MR. WILLEMS AND MR. WARBURTON AT THE ERIC CARLE MUSEUM

So remember when you said you were

planning on stopping by the

ERIC CARLE PICTURE BOOK MUSEUM

in Amherst, Massachusetts

one of these days?

Well, I've got the

PERFECT

day to do it:

September 23, 2017

That's when 

Mo Willems

and

I

will be there to promote

THIS:

I'm STILL not sure how 

Mo managed to promote

EVERYONE IN THE WORLD

(except me)

to co-author on the front cover.

But I at least got drawn as a pig

on the back cover:

Regardless,

we're gonna be at the museum

from 11:00-3:00

doing readings,

showing films,

hanging out with Elephant and Piggie,

and I'll even be doing a fun 

KND workshop with the kids:

I 

really

really

REALLY 

wanted to do a 

Muppet Babies

presentation.

But Disney PR 

feels it's a 

LITTLE

too early 

to show anything.

So we'll rock KND instead!

And it'll be a blast!

For a complete schedule of all the

Willems/Warburton

action,

head over

HERE!

Hope to see you there!

A GIANT ROBOT ART SHOW

Last week

me and my family of ninjas

took a trip to Little Tokyo

to buy Japanese snacks,

visit nerd shops,

and eat mochi.

But as an unexpected bonus, there was an

Oshogatsu Family Festival

at the 

Japanese American Museum.

There was a ton of stuff to see and do,

like Taiko drumming,

candy making,

and noodle eating.

But the REAL

fun was in the museum proper where

this was going on:

I've always loved Giant Robot magazine.

It's got massive style and is always inspiring.

Although it also makes me feel kinda

old and uncool.

And not Asian.

Regardless,

Giant Robot 

knows cool art.

So I was sooper happy

to jump into the gallery!

There was some live drawing happening.

And Giant Robots:

And video:

And sketchbooks!!!

Oh, the sketchbooks.

And. of course,

tons of cool art:

I don't get out to enough galleries.

Ima try to fix that in 2016.

THE BROAD

I'm lucky to be married to a cool, stylish girl.

And she takes me to cool, stylish places.

Like LA's newest contemporary art museum,

THE BROAD!

Built by Eli and Edythe Broad,

a couple of sooper crazy rich art collectors

who reportedly buy a piece of art a week.

(most of which probably cost more than your house)

it's quite the spectacle.

The brand new $140 million 

"Vault and Veil" building 

is a sight unto itself.

But the inaugural show

is why we came.

So we dove right in.

Or... up:

The Broad's collection covers virtually 

EVERY

contemporary artist you can think of.

And YES...

many of the pieces are a bit obvious

and/or large scale, gaudy, sensationalist junk.

(Hi, Jeff Koons) 

But I don't think I've been to a show 

that I've enjoyed more in a long time.

And that includes our trip to the museums in Paris!

Here's a sampling of what we saw:

Chris Burden,

the artist who created

LACMA's

METROPOLIS

and

URBAN LIGHT

always has something interesting to show:

Mark Grotjahn

Urs Fischer

There were a number of

John Currin's

distorted

twisty

brilliantly rendered

Rennasiance yet

oh-so-modern

paintings

that I love so much:

There was a lot of

the aforementioned

Jeff Koons:

And a delightful room full of

Cy Twombly:

And so much stuff by every

contemporary artist ever:

Kutztown's own

Keith Haring

Barbara Kruger

Elsworth Kelly's 

Green Angle

(more about him over HERE at Artsy)

Lots and lots of Warhol.

most of it you've seen before.

Kara Walker's

storytelling

silhouettes:

Basquiat:

Robert Therrien's

Under The Table

was enormous fun:

He also does those stack of dishes

thingies:

And if you take the steps down,

you can get a glimpse into

the storage vaults,

where countless more

artsy-fartsy stuff

resides:

There was one piece that totally blew me away 

but I'm saving that for a post of it's own.

So keep it locked here and I'll tell you all about it.

In the meantime,

get off your butt and

check out

The Broad. 

You could use the culture.