Artist Interview – Vanessa Teodoro

I’m really taken with Vanessa Teodoro‘s eye-popping street art and illustration work and also her interesting conceptual design projects. Her paintings are strong and loud and catchy, all in the best way. Vanessa is an illustrator, street artist and designer who is based out of Lisbon, Portugal who originally hails from South Africa. Check out my interview with her:

Which medium do you primarily work in?
I usually draw everything by hand, so I’d have to say pens galore, the occasional spray can and paint brush.

Wall painted by Vanessa for the Urban art gallery in Lisbon in partnership with Pedro Zamith. The idea was to illustrate a battle between color and black and white.

What inspires you?
All the mess that’s on my mind at the time gives me that extra push. But I try to always get fresh ideas from the weirdest places. It helps to avoid trends, that in a way is kind of hard, because commercially speaking, that’s what people want (and pays the bills).

Mural painted by Vanessa as part of Pampero Public Art 2010 done in collaboration with Tamara Alves, José Carvalho and Smile

What’s the story behind your art?
I’m not quite sure I have a story, I haven’t been working that long as an illustrator (about 5 years), before this I was in advertising. I think it’s good that art can tell a story, so why label it? It’s much more fun to let everybody have there own view. Some will understand and connect more and some won’t.

Design project “Mi Querida Casa”. The mission: to create a cardboard house along with the furniture that goes inside it.

What is your favorite book/movie?
I’m not going to say some fancy 500 page book’s name, because most of the books I like have pictures in them. I like practical books like Rework. Movie? that’s a hard one, but I’m a sucker for weird fantasy one’s like Pan’s Labyrinth. Trust me, it helps to keep the ideas flowing.

Vanessa in her studio

Thanks Vanessa!

Check out more of Vanessa’s work here at www.thesupervan.com