Vena Kava

For the sections of the heart, see Venae cavae.

Vena Kava
Born	Eastern Europe
Nationality	American
Field	photographer, Vocalist--Specializing in the Death Growl
Training	San Francisco Art Institute
Movement	Avant Garde, New Genre
Awards	STAND Grant Film Arts Foundation for Independent Cinema

Vena Kava born in the Carpathian region of Eastern Europe is an American artist known mostly for her fantasy art photography and mixed media, singing, and modeling work. Kava originally studied experimental filmmaking at the prestigious San Francisco Art Institute. Kava currently works/lives in between Boston, San Francisco, and Europe.

Early years

Vena Kava was born somewhere in Eastern Europe. Shortly after her birth, her family moved to Poland where she spent most of her early childhood. When she was 7 years old her family moved to the United States where they have been ever since.

Filmmaking

Kava became interested in the visual arts at college and started painting, taking classes at the(Rhode Island School of Design). Becoming frustrated with the what she saw as painting's limitation, she abandoned it and moved to Boston to attend Emerson College with a masters specialty in film production. Later in the year, being disappointed with the program, Kava moved to San Francisco and took up experimental and Avant-garde Filmmaking. She decided that the San Francisco Art Institute, a School known for its Laissez-faire attitude towards art, was the only school in America that can offer her the flexibility that she needed in order to fulfill her desire for true experimentation. "[T]here was so much potential I felt in San Francisco, the East Coast Art scene during this time was not really working for me.”

She spent the rest of her college career focused on Filmmaking being heavily influenced by filmmaker Kenneth Anger with films such as Lucifer Rising, Invocation of My Demon Brother, Scorpio Rising and also filmmaker George Kuchar who taught at SFAI. She also started taking classes in New Genre, which was a major available at the school. This short exploration opened up doors and led Vena Kava into the world of performance art.

Performance art

Heavily influenced by dark realms of the universe, Kava’s highly visual and edgy performances always drew from the dark side. Performing in San Francisco in such shows as Dada Fest, Kava also formed her own performance band, which was musically driven and had a punk rock visage and a 60”s cult film vibe. The performance troop did not last very long due to internal conflicts between members.

Awards

In 2005, Kava was the recipient of one of the prestigious STAND grants from The Film Arts Foundation for independent cinema. She made a short experimental film “She Blow Smoke,” which was highly influenced by Keneth Anger and highlighted some of her early frustrations and personal conflicts.

Music

Around the same time in which Kava completed her film, she formed a musical band in San Francisco “WhipKraft,” in which she led, performed, and sang. In 2007 the band released a Goth/Metal/ Experimental album titled “Welcome to the Chapel Perilous.” Later in 2007, Kava moved to Boston and formed Killing Moon a Death Metal band while Kava incorporating the death growl into her vocal style, which was also proved to be a big hit among her fans. The band then quickly grew in popularity

Photography

Having a love for all art, Kava experimented with many genres if art, but only a few of them stuck. Photography was one of them, when Kava discovered the beauty of the still image. “[I] have been feeling like everything is moving so fast lately, year after year, even film is too fast for me 24 frames per second is a lot of frames for the eye to consume. Photography was perfect, I can meditate on one frame for days and even months.” Kava works typically by photographing herself in a range of costumes, heavily influenced by Photographer Cindy Sherman.

References

• Mercer, Mick (2009). "Music to Die For." London. Chery Red Books. ISBN 978-1901447262
• Sharpe-Young, G (2005a). New Wave of American Heavy Metal. New Plymouth. Zonda Books Limited; 1st edition. ISBN 0-958-26840-1
• Sharpe-Young, G (2007b). Thrash Metal. New Plymouth. Zonda Books Limited. ISBN 0-958-26843-6
• http://www.venakava.net Official Vena Kava web site
• http://148.ca/themic/1001/04.html Interview With Vena Kava for The Mic Online
• http://www.industrializedmetal.com/2007_whipkraft.htm Interview with Vena Kava
• http://www.fixemagazine.com/venakava.html Interview With Vena Kava
• http://www.whipkraft.com Vena Kava's band WhipKraft
• http://queensofmetal.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=109&Itemid=132 Queens of Metal
• http://www.eppreu-autogramme.de/index2.html Vena Kava Autograph site
• http://www.deadlycreations.org/venakava.cfm Deadly Creations Modeling
• http://timtimjohn.googlepages.com home/Vena Kava history
• http://www.graveconcernsezine.com Written Contributions by Vena Kava
• http://www.myspace.com/whipkraft Myspace WhipKraft info page
• http://www.myspace.com/vena_kava Unofficial Vena Kava Fan Page
• http://www.carnifexpress.net/metalqueens/metalqueenspre.htm "Metal Queens, Death Metal" Volume 1, Number 1
• http://www.venakava.com Vena Kava web site