Dance, to decadence!

It's been quite around here, but I'll update this blog with a personal post this time. So I've been listening again to "oldschool" EBM lately — which reminds me of the 18 years old me, thanks to High-Functioning Flesh and Body Of Light. I have committed a series of unapologetic, shameful acts at that time. God forbid what I did! I was a "mall goth" back then, it's not like I'm a real one or something now, and I don't want to be labeled anyway. But I've been through all that phase, I learned how to apply eyeliner myself, I had Joy Division and The Smiths bootleg shirts, I even had a Vampire Freaks account! You know, that Friendster-like social media for "mall goths" — for those who happened to like anything from dark electro to visual kei (what the fuck?!), which landed me on dark electro, future pop, "rave goth" type of things. I showed those bands to some of my friends, and they got hooked to the beats too.

After all those embarassment, then I came across bands like Skinny Puppy, Front 242 and Front Line Assembly. I was like, "What the fuck? These bands are weird and dark, but not like, all those rave goth kind of things!" I have discovered bands like Bauhaus and Siouxsie & The Banshees, even more "dance-able" bands like Dead Or Alive and Soft Cell, before I listened to aggrotech and future pop. But no, I've never heard of EBM (Electronic Body Music) at the time, the term and the music — not until I discovered Skinny Puppy and such. It's like a rabid mix of industrial and synthpop, when I heard them for the first time. And then I questioned myself, "Am I going to repent thy sins?" Then I did, I deleted my Vampire Freaks account, and I disposed of my eyeliner. It's been a long time, and I'm revisiting "oldschool" EBM now. It's not like I'm a hardcore fan, in fact, I only listen to a handful. But to celebrate the good old days, I'm going to lace up my boots, and dance to decadence!





*artwork by yours truly, original image via Free Images

Euranth's Painted Prototype

Euranth's painted prototype revealed, release date is still tentative. Updates will be posted soon, also check out pe•cu•liar's blog for more info regarding my toy company.

"The age of Men will collapse, when nature shows its wrath"

pe•cu•liar

peculiar
adjective \pi-ˈkyül-yər\

1. characteristic of only one person, group, or thing : distinctive
2. different from the usual or normal:
   a. special, particular
   b. odd, curious
   c. eccentric, queer

pe•cu•liar is an indie toy company based in Jakarta - Indonesia, inspired by everything strange such as kaiju, myth, legend, surrealism and outsider art. Yes thats my indie toy company, right now we are working on our first figure Euranth. Its a part of Glandastern myth (our own myth), you can safely say that Glandastern is some sort of our first "toy line", but we are hoping to release other figures that not related to the myth under another line.

possible shirt design

I will make a blog for pe•cu•liar, meanwhile you can see the update and progress on the facebook fanpage and if you are on instagram you can also follow us: @pe_cu_liar. The prototype is being sculpted right now by little giant studio. Below is the progress of Euranth's prototype, we're hoping to release the first edition resin toys by mid-March. I will update the news on this blog also, stay tuned!

Goodbye 2012

Its been 3 months, so I think this one's gonna be my last post for 2012. The year has been so wonderful to me, there has been up and down in life of course. Daily job has been crazy as hell, but I will try to be more productive in the art world next year. And I have so many plans, first one is I'm going to start my own indie toy company. Its a kaiju inspired / myth based toy company, the first figure will be based from my old drawing "Bloodflower". So expect me to write my own myth, and drawing more character designs. Details will follow, I will have a blog and a fanpage for the company. Right now I'm finishing the front, side, and back view of the first figure, the drawings will be used as the sculpting guide, I will hire a professional studio to handle the sculpting and resin casting.

And the second one, I will hopefully doing more designs / artworks for bands. Also there might be possibility for me to work for the second time with Norwegian progressive death metal Okular, lets see how far can I go. Tomorrow's going to be one year of my mom's passing, so I hope I could find solace during my holiday. I dont even know if someone will pay attention to this post, but have a nice holiday. I thank you for the visit, I really appreciate it.

P.S: I love you, mom.

Mad Monster Party!

 

Some Kubrick Universal Monsters I own, missing 2 figures: Bride Of Frankenstein and Dr. Frankenstein. But as for right now, I'm content. Anyway, click the image to fullview.

And oh, if you have no idea about "Mad Monster Party" here's some flicks about this cool animation movie:

Nuke The Cross

My first attempt in drawing on blank resin toy, I used "a famous brand" of permanent marker which turns out quite messy. It was supposed to be permanent, but left a bit mark when I touch it. I think I'm going to use Sharpie markers later, as some friends would suggested. Anyway I drew it on Peyo blank toy, Peyo was a character developed by (now defunct) Concept Magz - an Indonesian design magazine - for a character design competition in 2008. Only 500 of these were made, given to first 500 participants. The basic idea of the drawing was all bout "Nuke The Cross", you know like nuclear reactor, mutation, blasphemy and ill stuffs like that. Whatever, see the pictures below.

Holiday In Cambodia: Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum / S21 Prison

I remember my dad used to tell me stories about leaders like Pol Pot, Mao Zedong and also Idi Amin when I was a kid, maybe thats one of the reasons why I love Dead Kennedys' "Holiday In Cambodia" when I first heard the song. I always told myself that someday I gotta go to Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, and finally I did. I spent 4 days in Phnom Penh, it was not for vacation anyway. I came there to work on a project, "company stuffs" if you know what I mean. So after I make sure all my work has done, I decided to go to the museum on Friday (April 6th) by myself - my friends were going to visit another place. I left my hotel around 10.30 am, and arrived there around 11 am. The trip took about half an hour by Tuktuk (a traditional transportation), its not as far as you think since there's a regulation in Cambodia not to drive fast (below 40km/h for cars, and below 30km/h for motorcycles). You need to pay $2 admission (US Dollar) to enter the museum, every visitor got a photocopied brochure. The horrors started as you walk into the area, you can feel the eerie atmosphere on this place.

 

 

The Journey Begins: Collecting Original Movie Memorabilia

I just received this package yesterday, these are my first 2 original vintage movie lobby cards:
• Die, Monster, Die! (1965) - Lobby card #2
• Craze (1974) - Lobby card #2

I just started collecting vintage movie memorabilia, my friend Keith Wigdor (owner of Surrealism Now!) gave me a lot of advice in collecting original movie posters and lobby cards to avoid scam. He's a killer collector, see his collections here!

Attack Of The B-Movie Posters!

I just got this book yesterday, I always love cheap movies posters. The vibrant colors, the artworks, the typography and the layout are amazing. The movies represented in this book by Bruce Hershenson include some of the worst films ever made, but how come you dont love the titles like I Dismember Mama, I Was A Teenage Zombie, I Was A Shoplifter, The Brain Eaters, The Man From Planet X or even I Spit On Your Grave? "Classy" movie titles! Some of my personal favs in this book are Plan 9 From Outer Space, Frankenstein, The Hills Have Eyes, I Bury The Living and also Night Of The Living Dead. Here's some flicks of whats inside the book, sorry for the poor image quality.