Gallery of the Absurd

Guest Artist: Sometimes Celebrities Are More Interesting From Behind

My pal Charles Frazier drew this picture of Michelle Trachtenburg as she was walking away because he finds her more eye-catching from behind than in front.  I never really noticed her before he sent me the drawing, but it's good to know that at least one person in Hollywoodland has some va va voom curves instead of the typical bony flat caboose so often seen these days. Medium: ink on paper.

Obama Drama O'Rama

My talented artist pal, Charles "Chuck" Frazier sent this drawing to me a few months ago - I think it's high time I posted it. Congratulations to President-Elect Barack Obama.

Guest Artist: Lauri Apple of Lauri's Veeps

Lauri Apple has launched an artistic celebration of the often forgotten Vice Presidents of American history. She's devoted herself to painting an acrylic portrait of each Veep and will post a new one every day leading up to the election. Each portrait will include forgotten (and often amusing) trivia about each our Vice Presidents -- including Hannibal Hamlin, William Rufus de Vane King and Aaron Burr (pictured above).

Lauri reminds us to recall Aaron Burr as the one who challenged Alexander 'I'm on the $10' Hamilton to a duel after Hamilton said some things Burr didn't like. Burr ended up winning, killing Hamilton in the process. Apparently, celebrity justice was alive and well back then...and Burr was acquitted. However, his political career was over because television and the mass media hadn't been invented yet -- so he couldn't sell the movie rights, star in a reality show, or make a confessional crossover rap album. Be sure to check Lauri's site daily - today she's featuring Elbridge Gerry, the namesake of the term gerrymandering. Who knew?

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.

On The Ninth Day of Christmas My Britney Sent To Me...

 

Nine Weaves a Tangling

Jason O'Malley from over at DoodleWhore has been having a little too much fun creating his Twelve Days Of Britney collection. Grab some eggnog and take a look.

Guest Artist: Charles Frazier Draws Kim Kardashian

Today's guest artist is a comic book illustrator who recently launched a new blog featuring some of his celebrity-inspired caricatures. Kim Kardashian ought to seriously consider the tricks profit she could turn if she started renting her butt out to advertisers. She's always thrusting that perky caboose toward the camera or squating on sidewalks and poking it out at the paparazzi, so why not make a buck or two off it? Several advertising industry concepts may be applied here:

Advertising Page Exposure - a measure of the opportunity for readers to see a particular print advertisement, whether or not they actually look at the ad.
Billboard - An outdoor sign or poster.
Eye Tracking - A research method that determines what part of an advertisement consumers look at by tracking the pattern of their eye movements.
Frequency - The number of times an average person or household is exposed to a media vehicle within a given time frame.
Reach - The estimated number of individuals in the audience of broadcast that is reached at least once during a specific period of time.

Other advertising terms that come to mind are Spread, End-user, Horizontal Discount, Insertion, Puffery and Teaser Campaign. Kim Kardashian's arse is an advertiser's bonanza!

Guest Artist: Rod Filbrandt

Rod Filbrandt, one of my favorite artists, has realistically captured the reality of reality TV. Sure, there are a few mildly entertaining reality shows on the tube. Take Wife Swap for example. An episode description grabbed from their website reads A primped-and-proper mother who runs a high-end salon for little girls swaps families with a hardworking mother who bottles and sells deer urine with her husband. Set the Tivo! Next episode: A jar of pickles is placed upon a crate of kazoos from China, you won't believe what happens next.

Guest Artist: Jason O'Malley

Guest artist Jason O'Malley recently launched DoodleWhore and it's full of all sorts of pop culture-inspired doodles that are sure to make you smile. He spends no more than an hour on each of his doodles and you can tell he has a loads of fun creating them. A working artist, Jason runs his own greeting card company, Handsome Devil Press and was recently selected as one of the "200 Best Illustrators Worldwide" by Lurzer's Archive. Oh, and speaking of Britney....

Someone went to the trouble of creating their very own Brit O'Lantern and sent a photo. The resemblance is startling and the attention to detail is superb. The Cheeto mouth, the red bull in one hand and a Starbucks big gulp in the other, the ratty wig, and the tear-stained mascara under the eyes all combine to make a perfect likeness. Thanks Nicole.

Guest Artist: Erick Moore

Erick Moore's recent series of paintings showcase images inspired by Hollywood's quest for perfection. He's especially captivated with the plastic, sugar-coated, drug-induced euphoria that is mistaken for reality in Hollywood. This portrait of Lindsay Lohan is titled Dare to Love Her! and features swirling mounds of coke ice cream, gum drops and cupcakes. Erick's work was included in the WOW Report's recent art show, Just Britney. You may view more of his celeb-inspired work here.

Guest Artist: Hiltron

Have you ever wondered what certain overexposed celebrities might look like when they grow old, become fat, or switched genders? The mysterious artist who calls themself Hiltron wondered and with some of the most expert Photoshop skills I've ever seen, created hundreds of images that are sure to delight you. Planet Hiltron is destined to become your newest bookmark and is guaranteed to give you lots of laughs. On a different note, I've been in Los Angeles for the past week and was too busy being stuck in hot dusty traffic and business meetings to get any work done for Gallery of the Absurd. I'm back home now and just dipped my brush in ink to work on my latest painting. Ahhhhhh, sweet relief.