Saturday 14 June 2014

East London Comics and Arts Festival


We visited ELCAF today - WOW. 


It was a haven of art and design brilliance.  Packed with comic and illustration fans and the artists they had come to worship, the room was buzzing with excitement.  The rain was pouring outside as the Queens birthday fly-over zoomed overhead.  It was all a bit special.

#ELCAF
My daughters immediately set about erasing the undoubtably very witty comment someone had written on the collaborative cartoon board in the entry hall, to replace it with "I Love Mummy". 

Maybe not as original as what the organisers had intended, but I was super chuffed.

The exhibition space - Oval Space London - was amazing. We walked up a fire escape running alongside a huge gas works and past a cafe with pallets elegently bolted to the walls and housing strawberry plants - check the Creature Clothes Instagram feed for pics of these - and into the exhibition hall.

Luke Pearson
My kids screamed 

"HILDA! MUMMY, IT'S HILDA, IT'S HILDA!"

Not only was it Hilda of Hilda and the Troll fame (she's HUGE in our house - check her out), but it was also Luke Pearson the brains & pen behind this feisty super cool girl.  The Hilda books are available on the Flying Eye Books imprint from Nobrow Press.  

He inscribed their new book - Hilda and the Midnight Giant with a beautiful drawing of Hilda for them.

Two seriously happy little girls.

Dan Berry
Next up we stopped at Things By Dan, and met Dan Berry who's latest graphic novel is about a dog, albeit a dead dog... I left a card for all visual references needed for cool collar illustration!
The book is called The Suitcase.

Aside from illustration and writing work, Dan has a podcast called
in which he talks to comic artists about their work and how they do what they do - I'm subscribing tonight.  Looking at the interview list, I'm going to have my headphones on for a looooong time listening to every single episode.

Malarko
Then... I heard a whisper... Malarky/Malarko was here.  
"NO WAY!"
we all screeched (we're so cool us) and found his spot.  
Malarko's work has featured on this blog before and we are always seeking out his Street Art to use as a backdrop in our urban shoots for Creature Clothes.  One of our most popular and highly featured images is of my kids and dogs taking their own brushes to his work while wearing their deckchair stripe collars (the dogs) and belts (the kids).  The obsession started when my girls and I watched him transform the wall at the end of our street into an explosion of colour, foxes, monsters, googly eyes, and everything inbetween - all in glorious technicolour. 
We've been a bit obsessed ever since.

Totally engrossed in their new books. Happy happy happy.
Such an inspirational day. We can't wait for next year.
In the meantime I'm really intrigued to see the effect such a visually overwhelming and exciting art laden day had on my kids.  I post the highlights of their creative output onto Tumblr - I'll be keeping it updated until then!

Ruby Tuesday and Juniper's tumblr:


For more information on ELCAF:

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