Литерaтурa По Форексу Скaчaть Бесплaтно Doc

Gus Fink is a commercial artist whose multidisciplinary work all falls within the umbrella of &#;Pop Art&#; &#; and like the Ur God of Pop, Andy Warhol, Gus works in every medium available: sculpting, painting, cartoons, film, clothing design, digital art, indie games and music.

Simply put, Gus is an all round pop art visionary!

Gus and his art came to our attention thanks to the recently released &#;Creeplings&#; series of designer toys, a collaborative effort between Gus and his equally talented wife Emi Boz &#; and just like all works that Gus is involved in, they are well worth checking out.

(Picture of some of the &#;Creeplings&#; series of blind box art toys, below)

With Gus constantly pushing his art and himself, working on project after project, now is the perfect time to get to know the man and his art, by reading the Art Talk interview below&#;

Basics/Getting to Know

Name + D.O.B?

Gus Fink

January 12th

(Some art by Gus below)

City, State n Country you currently call home?

Newark, Delaware, USA

City, State n Country your from?

Hazleton, PA, USA

Describe a memory from some stages of yr life ….basically trying to piece together your pivotal moments. Concerts, art, action-figures, romance, school, crime… ANYTHING man!

* age 5 – beginnings:

Started art around 2 and always felt a connection to it.

Around this time I was told to grab my medicine and I drank the whole bottle, not aware of how bad it was for me. Luckily my mom was able to take me to the ER and save my life.

(Picture below of Gus aged 2 with his Grandfather)

* age 10 – continuations:

By now I was overweight and had no friends.

Every day I lived in fear of getting beatings from my older brother and was a poor student &#; there wasn&#;t much hope, just hiding.

* age 15 – getting serious:

More overweight and being an outcast where I was only able to slightly fit in with other misfits that had similar or worst situations than myself.

These friends helped me discover comic books this was a pivital age for me where I realized I wanted more for my life.  I decided to workout every day and prove people wrong about me.

(Picture of Gus &#; on the left &#; aged 17 with a friend)

* age 20 – young adult:

By now I fully found myself and done more with my life than during childhood, My art style was fully being developed.

I started a comic book company and let it fail at 16, graduated high school at 17 took a few months off to work at a subway till I decided to get a 2 year degree in computer animation. I graduated top of my class but realized it was a joke degree and didn&#;t want to move to LA to look for work. Instead I opened up a strange punk rock shop with a good friend and little money.

At 21 I decided to fully be an artist and my shop was closed down &#; it was a small earning but I was much happier than doing the fast food and walmart type jobs my peers were doing. I was an un-credited entrepreneur making less than my friends but with the pleasure of doing what I wanted.

(Picture below of Gus aged 20 in his old shop)

* age 25 – adult mode:

Steadily growing my art business at 26 I became a father and this stepped up my work mode and goals.

I&#;ve had several comic books published and started licensing my artwork and ideas into different toy lines including the (age 27) Boogily Heads, Stitch Kittens, Puff Dogs, SkullGnome, Boogily Bunnies &#; and did the first blind bag mini comic and sticker packs.

(Picture below of Gus aged 25)

* age 30 – fully formed:

A father of 2 by now and lived during a bad economy forced me to think up new ideas to make income off my art.

Things always change and you got to change with them. I moved around a lot and wasn&#;t with the mother of my children. Persevering through tough times and many more to come.

Still I was able to grow my brands , my art and think of many more ideas.

* age 35 – adult continuations:

I now make video games, many toys, apparel and write/direct short films and am looking to do feature films.

&#; The roads path changes all the time and every day I wake up not knowing where my next dollar is or how.

But something happens , something comes of the day and like magic it always works out.

I have the greatest person in my life and finally feel free. This freedom of creativity has me motivated to quickly take any idea and execute it.

(A recent picture below of Gus Fink and his wife Emi Boz)

Personal motto?

Every moment has a purpose, you just have to give it the right one.

Favorite band(s)?

STRFKR,The Browning, Suicide Silence, Dr. Acula, Pixies, Nirvana, Chelsea Grin, DeadMau5

I don&#;t have a favorite just like a lot of different stuff that helps the mood I&#;m in.

(Picture below of Gus aged 23 and playing in his old band &#;Bleed as One&#;)

Favorite TV show(s)?

The leftovers, The office, Stranger things,Hard Knocks, Tales from the Crypt&#;

HBO does the best TV

Favorite sport(s) + teams?

American Football

Philadelphia Eagles

(Pictures below of some art by Gus)

Favorite movie(s)?

The Shining, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the Royal Tennenbaums, the First Nightmare on Elmstreet, Star Wars, Batman movies

Favorite books and comics?

Batman + Spawn

Art Questions

Favorite other artist(s)?

Kurt Cobain, Jim Hensen, whomever designed M.U.S.C.L.E. men toys

Worst aspect of the contemporary art-hustle?

The politics + the gimmicks

(Pictures below of some art by Gus)

Best aspect of the contemporary art-hustle?

Capabilities of doing anything, finding anyone and making it happen.

Do you consider what you are making to be ‘art’, ‘design’, re-hashed crap?

True art from my mind , from the universe.

When and why did you first start making ‘art’ (drawings, paintings, anything)?

It&#;s natural for children to feel the need to create and I never let that go. Most people let go of their child spirit and to me it was who I am, I didn&#;t want to grow away from it so I never did.

(Pictures below of some art by Gus)

What did you draw and make as a pre-teen child?

Average stuff for the most part but at 9 I decided to draw the things I saw when I closed my eyes. took me years to realize not everyone can see the things I see.

It&#;s something God given.

What did you draw and make as a teen?

Wanted to be a cool comic book artist for awhile and I did really bad drawings that nobody liked. When I was I started to find my own style and it was the same flow of creativity it always had.

Any pivotal artistic moment/influence?

Seeing the Basquiat movie made an impact , it showed me that you didn&#;t have to be a boring taught artist but could do it your own way and I loved knowing you could make it as an artist without rules.

I really hate rules to any art and letting go of all that helped me take off.

(Picture below showing the &#;Basquiat&#; film poster &#; Gus&#; pivotal artistic influence)

Why + when did you decide to go in on the art hustle?

I&#;m terrible at doing the normal things that most do and I really get depressed when I had to do it. Going to school , working for others it left me so biter and angry I decided to quit at a young age and had nothing to fall back on.

This forced me to stay hungry and work hard for every dollar so I could eat and pay rent.

Describe the process of producing your art&#;

I like to not know what I will create and let it happen.

It&#;s my favorite when I get to think up new things, new stories , new ideas and then make it happen exactly how I want to.

* Your sketches + comics?

I don&#;t do comics too much any more &#; they don&#;t give me the pleasure that they used to. But I will still write them and  design&#;. I&#;m always sketching and usually don&#;t plan it just let it flow with the current feeling.

* Your paintings?

Same thing, unless its a commission &#; one thing I should mention is I like to make things that I would enjoy, not for others. This helps me enjoy the process and not worry what others think &#; usually this is my best work too when I do it right.

* Your digital art?

Digital art is my pre-planned art. Digital art is for something that needs to be correct so it&#;s my only planned art for the most part.

So for packaging, or animation projects, video games I usually start off the computer and then do the digital to enhance &#;.sometimes it&#;s all digital but not often.

Toy Questions

Describe the process of producing your sculptural creations? – from original sculpt, moulding, production, to finally holding that sweet sweet finished product in your hands&#; (dot point all o.k.)

I mostly sculpt the way I paint and draw, without much pre planning &#; just feel of the moment kind of work&#; once in awhile I&#;ll do it a little pre planned and then it will certainly turn out different.

Your ‘Creeplings’ blind box series recently had a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign – getting funded and garnering a lot of praise and press&#;

* What role do you each play in ‘Creeplings’?

I drew them out and let Emi (my wife) sculpt &#; then I had to tell her if there was anything I didn&#;t like on the first few &#; she learns quickly and does an amazing job. She can take my flat drawings and make them come to life.

She&#;s much better at sculpting my drawings then myself and it&#;s a perfect balance and combination.

* Why the name ‘Creeplings’?

I used to own a website called creeplings for these creepy photos I did &#; I always loved the name it started from a strange painting I did.

I never forget fun names I come up with.

* How do you see the series and concept developing – a cartoon, game, plush toys etc?

As big as any IP really I think all of my ideas can grow out and become something of all media and materials as long as the masses love it.

(Pictures below of the &#;Creeplings&#; line of blind box figures)

What release do you both get from collaborating, that you don’t get working independently?

Emi and I collaborate on every project in some aspect. We discuss most all we work on and share ideas constantly &#; everyday is full of priorities and things to get done.

What ever happened to your old plush toy series ‘Kreebils’?

They are still alive just taking a break for now.

We were supposed to do cool plastic toys of them but it didn&#;t happen.

(Pictures below of the &#;Kreebils&#; line of plush toys)

Are art-toys for the kids?

Yes, our toys are more for kids than adults but cool enough for adults to enjoy.

Kids are very important to me and I already seen how cool the new generations are that grew up with boogily heads and are adults now. It&#;s so cool to see that happen.

Is the rise of ‘art’ toys an indication of the changing nature of ‘art’? OR just a bunch of nerds with too much $$$ and time?

I never was part of the cool club of art toys or accepted in any way. I used to really want to be part of that little special group.

I think my toys are more for kids than adults and maybe that&#;s why, I don&#;t know but I really just do my own thing and not worry about those details anymore.

Thoughts on the rise of resin as an artistic medium?

I&#;m glad people can do that stuff, I&#;m not good at it but I also don&#;t have much energy for it.

What role did toys play in your childhood?

A huge roll &#; they are a big reason I do what I do, that and cool 80&#;s films.

Odds n Ends

Please describe your experiences growing up in the USA?

I grew up in a small town that I really enjoyed.  But saw it change and grow violent. Dark and crime filled

I enjoyed spending time with my grandfather and uncle, as my father left a lil bit after when I was born.

Hazleton was mostly an Italian place. Me not being Italian I was excluded from most things but overall I look back and just focus on the good. Which was growing. And learning from experiences rather then all the bad.

Who was your 1st crush and why?

Madonna.

&#;Who&#;s that Girl&#; movie came out and I was in awe.  I guess it&#;s the powerful artist and actress she was in one.

She was the 80s so it was hard not to crush on her.

(Picture below of the poster for the film &#;Who&#;s That Girl &#; featuring Gus&#; childhood crush, Madonna)

Does sex change everything?

Can&#;t say it does.

Please describe your latest dream in detail…

Don&#;t want to give good ideas out.  Lots of great ideas come from dreams.   But I&#;ll make one up and see where it goes&#;

The was a factory that used to make clocks.  It went abandoned long ago with the owner dying inside. But when a teenage cat decided to rest inside he accidently turned the owners clock heart back on.  Now all the old sold clocks are in sync with the factory&#;

Wait this sounds more like a strange movie or something &#; Sorry!

Of everything you have done what would you most like to be remembered for and why?

I don&#;t think I&#;ve done my most memorial stuff yet.

(Pictures below of some art by Gus)

Drugs – waste of time or gateway to the universe?

Huge waste of time for people like me. I never wanted to be around or get involved with them.

The body and mind should be treated with more respect and take in all the reality we perceive so we can come up with better ways to change it with good sober thought.

Please describe what you think the American Psyche/Zeitgeist is today?

The American psyche today. Hmm.  So do you mean what the masses are thinking and feeling &#;  And my take on it?!

Without being political. Respect at all times. Americans want it. And respect is really from love &#; The world wants to be loved and respected.

Americans are a diverse pool of all kinds from this planet. Probably the most diverse. Which is why it&#;s hated and also so loved and great at coming up with cool things. It&#;s the perfect center point to grow up poor. Be carved up and look to make it.

Probably didn&#;t answer this well. But I believe personal opinions only get people overly criticized in today&#;s internet mind set.

Which ’s era cartoon, would you most like to see in a tribute sex toy, and why?

&#;I guess this is why it&#;s called art whore? I don&#;t consider myself an art whore in any way. Almost didn&#;t do the article since it&#;s called that.

But I like what you&#;re doing over all and how we connected&#;

Who would win in a fight and why: a redneck on his way home from the pub Vs. A gang of teen art punks out on the town?

I&#;d say the rabbit with the baseball bat would defeat the clown bear with hammer.

Gus Fink – Stand Alone Questions

You have been involved in the indie game ‘Fright Show Fighter’ released by 3Fright

* who is involved and what role did you each play in the game making process?

I did all the character designs and background designs.

I didn&#;t do the 3D graphics.  Jeff Brown took my designs and does what he does best as well as animating everything.

Doug K is our master mind programmer and invented his own game engine.

Together the 3 of us are the perfect video game trio and love what we do.

* why the decision to venture into the world of games?

Video games are the future.  And I loved them so much growing up.  It&#;s another dream come true.

People seem to be against making dreams come reality but I&#;ve always believed in them. And not giving up on any of them.

* any other game projects in the works – either independently or with 3Firght?

I&#;ve done some others and have a few in different stages but the other people I work with don&#;t get things done in a timely manner. Which is why it&#;s so delayed.

More will happen. Mostly with 3 fright.

(Pictures below of the &#;Fright Show Fighter&#; game)

I discovered you also make films when researching your interview, which was a nice surprise!

* Who is involved in the making of your films?

I&#;ve been working with a lot of people and made new friends from my new films. I now live in a great area which I wasn&#;t used to seeing people so kind to helping me with my ideas and visions when it comes to making films.

I write and direct and executive produce them and have assorted actors, Cinematographer, and loads of others helping out. Producers. Audio. Musicians. Editors.

All great people too!

* Care to explain your recent film – ‘Hubert and the Night People’?

Hubert is my first film. I&#;ve done 2 since that are near completion.

Hubert is about a lonely middle aged man that has no friends in the real world but each night is visited by the night people after he does his daily routines. The night is what he lives for. The days he dreads.

(Pictures below of Gus&#;s film work &#;Hubert and the Night People&#; in VHS format)

What ever happened to your old project ‘Dr Kinkles’?

It&#;s not an old project but still going. It&#;s more so a brand for certain ip we do. So instead of saying by Gus fink, it will be by Dr Krinkles.

It&#;s a very long story that I&#;ll talk more about in 10 years haha!

What is the backtale – both artistic and narritive – to your art toy series ‘Boogily Heads’?

For boogily heads I&#;m in a car so I&#;ll make it a lil short&#;

Artistically I wanted to produce a line direct from my sculptures. This was a time when all the smooth slick artist vinyl were out but not many sculpted them. I also wanted to do something my way. Since making them I noticed recently the design is being copied of the body shape and such with no legs

The backstory on them is they are creatures from my head and came alive in the boogily world . From creating a magical box I was able to take my original sculptures and make them real once placed in the fink box

(Pictures below of some of the &#;Boogily Heads&#;)

How did you come to have your Antique Horror clothing designs stocked in ‘Hot Topic’?

I&#;ve met some great people that sell into hot topic and we became good friends.

At first we weren&#;t sure which line to do but they really loved the antique horror line.

So it&#;s been a fun progression and experience.

(Pictures below of some of Gus&#; &#;Antique Horror&#; t shirt line)

The Future

Any collaborations on the horizon?

Films and video games are the ultimate collaboration.

I&#;m sure I&#;ll be doing more.

Most of my projects I can&#;t announce until their release so I got to keep this more brief&#;

Any major projects you want to hype?

Let&#;s see&#;.   eunic-brussels.eu for sure.

Gooli monsters and Stitch kittens have brand new plush toys that are launching as we speak.

Keep an eye out for my video games release and stay tuned on my films. I suppose that&#;s all!

Thanks for the opportunity.

Links

Introduction

Hello everyone, if you’ve visited my blog in the past, you probably know that I like to write about topics such as spirituality, mental struggles, and growth. And if you haven’t I greet you wholeheartedly.

In the few posts that I’ve written, I talked a lot about my spiritual growth and how this came about, so if you’re interested in reading those stories or want to enjoy a little refresher feel free to check them out here. Usually, these posts were very long, and I would work on them for about a week or two. I intend to change this from now on and instead want to focus on writing more posts regularly.

There are a couple of reasons for that and all of them have to do with being paralyzed by insecurity. Insecurity has been a general theme in my life which I recently decided to take head-on. It was also the primary reason I stopped writing at the time. I was feeling overwhelmed and was very insecure about myself. This is furthermore why my posts were so long because I was being too perfectionistic about it. 

“Insecurity kills all that is beautiful.”

~Demi Lovato

Relapse

At the time that I was posting on my blog, I was sober and talked about my previous relationship with weed. Regrettably, after that summer I completely relapsed into my old habits. Three months after I smoked my first joint that year I was back to smoking daily. Alongside it enforced even deeper feelings of regret, shame, and insecurity. But why was I feeling so insecure in the first place? 

Looking back at it now, I remember being extremely ambitious at the time. My girlfriend (now fiancee) and I just got together, and I was ready to start my dream life. At least I thought I was. 

I never really addressed the problem of insecurity. I was just trying to fake it ‘til I made it, which can be an effective strategy from time to time. But it can get difficult if insecurity is so deeply rooted in your survival strategy.

You might be wondering what I was so insecure about. At the time it was many things. First of all, I had no idea where my career was going. I never completed a study and was worried that if my newly found girlfriend were to see my inability to become successful the relationship wouldn’t last. As a result, I tried extra hard to become a person of significance. And over the past 2 years, I’ve started and quit multiple entrepreneurial endeavors.

So as you can see the problem I was trying to avoid led me to my failures. Fortunately for me though, my girlfriend was very understanding of the situation. She loves me no matter what person I become. 

“Only the insecure strive for security.”

~Wayne Dyer

The Root Of The Problem

Not long ago, I quit weed again and this time I made it a very conscious undertaking. I made sure to have people to talk to and aid me through the entire process. I wrote daily in my diary to make sure I never forget why I quit and which things triggered me to smoke weed. I’ll write about this more in-depth in the upcoming posts.

As I’ve been focussing on my insecurity issues it occurred to me that I’ve had troubles dealing with this my entire life. This is also presumably the main reason I never finished a study, and in more recent times didn’t manage to succeed as an entrepreneur. Every time the going got tough I felt overwhelmed and instead of breaking through this resistance I just grabbed the first thing that distracted me from this uneasy feeling. Most of the time, this was weed, but another one of my favorite distraction tools was gaming. 

Over the years it has come to grow on me that this is indeed the case. I am distracting myself whenever I feel overwhelmed and need to stop doing it and start working on the things that I see myself doing in the future. The problem has been that all of this primarily happens unconsciously. And so without even thinking about it, I would already be smoking a joint or have started up a video game. 

One of my favorite things to tell myself was that I just genuinely liked doing these things. The underlying frustration that came from that I simply redirected onto other things or people.

For example:

‘Why are my teammates so bad at this game?’

‘Why aren’t people just nice to each other?’

There was always a way to redirect my frustrations in some way, while in reality I was frustrated with myself for not pushing through the resistance I felt. It’s been this way for a very long time. When I was a teenager I would do the same thing. 

“Sometimes our thoughts are backed by so much insecurity that they create lies we believe.”

The Solution

There are probably hundreds of approaches to fixing this problem. Chances are likely that I’ve read or have known about all of them for a while now. Which in a way further developed the issues I was dealing with. I call this Paralysis By Overanalysis. Simply put, I’d rather engage in learning about how to deal with the problem than deal with the actual problem.

This, in turn, would result in feeling even more insecure, because every time I learned a new solution another thing was added to the List Of Things I Need To Do, But Can’t For Some Reason.

This is also why being addicted to something is so incredibly dangerous because whatever reasoning I had to engage in the addiction stemmed from some kind of negative emotion. The interaction is always cyclical. In the very same way, the solutions I might find can be cyclical. 

Anyone outside of the same addiction pattern would simply tell me to quit. And this is the only real solution to any addiction. The result of quitting brought up that negative emotion I had been avoiding for years now, insecurity.

Aside from writing about it and putting my insecurities on paper for everyone to read, I meditate on it every morning. I sit down and let myself get into a deep trance state. After I reach the state of being completely relaxed, I bring up this feeling of insecurity and observe it as if it wasn’t me. Then I acknowledge to myself that this is the feeling I want to overcome and that I desire to be free from it.

So far it felt like I’ve made huge progress in this. My insecurities do still arise, and I certainly have a long way to go, but working on it actively has unleashed a bunch of energy within me. I can now work on my career without feeling like a failure. I started working on art with a passion I’ve never felt before and have rekindled with the beauty of writing. These are just the first steps and I’m excited to keep working towards the life that I dream about.

“It’s only when you get beyond the emotion of fear and move into the unknown -despite the fear- that you turn your fear into passion and courage.”

~Dr. Joe Dispenza

Last Words

Thank you for reading this post, and I hope that you enjoyed reading it. If there’s anything you recognized about yourself or want to share with me, feel free to leave a comment. As I said earlier I’m making it a goal to post regularly. Some of the upcoming topics I want to write about are motivation, quitting weed, and meditation. On top, I am going to make an extra section on the blog to share my art. 

Make sure to sign up your email to the email list or follow me on social media to get the latest updates.

Levi Brackman (born ) is a Judaic scholar, rabbi, teacher, writer and religious leader who has been active in both England and the United States and whose writings are featured regularly in Jewish publications internationally and on the Internet.

Upbringing and Education

A native of London, Brackman studied at Yeshivot in Israel, America and Canada and has taught classes in Halacha, Talmud, prayer and Jewish mysticism at Yeshivat Hadar Hatorah in New York and at the Mayanot Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. He received rabbinical ordination from Rabbi Zalman Nechemia Goldberg and Rabbi Mordechai Ashkenazi of the Tzemach Tzedek rabbinical college in the Old City of Jerusalem and has a graduate degree from University College London.

Levi Brackman comes from a family of seven boys and two girls, including brothers Rabbi Yossi Brackman the director of the Chabad Jewish Center at the University of Chicago and Rabbi Eli Brackman director of Chabad Society and The David Slager Jewish Student Centre both at Oxford University, UK.

Career

In January , Brackman was appointed to the position of senior rabbi at the Enfield & Winchmore Hill Synagogue where he become known for his inspiring sermons, thought-provoking articles, lively and insightful lectures, and effective life and marriage counseling. He no longer holds that position.

Brackman is founding member and executive director of The Movement for a Tolerant World, an organization that offers young people in Asia, the Middle East and other parts of the globe, a positive and tolerant ideology that provides them with the opportunity to make real and positive changes in their community and the world.

In August , Brackman started a Jewish outreach and cultural organization entitled Judaism in the Foothills, which serves the Foothill communities in the western part of the Denver, Colorado metropolitan area. Brackman is the executive director of Judaism in the Foothills.

Publications and Works

Brackman's weekly column, which is distributed over the Internet to thousands globally, is also published on Israeli daily Yedioth Achronoth's English-language website "eunic-brussels.eu". His writings, which cover pertinent social and political issues of the day, have been published on many other popular websites such as "eunic-brussels.eu", "eunic-brussels.eu", "eunic-brussels.eu", "eunic-brussels.eu", "eunic-brussels.eu" and "eunic-brussels.eu", among others. They can also be found on his website.

Brackman’s writings have been published in, among others, The Denver Post, The Intermountain Jewish News (Colorado), Torah Studies (New York), Etehaad (California), and The Canyon Courier. They have also appeared in the Australian Jewish News and in the UK, in The Jewish Chronicle and Hamodia. He has also appeared on TV and his work has been featured in newspapers both in the USA and in the UK. In addition Brackman is often quoted as an expert in major Jewish publications such as The Jewish Post, The Jewish Chronicle, The Jewish Journalamongst others.

Books

Brackman is co-author of Jewish Wisdom for Business Success: Lesson from the Torah and Other Ancient Texts (AMACOM/American Management Association, ). The book uses some of the world's greatest writings-the Torah and other Jewish sacred texts-to achieve incredible business results

“The darkness always lies,” said Anthony Liccione and I agree with his statement. It’s not often that I’ll complain publicly or even mention politics, but I’ll dip my toe in the water and make a statement concerning emailing integrity. Mostly, I’m willing to comment on this subject because I feel this reaches a place close to everyone’s pocket or home: in their email inbox. I felt fooled and embarrassed that I allowed myself to be subjected to trickery; I wish this tactic would end soon. What’s sad for me is I sort of trusted this particular politician to be one of the “new kind of politicians” that is suppose to be trustworthy and an authority figure from outside of political tricks.

There was an interesting Facebook meme about student loan debt. It was comical and witty, so I clicked the thumbs up to share the post with my inner circle of friends. A week later, a post from the same group showed up on my Facebook timeline. It was a conversation started by Elizabeth Warren about student loans. I admit, I commented on the conversation and signed up to be notified on the progress of her bill Bank of Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act to amend the Higher Education Act of I am not stating if I did or did not support her bill, but I was interested in what would happen. In fact, I don’t know much about the bill other than I liked the name of it. I signed up for one newsletter specifically about the process of a particular bill, and I ended up being bombarded with dozens of other emails with all sort of agendas not related to what i signed up for. Some governor out west, a congress woman from New England, and blast emails from senators I never heard before… they started emailing me, “Hey Benjamin, yada yada yada oh by the way, buy my book or donate to some fund.”

Here’s what happened: her webpage systematically released my email to her political party and they used the information on my Facebook profile to know which topics I might be interested in. Regardless if I am interested in those issues or not, I feel tricked that my email address was disrespected and used as just another email account to blast information to. I don’t appreciate this type of online behavior. As I opt out of one email campaign, their system opts me into other campaigns. What’s apparent to me now is that if I can’t trust her with my email address, how can I trust her with the ins-and-outs of her bill? “That demon will trick you faster than a politician with a liquor license.”― Erik Bundy

I believe I have room to talk when it comes to handling large lists of email addresses. I work in a field similar. Some of our clients have more people on their email list than Tallahassee has population (and they grew those list correctly). We help our clients grow and engage their community just like Ms. Warren was trying to do through marketing systems and using a very powerful method of email marketing as well. However, we coach and practice honest double opt-ins and true unsubscribe features. I’ll give one free tip and tactic to anyone who engages an audience with email: build your list honestly.

Do you have any spam email stories to share? Feel free to comment below.

Lee Burbridge of &#;Big Man Toys&#; outta the United Kingdom produces sculptural works that are technically brilliant, backed up by great concepts and importantly incorporate Lee&#;s love of theatricality, learnt from his many years spent in the wrestling game &#; both in Japan and the UK.

Giant tree-monsters, female warriors, imposing sentient buildings, mutant warriors, robots and wrestlers all making up the &#;Big Man Toys&#; universe so far.

(Picture below of the Wo-Man figure by &#;Big Man Toys&#;)

With lots of praise generated by his Wo-Man and TreeGarr pieces, as well as recent contributions to the &#;Mystical Warriors of the Ring&#; series, now is the perfect time to get schooled on Lee Burbridge and &#;Big Man Toys&#;.

So get to know Lee Burbridge and &#;Big Man Toys&#; in the Art Talk below&#;

Basics/Getting to Know

City, State n Country you’re Repping?

Brighton, East Sussex, UK.

Although if I were to &#;rep&#; a city, it&#;d be hometown,  Portsmouth.

(Picture of Mr. &#;Big Man Toys&#;, below)

Describe a memory from three stages of yr life ….basically trying to piece together Mr. Big Man Toys’ pivotal moments. Concerts, art, action-figures, women, school, college, Halloween… ANYTHING man.

* age 10 – pre pubes:

He-man was the first influence. I thought I was him.

I was blonde, had a similar hairstyle, and frequently fought a skinny bully with a skeletal face from the age of 4 –   I threw him down a set of stairs and knocked him out with a big rock and  he attacked me with a carpet knife and set a pack of Jack Russells on me.

After that, skateboarding, MUSCLE figure swapping with friends in the sun, Garbage Pail Kids the movie, Jackie Chan movies, Flesh Gordon 2, Action Force/ GI Joes,  Pro-wrestling on the Sega Master System, the Puppet Master movies, and TMNT.

I bought my first Eastman and Laird comic from Mondo Comics in at the age of 11 from Dan, the guy who now runs Unbox Industries! My first taste of violent comics and artwork I could really get into. That led to me collecting AD and Punisher.

I found Akira and that changed my life for the worse as I spent a few years where I should have been enjoying myself with girls being a smelly anime nerd.

* age 15 – pube rage:

 I got picked on in school due to looking like a fat girl with a nasty pony-tail.

It built character, and I spent ages skating by myself, playing video games, reading Robert Crumb comics, going to anime conventions just for the toys, and as soon as I left school, I started lifting weights and getting more and more into music and wrestling.

* age 20 – acceptance of pubes:

I had a good time at university. I studied Japanese, and focused completely on my studies during that time.

I&#;ve never been officially &#;straight edge&#; but saw a lot of people I knew getting their momentum killed with drugs so I just never felt tempted to try them.

I spent a year in Japan with my studies and that was the best.

I lived really near Akihabara and Korakuen hall, the toy and wrestling capitals of the world, and collected all the beautiful Chara-pro wrestling figures on the cheap as pro-wrestling was losing in popularity in Japan to MMA.

(Pictures below of the Nuclearman figure by &#;Big Man Toys&#;)

Personal motto/quote?

“Proof&#;s in the pudding!”

Favorite band(s)?

Danzig, Moistboyz, GG Allin, Type O-Negative, Rollins, Deathstars, Therion, Mortiis, Einsturzende Neubauten, Strawberry Switchblade, Manowar.

Favorite TV show(s)?

Storage Hunters, Walking Dead, Archer, Blakes 7, STNG, Twin Peaks, Sharpe, LEXX, ROME.

Favorite sport(s) + teams?

No sports for me!

Favorite movie(s)?

Flesh Gordon 2 – really is all you need.

Favorite books and comics?

John Wyndham and Alfred Bester novels, and lots of autobiographies. I&#;m on the 5^th Chopper book right now.

On comics, the Hernandez bros, old TMNT, Geoff Darrow, Urayasu Tekkin Kazoku (like South Park but Japanese), and most stuff on Fantagraphics.

I&#;ve also been very inspired by my friends Ralph Niese and Pablo Perra and am really trying to have a crack at comics myself.

Favorite monsters?

The ones from the Guyver movies, Flesh Gordon 2, GWAR, and Baltan from Ultraman.

Specifics on Art

Do you consider what you are making to be ‘art’, ‘design’, re-hashed crap?

I suppose anything you do that someone else thinks is interesting to look at is art of some kind.

If it&#;s good enough to be instantly impressive, as in something you definitely would not have seen elsewhere, then you&#;ve done a good job.

I live in a city where &#;artist&#; means &#;attention seeking and lazy&#; so I don&#;t use the term for myself much.

(Picture below of the header art for the Wo-Man figure by &#;Big Man Toys&#;, drawn by Lee Burbridge)

When and why did you first start making ‘art’ (toys, drawings, paintings, anything)?

I&#;m not a master of anything but I suppose I started making toys worth a light about two years ago when I bought my pressure pot.

Why + when did you decide to go in on the art hustle?

Two years ago, as I quit wrestling and wanted to justify my existence.

Any formal art training? Or pivotal moment/influence?

A guy who goes by the name Gold-Dober (eunic-brussels.eu), who is a master craftsman and toymaker answered literally hundreds of my mails on casting and moldmaking, as well as inspired me with his own work.

The first piece of resin I saw was a Dungeons and Dragons figure by Marty Hansen and I was determined to have a crack.

Company motto?

Please buy it. I&#;m not proud.

Favorite ‘other’ artist(s)?

They are mostly my mates, as it&#;s a scene where you can make mates with people you admire easily.

You are about to see a list of people that make things that are like MOTU, MUSCLE, or Micronauts.

These are not the only people I respect but are the ones I follow for my own collecting purposes: The God Beast, Ben Spencer, Luke and Pablo at &#;Goodlegtoys&#;, &#;ManOrMonster&#;, Gold Dober, TruTek, Zectron,  John Santagada, Ben Mininberg, Eric Nilla, Luke Harris, Zoomoth, Jimmy Rommel, &#; customs&#;, Meadowknight, &#;Rampage Industries&#; and Ralph Niese perpetually blows my brain – he&#;s far too modest.

Worst aspect of the contemporary art-hustle?

I don&#;t make enough money to give a hoot about any politics by people who have a hard-on for themselves.

Luckily they are few and far between, and an opposite end of the spectrum to me in terms of their style and &#;scene&#;.

Best aspect of the contemporary art-hustle?

It reminds me of when I first got into Biohazard (the band) or Suicidal Tendancies. We&#;re all sick of the same old poseurish crap and want to bring back the flavor to toys and comics, and make something physical and real.

I&#;ve been helped out by people and try to do the same. It&#;s very positive and it&#;s ours!

Lee Burbridge Art Questions

Describe the method of making a ‘Big Man Toys piece? (dot point all o.k.)

&#; your resin sculptural work?

Wire armature (or built onto an existing figure), then Sculpey, Milliput, and nowadays Castelline, in layers, until i&#;m happy.

Then I sand and file bits to tidy it, and spray with primer to spot any areas that need more sanding, and protect in the molding process.

(Pictures below of the original sculpt, mold and finished D-Structure resin)

&#; your drawings and illustrations?

A piece of A4 on a clipboard with pencil, then a standard set of pens.

Sometimes I&#;ll do something good in ball-pen on a notepad and trace it.

Then it all gets scanned and gimmicked up in GIMP.

What was it like collaborating with John Santagada – Mr. Radioactive Uppercut &#; on the header art for your TreeGarr creation?

(Picture below of John Santagada&#;s header art for the TreeGarr figure from &#;Big Man Toys&#;)

It was great as I really didn&#;t think I was doing anything that good. I thought Treegarr was selling well because Ben Spencer pimped it, so having John like it enough to do the header art was a huge boost for my confidence.

I now realise Treegarr is the bollocks.

Does your self-directed work all exist in its own ‘universe’? (Yes; I am basically asking if you see your characters all interacting in your head.) …IF so, what do they get up to?

Only with the MWOTR comic. Otherwise, the toys are toys for toys&#; sake.

What happened to your old artistic collaborator, Riverside Rambo? Was he consumed by ‘Big Man Toys’ or has he gone rogue in the wild toy factories of China?

Haha! I can&#;t believe you dug that out! That was before I had any intention of doing toys and selling them. That&#;s my best mate, who&#;s done a bit of standup and strongly encouraged me to make &#;Battle Gaze&#;.

Lee Burbridge Wrestling Questions

What has it been like being a part of the ‘Mystical Warriors of the Ring’ series of toys and comics along with ‘Fantastic Plastic’?

So cool. Literally all my childhood dreams come true. Minifigs and wrestling comics. Kinnikuman brought to my ECW-loving brain and splatted out.

Having Treegarr in there is the cherry on the cake.

Mark Vasquez is a great guy to work with and totally not up himself, despite how well the series is doing.

(Picture of some of Lee&#;s art for the Mystical Warriors of the Ring series by &#;Fantastic Plastic&#;)

Please explain to those at home the appeal of we-all-know-it’s-fake-Wrestling such as ECW, WWF etc.

It is true art, even if wrestlers don&#;t think so themselves.

You tell a story with your body and make crowds of people get totally invested in what you are doing for 20 minutes. Just two of you, and the ref, in a ring.

I respect the intellect and heart of a good wrestler over 70% of people who dub themselves &#;artists&#; any day.

I know you have wrestled as well your-self – in Japan as well as the UK. What were the best and worst gimmicks you encountered during your time as a wrestler?

 Hmmm, best gimmick might be &#;Senpai&#; – a masked Yakuza who fights without taking his hands out of his pockets, and the worst would be a guy I met who wore a shonky Kane mask and had a hardcore match with light chair shots with his mate during the interval in front of 5 confused children.

(Picture below of Mr. Lee Burbridge getting his wrestle on)

Why did you decide to leave the wrestling world?

I was constantly frustrated with myself every time I trained or wrestled, and was losing money all the time on days off work and travel. I think I was alright for how long I did it but I needed to get my life sorted instead of chasing dreams when I quit.

Toys I can do after dinner, before bed&#;

What are your thoughts on the current state of wrestling?

It&#;s a shame the money&#;s not so good, but in terms of the matches etc, I think it gets better all the time.

We&#;ve got the internet to make it truly international and people are really honing beautiful craft with their mix of styles from all over the world.

WWE&#;s still ok sometimes. People don&#;t need to get jacked up on drugs to make a living if they are good.

A lot of the Diva&#;s are shit but I&#;m sure there&#;ve always been eye-candy semi-wrestlers for people to look at.

Toy Questions

What are your thoughts on the current status of the art-toy ‘scene’, and why?

I&#;m quite optimistic. I don&#;t think it&#;ll ever be something that MTV gives it&#;s own reality show to but I really like it.

I mean there are many people, most really, that I have nothing in common with creatively apart from the fact that we make 3D objects.

I hope it develops a real culture though, as a recognised creative medium.

I hope more people see it the way I do “I like comics by this guy, movies by this guy, and toys by this guy”.

Why the decision to make a whole line of toys – your Battle Gaze series &#; that are not only anatomically correct, but also… Shall we say… ready for action?

(Pictures below of some of the BattleGaze series by &#;Big Man Toys&#;)

I had re-bought Flesh Gordon II on DVD and if it didn&#;t have a hard cock stiff dick in it, it didn&#;t cut the cock-mustard at that time.

No one&#;s &#;cool&#;! If you deem yourself &#;cool&#;, you&#;re trying to be cool which makes you a dork. We&#;re all dorks – human and flawed. We&#;re all just trying to make life more interesting before we run out of decades and pay bills.

Bright colors, vulgar dicks, missing the 80s, all that stuff was Battle-Gaze DNA.

Anyone who thinks less of you for making erect penis action figures isn&#;t worth knowing.

You D-Structure resin is a great sculpted piece. What is the pieces backstory? – both the sculpt itself, and D-Structure’s origin tale…

Thanks mate! Geof Darrow&#;s &#;Big Guy&#; comic totally articulated what I like about Japanese buildings.

D-Structure is a manifestation of all the horrible stress you get in an office building with recycled air, passive aggressive colleagues, etc, turned into a monster.

Is the rise of ‘art’ toys an indication of the changing nature of ‘art’? OR just a bunch of nerds with too much $$$ and time?

Like I said – I totally feel it&#;s like a new manifestation of the original hard-core movement, but with the internet, and people who are a little older.

If you look at how VERY mainstream the world is going. We&#;ve never had it so good in terms of perceived freedom, but at the same time, people can be so judgemental and boring.

It&#;s a pocket where we can do whatever we want without anyone knowing enough about it to mess with it.

Goodleg Toys share the same punk rock philosophy as me on this.

(Picture below of the Abo Boid resin by &#;Big Man Toys&#;)

Favorite toy/figure? (I’ll allow self promotion)

Mine? I&#;m pretty happy with them all.

My fave toy of any line ever is most probably the Micronauts Mobile Exploration Lab, or a box of MUSCLEs.

(Pictures below of the &#;Micronauts&#; Mobile Exploration Lab from , Lee&#;s favorite toy)

What does your wife/girl/woman/family/man make of the whole perpetual adolescence/Peter-Pan/man-child aspect of toy art + toy collecting?

She respects it&#;s by choice and not because i&#;m scared of life. Plus we live in a city where people are immature in much more life affecting ways.

She gets tired of hearing about it and it&#;s always in her face but she&#;s supportive.

The Future

Any collaborations on the horizon?

Always! Got 3 happening right now!

(Picture below of the TreeGarr sculpt &#; both normal and mini versions)

Any major projects you want to hype man?

Yep! Got 2 minifig sculpts involved in 2 different all-star minifig collab series, got an amazing sculpt by the guys at Monster Slayer Project (upcoming movie) that i&#;m producing, and I&#;ve designed a that will have people doing a piss that a good friend near me is going to produce, who you probably already know for his fine body of work.

Cheers!

Links

• &#;Big Man Toys&#; &#; site
• &#;Big Man Toys&#; &#; webstore
• &#;Big Man Toys&#; &#; Facebook