weego

This mural celebrates nostalgia for cartoons, video games, and other imaginative preoccupations of youth. Its title, weego, comes from a pseudonym that the Buffalo-based artist Chuck Tingley and his painting partner, Cincinnati-based artist Matt Grote (a.k.a. OGRE), developed for their collaborative projects.

The imagery of this hot-air balloon fleet was inspired by the classic Nintendo, arcade, and puzzle-based board games of the artists’ childhoods. Tingley and Grote were particularly interested in how these play-based scenarios offered opportunities to escape to an alternate world, taking you away to a space that is more imaginative and immersive. As adults, they retrospectively realized the value of the childlike wonder spurred by these games and playing together. Their design is an attempt to reclaim humor, whimsy, and fun as having the same power to transform our everyday lives that great art does.