MARINA ARNDT
"I am a queer, non-binary, Mexican Canadian artist working as an animator by day and illustrating my personal work at night. My illustration work usually explores themes including connection, sexuality, anxiety, grief, and growth. The process of illustrating is my way of safely exploring and diving into these themes. As someone who is well acquainted with different types of loss, the heaviest being my dad passing away when I was 15, loss and anxiety are weights I carry on my shoulders, and art allows me to put it down for a while to understand it and become less fearful of it."
"Plants, flowers, and mouths are a repeating occurrence in my illustration work with flowers often coming out of mouths in an expression of catharsis. Sometimes, depending on the feeling behind the work, I will look up specific plants and flowers which symbolize or have ties to said feeling. Linework and outline are prominent in my work, both serving to carry my emotional weight while showing how far in the journey I’ve come. While often exploring various materials including gouache, collage, pencil, and digital; most of my work is done with a mix of ink markers and watercolor. My preferred color palette includes muted shades of blue, green, purple, and pink when I use watercolor and markers. However, Gouache has opened me to more vivid versions of these preferred colors, along with the occasional red. The works are usually no bigger than 8”x 11” as I find the smaller scale more intimate."
