Meet The Artist: Geffen Refaeli
It is true I’m addicted to art.
and I’m also addicted to Instagram.
I love to lose myself in it, get inspired by it.
But what I am after the most when I spend time on Instagram, is to find those artists who really give place to their art and use Instagram as a platform for it.
It goes without saying that you can find so many beautiful pictures, with amazing filters and effects but only in rare occasions you can also find users who take Instagram- as a platform for their creativity- to another level.
Since this blog focuses on Israeli artists, I was so happy to find @dailydoodlegram by the illustrator Geffen Refaeli, who creates daily illustrations that are inspired by one or more pictures from the instagram users she follows.
I had the chance to ask Geffen Refaeli how it all started and this is what she told me:
“The profile started just for fun- I was looking for inspiration on Instagram- I thought about drawing images from the picturesI liked there, and then I though that it would be nice to upload the result back on Instagram.
As I got tired of posting pictures of cats and pretty objects on my personal profile (and the followers there were also getting tired of it), I decided to open an assigned account for my new idea. That’s how it all started, and very quickly I saw that people were getting excited about the project an d it was great fun- I got drawn to it. I didn’t realize the name I chose @dailydoodlegram would be so committing and hard, but I am trying to cope and post an illustration on a daily basis.”
It is great to see how Refaeli uses instagram not only as a platform to show her work but also as a source of inspiration for her work.
The result is amazing and original:
© Geffen Refaeli (inspired by @we_fashion, @miss_moss and @baraknet)
© Geffen Refaeli (inspired by @evilrona and @naamul)
© Geffen Refaeli (inspired by @ayagoldan and @theshinysquirrel)
© Geffen Refaeli (inspired by @limor333 and shlomtzi)
The flood of images and this exposure are so big that often I also feel a danger- there is a surplus that I find difficult to digest, and a lot of time I have to pay attention to avoid getting sucked in this unstoppable flood of images, information and art because otherwise I could spend entire days this way, instead of creating.
It also creates a certain risk of artistic ‘castration’- the exposure to so much great creation can be disturbing and create a competitive atmosphere and a feeling of very big worthlessness, and it can also hinder the artists’ ability to keep the connection with their own personal style. The line between inspiration, influence and drowning in this tremendous digital world of “inspiration” is still for me a very delicate one (…)
One of the areas that I didn’t really know in the past, and which has started to really interest me in the last couple of years is the interactive world- applications etc. Suddenly I discovered the possibility to create with illustration an active dialog with the user/viewer. This direction really interests me and actually that’s what doodlegram is all about, something that feels alive and shared, and which I enjoy greatly.”
Illustration by Geffen Refaeli for the ipad application “My Story for Kids“
See more works by Geffen Refaeli here.
Follow @daildoodlegram on instagram
One Response to “Meet The Artist: Geffen Refaeli”
[…] wrote about this twice in the past, here on the blog in an article on @dailydoodlegram and on this website (in […]
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