ELLE BERT

Elle Bert is an artist and comedian, which is to say she has chosen two professions universally beloved and chronically underpaid — the kind of work people claim they couldn't live without, right before they ask if you'll do it for exposure. She is, despite this, thriving.

As a child, Elle was told she had a gift for colourful language. She took this literally, and honestly, who wouldn't. It does sound beautiful. It sounds like something you'd stumble across in a particularly good museum, or at the very least walk past in a gift shop and think seriously about before deciding it was too expensive. That adults were using it as a euphemism for swearing was information nobody thought to share with her, which says rather more about the adults than it does about Elle.

She has since made it her life's work to prove the literal interpretation correct. Her paintings are loud, bright, and absolutely full of words — the kind of thing that makes you feel something before you've had a chance to decide whether you're the sort of person who should. There are smoking skulls. There are dirty puns. There are icons drinking. There is Patsy Stone, which tells you everything you need to know about Elle's priorities, and it is meant as the highest possible praise.

No matter what is in her hand — a microphone, a paintbrush, or a can of spray paint — Elle Bert is saying exactly what she thinks. Most people can't manage this even once, on a good day, after a drink. Elle does it for a living.