PRINTALLOVER.ME LOOKBOOK

Magic Garden Shift Dress 

For as long as I can remember I've wanted to design clothing. This mainly comes from a place of wanting to wear something really specific, only to find out that what I dream.. doesn't actually exist. I love making clothes for myself, even though I'm terrible at math and even more dreadful on a sewing machine, I persevere still.

My love for print and pattern on fabric and textiles in particular comes from my high school days - from admiring Japanese kimono design spurred by my Japanese class to just general making strange outfits. Digging around in the local craft store, or in the second hand stores looking for strange fabric to make clothing from - unique fabric. I still have a skirt made from thick floral upholstery fabric (yeah, it does look like a lampshade..). Hell, I even bought a tiny infant turtle-neck because it had a seriously bad-ass space print thing going on (not a baby person - no way), with dreams of turning it into a coin-purse (because that's a completely logical though process you guys).

I'm digressing but what I'm trying to say in general is that the itch and desire to make clothes has always been there. It's been particularly painful to deal with the seperation from my sewing machine, because when I want to get away from drawing & the computer - sewing becomes my outlet. And while my dreams of maybe, just maybe one day having my own label or own range of rad products seems super far away.. in the mean time I've been designing prints for PRINTALLOVER.ME

PAOM is basically a sweet service for artists and creatives to put their images upon different clothing items. All items are made-on-demand so there is a couple of weeks turn around time. I really really appreciate services like this because it gives artists an option to create things they dream about, quickly & easily. Without further ado I present my first lookbook for my PAOM store.

sushi shift dress 

moon tarot shift dress

cactus shift dress

tanabata shift dress

fawn leggings

Three of Swords blouse

All items are available for purchase on my PAOM store here. I will be periodically updating the store with random bits and bobs as well as new designs. I hope you like them! In any case it's been an absolute joy to make these so far, they have been swimming in my head a long long time.

xx

Many thanks to PAOM for making this possible. Model image from this lookbook is from PAOM.

INSPIRATION MUS/S/SIC

Thought I'd share with you guys what music I've been listening to non-stop this past week or two. Lots of SSSes in my playlist! As I've mentioned in many interviews, music has a massive impact in the zone I get into for drawing.

S/S/S - BEAK & CLAW (EP)
The debut EP for Sisyphus, a collaborative group with Sufjan Stevens, Serengeti & Son Lux. This is an old one, but you can't miss it! As per usual Sufjan always always knows whats up. What could be better than Sufjan & hip-hop right? I really admire that quality of Sufjan, that he just transforms to whatever stuff is rad and that he's into. Like when he was inspired by Royal Robertson, outsider art and aliens and made The Age of Adz. You have to be happy that he didn't remain folk forever. My favourite song is Beyond Any Doubt.

SISYPHUS - SISYPHUS
Okay so this is the follow up album to the Beak and Claw EP and it's awesome. I really wish there was more music like this that was a mash up between hip hop and different styles. Favourites from this album are Rhythm of Devotion, Flying Ace, I Won't Be Afraid and Alcohol is pretty sweet too. Really it's all good.

SYLVAN ESSO - SYLVAN ESSO
My boyfriend introduced me to this duo, and we luckily got to see them as the opening act for Tune-Yards at Berghain last week. I think they are amazing and it just goes to show what you can do with strong vocals and a laptop. My favourite is Hey Mami. Oh - and Amelia has killer dance moves so that's pretty bonus. 

PATTERN PLAY

pillows from my society6 store

For the longest time I've been heavily interested in pattern and textile design. I pretty much love ANYTHING with a colorful pattern to the point that it's kind of a problem (for my wallet particularly). One day I'd ultimately love to collaborate with a homewares company or hell even have my own, but until that day comes I'm having lots of fun making patterns for my society6 store.

I've been messing around with my sketchbook gouache paintings and turning them into repeating patterns. Below are a couple of previews of patterns I've been creating recently;

I'm making them for application to something super-rad and also semi-secret (but not really). I still need to iron out a couple of details, but I'm really excited to share with you what their final application is! Watch this space!

xx

MEDITATIONS ON MAX NORMAL

Whenever I'm having a low day or just not really feeling it, I find myself coming back to these lyrics from Max Normal's - Love Is. Max Normal is one of the many bands Watkin Tudor Jones & Yolandi Visser experimented with in South Africa before they hit it big overseas with Die Antwoord. I love these words so much that I inked them out on two large pieces of paper and stuck them on my wall for motivation. 

Don't play games, drop names, pull strings or bite

Choose the quickest way between two points 
Don't waste your energy on bullshit interaction
Don't be scared of anything except letting yourself down
Out-do yourself, work harder than anyone else... now
Make very clear distinctions between parasites and creators
Be a creator instead of a second-hand artificial flavour
Do not concern yourself with anyone's opinion of your methods, save your own
Be three steps ahead of everyone, I promise you'll make it home
Do not sleep too much,

Treat people who do not understand what we do with the least amount of energy as possible
Live it, don't give in, be original, even when you aren't,
Make your mom proud

Invent the future - then manifest it
Keep yourself in check, sir. Don't forget it, decide exactly what it is that you want
Then go out and get it without requiring anything of anyone
Spark something new that'll last forever
Don't go to them, let them come to you
Do not underestimate your value, start representing

Stay invisible till you invincible then set your plan in motion

Corporate giants can't fuck with the link between our art and our clients

And above all things be honest, even if there's no end in sight

Avoid stagnation at all costs

Know that I do not perform for people, I make music art that I love

xx

BLUMEN IN BERLIN

After a long, dark winter in Berlin, spring is finally upon us. Moving here at the end of fall wasn't exactly the brightest idea I've had. When the brutalist architecture lined streets were dark at 3pm with no one in sight, feelings of 'oh shit what have I done' set in big time. The recent sunlight and warmth have completely transformed this city. People are out on the streets, in the parks, drinking coffee on the sidewalk and flowers are popping up everywhere! Berlin truly is bursting with life, with so many green spaces and open - air places to enjoy. Lately I've been bloom hunting for painting and drawing references, and snapped the following pictures on my walks & Berlin adventures.

Where ever you may be - wishing you warmth & sunshine from this corner of the earth to yours.

ADVENTURES WITH GOUACHE

My humble Gouache collection - top row is from the Winsor & Newton Designers Gouache Primary Colour Set, the bottom ones are just additional colours

Lately I've become pretty obsessed with Gouache. I've been consciously trying to bring it a lot more into my digital works, to add texture and a bit of life as well as just experimenting in my sketchbook with it. I love it because I find it so simple to mix the right colours without getting muddy. It seems like everytime I use acrylic I just end up liberally using phaltho blue when all else fails, brandishing crappy, crappy results. There's so much pigment with Gouache so it definitely owns over watercolour for me (plus I'm way too impatient for layering with watercolour).

While I was in London earlier this month I hopped over to Cowling & Wilcox Shoreditch to pick up some intermediate shades of my Winsor & Newton Designer's Gouache. I would definitely recommend these over any other Gouache I've tried, the pigment is awesome! When I was in Australia these were super expensive, but they seem kind of doable in the UK - £9.95 for the Primary Colour set at the aforementioned Cowling. I haven't been able to find this brand in Berlin so far, or Palomino Blackwing Pencils for that matter - (damn where they at? - hook me up!).

a colour chart from my sketchbook - (yeah the greens are messed)

I picked up Orange Lake Light, Opera Pink, Brilliant Green, Brilliant Purple and Cobalt Turqouise Light. I probably could have done without Brilliant Green, because of it's similarity, but it will still be useful for mixing. All the others are absolutely beautiful on their own and for mixing. The reason for grabbing intermediates is so I don't have to use up pure yellow and red everytime I want orange etc, it just speeds things up. (Is my lazy/impatient streak showing?) The only lame thing is that my now well used Opera Pink kind of gets killed by my scanner because it is Semi-Transparent, so the scanning light goes right through. It scans as a dull pastel pink when in reality it's super neon. Next time I will have to get Permanent Rose (CMYK Magenta).

stroke practice for photoshop brushes, you can see here that pastel pink is actually opera pink - so dull when scanned

So in general I've been using the gouache to create strokes to make photoshop brushes and textures for backgrounds. It's a new type of process for me where I draw the linework first, then roughly decide what parts need to be hand painted. Then I just paint those into my sketchbook and scan those bad boys in. It's more deliberate than before, more back and forth. Where are usually I would just paint first, and make the linework fit.

back in december, obsessed at that time with the idea of gamma rays & radiation mit confetti, largely becasue of Beck

I'm still very much trial & error-ing with this, but I'm really just enjoying ramping up my away-from-screen & tablet time. Rather than just splashes and texture that I was making in December, I'm testing painting little series of objects, devoid of linework and taking advantage of the pigmentation.

rag rug, neon sushi, palm trees, kokeshi dolls & mountains - the first of my little series experiments

You might have seen these on my instagram quite recently. I'm trying to post more sketches on there. I have a couple of ideas in mind for what I'll be making out of these little series, but you'll have to wait and see! Expect to see more Gouache painting filter into my work in any case. (holy crap - sick of the word Gouache yet? Hey - at least I didn't say 'pops of colour'!)
xx

SHRINE BRIGHT LIKE A DIAMOND

the view from my work desk

Severe apologies for the post title, I couldn't help myself. (Now I finally understand what goes on in the sick mind of whoever is chief name-giver to the items on Modcloth)

It's been around 8 months since I've moved from Australia to Berlin. Time has flown! Over these months I've been living and moving between different apartments whilst trying to get into the swing of things. Finally everything is starting to feel more permanent, except for the fact that all my wordly posessions are wrapped up on a pallet in Perth. Aaand also except for the fact I'm kind of floating around at the moment, not really sure how long I'll be in Berlin, or where I'll be next, so it's hard to justify shipping all my gargantuan amounts of stuff over. Of course the ideal solution to my 'stuff' problems would be to become minimalist. Believe me I've tried; it just aint happening.

In the meantime I'm living in an already furnished place; therefore it's important to me to decorate the space to make it more my own. I'm also working from home for the first time in a while. I had so much fun decorating my old Melbourne studio I find it really important to make little shrines, to motivate myself to keep going and keep inspired and all that jazz.

  close up of my work inspiration shrine, magic garden, iggy azalea painted lyrics, postcard from pet shop girls in melbourne, mother mary candles & postcards, photos of cherry blossoms & melbourne, bamboo plant

I've been pretty interested in Feng Shui, particularly the room Bagua placement. Whether placebo or not I feel like clearing clutter and rearranging to allow chi flow makes amazing difference to the feeling of a room. I've always been a little obsessed with floor plans too. When I was younger I used to steal the real estate section and imagine what it would be like, so perhaps that explains it. In general though I'm really attracted to colour coded systems of arranging, categorising and doing things, like Pantone, T2, The Periodic Table. (Can't you guys tell I was the supreme master of my high-school chemistry class?)

Since all my homewares and decorations are tucked away I've had to make do in a lot of ways, with things collected pieces, as well as making new stuff. In aNovember instagram post I showed these origami butterflies was making out of an old art catalogue. They were intended to be Christmas decorations but instead I've finally made it into a mobile; with the wooden part being made of disposable chopsticks & tape. Ever so slightly ghetto I know. Let's just say I was 'repurposing' and call it a day.

origami butterfly mobile, hanging in the bathroom

vintage finds & some of my washi tape

If you've ever been to Berlin you'll know that the Berliner's love themselves some Flohmarkt action! I picked up this old mountain painting and vintage clonette doll at a garage sale / freemarket for around 2€. I plan to add either rainbows or UFO's to the painting. I love clonettes because they have all the right elements of creepy, kitsch, cute & colourful. They also remind me a little of the little sisters on Bioshock and also remind me of my bf's South African heritage. On the right is some of my patterned washi tape collection. A few I picked up in Japan last year and some from Singapore the year before. It one piece of all my stuff that I could actually justify having sent over. And well, by sent over I mean taking up valuable Twisties space in my Brother's backpack last time he visited home.

That's it for the little corners of inspiration tucked into my house. They are much more modest than my old studio or my Melbourne house. But these type of things develop over time. Hopefully I can collect some more inspiration on my summer travels.

xx

DANCE WITH THE DEVIL ON YOUR BACK

I wanted to talk a little bit about the inspiration vibes behind my recent drawing; Graceless Heart. 

Lately I've been working on my physical and mental health and the old issues that were holding me back. I've been transforming in a lot of ways and getting rid of things that don't serve me anymore. For instance even feeling completely sick of things I used to love which resulted in me throwing out half my wardrobe etc. I've noticed a lot of people are going through this rapid change, shedding their old skins and uncovering who they really are underneath. I think I'm pretty good at cutting back the bullshit with all types of things, but until now I've been mostly unable to do so to my own self. In recent conversations with my sister, I've been thinking a lot about the influence of the Year of the Horse and the influence of authentic change.

The title for the drawing is taken from lyrics from Shake It Out, by Florence and the Machine. I know Ceremonials is super super old, but this past week this song in particular was really resonating with me and all the change going on in my life right now. Of course I've liked this song for a long time, but it didn't really sink into my skin the way it had last week. As if I had only just heard the lyrics for the first time.

What I really love about the lyrics is the (possibly unintentional) esoteric references to chinese astrology & tarot cards. Of course the horse in the song is probably not intenteded to be a reference to year of the Horse, but the way I'm feeling this song and seeing horses everywhere is curious indeed. I also picked up a couple of references to Tarot. 'I've been a fool' - The Fool, 'and I've been blind' - 2 of Swords or 8 of Swords, 'Devil on your back' - The Devil.

The Fool: new beginnings, fresh start, 0
2 of Swords:  balance, partnerships, a need for give and take
8 of Swords: holding yourself back because you fear moving into the future
The Devil:  bound to indulgence preventing a person from growing or becoming healthy

Obviously the devil represents all the stuff holding you down, and that's why it felt even more powerful about shaking the devil (fears, regrets etc) off your back in order to dance. The devil is in Graceless Heart in the form of the clawing hands on her shoulders, and the plane crash. In a way this is personal physical and emotional pain represented. For one, I have chronic pain in my shoulders always: feels like some hands digging in. Secondly, in recent years I have become terrified of flying; it's almost a phobia of mine which I am also trying to let go of (I still fly, just really really pathetically). Of course the recent loss of MH370 has filtered into the image (not meant to be disrespectful!)  

The fire to me also represents fire in the heart, burning passion desire and explosive release. The falling cherry blossom add a slow rhythm to the explosive nature of the heart. I suppose I kind of feel that the cherry blossoms represent eventual peace. I wish that I could animate or produce films because in my head this image is actually moving - but sadly I don't harbour the skills! 

I also wanted the image to be in kind of lulled space of time, like the feeling you get when you are flying long distances - you're in limbo. There are many mentions of Heaven in both Shake it Out and Ceremonials in general, and that is the reasons for the image being set in the clouds. The clouds and fire were created with gouache and then scanned in.

Here's a quick, light alternate sketch so you can have a look at the intial linework.

I started off with the intention of just having Pom Poms on top of her hair or Sailor Moon buns, but it blatantly ended up a bit more Hit Me Baby One More Time ala Britney Spears so I just went for it. It kind of seemed appropriate and reference the time Britney went a bit cray and was being held down by her own demons. (The first and last time that I relate to Britney Spears? - I think it's time to get away from the computer for now)

In summary, to me this illustration is about leaving all the bad shit behind, letting go of your demons and learning to dance. Which is what I'm aspiring to do at the moment. Best of luck to any of you going through a similar change.