Wave ─ A Journey Through the Sea of Imagination for the Adventurous Colorist

This unique coloring book unfolds to reveal a fantastical dream-like sequence--perfect for the novice or connoisseur colorist.

Shantell Martin’s work is a meditation of lines; a language of characters, creatures and messages that invite viewers to share a role in her creative process. Part autobiographical and part dreamlike whimsy, Martin has created her own world that bridges fine art and the everyday experience--conversations, objects, and places.

For the first time, her extraordinary work is presented in an accordion format book that unfolds to a nine-foot panel featuring a continuous but ever-changing illustration. A daring colorist--using fine tipped or brush-tipped markers or colored pencils--can then transform this remarkable drawing in ways that are limited only by imagination.

But this singular book also provides a blank canvas--on the reverse side--where anyone can create their own visionary work from scratch using whatever materials they wish--inspired or in response to Shantell’s intriguing and mysterious images.

Shantell Martin is a graduate of Central Saint Martins, London, one of the world’s leading centers for art and design education. She lived and worked in Japan as a performance artist for five years before moving to New York in 2008, where she has made a rapid ascent into the art world. Her collaborations with prominent commercial brands, as well as with bespoke luxury partners like 3×1 denim, Suno, and Jaw Bone quickly drew a fine art and commercial audience.

Martin’s hand-illustrated bedroom walls graced the cover of the New York Times home section and her work has appeared in Creative Review Magazine, People, Mass Appeal, California Home & Design, and Vie among other publications. She was named French Glamour’s “New York’s coolest it girl” in 2011. Her fashion and lifestyle collaboration with Kelly Wearstler was featured in Vogue, T Magazine, and 1st dibs. Martin’s art commissions include an interior installation at the Viacom headquarters in Times Square, New York, a window for the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, and a custom installation for the Brown Institute for Media Innovation at Pulitzer Hall, Columbia University. She regularly creates live digital drawings at conferences, musical performances, and museums including the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Moving Image and MoMA.

Martin has been a visiting scholar at MIT Media Lab and is also an adjunct professor at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (Tisch School of the Arts, NYU). She spends time as a volunteer with schools and organizations like Apple Arts and Manhattan Apparel Project where she teaches kids to unleash their imaginations through drawing. She has also collaborated with amfAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, in its fundraising and awareness campaigns. She lives in New York.