Cupcakes are rad. This is pretty much established; you couldn't possibly go wrong with a pint-sized, frosting-heavy cake that you're not obligated to share. But we do wonder sometimes: is there anything in this great wide world that could make cupcakes even better?

The answer is yes, and as proven by the artwork of Jessixa Bagley, that thing is robots. We first came across Bagley’s Cupcake and Robot series a while back during her solo show at Bluebottle Art Gallery in Capitol Hill, Seattle; we were instantly impressed by her ability to say so much with such spare line work, and naturally found ourselves smitten with her subject matter. The ink-and-watercolor works are whimsical, but more clever than cutesy: in one painting robot-heads double as sprinkles on cupcakes which have robot-feet sprouting out of the bottom; in another, two robots face off with a cupcake storm between them. Indeed, this artwork had us pondering how life can be so sweet and so hard at the same time.

And certainly the artist is a pretty cool dude herself: originally from Portland, OR, Jessixa now resides in Seattle, where amongst other things she has a regular comic featured in Seattle Weekly, and counts Trader Joe’s carrot cake “muffins” (sweet, cakey muffins with a suspiciously cupcake-like frosting glaze) as a favorite breakfast-dessert masquerading as health food.

Talk about living a sweet life.

Prints are available at Bluebottle Art Gallery, 415 E. Pine St., (206) 325-1592.

To inquire about custom work, or to view styles, visit jessixa.com