Cotton-On

You may never have heard of a Will Cotton, but I’m sure you've seen one. Perhaps, the widest audience reached by the New York-based painter’s works can be ultimately conceived in the candy-pop iconic music video of Katy Perry’s California Gurls – hitting the charts of 2010. Here, play this video, take care random screen captures and...


there you go – (some sort of) a Will Cotton art.

Being the art director of the music video, the sugar rush is no wonder evident in California Gurls. Consider Cotton’s aesthetic of vast landscapes made of confectionaries and sweets that are inhabited by girls who look as delightful and decadent as their surroundings. The creatures of milky complexions with crowns of pastry and candy, seemingly dispatched from the real world, grazed a series of portraits as well. Cotton regard them as icons of indulgence and stagnation (just like the landscapes), as they live in world of plenty where everyone’s desire is met beyond measure to the point that desire itself cease to exist. Like a candy-sprinkled utopia.

Candy Curls, 2005

Influenced by a certain language of consumer culture, this brought Cotton’s interest in cultural iconography into a new level where cotton candy clouds and gingerbread towns update the taste of popular culture. In an ordinary folk’s sense, his work gives a playful and relatable theme to the idea of the land of milk and honey (see, the painting of a girl who drinks in a lake of milk), which most of us know of biblically. A fanciful utopia, which straightforwardly grants what society wants.

Cotton Candy Clouds, 2006 and Candy Stick Forest, 2005

And as his works weren’t fully able to hand over people an experience of his aesthetic and the principle behind it, he had a French bakery art installation in Manhattan on 2009. His visual inspirations of confectionaries and sweets were baked and sold in the installation by women with candied tiaras on their heads to fully deliver and let the public experience the sensation of his paintings. He also directed a performance art work where ballet and burlesque is incorporated with cotton candy and whipped cream, in full production with professional dancers and musicians. Being there would’ve been a delicious experience, and I’m quite sure that you can travel the world, but nothing will come as close as a Will Cotton coast.