Word Balloons
featuring
Child's Tale

2 July - 27 July 2015
San Diego State University-Downtown Art Gallery
725 West Broadway, San Diego, California, 92101

Word Balloons, running concurrently with San Diego's Comic-Con, presents SDSU student and faculty work, and features the work of alumni, "Honorary Fellow" and contemporary artist Hugo Crosthwaite.

Directly painted on the west wall, Hugo Crosthwaite presents Child's Tale. In this site-specific mural, Hugo Crosthwaite expresses the power of storytelling through the vehicle of a child’s imagination. Transcending the typical use of a word balloon, Crosthwaite depicts an ordinary interaction between two girls as one tells a story to the other. The exchange between them is signified by a Mesoamerican symbol for a "speech scroll", historically reserved for kings and the "Sacred Heart", representing divine love and evidence that the listener feels the words deeply. Her heartfelt response provokes her imagination to vividly conjure what she hears. Chaotic and sensational, this imagined tale references iconic comic book characters and calls into questions the power of the media to seduce young minds. The boy on the right illustrates this allure, trying to climb into the story to become part of the unfolding narrative. The piece was developed in 5 days.

Exhibition Press
Comic-Con and SDSU Word Balloons
Mark Murphy, 30 June 2015

Hugo Crosthwaite Word Balloons Mural
Mark Murphy, 2 July 2015

Hugo Crosthwaite

Child’s Tale - work in progress
2015
mixed media, marker, graphite and acrylic paint on plaster wall
12 x 18 feet