Funspot :: Part II

It's time for Part II of our trip to Funspot in Laconia, NH. If you missed Part I, check it out. One of the major reasons we love our trips to Funspot is enjoying the vintage artwork on the arcade and pinball machines. It's inspiring and most of the time gives you a good chuckle too. We also included a couple of pictures from our end of the day Ticket Frenzy where we use any leftover tokens to play easy ticket games. We then spend our ticket winnings to buy anything emblazoned "Funspot... it's the spot for fun!" on it with the inclusion of the their dragon mascot. It seems like the best way to remember our fun time all year long.

Funspot :: Part I

Location: Laconia. NH
Space: Funspot
August 2012

There is a place in New Hampshire; This place is called Funspot and it claims to be the largest arcade in the WORLD. We can't attest to that, but we can swear to you that it is indeed a spot for fun, one in which you can eat nachos on top of pizza, play vintage arcade games and air hockey and skeeball and then top it all off with a heap of tickets to win yourself a take home prize (when I say "win" I mean "spend $20 on").

We take a trip up there at least once a year and last Friday marked the big day. In addition to playing the arcade games, we geek out on the old school artwork and find the experience altogether inspiring and ridiculously exciting.

Worst fun house ever

One of the arcade machines from The King of Kong

Stay tuned for Part II of our visit to Funspot!

Studio Miners' Kenji Nakayama in Juxtapoz

 

Photo by Josh Falk

Our friend and talented Boston-based artist Kenji Nakayama was featured in the August issue of Juxtapoz magazine. We visited Kenji's studio back in October of last year, which you can have a look at here. Catching a glimpse into his process and watching his work grow over the last few years has been a privilege. The article, written by Caleb Neelon, a major force in the graffiti world who we also paid a visit to, tracked the journey that Kenji has taken, both geologically and psychologically from Japan to Boston, from engineer to artist (not to say that engineers aren't artists in their own right).

It has been fantastic to watch Kenji's career as an artist flourish and we can't help but grin to see him posing in the streets of Boston with his artist's kit donning a "Studio Miners" sticker on it. Way to go, Kenji!

Studio Miners' Year in Review

You might have noticed that we haven't had a new post for awhile, well, we've been super busy the last several months and wanted to share with you what we've been up to, so you don't think we've been lazing around playing video games this whole time (even though we have done our fair share of that).

Back in September 2011, Team Sweet was given the chance to write for NYC-based designer toy boutique and gallery myplasticheart. As a part of that, we were able to cover the NY Comic Con 2011 and she's had the opportunity to interview a plethora of talents, including Skinner, Paul Shih, Jeremy Brautman, Shawnimals, Andrea Kang, MAD and many more.

In December 2011, we headed to NYC to check out Evoker's work at the Robots Will Kill & Friends Anniversary show at the Mighty Tanaka. Evoker painted a walrus, the first in a run of similar characters. It was a great time to catch up with friends we hadn't seen in awhile.

In February of this year, we had the opportunity to curate a show at myplasticheart and so the exhibition Rabid, Wild & Docile was born. The participating artists in the show were those who frequently feature bears in their work; this included: Molly Bosley, Luke Chueh, EVOKER, Flying Fortress, Michael C. Hsiung, Oliver Jeffers, J*RYU, Andrea Kang, Phillip Lumbang, MCA, Fish McGill, Podgy Panda, Kristiana Parn, Paul Shih, Naoko Stoop, Tim Sullivan, Ben Walker and Angry Woebots. The highlight of the whole experience was when Flying Fortress, one of our favorite artists, came to the opening reception to paint the front of the gallery. You can still see the mural at 210 Forsyth St. in the Lower East Side.

 

 

In March, Evoker worked with 7ply skateshop in RI to create the straight razor deck, a biker-inspired graphic.

Evoker has been busy painting windows around Rhode Island and MA. Back in January, he painted the windows of OneWay Gallery in Providence for the winter season, with a mural on their giant windows of a yeti and a snowman. Next Evoker, with the assistance of Team Sweet, painted the windows at Civil skateshop in East Greenwich, RI in preparation of the release of a skate deck Evoker designed with the lobster from Rocky Point, a now defunct (but much beloved) theme park in RI. Recently, he painted the windows of UGLY Gallery in New Bedford, for the opening of Destroy You, New Bedford, a show with work from MCA and Ryan Maguire.

 

 May was a very busy month, marking the release of Surface Area a new zine created by Chris RWK and Dave Combs from PEEL. Evoker snagged the cover of the first issue as well as an interview. The Friends with Benefits show opened on May 4th at the Distillery Gallery in Boston with works from Project SF artists, including Evoker, as well as smattering of others from around New England. During that time, Team Sweet landed herself a new job at an arts center and gallery space in Jamestown, RI where she heads up marketing and educational programming.

 

 June and July were all a blur of late nights for Team Sweet while she finished up her master's degree! She is now qualified to work as a children's librarian, museum marketing/exhibition planner, social media specialist, junior web/graphic designer or information architect. It's good to have choices, right?

After celebrating graduation, Evoker decided to brighten up the shed near the Studio Miners' house, so he created a giant smile for them both to come home to.

You'll be seeing much more activity on the Studio Miners' site in the coming months as we prepare for our show at the Jamestown Arts Center, in Jamestown, RI entitled Monster Party and featuring an impressive list of artists from the New England area:

Eyeformation
Mr. Never
Jay Lacouture
Tim Sullivan
Jeremy Derbyshire-Myles
Mike Decay
MCA
Ryan Maguire
Etips
Pat Falco
Fish McGill
Rob Wohl
Tyna Wohl
The Big Nazo
The Individuals
Casey Weibust
Natalie Squillante
Matt Lemek

In addition to original paintings, the exhibition will have a 12' x 28' mural by Evoker, a photobooth and monster-inspired games. On Studio Miners, we will be documenting our process leading up to the opening, as well as showing previews of artwork from participating artists, so make sure to stay tuned.