Liv Lee on rejecting perfection but enjoying life

wearable art collab

Liv Lee x Chelsia (11)

Australian artist Liv Lee is back for a second collab with 11-year-old Chelsia from the SDN 004 Mentarang school in Pulau Sapi. For Chelsia, perfection is the life she already has, in her current community. All proceeds from the merch sales will go towards helping her school.

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wearable art collabs

Chelsia (11)

Pulau Sapi, Indonesia

Chelsia is an 11-year-old pupil at SDN 004 Mentarang, living in the small town of Pulau Sapi in North Kalimantan. When given the theme of perfection, her mind doesn’t go to beauty or unattainable standards. To her, perfection is her house, her neighbourhood, her community. She doesn’t need anything else other than to enjoy life.

Liv Lee

Port Macquarie, Australia

Liv Lee is an Australian artist who focuses on organic shapes and nature motifs in her art. She’s known for her use of cheerful colours and mashups of different textures. Her work has caught the eye of brands, such as L’Occitane, Anthropologie, and Tom & Teddy. This Face This collab isn’t Liv’s first rodeo. She’s back for the second time and we’re absolutely thrilled that she wanted to do another illustration.

A drawing based on the theme of ‘perfection’

For her drawing, Chelsia (11) was given the theme of perfection. The goal of the exercise was to see what perfection means to her and how she would visually depict the essence of it. Chelsia depicted her and her neighbour’s house. When we talked to her about her drawing, she told us that her focus was to simply “enjoy life”. It became clear to us that perfection is Chelsea’s current life and community.

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Making art together with Chelsia

“I started by going for a big walk around Chelsia’s village (on Google street view) and researched all of the flora and fauna found in her neighbourhood. Using Chelsia’s house drawing as an anchor, I filled it with many things found in her village and surroundings–mangoes, birds, trees, insects, frogs, crocodiles, hornbills etc. The bright colours were inspired by the colours found around the village–brightly painted houses, the deep greenery and the wildlife. I also took her clouds, birds, and trees to use in the artwork, so her essence is also seen there too.”

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Chasing or rejecting perfection?

Chelsia explained to us that she didn’t need to be perfect or beautiful, but that being able to walk was enough. This gave us a profound insight into her priorities in life. It showed us that she valued the small, fundamental things in life that most of us take for granted.

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Liv’s collab with Chelsia

“The biggest takeaway is from Chelsia’s approach to life, as I think it’s a good reminder to be grateful for what you currently have, and not to constantly be wanting for more. From a creative perspective, I pushed myself to create something a little different than what I usually would and I’m so happy with the result–it’s one of my favourite artworks I’ve made!”

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