The First Time poster artwork by Erin Forsyth

Don't Panic caught up with Erin Forsyth, to get the 411 behind her artwork. You can also view her cool video >here<

Erin what is your background?
Originally from Aukland New Zealand, I ran a shop there called ‘Creep’ where we sold aerosol paints and sneakers.

Have you had any artistic education?
I dropped out of Animation and Fine Art school and moved into street stuff in 1999 that taught me a lot! I learn from my friends everyday though without fail.

How would you describe your art?
A kiss on the cheek and a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Can you describe your process of creating a new piece?
I begin with an initial character and build from there to a social level (e.g. who the character is with, the what and why to the viewer). So the information you are given is usually the equivalent to what you might know if you randomly met someone by accident at a strange time in their lives and didn’t know anything else about them.

What inspires your aesthetic in the everyday life?
Hip-hop lyrics, 1960’s aestheticism, grey marle, bohemia, gypsies, the degenerate, the forgotten, the outcast, drifters, rooftops, alleys, the attic, under the stairs.

What do you love most about living in Sydney?
My friends and my village - Slurry Hills street team.

Any recurrent topics or matters you work on?
Undercurrents of faith and destruction and how these affect us.

What are you really excited about right now?
Leah’s Jellyfish, Thomas Jeppe’s work ethic, lingerie and
t-shirts, Richard Coleman, Steve Spacek, recipes, fast men, quiet at-home types, walking alone at night.

Work-wise, my solo show ‘HEX’ which opens at Black and Blue Gallery on Cleveland Street, Sydney on March 13th. Also Ariel’s group show ‘Because We Can’ coming up in April.

My sister Leah and I are working on a side project called the ‘Nautical Journals’ (see www.erinforsyth.blogspot.com for updates)

What would you be doing if you were not an artist?
Sleeping? Maybe I’d be an author. A cross between Miranda July and Charles Bukowski.

w.erinforsyth.blogspot.com

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A couple of weeks ago, we were served a dose of our own medicine. We were panicking. The scheduled poster artist for this issue had gone AWOL and the big bad deadline was fast approaching. We had two days. Two days to fill the gap. We put out the call that we needed someone to step up. The call was ironically answered by the talented artist by the name of TWO. In two days, he started from scratch, and created the latest installment of the collectable Don’t Panic art posters (Which we absolutely love). Pick up a Don’t Panic pack on the street today to own your own free poster, designed by TWO.

Don’t Panic spent a little over two minutes catching up with the man himself…

What is your background? When did you start painting and what brought you to it?
I am originally from Japan. I came to Melbourne when I was 18.  The main reason I came to Melbourne was I just thought it would be fun!

I don’t remember when I started painting, but my mum still has some of my paintings from when I was a 1 year old. I started painting on the wall when I was 17.  I was still in Japan and I didn’t have any idea how you get a piece done but I was always interested so I did it. It was pretty bad; still I enjoyed it a lot! So when I came to Melbourne I got into painting more and met lots of people, they taught me how to paint!

I don’t know why I started painting when I was little, but now I paint because I need to. It’s the same as eating, I need to paint, If I don’t I feel lost and sad.

What are your favourite tools?
Pretty much everything; from pencil, spray, brush, chisel, knife, clay and wood all tools have different fun.  It’s like you can’t chose only one favorite type of food.

Any recurrent topics or matters you work on?
I just finished a one thousand can project I have been working on for the last one and half years.  I painted 1000 used spray paint cans that will be shown at Bus Gallery from 27th February in Melbourne and at Global Gallery from 4th April in Sydney. (Keep an eye out for further information on this exhibition in Don’t Panic.)

Who are your Masters in arts?
My dreams.

What other things influence your work?
Nature, animals, music, world myth stories, quiet nights and beer.

Any special collaboration with brands or special projects?
I have got a collaboration project called THE BEANS with Melbourne artist Bonsai. We worked on few canvases and lots of murals. We haven’t worked together for while, but I think we will work on something together pretty soon.

What's your belief?
Sense and feeling. People who are nice to me.

Is Art your full time job?
Yes it is. Even when I sleep I see lots of things I want create in real life.

What would you be doing if you were not an artist?
I think whatever path I choose, I would end up being someone who created things everyday.  

Two's 1,000 Can Exhibition. Melbourne: Bus Gallery, 117 Little Lonsdale St from 27th February. Sydney: Global Gallery, 5 Comber St, Paddington Sydney from 4th April.

Beauty by Carly Casey
What can we say about Beauty? You're either hot or you're not! Real beauty is on the inside? Or some other crass cliché? Pick up a Don’t Panic pack on the street right now, for possibly our most beautiful poster ever, painted by rising starlet, Carly Casey.

Carly Casey first came to our attention when Don’t Panic got involved with an exhibition in late 2007 on Sydney’s Northern beaches showcasing a collection of local hipsters and their artworks. There was no chance of missing her work at the show as it beamed utter class that you might come to expect from someone a few years her senior. We didn’t arrive late to the exhibition, but by the time we arrived, all her work had sold out. So we quickly arranged for her to do our beauty poster. It would have been a crime not to. And then we grabbed her just before she jumped on a plane for an exhibition in New York for a few words with the current Don’t Panic poster star:

What's your background? When did you start painting and what brought you to it?
I guess I've been painting since I was a little girl - my mum is an artist, so having art & creativity around me all the time as I was growing up was definitely a huge influence. Mum would set up her easel and paints in the courtyard to paint and my brother and I would just hang out around her doing our own little projects - it was a bit of a family affair! When I finished high school I started to take it more seriously - the possibility of being a full-time artist. I studied at COFA in Sydney... I've always seen painting and drawing as the best way to express myself, my thoughts and feelings.

What are your favorite tools?
A blank canvas, stick of charcoal and a big fat brush

Any recurrent topics or matters you work on?
My own personal experience of being a woman and all of the transitional stages you go through in your life has without doubt been the main influence on my art. I just find women to be beautiful & fascinating creatures – our gestures, our behaviours and all the crazy & complex parts that make up the whole! I think all women have a tendency to study other women and that voyeurism also plays a role in my work.

Who are your Masters in arts?
I love the work of all kinds of artists - Norman Lindsay, Alphonse Mucha, Egon Schiele, Bill Henson, Fafi, Tiffany Bozic - and of course my mumma.

What other things influence your work?
In my portraiture I always look for the darker & more concealed element of a persons character when painting or drawing them. I think a touch of melancholy makes a beautiful portrait.

Any special collaboration with brands, special projects?
We pulled together an exhibition in September this year called Local Produce - and it was basically a way to bring together a bunch of very talented and creative young artists from my local community on Sydney's northern beaches. I'm hoping that it will become an annual event - we had so much support - including from the kind folks at Don't Panic. ;)

What's your belief?
That art is for everyone.

What would you be doing if you were not an artist?
Something to do with animals.

What about past exhibitions, any special moment to tell us?
I had a great experience at ArtSydney this year - getting to meet collectors on the opening night and also other artists - it was a really successful show for me and very exciting.

What are you working on at the moment and what is next?
At the moment I'm working on a new series of large format portraits that are a bit more raw, colourful and abstracted than my previous work – so hopefully I will show a collection of them at ArtMelbourne in April 2008.

A link to your artwork?
w: artfocusgallery.com.au

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Apparently shaving your head is the ultimate sense of liberty. A sense of freedom and mobility that those with hair don’t experience. That, or you’re having a barley mid-twenties break down like our young friend Britney. Or you’re in the Army, Navy, or Air Force. Or maybe you’ve had it with parting with hundreds of dollars on hair cuts and getting up early to prepare your ‘do’ every morning. Liberty equals freedom.

Don’t Panic’s latest poster Liberty was created by Robyn Wilson, the brainchild behind Sylas Creative. Sylas Creative brings together fashion design, live installations and illustration and creates projects that are unique and inspiring, Sylas Creative is definitely one to keep your eye on.

Pick up the current issue of Don’t Panic for your free Don’t Panic art poster, designed by Sylas Creative. Don’t Panic caught up with our current poster star:

Robyn, what is your background?  
I started in advertising, then studied fashion design, then moved to creative direction on installation events, illustrations, graphics, photographic projects, and then progressed to art direction.

What are your favorite tools to work with? 
I would have to say the drill and the jigsaw.

Do you have any re-accruing themes and topics in your work?
Coming to grips with reality and figuring out wonderful ways to escape it.

Have you worked on any special projects recently?  
My true passion is project based work - the journey from inception of an idea and then working and pushing it, until it becomes real. I have worked on several photographic projects recently - I tend to keep the work independent, as opposed to stepping into a mainstream context.  I find creative freedom and a bit of wildness is key. I have creatively directed two live installation events incorporating costume, movement, sound and visuals into fully integrated conceptual events.

The second of the two shows was held on the last night of Australian Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2007 in Sydney. The show featured crazy girls in crossword dresses, dancing to an intense DJ mash-up, surrounded by exploding helium balloons and wild projected graphics. To promote the show we smuggled a model into fashion week during the day - she walked through the crowd outside the Alice McCall show wearing a crossword dress which suddenly released from her body and flew up into the sky attached to giant black helium balloons. It was a moment of chaos and joyful rule breaking.

Who are your Masters in arts?  
Bert and to a lesser degree, Ernie.

What other things influence your work?  
Oh gosh everything! Sometimes things of great substance and sometimes things of a rather frivolous nature.

What is your belief?  
Make your own way there. And enjoy the hell out of it.

What are you working on at the moment and what's next? 
I'm working on a video piece and a web-site specific photographic series, incorporating illustrated backdrops in dark and dirty settings around Sydney. Plus I have a solo exhibition happening in the next few months.

w: noise.net/sylas
w: myspace.com/rubecula

Neasden Control Centre was the first book to feature the artist project of the same name. It shows how NCC uses talent, technique and a childlike perspective to create works that mix drawing, graphic design and art. Because these multi-disciplinary works are exactly in tune with the zeitgeist, the book achieved cult status in the design scene and is one of the most sought after out-of-print titles at DGV.

Neasden Control Centre created a poster exclusive for Don’t Panic, using extracts from the new book. Don’t Panic caught up with NCC to bounce a few questions off main man, Steve Smith.

What’s your background?
In the millennium NCC was founded. Today it is solely run by myself (Steve Smith) with additional collaborators from project to project. It grew and developed from a DIY attitude influenced from... Making zines, drawing all the time and one off projects. Today NCC is mainly working on artwork for exhibitions and installations, select print and screen projects.

What are your favorite tools?
The hand.

Any recurrent topics/ matters you work on?
Life yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Who are your Masters in arts?
That list would be long. It could also include a master shoe maker.

What other things influence your work?
Secrets.

What is your belief?
I believe in truth.

What would you be doing if you were not an artist?
Fortune Teller.

What are you working on at the moment and what’s next?
Lots of things for next year and also including: http://www.high5.jp

w: neasdencontrolcentre.com
w. die-gestalten.de

Pick up a Don’t Panic pack from this Friday, to get your FREE Don’t Panic Neasden Control Centre poster.

The latest Dont Panic poster is by Dashenka Prochazka. Dashenka is one busy girl, she was recently in Switzerland, France and found some time whilst holidaying in Bali to design the exclusive Don't Panic poster based on the theme of Stress. Dashenka is an Australian based artist/illustrator/sculptor born in Czechoslovakia, raised in Switzerland. She has also worked with designers and labels Ksubi and Volcom, and played bass in Sydney band Goons of Doom as her alter ego, Bunny girl. She had her first exhibition of her work in December 2006 at China Heights Gallery in Sydney.

The Stress poster, by artist Dashenka Prochazka is available in all Don't Panic packs from this Friday.

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Fani has been drawing since the tender age of three when her father set up her own little studio in the kitchen where she would spend hours painting on her little wooden easel. Her graphic design career began when she was 14, working at an agency in her home country Scotland. “Dyzla (the artist who Fani collaborates with) got me in to my Fani1 creations on the street a couple of years back. He saw one of my sketches one day and encouraged me to do some stuff on walls in Australia in that style.” She tells us. Fani has spent the last few years working as a graphic designer based in Brisbane, however now plans to go back home for a while.

Fani is currently traveling through Asia, doing art and discovering local art styles, culture and traditions. “I've just been to China which was really interesting. They hate controversy and all the art is aimed at the tourist. There are illustrations of chairman Mao everywhere too. I guess it'll take a while before people of China feel confident to express themselves fully, especially in Tibet. I am now in Nepal. I love all the Buddhist and Hindu art. I find the calligraphy, colours and illustrations really beautiful.“

Fani currently has an exhibition in Bangkok with Dyzla called Kaleidoscope. They also recently exhibited some of their work in the Inner Tsunami charity show in Sydney. Future plans in Australia include a collaborative book early next year and limited edition tees. “My main project next year will be Fanimation. That’s all I can tell you about that for now!”