Monday Artist Feature - Chanel Dehond


 

Where are you from?
Toronto-born, Brooklyn-based. Let's just say I rock a mean Canadian Tux!

What inspires you?  Where do you go for inspiration?
Friends with their witty puns (especially those with English as their second language) Overheard conversations. One of my thirteen Williamsburg roommates in the past six years (like artists @karimah.hassan and @marisamusing), Basquiat's sketchbooks, Popular culture, when I'm learning something new.
 
What is your mission/ what do you try to achieve or tell your audience with your art?
To give someone a smile or a smirk. Even when it's a serious topic - scratch that - especially when it's a serious topic, humans are more susceptible to positive messaging. A few examples: My "Sacked Nuts Matter" illustration; depicting a guy getting sacked in the nuts and saying, "Oww f*!k my nuts!!!" and the bystander responding with, "Well what about my nuts?" or - my "Negative Nancy Nathan" illustration; opening our eyes to some of English's sexist idioms. "Negative Nancy Nathan. Lazy Susan Stephen. Debbie Donny Downer"
  
Who is your audience/ideal eyes for your work?
PG-13. I have a (c)rude sense of humor so sometimes my work is sexual in nature but not in a pornographic or erotic way - I mean to say that I don't imagine people getting "turned on" by my artwork. That being said, I want my work to be approachable and funny to the widest possible audience. I want my British grandparents to chuckle, with their dark humor, as much as my Canadian suburbanites, who might've never been to The Oculus in person. 
  
Advice for up and coming artists and young creatives?
Like drawing eyebrows on a face, the smallest gestures can make the biggest impacts. Start small. Make sure the fans you already have (Hey Dad!) would buy your work, they're a good first "focus group".
  
What is your go-to music while you create?
No music. I like to create in places where there are people going about their days, conversing with me, or actually contributing to the art piece. The environment I'm in always ends up getting cast as a starring role or extra in my work. If music happens to be playing, or I overhear a conversation, that usually gets added as well. I drew "Relationships are like Farts" at a nail salon when a woman was gossiping about her son's shitty relationship, or "Me So Soup" was when I misheard an order at Joe's Ginger in Chinatown, New York. 
  

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