J★RYU

It’s 3:03 pm PST on Dec 8th and I’m writing from Army of Snipers HQ here in Los Angeles, USA. We’ve just returned from Miami where we attended Art Basel and had a ridiculously great time with our homies painting and hanging out. Big shout outs to my Army of Snipers crewmates - LEZA ONE, Boosher, Mat Curran, Shane Jessup, Sket One, Luke Chueh, Ritzy Periwinkle, Woebots and Pixel Pancho. Special big ups and love to Lou Pimentel, Art Whino Shane and Luz, their incredible staff (Eliza, Camden, Dan), Jim Mahfood, Baroness Nichole, the Beast Brothers, Heidi, AdaPia, Josh Taylor, Rolf, Pez, Marco, 2501, kaNO, Keith Poon, Buff Monster, Lamour Supreme, Jane Dope and many many more. If I forgot you, I apologize, I’m still trying to recover from the whirlwind that has been this crazy trip so far.

In a scant few hours, myself, Woebots, Ritzy Periwinkle and Daniel Zana will be embarking on an incredible journey that will take us across the globe to Asia, where we will be rock hopping to Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines.  First up we will be participating in the Little Lotus Project in Thailand, where we will be working with migrant children displaced from their home country of Burma, on arts programs in Mae Sot, a remote village on the border between the two countries.  Then after that, we will be traveling to Singapore for an event, “One Night with Army of Snipers” being held at a gallery.  Shortly thereafter, it’s off to Hong Kong for a live painting and product release with our sponsor Mint Design.  Last, we travel to Philippines courtesy of our sponsors to work on a special project before we return stateside in January.

I would like to take this opportunity to express how thankful I am for this life I live and all of the people that have helped me get this far.  The trip we are about to go on is undoubtedly going to be a life-changing experience, one that will be enriching for everyone involved.  If you had asked me two years ago that my life today would consist of traveling around the country and the world doing art, I would have never believed it.  I would have never been able to do this without you all - friends, fam, colleagues, fans, supporters, curators, gallery and store owners alike and for this trip, especially all of the people that supported us via Kickstarter, contributed art, spread the word or sponsored us.  I am humbled and honored to be able to go forth and bring all of you in spirit as we try and enact positive change through art around the world.  I am blessed.  I love and appreciate you all.  

Keep up with our adventures at www.flavors.me/snipersinternational and please feel to keep up with me at facebook.com/designpimps, twitter: @jryu

This is J*RYU, aka the Purdy Supremacy signing out from the US.  Keep safe, happy early holidays, take care of each other and we’ll see each other soon. 

Shine on,

Jess aka J*RYU

fatsniper:

For a good cause, AOS -JRYU X WOES PLANTER.

Put your Pakalolo plant in it=)

Rucky Bamboo Resin Sculpture pot.

Big Cartel store-

http://angrywoebots.bigcartel.com/product/j-ryu-x-woebots-resin-rucky-bamboo-aos-collab

My crazy life seems to be evening out. At the end of 2011, I will be traveling halfway around the world to do what I can to help those in need, with the hopes that it will help me overcome the various obstacles in my life, by giving me a perspective of what’s truly important in the grand scheme. I will be saying goodbye to one life and embarking on the unknown. I have always said that I am not scared of anything since I lost my dad. That is not true. The one thing I am scared of is that I will not have enough time to live a life that is true to who I am and be able to show the people I love how much I truly care. All I can do is be myself and let others take me for who I am, flaws and all.

The faces will change along with the way, but they will never be forgotten because I am the sum total of everyone that I have ever met in my life. Everything I have worked for in the last 16 years is finally coalescing. It is daunting. It will be super challenging. But, I am a part of a crew that runs deep, people who I will fight alongside til the end and vice versa. I have family and friends who take me for who I am and understand what I am trying to aspire for in the bigger picture, knowing full well how much they mean to me and why I am doing this. The only thing that can stop me now is me. Time to shine, there is no other option.  And don’t forget - you can take me out of the south, but you can’t take the south outta me. Southern yella boy always.

Jess aka J*RYU aka Purdy Supremacy aka GEIST aka your friend always
Army of Snipers Crew
August 5th, 2011

Teaser video of Brent Nolasco x J★RYU SDCC release of “My Drifting Heart”. Magnets FTW.

Let’s see…I was in the Big Trouble Show and Vinyl Roots shows at Dragatomi, Ghost in the Shell  show at MPH, I cut the shit out of my hand while working on a custom, I finished my Rayola piece for Colorinkbook’s Shades of Ray show and I’m working on a bunch of stuff for SDCC.  Oh!  And I was nominated for 2 categories in the Designer Toy Awards and I think they were real nominations and not people trying to clown me.  Fun times ahead, I will post more soon. 

Had to reblog this!

This is Hideaki Akaiwa. When the Tsunami hit his home town of Ishinomaki, Hideaki was at work. Realising his wife was trapped in their home, he ignored the advice of professionals, who told him to wait for the army to arrive to provide search and rescue.

Instead he found some scuba gear, jumped in the raging torrent - dodging cars, houses and other debris being dragged around by the powerful current, any of which could have killed him instantly - and navigated the now submerged streets in pitch dark, freezing water until he found his house. Swimming inside, he discovered his wife alive on the upper level with only a small amount of breathing room, and sharing his respirator, pulled her out to safety.

If he had waited for the army, his wife of 20 years would be dead.

Oh, and if that’s not enough badassery for one lifetime, Hideaki realised his mother was also unaccounted for, so jumped back in the water and managed to save her life also. Since then Hideaki enters the water everyday on a one man search and rescue mission, saving countless lives and proving that two natural disasters in a single day, and insurmountable odds can’t stand in the way of love. This man is my hero.

Here’s a video of my latest custom, this time based off the “Symbiote” platform, entitled “I Waited Here For You…But You Never Came”.  The video shows the water and light features as well as an array of photos that I took of the process of creating this piece.

Work in progress of my Symbiote custom for March’s “For the Love of Vinyl” Show…

“SHOCKED”, “LOVELY”,  “CROWD”,  “APPEARING AS THEMSELVES”

JUXTAPOZ Magazine had those words and more (exactly 5 more words actually) in the extensive 2”x3” feature on myself and Sarah Jo Marks in the March 2011 issue located on the highly-coveted pg 128. Happy hunting as this issue is fast-becoming scarce (strangely enough, there are none left anymore at my local Barnes & Noble) and will undoubtedly become a much sought-after collector’s item.  Good luck.

Here’s a promotional teaser by Toy2R for my contribution to their upcoming NYC♥QEE Event at Yoyamart on FEB 14th.  My piece is caleld “Winter’s Bloom”, full reveal next Monday.

kanokid:

The Rare Breed show featuring Scribe, Angry Woebots and myself comes down this week, Thursday Feb 10th. The show had a great opening reception and it was awesome to be in town for it, big shot outs to Scribe and Woe again for bringing there “A” game. If by any chance you missed seeing the work due to crazy snow storms, try to swing by to see it up close. All the pieces will stay up online for another month at myplasticheart Gallery. For better pics of my pieces click here.

I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that noted toy scene blog, Plastic and Plush, named me as one of the top customizers of 2010. Seriously?! 0_0 

Anyways, thanks to PnP for the recognition and thank you to all of my friends/peers/fans in the scene for the continual support. I wouldn’t be at where I am today without you.

I was invited to contribute a set of artist sketch cards to the Star Wars Galaxy Series 6 trading card set by TOPPS and I can finally show a sneak peek.  These Admiral Ackbar shaped die-cut sketch cards are drawn on by artists and then randomly inserted into packs of cards for collectors to find.  Each case of cards is guaranteed at least one random sketch card and I was honored to be a part of an incredibly stellar lineup.  Here are the other artists in the series -

Jermaine Rogers
Dan Goodsell
Aya Kakeda
Martina Secondo Russo and Frank Russo
Steven Daily
Marty Hansen aka THEGODBEAST
Arbito
Mike Egan
olive47
Doktor A
Jason Atomic
Julie West
Omen
Chris Ryniak
Luke Gibbons-Reich
Jordana Lake
Martin Hsu
Larz
VISE ONE
John “Spanky” Stokes
Tyson Bodnarchuk
Dan Bina
Brian Mead
J★RYU
Free Humanity
Steve Talkowski
Ritzy Periwinkle
Jon-Paul Kaiser
SHAWNIMALS
Gothic Hangman
Sarah Jo Marks
Stella Bouzakis
Lorne Colon
Mike Mendez (NEMO)
Scott Tolleson
Sergey Safonov
Abe Lincoln Jr.
Wade Lageose
Dave Savage
Lou Pimentel
Len Bellinger
Burt Banger
Mio Murakami
The Sucklord
Billy Roids

With my series, I decided to go old school and use traditional brushes and sumi-e ink to render a distilled version of 7 different iconic characters - Darth Vader, Boba Fett, a Stormtrooper, Darth Maul, a Clone Trooper, Asajj Ventress and General Grievous. I then stamped the backgrounds and finished it off with a stamp of my chinese name.  As you can probably tell, I’m Team Empire. 

All in all, it was a fantastic opportunity and an honor to have contributed my small mark on the Star Wars universe, really a dream come true for a geek like myself.  Big thanks to Simeon and Ashley of the Art Hustle, Sucklord and TOPPS for asking me to be a part of this project. 

Shine on,
J★RYU

Last year was an amazing year for me as I had the opportunity to create pieces for some really marvelous shows.  Here’s a recap of my 2010 art and the shows in which they debuted.

2010 Recap

• Private collection, AJ Eetz (Custom Kid Robot 3″ Dunny)
• Private collection, Opus 901 (Custom Super 7 Rose Vampire)
• Qeeology 15th Anniversary Show, Lincoln NB – Cupcake Vampire (Custom 2.5 Toy2R Toyer Qee)
• Wondercon, San Francisco CA – Itadakimarshall Series 1 (Custom Marshalls)
• “Not Vinyl” show at Dragatomi, Sacramento CA – OniSake (original sculpture)
• Ganmetall Celsius show at Toy Art Gallery in LA – Le Jardin De Meddy (Custom Rotobox Celsius)
• San Diego Comic Con, San Diego CA – Silva Dolorosa (Custom Ghost Girl)
• San Diego Comic Con, San Diego CA - Cupcake Vampires (5 x Custom Kidrobot Mini-Munnys)
• San Diego Comic Con, San Diego CA - Skullapple babyvtec (sculpting/painting) x J★RYU (concept) (custom original sculptures)
• Zerostigmata Benefit piece, Naples Italy – Til the End of the World (Custom Kathie Olivas Two-Faced Hazel)
• Custom Jouwe Show at Toy Art Gallery in LA – Ci Si Gioca Nella Sua Ombra (Custom MyTummyToys Jouwe)
• Toy2R 15th Anniversary show at Dragatomi, Sacramento CA – La Mano Del Tiempo (Custom Toy2R Toyer Qee)
• Driftwood Killer for private collection (custom Bwana Spoons Killer)
• Little Monsters show at Million Fishes Gallery, San Francisco CA – KANPAI YOKAI! (5 x Custom Kidrobot Mini-Munnys)
• DesignerCon, Pasadena CA – JAY222 x J★RYU Collaboration (Kidrobot Munny)
• Sketchbot 2 show at Munky King, Los Angeles CA – Save Me (The Last Dance) (Custom Sketchbot available here)
• Multiversal Show at Casa Wynwood during Art Basel, Miami FL – SOLACE (Custom 16” Toy2r Qee)
• Blamo Toys Nimbus Custom Show at Million Fishes Gallery, San Francisco CA – I Had You at B8 (Custom Blamo Toys Nimbus)
• OMI Show at Munky King, Los Angeles CA – There is a Light That Never Goes Out (Custom Munky King OMI)
• Star Wars Series 6 Sketch cards from TOPPS (tentative release March 2011)

Upcoming shows for 2011

• Feb 2011 – NewYork<3QEE, New York City, NY (Custom 5″ MiniQee)
• March 2011 – SEEN Tribute show, New York City, NY (Custom SEEN Dem Bones)
• March 2011 – For the Love of Vinyl show at Dragatomi, Sacramento CA (Custom Symbiote)
• April 2011 – Big Trouble In Little China Tribute Show at Dragatomi, Sacramento CA
• May 2011 – 3-Man Show, location/date TBA
• July 2011 – Gumpy show, location TBD (Custom Gumpy)

Upcoming projects:

• Collaboration with Brent Nolasco, details TBA
• Custom Seismic Ace
• Custom TYO Truck
• Custom 20″ Mega Munny
• Custom 20″ Dunny

As always, for the latest images of my customs please check my flickr at flickr.com/photos/jryu or follow me on Twitter (@jryu) for most recent news and updates. For show and commission considerations, or if you just want to say hello, please feel free to email me at jryu@designpimps.com – I’d love to hear from you. Thank you for visiting and stay up…

Shine on,

J★RYU

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and is off to a great 2011.  I just recently returned after having a good time in NYC where I got a chance to see so many of my friends.  It was awesome as always to be hanging out with my peeps Angry Woebots, Sket One, Kano, Palmetto Silentstage, Alexis ONE, Mr Munk, Lou Pimentel, Lil J, Kelly Denato,  Useless Toys, J-R00, Megaroo, JACRANKY, Steve Talkowski, MyloslovesToys, Dave Gittleman, Eric N from Argonaut, Keith Poon, John and Amy Wong, Louis, Vince and Bik, the Art Hustle, Tenacious Benny, Morgan, Sarah Jo and Dov from DKE, Baroness Nicole and so many more.  If I forgot you, it’s because I was already getting sick. =X

While I was there I had a nice meeting with Philips De Pury who wanted to view my work up and personal so I lugged the giant SOLACE 20″ Qee custom I did for Art Basel up there, bringing it on it’s 3rd plane ride in less than a month.  They wanted to keep it there so luckily I didn’t have to bring it back.  They had a sick Ryan McGinness show on display in their main gallery that I was happy to have a chance to check out.

The Rare Breed 3-man show was being held that weekend at one of my favorite stores in the world, myplasticheart, where Scribe/KANO/Angry Woebots had some killer pieces on display.  The show was spectacular and everyone brought their A-game. Scribe had canvases on display which were playful in subject and colorfully rendered alongside some fantastic mods on his own Resound Project toys.  Angry Woebots brought his signature pandas to Gotham on wood panels and print, along with some custom Panda King toys and were ferocious as ever.  I was honored that Woes chose to name one of his pieces after me, along with one named for my man Sket-one as well as KANO himself.  Last but not least, KANO, who in my opinion, has some of the cleanest work in the scene, had 8 fantastic wood panels that faithfully represented his particular style of distilled, animation-influenced characters with a hint of street-wise flavor.   Congrats to all three homies on a job well done as well as Vince and Bik at myplasticheart for hosting yet another great show.   Big shoutouts to everyone that I got to see that night and who always make a trip to NYC memorable and fun.

I was scheduled to depart NYC on Monday but not before I had an opportunity to hit up a wall for my favorite bastard, SUCKLORD.  He knew I was going to be in town that weekend but lambasted me for not being able to make his solo show at Boo-Hooray Gallery in Chelsea for his Suckadelic Retrospective.  We went over there on Sunday afternoon to help him commemorate his long career by painting the walls at the gallery.  I was lucky to have worked alongside Lamour Supreme, Billy McRoids, Phetus, Mr. Den, Lou Pimentel, KANO, Angry Woebots and more as we all created enough paint fumes to have the NYFD show up to shut us down.  Luckily we were able to continue but just without the use of spray cans.  I started to feel a bit down as I was getting sick from the hellish weather so that night I just kicked it with Woes and watched some TV.

On the day of my departure, my flight back to NC was cancelled so I was able to hang out for a bit longer with Aaron and Pauly since they were leaving on Tuesday.  We all started getting sick tho so we didn’t do much except for some sightseeing, considering that they had never been to NYC before.  I was honored to be introduced to a bunch of Woes’ old homies from Hawaii and Seattle who had moved to NYC including Keilani, Ren, JJ, Eriko and more, who were all such humble and laid back people – to be doubly expected consider they are from Hawaii and are friends of Woes, it’s no wonder they’re so chill.  Haha.

On the last day, Woes and Pauly were a little concerned that an incoming winter storm would delay or cancel their flight but they made it back to LA that evening.  Alas, my flight was actually scheduled to depart the NEXT day so that meant that I was able to attend SUCKLORD’s show after all.  That evening, Dave Gittleman picked me up and we headed over to Chelsea to join Morgan for a crazy evening full of BeerLao, pink stormtroopers and a special appearance by my fave villain, Vectar.  Most of our friends made it out for that show as well so it was a good last night for me as we all joined Morgan in celebrating his storied and interesting career as an artist and bootlegger.  I even got to meet his parents, the couple responsible for bringing this madman into this world.  They were lovely.

Since I had no place to stay that night, Eric of Argonaut Resins was super super kind to let me crash at his place, despite me being super sick.  I was also treated to a studio tour where he makes his fantastic Tutz cats and Kings of Atlantis Skulls as well as given tons and tons of inspiration  This dude was responsible and had a hand in so many toys in the vinyl scene,  you have NO idea.  Anyways, THANK YOU Eric for being such a great host and for taking care of me while I was down for the count.

I eventually made it back here to Raleigh and spent the next couple of weeks recuperating from what I called NYC SARS.  In that time, I’ve started work on my custom for the NYC<3′sQEE show taking place on Valentine’s Day at Yoyamart in NYC and have started sketching out the idea for my Dem Bones custom for the SEEN show in Brooklyn in March.  Lastly, I’m so stoked to now be a part of the ARMY of SNIPERS INT, a crew of artists from all over the world who are bringing the thunder with whatever medium they are working in, such as Pixel Pancho in Italy, Peap Tarr in Cambodia, THEY in Southeastasia, Misery in New Zealand, REMI MEAD in Okinawa and more, led by none other than Mr. Hotcheeks himself, Angry Woebots.  The pressures on to keep up my game but I’m ready, 2011 has most definitely started with a BANG BANG BANG.

Thanks for all of your emails and messages, I am humbled by your support and encouragement.  I will continue to try my best.

Til next time, shine on….

J★RYU

Next up on the chopping block… (Taken with instagram)

Sit Pearboy, sit! (Taken with instagram)

Say hello to Pearboy, designed by my lil bro JYU! Debuting at my show in May! (Taken with instagram)

I kanpai’d with a velociraptor named @teamsweet last night (Taken with Instagram at Reservoir)