The intricate drawings of London-based artist, Laura Jordan, a.k.a. Delicate Mayhem present a world of wonderment. They are artworks you can sit and stare at for hours, personifying the notion of a picture painting a thousand words. A lot of the time, they expose an intimate snapshot of a city and its people; whether it be a social commentary on London, Manchester, New York and so on. They are artworks of familiar places, familiar people, the familiar clockwork that drives our everyday enveloped with a hint of mayhem, but of course, delicately bound.
Here, Laura gives us a lowdown on her artworks, life as an artist, and personal insights into her world.
Name: Laura Jordan
Occupation: Illustrator & Art Director of Delicate Mayhem
1. Describe your style of drawing: Free line architectural with a touch of magic.
2. When did you first get into art? I learnt to express my creativity when I was at school.
3. Do you ever get artist’s block? How do you get over it?
Not really, I’m constantly inspired by the world around me; I always have a pile up of ideas to execute. I do though sometimes get bored or frustrated when working on a piece that’s not quite coming together so I move on to something else or go out to my favourite places in London to reinspire myself.
No Such Thing As Society
4. Set the mood… where do you usually do art? Is there music? What frame of mind are you in?
I work from my large home/studio on a large table covered with materials with my business partner Eleanor, we always have something on whether its TV, radio or cds, depends how we feel, often with a beer in hand.
5. Tell us about the life of an artist.
It can be quite solitary because I work on my own with the ideas in my head and I have to be very disciplined, luckily Eleanor is always around to support me whether it’s to critique, make sure I meet deadlines or just to chat to develop ideas. I’m really lucky though because I do love it, it’s like living your hobby, at the end of the day I’m creating art rather than doing an office job which wouldn’t suit me, it’s amazing being able to work for myself, work to my own schedule and seeing ideas take place.
6. City life is a ubiquitous theme in your artworks – what is it about cities that you’re drawn to?
I just started drawing London because I wanted a backdrop to my social commentary but it sparked an interest that now takes me around the world. Also I’ve lived in the city for seven years now and still love it, I draw what I see.
Hectic London
7. Apart from art, what else do you get up to?
We spend a lot of time working in one place so in down time we’re generally out and about so as not to get cabin fever. The great thing about the city is there’s always something interesting to do. I like to drink wine and go for dinner, I love going away whether it’s for work or pleasure. I like running, I do it about four times a week and am now training for a marathon. When I’m at the studio I cook to relax me, I’m not very good at it though.
8. Something that always inspires you to draw?
I like to satirise human behaviour, I like to incorporate current affairs, and I enjoy ugly things such as a pigeon eating a chicken bone.
9. Favourite city in the world and why?
It’s very hard to say because I haven’t been to enough places yet but so far Rio de Janeiro (my project I’m working on at the moment), I felt like the pace of life allowed you to enjoy the simpler things in life.
City Road
10. What’s the dream? I’m living a dream in a sense right now because I have my own company and get to do what I love. I’d like to travel the world and build Delicate Mayhem to gallery status. In my work I want to develop working with size and medium.
11. A typical day…
A typical studio day is tea in bed then working by 9am till about 9pm taking breaks throughout to eat and exercise. I’m also an eBay fiend so I’m always looking for something interesting to buy.
We often take research days where we go out and about photographing and we’re often working for exhibitions so there’s a lot of organising, we have an open studio every month so we’re always rearranging the walls.
London Town
12. Greatest achievement to date?
Sustaining my business through the recession.
13. What intrigues you the most?
I’m intrigued by imagination as you don’t know how far it will stretch.
14. The last movie I watched was… I’m not a big movie watcher, I find it hard to sit down and leave my work, and especially as the last film I watched was Valentine’s Day, which was awful, if I was to watch something it would have to be interesting enough to hold my concentration like Persepolis as I like learning about other cultures through film.
15. I can’t stop listening to… Moby – Go
16. My workspace looks like…
Laura Jordan at work
17. Person you most admire:
From a work perspective my favourite artists are hyperrealists Duane Hanson and Ron Mueck because of the amazing skill to create something so real and I enjoy the social commentary of Duane Hanson’s work.
18. If I weren’t an artist, I’d be… A bum… no I’d probably be a swimming coach as I competed when I was younger.
19. My most favourite place in London is: Angel, I love the restaurants of Upper Street where I have a lot of wonderful memories.
20. Let me tell you something… Can I have two?… If you take the stem out of the middle of a garlic clove your breath won’t smell…There’s no such thing as luck, it’s opportunity meets preparation.
For more information on Delicate Mayhem, visit: http://www.delicatemayhem.com/
You can also purchase Delicate Mayhem’s limited prints in Melbourne’s Signed and Numbered
