Sliced Yams / ヤムライ

I call it ‘The Yamurai’.

It’s the Christmas season! What does that have to do with a late-night Yam-off? No idea.

Deviant

I put all my yams up on deviantART. Exposure rarely hurts, right?

俺のお絵かきの全て、deviantARTに、不味いやけど。詩型ない、な。

That’s the Power of SMAP / SMAPの特別力や

Merry Christmas everyone!

I originally had a post here about the differences between expert and average Microsoft Office users and the horror of auto-correction, but then the video for SMAP’s 「BANG! BANG! バカンス！」 (BANG! BANG! BAKANSU!, ‘Bang! Bang! Vacation!’) came on the DVD I was watching and I realized just how damned boring I make life seem with posts like that. So, instead I’ve spent some time crafting this holiday image. Enjoy.

最初にこの所でMicrosoft Officeの自動校正の不平の話なんやけど、書いている時にSMAPのPV「BANG! BANG! バカンス！」を見た。行成に「間違っている！」って悟りに来た。そのぐらいの書いているのはあかんやな。面白くないし。じゃあ、その代りに、このイラストを楽しんでくださいませ！メリークリスマスよ！

久しぶり、薩摩芋さん達 / Long time, no yams

Untitled Yams in Pencil, 2006. Click to enlarge.

Wrangled into a Chinese City Government Foreign Investment Meeting on Monday, I produced what you see above. One might note that I’m interested in neither Chinese politics nor investment opportunities.

今週月曜日、中国镇江(『ジェンジアング』と読み）市政 対外投資会議が行った。俺が镇江市政も投資も興味全然ないんやから、薩摩芋さん達の絵を書けた。久しぶり、な！

Why not? Why not I ask? Why not? /
Why can’t we be creative? /
Why not? Why not I ask? Why not? /
Why can’t we be together?
Save us! S-O-S! /
You got to save us! S-O-S!

Ghost of Yams Past

On my overly delayed flight from Kansas City to Las Vegas today, I found myself sitting next to a splendidly interesting (and breathtakingly attractive) woman trying to make conversation. After a time, conversation wandered off, and I decided to give her a business card. I mean, you never know – she might need to know someone in the game industry someday. For some unknown reason, I thought for a second, then took the card back and wrote this site’s URL on the back of the card – making her one of the very few people who actually know that this site is linked to the real person who is me – and then tried to explain that I draw Yams (obviously, I don’t expect this lady to ever type that address into her browser). Try now, if you will, to imagine that conversation.

Me: ‘So, I draw Yams.’
Her: ‘Yams.’
Me: ‘Yeah, it’s a little weird, I guess.’
Her: ‘You mean like, sweet potatoes?’
Me: ‘Right. I draw them upright, and then give them human characteristics. I’m especially fond of headbands.’
Her: ‘My mom likes to cook sweet potatoes.’

At any rate, it occurred to me that one posted item does not a history make, and that it would be woefully indigent not to share the rest of my Yams with both of the readers I haven’t been showing them to all along. Inquiring minds may notice that inspiration hit on the 31st of December last year and was very fruitful.

• 2004.12.31 – Sunny Day
• 2005.01.01 – Bunny Yams
• 2005.01.01 – Greener Grasses
• 2005.01.01 – Yam Jams
• 2005.01.14 – Pondside
• 2005.06.18 – Beached Yam

Tomorrow, I’m going to try and get up some items on ebay, and I’ll likely throw links up to the auctions here as well, just to have a nice symmetry between those things I hate spending time doing and those I enjoy.

You’re missing out / Well if you say so

‘Tis the Season

It’s a celebration, bitches! Enjoy yourselves.

A friend of mine recently treated me to some photos of him and friends doing the summer festival thing in Tokyo, and in honor of the season, I present you with ”や祭”. This image may bewilder some of you who have not been treated my past 8 months of art. Just wait until you see the rest of my miriad works! I’ll happily admit that they may only please me. But that’s more than enough.

Hey everybody when I walk the walk / I gotta back it all up can I talk the talk? / Hey everybody when I hear the knock / Don’t wanna measure out my life to the tick of a clock