I’m pleasantly surprised I was able to pull this off, and by that I just mean reach a stage where there’s really nothing left to do.
I think I won’t say anything about it. It seems so rife for possible interpretations, as were the last two. Anyone wanna’ take a crack at it? Don’t go much by the title. It’s a song that was playing while I was making this, and I liked the title, and it connected. That’s about as much as one can read that into it. I think. They are monsters.
In this one and the next one (come back in a day or two), I allowed myself to be a bit more wacky and introduce a bit of humor.
Nah, I haven’t really made a conscious decision to say less, I just finished this within my self-imposed time constraints, and it’s early in the morning, and I’m punchy.
However, this is where I seem to like to throw in a rant. I just want to say something general about my objective in this sort of piece. It’s a striving to discover an image I haven’t seen. Little details can intrigue me about a painting. In this one the mechanical looking yellow hair that’s part of a hollowed outer husk of a head is enough. I’ve just never seen THAT particular thing before. I also rather like that the eyes are as if they are in glass bulbs.
One other peculiar thing, is that I think that center guy looks like me, which would make this some sort of self-parody. Obviously he doesn’t physically look like me, except something in the character, as in a caricature when a particular sweep of the pen captures the unique furrow of a brow of a politician. Of course it also looks like Ren (of Ren & Stimpy), and Eddie (mascot of Iron Maiden), and some old comics or something. And a preying mantis. It definitely smacks of the ridiculous, especially the SFB. Anyone guess what that stands for?
Cheers
Here’s all 10 pieces in the series so far in a slideshow.
Or, if you prefer, you can see them in a click-through gallery:
To see other posts about other pieces in this series, go here.
Thanks for checking out my art and my blog. Check back in a few days to see what’s next.
~ Ends
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Art & Crit by Eric Wayne 
Shit for brains? He is being spoon fed a bunch of crap?
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Shit for brains is right, because they both ended up with a pile on their heads. But, the one guy isn’t being spoon fed crap. It’s white or pinkish white. I more likely see the contents of the spoon as a drug, like coke, which might explain their eyes. If you put the whole title together man is a monster when he has shit for brains. Though, certainly an intelligent person can be diabolical, but I’d count that use of intelligence as shitty. None of it is very literal though. The interpretation isn’t important to me. It’s just the general impact or effect of the image as a thing, an aesthetic thing for one, and a manifestation of a certain peculiar angle of vision as another. I think the last three images look like they could have been made by an insane person. This is partly because I’m not seeing the need to be expressly rational here (as much as I’m addicted to objective reasoning). I’m searching for something unusual, and the best approach for me here may not be to go at it from a more studied, coherent, reasonable approach or goal.
Oh, wait a second. Coke is a shitty drug and the spoon contents are in the shape of a pile. I didn’t even notice that until you pointed it out. I think there are a lot of possible readings and layers of readings (why is the main guy and guy within a guy?), but I don’t necessarily make them intentionally or worry overmuch about them. I do try to avoid interpretations that I don’t like, however. For example, given the prevalence of identity politics out there, I have to be very careful to not making anything that can be misconstrued as racist or sexist. This is one of the reasons I use monster and aliens instead of people. The other is I love monsters and aliens and they are great stand ins for people.
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That’s really funny, immediately thought “why’s Eric painted himself?” – glad you see it too. Don’t get to see aliens being goofy very often. Another great addition.
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Thanks, man. Yeah, I’m not really sure why that alien cretin reminds me of myself, I think it’s the hair, though I don’t have that long of hair anymore. Used to. Maybe the overall look somehow. Anyway, I don’t know if I need to say this, but I hardly consider myself a monster at all. But I do think that we need to recognize the potential in all of us, and our potential for stupidity. Thanks for following the series. If this one were music, I think it would be the loudest one.
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Man is always a monster, or an animal, even if he is intelligent. He just needs to be put in a bad situation to bring it out. With a few very good people as exceptions to the rule. I don’t even know what I would do under terrible circumstances. I like to think I would be one of the good ones but humans never cease to amaze me at their cruelty. I wonder how historians get through the day. Maybe these 2 monsters are history professors and the massacre of Nanking was the last straw. They decided to do drugs and live in a world of illusion.
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I’m glad to hear you voice that opinion, Matt. I agree with your feeling about humans. I think the ability to realize ones own potential for evil is to realize the general underlying potential for evil that the human psyche possesses. Those who deny this in themselves are the more likely to project it onto others, scapegoat them, and then ironically mete out the “justice” that is punishment, torture, and killing: to act out evil in the name of eradicating evil. You can see this blinding hypocrisy everywhere, and on both extremes of the polarized political spectrum in America.
I clearly remember the irony of fighting “terrorism” with “shock and awe”. Nowadays we label people as Nazis, fascists, white supremacists and the whole range of epithets if they merely disagree with the foregone conclusions of identity politics and political correctness. Someone is a “misogynist” if they didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton, meanwhile it is “impossible” for blacks to be racist. Everyone seems to have an evil “other” who is the embodiment of all that is wrong with the world, and an excuse for absolving themselves of all wrong, or even the potential of doing wrong. Thus you have the author of the hash tag “killallwhitemen” saying that a woman of color cannot be a racist or sexist, and believing it. And on the other side, there are those that refuse to acknowledge the historical reasons for “radical Islamic terrorism”, who then just insist it is the fault of Islam, and has nothing to do with sanctions, occupation, colonialization, and full-scale wars and their aftermath… It’s all about branding someone else as evil, whoever that is.
If people are serious about fighting evil, I suggest they start with the evil in themselves, and if they are denying that it exists in themselves, at least potentially, than they are like people who insist that they don’t dream at night.
Ah, crap, I went on a rant. Sorry, man. I’ve got another rant bottled up inside about “belief” that I might blog about.
Anyway, I also like your second interpretation, and am pleased that the image can generate multiple interpretations.
Cheers
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It is easier to blame someone for your problems. Me I blame the muppets for all of my problems, except beaker, and chef of course. But the rest of those furry little bastards better be lookin out for me. I totally agree with you people should first look at themselves. I also think for me it helps to try to put myself in the other persons shoes and try to see where they’re coming from. That’s not always easy. Another thing I realized is if people have a lot of anger it’s probably for a reason even if I don’t understand it, the anger is real and what can we do do fix it. Look at that you might have yourself a political painting Mccarthy would approve of, and now I’m on a rant. Kermit if your reading this you better watch your back, because I’m comin!
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