Kaye Blegvad describes herself as a “general maker-of-things.” Indeed, the illustrator and designer works across a variety of different media, including ceramics, metalwork, textiles, and print. In addition to that, Blegvad runs Horizontal Press, which she describes as “a grubby small press, printing small batch jazz mags & seminal works.” And if that’s not enough, she also has her own line of jewelry under the name Datter Industries.
Born and raised in London, and currently based in Brooklyn, Blegvad comes from a family of artists, which makes sense judging by the sheer amount of creativity she displays. “Both my parents are artists – my mum is a painter, my dad an illustrator,” she told Metal Magazine. “My grandparents were artists and illustrators too – I’m the third generation.”
“So drawing and art was always a huge part of my life,” she went on to explain. “I drew from the moment I could hold a pencil and made little clay sculptures and paper dollhouses and all sorts of things. I think I was always quite serious about it. When I was a bit older, 5 or 6, I began making tiny illustrated books – most of them are on the topic of cats, girls, and death. So I guess my kind of illustration was always on the cards.”
Nowadays, her work often deals with ideas about female identity and mental health, with select clients include The New York Times, The New Yorker, Penguin Random House, and Buzzfeed.
“I’ve always really liked simplified, naïve images,” she admits. “I don’t have a lot of time for realism. It just doesn’t do it for me. There’s an immediacy in a simple image, you can see the marks, the speed of the line, the urgency of getting an idea down. I love children’s drawings, outsider art, images made because the image needed to be made. So I guess things like that have influenced me a lot.”
Check out some of her charming works of art (illustrated or otherwise).
