I’m Carla, a smiler, daydreamer and doodler from Derby or more seriously, a freelance illustrator, community artist and the indie biz owner of Love Lalaland - a colourful world, where anything is possible! My colourful designs and happy things are made for colour lovers who like Kawaii style and cartoon-like fun to spread good vibes. Everything is created in my home studio, called the Doodle Den. My sketchbook explodes with a rainbow of ideas, that turn into stationery, homewares, prints, accessories and personalised gifts, all handmade with #LalalandLove.

Fringe Arts Bath - The Art of the Doodle

Fringe Bath Arts Festival 24 May - 9 June 2024
Positive Path to Lalaland Love
2021
Acrylic paint and Posca pens on canvas
50cm x 20cm portrait
'The Art of the Doodle' exhibition at Fringe Bath Arts invites you to explore ways in which doodling can become a part of your life, even if you don’t consider yourself an 'artist'. 

The exhibition showcased ten artists, whose work and practice have been inspired or influenced by doodling in different ways.
Exhibition statement​​​​​​​
Doodling is a form of expressing myself, showing my true personality with the freedom of the fluid line and embracing my perfectly imperfect drawing style. The creative mix of bold strokes, bright colours and cartoon-like fun has always appealed to me being a big kid at heart and never wanting to grow up.
I make doodle art about real people and my favourite places to create scenarios where the impossible CAN happen. All the walls have ears, the trees are listening and the buildings watch over you and everyone is happy all of the time.
What if a donut could dance or a sausage could speak? I make the ordinary, extraordinary!
Each quirky character is unique celebrating their awesomeness and positive energy to inspire confidence in others and each location has a current or historical background element celebrating diversity, happiness and positivity.
I’m influenced by pop culture, Japanese Kawaii style and comics as well as a keen interest in street art especially character design. I will doodle anywhere and everywhere whether it’s digital drawing on my iPad, on scribbling on sticky notes in a meeting or painting large murals on buildings and underpasses that’s why it’s good to have my sketchbook handy in case an idea pops into my head. 
I create doodle art as a fun form of storytelling, firstly a special setting or happy place, include some quirky characters in the plot, which reaches an exciting climax before finishing on a positive resolution. My special signature mark is that I appear in doodle form in every piece of artwork I produce, can you spot me? 
This artwork is based on the crazy Covid world that we all found ourselves living in together and the hope of a brighter future.
The story begins when we all stayed at home and how we adapted to the ‘new normal’ and started to enjoy the little things in life, like taking up a new hobby, baking, reading, the endless zoom chats, working from home and looking after our mental health.
The rainbow represents hope and signifies the symbol of our NHS heroes and key workers who carried on working throughout the pandemic to provide essential care and services.
Daily exercise and outdoor areas became our sanctuary and we started to notice and appreciate nature’s beauty in our local areas during these uncertain times the rollercoaster symbolises the up and downs a lot of us were going through.
Then there’s the light at the end of the tunnel when places we enjoyed visiting were open and we could all be together again in restaurants, pubs, theatres, nightclubs and do that one special thing that we all missed… hugging our friends and family we haven’t seen in a very long time.
So here’s a little reminder to keep going, have hope and enjoy the little things.
↑Back to Top