As part of our OFFSITE window installations, we didn’t give a second thought to getting our homebird Fuchsia MacAree, one of Dublin’s foremost illustrators on board.
Fushcia’s installation will be on display in The Garden at Powerscourt Townhouse from March 31st. Fuchsia is not a stranger to bring some of her fabulous illustrations to the streets of Dublin as you might have seen some of her designs on the traffic light boxes in South Richmond Street, as part of the Dublin Canvas Project, or her iconic cover for Totally Dublin in support of Marriage Equality.
As most of us, Fuchsia started drawing as a child, but instead of quitting while growing up she held on to it and transformed it into a successful career. Studying at the National College of Art and Design she continued her education with a masters in illustration, coming back to NCAD, few years later, as an artist in residence. Fuchsia’s style grew throughout the years as her perspiration and tenaciousness did not let downfalls come in the way of her talent.
Although Fuchsia defines her style as “quite flat, with no depth, childish and therefore accessible and friendly”, Fuchsia’s work is never dull but always appealing and fun. Her shapes and colours reminisce influences of Keith Haring and David Hockney.
Fuchsia works for a wide array of clients and editorials: her most enjoyable projects are maps, despite the fact that she has been commissioned many over the years. Her first one was about all the fried chicken places in London, commissioned by Oh Comely. However, her favourite maps are Irish related as she can sneak some in-jokes or hilarious cultural references.
Fuchsia’s passion for illustration came from her fun loving personality; apparently, it was a mad chat among friends that inspired her popular zine It’s A Disgrace, Joe– parody of on the RTE’ Radio One’s phone-in show.
If you have not noticed Fuchsia’s illustrations around Dublin you will be surprised to see how much her work is already not only part of the Dublin streets but also of the Dublin artistic culture. We are more than thrilled to see what treat Fuchsia is going to have in store for us for her window installation.
Fuchsia is also diligent attendee of OFFSET. In 2014 she released an interview with IMAGE magazine where she revealed that she got her best piece of wisdom from Ben Newman during his 2013 talk at OFFSET:
“Ben Newman was talking about having problems with scale in an illustration, and then he remembered it’s just a drawing, and he can make things as big or small as he wanted. That’s really helped when I push myself into a corner with figuring out composition – it’s not supposed to look like a photo, so I can do whatever I want.”
Information on all the OFFSITE events can be found here.