Here's everyone and everything ‘Artists’
Bill Hilgendorf
Even on days where the sun warms the mahogany bricks of the many hollowed, dusty factories along the waterfront, the neighborhood has the feel of a place long forgotten. Iron wrought fences bend back as if stepped on by giants. Human sized oil drums are scattered and labeled “hazardous liquid” in rushed handwriting, amongst warped deadwood that look like fossil remains. Despite the Red Hook Flea Market a few blocks away, it is noticeably empty on a Sunday afternoon. There is a quiet hum underneath the streets that can be heard, like something is brooding beneath. This is just one of Bill Hilgendorfʼs many Brooklyn playgrounds.
ChuckBoy
Endangered Species 2008 was the year of Chuckboy. Can 2009 be a repeat year for the Brooklyn based urban vinyl designer? by Christian Ghigliotty From the front window pane of myplasticheart , a collectors paradise in the Lower East Side, Charles Hui (aka Chuckboy) stands arms crossed, hunkering over the glass shelving that houses many of the designs ...
Roble Ali
What do you get when you mix hip hop, a skate board, and a frying pan? You get Chef Roble Ali, 6 feet tall and then some, clad in fly street gear with a gleaming smile that lets you know he’s happy to meet you. Get his name wrong, and he’ll kindly re-pronounce it for you (pronounced “Row-blay”, but if that’s too hard, his friends call him “Bleezy”). Cultivated from hip hop culture, Chef Roble takes his love for the art-form of food-making and mixes in his very own blend of urban style and attitude to create a whole new understanding of cuisine.
MATAANO
In high-waisted jeans and simple tank tops, long necklaces and boots fashion-designing twins Ayaan and Idyl compliment each other nicely as they walk into the studio. You get the sense that effortless style is in their fingertips, waiting for inspiration. That inspiration is their multicultural heritage. Citizens of both the United States and Somalia , they decided early on that they wanted to make their careers in fashion, designing for the multicultural woman.
Brian Wren
Late one night, new tattoo machine in hand, Brian Wren started his first practice tattoo on a slab of pork. Half frozen after an hour or so, the flesh starts to become a bit unusable, shifting around the over sized plate on his dining room table. “It’s looked down upon to start tattooing on someone when you’re not ready” Brian explains as he gives us the reason for inking a perfectly good pork chop. Brian carries himself with a quiet confidence, his face is strong and he always seems to think before he speaks. We find out that Brian is a man of some pretty strong conviction, he’s ambitions, truthful, and damn handy with a tattoo gun.
Amanda Duarte
Amanda Duarte has probably always been an actor and writer, because as she puts it “…she was never good at anything else…” I find that hard to believe and laugh as we sit down at the G:NY studio and have a chat. The topic: how Amanda got where she is, and where she’s going. Amanda duped her way through college, conning professors into giving her credit for acting and writing gigs. After graduating, she lived in San Francisco for many years, honing her skills by getting acting jobs at various venues. Eventually, she made the leap to the Big Apple: the ultimate test of an actor’s true value. Amanda quickly realized the game was much bigger in the city that never sleeps; however, she’s proving she’s up for the task.
Dante Russo
As he explains these theories, my eyes wander to Dante’s living room walls, particularly on the art and pictures he’s collected on his journeys and those that connect him to his family. “Yeah, that one is my sister Theresa and I when we where kids. She passed away when I was young…” Dante explains as I admire the two children in the picture combined together in a waltz-like dancing stance. Dante tells us of his new play “Extraordinary”; a production inspired by his late sister and empowered by his family’s foundation for her. The Theresa Alessandra Russo Foundation , as it was named, since 1992 acts in the interest of nurturing the development of children with special needs via funding creative activities such as music, dance, and art. Dante speaks passionate about the foundation, highlighting the fact that in association with the foundation, he and his family are also announcing the Theresa Academy of Performing Arts, an academy dedicated to actually instructing special needs children in the creative arts.
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