Imagine the surprise in the Fukuoka Now office when staff noticed a bag hanging on our front door, with no explanation or greeting from the anonymous giver… Inside, we found a mini canvas with a custom painting of the cute little orange guy known as F-man, Fukuoka Now’s mascot!
We followed the clues (searching the web for the artist’s signature) to find that it was a piece by French artist HardWURST (Official HP: http://www.hardwurst.com). HardWURST creates mini canvas portraits rendering pop culture icons – including Barack Obama, Mickey Mouse and Spiderman – into cute and quirky illustrations. They all take the same four legged, stance – making them look slightly warped and unlike themselves, but still recognizable.
HardWURST was recently in Fukuoka, taking part in FUCA Mulitcultural gathering. You can see a video of the event here: http://www.hardwurst.com/expo/muticultural-gathering-fukuoka-april-20th/. Thanks for F-Man, HardWURST! We hope you come back to Fukuoka again soon!
