Art Humor... a funny story about art in a museum, critics, an art student, & a bottle of Coca-Cola

by Karen Lynn Inglls

California has been deluged with rains and storms this winter, with one atmospheric river after another. If you're in California as you're reading this, I hope this finds you safe, warm and dry.

​(Thank you for helping us recover from drought, Momma Nature, but we’d really like it a little less at a time, if it’s possible. Please?)

So, especially for those of us who are safe and just hunkering down through the storms… maybe it’s time for some humor....​

Oh, brother... a disapproving critic strikes again....

Here’s a little humor coming from a source I didn’t expect, combining museum paintings, Coca-Cola, digital art and video with a humorous story about art students drawing from the paintings in front of them. (With a critic looking over their shoulders... that reminds me of this sketch I did from a painting Norman Rockwell created in 1928 for a Saturday Evening Post cover, called “The Critic” or “Hayseed Critic.”)

Sketch © Karen Lynn Ingalls, after Norman Rockwell's 1928 painting "The Critic," created for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

Can you imagine? Uck… nobody needs a critic like that looking over their shoulder, whether an outer or an inner one!

But in this short, very creative video — Coca-Cola Masterpiece — the paintings come to the rescue, to save one particular student who’s stuck (and appears to be falling asleep!). Art to the rescue… I love it. 👍❤️

Uh oh... he needs help....

It may be a commercial, and you can definitely get a kick out of it whether you drink soda or not. Here's a link to the video. The first comment identifies all the paintings included in the animation, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGa1imApfdg

Edvard Munch's "The Scream" is one of the paintings that comes to rescue him. :-)

I'm still chuckling....

Addendum: Coca-Cola also has a webpage with more information about all the artists and artwork, and videos interviewing five of the contemporary artists. Here's the link... enjoy!  
https://www.coca-cola.com/us/en/offerings/masterpiecegallery

Addendum #2: The screenshot illustrations are from the video, Coca-Cola Masterpiece, on Coca-Cola's YouTube channel, as you must have already guessed.  :-)