JULI BAKER AND SUMMER (24)
Popular for her candy-coloured scribbles, Juli Baker and Summer’s first commissioned job was drawing the album cover for Thai indie pop band Plastic Plastic while she was still studying at university. A favourite among those who like cheerful and chirpy drawings, you can literally get a piece of her colour-splashed world at @julibakerand summerstore Instagram account, where she sells totes, scarves and tees filled with her dizzying doodles.
What was your idea of summer for your piece at Museum of Me?
I thought it should be something fun and easy to approach, so it made me think of the Guanyin goddess, elements that surround it and the Sun. I’m not usually a religious person and think that everyone has power to define their own future. It’s not embedded in your fate or destiny or whatever, so I came up with a goddess of the Sun. Your face is surrounded by all these spiritual items, so that you are the goddess yourself.
When did you know you were interested in art?
When I was around five, in art class they asked us to draw pictures of people and our friends. Everybody coloured their hair brown or black, but I coloured it pink and blue. The teachers thought I had problems with my usage of colour and asked to meet my parents. My parents didn’t go in to talk with the school, but rather, thought that I may be imaginative, so they sent me to art classes instead. Since then, I have always studied art.
Who is your favourite artist?
Hockney and Matisse. They were the two I learned about in my first year of university and have been key in helping me find my own style.
What is a gallery/museum you really love?
Outsider Art Gallery, which I came across when I went to Amsterdam. It’s a really small gallery in a hidden alley, but they bring in all these artworks that people say aren’t pretty. It’s like they’re outsiders that cannot get into the big museums and they all come here. It’s a bit like an underground group. I find that it’s really humble, but really cool and sweet in its own way. Plus, the art pieces do get sold too.
What is the point where the artist can no longer balance commercial work with their artistic integrity?
It’s a feeling where you feel that the work is not pretty at all. Or in truth it may be, but for you it’s not. But in the end, it’s your responsibility to deliver, because clients have hired you to do something for them. You may not get to be yourself 100%, but it’s your job to make the work come out well. You may have to work twice as hard in order to create something you know the client will like, as well as something you like to give them. But in the end, you just have to accept whichever they choose. You’ll get through that commission not feeling very proud of it, but next time, you’ll know better to recommend friends whose style may be fitting to what the client is looking for.