Pictoplasma just sent over Prepare For Pictopia. 328 pages of weird creatures courtesy of your favourite contemporary artists.

Includes artwork by AJ Fosik, Ben Frost, FriendsWithYou, Gary Baseman, Mark Ryden, Motomichi Nakamura, Nagi Noda, Rinzen, Sam Gibbons, Shoboshobo, Tim Biskup, and many others.

today i stumbled across the work of illustrator Kevin Dart and was immediately drawn in by the watercolory, almost crayon like quality of his work. but with it’s 60’s influenced stylings, i can’t help compare it to Shag or Tim Biskup who are both brilliant artists. but what i like about Dart’s work is that he’s using movie posters as the frame work in which he tells his stories.

so people don’t consider illustration fine art – because it’s narrative? i recently heard this explanation in some of the follow up interviews of “Painting with Fire” – the documentary about Frank Frazetta. i have a hard time with these classifications that have been defined for us because it immediately devalues the work – even if it’s just the perceived value. why is it that when we call something fine art, it’s all of a sudden worth more?

i’m not trying to cheapen what our definitions are but trying to expand upon them… i just know that until we really start showcasing illustration in the same light and with the same respect as traditionally defined fine art, that division will always be there in the publics mind and as a result will reflect in how we think about it, talk about it, and ultimately spend money on it.

Tim Biskup and Matt Goldman will soon be opening a new exhibition in Los Angeles entitled “I Hate Everyone But You.” The show will take place at De La Barracuda on Melrose Avenue, opening November 13th and running through December 3rd, 2009.

De La Barracuda
7769 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90046
323.852.7179

LA’s De La Barracuda is about to be taken over by Tim Biskup, Matt Goldman and friends, with their new exhibition entitled ‘I Hate Everyone But You’. A large scale installation takes centre stage at the Melrose situated store, when it opens on the 13th of November and runs through the following 2 weeks.

Tim Biskup’s ‘Yeti Thinker’ has been gazing intently down at me from my studio wall. His subliminal promptings have apparently taken hold as last night I felt compelled to carve a Halloween yeti pumpkin (template available here).

The blade slipped a few times (pumpkins are slippery things!) so it’s a rather loose interpretation, but even though it lacks the essential yeti-ness it still glows fiercely enough!

Another creature shaping up out of a bit of slicing and dicing is this hairy fellow, made from a negative-shape offcut from a previous papercutting project. I’m still trying to decide what other features he needs, if any? Perhaps a row of sharp little teeth…

On the subject of creatures, Halloween, and whatnot, if you’re in Amsterdam at 3pm on Saturday 31 October get thee down to the American Book Centre where Amsterdam based artist Femke Hiemstra will be signing copies of her new book ‘Rock Candy’ (published by the marvellous Fantagraphics). There will also be fine art giclée prints of some of her work available for sale. And seeing her display (made from “dolls, animals and other characters from [her] personal collection of ‘bric-à-brac’”) in the bookshop window up-close-and-personal is a must!

A MURDER OF CROWS: A Children’s Primer

New Works Based on Terms of Venery

Collected by Linda Pine

Curated by Linda Pine & Nicole Bruckman

October 3, 2009

Gallery Meltdown

7522 West Sunset Boulevard

Los Angeles, California 90046

323.851.7223

an Army of frogs:  NICK GALLO

a Bale of turtles: JEHAN CHOO

a Charm of bees: STEVEN WEISSMAN

a Dray of squirrels: RYAN BERKLEY

an Eyrar of swans: GUY ARMSTRONG BOSTON ELLIS

a Fry of eels: CHRIS STANGL

a Gaze of raccoons: RENEE FRENCH

a Husk of hares: KELLY VIVANCO

an Implausibility of gnus: MATT KEY

a Journey of giraffes: JASON POLAN

a Knot of toads: LESLIE LEVINGS

a Leash of foxes: DAN MAY

a Murder of crows: RICHARD SALA

a Nye of pheasants: KIRSTEN HUNTLEY GABBE

an Ostentation of peacocks: NICOLE BRUCKMAN

a Pod of narwhals: HILARY KEY

a Quiver of cobras: CYRUS FIRE

a Rout of snails: BOB DORNBERGER

a Shoal of squid: DAVE COOPER

a Troubling of goldfish: ERIC SKILLMAN

an Ugly of walruses: ALICE PINE

a Volery of birds: TIM BISKUP

a Vespiary of wasps: GABE LEONARD

a sneak of Weasels: JESSICA VAN HULLE

a span of oXen: JULIANNA SWANEY

a set of Young oysters: PHOEBE GLOECKNER

a Zeal of zebras: JENNIFER LEWIS

Button-O-matic Mystery Capsule Revealed!

Did you know there are two mystery buttons in every Button-O-matic across the country?  David Kevin Williams is the first to find a the blind capsule.  His story of discovery:

Yes, I got one of the 25 mystery buttons, I had always been a button person, I used to pin them everywhere…and in the process of digging out old boxes for repacking I found a very old Debbie Harry button I’ve had for years and just popped it on, the fever took over right away I started wearing them all over again.  So Monday Sept 14th I went shopping at Reckless Records at 3161 N Broadway in Chicago. While there I saw the machine and decided to buy my first button for my old hobby from a gumball type dispenser.

He describes the mystery button:

I thought all the buttons featured looked cool, but I wondered why there was a empty spot with a ? mark, I put in my 50 cents and had no idea what was going on till I got home and read the paper with the ? marks on it, I got lucky! its a very nice design, temple, bug, its very cool.  I feel lucky….to take up buttoning again after a decade and the first purchase be lucky.  Thanx again for the pleasant lil surprise, its these small things that make life fun!

Tim Biskup and Jennifer Daniels each designed a special button for a limited edition run of 30 in this blind capsule.  Have you seen it?

Back to BusyBeaver.net

Obey 'Monkey Pod' Bench Auctioned Off For Sea Shepherd **Photo By VanillaGorilla

Here is a look at some furniture that was auctioned off yesterday at the Sea Shephard fund raiser in Riverside, CA. The above piece is ‘Monkey Pod’ Bench and the final price was in the $3,0oo range. The below piece is ‘Propaganda’ Table they were auctioned off for approx $1,500 each. Cool idea, I hope Shep keeps going in this direction. Thanks To Vanilla Gorilla For The Pix. Shep could be the next IKEA!

Obey 'Propaganda' Table Auctioned Off For Sea Shepherd **Photo By VanillaGorilla

www.exhibitagallery.com

Happy Friday everyone! While today is the “last” day in Kokeshi Week, technically, I’ll actually keep releasing new kokeshi for a few more days :3 since there are, happily, more kokeshi to release!

11 Don Quixote is my first skull kokeshi (of many, I’m sure) and has a very dark color scheme :3 That’s because he was inspired by the Tim Biskup work of the same name, a print of which I got as a gift from my Dad, yay for Dad! Every time Dad visits he goes over to it and says, “Why did I give this to a punk like you?!” LOL

More photos of Don Quixote can be seen in the Zombuki Kokeshi Dolls Album on Flickr :3

Don Quixote is currently available in my Etsy shop

E ai galera,
Você conhece Toy Art? Eh, aqueles brinquedos com um toque mais adulto, e que na verdade são feitos para esse público mesmo, tem uns que até que enganam de longe por serem coloridos e bonitos, rs, mas até você prestar mais atenção e notar que atrás daquele bobinho e meigo boneco tem uma cabeça cortada toda ensangüentada escondida. E os temas são variados: infantis, monstros bizarros, robôs assassinos, políticos, eróticos e até personagens de filmes, como de Kill Bill do Quentin Tarantino.
Aqui no Brasil temos alguns designers trabalhando com esse tipo de arte, mas ainda não é muito bem divulgada; vi poucas matérias falando sobre o assunto, destaque pra Zupi que já fez umas dessas matérias e com uma galera brasileira de peso, pretendo fazer um post dedicado aos toys brasileiros em breve.
Acho que acaba sendo divulgada mais em mídias especializadas, como revistas de desenho, de design, objetos, 3D  e arte em geral. Pode ser também pelo fato de que a produção desse tipo de brinquedo não é feita em grande escala, geralmente são encomendadas pelo próprio artista e vendidas em poucas tiragens para lojas de design e afins, produtoras, ou clientes atrás de personalização para seus produtos (esta é claro, encomendando os serviços do artista).
O post então, vai para apresentar um cara que mete bronca nessa idéia de toy art, quando entrei no site do cara fiquei doido, vontade de ter vários.

The Smokebelch

Conhecido apenas como Mark ou Smokebelch, ele cria uma série de toys incríveis e fantásticos, com cada ser mais louco do que outro, o cara reinventa personagens até mesmo muito xerocados, mas que acaba deixando com sua personalidade.
Os mais conhecidos são os da Série Star Wars: stormtroopers, mestre yoda, jedis, jabba, chewie, jawa e outros, personagens extraterrestres, monstros robôs e formas mutantes.
Também procurei pelos artistas que são as referências de Mark, que ele faz questão de colocar em todas as fotos: James Jarvis, Tim Biskup, Jeremy Fish, Jeff Soto, Andrew Bell e Gary Baseman. Também pretendo estudar cada um deles, mas a impresão que tenho é que são artistas super envolvidos com o que fazem, nem preciso dizer que vai influenciar bastante nos meus futuros trabalhos.
Entre no flickr do Smokebelch e veja muito mais.
Abraços

Technorati Tags: tokidoki, domo, tim biskup, beatnik, kaiten, journal, diary, poems, poetry,

Andrew Brandou is a painter, illustrator and former animator of The Simpsons, and at one time used to be Tim Biskup’s roommate, so you know he probably has a small part of my heart. And it’s not because he paints super dark, borderline Satanic versions of the characters from The Little Golden Books.

“Healer”.
24″ x 14″.
Acrylic on wood panel.

“Hexagram”.
10″ x 10″.
Goache on maple panel.

“The Rally”.
10″ x 10″.
Gouache on maple panel.

‘Trepanation Party”
7″ x 5″.
Gouache on maple panel.

See more of Brandou’s work at his website: Andrew Brandou (Website).

Tim Biskup. Helper Dragon. 2005. Cel Vinyl Acrylic on Wooden Panel.

Its been a while since I featured an illustrator/artist, whose work I am currently inspired by on my blog. I have been pouring over the pages of my newly arrived book on the art and design of Gama-Go, by Tim Biskup.

Tim Biskup for Gama-Go. The Art and Design of Gama-Go. 2007.

Tim Biskup is considered to be a part of the group that has been dubbed “lowbrow” or pop surrealism. His free-spirited, character-driven style is inspired by mid-century modern design infused with a healthy dose of punk rock energy. He works out of Pasadena, California.

we think it’s safe to say here that we are officially in the countdown to christmas! there’s just about a week and a half of good shopping time you can get in.

if you’re still looking for a good gift (and unique gift), i want to remind you all of the artist prints that we have by many amazing artists.

‘melancholic cat’ by alberto cerriteno

‘blue bath’ by daniel ng

‘my morning jacket w/ black keys’ by guy burwell

‘elephant’ by jessica johnson

‘de-flower’ by kimmie hutchins

’she was a solitary girl’ by juli adams

‘deathpot killing spree’ by tim biskup

‘morning star’ by sally stevens

all these prints plus TONS of others are available on our website! hurry if you need them before christmas!

finns nu i shopen. Fungerar utmärkt som julklappar till människan utan mainstreemtänkande. Pokerkortleken är perfekt för den kreative pokerspelaren, boken Warning fungerar för personen som skrattar åt underliga skyltar där människor varnas för att förolyckas av bränder, elektricitet och andra farliga saker. Alien Xmas kan du ge till den som behöver ett alternativ till dom klassiska julsagorna, och Jeffery Scotts lite smått bisarra fotobok skulle glädja den fotografiintresserade med smak för det mörka i tillvaron. 

Sedan finns givetvis alla dom andra produkterna också, fulla av perfekta julklappar till barn och vuxna barn med intresse för mjuka gosedjur och fin design.
Välkommen in!

El término kaiju designa a esos monstruos tan terroríficamente entrañables que poblaban las películas japonesas de baja tecnología pero alta diversión producidas en los años 60. Si hubiera que elegir al más popular ese sería Godzilla pero hay un montón más que también se agrupan en subgéneros. Esta estética se ha trasladado también al mundo toy creando seres de vinilo que reproducen monstruos cuanto más feos y desagradables mejor, aunque también hay otros que guardan ese aire retro pero con el toque del autor que interviene en ellos. Dos ejemplos de esto último podemos encontrar en el Big Pollard de Tim Biskup y en el Mecha Sad Bear de Luke Chueh que se puede considerar dentro de otra vertiente de los kaiju, los mecha, robots gigantes con aspecto humanoide controlados por personas.

In the yellow, firma japonesa garantía de calidad tanto en la fabricación de toys como en la elección de artistas ha producido al menos 4 versiones en ediciones muy limitadas de esta variante de “oso triste” que es ahora mismo el personaje principal de la obra gráfica de Luke Chueh, muy recomendable por cierto.

hello all!

we hope you had a spooky good and safe halloween. here at the gallery we didn’t do much in the way of festivities. as a matter of fact, we are trying to prepare ourselves for christmas, which is just around the corner. we have all kinds of goodies coming in and we’ll be stocked full of art, merch, and lots of crazy stuff just in time for the holidays.

our most recently delivery is tons of stuff from gama-go. we’re so excited to be working with them and were looking forward to carrying gama-go gear, since we have our tim biskup prints to go along with them. i have to say, this is the coolest stuff and so fun. with the holidays, this merchandise would make great gifts, but this swag would be good to get just for yourself too! let’s be honest here…. you totally deserve a present, no?

with the economic crunch, i know many people are looking for fun AND functional gifts for this holiday season as well. i want to let you all know that all this merchandise is easy on the wallet and totally affordable, yet for those of you who still have money burning holes in your pockets, we have tons of classic, higher end merchandise on our site as well. as far as gama-go, most prices range between $5-$30. pretty good deal if i do say so myself!