I created this image for a contest sponsored by The Folsom Street Fair. The fair celebrates San Francisco vibrant kink, leather, fetish and alternative communities. I felt like the contest was up my alley! Sadly, upon visiting the Fair's website, I discovered that the contest had been canceled due to lack of interest. HEY, I was interested!! Anyway, I wanted to share the poster with you. Here is a detail:
The poster plays with many recurring themes in my work: The circus, cartoons, and fetish imagery. The bright, primary colors of the circus inspired the poster. I was also inspired by movies I saw as a kid, among them the terrifying sequence of Pink Elephants on Parade, from Dinsney's Dumbo. Here are more sources of inspiration:
The movie Santa Sangre, by Alejandro Jodorowsky is quite distubring, yet it is one of my favorites. The image below comes via Movie Outlaw, where you can read more about this wonderfully strange circus movie. I think Jodorowsky captured the bizarre world of Mexican circuses quite well. My favorite sequence is when the circus folks stage a funeral for a death elephant. The character of Concha (played masterfully by Blanca Guerra) is scary and unforgettable, sort of like Norman's Bates mother from Psycho....Mexican style. Guerra's eyes are like guns! She points, and shoots quite often during the movie.
Another circus movie that I used to watch was an Argentinian/Spanish movie called "Habia una Vez un Circo", (Once Upon a Time, There Was a Circus) about a sick little girl and her clown friends. The movie was fun, but scary at times. I remember a scary sequence when the little protagonist (the adorable Andrea Boca) runs into a window late at night, while having hallucinations about the circus. In this sequence, her clown friends come to her bedroom to cheer her up.
Thanks for reading this brief account of bizarre circus movies. If you are interested in attending The Folsom Street Fair, just visit their website for a schedule of events. Be warned, it is for adults only. The Fair is held in San Francisco in September the 25th, 2001. If you are interested in buying my poster, just let me know.