"the Flood Brings Curious Encounters" by Andy Kehoe

Just saw this beautiful painting by one of my favourite artists, Andy Kehoe, and I must say, it is truly really impressive.

I have no idea why but the whole composition of the piece is just stunning. According to his flickr comment, it is supposed to be a forest dragon. And the damn beast looks f#@king regal!

If the first preview piece of his upcoming show at Black Maria Gallery ("The Wonder", October 17th) is so nice, I can't wait to see the rest of the show. I don't even dare to ask how much this piece is (I am supposed to save up for a new apartment dammit!)

Faile's Bunny Boy Blue

After so bloody long did I bother to bring my arse out of my computer chair (damn you Facebook!) and send my Faile's Bunny Boy Blue print to the framer. (Don't ask me what is the official name of the print, it was sold as Bunny Boy Blue by Black Rat Press)

Anyway, there are a couple of reasons why I did not send the print to the framer once I got the print. Firstly, I was framing my BAST prints as priority (My Cash Bazaar and Und Erotik). But most importantly, I have no idea what is the best way to frame it (I always love metallic coloured frames but it doesn't look good with this print).

So I lurked at Faile forum to check out some of the framed Failes that the members posted and I saw that most of them go for white frame with white matt. (The other option is acrylic box but it is expensive!) And white on white actually shows off the Faile-iness (wat?) of the artwork in the best way.

Though, I was really tempted to go for a glitterly gold antique looking frame for this piece but changed my mind at the framer when my framer asked me whether I am colourblind or simply blind.

Anyway I went for white on white, and I truly love the final framed piece. I have hung it in my bedroom and now I wake up every morning to see this beauty. This has inspired me to frame the rest of my Faile prints still lying in tubes or in my folder. (yeah right... another few months perhaps before I lifted my arse off the computer chair thanks to Warhammer Online now...)

(If only I know how to explain to my wife why the boy is kissing the rabbit and what is the hidden meaning behind the artwork... Anyone?)

Buff Monster Toys

Buff Monster Web Exclusive figure dropped recently and when I saw the image of the new toy, I knew that I would have to pick it up (Me love gold or silvery stuff). I realised that I have never mentioned about the Buff Monster toys in my blog, even though I became a Mindstyle ATS member, all for the sake of the Buff Monster toys. (ATS members get first offers to purchase Mindstyle's new launches or limited editions).

(By the way, the Buff Monster Web Exclusive was not offered to ATS member. Boo...)

Anyway, I had to stay up late at night for the chance to purchase the exclusive via Buff Monster's website and I managed to get it (the figure sold out in an hour, methink) So the cool web exclusive figure is now on the way to Singapore.

I am not a big fan of Buff Monster's arts, though I appreciate his some of his paintings (especially those with tons of gold glitter and pink... funky!) But the first time I laid eyes on his Mindstyle figures, I knew that I would have to collect them. The quality of the vinyl is excellent and the toys just look so weirdly cute. The only complaint is the price (US$30 for a 3inch toy!)

Series 2 of the toys have just been launched and the designs are kinda kaiju influenced (which I find pretty cool) and I like the dual-faced aspect of his latest series.





Some pics of my Buff Monster figures. Can't wait to add the web exclusive to the family :-)

Kaws JPP toy in the house!

At last, my Kaws JPP has arrived from kawsone! I have been waiting for this toy for the longest time!

If anyone read my previous mail, they might noticed the tee I was wearing when I took the photo with Touma.

Yup, I was wearing my favourite Originalfake tee, the JPP. It was my first ever Kaws tee and it is still my favourite OF tee even though I have bought a couple since then.

I have loved the Kaws JPP design ever I realised that Kaws was putting his XX design on the Tokyo police mascot that I always saw whenever I was in Japan. So when I knew that the JPPs were launching, I was on kawsone.com waiting for them to drop.

I read as well from Kaws blog that he will appear in an article in ANPQuarterly magazine. Check out the photo of the 4 feet Kaws Companion. I saw one in the OriginalFake shop when I was there and I wish I had the dough to bring one back (It's not for sale anyway and my wife will kill me if I did bring one back).

It's a good time to be a Kaws toy collector. :-)

Kaws talks about his collab with N.E.R.D.

For his Complex mag's cover with N.E.R.D.

Blog is up and running fine now.

Apologies for the disruptions. I was playing around with Google Apps and changed a couple of stuff with my web host and somehow I lost my blog for a while.

Now it is back and I can't wait to talk more about my love for vinyl toys and cool prints from the street artists.

(P.S. The placeholder above is called "The Wonderful Angel of Death" by MissBugs. It is my favourite print from MissBugs but I did not have the chance to get my hands on one.)

Faile's "Stories of Love in Key Foods"

The purchase that finally broke the bank. I have sworn not to buy any more artworks and I mean it this time...

I am relatively new to the Failemania and was lucky enough to win the Q for this print. It is HUGE at 45 x 34.5 inches!! My oh my how am I going to frame this monster??

But I fell in love the moment I unrolled the Key Foods on my table. The amount of work, the deep colours (ok, my camera phone sucked at capturing colours) and the way the girl is staring at me made me a happy happy owner of this massive piece of art.

Now, I have to save up for another 6 months to be able to afford the frame... as well as to buy a big enough apartment to house this beautiful monster.

Happy happy!

Touma, Devilrobot and Kaijin toys

Okay, I think I have overdone it when I was in Tokyo. I bought a Devilrobot Smery, a Touma Tudo and a Kaijin Steel Fairies toys as well as bought online a GID Touma Gaburin. I guess I am crazy about Touma toys but I have so many I have no place to display them any more...

Who am I kidding, give me MORE!!! :-D

Miss Bugs Dumbo print

Just received the Dumbo print by Miss Bugs and I love it! The silver ink on black background is pretty cool and you can see the reflective effect from the photo.

My first Miss Bugs print and definitely not my last. :-)

My Touma-mania at STCC

The first Singapore Toys & Comics Convention was held on 28-29 June and I had to beg my wife to let me go. :P

Ever since my baby is borned, I do not have much time for toys, to be honest, but the STCC flyer was advertising about Devilrobots and Tokidoki appreances so I wanna go have a look (I'm a Tofu fan). Amazingly it was super packed where 140,000 people showed up. I did not know Singaporeans are into toys, comics and games (video & card).

While stumbling past the girls-swarmed Tokidoki's booth and the families-packed Nintendo Wii stand, I chanced upon a booth with the signboard "Toumart". To my delight, Mr Touma was here in STCC in person!!!

I am a big fan of Touma, owning at least a hundred of his toys (yes yes yes, in numerous colourways) so you can imagine me geeking out when I saw him with his assistant Yuki in this convention.





I basically went berserk, buying all the Touma toys I could get my hands on in the convention that I do not own, just so I can get Touma to sign and scribble on them. Since he would only sign and draw 3 pieces each time, I think I had queued 10 times to get him to sign and draw 20 toys!

All in all, I bought 2 Grabbits (Red + Rust), a PeeGee, a Squeezel, a Bongo and a Slither, and he signed and scribbled on all of them. Not only that, on the second day of the convention, I brought along some of his old toys and he was kind enough to sign and scribble on all of them! Those included a Giant Skuttle (people thought I am crazy hugging that monster around in the packed convention hall), a Skuttle, a Skuttle-X, a Boo, a Baboo, a Boobie, a Toolie, a Zugan, another PeeGee, a Talon, a Goon, a Gaburin, a Fangwolf and an Aniballoon.

20 toys together, and he drew on my convention brochure and on my Touma calendar too. Sweet!



Yuki-san is Toumart Art Producer and since Touma does not speak much English, Yuki was kind enough to share some information about upcoming toys that Touma is launching (Ultraman Touma toys???) and he was translating for Touma when Touma asked some questions concerning where I bought my Touma toys (One-Up & Fewmany shops in Tokyo, sir) and whether he should have STCC exclusive toys if he returns next year (OH YEAH PLEASE, SIR!!!)
Very friendly and nice people, Touma and Yuki, though I think Touma was a bit camera shy without his Knuckle Bear mask on.



I really did have a blast meeting one of my favourite artist and toy designer in person. Hopefully Touma will consider coming again next year for the STCC and I will buy more of his toys from now till then!

Fun weekend indeed!

P.S. Will try to post pics of all the toys he drawn on in a future blog post.
P.P.S. I forgot all about Devilrobots when I was geeking out over Touma. Did not get them to sign my Tofu toy. Heheheh.

"CNY Und Erotik" by BAST

I have never realised how big the Und Erotik print is till we have it displayed flat at the framer.

This is the biggest piece of artwork I have ever own. And the framer is charging me ridiculous price for the custom frame (which I paid anyway, with a grunt of disgust though).

And it is hard to discribe the beauty of this piece. The red on gold is beautiful, but it is the glitter that BAST have covered the Und Erotik with that makes the print sparkled under the lights of the framer shop.

A 1/1 piece and I can't wait to get it framed asap.

BAST (and a little bit of Faile)

Ever since Blaine Fontana declared that he will be taking a break from solo exhibitions in 2008, I thought that I can relax from artwork purchasing for a while.

As a fan of both Daniel Danger and Dave Kinsey, I am a regular reader of the thegiant.org forum (It is a forum that is primarily a Obey fan forum) where DD and Kinsey have their own artist threads. While scanning through the various artist threads, one particular artist caught my eyes.

BAST.

BAST is an artist that pasted his artworks on the streets of NYC. His art is so messy and sometimes dirty-looking that I guess some people might even find them ugly.

But somehow the weirdness and grittiness of his art appeal to me.

In Singapore, grafitti is banned and the police classify grafitti as vandalism and take a tough stance on "vandals". The last time a vandal was caught, not only was he given a prison sentence, he has to be caned. (Hence the famous "Singapore cane" that you might have heard about in the old ECW hardcore shows). Thus street art is something really interesting to a Singaporean like me who is not exposed to grafitti art. (though Juxtapoz has been slanting towards this art movement recently)

I find Banksy amusing (but too expensive), I find Obey nice (but nothing really special) and I am not even sure whether Kinsey is a street artist (I really like his prints regardless).

But I somehow really really like the insane images BAST are putting out.

So, I spent a few nights reading up on the guy and he has his fans at wallkandy (excellent forum), faile.co.uk and thegiant (and of course his haters at expressobeans lol). His bastny.com site is a joy to view (though I hate missing out on his late batch of print offerings in Jan since I only discovered him in Feb).

And I bought two of his prints.

Thug

Cash Baazar (this photo from expressobeans is actually the piece I bought 4/4)

And I have a special "Chinese New Year" Und Erotik coming.

Regular Und Erotik

A sneak preview of my CNY Und Erotik that is coming my way. (Supposed to be red on gold but it looked silvery in the photo)

The Cash Bazaar is a truly amazing piece. The multiple layering on the piece is crazy. Every corner you stare at you will discover some minor details you have never noticed before.

BAST original paintings are too expensive for me (and those beautiful ones are too big for my apartment) and so I have to focus on his prints. BAST will be having a show at Jonathan Levine Gallery later this year and I am looking forward to hopefully scoring a small OG or get my hands on any prints he might have!

I am worried about how this will affect the direction my collection is going. Because of BAST, I have started paying attention to Faile as well.

Faile is more popular than BAST. And I can understand the appeal of Faile. Anyone who has a love for comics will like Faile artworks.

I just have one print (no photo yet, waiting to go to framer) that I bought on impulse. My credit card is still suffering from my recklessness. :\

Bunny Boy Blue

Mine is as dirty as the one shown above and I love it! However I believe I will not be buying more Failes since their pricings have since rocketed thanks to those crazy rich Brits buying up their originals in the last few street art auctions.

I think I will concentrate on getting more BAST. :P

Artworks of Netherland (David van Aspen)

Recently stumbled upon a series of cool artworks by a mysterious artist named "Netherland" and fell in love with his retro-cool super-weird stuff. David van Aspen is the owner of DVA gallery and had created a series of resin pieces that reminded me of those pictures you would have seen in the 70's. I went crazy buying up his stuff but apparently there are other fans as well since some of the pieces I inquired about via emails with him or the galleries can be sold in between correspondence!

I will be keeping an eye on Netherland's new works.

From top to bottom: Dance II, Scoot, The Getaway, Evel's Last Stand, Gossip

"Red Indulgence" by Kit Tan

Visited an art gallery in Singapore a few weeks ago and I was so tempted to sell my car just to get the above painting by the local artist Kit Tan. I have been a big fan of Kit Tan ever since I spied her paintings that were displayed in Singapore Art Museum for the UOB Award show.

Unfortunately my wife threatened divorce if she finds out I exchange the family car for a super cool painting. My explanation that the painting is a appreciating asset as compared to the car being a depreciating liability does not fly with her. Yes dear, the painting is not going to bring you from point A to point B.

Sigh...