"It’s basically like an overspill of your brain’s 'stress bucket,' when your mind can’t handle it any more. In my case I went through a wave of hallucinations and delusions from thinking that I was speaking to God to being hired to doodle all over Donald Trump’s wall to believing that I had become the video game character Crash Bandicoot. In the psychiatric ward I believed I had met and become friends with Banksy and Kanye West and that we were destined to doodle the world together, in reality these were nurses and patients. It was amazing how convinced I was that these things were all true, it was as if I was living in an alternate reality dream world and I just couldn’t tell the difference between what was real and what wasn’t.... I was under a lot of pressure mainly from the administrative side of my work, the contracts and legal stuff got on top of me and there were too many things to deal with at once. I am much better now... and I am able to doodle better than ever before!"
Writes Mr. Doodle on Facebook. You can see a lot of his work there too — here. Instagram — here. Sample:
Here's an Artnet article about him from 3 weeks ago: "How an Artist Named Mr. Doodle Became a Multimillion-Dollar Auction Sensation With a Bunch of Squiggles and ‘Like’-able Branding/Powered by towering sales results in Asia and millions of social followers, Mr. Doodle has quietly taken the auction market by storm."
In his private moments, Mr. Doodle (AKA the Doodle Man) is a British-born 26-year-old named Sam Cox.... [A]ny public appearance by Mr. Doodle finds Cox draped in clothing covered in his own signature imagery—the intricately interwoven pandemonium of cartoon creatures the artist sometimes refers to as “graffiti spaghetti.” (Imagine if Keith Haring adapted the Where’s Waldo? books, and you’ll start to get the picture.)...
[I]n spring 2017, when Mr. Doodle became a social media sensation thanks to an enthusiastically shared Facebook video of the 60-plus hours he spent doodling the full interior of a vacant shop next to London’s Old Street Underground station.... By early March 2021, Mr. Doodle’s steady stream of videos and lighthearted meme fodder (such as a walk in the park with his paper mâché pet, Doodle Dog) has won him a jaw-dropping 2.7 million followers on Instagram, more than 736,000 Facebook friends, and about 82,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel. For context, Damien Hirst currently has 739,000 followers on Instagram; Jeff Koons has even fewer....
Mr. Doodle has been deliberately diving into this broader commercial infinity pool for some time now. “Yes, I am aware of Mr. Doodle as a brand,” he said. “Being aware that each artist is actually a brand too is useful, because then you’re aware of your worth, your audience, your own branding, and how that needs attention when working with others.”
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29 comments:
Interesting they mention Keith Haring as this guy seems to have delusions he's Keith Haring.
I thought psychological diagnoses were old fashioned and that surgery to cut something off was the modern choice?
I should be so nuts.
On the one hand, you can become rich and famous doing that!? On the other hand, you probably do have to be obsessive and a little nuts to become rich and famous doing that.
There's always a couple of doodle artists living in the artists dorm. OCD is a consistent theme of their work...
Looks like what they wrap newly designed cars with when they take them onto the roads for test drives.
Exactly, Maybee! It disguises the underlying 3-D form.
Ann’s rats are better.
That's rather adorable actually. Would purchase $20 NFT of.
Looks like what they wrap newly designed cars with when they take them onto the roads for test drives.
If you like that look, Rivian to offer factory vinyl wraps from the factory
Ann’s rats are better
She's offered glimpses of drawings in her notebook on occasion. They are interesting
You don't have to be obsessive and a little nuts to be an artist (no matter what the medium may be), but it doesn't hurt.
It’s good that he could monetize his mental illness
Peter Max.
I think all of us have an amazing singular talent. It's just finding and realizing what that is in each of us that is the key. Some- most- never find it and never even consider that they have this wonderful talent tucked deep into our DNA. Others spend years thinking they are doing what they were meant to do, but it turns out not to be the case and late in life end up unfulfilled, unsatisfied, and walk around sighing a lot. And still others work away their younger days, dreaming of the day when they can fully work on what they know deep in their heart they were meant to be doing.
The lucky ones among us realize early on where their natural talents and desires lie. They go about it as normally as most of us breathe in and out. And we consider them 'geniuses' or just extremely talented. Or nuts.
And some of us are just nuts. No genius involved at all.
Temujin : "I think all of us have an amazing singular talent."
I would take issue with "singular." Many share the same talent. I have no doubt that my own particular genius - sitting on the couch with a glass in my hand, looking at a TV on the wall - is shared by many. So many, I fear, that I will never be able to monetise it. On the good side, unlike speed skating, I think I will be able to keep it up in old age.
I can appreciate the doodles... but not on my wall. eee gads.
Lee Moore- I think you sell yourself short. No one stares at the TV quite like you do, I'm sure.
This does support the theory that starting such a project, at least the first time, would prompt if not questions some internal discussion of one’s sanity to embark on completing that first wall. I would have continually queried myself “is someone anyone going to like it enough to buy it?” and “should I keep going” but that’s just me. Such silly stuff yet it takes on a certain appeal at scale when it approaches the point where your brain starts to toggle between “I recognize a pattern” and “hey there is no pattern” and there’s something enjoyable about that moment and that Instagram used to illustrate it was an excellent choice. As an artist I would not have pushed a doodle to that scale but as an observer I have to admit that nuttyish dude is onto something. I wonder if seeing much more would quickly wear out my intrigue but who knows?
Keith Haring's estate should sue.
Come to think of it, they should also sue Matt Groening.
I knew a guy who made a fortune off The Simpsons.
Sue him, too.
Committed.
This picture would be better if he had treated the ladder.
He is very good. I can see a lot of branding opportunities...
"I have no doubt that my own particular genius - sitting on the couch with a glass in my hand, looking at a TV on the wall"
The family is less likely to call social services if you turn it on.
Pretty typical psychosis. He just got lucky and it proved to be salable. I don't think anything more interesting is happening here.
I write this as one who was social worker for about 3,000 psychiatric emergency patients in my career and knew about 3,000 more who were on my units. I don't shrug for no reason.
tim maguire said...
On the one hand, you can become rich and famous doing that!?
Have you seen what passes for “art” these days?
It looks like compulsive behavior to me; but I admit to knowing nothing about art.
Most of the "characters" within the larger doodle look like things from other artists, particularly from comics produced in the 60's and 70's. Those artists were just stoned, not mentally ill.
Doesn't do anything for me.
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