Thursday, March 19, 2009

Drawing little mopeds with tempera paint

I remember one of my first forays into making artwork that presaged my career as a graphic designer; I believe I was 8 or 9, and pulled an ad from a magazine for Honda mopeds from a Rolling Stone. There was a headline and a few lines of copy on a white background, and lining the bottom were images of 4 mopeds in different colors and models. Something compelled to draw and paint in freehand those little moped images with my Crayola tempera paints, the ones in those small plastic clear containers. The finished product looked fairly representative of the photographs, but more importantly, it was quirky re-creation. Of course, I wanted it to be a perfect reproduction; I didn't yet appreciate the value of idiosyncratic gesture.

Recently, Lani gave me a large postcard that featured the work of Evah Fan, an artist that lives and works in Berkeley with her partner, Brendan Monroe, also an artist. She makes these tiny pieces that are simultaneously loose and detailed, and most of all, full of humor. Her work took me back to those early joyous tempera moments. Take a gander at some of her work and marvel in the negative space and then get hit on the head with the polo mallet of her witty insights. Be sure to click for a larger image.

invitation to kleptomaniac at art committee meeting


source of bad energy



without further adieu

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

how pretty and completely original her work is. yay for your cool post!