LOCKDOWN JOURNAL: COVID-19.30 (Harley and Parker)
Allow me to introduce Harley and Parker. Harley is the tall one with the fabulous hair, and Parker is the short one with the sharp suits dress sense. Harley speaks in italics. They are BFFEs (Best Friends For Eternity because it sounds more ominous).
They spend their time bringing their eccentric, sometimes morbid, inner-world to the outside. Manifestations of their interests and creativity. What they do is for them, they're not ones to adhere to social norms. If they want to stick a kiddy pool in the middle of their home and recreate Poem of the Sea Storm by Néstor or The Mermaids by Ferdinand Leeke they will. And I relish that.
I suppose it's an odd occurrence that I created these new characters in January when we had no idea what the next months would be like, and have had use of them a lot since. It’s the pleasant kind of coincidence. I made them in a difficult period. I wanted something that reflected me, my values and my interests. I don't often see myself reflected in likeable central characters. The brilliant thing about being an artist is, if you get irritated enough and get off you're butt, you can create them yourself. You have that power, and it's a superpower. A sort of 'I reject your construction of normality and create my own' power.
The original Addams Family comics were an inspiration, as was the '60s TV show with their unexplained wealth, resources and unusual hobbies. But I also wanted to play with gender and our interpretations of it, within subcultures and 'mainstream' society.
If you like Harley and Parker, you can see more of them on my Instagram account, @cnickartist. I post them on Saturdays (just not every Saturday).
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