The Nxup Mag L.A. team, Doug the media consultant, left, and Ray the videographer on far right.
Frank Venadas
Chris Rutledge, the "TapArtist"
John Thvedt
Armen Michael
PAUL REMY
CEO and Editor-in-Chief, NXUP Magazine
RG Los Angeles Stories: From
Unknown to Celebrated
“Paul’s vision of the magazine
was very simple, get the stories of different talented people who are
struggling to get known and publish them. He wants a vehicle for these
unappreciated talents to propel them from unknown to celebrated.” -RG
The Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary defined “Talent” as: a special ability that allows someone to do
something well; but talent is just an unappreciated ability unless a person
learns how to promote his/her work. This is where NXUP Magazine comes in. I met
Paul Remy, CEO and Editor in Chief of NXUP Magazine, at a Coffee Bean and Tea
Leaf coffee house in Hillhurst near Griffith Park in Los Angeles. I invited him
there since I saw it befitting, the place after all was a hangout for aspiring
local young talents in the area…musicians, writers, actors, cartoonist,
painters…you know, the kind of people you see hang out at coffee houses during
the day that makes you wonder what the heck they do for a living. Paul’s vision
of the magazine was very simple, get the stories of different talented people
who are struggling to get known and publish them. He wants a vehicle for these
unappreciated talents to propel them from unknown to celebrated.
Before I met Paul in person, I had
some trepidation. I had envisioned him as this hustler, a smooth talker, the
aggressive type who can make things happen…I imagined it would take such a
person to be ambitious enough to launch a magazine. I was pleasantly surprised
to be so wrong. He appeared to me as a gentle soul, soft spoken, friendly and
with a warm smile; but behind the exterior was a sharp mind and a driven
person. We chatted briefly through email and NXUP’s Instagram account a couple
of days before and the day of our meeting was a significant one. Paul and his
Los Angeles team had been given a chance to media-sponsor the RAW Natural Born
Artists RAWards Event near downtown. Paul graciously invited me to meet up with
his team for the event that night. If he was anxious it didn’t show, although
he candidly told me that for NXUP Magazine to media-sponsor something as big as
this talent show was like plunging into the deep end of the pool. “So it’s sink
or swim then?” I said, he laughed amicably and said “We are definitely going to
swim! Sinking is not an option”.
RAW Natural Born Artists,
www.rawartists.org, 5th Annual RAWards Indie Arts Award Show was held at the
swanky Belasco Theater and Club in Los Angeles on November 14th. RAW Natural
Born Artists, or Raw for short, is an entity that holds Independent Art
showcases spanning over 50 cities in the US, Canada and Australia. The artistic
abilities that the group endeavored to highlight are talents from art, fashion,
music, film, hair, makeup, photography and performing art and its “RAWards” are
much sought after by aspiring artists. Several celebrity artists got their
careers launched after being showcased by “RAW”, such as Dom Streater, a
fashion designer from Philadelphia, won Season 12 of Lifetime’s Project Runway.
In retrospect, it should’ve been
obvious to me that NXUP Magazine would be interested in covering the event. I
have no idea how a startup was able to land such a project. As baffled as I
was, I was equally astounded at the audacity of Paul to take on such a project.
But again, Paul has a knack of finding the right people to collaborate with. I
for one, although primarily a photographer, was an occasional blogger who
searched and interviewed local underground artists here in LA. The reason we
were meeting that day at the Coffee House was to discuss my services as a
photographer for the RAWards event. As unheard of as my blog-site was I wasn’t
very keen on talking about my blog readily to people—I should be self-promoting
to get more followers—for some reason, he was able to get me to share my
writings with him. I think it is Paul’s forte, convincing people to believe in
themselves and get out of their shell with so little effort. That is the reason
why I’m writing this piece now.
There were a lot of talented
nominees for the RAWards show in LA and artists of different genres were all
over the place. Tables and makeshift art galleries were set up inside the
theater. It had a bazaar feel to it and the insanely hip music of the DJ’s and
performers gave the event continuous entertainment. Whoever thought of Raw
events were geniuses!
Although primarily an award show,
the main goal of “RAW” was to give aspiring artists a platform to show their
art whether they win a “RAWard” or not. Paul, with the NXUP Magazine crew set
up shop in the green room to interview the winners of the night, but he
encouraged me to look around and interview and take photos of the other
nominees and other artists showcasing their work.
Chris Rutledge, the
self-proclaimed “TapArtist”, who created paintings by tap dancing on canvas was
a particular favorite of mine. There was also: John Thvedt,
www.wysiwygshots.com a photographer, who created prints on reclaimed wood. I
like his “Into the Woods”, a portrayal of a girl surrounded by trees and
vegetation, which he printed and applied into a wood with especial coating
giving the print a rough texture and a rustic and vintage look. Frank Venadas,
www.facebook.com/frankvenadasart, his pen on paper “Helmetheads” was like a
collage of his favorite different sci-fi characters in kind-of “Where’s Waldo?”
inspiration. The Jewelry designer Armen Michael,
www.facebook.com/armenmichaeljewelry, was also one of my favorite designers. I
have seen him from the Metropolitan Fashion Week Closing Gala in Pasadena and
have admired his creations which I can only hazard to describe as pieces that
would not be out of place during ancient Greece, his pieces have a combination
of fragility and strength in it.
Seeing all the up-and-coming
artists that night, I can’t help but realized a sense of irony with what NXUP
was trying to accomplish. Paul, a University of Florida Graduate class of 2009,
leads the small Los Angeles team that includes, Doug, the Media Consultant and
Ray, the Videographer. John Casseus, a Pre-law graduate of Brookdale Community
College class of 2012, heads the New Jersey/New York team. They are launching
NXUP Magazine in the Winter of 2014. As you can see both Paul and John are
themselves an emerging talent and intellect, and for now, it is as if a paradox
for aspiring artists to seek a media platform for advancement from a still non
existing magazine; but the motto of NXUP is “Home of the Gifted” and “As long
as you've got a gift, we've got you covered”— so I am for certain that these
two gentlemen are “at home” in NXUP—and that they will not stop until they
accomplished their goals and give voice to the unappreciated and unknown local
talents. Paul and John are “Next Up!”
Edited by: Paul Remy of NXUP Magazine
For more photos of the event, check out www.3RPhotography.blogspot.com
All photos and article are copyrighted
Copyright 2013 RG Los Angeles Stories
3R Photography
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