Propped on a sofa and illuminated by natural sunlight, beneath several planters dripping with lush foliage, four large canvases lie in wait, hungry to be consumed by more wandering eyes.

In her cosy studio on a blistering winter day, Lisa Falzon is working on her upcoming exhibition, Coca-cola Swimming Pool. The six-piece collection, while humble in size, marks a departure from a lot of Falzon’s previous work, bringing more vibrant and contemporary pieces to the table.

A working artist for 15 years, Falzon has been known for her dreamy and serene digital illustrations, gracing many a book cover with her work, as well as a bespoke jewellery brand – pieces she smiths herself in silver. All of her artistic endeavours have amassed her a rather large online following over the years, and for a long time it was where she conducted most of her business.

Since shutting down her old brand however, Falzon has been eager to create more for herself rather than for the curated needs of her brand.

“When you present yourself online you have to be cohesive and for ages that was my print brand because it was my main source of income... I had to sell these prints so they all had to look the same,” Falzon says.

I wanted it to be like a fantasy with a visual joke

“I felt such a disconnect between the work I was showing the world and the work I was making for myself,” she continues. “So I got myself a new job. I make jewellery most of the day. The art I want to make has no interest in being commercial, it’s stuff that I think is cool, stuff that I think is more relevant and more me.”

Inspired by old Japanese cartoons, Coca-cola Swimming Pool is very much a fantasy world that blends a nostalgia for childhood with the more morose elements of growing up, a loss of love and growing up into a world that doesn’t quite fit the ideals that the innocence of childhood promised.

“We really like sugar when we’re kids and a Coca-cola Swimming Pool was kind of those things you daydreamed about as a child,” Falzon says. “I wanted it to be like a fantasy with a visual joke, a love that has soured.”

“When you grow up you fall out of love with that fantasy, so there you are, walking away holding a lemon.”

Her largest canvas, Dream Date 1998, took three weeks to complete and is a sprawling ode to magical girls and going on adventures in a bright neon city.

“I was thinking about a more traditional date,” Falzon says of the piece, “that’s a fantasy that I didn’t have in the 1990s, but it’s trying to capture the idea of going on a date with one of these magical girls and it being a candy, dreamy fantasy.”

All the pieces, which feature all female figures, seek to strike that balance between the fun and colourful structure of the exterior, where the fantasy reigns in the neon streetscapes and buildings, with the more serious undertones of the fantasy growing into a world not equipped for such ideals.

“That’s pretty much the song of our era,” Falzon says.

“It’s the mix of nostalgia with seriousness. Millennials have inherited a bit of a situation with the planet, and it’s cast adrift in like this technological almost nightmare. So there’s this desire for this something old fashioned.”

Falzon’s hopes for the exhibition aren’t grand, as selling them isn’t really the goal, sending her bright and contemporary new pieces out into the world seems like a right of passage on a new era of passion projects.

“Not having any expectations for a show is a first for me,” Falzon says. “I think it’s just going to be interesting to see them in a different context.”

Coca-cola Swimming Pool is opening tomorrow at Cafe Society in Valletta. For more information visit Lisa Falzon on Facebook.  

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