THIS IS A DRAWING. Yes, “paint” drawn with colored pencils. For real. After listening to – and loving – both of her TEDx talks (2014 / 2018), I am so thrilled to be chatting with Australian-born, New York based artist CJ Hendry. A few fun facts: CJ stands for Catherine Jenna, she sold her entire wardrobe to buy drawing supplies, her favorite color is white, and she swears like a sailor… obviously I loved her immediately. Listen to episode no.140, the final episode of Season No.2, right up there under that perfect pink “paint”, or you can subscribe on iTunes.
Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? Big, beautiful objects of desire:
She doesn’t love the word “AMAZING”, so don’t tell her I said this … AMAZING! She’s got a lot of footwear in her portfolio, but I’m pretty sure those Aussie boots were the big first sale she mentioned.
Next … food! This is the first series of CJ’s I ever saw (2015). Clearly I had to write a post immediately when I saw these yummy morsels:
Um, yeah… my pen doesn’t do that.
Now, we didn’t talk about this next series, but I just found it (on her Instagram feed), and had to show you. An alphabet of metallic balloons, each letter drawn in a location that started with that particular letter:
… and of course, there are many more! I was quite proud of my self-control in only posting two of them.
Oh my word, and now her paint series. This might be my fave (simply because I personally have a thing for big juicy strokes of paint in my own work). Brace yourself:
Pick jaw up off floor. Continue reading:
And finally… “Monochrome”:
I absolutely will not say AMAZING (but I might be thinking it). I wish I’d been in New York when this show was open… I would have jumped in that bin of pink teddy bears for sure.
And lastly, I thought this photo was a perfect way to wrap things up … CJ in New York, drawing, while wearing all white:
Livin’ the dream. I’m quite sure she can afford all of the petrol, rent and snacks her heart desires at this point! Thank you so much to CJ for doing this with me – I had such a great time, and I feel like this conversation was a great way to finish season two! Thanks to Saatchi Art and Create Magazine for supporting the episode (and don’t forget to check out The Other Art Fair … London, Chicago, Los Angeles and Brooklyn are this fall, so deadlines are coming up). And finally, high fives to you for always showing up to listen – I appreciate it more than I can explain in words. I’m going to spend the summer recharging, getting ready for my fall book tour, and recording a whole bunch of new episodes for SEASON THREE … see you in September! ps. In the meantime, feel free to pop over to iTunes to give Art For Your Ear a little love ♥
Other links:
love cj hendry from another Aussie
Fantastic fantastic last of the season episode! Was smiling the whole way through!!
Nice one! Thanks for including Australian artists 🙂 Re. The Ben and Jerry’s icecream flavour Phish Food, it’s named after the rock band ‘Phish’, who wanted their royalties to go towards cleaning up a lake that exists in both USA and Canada. Love a bit of trivia!
Your podcasts are inspiring!
But with this episode, I felt I’ve found my young and successful sister, like I’m the much older sister of Meghan Markle. It’s nice to know that one of the “family member” made it big time 🙂 It gave me a lot of material to think of.
thank you!
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