Taking Five with Bianca Jagoe

I've been super excited to share this post and introduce you to a super awesome person (if you don't already know her).  Her name's, Bianca Jagoe, she hails from Launceston in Tassie, Australia and she is AWESOME! Think, lover of cats, lives in a cute town, appreciate thrifting, dresses her adorable son in sailor suits, draws, designs, has two different coloured eyes (eep!) and sooooo much more!

I can thank Ben for introducing me to Bianca via her zine, Paint it Black which you can find over in Bianca's etsy shop.  Ben is a collector of zines/comics/stickers/artworks and likes to show me the art packs he receives in the mail.  When he came to show me Bianca's zine he was like "you need to read this, you'll love it".  Paint it Black is a step back into Bianca's childhood, presented in a heartwarming way, complete with sweet illustration and honest, poetic writing that had me bawling by the end (although I need to state it's 100% sweet and nostalgic rather than sad or depressing but I'm am a super cry baby :P)

sneak peak of the Paint it Black zine

I thought it would be nice if I could do a mini interview with Bianca and she graciously agreed - yay! I've grabbed a bunch of rad photos from her flickr and her blog to give you a glimpse into her colourful life but I'll also link you to where else you can find her (at the bottom of his post) so, like me, you can stalk/follow her too :)

red lips, cool style and her cutie pies :)

1) Hey Bianca, could you give us a little blurb about you?
Hi! I am a freelance illustrator living in Launceston, Tasmania with my husband, one and a half year old son Theo and four cats. I like drawing pictures, Morrissey, making zines, tickling my son, wearing red lipstick and riding my bike. 

happy bikes

2) What makes you love zines?
I started buying zines early in high school when I first attended Newcastle's This Is Not Art Festival Zine Fair and fell in love with the medium. They are these lovely, lo-fi, tactile, handmade, personal, intimate little publications. I think there's a nice mysteriousness to them that the internet can't quite imitate. I just think that they're really fun. I think everyone should try making one (or ten). I'm hoping to make a new zine over the Summer about the four years I've spent working part time as a checkout girl. 

cats and zines - perfection!

3) I'd personally love to live in Tasmania, what made you choose the area?
My husband and I came to Tasmania for a holiday in 2010 and when we returned home to Newcastle we couldn't get it out of our heads (my husband kept talking about how fresh and delicious the air was). We ended up moving here about 6 months later, which was a big deal for me because I was 20 years old and left behind all of my friends and family, but now I couldn't imagine life anywhere else. I love the scenery and the slower pace. I love the farmers markets, the history, MONA, the snow, the beaches, the immaculately maintained old buildings, the wildlife and lots of the people. I love that I can ride my bike everywhere around my city (5 minutes from home into the city, 5 minutes to uni, 5 minutes to work) and that it has all of the things that I need but doesn't swallow me up. When I ride my bike around Launceston I feel like it belongs to me. Ps. You should totally move here Fee! :P 

eep!

cute architecture in Tasmania

4) What is your favourite creative pursuit?
I find this question surprisingly difficult because I feel like a bit of a jack of all trades, but master of none. I just like being creative in general and I'd like to encourage others to be creative too, by whatever means. I really enjoy painting with gouache, woodblock printing, designing graphics in Photoshop & Illustrator, blogging, drawing and singing. I'd love to be a master of something, but I just really enjoy playing with different things - I guess it's more about the process of being creative for me, rather than the output. 

Bianca's sweet illustration style

5) Any exciting future life goals to share?
I have just started a new course with the Tractor Design School in Melbourne (online) and sat in on a really great talk by Frankie Radford of The Design Kids last week, who is someone who is extremely goal oriented (I am totally in awe of her goal setting and achieving!) and it highlighted to me how go-with-the-flow I tend to be about setting goals for myself. My goals at the moment are to make a really great veggie patch in my little English country garden over the Summer, to have another baby sometime in the next two years, to make a living from doing something I enjoy (hopefully illustration/design/education) and to do a bit of travel in the not too distant future (Japan is number one on my list). Thanks for having me!

theo shares his mum's rad style :)

 

#dreamhouse

Where else to find Bianca!

Bianca's Blog

Flickr

Etsy Shop

Instagram

Thanks so much to Bianca for playing along and really for just being one super cool chick :)

I look forward to following all her adventures to come!