Artist 47: GWAR

Yup, you knew it was coming. The almighty GWAr has made it on my list of influential artists. GWAR is a splatter metal band composed of alien war lord who were banished to Earth millions of years ago by the Master of the Universe because they were making a general mess of things. They were frozen in antarctica after they caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. But before they were frozen, Beefcake the Mighty stretched dinosaur gizzard strings across the Grand Canyon and wrote the first song in the world, "I Write the Songs." It is a little known fact, but this song actually contained every single song known to man kind, other people just copied parts and claimed it as their own. They were released from Antarctica during the 1980s due to the massive amounts of hair spray being used, causing the polar ice caps to melt. Sleazy P. Martini discovered them, gave them instruments, and set out to promote the best band the world has ever seen. 25 years later, they are still touring across the world, killing their audiences every night.



But seriously, they're actually a bunch of VCU graduates who majored in Fine Arts and Music Performance. Put those two together with a killer sense of humor (pun intended), and you get GWAR. They are much more than just a band, they're visual artists as well. They make their own costumes and props in their studio, The Slave Pit, in Richmond, Virginia. The members of the studio who don't play in the band get to dress up as GWAR's slaves and have their own fun on stage during performances. These performances involve loud heavy metal music, executing victims on stage, bad jokes, and general messiness.

On top of writing music and making props, frontman David Brockie (Oderus Urungus) is an illustrator and produces his own comics and artwork. Everything he does is quite vile and not suitable for children, though it is quite funny. I'm not going to post images of Brockie's original work, because Oderus might find me and take my head off with his sword, and then drink my blood.

GWAR has inspired quite a bit of my work. They kind of encouraged me to used my sick sense of humor in some of my work, and to approach the wearable work with a more extreme look. But most importantly, they have taught me to have fun with your artwork, that way you'll never get bored with it.