Welcome to my art blog



A self-taught artist, I have always been drawn towards the macabre. Born a twin on Christmas Eve 1964 in Montreal, my twin died several months after birth. This became a large influence in my creative process; isolation, detachment, duality, haunted visions coming from this astral being that I am forever tethered to.

Art has always been my way to process and filter what I come across, what I am subjected to, or what I subject myself to each day; a way for me to exorcise the demons on my shoulder. The paintings are empathic, often inspired by the individual’s strength in the face of their own weakness. The common thread in all of my works is survival of self.

If a viewer is made uncomfortable by my work, then I have done my job as an artist. I have touched something within them that they are not comfortable with. I want to elicit a visceral response but maintain a sense of the absurd, creating works that are both intensely horrifically personal and humourous.

I am inspired by artists that have celebrated the grotesque: Hieronymus Bosch, Joe Coleman, Otto Dix and George Grosz.

This blog is a progression of my work, works in progress, random thoughts etc. You can join me on Facebook or view a gallery of my work on Flickr at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27952465@N05/

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Your f(r)iend,

Grant Cunningham

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Helloween Creations

...the next couple of days will be filled with pumpkin sculpting and creating various monstrosities.  I've been expanding my repetoire of creative endeavours to include cake decorating.  Inspired by other gruesome desert makers, I've decided to try my hand at sculpting with marzipan, modelling chocolate and fondant.  Perhaps it's too much exposure to the Food Network but most likely it just my love of everything gory and horrific around Helloween.

Hillbilly teeth

Sutures

Festering sore

Experiment

Pustules

Panic!

Friday, October 19, 2012

Food Art

Cooking is an extension of my art... and when Halloween comes around in Montreal, I'm all into gross-out food.  In particular I'm drawn towards cake decorating and seeing how far I can push that medium.  As I save up for my coveted food airbrush, I'm making due with experimenting with moldable fondant and sugar work.  I saw these beauties on a food blog recently and decided that I needed to recreate them.  Several pounds of sugar later (still not happy with the sugar "glass" and it tends to turn opaque overnight.  Not sure how to remedy this, but I'm pretty pleased for a first attempt.





Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Hungry Clown

I love Halloween, unfortunately I find there is very little creepy or interesting to do in Montreal during my favorite non-holiday.  I grew up on Eerie Publications horror comics like Voodoo Tales and Tales of the Vampire... over the top gore rags that had a penchant for eyeballs hanging out of eye sockets by their optic nerves.  I remember eliciting and off look from my mother when I replicated a panel that featured a witch called "Old Bess" (it could have been Old Beth).  Her eyeball was hanging out, she had maybe three teeth in head, snot dribbling from her nose.  I remember showing my drawing to my mum, who responded with an odd look.  Years later during a parent and teacher interview with my art teacher, he would pull a gallows sculpture I did out of a closet, show it to my mother and inform her, "...I think your son needs help, look what he made!".  My mother was nonplussed  and responded "...that's Grant". One of the main reasons I never pursued an academic career was bad teachers discouraging my artistic expression.

In honor of All Hallow's Eve, a quick sketch I did on my iPad with Procreate.