Check It Out: Geeks Of Nature

Posted in Events, Internets, News, Stories by Marina, August 7, 2010 at 12:58 pm | 1,474 views, 1 comment

True geekiness can often shine through in any form and nobody proves that more than the artist PodgyPanda.

Richard Kuoch, known as PodgyPanda to the online world, is the creator behind Geeks of Nature, an exhibit being hosted at Nation Toys in Art Central. It features a group of delinquent mythical creatures with a geeky twist.

“I thought it would be funny to have these freaks of nature, like Godzilla and King Kong, but change them into geeks of nature. So, give them glasses and computer games and kind of just have them hanging out and picking on each other,” said the 26-year-old, New Zealand-based artist.

Kuoch designed each character with their own personality, back story and relationship to each other. Enthusiastically, he let me in on some of their unique traits:

“Godzilla Greg, he only speaks Japanese and he’s really grumpy. He thinks everyone can understand what he’s saying, but when he talks they’re little captions. There’s also the unicorn, Livi. She’s kind of the least geeky of them all, but at the same time she’s the ditsy-ist.”

The other characters include Betty the Yeti, a Big Foot named Brian, Nora the Narwhal, Kristopher Kong and Snowpal the tiny Snowman. Kuoch’s goal is to one day make them into a property and with his background and education in 2D animation, maybe even a cartoon.

“I have all these stories I want to explore, all the characters work well together and people seem to like them. I just got to buckle myself down and get some test animations, pitch it to studios like Nickelodeon and see how it goes,” he said. “I’d love to see it moving and breathing.”

Nation Toys, hosts the work of a new artist every month in their store. They contacted Kuoch to sell some of his merchandise and in a passing comment on Twitter they asked if he wanted to do a show.

This is Kuoch’s first solo show and also his first time in Canada.

However, before coming to Calgary, he spent a good 3 weeks traveling to San Diego for Comic Con and then to Vancouver to visit some friends. At the San Diego Comic Con he was able to connect with some of his own heroes, like Junko Mizuno as well as fans of his own work.

“Meeting people who inspired me at Comic Con and just being able to sit down and geek out, to me that was really, really cool,” Kuoch said.

“I see that as well, you know people come up to me and they’re like, ‘hey, I’ve been following your work and influenced by your work,’ and it comes full circle. You kind of feel a bit humbled by that because now it’s your turn to kind of shape someone else’s work, to inspire them.”

Right now Kuoch is a freelance graphic designer – that’s how he “makes his bread and butter” – but says he wants to make his own art his full time job.

“I guess for me, I feel like I want to push myself as hard as possible so that’s why I’m kind of delving out and doing my own thing as opposed to getting a 9 to 5 job,” he said. “Kind of been there, done that, and it’s not really me. I like waking up late and working to the wee hours of the morning.”

Even though the business side of things can be tough at times, Kuoch said that one of his favourite things about creating original art is seeing how people react to his artwork.

“I was sitting at the door, painting the mural, and people were just walking in and you can just see their faces light up. For me it’s the greatest reward.”

And to all you aspiring artists out there, Kuoch had some great words of wisdom on getting into the field and making your dream a reality:

“Just do it. As cliché as it sounds, just get out there. There’s so many ways to promote yourself, like Twitter. Social media is a very powerful tool, if you’re trying to be an artist. Don’t be afraid to get knocked back a bit, if something doesn’t work out, you shouldn’t see it as a failure you should see it as a lesson. It’s part of the learning experience.”

The Geeks of Nature exhibit will be running from August 5 to September 1. Everything in the exhibit can be purchased as well as other PodgyPanda merchandise such as t-shirts and badges.

Interested, but can’t make it to Nation this month or live out of town? Check out Kuoch’s work and online store on his website: www.podgypanda.com