About a month ago,I found this little piece of joy at my local Walmart (yes, I shop there, don't judge):
Then, one day, while surfing the internet looking for something totally unrelated, I came across this website dedicated to the Eyebombing movement. Who knew?
The name and crusade, as it were, was created by two Danish gentlemen and this piece by the BBC tells a little bit about it.
Now, I don't know if my eyebombed pickle jar was influenced by this movement or it was just something this individual thought was fun to do, as many people are capable of coming up with the same idea independently. But, as scientists and inventors (and others in competitive fields) know all too well, whoever gets published first gets the glory. In today's internet/meme world, it's whoever gets the first Google search result. Indeed, there's an article on Gawker that points out this isn't anything new, which itself was published two years ago.
It really doesn't matter, though. What matters is doing it, like my googly eye artist.
Spend three and a half minutes watching the BBC video and then head over to eyebombing.com and I dare you to try to resist the urge to run and buy some sticky-backed googly eyes and do some eyebombing yourself. You can't. It's irresistible. It's OK. Give into it's whimsical charm. Who cares if it's "new" or not. Don't be a hipster snob.
I know what I'm doing with my 40% off coupon. I'll report back when I've joined the googly eye graffiti ranks. Send me a message and a picture if you succumb to the googly eyed siren!
Now, I want it to be clear I don't live in a big city or hipster area or even in a college town. I live in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. While it is a perfectly nice city to live in, it's by no means a hot spot of cutting edge creativity and artistic expression.
So, imagine my delight when reaching for a jar of bread and butter pickles, I saw this:
Yes! Googly eyes!!
At first I thought it was printed on the label and was amused at that. When I realized they were actual googly eyes and only on that one jar (I still thought it was some sort of marketing thing), I was thrilled and gratified because 1) Someone in my community thought this would be fun to do and 2) I was the person to receive this gift!
(an artsy shot)
Now, I don't know whoever did it thought it was a prank and would annoy someone or did it in a gesture of gifting a whimsical expression. Although I'll never know, I choose to see it as the latter and wish somehow I could let him or her know that the gesture was greatly appreciated.
A somewhat tangential but interesting side note: via thesaurus.com, the origin of the word "happy" has its roots in "lucky" from "hap" (chance, fortune). A great majority of European words for happy at first meant lucky.
Thank you anonymous googly eye artist! Your gift is appreciated every time I eat my pickles! (And I just may transfer all subsequent purchases into this jar.)
(another artsy shot)
A call to art: Buy self-adhesive googly eyes and place them on random labels, tags, signs (don't be too disrespectful) and know that some people may be annoyed and angered and the rest will have a bit of unexpected whimsy and pleasure injected into their day. Either way, if (one of) the purpose(s) of art is to elicit an emotion, you've done your job.
