You know when you find someone who is making exactly the art you think you would want to make, you know, if you could? That’s how I felt when I encountered Cameron Dailey, who I heard of through the equally amazing gay kitsch connoisseur Sissydude.
Dailey mixes greeting card and vintage Disney aesthetics with hookup culture and Robyn lyrics, and the result is a sexy, campy, and eerily confessional body of work. One-liner word bubbles and a predilection for bright yellow and orange pee give his work a sense of humour, but there’s also a distinct sense of longing, perhaps for an era past but more likely for a connection in the present. Half the time I feel like I want to be in Cameron Dailey’s world, and other times I think I just have a crush on him.
In a recent interview with Huffington Post, Dailey said “I suppose in some ways these pieces are my version of the gym selfie.” Flirtatious, vulnerable, self-centered, comic — I’d say they’re way, way better.
Follow Cameron Dailey on instagram at @YESCAMERON
Jonathan Valelly a writer, community artist and editor in Toronto. He is the Assistant Editor at Broken Pencil.
Images from sissydude.com, huffingtonpost.com