Andrew Bell's Giver

Another piece that has slowly grown on me is upcoming Andrew Bell's Giver coming to you in two colourways, costing $100 a pop. Six prototypes were shown and showed at Gallery1988 were sold for $200 each.

Photos from the show here with the rest of the show pieces (canvases, sculpts, toys, skatedeck) available here. And image of the blue colourway here.

Maybe this painting to go with the toy?

'The Giver Awaits'24 "x24", acrylic on canvas

Audrey Kawasaki show @ Mondo Bizzaro

"She Who Dares"

18x21oil and graphite and gesso on stained wood panel

Busy busy artists, and here we have Audrey Kawasaki's upcoming show at Mondo Bizzaro in Rome, Italy taking place in September.

I just had to bank this entry in with her above piece. It is absolutely adorable. If this is ever going to be made into a print, I pledge that I shall purchase it, being my first Audrey print. I had the urge on purchasing Mia & Mai print when they were once available at her store. Oh well...

Amy Sol "Karmic Magic" show

This painting, entitled "Karmic Magic", image released by Sour Harvest will probably be a major/ leading piece for Amy Sol's upcoming June show at Thinkspace.

It features quite a number of creatures with my attention particularly towards the raccoons, just because they seem to be latest creatures to be introduced into her paintings. The top-right whale is just a little 'off' for me, probably its teeth. Angry ghostly whale, I suppose.

I notice, that a majority of people who dig Amy's works, tend to be a fan of Audrey Kawasaki's works too. On the contrary, I prefer to think that it is one or the other. Audrey's characters tend to be portraits with some slight surroundings to go with, while Amy tends to have a much wider surrounding setting that sets her characters and creatures in. While I can see the similarity mainly on their preference for wood grains as a medium but I believe both of them will gradually grow and head towards quite different directions, art-wise.

And mainly because I can't afford to 'chase' after more than a handful of artists. :)
I quite like Audrey's works too.
Have a good weekend.

White geisha strikes again

"Manchester is mine!"

Target: Tokyoplastic White Geisha
Setting: Manchester, United Kingdom
Mission: quality dimsums

follow up: "How Manga Took Over the World" exhibition

Tado laser-cut skatedeck

So I took time off and an excuse to head over to Manchester for a round of decent and of course, fabulous dimsums for a change. Whilst stuffing myself with good food was the priority, I took two hours off and made a quick stop at the Urbis exhibition centre located within the city.

And again, I was a little let down to see it being a small exhibition. Bad of me to constantly expect large thunderous shows, maybe in due time it will happen.

So yes, manga stories doesn't really fascinate me, but you can never overlook how brilliant manga drawings are. I still love animes though.

Not all are exactly manga, really. Quite a few TADO's works:

All shots available through my flickr page.

follow up: Limited Edition exhibition

To be honest, I was expecting to see quite a few pieces, particularly vinyls. However, it was all good with brilliant pieces of works on the walls to make up. Excellent theme-based cause, really. Both my mate and I contributed a little, with him purchasing an almost architectural-themed piece and I got first two numbered paperkit, as presents for two lucky people in the States. I sure hope they have received it by now.

Saw quite a few familiar faces and got to meet the ever joyous Phil Corbett. I am certain there were people there I know of, just couldn't manage to place the right faces to the right names.

So yes, some pieces that caught my eyes...

We should be seeing more shows spread throughout the year starting next year. All shots from the show, here

Beat Crusaders

I recently re-watched the anime BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad and really got into this band Beat Crusaders whose song 'Hit in the USA' was featured in the openings. They are even wider known for their song 'Tonight, Tonight, Tonight' featured as one of the openings in the anime Bleach.

I've not bothered to watch Bleach just cause it is slightly too long and on-going to my liking. But the 26-episode anime BECK is just an absolutely awesome anime. Basically tells how an ordinary 14-year old found his way into music and ending up discovering an incredible voice for the band by the same title.

Anyway, the songs throughout the anime are incredibly good. Back to Beat Crusaders, also commonly know as BECR. They started out as an indie band and revolved into its current Japanese rock/punk-pop genre. Their are particularly remembered for their masked faces by printed drawings resembling their real faces.

I particularly love "Moon on the Water", "Isolation", "Winterlong" and "Japanese Girl". Pretty good lyrics. Lead vocalist kicks rums.

To listen to some of their hits, tune here.

And of course, their concerts are absolutely fun and wild!

"How Manga Took Over the World"

So tomorrow I have another excuse to head over to Manchester for a periodic 'yum cha' session with a couple of mates. And it so happens there is this "How Manga Took Over the World" exhibition up at Urbis exhibition centre (13 March – 27 Sept 2008).


"The exhibition explores Manga’s influence in shaping contemporary culture, with something for everyone, from kids to adults; it offers a whistle stop introduction to Manga for novices as well as plenty to keep hard core fans immersed. Visitors will discover Cute Manga, Action Manga, Manga in Art, Fashion and Design, Manga as communication and Erotic Manga – for over 18s only!"


Not personally a fan of manga but I do dig a few animes. I'll be looking at some TADO works there. There's also this giant TADO MadL on display.

Squink over at O3 board took some colourful shots, check out his flickr.

18" Evirob

Now there seems to a fever going around with big giant vinyl pieces recently. I recently purchased Pete Fowler's giant Van Orlax and it is quite a gem. But frankly, you can't just simply 'blow-up' every piece of vinyl. Some are meant to be small.

So here we have an 18-inch Evirob figure by Devilrobots, this time around made by Play Imaginative. Evirob has been around for ages! And believe it or not, the 400% Evirob kubrick was one of my first collectible pieces and I assure you, most others will go before I would even think about having this piece taken from me.

Evirob 400% Kubrick (2004?)

Basically, I have always loved the Evirob, it is an iconic piece. But to have it this huge, I think it's cool but unnecessary. Well, at least it is still vinyl. Those big spiky horns, they might just hurt someone in due time.

Noferin's Pecanpals & CoproNason show

Noferin will make it big when they showcase their works at CoproNason, entitled "The Start; or Where We Begin" on 5th April 2008! I would like to suggest that their works-to-date are quality works of art. Particularly where they introduce bits and pieces of what they see and experience from where they are (Carrara Island, Australia) into their paintings. I was in Melbourne for quite a few years but knowing that Carrara Island has a completely different environment with different lifeforms really intrigues me.

"In which fluttering friends gather by the lilly pond"

Making the subtle gentle creatures from their paintings come to life is probably one of the best things I have seen it a while. Just absolute quality.

Fanelli, Pecan, Pandacake, Claudius and Jac Jac

They do remind me of my childhood toys that have got those rewind mechanism to make them move. Mind you, these aren't simply toys. They are entirely made from wood, hand crafted, hand painted, and limited to 200 per character.

Sweet to be looking forward to something, after a long while of stagnancy.

Crayon Physics Deluxe

I recall playing something similar with one of my mate's handheld Nintendo, but this one is so much better. I've not played any video / computer / arcade games for a wee long while, so I get quite fascinated by these new stuff quite easily.

A demo version is available for download here

Flickr turned 4

So Flickr turned 4 on the 15th March 2008. They hosted a "pin-up" photo exhibit in San Francisco, California and had an open invitation to anyone on Flickr to submit where in total, there would be 5,000 5" x7" photos pinned up at the exhibit / party.

Just for fun, really. So I submitted this shot and here in this batch, it is:

(via.)

More on "Flickr Turns 4" group page

Limited Edition photographs

Just managed to upload decent photographs taken at the show last night. I could have used a little bit more light, since my camera just couldn't cope with low-light. Will elaborate on the show's opening once I am a little more well-rested.

In the meantime, feel free to browse through the photographs in my flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nick210214/tags/limitededition/

Sony's Foam City

So this time, SONY decided to filled the city of Miami with 460 million liters of foam for their next 'wow' commercial. For obvious reason, of course to promote their new "new Alpha 350 with tilt screen, CybershotW175 with smile shutter, and HD Handycam, specialize in ‘capturing images like no other’ we can finally see bubbles the way they're meant to be seen or in a larger sense any truly unique moment."

"Sony's digital imaging branch sure has a history of wondrously eccentric and eye-catching ad campaigns. Over the last several years they've dropped 250,000 super balls down a San Francisco street, exploded 17,000 liters of paint in Glasgow, and most recently used two and half tons of Play Doh to have bunnies invade a New York City square. It should come as no surprise then, that their next campaign is just as if not more monolithic than their previous efforts."

• The foam-making machine is 2.8 meters in diameter.


• It uses 1,000 liters of water to create 2,000,000 liters of foam per minute.


• It can fill up an Olympic swimming pool in only 24 seconds.

Beautiful shot from the commercial 'Paint' where 17,000 liters of paint were blown

and the actual clip of the commercial

More images via Adland / Josh Spear

Futura & Jose Parla @ Pirate Utopias, London 2007

A real nice insight to the individual ideas of a 'utopia' by Futura and Jose Parla. Not exactly a big fan but I find it most enjoyable watching the video recap of the exhibition last year. It is a real shame that I was not able to drop by.

Multiple Personalities

This show opens at Lift on Saturday, 29th March 2008 (till 30th April) featuring some of the best vinyl custom artists out there. Best thing about the show is that the artists get to pick their own preferred vinyl platform. All essential information on this page.


And here's a lovely custom Treeson by Doktor A:

Joe Ledbetter Smash

There we go, another soon-to-be-released toy from Joe Ledbetter's line of characters. This time and most likely onwards, they will be produced by Toy2R instead of the usual WheatyWheat.

And as per-usual, we will be seeing at least four different colour variants, maybe more, with four shown to date.

I shall pass on these. I can't believe toys have already being marked at $80-$90 for retail nowadays. I would rather save up for prints and customs. Just a matter of personal preference, I suppose. I intend to cut down on production pieces.

dusk of Fuurin Kazan

Previously posted here. It has finally come to an end with the final subbed episode (50) released just two days ago. Apparently, this show has gauged a massive number of younger viewers (which is part of the intention, with Gackt as cast and so on) to bump up viewer ratings across all ages.

Having said that, there is no doubt that Fuurin Kazan is believed to be one of the more successful Taiga Dramas ever aired. The ending was very much enjoyable and superbly done though I knew what to expect (from historical readings).

The bit where Shingen Takeda and Uesugi Kenshin engaged in a close-up confrontation was absolute quality. And of course, the character Yamamoto Kansuke was brilliantly played and I absolutely agree that that was the way to end that final scene (without leaking any spoilers).

NHK 47th Taiga Drama, Fuurin Kazan
All 50 subbed episodes here

Stylish black MacBook Air

Now, I bet a majority would prefer a black version of the upcoming world's thinnest notebook. Good stylish looks just isn't going to fit rough users like me that demand a higher level of upgradable hardware performance.



*Just going to input a couple more entries whilst following my home country's election results.
Serious stuff.

Miniworld by Photoshop

I honestly still can't get myself to believe this, it's amazing. Good fun stuff to work on.
Makes the world looking like a virtual toy world. Sweet!
I know how to operate Photoshop well, but I had no idea there was this function. Gotta check.


Source: TheLiveDesign