We had a chance to tour the impressive BLIK studios over in Venice, CA. A fairly massive double warehouse operation that houses their design studio, offices, research, fulfillment and even production! Wow! For those who don’t know BLIK, they are the wall art innovators. Scott Flora and Jerinne Neils started the removable wall decal company in 2002 as an alternative to wall papers and painted walls. They wanted to freshen up their space, but, without the headache and hassle that comes with paint and glue. And that is exactly what BLIK does, they make recreating your space easy and fun. Forget the hassle, ditch the paint, and throw up a piece of art or a cool pattern on the wall.. and if you want, remove it and change it up. Done.

We’ve known Scott for some years now, running into each other often and finally got to reconnect at Creative Mornings, Los Angeles a couple months back. If you don’t know Creative Mornings, you need to know and can find out about their monthly creative talks here. As a matter of fact, we are speaking at the next installment on July 15th! Tickets are available starting July 11. Back to Scott… he’s a good guy running a thriving, awesome business. BLIK is now going on its 9th year and they have done amazing products and custom walls for the likes of Nintendo, Disney, Upper Playground, Google, Studio Jan Habraken, Keith Haring, Threadless, and so much more. Keep your eyes on the horizon and ears to the ground… who knows what will be next?

On a side note…a visit on the west side not complete without a quick lunch at the Mitsuwa Market.

Meet the young, new upstarts of Cartoon Network, The Problem Solverz. From the mind of artist, writer, and cartoonist Ben Jones (of art collective, Paper Rad), Problem Solverz is a new show surrounding three characters – Alfe, Roba, and Horace. The three of them are The Problem Solverz. They solve pretty fantastic problems involving ninjas, magicians, elevator racers, and the likes of other evil minded antagonists. Their world has a problem, they solve it.

Creator of The Problem Solverz, Ben Jones selecting rad art lying around the office… thank you Ben, I owe you!

Jones has a long history in art, comics, zines, music, video and animation. This is his first stint in television and it’s cool to see an indie artists’ vision translate to a major TV network. After all, he has been developing these characters and animation over the course of 10 years now. In typical fashion, if Jones is going to do television, he’s going to go big and stay true to what he does. Known for his hyper-unreal colors, patterns, and tripped out characters, the visuals for The Problem Solverz is a combination of 80s, lo-fi video game graphics, psychedelia, and a big dose of humor. In short, it’s rad.

After inking a deal with Cartoon Network, Jones moved out to Los Angeles last year from Providence, Rhode Island and quickly built a solid team, recruiting John Pham, Martin Cendreda, and John Vermilyea, all of whom are deeply rooted in the indie arts and comics scene. And, as you know, have all collaborated with Poketo in some form or another. This show is the real deal, not a watered down cartoon for the networks, but, indie artists executing their vision for the masses. We had a great opportunity meet with The Problem Solverz team, get a tour of their studio and see the awesome offices of Cartoon Network… enjoy.

Lead Artist, John Pham

Artist, John Vermilyea

Technical Director, Martin Cendreda

PA and video game curator, Adam Robezzoli. Adam curates the Game Nights for GR2.

The Problem Solverz airs Mondayz at 8:45pm. More at Problem Solverz Tumblr and Cartoon Network. Check out scenes from the show below.

On a side note… while getting the tour of their studio and Cartoon Network, had the wonderful opportunity to meet Pendleton Ward of Adventure Time. Another incredible show.

And Hellen Jo and Calvin Wong of The Regular Show. Hellen is an old friend and an amazing comicbook artist, one you’ll be seeing more of on Poketo next month!

A former Rastafarian meeting house and dental office, artists Nathan Danilowicz and Alexandra Wetzel has taken a once run down space in South Central LA and transformed it into an artist run gallery, Latned Atsar (Rasta Dental spelled backwards).

Latned Atsar has the feel of being in a home, a studio, a gallery because in fact, it is all of those things. Nathan and Alexandra are both artists, they had a space that was large enough not only for their personal studios, but, to also have exhibitions and showcase artists. And that is exactly what they did. Essentially inviting artists, giving them the keys to the space and allowing them to create and exhibit a body of work.

Co-founder of Latned Atsar, Alexandra Wetzel

Inside the studio of Nathan Danilowicz

We biked through somewhat desolate, non pedestrian parts of South Central, it’s not an area you will usually stumble upon, because there isn’t much around. Even the front of the gallery is gated up, there is no signage, it doesn’t look like anything exists. Going around the back side, we find the actual entrance in the parking lot. Alexandra greets us with a smile and invites us upstairs.

Flip the switch, all of sudden, we see the heart of of this space- A main lobby (kitchen) where people are invited to hang out and eat freshly baked goods that Alexandra made, artwork by three different artists in three different rooms, like solo shows for each artist, and Nathan’s studio is in plain sight, an open invitation. This is a different kind of space, an artist run gallery, no pretense, a showcase of exceptional artists, and art for art’s sake.

Artist, Gina Osterloh

Artist, Gina Osterloh

Artist, Jacin Giordano

Artist, Jacin Giordano

Artist, Yaron Michael Hakim

Artist, Yaron Michael Hakim

From the outside of Latned Atsar, you would have no idea what’s inside

Blogger Kate Donnelly works on a project dedicated solely to the canvas of the desk, aptly titled FromYourDesks.com. She invites designers, artists, photographers, illustrators, and everyday folks to show the world their desks. Why not, we spend most of our waking and creative hours behind these things?

The blog uses “desks” loosely, depending on the person, desks also extend into workspace and ideas. She has “desks” from John Baldessari, Megan Whitmarsh, Nikki McClure, Korean designer Kwangho Lee, and recently, Poketo!

These are some pics for the project plus one other important person at the studio that got left out (at bottom).

More at FromYourDesks.com.