“Bro, platitudes are lame!” — Prismacolor & Acrylic

A room, a moment, a dismissal — vibrant, offbeat, and unmistakably real.

Edward Cushenberry conjures another cinematic fragment in this Polaroid-styled composition, where two women — mid-conversation or mid-eye-roll — share a scene lit with unapologetic color. The figure on the right, perched on a neon-orange armchair, holds up a camera like a mirror, while her companion — legs crossed, gaze amused — sits beside a white cat, surrounded by cookies and what seems to be a tossed instant photo. The caption beneath them, “Bro, platitudes are lame!”, lands like the punchline to a conversation already halfway gone. It’s casual, hilarious, cutting — and strangely tender.

Executed in Prismacolor pencil, ink, graphite and acrylic on Bristol, the piece plays with flatness and symbolism in a way that evokes early street comics and outsider zines. There’s something of Lynda Barry’s conversational honesty here, or even Chris Johanson’s emotional color fields, but Cushenberry grounds it in his own Afro-American lens — poetic, observational, and rooted in youth culture. The drawing radiates with pigment: the saturated fuchsia wall, burnt orange furniture, deep purple dress — all set against the rough brushstrokes of the Polaroid-style frame. It’s lo-fi intimacy, drawn with high-key clarity.

Part of a larger series exploring vulnerability, humor and private space, this small-scale work is deceptively dense. It’s a freeze-frame of friendship, resistance, and the right to not take things too seriously. Signed on the reverse, with splatters and surface grit that heighten its handmade character.

Object: Original drawing on Bristol paper

Title: “Bro, platitudes are lame!”

Artist / Author: Edward Cushenberry

Date: 2023

Technique / Method: Prismacolor pencil, ink, graphite, and acrylic paint

Medium / Materials: Bristol paper

Edition: Unique

Signed: Yes, on reverse

Dimensions: 10.8 × 8.9 cm (4.25 × 3.50 in)

Condition: Excellent, with expressive surface marks and slight pigment smudges

Provenance: Darwin Collection