Alien ice cream chaos
At first glance, the mural on the back wall of Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream’s State Street location makes people wonder: What the hell does this chaotic scene of aliens, mutants, and dragons have to do with ice cream? Local artist and former Chocolate Shoppe employee Sam Selle painted his “ice cream planet” wall between May 2005 and April 2006, going creature by creature and dropping references to everything from Star Wars to anime to John Carpenter’s The Thing. Even after you realize that most of the beasties are involved in either eating or harvesting ice cream (from the ice cream mountains, of course), it’s still an overwhelming spectacle. Selle came to the shop to give Decider a tour of his creation.
Ice cream shops
Decider: It’s hard to tell if all these creatures eating ice cream are having a good time, or if there’s some kind of tension.
Sam Selle: Some of them you can tell are just hanging out and having a good time, but it looks like maybe this guy is jumping on top of this guy. Every couple of characters kind of has a story. Do you remember the Where’s Waldo? books? You would look at the thing as a whole, and it would be really funny, but then you would look and each little guy was a joke or a pun. I want to do that.
D: Do you think different species might process ice cream differently?
SS: With some guys, it looks like they’re just chilling out. But some of them are going absolutely insane and just stuffing their faces. This guy’s got two cones at once with double scoops and it’s all over his face. Some aliens, depending how often they get to the ice cream planet, they might gorge themselves a little more than someone that lives on the ice cream planet.
Decider: It’s hard to tell if all these creatures eating ice cream are having a good time, or if there’s some kind of tension.
Sam Selle: Some of them you can tell are just hanging out and having a good time, but it looks like maybe this guy is jumping on top of this guy. Every couple of characters kind of has a story. Do you remember the Where’s Waldo? books? You would look at the thing as a whole, and it would be really funny, but then you would look and each little guy was a joke or a pun. I want to do that.
D: Do you think different species might process ice cream differently?
SS: With some guys, it looks like they’re just chilling out. But some of them are going absolutely insane and just stuffing their faces. This guy’s got two cones at once with double scoops and it’s all over his face. Some aliens, depending how often they get to the ice cream planet, they might gorge themselves a little more than someone that lives on the ice cream planet.
The blue lady
SS: I wanted to put a couple women in there. I would get a lot of people coming up and being like, “Why aren’t there any girls in it?” Which doesn’t make any sense, because [points to some creatures] this could be a girl, that could be a girl.
SS: I wanted to put a couple women in there. I would get a lot of people coming up and being like, “Why aren’t there any girls in it?” Which doesn’t make any sense, because [points to some creatures] this could be a girl, that could be a girl.
The purple monster and pal
SS: I just figured they had a very close relationship where he rides around on this thing, but at the same time it’s not like a horse or something. It’s kind of like his buddy.
D: Can this eyeball creature even eat ice cream?
SS: No. Maybe he works for the police or something like that. He just kind of hangs out and looks at stuff.
SS: I just figured they had a very close relationship where he rides around on this thing, but at the same time it’s not like a horse or something. It’s kind of like his buddy.
D: Can this eyeball creature even eat ice cream?
SS: No. Maybe he works for the police or something like that. He just kind of hangs out and looks at stuff.
Bug women
SS: [The cab] is from The Fifth Element, when [Bruce Willis] drives a space cab around. These two are some friends of mine. I told them I’d put them in the mural, so I made them into crazy bug women.
D: What sort of feedback did you get when you first began painting the mural?
SS: Well, no one really liked it at first. I was really unsure of it, too. I was like, “Oh, man, what did I get myself into? There’s no way I’m gonna be able to finish this.” Then I started getting down layers. It was getting better as I was doing it, too.
SS: [The cab] is from The Fifth Element, when [Bruce Willis] drives a space cab around. These two are some friends of mine. I told them I’d put them in the mural, so I made them into crazy bug women.
D: What sort of feedback did you get when you first began painting the mural?
SS: Well, no one really liked it at first. I was really unsure of it, too. I was like, “Oh, man, what did I get myself into? There’s no way I’m gonna be able to finish this.” Then I started getting down layers. It was getting better as I was doing it, too.
The cow
SS: That’s like the Chocolate Shoppe cow logo, and then I just twisted it into a hideous alien.
D: It looks like the cow is genetically modified. Isn’t Chocolate Shoppe against that?
SS: Yeah, that one looks pretty twisted. He’s got sharp teeth and claws and horns. ]
SS: That’s like the Chocolate Shoppe cow logo, and then I just twisted it into a hideous alien.
D: It looks like the cow is genetically modified. Isn’t Chocolate Shoppe against that?
SS: Yeah, that one looks pretty twisted. He’s got sharp teeth and claws and horns. ]
The dragon battle
SS: This was the last thing I did. To put things in perspective, I wanted to put one big thing over everything, so you could feel that it was going back in space. They could be dancing or fighting, or, you know, whatever.
D: So do the dragons come to the planet, get fucked up on ice cream, then fight?
SS: [Laughs.] I never thought about how the dragons would get here. Maybe they were rare exotic pets that someone smuggled to the ice cream planet and they got loose, and then they just kind of hang out and fight. Or it could be that they’re very intelligent and they have their own spaceships. I don’t like to tell people exactly what’s going on, because I kind of like them to invent their own stories.
SS: This was the last thing I did. To put things in perspective, I wanted to put one big thing over everything, so you could feel that it was going back in space. They could be dancing or fighting, or, you know, whatever.
D: So do the dragons come to the planet, get fucked up on ice cream, then fight?
SS: [Laughs.] I never thought about how the dragons would get here. Maybe they were rare exotic pets that someone smuggled to the ice cream planet and they got loose, and then they just kind of hang out and fight. Or it could be that they’re very intelligent and they have their own spaceships. I don’t like to tell people exactly what’s going on, because I kind of like them to invent their own stories.
