p.r. burgerson

meet p.r. burgerson! 

this is a customized kidrobot bub toy that i made for my dad for christmas.  i'm going to turn everyone i know into a toy collector if it kills me! i ran with the idea from my runts figure with the food stuffed in the mouth. my dad is the kind of guy who loves to eat and watch tv... and those are pretty much the only hobbies i've seen him enjoy. so this is the perfect piece for him. this was a really fun character to make.

golden pig

here is the finished GOLDEN PIG trophy i made for the flame-off glass blowing competition. see the completed competing pieces and vote for the winner here. i had no doubt i could make an awesome greedy pig, complete with pure gold accessories and golden highlights. i got together with glass blower jason harris at hotsand to create the base. not actually knowing anything about glass blowing or what could be done with the medium, i was caught offguard when i was asked to design the base.  the outcome was pretty, but not quite what i envisioned, so i got a little worried when i had to turn it into a trophy. i almost didn't even use it, but i'm glad i did (with some extra additions) since i was a part of it's creation and i think it means more as a trophy for a glass blowing competition. i hope and i think i worked it out well and had a great outcome.

(it looks better in person. but i guess, doesn't it always?)

some photos of our glassblowing session at hot sand with jason harris.  brainstorming:

the original platform of the pig, before i got my hands on it:

about to start blowing some glass:

photo of the trophy at the actual event, with some awesome glass blowing going on.

thanks again to jason harris and lava rubber!

next up will be photos of the event's afterparty, where i did a live painting battle against 2 other very talented artists! and won :)

golden pig preview

sneak peek of the GODLEN PIG TROPHY for the winner of the flame-off glass blowing competition at the C.K 2011 wholesale expo. i'll post the full trophy later on (complete with a glass blown base and photos of my first wonderfully awkward experience blowing glass). i was super excited to have the opportunity to create the trophy (thanks to jason harris and mike at lava rubber!)

i'll be doing some live painting at the event afterparty, also battling against 2 other painters. my first

live painting..

banky: an amanda visell tribute

a few months ago, we had a yard sale at my parents' house to get rid of a bunch of junk that would have never otherwise seen the light of day again.  i ended up looking through our own sale and picking out stuff to keep for myself. again.  i'm a junk collector. i found my old piggy bank that i painted when i was younger. we used to go to "jean's ceramics" near my house all the time to pick out and paint.ceramics. it used to be one of my favorite things to do and i wish it was still there so i could pretend i had nothing better to do but paint cliche cutesy ceramics. i still remember the little room of tables where they had classes/demonstrations and how nervewrecking it was to walk around with fear of knocking into and breaking every last delicate piece in the narrow aisles. i miss it.

this was the piggy bank that i painted at who knows what age. i decided to grab it from our garage sale, give him some kaotic kritter eyes, and start legitimately using him as a real bank. i painted banky orange to match our kitchen and now he sits happily on our microwave waiting for me to feed him lots of spare change (even though i rarely have any.)

before anyone thinks i'm super awesome and creative, i must confess that the belly with the coins in it isn't an original idea. banky is a complete rip off (or should i say "tribute") to my favorite toy-designer, amanda visell. much of amanda visell's artwork (mostly figures) has characters with the silhouette of a belly, as shown above, with some sort of character or object inside of it.  i thought it would be funny and cute to have a tummy full of coins on my piggy bank-- and figured my banky is for my own personal use, something i'll never redo for another so no harm done. she gets too much business from me anyway, i spend way too much on her figures.

and now that you are aware of her (if you weren't already), you can go look up and admire amanda visell's work and love her as much as i do.

happy father's day!

remember for mother's day i made my momma a drawing of some elephants?  i felt it was appropriate to show my dad the same gratitude for being my pops, by drawing this for him.  those of you who know my family know my dad doesn't stop eating. ever. it's a wonder he's not 600 pounds. when i say he's constantly eating, i am not exaggerating. those of you who know us, also know my sisters and i are pigs who also don't know how to stop and breathe when there is food in front of us, especially the not-so-healthy bad junk (aka the good stuff). 

so here's daddy with his 3 little piggies. papabear who loves to stink up the house with those vile burritos, nicole the fattest (meaning oldest) piggie eating chocolate who spazzes out about how many calories are in my mom's dinner but searches endlessly for chocolate immediately afterwards, dl the middle sized piggie eating veggies since she actually tries to eat healthy, and i'm the piggie on top eating popsicles and ice cream since we can't have a box of popsicles in my house for more than 2 days as long as i'm around. 

this will be a painting one day also.