The artwork of Christopher J. Paulsen

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Bodies of Work:

printmaking

"Contradictions"
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"House & Home"
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drawing

"Sad Robots"
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The Car Crash
Nesting
Off The Rack
Dangling
Beast of Burden
Fun House
Rusting
Motherhood

painting

"On Beauty"
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"Plastic Plants"
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"The Hiking Trip"
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"Bite-Sized Paintings"
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Bite-Sized Painting Sale Precocious, a webcomic by Christopher J Paulsen The Sycophant, tbe sketch blog of Christopher J Paulsen

"Sad Robots" Artist's Statement

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I'm not always the easiest person to "read." Years ago, I was hanging out with one of my closest school friends after a class and chatter turned to an upcoming project. After discussion the work required for the project, I shrugged and casually remarked something along the lines of, "Eh, we're all gonna die." My friend looked at me, and with complete sincerity told me, "You are the most negative person I know!"

Woah.

This revelation caught me completely off-guard. We knew each other fairly well and I had just assumed she knew my sense of humor. I use self-depreciating remarks and hyperbolized doom and gloom because I find them funny. There's no question my humor can get very, very dark - and this was hardly the first time I've been misunderstood - but for a good friend to completely miss the joke was eye-opening. That girl must have been a saint to put up with me if she took all my comments seriously!

It's this friendship-derailing dark humor that is displayed in the "Sad Robots" series. The robots I've constructed are undergoing many kinds of torture. Each has an expression of pain, dismay, shock or depression. One is dangled helplessly from the ceiling. One is pierced by spears. One has lost his leg. It's a parade of mechanical doom and gloom.

Get it? It's funny!

There is a deliberate disconnect in these pieces - one I use to toy with an audience. It's easy to sympathize with these doomed creations - to feel what they feel - but there is something key that is overlooked. These figures are, after all, just robots. They are machines, and any expression of horror they might have has been bolted into place.

The idea of someone creating this hulking beast of an automaton, only to ignore its strengths and force it to crouch over and serve merely as a bridge between structures is darkly hilarious. In another piece, a robot dangles from a string and struggles to get free. Not one of its many arms reaches high enough to cut the string and free the robot. Even if freedom was possible, the extra arms means the robot has no legs on which to walk. This robot has not thought its plan through! (Most likely because it's a machine and not actually sentient.)

It is always better to look at a problem with a sense of humor than with a sense of defeat. Everyone has felt like the robots at one time or another. In "Beast of Burden," a robot of great potential is forced to do a lowly job that utilizes none of its strengths. In "Dangling," the robot is trapped in a no-win situation: stay hanging forever of struggle to move on the ground. "Nesting" shows how a parent's obsession can suffocate a child. "Motherhood" reinforces the power parents have over their children by showing how easy it is for abusive behavior to be passed through generations. In "Rusting," the robot is forced to overcome various physical problems to continue. The robot in "Off the Rack" suffers for being a slave to fashions and trends. In "Fun House," the robot is helplessly caught in painful situation. "The Car Crash" describes a scene in which a world is being torn apart by disaster. At the same time, it is also a beautiful scene.

If anything, these robots suffer the sins of humanity so humanity doesn't have to bear the burden alone. Being able to project our feelings onto another entity can be therapeutic and allow us to see a situation with objectivity not previously possible. When the world feels determined to get us, we can look at these poor robots that were built to suffer and laugh. At least we're not them! The piece "Off the Rack" shows a feminine form with a vast array of gears hidden inside her dress. This illustrates the complex machinations that go into presenting oneself as effortlessly fashionable and cool. We all fall into the trap of stressing over personal presentation in our lives, and the anxiety caused by it can be devastating. By viewing this piece, on is allowed to step back and laugh at the silliness behind the stress. Alternately, a suffering robot can provide a sympathetic avatar. They understand the strain a stressful situation can put on a person!

Oh wait, there we go anthropomorphizing them again.