An artist from California has been turning old pairs of jeans into artistic masterpieces.
Kessler Ramirez works as a content specialist but spends her time during the evenings and weekends painting.
The 26-year-old has always loved painting and even studied Art History alongside her major at UC Santa Barbara, so is familiar with some of the greatest names in the art world.
She was first inspired to start painting jeans while she was living in San Diego and was looking to make a little extra money.
Kessler tells Metro.co.uk: ‘I started thrifting jeans and reselling them for profit on Depop. I saw a few people on the app painting designs on their jeans and got inspiration from there to combine my passion for art, with my love of art history and my hobby of reselling vintage denim.
‘The first painting I did was Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh because it’s one of the most well-known pieces and I had it as a poster in my room at the time.’
Since then, Kessler has transferred all kinds of well-known artworks onto denim, including Monet’s Water Lilies, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Edvard Munch’s Scream and Joaquín Sorolla’s Women Walking on the Beach – which is one of her favourites.
Kessler says: ‘Women Walking on the Beach by Joaquín Sorolla is one of my all-time favorites because it’s an incredible painting, but also because I was awe-struck by it when I visited Museo de Sorolla in Madrid. I immediately knew I had to paint it the moment I saw it.’
While she’s always been an artist, Kessler says that coming up with original designs is something she has always struggled with. Instead, she loves turning to famous creatives for inspiration and sharing her recreations of their work with others.
She adds: ‘I started my art Instagram account for my realistic graphite drawings of celebrities, so right off the bat I started with images that already existed in the world.
‘Art history is something I am incredibly passionate about and when I love something, I want to share it. For each painting I create on a pair of jeans, I share a mini art history lesson on that painting – educating people on the famous artworks they’ve always seen, but never knew the history behind, is important to me.’
In terms of choosing the works, Kessler admits to spending hours researching paintings online and also checks to make sure they are public domain, to avoid any trademark or copyright issues. Each one takes her around 10 and 30 hours to complete.
She says: ‘I know many artists off the top of my head from my studies, so I start there and look through all their paintings to find ones I think will be a good fit for the particular pair I am going to paint.
‘I keep a folder on my desktop titled “Things to paint” with all the paintings I have saved during my research. If I’m ever stuck on what painting to do, I look through that folder to find the perfect fit.’
Naturally, people have gone wild for Kessler’s lookalike denim creations.
She says: ‘The audience my painted jeans have reached is beyond where I ever thought they could go. I love that I get to share my love of art history with an audience who is just as interested in it as me.
‘When I started, it was something new and unique that the majority of people hadn’t seen before.’
She also created a tutorial on her website, which has been shared hundreds of thousands of times – so people are giving it a go for themselves around the world.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/08/28/artist-turns-jean-pockets-monet-van-gogh-masterpieces-13192017/
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