It isn't enough that he's balding, it isn't enough that he's gone gangrene but now, on top of everything else in his life, Harold's sneezed his eyes right out of their sockets. Now he's got to hold them with his hands and point them at something if he ever wants to see it, and now only is that - I'm certain - somewhat offputting for anyone in his immediate vicinity, but also it just sounds incredibly frustrating. Just imagine standing a in a crowded bustling superstore, simply trying to hold your eyeballs steady between your index finger and your thumb long enough to see what kind of poptarts they have available, while everyone keeps bumping into you and not even recognizing that you're having trouble just doing the slightest simplest thing they all take for granted. Rude, honestly.
This mask is really great, honestly. The colors are vibrant as hell and really work together nicely, and I think a good reason for that is because the red veiny bits that the eyeballs are attached to aren't just generic blood red or anything of the sort you'd usually encounter. They're more mauve, with hints of black, and when mixed with the wonderful toxic waste green and the yellow orange eyes, it all comes together and melds nicely into one beautiful piece of artwork. Whoever did the colors for this thing really knocked it out of the park. The black hair is also a perfect accent piece to offset everything else, as well.
And the design is excellent too. I mean, just look at this son of a bitch. He's got those sort of irritated old man eyebrows, and he's got a tongue hanging out of his mouth, like he's shouting, "Hey, you kids get off my lawn! I...I can't exactly see what part of my lawn you're on, but I know you're there and you need to get off it right now!" He's got baby corn teeth, which he uses to bite the kids on his lawn on the rare instances that he can physically catch them, and a wrinkled forehead, probably wrinkled from looking so angry all the time yelling at the kids on his lawn. But really...it's those optic nerves that are the true display of artistry here.
It's so perfectly molded, so beautifully colored, so lovingly intertwined with itself that it is impossible to ignore the level of skill that went into creating this thing. And while the eyes may be nothing really special - I won't deny they're a nice color but they're nothing really worth writing home about - it doesn't matter because the optic nerves are what steal the show here. That mauve black mixture tied to that green face coming out those black eyesockets is just perfection of a craft that far too many either refuse to acknowledge or appreciate, or simply are incapable of recognizing it to do so. And that's a shame, because when I come across a mask like this, or any of these masks honestly, it really always impresses me just how well these things are made because the people behind them (whether it's one person, 3 people, or a whole team) truly cared about making the best mask they could make. I love this horrifying goblin of a man who's sneezed so hard his eyeballs became dislodged from his skull.
Is it anything special, in terms of concept? I mean, not particularly. It's not anything like, say, The Lovely Terror who horrifies with his bare minimalism and child like wonder, and it's not anything like the mask I did a photoshoot for, who's so fantastical and well made that you can't help but love him, but it has its own certain charm. Certainly I've seen plenty of masks who have eyeball features - some even in the same concept almost - but there's just something about this one in particular that captures something that none of those others do. Look, I gather all my masks from eBay, okay? All these pictures across this blog? Ripped right from postings of sales on eBay from various people. I've seen a lot of awful masks, and I've seen a lot of masks with similar concepts, and considering eyeballs are in a rather squeamish territory to begin with for most people, they're often relegated to the grotesque horror genre and used in masks a lot.
And I've seen a lot of masks that feature eyeballs as a big selling point. Some have no eyes, some have large eyes, some have monster eyes, some have eyes ripped from the sockets but still there (like this one) some have bulging eyes, some are missing only one eye. The list for eye combinations on masks goes on and on, let me tell you. But the thing is, a concept is just that, a concept. You still need to do something with said concept, and that's where, I think, most people falter. Most people just think, "oh, the eyes are falling out, that's gruesome enough", but it really isn't, honestly. It needs to be more. And that's why this mask succeeds so well. It isn't totally original or wholly unique, it's just really goddamned well designed and thought out, and that makes a world of difference, trust me.
Harold may have sneezed his eyes out and left them dangling by their ever horrible optic nerves, but I get the feeling he still sees much better than the rest of us ever could hope to. And even if he can't see the beauty in himself, we can.
And I think that's something worth celebrating.
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