This is a collaboration I did with Sera Baghdadi, One of my studiomates. We met in the middle with this idea since we both have been drawing these obscure little characters for years. You could say that my little guys were inspired by everyday objects like hot dogs, balloons, and jelly beans, though I have left them unnamed to leave any dialogue about them open for interpretation. If I could speak for her characters, I would say that One sees these buddies in everything from childhood drawings to popular video games from decades past. Either way they remain ambiguous. Both characters fill the gap between the real and intangible. They can be both unobtrusive, migrating in and out of the periphery of idle thoughts, or be very meaningful, symbolizing a full spectrum of names, concepts and ideas. The ghosts can be a simple caricature of how we perceive the paranormal, or can represent lost moments. the objects surrounding the ghosts have less ethereal connotations and reach more for the tangible side of ambiguity. Where the ghosts show their joys and frustration through those little raisin eyes, my guys simply express the importance of placement and pattern, or the lack thereof. Either way the duplicity is evident. As for the sludge - it serves as a binding agent; a viscous glue that holds the image together. The sludge, on the other hand, separates the objects, keeping them isolated in the chaos in which they exist. These are some pretty heavy symbols that we carry with us, but its nothing to take seriously.
