Art on the Edge

A little whimsy, a little satire, that’s what meets the eye when

viewing Sam Brown’s exhibit at Wax Poetic Gallery.

The show is a collection of his stick figure drawings accompanied

by sentences superimposed on the art contributed by people who have

visited his website. The subjects in his pieces are stick figure

people reacting to dogs, ducks, robots or monsters.

Some of the pieces are dark, while others are light and playful,

but Brown and his fans agree, there’s plenty of room for viewers to

come up with their own interpretations.

“I try to make them funny, but a lot of the time, it’s not as

obvious,” Brown said.

He graduated in 1999 from Hartford Art School in Hartford, Conn.,

where he studied video and graphic design.

Back in 1996, he started drawing stick figures and soon they

became subjects in his computer animation projects. Brown placed his

drawings on the website he started in 1999 and invited people to

e-mail a sentence to him and he would illustrate it with his stick

figures. He has created more than 2,000 original works from those

suggestions.

One of his favorite pieces, “Hold On I Love You,” is interpreted

by people in different ways.

“It is of a guy standing with a knife, and blood or something is

dripping from the end,” Brown said. “But a lot of people interpret it

as hilarious. It’s as if someone caught him in the middle of doing

something that’s misinterpreted.”

He has also published two books of his work, “Amazing Rain” and

“Thinking of You.”

Brown gains his inspiration for the drawings while watching

people, like at the supermarket.

“It triggers something in your memory,” he said.

His work seems very simplistic on the surface, and some people

don’t get it right away or ever, said Wax Poetic Gallery curator

Christopher Hall.

“If you spend time seeing his work, you get a little bit more of

an emotional understanding of where he is going with it,” Hall said.

One of Brown’s fans is Kerry Nicole, owner of Wax Poetic salon and

gallery.

“His work is childhood playful with an adult sensibility,” she

said.

One of his books features a drawing of a moon and two stars. The

text reads, “The moon is yelling at me.” The two stars are looking at

each other in wonderment.

“His stuff cracks me up,” Nicole said.

Brown’s popularity was evident at the opening reception, Hall

said.

Brown was greeted by fans of his website, who brought items for

him to sign that they’ve collected over the years, including his

collectible T-shirts, his books and backpacks.

“That was fun to see,” Hall said.

One woman had a Brown bookmark she wanted him to sign that Brown

hadn’t seen himself in several years.

“Sam told her, ‘I can’t believe you have this,’” Hall said.

And there’s no trouble selling the pieces on display.

Hall said the exhibit started with 200 pieces, but now there are

150.

At several of Brown’s exhibits, Hall has picked out pieces he

wants to buy, but they are always the first ones sold during the

opening, he said.

“I tend to personally like the darker, more mysterious pieces,”

Hall said. “Across the board, anything I tend to like is a little bit

more edgy than pop contemporary.”

FYI

WHAT: “My life as a cloud” solo exhibition by Sam Brown, creator

of the website www.explodingdog.com

WHEN: Now through Sept. 28

WHERE: Wax Poetic Salon and Gallery, 3208 W. Magnolia Blvd.

CONTACT: (818) 843-9469

WEBSITE: www.waxpoeticsalon.com