Grey Matter Art Continues "Vices" with "The Road to Ruin" by Timothy Pittides

Grey Matter Art to Drop Final Print in VICES Series

This Friday, November 13th, Grey Matter Art and Timothy Pittides will conclude their well regarded "Vices" print series, with The Road to Ruin.  With the prior posters touching on Marijuana and Cocaine, Tim chose Alcohol as the final Vice of the series. 

The Road to Ruin works perfectly with the other two prints. The idea to have the woman in each print facing a different direction provides a nice symmetry for the series. The Red titles on Road to Ruin is also a nice compliment to the yellow and orange used in the prior two prints.

Here is what Tim had to say about Road to Ruin:

Well we have reached the end of the series and what better way to do so by representing the true gateway drug, Alcohol and it’s propaganda film “The Road to Ruin”. Released in 1934, the film tells a tale of a young woman who gets in with the wrong crowd, and begins the journey down the spiral of booze, drugs and sex and ends up an alcoholic, pregnant, and is forced to get an abortion.

Taboos abound, the film of course was boycotted by the catholic church which forced massive edits. For the time, it was quite salacious but of course, overly dramatic and too campy to be taken seriously. Worse than a after school special. But it has it’s points.

With this poster I wanted to finish up the whole “See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil” undertone I began with both Reefer Madness and Cocaine fiends. Here, we have the demon emerging from her glass of devil’s brew, throwing red rose petals into the poor girl’s face. The action is aggressive, contrasting the lighter giving of the single flower on Reefer Madness. A nice representation of the effect Alcohol plays on us. It lures us in under false comfort, pretending it loves us ( red roses), comforts us in times of peril and weakness. While some become happy, some become violent, and some become completely different people, almost possessed. It leaves us miserable, in pain and sick. Yet we go right back to it. Until a different rose is offered. But the same demon remains.

But is the demon really in the liquid or already inside of us.”

Drop Details: The Road to Ruin will go on sale Friday, November 13th, at 1PM EST on GMA's website. It is an edition of 75, costs $35 and measures 18x24. To all those going for these, good luck!