Blown Away Trooper

Los Angeles based artist Josh Mayhem's lifelong habit of collecting children's playthings has fueled his passion for transforming said toys into objects d'art. Among his best-known pieces are those constituting his “Blown Away” series, in which mass-produced forms are covered in strands of resin and layers of acrylic paint to create gravity-defying drips that give the impression of the work being deconstructed by a strong wind. The popularity of this aesthetic has led to Mayhem winning the Custom of the Year (Fan) award at the 2019 Designer Toys Awards, multiple releases with the many of the worlds top designer toy artists and producers, participating in TRASHed: Art of Recycling at Coachella Festival, and solo exhibitions at Clutter Gallery in Beacon NY, Bruce Lurie Gallery in Los Angeles CA (as well as an artist residency) , PIQ Grand Central Terminal in NYC, and The Crown Collection Gallery in both Denver and Los Angeles. In the process of creating his coveted sculptural works, Josh Mayhem uses gallery-quality canvases as drop cloths. As each becomes decorated with an accumulation of colorful drips, patterns begin to emerge in the artist's mind. Augmenting each one with coatings of synthetic resin and additional paint splashes, these works The Teddy Troops had been around in the streets for a while before they also turned into a 3D vinyl toy in 2004. First of all Flying Förtress started in 2002 to get up with his chrome Trooper icon. Trying to use an easier readable illustrative symbol instead of doing the classic coded graffiti letters and tags that he had been doing before since 1989. Together with the chrome pieces there have stickers also been seen around in the streets since 2002. Handpainted or silkscreend ones with a hand-drawn finish on "free" post stickers and series of offset printed stickers.