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fnnch

@fnnch

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#fnnch. Random acts of art. San Francisco, CA.

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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 by @fnnch

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4 years ago

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 by @fnnch

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6 years ago

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 by @fnnch

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5 years ago

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2 days ago

Painting @fnnch’s Honey Bear 🐻

Getting it done just right is part of the job! Our painters really nailed it! 👏👏

@uniqlousa 👀

#painting #fabrication #fnnchhoneybear taken in Object Construction by @fnnch

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7 days ago

The @fnnch Honey Bear in the shop!! Swipe for the process ➡️➡️

We cut this guy on our 5-axis CNC, then we pieced him together, sanded, hardcoated, and painted!

So fun to have this guy in the shop! 🐻

@uniqlousa 👀

#foamsculpting #sculpt #scenicfabrication taken in Object Construction by @fnnch

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8 days ago

Did you know? 🐻🍯 That bear on our building is an ORIGINAL by fnnch — the artist behind the world-famous honey bear murals. His bears = "emblems of happiness," found from SF to Hong Kong. And now, ours lives right here in Edwardsville. Go see it. 👀 by @fnnch

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10 days ago

Today I am releasing Halloween Bear. It is the hand-painted, fine art version of this design. It is available by 36-hour draw at drops.fnnch.com.

The painting is spray paint on cut birch plywood. I am bringing back birch for this edition because I found a good batch. Honestly it doesn’t look that different from the maple I have been using.

I have also utilized a new, better sealant for the back. I have for years been sealing the backs of bears to help prevent warping. This new sealant is more shiny, but that is only visible on the side that faces the wall so will not impact how the piece looks once hung.

The painting is 8.5” x 22” and from an edition of 56.

This edition is fully painted and ready to ship! I aim to get them into the mail on Monday. They should arrive with plenty of time before Halloween!

Again, the painting is available on drops.fnnch.com. by @fnnch

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11 days ago

A couple of favorites from our collection of Fnnch canvas works 🍯

Fnnch brings a sense of fun to each piece, and there’s more on the way… Stay tuned for an entirely new series of unique paintings by Fnnch coming soon to DTR Modern Galleries. ✨ taken in DTR Modern Galleries by @fnnch

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16 days ago

Today I am launching the Halloween Honey Bear Hunt! It is a collection of seven window clings available now on store.fnnch.com. Your bear will be randomly selected — you get what you get and you don’t get upset! But if you order multiple, they will all be different, and an order of seven will get a full set plus a bonus 8th bear that was misprinted in the wrong size.

Unlike previous window bears, these are window clings that can stick without adhesive to glass! They can be removed without damage and stored safely for future years.

These are intended as fun Halloween decorations for your front windows, with the hope being that people will see different bears in different windows.

I have several hundred of these in-hand, and they will ship out within the next week or so. If they prove popular and sell out quickly, I will plan another batch and announce that via email.

Since I ended the original Honey Bear Hunt in 2021, I have been looking for an opportunity to reprise the idea in a way that is new and interesting. San Francisco goes crazy with Halloween decorations, but I had not paid close attention until my toddler son became obsessed with them last year. We spent every morning seeking “scary” decorations. The Halloween Honey Bear Hunt is my attempt to join this great tradition.

Again, you can find them on store.fnnch.com. by @fnnch

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22 days ago

I debuted another Solar Sculpture at Burning Man this year. It was three 7’ tall spinning towers made of solar panels, light diffusers, and aluminum. And the faster you spun them, the faster the lights changed!

The Piece

This sculpture was not conceived in advance but arrived at through exploration and experimentation. I wanted to build something made of smaller, modular pieces so that I could utilize weather-resistant components used in sailboats and other outdoor applications. This piece survived Burning Man’s winds, dust storms, and even rain with zero maintenance.

I call the individual unit of this piece a Little Prism. Each is roughly 3.5’ x 3.5’ x 3.5’ and is fully self-contained, collecting light, storing it as energy, and re-emitting it after dark. They turn themselves on automatically at sunset and off automatically at sunrise, and they only need a few hours of sun a day to work indefinitely.

The Build

This ended up being harder than I expected. The reason is the spinning. Had I gone with my first plan of a grid of individual prisms, I would have finished months ago. It turns out what I do not know about bearings can and probably has filled textbooks!

Thoughts

If you would like a Little Prism for a yard, deck or similar, please reach out. Most of the work went into figuring out how to build them, and I am confident I could make more. My instinct is to ask $5,000 + shipping. They would ship in a crate and could be unboxed and placed on the ground. Serious anchoring could be installed by anyone competent with tools (e.g. a contractor or handyman).

I am still unsure if there is a “there there” for these Solar Sculptures. They are still a side quest driven by curiosity and interest and not obviously connected to my main body of work. I do still find them exciting and interesting though! taken in Burning Man by @fnnch

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a month ago

Introducing Lips by @fnnch, the newest sculpture to join the @bigartloop - Portside.

Bold, playful, and impossibly photogenic, Lips brings a pop of color to San Francisco’s waterfront. 💋💋💋

The Big Art Loop - Portside transforms the city’s iconic waterfront into a premier open-air gallery, and big things are the way! More sculptures are landing on the waterfront soon! Stay tuned!

🎨 Lips by @fnnch
📍South Beach Harbor by @fnnch

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2 months ago