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Candy-Colored Illustrations Turn Frowns Upside Down

Eva Stalinski's illustrations are like visual Prozac.
All images courtesy the artist

The Creators Project team thought we'd give you some much needed R&R from the headlines, so we've roped together a regimen of healing and happy stories to help get you through the day.

Dutch illustrator Eva Stalinski's personified veggies and pastel naked ladies are a little like visual Prozac: It's hard not to smile at the sight of a grumpy pumpkin or a grinning spray bottle of cleaning solution. By giving them googly eyes and slight smirks, she manages to make even the most mundane inanimate objects look like characters in an animated world you never knew existed but would sure like to live in.

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Stalinski renders her kooky creations using a combination of drawing and screen printing. The goods on her website range from prints and paintings to t-shirts and pins, and they're heavy on the neon hues. "I've had people tell me they can't look at my work because it hurts their eyes! I suppose I love art that kind of punches you in the face, that grabs your attention. Visual violence but with a happy, positive message," she tells The Creators Project.

After discovering screen printing in art school, Stalinski devoted herself to the medium. "The combination of it being a quite technical process and the very handmade finished product is why I love it so much. One of my favorite artists, Hedof, once said that screen printing versus regular digital printing is like the difference between cooking food in a pan versus on a barbecue. The food from the barbecue will probably be burned in some places but that is what makes it taste so much better and more special," she says.

"I think the imperfections and unforeseeable stuff that always happens (read: goes wrong) while screen printing makes it so exciting for me. The moment when everything lines up the way you want it to is always very satisfying. Another thing I really love is the independence I have in making and reproducing my own work."

Though her work is grounded in a physical, tangible creative process, the scenes she imagines are full of fantasy. "I guess I'm a simple girl and the whimsy of everyday life is very inspiring to me. I draw and make what I see," Stalinski says. "I like the Pop Art approach of elevating an everyday object and making it into art by changing it, enlarging it, or giving it eyes."

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Check out more of Eva Stalinski's work on her Instagram.

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