Having kids means there’s a lot of squishy and strange substances that end up around my house. It reminds me of the shit I loved as a kid, that I learned was gross and unacceptable as I got older. I’m working on rediscovering my love for the goop I find in my freezer and the potions on my bathroom counter and whatever that sticky shit was on the door handle that’s now all over my palm.
Looking at the crazed 3D animations that Steven Baltay aka @realimposter makes is helping me remember how satisfying and entertaining stuff like that is. He takes our adult obsessions with wealth and status and pairs them with the weird, gross, playful, squishy textures of childhood and somehow it’s the adults that come out looking ridiculous. Like we’ve really convinced ourselves that what entertains us is superior to what entertains children. We really have bought into the collective illusion that staring at a marble bust is more fun than getting our hands dirty. That our stiff body movements somehow convey maturity over the flopping, free movements of our child selves.
@realimposter‘s work makes me mourn the playfulness that adults pressure us to leave behind, but it also makes me remember that it hasn’t actually left, it’s just locked away. Let your child self out while you appreciate the grotesquely beautiful art of Steven Baltay below…
Usually, I work on something until it makes me laugh or feel uncomfortable and then I know it’s done.
– Steven Baltay, @realimposter
