Eric Joyner
Joyner in 2013
Born1959 or 1960 (age 63–64)
San Mateo, California
OccupationArtist

Eric Joyner (born c. 1960)[1] is a contemporary American artist whose body of work has focused on robots and donuts.[2]

Early life and career

Joyner grew up in San Mateo, California, and spent some time in Medford, Oregon, after his family moved there.[1] He was always interested in art and attended the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.[3] He began working as a commercial illustrator in 1984[4] and created the cover art for several video games, such as Tales of the Unknown, Volume I: The Bard's Tale, Realm of Impossibility, and Archon II: Adept.

Robots and donuts

In 1999, he chose to focus only on topics that he likes. He started painting with four different elements: Mexican masks, San Francisco city life, old newspaper cartoons and Japanese robots. He found that the robots were the most popular feature with his friends.[5] He had been collecting toy robots for about 20 years and wanted to bring them to life. In 2002, he felt that he needed another element to work off of.[3] Inspired by the film Pleasantville, in which Jeff Daniels paints donuts, Joyner added donuts.[1] The donuts have been featured as both objects of desire and adversaries to the robots.[6]

Sales and reach

Joyner paints approximately 20 paintings a year with his original works selling from anywhere from $3000 a piece to $75,000. George Lucas is one of his most famous buyers.[5] Several of his paintings are used as set pieces in the TV show The Big Bang Theory.[7] An adaptation of his 2007 work "The Collator", "Submerged", is featured on the album cover for the Ben Folds Five album The Sound of the Life of the Mind.[8] His painting "Malfunction" is used on the cover of Robot Law, a scholarly volume on robotics law and policy edited by Ryan Calo, A. Michael Froomkin, and Ian Kerr.[9]

Books

Joyner has two books about his paintings including Robots and Donuts (2008) and Robotic Existentialism: The Art of Eric Joyner (2018).[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Turnquist, Kristi (December 20, 2013). "Eric Joyner, whose robots-and-donuts art appears in 'The Big Bang Theory,' visits Portland". The Oregonian. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
  2. ↑ Ohanesian, Liz (January 19, 2012). "Eric Joyner's Vintage Robots Travel to Thailand in Paintings at Corey Helford". LA Weekly. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Rivera, Erica (October 15, 2015). "Profile | Eric Joyner: A Taste For Tech & Whimsy". CraveOnline. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Oceana Art Gallery features Eric Joyner -- Robots and Donuts show opens this weekend". San Jose Mercury News. June 25, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2016.
  5. 1 2 3 Holland, Oscar. "Doughnuts, robots, repeat: The surreal world of Eric Joyner". CNN Style. Retrieved March 15, 2018.
  6. ↑ Kellogg, Carolyn (January 24, 2009). "Eric Joyner paints robots. And donuts". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 24, 2014.
  7. ↑ Turnquist, Kristi (December 20, 2013). "Eric Joyner, whose robots-and-donuts art appears in 'The Big Bang Theory,' visits Portland". The Oregonian. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  8. ↑ Chancellor, Jennifer (September 30, 2013). "Ben Folds Five's new album art has Tulsa tie". Tulsa World. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
  9. ↑ "This Is The Cover Of A New Book On Robot Law". Popular Science. Retrieved October 9, 2017.
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