Cheri Stewart - Sonic (Closeup)

Cheri Stewart, Sonic, 2023
11 x 17 inches
Archival inkjet print
Open edition
$40 Unframed
$80 Framed

Sonic the Hedgehog was Sega’s anointed mascot rival to Nintendo’s Mario. Where Mario was cute and dithering, Sonic had an attitude and spikes to boot and was blazing fast. Arriving in 1991 for the Sega Genesis, Sonic’s success inaugurated the console wars of the 1990s between competing consoles from Sega and Nintendo. In Chicago-based artist Cheri Stewart's hands, Sonic's mischievous side is played up in two endearing prints. In the first, Sonic strikes three poses in a composition against a green field spangled with technicolor stars.  In the second, the viewer is hypnotized by this tricky hedgehog in a rarely seen close-up eye contact view, his visage fading into a starfield of multihued transparent star lenses.