Title: I’m Happy Numb
Artist: Steve Halay
Medium: Mixed media on canvas
Dimensions: 24x24in
In I’m Happy Numb, Steve Halay presents a frantic yet deeply introspective scene set against a saturated purple backdrop. Two cloud-like figures with wide, cartoonish eyes hover above—silent spectators in a world that feels increasingly chaotic. Below, a distorted humanoid figure, sketched in aggressive black lines and bursts of orange, appears to be mid-scream or mid-breakdown. The figure’s exaggerated teeth and vacant eyes blur the line between comedy and despair.
Graffiti-like text is scattered throughout, with phrases like “I’m happy numb”, “same oafs, rules rewind”, and a possible reference to surveillance (“I observe”)—recurring motifs in Halay’s visual language. The clouds, as always in Halay’s work, stand in for omnipresent watchers, all-seeing but never intervening, gods of mundanity and judgment.
This piece is an unfiltered scream into the void, a self-portrait of emotional numbness in a performative world. It speaks to internal surveillance—the ways we monitor our own reactions and mask our suffering with smiles and sarcasm. It’s raw, funny, and deeply unsettling