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Kumi Henden

Hey, house it going?

“Hey, house it going?” is my interpretation of the quirky, lively and artistic environment of the North End. After living in the North End for several years, I have come to know the neighbourhood intimately. In contrast to other parts of the city, I found it carries a very distinct flavour that I can only represent through illustration. To emphasize quirkiness, humanoid-house people populate the piece engaged in various activities. That ranges from eating a delicious donut to playing a saxophone solo. Aside from this, the house people serve another purpose. That is to allow the viewers to identify with them based on the personality they are expressing rather than a physical likeness. To capture the liveliness of the neighbourhood, I implemented a bright saturated colour palette.

Image Description

The setting of the piece takes place during the daytime, outdoors, next to a mural. At the top, a pink house and a green house are painting the mural featured in the background. The green house is attached to a harness for support, whereas the pink house is flying with their yellow rocket-powered boots. Both houses are wearing white shirts and jeans. The art in the mural features an outer space background decorated with multicoloured stars and a giant red hand located at the top right corner holding a string. On the bottom, there are three houses next to one another. The very left house is red, wearing a white button-up shirt consuming a vanilla doughnut with green frosting and rainbow sprinkles. The eyes are heart-shaped windows, and the mouth is a blank and dark blue. It is prepared to consume the doughnut. The one in the middle, and a little off to the distance, is a dark blue house wearing a tangerine-coloured long sleeve, army green pants, carrying a purple backpack stuffed with bread. It has an orange door for a mouth, its eyes are asymmetrical windows, and it has heart-shaped clouds exiting its chimney. At the very right is a light blue house, wearing a fluffy bubblegum pink sweater and playing the saxophone.

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