Crazy 4 Cult: The Book

The Crazy 4 Cult book is here! This volume collects artwork from the first four years of Gallery 1998's annual cult movie tribute show. It's arguably the most popular show at the country's most popular pop culture gallery.

It's hard to say what this book means to me, both professionally and personally. I know my friends and probably some of you readers out there have heard this story a thousand times, but I feel I need to repeat a variation of it once again:

Not only was I one of the first in my family to go away to college, but I decided to study art. In West Virginia. That doesn't mean it was a bad school by any means, I love this place, but WV is far from being an art hot spot. Most know that art is a hard field to make money in, but I've never wanted to do anything else. I loved my college experience, but the cartoony stuff I did wasn't really considered important by most of my professors. If I wanted to be a successful artist, I had to do the kind of art they wanted me to do, and I would have to move out of the state.

Then I found a book called I am 8-Bit. It was a collection of artwork from Gallery 1988's retro video game themed exhibition. I was in awe of this book. I couldn't believe that all these amazing artists were receiving recognition and getting published for doing artwork based on old video games. It was one of my favorite subjects, but it was also a subject that was mostly taboo in the world of "real" art. The book gave me hope that the work I was doing wasn't a waste of time, but at the same time I felt like I would never be able to break into such a scene. These were art superstars, after all. I mean, they were in a book.

Now, for some crazy reason, I am also in a Gallery 1988 book. Thinking back to the I am 8-Bit book and the events that led to this I really can't believe how cool it is. It feels like I've come full circle, and I could not be happier with how my passion and my career have combined and given me so many amazing opportunities, accomplishments, and experiences. I'm not trying to hype this up as something huge; lots of artists get published every day, of course, and in much greater capacity. I'm just trying to explain how this means a great deal to me personally. And all I had to do was pay for and listen to the advice of experts in my field, then do the opposite.

Now that I have that part out of the way, I need to express how amazing this book is as a collection of artwork. When I attended Crazy4Cult last year I basically wanted a print of everything I saw. Every piece was incredible and all of it very much appealed to my sensibilities, me being the pop culture junkie that I am. Now with this book I own a copy of so many great pieces from artists I've come to be familiar with in the last several years. And for just over $20, that's really a steal. You can order a copy here!

Thanks to everybody who read this far, and to everybody who supports and encourages me by reading this blog!