Feral Kid is the art work of João Ruas who was born in São Paulo, Brazil. After a stint in London from 2004 to 2007 he is now home again in São Paulo but has been exhibiting internationally. You can view his feminine form inspired surrealism at both his website and in his Flickr-folio.
Argentinian illustrator Juluio Cesar is from Alvarez (a small town near the city of Rosario) and likes zombies and skateboards and kicks some serious ass in illustrating both under the name Yaiagift.
It’s been a really long time since I dropped in on the work fo Travis Millard at Fudge Factory Comics. I met him a really long time ago at a show in Denver and was impressed by how nice of a guy he was. He just keeps on rolling with some of the funnest, funniest and smartest doodles around and there are few things better than one of his zines. I just punched in his URL today out of curiosity and was once again impressed by his unique work.
Moonassi artist statement:
“I draw something I’d like to draw and I can draw well. I draw people because that’s what I’d like to talk about. I prefer to draw in a small scale as I wish to capture my everyday thoughts and feelings during a limited time of the day. If I think I want to touch you my drawing reflects that thought. I draw an act that I’m upsetting you if
I think I want to distress you.
The reason why these ephemeral and scattered thoughts are so significant for me is that I can see myself as a tiny fraction like those thoughts, and also I’m the collection of those fractions. I’m the mundane being, a sort of dust everywhere. I’m anyone or anything in anywhere. I want to sweep and gather all those tiny little fractions on paper so as not to be scattered.”
The drawings of Moonassi are absolutely divine. I could only imagine how a large series of them would look hanging in a gallery. Beautifully contemplative work.
Talented illustrator and designer Mario Hugo has kept busy and recently updated with some new examples of his fantastic work. He remains one of my favorites and it’s great to see him doing so well since he launched his studio.
Sasha Prood graduated in 2007 from Carnegie Mellon University School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. She takes a hands-on approach to her design and illustration work and as a result has some very nice drawn typography in her portfolio.
Kaeleen Wescoat-O’Neill just graduated from the Art Center College of Design and informed me today that she has recently updated her portfolio with some new illustration work that is worth checking out.
Lina Ekstrand is a freelance illustrator who splits her time between Sweden and Berlin. In the last few years she has lived and worked in London, Sweden, Mexico and New York. At one point she held an internship at Vault 49. Her work is largely inspired by fashion and she has illustrated for several fashion industry publications.
I was quite taken by the dense, sometimes morbid and extremely detailed work by artist and illustrator Caitlin Hackettart. You can view her work at Carbonmade and Society 6. You can get a better insight into her work through her artist statement.
Artist statement:
“In my work I am exploring the relationship between humans and animals; the idea of the human denial of our animal nature and of humans as the dominant species, as well as the mutation of the animal created by the human interpretation of the animal. My work alludes to the boundaries that separate humanity from animals both physically and metaphysically, as well as the objectification of and personification of animals. I invent creatures, anthropomorphic, mutated, or pseudo mythical in imagery, using my imaginary world and bringing it into the physical world in an attempt to create a language that speaks about the human animal relationship and the natural and unnatural elements of it.
I am faced with the fact that we live in a planet in decline, where almost every natural ecosystem in the world is slipping away. Human kind has created a planet of refugees; animals forced to flee ever farther from the insatiable encroachment of urban development, victims of a war for space which they cannot hope to win. My drawings refer to this decline and to the refugees it has created. I am left with the question of what is natural; are we (human beings) still a part of nature? If so, does that make all that we have created, cities, vehicles, factories, all technology, part of nature as well?
As we move into an increasingly plastic, electronic, and robotic culture how can we define our own fundamental nature as the nature of the world around us changes and our metaphysical identity evolves into something beyond the human as an animal? As we separate from our animal nature, will we be able to still see and understand the importance of other animals and our relationship to them? As we are able to remove ourselves from our own physical bodies and to come to experience life through the metaphysical, the digital, and the psychic, how will this distance from our own bodies and the physical experience of the world affect our relationship with nature and the way we see creatures who exist completely within their physical bodies and are defined by their physical needs?
As my work evolves I am beginning to think more and more about the way in which people bestow identity and how, deprived of identity, animals are reduced to a kind of living taxidermy subject to human apathy and mutated by human ideals of beauty or monstrosity. I am telling a story about disappearance and the rapid and extravagant destruction of the human-animal, and how this loss of our animal nature is affecting the way human kind views the animal world. I am describing these questions through the use of paper and ink in the form of life sized anthropomorphic creatures, which are installation pieces. Done entirely in ballpoint pen, ink, watercolor and colored pencil, these massive creatures are a balance between the power and physical presence of the life sized and the intensity of the dense, delicate, and time consuming detail of the ballpoint pen and ink. By installing these animals cut out on the walls they are released into our world and become characters that must be addressed in terms of our physical space, and must be granted an identity.”
Wow, I stumbled up the Behance sketchbook of illustrator Wesley Eggebrecht and was very impressed. He has an amazing style and imagination. It made me excited to pick up the pencil and just go for it. You can see a few more examples of his work in the rest of his Behance folio and he also has a website, but to be perfectly honest the rawness of his sketches and his intuitive style was what I was most taken by.
Artist Dirk Dzimirsky draws his work at a large scale using colored pencils, pastels, charcoal and whatever works to achieve an nearly impossible amount of detail. The images appear almost photographic and I would speculate in order to really appreciate the absolute commitment to craft you would need to stand before one of the works in person and lean in to see just how difficult it was to create it. Truly amazing.
This 10th anniversary self promotional animation for Record Makers is straight up bootylicious. It’s an adjective that so rarely applies but in this case it is positively apropos.
Christopher Davison earned an MFA in Printmaking from the Tyler School of Art. His work is dark, intense and deals in religious symbology, specifically Christianity. It’s a dicey subject to toy with in this day and age.
I stumbled across the unusual and highly individualized stylistic fashion illustrations of Laura Laine this morning. She definitely has a point of view and each of her illustrations serves as an individual piece of art.
Iain Macarthur graduated in 2008 from Swindon College after completing a study in illustration and has since been filling his Behance-folio with some well crafted ‘collage’ pen, ink and graphite drawings. There is some great contrast happening within the drawings and there is a great balance between flat color and softer gradients. They are definitely fun to look at and I could imagine them being quite striking when hung on a wall in a group. The high school punk in me is still always a sucker for skulls.
Artist/illustrator Andre Azevedo sent a note that he has updated his website with a new layout and some hip fashion-inspired new work. There is a ton of new work actually and some of it is pretty fun to look at.
Since I first wrote about Moscow native artist Ted Vasin last summer, he has since updated with a new site and some new work for 2009. His style continues to amaze with the strange weaving of the real and the surreal.
Russian artist and illustrator Eika Dopludo has some nice pencil work in her Behance-folio but the standout is definitely this hand drawn alphabet. Each letterform is it’s own work of art and you can see all of them one-by-one here.
