Art & DesignJAN 15, 2024

Where The Mundane Meets The Magical: Artist Transforms The Everyday Into The Extraordinary

In the bustling streets of our everyday lives, an artist with a unique vision is transforming the mundane into the extraordinary in her tiny, desert community in Saudi Arabia. Imagine walking down your regular path and finding that the familiar old palm tree has sprouted feathers and a beak, turning into a flamboyant flamingo. Or picture a lamp post, not just shedding light, but also donning a top hat and monocle, becoming an elegant English gentleman right before your eyes.

Genevieve from CreatEVE Design lives in a compound called KAUST, in the middle of the desert in Saudi Arabia, and found that with the demands of everyday life, kids' schedules, and school pickups, she “wasn’t leaving the compound very often. The nearest city is over an hour away and there are only sand dunes in between. My community is incredibly beautiful, but I was looking at the exact same thing every day, and my inspiration for my artwork dwindled. So I challenged myself to find inspiration around me, and capture the beauty in the everyday.”

Scroll to the end to see the evolution of the series and the sketches from France as well.

More info: Instagram

Dropped Ice cream cone in the desert heat

Each piece starts as a simple photograph, capturing ordinary scenes and objects. But with a change of perspective, these photographs are reimagined into playful, sometimes surreal artworks. A shade tent swirls into the iconic dress of Marilyn Monroe, and a decorative rock might just stretch and twist into a Triceratops.

“To help ease my creative block, I started this series with a 60-second time limit, so my initial sketches are rough, single line, and one color. A time limit prevents perfection paralysis

I’m sharing these today so other artists can see the imperfection in my warmup exercises because artists can be their own toughest critics. Seeing other’s imperfections can help you feel ok about your own.”

What makes these artworks so captivating is not just the transformation of the ordinary into the extraordinary, but also the invitation to view our everyday world through a lens of wonder and possibility.

“Once I began this series, I began to see new possibilities in everything. It was as if a blindfold had been lifted, and I could see the unimaginable. My creativity soared.”

It’s a reminder that magic can be found in the most unexpected places, waiting to be discovered by those who dare to look closely.

This artist’s work is a celebration of imagination, a playful dance between reality and fantasy. It’s a journey into a world where anything is possible, and the ordinary becomes anything but.

“My hope with this series is firstly to create surprise and evoke a sense of fun. But I hope that with this change in perspective, that it invites you to see new possibilities and a little magic in the ordinary when life gets ‘lifey’” .

Genevieve is an Australian Artist, Illustrator, and Educator living in the Middle East and Europe. She teaches artists how to turn the Mundane into the Magical.