Bewildering Beauties is a new series by American artist/illustrator Marie Gardeski, Weird, right? Right. Everything Marie makes is weird.. and I love it all! I was curious where her bizarre compositions come from. Does she dream them? Do they just randomly pop into her head? This was her answer when I asked:

“I just surround myself with weird miscellaneous objects and images…  I’ll draw these things, not really trying to make the drawing look like the original, but infusing it with a new, more intense personality.  I’ll draw the same character again and again, each time creating a new beast or beauty.  Most of the time my ideas start with an element or character…  One thing suggests another and each drawing develops into a somewhat cryptic vignette. I rarely plan or sketch a piece before beginning.  This makes the marks more immediate, exciting and sometimes wobbly.  I think my favorite part of making art is being able to surprise myself with a mysteriously weird or funny image.”

Hm, what does she mean by “weird miscellaneous objects”, exactly? Let’s take a peek into her studio, shall we:

Ah. Yep. That explains it.