Saturday, December 14, 2013

Look at these fucking images!




These are all so charming and beautiful.  I love them.  I love that this artist decided to pair these children's toy robots with donuts.  Both symbols are so carefree, playful and youthful.  I love that these toys are alive, that they move and do things.  Every kid with a doll or an action figure gives their toys life, makes them animated.  Here that reality is realized.  Not only that, the robots here all love donuts. Those high-caloric, energy inducing, lovely doughy circles that are covered in sugar.  Donuts are a perfect example of the forbidden fruit of childhood, they're a treat your parents will always regret giving to you.  The fact that these robots, when given life, pursue donuts is so beautiful.

These paintings don't derive their power from all the carefree childhood associations in them. Rather, they are powerful because they strike a nice balance between simplicity and the complexity that adults tend to appreciate.  The backgrounds in these paintings are all very beautiful, but they're not a kind of beautiful that would hold a child's attention.  They are calm, idyllic, and lush.  Their mood reminds me of impressionistic paintings, like Monet's water lilies.  These are aesthetic values that adults' appreciate.

Adults also appreciate the complexity of the robots' thoughts and movements.  These robots are children's toys, but they act like adults.  They appreciate aesthetics, as evidenced by the one painting in a filed of wildflowers, and they also display some industry; they use elephants like pack mules for transporting donuts.  These robots are smart; they have greater concerns than just having fun and being kid's toys.  That makes them all the more appealing because they look like they are having fun at the same time.

I love their bright colors. I love their 50's style, the optimism of that era can be felt in every rivet of steel on their clunky bodies.  I love how these paintings make me feel like a kid and then an adult and then a kid and then finally an adult who really identifies with being a kid.  ]Eric Joyner, the artist who made these paintings, gets it.  He fucking gets it.