Checking In

Details: A weird, funny look at mental and physical health through the lens of body-part characters and nostalgic notebook doodles.

• Type: Open edition giclée print 

• Paper Type: Semi Glossy/Luster Photo Paper

• Paper Specs: 250 gsm, 9.5 mil thickness

• Texture: Textured

• Ink: Archival pigment inks

• Sizes Available:

  • 8" x 10"

  • 16" x 20"

  • 24" x 30"

Description: This piece was really inspired by my desire to learn perspective. I was scrolling Pinterest, looking at 3D shapes and trying to get better at perspective. Cubes, spheres, triangles, and that Superman-style “S” everyone used to doodle in their notebooks back in the 2000s. It gave me that same feeling of zoning out in class and just drawing whatever in the margins. That’s where Checking In began. But the piece ended up becoming more than that. I used it as a way to introduce my Freakish Figures, the weird, mishappen, odd characters that now show up in a lot of my work. Each one represents a part of the body, or a version of myself. Erasmus, the heart, is actually the organ of my puppet-inspired cyclops character, Ridley The Reject. Brainy, with the ice pack, is my personification of a post concussion brain, anxiety spirals, and moments of being delusional. Oliver, my sweet tea-loving liver, gives a big thumbs up while drinking something probably too sugary to be healthy. There’s a squishy, whoopee-cushion-shaped lung figure inspired by Covid and its effect on the lungs. And of course, the kidneys, who only exist because I thought a pun of a can of kidney beans would be funny. It still is too me. Even the pillows in the background have faces, a nod to old-school Disney Animation, like in Beauty And The Beast, where they gave faces to inanimate objects. I always loved that. All together, the piece is about what the title says: Checking in. With your mind. Your body. Your weird, wonderful insides. A goofy, heartfelt reminder to ask yourself: How am I really doing?