There's a Giant Robot in My Yard

Stage 1

Stage 2

The robot Halloween decoration was a success. In spite of being destroyed by two rain storms. I kept at it and finished it with just a day to spare. This was not going to happen if  it wasn't for my daughter who said:  "Daddy, why don't you just build it in the shed." I said because it wouldn't fit–lo and behold, with just a little bit of sawing of the neck, It fit perfectly and I was able to work without worrying about the rain destroying it again. Sure enough it did rain a lot.  This is the reason I did not want to work with paper s maché. If I did that, you need at least 3 sunny days to generate enough heat to dry that stuff. The cardboard boxes were easy to work with and thanks to a staple gun, I was able to keep things in place pretty well. For some stuff, I used duct tape but sparingly. I knew once it rained, that would  be the first thing to fall off. I got a window of sunshine at one point and it was the perfect time to paint the thing. It took two cans of silver to cover it. I'm sure my lungs will collapse from all of the poisons fumes I inhaled.

 I moved it to the front yard and wired it down to keep it from killing someone if it fell. The final size for the robot was around 9 feet tall. I designed it specially to not interrupt the power lines in the front. I added two  'spider bots' One on the garage and the other a destroyed version with lights wires and strobe lights. The neighbors loved it and many cars slowed down and apparently people posed with it. It's nice to make your neighborhood special for at least one day. It's hard to compete for interesting things when you live next to Berkeley and San Francisco.As expected, lots of people showed up but not until later because of –you guessed it, more rain. i was so glad because I bought a LOT of candy.

Final Stage

 I'm already thinking of next year. Giant Spider Bot? Witches around a cauldron? Who knows, I'm sure it will come to me next August.


That's all,
A

Gundam Style

It's that time of year again where I design an eye-catching Halloween decoration. This year, it was between a robot battle, witches or zombies. Since everyone is doing zombies, I decided to go with robots. Not just any robots but I want to put a really large Japanese anime style robot on the lawn because I figure, no one would do that one. I could do one that was old school like those clunky monster kind: but it would just take too many curves and it would have to be metallic which would take lots of toxic spray paint.  I want this thing to be as recyclable as possible so that I can get rid of it after Halloween without worrying that a peace of art I made is now killing baby seals or something.


 Me,  serving as Mr. Scale for stage one.

I like this style as the ones used in the anime,  Total Eclipse

So, going with the more squared off modern version, I want to make something that looks deadly and could actually fly if need be. Perhaps not as bonky as a Gundam style robot: Maybe a Macross style or  a Gundam/Macross hybrid. So far, I've created the armature. It was surprisingly cheap to build (around $12). As for the skin, I'm going with pure cardboard boxes cut up and rearranged. I usually work with paper mache so this is a new medium for me and one that hopefully, will be easier to work with. I decided to make the robot not too tall because if it were too high, it would touch our telephone lines in from of the house, and I'm afraid of it falling over during a rain storm. I want to make sure that it will survive high winds because at this time of year, the wind and rain start up and I remember the hell it caused my other two lawn sculptures. As you can see by my pics, it's around 10 feet tall, Big enough to be menacing. When I'm done, if I have time, I'm also going to make some bad-guy spider bots attacking the house. But, I'm not going to promise you anything.

Gundam Style!

That's all for now, A

Success!

My film got accepted into the  Oakland Underground Film Festival! I was put on the shorts program on October the 30th. It was a Blast! I got to see some really talented local filmmakers and heard some inspiring words of encouragement. I'm very Jazzed to start some new projects and finish the ones I've started.

• My list of things to do:
• Make more hats, aprons and dolls for the Richmond Art Center Holiday Arts fair.
• Finish my Sci-Fi novel by 2013 (I'm on page 245) and get it published
• Get back to work on my FARM movie
• Start to work of the Halloween decorations for my yard:
• Finish my 2D animated short:  Catholics on the Moon:

Thanks to my Success in getting my film in the Festival, I feel I'll be able to complete any of these  task as part of THE BIG PUSH!

TAFN (That's all For Now)
Alex

Christmas Art Show

I signed up to be in the Holiday Art Fare at the Richmond Art Center. This is kind of a big deal for me because it will be the first time in a while that I'll be selling my artwork out in the opening at my own table. A couple of hats sold on the Etsy site which is a little encouraging but I really want to get some traffic going. The Vampire Box
got the most hits with 639 views making it the most interesting thing on the site. Hopefully I can move it out by Halloween. I think for the Christmas Show, I should really push the dolls and hats. This means I have to increase my inventory by at least 3 more dolls and 10 more hats. Time to hit the fabric store!

I submitted this film into the Oakland Underground Film Festival but I've haven't heard back from them in any form. Oh well, move on, nothing to see here.


I always have a good feeling about my art even when it's not finically sucessfull. It's makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something when I try to get it out in the opening. Like having a child, raising it and sending it off into the world, hoping that society sees it as wonderful as you do.

That's all, A

Streaking Across the Desert in a Rocket Car.

So far the "Big Push" has been a personal success. I managed to open the Etsy store and sold two hats already! I also created a bunch of dolls and put them on the site and I built a unique kit for battling vampires which got like over 100 views in only a couple of days!

I think the best feeling for any artist is keeping busy even if what you create isn't any kind of financial success it still feels good that you actually followed through  with your projects and got them out of your brain. Whenever an idea pops into your head it's almost like a virus that spreads around and takes over your thoughts and the only way you can get this thing out of your body is to create it. The more you procrastinate, the worst it gets until you get obsessed or depressed about it.

I've also had to spread my social wings and joined countless social media groups in order to promote my stuff:
You can find me here on:

 Twiter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Etsy, Google+, YouTube, SoundCloud and  Cafe Press .

That's another thing about art. In order to be a success, you have to open yourself up socially which is one of the scariest things, even for non-artist. It' s like a process of un-learning.

My goal so far is to keep going forward and never look back no matter if this all crashes and burns, at least I was in a rocket car streaking across the salt flats at 300 MPH when it happened.

That's all, Alex

THE BIG PUSH!

I'm trying to really step up the game and  start getting some notoriety for my art projects. I'm synchronizing a lot of projects and creating what I call The Big Push. The Big Push's goal will be simply to sell  my artwork and get some recognition, connections and hopefully some added income.

Step one of The Big Push was the creation of the Etsy store which will be the front lines of selling anything that I create which can be sent through the mail.

POW BOOM ZAP on my Etsy site

Paintings as well as squid-like hats which I call H@ts  and eventually dolls will be displayed here for sale.









This is the first commercial on youTube for the hats which links to the shop as well:

I'm also creating a series of business cards and post cards trough: Moo to once again draw all eyes to the shop.

If all goes well. I should be in a good position expand into even more areas including publishing and T-shirt printing. But first, baby steps.

My line of hats or H@ts. Coming soon.

That's all, Alex