STORY VIDEO
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STILL MISSING THE BOOK
STILL MISSING is a beautifully designed art book exploring the folk art of lost & found pet posters. Featuring nearly 200 pages of high quality full-color images and illustrations.
A curatorial voyage through the world of lost and found pet posters that combines graphic and visual arts, illustration, and photography in a poetic and cohesive collage of raw emotion. Art connoisseurs and casual observers of all backgrounds, interests, and ages will find their own deep resonance within its pages.
" IN TURNS BIZARRE AND HILARIOUS AND DELIGHTFUL AND MOST IMPORTANTLY . . . FILLED WITH PICTURES OF CATS. STILL MISSING IS FOUND ART AT IT'S FINEST. "
-ZACHARY AUBURN (author of HOW TO TALK TO YOUR CAT ABOUT GUN SAFETY)
" THIS COLLECTION OF STAPLED, TAPED, RAIN-STREAKED & SUN-BLEACHED POSTERS ARE A POWERFUL PORTRAIT OF THE PEOPLE, THE PETS AND THE TIMES IN WHICH WE ARE LIVING. "
-RODNEY ASCHER (director of ROOM 237: Stanley Kubrick's The Shining)
" I LOVE THIS PROJECT! IT'S A GREAT AND AWESOME BOOK."
-RAY POTES (founder of HAMBURGER EYES)
" GREAT DESIGN IS OFTEN BORN OUT OF NECESSITY AND STILL MISSING EMBODIES THIS IDEA. STILL MISSING CLEVERLY TURNS OUR EYE TOWARDS THE LOST ART OF LOST PET FLYERS AND THE RESULT IS EXTRAORDINARY. "
-LUCA ANTONUCCI (founder of the SAN FRANCISCO ART BOOK FAIR)
" A WONDERFULLY SKEWED CHRONICLE FILLED WITH MYSTERY, SUSPENSE AND FUN IMAGES OF THE TRAGIC SIDE OF HUMAN/ANIMAL RELATIONSHIPS. I CAN ALREADY IMAGINE THE BIG SCREEN ADAPTATION OF THE BOOK. "
-THE CHIODO BROTHERS (animators of KILLER KLOWNS FROM OUTER SPACE, PEE WEEs BIG ADVENTURE, ERNEST SCARED STUPID & CRITTERS)
THE STORY
From 2010 to 2013, I drove around Los Angeles County collecting lost and found animal posters.
Being a huge animal lover myself, I set a rule for my project… I had to see at least three identical posters in a one-block area in order to take one (to not defeat the owners quest of finding their animal).
For three years, I drove tirelessly all over L.A. County, from South Central to Palmdale and from Venice to East L.A.in order to incorporate the many cultures of Los Angeles into the posters themselves.
Back in 2010, I realized that I possessed a true form of Folk Art -- hand-drawn, hand-painted posters made by ordinary people. They were meditations on the mundane. At this time I foresaw the rise of these posters becoming fully digitized templates and felt that the form of Folk Art displayed in these posters had every right to be preserved and viewed for years to come . . .
THE STORY CONT . . .
If every piece of art has a story, some pieces of art have deeper and more meaningful stories than others. These posters tell the story about the times and places in which we are living. The posters use the combined artistic mediums of graphic and visual arts, illustration, and photography in a poetic and cohesive collage of raw emotion to tell their tale.
I went on to find posters of dogs, cats, dragons, unicorns, clip-art bunnies, toucans, and many more. In total, I collected over 2,000 posters amassing the world’s largest collection of this form of Folk Art.
After my collection for this book came to a close. I started an Instagram account which is now getting submissions from around the world. Posters from such places as: Argentina, Chile, Japan, China, Russia, Mexico, Canada, all of the United States, and Europe.
The Instagram has even helped reconnect people with their lost and found animals.
ABOUT ME
My name is Gio and I am a native of Los Angeles. I'm not a graphic designer or an artist. I'm just an individual that finds immense interest and beauty in how ordinary people display their creativity.
