Cheeky Observer strikes on Oxford

Next time you’re in Darlinghurst, you might feel like someone’s watching you. You’re not imagining things. Street artist Cheeky Observer has been in town, leaving a larger-than-life portrait on the façade outside of Lucky Tsotsi Shebeen & Bar.

Emblazoned on a wall on a side street off Oxford, the striking new mural is the latest in a string of creative projects undertaken by the emerging artist also known as Alicia McFadzean.

“I had a design, which I’d been trying to find a space for – it was kind of African-inspired, so it all worked out really well,” McFadzean said. “They were happy for me to paint there, so they kind of just let me loose on it.”

Though she is a relative newcomer to the Sydney art scene, McFadzean is already making big waves with her art practice.

“A lot of my work is based on anthropomorphic imagery – I often incorporate some abstract shapes but I’ve always come back to the human form – particularly faces,” she says.

“There’s something about the complexity of a human face – when you create a representation of it, there’s this magical moment in the artistic process where it suddenly comes alive.”

McFadzean plays with illustration, typography and acrylic painting, drawing inspiration from mythology, olden fairytales, and different forms of street art.

“I’m a big believer in constructivism,” she says. “A lot of people pride themselves on being one hundred per cent original in their work but it’s my thought process that everything that we create is the sum of the many tiny fragments that we, kind of, draw in from the world around us.”

“I even find inspiration in stories – it doesn’t have to be visual. I loved the illustrative work of the old children’s fairy tale illustrators – the likes of Arthur Rackham, Kay Nielsen and Edmund Dulac, the ones that did Grimms’ Fairy Tales. I love that it’s a bit darker, a bit more twisted – as opposed to a standard representation of what we see.”

McFadzean’s passion for visual art dates back to adolescence.

“The moment in my life when I realised that I absolutely loved art was way back in primary school when I won a colouring-in competition – that moment when I got to stand in front of the rest of my primary school to receive my prize,” she says.

But when her school years ended, McFadzean didn’t dare dream of becoming an artist.

“When I was faced with the prospect of what to do for the rest of my life, the thought of trying to become an artist that young, when there’s so many stereotypes and stigmas about how artists don’t make any money, that diverted me towards something a little bit safer – and that’s how I ended up studying media,” she explains.

When she finished her Communications degree in Media and Art Production at UTS, McFadzean played it safe with a day job in the digital wing of a local ad agency.

She recounts, “I came out of my degree with a few web skills, a few production skills, I had a few advertising skills – and I thought: Okay, what am I gonna do with this.”

But after three years of climbing the ranks, McFadzean reached a turning point.

“I got completely burnt out – as you do in the advertising world,” she says.

And from that haze of fatigue, McFadzean somehow found the strength and courage to make some big changes.

“I did a typography class one day at Workshop, and it was at that moment that everything kind of hit me – it was like, what the hell are you doing with your life? You are not happy with your job. It’s draining. Your passions are clearly somewhere else. And so, I quit and moved to a job that had better hours and pay, and I started to focus on my art.”

“And the day that I quit my job, I got an offer to do my first exhibition – so it was funny how all those little pieces started lining up. And from there, everything has been moving very quickly.”

McFadzean was recently commissioned by Surry Hills café, Cook & Archies to illustrate a new coffee cup design. She explains, “They’re actually my local; they’re right across the road from my work. I love the place, they are like a little family, so it was good to be able to give them something back.”

“Like every artist, I want to be commissioned for commercial projects. As much as I love making beautiful illustrations, for my own sake, it doesn’t pay the bills. I love working with people and brands who have values and ethics that are on par with my own.”