ABOUT IVANNA
Ivanna is a writer currently based in Maryland, where she curates CHAPTER89 Magazine. She graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University, earning her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a minor in British Studies. She enjoys reading the modern classics, walking around the city, writing, drinking coffee, & over analyzing things.
CH.89: How did the concept behind CHAPTER89 Magazine come about?
Ivanna: It all started with my fascination with wanting to know more about artists that I couldn’t really get a hold of at this present time, artists such as Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde and Sylvia Plath, were among some of the writers that I began wanting to know more of. It was then that in reading their autobiographies and such I could learn from them as an outlet to help me understand the way they wrote better. I was then intrigued by their lifestyle and found myself wanting to know even more, the details of what made their work come to life, their inspiration or rather what books they liked to read themselves, it was the small details that I wanted to know more of. Thus in wanting to know more about the artist, it made me think about contemporary artists today and how so many go underexposed, and thought to myself if I could in some way help shine light on these artists, more people could discover brilliant individuals. Exploring and studying the mind of the artist is something that has always interested me because there really is something incredible about individuals who actually go out of their way and take the time to create something new. I wanted to find a way to explore the mind of the artist and found that through interviews this could be the most effective way of achieving a raw unedited answer that could get as close as possible to the core of their perceptions, in terms of the way they view life and what it means to be an artist. It is then that CHAPTER89 Magazine came to be, through a very basic way of communicating and sharing with one another our inner thoughts, we can essentially get to know the artist, even with just a couple of interview questions, and appreciate the beauty that lies within each one of them. In exhibiting and preserving these interviews from artists in CHAPTER89 Magazine, it then also serves as an archive to keep track of the different types of artists that not only play a part but also influence society today in some way or form, which I think is very important.
CH.89: Is there a philosophy behind the way you publish your interviews?
Ivanna: The reason why I’m publishing raw interviews is because I want for this magazine to have a simplistic factor to it that most magazines don’t nessesarily have. Instead of going down the conventional route, I decided to do things a bit different in hopes that the way I’m publishing my interviews will allow for a faster approach of delivering the most important information to my audience in the quickest way possible. My method in doing so is also done in a very clean, honest and effective way. I personally think people get more out of it; through this stripped-down approach. I also think that artists are more willing to open up and say how they feel because I won’t alter their message to being something completely different.
CH.89: Can you talk about the questionnaire you’ve developed for your interviews?
Ivanna: I developed the questionnaire as a curating device/technique, that allows to shape the direction of CHAPTER89 Magazine. The essence of CHAPTER89 becomes this questionnaire, it is the way in which I wanted to capture the information that becomes the staple piece of the magazine. The main idea of the questions I ask; although, they are impersonal, are rather important, allowing for an open-ended response that creates a discourse going. Its basic questions that have much depth to them, that in the end they become complicated to answer. Essentially, I want artists to give their opinions on the same questions, so people can see the differences among them. The beauty of it then becomes the different answers from these different artists, responses that are specific, thought-provoking and enchanting in their own way.
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