Piece of the Week: Stag Bike by Andy Scullion

Artist Andy Scullion knows his bikes. He’s made an entire portfolio out of awesome and inventive bikes, with everything from cute patriotic bikes to sleek bikes being whisked off by giant bunches of balloons. If there’s one thing Andy could probably do with his eyes closed, is draw a bicycle.

Scullion’s “Stag Bike” has a detailed background pattern that makes the image a celebration of subtle illustration. It’s delicate color palette of light golds and deep ochery-maroons adds to the texture, and it’s all quite lovely to look at. To its credit, “Stag Bike” never gets close to being kitsch or too cutesy, and is a great example of using oddities and absurd pairings (a bike and a stag, what!?) to make mismatched and awesome illustrations. Matching odd things together is a classic tool used to makes things very funny, as creating unexpected and confusing pairings often makes our brains confused and then makes things comedy filled. Andy Scullion does this with mastery in “Stag Bike”. The stag’s deadpan stare is straight-up quirky, giggle-inducing weirdness.

Hybrid vehicles are very in right now, and perhaps a “Stag Bike” is the way of the future for us all. Soon we’ll all ride our stag bikes to the pub on Friday nights and give them a drink at the trough. Okay, maybe the possibility of us riding around on our own “Stag Bike” is slim, but it certainly makes this unusual and unexpected artwork our Piece of the Week.