Smitten by Stephanie. Love and life. Feeling smitten… emotion is holding out your heart, wearing it on your sleeve, then having it ripped from your chest. Sometimes moments of love and life hurt a bit but shh… don’t cry, it’s ok, it happens to me too. i heart you :)  (from Smitten by Stephanie site)

A creative storm has been brewing over Sydney-town of late, and the force behind it is the super-cute, absurdly talented Stephanie Overs: the fashion & music-loving illustrator and creator of Smitten by Stephanie!

Let me just take a moment here to say, I am absolutely in love with this girl’s work. Featuring a series of self-portraits of a sad-looking girl contemplating love and life, I adore her strong aesthetic and the way she simplifies complex emotion by presenting it in the most original and delightful way. The artist’s symbolic sketches and illustrations are heavily influenced by her love of pop art, minimalism, graphic and abstract art, and just looking at her work makes me smile so hard my face hurts!

The Smitten artwork has recently been featured in the fifth edition of Curvy, an annual, all-girl art book (the brainchild of the always creative Yen magazine crew!) featuring 100 of the most exciting illustrators and graphic designers from over 35 countries around the world.

Her work has been exhibited in two of the biggest group shows of the year — Grrrls by [weAREtheIMAGEMakers], and Kids Today by Stupid Krap.com — and are beautifully decorated with silver/ gold frames, jewels and gems, and smatterings of glitter! Stephanie also uses satin wall hangings and mirrors to display her pieces.

Other notable achievements: in 2007, she travelled to the UK to paint live as part of Sketch City, and was then commissioned by ‘V’ to be involved in the Semi-Permanent festival in Sydney.

Finally, the busy 23-year old also sells her own T-shirt’s under the label ‘once smitten. twice shy’ (super-dooper kawaii!) and she has just designed a range for One Teaspoon’s sister label ‘Little Lady From’, which will be hitting stores this summer!

I definitely recommend you spend the time looking around the Smitten by Stephanie site — it’s a visual pleasure dome that will bring you to your feet! Trawling through the gallery is like being hit with a huge explosion of cute, over and over again! I really love the innocence and purity of all her characters, and am happy to endorse this talented artist who is blazing her own trail and doing a damn fine job of it!

Additional goodness:

Artful obsessions & abstract love,

Rach xxx