Deanne Cheuk

I know that I am getting older because this strange dizzying thing keeps happening to me whereby old, forgotten, buried memories assault me unexpectedly. Last week I was taking a long walk home down the Madingley Road when a cloud of crows danced across the sky and all of a sudden I remembered this image. There was a pink sky, the dark silhouette of trees, crows flying by and a woman kissing a man. It was an image I had used in my school art project, I had painted water colour studies of it, I loved it so much I used it to head a short story I wrote as well. I couldn't remember the name of the artist, but some vague details about mushrooms and books and google searches allowed me to find her; Deanne Cheuk.

I have used images in this post which I remember. These graphic starry pseudo-water colours are all from her Mushroom Girls Virus Book 'A guide to the identification and study of our commoner fungi with special emphasis on the edible varieties'. With an embroidered cover and the notice that the book instantly sold out on the website, I coveted it for a long time. Cheuk is an art director, illustrator and artist living in New York. She publishes her own Zine 'Neomu' and has graphically illustrated a number of advertising campaign.

Her website organised by 'print', 'pattern', 'type', 'illustration', 'collage', and 'art' testifies to her skill and diversity as a graphic artist. I can only suggest that you take a virtual tour of Cheuk's body of work, because it all speaks of her far better than I can. For a long time I dreamt of being an illustrator and looking back at Cheuk I suspect she may have been at the root of my desire.

I look at these images and I can smell my sketchbook and the materials in the art room at school. I can remember the dreaming feeling of drawing my own goddesses in ink and painting astrological backgrounds for them. Anyway, it is nice to have recovered memories and interests.