I don’t remember where I first saw or heard about David Shrigley’s artwork. It’s not for everyone, but for some reason it resonated with me—at the time I was primarily journaling, and it changed the way I thought about visuals complementing my text.
David Shrigley, who draws, paints, sculpts, and makes music, has a very peculiar style. His drawings are all at once droll, vaguely unsettling, and sometimes, somehow, relatable.
His drawings are more crude than skillful, which turns some people off. It feels maybe a little bit more human because some of Shrigley’s creations are just downright awful. Others are clever, witty, even sentimental—Shrigley doesn’t always pair his text with visuals; he also writes weird standalone exchanges, seemingly between the voices in his head. He’s also written lyrics—Worried Noodles is an album containing all his own lyrics, performed by a bunch of bands and artists, including David Byrne, Islands, Liars, Grizzly Bear, and Dirty Projectors.
His work almost always includes text, so it’s interesting seeing it cross over into more physical art like sculpture and installation. His use of different mediums is, to some, an indicator of his conviction to his art despite this idea that he doesn’t take his art seriously. His sculptures contain taxidermied animals, signs, and ceramics. People who can’t see the genius in Shrigley’s written or drawn art have an easier time seeing it in his sculpture.
Shrigley’s book How are you Feeling? is likely the most genuine collection of work, viewing things like emotions and therapy through his bizarre quasi-nihilistic lens. A specific piece with the same name as the book went up on a billboard on the high line. It’s a pretty genius piece to plaster on a billboard, taking a vulnerable internal discussion and making it as public as possible.
Viewers of Shrigley’s work are often surprised by his straightforward, sometimes profane messages. If he lives by any rule, it’s probably to do whatever he wants and disregard any negativity he comes across. He doesn’t care how unskilled of an artist he is, he’ll continue to make art in his particular style of irreverent amusement with the world.
