{"id":7008,"date":"2026-06-18T09:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=7008"},"modified":"2026-06-18T09:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T16:36:07","slug":"sour-soda-studio-depicts-a-saccharine-world-where-humans-have-lost-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/?p=7008","title":{"rendered":"Sour Soda Studio Depicts a Saccharine World Where Humans Have Lost Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sour<\/p>\n

Think for a second about what comes to mind when you hear \u201csoda.\u201d Perhaps fizzy, saccharine, and bright? Then consider the connotations of the word \u201csour.\u201d Maybe it evokes the zing of a lemon, tanginess, or something sharper. This is the relationship that forms the basis of Sour Soda Studio<\/a>, a project built upon two decades of illustration experience with a playful and slightly unsettling view of some of the most pressing issues of the Anthropocene.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t come from a change of direction, or from a manifesto,\u201d says the artist, who prefers to remain unnamed. \u201cIt came from something simpler: the need to say different things with a different voice.\u201d In these vibrant, often absurd works with titles like \u201cPlastic Wind\u201d and \u201cThe Siren\u2019s Catch,\u201d humans\u2019 control over their surroundings is just a fantasy. Clouds mimic the shapes of trees, tiny figures hold onto botanicals floating inside of bubbles, and totally oblivious festival-goers ignore a polar bear\u2019s plight on a shrinking chunk of ice even as it mauls one of them to death.<\/p>\n

\"a
\u201cGreen North\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sour Soda Studio\u2019s approach is like a bit of a visual side-eye, nodding with an air of dark humor to the anxieties and societal disconnect around the climate crisis and humanity\u2019s role in the balance of nature. A lumberjack whacks at a tree that\u2019s already on fire. A crocodile disappears into the brush with all but a pool cleaner\u2019s arm. And mermaids are fished from the sea like tuna and later canned in attractive packaging. Aren\u2019t sirens known for enticing humans into the depths?<\/p>\n

The artist began by tinkering with ideas on paper, then rendering vectors on an iPad. Over time, what he describes as a \u201cvisual alphabet\u201d began to emerge that consisted of simple forms and colors and a world of transitional landscapes and suspended figures, animals, and plants. They\u2019re all \u201cimages that can be poetic, decorative, narrative, or something harder to name,\u201d he says. \u201cMany of them touch on nature, ecosystems, consumption, and the relationship between people and the world they live in.\u201d<\/p>\n

See more on Behance<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"a
\u201cThe Siren\u2019s Catch 1\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cThe Siren\u2019s Catch 2\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cBubble Plant\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cPool Service\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cFire Season\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cClearing\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cTrapped Clouds\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cPlastic Wind\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cDelivery\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
\u201cMigration\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Sour Soda Studio Depicts a Saccharine World Where Humans Have Lost Control<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Think for a second about what comes to mind when you hear \u201csoda.\u201d Perhaps fizzy, saccharine, and bright? Then consider the connotations of the word \u201csour.\u201d Maybe it evokes the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catbradley.io\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}