Totoro Forest Project

Dice organize a fund raiser called the Totoro Forest Project. What started as a small even soon blew into a gigantic 200 piece super auction.
















No cameras allowed! =( I thought it'd be ok to take picture of food. I'm hoping to get some pictures from Carlos, reprising his role at the Maverix show as a designated staff photographer (and Debbie's sister's beau). Check out the site for all the great pieces. I can say it was the first time I participated in a live auction (with my very own bidding paddle) and yes I did bid but yes I got crushed. I actually bid a lot on one piece and got to "going once, going twice..." and BANG! outbid, I really couldn't imagine going higher even though I should sink my money into some sort of investment and James Jean is a worthy investment. Maybe I should have bid more... It was a lot though.
















Grabbed this off of Enrico's blog. There I am on the left.
So without further ado, he are some of my favorite pieces.





















One of the organizers' pieces. Enrico Casarosa. Went in live auction for around $3,500.





















Katsuya Terada
An amazing Japanese illustrator. I recognize his book from Japantown. He piece had the original piece with this digitally colored version. Went for a... freaking lot.

















Like wise, this one had a blue pencil drawing with a digital print (above). This is the one I bid on. It's a James Jean piece and well not only are his pieces hard to come by, but his pieces with both the original and a one of a kind print is extremely rare. Anthony has one but he bought it like 5+ years ago before James Jean went on to win 5 consecutive best comic book cover artist of the year awards. For the record, my bid was $2500. Couldn't muster up the will to go to $3000.














Jerome Opeña. You rockstar. I think his piece closed out at $2200 and that was just all from the online auctioning. One thing about auctions is that if you start too high, you don't get that momentum and bidding fever you would from a lower price. Bidders become invested in the piece and start losing control. That happened on the James Jean piece. Instead of starting at a more reasonable $1000, the auction guy went straight to $2000 (maybe there was an online bid already for that much?) . I want to eat Patio Filipino.











Kevin Dart

















Mari Inukai





















Bill Presing
John Lasseter was seriously bidding on this piece. I was in the middle of considering whether or not I should have bravely ran up the price (since it seemed guaranteed he was going to keep bidding on it) but by the time I decided to, the auction dude called "sold!" I think the final was $3750?





















Teddy Newton














Clio Chang
Really liked this one but there was a guy who was bidding on this one. I think I could have sniped it for $650 but I got confused. I thought this guy I was talking to was bidding on it and I guess maybe he tricked me? Or I misheard. His friend was bidding on it but I got the impression he was bidding on it and that I would be mercilessly outbid and didn't want to just run the price up on him. Well I'm the goat. So maybe I can commission a piece instead but I have doubts about that.


















Francis Vallejo
Another one I really liked. This was the one the guy I was talking actually did bid on. It went for $800. It's also hard to believe this guy is still a student. Man, what hands he's got.



















Pixar head honcho John Lasseter bullied all the auctioneers. Sometimes he was just trying to stir up the action on some slow bids but sometimes he was just flexing his muscle which I can't really blame him. You start a studio and sell it for $7.4 BILLION (well he sold to Steve Jobbs first so Steve Jobbs is the truely rich person there) and see how money crazy you can be. We love you John you damned art shark! Give me my painting back! I was considering running up the price on the Bill Presing piece because based on how he was bidding I was sure he would have kept going at it. Might have kept him more modest for the rest of the pieces...
















All the attendees and artists got a really nice book that features all the pieces so that was great. Plenty of artists signed it for me. Great event. I'll just have to settle for the book to keep me warm. I really got to go make some paintings. If this doesn't inspire me, then I'm a duffus.