fnnch

Wow. The response to Bop Bears, my sculpture for #BurningMan2022, exceeded my wildest expectations. At certain hours it was complete pandemonium, with upwards of 50 people playing with it at once. Many people told me it was their favorite sculpture of the year. Today I’d like to share a few photos, and I’ll share a few more over the next couple days. As mentioned above, the response was tremendous. As soon as we inflated the first bear people started playing with them, and there was someone there every time I looked for the entire event. Nighttime was particularly insane. Almost every person and bike you see in the night shot is at the sculpture. I am so incredibly pleased with the response to this sculpture. What I came to realize is that it had a new and unique interaction modality. One thing that makes #BurningMan sculptures so incredible is that they are interactive by default — you assume you can touch them and climb on them unless told otherwise. Many are climbable. Some can be laid on, spun or pressed. But none before could be bopped. It was simple and joyful and widely appreciated. Many thank yous to all of the people who helped on this piece. Thank you to my father, stepmother and wife, who formed the build crew that put up and maintained this sculpture. Thank you to my collaborator Stocky for solving critical problems and teaching me to splice wires and tie knots. Thank you to Floatie Kings for working with me on fabricating these inflatables. And thank you to the folks who purchased smaller Bop Bears to help offset the costs of bringing something of this scale to Burning Man. Up until a few weeks before I was not sure it would be ready in time, and so I launched the crowdfunding campaign both quickly and late. If anyone would like to acquire one of the larger bears to help offset the balance of costs, please reach out. I have already begun to think about what I might bring next year. I honestly don’t think I can top this sculpture, but there are other elements of sculpture that I am excited to explore. Stay tuned. #fnnch

Super excited to share my latest mural, California Bear! You can find it on California Street just down the hill from Grace Cathedral. It took 50 person-hours to hand-cut all of the shapes in this mural! Tedious? Yes. Worth it? For sure. Thank you everyone who stopped by to say hi while I was painting. This area does not have a lot of murals, and many people on the block were stoked to finally have some public art. Thank you as well to Zdenek Mlika (@mlikaus ) for the amazing photos! I will share several behind-the-scenes shots to my email list next week (which you can join at fnnch.com/mailinglist). #fnnch

RBG Bear mural I completed a few weeks ago. There are precious few monuments to women in San Francisco, and I am thrilled to honor this amazing human. If you have not yet watched the documentary RBG, I highly recommend it. #fnnch #RBG

Today I am releasing two bears, Oak Bear and Walnut Bear. I have been working on this idea for a while, and I am stoked to finally share it. Simply put, wood is beautiful. While I paint all Honey Bear editions on wood (typically hard maple), the grain is only vaguely visible through the translucent yellow paint. Not so here. These two bears are available as a 3-day timed edition at store.fnnch.com. More details below. Oak Bear Oak Bear is painted on rift-sawn white oak. I have learned way more about plywood than I ever expected. There are many ways to slice a log, each of which results in a different grain pattern. These have names like plain sawn, quarter sawn, rift sawn, and rotary sawn. Rift-sawn is the hardest to do but yields the straightest grain. I think it looks awesome. The painting is spray paint on cut oak plywood. It is 8.5” x 22” and from a 3-day timed edition. It ships within four weeks. Walnut Bear Alas I struggled to choose a single wood to paint. There are just too many beautiful woods! Ultimately I realized that, when you buy furniture, you are often given a choice of a light wood and a dark wood. Such is the case here. Walnut is another absolutely premium hardwood. This is plain sawn, which yields a wandering grain. The painting is spray paint on cut walnut plywood. It is 8.5” x 22” and from a 3-day timed edition. It ships within four weeks. I have been working on and living with these pieces for over a month. The idea is so simple and yet, I believe, so effective. Maybe I just have a thing for wood. Please note that wood is a natural material, and every piece is different. So while I will hand-select each piece, your bear will be similar to but not exactly like the one above. Both bears are available through Sunday at store.fnnch.com.

Pastes from Amsterdam. I love this city. It’s surprisingly like San Francisco — compact, relaxed, and focused on craft. I found places for street art in Spuistraat and Wijdesteeg near the city center and in NSDM, the former shipyard area where the @straatmuseum is located.

Photos from recent trip to Geneva. The city’s street art is largely contained to Pointe de la Jonction, a beautiful spot where a clean river merges with a muddy river.

Today I am releasing two bears, Fish Bear and Devolution Bear. It’s a battle of the bands! The first is inspired by the band Phish and the second by Devo. I love both, but because they are a bit niche they are from smaller editions. Both are available by 24-hour draw at drops.fnnch.com. Please note that the draws are run independently, so if you enter both, you might win both. Fish Bear Fish Bear is inspired by the dress that Phish drummer Jon Fishman wears during performances. It began as a joke but has become part of Phish culture. The painting is spray paint on cut maple plywood. It is 11” x 22” and from an edition of 32. It ships by 4/20. Devolution Bear Devolution Bear is inspired by the “energy dome” hat that Devo wore on stage, in photos, and on an album cover. This hat is absolutely iconic, and I have been wanting to make this painting for years. The painting is spray paint on cut maple plywood. It is 8.7” x 22” and from an edition of 40. It ships within two weeks. — I debated releasing these bears because they won’t appeal to everyone. Ultimately not everyone needs to like everything; some people just need to like some things. Plus, most importantly, I am happy with them. I am curious to see which is more popular and wins my battle of the bands! Again both are on drops.fnnch.com.

I am excited to share my first permanent sculpture installation. This 12’ tall Second Line Bear is now in New Orleans on Veterans Blvd near the Trader Joe’s. This is an extremely visible location because Veterans serves as both a commercial and commuter artery in Jefferson Parish. Fabrication The sculpture was fabricated by local artist @scott.hebert , pronounced (no joke) “a bear”. I then painted it over several days in his backyard studio. Stenciling at this size is tough, especially when on a shaped object and not a wall. Even extending my trip by a day, I ended up painting by headlamp late into the night. Thank Yous There are many people to thank for this project, most of whom are in the post-ribbon-cutting photo below. Thank you to Cayman and Sarah Clevenger of the @orleansgallery for organizing, coordinating, and acting as impromptu studio assistants. Thank you to Henry and Pat Shane for your philanthropy to the arts and for funding the fabrication of this sculpture. Thank you to @councilmanliljeberg for accepting the sculpture into your parish. And thank you to Scott Hebert for the incredible work of fabricating this sculpture on too short a timeline.

There are moments in a life in the arts that rise beyond exhibitions, beyond sales, even beyond career milestones. They feel like legacy. Like leaving a fingerprint of joy on the cultural soul of a city you love. Standing alongside artist @fnnch as we brought this monumental public sculpture into the world was one of those moments. This is more than a sculpture. It is a permanent love letter in metal and paint to the resilient, playful spirit of New Orleans. With his unmistakable artistic voice, fnnch drew, designed, and personally painted what is now the largest artist-painted permanent freestanding sculpture in Louisiana history. Twelve feet tall. Bold enough to stop traffic. Joyful enough to stop time. Behind the scenes, the process was raw, physical, and deeply human. Sarah and I were honored to serve as makeshift studio assistants — maneuvering massive stencils in the open-air Slidell studio of local artist, sculptor, and master metal fabricator Scott Hebert @scott.hebert , whose craftsmanship made vision into reality. This project exists because of belief. Belief in artists. Belief in public art. Belief that beauty belongs in everyday life. We are profoundly grateful to philanthropists Henry and Pat Shane, whose generosity covered fabrication costs and allowed this work to be gifted to the people of Greater New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. Their vision ensures that thousands will encounter wonder in the middle of an ordinary day. A heartfelt thank you as well to Councilman Hans Liljeberg @councilmanliljeberg for his instrumental support in helping transform an ambitious dream into a civic landmark. Public art reshapes the emotional landscape of a city. It reminds us culture does not live only in museums or galleries. It lives on our streets. In our neighborhoods. In the shared experience of looking up and smiling together. You can experience this new landmark of joy now on Veterans Boulevard in Metairie near Trader Joe’s. Drive by. Walk up. Bring your family. Feel what happens when art belongs to everyone. #PublicArtMatters #NewOrleansCulture #ArtForEveryone #LouisianaArt #CommunityThroughArt

I am excited to release my fourth art toy: Avocado Bear. It is an edition of 300 and available now at fnnch.toys.

There’s joyful… and then there’s fnnch Color Bear joyful. 🌈🐻 📦 We unboxed a collection of 24x24 Color Bears with our 4yo, and before I could even say a word about composition or technique or the sheer discipline it takes to execute one of these flawlessly precise works, there it was — wide eyes, open mouth, pure wonder. The kind you can’t manufacture. The kind adults spend a lifetime trying to recover. ✨ Seeing these in person completely changes the experience. It’s hard to imagine how much work goes into them until you’re standing in front of one. The precision, the perfection, the control are unparalleled. A few even feature fully painted, gallery-wrapped edges that make the canvas feel almost three-dimensional, a grueling process fnnch is unlikely to repeat. And yet, for all their sophistication, what they deliver is simple: Color. Delight. Immediate, unfiltered happiness. Fine art that brings us back to the joy a child feels when the world is bright and new and bursting with possibility. ♥️💛💚💙💜 That’s the magic of a Color Bear. 🐻🌈 📍On view now at Orleans Gallery and online (link in bio). #fnnch #ColorBears #ContemporaryArt #ArtCollectors #OrleansGallery

✨Happy parades and weekend before Mardi Gras to all! 💜💚💛 fnnch made this 1/1 bear to celebrate Mardi Gras. At his first parade as an adult, he caught the exact beads now hanging on the bear, and wore them to his opening last week. He also wore a special honey bear mask, which was a collaboration between one of the last New Orleans mask makers @masksbydiane and our own @darcieflinn , who color-matched, painted, and sculpted the honey bear spout by hand. We picked up the underlying Bear mask @maskaradeonroyal , the last hand made mask shop in New Orleans! This piece, and the remaining works from “Everywhere Else is Cleveland,” are on view and available now at Orleans Gallery. Let Orleans Gallery be your home base for day parades! Open through Mardi Gras. 🎭 #NewOrleansArt #MardiGrasVibes #StreetArtCollector #ArtCollectors