The Bad Robot Art Experience @ Gallery 1988

UPDATE:

Framed Album has been SOLD! Thanks Mr. Abrams :)

Signed and Numbered Prints are available to purchase by clicking HERE

To purchase the back album artwork, head over to my Etsy store by clicking HERE

Front/Back Artist Prints will be available in my ETSY STORE starting May 18th

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This friday, April 26th is "The Official Bad Robot Art Experience" at Gallery 1988. Most likely if you follow my blog, then you're well aware of how awesome this show is going to be. Bad Robot is the production company run by J.J. Abrams, and over the years, they have brought us some of the best television and movie experiences such as LOST, Cloverfield, Super 8, Alias, and a little thing called Star Trek.

Bad Robot and Gallery 1988 are teaming up to bring to Los Angeles "The Official Bad Robot Art Experience", featuring over 100 illustrators creating artwork based off some of Bad Robots awesome work. Also, some of the proceeds will help benefit "The Mission Continues", an excellent organization that "...awards community service fellowships to post-9/11 veterans, empowering them to transform their own lives by serving others and directly impacting their communities."

I am very excited for this show. When I first learned about it, I immediately knew I wanted to do a LOST piece for the show. I love LOST. It's one of my favorite shows, and while some people like to hate on the show, and unjustly bash the writers for "not having a plan", I'd like to thank them for creating one of the most imaginative, compelling, and well told stories that's ever aired on network television. For every LOST, we get a hundred CSI's. LOST is so dense, so unique and quite an accomplishment that I fear will never be repeated again. Where the x-files trailed off and went out on a somewhat sour note with the final 2 seasons, LOST had a chance to develop an end-game and went out swinging, and for that, I'm thankful to Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse.

I've continued my "High Fidelity" series for this show with "Jack and the Survivors":

Get ready to put your Seat back and your tray tables in their upright and locked positions, it's Jack and the Survivors! Join Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Hurley, and more as they crash into your heart with their new hit album "LOST", featuring hit songs like, "Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do", "You All Everybody", and "Namaste". Get ready for a mind-blowing, time traveling good time and flashback with "Jack and the Survivors"!

LOST featured a lot of hidden messages to those willing to spend the time to look for them, and my album artwork along with the back of the album follows the trend. Here's the back of the album with full track listing along with some other hidden goodies.

Also, for each show I make a one of a kind framed album. The albums included with the artwork are always somehow related to the theme of the piece.

So for this show, I tracked down the record featured in what is easily one of my favorite moments from the series and probably the best 2nd best opening scene from the entire show:

Mama Cass's music is featured twice throughout the series, so I felt it was only appropriate to use this record for the artwork:

I will have quite a few prints (108 to be exact) available at the gallery. They are signed and numbered. A small amount of artist prints will be made available on my online store at a later time. I'll post more info when they become available. What would LOST artwork be without some mystery? Hidden within the stack of prints I gave to the gallery, there are 6 variants. They are signed and more importantly numbered, and each variant features it's own unique Dharma station logo seen below:

If you're looking for a one of a kind variant, be sure to ask for the right number when placing your order :)

There is a lot of excellent artwork in this show, and a lot of very talented artists that have in some way been influenced by the very talented people at Bad Robot. If you're in the Los Angeles area, you won't want to miss out on this exciting opening. Also, some of your money gets to go to Veterans who have risked their life fighting for our country, and ask for nothing in return. Thank you to our Veterans and for those currently serving overseas and right here at home.

"The Official Bad Robot Art Experience" at Gallery 1988
Opening - Friday April 26th 7-10pm
Ends - May 18th
Gallery 1988 (West)
7308 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
http://www.gallery1988.com

See you in another life, brother.

A Tribute to SNL @ Gallery 1988

You can buy a limited signed/numbered print by clicking HERE
You can buy the one-of-a-kind framed album by clicking HERE
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I have been watching Saturday Night Live since I was in my early teens. The show has had some pretty memorable characters over the years, but for me, there is no one better than Wayne Campbell and Garth Algar.

This is Gallery 1988's third group show based on comedy. For last year's piece, I chose Conan O'Brien, and something amazing happened. Conan O'Brien got in touch with me and now is the proud owner of a Joebot original! If you ever happen to make it into Conan's green room, you'll see my artwork hanging on the wall near the front door!

This year, the theme for the show was specifically to keep the pieces SNL themed. I was 12 years old when Wayne's World came out. I loved it. A lot. Next to the possibly obscure Christopher Walken skit where he puts googly eyes on plants to not be afraid of them anymore (See it HERE), Wayne's World is my favorite bit to ever come out of Saturday Night Live. I briefly thought about submitting a fern with some googly eyes... but instead, I decided to create another addition to my ongoing "High Fidelity" series:

I grew up in the small town of La Verne, CA. Across from my old high-school was a church that was used as a location in the film "The Graduate" which they recreated a scene from for Wayne's World 2. They were filming during the summer, and so I got to hang out and watch them for a few hours. In between takes, Mike Meyers came over to meet with the small group of us watching, and he was super nice! This is one of my favorite photos from my childhood:

I also created an album backing (just because it's one of the most fun parts for me, I love creating fake tracklists... I dunno why).

And here is the full framed one-of-a-kind album:

There is a lot of super talented artists in this show, so if you live near Los Angeles, take some time this month to go take a look at the show in person! If you can't make it out, you can always browse the gallery online by clicking HERE.

Come check out the show! It's currently showing in Gallery 1988's newest location until April 20th, 2013

Gallery 1988 (West)
7308 Melrose Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90046
323-937-7088

Little Video Game Books

Got a very nice little article on one of the biggest sites in video-game news: KOTAKU

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I recently have been really into the artwork of the classic Little Golden Books. There's something very charming about their simplicity, and yet they are some of the books that I remember most from my early childhood.

As the sun sets on this current generation of video games, I've been thinking about some of the classic games that people will still (hopefully) point to years from now and hold them up as games that made a difference, and possibly, for some child out there, Portal or Skyrim will be a memory from their early childhood.

I love video games, and I love children's books. I was inspired to combine the two into the artwork you see below:

"Our hero, our hero, claims a warriors heart, but the body of a child." 

To purchase a print click HERE

"The Cake may be a lie, but the friendship between a little girl and her robot friend is true love."

To purchase a print click HERE

"Somewhere, beyond the sea, there lived a little girl and her big friend Mr. Bubbles."

To purchase a print click HERE

You can order all 3 prints together! Click HERE

I hope you enjoy seeing these as much as I enjoyed making them! If Ken Levine, Gabe Newell, and Todd Howard are interested in making these a reality... feel free to contact me :)

Mutatis Mutandis at Teefury

Howdy y'all! I have a new shirt design coming to Teefury on Tuesday March 5th! If you're unfamiliar with Teefury, you should know that it is AWESOME! Each day, they sell one t-shirt created by a super awesome artist. Most of their shirts (if not all these days) are inspired by a wide variety of pop-culture.

Teefury is the best! I've been working with them for a few years now, and the community they foster over there continues to impress. If you haven't already, swing on by for a visit, buy a shirt, and check back Tuesday, March 5th and you can get your hands on my new X-Men themed design seen below.

If you follow my blog, then you surely know that I love comic-books. In a perfect world, the x-men would be real, and Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters would exist. If they gave out awards for the Student of the Month at that school, I thought they would look a little something like what you see above.

365 days a year, 24 hours per day, only $10! Visit http://www.teefury.com today and start your new obsession.

A Little Golden Book "Guardians of the Galaxy" Style

I love comic books. I love Little Golden Books. I'm very excited for Marvel's upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie starring FBI agent Bert Macklin. In honor of this awesome news, I painted up this little fella:

(Disclaimer - I started this artwork this morning before todays casting news broke. Consider it a happy coincidence)

"The Humorist" - A Tribute to Woody Allen at Gallery 1988

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UPDATE:
To purchase the framed artwork CLICK HERE Sorry folks, It's sold.
To purchase a signed/numbered print CLICK HERE
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I'm starting the year off on a new foot for 2013! I love doing the album designs, and they always do well, but I always need to occasionally break free of that style and do something different. I had a lot of fun with this piece because I haven't done a digital painting like this in a while. It felt like a breath of fresh air!

Gallery 1988's first show for 2013 is "The Humorist - A Tribute to one of the big screen's funniest directors". I admittedly don't know a lot about Woody Allen's career so I didn't initially have an idea in mind. But I just kept going to the Toy Story character Woody, and although they couldn't be more different, I think they mash-up quite well together.

A limited amount of signed and numbered prints will be available to purchase at the gallery (and online). I'll update this post with sales info once it becomes available!

My buddy Jason Liwag created a pretty incredibly brilliant print for the show that has been used in promotion, If you are a Woody Allen fan, you won't want to miss what's sure to be a show with some excellent and creative takes on an excellent and creative writer and director.

"The Humorist"
Gallery 1988 Venice
Friday Jan. 11 7-10pm
214 Pier Ave.
Santa Monica, CA 90405
http://www.gallery1988.com
http://www.jo3bot.com

A Tribute to Judd Apatow

UPDATE:
The man himself, Judd Apatow purchased my artwork from the show! Here's a picture to sort of prove it!

Prints are now available to purchase online by clicking HERE!

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Gallery 1988's last group show of 2012 is gonna be a big one. With a year that has seen some incredible shows like The Avengers, Breaking Bad, and Arrested Development, Gallery 1988 is closing out the year with a bang.

Opening Tuesday, December 4th and running until December 30th, Gallery 1988's stable of many artists (including myself) are paying tribute to one of the most prolific comedy writers/producers/directors of all time, the brilliant Judd Apatow. I'm a big fan of Mr. Apatow's work, so it was a huge honor to participate in this show. It was hard to narrow down one movie or show of his to do a piece based off of, so I decided to do almost all of them...

"Apatow Elementary"

There is a private opening that you can attend if you RSVP to Gallery 1988 via e-mail! Just contact the kind folks at Gallery1988melrose@Gmail.com.

A limited number of my signed prints (13x19) will be available to purchase at the gallery.
I'll be at the opening hoping that another artist has tackled something depicting Infant Sorrow!

"ATribute to Judd Apatow"
Opening Tuesday December 4th 7-10pm
Gallery 1988 Melrose
7020 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
www.nineteeneightyeigh.com