For my dissertation I have been looking at tattooing, concentrating mostly on the semiotics of tattoos and how they help create and are part of an individual's identity.
In the process of then researching visuals to help me translate this into my final collection, my friend M of Megamania introduced me to Audrey Kawasaki, an amazing Los Angeles based artist who paints oil paintings directly onto wood panels (she's just done one named Plucked that incorporates bass strings, and she's even painted a skateboard deck before). Her work has also been translated into tattoos, which is why M thought she would be relevant/interesting to me.
Audrey's artwork is full of contradictions: soft and elegant but with a hint of darkness and melancholy; a touch of the whimsical but a little bit macabre; sweet and innocent but erotic and sensual, all at the same time. This is what I love about her work: the aesthetics that initially pull you in (the eyes of her girls are mesmerising and so magnetic; I swear I felt my heart skip a beat at how beautiful they are) give way to a head spin of emotion; you just can't help but stare at the paintings.
Here are a few examples (copyrighted to Audrey, and taken from her website) which I've chosen just because they are great examples of this duality:
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