At the age of 11, I remember seeing a cartoon band on TV for the first time. The art style and animation left me mesmerised. This led me to discover the band Gorillaz and their artist, Jamie Hewlett.
Hewlett previously worked on the cult comic ‘Tank Girl’ before creating the virtual band Gorillaz with Blur’s Damon Albarn. Hewlett was later named Designer of the Year 2006 by Kensington’s Design Museum. Gorillaz gained international success and their iconic designs are recognised worldwide.
I was probably too young to be the target audience for Gorillaz at the time, but I was completely obsessed with them. I loved their character designs, how much detail had been put into their personalities and backstories, the quirky animated music videos, everything about them. Inspired by Hewlett’s work, I pushed myself to practice my own drawings and create my own characters; it was from then on I knew that I wanted to become an artist.
Hewlett and Albarn’s next big project was ‘Monkey: Journey to the West’, a stage adaption of the famous Chinese story of the same name. Hewlett was responsible for the costume, set and character design. I watched the musical live in London in 2009, and the visuals really were amazing. The characters I knew from my childhood were brought to life by my favourite artist, which was so strange but wonderful.
‘The Suggestionists’ was Hewlett’s debut fine art exhibition in November 2015. It featured an interesting mixture of his re-imagining of tarot cards, fake vintage 60s/70s pornographic movie posters, and drawings of trees from the south of France. I was lucky to see this exhibition in the Saatchi Gallery in London, and couldn’t help but feel a bit emotional. It was so surreal to see the work of Jamie Hewlett, the reason why I became an artist, in person.
