8-Bit Calavera

This is my piece for the 8-Bit Calavera show at the Ground Kontrol arcade in Portland, Oregon. The show includes work from 40 artists who were asked to decorate NES cartridges in the style of traditional Dia de los Muertos skulls. NES carts are already shaped like stylized skulls, and the final pieces will be displayed in the form of a larger skull, as you can see on the invite:



I tried to loosely tie my piece into the death theme by thinking about what happens to patients in Dr. Mario if you lose a round. Do they die? Just stay sick? ...Or does Dr. Mario even have any patients? I think the plumber's legal ability to practice medicine has been in question ever since the game debuted. At any rate, Dr. Mario is one of my favorites so I decided to draw the virus characters from the game and display them by cutting a special skull-shaped mat for the front of the cartridge. I'm not much of a painter to begin with, so this was a nice way of not having to work directly on the cart itself since it has a series of ridges that create a complex surface.

Here's the digital artwork of the viruses for a better look:


If you're in the Portland area please check out the show!