I’ve been a fan of Andrew Bell’s before I knew I was a fan. Does that make sense? I’ll explain. I used to have a tendency to run into really awesome artwork online and never look up the artists responsible for creating whatever piece it was that caught my attention. Thankfully, this bad habit has ended and I’ve become rather obsessed with information. Andrew Bell was one of those artists I believed I was meant to meet. When I first began purchasing designer vinyl I remember purchasing Keith Poon’s Kansers—one of which Andrew had designed. I even attended a signing at ToyQube where Andrew along with many other artists were present, but I’d just gotten into designer toys and I was clueless. It wasn’t until a signing at MyPlasticHeart that I was formally introduced to Andrew Bell, and it might’ve been his modesty that sealed the deal, but I’ve been a loyal fan since.

Andrew Bell was born in the UK in the late 70’s, but currently resides in New York City. He attended the School of Visual Arts and has worked with companies such as Nickelodeon and Marvel Comics. Although I’m not sure what he worked on during his employment with those companies, it’s quite clear that Andrew was driven by his art. In 2003, he began to both customize already existing platform, and create his own art leading to the creation of his company, Dead Zebra, Inc. To date, Andrew is the only artist I’ve known to produce a new character or sketch on an almost daily basis—if you don’t believe me, check out his creaturesinmyhead site, where he houses all of these creatures.

Part of the reason why I’m such a fan of Andrew is because I feel like he achieves a lot with minimal color. I’ve been lucky enough to score two sketches, and have noticed that he consistently works with a 4 color combination which includes; black, red, a yellowish marker and gray. This isn’t to say that he limits his color uses, because if you’ve taken look at his artwork, you can tell the man is not afraid to play with colors!

What I appreciate the most about Andrew Bell’s works is that he manages to make me like sloth-like looking creatures. The threadless shirt that Andrew produced earlier in the year, displayed a gluttonous creature that I never thought I would find appealing, and yet I bought the shirt as soon as I could. His creature was unapologetic about stuffing his mouth and even went as far as spelling out “EAT” below it, yet Andrew has this touch that makes you feel sorry for his creatures. His latest release, the O-NO! Sushi – based on his Never Look Back print is the perfect example of feeling sorry for a slimey little character. I don’t know about you, but for a while, I felt bad about eating sushi.

His artwork and toys have a tragic splendor to them. His characters are often found in unfortunate circumstances, but the colors and expressions place an inevitable smile on your face. Maybe we’re just evil people and that’s exactly what Andrew was trying to achieve all along. Either way, Andrew the man is a pretty cool fellow. He’s very modest, mostly shy, but rather funny.

He currently resides in Brooklyn with his beautiful lady, where he’s constantly battling the creatures trying to take over his mind. If you’re curious about them, you can see them on creaturesinmyhead.com

Artist Site: http://www.creaturesinmyhead.com/
Artist Company: http://www.deadzebra.com/

Seeing as how Cranston Fellows Jr., finally made his debut last Friday, I thought it was only natural to focus on Lou Pimentel for this week’s Artist Spotlight. Lou Pimentel, was born in the Dominican Republic. When he was four years old, his family migrated to the United States and they made a home in Florida for a couple of years before making the move to New York City.
Currently, Lou is enrolled at the School of Visual Arts where he’s working towards a BA in Illustration. Life however, has been his teacher since the tender age of four—thanks to his dad who taught him how to draw a fish, Lou has been making art since then. I’ve been lucky enough to see his custom works and canvases and I just can’t get enough of them. Clearly, his childhood is his muse. He is constantly appealing to the child in me in a grown up way. His recent works like the Lego canvases he did as school project were so amusing. He’s managed to take a simple character and add depth to them. A toy which is limited in personality, suddenly expresses fury, betrayal, anger and death. I can guarantee that, though his work is very playful, it is far from childish. He’s got an incredible eye for lighting and placement and if he can capture so many emotions from a toy, imagine what he’d achieve with human subjects.

Since my first encounter with Lou at last year’s New York Comic Con, I’ve learned that he’s an incredibly dedicated artist. Not only does he strive for excellence, but in keeping with his own style and what he knows, he always keeps the fans in mind when creating original canvases or customs. In the past couple of months, thanks to MPHLabs (an extension of My Plastic Heart) Lou’s art will soon become available in 3D.

Cranston Fellows Jr., is officially Lou’s first toy release. When I interviewed him about the figure, he mentioned that Vince (co-owner of MPH) had picked the character from numerous sketches he’d presented him. I’m not sure whether Cranston was his first choice or not, but I’m so glad that it was. The figure truly captures Lou’s art style and personality; fun, original, and full of life. Lou has also managed to go above and beyond with the figure, by adding personal touches to each one of the resin figures which is what I’m referring to about him keeping his fans in mind. Each figure will showcase his two signature colors; red and cobalt teal, and for those who know him like I do, know that the colors automatically force you to think of Lou. If you’re interested in purchasing his figure, it’ll retail for $80 and will be made available at the release party on Friday August 28th, 2009 at MyPlasticHeart. If you don’t have the financial means to purchase his first limited figure, don’t let finances keep you from meeting up with him in person. He’s an incredibly nice guy and will totally hook you up with a sketch.

Currently, Lou resides in Brooklyn with his wife Sarah (with their soon-to-be son or daughter), and their two playful yorkies.

In the past three months, the US has been lucky enough to host Jon Burgerman, UK doodler extraordinaire, for his summer vacation. Since Jon chose New York City to spend most of his holiday, I’ve been fortunate enough to hang with him a couple of times.

Read the rest of this entry »

This year has been an amazing year in regards to the artists I’ve been exposed to. Stella Im Hultberg is one of these artists, and I must admit that I’ve become so obsessed with her works; one might even say I’ve crossed the fine line between being a fan, and stalking every new piece she creates. Stella Im Hultberg, was born in South Korea in 1976. Although she was born in Korea, she was raised in various parts of the world, including; Seoul, Hong Kong, Taiwan, California and settling in Brooklyn, New York. She studied Industrial Design at CSU which propelled her career as a product designer since college. In 2005, she began to feel like her voice was lost in the works she was creating, and so began to surface the beautiful imagery we encounter in galleries across the nation today.

Read the rest of this entry »

In August 2007, I attended my very first toy release party to celebrate the release of Sket-One’s Oil figure. The release party, held at myplasticheart’s gallery in NYC, also played host to many other designers and artists whose names I’d already encountered in my googling adventures of the designer/urban toy world. Within those artists who attended the party was Brent Nolasco. I wasn’t completely sure who he was at the time, but I gained enough courage (thanks to the friendly owners) and requested he tag my sketchbook. Needless to say, I was blown away!

Read the rest of this entry »

Some people see the internet and networking sites as the death of physical connections– I see it as an opportunity to meet great people I wouldn’t have met otherwise, and this includes artists. Last week, through Twitter, I was introduced to Jason Limon and his stunning works.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week marked the official release of pop-surrealist artist Mark Ryden’s YHWH figure, which originated from one of his painting, and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to learn more about his roots, and his beautifully twisted art.

Read the rest of this entry »

We’re starting a new weekly series here at VPEast and will feature our newest columnist Saki! She’ll be writing each week about artists who she adores and draws inspiration from and hopefully you can draw a little inspiration from her words as well. Check back every Wednesday for the Artist’s Spotlight!

A little less than a year ago, a friend mentioned the works of Yumiko Kayukawa, a modern pop artist. My friend knew I was a fan of tokidoki, and described her works as “tokidoki for grown-ups,” knowing it would appeal to me. As I often do, I googled Kayukawa, and found her website: sweetyumiko.com. From the opening screen, I could tell I was going to like her style, but I was very committed to learning more about her and her art style. What I learned was that Yumiko Kayukawa, was born in Naie in Hokkaido, Japan. According to her about page, she recollects making art since she was about 2 years old; and though you’d expect she was developing her style ever since, it seems she was struggling to express herself in her works. It wasn’t until she made a trip to Seattle, Washington that Yumiko found her style. A friend of hers requested that she paint something for her, and it was then that she mended both her Japanese culture with the giddy American culture she loved and appreciated through music and pop culture.

Read the rest of this entry »