I happily paid my first visit to New York's MoCCA Festival earlier this year after hearing about it for years from artists and book publishers comparing it to San Francisco's APE (Alternative Press Expo). And amongst the 200 hundred or so artists, independent publishers, screen printers and eccentric literary folk, one person's art in particular stood out to me more than any other.
I happily paid my first visit to New York's MoCCA Festival earlier this year after hearing about it for years from artists and book publishers comparing it to San Francisco's APE (Alternative Press Expo). And amongst the 200 hundred or so artists, independent publishers, screen printers and eccentric literary folk, one person's art in particular stood out to me more than any other.
No art has ever offended me, nor have I ever been "grossed out" by art. However, in very rare instances, I do feel slightly unsettled looking at some. And guess what? I fucking LOVE that a piece of art can make me unsettled. Sometimes it's an emotional unsettling feeling, like in Charles Burns' case, or even Daniel Clowes, and sometimes it's a physical unsettling feeling, like a photo of a fingernail getting ripped off. But usually, as in Sefan Decarlo's case, I have no idea what's unsettling about it. Especially because it's technically gorgeous. Perhaps it's because Stefan has captured an accurate depiction of what a cartoon character might look like if it were human, or because I often don't think about naked zombies cuddling, mixing drool and flesh, or because colors that perhaps shouldn't work well together seem to work perfectly together. But when it comes down to it, I think it's just because I have never seen anything like it and that "unsettling" feeling is actually a mistaken feeling of excitement, because Stefan's art gets me really excited to watch where he keeps going with it.
Check out more of his art on his Tumblr page here: http://planetstef.tumblr.com/
-Alex Pardee
