BEYOND TOYS

Why stop at just toys? The artists don't. This is the central thesis behind my Jon Burgerman blogography, Doodlesplatter. But Jon isn't alone. Lots of artists make shirts, stickers, laptop skins, belt buckles, USB drives, skateboards and books. Recently, Frank Kozik and Tim Biksup made rings, Jeremyville made sneakers, Ron English and Tara Mcpherson made sunglasses, Buff Monster and Junko Mizuno made condoms, Jeremy Fish made a vibrator and Huck Gee dropped bombs. In fact, so much non-toy stuff was made by toy artists last year, that I assembled the swag into his and hers Christmas gift lists for toy fashionistas.

BEYOND ART

Toys are one piece of pop culture that I follow. I like to keep current on other topics and trends. To that extent, I contribute to JoshSpear.com, Cool Hunting and a bunch of other sites. A random assortment of posts:

BEYOND WHAT YOU EXPECT

Sure, I'll tell you the edition size and where to get it, but I'll make it honest and interesting along the way. I'll follow an up-and-coming artist through all his projects or the unprecedented crossover of art and politics or a new movement and material. Instead of saying "red, white and blue," I might say: "kind of leaves me with a feeling of having thrown up after a bad acid trip while watching Fourth of July fireworks." A compliment could look like: "no worrying about getting octuplets like Nadya Suleman." Sometimes, I'll go a little blue and other times, a bit brown. And there's always a way to throw Valium and The B-52s into the mix.