As I described on the Introduction of my book, an environmental portrait consists of creating a work of art inspired on a person’s environment and their habits. Sounds simple, but its not an easy task.
My partner was Alexandra Anderson, and when I visited her house for the interview, every single item that caught my attention, happened to be gifts she received from friends or family. So, I decided to incorporate this beloved items, that traveled all the way from Sweden, in my visual project.
The following images are from the items I portrayed in the “Hej Muppis” book and in my essay.
As soon as I had the idea of producing several illustrations, it was just a matter of time until I had all of them done. My process always start with manual sketches, and then I develop to Adobe Illustrator. I looked at the previous pictures and tried to incorporate as much as I could, angles, colours and shapes.
Choosing the name was not an easy task, I had all of my work done, I was ready to print, but I was missing the title. I went back, scrolling through all the pictures I have taken from Alexandra’s apartment and I still could not find anything.
The light at the end of the tunnel was when I thought of a postcard her parents sent her, it was all in Swedish, but the way they began the message is what lightened up the way. They start with the phrase “Hej Muppis”, Alex explained to me that when she was not even born and her parents did not know her gender, they used to call her “Muppis”, as a reference to the muppets.
On the link bellow you can access the PDF file of the book!
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