A lot of colors, some cartoon characters and a pinch of imagination, this is the recipe that Yasemin Arin uses to create her works. She is an artist who likes mixing
and experimenting new combinations adding also nostalgic or dark elements to
give her characters another shape and to make them recognizable.
Tell us something about you. What is your background?
I am 26 years old. I was born in Turkey but have lived in the United States for most
of my life mainly in Florida though last year I moved to New York and I love it here
so far. I am currently working at a veterinary clinic, doing a second bachelors and
working on improving my art. The other thing that defines who I am is my dog
Ringo, he is a French bulldog/ Boston terrier and he is my favorite thing on the
planet.
What does the process of creation of your works consist in?
I like trying different techniques but the main thing that I have noticed I tend to lean
towards is merging cute and colorful objects or characters and adding a dark twist
to them. Creating unique work is definitely the hardest part, I’m lucky to have very
supportive people in my life that give me ideas and inspiration. It’s hard to explain
because I get inspiration from all kinds of places.
You have a very particular style. How did you get to it?
I feel like I’m still trying to figure out how to make my style work. I like using colors,
and I love cartoons especially the ones from my childhood which I incorporate into
a lot of my work I believe.
“Inspiration comes from the weirdest places”
What kind of techniques do you use to realize your works? What are your stock in trade?
I use a lot of different techniques, this is actually a difficulty of mine because I
sometimes struggle with doing one thing at a time. My main form of art at the
moment is digital art where I’m making designs for redbubble, I have made some
work for peoples companies. But I really enjoy painting too, I also do embroidery
and currently I am making a paper mache dog bed. I tend to be all over the place
but I always put peoples requests before my personal projects.
Do you have any particular source of inspiration?
I have a very creative boyfriend that likes to give me ideas like “this would look
cool” and then I add my own twist to it but honestly inspiration comes from the
weirdest places sometimes. If I had to pick an online source I do like Pinterest a lot
for inspiration. I also really like movies and tv and they are great sources of
inspiration.
“I like trying different techniques but the main thing that I have noticed I tend to lean towards is merging cute and colorful objects or characters and adding a dark twist to them”
In your opinion, what is your trade mark, if you have one?
Hmm this is a hard one, I do like to use bright colors a lot. Other than that I like
trying different methods so my work does tend to change a bit. I enjoy
reinterpreting pop culture. I also tend to do more cartoon stuff not any hyper
realistic material.
What do art and design mean to you?
My mom is a very artistic person, so for me art started as a bonding experience
with my mom then it expanded from there. I did lose it for a bit when I was doing
my first bachelors in biology. Then I got back into it mainly as a stress reliever then
I remembered how much fun it is to be able to turn nothing into something. It’s
also the best form of therapy since you get to express your feelings in your work.
Looking at your Instagram profile I saw that there are many characters belonging to different cartoon. Is there any particular reason why you have chosen them?
I love television and film, the characters I choose are all the ones I’ve watched. I’m
really into the nostalgic theme at the moment, I’ve been rewatching the tv shows
that I watched in my childhood. That is how I got the idea to do Ed, Edd, n Eddy
and like before I like adding a dark twist to things sometimes that’s why I decided
it would be fun to turn them into zombies. And honestly it’s some of my favorite
stuff, it’s been really fun to do those and I plan on doing more. I also like the adult
cartoons that are out at the moment, like big mouth and Bob’s Burgers. Really
anything that makes me laugh. I had also started out doing mashups of album covers as cartoon characters.
Are you working on something new at the moment?
I’m working on a lot of stuff, I’m making a lot of nostalgic cartoons into zombies
this is mainly for fun and myself and I am painting Nickelodeon and Cartoon
Network characters onto shoes and other projects. It’s just hard to put all my focus
on it since I have a job and am going to school.
I saw that you also have an online shop where you sell customized products, isn’t it? Tell me something about it.
I use red bubble for my digital designs. It’s a pretty cool site where they can put
your work on a myriad of items. I would like to eventually make my own site so I
can put my paintings on too but for now I’m mainly promoting my digital work. I
also have some of my work on a small company called “we need more stickers”
they have really cute stuff too.
“It’s also the best form of therapy since you get to express your feelings in your work”
Follow Yasemin and her work on instagram.
Article by
Sara Orlandini
Images from