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Whether you've seen them in movies or pictures, or seen them personally, you probably know what a wind dancer is. It's a solemn, happy stick figure that flails about in the wind near a gas station or some dollar store. But Mamie Young saw something more in them: they stand as a comical background in contrast to all of the US's current problems. Mamie draws them inside of these problems as some sort of comical vehicles that tell a story about the tragic events of American life, making the whole image tragicomic, sobering, and current. Behind that stickman smile lies hollowness and anxiety.

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#1

Why Can't You Just Pull Yourself Up

Why Can't You Just Pull Yourself Up

100% of the proceeds of that new piece will be donated to @blackvisionscollective to support the BLM movement.

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She started drawing them in 2017 when she saw an exhibit in a gallery in San Diego that used them. She realized that "so many people recognize these figures, yet nobody in the art world was using them as characters in a real way to tell a story. So I decided to make art exclusively using them," she told Bored Panda. In terms of how was she able to generate such compelling narratives using only a silly vessel, she admitted "I used my background as a filmmaker to add a narrative to each of my paintings."

#2

I Am Hollow Inside

I Am Hollow Inside

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alanwilkening avatar
Podunkus
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Speaking of hollow, in 1983 the AbEx artist Robert Motherwell made a painting titled “The Hollow Men” and although the title of the series may have been inspired by a T.S. Eliot poem about boundaries, in recent years my mind has invaded it with a different meaning. To me it looks like a demon leading the GOP elephant, followed by you-know-who and a parade of sycophants. Hollow indeed. 84AD3358-A...f-jpeg.jpg 84AD3358-A225-44D8-AF27-666BE32D3161-5edb881f0e68f-jpeg.jpg

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Mamie Young expressed that she wants the viewer to see a familiar object like this in a different light. "I see myself in them," she confessed, and added "they represent us in so many ways: our relationship with society, culture, and each other. These wind dancers have a complexity in them that I want to express." And she's right: her paintings resonate with current American realities like police brutality, Black Lives Matter protests, violence, poverty, inequality, and vanity. Though her paintings are somewhat poignant despite their accuracy, the artist is also socially responsible. She's going to donate all of the proceeds of her painting "Why Can't You Just Pull Yourself Up" to support the Black Lives Matter movement. Let's just hope that these wind dancers bring about the winds of change.

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#5

I'm Here To Distract You With Fear!

I'm Here To Distract You With Fear!

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#7

Inflated Lies

Inflated Lies

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#8

I'm Just Like You

I'm Just Like You

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#11

Low Cost

Low Cost

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#13

Billionairheads

Billionairheads

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#14

Set It On High

Set It On High

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#15

Wind Dancers

Wind Dancers

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alanwilkening avatar
Podunkus
Community Member
3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I love the Edward Hopper influences seeping throughout this piece, with the sunlight-and-shadow handling of open space against the emptiness of the wind dancers, connected in their mutual gaze but otherwise alone as with many of the people in Hopper’s works. Very striking.

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#17

Perspective

Perspective

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#18

Death Of A Salesman

Death Of A Salesman

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#19

Drowning In Oblivion

Drowning In Oblivion

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#20

Hands

Hands

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leoh avatar
Leo H
Community Member
3 years ago

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Why's the cop have to be white? Is this artist a racist

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#21

Business As Usual

Business As Usual

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#22

Happy Face

Happy Face

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#23

Sale

Sale

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leoh avatar
Leo H
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3 years ago

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This is an attack on my religion. You need to remove this immediatly..oh wait I'm Christian so it's okay to bash me

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#24

Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton

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#26

The Business Of Flailing Upwards

The Business Of Flailing Upwards

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#27

Iwo Jima

Iwo Jima

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alanwilkening avatar
Podunkus
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3 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I took this as a riff on agitprop in service to the American military industrial complex, which was cemented by Lyndon Johnson’s “guns and butter” economic policies. This sentiment is decades old but still relevant today, and the famous Iwo Jima tableau (it took several takes to get to the final version) is among the most parodied photo in history. I grew up in the NYC area during the Vietnam era and recall anti-war protesters chanting “Hell no, we won’t go! We won’t die for Texaco!” The men and women in our Armed Forces serve to protect the freedoms we enjoy, including both the artist’s expressions and provocations in this thread and your right to protest against it if you wish.

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#28

Inappropriate Wind Dancer - Crime Scene

Inappropriate Wind Dancer - Crime Scene

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#29

Here Is Your Chancey To Get Dancey!

Here Is Your Chancey To Get Dancey!

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#30

Wind Dancer Liquor Store

Wind Dancer Liquor Store

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#31

Gilded

Gilded

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#32

Genocide Museum

Genocide Museum

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#33

Death Row

Death Row

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#34

Chanel

Chanel

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#35

Wind Dancer Coin Laundry

Wind Dancer Coin Laundry

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#36

Prada Marfa

Prada Marfa

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#37

Wind Dancer Dollar Store

Wind Dancer Dollar Store

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