Max Grundy
Max Grundy has been a painter, illustrator, and graphic designer for the majority of his life and an art teacher for over a decade. His phobia and hot rod theme artwork is shown throughout the world.
Conceptually, his work is based in America’s love affair with fear and its consequential phobias. The most effective images to motivate people and get a reaction are images of fear. Fear motivates people to do something or stop doing something. Media uses fear tactics on a daily basis to tell us a variety of fallacies; that germs threaten the lives of our children, or perhaps that our social status depends on the degree of whiteness of our teeth. The news, as well as advertising, seems to exploit human beings’ desire for shock value. In short, FEAR IS THE NEW BEAUTY.
Formally, he is interested in vintage poster design around WWII (sci-fi, B-movie, comic book covers and propaganda). He admires its use of unusual perspective, limited color palette, dramatic text and design to create maximum effect. He believes this style has the ability to reach out and grab a viewer because of its economical graphic quality.
His purpose in creating images of fear and phobias is an attempt to defuse the power of fears that are used against the public by the media.