#mass market art

[thekoboldgardener]

So working in retail I get a good view of the general public's trends. And I've been seeing a massive rise in like, happy skeleton imagery.

Skeletons with flowers and slogans about enduring, skeletons on the beach with drinks, skeletons being whimsical or just images of skeletal hands. I even own some

I think it shows a kind of weird relationship with death as a concept growing within the American zeitgeist.

Theres a little of memento mori, but also a strong vibe of "we're all already dead anyway" especially when paired with blue collar and working class resignation and glorification of grind. I see "dirty hands clean money" a lot but sometimes with skeleton hands. I even own some.

It also gives a little bit of "we can rest when we're dead" and "oh, being dead must be nice"

I think its genuinely a sign of sociological distress, of a pervasive social despair, that so much of the working class is preoccupied with death imagery.

But then I think about how many skeletons I see at Walmart apparel racks and wonder if it's a manufactured trend, if we're being sold resignation to our own suffering by the ruling class.

Maybe I'm overthinking, but I think about how historians analyze trends in symbolism in past societies, and I wonder if there's a forest being missed for the trees, so to speak.

We gotta make sure we're not throwing up our boney dead hands in helplessness at the bleakness of the future. We're not dead yet.

[bitter69uk]

Born on this day 110 years ago: ultra-kitsch Russian-born mass market artist Vladimir Tretchikoff (26 December 1913 – 26 August 2006), whose vibrant “exotic” paintings like “Chinese Girl” (aka “The Green Lady”, one of the top-selling prints of the twentieth century), “Miss Wong” (pictured) and “Balinese Girl” ensure his position in the same elite “low brow art” pantheon as Margaret Keane and J H Lynch. Is any home complete without a framed Tretchikoff print above the mantelpiece (or better yet, bamboo cocktail bar)?

Miss Wong by Vladimir Tretchikoff 

trying to get a print of this for my living room. the bright brash colours would perfectly pop out on the dark wood walls

[chronically-ghosted]

day before a 5 day holiday weekend. office empty. got me thinking thoughts.

[gideonisms]

I become 300% more of both a lover and a hater when I'm on my period. just a time of the month when I have strong opinions I would say

[wanderingdesertrose]

Various covers of Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson (formerly/alternatively titled Mistborn: The Final Empire)

left to right, top to bottom:

1) 1st edition hardback

2) 2nd edition mass market paperback

3) cover from when the book was rebranded as YA instead of adult

4) 2019 mass market paperback

5) UK cover

6) Croatian cover

7) Chinese cover

8) new US cover (2023)

[appallinnballin]

YUO WILL NOT BELIEVE YOUR EYES

[fickes]

Heads up to my LOTR followers that I will not be restocking the tarot deck when it next sells out. Sales dropped off enough this year that it doesn't really make sense to keep it going until I make some bigger changes. Which I want to do! But, yknow, time. gotta find it.

[judgeitbyitscover]

Roverandom, story and art by J.R.R. Tolkien

Cover art title "The Gardens of the Merking's palace" (1927)

Watercolor

Harper Collins, 1998

In 1925, four-year-old Michael Tolkien lost his beloved toy dog on the beach. To console him, his father, J.R.R. Tolkien, improvised a story about Rover, a real dog who is magically transformed into a toy and is forced to seek out the wizard who wronged him in order to be returned to normal. 

[yuno-karei]

Artfight.

Managed to draw more than last year with lesser pain in my arm so that's a bonus

[biblioklept]

Mass-market Monday | Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan

Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake. Ballantine Books (1968). No cover artist credited. 543 pages. The uncredited cover artist is Bob Pepper, who also provided the covers for Ballantine editions of the other two novels in Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy, Gormenghast and Titus Alone. The covers are actually segments from one painting: The edition also includes black and white illustrations by Peake (including…

[sunset-of-the-void]

Hello emilerick nation!

Some old sketches from march because i realized there is only one emilerick art piece as I dont post doodles often. So to fuel the pairing that only 3 people ship please enjoy emil x hunter frederick!

The hunter design is by @B_JR2203 on twitter if you wanna see! It is absolutely stunning<3

[xcziel]

having a sudden out-of-the-blue urge to go back and re-read the mercedes lackey gryphon books for a specific character arc reason

and then thinking sbout how if ANY series deserves the "fancy trade paperback re-release with sprayed-edge art" treatment it's the valdemar books

i'd be willing to go to extremes for a trade-size set of the vanyel trilogy with the original art and foil covers, plus the repeated background detailing echoed on the edges - maybe with the valdemaran crest or something

[mzcain27]

It’s 5 in the morning I should be asleep but I’m trying to decide which editions of stormlight archive to get

[fitzrove]

Men's literary autofiction is about the boundaries of consciousness/life/death, how hard it is to be a genius artperson, professional identity, universal questions of choice and morality, etc. Women's literary autofiction is about trauma, parents, children, heterosexuality and mental illness 🤩🤩

[kirnet]

Honestly it’s very inspiring to see all these cool indie games and vns and ttrpgs that are made by a single person or by a small team. Makes me want to make more things

[feline-evil]

I can't think of anything that could kill a generative ai system faster than letting it pull from blogs on here, its going to be fed so many erroneous callouts and pointless discourse posts that its gonna generate a way to speedrun offing itself