Greetings humans, Monki here with the winners of the 8 Bit Art contest that coincided with the showing of 8 BIT at the Alamo Drafthouse. Have you bought your ticket for the screening this upcoming Tuesday? You should!
I was unsure as to how this contest was going to turn out. I hadn't received a terrible lot of entries until the final few days of the contest...and then there was a flood of incredible work.
I gave myself an out...five winners...all the same prize. I figured there would be one or two really awesome pieces and a few others that were decent. I got a ton of incredible work making it even difficult to wean it down to the final five, but some choices were made and here are your final winners in no particular order.
The first one up came from Blain Hefner along with a great email explaining the piece:
Ms. Pac-Man is the first video game I can remember playing about the time I was 4. I would beg my mom for a quarter everytime we went to the grocery store to play it. I never did make it past the third level so most of the time I stood on my toes watching an older kid kick ass at the game.
What always intrigued me though, more so than the pixilated version of Pac-Man's counterpart, was the graphic images of her on the sides of the arcade game and also the merchandise.
I thought she was hot. Like, a Betty Rubble hot. In a polaroid taken at Pepperment Palace (a Chuck-E-Cheez-esque place that was Wichita Falls, TX looong ago), I can even be seen affectionately leaning up against the Misses, with her hubby none-the wiser next to me.
Not only did Ms. Pac-Man kick ass munchin' on ghosts, she did it all wearing nothing but red shoes, gloves,a bow and a smile. Long before Lara Croft, Ms. Pac-Man was THE original video game sex goddess.
That is what inspired my piece "One Call Does It All." I decided to depict the softer, sexy side of her -- as a classic pin-up girl in the style of classic pin-up artists like George Petty, Alberto Vargas and Gil Elvgren.