J★RYU x Brent Nolasco "My Drifting Heart" resin figure... beginnings and process from the artist!!

We first showed some teasers of Jesse aka J★RYU and Brent Nolasco newest collaboration HERE, and today YOU are all in for a treat as I talked with Jesse and asked him to give us a rundown of how this came about, from concept... to almost near completion!

This piece titled "My Drifting Heart" will be the second art collaboration between both Jesse and Nolasco, with the help of master resin caster Dodgrr who brought this to life! We have journal notes, og sculpt shots, along with some never before seen WIP pics of this upcoming release, so hit the jump and enjoy!

[Words from J★RYU] I first met Brent Nolasco in Oct of 2010 at NYCC but I was already familiar with his work on custom toys as well as paintings and it turns out that he was a fan of my art as well. After a righteous and oft-times blurry weekend in NYC mobbing around with Paul Kaiju, Sucklord, WTFunks, MPH crew, Jeremyville, Jack Muramatsu and others, we kept in touch and were looking for a project to work on that would meld our styles. A couple of months later, he sent me a basic sketch of what would eventually become "My Drifting Heart", where he took elements from both our works and combined them in a way that I found very exciting . The combination of a human heart combined with various avian and organic attributes was a little outside of of my normal body of work but the challenge of pushing myself further with my art is something that I always want to do so I immediately started sculpting out the heart.

Brent was very insistent that both of our signature styles be evident in the piece so we decided that the heart should be made of wood, a common element in my work. After I was finished, I sent him over this test shot and he was super stoked at the result.

After I finished the initial heart, we both got busy with other projects and shows that we were participating in we put it on hold while we took care of our obligations. During that hiatus, he sent a revised drawing based on a lot of the themes that we talked about and served to give me a clearer idea of where we wanted to go with this piece.

Then around March, I was invited to participate in Matt Siren's "Ghost in the Machine" show at MPH. I was already booked for my three-man show at Dragatomi which was taking place on the same weekend but the opportunity to work on the Ghost Girl platform again as well as have a piece shown in an MPH show was too good to pass up. That said, I knew I would be pressed for time so I called Brent and asked him if he would want to do a quick collaboration that could serve as a precursor to "My Drifting Heart" that used some of the same elements. He was coming off of a short sabbatical from the toy scene and was totally down to work on that piece together. I created the creature and used a lot of elements found in Brent's work and then send it off to Brent to be painted. That piece became "What Came Before, Will Come Again" (posted below) and upon completion, we were both really happy at how it turned out. It's one of my favorite pieces that I've worked on.

Buoyed by the reception to the Ghost Girl, we immediately started to get back to work on My Drifting Heart and now knowing that our styles could seamlessly mesh, we decided to incorporate a Haunt, the spectral figures commonly seen in my work.

Based on the various conversations, reference photos and the sketches, I crafted the piece where it was not strictly adherent to any one sketch or painting, focusing more on the idea that we wanted to convey. By this time, we knew that we were wanting to get this cast and reproduced for SDCC so we knew we had to find someone that had the skills to carry off something of with kind of detail and not have to acquiesce anything, due to technical or production limitations. Given the complexity, we switched from the person that we were originally going to use to the one and only Dodgrr. I rang him up, pitched the idea and there was no hesitation in his voice when he agreed to help out with bringing this piece to fruition. With his inclusion to the team and Dragatomi offering to give us a place to showcase it, we were set.

After I finished the sculpt, I sent it off to Dodgrr and upon receiving it, he immediately began to analyze in person, how to cast what he had only previously seen in WIP shots that I had sent him along the way. He spared no time in making molds of the simplest of the 19 pieces and continually sent both Brent and I shots of his progress along the way. Any reservations that we had were quickly thrown away as he continually amazed us over and over again with the ingenuity in how he was able to replicate our piece. Upon completion of one complete "..Heart", he sent it over to Brent, who after months of waiting, would finally be able to start painting and adding his signature style. Within 2 days of receiving it in his hands and almost 6 months after the initial sketches, the "My Drifting Heart" was almost finished. The final piece will be available at Dragatomi's booth during SDCC2011 and both Brent and I will be on hand and signing on Friday, July 20th at 3pm.

As for the story of "My Drifting Heart"?
The heart drifts freely in the ebb and flow of our lives, with the tide's current taking it wherever it pleases. Knowing that it is fragile, thorns and spiky barriers are erected, armoring itself from those who wish to do it harm or to protect itself from the feelings it cannot help. And for every heart, there is but one key out there that can finally release it to flourish and fly, and shed itself of the ghosts that remain. It may not know where it may heading, but eventually the drifting heart will find it's way...

On behalf of Brent Nolasco, Dodgrr and myself, we really hope that all of you enjoy this piece which will be in very limited supply at Dragatomi's booth #4935 during SDCC 2011.