Astronaut Icecream

Imagine a club house (or hut) made of beards, fluorescent paint, driftwood, plastic toys, beat up skateboards, swimming suits, colorful string and bottle caps. That’s Grass Hut! It all started with Bwana Spoons. He made art that inspired us all. He invited us to show art with him, he’s the reason we came together. Scrappers, Le Merde, Martin Ontiveros, and Apak have come to be know as Grass Hut. These artists have helped Grass Hut grow by curating group shows, teaching each other how to make toys, making websites for each other, painting murals, working the shop counter, shipping, answering email, making each other laugh with fart jokes, and by having the kind of fun that informs the work we do. Grass Hut is a gallery/shop/studio located in Portland, but all the artists involved have turned it more into a colorful wildfire of creativity that has spread throughout the tubes of the internet connecting artists from around the world. Beyond the brick and mortar of the Portland location, Grass Hut grows in the work done by it’s extended family: Arbito, Snaggs, Shawn Wolfe, Gargamel, David Horvath, Kiyoshi Nakazawa, John Black and You make this whole thing more important then the people involved. Now it’s about the Inspired by cartoons, he drew prolifically as a child. By age 13, he was steadily writing a comic strip entitled “Child Hood.” At age 15, he was accepted to the Las Vegas Academy High school where he received his first and most formal art training, mainly from his instructor Cookie Treat. It was here where he joined his friend, confidant, and soul- twin “the” Professor 8o00%, John Engle. Together they created a unique (yet familiar) futuristic style. Directly after high school they held the “Carnival of the Eye,” an interactive, garden-art party fun-land dedicated to stimulating the eye. After riding a domesticated tumbleweed out of Las Vegas, Tripper enjoyed a short stint in San Diego. He then moved to Eugene, Oregon's own “Friendly Estates,” where he exploded artistically making postcards, paintings and developing and performing shadow puppet shows with his friend and partner, Scarlett Rose. During his two years in Eugene he was a part of many art events and hosted many of his own openings. At this time he further developed and refined ideals relating to the messages behind his work. Tripper left Eugene to live on the Fore Wands Farm in Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry. Depending on how much the paint is diluted (with water) or modified with acrylic gels, media, or pastes, the finished acrylic painting can resemble a watercolor or an oil painting, or have its own unique characteristics not attainable with other media.