21 Questions: MOKSHINI Is The Illustrator Adding Color To Everyday People

Photo by: Cassell Inc.

Tweet#page

YOU CAN READ THIS FULL ARTICLE IN OUR PRINT ISSUE # 1. PRE-ORDER ISSUE # 2 HERE.

By Cassell Ferere

Where are you from?

“I’m from Sri Lanka by heritage, and then grew up in New Zealand.”

Photo by: Cassell Inc.

What were the first years like in NYC working for Ralph Lauren as an illustrator?

“Honestly, it was my dream job since I was little – since I was 22 or 23. I come from New Zealand, so that whole perspective is very different. [I’m] illustrating full time. It’s a very dreamy concept.”

Which is more influential to your life Sri Lanka or NZ?

“I think in the last couple of years, I’m leaning towards Sri Lanka. To be honest, the first time I went back to Sri Lanka was three years ago and that was after fourteen years [of being away]. I feel very disconnected by it, but that trip I took was like ‘wow, this feels like home.’ I always thought of New Zealand as home, but then when I went there [Sri Lanka] as an adult it felt very natural. I could live there and have been thinking of living there for six to seven months. 

NZ supported and nurtured my childhood, so when you’re known for something, the word spreads. Sri Lanka has influenced my textiles, my prints, and my colors. And my father was an artist so we kind of worked together.” 

How were you introduced to art?

“My mom is amazing – she was a pre-school teacher. I don’t think it was an introduction. I was constantly drawing so she just nurtured that. Her nurturing was going to art class [and] private tutoring. She invested a lot of time and money into me excelling at that. But, I don’t think she wanted me to be an artist. I think she just wanted me to enjoy it.”

What are you telling us about fashion through your art?

“I think people take fashion way too seriously. It’s hyper-glamorized. The whole idea of fashion is not even real – for me. You look at magazines, you look at Instagram. My work has always been to create the antithesis, to create satire, to tell what is happening, through funny, whimsical characters. ‘She’s actually spent three hours getting ready’, stories that girls can relate to. Not taking fashion so seriously - it’s a narrative. It’s all from personal experiences that I’ve seen, like girls putting on their lipstick in the subway.”

Can you describe your artistic taste?

“Color - I love color! I never thought I was good with color but so many people tell me, ‘it’s so interesting the colors you pick.’ And I’ve been more conscious of it since. In the last year or so, I feel like colored paper really helps me, I love exploring negative space. I love the idea of simplifying an image and making it graphic because I think that’s what makes it [illustration] seem more editorial. The color paper helps me see [the] positive-negative space. But, I love old-school illustrators. I feel like contemporary fashion illustrators just do their art. 

I did my master’s degree in illustration, I delved into historical illustrators and those are the people that influenced me. Like Renee Gruau, he plays with positive and negative space, branding is impeccable, and he always uses the same colors. He did all this work for Dior. Toulouse-Lautrec, Egon Shiele; there are not so many [fashion] illustrators that are just artists.”

How did the idea come about for an art based on personal style and fashion?

“It evolved so easily, especially coming from New Zealand to New York City – I don’t know if [anyone] knows what that feels like – there is such one type of person there. There are not crazy different personalities, everyone kind of blends in. You come to NYC and its overstimulation. You see all these different people and I just naturally started sketching people on the subway. 

I think live drawing was just the best way to keep the flow happening. And so I would just sketch these people. Then I pitched it to Afropunk, a street-style series where I see cool people take photos, sketch them, and it kind of naturally evolved into this. It’s fashion, but it’s real life and it’s kind of like street photography.”

What are your views on the art world and its relation to fashion?

“I hate it - I totally relate with the United Nations sustainability [goals]. I’m so into upcycling and being a part of it. Taking clothes and painting on them. Making it cooler! Taking old furniture and [doing the same].”

Are you critical of art?

“It’s so funny because I was speaking to my agent days ago. I said, ‘I feel like I’m in such a rut. Like my style hasn’t evolved.’ She’s like, ‘you’re crazy.’ She was the one that gave me perspective. She said, “you used to do quick line drawings. Now you’re playing with color, it’s more graphic.’ I think sometimes your style just organically evolves and you don’t even see what’s happening. I like having pictures up to see how I’m evolving. [I’m] always critical of my work. With other people’s [art] I try to be open.”

What’s your favorite piece of clothing?

“I’ve reached a level, a stage in my life where I’m just all about comfort. It doesn’t mean I’m lazy – just comfortable. I try not to be precious with my clothes anymore. I used to buy clothes and not wear them because I was worried about them all, but now - so what if I got paint on it, cool.

I love pants. Just like slouchy. Relaxed. If I’m getting dressed, the first thing I think of is what pants I’m wearing and then everything else.”

Which of your artworks is your favorite?

“I don’t have one! My favorite? 

They’re all like babies. Some of them I like more than others. But they all can just be better. The best is yet to come about. I see a bigger potential for myself. Some of it is maybe fear-based that I don’t work that big. 

I love working small, I feel a little bit more in control. I have done murals before but I’d love that to be a more natural thing for me. For me it takes a lot of planning; drawing for me is like freehand.”

For the ‘starving artist’ - do you shop on a budget?

“I think I am the two extremes. I love vintage shopping, but then I’ll want to buy the ‘baddest’ designs, and just drop all my money on that. I’ve done that less recently. 

Vintage in San Francisco only because, well, New York vintage can be expensive. Lately, I don’t have a budget because I’m not even interested in shopping. I watched that Mary Kondo [show] and I was trying to listen.”

Would you like to create your own line one day – honestly, dealing with the ‘everyday’?

“People would say that, but think, ‘is that something [you] want to do?’ 

I wouldn’t say a collection, but maybe a line. I definitely want to create a line of products. That’s why I started taking ceramics. Home goods just move a bit slower than fashion, and there’s obviously more money. And home as well.

Taking these figures and making a three-dimensional ceramic - I want to start. That’s one of the goals this year, to have an online store with product.”

What are your goals for 2020 and the decade to come?

“2020 is, product, product, product...collaborations. That’s it! I feel like I always have way too many ideas and then I execute everything halfway. So this year I just want to focus on one thing - ceramics and a beautiful collection of ceramics.”

Do you ever recycle your materials or artwork as an experiment or otherwise?

“I should get into that more. I was watching this Basquiat documentary and he couldn’t afford canvas. So he was just going around the Lower East Side, taking doors and parts off of walls to paint on. 

It’s so easy to be like, ‘I don’t have enough money for canvas.’ But if you really want it, when you’re hungry, you’d figure out another way. Like using wood and recycled stuff. So, that’d be nice, especially if I’m working bigger.

Which brand was your favorite to work with?  

“For me, it’s more about the actual project. One fun project I did was with live drawing and [they] did a cool video. It was just a fun day. 

Then there are other brands that I like. I love the one I did with AG jeans, as well. They came up with a concept and we wore our clothes but in a cool editorial way. I did a mural in the background.”

What do your drawings mean to you as opposed to photography?

“The purpose of the two are just completely different. Photography does have a purpose in that it’s way more articulate and communicative. 

A drawing is way more imaginative and takes a person somewhere else. It helps you. People are overfed information these days. So taking away shit is actually nice, you know? And so, I feel like marrying the two - I don’t know why people don’t do it more.”

What would you tell your younger self today?

“I would probably say be kinder to yourself. I feel like I’m constantly thinking of working, or feeling like I’m not working enough. Which is a very annoying feeling to have. And I think, in the last year, I’ve been more aware of it, kind of more accepting that things take time. 

It’s okay to have a year or two years or however long to figure it out. I know where you’re going because for so long, I’ve been such a planner. I was like, ‘get this job. I’m going to do this and then I’ll get to all that.’ 

It wasn’t what I expected. So I left and now this freelance world is so free, is almost too overwhelming.”

And what advice can your younger self give you now?

“The younger self reminds me why I’m doing it. I need to focus on one thing, but what is it? 

Then you’re racking your brain and you’re like, this is not good enough. Why didn’t this work? It’s a constant questioning of yourself which is exhausting after a while. Instead, being and just creating, having a chill kind of approach. 

The friends around me always remind me to celebrate, to celebrate small accomplishments and small wins, small wins. That’s what I feel like I would tell myself.

It’s so funny because I was tidying up my USB, and I found this little video of me from the school where I studied. They were talking about me and my illustration and I was probably like 21.”

How do you remain passionate about your work?

“The enthusiasm in my head, ‘can I just hope to inspire?’ I want to teach drawing and I think drawing is like the way I was. That’s totally how I still feel but I just have to remind myself because sometimes it’s really tough.

I thought passion or motivation, or drive was a constant state. I’ve always thought of that. 

In the past couple of years, I think ‘oh wait, why don’t I feel those things anymore?’ and start freaking out about [it]. But it’s finding those things that keep you passionate as opposed to just being.”

How do you define your style?

“I know one word, eclectic. I’ll tell you why. 

I think a lot of my challenges as an illustrator have been from my agency or a commercial voice being like, ‘your style isn’t consistent enough’ because I like to experiment with a bunch of shit. And then I bring it all together and I’m like, ‘Look, guys, look what I’ve done.’ But it’s all over the place. 

And I feel the same way with me with my sense of style. Like some days I want to be a boy. Some days I just want to be girly, wear a floral dress. 

I’m at where all my friends have such distinctions. ‘I only wear Helmut Lang, Rick Owens, and Ann Demeulemeester.’ I ended up like this is in Paris. 

[Parisians’] style is so curated, and their wardrobes - whereas mine is a bit “higgly-piggly”. But, I feel like that’s what makes me. And then I think as I’m growing, evolving, style isn’t how consistent a drawing style is, [it’s] your voice and what you’re saying in that drawing. So, you could have a painting that’s acrylic, you could have a painting that’s watercolor - a color, whatever - but the message in all of them is the same. 

So ‘what is my message?’ is more my focus, not so much how it looks and what I look like. You know?!”

YOU CAN READ THIS FULL ARTICLE IN OUR PRINT ISSUE # 1. PRE-ORDER ISSUE # 2 HERE.

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT FASHION?

COMMENT OR TAKE OUR PAGE READER SURVEY