Illustrations By Martina Paukova Enrich The Daily Routine With Striking Visuals

Meet Martina Paukova, a Slovakian illustrator now based in London, who made a name for herself with her illustrations which shed a different light on those mundane everyday situations, most of us have stopped paying attention to. Her work usually depicts scenes from our daily lives, when we're out of our social personas and our 'normal' mode turns on and takes us over. And Martina captures this in her trademark style by striking a new balance between vibrant colors and unique geometrical forms. Martina's work has already been endorsed by the impressive client list which features names like: Natural History Museum, University of the Arts, Google, Southwark Arts Forum, Converse, Open University, Creative review, Wired, and more. Martina is a part of deMilked's ongoing design project: Creativity In The 21st-Century Through The Eyes Of An Artist. In it, we try to get a glimpse of what the artist's inner workings are, so we've asked Martina's take on being a creative in the 21-st century. Here's what she had to say:

If you had to describe 21st-century creativity in one sentence.

"Stay open to new technologies and stay open to play!"

What is a visual culture to you?

Visual culture is pretty much inescapable and as such is a big part of my everyday life. It flavors it, it informs it, it adds color, one just has to be able to navigate it!

What motivates you to work?

I don't think I really distinguish between motivation as such and absence of it - somehow it is always there, it is an inherent part of the whole spiel! Producing pictures and visual content has formed a big chunk of my daily life for years and it feels almost as normal and automatic as having a breakfast, I just got to do it and I enjoy it too.

Who or what influenced your work and your style?

Influences are I guess multiple! When I was at university I used to be a massive fan graphicality of Keith Haring, layers of Derek Boshier or fleshiness of Philip Guston and I absolutely adored everything from Italian group Memphis. Right now the particular influences are super hard to pin down, I guess I am a proper product of contemporary visual culture and its overlapping mishmash. I guess my work now is more than ever driven by certain intuitive pushes and pulls or appreciation for some things more than the others. For example, for some time I've been fascinated by the idea of 'the every day.' Scenes of domestic nature are a massive part of my work - it is at home where certain 'normalness' comes out of all of us, away from any social costume we have to wear when being outside. I like to draw people and their awkward people's poses and set in environments filled with daily objects with a somewhat familiar narrative going on. And as for contemporary co-illustrators, I am a massive fan of Yuichi Yokoyama, Bien Philty, James Juliano Villani or Derek Ercolano and their work verging on psychedelia of sort, am rather envious!

If you weren't an illustrator. What would you do?

I am a big fan of a working of the human psyche, and even though I studied politics before going into illustration, now I think I'd devote myself to the human brain and what comes with it. More info: martina paukova | instagram | twitter

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