Stick-Figure Art

[Abishai100]

There has been a new trend in art focusing on 'pedestrian daydreams.'

This trend is reflected in American films such as Pleasantville and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

One manifestation of this trend is in the caricatures of art itself in the form of 'stick-figure imagery.'

A progression perhaps of the paper doll motif, stick-figure art presents characters (fictional or real) in bare-bones (or tree-stick silhouette) formatting. Stick-figure art is usefully connected to political cartoons and/or kids' show fillers.

The streamlining of media (e.g., Internet) has made it convenient for artists who want to use 'Pedestrian Essentialism' (e.g., street-graffiti) to re-present civilization's 'face.'

Stick-figure art is changing the way we present 'haunted-daydreams storytelling.'


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Madame S had ensured that Bobby Talsman (a gifted 12 year-old cartoonist who specialized in 'sarcastic stick-figure art') would find safe harbor in her Manhattan apartment as the art magazines sorted out just why such a young American artist was so interested in creating wry stick-figure images that served as 'psychological critique-models' of the whole world of art itself!

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Book)

Stick-Figure Art (Wikipedia)

 

[Abishai100]

Hieroglyphs

This sort of pedestrian-friendly art can also be characterized as 'Egyptian derivative.'


Unbreakable (Film)

 

[Abishai100]

Canvas


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CRITIC: Do you think comic book art is fine art?
ARTIST: I think comic book drawings speak to a new age interest in contours, lines, shapes, and silhouettes.
CRITIC: It's true that we appreciate geometry themes in modern cinema --- e.g., Big, Tron, The Circle, etc.
ARTIST: What about stick-figure art?
CRITIC: Stick-figures and doodles are important and valuable to kids who like things like Mad Libs.
ARTIST: What about the muscular cherub in Renaissance paintings?
CRITIC: Those images were fleshy and not unlike the graphic and gaudy comic book avatars of today (e.g., Clayface).
ARTIST: What's the difference, though, between graffiti (e.g., Basquiat) and vandalism (e.g., Neo-Nazi swastikas)?
CRITIC: Well, kids like stickers and drawings of pop-culture 'heroes' (e.g., Kermit the Frog) on lunch-boxes.
ARTIST: In other words, the modern age of high-commerce makes it conducive to colloquialize sociology.
CRITIC: Exactly. The Internet welcomes all levels and classes of intellectualism personalization (e.g., MySpace).
ARTIST: There must be a way, however, to discriminate 'spam' from 'candy.'
CRITIC: The real journalist today is the art-critic who wields the power to honor pedestrian expressions.
ARTIST: In that case, I want to encourage my kids to doodle by mounting their 'child-doodles' on canvases for them!
CRITIC: That kind of 'socialized inspiration' reveals the modern demand for relevant Hollywood films such as Frozen!

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