Why do so many people just talk about themselves all the time? Why don't they show any interest in their conversational partner? Those questions are the main inspiration for this new colorful illustration called 'Don't talk. Listen'.

Shut up and listen

Years ago it occured to me that so many people are never sincerely interested in their conversational partners. They talk and talk and talk. Always about themselves. Telling their story. Never properly responding to what the other person is telling.

Now, when I am a proud dad of two small kids, the examples are still everywhere. Every mom talks about how their kids are doing. How their day is. People start their conversations with the mandatory 'How are you' but instead of really listening to the answer, they can't wait to tell their story. Once you start telling yours, their eyes get out of focus and you see their minds wandering off. Thinking of the next bit of information about themselves they can inject into the 'conversation'.

Headphones and megaphones

I turned this strange, somewhat anti-social behaviour into this painting. It is an illustration, drawn with Posca paint markers on very heavy paper. It depicts two human characters. I made them both looking to the left, backwards, against the reading direction. As way of telling the viewer that this is not a positive situation.

The left character has headphones on. A symbol that occurs often in my work. With headphones you don't have to listen to the world, you can shut everyone out. To emphasize this, I positioned the headphones plug in the mouth, indicating that this persons only listens to themselves.

The dark purple shape represents a megaphone. He shouts so loud, he can't listen to what other people are saying. The right character represents everyone else. Talking but not getting trough. It also has some kind of lamp on top of his head. This represents the attention it is graving.

Figurative style

The style I choose for this illustration is similar to the one of 'Icecream Jedi' and it fits within an experiment where I am exploring a more figurative style as opposed to the Bold Lines collection. The specifications (Posca paint marker on heavy paper, 70cm x 50cm) are also the same, providing artworks within a lower price range.

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