The second volume of Kidrobot’s compendium of Art Toys has recently been released.
It’s a veritable who’s who of underground toy based art.
And I am happy to announce several pages of this splendid volume are dedicated to my humble works.
You can pick it up from most good bookshops and of course online.
I am home from the epic fun/work that is Dragon Con. Just about got my head back in my own time zone.
I think I will need to blog this in a few different posts as its so epic.
I flew into Atlanta Thursday afternoon directly from Manchester UK. An 8 hour flight which isnt bad really. At least I dont have to change.
I was staying at ground zero at the Hyatt where the Comics and pop art room was located. The Hyatt was put up in the late sixties I believe and has some crazy sculptural elements to the foyer. Including something that looks like the Giant Hadron Collider…
Actually thats a huge wire closed umbrella sculpture in the main lobby. But looking up from its base, along the shaft which pierces two lower floors it could pass as a particle smasher..
The glass elevators (thats Lifts to proper speaking English types) go up through the roof to a sort of giant UFO parked on top of the building. I have no idea whats up there, some sort of secret party room one would suspect. I could only see said UFO at night reflected in the building opposite.
Also at each corner of the lobby there are odd square structures on each floor. No idea what purpous they serve. But if you stand on the top floor where I had a room and look down through them it’s quite impressive, or vertigo inducing whichever you prefer.
The Comics and Pop Art Ally was two floors down from the foyer in a huge exhibition room the size of an aircraft hanger. This was one of about nine such halls across the four main hotels hosting the Con, six of which were dealers rooms of some sort. Thats a lot of shopping!
I set up Thursday afternoon after having picked up my badge.
I fully intended getting a snap of each of the artist’s booths with said artist in residence for my records. But in the end only managed a pitiful few. So here is what I have.
This was my booth. If I do come back next year I really must get some sort of banner to put behind me so people can see what booth it is over the heads of the crowd. Though probably not as complex a structure as the incredibly cool and hip (Daddyo) Derek Yaniger.
Next to Derek was zombie artist extrordinare Dave Cook.
Opposite Dave was the truely splendid fellow that is Greg “Crayola” Simkins. He was painting a canvas all weekend and the final piece was raffled off on the last day. Lovely and amazingly talanted chap. Fine artist, Tattooist and Graffiti artist. I was lucky enough to get a little original pencil drawing from him which I will be framing for my studio at some point. And if you see his new book “Drawing from the Well” I suggest you pick it up.
Between Greg and myself was the jam packed Rivet Gallery Stall. I didnt manage to get a good shot of the whole stall as it was constantly stuffed with people when I tried and then other times the photos just didnt come out (I had to ditch more than half my Con pics this year due to blurry people or general overcluttered backgrounds that didnt seem an issue at the time of taking.) But part of the Rivet booth was taken over by Amanda Spayd who was selling her wonderful little toothy, floppy critters. They are Adhorrible..
Also in this alley was Shag, Baby Tattoo Books, Camilla D’erico, The Baroness and the Beast Brothers and Glenn Barr. I didnt manage to steal their photons successfully.
At the end of the line next to me was the huge Circus Posterus booth. Towered over by a collosal Red Queen sculpture by Colin Christian. He and his wife Sas were around on and off all weekend along with CP founders Kathie Olivas and Brandt Peters.
They had toys, Cutoms, original art, prints, books and ever jewellery on sale with art from their band of artists which also includes the wonderfull Travis Louis and Chris Ryniak.
The only other artist I got a snap of was the truly splendid Eric Morin as he plucked about with his vintage banjo.
(I will see if I can borrow some photos from another Con goer later to flesh this out a bit).
I will add another post or two in the next few days.
For now here is me and Travis.
Last month we made the trip to Bristol to visit the “Art from the New World” show at the Bristol City art gallery (The same place that held the big Banksy show not long ago..)
It was well worth the trip.
Curated by the Corey Helford gallery it collects together a whole gaggle of cutting edge American (and English living in America) artists together and shows there work to the general public in a big show away from the usual “scene” type venues. This is a great entry level show for anyone who hasnt ever heard of the phrases “Low Brow” or “Pop Surrealism”.
As you can see on the flier above there is a top line-up of artists with some amazing pieces many new for this show.
You are greeted in the main hall before entering the show gallery by a huge inflateable Buff Monster Ice cream. Buff has also painted a large mural on the walls in three alcoves in the same room.
To the left of the ice cream was a huge Todd Schorr piece.
Inside, the show hall is a large open space with a lot of room to breath and weave between the many people wandering around the show. This wasnt an opening or anything special just a regular week day and it was still very busy.
ok so the place looks empty in the photos but I was waiting for people to move before snapping.
And here are a load of closeups of some of the pieces.
Not really a dud in the show and a great variety of styles too.
This was the first time I had seen actual works from a lot of these artists. Its odd to have known and followed some artists for years and yet never had the chance to actually see an original work before. One of the problems of being in the UK with practically all the shows being in the USA.
Brandi Milne
Travis Louie
Silvia Li
Stoupakis
Greg Simkins
Todd Schorr
Sas Christian
Mark Ryden
Mellisa Forman
Liz McGrath
Liz McGrath
Mia
Camilla Rose Garcia and below Joshua Petker
Outside the show gallery it’s easy to miss Colin Christian’s piece. Although it’s huge at around four feet tall, it’s hung in the room behind the one with the icecream. Take a moment to wander in there and check it out. Its a cracker.
The show runs till the 22nd of August 10am to 5pm daily.
Do go and check it out if you can.
Also it’s worth noting most of the pieces are available to be purchased, though many had sold when I visited.
Well the piece I posted last night was so popular I decided to finish it right away.
So I took some more snaps this morning and here you go.
Please click on the images to enbiggen.
First off filling in some blanks.
Above the door to the studio is an Elder Sign to either keep Lovecraftian beasties out when I am in there or stop them getting into the house through the studio windows. Other precautions have been taken against Zombie infestation (no really!)
And this is a close up of the print case so you can sort of see whats in it.
Another picture of the book case and you can see the cast iron stool better in this one and also the main display case in the studio.
And a closer pic of the display cabinet which is a bit over stuffed right now to keep easily broken things away from tiny Max fingers.
The cabinet end of my main work desk with some shelves to hold my radio and sketch books and some bits and bobs and materials.
And my main work desk. This is were all my sculptures and construction work is done. (This pic is a splice of a couple of shots hence the odd missing bit on the top left hand side).
I have a couple of engineers cabinets to store all my tools and the smaller parts I use, different sized gears, hemispheres, keys, hats, you name it. All the bulkier parts and found objects live in big boxes in the store area behind the bookshelves. I drag them out and fossik around in them when I need them. The drawers contain paints, more tools and more odds and ends. Its sort of a working chaos. I guess only I know where everything is kept.
The desk itself was found in a house clearance store for £20. It was black and needed a proper clean up. It had been ripped out of an old Mill when it was demolished and was last used by a taylor in the 1980’s. I built the legs for it to bring it back to glory. (See one of the previous blogs about the studio renovation for some details on this).
The mask is from the Terry Gilliam film Brazil. And the paintings are a collaboration by Kathie Olivas and Brandt Peters and one by Andrew Bell. I still have a few other paintings to go up in here but I need to add another shelf above the main desk and some more wall cabinets form mini figures too first.
And one last snap of the desk looking back at the bookshelves.
So there you go. A pretty good overview of my little workspace.
If you want to know any more details or ask what specific things are please leave a comment.
I just tidied my studio so decided to take some photos.
This is just one side of it though. The other is loaded up with secret works in progress right now so that will have to wait till another day.
My studio is on the top (Third) floor of my little Victorian end terrace house.
At the foot of the stairs there is the main light switch.
Just above that are my collection of framed Letter Presses cards.
Starting top left and going L to R :
Joe Ledbetter, Brian “Candykiller Taylor, Nathan Jervinicus, Kathie Olivas, Brandt Peters, Brendan Monroe.
On the wall opposite those is a print case with lots of interesting tiny things in it above a Dave Carson original ink drawing.
Directly at the top of the stairs is a display case with my Cthulhu Idol collection in it (But the photos didnt work so well there so I will have to try that again some time..)
Next to that is the door into my mini store room under the eaves and guarding the door is my Scott Radke sculpture which I have dubbed “The Time Thief”. In front of the store area is my main art book shelf. You can just see my stool in front of the window. Its cast iron and has an old tractor seat welded to the top.
Behind the stairwell is my small writing desk housing my Laptop. I do all my digital work sat here. Yes that is a working phone on top of the desk. In the case on the wall is part of my Qee/Dunny collection, I need to build another five cabinets like this for all my other mini figures. To the left of the case is an Original Andrew Bell drawing (Cropped in this pic oops! To the right is another Brian Taylor Letterpressed print. I also have a Chris Ryniak one which need framing. Then in front of the desk there are original paintings by Kathie Olivas, Brandt Peters, Two by Chet Zar, Jason Limon and a sculpture by Amanda Spayd. There is also a Crayola print on that wall but it’s cropped in this pic. Above the paintings is a shelf of stuff. Lots of things I like up there. Quite a mix of things from Totoro to Kaws via Tin robots.
Here is a wider shot showing the Andrew Bell and Crayola pieces as well as a Greg Broadmore Ray Gun print. Hiding behind the chair is a print by Dave Carson.
That’s all for now. More some other time.
There is a review up for the recent mini Mourning edition Stephan LePodd over at Tomopop.
Here : http://tomopop.com/show-and-tell-dok-a-custom-stefan-lepodd-mourning-edition-11328.phtml
Mr. Greg Broadmore of Weta workshops in New Zealand, creator of the wonderful Dr. Grordbort’s Rayguns and lead designer (of guns, ships and beasties) on the splendid movie District 9 (among others). Recently had a few kind words to say about my Mechtorian toys.
On Weta’s forum he posted, “I encourage everyone here to go pick up some of your awesome Steampunk Mechtorian vinyls. Too cool.”
and in an email to myself he said, “They’re terrific – I really dig them. Perfect weird, cute little accessories for beside my computer!
Thank you sir.
It makes me very happy to know you like my crazy little creations.
Now go do what the man with the big gun said…
