Buttons.

Last Thursday GR2 hosted a button making event with Christen Carter from Busy Beaver Button Co. You could draw your own, use pictures or collage from clippings to make your button. I made these three 2.25" buttons. Top one was my first and the gold one with the fish was that last.

Wasn't too sure what to draw for my first button, so I drew my bunny character. Think it would have come out better if I drew it in pencil first. Not good in using a pen/marker to draw with. My second one came out a little better... volcano erupting on an island. I thought this one out a little more when I drew it. The third one came out the best and my favorite. Found this piece of gold paper and was instantly inspired. This time I found a pencil to sketch out my piece first.

I hope GR2 does this event again. It was super fun to create these.

Dehara - Jizo Exihibit at GR2

What is a Jizo? It is the Buddhist divinity who protects the departed souls of deceased children, babies and unborn fetuses. Its likeness can be found in cemeteries and on roadsides in Japan. These are the inspiration for Dehara's latest show. He calls them "Japanese stone angels."

There were over 20 custom painted Jizo and over 20 custom figures, J.J. sets, Jizo in regular grey color and special colorways stickers, books, keychains and other boxed figures. Each Jizo comes with matching rice ball accessory. His custom Jizo range from the cute (ONIGIRI) to the slightly bizarre (JUICY HOLE). The figures were absolutely amazing. I really liked the dog, HACHI. and the Jizo with J.J. sets. With so many figures to choose from I finally decided on the MENTA-kun Jizo. It was either that or KILLER CABBAGE. I also thought about getting one of the Jizo colorways, but the white one wasn't GID.

I got to meet Dehara for the first time. He is really nice. He was kind enough to do a Menta and Jizo sketch in my book. Even gave me some insight on how he came up with the Menta and the giant rock he painted on in Japan. These are the times when I wish I could speak a little more Japanese than I do now. David, Sun-Min and Mina stopped in to take peek at the show. Hung out a little bit with SuperBen too.

The exhibit runs through July 7 at GR2, so there is still quite a bit of time to take a look at some truly amazing pieces.

2002 Ice-Bat

GR2 had their 2002 Ice-Bat release and signing event with Sun-Min Kim and David Horvath on Saturday (3:00pm-5:00pm). This Ice-Bat is modeled after the very first handmade ones that were first sold at Giant Robot back in 2002. These have 2 toes and 5 teeth. Limited edition of 300 and available through Giant Robot.

So glad the rain let up for this. The line for the event wasn't as too bad. I got there a little before 2:30pm, with only 6 or 7 people before me. Michelle started letting people into the store 6 at a time, just a little past 3:00pm. Everyone was limited to purchase 3 Ice-Bats per person. I had bought 3 post-it's from the GR2 Post-It 3 show last year and got them framed. The frame had two smaller areas that were perfectly sized for the smaller post-it's. So I put 2 blank ones there for them to sketch in to complete my frame. Was going to have them sketch something into my book, but I didn't want to hold up the line too much. I'm going to be going to SDCC this year, so I can get a sketch there. I bought my limit of 3, but needed to get 1 more for Justin. Figured I'd wait around outside until the end of the signing to purchase another one, if any were left.

While standing in line I got to catch up with Brandi (serial nerd) and Travis, who were just recently engaged. Finally met Hilda (hch05) and Corey as I was coming out from the store. We seem to always miss each other at these signings. Talked a bit with Eric while standing outside too. He and I were amazed at how many young kids were there.

The turn out was really great. Signing ended at just the right time too... it started to rain.

Street Food, Adventure and Tigers

Had a busy schedule planned for myself for the President's Weekend. Plus, no thanks to the economy and corporate office, a non-paid and forced day off on Monday (1 0f 5 this year). There was the L.A. Street Food Fest and GR2 Year of the Tiger Opening on Saturday, then the Travel and Adventure Show on Saturday and Sunday.

I originally planned on going to the Travel and Adventure Show on Saturday, after the L.A. Street Food Fest. But changed my mind when I got to the Convention Center around 1pm. Decided to head to the Food Fest instead. I had been hearing about this for the past few months and really wanted to try some of the food trucks that were going to be there. Parked my car and walked to the area where the Food fest was being held. Which was about a mile from where I parked. I didn't mind since I was getting myself back into a walking workout routine. Really did not expect what I saw when I got there... the line for this thing was super long. It went zig-zagging around the block and into the parking lot nearby. Stood in line around 1:30pm. By 3pm we were being told that the trucks were running out of food and the lines to get the food was an hour wait. Everyone started to leave and I bailed as well. That was a total bust...

On my way back to my car, I passed by the Nokia Plaza. Saw that they had set some stuff up and a small crowd was around there. Found out that Justin Bieber was going to be performing there around 7pm. I had to get something to eat, so I just kept on walking to my car. Needed to do a few things and changed my plans on going to the GR2 Year of the Tiger Opening in the evening.

Sunday I went to the Travel and Adventure Show. Was pretty surprised at how many people were there in attendance and what they had there. There was a rock climbing wall, cowboy roping, zip line and mini scuba pool. Seeing some of the scuba diving exhibitors there got me thinking about getting back into it again. Although I am a certified advanced open water diver, but I haven't gone in about 8 years. Plus I don't have a lot of dives under me. After talking to some of them, I would definitely need to take a refresher course. There was a lot of places I would love to check out... Easter, Cook and Galapagos Islands would be nice. Revisit Yosemite. Japan would be my ultimate trip right now. Always thought about going there. Well, now I have all the materials to research them all. Not sure if I'll ever get to any of these places anytime soon...












Just stopped in for a quick moment to take a look at the pieces at the Year of the Tiger exhibit at GR2. Took a few pics while I was there. Didn't stay too long, since I was a little tired from everything and need to relax a bit. There were a few that were really cool and amazing to see in person. Maybe I'll go back again this coming weekend if I don't head down to Long Beach Convention Center for the one-day Comic Event.

GR2 Post-It 4 Show

GR2 had the opening of the Post-It 4 show on Saturday. Heard there were something like 1300+ pieces submitted by 150+ artists. My camera's battery was dead so I had to take pics with my iPhone, which isn't that great. GR2 pre-show pics here and here. Pieces were priced from $5 to $40 for single post-its and $40-$300 for post-its made up of multiple pieces. This was a great chance to get a piece of original art from an artist at a really great, inexpensive price. All are "cash and carry." So once you bought it, it comes off the wall and you take it home right away. You could only purchase one item from each artist, since some only submitted one and others may have submitted more than one.

I got there about 5:30pm and there was a handful of people already there. At this point you could really get up close to the wall and see the artwork... that would change in the next half-hour at opening. Once Michelle put the sign up sheet out to purchase art a little before 6pm, a line formed quickly. I was last on the first page of the list.

The place got packed really quickly and you could hardly move or get close to the wall to take a good look at the post-its. Michelle started calling names from the sign up list and pieces started coming off the walls. It took people a while to get their pieces because some were still looking and making their decisions right then. Pieces are coded on the back. Unless you know the artists' work or they signed their piece, it could be difficult finding something you wanted. It took about an hour until my name was called.

This was such a great show! Even after I left, about 8pm, there was still a huge crowd there waiting for their chance to make a purchase. I got a David Horvath, Sun-Min Kim, Mina Horvath, APAK, Saelee Oh, Gary Baseman and Le Merde. I got all the ones I wanted to get, although the Baseman one was my second choice. First choice was a post-it with his Toby character in it. I went back the next day and there are still a lot of great pieces left. All of David's were gone. There were a couple of Sun-Min's and Mina's still available. I think I got pics of all of their pieces here.