THE POP ROB BLOG.

The Price of Freedom

2012-02-07T19:02:00.000-08:00

Some new artwork available in the form of a sticker UPC label with an M16 placed within the barcode.

Look for one at a gaspump near you, or grab a couple for a buck via the mailorder.

AUCTIONS!

2012-01-08T16:53:00.000-08:00

Well, after randomly placing around 20 of my 4"x5" pieces in various nooks and crannies of the local area over the last few months, I've decided to auction off a couple larger pieces (as well as a few 4"x5"s soon, possibly).

Listed this afternoon is a medium-sized 16"x20" birds piece that is framed and ready to hang.

That auction is HERE!

...and are there any fans of SWAMP THING out there? I've been going wacko over the current DC comic by Scott Snyder (as well as the fantastic Animal Man series that it's about to crossover with). In my glee for the series, I was inclined to create a hangable profile of ole' Swampy drawn on a chunk of an actual piece of LOG.

It's better than bad, it's good!

Happy New Year, folks!

Attack of the Birds!

2011-12-07T19:24:00.000-08:00

Last night I finished up my first set of 'BIRDS!', 50 pieces coming to an Art-O-Mat near you soon!

Also included in each one will be a free bird sticker, like this...

Happy Holidays!

Art-O-Mat 'Infamous Icon' Series 2 COMPLETE!

2011-08-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

Finally completed my second series of 'Infamous Icons', to be shipped out to Art-O-Mat today. So keep an eye out if you've got one in your area, maybe some of them will be popping up soon. I'll be sure to post when I find out definate locations.

The complete set can be viewed on the Facebook page: facebook.com/poppyrobbie

Hide and Seek

2011-08-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

As hinted at last time, I am now actively "hiding" paintings in random areas that I visit, to be found and taken home and destroyed by an unsuspecting bystander.

A week or so ago while in Austin, I dropped a couple in the Guadalupe area - one by the Daniel Johnston frog painting on the side of the old Sound Exchange building and another in the window sill of Toy Joy.

While I'm not sure who snagged the robot one from Toy Joy (hopefully it wasn't a stray animal or such), I'm happy to learn that the other was found by Janette VonBoyer. Here's a picture she posted to Facebook displaying her find:

Also, on the way through Houston I left another at the red (formerly working) telephone booths off Westheimer. My original intention was to place it INSIDE the booth, but upon attempting the door, I discovered that the booths are now only replicas and have been welded shut. Good thing, I guess, considering back when my old band The Koopas played our first show there only blocks away at The Oven (also no longer there) back in '99, we saw two gentlemen doing something that in no way involved phones or calls in one of those things...

Anyway! That one was found by Blythe Gates. Thanks to you guys for picking up my trash!

I am now preparing a new batch of paintings that will be hidden throughout the Beaumont area in coming weeks. So, all you locals be on the lookout!

The way this works is I place the painting in a spot and IMMEDIATELY take a photo of it at the location (trying to give a good clue of it's whereabouts), then post it online via my Facebook page. Now, I realize that some of the areas these might be placed in will almost certainly assure that they'll be found long before someone else decides to check their Facebook newsfeed to get it's location, but in the event that the moons align and someone happens to be nearby, I would assume it might be fun to make the trek to snag it from the wild.

Truth be told, I completely ripped off the idea for doing this from two seperate news stories. One, on NPR about a musician that would bury cassette tapes of music he recorded (each tape being the ONLY copy of said songs) and then post the coordinates online for someone to go and dig up. The other, was a story about an artist (I forget his name, unfortunately) from New York who would place his art in public places throughout the city in a similar manner.

The best ideas are those tried and true.

Have fun!

No News is Good News

2011-07-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

Hello, faithful 2 followers of this site! I come from the internet void to bring you news that I in fact was not destroyed by the robot attack on Texas last month. I escaped unharmed, only a little shaken-up.

So, what have I been doing since then? None of your damned business.

However, I've recently decided that I've been taking entirely too long in finally completing my second series of Art-O-Mat 'Infamous Icons' paintings/drawings, so I will be wrapping that project up this next month in order to clear the plate for a new series that will revolve around...you guessed it - BIRDS! I'm going to be producing an ongoing line of bird-inspired work that I hope will be clogging up a large majority of Art-O-Mats across the globe, should I have my way.

Speaking of birds, the yellow bird shirts are still available for $10ppd. I was very surprised by the response I got the first go round with them. If anyone else would like one, I'm still making them. There will be a new design coming as soon as I get around to it. I destroyed one screen attempting it last time and gave up on it for a while. I think I'm ready to tackle the project again. This time it'll be fish. Can you guess what it's going to look like? View some of my previous art for a hint...

And where can you view my previous art? You may notice to the right that there is a new ad/link on the blog directing you to my new Facebook page, where you can find images of various pieces of my art, as well as annoying babbling and more! Kind of like here, but...different. Look, I don't make these sites, I just join them. This blog will still be functional, of course (well, as much as it can be - when was the last time I posted here? January?), but the purpose of the Facebook is to be a bit more interactive with everything...

...That brings me to my next hair-brained idea. Soon, I will begin posting random pieces of art that I will hide at various times at places throughout the area (Beaumont, TX mainly), which can be sought-out (using the provided photo as a clue to it's location), stumbled-upon and taken for the finder's personal enjoyment. I am doing this for two simple reasons - A. It's fun and B. it's a great way to get the stuff out of my house and into some hapless victim's.

Sure, it's basically just littering, but I'd like to think this might be interesting to some. At least I'll be amusing myself! So, stay tuned here and on the Facebook page for the first clues coming soon!

A Nice Day for a White Wedding...

2011-01-12T07:32:00.000-08:00

On January, 1st I was married to the most fantastic gal on the planet, Ms. Jamey Matte. We celebrated our wedding over the weekend at the beach on Bolivar with close family and it was a total blast!

Happy New Year to everyone!

BIRD SHIRTS!

2010-09-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

After finally deciding to give screenprinting a shot (something I've been wanting to attempt for many years now), I'm happy to offer to you, the bird-appreciating public... BIRD SHIRTS!

Each shirt is screenprinted by hand, beautiful black ink on annoyingly unavoidable yellow shirts for only $10 a pop - postage paid! To order your own, simply click the magical button below and select your size!

I'm sure these will only be the first of future designs to come featuring alternate artwork. I'm just beginning to learn the ropes with the screenprinting, but would definately like to try more with it. This design will only be available for a limited time, of course, since the screen surely wont last forever.

...SO ORDER 8!

VIVA LOS BIRD REVOLUTION!!

Bird is the Word

2010-08-26T20:31:00.000-07:00

So, I've got these birds...

The first time they appeared in my art work was probably June '06 in one of my small 4"x5" canvas paintings shown below:

Since then, I have done various different versions of the birds, big and small...

I've even taken to scrawling the simple creatures on random places like bathroom stalls, coins and dollar bills. I wouldn't consider them a trademark of mine, per say - anyone, including a 2 year old could draw them. But they've certainly endeared themselves to me and it's always fun to draw or paint them. I've even considered doing yet another Art-O-Mat project centered around the birds. In fact, that's something I'd very much like to do soon.

Well, this one drawing of the birds, a large poster-sized piece that I did of a massive flock of them inked out using Sharpie markers on cardboard, now hangs in the apartment above the computer desk.

I noticed that Sharpie had started a section on their website where people can upload and share their Sharpie-drawn artwork and certain pieces are selected to get reviewed by their doodle expert Sunni Brown. "A Doodle a Day", it's called. I uploaded a few of my pieces to the site, since a good 95% of my stuff is made using Sharpies (most of the time Sharpie on an acrylic-painted substance of some sort).

Low and behold! The bird flock drawing was picked as the doodle of the day yesterday and here's Sunni Brown's kind words on the piece:

"As shown by Charles Schulz, Tom Gauld and Jeff Kinney, simple, black-and-white cartoons never cease to be endearing. Pop Rob's gathering of birds charmed my feathers off, not only because each bird is unique and lovable, but because this doodle shows how the simple building blocks of visual language - the dot, line and circle - can be used to create a mini-masterpiece. Flock on, Pop Rob."

Here's a link to the page if you'd like to express your own approval/disapproval:

http://showcase.sharpieuncapped.com/pages/showimage/370568

SQUAWK!

And now a word from our sponsers...

2010-07-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

I got word today that the last bit of the 50 "Infamous Icons" block paintings I made for Art-O-Mat have been shipped out to various machines. No guarantees that some remain, but here's a quick list of some known machines across the country where you may or may not still be able to grab one of the pieces!

Art 251 in Keller, Tx
Whole Foods in Dallas, TX
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in Los Angeles, CA
Faces of the Earth in Northhampton, MA
SW School of Arts in San Antonio, TX
Create Here in Chattanooga, TN
Krankies in Winston-Salem, NC

I'm currently working on the second series of 'Infamous Icons', which will include an all new set of 50 icons from music, movies and pop culture NOT included in the first set. This will be a whole new group of people not attempted in the first batch!

SHAZAAM!

Poppy Robbie's Art Ruins the Set of Rachel Trachtenburg's Homemade World!

2010-03-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

A few years back I was asked to open a local show with The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow players. The club owner (Philip of the Vortex in Beaumont), was surprised that I even knew who they were - my immediate spazzing out over the question "do you want to open?" showed that I indeed did know who they were and was very much eager and honored to open for them. After meeting and playing with the Trachtenburgs that night, it was a pleasure to learn that they're just as friendly, charming and fun off stage as they are on.

A while back the Trachtenburgs posted a bulletin to their fans online calling for artists to submit artwork to help decorate the set of Rachel's 'Homemade World' show. Rachel's show is a wonderful mix of Pee Wee's Playhouse meets the Bananna Splits. It's fantastic!

I jumped at the chance to submit a piece, hoping to get it placed in the mix. I was going to attempt a portrait of the family, but ultimately decided upon a slide projector. Here's the piece:

Well, they decided to use it! Thanks, Trachtenburgs!

And on with the show!...

(be on the look out for some fun guest appearances)

Part One:

Part Two:

Pop Rob's Art-O-Mat "Infamous Icons" Project - COMPLETE CHECKLIST!

2010-01-25T08:55:00.000-08:00

After a little over a month, yesterday I completed my "Infamous Icons" project for Art-O-Mat. Now the pieces will be shipped off to them for distribution in their machines and hopefully will find new happy homes atop of mantles, toilets and dusty shelving across the globe!

Below is a checklist of all 50 pieces in the series, along with a svelt picture of all of them together, in order (in rows, starting left to right - you know, like reading a paragraph!)

Enjoy!

0. Rod Serling (10/19/09 - PROTOTYPE/SUBMISSION PIECE)
1. Woody Allen (12/10/09)
2. Audrey Hepburn (12/10/09)
3. David Letterman (12/10/09)
4. Joey Ramone (12/20/09)
5. Tom Petty (12/21/09)
6. Quentin Tarantino (12/21/09)
7. Zach Galifianakis (12/29/09)
8. Steve Buscemi (12/29/09)
9. Lou Reed (12/29/09)
10. Winona Ryder (1/7/10)
11. Graham Parker (1/7/10)
12. Buddy Holly (1/7/10)
13. Axl Rose (1/7/10)
14. Daniel Johnston (1/7/10)
15. Jonathan Richman (1/7/10)
16. Andy Warhol (1/7/10)
17. Jackson Pollock (1/7/10)
18. Vincent Van Gogh (1/7/10)
19. David Bowie (1/14/10)
20. Mitch Hedberg (1/14/10)
21. Conan O'Brien (1/14/10)
22. Richard Pryor (1/17/10)
23. Charles Bukowski (1/17/10)
24. Henry David Thoreau (1/17/10)
25. Chrissie Hynde (1/19/10)
26. Joan Jett (1/19/10)
27. Kim Shattuck (1/19/10)
28. Elvis Costello (1/19/10)
29. Joe Jackson (1/19/10)
30. Nick Lowe (1/19/10)
31. John Lennon (1/21/10)
32. George Harrison (1/21/10)
33. Paul McCartney (1/21/10)
34. Ringo Starr (1/21/10)
35. Ray Davies (1/21/10)
36. Brian Wilson (1/21/10)
37. Paul Westerberg (1/21/10)
38. Kurt Cobain (1/21/10)
39. Joe Strummer (1/21/10)
40. Bob Dylan (1/22/10)
41. Stevie Wonder (1/22/10)
42. Wreckless Eric (1/22/10)
43. Peter Sellers (1/24/10)
44. Pee Wee Herman (1/24/10)
45. Tiny Tim (1/24/10)
46. Michael Jackson (1/24/10)
47. Madonna (1/24/10)
48. Barack Obama (1/24/10)
49. Gary Busey (1/24/10)
50. Poppy Robbie (1/24/10)

Individual photos of each of the paintings may also be viewed in my "Infamous Icons" album on my Facebook page over HERE!

-r

Slowly, but Surely...

2010-01-10T19:37:00.000-08:00

It's been about a month since my last update. My apologies, I know that all 4 of you who have subscribed to this blog have just been clamoring at the bits to get an update!

Since last time I have been piecing together the 'Infamous Icons' Art-O-Mat project I mentioned before bit by bit. I'm not quite halfway into the set, but it's getting there. I intend on posting a complete checklist of the series here once it's completed, but until then if you'd like to view the current pieces and see the ongoing progress, they can be gazed upon over on my facebook page's album over HERE.

I've also updated the links for the current eBay art auctions as well.

YEP!

-r

Submitted for your approval...

2009-12-01T18:42:00.000-08:00

A few months back, someone suggested that I check out Art-O-Mat (www.artomat.org), this cool project started in North Carolina and now encompasing the globe, where they take old cigarette vending machines and turn them into oversized mini-art dispensers for around $5 a pop. All sorts of artists from all over submit pieces and the art is distributed around to the various machines scattered across all corners of the Earth for human consumption. The whole thing sounded amazing and I immediately was fumbling for the page to figure out how to submit my own artwork for approval.

For a while now, I have been interested in trying to do a large-scale series of paintings of movie stars, musicians and pop icons that I dig, similar to what I did back in February with the 28 consecutive paintings - only this time with a certain "theme" of sorts. The idea never really materialized and even though I have done a few musicians paintings here and there, I usually just end up sending the things to the people themselves who are being painted. Then, after hearing about Art-O-Mat, the idea seemed all too fitting not to give it a try. I decided to dub the project 'INFAMOUS ICONS' and rekindle the idea of doing a series of pop icons once again.

After a couple failed attempts at Johnny Carson and Don Rickles, I felt satisfied with an interpretation of The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling (pictured below).

I sent in the piece as a submission to Art-O-Mat, painted on a small wooden block about the size of a standard cigarette pack, along with my mock-up logo that would be used should my project be accepted. The logo would be placed in the machine's display window where the cigarette brands would normally appear. So, instead of Lucky Strike, Marlboro or Kool, instead you might see this:

A couple days ago, I recieved an email from the kind Art-O-Mat folks alerting me that my project submission had been approved. Today, I recieved the wooden blocks I had ordered to do each of my paintings on for the series - 50 in all. Here's a look inside the box...

This might take a while.

-r

Hark the Herald

2009-11-13T18:41:00.000-08:00

I plan on starting to actually use this blog for it's intended purposes soon. Really, folks! Ahem...

Until then, to the right of here you will see a current up to date listing displaying all of my available art for sale via eBay auction. Simply click one of the paintings to view it's auction page. That section will constantly be updated as pieces are sold and new paintings become available.

If you're so inclined, you may bookmark this page at your leisure - poppyrobbie.blogspot.com

Bird is the word,

-r