Chase No Face KidRobot Trikky

August 5, 2013

I just finished painting this KidRobot 7-inch "Trikky" vinyl figure. It's inspired by Chase No Face, one of my favorite internet-famous animals. Chase was featured on BoingBoing a couple of years ago when I was drawing lots of meme pets. I was fascinated by her story and created a quick portrait. While shopping for art supplies, I came across KidRobot's MUNNYWORLD figures and thought the "Trikky" charracter would make a great Chase No Face custom.

I use Holbein Acryla Gouache paints for most of my painted work and it works great on vinyl figures. I like the consistency of the paint, it thins easily with water, and it dries opaque very quickly. I use whatever brushes I have around, usually a small flat and a couple of round liners. In the past, I've masked off every detail of a custom figure to get really flat shapes, but that's just way too time consuming. This time, I just blocked everything in with a Col-Erase pencil right on the blank figure and started in with brush and paint. Here's a photo of the Trikky in the box and one mid-paint:

The vinyl figure is a one-of-a-kind item. I'm not sure if it's for sale just yet but I'll entertain offers. In the meantime, here are some other Chase related things that I've made.

"Chase No Face" by Olga Bell

My Art in Laughing Squid Quarterly

August 2, 2013

photo by Rusty Blazenhoff

I'm proud to announce that my "Tentacle Cluster" image was included with lots of other fun stuff in Laughing Squid's first Quarterly.co mailing. With Quarterly, people sign up for monthly gifts curated by their favorite websites and internet personalities. If you missed out on the mailing, you can get a "Tentacle Cluster" print directly from me here in the Store section of my site.

BONUS- Get 20% off any order in my store with the coupon code #LSQ01 at checkout.

BART ̶S̶t̶r̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶S̶a̶l̶e̶!̶ Strike Over Sale! 3 for $20!

July 3, 2013

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system is on strike! The good new is that from now until the BART strike ends, get all three of my "First Ride" 8.5x11" prints for $20 (+$5 shipping). Read more about the BART "First Ride" series on my Featured Projects page.

Goat-Bot Rickshaw Laptop Sleeve by Zazzle

June 7, 2013

Marketing powerhouse Manifold just sent me a nice Rickshaw Bagworks laptop sleeve featuring my paint-by-number Goat-Bot artwork. The artwork was originally created for Zazzle's booth at Maker Faire 2013 in San Mateo, California.

I'm totally going to use this sleeve thing. Thanks, Manifold

New Featured Project - KEPLER/SOMNIUM →

June 1, 2013

Description and progress photos....

Vines from Austria

May 31, 2013

I just got back to San Francisco from a month-long trip to Austria. There was art, meat, disco, beer, horses, and lederhosen! In addition to tons of photos, I managed to record some miniature video loops using the Vine app for iOS. Here are a few.

Maker Faire Art for Zazzle

May 21, 2013

My artwork was featured by Zazzle at their Maker Faire booth. Attendees were invited to finish paint-by-number artwork from Bay Area artists like me and Ben Walker. My artwork featured a robotic goat piloted by a real goat. Big thanks to Manifold for putting the whole thing together.

Buried Alive for Art and Experience

May 7, 2013

Art provocateurs Monochrom buried me and several other brave patrons as part of their 20th anniversary closing exhibition at MUSA gallery.

The exhibition featured several dioramas that recreate different happenings and events of historic importance to Monochrom. The casket is a recurring piece that has traveled the world, appearing at the sex and culture summit in San Francisco, "Arse Elecktronica". For that event, partners were allowed to be buried together. Monochrom co-founder Johannes Grenzfurthner explains that it's about recreating the sensationalism and mythos around the possibility of being buried alive. "It's an experience. Americans love experiences."

My Int'l Spy Name is "Jetlag Freelance"

April 25, 2013

Getting to work on some stuff after a 13+ hour trip to Vienna. This is my make-shift studio on my friend's kitchen counter.

Zehn and the Art of Anger, Austria-bound

April 22, 2013

Closing Night for monochrom's 20th Anniversary

On Saturday, May 27th I'll be attending the closing night of monochrom's 20th anniversary exhibition at MUSA in Vienna. I created a portrait of Johannes Grenzfurthner and Franz Ablinger, the founders of monochrom and it will be great to see the artwork in person at the gallery. Also, there will be a performance art piece in which I will be buried alive with other brave volunteers.

MUSA

Tue, Wed, Fri 11 am- 6 pm
Thur 11 am - 8 pm | Sat 11 am - 4 pm
Closed on Mon, Sun and holidays
Free entrance

"Zehn and the Art of Anger", 10-day Art Residency in Styria

From May 10th-20th, I'll be a visiting artist in the small village of Anger, Styria, smack-dab in the middle of Austria. This is the third installment of their KOMM.ST "New Art - Old Places", in which modern artists are invited to create works in an old-world setting. For my residency, I'll be creating a mural on bridge pilons at the entrance to the village. My concept is to pay tribute to pioneering astronomer/mathematician Johannes Kepler and his semi-fictional description of the Moon, "The Somnium". Kepler studied and taught in Styria at Graz in the late 1500s-early 1600s where he dreamed up his story of beings from the Moon that could be summoned to Earth and subsequently transport humans with them back to the lunar surface. His story, in manuscript form known as "Lunar Geography", is considered the first published science fiction and caused problems for Kepler throughout his life with the Church and a populace of superstitious witch-burning villagers.

KOMM.ST

Here are some of the sketches and plans for my mural in Anger. I'm excited to get started!

Carl Sagan best described the plight of Johannes Kepler in this segment from "Cosmos.