Jeff Junior – Emopowerment – Buzz

Inspirations This figure is a combination of three main inspirations and pop culture references.   1. He is mainly a representation of myself and my current attitude. Just two years ago I released the first version of Jeff Balloonski Junior which was very well received. The hoodie and baggy trousers are a reference to street culture. However, the hoodie takes different meanings depending on where you are. If you are in Silicon Valley in the US and see young entrepreneurs wearing hoodies, the signal they send is that they are too busy with more important work than going shopping for fancy clothes. The posture and his hands in pockets represented a laid-back attitude to life. He was relaxed worry-less, and a quiet observer (an introvert). This time however I wanted to create a version that is more optimistic since lately I have been practicing a Positive Mental Attitude. This figure reflects this way of thinking by sending a positive thumbs-up attitude toward you.   2. The “Thumbs Up” pose itself was inspired by a character (Vault Boy) from the Fallout video game. I have been a fan of the Fallout franchise since the year 1997 when the very first Fallout game was released. The character (seen in a photo below) appears in various poses as part of a game’s interface, however, it was the thumbs-up pose that I particularly enjoyed as it contrasted with the gruesome reality of a postapocalyptic world.   3. The purple, white, and green colors of the character are reminiscent of Buzz Lightyear from the ToyStory movie (photo below). I was particularly keen on those colors since this was a version of Jeff Junior that went all the way to the stratosphere as a part of the Art Above Earth  project.