Can you ever have too many doodles? Mr Doodle, aka Sam Cox, is about to find out.
Provincial fish and chip shops are not, as a rule, hotspots for people in search of a selfie. But the modest chippie in St Michael’s, a leafy Kent village in the London commuter belt, is an exception. Its owner, Ahmed, says a growing number of his customers come to get a photo with the hand-drawn black-and-white mural that fills one of the walls.
Barely a day goes by, says Ahmed, without someone snapping the cartoon fantasia populated by cheerful fish, winking burgers and jolly packets of fries. He’s even been asked if he’d sell it. “It’s amazing,” says the chippie’s proud owner, who likes to pull up a chair and study the mural at the end of a busy day. “The more you look at it, the more you see.”
Why all the interest? The design is the work of Sam Cox, a 32-year-old English artist better known as Mr Doodle. In just six years, Cox – who grew up in St Michael’s and still lives there – has gone from an unknown who would trade his work for a portion of cod and chips, to a social media phenomenon and certified art star.
Nowadays, it’s hard to venture online without seeing a video of Cox drawing the densely interlocking lines he calls “graffiti spaghetti”. Dressed in a white jumpsuit decorated with his own designs, he uses time-lapse videos to concertina marathon drawing sessions into social media-friendly bulletins adored by his fans. His largest works now sell for close to $US1 million ($1.42 million) and it’s estimated he’s earned a total of $US15 million at auction.
