Pure joy

One of the best things about the Giant Robot stores is that they are an entry drug for art collecting. For 50 or 60 bucks or even less, you can buy a really nice original piece to hang on your wall. There's no velvet rope, VIP list, or barriers. It's pretty much first come, first serve--unless one of us staffers wants it first!

But now that I think about it, I got my first piece of art long before the original GR shop opened or even before Eric and I made the first issue. In the early-ish '90s, my friend Joy Aoki, who had attended Art Center and worked in the art department of Epitaph Records, was moving and didn't have space for her all her canvases. I ended up with the painting above--part of her "PMS" series (called that for somewhat obvious reasons). The model was her roommate Mike, a nice guy who I used to see when I'd pick her up and go Kings hockey games with her in Section 12 at the Forum.

If the piece looks familiar, maybe it's because you've seen the album cover art below, which Joy painted and designed. I saw the band's first show at the Anti-Club, when at the end of a Chemical People set, Dave Smalley came out to preview a few songs with them as backup. "This is the future of punk rock," he said. This was for Down By Law's first album--perhaps their best. (Note: I'm biased because I was a big fan of the Chems. That being said, the lineups with Clawhammer Chris, Colin Sears from Dag Nasty, Mark Phillips from That's it, and toy otaku Hunter Oswald were exceptionally solid, too.)


Joy also did artwork for Bad Religion's Generator and No Control albums, as well as the Epitaph debuts of The Offspring and Coffin Break. She painted the famous NOFX condom package cover, too. I recall her telling me that she had a room full of condoms and that she and Mike were throwing them at each other for days. You know that Epitaph "E" that looks like a tombstone? Joy made that.

She also booked key punk shows at Godzilla's, wrote and made cover art for Flipside mag and record label, and had tons of bands stay at her house. She has great stories about the Warlock Pinchers (when they were homesick, they went to a generic mall), Pegboy (big sci-fi and hockey fans), and Green Day (were jealous of me when Joy invited me to to use Greg Hetson's Kings season seats with her while Bad Religion was on tour).

That last paragraph makes it sound like Joy is dead, but she's very much alive still making art. If you go to the horse races, you might have seen her horse portraiture on calendars! (She's been a fan of horses since I met her.)

In my opinion, Joy has an amazing portfolio that ties her unique interests to her masterful brush skills. I've asked her multiple times if she'd allow me to interview her for GR, but she always declines, saying, "I'm not interesting!" As the illustration wave seems to be calming down, perhaps this is her time. Maybe if I offer some good Indian food, she'll finally acquiesce.