Charis, Chairs and Carrots

I am a 22 year old Illustration student in my last year at Derby uni. I have always loved all things arty and creative and I am obsessed with colour. My goals for the future I am working towards are to have a home studio and shop up and running. I would love to have things I have designed and made with love out there bringing a bit of happiness to people out there in the world. A little bit of art and serotonin goes a long way :)

Nicknames

If you’re wondering about the carrots, look no further.

As a child, one thing I was always jealous that other people had was cool nicknames! I wanted a cool alter ego name that was all mine but all I had was people pronouncing my name wrong which is a running joke in my life to this day! When phones with auto correct started getting more popular, I found that it was incredibly difficult to type my name without it being corrected to chairs which is how the incredibly strange nickname of Chairs was created! After not long I became known as chairs and a lot of the closest people to me called me Chairs and I loved it. Some friends even took it as far as to start calling me ‘table’ and a number of other furniture items too. I felt like I had a new quirky identity, made even better by another nickname coming along just after. I mistakenly heard my name when carrots got mentioned in whatever context it was and with my love of bright colours and all things weird, I adopted this nickname too. I very quickly developed an obsession with all things carrot and it has become my signature, my defining feature and my personal emblem. One of my favourite things to do is share the carrot love and give out tiny Lego carrots to friends and new people I meet which is always met with a smile and a laugh. You’re not going to forget someone called carrots too quickly!

Interests and Inspiration

I love cartoons alot! I watch them when I’m happy, when I’m sad, to get inspired, to chill out, basically all the time. Some of my favourites include The Simpsons, Bojack Horseman, Futurama, Bobs Burgers, Adventure Time and that’s just a few. As well as these types of cartoons I also love to watch anime. I recently finished watching Naruto and I loved every minute. The shows I watch are one of my biggest influences in my art. However, I love to be inspired by anything and everything! I am always taking pictures of things I find interesting, or that may be of use at a later date as I think its really good to have a varied selection of reference images that I’ve taken myself.

One of my favourite illustrators that never fails to make me laugh is Chris McCoy who creates short punny comics known as Safely Endangered. I absolutely love this type of silly humour, especially paired with his simple, brightly coloured cartoon style. He has published a book compiled of his comics that you can buy in Waterstones and also has greetings cards available to buy in shops like Ohh Deer. He had said in an interview with this shop that growing up he watched a lot of comedies like The Simpsons and Futurama which is where he draws his inspiration and sense of humour from. You can read this interview here:

https://blog.ohhdeer.com/home/safely-endangered

ADHD

My brain and internal thought process is a little chaotic. I was diagnosed with ADHD when I started university and the more I learn about the condition the more I also learn about myself. My ADHD is a big part of who I am, but sometimes I think it can take over which then isn’t always easy to find the balance again. It can make things that are easy to others, a challenge for me such as organisation, motivation, time management, impulsivity or my emotions. Its like having another version of me living inside my head and I have to decide when or if to listen to her. I would say that my best quality is being able to think outside the box, but this means that a lot of the time I can’t see ‘inside the box’ and fail to see the obvious. Living with ADHD is a roller-coaster of ups and downs and is a massive learning curve that I keep having to change and adapt to as I grow as a person and as an artist.

Charis 🥕