As far as I know, this was the first art walk of its kind for Echo Park. Our good friends Heather and Marc Mertens put this together. Got to visit some amazing studios, the most memorable being sculptor Peter Shire. You probably know his brother, Billy Shire of Soap Plant Wacko and his gallery here in LA.

Peter has been an Angeleno native, specifically Echo Park since childhood. His studio is massive, over 10,000 square feet, complete with every tool imaginable, sculptures all over the place, and a library of design books. Here is Peter Shire and his wife, Donna Shire.

We picked up some of these ceramic cups from Peter’s studio, each one splattered with rad colors, all one of a kind.

Also got to meet Ricky Kim of Evil Monito. We have corresponded via email years back, when Poketo first started in 2003. At the time, Ricky sent me his rad toy he created with AdFunture and we sent him some wallets. Crazy how it took 6 years to finally meet, super cool guy.

The Grill ‘Em All truck was out front. Probably the best looking truck and logo I’ve seen yet. They make burgers.

Mr. Marc Mertens, one of the brains behind the walk.

Visit Echo Park!

Our two month long show and pop up shop at Rare Device, San Francisco comes to an end this Sunday, January 31st. It officially ended yesterday, but, it will be up until Sunday, January 31st. If you are in SF and didn’t have a chance to check it out…. go, go, go!!! Nathalie Roland of Headphonerecord spent two long days making magic…. and it’s exactly that.

The video below is a sporadic time lapse of the installation, painting, and eventually pics from the awesome night. Thanks SF for being part of this!! By the way, the next show has another long time Poketo collaborator, Omar Lee!!

Eclectic Method takes anything, everything that is on a recorded medium and mashes and remixes to create a whole new form of art. They travel the world, producing killer sets by mixing snippets from movies, soundbites, beats, one note sounds–they mix and scratch all of these that are originally on dvd, cd, mp3s movies… seriously, whatever is recorded I’m sure is in their arsenal of sounds. Their site has video clips and tons of free audio mixtapes and remix downloads.

Check this one out, Eclectic Method gives a big shout to Wu-Tang Clan… mixing video interviews, sounds, and beats mashed together in a new way.

Eclectic Method - Wu Tang Clan Mixtape from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

Eclectic Method was just featured in a documentary, “Copyright Criminals”, presented by Independent Lens. “Copyright Criminals” is about the history of sampling, not only the creativity, but, also recent laws surrounding sample based music and its effects on making music. It was interesting to find out that important albums like early De La Soul, Tribe, and Beastie Boys could never be produced today because of the sheer cost of paying royalties on mere seconds of samples.

On a side note, I used to work for post production company that did all of the editing and packaging for Independent Lens. It was exciting to see something rad like this come out of that series.

Copyright Criminals Promo Video from Eclectic Method on Vimeo.

While going though my usual reading today, found a nice surprise that I wanted to share.

Dutch designer, Pepe Heykoop designed a series of chairs and furniture out of wooden bricks that are mostly used by children.

Not only Do I love the design but I love what inspired this creation. He was inspired to create this chair after looking at our friend and Poketo artist, James Gulliver Hancock’s work, namely the top left chair in this poster. It’s so much to fun to see his poster as a real life form. James, did you see this?

Can’t get enough of The XX. This record has been on the tables quite a bit lately at the studio. Their latest video, love it, so dreamy, just like their music.

Day by day, both tragedy and hope prevail in Haiti. Individually, we can all make a difference and we see the effects of that as people are rallying together text-tweet-donating million and millions of dollars to relief agencies. It’s not an easy task, there has been criticism of aid not getting to those in need. But, if we are not on the ground, how can we help? Give and get back, here are some ways we can stand together for Haiti. There are tons more ways. Please share!

TEXT “HAITI” to 90999 on your phone and it will be automatically be billed $10 which goes directly to American Red Cross. Easy.

At Music For Relief.org, you can donate and download special tracks by bands like Linkin Park, Peter Gabriel, Slash, Lupe Fiasco, and more.

Our friend Dustin Hostetler of Faesthetic is donating proceeds of sales up until the end of the month. A good time to get the special wallet we did with Faesthetic and give to relief efforts at the same time.

One of the artists to show at the Whitney Biennial, February 25 - May 30, Taurba Auerbach is one of my favorite artists. I want to share some of my favorite works.

Tauba Auerbach is interested in the verbal language and how it relates to the symbols that written language and the friction between the two. I always thought her work reminded me of a beautiful print design work. I want to share with you some of my favorite works.

Components, Numbers, 2006(left)
Components, In order, 2005(right)

OH NO, 2008
HA HA, 2008

F, (left) G, (Right)

K, I

R, V

Hooked up with Chris Bettig and Justin Van Hoy last night for a French meal at MercantileLA. First time there, not bad.

Good to catch up with them as they have a million things going on. Here in Los Angeles, Justin Van Hoy along with a few friends have pulled their resources together and are opening a gallery and a bit of a community, free for all kind of space in Highland Park called, This, Los Angeles. They will not only have regular art shows, but, Justin envisions the space as an everything and anything goes gallery–music, workshops, a resource for the community.

It’s just getting started and they are having their first Show on February 12, 2010 with tons of great artists including Christopher Bettig, Chris Duncan, Mel Kadel, Bob Kronbauer, Travis Millard, Joel Speasmaker, Amanda Visell, Andrew Jeffrey Wright and so many more. All of these artists have Poketo-ized something with us at some point and super stoked to see them be part of this inaugural show of what will be a great space. Check out the list of artists below. There is nothing like this in Highland Park right now.

Speaking of Chris Bettig, he’ll be over the pond next week to set up his show at Here Gallery in Bristol. A two week whirlwind tour that will also take him to one of our retailers in Edinburgh, Analogue Books. Chris did a special print with Analogue and will be doing a signing there.

Here is a pic of Russell and Julie of Analogue when we were out there a couple of years ago. Two super cool cats.