Why absurd art?
I was first interested in illustrating the plight of pollinators, but quickly became fascinated with insects in general. As a career journalist, I not only wanted to draw insects, I also wanted tell the story of their importance – but from my perspective, not nature’s. Now, most of the insects I draw insist on being portrayed with human characteristics or behavior. Since a lot of them have stingers or bite, I don’t argue.
KHM Absurd Art is the umbrella under which all of the absurd drawings & stories about insects, plus merchandise spinoffs, are intertwined together in a colorful, bizarre jumble. It’s kind of like an ever-expanding artistic snakeball – harmless on a sunny rock but unpredictable at sundown.
Which means you never know what you’ll find at KHM Absurd Art!
But we’ve kept the website simple: Gallery, Store, Blog.
This urge to create an absurd view of insect behavior I’m sure came out of 35+ years in the newspaper world. Most of that time was spent as a news reporter and editor.
I think working within that realm of forced objectivity birthed a wild hair that compels me now to research the facts of insect behavior, but translate that into an imaginary world of fact meets fiction.
Following years of putting out a weekly newspaper – sometimes with the help of pets like our cat Maxine, who supervised from the top of the monitor – I’ve been quietly creating ink & colored pencil drawings of insect life.
I was first inspired to draw bees because I was concerned about the plight of pollinators, but after creating a picture of bees on flowers, I was pretty bored.
And, as I didn’t want to waste my time creating things that bored me, I started drawing in a different way. Basically, I decided on an insect factoid that intrigued me, then started thinking of a story that would explain that fact. Then I drew the story, bestowing human characteristics as needed.
I really enjoy creating these insect scenarios, but as a former small business owner, I retained a mercenary side, so there are T-shirts in the store and future plans for mugs, hats, bumper stickers, tote bags, etc. This will allow me to buy more colored pencils – yay!
In conclusion, if you peruse the website, you’ll find a gallery of drawings that reflect my absurd outlook, an online store full of quirky stuff that I hope people will like, and also the blog, where I probably will write a lot about the absurdity of insects, and occasionally about other stuff. If I do write about other stuff, I’ll try to include a family recipe to soften the blow. Everyone likes recipes.
That’s it – short, sweet & absurd.
All that said, I offer these disclaimers right up front:
- To art purists: I’m not a trained artist, but I am interested in continuing to educate myself in the creative use of ink and colored pencils, or any other medium that sparks my interest. I’m happy to create art that I hope people will enjoy. I also take great pleasure in finding ways to spin that art into commercially creative products that others are willing to buy. I’m always open to respectful suggestions and critiques.
- To insect enthusiasts: I’m not an entomologist, but I share your regard for creepy crawlers, and any twisting of the truth found in my drawings is offered with respect.
In both my naïve-style drawings and my shamefully commercial peripheral products like hats, T-shirts, etc., not all of the portrayals will illustrate the insect’s image or behavior exactly – a queen bee may wear lipstick and spiders are frequently portrayed as shysters or savvy traders. There may be too many legs on a bug, or not enough.
I choose to believe that these aberrations are undiscovered species.