ITS ALMOST TIME

I cant express how anxious I am to release the jewelry project I have been working on for the past two years. What started off as a joke has flourished into a year long journey of plans and perfceting every detail. I want to say thank you to all the people who have joined my mailing list and have expressed your interest for the earrings encourging me to make this happen. I just wrapped up a meeting with Adam and Yvonne (NewFactory) to lock in the packiging for the jewelry so please stay tuned and I will let all of you know first by newsletter when they will be for sale to the public. Please help spread the word and I will keep my other end of the deal by creating more. 

FUNKY EXPEDITION

Here is a reminder to all of you out of towners (like myself) that would like to make it to an awesome show in Los Angeles.  I will be participating in a group show curated by Dabs & Myla at Thinkspace gallery on September 1st. Showing along side of this show will be Sergio Hernandez (Surge) in the project room. Stay tuned for more info! Click here for a nice treat.

AS PROMISED

Here are the photos from the Agenda show.  With public painting comes public interaction and one of my highlights at Agenda was meeting Christian Hosoi one of the first heroes I had as a child. I was also fortunate enough to show along side Mike Miller and Chaz Bojorquez . Thank you to Daniel (Flex Fit) for providing the photos. 

ON THE AGENDA

Well thanks to Jeff Hamada (first pic) I had no time to rest this past weekend. As soon as I stepped off my plane ride back from Hawaii, eight hours later I had to hop another plane and take off to Long Beach for this years Agenda trade show. I was invited to paint (sorry no pics I will try and get some) by Jeff who art directed both shows for Flex Fits (Base Camp project) in NY and LA. It was great to meet the owners of many great brands (especially Andy and Daniel of Flex Fit) and hearing stories about how they all started. I have to say THANK YOU to Luis and Brandon for getting us into the Futura X Hennessey party (I hated you guys in the morning but it was well worth it) and the US Open Surfing Olympics. I am now back at home and getting rest til I head back for my show at Thinkspace Gallery which is all about travel I will post info in the next few days. 

WHY HI?

Becuase so far I have.......

found this,

tripped out on this,

painted this,

caught this,

played with this,

walked along this,

thought about drinking this,

and almost picked this.

BACK ON DA ISLAND

Its official Honolulu is the place that I have repeatedly visited the most out of all of the places I have traveled to.  I was laughing because 3 years ago Hawaii was the last place I ever wanted to travel to because I just pictured a bunch of old tourist and figured I can do that when I get older. I know have a network of extended family and friends here and on the top of the list is (my half Chinese half amazing braddah) Jasper Wong.

Jasper is from Hawaii and before meeting him in San Francisco back in 03' Honolulu was Jaspers home. I remember having conversations with him before he made the move out to Hong Kong about how he wanted to moving back home and do his art.  He had no idea how he was going to make it back to Hawaii but it was a dream that he had and if you know Jasper this dude goes beyond achieving his dreams. Im proud of this guy within less than a year back he has managed to create one of the most amazing group shown in the world "Pow Wow Hawaii", made the top 40 under 40 business people award, guest speaker a TED, and still manages time to create awesome artwork. Hats off my braddah, amigo, dude, friend, homie, hero Jasper. 

Well I have a few projects lined up while Im out here so I better get on the ball. 

FIN EAT OH!

This weekend I will be participating in a group show here in San Francisco at Spoke Art Gallery. The show curated by Tre of PangeaSeed is  titled "The Great Migration" which actually kicked off two weeks ago in Seattle making its way throughout California. PangeaSeed is an international grasroots effort founded in Tokyo, Japan dedicated to educating and raising awareness for the global plight of sharks. Through volunteer activism and the various mediums of art, music and photography, PangeaSeed aims to create an open dialog with the global community to develop an understanding of the need to preserve and protect sharks and their habitat. There are many great artists in this show and Im very lucky to be included. Please help spread the word as this show and if for some reason you are unable to attend the SF show maybe you can check out one of the other shows that will be traveling around the globe. 

HANDS FULL

Well once again I find myself in front of a computer reminding Aaron to 'stay on the ball and write MORE'.  The truth is that last week was my detach from everything week and hang out tough with my Nieces and Nephews. For the past two years I have watched these kids (all five of them) for a week and show them around San Francisco. Being they're all from Fresno I want them to see as much as possible and let them know that there is even more out there then what I am able to show them. Growing up in Fresno I spent most of my summers their age running around town with my friends (sneaking into apartment swimming pools and stealing from corner stores were the good things we did) without an adult in sight. I was considered brave to move out of Fresno and make a new home, hopefully all of these kids will call another country home on day even if its just for a summer. I guess I have grown up a bit since then, but still finding time to be a kid is always important to me. 

PUBLIC ABSTRACTIONS

The Huffington Post just posted an article from Jaime Rojo & Steven Harrington from brooklynstreetart.com which I consider a pretty interesting on abstract artwork (influenced by geometric shapres) in the public setting.  This article doesn't exactly explain what it is that we are doing but paying attention to the fact that there is a collective of like minded artists doing it at the same time. If you have time check it out HERE or you can click on the image below.

photo © Jaime Rojo

MAD VS. CANCER

I was recently contacted by Dan from 2 one 5 Creative and Living Proof Magazine to see if I would be willing to participate in a fundraiser for a dear friend of his suffering from cancer. I don't know MAD personally but have friends who do and was more then willing to jump on board. My prayers go out to his family and friends as I know how serious it is to deal with cancer (a close family member of mine had breast cancer).  If you are in the market of adding to your collection of art or want to find out more about this fundraiser and donate you can do so HERE.  There are many other artists who are helping out as well so please take a look at least. Please help spread the word and if you are over 25 get a physical I know it sounds odd but I have friends in perfect health that come down with the strangest illnesses and it could have possibly been prevented if they checked beforehand.