In the field of art which is extremely subjective in its outlook, for two fiercely passionate go-getters to work together and churn out not just art but also money and rub along well is a tall order. That’s precisely what Hamed Alsaab and Ali Sultan have achieved over the years. They followed their hearts into starting the region’s first magazine for creatives alongside making their own paintings, sharing not just ideas and fire, but canvas space too. However, things are not always smooth sailing between the two: they have their differences and clashes, like their brushes that work towards the center of their canvas to plough into a riot of colors, and in the end generating beauty and harmony. Read on and find out about their expanding spheres of passion: events, furniture and charity.

Q: Tell us your experience of running a creatives magazine?
A: We discovered from our field of work that there is a lot of local talent. When we say local, we mean the GCC. That’s when we came up with the idea of Media Production Magazine. From our research, we found that this is the first magazine for creatives in the region.

Q: What do you mean by creatives?
A: We mean all the creatives in the media industry. We focus on people behind the ideas, the people who create the ideas like the graphic designers, the illustrators, photographers - we are talking about audio engineers, we are talking about filmmakers, directors, writers and so on. All the other magazines about media focus on the technical side.

We were based in Dubai. We had started the magazine there, and moved in to Kuwait. It’s bilingual. We are extremely happy that our venture has become very successful. Our website is www.mp-mag.com, and it has a database of over 90,000 creatives who are registered with us from all around the world. When we launched it as a flip magazine it had more than 60,000 readers from all around the world. We are registered with a professional researcher to get accurate data.

We have participated in lot of events. For the Ibda’ awards in Dubai, which is a creative award given away to fresh graduates, it was the sixth year of the awards, and we were the first magazine to be inside the actual venue. We even got a trophy from them, and were thanked for the inspiration we provided to the participants.

We were also at the World Trade Center where we had a live broadcasting and editing for film making inside the venue itself, where we had New York film academy students carrying their cameras and filming things around the booth, and we got them inside the booth and we did editing using the latest technology. We did a lot of stuff.

Q: You are conducting a charity event now. Tell us something about that.
A: We have reached a stage where it’s now time for us to give back to the society. The part of the CSR that we are doing, started with Bait Abdallah, when we had given them free advertising, free coverage for all of their work. The aim was to inspire creatives to take part in charity. We created a canvas of a landscape and contacted all our registered creatives asking them to donate objects like characters, flowers and so on. We turned them into stickers, which the general audience visiting the hall would buy and put on a canvas for Bait Abdullah’s children. We will send the canvas to Bait Abdulla and the proceeds of the sale of stickers will also reach Bait Abdullah.

As this is a charity event, we also wanted local companies to take part in it. We timed it well, because it is Ramadan, when a lot of people are wanting to do charity. It is also mid-Ramadan time, which is Girguian and children are celebrating. Lastly, it is also before Eid.

Everything here is donated. Firstly, the venue was offered free to us by 360 Mall. We thank them. Then there were a lot of Kuwaiti companies who donated in cash and kind. We thank them all. Even the cost of producing the stickers was taken care of by a sponsor.

Q: Do you two indulge in creative work yourself other than just promoting creatives?
A: Yes. We both are artists. We think it’s a part of our personalities that we have lot of energy, we always like to be outside the box. You can see it in our works, in the magazine and in our events.

Q: How do you rate the standard of art in Kuwait in general?
A: There are a lot of potential talents here in Kuwait. There are a lot of potential artists, and there are a lot of big artists who have been in Kuwait for a while. We have people like Dr Shurouk Ameen, Amir Al Behbehani... we have AbduRasool and we have so many big artists who have been active in the artistic scene in the country for a while.

The problem that we have noticed with these artists is that unlike in the media industry where every work of art is the result of teamwork involving scores of people such as illustrators, sound engineers, directors, writers, graphic artists and so forth, the society of artists work in solitude. It is very disappointing.

Q: But that’s how artists all around the world work, isn’t it?
A: Yes, but we don’t mean that a couple of artists should work on one painting. What we are saying is that you will see in other parts of the world that artists often form societies of their own. They have exhibitions together, they have events together. For example, if there is a charity event, they all work together on it.

And then there is the pricing of a painting. The pricing systems of are not the same everywhere in the world. You have specific standards; you have specific formulas when you want to price a piece of art. You may have an artist who has been in the market for years and years, and his paintings may not exceed KD 500 for example. On the other hand there maybe a fresh artist, who has just started his career, and his paintings are worth KD 3000 and above.

Q: How does that happen?
A: Exactly, that’s what we ask ourselves: how did that happen? According to us, everything has a formula. One plus one equals two. When we did our first painting, we took it to a well known art gallery in Kuwait to have it evaluated. The dealer there assessed our painted and gave it a price. From thereon, other factors such as the size of the painting, the size of the canvas also kicked in. Then with every exhibition the price goes up by 10 to 15 percent. The international exposure of your paintings also influences the price. If your paintings have stayed local and not seen international exhibitions, it acts as a limiting factor on price.

Q: So, do you mean to say that art has no intrinsic value of its own? From what you said art seems to be evaluated by so many factors but the aesthetic appeal of its subject.
A: There are art collectors who have in their collections works like Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet and so forth. These are also an investment for them. We can’t compare our paintings with those in their collection. We are contemporary artists. The reason our clients buy our paintings is that it makes them smile. We love to reflect our Arabic history. We are doing pop art of Arabic culture.
Pop art began with Andrew Warhol. We pop art old Arabic celebrities in the way he did Marylyn Monroe and others.

Q: Can you explain what pop art is all about?
A: It is a revolution art that started in late 60s. It is actually popular art, started by Andrew Warhol when he did a painting of Marylyn Monroe, and eventually it became a tradition for celebrities in the heights of their career to actually have a portrait made by Andrew Warhol. This came to be known as pop art.
We did similar form of art using Arabic culture and history. We did a collection of pop art based on Kuwaiti history. In all of our works, we strictly stick with the Arabic culture. It’s a formula for us. We don’t want to go for the western approach, not for anything, but for the fact that there are a lot of people doing it and we would be just one in the crowd.

We also love going to different cultures and exploring them. However, the focus is history. For example when we explore the culture of Iran, we always go to the times before the Shah, and when we go to India, we explore its history, the Mughal period. We always go to the history of the people. Our favorite, however, is still Arabic.

Q: Do you physically go to these places to study culture and history?
A: We don’t get time for that. Actually in the last five years, we have only had a vacation once, for a week. We have now moved the magazine to Kuwait from Dubai. We are moving all our operations to Kuwait. The reason why we started it in Dubai was because the main branches of media industry are in Dubai. So, for us to do all the research and get information it was easier in Dubai. If we had started here in Kuwait, we would have had to approach various companies, who in turn would have fallen back on companies in Dubai. So it would have been a waste of time. But now we have created our data base in Dubai, we have cemented our relationships there, and thought it’s time for us to get back to Kuwait. Now we can get all information directly from Dubai staying here.

We have the publishing house, we have a creative house, where we do corporate identity, branding, logos and so forth. We have our artworks. We are now moving into event management, not the weddings and parties, but more on the side of corporate and charity events. Next year, we will be launching into a new venture of churning out our own line of furniture.

Q: What are the challenges you face here in Kuwait as artists? Is there a big difference between Kuwait and Dubai in terms of culture, in terms of acceptance for your art?
A: When we were doing our research for creatives in the region, we discovered that the largest percentage of creative potentials in the region is actually in Kuwait. In the whole of GCC, we would say that 70 percent are from Kuwait. And in the remaining 30 percent, probably 10 percent are from Dubai.
In Dubai, you will see that the media industry is really huge, but most of the stuff is done abroad. They are not done in Dubai by the locals. They are either outsourced from foreign companies or from the main branches of companies in Europe or other places.

Here in Kuwait you have a lot of raw potentials, who are working on their own projects. This is the reason why though our magazine was based in Dubai most of the creatives we featured were mostly from Kuwait.

Q: While you are featuring creatives what angle do you focus on?
A: Basically what we do is we look for innovation, we look for people who come up with new ideas. Designing is all about problem solving. For us, we don’t go for designs that look pretty but we go for designs that work. When people send us their design, and if that looks like something different, something that grabs attention then it is something that has potential. At the same time, a very important thing that we focus on is technical execution. A lot of people send us works that look pretty but do not work neither from a marketing point of view nor from a production point of view.

The selection process is basically very easy. If I ask someone to send me his portfolio and he sends me everything in low resolution jpeg, then it is proof that he actually doesn’t know how to work in the industry.
We are always looking to promote local talent. When we see lot of youngsters in the market, we see that they have huge potential but are in want of encouragement. They need recognition. But at the same time, we always look for people who have that energy to work and give something worthwhile. If you look at the local market, you have two kinds of people: someone who has talent but is not willing to work on it, and someone who has talent and is also willing to work on it. We encourage those who are willing to work.
We create opportunities for them by linking them up with our clients. When clients come to us with creative needs, we spot the right talent that can deliver the desired task and link them to the client.
So for us it is about networking. We always like to network people together. This has helped us in a big way. We have many professional artists who offer us valuable advice and guide us, especially now that we have started focusing on international exhibitions. They tell us which exhibitions to go for, which galleries to contact, who are the people to contact to enter different hubs or networks and so on.
Networks also help you find the right balance between pricing your artwork and how much to increase the price over a period of time. This way you don’t kill your career even before it starts. At the end of the day paintings should not have a commercial focus. Our artworks get expensive for the simple reason that we use different material, different textures, different canvases, and different colors and so on. For example crystals are more expensive than say acrylic. At the end of the day, we always try to price our paintings reasonably, and more often than not it is not us who price our paintings but the galleries.

Q: Can you tell us about some of the great ideas you saw in the market?
A: When you see certain artworks, you will just sit and admire it because you will be able to feel the passion of the person who had worked on it, whether it’s an artwork, or a campaign or something for the media. Because we are in the field, we are able to see that the person has really put his passion into it.
I do respect artists who sometimes explore surrealistic subjects that one may not fully understand, but then that’s the artist. That’s how an artist gains name. I respect them. Our idea of painting is that it should be our way of doing it but it should connect with the beholder. Onlookers should be able to find some emotional attachment to it.

When we see a contemporary abstract painting, it is not about what we see on the canvas but more about the feeling it arouses in the beholder. Our clients buy a painting because it makes them smile. One of our paintings features the verses of an old Kuwaiti song in calligraphic style. Our clients who read the verses are reminded of their childhood, or it reminds them of their parents. A particular client liked it very much because she used to sing that song to her mother. This is what we love about our artwork.
This is the best part of the creative industry. It is very subjective and arouses feelings in you. It is easy to make out whether a particular artwork or any piece of art is just beautiful or if it has a message. If something does not make you think then it is not worth it.

Q: How do you judge abstract art when they are as the name indicates ‘abstract’? What makes Picasso so great?
A: See... that’s what I have been trying to say. When you talk about the great artists of the past, the historical value of their art itself makes them great. Their technique, their passion, their history, the canvases they have used which carry many layers of paintings - every painting will have four or five different paintings under it.

The beauty of modern abstract is that it is different for every beholder. Everyone takes a different message from it. It is so open to interpretations.

Q: Is there a particular formula to appreciate modern art?
A: We don’t think so. Every one sees it differently. Abstract to us is about the technique, the colors that are used, the feeling that you get. I mean, Picasso for example, gives us a lot of lines. He is very, very bold. You have all these paintings with women on them, with horses... it’s very concrete.

Abstract paintings can also be judged from the way it is displayed. How it sits in a particular atmosphere, in a particular setting. It could add to the mood of the interior or contrast it in an interesting way opening vistas for emotional play; people connect with the painting at different levels. At the end of the day it’s all about how a material is used.

Boyce, a contemporary artist, uses only natural materials for his paintings. He produces vibrant colors using things from nature. No acrylic, no oil etc. That could be one factor that amazes the audience. For others, it may not be so much the material as the possibilities of finding a suitable place to mount the piece or how well it blends with other elements in say a living room.
So there is really no bottom line to judging a painting.

Q: But just think of it, you do an abstract and someone comes up with a very wild interpretation that you had not even thought of - how would you feel?
A: Far from being disappointed, we would be very excited. The painting has made a person react to it. That’s the important thing. Someone has connected with it in some way.

Q: I have heard this joke about how some modern art gets appreciated for some inadvertent slips by the painter such as a coffee stain on the canvas and so on. Isn’t that some sort of a travesty of art?
A: No, people who appreciate such works are actually buying a name. It’s the same as when you are buying a sofa from IKEA and when you are buying a sofa from Fendi. Both are using similar fabric, designs and so on. To manufacture a Fendi sofa, no matter what, will not cost more than KD 2,000, but its final value runs into seven or eight thousand KD. The difference is for the name Fendi. The name stands for a style. So, it’s also about the whole package that the name brings with it.