Catch up with soda.

Catch up with soda.

Illustrator/designer

soda. aka Paige is a 20 year old Melbourne based artist we found on Instagram and instantly fell in love with her illustrations. She does tattoo designs, murals for cafes and drawings for magazines capturing Melbourne lyf plus heaps of other super cool designs that I want on my wall (or arm) asap please. 

Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Paige, I’m a 20 year old Communication design student from Melbourne! I’ve always lived in Melbourne and have found it to be the perfect mix of busy and relaxed in order for me to be able to go on a huge variety of adventures. My cats name is Maxi and pretty much all I eat is pesto pasta. “soda.” comes from when I was asked what my “artist name” was about three years ago and I was holding a bottle of soda water and that’s what I managed to settle on because, evidently, i’m a creative.

What is your creative project / business? Is it full time? Is a side hustle?  

I started by doing tattoo designs for friends and recently created some murals for Your Local Roaster cafes, something that I still can’t believe I had the opportunity to do. I wouldn’t consider my art a business but more something I would be doing anyway and want to share with those around me. Something about seeing hours of sketching and drawing transforming into a whole, real piece on someone’s wall or body is so exciting and I’m so overwhelmed with gratitude any time I see people enjoying something I’ve made.

How and when did you start your creative project?

I’ve always created in some way or in some form, when I was younger I would collect Vogue magazines and draw every cover in as much detail as possible. The pure focus was therapeutic, and I still use it as a kind of meditation. My next step ventured towards more abstracted versions of these same beautiful people, before I realised the magazines that I thought held the epitome of beauty actually only showed the idea of beauty that surrounds thin, white, lanky humans and I decided to extend away from that exclusive, unrealistic view of the world. I want people who see my art to see themselves reflected back in a beautiful and comfortable way.

What are your go-to creative tools? 
Watercolour and fineliner will always be my comfy combo. Pencil is a safe bet too and recently I’ve found goauche paint extremely fun -yet bloody tricky- to use. Only last year did I properly venture into the world of digital illustration, with Procreate sending me into a digital drawing obsession for a bit. I normally head to Dean’s Art in Collingwood and just walk around aimlessly picking up whatever looks the most fun, there’s really no method to this madness.

How does your creative project make you feel? 

Both comfortable and excitedly anxious at the same time.

Who, what & where inspires you and your work? 

I often will take from images that I like and go on month-long stylistic benders with them. I originally was inspired by Vogue magazines as I previously said, but recently just scroll through different internet platforms until I feel something. So many artists inspire me that I could only name a few here. Maddy Young Tattoo (@maddyyoungtattoo) put a snake on my arm who instantly became my best friend, Kurt B Lucas (@kurboi) created my current phone wallpaper, Chantal Horeis (@chantalhoreis) is making me feel all the feels and Shantell Martin (@shantell_martin) is my all time inspiration.

Who is your favourite famous artist or creative person? 

Lillian aka FlexMami brings me unbelievable joy and knowledge from all angles on all days.

Do you have any podcast, TV shows or book recommendations?

Leading on from the previous answer, the Flex and Bobo podcast is sending me balanced, critical thinking while Netflix’s “Good Girls” is giving me female crime trio anger and helping me turn my winter depression into angry motivation. 

Name your fave Instagram accounts. 
@kurboi @maddyyoungtattoo @chantalhoreis @shantell_martin @therochellefish @_nickmanton @cranesinthesky @jacob.lw @danielaefe @lovesoup @papermeat @keely.elle @gothfruits @frannerd @janicesung @naranjalidad i could go on forever really...

Tell us what your average day looks like? 

I normally wake up around 9am, and then lie on my floor on top of the heater, drawing for about 3 hours and then call all my friends asking them to come get coffee. Then I get coffee, normally by myself and normally at Your Local Roaster in Preston. After that I’ll probably drive around Melbourne “being productive” but really just procrastinating until time’s up and I have to go back to lying on my floor and actually doing things.  

What’s your favourite thing to do on the weekend when you have no plans? 
Often a sleep-in is all I need before spending every possible hour around my friends until the reality of the week starts again.

What's next?

I’m keen to start working or interning in the design world to put some context to what I’ve learnt at university. In regards to ‘soda.’ I’m aiming to create some stickers and art to sell on my website and then hopefully start working on larger scale drawings/posters for walls! I also want to get a few more tattoo designs started for some friends...

Where can we see more? 

Instagram: @soda._art

Portfolio: https://xxsoda.myportfolio.com/

Shop: https://www.xxsoda.com/