This is a weekly series where we feature our incredibly talented Adolescent members and their work! Sign up here to join the Adolescent Membership and be part of the @ family!

Hey, Adolescent readers! This week, we want to introduce you to Lena Tuck—a Melbourne-born multimedia artist now living in Toronto. Through digital illustration and more traditional mediums, Lena uses shapes and patterns common of the ‘80s and ‘90s to tell stories between space and composition. We talked to Lena about her project #MagazinesThatDontExist, how being a comedy writer plays into her art, and why she opts to never define her work as distinctly feminine.

Adolescent Content: You’re from Melbourne but are currently living in Toronto! What prompted the move? And how has it impacted your artwork, if at all?

Lena Tuck: I moved to Toronto kind of on a whim. I took the I'm-going-to-quit-my job-to-travel-and-see-what happens route, which ended up only semi-working out. Now I live in Toronto! I think it's definitely impacted my art. Getting outside of your usual surroundings is always healthy for creating new things. I can't say specifically what it's done for my art, but I definitely feel more open toward my art.

Adolescent: Tell me about #MagazinesThatDontExist!

Lena: #MagazinesThatDontExist stemmed from wanting to explore comedy writing. I've always been very interested in the segmentation between what media portrays versus reality. My reality has been anything but what magazines show, and I wanted to create a world of ridiculous magazines—not just centered on body image but all areas of life to show the frivolity of their statements. I definitely want to explore this more. Actually, I just created an Instagram filter for the first time which I’m very excited about! 

Adolescent: Your doodles feature a lot of geometric shapes and patterns, which you describe as having been popularized in the ’80s and ’90s. What drew you to that?

Lena: I've been thinking a lot about the ‘80s and ‘90s style in my work, and I think it comes from the cheesiness of those eras which I do find funny. Especially advertisements from that time. 

Adolescent: You’re also a comedy writer, which is so cool. What have you done in that department? How does that play into your art?

Lena: The comedy writing thing kind of came about organically. I’ve always been interested in writing, but honestly it hasn't gone far beyond my Instagram page or my very small travel blog that I rarely update. I definitely want to go further with it. At the moment I'm looking at ways to converge these two and intertwine it within my art—similar to the magazinesthatdontexist series, or working it into a YouTube channel or something. 

Adolescent: Do you define your work as distinctly feminine?

Lena: Definitely not. I think in some aspects my work is feminine, like when it comes to drawing leg hair or discussing. Honestly, though, I'm just a real person living their real life with loud colors. So if you relate to it, no matter who you are, then it's for you.