Moleskine Notepads Are Torn Into Vibrant Surreal Cutouts

Everyone’s favorite notebook becomes a gallery of natural wonders.

by Nathaniel Ainley

November 6, 2016, 1:15pm

Images courtesy the artist

While many see the Moleskine as a place to journal or write down their grocery list, Dominic Damien sees a canvas. The painter’s 3D Moleskine cutout paintings will put your favorite pop-up children’s book to shame. Armed with heavy body acrylics, inks, and colors pencils, Damien chisels out vibrant patterns and portraits taken from the animal kingdom.

Although his attention to detail is impeccable, his works are more surreal than realistic. Damien says he tries not to use any photographic or specific visual reference while painting, allowing his characters to become abstract and imperfect. His work incorporates different forms of graffiti and typography onto glossy abstractions in nature. His subjects tend to focus on elements from the natural world like animals, insects, plant life, and the human anatomy.

The artist says his work was originally concerned with how human life has had an effect on our planet and the natural world—not out of protest like Spencer Tunick's Dead Sea nudes or the fake ads from Brandalism, but about “bringing awareness,” the artist tells The Creators Project. Lately, Damien has been more focused on fragments of natural elements like macro views of flower-like petals and blossoms. He’s also been playing around with a masquerade style of blending faces with vibrant bouquets.

Damien tells the Creators Project, “As a principle, I love seeing brush strokes and imperfections in a finished piece of art. It's sometime challenging for me to stay within the lines so I tend to skew to the abstract side of the spectrum of painting as a medium.”