COVER ART BY MICKEY ZACCHILI mickeyz.org IN THIS ISSUE: What’s the Vibe: Cannabis Dispensaries in RI by Lenny Brennan – An overview of the seven dispensaries in RI, with cannabis writer Lenny Brennan asking each dispensary to explain what patrons can expect when visiting their dispensary for the first time. Hops and Hemp: A blunt […]
“Through my work, I can create this cultural connection with nature and the places around us,” says this month’s cover artist May Babcock. Babcock forages for inspiration and raw materials where land meets sea. On windswept shores, she wades through tidal pools and combs beaches, gathering cast-off treasures brought in with each alternating rush of […]
This month’s cover art created by Silvermoon Mars LaRose communicates a wealth of cultural and artistic information. It depicts a group of eight women gathered together and leaning into one another in a way that suggests community, support, and caring. The figures are surrounded by intricate patterns that start at their heads, flow down their […]
“The universe is so divine.” Savaree “Sav” Hazard-Chaney noted the synchronicity as she sat in a waiting room with a copy of Motif when I reached out to her about creating the cover art. Hazard-Chaney is many things – a fiber artist, the entrepreneur behind TuftxPVD, a wife, mom of four, a music-lover, a champion […]
In 1968, The Beatles released one of the most highly regarded albums in popular music, The White Album. And in 2003, Jay-Z, in stark contrast, released his magnum opus, The Black Album. We associate a blackwash with things somber and final. But Motif’s Black History Month Issue is anything but. Featuring the artwork of Jordan […]
Charlotte Collins had never painted a real cake before. Last November, the Providence-based artist baked a vanilla, gluten-free cake topped with the neon-pink pills prescribed for their chronic migraines. They staged a photoshoot for their creation, and painted the resulting images. “All the cakes I’ve painted before are fake cakes.” I was only nominally familiar […]
Assemblage is art made by assembling disparate elements, often everyday objects. Collage describes both the technique and the resulting work of art in which pieces of paper, photographs, and other ephemera are arranged and adhered to a surface. Automatism refers to creating art without conscious thought, accessing material from the unconscious mind as part of […]
Jules Kang Sharpe is reading off their open tabs to me from their iphone on a sunny Friday morning in November. Lots of gluten-free recipes. Eels, which Sharpe mentions people have been really into, due to them being both “cute little grungy animals,” as well as the It Girls of the moment as they head […]
For any of my felted works, I start with rough sketches of what I want to make as it’s nice to have a plan to follow, but I keep the sketches very loose as a lot of the details and choices I make for the pieces come out naturally through the process of working with […]
“Hello? I just had a missed call from this number.” Shaena Soares calls me from her car. She just started driving for Uber. “I thought I had something to do today, let me pull over.” Soares apologizes and says her brain is scattered. “I’ve got five kids, two sets of twins and one in the […]