Australian born (1978, Sydney, Australia), Paul Abstruse has enjoyed dabbling with the pencil ever since he can remember. Even in his former years in primary school he was fond of illustration, producing tiny Ashcan comics. Having no formal fine art education, he insists that he needs nothing than more than attending the University of life. Anything can be learnt through perseverance and interest.

His artistic career began at the age of nineteen when he had six poems published in a book called ‘Cry out’ and several other poems being published in street presses in Melbourne. Slowly his interest grew in comics and he produced his first colour comic book called ‘The Cyst.’

Four years later Witch King; was released. 120 page graphic novel that came out in early 2006. It was heralded as an Australian marvel. Also during those four years Paul learnt to become a tattooist and also did several side projects for other companies. He also had an article written about him in issue #8 of ‘Cover magazine’.

Following Witch king with a small stint on ‘The Watch,’ Paul then found himself bled dry of creativeness. Taking off to Europe to live in Berlin and Toronto for approximately 9 months he re-discovered the art of writing. He began working on his title ‘Imogen Rose.’ Drollisim was starting to take form in what ever he did and after returning in early 2006, he followed his passions of art again and swore to himself that he would find new ways to express his newly found idea.

Paul now works on developing his Drollism with several paintings and various projects incorporating all his knowledge, vice and life experience.

Drollism:

The concept of Drollism is the exploration of the relationship between frolic, vice art and our inert society. The idea behind frolic is that most of the art produced today is without sense of tomfoolery. There is no mirth conveyed in the smile of the portraits, there is no whimsical idleness behind any art. Society, in particular Sydney, has smote most of the fun out of living. People drag their lead balloon souls to and from work everyday only finding menial relief by slated drink on the weekends. Frolic finds the forgotten fun. Vice art on the other hand is a little more serious where it dictates the outcome of almost nearly art project. Ensnared continually, the vice holds the artist at bay coaxing them to create his/her art under duress. The vice can be anything as long as it dictates the ending. In Paul’s case his vice is the aesthetics of women. These two ideas are then superimposed upon real life or the ‘inert society’ and forces the everyday man to be confronted by ideas that cause an unwiedly discomfort.