This week’s Artist’s Spotlight is on: damarxtoys
- How did you come up with your concept? : “I’ve tried a few different art forms over the years and never have really found a specific focus. I dropped out of art school back in the 90’s because I felt college had not much to offer me except crippling debt. So, I took to the school of life and have been exploring different avenues since. I happened upon the “bootleg” resin art scene somewhat accidentally and just sort of took to it. Basically, what I do is use existing toy parts that I find and “kitbash” them together to create a unique character. Then I make a mold of it and reproduce it in resin. The figure is usually then mounted onto a cardback featuring an original illustration of the character. The end result is a professional looking package that looks legit but is all handmade by myself.”
- What are you currently working on?: ”
“I always have quite a few projects on the table. I recently just finished up a short run of 5 figures for the Clutter Gallery InactionFigures6 exhibition in Beacon, NY. Which focuses on action figure and toy art from artist internationally. The character i made for it is a mash up of Pee Wee Herman and C3po. I call him Pee-wee Pio. The card art mimics the film poster for Pee Wee’s Big Adventure and was done by collaborater Mux Blank of Mr Blank Toys. The figure was well received and sold out during first previews. I have another batch of them almost ready for anyone else who wants one.In addition to that I’ve also been working on an R2d2/Devo mash up that I hope to have available later this month.
- What is your favorite piece you have done so far?:
“Every time I create something new I think to myself, this is the best thing I’ve ever done! Looking back I suppose the piece I’m most proud of would probably be the award trophies I made for the 2017 Flagpole awards here in Athens, Ga. It was a one piece resin cast depicting a tree man(local icon referred to as “the tree that owns itself”) standing on a pedestal and holding a flagpole. On its head, an owl in mid-flight. Overall, the piece stood about 17″ tall. Out of a run of 23 pieces each were awarded to the top musicians and bands in Athens during 2017.” - Do you own any toys? If so what are your top five favorite toys you own and why?: “I burned or sold most of my collection shortly after the release of The Phantom Menace. It was the turn of the century and it seemed like a good time to purge things of old. After seeing that monstrosity of a film I felt ok about leaving star wars in the past. My love for movies, toys and sci-fi still continued to thrive so a decade or so later I started collecting again but my collection consisted mostly either of toys intended for resell or customizing. I have an infinity towards 3.75″ action figures made famous by Kenner in the 70s and 80s and probably have over 500 loose figures packed in bins. Out of everything I own my most favorite toys are the ones that were made by my peers in the resin casting community. It’s really hard for me to pick favorites but here are a few things in my core collection that I like because not only are they unique to most collections but I have a personal connection to them somehow. In no particular order;
a) X-ray R2 by Barbarian Rage. Vintage R2 cast in clear resin with an r2 style skeleton embedded into it. Brilliant!
b) Drug Dealing Shark by Joseph Harmon includes bag of cocaine. I love this guys art and he rarely makes figures.
c) The Butcher by Acquired Taste Industries. This thing is glorious! It’s a Kenner style taun-taun meticulously shrunken down using a very complicated process. It’s made like a centaur with a bare female torso and the face of princess Leia with giant horns and four arms and 4 light sabers. Definitely, a grail piece!
d) The Wookie Hash Pipe series by Jim Mahfood. There are currently only 2 figures in this series, Luce Skytoker and Dose Vapors and I have them both. Notably, the sculpt for these are original sculpts by George Gaspar of Double G toys. He also did the sculpt for the Robot Chicken 3.75” gi Joe style figure by Chicken Nugget Enterprises in which I also own and cherish equally.e) The Outer Space Men by Four Horseman. This series is made up of glyos reproductions of the unreleased production samples from designs made by Mel Birnkrant in 1969. I own just over half a dozen of the different characters in different designs including carded paint variants of Inferno and Cyclops. Anyone not familiar with this line of figures should check it out.” - Do you have anything artistic coming up in the near future? For example do you have any shows or pieces you are currently working on? Collaborations?: ”
2018 should prove to be a busy year for me. I am currently working on a studio upgrade to increase the quality of my product. So, that is an exciting prospect. Generally, I like to release figures as part of a series. So, you can expect to see more figures in the Riot Scum series, which is a collab between myself and Neil Devlin of Last Boss Comics. Neil, also did illustrations for my Life Day Story and Say Utinni figures which are a part of my movie poster mashup series which you can also expect to see more of. The R2-Devo figure will feature art by Moctoys and will be the 2nd release in my album mash up series colloboration with him.Also, I recently started working with a multi-media artist known as Cabbage Looper, who has a pretty snazzy 3d printer that he built himself. This opens up the possibilities to create original parts and designs rather than kit-bashing existing toys. Since I was a child I have been fascinated with the characters on the Star World action figure case released by Tara Toy Corp in 1977. I was bewildered by their similarity to Star Wars characters and it ignited my imagination by first introducing me to the concept of an alternate universe which nearly all of my present works are based. So, together with Cabbage Looper I’ve started working on original designs for these characters with astounding results. I have an amazing proto-type from the 3-d printer of the “vader” character and I hope to start reproducing it real soon.In addition, you can expect many random surprises from Buzzards Guts in the coming months!”
For more information, or questions about this artist please use the following info below:
I have bought some art pieces of Dain over the past year and he has an amazing concept and eye! He is definitely an artist to watch!Until next time!
ladycultblog 