User:Berjian/sandbox

Andy Takakjian is an American Artist living in Los Angeles, California. Takakjian's art is noted for its sardonic wit and ability to turn art on itself. Most often playing art on art for arts sake. Much of his work is a form of an art joke or playing fun at the seriousness of art. Often executed in a simplistic almost cartoon-like fashion, Takakjian has set himself aside from the average artist almost to a point of total alienation yet arriving at a style and methodology that is singular even when intentionally being derivative. Simplistic in its nature and seemingly (albeit intentional) bereft of any talent whatsoever, the work has the power to convey and communicate in a warm and endearing style which at many times has the reflection of folk art yet still places itself in a category unto itself.

Andy Takakjian is also known for his design work on various action sports decks, apparel, shoes and posters. The Psyco Stick remains as one of the most loved and well-respected symbols of innovative design throughout the history of social Skateboarding which he created for Vision Skateboards and Street Wear. His design work for Ocean Pacific combined with his designs for Vision and other various skateboarding companies has highly influenced the form and shaping of surfing and skateboarding culture in America and worldwide.

EARLY LIFE: Takakjian was born in Santa Monica California before Kennedy was shot. He grew up in southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, San Francisco, Lompoc and Sacramento. Early in his childhood he began his journey into the art and design world. He sold his first commercial illustration at age 7. At age 12 he penned a periodical cartoon series for the National American Land Sailing Association (NALSA) newsletter. During high school he spent most of his curriculum in art and science classes. At age 15 he won first prize for poster design for a juried art show in Orange County. At 16 he won first prize for set design in his high school theater class.

CAREER: Shortly after high school, Andy began working at a well known art supply store in southern California, PAS Graphics, where he would often encounter important clientele such as Syd Mead, Dave Deal and Saul Bass. Shortly afterwards in 1982, Takajian was hired by the action sports clothing company Ocean Pacific and quickly became one of its chief designers, focusing mainly on t-shirt graphics, fabric design and surf oriented garments. The company sold these garments on a world market. Takakjian left Ocean Pacific to pursue a career in fine art and broaden his scope of graphic design.

After 3 years of freelance work for various southern California action sports based companies, he was contacted by Vision Skateboards to design the Mark Gonzales Pro Model Skateboard in 1985. The model proved very successful and Takakjian was again contacted to design the Psycho Stick for Vision Skateboards at which time he was hired in house as a designer. At Vision Skateboards, Takakjian designed pro models for skaters such as Lee Ralph, Ken Park, Marty Jimenez, Jonny Kop and several others. Takakjian also designed several models for Simms Skateboards, an affiliate company of Vision, such as Eric Nash and many staple models for both companies as well as in house custom work for Orange County based punk band Agent Orange and the Freddy Kruger Deck used in the Nightmare on Elm Street II motion picture. Staple skateboard deck models such as Screamers II featured Takakjians own face as the image base for the design and met with great success. As well as skateboard design Takakjian also designed fabric, advertising, shoes, t-shirts, stickers and packaging for Vision Skateboards and Vision Street Wear. During this period he also designed a cover for Transworld Skateboarding Magazine. The works for Vision Skateboards, Vision Street Wear and Simms Skateboards were sold on a worldwide market and several designs are still produced today without interruption in production. Notable the Mark Gonzales and Psycho Stick have been bootlegged, copied and re-appropriated many times in numbers of unauthorized editions and reused in other aspects of action sports such as snowboards, skis, garments and unauthorized fabrics. Takakjian left Vision Skateboards / Street Wear to once again broaden his horizons and continue to pursue a career in fine art.

Takakjian has also sustained a living as a designer and art director in the film and television industry. Furthermore, Takakjian’s affiliations with various clubs such as The Southern California Norton Owner's Club, The Southern California Sidecar Club, Citroen Car Club, Los Feliz and Griffith Park Lions Clubs have all produced Takakjian’s artwork as their respective promotional material.

Some of Takakjian’s other works have included set design for plays such as Anton Chekov's Wild Honey produced in part by Walter Konig, Frank Wedekin's Spring Awakening and William Saroyan's West Coast Premier of My Heart's in the Highlands.

Over his 45 year career Takakjian has also designed album covers for Carlos Guitarlos, Billy Mernit, punk bands M.I.A. and Subterfuge, Bazooka, El Gruppo Sexo The Downbeats, Atomic Sherpas, Hollow Log, Earthworm Ensemble and I See Hawks In L.A. Many of which feature his photographs.

Takakjan is the author of "The Blinding Sun of Hell", a fictional work whose main character, Harry Asscheekian struggles to find his voice as a writer. And "Ask The Grave" (2014), another fictional novel set in 3 time periods and pastiches Job Harriman, William Mullholland, Joseph Heller and his "Catch 22" character Yossarian who is melded with Harry Asscheekian in a search for identity and reordering of historical time.

Takakjian recorded a music album in 1998 entitled "The Tide-pool" under the band name Pound Of Sound. He plays saxophone and various percussion, vocals and guitar.

Takakjian is also the creator of the board game "Bumopoly" (TBA 2014). A game in which players are thrust into a dystopian world of street life in which there is little hope of escape and where winning is losing and losing is considered a gain.

Takakjian’s artwork has graced the halls of several notable venues such as Los Angeles City Hall Bridge Gallery 1991 in an all female show in which Takakjian entered two photo mosaic works under the alias of Andrea Doria. Also participated in shows at the Los Angeles City Council District 11 offices in Culver City California, Barnsdall Municipal Gallery and SST records in Long Beach California.

QUOTES "Everything between the periods is beside the point." "Rust is the color of the future." "Damn it! I have a high school education - Why am I the smartest guy in the room!" "I don't know what it is - just shoot it!"