Friday, 1 May 2009

existential crisis

The idea for this comes from the busy street. So many individuals rushing around and stressed out, often hostile, trying to get to their destinations. The individual and their wishes are swamped by the crowd which becomes a single unhappy entity. The idea is of wanting to escape but feeling trapped and hopeless but also seeing just how ridiculous our behaviour is, taking everything so seriously and missing the good things in life. Anger, stress and depression can be funny if you have perspective.
Posted by at

8 comments:

  1. rong sun6 May 2009 at 00:11

    wow!!!~~love ur new works so much, it is better than before,hahaha...really like this one, so funny and lots of details. btw, i think u r good at drawing maps. cool!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joe Beale7 May 2009 at 16:34

    Thanks Rong!! It's so rare that I hear praise from you! I appreciate your comments:)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Aleksei Bitskoff13 May 2009 at 02:25

    I saw some illustrations here and thought "oh, here we got some really good ideas and stuff" and then I saw you and thought "Hey, I even know this man!!!"

    ReplyDelete
  4. Joe Beale13 May 2009 at 17:41

    Haha, thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  5. kunag24 May 2009 at 02:34

    I do love this!!! I don't know how much did you think about ways to portray the message effectively, but every elements look really suitable like the faced down sunflower in cloudy and a flock of gray birds on the ground. Did they come out spontaneously?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Joe Beale24 May 2009 at 13:37

    Thanks Kain. The sunflower is beautiful and tall but becomes bowed and damaged by the crush, gradually descending into the greys of the concrete and pigeons and people. The idea is the impossibility of escape and the loss of individuality, the triumph of anonymity. But also, we all take ourselves too seriously when it's rare that we're doing anything to justify all the stress and worry! This idea appeared in my mind when I was waiting for someone in a cafe, so I sketched it for fun in my journal and thought it had potential, and this is the finished illustration.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Rosie DIYcouture28 July 2009 at 11:16

    Hey Joe - Kerrie has just shown me your blog. Wow your drawings are amazing : ) I really love this one and your relaxed jolly take on the rat race! I'm going to print it out and stick it on my wall in london : ) Love from rosie

    ReplyDelete
  8. Joe Beale31 July 2009 at 23:42

    Thanks Rosie! ;-) I can print you out a copy if you like? x

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)