Art lessons: Alaya Gadeh

Have you ever had a dream so beautiful that you wish you could permanently capture the images that played in your head?  German photographer, designer and artist Alaya Gadeh seems to have the rare ability to do just that. Alaya’s works are beautiful, imaginative and inspirational. She combines various art techniques  to create images that appear to be dream-like and full of fantasy. While viewing Gadeh's work, I feel almost as if I am seeing a part of myself that I buried deep down. Her work is subtle. She uses bold colors, but frequently mutes the tones with an overlay of texture or pattern. Gadeh incorporates elements from nature in her self portraits. She also creates colorful and intricate mandalas, which often aid in meditation and the process of finding one's true self. Here are some of my favorite works by Gadeh.

Couleur Royale de la Mandala, no. 1

Floral Dream



Art Lessons: Claudia Varosio

Earlier this week, I was on Etsy looking for some new Audrey Hepburn art to add to my collection. I happened to stumble upon Claudia Varosio's amazing shop and instantly fell in love. Claudia is a self-taught illustrator who creates book and movie posters,as well as amazing paper dolls. Her unique spin on these posters is completely original and inspired by pop culture and various elements of each movie. Claudia uses line and color in a way that brings each poster to life. Although many of the figures have minimal facial features, each one is expressive and jumps off the paper. Claudia was nice enough to allow me to interview her. Read on for my conversation with the London-based artist.

Etsy showcases many sellers on their blog with the "Quit your day job” feature. Do you have a day job or is illustrating a full time gig for you?

I do have a day job, so my Etsy shop is currently a part time gig.

Did you go to school for illustration? If so where?

Nope, I am mostly self-taught, though I would have loved to go to a school for illustration.

 What was the first movie poster you made?

It was for the film The Time Traveler's Wife, quite a few months before it came out: I had read the book, loved it and was very exited about the film. Ironically I have not seen it yet!

What is your favorite movie?
Ahh that is tricky... It changes all the time, but at the moment I would say Chinatown.

How do you get the ideas for your posters? What is your inspiration?Watching the film and trying to find a key image is what tends to work best for me... And then, what comes next is to try and make that particular subject as esthetically pleasing as I can. Visually, I would say that my main references are the vintage poster from the beginning of last century onwards, and 'graphic novels'.

I love the subjects you chose for your paper dolls. To me, they seem to be very stylish characters - some of them even icons. Did you pick them for any specific reasons?Thank you! I tend to pick either actors or characters from movies who have a strong charisma- as well as an interesting wardrobe!

Many artists now create across multiple media - photography, painting, sculpture, video. Do you work in any other media?

Not at the moment, but sculpture is certainly the most appealing of the media you mention, and in the past I have enjoyed doing it, so who knows, I may go back to it one day.

Have you ever shown your work to movie studios or book publishers?

2 of my images (Taxi Driver and the Dude paperdoll) are to be published in a couple of books about cinema, in the near future, but I have not approached neither publishers nor movie studios yet...

How would you like to see your business develop in the next few years?I would be happy to carry on doing what I am doing, enjoying it as much as I enjoy it now.

Which movies are you excited for in 2012?

On the Road and the Great Gatsby, I would say, as I love both books and am really curious to see how they have come out.

Make sure you head over to Claudia's shop and check out her amazing work. Tell her Tara from Life is Beautyfull sent you!!!

Art Lessons

I have been home sick for the last few days, so I have spent most of my time sleeping or searching the Internet for cool stuff. This morning, I found the COOLEST of things - the work of Alexandra Valenti. Alexandra Valenti is a photographer and artist. Her images seem almost like vintage snapshots from a trip to the dessert in the late 1960s. Valenti is from Berkley, made her way to New York and now lives in Texas and it is obvious that these locations have influenced her work.

The black and white images and the contrasting bright painted shapes make for such engaging images. They are serious and happy, serene and vibrant at the same time. The images are simple, but the added colors make them so interesting to view. Valenti's images remind me of the gorgeous, laid back attitude of the West Coast. They are one part hippie and one part magical, which makes a lot of sense considering that she has photographed ad campaigns for Free People.