If anyone is a master of straightforward and bold humor disguised as innocent drawings, it's Domien Delforge.
Domien is a Belgian artist famous for exaggerating modern-day issues by highlighting their absurdity. His art serves as a mirror to society, reflecting the contradictions of our everyday lives with a humorous touch. In an interview with Bored Panda, Domien shared how he navigates the fine line between humor and potential controversy.
“I feel there really isn't a line that shouldn't be crossed. In my opinion, anything can be a subject to make a cartoon about. I'm surprised most by the conservative reactions to my drawings. A lot of young people who feel women are created with the sole purpose of serving men and cooking dinner comment on my page. I always knew we were far from equality, that's why I use this subject a lot, but still, I'm always surprised by the immense amount of haters on posts about equality and human rights,” wrote Domien.
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We continued the interview with Domian, who explained how his art style evolved over the years.
“I started by painting pop-art style small works on paper and started an Instagram page doing so.
After a while, I added some text to the works and started evolving more towards making cartoons. Today, making cartoons is my biggest project, and creating art and prints, I don't do that often anymore.
Artists I look up to are David Shrigley, Joan Cornella, Piet Parra…”
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We have been familiar with Domian’s work since 2021, and he consistently creates quality content. We asked the artist to share a specific challenge or instance where he struggled to conceptualize an idea and how he overcame that challenge.“I'm kind of lazy as an illustrator, so it happens a lot. If I have an image or idea in mind and within 15 minutes the result fails to resemble the idea, I give up most of the time.
My computer is filled with thousands of ideas and started illustrations that I never finished (and probably never will),” wrote Domian.
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Besides cartooning, Domian also has a full-time job and runs a webshop. Juggling multiple projects can be exhausting, so we asked Domian to tell us how he strikes a balance between all his activities and ensuring that he has time for personal rest and creative rejuvenation.
“The biggest change for me lately is to stop my webshop. I work full-time next to drawing and owning my own gallery and webshop, and it didn't feel right anymore.
Instead of creating, I spend way too much time on shipping prints, handling complaints and delays, ... I hope this will give me the breathing room to start rethinking what I've been doing for the last few years and start having fun again,” shared Domian.
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We were also curious to learn about which cartoon, in the artist’s opinion, had a significant impact in raising awareness or sparking meaningful dialogue about a specific problem in today's society.
“I recently made one about a dead kid and people questioning his race before deciding if they should care or not. This was a complaint about media picking sides in any conflict and people being blind to innocent victims all around the world if they're part of 'the bad guys.'
I was absolutely disgusted by the enormous amount of reactions stating fighting for a cause justifies murdering kids and not caring at all. So many bad things are happening that even normal citizens are losing the basic respect and empathy necessary to make this world a better place.
I'm super worried about how the next years will pass if we keep on sharing extreme thoughts and ideas on how we should all live together on this tiny planet.”
And lastly, Domien added: “Brush your teeth three times a day and floss. They don't grow back.”
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