INTRODUCING ALEXIS WINTER
Alexis Winter is a catch. Her creations are nothing short of awe inspiring – transporting you into a world usually only accessible through a cocktail of illicit treats. Quite simply, her work is rad. And as you will read below, her talent is not confined to the playful improvisation of a pen – she can string words together too. She’s funny, probably funnier than you, definitely funnier than us. Again, Alexis Winter is a catch. So we’ve taken a moment to wipe the drool from our chins and share with you what we consider to be some of the finest work ever to grace our site. If you too would like your drool-worthy-work showcased then please send us an email to submissions@spookmag.com
NAME: Alexis Winter.
AGE: 22.
FROM: When I was younger my parents moved around a lot, which depending on the whereabouts and general liveability of the house could sometimes be quite traumatic. For example when we lived in a ghetto town in Queensland called…. actually, I don’t want to offend the locals so let’s just call it “Mordor”. We weren’t allowed in our front yard because smackies would throw their used syringes on our lawn. They used to come and knock on our door asking for “bread” money. We gave them a sandwich. Then there was the guy who tried to rob us by climbing up to our bedroom window at 4am, once he realised we had bars on them (and for good reason) he fled and let our dog out as he did. I guess he felt the need to get something out of all the effort. There were also a few incidents of a schizophrenic calling us in the wee hours of morning telling us she was Jesus Christ or something. We moved and got a private number. This kind of friendly housing followed me for most of my pre pubescent childhood. I did a small one-year stint in Sweden attending an international school until the cold got the better of us and we settled in Melbourne.
EXPERIENCE: I drew a picture of my mother while I was in the womb and gave it to her upon my exit. Well, that’s a lie. I started off drawing peacocks because when I was rather small my dog chased one while we were eating lunch at a friend’s house. The peacock was their pet, and during the excitement had a heart attack and died. The drawings were in homage. R.I.P little guy. But my first memory of actually drawing and really enjoying it was in a 2 day car trip from Melbourne to Queensland. Probably on my way to visit old friends in Mordor. I was about 8 and my sister and I had a huge fight over who had dibs on the middle seat. A priceless commodity on a two-day car ride. The fight got pretty intense and was only resolved by hanging a towel from the rear view mirror to the middle seat belt. This way we had designated spatial areas for each of us. Once that ordeal was over I needed something to do on my side of the towel so I started drawing things from our previous game of “I don’t spy” (a tricky game to win, even for an avid player). That was it for me. If it weren’t for that towel I might have become a scientist working on dark matter research, or an astronaut chilling with Vader on the Death Star. So really, a towel saved my life.
JOB: I’m currently overseas doing some freelance work, but before I left I was working two jobs while finishing up my studies at RMIT. By day I was at a bakery selling yeasty things to bread enthusiasts. Stamping loyalty cards, talkin’ turkey. By the dark shadows of night I was working as a bartender at a “special” pub in Richmond serving delightfully seedy old men their regular poisons and selling them my illustrations on my work.
WHY: It’s a good excuse for irregular sleeping patterns and consuming too much caffeine “that will kill you one day Alexis!” Well if Mordor didn’t I don’t think a V can will, its also proven to be a useful tool for deciphering my brain and all its contents.
INSPIRATION: Frida Kahlo is a given, she’s quite the lady. Yoko Ikeno is also a master of line work and Elsa Mora is an amazing multimedia artist who does unbelievable things with paper. But I think it’s important to find inspiration in other avenues as well. I love to read, and seem to find the brains of old men rather inspiring. Clever word play, experiences and memories, getting dumped (nothing like stench of heartbreak to fuel a creative fire), working shitty jobs, pals like Luke Taylor, and the drunken slurs of reformed criminals you meet at the pub.
http://alexiswinter.tumblr.com/
WHITE WHALE
MATERIALS: Ink, markers, fine liners, coffee.
TIME: Between 6 to 7 hours.
WHERE: At home in Melbourne.
WHY: It was a commission job for my friend’s band The Pierce Brothers. They wrote their EP while we were on tour together last summer so I jumped at the chance to do the artwork for it swell.
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE UNIVERSE
MATERIALS: Fine liner, textas and some water colours.
TIME: 6 hours.
WHERE: In a little apartment in Sweden almost entirely consisting of plants. There are so many plant’s I think the apartment has it’s own weather cycle. (I’m certain the owner is Poison Ivy from batman).
WHY: It’s my way of approaching the very big topic of existence in a playful and humorous way. The beautiful goose is the milky way and she is playing with the planets as if they are merely balls of yarn. I also found it very interesting to look at the migration patterns of both birds, and the planets. Both are always consistently constant and the same for their (or our) lifespans.
LOVE IS BLIND
MATERIALS:Markers, ink and fine liner.
TIME: 1 hour.
WHERE: My home in Melbourne.
WHY: I like looking at human emotions portrayed through animals. It sometimes makes for a more powerful visual than if the same thing were represented through drawings of people. Sometimes things are more clear through a new perspective.
ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD
MATERIALS: Grey led, fine liner, water colour, coffee and marker.
TIME: 8 hours.
WHERE: I drew it in Melbourne between my Uni building and my own home.
WHY: It was for an AGDA poster Annual. The brief was to create a poster on the theme “Music”. I know, ground breaking stuff. So this is my own interpretation of a Tom Waits song. Basically it’s a visual representation of a long distance relationship and yearning for home and each other.
LET’S GET AWAY
MATERIALS: Markers, and fine liner.
TIME: 5 hours.
WHERE: I drew it after a long long day at work.
WHY: I drew it based on the idea that we are always trying to escape and have a holiday from our perfectly good lives. ‘The grass is always greener’ kind of idea.
IT TAKES A STEADY HAND TO NAVIGATE ADULTEROUS WATERS
MATERIALS: Water colour, ink, fine liner, coffee.
TIME: 8 hours.
WHERE: Melbournia.
WHY: Why did you first start drawing/painting/making it? The title is a line from a mewithoutyou song. I loved a lot of the themes covered in said song so I tried to indirectly reference them in this drawing.
Dalahäst
MATERIALS: Markers, fine liner, grey led.
TIME: 6 hours.
WHERE: In a little wooden forest house in Sweden.
WHY: It was a present for my Step Dad’s birthday. The Dalahäst is a traditional Swedish horse carved from wood and decoratively painted. He is very proud of the country he comes from and the family he has here so the small house inside the Dalahäst’s stomach is his own.
TINY CITIES, IMAGINARY PEOPLE
MATERIALS: Fine liner, markers.
TIME: 5 hours.
WHERE: In the forest in Vänge, Sweden.
WHY: I like the idea of just disappearing into the forest one day and befriending a fox who will teach me all there is to know about burrows and introduce me to all the local animals. This fox will eventually go on to divulge certain secrets to me, one being that he steals food from wealthy farm owners by night, and another is that George Clooney narrated his life for an extended period of time in 2009. Simply fantastic.
SIRENS OF THE SEA ARE CALLING FOR ME
Collaboration with Luke Taylor
MATERIALS: Black Staedtler pen’s, and a lovely wooden skate deck.
TIME: Between us, about 10 hours.
WHERE: Luke’s garage and my house.
WHY: We thought it would be fun to draw a picture together and he had a solo show coming up. The concept is based on the saucy sirens in greek mythology. I had been reading up about those vixens and found out that not only did they lure men to their deaths with their sweet sweet song. But their songs also had the ability to pull flesh from bone. Perfect content for our first collaboration.
ALEXIS WINTER’S WORKSPACE
