Bekman said, “I was always fascinated by nature and its beauty. In my family, museum and gallery visits were common, and my family taught me to really see things through careful observation.” The ocean was very much part of Bekman’s childhood. Growing up in the Netherlands, a country she said that over the centuries was partially built out of the ocean, Bekman lived within walking distance of the sea. She said that she “witnessed the North Sea in all its beauty, fury and bounty.”

 

X-RAY MAG: Tell us how you became an artist and why you chose the medium you use. Who were your role models or mentors?

MTK: First of all, I would like to thank you all for having this wonderful opportunity to introduce my works and say hello to everyone in the world.

I believe that art can move people’s hearts by overcoming culture and the language barrier. If people can be moved by getting a message from the art, the world will follow, too.

-- Marcelo Tatsuyoshi Kato

Ganz explains: "For my sculptures I use plastic utensils, toys and metal pieces among other things. I only select objects that have been used and discarded. The human history behind these objects gives them life in my eyes. My goal is for each object to transcend its origins by being integrated into an animal form that seems alive. This process of reclamation and regeneration is liberating to me as an artist. By building these sculptures I try to understand the human relationships that surround me.

What intrigues me about the underwater realm is that you can see and feel the life energy of not just the individual fish, but the entire school, the entire ocean current, the entire planet.

— Sayaka Kajita

Since her first successful one-person show at the University in 1980, Jubb’s work work has appeared in over 30 galleries across the United States, as well as Mexico and the Virgin Islands, with commissions from corporations such as the Bonneville Power Administration, The Peabody Hotel, The Four Seasons Hotel in Singapore and the Holland America Line.

X-RAY MAG: Tell us about yourself, why you started painting the subject matter and medium you have chosen, and what inspired you to become an artist.

All life forms are caught in the same cycles of expansion and contraction, vitality and mortality, revulsion and beautification. The interactive contrast of pattern and content is what fuels my creative fire.

— Kendahl Jan Jubb

X-RAY MAG: Tell us about yourself, why you started creative work with the subject matter and medium you have choosen, and what inspired you to become an artist and fashion photographer.

The most inspiring aspect of the underwater world is its dynamic nature. Everything is constantly in motion and changing. To capture this on film is such a brilliant challenge.

-- Caelum Mero

"My work is nourished by symbols, stories, traditions, rituals, experiences, and by permanently returning to admire the iconography of ancestral world cultures, especially Peruvian culture – which are extraordinary and fascinating," said Maximo Laura.

"These experiences inspire me to discover, explore and absorb contemporary visual arts, which exist lavishly, choosing the one that moves me and fits the direction of my visions of totem images, of symbolic characters and landscapes, and of my experience; developing ancestral patterns that are essentially Andean."

I grew up in an artistic household in woodland near Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, spending summer holidays playing in temperate rock pools and snorkeling. We cared for orphaned and injured native wombats and kangaroos. This engendered in me a deep love and respect for our natural environment, which was expressed through my drawing.

X-RAY MAG: Welcome. Tell us about yourself and where you are from.

JC: Thank you, it’s an honor to join you for X-RAY MAG! I am an American artist and a native of Athens, Georgia, where I currently reside in a nearby rural county within the sound of a river’s waterfall. A lifelong pencil and pen-and-ink artist, my current focus is on colored pencil portraits under the imprint Dreamyfish Art.

X-RAY MAG: Describe your Dreamyfish Art portrait series for us and how it came about.

JH: When I became director a few years ago, I requested a tour of all our collections. We have vast collections here. It’s literally millions, more than 20 million specimens of one sort or another. And in the course of receiving a tour of our invertebrate animal collections, I was shown several shoe boxes and other small boxes of glass animals, which were absolutely remarkable. I had not known that we even had these things.

...they really are extraordinary specimens. They are anatomically correct, if you will; they’re made exactly to life; their colors are accurate. They’re exquisite.

— Professor James Hanken

Bikic began her career as an artist after studying fine arts in Cordoba at the Figueroa Alcorta School of Fine Arts in Argentina. She then worked in art publishing and marketing in Spain, creating designs for Moroccan Carpets and exhibited throughout Europe and the UK.