Painter Megan Majewski finds creativity goes hand in hand with curiosity. “I get inspiration from a lot of different places, and it continuously changes. I let myself go down these rabbit holes with experimentation and research and see where I go from there. Usually, a body of work ends up unfolding itself when I’ve found something that really interests me that I want to explore with my artwork,” says Majewski.
Read MoreFor artist Sára Molčan, painting selfies doesn't always mean she's painting herself, or at least, not exactly, herself. “My painted self is me but not really me. There’s a strange disconnect for people — they really want to believe I’m painting myself,” she says. Instead, Molčan’s oil paintings grapple with the broader curated context of online representations people portray on social media by using provocative images of selfies, text messages, and iOS notifications.
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The Ori, The Connector from the collection Dance of the Summoner, reclaiming and alchemizing Nigerian and Afro-diasporic deities, orishas, and sacred traditions.
Odera Igbokwe [oh-deh-rah ee-boh-kway] grew up in a childhood full of creativity and play. “Making art is very much something we’re prone to do as children, so for me, that was very much my safe place as a super-expressive creative child. I loved dancing, I loved playing, I loved my sister and me pretending to be Sailor [Moon] Scouts or Power Rangers,” Igbokwe reminisces as they sit in their studio surrounded by collections of their paintings over the years. Now, a professional painter and illustrator, Igbokwe channels that same energy into their work today. “It’s always been about building a life that spans creativity at its core foundation. I never have to think ‘time to get creative,’ as it’s really about constantly flowing in and out of creativity,” says Igbokwe.
While at Brown University at the Rhode Island School of Design, Igbokwe’s childhood influences of cartoons, comics, and video games transferred through to the art they made. They took this inspiration into their concept art: “I was just scratching the surface of the storytelling mediums that I loved growing up and being like, yeah, I’d love to do that but make it my own and feature black people, isn’t that an amazing idea? I think as I rested in my education, I scratched more of the surface. It was more about the storytelling of personal story and identity interwoven with illustration and painting,” Igbokwe describes.
The influence of pop culture nerdy fandom (as described by Igbokwe) is evident in their work, intricately mixed with their exploration of storytelling into Afro-diasporic mythologies and Black resilience. These intersectional themes come from Igbokwe’s focus on identity and otherness. “It’s [about] being a child of Nigerian immigrant parents, a child of diaspora not really knowing where to fit in, of being queer within those spaces, and figuring out gender identity and being like, yeah I’m nonbinary, but I don’t want to take up too much space because male privilege and male passing privilege is a thing,” says Igbokwe.
Mami Wata from the collection Dance of the Summoner, reclaiming and alchemizing Nigerian and Afro-diasporic deities, orishas, and sacred traditions.
Igbokwe’s art aims to allow those who feel othered to feel seen: “I recognize more and more that what I value the most is the intimate connection of feeling seen between a viewer [of my art] and myself.”
The process of creating these themes within their work is an emotional journey. Though, it’s evident that a joyful resilience comes through many of Igbokwe’s paintings. Through earthy, rich, and vibrant colour palettes to the embodied movement in the stillness of a painting, Igbokwe creates magic with each stroke of their brush.
When asked what their superpower is, Igbokwe pauses to contemplate. From someone who has delved deep into comic multiverses, the question seems daunting. However, when it comes to Igbokwe’s artwork, they know exactly what magic they bring: “It’s treating all these different aspects and very different intersectional energies with respect and dignity to create something that is both old and new. With a lot of my work, I like having the abstract feeling of not necessarily knowing where or when you are, and sometimes I think my work is envisioning the future. But, a lot of the time, it also looks like a very distant past. Merging those things, whether it’s time or cultures across the African diaspora in one cohesive piece, is what makes me excited to create.”
Cortex Prime, illustration by Odera Igbokwe
Burning Pyre from a collection of illustrations for "Snow Globe Skyline".
Since moving to Vancouver in mid-2017, Igbokwe had just started getting acquainted with the art scene before the COVID-19 pandemic began, and racial unrest grew with Black Lives Matter protests erupting in North America.
From this lens, Igbokwe has received some of the most attention and “success” (as they use their fingers in quotations) in their whole career. “On one hand, it’s like, oh yeah, thank you so much for supporting me and looking at my work and listening, but on the other hand, it almost feels like a blood sacrifice. Oh, you’re paying attention because you’re finally recognizing all these things that we’ve been saying for hundreds of years.”
Igbokwe refers to their intuition to ensure that they are authentically moving through the world: “It’s important for me to really have clarity and purpose and not necessarily respond immediately to the moment and know that as I’m creating, I’m thinking of a lifetime of a body of work, as opposed to ‘how do I respond and capitalize off this terrible thing right now at this moment.’”
Illustration for "FIYAH: Magazine of Speculative Black Fiction" Issue 16: JOY (Fall 2020 Edition)
During times like these, Igbokwe finds their work to be “foundational, generative, and healing. It kept me from spiralling off the deep end too much. I feel like productivity can be such a myth and toxic thing, but when productivity is linked to just creating new things, then I have to recognize that also brings me joy and is a foundational part of who I am.”
So, what’s next for Igbokwe? Recently, they just completed their Black Crown collection, which is a series of drawings, paintings, and mixed media studies exploring the styles, textures, and functions of Black hairstyles across the African diaspora. They are currently working on a new collection to be released close to February and have signed four different gallery shows in 2021.
Keep up with Igbokwe on Instagram and visit their website here.
SAD Mag speaks with Grace Dove who plays Lisa in the Indigenous-made film, Monkey Beach.
Waking up on the bathroom floor in yesterday's clothes, from yet another hangover, Lisa is the character that invites audiences into Monkey Beach, Loretta Todd's film adaptation of the beloved novel by Eden Robinson.
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SOFT BOY BY JUSTINE CRAWFORD
Featured Artist of the Month Justine Crawford shared in her interview with Becca Clarkson that when she was trying to convey more abstract ideas Justine felt too vulnerable.
“.. I used Soft Boy. He's kind of like a rock for the girl character that's supposed to be me—a support character to show being vulnerable is okay. It's kind of like a reminder to myself.”- Justine Crawford
The inspiration for this month's playlist is just Soft Boy. This digital mix is soft and sweet and will go great with a cup of tea, glass of wine, or a snuggle buddy.
Before the buzz of the tattoo gun filled Gastown’s Soft Hands Studio, I interviewed the artist putting a permanent mark on me.
Justine Crawford’s work caught my eye in the halls of local yoga studio Stretch. Three large prints featured Crawford’s main comic characters—a rosy-cheeked young woman, and a Casper-esque figure.
“Soft Boy is kind of meant to represent my emotions because the girl in the comics is more of a literal representation of me,” says the Surrey-born artist, whose neon orange hair isn’t reflected in her minimally coloured cartoons.
“When I was trying to convey more abstract ideas or things I felt were too vulnerable for me to represent, I used Soft Boy. He's kind of like a rock for the girl character that's supposed to be me—a support character to show being vulnerable is okay. It's kind of like a reminder to myself.”
Crawford, 25, has had a passion for art since high school, when she painted and drew in a more realistic and detailed style. While taking on the challenge of inking 31 drawings during “Inktober” in October 2018, the daily task forced her to simplify her style.
When people started reaching out to her and asking if she sold prints, Crawford figured she could turn the challenge into something bigger. Just two years later, the artist now shares a tattoo studio with two others, where her painting on a six foot piece of wood hangs over her station.
“Wood is such a good canvas to have, especially because my work is minimal—I can show the wood grain through the pieces,” Crawford says, adding that she struggles to pick a preferred art medium.
“Tattooing is actually quite a lot more strenuous than I realized than just putting pen to paper,” says Crawford, who does machine work. “I get so hungry after every tattoo, it just takes a lot of energy.”
She’s been tattooing since last fall, though the pandemic halted business for months. Crawford says she was introduced to the world through a friend who lived with several tattoo artists.
“They called it the Peanut Gallery Tattoo Shop,” laughs Crawford, who says the friend has since let her practice new tattooing techniques on him through four different pieces. One of the designs, a Laughing Cow icon with stretched ear lobes and a trucker hat dubbed “Laughing Kyle,” is pinned on her station’s cork-board.
All of these hustles—the prints, paintings, sales, tattooing—are on top of Crawford’s full-time job as a digital designer.
“In the next few years, I think I would like to be able to sustain myself just with my art, but right now I'm kind of resting on my laurels a bit. I’m relaxed with how much energy I'm putting into different things,” she says, adding that the security of a corporate job is welcome during the pandemic.
Right now, her art is a way for her to connect with her culture and Chinese heritage, as well as express vulnerability, through different mediums.
“Some of my pieces have been inspired directly by my grandpa, so showing my extended family and my grandma these pieces, they think it's a very big tribute to the family.”
The tattoo she designed for me brings in my Ukrainian heritage, with a rosy-cheeked girl pictured inside a nesting doll. For hours, I continue to learn about Crawford as she works up an appetite.
She laughs while telling me how she and her friend paid steep cab fares to travel between hospitals near Nelson this summer, after she broke her wrist half way through a 150 kilometre cycling trip on her one speed bike.
Between stories of heartbreak, and stories from childhood, I learn of Crawford’s ties to her hometown Surrey’s Indian community—her Chinese mom having grown up in New Delhi.
Vulnerability and authenticity are as much a part of Crawford’s personality as it is her art. In a time of so much uncertainty, her work demonstrates how art can be both a personal outlet and a point of connection for society.
I leave the studio feeling excited over much more than a new tattoo and the opportunity to take off my face mask. Crawford, as driven as her hair is bright, is definitely a Vancouverite to watch out for.
Jessie Anthony won the BC Emerging Filmmaker Award from VIFF, and it’s obvious to see why. Look out for what she is going to do.
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Featured Artist of the Month Emilie shared in her interview with SAD's web editor Becca Clarkson that breasts continue to inspire many of her projects. “We all have breasts! Sometimes men have big breasts, so having something we can all identify with ourselves” - Emilie Borodine
The inspiration for this month's playlist is Emilie's beautiful ceramic series with curvy bodies and breasts of all kinds. This mix is screaming empowerment, filled with tunes from ah-mazing voices that have empowered womxn for generations across our globe.
