Meet fuzzy-felt artist Ladypat
East Sussex 'queerodivergent' artist Ladypat has a singular career in the arts. He's made music videos (over 100 of them) for the likes of Adamski, Yoko Ono and Boogaloo Stu, and performed at clubs and festivals across Europe as a VJ. As a digital artist, his colourful, psychedelic gifs have amassed a hard-to-comprehend 4.8 billion views on GIPHY.
Now Ladypat has pivoted yet again, creating joyful and quietly subversive artworks made from fuzzy-felt – five of which are now on show at Dream Street Records.
Hello Ladypat, how are you today?
Fab, it's a mini-heatwave as we speak. Any excuse to zonk out under a fan!
How did you come to start making artworks out of fuzzy-felt?
I'd amassed a huge archive of digital designs from my video work and wanted to give them a bit of 'real world' attention, switching the machines off and going from digital to analogue for exhibition purposes.
After experimenting with various media I settled on fuzzy-felt precisely because it was incredibly tactile and in stark contrast to the digital work of music videos and club VJing. I use a lot of colourblocking in my imagery, and what is fuzzy-felt if not colours and shapes?
I liked the idea of vector designs coming out of software and into the world of textiles. A migration of sorts: from digital to analogue, formless to tactile, one could also make the case for from masc to femme or adult to childhood.
Essentially fuzzy-felt makes all imagery lovable and evokes a feeling of simplicity and innocence - for many of us it was our introduction to arranging shapes and colour, I think that's one of the reasons it connects well with people. So I like to think of it as Fuzzy-Felt Fine Art.
How do you choose who or what gets the fuzzy-felt treatment?
In some ways it doesn't matter what I depict as once I got the knack of fuzzy-felt I worked out the end result equalises all sorts of imagery - original or otherwise. This has led me to set the parameter of replicating real world artefacts - a record cover, a photograph, even working with whole archives. As we coexist with the bewildering world of AI the charms of fuzzy-felt can only prosper!
Why did you choose Dream Street Records to show and sell your work?
I feel that my artwork deserves a joyful and thoughtful context! It always gravitates to places that essentially seek joy. A trip to Dream Street is like a homecoming. I love the way that all timelines coexist past, present and future with no snobbery and that's good for my fuzzy-felt record covers which can come from any era or genre.
Can you make a fuzzy felt artwork of my cat?
Fabsolutely! Any commission is valid in terms of source imagery because fuzzy-felt equalises all. I love to stylise and simplify any type of image so it will work in fuzzyfelt. Funnily enough the bigger the better with fuzzy-felt, these 12" artworks are pushing their luck! Just message me on Instagram @ladypat_art or email ladypat@ladypat.com
And finally, your Greatest Album of All Time?
This is purely an emotional response, the most evocative for me was Meat Is Murder by The Smiths. It may not even be their very best album, however I was already an unhinged teenage fan on the Isle of Wight and won a fully autographed copy of this vinyl from Smash Hits magazine. It was like being seen by the universe. And you can't get more Dream Street than that!
