Florence Deau 
Photo © Trevor Tondro for The New York Times
I was reading the The New York Times this morning and discovered London-born visual artist Shantell Martin‘s work. Simply awesome.
In the top floor she now rents from friends in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, the artist has covered all walls, ceiling and furniture with her freestyle line drawings. When she moved in, it was understood that she would draw on the walls and that the hallway was to remain untouched… But Shantell draws on everything ! And so her drawings have crept out from her 160-square-foot bedroom furnished almost entirely with things given to her by friends, to the living area, the office, the bathroom and even the laundry room.
Shantell, I am looking at my white walls right now and they all seem awfully dull… I need you to move in.
Photo © Trevor Tondro for The New York Times
I DIDN’T actually decide to do the whole room at first. Initially, I planned to limit myself to part of one wall, a section under a chest-high, black-slate mantel, where there might once have been a fireplace. I thought maybe that would just be enough, but it’s never enough.
Photo © Trevor Tondro for The New York Times
Photo © Trevor Tondro for The New York Times
Photo © Trevor Tondro for The New York Times
Photo © Trevor Tondro for The New York Times
Photo © Trevor Tondro for The New York Times
Photo © Trevor Tondro for The New York Times
Photo © Trevor Tondro for The New York Times
Photo © Trevor Tondro for The New York Times
Photo © Trevor Tondro for The New York Times
“Who am I” and “Who are you” are phrases that often appear in her work. “I am obsessed with those words,” she said. “They’re kind of everywhere.”
From London to Tokyo to New York and back again, the internationally acclaimed artist is now expanding conventional definitions of drawing and animation to transform visual experience in the design, fashion and music industries.
Photos (unless otherwise stated) © Shantell Martin on Flickr
