Listen to “Amsterdam” by Scott Walker [download]

One of my favorite sites, Fecal Face, turned me on to the work of Michael C. Hsiung, a Los Angeles-based aritst who draws sketches both melancholy and hilarious of mermen, sailors, birds and beasts. Fecal Face conducted a highly amusing interview with him recently, covering everything from his noble beginnings in a nude figure drawing class with a fat, sweaty male model, to the influence of Dungeons & Dragons on his work, to the mysterious origins of his stately moustache.

Maybe it’s just because I love Victorian stylings, nautical themes, and husky, bearded mermen, but I find Hsiung’s drawings irresistible. He manages to evoke unfamiliar emotions out of simple, familiar images, without losing a sense of humor. His over-the-top artist statement is dripping in hyperbole: “My work addresses gender roles/gender assignment given to mermen, the fragility of unicorn/panda dynamics, domestic violence between centaurs and unitaurs and the underlying threads of violence and danger that underpin all other-worldly societies.” Nice.

Michael C. Hisung has a show up right now at Gallery Revisited in Silver Lake, so check it out before it closes on July 28th!