See you in MEXICO!

June 24, 2012

Hello everyone.My Mexico trip is starting next week!!! 6 months of planning and working with my warm Mexican friends over tons of emails, it's finally coming to reality.

I've been to Mexico twice and I was in love with the country and people there, this is a dream come true projects for me!

My First stop and this trip's sponsor is Amarillo Centro de Diseño June 27th to 30th Stop motion animation workshop June 28th Exhibition "Aya Kakeda works from 2000~2012" opens at http://amarilloespacio.com.mx/

Amarillo Centro de Diseño is a design Center in Xalapa, Mexico which invites both Mexican and international artists to have workshops and Exhibition. My talented and top illustrator friends Yuko Shimizu, Marcos Chin, and Brian Rea have shown their work here in the past years. I'm honored to be part of this group! Thank you for inviting me!

Here is some exciting photos that they sent me! they are also painting my characters on their window!!! wowwwww~ I'm excited about what kind of stop motion animation the students will make. I will update you on that soon!

I'm also launching 2 toy lines in Mexico, one is a hand made ceramic figure "Box-kun Mexican version" and " Hanabi Monster" plush which I collaborated with Mexican Artist TOLOACHE. My Ceramic Toy " Box-kun Mexican version" will be launched on July 6th at SK Sarukaku Toy store in Mexico City. It's super limited and comes with hand made silkscreen book, I'm only bringing 10 figures. [vimeo 44558034 w=500 h=375] box-kun mexican version promotional video from aya Kakeda on Vimeo.

Last but not least! On July 13th at Rojo Bermelo store in Monterrey, I'm having an event "Hanabi Monster!" where collaboration plush toy with TOLOACHE and limited edition silk screen will be launched! Fluffy cuteness!!!! And here is some photos of the limited edition silk screens getting printed for this event! If you are in Mexico, I really hope to see you in one of those events!

Love from New York trying to pack huge mustache in my suitcase!!!

Hampshire College and pretty towns in Massachusetts

April 12, 2012

I was visiting Hampshire College this week to talk at Andrea Dezso's class.Andrea is one of my favorite artist so I was very happy to go up and visit her and her class! Here you can see her amazing art work! ----> http://www.andreadezso.com/

Her husband Adam took me around and show me some small town around the college. It was beautiful! Thank you so much Andrea and Adum!

(Some Photo from the college) (This is part of their campus with Apple trees! so pretty!) (Some student works, Papier-mâché Masks) (poster made by Andrea!)

(Cows!!! so Cute! This is an amazing ice cream store, you can meet the cows who makes the milk for ice cream in their back yard.) (They had a baby cows in little huts) (Awwwww ♥） (Small towns around the school.) (There was a canal running across the town. The stream was pretty strong.) (Spring is just arriving to Massachusetts, flowers are starting to bloom everywhere, so pretty!)It was such a treat to be in a beautiful nature.

MICA lecture and Toy making blog

March 22, 2012

Hello.I'm going to MICA ( Maryland Institute College of Art) next week to have a lecture and a week long Toy design workshop. Here are the link to the blog I've been making for the class. I thought maybe some other toymaker will be interested! I will keep updating this blog with students work and interview with other toy makers so stay tuned. http://micamfaillustrationaya.wordpress.com/

Info about the workshop: http://fyi.mica.edu/event/aya_kakeda_lecture

Book Reading at Park Slope Brooklyn

September 18, 2011

2 Thursday ago Sara, Nora and I had a little book reading at Community Book Store in Brooklyn. It's a very cozy and friendly book store where they always have some nice book evens. And their selection of children books and other art books are fantastic. (here is their link --->http://www.cbjupiterbooks.com/)Nora was presenting her new book "My Cold Went On Vacation" And Sara was presenting her new book "Bake Sale" They are both fantastic books you should check them out! And I was reading my first children book which I illustrated " The Hole in the Middle" Here are some photos from the event! By the way I'm wearing a T-shirt and an overall pants which I use to wear in high school. Kind of made me calm like a lucky charm. It use to make people think I look like Chucky from Child's Play. hahaha now I guess I look adult enough that nobody think so... I hope...

Visiting MICA

October 22, 2010

I visited MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) in Baltimore last Monday to give a guest lecture and a stencil demo at Marcos Chin's class.

The train ride from NY was smooth and fun, Marcos had a microwaved sandwich and I had a half frozen one (lady asked us hot or cold and that's what we got...) hahaha

Marcos' has such an ambitious and creative class at MICA, students have one semester to finish a production of the play "snow queen," From set design, costume design to acting all in 3 months! It was like watching project runway, I was very impressed. Here is their website-->http://snowqueenremix.tumblr.com/

Giving a demo and lecture to his class was very easy, the students were nice and asked many questions (curious minds always make me happy when I do the lecture!) It's a very talented class and Marcos is such an amazing teacher! Lots to learn from him, I wish I had his class when I was in my undergrad...

Here are some fun photos of Marcos and I dressing up in their costumes :-)

The class was about 6 hours long~ fewwww we were all sleepy after that...