Image courtesy of Instagram: @shantell_martin and @maxmara
It is Paris Fashion Week and the plush Max Mara store in the city’s chicest district is closed in preparation for a party later that evening. Amidst the cocktail waiters busily setting up the bar, sits illustrator Shantell Martin, framed by a large window overlooking the elegant rue Saint-Honoré.
The south London-born artist’s collaboration with the Italian brand is the subject for the evening’s celebrations. Martin, known for her jaunty stream-of-continuous drawings, has applied her signature scrawl to a line of sixties-inspired sunglasses. The process involved segmenting a large scale drawing from Martin’s collection into a 1000 different sections. These were then applied to 1000 pairs of sunnies, lending each a unique design.
Martin arrived at drawing after a varied career which first began at Central Saint Martins. “I picked graphics because I thought that fine art was for rich kids. I reasoned that with graphics I would stand more chance of getting a job at the end of it all,“ explains Martin.
Martin grew up in Thamesmead – “not the nicest part of London” – and found that once on the course, which traditionally focuses on photoshop and InDesign, she barely touched a computer. She found that she focused more on the tactile work. “I spent the entire three years doing conceptual drawings or throwing milk around. And then explaining it later. It is very similar to what I do now in fact, which is also process based. It’s about the execution of the work and not so much the final result.”
I knew I just needed to create. I had access to pens, so I drew on the walls, my clothes, people, cars
Shantell’s poppy murals have appeared on clothes, walls, cars, and now the limited- edition sunglasses. She gets animated describing the geeky tricks she uses to achieve her drawing style. “I 3D-designed and printed these tools which allow you to hold more than one marker pen at once. I can draw thick lines and thin lines at the same time – it looks like a building block in your hand.”
She is very dedicated to her work, with numerous successful collaborations under her belt, most recently with Kendrick Lamar at Art Basel in Miami where the duo provided a 75-minute performance The visual artist has over 130k followers on Instagram and a fellowship at Columbia and MIT – she is clearly doing something right.
She found herself going out and dancing three or four times a week, and needed to find a way to fund that
But she wasn’t always working this way. Her first career was in Japan, where she moved after graduating and carved a niche as a live club illustrator. She found herself going out and dancing three or four times a week, and needed to find a way to fund that. When she first noticed a trend for VJs (video jockeys), who mixed visuals of lips and tunnels, she says: “They struck me as totally irrelevant. They had nothing to do with what was actually happening the club. It made me think: ‘what if I could do live drawing, either analog or digital, which could then be projected into this space?'”
Characteristically for Martin, she not only did this – but blazed a trail in club visuals. Working with Wacom, a company that specialises in technology for VJing, Martin helped launch new drawing tablets for clubs off the back of her experimentation. Martin was lauded for bringing visuals to the forefront of clubbing and was voted one of the top ten VJs in the world.
Image courtesy of Instagram: @shantell_martin
Image courtesy of Max Mara
During her stint in Asia, she went on a holiday to New York and fell in love with the energy of city. She decided, overnight, to move there. It was a tricky time for the illustrator, who went from being a quite successful and comfortable in Japan to being a struggling artist again in the US.
“I found myself de-evolving and leaving the whole video/technology world. I jut started picking up my pens again. The great thing about drawing is you don’t need a ton of money or resources to do it,” she reflects.
The great thing about drawing is you don’t need a ton of money or resources to do it
Martin’s visionary determination came into play again. She says of the time, “It would have been easy to play the “if” game. “If“ I get a gallery, “if“ I get a mentor, “if“ I get money…you can’t do that, I knew I just needed to create. I had access to pens, so I drew on the walls, my clothes, people, cars. That is how I got started again in illustration.“
Martin puts her success, that brand’s like Max Mara are quick to want to be a part of – down to steely determination and a dose of the American dream. She found her time in the US enlightening:“I really enjoyed New York for their celebration of ambition. In that city you can be like “I have this project, I have worked really hard on it – come to my exhibition. Whereas in London, you have to be like: “yeeeah, I’m alright. Not really doing anything.” She notes that false British modesty and self-depreciation can hold some people back.
I grew up in Thamesmead. Worked my arse off. Speak Japanese. Have drawn so much that now a single line is recognisably mine
Martin is a truly inspiring woman. Having navigated the notoriously macho world of DJing and now carving a niche for herself in illustration – she is refreshingly proud of these achievements. “I grew up in Thamesmead. Worked my arse off. Speak Japanese. Have drawn so much that now a single line is recognisably mine… surely my story is only going to inspire other people to follow their passion? So why not share it?”