Faile's "Stories of Love in Key Foods"

The purchase that finally broke the bank. I have sworn not to buy any more artworks and I mean it this time...

I am relatively new to the Failemania and was lucky enough to win the Q for this print. It is HUGE at 45 x 34.5 inches!! My oh my how am I going to frame this monster??

But I fell in love the moment I unrolled the Key Foods on my table. The amount of work, the deep colours (ok, my camera phone sucked at capturing colours) and the way the girl is staring at me made me a happy happy owner of this massive piece of art.

Now, I have to save up for another 6 months to be able to afford the frame... as well as to buy a big enough apartment to house this beautiful monster.

Happy happy!

Miss Bugs Dumbo print

Just received the Dumbo print by Miss Bugs and I love it! The silver ink on black background is pretty cool and you can see the reflective effect from the photo.

My first Miss Bugs print and definitely not my last. :-)

"CNY Und Erotik" by BAST

I have never realised how big the Und Erotik print is till we have it displayed flat at the framer.

This is the biggest piece of artwork I have ever own. And the framer is charging me ridiculous price for the custom frame (which I paid anyway, with a grunt of disgust though).

And it is hard to discribe the beauty of this piece. The red on gold is beautiful, but it is the glitter that BAST have covered the Und Erotik with that makes the print sparkled under the lights of the framer shop.

A 1/1 piece and I can't wait to get it framed asap.

BAST (and a little bit of Faile)

Ever since Blaine Fontana declared that he will be taking a break from solo exhibitions in 2008, I thought that I can relax from artwork purchasing for a while.

As a fan of both Daniel Danger and Dave Kinsey, I am a regular reader of the thegiant.org forum (It is a forum that is primarily a Obey fan forum) where DD and Kinsey have their own artist threads. While scanning through the various artist threads, one particular artist caught my eyes.

BAST.

BAST is an artist that pasted his artworks on the streets of NYC. His art is so messy and sometimes dirty-looking that I guess some people might even find them ugly.

But somehow the weirdness and grittiness of his art appeal to me.

In Singapore, grafitti is banned and the police classify grafitti as vandalism and take a tough stance on "vandals". The last time a vandal was caught, not only was he given a prison sentence, he has to be caned. (Hence the famous "Singapore cane" that you might have heard about in the old ECW hardcore shows). Thus street art is something really interesting to a Singaporean like me who is not exposed to grafitti art. (though Juxtapoz has been slanting towards this art movement recently)

I find Banksy amusing (but too expensive), I find Obey nice (but nothing really special) and I am not even sure whether Kinsey is a street artist (I really like his prints regardless).

But I somehow really really like the insane images BAST are putting out.

So, I spent a few nights reading up on the guy and he has his fans at wallkandy (excellent forum), faile.co.uk and thegiant (and of course his haters at expressobeans lol). His bastny.com site is a joy to view (though I hate missing out on his late batch of print offerings in Jan since I only discovered him in Feb).

And I bought two of his prints.

Thug

Cash Baazar (this photo from expressobeans is actually the piece I bought 4/4)

And I have a special "Chinese New Year" Und Erotik coming.

Regular Und Erotik

A sneak preview of my CNY Und Erotik that is coming my way. (Supposed to be red on gold but it looked silvery in the photo)

The Cash Bazaar is a truly amazing piece. The multiple layering on the piece is crazy. Every corner you stare at you will discover some minor details you have never noticed before.

BAST original paintings are too expensive for me (and those beautiful ones are too big for my apartment) and so I have to focus on his prints. BAST will be having a show at Jonathan Levine Gallery later this year and I am looking forward to hopefully scoring a small OG or get my hands on any prints he might have!

I am worried about how this will affect the direction my collection is going. Because of BAST, I have started paying attention to Faile as well.

Faile is more popular than BAST. And I can understand the appeal of Faile. Anyone who has a love for comics will like Faile artworks.

I just have one print (no photo yet, waiting to go to framer) that I bought on impulse. My credit card is still suffering from my recklessness. :\

Bunny Boy Blue

Mine is as dirty as the one shown above and I love it! However I believe I will not be buying more Failes since their pricings have since rocketed thanks to those crazy rich Brits buying up their originals in the last few street art auctions.

I think I will concentrate on getting more BAST. :P

Artworks of Netherland (David van Aspen)

Recently stumbled upon a series of cool artworks by a mysterious artist named "Netherland" and fell in love with his retro-cool super-weird stuff. David van Aspen is the owner of DVA gallery and had created a series of resin pieces that reminded me of those pictures you would have seen in the 70's. I went crazy buying up his stuff but apparently there are other fans as well since some of the pieces I inquired about via emails with him or the galleries can be sold in between correspondence!

I will be keeping an eye on Netherland's new works.

From top to bottom: Dance II, Scoot, The Getaway, Evel's Last Stand, Gossip

"New Beginnings" by Andy Kehoe

Lab101 Gallery is closing and their last show was called "Happy Endings". Andy Kehoe contributed a piece "New Beginnings" which I found very meaningful given the title of the last show.

Apart from the significance of the piece, the main reason why I bought the piece is because I really like the little acorn creatures. I hope to see Kehoe integrate the acorn creatures into his future artworks.

"A Pound and A Bear Hug" by BASK and Tes One

Took some time to hang up this HUGE artwork by BASK. I absolutely love this painting. It is hard to see from the photos but I am impressed by the paint brushstrokes and layers of the different media. BASK painted the whole thing on a wooden table-top.

Definitely will be buying more of his paintings in the future.

"Hope Rests In Quiet Fields" by Andy Kehoe

I have told myself not to buy any more Andy Kehoe's stuff. Owning 2 paintings and 4 prints of his is enough.

But once I laid my eyes on his latest work at Thinkspace Gallery, I can't help myself.

Cool piece huh?

"Obstacle Movers" by Blaine Fontana

Blaine Fontana has a new giclee screen on wood called "Obstacle Movers" that I am trying to purchase. I like the glossy resin finish on the surface.

He also has 2 new prints called "Irregular Fauna #2" and "The Nestkeeper is Waiting". Time to add to my Fontana print collection. :)

"Move So Far" by Brendan Monroe

I have just received the "Caretaker" painting by Brendan Monroe and I have admit: this is the best, most beautiful piece of artwork I have ever seen and owned in my life.

It is hard to describe but the colours, the texture, the visual and even the frame added up to one masterpiece of a painting that I absolutely love. Now I am such a big Monroe fan, I am on a hunt to own more of his artworks.

I managed to secure the above work "Move so Far" by Brendan. Even though in terms of visual impact, this piece is not as impressive as the "Caretaker", the title as well as the image of a little fella moving his tree home on his back brought a smile to my face.

"Arturism" painting by Alex Pardee

Alright. Brendan Monroe's "Caretaker" painting will be displayed in my baby's room. This Alex Pardee's "Arturism" piece will NOT be displayed in my house at all.

I love Pardee's insane artworks. But I have this feeling my baby (and perhaps my wife) will freak out or get disturbed if they see his pieces.

Guess I will hang this piece in my office, since most of my colleagues are freaks anyway. It is like they have just stared into a mirror or something.

The painting is drawn by Alex Pardee, inspired by the book "Geek Love". I will check out the book this weekend.

"Caretaker" painting by Brendan Monroe

A painting by Brendan Monroe that was created for a show at Little Cake Gallery to benefit the NYC animal shelters. I am pleased to secure a piece from Mr Monroe (I have always love his alien symbiotes paintings) as well as contribute to taking care of animals.

Doktor A MAD*L Collection

I have been waiting for nearly a year for Doktor A, a talented artist and toy customizer, from the UK to produce my commission. Not only did I got my Headgear mad*l from him, I were fortunate enough to score his Rapture mad*l from an auction and received his Stitches mad*l as a gift.

Really love Doktor A's works. His customs are the gems of my mad*l collection.

My Blaine Fontana Mini-Gallery

I am proud and happy to have done up my "mini-gallery" of paintings from my favourite artist Blaine Fontana. "The Science of Retirement", "Pieces of 9" and "Zealous" pieces look beautiful displayed beside each other.

After completing this set-up, it is time to start working on my opposite wall for another Blaine Fontana set-up. Hope to get some beautiful pieces from his upcoming show.

"Wooden Warrior" MAD*L by Motorbot

My Framed Andy Kehoe's Prints

Got back my framed Andy Kehoe's prints and I am thrilled. I have choosen the frame that complemented very well with the designs and colours of Kehoe's artworks, methink.

The only issue is I have ran out of wallspace for my stuff. :(

I met Nekonoko in Tokyo!

I was shopping in Fewmany store in Tokyo over the weekend and bought a couple of Kaiju For Grown Ups and Touma toys.

While paying for the stuff, I spied a couple of custom Nekonoko toys on display. There were 2 girls at the Fewmany counter and I told them I wanted to buy one of the customs.

I had no idea why the girls started giggling and conversing in Japanese. I asked them what is so funny and one of the girls pointed at the other and said "She's Nekonoko."

I was delighted and told her that her toys are cute. I bought 2 more of her toys and asked her whether she could sign them. Not only did she signed them, she scribbled some drawings on them as well.

Nekonoko is a very nice person (shy though). I asked for a photo and she obliged. After that she even gave me one of her prints for free.

Now I am a big fan of Nekonoko :D

"Pieces of 9" by Blaine Fontana

This is the reason why Blaine Fontana is my favourite artist. My Buddha, how can anyone deny that the man is talented???

I was lucky enough to purchase Pieces of 9 from the Limited Addiction Gallery Opening Show. David, the gallery owner, was kind enough to give me first purchase right for this Fontana painting after I whined non-stop about missing out on the Audrey Kawasaki paintings. ;P

And to be honest, I am glad that I missed out on the Kawasaki. This is much much more beautiful.

My current favourite artwork. I love it!!!

"Zealous" painting by Blaine Fontana from the “Taxonomy Animalia” show

My favourite artist, Blaine Fontana, has a show at the Limited Addiction gallery called the "Taxonomy Animalia" show and I must admit: his latest works must be the best and the strongest collection of artworks he has ever done.

I love his paintings so much that I wish that I am uber-rich and can afford to buy as many paintings as possible.

In the end, I have to limit myself to a single piece (at a acceptable size since my apartment is small) and I chose the "Zealous" painting.

The painting, literally, screams out at me. Somehow I find a screaming zebra amusing and I am digging the "street-styled" design Blaine has integrated into the background.

Can't wait for it to drop into Singapore.

"Yume No Ato" print by Audrey Kawasaki

Yume No Ato

giclee print on archival paper
11"x13" on a 13"x16" sheet
signed and numbered
limited edition of 100

Saw the print went up for sale on Audrey Kawasaki's website and I immediately ordered one. The print sold out in a day's time! With a print run of 100, I was very surprised at how fast this piece sold. But I guess everyone is as mesmerized by the beautiful girl in the "Yume No Ato" piece drawn by the red-hot Audrey-san as I was. Personally I thought that "Yume No Ato" was the best painting at the "Four Dreams" show at Compound Gallery earlier this January.

I'm glad it was made into a print... and I got my hands on one :)

"Cluster" print by Joe Ledbetter

The "Cluster" print by the ultra-popular Joe Ledbetter was listed on the Kidrobot online store without any major announcement. I was lucky enough to stumble across the sale on a thread in the Kidrobot discussion forum and spent an hour thinking whether I should buy the print. (I am not a big fan of Ledbetter, even though I own one of his paintings, one of his prints and a couple of his toys)

The print was listed without any details about the run edition or dimensions, which added to my hesitation. Kidrobot's practice is to list the new products first and fill in the details later. This time I took a chance to purchase the US$79.95 print, and thankfully I did because I bought the last piece! :D

The print is SOLD OUT now in kidrobot store. Hopefully everything went well with my credit card and I don't receive a refund email from them.

I am leaning towards keeping the "Cluster" print. It is rare to own a piece of art from Joe Ledbetter that compises all of his popular characters like Mr Bunny, Firecat, Teeter and Ringo the bear. It even has the Monkey with the attitude. :)

"The Immoderates" print by Shag

Framed my first Shag print "The Immoderates" and now this baby is hanging on the wall of my living room.

I was not aware that Shag prints are so big in sizes and this particular framing costed me a bomb. I still have 2 more Shag prints that I am going to frame when I have saved up a bit more money :P

I can't stop staring at this artwork. I believe only the ultra-rich have properties that are so humongous that they need to communicate with their family members under the same roof via their phones and cellphones.

“The Clovervine Slumber” Print by Amy Sol

The latest print from the beautiful Amy Sol is out on her site (amysol.com). I was unfortunate enough to miss out on her first 2 prints and am happy to secure the “The Clovervine Slumber” print.

Cute, isn't it? :)

MAD*L Artworks from Jeremy Madl (MAD)

Pressure

Ascend

Speak Out

Overpowered
Since I am a big big fan of the MAD*L toys, I was fortunate enough to be able to secure 4 MAD*L drawings from MAD himself. I dig the titles too: "Pressure", "Speak Out", Ascend" and "Overpowered".

Somehow the images reflected my life in the corporate world where there are always pressure and back-stabbing involved when one needs to "ascend" in the corporate ladder to survive.

Love MAD's mad*l toys and artworks and I am very pleased to be able to add to my MAD collection.

Blaine Fontana Fankit Ink Drawing

Today is a great day for me. My framer called me and told me that my framed drawing from Blaine Fontana was ready. I am stroked when I got the framed piece.

Basically I asked the framer to float the drawing within 3 acrylic pieces in order for me to check out Mr Fontana's signature on the back when I want to. The frame costed me a bomb, but I am pretty happy with the final piece.

The ink drawing portrays the floating heads of the "templings", creatures from the nature that Blaine often drew in his paintings. I loved this drawing when I saw a collector posted the picture on a forum and offered to buy the fankit off him.

Blaine Fontana is offering the fankit where you can get his book, his print, some buttons and postcards plus an original ink drawing that he will make uniquely for every fankit ordered. At a price of US$300, I think it is a steal for such beautiful set.

Blaine Fontana "The Science of Retirement"

Look what I received today, my first painting from Blaine Fontana called "The Science of Retirement" from his "The Hunted" show at The Lab101 Gallery. I am very happy about my first purchase of Mr Fontana's piece since the details and printing on the painting is amazing.

This is a close-up of the puffer fish. The moment I saw the "Retirement" piece, I know I wanted it. Something about hunters shooting a puffer fish with rifles make me smile.

After the Rain by Lou Pimentel

Lou Pimentel is one of my favourite artists and one of my favourite toy customizer. He was kind enough to sign the "After the Rain" print and sent it over to me.

This beautiful print will complement the Cherry Geisha madl he did for me. Now to get this baby framed :D

"I Asked For Scambled" by Luke Chueh

Just hung up my first ever framed print in my apartment. Man, I love Luke Chueh's art since there is always an element of irony in his paintings.

Looking forward to sending some of my unframed prints to the framer. The only issue I have is where the hell I am going to hang the rest of them? :D

My Messy Desktop

Nothing much to update as I am slowly moving away from toys to prints and paintings. I have made a decision that in 2007, I will concentrate on MAD and Kaws toys as well as custom pieces unless there are awesome toys that may tickle my fancy (perhaps the Kozik Lenin bust?)
It has reached a stage where I am burnt out by the toy stuff that has been produced recently. I have not seen a new sculpt that makes me go "wow" for quite a while.

Plus the fact that I am running out of space to display my toys, I think that it is time to decorate my walls instead. If only I can get my arse out of my chair to frame some of the prints that I got.

Updated all my MAD*L collection

Managed to add all the photos of my MAD*L toys collection onto my "Collection" page.

Please feel free to browse through them :)

MAD*L is a toy designed by the very talented MAD and it is one of my favourite toy for customization.

Shown here is my Kathie Olivas custom MAD*L.

Big Money MAD*L

I love the Big Money designs by Jeremy Madl (MAD from Madtoydesign).

Somehow the symbol and concept of "Big Money" recprociate my own personal ambitions and goal for myself in corporate life.

Money is not the most important thng in the world, but unfortunately I need it to buy more toys (whch is the most important thing in the world).

Big Money, where art thou?

My MAD*L collection

Phew... after collecting for months I am happy that I have compiled all the photos of my mad*ls. Just posted the photos on the kidrobot forum. The story I posted is as followed:

"Greetings all, it's me again

With my kaws, Touma & kaiju photos out of the way, I will like to share with you my favourite toy collection: the MAD*Ls.

History: I started out with 2 hobbies: MTG and WOW. (if you do not know what these are, you don't wanna know) All my spare time was spent on them and I have never thought of having a new hobby. It was one fateful day that I was so bored in the airport, awaiting for my flight to London, that I bought a newly launched local magazine called PlayTimes from the airport bookshop.

My life changed from there on and I have given up MTG and WOW.

My first ever vinyl toy is the Tower Records MAD*L and it is that figure that started my hobby of collecting vinyl toys. To me, the shape of a MAD*L is simple but yet beautiful. And the toy's canvas head has opened up opportunities for all sorts of design possibilities.

Without further ado, my proudest collection."

"I wanna thank all the artists who are willing to listen to my suggestions for their creations as well as those who are sick of my pestering for a piece of their beautiful art and wanna shoo me off by doing a custom to shut me up. Thank you!

P.S. Dok A, rc44 and motorbot (gingerbread?), where art thou? "

When time permits, I will update the photos of my collection in my own Collection page :)

The Black Kaws Dissected Companion

My mate from GoKitsch (Yo Carl) was kind enough to secure a Black Kaws Dissected Companion for me. I was reluctant to get this toy in the first place because my finance is tight. Now I have no regrets but tons of bills to pay. lol

The Black version is my favourite Dissected at the moment. The contrast between the black outer body and the neon coloured interiors is very distinctive. I am fortunate to get a piece with no glue marks or broken legs. I have read that some of the Dissecteds were very badly produced.

The line that started my kaws craze (The Dissected) is at last complete. I doubt I will go for a GID version if one comes out (same reason why I am not going for the GID Kaws kun).

Life is good. Time for me to relax and enjoy the beauty of my collection that Kaws has produced.

My Kaws Collection at Christmas 2006

Hiya, trying out blogger for my site to pass info about my toy collection. Sure beat trying to program my news on my main site every time.

Anyway, got my Kaws Christmas kun, Kaws Monotone Dissected Companion and the Medicom Kaws Wood bearbrick during the Christmas period. Good times for me but I think I can stop collecting kaws for a while. I am broke... at last.

You can see my collection here.