Category Archive

Feeling queasy from too many dogs, too much walking and very little sleep … love, love, loving NYC but finding it hard to be witty and clever….so just enjoy these pictures, they’re worth a thousand words apparently anyway.

Doala the Koala is a mascot for the Chunichi Dragons, a baseball team in Nagoya in central Japan.
I was so proud to hear that this blue eared Koala was now the most popular mascot in Japan, Doala (pronounced Doara in Japanese) has become well known for his ‘two-left feet’ and other misguided antics during games has become insanely popular of late; here is an except from a recent article on ABC news:

He has been representing the team since 1994, but inexplicably in recent months he has become a cult figure - publishing a book and sparking big queues and crowds at public appearances.

“Honestly, we don’t know why he’s become so popular now,” says Tetsuro Ishiguro, PR manager for the Dragons.

“We think it might be because people have been putting his video on to websites.”

This then led me to seek out said videos which resulted in the find above… sure it’s 8 mins long and without subtitles but I found it to be the best 8 mins I have had this week. Also take into account I have had quite a mundane work filled week and, although I’m no furry, I find mascots to be equal parts alluring, disturbing and hilariously funny.

Just an entertaining video for you to marvel this Friday afternoon; BTW the Japanese refer to a balding man with a comb-over as a ‘bakoudo’ (barcode), pure brilliance!

This gives me an idea for an image that would work well as one of these:

Design company D-Barcode came up with these illustrative versions of the conventional bar code. The barcodes are fully functional and are being used on products as we speak, pure brilliance!

Wish I could define the droolworthy goodness this film oozes and the effect it has on me everytime I see it… all I can link to the reason for my fascination with it is that it makes me want to watch, and leaves me with memories of, ‘Mononoke Hime’ every time I see it.

… but then I realized that doesn’t matter … just as the artist David O’Reilly himself points out in his blog;

“What matters to me is that the feeling excited by my films should be universal. An artistic image is capable of arousing identical feelings in viewers, while the thoughts that come later may be very different. If you try to search for a meaning during the film you will miss everything that happens. The ideal viewer is somone who watches a film like a traveler watching the country he is passing though: because the effect of an artistic image is an extra-mental type of communication. There are some artists who attach symbolic meaning to their images, but that is not possible for me. Zen poets have a good way of dealing with this: they work to eliminate the possiblity of interpretation, and in the process a parallel arises between the real world and what the artist creates in his work.”

Fantasia Film Festival 2007

The Fantasia Film Festival wrapped up yesterday. I must admit I got a huge kick out of watching some random interviews with directors, etc (available on the Fantasia Film website and on youtube) and seeing my illo, gigantic and hanging floating above them in the main street. The video I have included here is with the director of Tekkon Kinkreet, something I previously blogged about here and lamented at it most likely not being shown here in Melbourne… well it is! Check out the MIFF site for deets.

Ah, after a big weekend pimping my wares at Design Festa, Tokyo Big Sight it was great to escape to the mountains south west of Tokyo and stay at a Ryokan for some quality R and R.
My good friend Kumi and I headed off on Tuesday morning in her car to Hakone, a town in the mountains famous for Soba (buckwheat noodles) and Onsens (hot springs). One thing I have missed while living in Melbourne has been Onsens, I just love getting my kit off and soaking in a hot bath with good friends…. you might snicker but don’t knock it until you try it. I have had some incredibly honest and beautiful conversations in baths here in Japan. What is said in ofuro (bath) stays in the ofuro.

On the way we went to Odawara Castle and the Open-air Museum just outside of Hakone where there is a garden amongst the mountains full of sculptures and experimental art as well as a museum devoted solely to the art of Picasso.

As we hadn’t booked a place to stay yet, and Hakone is known to be rather expensive, Kumi spoke to a lovely obachan in the information centre. She explained that she was here with her Australian friend that we didn’t have much money and that we were both young women. The woman phoned one of the hotels and explained the situation and she managed to get us a great discount… we got one night with full use of the Japanese baths for 6500 yen, usually 10,000 yen. Yatta! Thanks Kumi!

The baths were true onsen water (hot spring) and had all sorts of minerals, etc that are supposed to make your skin soft and look younger. I soaked for as long as I could take the 65 degree water and then we headed off to an Izakaya (Japanese restaurant) down the street. The food was amazing, we had a selection of Sashimi, tempura, tofu and mozoku (Japanese seaweed known for its cancer fighting properties). It was all so lovely, Kumi and I gossiped about everything that has happened since I have left and I found myself understanding more and more about the relationships I have created with everyone here.
I knew how much I enjoyed their company and felt so close to them, but I had no idea how much I was a part of their lives, and still am. I realized how much I missed them on my return to Australia, I always feel so guilty about being so lonely in my hometown when surrounded by family and friends some things can’t be explained or understood…..shared experiences are essential to friendship.

Walking along the river we scared each other with stories of obake (Japanese ghosts) and enjoyed the fresh air.
Another bath and several glasses of sake later I was truly relaxed.
…….zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The next morning it was another bath, Soba noodles for brunch and a visit to the Hakone Toy Museum… I have uploaded lots of pics to Flickr again so go and check ‘em out!

“Phew”…… I can’t remember when I arrived or if I ever left this place. There may be no time difference between Japan and Australia there surely is a brain zone difference. I find I live in my own head here quite differently to how I do in Australia. I am having much trouble articulating the experience in English as I converse so much in Japanese here and I don’t just mean the language but also in the images in my mind. To be honest much will be lost in translation, describing how I feel in english just doesn’t do the experience justice. I suspect it might also be in the intonation.

I will however try to describe my Design Festa experience this year…. here goes….

I headed to Tokyo Big Sight with 10 kilo backpack and 18 kilo roller bag full of my works and items from Inage Kaigen in Chiba early Saturday morning. The trip was easier than I thought, as I dragged my items from the combinni (convenience store) where I had bought my breakfast, down towards TBS I was surrounded by fellow artists and designers also dragging their works, it was like some huge pilgrimage of followers to worship the God of Design Festa, and if you have ever seen TBS it could be mistaken for some kind of Mayan Temple or meeting place for Scientologists so that analogy fits quite well…. if I do say so myself.

At the risk of sounding a tad emo, it is not often I feel like I belong but I did feel like I did here. There is a vibe that surrounds this festival that is quite contagious and, I suspect, addictive. I just love being a part of it and as hard as it is to get prepared the minute its over I want to do it all over again.
It took me some time to set up my booth and it was around 12 until I was satisfied with it, by then visitors had started to flow through and by 1pm the place was packed. Over the weekend over 60,000 people attend Design Festa on average.

My brother Scott and his girlfriend Tomoko came in around 3pm although not before I small stone had begun to form in my bladder due to the copious amounts of green tea and coffee I had consumed all morning with no chance relieve myself. This year my booth was twice the size of last years and on a corner, I also managed to hire some table and chairs as well. Due to some performance artists opposite we would often have more than 50 people at one time in front of us staring at some dude making robot moves and pretending to be some kind of artificial intelligence controlled by another dude with a card board controller. I personally preferred last years “Salaryman holding Bananas” but what the hell.
I had quite a few people stop by and over the entire weekend I managed to sell around 30% of my small items and go through two boxes of business cards. I also have a keen buyer for at least two of my prints and will be meeting up with her later in the month.

I was in a booth right behind a guy who had stopped by my booth last year Josh McKible, he told Scott I had inspired his participation this year ;-), he is an illustrator who lives and works in Japan but most of his commissions come from overseas, thank Jeebuz for the internet I say! Check out his site here. He is a seriously awesome dude and am so happy to have met up with him again.
I also managed to hit the Carton Box booth again and grab their new CD, they remembered me! I asked them when their ‘next live’ was and …. it’s the 17th… the day I leave. Argghhh!

I am by now means disappointed by my efforts this year, to be honest it went better than expected. There are so many booths and so many levels to that place I am surprised I was able to catch that much attention. The real fun is actually in the collaboration and the people you meet and that was my true intention.

Before I left for Japan over a week ago I had got to a point in my work where I had had enough feedback to realize that it is useless for me to try to sell the Japanese their own culture back to them. I was right. 70% of the people who stopped and bought at my booth were foreigners and lets face it, I’m singing their song.

Any way I am still processing the experience so will leave further thoughts to further posts but suffice to say…. tanoshikatta desu!!!

Thanks to Scott, Tomoko, Akane, Akkun, Kumi and all the others who have helped me this week!!!
PS(Photos on Flickr too!)

Illustration by Darin Bendall.

I first met Mr. Darin Bendall at a Halloween party our mutual friend Martine organized late in 2005, at least that is when I think it was. We chatted about all things creative and illustrative over beers and alongside another guest dressed as a cowboy with a horse head for a crotch.

Darin lives in Japan with his lovely wife Kat and their two guinea pigs. He is very prolific and has an individual and honest style, honest in that it draws from who he is as a person especially his sense of humour and his life experiences. Basically what I am trying to say is there is nothing obviously derivative in his work, mind boggling when you think about how much illustration he is being exposed to on a daily basis in Japan. He is ‘living the (my) dream’ as a full time artist/illustrator/all round up for any project dude in Japan and I hope the ‘awesomeness’ never stops!