APAK has finished their chaboo!   See their page on the project chaboo site. This is my first time working with this wonderful couple and have found that they are so so polite and modest.  She even came bearing gifts- so Japanese!  Im also Japanese but have become more Americanized and thus not as nice. Haha.

Aaron Piland and Ayumi Kajikawa Piland are the fantastical magical duo known as APAK. They are a childlike husband and wife collaborative art group who live among the fury conifer giants in a little cottage on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon. They create artwork together as a way exploring the beauty, mystery, and magic of life as well as expressing their love for life and each other.

I was attracted to their work because of their incredible imagination and ability to create an alternate reality of feeling through art.  I saw some of their work using stains before and I thought that technique would be brilliant for a chaboo because it would still show off the beautiful grain of the bamboo.

Brilliant it is!  Notice the varying transparency of the clouds.  I really like how they let the design of my chaboo dictated their composition. Its very clever how this piece has no front or back and the clouds create a frame of sorts which has no bearing on up or down in “our world”.  I feel this is a great integration of their work and mine.

The photo shoot was action packed as usual.  A homeless guy came barreling up this ramp on his bike towing an engine of some sort.  He yelled at us to get out of the way but lost momentum.  Aaron quickly pushed the cart up the hill.  The homeless guy said “Hey thanks man….. F*@% you!” Ok then….

I love this little dude fishin into the abyss of the chaboo.  They said they really enjoyed painting the chaboo in their living room while sitting at it as it would normally be used.  I can just imagine them sitting across from each other painting in the two different orientations.  Aww.. warm and fuzzy!

Thanks for participating APAK!  I hope to work with you guys on more projects in the future.  Arigato gosaimashita~ korekara mo yoroshiku

In no particular order here are the artists participating so far:

Alisha Wessler - illustration

Lauren Wessler - wood, paper mache

Jennifer Mercede - painting

Chris Haberman - painting

Sohaila Adela - illustration

Kelly Neidig - painting

Nell Warren - painting

Robin Kaplan - illustration

Dave Laubenthal -wood, metal

David Bertman -wood, metal

Kari Merkl - metal

Joel Wakeman - wood

Juno Lachman - glass

Eric Day - wood, metal, fiberglass

Todd Griffith - painting

Joe Mansfield - laser

George Ramos - wood

Mike Halvorson - wood

Paul Sykes - wood

Lindsay Holmes - recycled skateboards

Jess Hirsch - watercolor

APAK - illustration, painting

Erin Albin (appetite) - screenprinting/fabric

Brendan Budge - industrial design

Lisa Kuhnhausen - interior design/fashion

Jason Hernandez - wood

Sarah Bennet - wood, epoxy resin

Karl Ramentol - industrial design

Ken Tomita - wood, bamboo

Amy Ruppel- designer

Maren Jensen- illustration

Sara Huston - furniture design

Orange design.build - salvaged materials

Marshall Ryan - architecture

Ryan Thomson - architecture

Megan Scheminske - painting

Don Jensen - wood

David Butts - kinetic sculpture

Marc Riera - architecture

Ryah Radomski - furniture

John Paananen - interior architecture

Emily Steen - graphic design, environment design

Oluwaseyi (Shay) Sosanya - mechanical engineering

Tom Huang - furniture design

Ben Wood - furniture

Emily Knudsen - interior design

Corbin Keech - architecture

Jim Haas - furniture