Do you ever feel like your life is overwhelmingly complex, unpredictable and out of control? Well do not fret, for @nonsensebymandi’s humorous paintings of animals and relatable phrases are here to offer you a bit of support. After the whirlwind that was covid, New Zealand-based artist and graphic designer Mandi decided to switch out waterpainting for quirky, cheeky and imperfect artworks – a true representation of life. Our special feature from Mandi in this month of frankie fellows is of two doggies Milo and Guilbert, all rugged up in their colourful raincoats – could it seriously get any cuter? We love that Mandi combines the comfort and simplicity of animal life with the complexity of the human experience. It is joyous, funny, and most definitely real.

In this winter weather, we have never related more to Milo and Guilbert. One bowl of warm tomato soup, coming right up!

Tell us the story behind your artwork that is featured as a frankie poster.
I live in Christchurch, where the summers can be very hot and dry. When I painted this picture, weeks of absolutely stifling heat had just ended with some rain and I was so pleased.

I’m originally from Finland and my partner is from the UK and we really love that kind of weather now that it has become a novelty. I think I just really projected us having a cozy time in the winter onto this piece. There is also a sequel to this where they eat the soup.

What initially drew you to painting cheeky cats and dogs?
I have been drawing and painting my whole life but I always did photorealism. The whole Nonsense by Mandi thing came about after the pandemic, when everything felt (and still feels) so unpredictable, scary and sad. I had been painting these photorealistic watercolour birds at the time but I just couldn’t concentrate to that level anymore. It felt like the act of painting was taking more than it was giving.
I had been reading Nat’s What I Reckon’s book where he had written these new takes on wall-hanging sayings like “Good vibes only” that would then be “Complex vibes only”. They were very funny and on-point with how I was feeling so I decided to paint some characters to go with them. They were all very naive looking and badly-painted but it actually gave them a lot of character. They made me laugh, so I showed some to a few friends and they also laughed. It felt like there was an audience for this kind of stuff so I just kind of carried on.

I love animals and I see endless humour in their actions. The entire project has been very experimental and intuitive so I can’t say I consciously really chose anything. It’s been very liberating because for the first time in my life I just made something that was of me, rather than trying to be somebody else's idea of what good is. I stopped caring what people were going to think about my art, and it turns out a lot of people actually really like that. I feel I’m being authentically myself for the first time in my life.

How do you maintain the humour in your art when the world feels gloomy?
Oh God, if you’re not laughing, you’re crying! The whole experience of being alive is completely absurd, and I lean into that whenever I feel like the world is too much.

I also find that the more frustrated, angry or sad I feel, the more creative my swearing gets – to everyone’s entertainment. It’s like some sort of poetry in the pain

What comes first – the characters in your paintings or the scenes they appear in?
It’s a mix. Lately I’ve been painting our neighbourhood’s free-range dogs, who are all big personalities. Those were definitely character-first. Most of the time it's just a feeling I want to convey and in that it's usually the expressions that mean the most. I’d love to tell you there’s a process but I really don’t plan what I do a lot. I might do a couple of 15 second sketches and then just move onto paint. I find the act of doing rather than thinking about it too much creates the best and the worst outputs. I just don’t publish the really crappy ones.

If you could be one of the characters in any of your paintings, which would it be and why?
Great question. I project myself onto my characters a lot so there’s a lot that were me on various days. I would say I aspire to be the capybara doing international drug-trafficking with a mini-me because it really feels like a liberated vibe. In reality, I’m 100 per cent the bear with a wine having an existential crisis in “L is for life”. I feel like a lot of people can see themselves in that bear in 2025.

How do you get over creative blocks?
My day job is graphic design and I have been coming up with creative stuff for a living for well over a decade. Honestly, having to pay bills always kept the creative juices going, so through circumstances I’ve learnt to self motivate.

It’s the empty paper that’s the worst. Once you put something on it and make a thing exist, you can always make it better later on. I also write sentences down when I stumble upon something that could maybe be funny or cute. When I feel like I want to paint, I look at what madness I’ve written down and something usually forms up.

Is there any animal, character or scene that you’re dying to paint next?
I had written down “A pair of furious tits”, so probably some angry birds.
I have also been trying to paint our neighbour’s dog, Tintin, who is a rescue and had a rough time in his original home. He merely tolerates people because of this but absolutely loves dogs. He’s been known to run a bit of a dog mafia in the neighbourhood and corrupting everybody’s pooches, which is the funniest thing considering Tintin is a 13-year-old fox terrier and weighs about 6kg. I just don’t really know how to paint him yet and I can’t even get a photo of him for reference as every time he sees me in the distance, he gives me a look of utter disgust and trots away. Which is totally fine by the way, his owners are wonderful people and have provided him an amazing, loving life. He can hate me all he wants if that makes him feel safe. You set those boundaries li’l buddy.

Where can we find you?
You can find me on instagram @nonsensebymandi. I post pretty sporadically but maybe one day I will get more organised and make more of it. After all, the reason I chose the name Nonsense by Mandi is because I would love to create a perfume with that name. Not sure how my art is going to escalate to a perfume but it's important to have dreams.