"Pridefull"

by Mylène Cagnoli

This image is part of a tryptic I did this winter, when the lights were low and the days short, and I needed something to cheer me up because I fell a bit down  at the moment. It’s a result of multiple tries, the colors are those on the LGBTQIA ’s flag and the characters in there are inspired from people I saw in the pride.

What nourishes me mostly in my artworks is the feminist and the lgbtqia empowering culture, where I find most of my inspiration and energy. I created this drawing after the last pride march in Paris, in where the heat was so hard everybody was roasting, but it didn’t change anything to the joy of the atmosphere; I saw beautiful people, cheerful, shameless, all together, dancing in the vibes of the music all the afternoon till the night. What marked me the most was that the street was truly for everybody at that moment, and that everyone could be themselves without hiding or being scared.

I wanted to recreate the warm and cheerful impression I had in my heart from this afternoon, so I made some drawings of them, and it kinda helped me go through an art block.

I listen to a lot of music before starting to draw, it’s like it gives me strength and helps me « see » the energy that can create lines, colors, everything. It is not synesthesia but I kinda see the colors and the shapes dancing in my head before putting them on my drawings.

But before that there is a long process of digestion of what I see, what I like and what I dream, and that comes from different sources. For example, I might find ideas walking in the streets and seeing unusual and stylish people, discovering new plant species in the nature, and every time I can I take screenshots of all that, that I never watch later but that are saved in my memory, and will maybe come out unconsciously. Fortunately at the moment I still have internet to find some inspiration through my feed, but not going out and discovering stuff is not really helping the art process and I have to watch a lot of movies, documentaries and photographs to keep myself in the flow.

Back to Creative Inspiration Gallery