My name is Sophie Blackall and I am a Brooklyn based Australian illustrator of children’s books, magazine articles, cd covers, and the occasional friend’s tattoo. My Missed Connections project, which I began as a blog in early 2009, is an ongoing series of paintings based on real, anonymous messages posted online by lovelorn strangers. Reproachable eavesdropper and unflinching thief of other people’s stories, I am always on the lookout for glimpses of unexpected intimacy between strangers, which I store away as pictures in my over crowded head.

My favorite designer is Australian Akira Isogawa; his colors and patterns and shapes crop up in my drawings too. I am yet to actually own an Akira frock but I’m working on it. My favorite dress at the moment is a Victorian nightdress which I wear with Frye boots and a vintage silk sash in red, yellow and peacock blue. I like combining pretty with sturdy, and I love a sash. It always makes me feel like I’ve just won something.
Sunday Brunch in Sydney is a leisurely affair at a sidewalk café with a sea breeze and salty spray. I’m getting homesick thinking of lattes in little glasses and Turkish toast and jam and mangos…

Right now it’s Spring and I’m feeling inspired by the colored foil wrappers of Easter eggs, and Victorian scrap books, and Chinese paper lanterns and cherry blossom and vintage parasols and hand tinted photographs and old silk flowers…

You can see more of my work at

www.sophieblackall.com
and
www.missedconnectionsny.blogspot.com