Milton Glaser, a highly influential designer said, ”Travel penetrates your consciousness, but not in a rational way.” I went to LA this weekend for the first time. The city is filled and piled with things to do! I love that feeling of being in a strange place. It is always a learning experience. It belittles you without insulting you. It’s humbling. I look forward to my next trip out of town. Congratulations to Javier and Celest on their wedding. 

We all desire to be great. Something in our minds and in our culture drives us to surround ourselves with items and elements that somehow make us better. They improve us on some mysterious level. For whatever the reason, we need to prove to ourselves, and to others, that we are not average, but that we are great. Somehow, our assurances of personal greatness is validated with our association to certain brands, ideas, images, and products.

My next exhibit is entitled CONTEXT. It questions how my ego forms my surroundings.

A vacation can be a great way to open up one’s mind to new creative posabilities. I had the chance to fly to San Francisco for my birthday and I came home with a slighly new perspective on things.

As an artist, I am very critical of my own work. I often forget to value the small yet important things throughout my work process.  I think that in life, we forget to value the things around us and within ourselves because of the context in which we see things. On my trip, I noticed how beautiful simple things can be. When planning and working on projects, I aim for bigger and bolder. I often forget about simplicity and delicateness. I have missed the beauty in pencil lines and simple sketches. When I was in San Francisco, I saw hundreds of awesome yet simple things waiting to be appreciated and experienced.

All together the trip was great. I visited SFMOMA, YBAC, and a few small galleries. I also visited creative brands HUF, The Hundreds, Kidrobot, Fatlace, Super 7, Giant Robot, TRUE, and of course Nike! And, of course, the city itself was beautiful and inspiring.

In all honesty, I keep my sketchbook a bit messy. I’m always jotting down ideas and thoughts. It’s rare to go a day without writing or drawing in it. I try to put down all of my ideas down so I can have a variety of options. In the process, things get pretty sketchy. My process of making art involves a lot of planning. I like to take my time when sorting out the ideas that I want to take to the next step. When an idea begins to grow, I take more time to focus on details and organizing the steps in the process of producing a finished product.

This is a drawing from a new series of sketches I will be exhibiting in April. I will show some pencil drawings, prototypes and other elements of my creative process.

Preview of new painting.

I’m always working on as many things as possible. I like to work in different media, and each has its own process of evolution and growth. I know that if I specialized in only one medium, I would have a much more uniform body of work. For some reason, I have an urge to work in different media and I love to make all types of things. I used to think that I should focus on one style and specialize in that, but I can’t help it. I enjoy exploring any idea that has the posibility for good design and honest substance. I feel that I should follow my instincts and try not to set boundries.

I’m planning a big exhibit for next March that shows all the types of work that I do. I will include paintings, sculpture, furniture design, large prints, and custom sneakers. I have most of the concepts worked out, but there’s a lot of work to be done!

You might find this picture on your milk cartons. I’ve been working a lot lately. Taking a color theory class at the community college. Life takes one on the path of least resistance, and, before you know it, time has flown away!

I am working on a project for a gallery show early next month. I’ll post the advances on that when I can. I’m headed out to finish it before the deadline gets any closer! Meanwhile, this is a video of one of the projects I’m working on at Creative Machines. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nztXBSE4QYA

In the last year I’ve been involved in about 4 group events, a show at a streatwear shop, a show at a toy store, and my first solo exhibit at a gallery. I’ve been working with Creative Machines now for 3 years, learing a lot about fabrication and large projects. There’s nowhere else to go but up!

I’m planning on going back to school. I’ll be attending the local community college next month with hopes to transfer to a design school next fall. I’m planning to be a part of three shows in the next two months and I will post more information about those projects soon!

I was recently a featured artist on ARTST.com and was asked to be a part of a short interview for www.WebUrbanist.com. I was happy to tell about what inspired me. I was surprised to learn a bit about myself in the process. The questions really made me think from a different perspective. I was excited to hear the news yesterday that the story posted, titled, The Incredible Childhood Inspired Artwork of Adan Banuelos.

“When asked who he most looks up to in the art world, Banuelos proudly says his father. His dad, an immigrant from Mexico, might’ve had a huge impact on Banuelos’ style but he never became a full time artist; he’s a janitor. Says Banuelos, ‘My dad was, and still is, a very talented, self-taught muralist and sign maker. He always had side jobs and spent most his free time in the garage and job sites. I loved watching him paint. I learned a lot about lettering and composition.’ “

To read more, visit-

http://weburbanist.com/2009/06/19/the-incredible-childhood-inspired-artwork-of-adan-banuelos/

I’ve been working at Creative Machines for a few years now. I have the luck to work at an awesome shop where a lot of interesting interactive machines and artwork are made.  This is the piece, Toby, which is downtown on Scott Ave. Theres always something interesting going on here at work.

This is one of the projects I’ve had the opportunity to work on. I welded, assembled and tested this piece. It is 1 of 100, part of a limited edition series for well-known artist, George Rhoads. Im working on putting together the last 15 of these. I’m also helping put together the design concept for the new limited edition set.

Visit www.CreativeMachines.com to see what other cool stuff we do.

One of my favorite things to do in Tucson is take a walk around the little neighborhoods downtown. This saturday, my girl and I went to check out the sculpure my co-workers designed that’s by the Tucson Childrens Museum. We had a chill time just strolling around.

The shiny, orange sculpture of the griffin, titled Toby, sits on Scott Ave just south of Congress. Props to the guys at Creative Machines Inc. who worked on it: Joe, Eric, Eze, & Ty!