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In this episode The Mazeking and Amon talk meditation, Marcel Duchamp, Buddhism, film, physics, the big bang theory, being bullied, the process of living and the purpose of art.

More About The Mazeking

Official Website

Saatchi Art

Instagram

American artist The Mazeking 飛龍 (Gabriel Asoka) is known for creating colorful, bold, and provocative artworks. He officially began making art in 1998 and started painting, creating various works, ranging from oil on canvas to acrylic on paper. The majority of his work is done in themed series, sometimes taking months or even a year to complete.

In 2002, Asoka had his first solo exhibition in Los Angeles at the O’Melveny Gallery. His love of life, and passion for exploration springs forth in his works of art. His works are about the Unseen (esoteric), Balance (duality), and Energy; what Asoka calls the “three keys”. When asked about his subject matter “I have always been deeply drawn to the esoteric (spirit), science and philosophy. Which are all, one and the same to me”. Inspired by everything from daily encounters to dreams, he explores various themes, including consciousness, sexuality, and the mystical, offering us a richer and more engaging perspective.

Asoka utilizes colors, contrast and forms as symbols. “I’ve used symbols in almost all my work, sometimes it’s just the color of something, or a shape or form, to represent an aspect of something, states of mind or experiences. It’s something that arose in my life and work over time and became part of my process”. Asoka places no labels or categories upon his work. He does not see art in classifications or categories, such as abstract or representational, stating “Everything is abstract in a way and representational in another way, it’s all perception”.

Over the years, his artworks have been collected by private collectors and can be seen in exhibitions around the world. The Mazeking currently lives and works in New York City.

Art by Artist The Mazeking, Happiness Here Street Art.

Show Notes

• Albert Einstein: An Equation That Changed the World – http://amzn.to/2gBvGeK
• Physics – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physics
• The Big Bang Theory – http://www.space.com/25126-big-bang-theory.html
• Edwin Hubble – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Hubble
• Plato – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato
• Aristotle – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle
• Francis Bacon (Painter) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon_(artist)
• Francis Bacon (Philosopher) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon
• Buddhism – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism
• Meditation – http://www.how-to-meditate.org
• Michael Jackson – http://www.michaeljackson.com
• Marvin Gaye – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvin_Gaye
• Martial Arts – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_arts
• The Peabody Institute – http://www.peabody.jhu.edu
• Bob Dylan – http://bobdylan.com
• David Bowie – http://legacy.davidbowie.com
• Ford EXP – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_EXP
• Miles Davis – https://www.milesdavis.com
• Nicolaus Copernicus – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Copernicus
• Steven Spielberg – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Spielberg
• Allen Ginsberg – http://allenginsberg.org
• Jack Kerouac – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kerouac
• Cut-up technique – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut-up_technique
• Lenny Kravitz – http://www.lennykravitz.com
• Sleepless in Seattle – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108160/
• The Meteor Man (film) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Meteor_Man_(film)
• Tim Burton – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Burton
• Bob Costas – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Costas
• Tim Burton on Bob Costas (Part 1) – https://vimeo.com/147308442
• Tim Burton on Bob Costas (Part 2) – https://vimeo.com/147605666
• Mars Attacks! – https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mars_attacks/
• Kokayi Ampah – http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0025346/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cr504
• Union IATSE – http://www.iatse-intl.org
• Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) – http://www.ilm.com
• Phil Tippett – http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0864138/
• Compositing – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compositing
• Softimage – http://www.autodesk.com/products/softimage/overview
• 3DS Max – http://www.autodesk.com/products/3ds-max/overview
• Maya – http://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/overview

The Formula Painting by Artist The Mazeking

• Render farm – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Render_farm
• Blue Sky – http://blueskystudios.com
• Digital Domain – http://digitaldomain.com
• Adobe Photoshop – http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html
• Adobe Illustrator – https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/tutorials.html
• QuarkXPress – http://www.quark.com/Products/QuarkXPress/
• Smithsonian Institution – https://www.si.edu
• Metropolitan Museum of Art  - http://www.metmuseum.org
• Auguste Rodin – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Rodin
• Salvador Dalí – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD
• Marcel Duchamp – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp
• Claude Monet – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet
• Pablo Picasso – http://www.picasso.fr/us/picasso_page_index.php
• Caravaggio – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravaggio
• Rembrandt – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rembrandt
• Conceptual Art – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_art
• Contemporary Art – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_art
• Fine Art – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine_art
• Modern Art – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_art
• Julian Schnabel – http://www.julianschnabel.com
• Julian Schnabel Gagosian – http://www.gagosian.com/artists/julian-schnabel
• Art Basel – https://www.artbasel.com
• World Cup – http://www.fifa.com/worldcup
• Terry Gilliam – http://terrygilliamweb.com
• George Carlin – https://georgecarlin.com
• Nikola Tesla – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

Fashion Maze Carine Roitfeld by Artist The Mazeking

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Jim Tozzi

Jim and Amon sort of go off the rails talking about Wonder Showzen, PFFR, Bert’s Tit, Underground Comics, almost drowning, the Mystery of Picasso, food fights, Federico Fellini, Chuck Jones, puppets, sharpening your eye, sewing machines, Chewties and a bunch of other stuff.

More About Jim Tozzi

Instagram
Threadless

Jim Tozzi grew up in Everett, a city to the north of Boston. The most distinctive thing about this town was the smell of freshly roasted peanuts due to the Teddie Peanut Butter factory. The factory’s emblem, a grinning cartoon bear with a bucket, would be one of the first influences of advertising on Jim. He went to Everett public school: always an outsider, he preferred drawing weird cartoons and watching monster movies to playing sports.

Jim Tozzi

In his early teens, Jim borrowed a super 8 camera from his Aunt and began experimenting. Lacking a tripod, he would tape the camera down onto the kitchen table and animate various toys, Star Wars figures and clay monsters. He also created a live action series starring his little sister as “Chico” the heavily mustachioed drug dealer who would meet an unlikely demise in every episode. Jim went on to study film and illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. He continued doing both animated and live action films creating a short film parody of an after school special called “Sunday School Girls” which tackled the subject of what Jesus really looked like.

Jim Tozzi

Jim moved to New York and started working at Broadcast Arts inking and painting animation cels. He also started directing music videos for obscure alternative bands. One of the first was for Mercury Rev and featured Ron Jeremy as a floating space traveler. Jim approached Nick at Nite with his reel and some promo ideas; he was brought on to TV Land to come up with a new promo campaign. This campaign conceived, written and directed with his wife Vezna, developed into the award winning “Twip” series. “Twip” was an imaginary product in which it’s evolution was traced in commercial parodies from the early 1950′s through the 90′s. Now as a directing team, the “Tozzi’s” signed on to Bob Giraldi’s company and began directing spots for Miller Lite, Sprite and Florida’s anti-tobacco campaign. The “Tozzi’s” split up and Jim went solo; joining M-80 he directed an award winning campaign for Kellogg’s Rice Krispie Treats for Leo Burnett. He went on to direct comedy spots for Sony Playstation, Nick at Nite and Miller. In his free time Jim likes to draw, paint, take long quiet walks and is a member of the art collective PFFR. Jim is now signed with THEM and living in New York.

Jim Tozzi

Part One Show Notes

• The Pinball Song
• Pointer Sisters
• Joe Raposo
• People in Your Neighborhood
• C is for Cookie
• Looney Tunes
• Sesame Street
• What’s 52 like?
• Gumby
• Little Rascals
• Jim Henson
• Caroll Spinney
• Frank Oz
• Big Bird
• Mr. Hooper
• The Muppet Movie
• Creature Double Feature
• “Weird Al” Yankovic – UHF
• Spatula City
• PFFR
• Final Flesh
• Chill Will
• Wonder Showzen
• Hate Mail
• Social Commentary
• Exquisite corpse
• The Spewing
• Moby Music Video
• TWIP Commercials
• Mercury Rev
• Broadcast Arts
• Pee-wee’s Playhouse
• Saturday Morning Cartoons
• Soul Train
• RISD
• NYU
• Please Look Away
• Bert’s Tit
• Tenacious D
• Wizard Skull 
• Robert Crumb
• Underground Comics
• Wierdo Comic
• Zap Comics
• Dennis Warden
• Full Sail
• Swimming Stories
• Surf Documentary
• Beat Kids
• George Clinton
• Parliament Funkadelic
• HIM
• Getting Release Forms
• Xavier: Renegade Angel
• Verbal Acrobatics
• SacSix
• Kenny Scharf
• Phoebe New York
• Molotow
• Hand Mixed Paint Stick
• McNally Jackson Store
• Rat Fink
• Tom and Jerry 
• Mickey
• Rick and Morty
• Chuck Jones
• Dan Harmon
• Adventure Time
• Bo Jack
• The Mystery of Picasso

Part Two Show Notes

• New York Said Shuffle
• Moo
• Food Fight
• SAG
• That’s Racist Gif
• Getting kicked out
• Don’t follow any trends
• Sleep is Important 
• Business Hours
• Getting to Creative Flow
• Taking Walks
• Sharpening your eye
• Postive Mental Attitude 
• Gratitude is Huge 
• The Ad vs Street Art
• Sewing Machines
• Making puppets
• Gimp Rabbit 
• Joann Fabrics
• Michaels
• M&J Trimmings
• Bring Out the Gimp (Pulp Fiction)
• PFAFF
• 2001: A Space Odyssey 
• Purely made to make
• Mozart 
• Federico Fellini
• 8 1/2
• La Dulce Vita
• Star Wars
• George Lucas
• I wanted to be a Storm Trooper
• JJ Abrams
• Psychological Horror Movies
• The Ring
• Holy Mountain
• Toilet Paper Magazine
• Art Basel
• National Lampoon Magazine Dog Ad
• Faces of Death
• Disturbing Comics 
• Chewties 
• Be in the Present Moment
• Shout Out to Coffee 

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Painting by Greg Miller

Greg Miller and Amon met up in Chelsea to converse about painting, westerns, surf culture and his participation in the The Wild Bunch exhibition at the JoAnne Artman Gallery.

Show Notes

• • http://gmillerstudio.com/statement.html
  • Surf Culture
  • A little bit closer, that is what she said.
  • West Coast
  • Skiing
  • Truckee, California
  • Squaw Valley
  • Before snowboarding
  • X Games
  • Bodie, California

Painting by Greg Miller

• • Sears Catalog
  • California Gold Rush
  • Wall paper
  • When did you know you wanted to be a creative?
  • Materials: Resin, Plexiglas, acrylic paint, spray cans
  • Pouring resin, fossilizing
  • Alchemy
  • Ed Roth the creator of Rat Fink
  • Airbrushing

Painting by Greg Miller

• • The Purpose of Scale
  • Positivity in Context
  • Extreme Nostalgic
  • Contemporary Cave Painter
  • Ghosts
  • Copyrights
  • “Westerns are my Shakespeare”—Quote Greg Miller
  • Westerns as a genre
  • JoAnne Artman Gallery
  • Sam Peckinpah – Film Director and Screenwriter
  • The Wild Bunch Trailer YouTube
  • The Wild Bunch
  • The Quagmire of Culture
  • The Magnificent Seven – Western Movie directed by John Sturges
  • The Magnificent Seven (Western) Movie Trailer Youtube
  • The Outlaw Josey Wales (Western) Movie directed by Clint Eastwood
  • The Outlaw Josey Wales (Western) Movie Trailer Youtube
  • Developing a different dialogue when painting
  • “I’m a painter, I have to do what’s in my heart.” –Quote Greg Miller
  • Believe in yourself, following your heart, and own it
  • Shout out to Barbara!
  • Contemporary Art
  • Here a list of books you can read on contemporary art by Taschen
  • Andy Warhola Artist, director, and producer
  • Beatnik
  • Different mediums
  • The seduction
  • Blick Art Materials

Painting by Greg Miller

• 10 Years to the show
• Studs Terkel –  author, historian, actor, and broadcaster
• Studs Terkel interviews Muhammad Ali – WFMT 11/26/75
• Monet – French Painter, a founder of French Impressionist
• French Impressionism
• Paul Cezanne – French artist and Post-Impressionist painter
• Quentin Tarantino – filmmaker, actor, film programmer, and cinema owner
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Comedy Drama Film directed  and written by Quentin Tarantino
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood –Official Trailer Youtube
• Jackie Brown Move directed and written by Quentin Tarantino
• Jackie Brown Movie Trailer Youtube
• Pulp Fiction Movie – written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, who conceived it with Roger Avary
• Pulp Fiction Movie Trailer Youtube
• Diverse Mythology- Good vs. Evil
• How to donate to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to help end childhood cancer
• Painted surfboards
• Wolfman Jack – Radio personality
• Charlie Bunger Surfing legend
• Step into Liquid – Surfing Documentary
• Step into Liquid Documentary Trailer Youtube
• On the Shoulders of Giants: The Discovery of Cortes Bank
• On the Shoulder of Giants: The Cortes Bank Expedition Short Video Youtube
• There was no basketball
• Time, politics, sex, nature
• Jay Myself Official Trailer Youtube
• Persevere
• The 50’s and 60’s
• Advertisement was hand-painted
• Venice, Los Angeles
• Street cred
• Fred Hughes on Andy Warhol
• Julian Schnabel -painter and filmmaker
• Want to watch a documentary about Julian Schnabel the artist and filmmaker?
• Julian Schnabel Private Portrait Documentary
• Adjacent to the energy
• To do what you want
• “The Wild Bunch.” Billy Schenck. Greg Miller. America Martin.
• William Holden – actor
• Chinatown – Film directed by Roman Polanski
• Chinatown – Trailer Youtube
• People relate to comics
• William Faulkner – writer and Nobel Prize laureate
• John Steinbeck – author
• The woman outlaw
• Circles
• Go check out the Wild Bunch at the JoAnne Artman Gallery 511 W 22nd St, New York, NY 10011
• “Don’t think” Quote Greg Miller

Artist Statement

Drawing from the diverse cultural and geographic makeup of his Californian roots, Greg Miller explores his relationship with the space he inhabits to communicate a particular urban experience. Working with both paint and collage, he constructs and deconstructs exploring the contradiction, ambiguity, and truth between urban streetscape and history.

Miller’s art is clever and cool. His abstracted backgrounds of drips, patterns, and phrases and the peeling back of layers provide a study in the impermanence of the things that surround us. His large-scale paintings and installations aim to make the most fleeting parts of American culture tangible. They grab us nostalgically, rousing us to enjoy the momentary beauty found in the impermanent parts of our lives. There is a fragile heroicness conveyed within the temporary nature of it all, especially within his construction of paper, wood, and natural materials, that gives Miller’s work liveliness and depth.

Greg Miller’s work is featured in numerous museum and private collections that have traveled internationally including those organized by the Charles Saatchi Collection and the Frederick R. Weisman Collection. The Get Go, a volume of his writings, photography and paintings, was published in 2010, and the first comprehensive monograph on the artist, Signs of the Nearly Actual, was published in 2008.

Miller spends his time between New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA.

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We would love to hear your thoughts on the episode. Leave a comment on the Apple Podcast App and don’t forget to rate the show.