Game Over / Continue?

Here is a little preview of a piece for the upcoming Giant Robot San Francisco show, "Game Over / Continue?". The theme of this group show is video games and it will even feature some actual playable games collaborated from artists in the show. In the end I painted the controller buttons red.

This piece is a celebration of the home gaming systems of my youth... the Atari 2600, the Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Sega Genesis. These three systems were, in fact, each from a different "generation" of home video game consoles. The Atari 2600 (released in 1977, the year I was born) was a 2nd generation, 4-bit system; The Nintendo Entertainment System was released when I was eight and changed my life. It is a 3rd generation, 8-bit system. While I was a Super Nintendo kid, the Sega Genesis rolled out in 1989 and had Sonic the Hedgehog packed with it. 4th generation and, you guessed it, 16-bits.

I like how these are three controllers from different brands and generations, and each one has a different number of buttons. Yet, they are all controllers from cartridge based systems and are easily recognizable to anybody who played home video games in the 1980s.

Each of these controllers was drawn from a live sample from my collection. The entanglement of chords is just the natural result so I made it an aesthetic element that pulls the whole piece together, I hope. I think one of the greatest developments with the current, 7th generation of home video game systems is the introduction of truly wireless controllers. 

I haven't gotten a title yet. I was thinking something along the lines of the ideas entanglement or being tangibly connected to the video game through the controller... like the umbilical or something. I don't know. Titles are so hard. Maybe I'll go with "77-85-89", like a padlock combination or code. Hmmm.

Here is an image of the work-in-progress with the originals in the back there.

Anyways, the show opens March 27th at GRSF. Be there.

Here is a link to wikipedia's History of Video Games article

One morning I woke up and I knew that it was on.

Monster Drawing Rally

Narangkar and I participated in the recent 9th Annual Monster Drawing Rally, a benefit for Southern Exposure in SF. The event was at the Verdi Club in San Francisco, and it was a monster for real. 130 artists working in for shifts, live drawing for an hour, with a huge crowd clamoring and drinking and fighting for the right to purchase the art for $60 a piece, which is quite a steal for some of the artists involved. 

It was the first time Narangkar and I have participated and even with all the fair warnings from friends it was still crazy. Luckily I had my artwork planned out and had even done a time trial earlier in the day. I still just barely finished my art.

Here are some images:

Narangkar and I, in "the zone". We were in the 9 to 10pm slot, when things really get rowdy.
Narangkar planned an awesome embroidery with a painted abstracted shape of the skatepond and using french knots in different shades to represent the clover. She completely underestimated the amount of time it would take to make it, though.
Her embroidery still came out awesome.  
I did a classic white and ink on paper bag drawing. It took about 59 minutes, which is really fast for me. I'm really pleased with how it came out. A bit sloppy, but still bold and fun. It sold, too.
Here is the time test one I did earlier in the day. This one took about an hour and fifteen (not including snack breaks). I gifted it to John Casey (who took a few of these photos).
All in all it was an intense art experience and I hope I'm invited next year. Working with time deadlines is a great way to just get some work out there and not worry about mistakes or perfection (not that I'm worried about that too much anyhow).More great photos on John Casey's bunnywax blog.

Recently...

Some recent pictures and the stories behind them.

a few different people have recently pointed out that from within our studio looking at the door the numbers "332" backwards spell "see". I noticed this a while back but, for some reason, this seems somehow extra awesome right now. 
One of the fringe benefits from owning a bookstore if you get free passes to the annual comic book convention in SF. While things aren't nearly as cool as when I went to those hotel ballroom conventions in New York as a youngster, it is still fun to spend an afternoon lurking around the comics and toys.
As a rule, I usually won't take photos of the nerds who dress in costume at the Comicon (that is just what they want you to do). But I thought this interview with Dino-Jesus was cool.
The best part of the comic convention is the booths of vintage toys and really rare comics. I don't have the cash to even get them to open the display case for me, but it is still cool to see some tens of thousands of dollars comics and toys in person.
In other news, they destroyed the double-sided curb at the car wash across the street from our home. It was nice having a mellow little skate spot across the street. I'm hoping that they replace it with a nice marble ledge or something, but that isn't likely. Here's to you, double-sided curb. Thanks for the sessions.
Snickers with her all-time favorite toy. She loves the "fishy-toy" more than anything else in the world. She seriously just sits and stares at it until you play with her with it. Snicks is now at least 18 months old but still looks (and acts) like a tiny kitten.

Roo is the queen of the kitty fort.