Home is Where You Make it closes Sunday!

Our show at Subtext ends this Sunday March 22nd to make way for our good friend Andy Holder's show, so make sure you catch "Home is Where You Make it" if you haven't stopped by. We have a few great pieces left, including the amazing plushs' by DFF, so snatch them up while you can. Click here for info on the show and a list of what pieces are left. If you did purchase something, you can pick it up starting Monday. We will be doing more shows in the future, possibly including a sequel to this show... 

The Show Recap

View pics from the show (flickr).

We will be uploading individual pics of each piece soon and into that flickr set as well as posting an updated inventory on what's still for sale!

We have so many people to thank for such an amazing opening night for our first solo show. The night was a blur as we jumped from person to person, walking them through the story, talking to people who bought pieces, seeing family and friends, and enjoying the vibe. It was a crowded opening all night and most of the art sold, too!

Jolby would like to thank: Dolls for Friends for their incredible work and amazing additions to our show and story, Andy Roush for the music, Keegan and Katy from Keegan Meegan Press & Bindry for the amazing screen prints, Chris Forrette for our rad website, Merrick, the crew at Tangible Worldwide, Greg at In to Ink, Bobby @ Kitsune Noir, Brian Willette for printing our show you saved our lives, San Diego Reader & City Beat, k10k.net and the Cuban Council Crew, Don/Dylan/Amy/George/Subtext for their amazingness and helping this all come together, everyone who bought a piece of art at the show we are so grateful, Monica Moon, Brian Haas for the frames and delicious beer/fuel, everyone that posted any word/sentence/picture/link including: Will @ its nice that, QBN, Little Chimp Society, Josh Spear, Drawn!, Dustin Ortiz, Kitsune Noir, and each and everyone for coming out, everyone that has supported us over the last couple of months we thank you from the bottoms of our hearts.

Josh would like to thank: My lovely wife Shannon for all of her support, my dad for making all our boards, my mom who is sick and couldn’t make the show, my family, Merrick & Tangible, Colby for the inspiration and drive to be a better artist, Subtext, Everyone that drove down for the show, Tem’s BBQ.

Colby would like to thank: Abby Rynko for her undying love/patience/honesty, Josh Kenyon for liking sports and for collaborating/pushing/pulling on a life-changing project like this, Josh's dad for his wood-working brilliance, Merrick & Tangible, everyone at Subtext, My Ma/Sis/Bro for the support and for the hospitality while staying in San Diego, the City of Portland, Anathallo, Fleet Foxes, Shannon Kenyon for her writings, Corey Warning for all his kindness, Tom Okerlund, Ideaworks Advertising for their support.

The day is here:

The Day is here! Above are the ridiculously under-priced hand-made plush dolls contributed by Dolls for Friends of the main characters in our story. We have almost 50 pieces on display tonight. Get there early so we can walk you through the show's story before the gallery gets over-run with attendees. We'll have paintings, prints, screen prints, plush dolls, and some painted found-objects too! See you there!

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Home Is Where You Make It: New Works by Jolby

February 21st-March 22nd, 2009

Opening Reception with the Artists: This Saturday, February 21st, 6-10pm Subtext Gallery, San Diego, CA

2479 KETTNER BLVD. SAN DIEGO, CA 92101 : 619 546 8800

1 Day Left: It's all there!

Wow. What a long road it has been to get to this point. Josh and I have been up super early each day this week finishing the pieces, seeing great friends, eating like kings, and we just finished hanging everything in the show. We are so proud of the work and have so many people to thank that without them none of this would be possible. Hope to see you out there tomorrow so that you can join us in sharing this work with everyone and eat some freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies (what says 'home' more than that?) and some beer/wine, of course. We've also already sold 5 pieces and the show hasn't even opened yet!

3 Days: Kitsune Noir Wallpaper Project

We're so honored today to be posted on Kitsune Noir, the blog of all things awesome by Bobby Solomon, with artwork from the show. The two wallpapers above can be downloaded right here in sizes of 1024x 768 up to 1900 x 1200 including an iPhone and PSP wallpaper as well. We hope you'll go and download them so your eyeballs can feast and be satisfied. We emailed Bobby a few weeks ago to ask if we could launch these in conjunction with the show opening this Saturday and he was more than happy to. Thanks, Bobby!

It's so cool to be a part of this project that has been done by big name arists like Gama-Go, Jean Julian, Peitari Posti, Josh Cochran, Travis Millard, Mike Perry, and a lot more.

3 Days: Finishing the Paintings

Josh and I arrived in San Diego yesterday and after stopping by Subtext we got right to work. We've got a lot of paintings to finish in the next few days and above is Josh smelling it up.

Today we're speaking at the Art Institute here in San Diego as well as seeing some old friends. More soon!

8 Days: We Are Blogging Every Day Next Week!

Starting Monday February 16th, we are going to be blogging every day until the show opens the following Saturday bringing you updates from Subtext Gallery, our insanity trying to finish everything for the show, and even more sneak peaks. We've just begun to scratch the surface of the art of the show and we're expecting over 40 piece there, yet we've only previewed about 20! Sit tight kids!

9 Days Remain: Dolls For Friends Sneak Peak

We got these awesome shots in the e-mails today from our collabers Dolls for Friends of the dolls they are creating for "Home is Where You Make it." This is just a peak at only three of the dolls they are hand-crafting based on our characters we use to tell the show's story. We are so excited to see the characters in plush form and to see them come to life!

5 Weeks Until the Jolby Show: Our Process

5 weeks! Time is ticking away and here's another update. The sneak-peeks from this post are in the Outskirts of the forest. The Ouskirts are a sort of "limbo" area between William's birth place of Seaside and his destination of the lush, beautiful forest that his grandfather Danny has told him about since he was a little boy. This part of the story will be very dark and a nice departure for us stylistically.

A lot of people are asking about how we are collaborating on each piece and what our process has been like for the show. Well, since Josh and I are both in different States, working mostly digitally on the show was a must (there are paintings but they are coming later). The ideas for each piece come from both of us and usually one will start the idea and we'll both work on it until its there. Then we both sketch our parts of the piece. I have been drawing the characters/objects/towns and Josh has been drawing all of the patterns and the dream pieces and we both have been doing our share of the type (which is all hand-drawn). We then scan everything in, bring it into Photoshop to keep the quality of the line (no live-tracing), and start coloring. Josh finishes it all up by adding these insane textures that he makes by hand to everything that really completes each piece. So there you have it; A little insight into our process. 

5.5 Weeks Till Jolby Show: Postcards

Being a mid-week post, I thought I'd add a half to the countdown. Above is the front and back flyer for our show featuring a better look at William's town of Seaside and a dream sequence (right half of the front of the flyer) of William and Danny's instruments dancing in the leaves of the forest.

If any of you's are on Facebook, you can find Josh and myself on there as well as join our group "Jolby & Friends." Add us as friends, sign up to attend the show, spread the love. Have a great weekend!

Jolby report: 6 weeks

6 weeks to go and we got a ton of stuff to do. We just finished the first of three sections of the story/show. Here's the breakdown: part 1 Seaside, part 2 the Outskirts and part 3 Tree Tops. We are super stoked with how the stuff is coming out and are excited to keep showing sneak peeks. Here are a couple; the first is from William's grandfather, Danny's, home. It's a wall of clocks that tell the tale of Danny. The second is from a dream piece when William is in the Outskirts. Through the show we will have dream pieces that will have this border effect around it. Enjoy and keep coming back.

Jolby Show Report: 7 Weeks

Hey kids. We'll be doing these weekly updates on our first solo show, "Home is Where You Make it." With each of these show reports we'll show some crops of the art as we're making it as well as a look into the story that we are telling. The boy in the owl suit is the main character of our story named William. The crop is from a piece showing us the town of Seaside, William's place of birth and where he has lived his whole life.

"Home Is Where You Make It" Jolby's First Solo Art Show Announcement

"Home Is Where You Make It" New Works by Jolby (Josh Kenyon & Colby Nichols)

February 21st - March 22nd Opening Reception: Saturday, February 21st, 6-10pm at Subtext Gallery in San Diego, CA.

In their first solo show, Jolby’s work takes us on the journey of a boy named William who, after suffering a great loss, leaves his familiar town of Seaside to discover what “home” really means inside the depths of an aging forest. Throughout this story we are introduced to a detailed world filled with odd characters, illustrious patterns, vibrant colors, and hand-rendered type. The show tells this imaginative story using a variety of mediums including screen prints, paintings, drawings, and even detailed handmade plush dolls contributed by Jill and Erin Lynch’s (Dolls for Friends). Reflecting on their recent life experiences, the “Home is Where You Make it” story has been inspired by the artists’ pasts and deals with love, hope, depression, faith, isolation, acceptance, and re-birth.

Josh Kenyon and Colby Nichols have been labeled “the illustrative monster that is Jolby” and have been working together on various projects since their first collaboration in 2005. The two combine their talents through Colby’s obsession with drawing creatures and shapes while adding Josh’s love for pattern and texture to create a look that is purely “Jolby.”

Above is our first piece tentatively-titled "Once More". More info on Subtext's blog. We will be posting updates of this show until it opens in Feb and we are very excited to be sharing this with you.

Success

Kicks went really well. Lots of fun. Thanks again to Subtext for inviting us. 

Here are some pics from the show (via Kidrobot forums. Scroll to the bottom of the page for pics.)

Who are these dudes?

I think in this video I was explaining Josh's non-stop intensity.

"Hi 5 Lo 5" Shoes for "Kicks" show at Subtext

A reminder for all you San Diegans, "Kicks" opens at Subtext in Little Italy on January 25th from 6pm-10pm and runs until Feb 17th. Here are some more sneak-peeks at my shoes.