Getting Bent with Terry Border

Terry Border makes me laugh.

A lot.

And since I'm a big fan of laughing, I'm a big fan of Terry's and his hilarious Bent Objects art. I'm guessing that, by now, you've seen his art around the internet, on your local bookstore's shelves and even on the Target greeting card aisle. And I'm guessing you've been laughing, too.

Terry's new book, Bent Objects - The Secret Life of Everyday Things, is a collection of new pieces from Border that are hilarious, clever and sometimes just a bit racy. I've followed Terry's work for a long time now, and was a bit curious about how I'd react to his book. Here was an artist whose work I'd enjoyed online for ages, complimented by his personal quips. Would I get the same hysterical laughter reaction and feeling of personal connection from a hold-in-my-hands book?

In a word: Yes.

Terry's book is hysterical. His pieces of art straddle whimsy and dark humor in the same page and make you think. Sure, you're thinking about things like hot dogs pooping baked beans, but your thinking. And you're laughing. A lot. In fact, I just picked the book up to flip through and come up with a list of favorite images, and I gut laughed on every.single.page.

When the book arrived in the mail, my entire family gathered around to read it together. Don't think this is some Rockwellian regular occurrence. I should say that once I started to read it and laugh hysterically, the family gathered around to see what was so funny. And we all laughed. A lot. Some of the jokes are above the kids heads (read: a doughnut dad's "point of view" as he sends his doughnut daughter off with her hot dog boyfriend) but they still got many of them, and just seeing things like chapstick with arms, legs and on a skateboard made them laugh. A lot.

I love this book, and every time I pick it up, I find something new I somehow missed. The details are spot on, and the humor is fantastically brilliant. (it reminds me a lot of The Far Side in that read ... wait 2-3-4 ... LAUGH kind of way)

I have to confess that I received Terry's book weeks ago and have been holding off to review it for one simple reason: I wanted to try a Bent Object myself. You see, Terry includes a tutorial for making a cork person Bent Object at the end of his book. This endeared him to me even more, and I was hell bent (ha!) on making one. I finally grabbed some wire at the craft store the other day, but I had no wine corks here at home. As I sat in my office, looking around at all my crafty bits, it struck me.

I call it "Getting ready for a hot date"

I hope it makes you laugh. A lot. (or a bit, who am I kidding - I'm an amateur here!)

PS - making a Bent Object was far more difficult than I expected it to be, and photographing it was insanely hard. The massive amounts of respect I had for Terry have been quadrupled.