Elegancy 101 - All About Urban and African Fashion!: Shop Accessories Online: Leroy's Place

Born and raised in Norman, Oklahoma, Serene graduated from Reed College with a degree in Anthropology in 2007. Her art work is contemporary and whimsical. She draws heavily from an interest in graffiti and street art; particularly in terms of the materials she uses. These prints are made from Leroy's Place original paintings. Every monster is hand-drawn onto vintage paintings using pen and paint. Are you curious on how she pulls it off? Read her story and shop her collection after the jump:

The process of making selfmade pieces according to Serene:
The process for these pieces begins with the hunt for the right old print or painting. I comb thrift stores and flea markets, the Internet, and antique stores across the country. I primarily search for mass-produced landscape lithographs that were popular in the 70’s. I like the look of the faux paint-texture, and they often have fabulously tacky gold frames. I do a lot of refurbishing, and all of my pieces are sold with their original vintage or antique frames.

Although they are sometimes more difficult to work with, I do also paint on other people’s original artwork. My process evolved from a background in Graffiti, but I don’t believe that my characters vandalize the art I find. To borrow a phrase, it’s more accurately an “involuntary collaboration;” I couldn’t do my work without theirs. I somehow doubt that any artist would rather their work sit in a dusty corner of a thrift store when, with a little makeover, it could be back on someone’s wall.

My technique is a kind of ‘manual compositing;’ I sketch the characters to appear embedded in the existing scenery. The monsters are drawn directly onto the paintings, and they are created using only pen and paint-pen. While my technique mimics the idea of ‘layers,’ I do not create or adjust any of the images with software; they are all drawn by hand. Although I am not professionally trained, my work demands that I pay close attention to negative space, scale, light, and shadow.

Sometimes it’s immediately obvious to me which character fits in a painting. Other times I can stew for hours or weeks. Working with found paintings presents a new challenge with every canvas; a new scene often demands a new Monster. I work with over thirty consistent characters, and my motley crew is constantly growing. Every character has a name, a personality, and a preferred habitat. They lend themselves to narrative, and my goal is for each painting to tell a story. Someday, I hope to give my characters life with animation and in children’s books.