Whilst in Berlin I visited the studio of Evelyne Laube and Nina Wehrle of It's Raining Elephants illustration duo, and friends, all of whom occupy a lovely old building in east Berlin called The Heikonaut. The Heikonaut is also studio space to other artists, graphic designers, fashion designers, and illustrators. It used to be a former children's nursery, the present nursery has moved next door, and so The Heikonaut comes with lots of room, and outdoor garden space in which to grow vegetables, and to either work or play in, as well.
I was given a warm welcome by Evelyne, I had missed Nina the day before as she had to leave for Amsterdam, and immediately we got talking and found we had lots to talk about. I had brought portfolio samples of the work I have done in college so far, and she was really interested to see it, and liked it a lot. Evelyne has done many beautiful etchings, and she told me about a lovely print studio in Berlin called Bethanie. They have a print studio in the basement at the Heikonaut, where they can do proper hands-on printmaking, silkscreening etc. Evelyne and Nina take on many different types of projects, and seem to approach them all open-mindedly, so that their work is exciting and varied and vibrant, you can see their work here. Evelyne and Nina studied together in Lucerne, and they both did a year of exchange study in Prague and Leipzig respectively, before deciding to work together and open up a studio together. Now they work between Lucerne and Berlin. I loved the animation that they have done, Der Kleinere Raum, in collaboration with Cristobal Leon, which I think was shown at Illustrative 09 exhibition in Berlin. I was introduced to other artists as Evelyne showed me around, and she was kind enough to invite me for lunch, a friendly communal event in their cosy kitchen, which was lovely. It was all in all a good experience for me, so three cheers for It's Raining Elephants!
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