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!

Art: Early Ice dye for 2018

Rainbows here, rainbows there, rainbows everywhere! We love making tie-dye and do it as often as we possibly can. It's always fascinating seeing what kind of mad science color combinations we can create! We typically work with ice-dyes, sprinkling dye over the ice so that it hydrates through and deposits pigment as the ice melts, which creates a more space-like watercolour effect. Even using only one or two colors we've been really surprised by the depth of the results! We do experiment, though, and no matter how many times we dye no two shirts (or skirts, shorts, dresses, hoodies, crop tops, etc...) are ever the same.  It's been a lot of fun throughout the journey, and we've been doing tie-dye for fun now since some time in 2015 or maybe even 2014. I can't even pinpoint the exact date, it just happened that we were driving along and Antho suggested doing tie-dye on a whim and we found that we actually, really, thoroughly, deeply, passionately enjoyed doing tie-dye. Of all the things.  It makes sense, I suppose- I've always enjoyed painting, digital and traditional illustration, and most things artsy-fartsy... there was an awkward phase around 4th grade where I found out there were these brightly coloured three-dimensional paints you could use on clothes and went about drawing all sorts of goofy lizards and things onto every clothes item I could...Colour and aesthetics have appealed to me for awhile, and Antho has always been fashion/image conscious, crafty and hands-on so tie-dye has just been kind of a natural fit for us both. We're always learning and growing as we go, though, it's just part of the process. Nothing is perfect in the beginning, and there's an adage that it takes roughly 10,000 hours to become truly skilled at any given craft, whether it's playing a guitar, tie-dye, or aeronautical navigation, so we relentlessly we strive forward in our efforts to create cloth and colour alchemy. The more we try, the more we practice, the better we get after all. This also means more shirts (or skirts, shorts, hoodies, crop tops, tank-tops, etc) we can share with everyone!  We hope to be as inclusive as possible with our size options and though our funds are limited we try to invest in items that will work for all of our fans regardless what size they wear.  We want everyone to be able to taste, or wear, the rainbow in their favourite spectrum. Everyone deserves to feel fabulous!

More photos below!

Vegas: Las Vegas Valley Comic Book Fest 2015

Did you know that Vegas has the 2nd most video game stores per capita?

Atlanta beats us, but we also rank high up there in number of comic book stores, 2nd only to Seattle if my source was correct. Either way, we've got quite a robust and healthy nerd population!

Between the Consumer Electronic Show in spring and all the other conventions throughout the year, there's guaranteed to be something for everyone. While the Star Trek experience has sadly gone dark, there's still plenty of good geeky fun to be had.

Las Vegas Valley ComicBook Fest 2015 is one great example!

Once a year, on the first Saturday of November, Clark County library opens it's doors to the arts community and hosts the festival. All ages are welcome and the event is free to attend!  

This year I was posted up with Critical Care Comics, a brilliant non-profit organization that has Superheroes deliver comics to children in hospitals. It's always a great honor to work with them and I had a blast attending the event! They're so cool, in fact, that Kevin Smith gave them a shout out recently during his show in Vegas. Right on, good sir!

Las Vegas: Toxic Dump at the Life is Shit festival at the Dive Bar 2015-09-25

Come all ye hipsters, for your beacon of golden hopped hope is here.

Have you ever heard of the Life is Beautiful festival?

This post has nothing to do with it, as I refuse to go. Haha!

But for those of you who haven't heard of Life is Beautiful, it's an annual event here in Vegas that features a medley of pop music acts (the majority of which I'd never heard of), live art, and other such fluffy and upbeat entertainment, as harmless a toothless kitten to the psyche of your average cheerful mass media loving consumer.

Although it costs nearly $300 for a general entry ticket it still clogs up our roads with countless visitors flocking to join the festivities, and despite having worked, lived in and visited some of the most congested cities in the world, I'm not a particular fan of large crowds.

So…yeah... No thanks.

Being of a more cynical bent I found myself much more eager & willing to accept my friend Marcus's invitation to the Life is Shit festival, which happens during the same days and costs a fraction as much as the saccharine event. Featuring local bands, vendors, a giant inflatable PBR (along with cheap cold cans) and many of my friends in attendance, we made our way to the Dive Bar and we had a blast! 

We performed as 710Visuals, despite some technical difficulties and a wee bit of badgering from an over-worked Brit. ;)

More photos and video below!