Horiyoshi III

Last night was the Horiyoshi III exhibit at the Canvas LA gallery. It was awesome. Pham picked me up around 630 and we sat in traffic for a while on the way to Hollywood. Got to the gallery a little early, and decided to get some pizza across the street. I have no idea what the pizza place was called. It was kind of a hole in the wall, with a B rating from the health services. But, it was the best pizza I've ever eaten. Definitely going back there soon. After that we walked back to the gallery, and discovered we had missed the main part of hte exhibit. I guess Horiyoshi came out and said a few words(in Japanese, of course) and all 8 body suits were on display. We hopped in line anyway and got in within a few minutes. The place was jam packed. First we looked at the new Horiyoshi book, and some of his other art books. Then, checked out his new clothing line. The shirts were awesome but SO expensive. $100 per T-shirt and this awesome cardigan that was $400! Fuckin' ridiculous. Pham got some beer and we walked around a bit. There was one dude getting tattood on the side of the gallery. Watched that for a few minutes. He got some Shichi lions on his calves. Pretty jealous. Most of the pictures I shot in the beginning were on Pham's camera, so hopefully he'll put those up soon and I'll post a link. After watching the tattoo session for a few minutes I decided to walk around some more and look at all the Horiyoshi drawings and paintings that were hanging all over the gallery. Some really awesome work. His attention to detail is mind-blowing, to say the least. Here's a few of the shots I got. Sorry, I suck at centering square subjects.

wish i could read script

brutal

bag-head

Luckily, a few of the body-suit models were still walking around and hanging out in the gallery so I got a chance to shoot a few of them. I felt kinda bad for them, it was a little chilly in the gallery and they had to walk around in thongs and sandals all night. They seemed alright with it though. They were also nice enough to stay posed long enough for me to get the shots I wanted, which was pretty cool. A few of them also let Pham and I take pictures with them. I talked to one of them for a minute. Tried to flex what little Japanese I know. He told me his name was Sato and I thanked him for taking the picture. He's seemed pretty stoked that some weird American knew a little Japanese. Here are the shots I got of the models:

this dude was a total badass

awesome Fudo-myoo piece

Sato-san on the left

We had to split a little early. I had to get to moorpark quickly to play a show with Slam Dunk at some crazy ass ranch/mansion thing. They had parrots, 'nuff said. I'd also like to take this opportunity to announce that I'm now working with Pham as a part of the Young Hearts Collective. We'll be doing various work with photo, film, and paint. I'll be holding up the photo end while Pham does the creative shit. Look out for some of that stuff in the future. Thanks for reading.


-Dean