Osaka

Thoughts.

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MWolfe-JohnFelixArnoldIII-MOMA-Print-14 So I haven't written a blog post of rambling ferocity in a while.  Maybe this one won't be furiously written because I do not find myself furious about anything today.  Let's suffice to say that life is good right now.  While there are always ups and downs, the world we live in is constantly in a realm of serene chaos and force fully calm bedlam, I find myself right now knowing that I am just where I should be as an artist and a person in this world we all share.  Recent events in travel, meditation, love, art making, work, and self work have led me to a place of growth and understanding that I have never really known before.

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This year has been absolutely unbelievable as I find myself in process and in the present so much more than I have ever been.  I have awakened over the past few years to the understanding that today really is not the end of the world, that decisions made today are not going to the be the end all be all of life, but that being said they do all matter, and all create the whole sum of working parts that have allowed me, day by day, to be given the life I now have.  To make work that I love to make, to get excited every day about the possibilities that the future holds and believe that the sky is the limit as long as I am rooted in creating and not ego.

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When I arrived home from Japan, the most amazing experience I have had in my life to date to say the least, I quickly enjoyed the opening of the largest accomplishment of my art career to date.  The SFMOMA exhibition, "In Memory Of..." opened June 8th, 3 weeks after I returned from my month residency.  The roller coaster of life shot up pretty high, and then afterward it was on to Minneapolis for a month of work for the non-profit that is my day job and helps to support my art career in an effort to not exhaust my presence and my ideas too quickly and keep me financially intact (burnout syndrome is the worst syndrome).

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Upon this trip in the middle of America I experienced the drop of the roller coaster so to speak.  The pit of my stomach stuck in the Mall of America felt like it was eating itself from the inside out. And it was beautiful in all of its anxious, low, depressive glory, for I knew that this is the balance that is life.  The scales will always weigh themselves out even in the long run if we just keep our ear to the street and smell the air with each step.  While inside it was painful to have gone up so high and then down so low, it was amazing to experience all of these things without any substances, without anything to change the way I was feeling.  The gifts of sobriety I must say are the most beautiful and true gifts I have received in my life.  Listening to Yeezus on the light rail wishing I was back in Japan watching the toxic, dripping heart of America go by on my way to the church of consumerism made me really understand that I am fit for this lifetime. I am right sized and in my place.

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A new found love and affection has recently come into my life, and has made me really grateful for everything that I have ever been through.  Whether it was being locked up and in central bookings reflecting on how to not live life, being so twisted on drugs and alcohol that I would end up in the E.R. with tubes and fluids going in me while I was somewhere in a pain so deep it almost consumed me, or going bowling with friends, or drawing a figure that every mark made me feel a sort of explosive, orgasmic love of life,  or on a mountain top in Japan in a Buddhist Temple making love to a beautiful woman on the tatami floor and then going in a hot spring, or driving to Pt. Reyes with my partner engrossing ourselves in one another's lives and stories.  Like I said on stage right before Japanther performed at my "Past From the Blast" show in 2011 at Kitsch, "We All Do This Together!"

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It is a beautiful thing when one can reconcile and be allowed to understand their purpose in this lifetime, in this phase of the energy that we are part of while on this earth.  When one can lean back and close their eyes and smile because they know what the universe has asked of them and they seek with their entire life until the end to fulfill that mission. I rest happy every night knowing that I am meant to make art, to create things for humanity to experience, to share my world and my perspective on the world, and to be a conduit of creation for a power and an energy so much larger than myself, that I still am a part of, that we are all a part of.

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It's awesome to know that my purpose is to bring people together, to open eyes, to challenge sight and thought, to excite and entertain, to love and be loved.  It feels amazing every time I create something new, or get a flood of ideas and plans into my psyche about where my work, where the work that the universe wants to flood through me, is going and what possibilities I am going to share with those dear to me as we all march on and trudge the road to happy destiny!  It is true, "We All Do This Together!" And I would have it now other way.  Love life, live this life, because its the only you get in this lifetime... Thanks for reading! -John Felix Arnold III  P.S. Horiyoshi III in the image below definitely shares my thoughts on this, we kicked it hard in his studio, his energy is infectious, dude is the fucking man!!!!!

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Going Through Past Lives...

in

And found some awesome photos to share... DSC04277

So the picture of C-Rayz Walz is one of the first published Illustration gigs I ever did for Def Jux Records back in 2004.  Where is that guy?  It is the album art for his Black Samurai E.P.

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The Dave Chappelle Block Party Movie was filmed in, and the Block Party itself, my old neighborhood on the edge of Bed Stuy and Clinton Hill in Brooklyn.  This is one of the choice shots of Wycleff and Lauren Hill battling it out, getting reallllll emotional during the Fugees reunion bit.  HISTORY was made!  2003 was a big and crazy year for a lot of things.

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This is a drawing I did for the Babylon Falling Closing show "The End is Near" in 2009.  It was called "KaliMonTen"... I really want to go back in this direction with some of the newer work, but as with all things it's about finding that opportune moment of balance where it is good to feel that initial discomfort to re-enter and idea from whence it becomes new and big and fun again and a totally fresh way.

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Yes it is still true, at least to us, Japan is home to some of the most ridiculous English translations on clothing, but when you are there, they don't really give a shit what we think, which is awesome.  They have literally taken our words and made them their own, so we get something out of it.  The one that says curation really fucking cracks me up, I wonder what they were really getting at, it has to be a feeling or like a type of action they were trying to pinpoint but there probably just isn't an English word for it.  HatLip is just, well HatLip.  Like "Hey man what's that hat all about?"   "You know homie, that's just that HatLip!!!!!!"

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Something we do not have in the States, 5 century old castles with giant moats to repel all sorts of attackers from Samurai, to Ninja, to Ashigaru, to just crazy ass locals that are pissed at the government and tired of getting taxed.  I think today's moats are called the Banking System, Credit Default Swaps, and Debt.  I would kind of rather be a Ninja and swim across the water and scale the wall and kill the Lord and get the Princess to be honest, way more bad ass.

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This woman came out of her house to talk to me, I don't think she had been outside for a long time.  She was super cool.

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I wish I had had a giant Kendo sword fighting cru when I was like ten years old.

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And finally this is an awesome studio shot of the work I made for the SFMOMA taken by Megan Wolfe.  I am going to miss Megan, she has been a bright light in the Bay Area art scene for a long time now!  Thanks for all the years of hard work and being a bad ass! You will be missed.  In other news I am going to New York for fourth of July weekend, expect a lot fo Graffiti pictures a lot of images of friends acting out in public....see you soon!-Felix

Ken South Rock : July 2012 Tour Photos : The Adventure in Japan

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Beautiful Lady at the festival in Osaka in traditional clothes doing the damn thing.

To continue on with the amazing trip to Japan I recently had the honor of experiencing, here are more photos of the hard hitting band I was with, Ken South Rock.  They are in Taiwan right now reaching out to a whole new audience, and I heard from drummer Adam Amram that they are loving it!!!  So as stated in my last blog post, we went from Tokyo to Kamisuwa to Gifu to Nagoya to Osaka to Kyoto and then I came back to Tokyo to begin work on a new project for the latter half of my journey.  So here we go, hold on to your hats, Ken South Rocks Hardest!!! We Started off in Tokyo in a rad neighborhood called Shimokitizawa at a place called Club251, from that moment on it was madness.  My jetlag felt like a long lingering acid trip for the first four days, which made the whole thing even weirder.

Chicken Karage on a stick from 7/11, early in the morning before we embarked to Kamisuwa.

Chiaki "Cheese" Minami!

The Green Room at Club 251Ken and the owner of Doors live house holding up my Wolf Power painting from our performance in Kamisuwa.

Temple near Shinjuku Tokyo the morning we left Tokyo.

Adam Amram Passed out at Doors Live House in Kamisuwa.

Detail from the Wolf Power live painting at Doors Live House in Kamisuwa.

This is one of the best photos from the whole trip.  This girl was totally enthralled and confused by Adam trying to untangle a pair of sun glasses from his major Jew Fro.  It was one of the funniest and most precious things we had all ever seen. Adam and Chiaki cracked up when they saw the photos.  We are leaving Kamisuwa here on the way to Gifu.

Got off the train in Gifu  and there stood a giant Golden Oda Nobunaga statue!  It was my first major geek out orgasm moment of the trip! So sick to to see this, it set the tone for me for the rest of the trip!  So after rounding the bend of this very well planned station in Gifu (where Nobunaga actually began to unify Japan from in the 16th century) we descended into Gifu, and into one of the most awesome shows of the whole trip!  the people in Gifu are fun loving, loud, hard working, hard partying, amazing folks who love music and love to embrace others and have a great time.  It felt like a good hard working blue collar city that works hard plays hard and treats its people and visitors with respect and good humor!  We had a fucking blast.  Satomi from Casper Live House is a fucking fox for sure, tattooed up and had the best "I don't give a fuck" attitude I experienced on the trip.  Her boyfriend ended up being the bass player to one of the best bands (a screamo black metal band) we saw all tour, and they took us to an awesome Izakaya after the show! And we finally stayed in comfy as hotel rooms that were crazy cheap!  Success!

Ken Minami looking sexy in front of an awesome, classic, well kept ride in the parking lot of Casper Live House.

Reminds me of Durham, NC.

This was one of the best places we ate on the entire trip.  It was $3.50, I had a pork katsu bento box that was delicious and filled me up. Here we are with Suichu Blanco and Walter Wlordarcyck.

The lovely Satomi and her dude at an awesome Izakaya post show!

The amazing Chiaki Cheese with Adam Amram at Izakaya.

End of the night in Gifu

One more shot of the Nobunaga Monument.

Ken, worn the fuck out at Izakaya after the show in Gifu!

So the next day we traveled to Nagoya, we stopped for Gyoza first, and then were on are way.  I was exhausted by the time we got to Nagoya, but we still faired well.  Nagoya was cool, but I was definitely missing Gifu and looking forward to Osaka big time!

Walter, the official tour photographer, on a train headed for Osaka.  Getting for photographed for a change.

The schoogirl fans were pretty awesome!

Adam Amram catching some zzzzzs on the train to Nagoya.

Strange Nagoya Pudding at the Tokyu Hands Department store.

This was a CRAZZYYYYYY sculpture inside of an underground shopping mall in Nagoya.

Styled Out in Nagoya.

This was the set up that I painted with at each venue on tour. We would set this up on a table with a drop cloth on stage, and I would set up all of my supplies so that when I was called on stage by Adam in the second song I would jump around, yell and scream and then go in super hard on the painting.  It broke down really easily and folded up and was super easy to transport on the trains from city to city.  There's walter right next to it on the couch backstage at the Live House we performed at in Nagoya!

I love this shot of Adam and Ken Rocking out in Nagoya.

And then it was time to embark to Osaka!  Now Osaka is one of my favorite places in the entire world, seriously, it rocks.  We bid farewell to Chiaki, and went on our way to the region of Kansai, ready to rockkkk out, and eat Takoyaki!

We even ran into my good friend Frankie G at random on the way to Osaka, good Omen!

Adam at sound Check at Fan J in Osaka.

So Osaka is the shit, I took a lot of pictures of the city as I went out alone exploring before the show and the next day.  I also got some great images of Suichu Blanco at this show.  The promoter unfortunately was a bunch of talk and didn't get nearly enough people there, but none the less we went super hard.  The show was really crazy and the after party in the club was mad fun.  A tiny super cute girl actually rode me around the club like a giant animal. It was nuts.

Walter and I embarked onward into Osaka during sound check.

Yes, this dog has on infrared goggles, yes you are actually seeing this, it is real.

This is one of my favorite Osaka Street Shots.

Serious Old World to Modern World Juxtaposition.

Style Points in Osaka.

Takoyaki Time!!!

First band at Fan J in Osaka.

Yui from Suichu Blanco.

Yuta from Suichu Blanco.

The Hostel in Osaka was reallllly awesome.  Ten Hostel it was called. I highly recommend!

The cops were trying to get it together.

I hopped into a really cool parade at the beginning of a very long festival to honor the dead, this guy gave me the best mug of all time.

Sick Hair Designs.

This festival procession was really cool.  i met an amazing young lady named Aki that told me all about Osaka while we chatted.  And then I picked up some Okonamiyaki!

Yes, the best, the Osaka Style Okonamiyaki.  This edible delight concluded one of my food journeys on the trip.

They were throwing water on people, trying to make them fall off a giant super heavy temple platform in the middle of an intersection! Osaka is Crazy and super Awesome!

Ken Minami as we are about to leave the hostel.  From here we went to my final tour destination, Kyoto.  Kyoto was so amazing.  It is a beautiful and historical city, and the bands at this show were some of the best I have ever heard or seen, ever. No joke, they threw down in Kyoto, it was crazy!  Here is a super cutie for you and a whole bunch of photos of my last day of being on tour.

Yes, she was dope, and turned out to be one of the best drummers around.

Yet another procession in the middle of the street in the middle of the day. So Cool.

Crazy Dinosaur Pachinko Game at a five story fun zone.

Ken and Adam Going In!

Then I came up dancing to the stage...

What's Up Kyoto!!! Yabeiiiiiii!!!!!!!...

Tekkamaki Reigned Supreme...

Hugs on stage were definitely in order as we finished our last performance as a trio.  Then it was time to kick it for my last night of touring...

I hit the floor, super exhausted, and recharged with a Pepsi Nex, hahahahaha.  It's actually pretty good!

We gave this piece to Suichu Blanco for being such an awesome band to tour with.

These two were the first casualties of the night.

Then we poured into the street for a round of goodbyes, I headed to an internet cafe, and in the morning...

In the morning after the Kyoto show, Ken put me on a Bullet Train back to Tokyo.  We said a round of goodbyes and I embarked solo back to the point which I had launched forward with these amazing spirits.  This experience changed my life, no lie!

And thus ended the tour for me.  I arrived in Tokyo, went to Chiaki and Ken's house in Shinjuku and delivered the best painting that was done live on stage on the whole tour! (Coincidentally it was done on the last night in Kyoto).  Chiaki was stoked, I was exhausted, exhilirated, ready for more, yet needed some rest.  I thanked the gods for this amazing experience, Chiaki and I kicked it, I took a nap, then it was off to my friends Frankie and Emi's house to begin the next chapter in my Japan Art Tour.  Next to come was a commission for a friend and DJ in Shibuya, and some serious insanity lurking around Tokyo!!! Thanks to Ken South Rock, Chiaki, all the Live Houses, Walter Wlodarcyck, Suichu Blanco and everyone along the way.

Japan Was Major! Ken South Rocks Hardest!

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Ken Minami at 5 am, Haneda Airport Train Station. The Journey Begins.

I was on tour with the amazingly talented, hard working, and inspiring duo of Ken Minami and Adam Amram, known as Ken South Rock recently.  In one of the most surprising events I have ever experienced, I was asked to go on tour with them in the end of 2011, that tour being in July 2012.  They proposed that I come on the road with them armed with pain, markers, and my enthusiasm and energy, and make a live painting on stage while they performed at every show I was there for.  They asked me to be a hype mane, dance, sing back ups some times, and make awesome art onstage while being crazy.

Adam Amram, John Felix Arnold III, and Ken Minami, in Kyoto @ Dewey Live House. 07/24/2012

These are all things that come very naturally to me, so I happily obliged.   Aside from the three of us, Ken's awesome wife Chiaki (who was like out translator and our therapist lol) came along and an amazing photographer named Walter Wlordrzyck to document the adventure. We traveled from Tokyo to Kamisuwa to Gifu to Nagoya to Osaka to Kyoto and then I embarked back to Tokyo to work on a different project in Shibuya as they continued on further south.  I believe they are in Taiwan at the time of this blog post, and all I can say is that these guys go hard as fuck and that it was truly an honor to be a part of such an amazing happening.

Temple Detail near Ken and Chiaki's Apartment, near Shinjuku, Tokyo.

Every single city was awesome, each having a speciality food they are known for.  As I peered out of the windows of many trains we took along the journey, I was ceaselessly bombarded with sublime, and serene countryside, mountain scape, village to town to city views, and a non stop show of visual amazement.  The lushness and glow of the green in the mountain side views is no where close to being replicated in these images.

Out of the train window on our way to Gifu from Kamisuwa.

We ate amazing food that, to my surprise, came from convenience stores, mini marts, hole in the wall train station cookeries, 7/11s and more.  We laughed a lot, we tried to sleep, we even were enswathed by scores of school girls in the train cars that had no idea of where we had come and what we were doing, but were none the less totally blown away by the whole thing.  I have so much more to tell you guys, and so many photos I have to go through, but here is a good lead in blog post to begin to get the whole memory of this truly surreal experience into your eyes, and a good chance for me to begin regrouping and figuring out whats next after such an amazing experience.

School Girl Mob on the Train traveling from Gifu to Nagoya.

The Beautiful Yui from Suichu Blanco, the awesome band we went on Tour with.

I can't lie, I am kind of depressed on the daily that I am not there anymore, that I am surrounded by insane amounts of American over consumption,  Escalades and Hummers driving by with one person inside, by a culture that revels in "fucking shit it up" just for the sake of doing so, and an overwhelming sense of people trying to get over on one another where, "its not my problem" is the motto.

The amazing Chiaki "Cheese" Minami and Walter Wlodarcyck on a train headed for Osaka.

Gyoza in Nagoya.

I love my country and I love my group of people that I am in the struggle with, but there are a lot of things I now realize that I am not okay with since I have gained some perspective. The food thing is also killing me.  I ate so much healthy food, even literally from convenience stores, that tasted so good, with no growth horomones or anything, and now it is hard to get used to that food coma feeling I get here in the states after eating even small things.  I have a lot of material to get back in the studio with now!  I am very grateful for that!

Super Awesome Street Festival, I beleive part of the beginning of a month long festival to honor the dead in Osaka.  This was right in the middle of an intersection.

Oh, and Osaka was definitely my favorite city hands down all around.  The food is unbelievable.

"It's Been a Long Time, I Shouldn't Have Left You!"-Rakim

in

It has been a minute since my last post.  Coming back from the most amazing, life changing trip to Japan, literally having traveled back in time and being mega jet lagged for days, going back to work immediately, moving into my new studio in Oakland, suddenly getting new freelance work and having my calendar fill up with shows for the year in a week left me a little claustrophobic for minute. But alas things are rollin'! So yes Japan was amazing!  I have already started planning next years trip out there and now it is a matter of writing proposals and finding sponsors.  The next one will be bigger and better, and have a larger more thunderous community voice of artists behind it.  I haveta say I truly miss waking up and having my ritual 7/11 Chicken Karage Yakitori (Fried Chicken on a stick) and my little Boss coffee drink to get me going, but not weigh me down, haha.  So yes many amazing connections were made, many friendships were established and strengthened, and we really have a new family out in Nihon that I look forward to building with till the end of days.  We raised about $800 for Ashinaga which is awesome.  It feels good to help the next generation of young artists, engineers, teachers, etc.  Here are a few photos of our experience!  Also an article about this will be coming out in Dig In Magazine soon so look out for it.  Tracy Jones from Microscopic Giant who lives in Tokyo now and was kind of the catalyst for the decision to make this trip and art show series happen put together the article.  Big Ups to Tracy Jones and Natsumi for holding it down in Tokyo through natural disasters, weddings, and me coming out there to visit.  Here are some photos as promised, for more photos of Japan and a more personal photolog of my travels and exploits throughout my life please check out my new sister site http://felixthethirdrock.tumblr.com . Most of the photos below are of the Live Performance I did with Ken Minami from Ken South Rock on Sept. 20th, with some added extra classic shots from the trip.  Look out for another, bigger collaborative series next year with Ken South Rock!

Masked Felix Ready to Rock!

Ken and I before the show.

Wailing!

Full Swing! Painting away while Ken Rocks out!

Finito!

Yoshitake Kogure and I showing off our grown man ink.  Was great to reconnect with this guy!  TWNY 4 Life.

Live painting at the last event of the trip, Art for People at Bar USA.gi

Isaac Schulz giving me a touch up!

Posca Markers are literally the best ever!

Anna and I got to meet Anpanman!

First night in Tokyo we went to a 200 year old restaurant and this elderly couple next to us on the tatami floor were really, really into my tattoos.  They were incredible and I don't think I could have asked for a better first night and experience in Japan.  They apparently had spent the whole day at museums looking at Edo period Japanese prints and were super stoked to suddenly see one of the artists' work (Kuniyoshi) all over my arms.

Yes I a Gundam Fan.

And yes when I went to Osaka Castle I had to dress up like a famous Samurai Daimyo!  Yes I am a mega dork and nerd out on pre Meiji Era Japanese Military History.

This is called the Daibutsu, it is one of the largest Bronze sitting Buddha statues int he world.  It is in Kamakura which is a very very important part of Japanese History on spiritual, developing, and military levels.  It was absolutely beautiful!

Mikiko And Alani taking me to a dope hole in the wall Izakaya Spot in Shibuya where we talked about Fukushima, Art in Japan, and building on new projects for the future.  Was awesome!

This was our last dinner in Japan!  Look at this crew, an international conglomeration of  insane artists that should probably be committed yet are out making international voices.  This was probably the thickest cut bacon I have ever eaten, so awesome!  Did I mention the food was worth moving to Japan for?  It is!

Worth Moving For!

This is the exterior guard tower at the wet moat of Osaka Castle at Sunset.  I don't have much more to say other than I miss Nihon.

Takoyaki Girl, Osaka, Dotonburi at night.

Okay so enough of Japan.  Check my Tumblr as stated before for more photos and nostalgia.

The end of the Year is coming up fast and 2012 is already off with a bang.  Nov. 11th at D-Structure I will be int he Someshine Art Show the Greg Moreno, the mastermind behind Someshine Clothing has organized.  Myself and other Someshine artists will be rocking the Lower Haight with this show.  I will be back and forth between New York through November and December working on a new Gallery (more to come on this) and collaborating with some really awesome artists out there.  February has something big sooking but I can't really get into it quite yet.  March I will be having an art show in Brooklyn at an awesome space called Littlefield NYC  and we plan to have Ninjasonik and Kid Codec performing live at the opening.  Then it is serious grind time because in July I officially have a solo show at Old Crow that I am extremely excited about!  I have been working with them for a long time and am honored to rock a solo show there.  It's going to be a monster year, I am sure there will be many unexpected ups and downs, additions, and surprises so I will be sure to keep you in tune.  Till next time...Love-Felix