Jules Drools 

Dave Macdowell created 'Jules Drools' using acrylics on canvas. These materials are of course familiar, but this isn’t your typical still life or portrait. The Garbage Pail Kids were trading cards that parodied the Cabbage Patch Kids dolls, and Macdowell’s painting retains their subversive, gross-out aesthetic. The acrylic paint allows for bold colors and sharp lines, which amplify the cartoonish quality of the image. It’s smooth, not painterly. Look at the cascade of drool, rendered as an almost solid, milky substance. The artist's technique enhances the feeling of excess and distortion that is so central to the Garbage Pail Kids’ appeal. They satirize the culture of mass consumption, taking it to an absurd extreme. 'Jules Drools' uses the traditional medium of painting, not to elevate its subject, but to offer a dark, funny reflection on the culture around us. It reminds us that art doesn't have to be precious, or technically perfect, to be meaningful.