Eric Joyner

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

Eric Joyner
Joyner in 2013
Born1959/1960 (age 60–61)
San Mateo, California
OccupationArtist

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. 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. 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. 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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