Marian Bantjes

Monday, November 30, 2009

This doesn't happen often. When you are hit by a wave of inspiration that knocks you off your feet, drenches you to the skin & you are left laughing in sheer gratitude. Marian Bantjes' work does that to me each time. Respect, worship, awe become words that are beggared by what I feel when I see her work. So no more words, just see the magic she makes .

“Your appreciation of the arts will bring new opportunities.”

This is what Marian says about the pieces below: "This is a really important piece for me. Patrick Burgoyne at Creative Review offered me one of these “Monograph” pieces they send out with subscription editions of the magazine. For me, it was an opportunity to create all new pieces that I called “Love Stories”, because each one was an illustrated text of the story of someone I love."

June Bantjes, my mother (watercolour)

"I spent 3 solid weeks on it, and nearly burned myself out. But in the end, it was worth it. Some of these are easier to read than others, but I won’t “translate” them for you. Either you’re curious, or you’re not." - Marian Bantjes

Gillian Muir, my best friend (watercolour):

Debbie Millman, my best friend (ink + photo):

Rod Bantjes, my brother (acrylic paint):

Doyald Young, my friend (pencil):

"Design ignites change" silver foil on copper paper

You can see the other pictures and info about this work here.

Stefan Sagmeister calls Bantjes “one of the most innovative typographers working today". He likes her so much that Stefan asked Marian twice to contribute to his series “Things I have learned in my life so far”. He was so impressed with her sugar piece she did for the Fox River Paper booklet that asked to use sugar to create his phrase “If I want to explore a new direction professionally, it is helpful to try it out for myself first“.

Marian: My 2009 valentines were a bit of a departure in a number of ways. This year I wrote 4 fragments of letters; each has no beginning and no end; and each is carefully crafted to hopefully have some resonance with most people. Each recipient got one fragment."

Please do click on it and read it- its totally worth it

This one brought tear to my eyes

"They wanted me to illustrate the words “We’re Sorry” relating to a story about the Canadian propensity to apologize, and the troubles that ensue from public apologies for past national crimes." Marian Bantjes

"from a distance this looks like some gruesome viscera … but on closer inspection it reveals itself to be only harmless, friendly yarn." - Marian Bantjes