E.T. Boz

Local artist Justin Hager has a show up at Four Barrel right now, featuring his signature crude “drawerings and painterings” of puns on 90′s icons, including gems such as Urkel Jerks and E.T. Boz (pictured above). Hey Justin, how about rounding out that TLC series with, uh, Left Eye Peas or Chilli Cheese Dog? Or, you know, whatever you think of.

See more of Justin’s work here.

18 Responses to “E.T. Boz”

  1. Ariel Dovas says:

    Thanks for this, Helen. Usually the artwork in that place is not to my taste. But I saw this stuff the other day and while waiting and waiting for my latte I was really digging this guy’s work.

  2. no cal says:

    Once again the walls of that place are draped in foolish pre-adolescent doodles disguised as “art”.

    • Ben S says:

      Word! It doesn’t show how nature is powerful and will eventually overcome the transient creations of men or nothing yo. That shit is bunk. If you ask me there hasn’t been an art made since The Voyage of life by Thomas Cole.

  3. think_for_me says:

    Finally, art I can relate to because it speaks to me in a language I understand. It’s great to see a new spin put on pop-culture references. Like, I thought that was just a poster for Circle Jerks, but then it’s like, ‘whoa!’, that’s really the character ‘Urkel’ from that show from before.

    I only hope that after completing this painting, the artists stepped back and in disbelief uttered, “Did I do thaaaaat!?”

    • Ariel Dovas says:

      Can you actually produce anything or put something out there for someone to get something from, or are you only capable of criticizing other people’s work? I know it can be scary to be vulnerable, but try it out sometime.

  4. think_for_me says:

    To answer your question and address your assumption that I’ve no experience with being vulnerable or producing publicly displayed works, yes, I can and have produced public, private, and commercial art. The feedback/criticism has ranged from ‘who the fuck told you this was good!?’ to ‘cool.’

    Beside, there is nothing wrong with negative criticism. If rattles the ego of the artist, they may want to investigate a different field. If it doesn’t, or they simply don’t care what people say (good or bad), then that’s even better.

    So, people don’t care for the artwork of a local cafe and make a comment on a local blog. If ever a glaring example of the inconsequential, this is a top contender.

    • Ariel Dovas says:

      Show us something. I’d love to feature work from commenters. Or show me something privately. (I mean, don’t show me your privates, you know what I mean)

      Also, negative criticism is one thing. Constructive criticism is another. I appreciate critique, even from anonymous internet commenters, but some people are just here to dump on everything, which is tiring.

      For the inconsequential argument, I don’t buy that, for the amount that you comment you’re obviously here to have a conversation, which is what’s happening right now. Internet comments are not a big deal, obviously, but why shouldn’t I address them?

      • Lamb says:

        while waiting and waiting for my latte

        Was that constructive criticism of Four Barrel’s work, or just an anonymous internet dump?

        Ariel, I do agree that the internet is often a venue for people to post commentary about art that they would possibly choose to not repeat to an artist’s face. However, I think that it is reasonable to assume that the goofy subject matter of this particular art, and the unsubtle mashing together of throwaway pop culture bits is naturally going to cause people who don’t care for it to respond to it with an “ick, how stupid” reaction.

        I can’t imagine that the artist would expect anything different. But I could be wrong.

        Now back to work on my zombie Barbie dioramas. They are dripping with fingernail polish “blood”, and I’m ready to throw on the creepy green glitter.

      • think_for_me says:

        Thanks for the offer, Ariel, but I don’t understand how showing my work would make my opinion in this situation any more or less valid. The point is, as Lamb pointed out, some people are going to pan on this type of art, due to the subject matter, and may even voice it via comment.

        As an exercise, ask yourself if you would retort to a compliment on this artwork the same way? If someone said they thought it was great, would you ask them to show some of their work and try to note the merits of constructive-positivism? I believe that opinions are simply opinions.

        • GG says:

          Is there a threshhold level of expertise in a field that is required to validate a critique, or is the content of criticism independent of the nature of the critic? What transforms criticism into “constructive criticism”? These, my friends, are the sort of important esoteric issues that can only be given their full measure of debate in a forum as venerable as the MM comments section.

        • Ariel Dovas says:

          Lamb – Pretty sure that comment wasn’t made anonymously.

          think_for_me – To your first point, you don’t have to validate your criticism at all, we agree on that. I actually thought your comment was funny this time. It’s totally fine to weigh in however you like, we rarely censor comments, which is important to me. I just want to challenge you to add something more to the dialogue than popping up just to put something down. It seems like some people here seem to subscribe to “if you don’t have anything mean to say don’t say anything at all”, which is fine, just a bit of a drag.

          To your second point, my comment comes in a stream of the same old kind of thing from you (and it’s not just you, I recognize) that I think doesn’t really add much to the conversation. I know I don’t need to take this so seriously, and I don’t really, but I think often times a chance to have an interesting discussion (which I now think we’re having) is missed because people would rather just shit on everything. Think of a room where a few of us are standing in a lighted area offering things we think are cool or interesting for people to look at and most of the people react by hiding in the dark and making dick jokes and booing. It’s just not as fun. Plus, it’s easy to be mean when you’re not exposing yourself. Though I also know that this site can sometimes encourage that kind of reaction through its tone.

          Look, I do this on breaks at work, the little spare time I have in an evening, weekend, whatever, because I enjoy sharing stuff and hopefully sparking a dialogue. I don’t need you to praise me or anyone else here, I would welcome a critique of my photography or artwork or whatever I put up here. I don’t need to see your work to want to listen to your opinion, but I do need to see that you’ve put some thought in it and not just being contrary just because you can.

          But you’re gonna do what you want and that’s cool with me, sometimes I just feel the need to respond. And I appreciate this dialogue.

          • Lamb says:

            Ariel, I didn’t make my point clear when I mentioned your “waiting and waiting” for your latte, and I am sorry if I offended you, because my post was meant to be lighthearted, not snotty.

            My point was this: While you are comfortable posting the offhand comment that you have been “waiting and waiting” for your drink (a comment that might rile a service industry worker), I doubt that you would complain to the person who is working hard making your latte that you have been “waiting and waiting” right at them. I was trying to point out that people writing on the internet–even ones who are not writing wholly anonymously–may still feel a space between themselves and their comments that allows them to get comfortable writing things that they might not say aloud in the company of other people. From what you’ve written, I think that we are agreeing with one another here.

          • Ariel Dovas says:

            No offense taken. And it’s a good point, and I do agree.

            In that case, I am reluctant to complain to the person making the coffee (which I did for a bunch of years – make coffee, not complain), who’s hard at work, no doubt wanting to get me my coffee relatively quickly. At the same time I don’t think the consistent wait is something that I need to complain to the management about. So I made a snarky comment about it here. Is that passive aggressive? Yeah, probably. But I am using my real name (not saying that makes it better, but it makes it different) and I feel like making a specific reference to my feeling about the service is different than just waiting for someone to post about Four Barrel and so that I can say that it sucks. Or having “_____ sucks!” ready to go and then just filling in whatever the post is referencing.

  5. SFlandlord says:

    West-Memphis-Three-Is-A-Magic-Number,

    I’ll hire someone else to do the visual.

  6. mewr says:

    rezatron hack.

  7. Laughing says:

    the work is bad

  8. euni says:

    His work is clever and it makes me laugh.
    I could have never ever thought of painting an ET BOZ.