Big eyes and enormous heads have become the new fashion in today’s art.
Television shows like The Walking Dead, The Vampire Diaries and movies like Twilight have influenced the 21 century and our Artists.
Dolls, homemade plush creatures and even My Little Pony have all been reinvented to support a larger set of eyes. Bratz dolls and a variety of stuffed animals pull at your heart strings while making you feel oddly uncomfortable.
Today we are all about the morbid; added to this is a sense of humor and the confusing feeling we experience as we try to interpret the nightmare combined with a soft and fuzzy bunny. This is the new element added to the big eyed art of today.
Looking back in history the closest artist to represent the morbid of today was illustrator and writer Edward Gorey. In 1963 the alphabet took on a whole new meaning as Gorey wrote about the untimely deaths of children. This dark humor story “The Gashlycrumb Tinies” has now become a cult classic.
Sad or big eyes are nothing new to the art world and no one particular artist in recent history invented the concept. We could however credit Margaret Keane or the many other artists who in the late 60s and 70s initiated an explosive big eye fad.
My ideas are influenced by the times and by today’s culture. Tim Burton can clearly be seen as an influence in my art, and Margaret Keane has influenced Tim Burton. Burton collected Keane's work and had featured it in his films Beetlejuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas.
In 2013 Tim Burton announced he was making a film about Margaret Keane entitled Big Eyes.
Each artist including myself offers their own style to the creepy cute or big eyed art of today.
I try to find the balance of cute and a little creepy without crossing those boundaries into blood and gore. I add a little humor and my ultimate goal is to create art in a unique style that will generate a smile from a unique audience. If I can achieve that, I have my reward.
