Lockdown with Aga Giecko
Aga is a South London based illustrator and on-going Oaf friend/collaborator, who can create a character from virtually anything- be it a bone, gecko or banana with a butt. Aga is one of our favourite creatives to work with, we teamed up with her once again to work on our pet shop collection and as always Aga embraced the theme and created artworks that blew our tiny minds, they included joy riding lizards, squeeky toy chickens and skatebarding shi tzus. We got a sneak peak into Aga’s amazing home/studio, learnt about the creative process and asked if Aga had a spirit animal, with fantastic results!
Can you sum up your lockdown experience so far in three words?
Naps after coffee’ - luckily I work from bed too.
Has working in lockdown meant a change up for you and how you work?
Big change towards endless nutrition, snacks and unlimited brews from various UK roasters. I’m sharing my home studio with my partner so lots of great music, good times and supporting each others creativity. Having some free time I wanted to share it with others wrestling the pandemic and social injustice. I really enjoyed doing charity work for organisations and projects that reached out, learned a lot and made new friends. It was a great social experience and I hope it will be a constant in my practice going forward. Other than that I missed my ceramics studio and being able to move around which is why I started thinking about getting a bicycle.
The collection we worked on was all about pets, how did you find the brief?
Like a breeze! I absolutely loved the brief and immediately felt inspired. As a kid I always played with animal toys, setting up pet shops and vets, dressing them up and taking care of them. I always had animals in my household: dogs, hamsters, guinea pigs, chickens and rabbits at my grandparents house. I keep an updated folder on my phone solely dedicated to funny memes and animal pics.
What did you got to for inspiration? Did you draw from your own pet friends? If so, can we see pics please?
I have a lot of books, charity shop treasures and photos that I used for my initial research. My 13 year old Shi Tzu called Bilbo (I was a big LOTR fan back then, I also had a hamster called Gandalf the Grey) is my biggest inspiration. He is the best boy and I miss him everyday. My younger sister has a couple of hamsters, they are extremely friendly, they play in all her old toys and hang around doing hilarious stuff. I asked her to send some pictures of them!
Do you have a spirit animal?
I need some inspiration for future pet names, got any good ones?
I’m the missing‚ I’ in the gecko this season;
Me and my geckos power nap for no reason;
round the clock sun bath with no sunblock
on a lockdown rooftop
shaded only when pigeon flock
watching neighbours walking their dog. Rock the house yo.
I’m not that good with names and I usually just get inspiration from books. All of my animals had literature names. I also feel like once you see the pet you will feel the name. Recently I saw a dog named Barkley on my ig feed, I loved that name as it reminded me of one of my favourite basketball players and tv personalities Charles Barkley. It’s probably just a play on barks but having that said, please go watch ‚Air Bud’ 1997.
"Stay connected with your loved ones and friends. Try not to worry about the things out of your control and focus on what you can change, especially your wellbeing, mental health and relationships...
"
How has your downtime been, any new hobbies or new creative ventures good or bad?
Baking, sometimes good, sometimes bad. I also started painting again after a couple of months, got some fresh materials and big ideas. Learning how to create instagram filters and effects, working on updating my website from scratch.
What are your tips for keeping it sane?
Stay connected with your loved ones and friends. Try not to worry about the things out of your control and focus on what you can change, especially your wellbeing, mental health and relationships. Find a new hobby or activity, avoid feeling like you're not doing enough, its okay to take a break.
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