OBNOXIOUS OWL: PECHE

I have lived in Western Australia for exactly 2 years and 5 months now. It has the reputation for being isolated and somewhat 'backwards' according to it's Eastern State countrymen. Well I am here to tell you that they know fuck all. This place is a thriving melting pot of artistic talent and ambitious, creative souls. I kind of feel sorry for Perth in a way, because just as it is about to take off then every bugger leaves for a bigger city. Now in the time I have been here I have been a lucky enough lady to have met quite a few budding talents and uber creative individuals. And individual they certainly are. Take my new friend Dipesh for example, the founder and creator of Peche designs. He has taken on the immense task of producing 30 designs within 30 days...just because. All whilst working and creating other projects as well as living in a house share with a bunch of party animals. I love art. And I love young artists. Mainly because 'wanky' art is overrated and young guns know how to 'keep it real' - so to speak. If this is what someone as young as Peche is delivering now, I think we have a great future ahead of us. Please read on and take a look at exactly the kind of fucking freshness we are dealing with here..

Q: THIS 30 DAY DESIGN THING IS AN AMBITIOUS UNDERTAKING...YET YOU SEEM TO BE DOING IT LIKE IT IS THE EASIEST THING IN THE WORLD, WHAT IS THE STORY BEHIND IT?

A: I wanted to set a challenge for myself that would keep me motivated and inspired where I had to force myself to design something new each day, I'm pretty busy so its gonna be interesting for me to see what I can come up with, especially on days that I don't have time to actually sit down and create something, which was the intention, and also seeing what I am able create with whatever I have access to on the day. It could be something as simple as drawing a sketch on a napkin at the pub. Also most designers find it hard finding a substantial amount of work to put in their folio so I thought this would also be a good way to produce alot of work within a short period of time. Some will be good, some pretty crap but at least at the end of the month I'll have 30 new pieces...

Q: WHERE ARE YOU DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM? JUST MANDATORY RUN IN'S OR ARE THERE SOME SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET WHERE YOU USE ART AS A FORM OF RELEASE?

A: Nah nothing overly planned for it, I just see what pops into mind on the particular day, day 4 for example we had a block of of cheese in the fridge and I didn't wanna throw it away ( cheese is expensive!) so I thought I'd see what I could make out of it so there is no real intelligent process ha ha. On day 5 I cut myself with scissors so I painted a pair of bloody scissors. Some days I'll get a real rad concept though and as I'm working on it it changes along the way till at the end something created that was totally unintentional.

Q: WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE MEDIUM TO WORK WITH?

A: Illustration would probably be my first love, I love working with the combination of pencil felt tip pen and Indian ink together.

Q: KUDOS ON WINNING THE T SHIRT DESIGN FOR TRIPLE J...TELL US ABOUT THAT.....

A: Ah thank ya! Yeah the Triple J thing was spun out, I kinda just entered it without even reading it properly then after I submitted it realised the theme was 'TRIPLE IT' so I was like 'Um the hand design holding up 3 fingers kinda implies 'triple it' I guess...(if they ask, that's what I'll tell them) but yeah I kinda just entered and forgot about it then 2 weeks later they called and told me I'd won it which I was obviously stoked with. The tee should be in all ABC stores and Triple J outlets Australia wide by the end of the month I think.

Q: THERE IS OBVIOUSLY ALOT OF RAW TALENT GOING ON HERE, HOW MUCH FORMAL TRAINING HAVE YOU HAD AS WELL?

A: My background is fine art but then I branched out into graphic design and just recently into photography. I got an art scholarship for high school, this meant me going to school on Saturdays to do art (I went to school 6 days a week until year 12 which sucked!) Then from there studying graphic design at Tafe and Curtin University.

Q: WHAT ARTISTS ARE GRABBING YOUR ATTENTION RIGHT NOW?

A: Hmm I always look out for stuff done by Usugrow, Si Scott & Jeremy Fish, anything those dudes put out I absolutely love.

Q: 'DIPESH PRASAD' AIN'T YOUR FAIR DINKUM AUSSIE NAME, WHATS YOUR HERITAGE AND WHAT DO YOU LIKE ABOUT LIVING IN AUS? WESTERN AUSTRALIA IN PARTICULAR...

A: He He yeah I'm from Fiji. Dipesh actually means 'light' (sunlight) in Fijian. We moved over to Perth when I was 6 and I love it. Australia's awesome. Such a chilled, laid back place, anywhere I go it'll only take me a matter of weeks and I will end up missing Perth and want to come back home again.

Q: WHAT ARE THE MOST PLAYED TUNES ON YOUR IPOD AT THIS CURRENT TIME?

A: 'Foreign exchange - Leave It All Behind' is on constant repeat, and I'm still cranking 'Jay Z - Blueprint 3' and 'Joe Budden - The Escape Route'.

Q: ANY THOUGHTS ON DOING AN OWL? IT IS THE DOPEST BIRD AROUND AFTER ALL ;)

A: Well I have been drawing alot of birds lately. I dunno why. I'm actually doing a collab with a local fashion designer (Eve of Adam) who is awesome. She's won awards for her dresses at Perth Fashion Week this year and has mad talent. Our collab "BIRDS DONT LIKE LACES" will come out in a few weeks, cant give too much away but Im on a bit of a bird trip now so I'd definitely be open to doing an owl piece soon. Ill try and fit it into one of the 30days for ya.