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Clever Illustrations Reveal the Amusing Thoughts of Inanimate Objects

If a halved avocado could talk, what would it say? According to illustrator Charly Clements, it’d admit, “I feel so empty inside.” Through her clever series Real Life Lines, Clements has imagined what the buttery fruit and other inanimate objects would utter if given the chance. She brings them to life with simple lines and handwritten text on photographs that convey these candid thoughts. Amusing in tone, the cartoonish characters express many of the emotions that we humans have, like feelings of joy or distress. And much to our delight, Clements works in pun-laced phrases whenever possible.

Real Life Lines is an Instagram-based project. Aside from being lighthearted and charming, it has another purpose. Every image—and the subjects of Clement’s illustrations—are linked back to the people who originally produced the striking objects and photographs. “I wanted to help promote my favorite makers on Instagram in a fun and creative way,” she tells us in an email. “And of course make them smile in the process.”

Follow along with this ongoing series through @realifelines.

Real Life Lines: Instagram
Charly Clements: Website | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to use photos by Charly Clements.

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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