Alessandro Echevarria (aka Skulldaggery) lives and works as a freelance illustrator in Brooklyn, NY. Check out more of his amazing work on his website, or see it in person when Meth & Hot Dogs 2 opens April 30th!
“Hi I’m, Holly. By day I’m a plush designer and model maker living in London, UK, by night I go under my ‘A Little Stranger’ alias, working on a variety of projects. I’ve been sewing, painting and generally doing things with my hands for as long as I can remember and decided very early on to make it my career. While at university studying foundation and art and model making I started to create plush toys as gifts for friends and eventually started selling them online. I now run my own webshop where I’m proud to be selling both my own work and that of other independent artists.
When I’m not making things I love toys, guinea pigs, shoes, drum and bass, running, knitting, horror movies, and stuff with cute faces on them from Japan.”
Meet Carlos Araujo. After eight years of working as a graphic designer he decided to switch gears and focus on illustration. Since then his unique, award winning illustrations have appeared in books, magazines, posters, as awesome paper toys and in gallery shows in his home country of Brazil and worldwide.
You can explore more of Carlos’ fabulous work on his website, Flickr, and blog.
Two Market-Stalls
C’est La Mort!
Walking on Mars (pictured at top)
Because there is no such thing as too much awesome we’re happy to announce that artist Brian Rubenacker has joined the Meth & Hot Dogs 2 line-up! Brian will be bringing his adorable, mischievous and slightly cracked out Boston Terriers to the show opening April 30th at Lift.
“Michelle Romo is a self-taught illustrator and designer who is fueled by cookies and naps. She got her first computer when she was 16 and she hasn’t stopped working since. Her influences include Mid-Century, Japanese, and Scandinavian design and pretty much anything cute.
Michelle created her line, Crowded Teeth, in 2004 and continues to create characters and products under that name. When she isn’t working she spends her time eating good food, hugging her friends, playing video games, and crafting. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband Jason and their two cats, Hurts and Morgan.”
If you’re in the Los Angeles area make sure to check out the opening of Michelle’s Super Awesome Sweet Rad Times at Fuzzy Mountain: Heck Yeah! on the 9th at Japan L.A. and see fantastical new work from Crowded Teeth when Meth & Hot Dogs 2 opens at the end of the month!
Mono No Aware - 6.5 x 9.25” acrylic on wood plaque
After Kristin Tercek (aka Cuddly Rigor Mortis) graduated Film School at NYU she and her husband started Cha-Pow! A digital ink, paint and animation studio that landed them work with companies like Coke, Elmo’s World and Saturday Night Live.
A few years later, in 2005, Kristin started Cuddly Rigor Mortis as a hobby. She began hand sewing plush dolls of her own design and gained quite the following through gallery shows and exposure in magazines.
Pink Cheer - 7 x 9” acrylic on wood plaque
After three years of repeatedly sewing the same patterns painting began calling out to her. Diving into a sea of bright acrylics she began to create fantastic pieces that feature adorable, wide eyed characters that have something darker lurking just below the surface…
Make Like a Banana - 14” x 9.5” acrylic on wood plaque
See Kristin’s work at Lift when Meth & Hot Dogs 2 opens later this month!
“Jamie Fales (aka Noosed Kitty) hails from New York. She grew up with a plethora of coloring books and a vivid imagination (plus, an insatiable hunger for cookies). Her mother insists Jamie was endlessly entertained as a youngster with a simple box of popsicle sticks, glue, and some glitter. She went on to study fine art in college and received her BFA in 2003. Her work has been featured in numerous publications and she has shown in solo and group exhibits across the United States. As an adult, Jamie loathes glitter, but remains an avid cookie lover.”
Clown Munny
Post Apocalyptic Heartache & A Handy Rifle Indeed (pictured at top)
From the biography of Matthew Ryan Sharp -
No matter how stark the image or its subject Sharp creates art with great degrees of color and cheer. As a kid he rode to school passing buildings and trains littered with graffiti. The experience left an indelible impression on him as he waited in traffic watching graffiti covered trains move along. Imagine a young boy mesmerized by it all, watching art in motion as it floated by on the railroad tracks. Sharp is self taught, starting early on sitting and coloring with his mom while watching The Wizard of Oz during the eighties where television was oversaturated with color.
How Dare You - mixed media on 180lb watercolor paper
His sense of humor tends to match his work – dark, sarcastic, tongue-in-cheek. His outsider art is more than that. It’s humorous, black-witted qualities serve as social commentary with characters based on real people, or metaphorically – exposing perceptions others may have about them. Sharp’s subjects are people in the background who likely bear greater internal burdens and hardships.. They appear tattered and torn, like old carneys, Victorian era rogues and random drunken subculture types. Sharp believes they have the best stories, more emotional issues and are more hardworking. He’s right. Comical or not, he paints the truth about those in the corners and recesses of the world. Sharp’s characters don’t suffer fools easily and many are bruised and broken, worn down. Looking at them we see ourselves, see those around us. Sharp delivers them to us without interminable reactions of revulsion. They stand in shadows and elicit reactions of sympathy and affection and smiles. Many reflect his Midwestern upbringing and self-reliance.
Uncle Touchy’s Naked Puzzle Basement - mixed media on 140lb. watercolor paper 9×12 inches
Ghosteeez Installation
Corporate Downsizing (pictured at top)
You can find more of Matthew’s work on his website or Flickr, and check out something new from him this month at Meth & Hot Dogs 2.
Emi Slade’s love for science fiction & cephalopods is undeniable. Her wondrous creations pull you in with their bright, wide eyes before wrapping their tentacles around you for the kill.
Artists of the macabre Gus Fink & Emi Boz make up Meth & Hot Dogs gruesome twosome. Both artists are able to find the adorable side of even the most heinous of subjects.
Gus Fink has a raw, punk approach to his art - painting on everything from weathered scraps of paper, crumpled dollar bills and old photographs. Known for his dark vision and art that tells a story Gus has worked with a variety of mediums and done illustrations for comics, children’s books, album covers and created his own toy lines.
Emi Boz, Gus’ diabolical other half, creates characters all her own from grinning kawaii style serial killers and zombie cupcake sculptures to twisted horror filled dreamscapes. 
M&HD2 opens April 30th at Lift.
