3 Feet High picts

Here are some picts from the 3 feet High opening. It was a great night in Hoboken and thanks to everyone who came out. This years artists included: joe andriola, barrett benica, john breiner, andrea breitman, david cooper, kelly denato, wylie fisher,bianca franco, thom glick, david heiss, herm life, tom hudson, dean landry, adam levine, conor o'kelly lynch, richard mather, christopher mostyn, brian musikoff, lynda nettleship, vincent nguyen, lysa opfer, jackie post, rob powers, lauren rucci, sean salmon, tim shankweiler, lea simone, justin simonich, frank summers, kate sutton, stacy swane, stephanie swane, josh taylor, thinkmule, chris timmons, john ward, john lytle wilson, jene yeo, aaron zisman, and more!

3rd annual "3 feet high" skatedeck show

Here is my board for the 3rd annual "3 feet high" skatedeck show. The show opens in Hoboken at Maxwell’s Bar and Restaurant on June 23rd, so come out and play with us! Shenanigans begin at 7pm and usually last untill 10pm. Skate decks from past shows can be seen at http://3feethigh.kneehigh.net/

Kung Fu Panda

I went to an advance preview of Kung Fu Panda last night at the IMAX theatre here in Manhattan courtesy of ASIFA East and DreamWorks. I am happy to say that it was the best animated effort put forth by DreamWorks in a long time. The film was well written, looked great, and the animation was well done. DreamWorks stayed away from the trap that they always seem to fall into by avoiding all the pop culture references which usually dates their films instantly. This film has a real story as well. The voices in the film didn’t distract from the characters either; I had to watch the credits to see who voiced many of the characters. Coming from the perspective of an animator, I feel that the character comes first and then you find a voice that suits that character, not the other way around. So often in the big budget films I feel as though they cast the actors, then build the character around them. I hate it when I see a film and I’m distracted by the actor they chose to portray a character. All that being said, Jack Black was the perfect choice for the Panda (Po). So much of his energy and wit was carried through to the final product. I think this is the first ‘classic’ that DreamWorks has put out there. Whether you’re an adult or a kid, if you like martial arts films, laughter, and a cute story, go see Kung Fu Panda.

Configurations

Last week I attended the opening of Pat Smith’s first solo show in SoHo at the CVZ Contemporary Gallery. Pat and I met way back in college in Massachusetts and the idea of having our own show in NYC was just a dream at that time. One of the best classes we took together was Jerry Kearns “NYC Pop”. In that class we would visit working artists in their studios in NYC and were able to see first hand what it took to make it here. The biggest thing I took away from the class was that no two stories were the same, and there was no one way to make it. Some people survived on grants, others did commissioned works to survive, while still others would simply follow their own vision and things would happen for them. Pat is one of the latter people. He has had a distinct style of his own since the very early days. His latest work is yet another example of this. From the instant you see one of Pat’s films, to any of his paintings in the gallery, the work couldn’t be anyone else’s. Pat is one of the hardest working people I know and he does what only he can.

If you are around the Gallery at any time stop in and see it. The show “Configurations” is up through Oct 16th and Pat’s work can always be seen at www.patsmith.com. On Pat’s blog you can see a great time lapse clip of him painting one of the pieces for the show. Congratulations on the show.

Art O Mat

I saw one of there machines years ago when up in Northampton, Ma and thought they were very cool. Art-o-mat machines are retired cigarette vending machines that have been converted to vend art. There are 82 active machines in various locations throughout the country. There are around 400 contributing artists from 10 different countries currently involved in the Art*o*mat project. In the next few weeks I am going to submit some artwork to them and see if I can get my work in some of their machines. To find out more info for yourself about the machines go to www.artomat.org.

I came across this video when I was surfing around on youtube after I posted my last one, Button Boy. It was the second film I did there. I thought I would link it to my blog as well.

I recently posted one of the first ever films I made on youtube. Enjoy!!