Dreams to Dreams Custom Vinyl Show 2008

I'm putting the finishing touches on my next piece, Dacosta Bayley's DCTO (Dreams Come True Object) daruma vinyl for the first custom toy show to be held in a museum - the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, CA. Opening reception will be held on Saturday, December 6th, 1-4pm, and the show will run from Dec 1st thru January 4th. I'll post a sneak sometime next week. By the looks of that artist list, this is going to be a show not to miss!

Friday Night Openings - kaNO's "Bodega' @ MPH

Last night, My Plastic Heart hosted the launch of kaNO's latest designer vinyl toy, Bodega. The character is based on the small juice bottle drinks that were widely available at the corner bodegas. I personally like the use of transparency in this new character, along with the proportion of the spray cap serving as the character's head. This run is limited to 300, so be sure to visit MPH in person or online to pick one up. More pics from the opening here on my Flickr.

Friday Night Openings - Osaka Popstar Devil Dog at The Showroom

The second show we saw last Friday night was at Toy Tokyo's The Showroom, featuring Osaka Popstar's Devil Dog platform.  There were an enormous amount of pieces on display, with a few celebrity signed pieces by Rose McGowan, Robert Rodriguez and Seth Rogen.  Plenty more pics up on my Flickr set, and also at the Devil Dog Art Show preview page.

Friday Night Openings - APW Halloween Show

Looks like I just found the title for a new posting series, "Friday Night Openings."  It seems there are more custom art show openings than ever taking place in NYC.  This past Friday night was no exception.  The first stop was APW Gallery to check out their Halloween Custom Toy Show.  There were quite a few excellent pieces on display, among them entries from Osiris Orion, Patrick Fransisco, forcefeed:swede, Rebelwookiee, and a slew of other.  I also discovered a totally new (to me), extremely cool character that I had been unaware of - the lightbulb-shaped platform toy 'Ouip' by delitoys.  Hans Yim and Kerry Lee have been putting on top-quality shows on a regular basis, and it will be very interesting to see what they do with a larger space set to open next year in Long Island.  Check out the full photo set here on Flickr.

Pumpkin Fence - Cobble Hill

This impressive array of pumpkins - on view in the beautiful Brooklyn neighborhood of Cobble Hill - is one of the more inventive displays I've seen out there. 100 small pumpkins have been hollowed out from underneath and impaled on individual stakes of the fence. These are left up until they fully rot, turning the display into a ghastly, drooping procession. More photos in my Halloween 08 photoset on Flickr.

Pumpkins '08

We got replacement pumpkins from the same stand upstate and finally got 'em both carved up this afternoon. They turned out better than I expected, considering they were fairly thick to cut through.

Demo Reel Updated!

So, I desperately needed to update my demo reel. I've had this amazing piece of music from Lalo Schifrin in mind to use, like, forever. I'm posting on Vimeo because they allow larger file sizes with somewhat better compression than youTube. You can also download the full-size, uncompressed version from there.

UPDATE - Credit list now up on my personal website.


Steve Talkowski Reel 08 from Steve Talkowski on Vimeo.

Kathie Olivas and Obama '08 Show Openings

There were quite a few events happening this past Friday night in NYC, and the two we saw were well worth the time spent waiting in line.

First up was Kathie Olivas' stunning "Uninvited Guests" show at My Plastic Heart. Pretty much the entire show sold out and lots of people waited in line to get stuff signed. Brandt Peters was also there tagging sketchbooks. Additional photos here.



Next up was the incredible "Art + Action = Obama 08" Barack Obama Action Figure custom show at The Showroom NYC at Toy Tokyo. I wasn't one of the participating artists in this show, but I wish I was! There were many gorgeous pieces on display. The good news - due to overwhelming demand, the show has been extended until Oct 22th, so be sure to check it out if you get the opportunity! I've got plenty more shots up at this Flickr set.

Sketchbot On The Move

Playing around with some rendering ideas for a possible 2d animation approach.

Pumpkin Time - MINOR SETBACK :(

We got these killer pumpkins while upstate last weekend. Paid a butt load for both and didn't want to carve them too early. Well, now they are deteriorating terribly and we're gonna have to scrap 'em. grrrr

Oh well. I'll just have to adapt the designs for whatever new shapes we acquire. Let me know which ones (all 4 sets viewable on my Flickr) ya'll would like to see make it to final carving!