Gallery of the Absurd

Gallery of the Absurd's New Line of T-Shirts

Many of you asked what would happen to Bunky the Drunken Monkey after the demise of my failed blog Circus Hour. Now I have an answer for you.  Bunky has been an evolving character of mine for over 5 years and has refined his appearance since his first incarnation as a womanizing personal injury attorney with a drinking & gambling problem.  One of my side projects in addition to creating work for Gallery of the Absurd has been creating original characters and placing them in the context of Japanese-inspired Engrish and Kawaii pop culture.

Bunky kicks off the first of my designs and many more are coming soon.  Because of legal concerns, I can't sell my celebrity illustrations as t-shirt designs, but I can sell images that may or may not be based on some of the celebrities I've featured on my blog.  In addition to several upcoming characters, look for the familiar Perky Demented Food Chipmunk and Crabby coming up next.  My Zazzle t-shirt store is rather barren at the moment, but soon it'll be stuffed to the gills.

This is how Bunky looked back in 2003. I didn't pay much attention to composition and color in those days.

Miley Cyrus Causes a Sensation By Posing Topless In Vanity Fair

I had a hard time painting 15-year old Miley Cyrus because when one stares at her for a long time, she looks like a chubby cheeked child one minute, and then seconds later, she appears as a hung-over, hard-bitten, 20-something party girl waking up in the bed of a stranger and in bad need of a shower. Do I paint her looking innocent, or do I pick up on the overt sexuality simmering through her come-hither gaze? I was never able to make a decision. I'm quite curious of your opinions about Miley's Vanity Fair photo shoot - is it kandy koated kiddie porn or simply an artistic portrayal of a young girl seeking the spotlight? Medium: liquid pencil, watercolor, acrylic, ink on paper, digital color. Larger detail here.

Meet The Cackling Bowl Cut Chimps

The easiest way to identify this curious species is by the identical bowl cut hairstyle each family member adorns itself with or by the wide-mouthed grimace they display when cackling. Despite the fact the female towers over the male, she submits to his control and has been observed taking on his hobbies, habits and interests. The male is easily agitated, excitable and aggressive toward anyone who dares to criticize his peculiar belief system. If your car breaks down on the highway, you had better hope a Cackling Bowl Cut Chimp is nearby because they're the only ones who can help. Medium: Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and Suri: liquid pencil and watercolor on paper. Palm trees: digital sketch. Original sketch shown here.

Ashlee Simpson's T-Shirt Line Has Been Redesigned

What is it with all these "celebrities" designing lines of cheap flimsy t-shirts with images of their faces splashed across the front? WHO wears this crap?? Ashlee Simpson is the latest celebufluff to "design" her own line of t-shirts with yep, her face plastered all the front. I thought I'd put my marketing background to work and redesign her t-shirts to be more appealing:

Inspired by Ashlee's image of herself performing onstage as shown on her 100% rayon Twist Back Top, this punk-inspired edgy design is a more realistic portrayal of her singing career because it's the one performance everyone remembers.

I wasn't seeing the meaning in Ashlee's Little Miss Obsessive t-shirt (50% polyester!). I might be out of the loop - perhaps it's the name of a song off her new CD? Maybe she's obsessive? Can someone please explain? Anyway, with all the chatter about Ashlee's lip collagen, I thought this tee was much more appropriate.

She actually named one of her designs the Ashlee Zebra Face Tee. You can't make this stuff up.

An homage to Daddy. This sexy t-shirt features a flirty plunging neckline to show off your assets and is made with 100% spandex to hug your curves. Please be aware that sizes run small, so order accordingly.

Say Goodbye to Circus Hour

Remember when I announced that all my newest celebrity gossip-inspired illustrations would appear on a new blog called Circus Hour? Well, scratch that. Effective today, Im coming home to Gallery of the Absurd and all my new work will be posted here.

I always enjoy indulging myself in various new experiences, but I found that I wasn't enjoying my other blog as much as I had anticipated. When I create art, I have to do so from my heart and can't be bothered with worrying about traffic statistics, comments, advertisers, whether my posts are linked on other sites, and all the other trappings of blogging as a business. Gallery of the Absurd will still feature art inspired by the craziness of Tom Cruise and other oddities of pop culture, but expect it to become a little more eclectic as I post other types of work here too.

While Candy Kirby and I have decided to part ways as blogging partners, we still enjoy collaborating and will continue to work on projects together. Find her new blog at here. Meanwhile, I'm in process of updating Gallery of the Absurd with all the art I created for Circus Hour and am also working on some upcoming posts. Stay tuned. (Above image: "A Spider Beside Her" ink and acrylic on paper. 2004)

Huge Rod Is What All Girls Dream About

Kipling West is a prolific artist who among other things, illustrates the spam she receives in her email box each week. Kipling says she's inspired by spam because she enjoys seeing the beauty and entertaining weirdness in something so intrusive and annoying. These two illustrations made me laugh and I wanted to share them with my readers. You can see more of her work on her blog Fresh Spam.

Rosie O'Donnell Is Insane And Wants To Make Sure You Know It

Rosie O'Donnell chose to position herself as being a better "poster child for mental illness" than Britney Spears could ever aspire to be, according to her assertion on Good Morning America. First of all, why does Rosie continue to cast herself as a victim in the public arena? It's
as though she enjoys being a "nut case" and goes loudly out of her way to make sure the world views her that way. She'll hate me for saying this, but why doesn't she take Donald Trump's advice and Think Big and Kick Ass instead of always yammering about her problems? Although I must admit, sometimes I find her yammering to be unintentionally hilarious. Medium: Ink on paper, digital color, candy.

Stuff I Saw Yesterday

My lovely city of San Francisco is home to a wild flock of parrots who delight in nibbling the blossoms off flowering trees each Spring. Every day around 4:30pm, a flock of approximately 400 parrots descend onto a lush green park located near the waterfront and begin stuffing their beaks with flowers.

This little guy took this blossom right out of my hand. If you give them apples (and you aren't supposed to, but I sneak them in) they'll fly over and sit on your shoulders and atop your head.

These noisy birds have nearly stripped this tree of its blossoms. There's a nice Flickr set of much better Wild Parrots of San Francisco photos here and there's even been a documentary film made about them.

I was able to get some close up shots of them too.

Finally, Fashionable and Decorative Lamps For All Fish

It used to be that only deep-sea creatures who live in complete crushing darkness could afford fancy bioluminescent lamps, but now even the common carp, trout or guppy can access the power of light to make their lives more efficient and decorative. Medium: ink on paper, photoshop, arugula.

Tom Cruise Goes to Pot

PRESCRIBING INFORMATION

TOM CRUISE PURPLE (as reported by the NY Daily News)

DESCRIPTION
Medical marijuana sold in vials featuring a picture of Tom Cruise laughing hysterically. Also known as most every picture taken of Tom Cruise. Distributed by licensed cannabis clubs in Northern California.

INDICATIONS
Antiemetic for the treatment of nausea and anorexia associated with treatments for cancer, AIDS, and hepatitis. Tom Cruise Purple also treats people who demonstrate signs of normalcy and turns them into cackling loons.

RECOMMENDED DOSAGE
Enough to make patients speak solely in unintelligible acronyms.

SIDE EFFECTS
God complex, fear of space aliens, couch-jumping, bowl haircut that spreads to rest of family, evil cackling, loss of respect, aversion to psychiatry, homophobia, sudden ability to be the only person who can help with accidents and control forces of nature.

Photo illustration by 14, text written by Candy Kirby.