Old news by now, but the October Issue of Auxiliary Magazine is out featuring spooky halloween themed fashion tips, music reviews, and an interview with Doc Hammer of Venture Brothers fame! Auxiliary is run by friend/classmate/one-time-roommate Jennifer Link whose design and photography background lend to a beautifully constructed periodical. As usual, I contributed some frantic doodles this issue, which I posted below.  Click on the link above to view a definite up-and-coming alternative life/art/music/fashion magazine! 

BONUS: These should have been different posts, but I’ve been lackadaisical in my updates. Below are some sketches and recent entries into my facebook group ‘Ozgur’s Photoshop-Arama’ now affectionately known as OPA!!!!

Categories: Art, Life, teh intarwebs
No Comments »

 Oh man, this post is looking like a cheesy motivational poster already. Right below the clouds should be:

OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD

Which happens to be what the placard out in the hall outside my new apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn reads (I have an awesome new landlady who decorates the hallway of the building). I have to admit, the phrase has grown on me. But before you begin to wonder if I rediscovered religion, just put it outside of its Judeo-Christian context. It sounds downright boastful, and I love it. If you still aren’t seeing it my way, here’s a little comic for you:

This is what goes on in my head when I read that quote. And it feels even more fitting for a neighborhood dominated by East Indians and Orthodox Jews. I only wish today’s webcomic was as inspired as the little gem above. Herein we have a classic case of ‘Maki thinks of the punchline and tries to mad-lib the rest’. I’m not sure how well it worked. Sometimes I feel like I’m a brilliant writer and sometimes its a mad-lib where somebody has scribbled swear words into all the spaces. To make matters worse, my bum-ass computer kicked the bucket and all my fonts are on that drive. So today you get Comic-Sans and a generic block type. Sigh indeed. 

Though if I got anything out of this, its that I like painting clouds. The ones you see here were sitting happily outside my window. Happy, dancing little clouds. I can see this as a comic I’d come back to. Maybe scramble the dialogue a little bit or enter a blank into the next Ozgur’s Photoshop-a-rama. Stay tuned and enjoy!

• Move
• Close

• Move
• Close

This Mad-Lib brought to you by Nadir, though I’m surprised there isn’t a shamcock somewhere on there.

• Move
• Close

• Move
• Close

Categories: Art, Humor, Life, Webcomic
1 Comment »

[Edit] I wrote this thing to announce a related comic, which can be viewed by clicking above. My absent mindedness is fittingly ironic here.

Today we delve into the line between fantasy in reality and fantasy in subconscious. Some people like to read into dreams, but my dreams are usually so direct and so insultingly simple, that it’s too clear and obvious what they ‘mean’. Thus I have no problem having a dream about swimming with my iphone and thinking ‘Gee, I guess I’m worried about breaking this thing’ or jump kicking helicopters and thinking ‘Ok, that was too much game time before bed.’ I buy into the camp that believes dreams are a subconscious and often irrational manifestation of everything from anxieties to a weird mix of what you did that day. So having dreams about work usually worries me because I shouldn’t be thinking about it that much.

Self-analysis describes me pretty reliably as an escapist. I love movies and video games for the total immersion, for that moment where you forget where you are and what you have to do later in the day. This is why I never go to see documentaries at the movie theater because I see a movie to get away from reality, not to have it put in front of me during my special escape time. You watch that movie about Darfur, I’ll be over in the next theater watching Star Trek. This love of escaping has been with me for quite some time. As a child, I was a chronic daydreamer. School was always a colossal battle of me vs. my attention. And when I wasn’t actively daydreaming, I was trying to make it look like I was paying attention. That or pushing on my closed eyes to get a fireworks display in my head. School was kinda rough. I still find myself daydreaming, but it limits itself to the occasional lapse in attention, while listening to music (I direct music videos in my head.), or when talking to you, because you’re boring. Oh ha ha ha, I’m only kidding, loyal reader. Without you around I’d just sit here and enjoy the light show. Which doesn’t sound like a bad idea actually. TTFN, folks.

P.s. For you folks who love podcasts, I highly recommend the Radiolab episode on sleep for some great stories about studies done on tetris dreams and if I can find the episode, the story of Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote his books based on narratives played out by little people in his dreams. Wacky.

Categories: Art, Humor, Life, SCIENCE!!, Webcomic
2 Comments »

Holy shmoly, I’ve been slacking. Ladies and gentlemen, what you see here before you are the first stirrings of me coming out of a terrible winter funk. I’ve spent the last few months pittering around with nary a finished piece to show for it save a brewtastic, Mucha-inspired painting and a modified action figure.  But mostly there has just been a lack of updates here on the site, not so much here at my desk.  I’ll get to posting some new works once they get published/delivered to their rightful owners. But to start things off, how about a new webcomic?

• Move
• Close

A lovely heartwarming Christmas present for the parentals…

• Move
• Close

…and for Nadir. This used to be a John McCain action figure. GET IT? HA!

Ah dreams. Last November I bought myself a newfangled iPhone as a self-congratulating birthday present. Though it has more than paid for itself in usefulness, I find my recent dreams strangely haunted by it. On more than one occasion I have had a dream similar to the one depicted in this week’s comic. Some folk have tried to glean a deeper meaning from these dreams, but I’ pretty sure I’m just afraid of breaking the damn thing. In any case, you can read the first in what I hope becomes a series here. Enjoy!

• Move
• Close

Cooking Mama App!!!!!

Tags: Art,Dreams,Geese,iPhone,Water
Categories: Art, Humor, Life, Webcomic
2 Comments »

Hey folks, I’m showing some prints this weekend as part of a HUGE group exhibition from Buck’s Rock Camp. For those of you who don’t know, Buck’s Rock Creative and Performing Arts Camp is a summer camp for teens which provides a creative environment for both personal and artistic growth. I worked there for three summers as the head of the Sculpture department, and it was without a doubt the most enriching period of my life.  Buck’s Rock is not only a great camp, but a veritable cornerstone of the social universe. It has connected me to people from all over the world and to Kevin Bacon by 2 degrees. The show (which opens Sunday) will feature the works of campers, staff, and even alumni. Here’s the official blurb:

The Buck’s Rock Camp Arts Exhibition is a celebration of creativity inspired from the 67 years of providing teens with learning and growing opportunities within the creative and performing arts. The show features over 400 works of art, including 270 works from over 130 campers from the summer of 2008, and 150 works from 60 alumni, spanning a 43 year period of Buck’s Rock Camp’s creative history. It will show the world the unique experience Buck’s Rock can provide for teens and teachers, and the influential effect the summers spent there have continued to have on their lives as they have grown older.

Over 100 pieces of art are for sale, including Glass, Ceramics, Paintings, Jewelry, Drawings, Prints, etc.  The artists will receive 80% of the proceeds, while 20%  will go to the Buck’s Rock Scholarship Fund.

The Art Directors Gallery: 106 29th Street (btwn 6th and 7th Aves.) 212 643 1440
2008 Reunion: Sunday, December 7th, 2 – 430 p.m.
Art Exhibition Opening: Sunday, December 7th, 5 -7 p.m.

The exhibition will also be open from 10am – 6pm, Monday Dec. 8th through Friday, Dec. 12th. I will be showing Octopus Jesus, Gibson Girl, and a piece from a collaboration with Snoozer Loozer! Images coming soon once I get a chance to breathe.

Tags: 2008 Reunion,Art Director's Gallery,Art Show,Buck's Rock Camp,Maki Naro,Octopus,Octopus Jesus
Categories: Art, Life
3 Comments »

After a brief hiatus, the weekly webcomic is back! In fact, this week we have 2 pages of goodness! The comic is pretty much word for word, weird image for weird image a dream I had Tuesday night. Spawned no doubt by the election and too much Fallout 3, it got stuck in my head all week until I could sketch it out. Enjoy the oddness!

In other news, you can now pointlessly stalk me on Twitter. You can either click the twitter icon underneath ‘Networks’ or add ‘lonelytylenol’. You aren’t missing anything if you don’t though.

Tags: election,fallout 3,hipsters,mccain,twitter,Webcomic
Categories: Art, Humor, Life, Webcomic
No Comments »

338 to 155! That’s 338 effing electoral votes versus a paltry 155. I’m sorry I missed Sarah Palin crying. But I also can’t wait for her to fade back into the obscurity from whence she came. I am psyched to have been a part of this historic moment, and relieved that I don’t have to look for a new country to move to. We can now look forward (thats forward, not backwards like the past eight years) to a new era of change and progress in all areas of life. Things are looking good from here, folks. I’m kicking myself for not being at a party right now, though! D’oh!

Tags: Barack Obama
Categories: Life
1 Comment »

This time its me. Sorry folks, no drawings though. The show is called The Art Market, and its a two part group exhibition that features easily affordable artwork for the masses. As such, I’ll be selling some of my little faucet octopi as I have 8 of them and all they do is sit in my closet 364 days a year. Here’s the low down (from the official announcement e-mail, complete with adorable engrish):
Destination Art Space’s new series…

SHOW & SELL: The Art Market

Part 1: 10/30 – 11/30, 2008

Opening Wine Reception: Thursday, October 30th, 6-8pm

The Art Market

Destination Art Space, a gallery within an upscale boutique merging fashion and art, is hosting our brand new SHOW & SELL series, The Art Market from October 30 to December 30.

This group exhibition will be in TWO parts,

Part I: 10/30 – 11/30
Part II: 12/4 – 12/30

Each part will be featuring fifteen of emerging and professional artists.

Like our popular SHOW & SELL series: The $99 Art Fair, this Art Market series also maintains affordable prices (less than $500!) and a variety of artwork.

Pick your favorites off our walls and bring them home to grace your own!

With your returning favorites and new artists, there’ll be more unique pieces none higher than $500. Everyone can find something they’ll want to own and cherish.

Destination is making art accessible to the public at incredible prices, offering great artists a public forum.

For further information, please contact Hide Tachibana or Hisa Yamamoto at 212.727.2031/destination_ny@hpgrp.com

Hope to see you clowns there. Should be fun!

Tags: Art,Destination,gallery,Japanese,Maki,octopi
Categories: Art, Life
No Comments »

Yeah, that’s how I’m feeling right now. No comics, no posts, not much new art. I know, I know. I’ve been an ultra douche . But I have excuses! Still recovering from various personal messes and an awesome weekend in the City of Brotherly Love. Full of booze, friends, and yes, more D&D. I can hardly contain myself. I mean it, I still feel like puking all that beer and pizza. Nnnghhh…

• Move
• Close

I kid you not. The only thing I approve about Wal-Mart. I give it 2 popped collars!

Don’t hurl on me, bro.

Tags: douchebag,Dungeons and Dragons,Maki,pen and ink,stumble upon,ultra douche
Categories: Art, Humor, Life, teh intarwebs
No Comments »

My God Will Save Me

A little gem I found through Stumble Upon this morning. Enjoy while I try to figure out something meaningful to post!

Tags: atheism,pastafarian
Categories: Humor, Life
No Comments »