Aurélie Montfrond

Little cities & Cartoons

About this new series

This artwork series project came up to me as I was looking up for pictures of the little prince on the Internet. I accidentally found a cartoon coloring page that linked to a website full of coloring pages for children. I recalled how I loved to color actually. My works are all about colours. My idea in the first place was to try to find a picture of the little prince that I could draw and incorporate in an artwork and draw a city around. Instead I thought I could just colour the picture and draw around and inside it.
I decided to pick some coloring pages up and print them. The person in the Internet cafe was surprised I would print that much 'that’s a lot of pages' he said. I had printed about thirty pages but I guess the real surprise was that, this was not really about how many pages I had printed but what ‘kind’ of pages I had printed. I didn't choose just any character or scene randomly but only the ones special to me, whom I had an ‘emotional’ connection with if that makes sense. They represent my favourite cartoon characters from my childhood and up to now. I tried to use the colours that Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks amongst others originally used. For each character I searched the web for any picture with them so I could get an idea about which colours to use.
I really like the idea of using something that already exists, that does not belong to me and mixing it with something that is ‘mine’. I realised that my idea was not really mine after having read recently Oscar Wilde's short essay 'Critic as an artist'.
I thought the same and I connected with it and it is great that it was already there.
Basically it says, you have to take and use what is already out there and do something with it. It also made me think about a Roy Lichtenstein catalog that I came across in a museum while in Milan recently. There was a series of artworks he had made that were representing paintings from Van Gogh, Cezanne and Matisse. He took their most famous paintings and incorporated them to new works.
I also loved the part when Wilde described how someone who is producing art for the enjoyment of public and not the enjoyment of himself is not an artist.
This is exactly how I feel. I want to produce art for my own personal enjoyment. Wilde said something along those lines but in a nicer way. :-)
I did these artworks for myself and I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I enjoyed doing them. :-)

Aurelie

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The Little Prince & Dublin,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm

Shrek & New York,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm,

Asterix & Obelix in London,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm

Aladdin & Paris,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm,

The beauty and the beast & Dublin,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm,

Tintin & New York,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm,

Buzz Toy story & Tokyo,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm,

The Little Prince & Paris,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm

Dinosaurs & New York,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm,

Aliens Toy story & Dublin,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm,

Little Pony & New York,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm,

Donald with guitar & New York,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm,

Donald with painting & Dublin,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7cm

Pirate Mickey & New York,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7cm

Little Donalds & Dublin,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm

Little Donalds & New York,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm,

Little Pony & Dublin,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm

Care bears & New York,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm,

Lego city & New York,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm,

Playmobil Horse & Dublin,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm,

Lego Dragon & New York,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7cm,

Ponyo & New york,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7cm

Ponyo & New York 3,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7 cm

Totoro & Tokyo,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7cm,

Dinosaurs & Abstract landscape,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7cm,

Tintin 'Le lotus bleu' & New York,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7cm,

Lego castle & New York,

Ink on paper, 21/29,7cm