We’ve all had that moment, staring into the mirror at that goddamned bright red splotch absolutely ruining your perfect complexion, and wondering why the universe had to go and do this to you… and today of all days.
It may have, in fact, seemed like the end of the world. Illustrator Juliette Toma apparently also had many of these moments as a young girl. As it turns out, the more she stared through an artistic lens, the more she came to realize: this is really funny.
Juliette likes to depict bright oddities in which she finds humor. From burlesque girls with big noses and crazy frames, to Pepto-Bismol paired with raining Cheetos, every bit of her work is effortlessly cool, while still able to make you giggle. And this reaction is precisely what she hopes you’ll feel, as she presents those things which, as she puts it, “make [her] life a little more colorful and fun.”
The now twenty-five-year-old Burbank native is a sweet, poised, clear-skinned lady, living in the heart of East Los Angeles. She invited me to her home in Highland Park and greeted me at her entryway with a smiling visage framed by short blond hair, dressed in a red and white polka-dotted blouse. We chatted about her inspirations for painting and collage, what it was like schooling at the Art Center College of Design, growing up in LA, and how to take life just a bit less seriously.
Read our full feature on Juliette Toma in upcoming issue 13, out January 20th, and available for pre-order here. 
