Angelica Hicks

“Everything has been growing super organically, to the point where I never thought I would be doing this right now. I thought this was something that gave me some enjoyment whilst writing my thesis and working on my exams. I never thought I would be able to graduate university obtain an artist visa to go to New York City and be able to freelance straight out of University. This is kind of super incredible.”

“I always had to draw my grandparents and my parents for Christmas. I remember them telling me: ‘Don’t buy us something, make us something.’ But it’s thanks to my sister’s 18th birthday party that I really started drawing again. I didn’t have a present for her and I also had no money. I wrote her a cautionary tale inspired by Hilaire Belloc’s book. It was ironic and funny. That was a year and a month ago.”

“My grandfather on my English side was a interior designer called David Hicks. He was very extremely opinionated.”

“My kind of only real memory of him was he wanting to get rid of all the daffodils in his garden because they were ‘hideous’ and a complete eye sore. He was quite happy driving over them with the car and destroying that apparent vulgar yellow - yet it was a colour he actually used before. He was funny because he was just such a character and I think that actually maybe feeds into my exaggeration of characters. Like the characters you can see in the animation: They are exaggerations of the world today. They have components of everyone; if you merge the Blond Salad and Man Repeller and Brian boy you do end up with a ridiculous character. ”

“When I was 15 and I rejected art I was sort of convinced I was going to be a banker. I had had enough of this creative BS and people expecting me to do something creative. I mean what did they know? I told myself I was going to do finance. I did economics for IB.

“Still when I went to University I did Art History but thinking I could maybe do a conversion course and become a lawyer. Anyway here I am, with an artist visa, in New York City.” she laughs.

“I see (style) as a pun complimented by a drawing. I don’t know if it’s the right way to define it but it’s almost as though the drawing is secondary to the text.

“I try to look at fashion and popular culture in a very simple way. My posts about Anna Wintour as “Band-Anna”, “Alexander Fang” or “Derek Blas-Burger”, are so simple and easy but you never think about that. I guess I take things very literally. I play on the literal meaning of the words.

“Ideas come in different ways, I don’t actively search for ideas. I don’t force myself. I never really find forced jokes that funny I do walk around a lot. You know… advertisements: You don’t actively look at them but you take it in. The stream of popular culture and references that you are exposed to all day, everyday is humongous. You only have to feed into those ideas. I always keep a Moleskine in my bag and I can start doodling in the tube. - I once drew in an airport terminal too - People get a little creeped out sometimes.”

Angelica Hicks is an obvious passion for words and humour, armed with a sense of distance and freedom and un-spoiled by years of art school and technique perfecting. She has fun doing what she does and she doesn’t force anything. She is as funny, witty and smart as you would expect her to be. Her work was purely led by an instinct and a talent, and this succession of posts, which, exposed by this amazing global platform that is Instagram, made it possible to blossom.