PAINTINGS BY DEEDEE CHERIEL

Sunday 22 April 2012


I stumbled across Deedee Cheriel in a rather unfortunate manner - via the now defunct Fuck Off Shit Tattoos.

Originally the tattoo was posted to Fuck Yeah Tattoos, but a fairly large amount of these tattoos end up going straight on FOST. This is because almost a lot of the tattoos on FYT are poorly placed, text in mock 'handwriting' or just basically rubbish design/linework, but because of the Miami Ink style 'anything's good work as long as it has a soppy story behind it' ethos that some people seem to have. No disrespect to the artists on Miami Ink of course, and also a congrats to the genuinely well designed, clean tattoos on FYT. I honestly feel sorry for some of the artists approached to do this work, and for the people that end up with 'artwork' on them that looks like a four year old was let loose on their arm with a sharpie (though actually some of the work showcased on Fuck Off Shit Tattoos would have been executed far more successfully by a four year old with a sharpie).

However: the Deedee Cheriel tattoo was actually not on there for its poor execution or a rubbish design - just a design that wasn't translated fantastically into tattoo form. I was really intrigued by the design itself and went straight onto Cheriel's website, where I found a gallery of awesome, strange images. Their strange perspective, mix of flat and three dimensional looking imagery and bizarre people-animals with blocks of colour emerging from their mouths really appealed to me, kind of like a Klimt-esque dreamworld based on fairytales, full of crying trees and Blemmye-like Frankenstein creatures described by suspicious travellers - but with pretty dresses, dancing and sex. I'd love to know her inspiration! I particularly loved how certain animals are always featured in a particular pose, or with their heads facing a particular way (especially the bear), something continued from images of her work in her 2007 portfolio into works from later years, quite different in their execution but with a continuity between them.

2 comments:

  1. Ooo, I rather like these. Totally different to anything I've seen before too!! Good Luck xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Bee, I'm going to need the luck! These are strange, aren't they, but nice somehow!

    ReplyDelete