whisper magazine feature

Hello critters,

I return just before this scorching-hot weekend with a cool addition to the Feature-Friday section. This week the feature comes from Whisper Magazine, a fashion and beauty magazine that promotes the local fashion scene with stories about designers, illustrators, fashion-bloggers, makeup, fashion photography and many more. So if you're also a fashion addict you definitely shouldn't miss it. You can find all their issues here.

I had the pleasure of having been interviewed by them and we talked a bit about fashion and my contribution to it. You'll find it through pages 24 to 27. I'll leave an adapted translation of the interview below for all you English readers out there. Also be sure to also check my friends from The Hearabouts, they are featured from pages 30 to 34, if you remember, I made a flowery illustration for their blog a while ago.

Read the entire interview here or click on the pictures above.

........................................................................................

Interview for Whisper Magazine /  April-May-June 2015 issue

Tell me, How did your passion for art in general? Because I saw that you do with fashion design, fashion illustration, graphics (if I forgot something, please nice to add).
It all starts with childhood, at least for me, art was my definition of fun because it challenged me creatively and I believe that it was somehow "in my blood". Many people saw the potential in me and guided me to study art further.

I was curious to ask: What does your nickname "Dushky"?
It's not much of a story. Dushky's a strange abbreviation of my name, Andreea-Deea/ Andruşhi-Duschi and then, with the Internet-age and the appropriate letters, it became Dushky. My sister was very inventive while we were growing up.

How do you define your creative style? Please motivate your answer.
I was just thinking of how back in the days there used to be one period with a specific name all the art created in that period was defined by it. Now there are so many artists, each with their own opinions and so many styles, that I don't even know where I belong anymore. If I had to describe my style in a few words, I would say it's colorful, geometrical and decorative. And my preferred medium would be watercolors and markers.

How long should it takes to develop a sense of detail so minutely attentive as yours?
I think that takes a lifetime to perfect; there are few years (the schooled ones maybe) where you discover and learn and then you spend your time perfecting it. I still develop mine. I have a lot of patience, and so I like to create and work in my own time regardless of outside pressure.

Mention a few names that inspire your creative style.
McQueen, Arturo Elena, Sasha Unisex, Esra Rois, each for different reasons. But I have a long list of artists and people whom I appreciate enormously.

Linked to your fashion illustrations: they are very good, you have a very well developed sense of detail. My question is linked to them: do they materialize or do remain at the concept stage? 
I really like fashion illustration, more than necessary, often at times I take my sketches to an artwork painting-level because of all the details I put in. Fashion sketches are generally technical, a necessary step in creating clothing, but I like to explore textures, palettes and color combinations and play with forms and expressions. Therefore, most of the times, my illustrations remain on the paper. I made two major collections during my graduate and post-graduate years, and some other pieces for various projects.

And I've mentioned fashion illustrations, I found your blog an interesting project in which you engaged: Arz - Seventh Circle. Tell me about the project and its characters.
ARZ is a very interesting project, for which I am pleased to have the opportunity to create illustrations. The British- project, initiated by Rachel Saunders, is based on a series of novels (and soon, if we manage to raise the necessary funds, maybe a book or film) with a story set in a distant future world where science, technology and all of humanity is very advanced. I create costume-designs and some of the concept art. Currently we are working on different outfits for main and secondary characters of the story and also the look and costumes of various species of humanoids and aliens. It's very exciting to challenge my creativity in this direction and work with different body proportions and hi-tech materials.

Speaking of fashion design, we found a very interesting collection of yours: SkeletOn SkeletOff. Please tell me more about its history (how it arose, its concept and ideas etc.)
The Skeleton-SkeletOff collection was my dissertation project; its concept revolves around the idea of the construction and deconstruction of shapes and form. The theme of the collection was the constructive process in art and also in the human body. Just like a work of art, the human body follows some constructive steps to reach its final form and it is built from layers and ages of evolution, to reach its present form. Art and the man start from a concept like DNA molecules and cells, then comes the sketch / skeleton-shaped structure / vascular system, the color-fill/ muscular system and layers of artistic details/ the skin. Therefore I implemented this concept in the reconstruction of the body's shape, through garments and the decorative elements.

I noticed that deconstruction underlies your clothing collections. Do you remember the first collection you used this concept on?
I studied this concept throughout my post-graduate years, it was the case study for both my final MA collection and also for the many projects that I had done during those years. The first project based on this concept was called Papercut: a number of clothing items made out of paper. The paper was the perfect environment for the study of (de-)construction because it allowed manipulation in various techniques.

I saw you worked with U-Man Skate Shop for a series of stickers. How did this collaboration came to be?
I think it started somewhere in 2007 or 2008; I participated in a competition organized by them involving custom painting on a pair of sneakers. In my typical style, I did not manage to finish the project during the competition, but they loved my concept so much that they wanted to exhibit the pair of shoes in their store. So I got to finish them at home in my own time. Not long after came a proposal from the creative collaboration, that leaded to a later title of the official artist and ambassador for Uman and their shops.

The most significant project you've been involved and that you're proud of?
I do not know if I could choose, I enjoy all my projects and all the challenges I receive because they motivate me to move forward and they are truly  a confirmation that art is what I need to do in my life.

How did you manage to combine all kinds of art and create what Dushky is today?
I think I owe it to curiosity. I like to see new directions in art and experiment with different styles and techniques. Perhaps it's also related to the fact that I was interested in many fields outside of art, such as science, astronomy and music and when I managed to mix all of them together, it creates all these wonderful things.

Talking about your artwork, I noticed that recently materialized in a unique way: Atilla from BizzzartTattoo in Cluj-Napoca has made several tattoos using your illustrations. Is there a collaboration between Dushky and BizzzartTattoo in the future?
I just had an idea and a discussion on this subject, but the project did not materialize yet. It must be thought of in all its depths and we need to put all the details in place. But who knows? Perhaps in the near future.

Given that combination of several kinds of art, I have a question about this: do you consider yourself a complete artist?
Not at all. This title makes me thinks about somekind of finality, a point after which I can not develop any further and I think I am far from it. I'm still defining my style, I'm still looking and discovering. I would like to continue this expedition from now on. I think I am a complete human being, I don't think I can grow more physically, but as a creative spirit there are still years left for my development.

Tell me more about your future projects.
I'm currently working on two major projects, one being ARZ and I can't say much about the second one at the moment, just that it is a similar project in the context of costume-design, but this one is for an animated game. In addition, there I have my personal projects, like Creatures with features that took much more momentum than I thought; The Girls, a series of fashion illustrations, in which I wanted to focus more on various techniques, imagery and expressions more than the clothes themselves.

 ♥