{"title":"Ellis Lewis-Dragstra","description":"I'm Ellis Lewis-Dragstra, London based full time freelance illustration artist. I've drawn as long as I can remember and am completely self taught. In my work I like to blend together my interests from over the years like photography, water colour, paint, pencil drawing, collage and digital illustration. I love to combine elements of these mediums that I’ve tried out over the years, that I puzzle together as a kind of visual language made up of my past. And as Iv'e never been very good at talking, art has Inadvertently become something of a visual language to me, and a way of understanding the world and myself better. What I love about art, that I try and embrace in my own work is that it has as many meanings as there are people looking at it. ","products":[{"product_id":"family-kitchen","title":"FAMILY KITCHEN","description":"This artwork was a birthday present for my mum, who's photo is to the left holding me as a baby with my brother. Creating this piece alined with my brother moving out, while helping  him pack up all his things many memories were brought up, finding old toys and clothes we hadn't seen or thought about in years. This got me thinking about the power of objects and the memories and value they hold. Not monetary value, but sentimental. Both my parents being immigrants, my mum from Barbados and dad from Germany and me growing up in London. We always had a strange mix of objects in the house relating to the different cultures of our backgrounds. My family rarely bought new things, in a way everything from something as simple as cutlery was an heirloom being passed down from generation to generation. The kitchen feeling like that natural melting pot of the household. I photographed all the objects I found that I knew had stories and memories attached to them, stitched them all together to create a kind of landscape museum of passed generations. Mixed with abstract paintings of the objects to show how these items have become like personal symbols of my family and how they are seen slightly differently by each generation. \r\n\r\nFor Limited Edition prints please email us at help@loca.art .\r\n","brand":"Ellis Lewis-Dragstra","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43955452641566,"sku":"INV-LEWE-0001","price":113.92,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/2344\/3998\/products\/fb239e0d-2b40-48aa-95d5-763036ddf441-l.jpg?v=1703212413"},{"product_id":"blues-january-blues","title":"BLUES (January Blues)","description":"This piece is the first in a series I’m working on called Discover Colour. It’s a visual love letter to the colour blue and all it represents to me personally. I started with Blue because that’s how I and people around me were feeling at the time over January. I think the start of a new year can bring the expection of things feeling fresh, and when things feel the same it can get you down. To me blue is deep, sad, powerful, cool, vast, introspective, solemn, wise, strong and silent. The artwork is made up of a combination of drawings and a few cut out collage pieces from books, t.v shows, films, music and other media I was consuming at the time that felt relevant in one way or another to the feeling of blue. Showing my personal references and associations with the colour. I see this piece almost like a key diagram to show all the possible meanings of blue when I use it in all my other artworks.\r\n\r\nFor Limited Edition prints please email us at help@loca.art .","brand":"Ellis Lewis-Dragstra","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43955456934174,"sku":"INV-LEWE-0002","price":113.92,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/2344\/3998\/products\/fe1a5ac7-7f26-4086-9335-f6d1eadffa93-l.jpg?v=1703212506"},{"product_id":"nature-was-the-first-artist-i-met","title":"Nature Was The First Artist I Met","description":"I've been drawing my whole life, but I remember first really falling in love with illustration when I was around six on a family summer caravan park holiday to Holland. Being from London it was the first time I was really around nature, I started carrying a notepad around my neck where I sketched the bugs and plants I found. This artwork is inspired by looking back at that time and a celebration of the connection between art and nature. \r\n\r\nFor Limited Edition prints please email us at help@loca.art .","brand":"Ellis Lewis-Dragstra","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44046582710558,"sku":"INV-LEWE-0003","price":114.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/2344\/3998\/products\/88443d86-dedb-4ddc-a05a-b1103f2b2899-l.jpg?v=1703262545"},{"product_id":"thought-experiment-anything-could-happen-and-it-probably-will","title":"THOUGHT EXPERIMENT (Anything Could Happen And It Probably Will)","description":"Often before starting a piece I'll do a rough sketch with notes of ideas for it. Looking through these rough sketches I felt the end piece always lost some sincere venerableness that the early sketches had, as if I was uninhibited  knowing no one would ever see these rough takes. I wondered what a balance between the sincere sketches and polished final artwork would look like. This piece is like a visual diary, a live stream of my thoughts at the time, even going as far as including the tools I used to create the piece, as if this was a blank canvas I was projecting my thoughts on to, working purely off impulse the way jazz musicians do. While creating this piece I felt off balance, thinking back to regrets of the past, or worrying about the future instead of being balanced in the present moment. Despite going to some fairly dark and painful place with this piece, It still has a fun childish energy about it. Often when I'm working I feel I'm doing a balancing act between my inner child who's the artist and my inner adult who's the editor that cuts the fat and gives the piece more intention. So I think this childish optimistic feel comes from me naturally not taking myself too seriously, wanting to create art to be fun, enjoyed and give the viewer the feeling of being a child looking at something with curious wide eyes. Overall I’m honestly still finding out what this piece means as I was working off pure instinct creating it.\r\n\r\nFor Limited Edition prints please email us at help@loca.art .","brand":"Ellis Lewis-Dragstra","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44046582939934,"sku":"INV-LEWE-0005","price":114.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/2344\/3998\/products\/2c2c47d2-3592-427e-aabc-fad2cb10372e-l.jpg?v=1703262568"},{"product_id":"in-limbo-thought-experiment-2","title":"IN LIMBO (Thought Experiment 2)","description":"my approach was to just put pencil to paper, work off instinct and see what comes on to the page. My thinking was what the subconscious comes up with will always be more interesting to me then any idea or subject I could consciously come up with.\r\n\r\nI called the artwork “In Limbo”, looking back I think this was manifested from the feeling of worldwide uncertainty since 2020. But realised during this project it also related to the creating process itself, hitting on that mid point in creating something that I think many artist can relate to. When you’re unsure which direction the project is moving or if it even makes sense, like you’re just hanging in limbo to see if things will come together or just fall apart.\r\n\r\nBeing dyslexic I’ve always had a love hate relationship with words, in a lot of my artwork I like to play with words and images and the relationship between the two. Which got me thinking about the word “limbo” and its two meanings, one being hanging between life and death and the other being a party game. I liked this huge contrast between the two meanings and realised what they had in common was an element of balance. Like a train of thought the word “balance” led me to thinking about a number of other concepts that I ended up exploring throughout the artwork: The balance of digital and traditional art I focus on in my work, and how it relates to how I always try and balance and bridge the gap between “high art” and “low art” to make artwork that feels less exclusive. The balance of skill and creativity artists use to create, and even more personally, the balance of being mixrace and how it means simultaneously being two things and neither at the same time. I wanted every part of this project to reflect that process of creating and embracing how erratic and messy it can be.\r\n\r\nFor Limited Edition prints please email us at help@loca.art .","brand":"Ellis Lewis-Dragstra","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44046590574878,"sku":"INV-LEWE-0004","price":114.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/2344\/3998\/products\/9b7ffdef-59e3-4112-b241-0332303ea346-l.jpg?v=1703262838"},{"product_id":"the-baller","title":"The Baller","description":"When you've done something enough times, muscle memory takes over and you start to walk on air unbound by thought. Your body makes the decision before you have to. Acceding to this point in your craft is something like what I imagine flying feels like. Free.\r\n\r\nFor Limited Edition prints please email us at help@loca.art .","brand":"Ellis Lewis-Dragstra","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44046594605342,"sku":"INV-LEWE-0006","price":114.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/2344\/3998\/products\/f5d99d5c-41ef-4821-8370-4a995978756c-l.jpg?v=1703263038"},{"product_id":"the-shifu","title":"The Shifu","description":"When you become truly great at your craft and understand it past its initial use. You can apply the lessons to all aspects of life.\r\n\r\nFor Limited Edition prints please email us at help@loca.art .","brand":"Ellis Lewis-Dragstra","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44046594769182,"sku":"INV-LEWE-0007","price":114.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/2344\/3998\/products\/307ed52a-45ce-486b-8791-1ccdc575e9e1-l.jpg?v=1703263059"},{"product_id":"the-dancer","title":"The Dancer","description":"When you're in your element every move you make seems to be the right one. Every part of you harmonises and you seem to fade away and become a vessel for something greater.\r\n\r\nFor Limited Edition prints please email us at help@loca.art .","brand":"Ellis Lewis-Dragstra","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44046595096862,"sku":"INV-LEWE-0008","price":114.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/2344\/3998\/products\/bbb4dda8-0bfd-432c-81b4-b310cff72931-l.jpg?v=1703263082"},{"product_id":"mother-child","title":"Mother \u0026 Child","description":"This piece was inspired by the poetry event I attended. A lot of the poetry was around the theme of becoming a new mother and mother hood. All the poems had a real sincerity and positive inner glow about them that I could feel was so genuine. These poems didn't strike me as being about a particular message or fact, but more freely expressing this array of emotions felt in an abstract way. So I created the image in a similar way using this mix of swimming colours symbolising the flurry of emotions within this golden almost womb like bubble as if nothing outside this new relationship between mother and child exists. The brush strokes making up the mother flowing to and from the child, like the give and gain connection between mother and child.\r\n\r\nFor Limited Edition prints please email us at help@loca.art .","brand":"Ellis Lewis-Dragstra","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44046595359006,"sku":"INV-LEWE-0009","price":114.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/2344\/3998\/products\/39a1c48a-ea28-4734-ac5f-5226f1bbdff6-l.jpg?v=1703263103"},{"product_id":"yellow-in-the-blue","title":"Yellow In The Blue","description":"This was inspired by a combination of art events I attended from a student art gallery to drama performance days. A common theme throughout the students gallery work was about colour and shapes and how they naturally emote human emotions. So I created this face using basic shapes and a range of colours. The idea of blue relating to depression inspired the bottom shoulder of the figure being all blue like a wave with a small figure drowning in it as depression can sometimes feel. But often changing your perspective on things can be a more long lasting solution to depression then medication. So I used the same small drowning figure with inverted colours on the top of the image floating, signifying that they are identical but with different perspectives. Just like shapes they can change from looking at things from different viewpoints. I used the colour yellow to signify the positivity with the negative (the blue). There being more yellow towards the top of them image and less at the bottom where its engulfed by blue. Apart from the yellow paper boat that I felt was the perfect symbol relating to the water (the blue and depression) but also keeping you afloat. relating back to the belief in changing perspective, the boat can be folded into another more positive shape like a bird, representing freedom. Despite it looking different, it is still made up of the same paper as the boat it was previously, just the perspective and shape have changed.\r\n\r\nFor Limited Edition prints please email us at help@loca.art .","brand":"Ellis Lewis-Dragstra","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44046595522846,"sku":"INV-LEWE-0010","price":114.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0679\/2344\/3998\/products\/797566c4-c90f-4b90-b71a-a6315170deb7-l.jpg?v=1703263125"}],"url":"https:\/\/loca.art\/collections\/ellis-lewis-dragstra.oembed?page=2","provider":"LoCA.art","version":"1.0","type":"link"}