Seattle: Visit to MoPOP! part two: Marvel Exhibit

Marvel's extended Cinematic Universe is a wide, expansive thing, and there are a lot of moving parts and pieces involved that means a lot of things to a lot of different people across the globe. It's also a massive creative undertaking that has spanned multiple decades, from the original pencil sketches of an artist's desk to the multi-million (or is it billions now?) media darling it's become. Marvel is nothing to sniff at and has become one of the most influential movie series in recent years. Initially, I have to admit that I was hesitant to get too involved and didn't see many of the early films in the theater, as most of the early movies revolved around some stereotypical white male protagonist and didn't feel particularly exciting or original to me.  Spider-man always held a special place in my heart, since I grew up watching the animated series, but rich Tony Stark? Uninteresting. Of course, some rich tech guy can invent or invest his way out of his problems... It took a couple of movies for Thor to evolve into the loveable oaf that he's become, and as the movies have rolled out the universe has expanded and evolved, bringing a richer, more varied tapestry along with ample humor and a modicum of self-awareness to the table. I've gotten much more invested in recent years if you haven't noticed, and while Marvel still has some work to do if it truly intends to be inclusive, they've made some progress over their many years now. I'm not gonna lie, Thor: Ragnarok and the more recent Spider-Man movies have been a blast, so while it may have taken me a minute to get on board I'm definitely one of the fans lining theaters for the newest releases.  

At the time of viewing this exhibition at Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture, we were in the interim between Infinity War and the as-of-yet unnamed Endgame. Seeing some of our heroes (and anti-heroes) again, or at least their armor (or weaponry) was bittersweet. One thing I especially enjoyed, though, and consider to be of note is that they were kind enough to label the materials used in the various costumes on display, so the ardent at-home-cosplayer may better attempt their own recreations with a bit of knowledge. Knowledge is power, after all!

The entire exhibit itself was massive, with areas dedicated to each Avenger and their associates, and we could have spent even more time exploring all the different installations if we'd had the time available. As it were, we spent hours in the museum wandering around, looping back and trying to take in as much as we could in the time allotted. No easy task with so much to see! 

  

There are a whole lot of photos ahead, so prepare yourselves!

Japan: Design Festa Fall 2013, part 2

Design Festa is one of those experiences that is so surreal, so sensory-overwhelming by its very design and nature that you might have to stop and wonder if someone might have spiked that water somehow. You can explore a labyrinthine space filled with dwarves, nightmare-faced visions, sexy girls in scanty-clothes, murals unfolding in real time and way, WAY more! Design Festa is a twice-annual event where artists from all over the world, though predominantly Asia, come together to showcase their talents and rub-elbows together. As you might imagine, this leads to some incredible collaborative experiences as well as some rather unusual neighbors, like my multi-eyed friend here who was seated near a caricature artist. As the caricature artist was drawing, I watched our friend here hover and observe, making the artist and his model both squirm a bit. Good times, I assure you! Where else would you find a caricature artist from South Korea hanging out and interacting with a special effects artist from Japan? Well, maybe a movie set, but for the rest of us this is the place to meet and mingle!

You don't have to be into large-scale formats to be well-received, nor does your art necessarily have to make sense or even comply with general standards of decency to gain an audience here. Luckily, most of the creators are exceptionally talented at what they do, whether it's manufacturing tiny robots and dioramas or drawing girls shooting rockets out of their genitals. The world is a very big and multi-faceted place, and there's room for everyone's creativity here, or at least that's the attitude the team behind Design Festa tries to bring to the table, and I can most certainly respect that. There's a little something for everyone to be found here, whether you're into decorating your phone cases to look like tasty desserts, punny t-shirts, nightmarish masks, fur-suits, or good old fashioned rope bondage, it's a well-rounded showcase.

There's really only so much I can say about the experience, after all... this is the kind of thing that requires you to bring all your senses to the table, but since you couldn't physically be there with me these photos will have to suffice. Enjoy!

Korea: Ssamji Filming, mascots and snacks, oh my!

While working as a caricature artist for the Fun Caricature company in Korea, I was able to rotate shifts between different locations which meant that I never got too bored or stuck at an underperforming location for too long. One of my favorite locations to work was the Insadong location, tucked into the Ssamziegil shopping center. The building itself is a unique concept, with minimal stairs and the floors laid out at a gentle incline so that you can comfortably wind your way around and up the building until you arrive at the uppermost deck. There was a palpable energy to the area that I really enjoyed, and the surrounding Insadong is a neighborhood robust with arts and crafts and old-school winding cobblestone streets surrounded by charming restaurants, hostels and museums tucked into classical style buildings. You can easily walk over to the Bukchon Hanok village to take in the history and shopping, and there's tons of other sights to take in nearby too! For me, though, I thoroughly enjoyed working in the Insadong area and taking in the ever-changing craft fairs and flow. Some days we'd get parades of people marching down the main central walkway, banging on drums and singing in traditional garb as they make their way through a historic loop, others flocks of youth protestors campaigning against the dog-meat industry and raising awareness. Naturally, there are so many options for food throughout the area that you'd have no reason to go hungry- whatever your budget. If you're feeling a little spend-thrifty, there's ample convenience stores and street food to fill your belly with something warm and quick, whether it's chicken skewers or instant ramyun. For those with a little more won to their name, you can wander the seemingly endless alleys of Insadong and find everything from fermented skate fish meals to fancy Royal court cuisine, which was once prepared exclusively for the Joseon Dynasty, considered one of the peaks of historic Korean royalty culture. I must admit, I never got around to trying the royal cuisine, due partially to the cost and partly due to the sheer volume of food presented. It's definitely a meal meant for sharing with friends! It's on my bucket list, though, so next time Antho and I happen to be in Seoul it's definitely going down. On this particular day, though, I kept it simple with some cheap convenience store snacks and enjoyed the entertainment. Not every day a mascot shows up to your job, right?

Art: Ice dye from early March

Perpetually working through a backlog of shirts, we still can't help but keep creating when the impulse strikes. We've actually worked our way through an entire box of shirts, over 70 (!) blank tees have now been dyed and rinsed, ready to be sorted and added to our shop in a weird sort of shirt purgatory for the time being. I'm still aiming to triple our inventory but it's proving more challenging than originally anticipated- not only is there the backend making process for the shirts themselves, but then we need to wash, photograph, wash again, process the photos then list...and in that time we're still selling away, dropping the base inventory number again and again. This, of course, isn't the worst thing- I want the shirts to sell! I'm happy to see them go to good homes! But a small part of me is a little stitious about our inventory...not superstitious, you know, just a little-stitious...  I strive to keep our shop above 200 items; it's a good round number and seems to keep our visibility up, but we quickly sell below that number at our current state...again, this is not a bad thing, just means I have to fight that much harder to try to get ahead of the curve and list more items! With the recent shop update I got us back over 200 items, but it took over 10 new shirts going live to get there again. We have at least 30 if not 40 more shirts to photograph yet before we can get them live on the shop, and by the time I've processed all those we might be back under again. It's a bit of an uphill climb, I suppose, but this is one I'm extremely passionate and enthusiastic about so the struggle isn't that bad. The more shirts we make and post, the more we're able to sell, and the better for everyone! The more we sell, the more we can invest into our business and the more shirts we can make and share with everyone. We're still working on expanding our options further through the various sizes, because we want ALL of our fans to be able to wear the colourful gear they deserve regardless of their size. This has been a time consuming process but we're happy to keep sharing it with you if you're interested! We enjoy the process along with the results~

More photos below!

Art: January Tie-dye 2018

Tie-dye, ice-dye, fabric art, textile dyes... it goes by several names depending how pretentious you want to be, but for us it's just good ole' fashioned hippie tie-dye. We've been going through so much ice that our local 711 employees have all started asking what the deal is, curious if we're having some epic party every night that they've not yet been invited to... And we go so often that our buddy Jimmy  has taken to always welcoming us with shouts of "Mister and Misses Tie-Dye!" when we enter the building. I have to admit that I kind of love it, though! I've been talking a lot about our tie-dye these days, probably because we're making some almost every night. If you follow our Instagram you'll have a pretty good idea of some of our various tie-dye shenanigans in real-time but there's also several Twitter accounts, from our official 710Visuals account to my personal account @shethatisnau and  +Antho Jay has his own, too... I try to update the blog steadily and regularly but this is a habit I'm still working on. I've got tons of stuff to share with everyone, though, and my goal for 2018 is to have a post every. single. day!! I missed a couple days in the beginning of January when I was still sick, but since then I've managed to get a post out every day. I'm working on finding my rhythm, getting the writing habit to stick, and figuring out the direction I want my blog to go in the next couple years. Yes, years. I'm at that point now where I want to plan for further and farther out into the future, and tie-dye is playing a large role in that, as is my blogging. While it's all well and good to have a day job to pay the essential bills, I really want to move away from that and get to a point where I'm less reliant on the whims of others for my financial independence. I've been pretty self-reliant over the years with my caricatures and art, but it's always good to have different projects going so that if there's ever a lull in one area you've got something else you can buffer with. If nothing else, we really enjoy making the tie-dye so it's always going to be an enjoyable hobby no matter what else we find ourselves doing.  

Art: Winter ice-dye round four rinsing

I've spoken a couple times now on how when it comes to rinsing the tie-dye after saturating it with dye it feels nearly endless, and this will likely forever remain true. On the other hand, as the dyes loosen their hold on the fabric and excess color runs off it can be exceptionally pretty to behold. Water splashes off in a wide array of directions and when you think you might have finally hit the end of the color run off you can squeeze the fabric and experience a fresh new blast of colored water. It's important, after all, to remember to take time to enjoy the ride and savour the process. Life is short and while we're still young (for now) there will likely come a time that untying the strings or loosening the rubber bands grows to be a difficult process. By then we might have an army of tie-dye minions helping us to process our creations, but maybe not. There's no telling what twists and turns will crop up in this adventure called life, so enjoy it while you're here. 

Tie-dye is a form of color therapy for me. Colors are well known to influence moods and is widely used by advertisers to give their company an edge. Don't let that information make you paranoid- it's just a way that brands can further their aesthetic impact. While having reds and yellows proliferating through a restaurant might make consumers devour their burgers faster, when it comes to the clothing you wear it's more a projection of the mood you want to embody. Maybe you're feeling vibrant and optimistic, leaning towards sharp greens and vivid yellows or perhaps you're more into soothing blues and tans, a shirt that takes you to a relaxing afternoon on the beach without the Hawaiian florals.  The colors we use changes often and we don't always re-order the shades we use. This is due to a few things, like tastes evolving or a different vibe at the time, or simply because it was a limited edition color and was sold-out. It's not that we're trying to be elitist by using and then discontinuing our use of any particular color, as we remain open to bringing them back at any time it feels right. There's so many color options out there we don't want to miss out on any particular variations because we got caught up on one specific shade, ya dig?

For now, enjoy this peek behind the scenes of our creations. If you'd like to support our work and get hands on your own tie-dye feel free to stop by our Etsy shop! We'd love to have your help making the world a more colorful place.

Project: Tie-dye 2016/02/13

Antho and I have been doing a lot of tie-dye recently. These have all been posted in our Etsy shop so if you see any you like be sure to check it out! We're both quite pleased with how we've been progressing through experimentation and practice. ^_^ Hope you like!

Winter Tie-dye 2016-02-05

It's been awhile but now that it's starting to warm up again Antho and I made some tie-dye the other day. I'm quite pleased with the results! I'll be posting them on Etsy in the next few days.

Happy February's & brand new babies

Hey guys, been a minute!

Needless to say, January got away from me. 

Between working on a book cover, volunteering with Critical Care Comics, adopting two new rats then losing our beloved fat rat Pendleton, working on trying to resolve the situation with my grandmother, car troubles and the rest I didn't find much time to work on the blog. For that I apologise.

Las Vegas Indoor Swapmeet

Do you have an Indoor Swapmeet in your area?

We have a couple of different swap meets here, but we've only gone to this one so far. 

Now that I know what an adventure they can be, we'll definitely have to make the time to check out the rest!

Day trip to Berkeley

Welcome to Berkeley, a lovely little town north of San Francisco and Oakland, famous for having the oldest college campus in California along with it's politically liberal vibe.

While walking through Berkeley, it's evident that the town takes great pride in itself. The street lamps are adorned with baskets of flowers, the sidewalks are clean and the buildings beautiful and well maintained.

Quirky and creative individuals and businesses abound, with small cafes offering live orchestral performances or Japanese curry. One intersection has three distinct movie cinemas operating on different corners, each offering different movies. Amoeba records flagship store opened in 1990 in Berkeley, so if you're a music geek that's worth noting. It's a huge store with a robust selection and has expanded with newer locations in San Francisco (which we visited) and another in Hollywood.

While a fairly small town of permanent residents at around 100k, I imagine it's pretty safe to estimate that the population boons during college season. Several people remarked on the amusing contrast of seeing young preppie college kids mingling with a bunch of hippies, but that's the kind of atmosphere the town fosters. Everyone we spoke with was friendly and glowed with pride for their home.

Curious? I've got lots of photos for you below!

Project: Spring Ice dyes

     So, Antho and I recently tried out ice dyeing for the first time. We've been experimenting with tie-dying fabrics and creating various designs since last summer (which, if you're curious, you can find over on our Storenvy shop) but this was our first experiment with ice dye and I made sure to document the process.

    And seriously, look at this gorgeous shirt Antho made! Isn't it fun?