TONK TONK TOCCATA WORLD TOUR

Tonk would end up in places where language barriers prevented me from intricately communicating with the sticker's recipient

I first came up with the idea of Tonk Tonk Toccata last Christmas. A bunch of us were talking over drinks, I was feeling extra jaded. There were plenty of children who "loved" Christmas but I pointed out that it was not the same as when we were young. What was treasured now was not seeing a favorite uncle or getting to eat a special dish whose appearance on the table was reserved for the holidays. From what I had witnessed, it was now the rather expensive loot, (console game sets, smart phones et al) which would be broken or lost well before the calendar was used to its new numbers that was of value.

I did a drawing of a robot from the future as was imagined in the 1950's whom I named Tonk Tonk Toccata and gave him a short back story;

Tonk in paris "A robot created and brought to life in a basement near Musee Delacrioux (Musée national Eugène Delacroix 6 rue de Furstenberg 75 006 Paris)."

People naturally took to him, so using blank white office stickers and a home printer I whipped off a series of Tonk Tonk Toccata stickers under the moniker of B-Wolfe, mailing them out around the world, only asking that people snap a photo of wherever Tonk was and send me an email of it (always recommending that they not damage or vandalize property but merely hold sticker in front of whatever). This actually increased Tonk's popularity and soon people I did not know where requesting some. The home printed ones did not look great and faded as the elements worked them over, so I had them professionally done on vinyl and began the next round of sending him out.

Tonk went further and further a field, making his way all over Latin America and Eastern Europe. He began popping up in some of the major sticker/street art group shows in Europe (Spain, Germany, Italy, France) and America (Seasttle/Portland/L.A) and his popularity spawned a burgeoning line of clothing and accessories which so far includes tee shirts, sneakers and i-Phone covers.

An interesting effect is that Tonk was born of cynicism but the more pictures of him I got back the more I realized in some ways we are all the same (hippy or new agey sounding, I know). Tonk would end up in places where language barriers prevented me from intricately communicating with the sticker's recipient, yet no matter how "exotic" an area may seem in one's mind, there are cafes on whose walls one could find not only Tonk but the names of familiar bands and many other stickers from around the world. I may not be able to explain what made me initially draw Tonk to someone in Serbia but he made them smile and instinctively they knew where to stick him.

I branched out and started doing other stickers, like Tonk, all original art work. I have met great people in the street art/sticker ("slaps") community, which like any other subculture has its rituals, language and rules of etiquette. I have no deadline for when I will end the Tonk project, it will go until people are sick of him or it is not fun. In the process I have discovered a new medium which I will always remain involved with.

kremlin-tonk
Kremlin Tonk