Friday, June 29, 2007

My Workspace

What a mess...
Every now and then I like to take a picture of my workspace. It's kind of neat to look at the past pictures and see the projects on the desk, what's on the computer screen, and the various levels of general disarray. Anyway, someone was asking a questioon on the Kidrobot message board about what type of desk/art table, supplies, storage units etc. they should purchase to start on their toy customizing career. Well, I started to type a reply, then I thought- hey, it's been a while since I took a workspace photo, so I did. I then posted the pic, told him how this was probably more of an example of how not to do, and then put in my 2 cents. Anyway, he seemed pretty grateful, so I guess it helped somebody.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Spade-Skull Munny

So I just finished up my custom Spade-Skull Munny for the Lift Footwear Detroit Munny show. The show is this Sat (the 23rd) and pieces were supposed to be there by the 18th, but folks were given a little wiggle room. I think they were a little more flexible with the deadline because this event was organized at the last minute and not much of a heads-up was given to the artists. When I was first asked to participate in this show, I was very hesitant to get on board because of the short notice. But I decided to get on board and see what I could do under the gun. Anyway, my goal was to finish it this weekend (which I did), and it will be out in the mail tomorrow morning headed priority over to Michigan. I'm still quite amazed I was able to finish this in only about 3 weeks- I usually work a lot slower :) I'm also kind of hoping a few folks on my commission list take notice of this piece and pick it up from the show. Mainly because they're on my list for a Spade-Skull Munny, and if they grabbed this guy that would knock someone off my every increasing list. UPDATE- show blurb is up on Vinyl Pulse- nice, my Munny gets a preview alongside of Dok-A's piece- talk about being in good company...

So with this guy complete, it's on to finish up my pair of baby Qee customs for the Love & Hate show next month and hopefully start plugging away at that commission list before it gets unmanageable...

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Reactor-88 Update

Since I've been really busy painting toys and canvases for a bunch of upcoming shows and trying to plug away at my commission list, my website has been neglected. So it was about time for a bit of an update. I added my recent Cereal Killers painting to the Artwork section. I also added a Shows and Events section and a Store section. Since I'm participating in a lot of shows this year (and hopefully that will continue) I decided to devote an entire section of my website just to listing all my past, present and future shows/events. Also, since I now have a few items sitting around that aren't sold that might be of interest to some folks, I've decided to put up a store section as well. Note, it's nothing fancy at all- just pics, a price, and who to contact if you want to buy it. Works for me...

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Cereal Killers

So the Cereal Killers show was last night at Monkeyhouse Toys. As expected, there were lots of great pieces (mostly paintings, only a couple of custom toys) and there was a pretty good turnout- Monkeyhouse is definitely getting more popular now that they are on the Kidrobot message board radar. A lot of the usual suspects were in attendance, so it was good talking to some of the old regulars. A few of my favorite pieces were Dave Pressler's "Monkey Vomit" painting, and Jenna Colby's "Girl on a Cornflake"- that wasn't the actual name, but whatever. Of course my buddy Lou Pimentel killed his pieces, and since I like the old fashioned-type stuff, Betso's piece definitely caught my eye. So if you're in the Silverlake area, I highly recommend you head over to Monkeyhouse and check out the show- you won't be disappointed. If you can't make it, be sure you check out the show coverage and pics on Vinyl Pulse.

Big thanks to Bil Betsovic (and a Happy Birthday shout out) for inviting me to participate in this show, and of course Mayra at Monkeyhouse Toys for hosting it.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Big Dawg

So when I dropped off my Cereal Killers painting this past Saturday I picked up another 16-inch Qee. I still can't get over how big these things are. The second pic was taken next to my 8-inch Kenzo Dunny just for reference- yeah, I guess it is basically twice as big... Once again it was free, but this one was actually given to me for an upcoming commission. I can't divulge any other details about the project as I always treat my commissions like I'm under an NDA- some folks don't care, but just in case I extend the courtesy. Anyway, I'm really excited to start working on this bad boy. The client has some basic guidelines as far as what they want, but for the most part I can take as much creative freedom as I want with it (I think.) As usual, I'll sketch out some ideas on some Qee templates, and once I'm in agreement with the client the fun will begin. But as usual, this project is still a little bit off on the horizon. I need to finish a couple customs for some upcoming shows, finish a couple of current commissions, then I can begin to brainstorm about this one. I can't wait...

Sunday, June 3, 2007

Art Toy Alchemists Show

So last night was the Art Toy Alchemists Show down at Artifact Unmundane. I had no idea there was a place to buy vinyl down in the O.C. until PJ had contacted me and asked me to be in the show. What a hidden gem for the folks down there. It's located in a very industrial area down in Anahiem, probably not where you'd think to find a vinyl shop. Anyway, the turnout was pretty good and there were a lot of great pieces in the show. The highlight of the show was the Mr. Bunny raffle. Now, anyone into vinyl toys knows how sought after a Mr. Bunny is. Well, I don't consider myself a lucky guy so I usually don't enter raffles and such, but the raffle proceedings were going towards helping the Cipriani family (Ava's parents), so I grabbed the last $5 bill I had in my wallet and bought a few tickets. Low and behold, I won the Mr. Bunny! And to think I even questioned whether I wanted to make the drive down to Anahiem for the show- hehe... Anyway, once again there were many great pieces in the show. I think my highlights were Jason Jacenko's Circus Punk, Motorbot's Bunniguru, a Frankenstein Munny, and Daniel Damocles Wall's beautiful flocked Giraffe Dunny. I'm guessing PJ will be putting all the pieces up on his website shortly. There's still lots of pieces for sale. In the meantime, see below for a few of my favorites, and of course a shot of my new Mr. Bunny :)