02.04.2010
Jake Pickle
ART COLLABORATION: Bamboo Pin, Koa Fish, Slater, Mission, Waterman, Cloudbreak Tee, Consequence Tee
WEBSITE: jakepickle.com
02.04.2010
Randy Noborikawa
ART COLLABORATION: Del Rey, Bamboo Pocket Rocket
WEBSITE: www.randynoborikawa.com
Born in Southern California, graduated from the Academy of Art University in San Fransisco. Randy currently lives and works in Costa Mesa, CA, while making frequent visits to the bay area for inspiration.
His work often takes on one of three distinct styles: lenticular paintings, painterly cityscapes or the sugar skull avatar.
Lenticular paintings are his newest passion and are tediously crafted on angled wood slats. They offer a natural abstraction when viewed from straight on, and resolve as multiple images when viewed from side to side. Randy is bringing this concept, dating back to the 1800’s, into the urban environment as well as galleries, engaging the viewer to interact with art.
The “elsugarskull†work embodies his passion for Latin folk art and catholic iconography translated through a modern filter. His unique incorporation of neon and cast glass brings depth and vibrancy to these works.
His cityscapes are painted in the traditional sense, paying close attention to light and shadow, color and composition, in a loose, painterly style. They celebrate the grit of the urban environment and give hints to pop culture street artists.
The craft of surfboard fabrication and the art of wave riding have always intrigued Randy. Collaborating with shaper Eric Christenson, they create works of form and function that have been showcased and used alike.
02.04.2010
Patrick Haemmerlein
ART COLLABORATION: Roots Tee
WEBSITE: urban1028.com
A native of Kinderhook, NY, Patrick Haemmerlein is a freelance designer and artist living in Los Angeles. After receiving his BFA from Savanna College of Art and Design in 2000, Patrick took the long road trip across country and settled down in LA. Here he began to obsessively photograph the city and its components. This gradually moved into new art form as he started to combine and create with images he was collecting. Reflecting on the issues of the day, Patrick explores themes of nature Vs. industry and how they can coexist of clash. The buildings and cityscapes are from Los Angeles while the animal and farm photos were mostly taken around his hometown area in upstate NY. They are not only a juxtaposition of nature and industry, but a combination of imagery from his two homes- one rural and one urban.
02.04.2010
Nanami Cowdroy
ART COLLABORATION: Bamboo Pin
WEBSITE: nthread.net
Nanami Cowdroy was born in Sydney, Australia with close bonds to her mixed Japanese-European heritage. Growing up with such contrasting cultures and surroundings, has greatly influenced her style of art and creative expression.
By intertwining complex characters and highly detailed objects her pieces reflect a juxtaposition between foreign and familiar entities and environments. Her imagination is illustrated through works which are elaborate and exotic. She is drawn to subjects, which may on the surface seem delicate or fragile, but are given strength and depth through her pen and ink techniques, intricate hand illustrative style and mixed media compositions.
Her signature detailed style reflects a refined monochrome pallette with her name ‘Nanami’ (meaning ‘Seven Seas’ in Japanese ) stamped in red. Fluid line-work, watery creatures and Goldfish are some of her favourite subjects, and distinctive forms which are featured in her artworks.
02.04.2010
Max Grundy
ART COLLABORATION: Wasteland, Koa Pocket Rocket, Fleetwood
WEBSITE: maxgrundy.com
Max Grundy has been a painter, illustrator, and graphic designer for the majority of his life and an art teacher for over a decade. His phobia and hot rod theme artwork is shown throughout the world.
Conceptually, his work is based in America’s love affair with fear and its consequential phobias. The most effective images to motivate people and get a reaction are images of fear. Fear motivates people to do something or stop doing something. Media uses fear tactics on a daily basis to tell us a variety of fallacies; that germs threaten the lives of our children, or perhaps that our social status depends on the degree of whiteness of our teeth. The news, as well as advertising, seems to exploit human beings’ desire for shock value. In short, FEAR IS THE NEW BEAUTY.
Formally, he is interested in vintage poster design around WWII (sci- fi, B-movie, comic book covers and propaganda). He admires its use of unusual perspective, limited color palette, dramatic text and design to create maximum effect. He believes this style has the ability to reach out and grab a viewer because of its economical graphic quality.
His purpose in creating images of fear and phobias is an attempt to defuse the power of fears that are used against the public by the media.
