I first met her a few years ago hanging out at her apartment in Chicago and saw her again a couple weeks ago at a group show.  She’s a great artist and uses soft strokes and amazing colors in this piece

sitting girl (daydream)   2004

watercolor and oil on canvas board – 9 x 12 inch

A real Osaka guy, I met him there while living in Japan for 2 years teaching English and taking photos.       He was very helpful to me in getting an exhibition put together at Beats Gallery in Osaka and an influence on my understanding of Japanese perspectives.  He has a strong imagination and not afraid to express what he’s thinking.  Cool work.

http://homepage.mac.com/banri/

I met Shin at Around The Coyote Art Festival in Chicago a few years ago as a fellow exhibitor.  Her black/white photos in “Three” of the nude body in abstract positions are incredibly good, i love the depth of the blackness and how form is swallowed by the black yet also conquers it.  these photos give me a smooth path to playing with my imagination.

http://www.shinphotography.com/

Great style and street presence, similar to my own, immersing himself in the mass of humanity, fishing for moments, people, faces and form

Bruce Gilden is a street photographer from Brooklyn.

Magnum Photos

Born in the former Soviet Union he lived and worked for several decades in his hometown Kharkov, Ukraine. He received an education as an engineer and started to teach himself the practice of photography. Today he is one of the most successful and well-known photographers, who already was actively working in soviet times. His work very much is influenced in the means of Concept-Art and Social-Documentary-Photography. At the end of the 1960s he had his first exhibition. After the KGB found nude-pictures of his wife he was set off his job as an engineer and started to full-time work with photography. He shot a series of everyday-life scenes-documentation. His most famous work during this period (1968-1975) was the “Red Serie”. In these photographs he mainly used the colour red, to picture people, groups and city-life. Red is the color standing for October Revolution, political Party and the social system of soviet society. It is often said, that within those works critical elements toward the existing political circumstances can be found.

Case History – A set of 400 photographs (1999)

examines the consequences of the break down of the Soviet Union for the people living there. Therefore he systematically took pictures of homeless people, who soon started trusting him. More than 500 photographs show the situation of people, who after the break down of the Soviet Union were not able to catch hold in a secured social system. In a very direct way Mikhailov points out his critique against the “mask of beauty” of the uprising post-soviet capitalistic way of life. It’s one of the best works found within social documentary photography.

My Idol (Imaginary Alice #0761), 2006

As a Japanese woman who has been culturally conditioned to contain rather than reveal, I am interested in uncovering my own identity by aggressively evoking emotional reactions from my viewers. – Mayumi Lake

Mayumi Lake is an artist from Osaka, Japan who currently works & lives in Chicago. Having lived in Osaka myself for 2 years, I can identify with her work and really like the ideas flowing in her head. She explores levels of society that I roam in and wonder about. I appreciate her ability to express her personal sides outwardly, not to mention her technical skills. She definitely is someone who motivates me to push limits and experiment with my own mind. I’m excited to follow her career. http://www.mayumilake.com/Main_Frameset.html

I learned about Mayumi from Maki Terashita, another young artist from Osaka who is also working and living in Chicago. She’s a cool girl and a very good photographer.

I met Vicky at the Obama election-victory rally in Grant Park on Nov. 4, she was walking around with her video camera and i was walking around taking photos. I sat down and we talked for awhile. I really like her anime-painting work in particular. She also loves foreign movies, especially from the director Fellini. If you haven’t seen “8 1/2″, definitely rent it.

http://www.vickyen.blogspot.com