Hasta La Ideas

Melbourne artist Andrea Innocent‘s illustrations are beautiful, stylized and surreal. Borrowing from the Ukiyo-e tradition of woodblock printing that became popular in Japan in the seventeenth century, Innocent uses crisp lines and monochromatic color to create poster-style works. Ukiyo-e, meaning “pictures of the floating world,” were often images of otherworldly scenes and people. Like those of her forebears, Innocent’s works are ethereal, populated by ghostly characters caught in moments of contemplation, sadness, joy and despair. Innocent is inspired by elements of Japanese culture and folklore, with her work, Horror Otaku, being a tribute to the Japanese horror film genre, while her illustration Tanuki Girl is inspired by the mythical tale of the shape-shifting, mischievous tanuki, or racoon-dog.