This week for our Maker Monday, we are highlighting Abe Negaran of Abe’s Studios. You may know Abe as “The Toothpick Guy” because of his individualistic way of creating art using toothpicks.
Abe originally started his art journey drawing with pen and paper. He eventually wanted to replicate his designs by painting them, but discovered that the paint brush bristles were too big to create the intricate designs he was drawing. In his search to transform his drawings, Abe found that using sharp tools better helped him by dipping the tool into the paint and drawing out the designs. Using a toothpick worked the best and turned into his favorite method, so it ended up sticking over everything else he tested.
Abe is a self taught artist who is constantly inspired by his work and trying to make it better. He is always experimenting with how to challenge and force himself to make different designs he hasn’t done before. As a way of challenging himself, he sometimes leaves his paints outside or puts them in the freezer to have them thaw out. This causes the paints to become not so viscous, making them flow different ways out of the tube, and affects his ability to paint in a way he’s used to. Music also plays a role in Abe’s art. His designs tend to be dependent on the genre of music he is listening to. He notices that certain genres create certain designs.
For the most part, Abe tends to gravitate towards creating crabs because of the amount of layers of colors it takes to create a piece. He also wants to be able to eventually create a flamingo once he has a design for it. Abe mainly specializes in traditional Louisiana animals and traditions, making his pieces the perfect addition to southern homes and great for personalized gift-giving. We appreciate Abe for being a part of the Local Pop Up/Local Supply community and the market drone footage he allows us to use! You can find his products available for sale here.
