We couldn’t resist these new collaborative tea towels from local lifestyle store and purveyors of design-driven wares, Poketo + Los Angeles-based illustrator Mel Kadel.
Kadel—who’s originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania—works largely in pen, pencil, ink, and blades on a signature, Goonies map-esque treated paper. Her work is beautifully playful and subtly colorful, often depicting stoically powerful looking female figures dressed in vibrant patterns and busy at various odd tasks like holding up ducking, shooting rays of bubbles from their hands, and/or diving from walls of colored ribbons.
Kadel’s work has appeared in publications including Juxtapoz, The New Yorker, and LA Times Magazine and she’s currently in the midst of a solo exhibition—“Sky’s Eyes”—at Highland Park’s Slow Culture gallery. The show runs through October.
Tea towels available from Poketo in-store or online; Mel also sells hand-painted prints, postcards, and totes through her own site.
