This Is Not A Bear / The Ears Make The Rabbit

On June 20th, 2014, Snap! Orlando featured me in a group show "Snap! Attacks!"

For the show, I wanted to try something a little different, and my idea came from a conversation I had with my friend Sket One. 

In 2012 Sket and I showed together at the Coachella Music & Art Festival. For that show, we were asked to live paint in an un-airconditioned room in the middle of the Palm Desert. I can soundly say it was the environment that inspired me to I create this painting. As you can see, the piece features an angry bear, and behind it, the words "Fuck It's Hot" are repeated over and over. Afterwards Sket mentioned that he found my letter styling to be intriguing and that he wouldn't mind seeing it employed the same way graffiti writers use letters as graphic art. It was this little compliment gave me the confidence to create the following paintings:

This Is Not A Bear

11"x 14"

Acrylic on Wood Panel

2014

The Ears Make The Rabbit

11"x 14"

Acrylic on Wood Panel

2014

"This Is Not A Bear" states the little know fact that my "bear" character was not originally supposed to be a bear. The design was supposed to encapsulate "cuteness & innocence" and it was based on Hello Kitty's minimalist design. Of course there are certain paintings where the character was definitely supposed to be a bear. (Paintings like "The Queen Is Dead", "Bear In Mind", or "Honey Bear" come to mind.) But it wasn't till I realized that my audience was comfortable with the notion of bears driving the narrative did I settle with him being one.

"The Ears Make The Rabbit" reflects on my shoddy skills as a character designer, and how the difference between my bears and rabbits lie solely on the length of their ears.

Shaved Ice (Bat)

On June 21st, 2014, Giant Robot hosted Ugly Doll's annual Ugly Con.
The feature Ugly Doll this time was Ice Bat, who was celebrating its 10th anniversary.

While I was trying to figure out what to do, I happened to see Sean Chao's contribution.

SHAVED ICE! OF COURSE!

So from there, I was able to conceive my idea for the show:

Shaved Ice (Bat)

12"x 9"

Color Pencil On Paper

2014

Thanks Sean!

Chueh vs Konatsu

Dear readers, I'm sorry from being so behind on my blog. I'm currently working on my upcoming solo show (opening this October at Corey Helford Gallery). Anyways, I've been wanting to get these pieces up, so here we go:

On June 28th, 2014, Q Pop hosted Konatsu first major US exhibition.

Here's Q Pop's Press Release:

Konatsu's first Exhibition in the U.S.A.) She invited her artist friends from Japan to do custom painted versions of her figure "Negora". Those talented friends included : Devilrobots, Keiko Miyata, Kenji Fukuda, Nekonoko, Noriya Takeyama, Rampage, Shimomoku, Touma, Yoko Sueyoshi, Yumi Moriwaki, T9G, Koraters, and Dream Rockets.
From the USA side Q Pop invited artists who did more custom painted Negoras to welcome Konatsu.The U.S. artists included: 64 Colors, Amy Sol, Paul Kaiju, Paul Shih, Sket One, Luke Chuen, Squink, J RYU, Becky Dreistadt, Keiko Murayama, Victoria Ying, Jeff Ranjo, Miss Kika, Patrick Awa, Chris Mitchell, Tara Billinger, Fawn Veerasunthon, Magen Mitchell, Jeremiah Ketner, Mari Inukai, Lissa Treiman and Zach Bellisimo.

Here is a photo of the un-customized Negora

And here is what I created for the show:

The way my design came to being started with my colleague J*Ryu who made a resin cast from the original sofubi figure. From there, we were able to block out the face in the mold, thus giving me a surface I could add Magic Sculp clay onto. The punchline to my design are the pair of legs dangling from my kaiju's mouth. That I got from a tiny mini figure I owned.