Digesting And Spewing Pop Culture Into Your Face

I found this site, Vitamin, awhile ago and was drawn to the style of their wares. They definitely have a touch of inspiration from the collectible vinyl toy market a-la Kidrobot but are upscaled for a more natural home decor. The picture up top is a bone china “Urban Creature Gnome” which I guess is their take on the classic garden gnome. It’s face can be changed to a multitude of styles and they can even convert it into a lamp if you’d like.

I really like these though the price of admission is a bit too rich for my blood. They also have some modern looking coin banks, bottle openers, kitchen timers and even salt and pepper shakers that have a lot of character.

The good thing about these items is the prices are a little more within reach as they are functional as well as cool looking. What really struck me though were there really cool takes on pots for indoor plants.

Those are full size pots and the plants are watered by an I.V. drip bag. Pretty ingenious and modern and industrial looking too. Anyways, check ‘em out and pick something up if you are so inclined. You can grab me something too and it will be much appreciated.

I included this great image of some He-Man action in my previous post about cheesy sci-fi art. Out of curiosity I wanted to try and track down the source of this artwork as the original He-Man artwork always had a cool Boris Vallejo/Frank Frazetta look to it. In fact in a recent io9 article they refer to the He-Man concept art as the “rock bottom” of concept art. First, it’s worth pointing out that the packaging art for the Masters of the Universe toy line was finalized art and not really conceptual. Also, what the fuck do they mean rock-bottom? The above image is seriously goddamn cool looking. Each character is wonderfully represented and is full of action. This makes me want to buy the toys, vehicles and accessories and wage an epic all scale war the likes of which has never been seen in my bedroom. I mean, look at Moss Man whose only discernible  power was smelling like he had been dipped in some sort of shitty cologne. He never looked so fucking cool except riding those stupid stilts that appear to do nothing but make him see all the action that shorter people are missing:

So back to the overall image. It really wasn’t hard to find a direct source for the image. The go to place for buying worthless shit, eBay, immediately popped up an actual vintage 1986 promo poster. I’m amazed because I’m seriously considering buying this. It’s just too cool to not get. The bidding hasn’t really gone anywhere yet, though there are about 6 days to go so who knows what will happen. Here it is in actual poster form:

I do quite a bit of thrift store/estate sale/yard sale shopping. I get quite a few good finds at these places and I’m also always on the lookout for some cheesy stuff. I hit it big yesterday when I made my way to a church estate sale (weird combo right?) and found this in the back room next to some video games (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door and Super Mario Sunshine for the Gamecube both complete and for a $1 each, WOOT!!!) and DVD’s. I was immediately struck by it as the scenery and ships reminded me of Masters of the Universe:

That is picture is so awesome it’s as awesome as “By the Power of Grayskull, I have the Power!!!!!”.

Now back to the print. I was also intrigued by the coloring of the print as it is done in a pearlescent shiny style. This amplifies the coolness by about a million. Little did I know that all of this was about to be topped by the actual subject matter of the print. The great thing about the internet is that with some very miniscule information and some tenacity it is possible to discover the origins of a myriad of objects. This print was signed by the artist so that’s a great starting point. Here’s the signature embedded into the actual print:

Oh wait! It’s an actual hand signed and numbered print:

OK. What the Fuck. Those signatures don’t even match. That’s pretty stupid.

The good news is you can find one of the other 499 prints out there if you are lucky. So here we have a print signed by J.N. Stewart. From here it was as easy as putting name into Google and voila!! There we have it an artists blog with art that looks somewhat familiar. The only problem was his name on the blog is John Stewart and not J.N. Stewart. Now I had to wade through his blog and I finally came across this post. It turns out that this amazing sci-fi imagery is in fact a painting he did for a fucking Battlefield Earth calender. Yes, this Battlefield Earth:

I don’t really need to say anything about the movie as it has all been said before (it sucks). That just tops it all as the reason for it’s cheesiness is now apparent. It’s based on a book written by a crazy person who started his own cult. So now that we know it’s awesome baditude as a print it’s time to figure out what I should do with it. Also, I was unable to find the calender so if anyone has any photos or info of it please let me know. Thanks for looking!!!

So, in the realm of influences that had a lasting affect on me as child and into adulthood, Dr. Seuss is probably the most important. When I was a child his imagination and words and art were access to a world of his own creating and he was kind enough to let me in for the ride as well. I’ve recently found a rekindled love for his works and I’ve been gifting his books to my girlfriend on various holidays and occasions as she is as avid a fan as myself. The eventual goal is to get each of the main books in his library of work, but only the ones he illustrated and wrote. His words only feel right when they are accompanied by his images. The other day I was watching an episode of Antiques Roadshow when they were appraising an interesting item brought in to the show. Here’s a picture of the item and a link to the video of the appraisal:

This set me off on a trip trough the internet in search of original Dr. Seuss art. I figured there had to be some around and I was intrigued to see what was available and how much it might cost. I had no intention of actually buying any at the moment as I make nowhere near the amount of money needed to purchase such amazing art but the idea that his pieces may exist was intriguing. After a very short search I came across his official art website, DrSeussArt.com, and this got me excited as there was a whirlwind of information about his art. After perusing the actual drawings and paintings many of which are quite amazing, I’m pulled into his Unorthodox Taxidermy.At this point I think I was squealing (probably not but I was close) and gaping open-jawed in awe at the pieces on the page:

Needless to say these are amazing and I want them. Unfortunately they are way too expensive but maybe someday…anyways if you are so inclined the website for the art will let you know where you can get said art.

Here’s a final piece of art that’s a bronze sculpture that I think anyone would recognize…

I came across this artists interesting take on pop culture icons in the style of Kawaii. Kawaii is a Japanese style of art that refers to cuteness and literally means “lovable or adorable”. The artist, Jerrod Maruyama, has a myriad of other pieces and I’ve gotta say these look awesome.

Bob’s Big Boy which is an overrated Denny’s…

The always scary (and hard to beat in Kingdom Hearts) Malificent

And Slave Leia with Jabba and C-3Po ( It just occurred to me that Leia probably had sex with Jabba… and that’s kinda gross….but she’s still sexy….even after the sex with Jabba….)

You can find more of these at Maruyama’s Flickr photostream. (Via)