Sweet tooth

29 April 10

Wow, look at these amazing paintings by Will Cotton (via Siong Chin). Candyfloss clouds! Confectionery cottages! Dreamy.

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you’r my precious little space.
the place where i always go, & always find something pretty, which i will love & not know yet.
im so happy i found u!

krySal replied over 13 years ago.

WOW these paintings are GORGEOUS!!
Mustart x

Nedda Ebo replied over 13 years ago.

WOW. These are so amazing…

tweet tweet tweet

x

Clare replied over 13 years ago.

unbelievable!!

Xx,
èvoluer

Eva replied over 13 years ago.

WOW. AMAZING! Wanna eat those clouds!

Flor replied over 13 years ago.

The landscape with the hearts on the pole is rendered so realistically! It looks like it really exists.

Melanie replied over 13 years ago.

They are really dreamy, it’s true… but after looking for a moment, I found it very creepy that the women are really, really thin! Like somehow the subtext is that the ideal woman could live in a kind of paradise but never enjoy or indulge in it. Kind of like what was expected of eve… ? But then, when I went to art school we did Visual Culture, not Art History. So now I can never look at an artwork without this marxist/feminist framework.

Leah replied over 13 years ago.

I looked up a few interviews with the artist and saw this, so you’re pretty dead on:

“His sweet tooth also attracted him to portraying conventionally beautiful women, usually naked or nearly so, except that they’re often decorated—you can’t really say they wear these things—with top-heavy headgear made of lollipops, marshmallow, or cake. Looking alluringly out from under their edible architectures, these women reprise the National Airlines ad campaigns of he 1970s, whose sexually inviting stewardesses (“I’m Mandy…fly me”) infuriated feminists.

…“It seems to me,” he has said, “the typical American appetite goes…straight into gluttony.” The sensory overload in his pictures comes out of his interest in the point where sweetness “becomes cloying, even repulsive.” These paintings, in other words, are meant to both attract us and turn our stomachs." from from here.

kris atomic replied over 13 years ago.

These are amazing, I love the imagery!

Mallory - Miss Malaprop replied over 13 years ago.

These are lovely, almost sickeningly so. I’m glad that there are still artists who still have an almost traditional take on painting (but obviously with modern twists) the lighting is beautiful, especially on the third painting, its like the ice cream is melting out the canvas.

Jennifer replied over 13 years ago.

Incredible, his use of light and shadow is really amazing. I’m in awe.

Ganymede Girl replied over 13 years ago.

i seriously love these! i thought the first one was some piece of fun 70s kitsch but as i scrolled down it became really weird and overwhelming and brilliant

colin replied over 13 years ago.

JESUS. That second painting is simply out of this world.

Super interesting to read his commentary on the work, too.

Kim replied over 13 years ago.

At first I didn’t know that they’re paintings. Surreal. :)

loucieee replied over 13 years ago.

that does makes alot of sense – that is how i felt looking through these paintings too. the candy clouds and candy homes is so alluring, but then there is something kind of jarring that the women are all super skinny and naked, and in that way,even if the women are looking at you invitingly, there is something uneasy about it. likes, oh yummy candy! but, wait, i dont think i would want to hang a print of this in my home … so, then the point comes across very well!

but beyond the analysis, very creative and new to me. glad to see this and learn about it!

Rachel replied over 13 years ago.

Those are some photorealistic paintings!

Jennifer replied over 13 years ago.

Oh my goodness these are amazing! I want to go into this world! They remind me of the garden in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
I just discovered your blog and it’s lovely!
xx

Polly replied over 13 years ago.

[…] LINKSInput vs. Creativity (Or, Thoughts on Surfing the Web) @ Make & Meaning Step by step AND Sweet tooth @ KRISATOMIC DARK CIRCLES { tree rings, thumbprints } @ heysusy is art a luxury? @ Scoutie […]

amazing imagery. on my blog i recently posted a knit inspired candyfloss piece that i made while experimenting with knit, thread and photography.

you can go have a look at
http://melostfound.blogspot.com/

Lisa replied over 13 years ago.

Ah I wish I could swim in cotton candy when I see these! :)

ANNE replied over 13 years ago.

I remember Teen Vogue using his paintings…

chloe replied over 13 years ago.

These are clearly the inspiration for the new Katy Perry video. I like the paintings so much more.

Khali replied over 13 years ago.

I thought the same thing, but he actually worked on the video!
http://www.motiontheory.com/work/katy-perry-_california-gurls
:)

kris atomic replied over 13 years ago.

Is it just me, or did Katy Perry’s “California Gurlz” take a lot of ideas from Mr. Cotton’s paintings?
Or perhaps everyone just loves naked girls in cotton candy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwE-SLnLkqY

Tess replied over 13 years ago.

I thought the same thing, but he actually worked on the video!
http://www.motiontheory.com/work/katy-perry-_california-gurls
kris x

kris atomic replied over 13 years ago.

Oh good! That makes me feel so much better. His work is amazing!

Tess replied over 13 years ago.

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Hi, I'm Kris. This is an archive of my blog as it was from 2007 to 2014. It's no longer updated but feel free to browse through the past.

 

You can find my recent work at krisatomic.com, or drop me an email and say hello. 

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