Appeal

Along with sharing arts opinions, websites and artists on this blog, I'd also like to share some of my own work. Stay tuned for drawings, paintings, photos, and the like.

Mode of Proof's founder Ryan Griffin DJing at a late night party in Detroit, December 2004.

To feed that need to POP!

Nothing compares to the satisfaction and stress-relief of popping every single bubble on a fresh sheet of bubble wrap. Someone finally caught on to the universal guilty pleasure and made a product to feed it!

Japanese toy company Bandai came out with this fun keychain a couple of years ago called PuchiPuchi -- it's designed to infinitely mimic the sound and feeling of popping little plastic packing bubbles. In Japanese, Puchipuchi is the sound of a little pop and also the name for bubble wrap. Their catchy slogan says it all, “Anytime, anywhere, forever…you can puchipuchi." In addition to the obvious bubble-popping attraction is:

the bonus sound effect the toy makes every 100 pops including “door chime”, “barking dog”, “fart”, and “sexy voice”. To add even more excitement to the craziness of Puchipuchi, there’s a 1:1000 chance that you’ll get a “puchi lucky” toy that has a heart-shaped bubble. 

Not coincidentally, PuchiPuchi is also the name of the bubble wrap company that Bandai paired up with to design the toy, so you can be sure you've got a reliable product. Thanks Scout Japan for the trend research! 

A dip into my art collection

A few years ago, when I was making an exhorbetant amount of money traveling the country promoting pop-culture (of which I won't bore you now with my moral dilemma regarding the job...) I decided to invest my money in the best thing I saw fit--ART.

I bought a series of ceramic work in San Diego, CA by a famous ceramist whose name escapes me...I also invested in several paintings by my friend Mark Sengbush, the first person I met as a Freshman at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit (now called College for Creative Studies). His work is colorful and energetic, borrowing from graphic forms of graffiti and inspired by music, the work I have is a series of circular two tone paintings.

The other artist that I invested in was a friend of a friend who is a prolific painter, Jason Vivona. The moment I saw his work, I fell in love. Again, a painter influenced by graffiti styles and materials, Jason also is a dynamic illustrator. Painting on anything he can get his hands on, from old drawers wedged apart into five different panels, old broken skateboards, records his house was filled! every wall stacked 10 paintings deep! What I fell in love with was his line work, the graphic simplicity in his imagery which runs from whimsical animals to portraits of women in a variety of forms, his color palette and the fonts and text thrown on, painted over and exploding in the empty space remaining. He has a wonderful ability to define object and space with in his paintings.

Looking at the paintings I own of his every day, I finally googled Jason Vivona in search of his whereabouts and curious about his work. Was I ever surprised and gifted with delight!! His quality of work has increased and his content more complicated yet drawn crisp and clear. I'm happy he's doing so well. Keep on eye on this one. He'll be breaking out soon enough! Here is his flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vivonaart/

I'm moving to Los Angeles.

To none of you out there who frequent my blog, I am moving. I am moving far. Across the East, the Midwest, Mississippi, over the Rocky Mountains and into Southern California where the air is dry, palms and succulents feverishly grow, where everything is spiky simplified and cartoonish. I never once in my life wanted to move to California. I never thought I'd like the land past Colorado. I'm going bottoms up and heading to the opposite shore to see what I can make of it. I'm nervous, excited, scared, intimidated and finding nostalgia for Providence and Rhode Island in nearly everything I do. I didn't realize my time back in RI would be so short before I'd have to up and move. Time is going by so fast, I hardly know how I can finish this! I will. I have faith.

The picture above is from Colt State Park. There was one lone seagull hanging out with us under the trees. We fed him grilled chicken. Now he's a cannibal. I bet he cares, lots.