Durham, NC
5/6/10 6:21 PM
What is it about certain kinds of candy that tastes so much like nostalgia? Rainbow lollipops, swirly peppermints, pastel jellybeans and those mysteriously pyramidal candy corns all evoke an idealized time past, one of Main Streets and penny candy shops, of a time before Sweet’N Low and the Kraft takeover of Cadbury. Stacy Crabill’s mixed media drawings hearken back unapologetically to this pretty, sugary world, picturing old-fashioned sweets with a practiced, charming sketchiness that takes them just enough steps away from advertising pictures. A twist comes by way of the fortune cookie fortunes that Crabill collages into each image and abbreviates to form their titles. Although some cookies have been known to produce surprisingly wise bits of advice, these are not those. No, in keeping with the simple pleasures promised by the depicted sweets, the sayings Crabill has chosen are unconditionally clichéd, of the it-is-better-to-have-a-hen-tomorrow-than-an-egg-today variety. And so it goes with nostalgia: everything looks tastier and simpler seen through its saccharine glaze.
—Lori Waxman