Artist Influence and Response - Lora Zombie

An Artist who has influenced my work and a Response.


An artist who has influence this project is Lora Zombie, a Russian born artist who grew up in Voronezh 1990. She specializes in mixed media – predominantly watercolor with additions of pencil, ink, Acrylic and Oil paints. She is a self-taught painter who gained recognition in the 2000’s, by her use of social media to circulate her work online.  Zombie’s style of work falls under ‘Grunge’. The definition of ‘Grunge’ is something dirty, unkempt or chaotic, Zombies use of Black and Black fading to Grey gives her work an unkempt/untidy feel and her use of vibrant colors creates a chaotic vibe to her work, when these two element when come together they work in harmony and produce very aesthetically pleasing – balanced compositions. Getting this balance right will be key when producing my own work.
Many of Zombies paintings are intertwined with social commentary and carry her thoughts on social and political issues. Many of her paintings are influenced by songs and lyrics; Animals and children are also a heavy feature in Zombies art work, in an interview with ‘TheStar’ she explained; “I love animals and I love children because animals and children are super-honest… Kids’ violence is pure violence and kids’ kindness is pure kindness”. Childhood is a theme that has influenced my self project.

This painting is called ‘Unicorned’. It is an image of a skull with a unicorn horn coming out of it, it has be created using black and colored inks, this creates sharp contrast between the skull and background which draws your attention to the skull. The painting has a childish aura to it, the skull is semi realistic in appearance and the horn and bright colors gives a fantasy vibe to the piece. The style in which Zombie has applied the ink makes the skull look quite sketchy which is an effect I like, and have tried to replicate in my own work. I like the simple use of line around the top of the skull, Zombie has use a thin line because it contrasts with the busyness of the rest of the painting and gives balance to the composition. Zombie has used the black and grey tones to give detail to the skull, along with the expression of the eyes and the face tilting downwards, these features give the image sadness to it. I think the scull represents the death of innocents of childhood as the unicorn horn and bright colors feel like it is something out of a child’s imagination and the skull is a well know metaphor for the passing of time and the death of something or someone.


I have responded to Zombies painting by recreating the skull and background. The differences between mine and zombies work is that I used acrylic paint instead of colored inks which in comparison, is a lot less bright because I have had to water down the paint. I think the paintings are quite similar though my painting has a much smoother painted line, which I think looks less interesting than the sketchier look to the ink, I tried to compensate for this by adding extra lines around the eye socket but this didn’t help the painting. Also the paint in the background mixed together and made a brown which looks unsightly I think Zombie must have waited for the ink to dry before applying the next. I used an ink fountain pen to the draw the line round the skull and I think I have managed to make it look very similar in shape. I chose this image because it follows the darker themes that I am taking influence from for my art work for this project.

http://lorazombie.com/2013/