11-09-12. Virgin Free Fest and Kiyocera Shuji

Help Japan and your wardrobe.

Virgin Free Fest was in the woods this year! It was a good ol' festival in nature with ferris wheels, carnival tents and a skatepark! Kiyocera was one of the main sponsors of the event and they pumped it up with innovative sound/sight experience in form of outdoor dance party coupled with high tech camera/sound/sight bending non stoppable party dancing, space aliens dancing...



An alien in a suit!



A tree tall alien!




Twin Dancing GLOB Aliens!


... a solar charging stations with benches and lounge chairs AND shuji on tee shirts by masters/artists;
Mayo Kohama, Eiko Berkowitz, Yoshiko Komatsu, Yuri Shibuya, Asako Miyahira and me, Mike Ming!






Art is an expression and extention of ourselves. Yuri Shibuya and Asako Miyahira extending and expressing.




Japanese culture emphasizes subtlety. Yu-chan and Eiko-chan emphasizing.



Man on phone: ".. YES! SHUUUUJJJJIIIIII by masters!! I m going to get 'GAMMBARREE JAPAN!!! "



It was a non-profit $5 donation for a shirt with Japanese Calligraphy! As expected, this event was a smash! From the time the gate was open until even after the lights went out, there were people trying to scramble for tee shirts. It was a successful all day affair that saw throngs of people wanting to help Japan and get something special written on their tee shirts in return.



The Angels, the crowds and the shuji tent.






Lights out in our tent, party is ON at Kiyocera Sight/Sound Tent!


I would like to thank those who were involved and organizing this event and for allowing me to participate for a wonderful cause.

Kiyocera for making it happen, Virgin Mobile for the event, Mother NYC for production, Mayo Kohama for displaying amazing Shuji Power(!!!), Eiko-chan and Yu-chan for all the help in figuring the characters out and for dealing with all those customers who were 'outside the box' (I overheard more than 1 strange request coming from their direction), Yuri Shibuya and Asako Miyahira for traveling with me and having patience to deal with me, Charles Lahti for calling us out and envisioning this amazing event, Christine from Mother NYC to produce this event and trusting us to do the amazing job we needed to do, Kiyocera Angels for keeping the tent running smooth in the chaos of all those shirts getting written on and drying, all those who donated for an excellent cause and Hurricane Katria to wander away from the proximate seaboard and leaving us the beautiful weather to fill in for her insted!! Thank youses!!



Me with my custom Mayo Kohama shuji shirt!!

110912. QuiksilverPro Vitamin Water Mural

Vitamin Water Shack in business.


New York City saw its first ever WCT surf contest at Long Beach, New York this month. Prior to the event, there were advertisements popping up as billboards on bus stops, buses and in subway cars. It is not the first surfboarding contest but it IS the first contest of this caliber, the top 32 competitive surfing professionals, battling it out in New York City.



Contest.



Taj Burrows getting in and burnin!

For such an event, my good studio 195 partner, Hugh Gran and I, were asked to paint a mural for Vitamin Water for this special event. The week before the event, hurricane Irene came ashore for a quick visit and her presence made painting a mural outdoor pretty unnegotiable. Thankfully, the great people at Critical Massive, who produced this mural, got us an indoor studio and we proceeded to paint. We worked from a sketch done by Hugh Gran but we took artistic liberties once the paint hit the board.



The Mural before it left for the beach. Apocolyptic Future NYC Wave Riders.

It was quite a fun project to work on and although the Quiksilver event did go down, all the hype of a music festival to murals were all tapered down to a few shacks and a store, it was a great time had by all.




We all like Free Stuff.

110804. Snacky and Mike Ming

Snacky is an awesome little dig that serves up a nice asian affair tapas on Grand Street in cozy Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York. Its an establishment that has spent over ten years being the hip bar/restaurant before it was hipster-burg.




When the owner, Sandy Pei, decided to renovate the look, she honored me with a call to do up the roll gate box. I thought it would be appropriate to hit it with the red and gold, chinese festivity colors, and keep the look free-stripped and abstract.
It was a beautiful day to paint the outside and a great photographer friend of mine, Yuri Shibuya, came through on her bicycletta and took some flicks before she went off on her next adventure.. oh, the travelling photographer.





Snacky is located 187 Grand Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Yuri Shibuya is located where ever she pleases, camera in tow and ready to
shoot whatever she pleases.
www.yurishibuya.com

110803. Bustin Boards Brooklyn & Mike Ming

Just got word from Ryan over at Bustin Boards that, Bustin Boards has just re-re-re-released the Bustin Boards and Mike Ming Collaboration ROBOT 36 and 41 Model Graphics!! Run out to the nearest longboard/skate shop or better yet, if you are in New York City, find your way to the Longboard Loft Shop at 143 Allen Street between Rivington and Delancy or the Factory ShOP at 340 Grand between Marcy and Havemeyer street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Longboarding, the sidewalk surfer with more wood like the longboarding cousin of the ocean AND evolving into another animal altogether.. think marathons and hill bombs! WTF?! In 2011, Longboards don't even mean long board. Ahh.. the beautiful manifestations of skateboarding, like all the different species of living organisms and the many man created categories for all the little details that make one different from another. LongBoarding. Bustin Boards. Get into it. Get involved.

110704. Sephora Shoot in willy B

This is a group shot of an upcoming 3D Sephora Shoot directed by David Ellis. It is an all women artist shoot with the likes of Maya Hayuk, Sasu of Hitotsuki, Yuri Shimojo and several other artist ladies! It was apparently 6 Days of madness and we even managed to squeeze in a few Barnstormers for the first 3D time lapse excercise. It was so cool to have the japanese contingency arrive in New York to make this shoot happen. I was not involved but I was there to support and cheer them on in their endeavours! The stuff that comes off live is going to be absolutely bananas. In2 dimension its sick.. in 3D... BONKERS! A great time by all!!!

On the plane from Japan was also Naomi Kazama who went and did some live screenprinting for his group called Strange! Look for him in a town nearest you!

110704. Popeye Magazine

I was recently featured in an article about my art show in Popeye Magazine, May Issue. Yes, it is july but oh, what the hey. I want to take the time out to especially thank, Yumiko Sakuma for the brilliant editing job, Akira Yamada for the awesome images and of course, Nepenthes USA for allowing me to display my works in their amazing store, located on 38th street between 8 th and 9 th avenues, closer to the north west corner of 8th avenue. Enjoy.





By the way, Akira Yamada is also an abstract fine arts photographer, and for all those in japan between july 5 - july 16, please check out his show. For all those interested in the works everywhere else.. well you just gonna have to wait for the show to appear in a gallery near you. For more information, please visit ... http://akirayamada.com/2/Artist.asp?ArtistID=26172&Akey=TVKNT9F5

110704: Happy Fourth Of July! NOMA Spring/Summer 2011 collection

NOMA is a Japanese clothing brand started by Masako and Takuma. It is represented by Nepenthes Japan and is being distributed locally in Japan. For their spring/summer 2011 collection, they featured me(!) as a model. I was surprised but was an honorable flattery. Originally, Masako is a fabric designer and Takuma is a fashion clothing store owner. They both met, fell in love and now, produce a very cool line of clothes that can only be get in Japan. Enjoy.