!['Plug the Line' by Ryan Travis Christian](/wp-content/archive/images/2017/0317/C201703-C-Ryan-Travis-Christian-Art-Plug-the-Line.jpg)
For his new solo show, This Shit Is for the Birdies (running through April 8 at Western Exhibitions), artist Ryan Travis Christian spent time studying the 1930s, a decade of grim headlines and brilliant political cartoons. While Christian’s drawings pay homage to the golden era of satire, the Warrenville resident also imbues his sketches with a personal doom-and-shroom flair. Plug the Line (above) blends a nameless character from a Betty Boop cartoon with the Russian words for “plug the line,” a phrase Christian plucked from a Wheel of Fortune episode.
“I like that it’s vague,” says the 33-year-old. “I never love things that are spelled out.”
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