When you think of “soda,” words like fizzy, sweet, and colorful might come to mind. On the other hand, “sour” might remind you of lemon’s zing or a sharp tang. This contrast underpins Sour Soda Studio, a creative endeavor with two decades of illustration expertise, offering a playful yet slightly unsettling perspective on some of the critical issues of the Anthropocene.
“It didn’t stem from a shift in direction or a manifesto,” explains the artist, who wishes to remain anonymous. “It arose from a simpler need: to express different ideas with a unique voice.” In these vibrant, often surreal pieces, with titles like “Plastic Wind” and “The Siren’s Catch,” human control over nature is nothing but an illusion. Clouds take on the shapes of trees, small figures cling to plants floating in bubbles, and festival-goers obliviously ignore a polar bear’s struggle on a diminishing ice chunk, even as it attacks one of them.
Sour Soda Studio employs a kind of visual side-eye, using dark humor to highlight the anxieties and societal disconnect regarding the climate crisis and humanity’s relationship with nature. In these illustrations, a lumberjack chops at a flaming tree, a crocodile vanishes into foliage leaving behind a pool cleaner’s arm, and mermaids are caught like tuna and canned in attractive packaging. Aren’t sirens meant to lure humans into the ocean’s depths?
Starting with sketches on paper, the artist developed ideas into vector graphics on an iPad. Over time, a “visual alphabet” emerged, featuring simple shapes and colors, and a world populated with transitional landscapes and suspended figures, animals, and plants. These images can be poetic, decorative, narrative, or defy easy categorization, touching on themes of nature, ecosystems, consumption, and humanity’s interaction with the world.
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