Wind-Up Girl, Wind-Up Town by Stephanie Abdallah

Stephanie Abdallah is an illustrator studying in Sweden. Wizard Wars came across her work when doing a feature on Topprovdjur, a Swedish band with some fantastic concert posters designed by her. She works in a variety of mediums, often combining her finely detailed illustrations with newspaper cuttings, photography, painting, and sculpture. The line quality of her illustrations and the characters depicted are reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley, with less witchcraft. Read the interview transcript and be sure to check out her website if you like her work.

Topprovdjur – North

Much of your work has a peaceful feel to it, but often there seems to be some ironic or macabre undertone. Atomic is a more obvious one, with paper cutout design airplanes flying through a beautiful swirl of blues and reds which seems to represent the death and destruction the planes bring. Wind-Up Girl, Wind-Up Town could suffice as a great surreal illustration, or the wind up knob in her back could point to the feeling of a uninteresting existence in a small town. Are you trying to convey a specific message with each work, or is your choice of dream-like imagery because you want to inspire the imagination of the viewer to come up with an interpretation on their own?

I honestly don’t know, I don’t really know how a drawing will end once I start it, but one thing I do know is that I always want my drawings to show a feeling or a thought. And that always comes subconsciously. There are only a few occasions when I’ve actually sat down and thought long and hard about what to do, and that’s when I have an assignment to do from school. Like if I have to make a poster for a product. Otherwise when I do my personal work I just let it all happen naturally, automatic. I think everything fuels my imagination, I get inspiration from a lot of places, and sometimes things that seem insignificant but that later come back to me, really anything. The feeling for the picture always enters about halfway in, when I’m in the middle of everything and then it just makes sense what to do next, how to keep building it up and what kind of feeling the picture will have. I don’t notice it happening while I’m drawing. And I do not have a concrete idea like “I want to do this and that…”, I just rely on feeling. Besides a feeling seems much more free than an idea, that seems a bit more serious and restrictive.

The Great Anteater

A lot of people say that there is a serious and ironic undertone to my drawings, and I guess that is true. I want a picture to have a meaning. Your interpretation on Wind-Up Girl, Wind-Up Town is actually spot on with my interpretation of it. I think the girl in the picture is feeling that a lot in life is very dull; she just wants to get away and see something new, and that she’s bigger that the town she lives in. And the knob, well the only way to turn the knob is to have someone else doing it, and maybe she doesn’t like the feeling of having someone else controlling her, and forcing her to do the same job over and over again. I think a lot of people will just settle doing things other people want them to, or what they are expected to; get a decent job, start a family, all the usual things in the usual order. I don’t feel she doesn’t really want that, she wants something new.

As you see, I want people to have their own interpretation of my drawings; I don’t usually write what my interpretation is of a drawing because I don’t want it to affect others in thinking that just because I think so makes it the only and right interpretation. I’d much rather listen to what other people think. It’s open for all the ideas out there.

Siamese Anubis

How long have you been creating this kind of artwork? Your illustrations are detailed yet seem spontaneous, so it seems you must have been doing this for some time to be able to create so many different characters and environments so frequently.

It’s weird to say that I have been drawing all my life, but I kind of have. I mean I have always thought that art classes were the best, and always had an interest in art and design. I even remember thinking how awful the Comic Sans font was when I was in 2^nd grade, I still think so, it’s hideous and my teacher used it all the time and printed it on this even uglier yellow paper. But I would say that I probably “started” when I was ten years old, because that’s when my interest grew even bigger and I started taking classes outside of school because I liked it so much. I try to draw as frequently as I can. My illustrations are detailed, and when I feel inspired or a drive inside myself I can create a lot. I really want to make something out of myself, and art is the best way for self-expression, at least so for me.

Drowning of Ophelia

But yes, I have been drawing for as long as I can remember, it comes easy and spontaneous to me, but that doesn’t mean it’s so easy creating all details or not time consuming. I can spend hours drawing without noticing it, and I have a lot of free time so I draw a lot. I’d much rather do that than anything else and I just want to try anything. I recently painted my old skateboard deck. And also I painted a briefcase, next I want to try working with mirrors and glass.

Who is your audience? Besides your web site, have you shown your work elsewhere? What would be the best possible situation in which you could present your work? In a gallery? Or sold as product, such as the lunchpail design of (A Lesson On) Communication? The presentation on your website is great, how it shows details and process. Do you consider that an essential part of your presentation?

I guess my audience could be anyone, a mix of different people who appreciate art and design. For anyone. Besides my blog, I do post my portfolio at three other pages: Behance (http://www.behance.net/ophelia), Cargo Collective (http://cargocollective.com/birdie) and Loudmajor(http://loudmajor.com/Profile/Stephanie.htm). I’m trying to expand my network and expose my art a bit more, I’m a bit shy when it comes to self-promotion, so I always do it subtly.

Topprovdjur concert poster

I do think the best way to present my work would be when you see it right in front of you, like hanging in a gallery. It’s different seeing a work of art up close rather than on a screen. The atmosphere differs a lot and adds to the situation. I chose a white background and a clean layout for that purpose, so it would be a lot less distracting and give more attention to the drawings. Work like  (A Lesson On) Communication is a perfect example of something that really must be viewed in real life, especially since it’s something three-dimensional.

And yes, I do show a lot of pictures on the details and the process. I honestly think watching photos of works in progress is much more exciting than the final product. That is because those photos get you back to when you were creating the art work and also maybe makes it a bit more real to my audience. The most personal and fun part of a picture to me is while I am in the middle of creating it, and I want to share that as well as the final product.

Check out Stephanie’s site and leave her some comments.