Animal Fantasy Illustrator Daria Tessler

This week we are interviewing artist Daria Tessler who was born in Finland, but currently lives in Portland Oregon. Daria’s art immediately struck me because of her unique style and color feel. It has both old school classic book illustration combined with a very contemporary alternative fantasy twist which makes her work stand out in a crowd. Let’s find out more about Daria.

"2 dinos"

How do animals inspire your artwork?

When I was a kid, I used to draw from those learn how to draw horses books all the time, then I branched out into other animals. I was nutty over animals. I guess that’s how I learned to draw! 

Anyhow, animals always seemed beautiful and curious to me. Creatures with independent consciousness, and worlds apart from humans with inner worlds, thoughts and feelings that are unreachable. Thoughts perhaps unshaped by language, possibly more abstract, possibly just much simpler, at any rate unknowable for humans. We may project or make guesses, but I feel like my interactions with animals are always a bit alien and intriguingly strange and interesting. 

"2 tigers"  

What medium do you work in (watercolor, acrylic, digital, pottery, photography etc.)?

Most of my art is screen-printed but I also do a little bit of animation, some watercolor and gouache painting and have been working on a comic that is just drawn using regular pens.

 

"firebird"

How long have you been creating art?

I’ve been drawing all of my life, but I became a full time freelance artist about 9 or 10 years ago. I’ve been silk-screening for about 15 years.

 

"godzilla"

 

Do you own or have you owned any pets and if so, tell us about them?

I have a goofy dog named Corky, he’s a border terrier, a bit high strung and very intense, but he’s very sweet when he wants to be. He spends a lot of his time staring deeply into my eyes willing me to do his bidding or read his mind. I’ll be drawing and then look up and realize he’s been staring at me intensely for a long stretch of time practicing his one-sided telepathic skills on me.

"paddle boat"  

What is your favorite piece of artwork you’ve created and why?

Recently I completed a little picture book called Artifacts with drawings of invented creatures combined with images from my collage book collection. Because I had only 2 weeks to put the whole project together I allowed myself to stop worrying about my audience and make something that was purely fun and not self censored in any way. This was the first project I’ve made in a long time that felt fresh and exciting and not stilted and forced.

 

"artifacts"

Daria’s new book Artifacts can be found on Etsy at https://www.etsy.com/listing/230791617/artifacts

 

To see more or Daria’s work, visit animalsleepstories.com

If you have a poem, artwork, song, photo or other creative animal inspired art  that you have created and would like to share on our blog,
please email to (Mary@outlawkritters.com).

 

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