform at The Void (RIP) and thought she'd be a perfect fit for the show. 

MB: You are a jack of all trades in this show because you will also be displaying some work you produced with artist Sergio Sanchez. Tell us about the collaborations that the two of you worked on.

SB: Sergio is a regular Renaissance man: skateboarder, videographer, photographer, painter. I was working on some drip paintings and showed them to Sergio, asking if he'd want to collaborate. He took my paintings (think Jackson Pollock but really boring), picked out the most prominent colors, and then worked with the direction of the dried paint flows to create these really stunning subjects. I like to say that he turned my paintings into real art. 

MB: What else can we look forward to at this show?

SB:I might cry.

MB: How did you get your start in creative writing / visual art? Do you find any parallels between the two or are they completely different for you?

SB: I've always loved a good turn of phrase. I took creative writing classes from middle school through high school and they were always my favorite. It's very liberating and fun to play with words and the limitations intrinsic to agreed-upon structures of grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. Is not it? 

Painting is purely stress release for me. I can't impose too much order on what I'm painting. I have tried and the results are underwhelming. I love watching the colors drip slowly down the canvas over the course of a few days and then trying to find something beautiful in the mess that's there. 

So I think poetry and painting are pretty different for me. Words have (arbitrary) meanings and are more like puzzle pieces that I can fit together in interesting ways, while visual art (at least the way I do visual art) is a playground of colorful meaninglessness whose significance is applied after the fact and mostly independent of the parts involved in the process. Sort of. 

MB: What else can we look forward to in the near future from Sean Burdeaux?

SB: Wow. It's these kinds of questions that induce these little existential traumas in me...

I hope to continue writing. I want to work on another book, hopefully one that is longer and maybe a little more focused. Or maybe not focused, but a little less 15-year-old-valley-girl-writing-on-her-tumblr and a little more I-hopefully-have-something-kind-of-meaningful-to-say. 

MB: Where can we find yours, Yesi's, Tashi's, Sergio's, or Idyll Wild online?

SB: I'm a big fan of an almost non-existent art movement called slart. slart (lowercase "s"), whose biggest exponent is the quasi-anonymous figure known simply as "Douglas", describes intentionally really bad and totally hilarious drawings, video/sound combinations (aka "movies" or "videos" or "vids" for the internet kids) , and approaches to life that rely heavily on overwhelming amounts of douchey sarcasm and making it a point to not make a point. Some of this stuff can be found on instagram on the accounts @harnessthemadness and @recycleddolphin

I was hoping that my book would be a continuation of the slart movement, but I haven't gotten word back from the main guys as to whether my work is really as slartty as I hoped it would be. 

You can check out some of Sergio's stuff on instagram at @sergiorolli

As far as us word-writers, I don't think we really have anything online. Maybe I'll grow up and get a website sometime soon.  

Idyll Wild is all up on dat bandcamp tip: idyllwild.bandcamp.com is the one-stop shop for drugged-out, long-haired spacey dark pop.



Be sure to catch Sean's big night Tuesday April 8th at the Tin Can, opening begins at 8 pm. See you there!
xo,MB