((PKG)) ART AND WORDS
((TRT: 7:37))
((Topic Banner: Mixing Words & Art))
((Reporter/Camera/Editor: Genia Dulot))
((Map: San Diego, California))
((Main characters: 1 female; 1 male))
((BLURB: Vintage Meets Pop Art as a Californian couple blends art with words from old Dictionaries))
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
I am one half of the artist. My other artist is my other half, my better half, which is Micha. I’m from Los Angeles, California originally and Micha is originally from Berlin, Germany.
We are known as a.k.a. [also known as] ARTNWORDZ [Art and Words]. This is one of our most popular pieces. It’s called, “Einstein, the Mathematician.” And Micha, come on over here and she can help me with this one here. My favorite, my love.
So, this is a real equation for love. And it actually states on a paper, “I love you and I want a squeeze forever or as close to infinity as I can get.” It’s a quantum theory.
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
I like paper. I was a mapmaker, so I like paper. Germany, you learn like mapmaking by hand, not AutoCAD [computer aided design] computer. I learned to really dip the feather in the ink and magnifying glass and paint everything.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))

We saw artists on our own writing…

((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))

Yes…

((Grant Rosen
Artist))

…in a sense doing our own form. And Micha had the idea to take my designs and her designs and show them in this, sort of, application. And I said, “If we’re going do it, we got to do some of the crazier, more pop art designs.”
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
Yeah.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
“We’ve got to come up with like our own language and our own concept that really speaks to people.”
((NATS/MUSIC))
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
So, we get donations. We get a lot of those sent to us. Thank God, in the beginning, we literally did dumpster diving, you know, to find books. Yeah, we went to libraries because they’ll throw them away right now because nobody, you know, everybody Googles. It is like Christmas every time because we don’t know what’s in. We don’t know how old are they, you know, and there’s really rare ones sometimes. This is from 1937.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
What we do with that is, when we comb through each of these papers, because nothing is random, we actually pick the words that are at the top of each dictionary page to enhance the central theme of what we are trying to say for the art piece.
So, this is a Disney piece. So, she’ll pick a couple words at random, which I…
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
I don’t have my glasses. You pick them.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
Okay. So, it’ll say, “Extraordinary.” Walt [Disney], of course, was extraordinary in the world that he built. “Inspire” or “Inspired”. He inspired a lot of people around the world with Disney.
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
So, this will be a canvas later for one of the pieces we are working on right now for a gallery in Miami. And once these canvases group together, we can start painting on it.
Those books get thrown away. Nobody is using them anymore. A lot of them are actually damaged. They’re like spine broken, fire damaged, water damaged. So, we’re actually recycling them. We pretty much give them a new life instead of ending up in the trash can. We use most of the pages and make [art] out of it.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
First of all, the paper is living on, so it’s not disappeared for good, which means it’s rare. It brings life to the meaning of the art piece because it have what they call…
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
It’s a deeper meaning.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
…a double entendre or a triple entendre. It’s not just about the art. It’s the words behind the art. And then the paper that is super old, that also adds ‘vintage meets pop art’ sort of reference to it.
So, if Jesus was an Abercrombie [American clothing retailer] model and he was given a t-shirt that’s hip and cool, it says Y.O.L.O., which is a very millennium slogan, which means “You Only Live Once.” And this is Mary dressed as an Abercrombie model. And if you look closely, her t-shirt says, “O.M.G.,” the ultimate expression of the term “Oh, My God” would look like this.
Thank you! Now you get it. Now you get it.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
This is an ultimate expression of “You only live once,” right.
Funny enough, we’ve had nuns and we’ve had priests buy the copies of this and they understand that it’s only good humor. It’s done in good fun. It’s not meant to offend anybody. It’s meant to play with words because were called ARTNWORDZ [Art and Words].
If you were to take the word ‘duct tape’ and make it a live art piece, this is what it would look like. Duct tape. Yes, thank you.
And so, and the word at the top says, “Stuck.”
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
I shopped him online. I did shop him online.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))

Yeah. Online dating.
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
I put him in my cart and I am like, I want this one.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
But 12 years later, which it is, we don’t even know our anniversary date. We don’t like look at it. I think I know better.
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
February somehow.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
February something.
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
Yeah. He is very romantic.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
Yes.
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
He’s counting the years. I don’t even know but I told him after three months that he loves me. You can just tell. But he never said it. And one day, I just took him like, I know you love me. You can say it.
((Grant Rosen
Artist)
Because I, okay, good.
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
And he’s like…
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
I should have handed her “The Einstein”. That’s what I should have done. The real equation for love.
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
I’m more of the one, “What do I have today?” And he is more like the visionary and the “yes man”. So, if people say, “Can you do it?”, he says, “Yes.” And I’m like this, “How do we do it?” He’s like, “We’ll figure it out.” And now he is happy that I’ve convinced him to do it.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
That’s right. She convinced me to do it.
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
He said, “Well, if people would like it and it would be so great, somebody would do it already.” And I said, “Well, sometimes you are first.”
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
We created this piece, you know, in honor of RBG herself, Ruth Bader [Ginsburg]. And she was just super hip and super cool. And so, we wanted to pay tribute to RBG and her personage and all the things that she’s also done for women. When the piece ended up in the gallery in Washington, D.C., unbeknownst to us at first, the son of Ruth Bader Ginsburg saw it in a gallery, and he actually contacted us. And he said, “Do you mind if I could get a print of this to give to my mom?” “Really, like your mom? You mean, the one and only Ruth Bader Ginsburg?” We’re like, “No, no, no, no, no. You need to take that original from the gallery and you need to present it to Mom.” Two weeks goes by, and we come home, and we find a special letter waiting for us that was dispatched from the Supreme Court.
“Your artwork of me with a Brooklyn Dodgers cap is hanging in the entrance to my bedroom. It is a gem that lifts my spirits and brings me joy whenever I pass it by. With huge appreciation for your artistry, Ruth Bader Ginsburg.” And what’s amazing is also we know that from the date of the letter, she was going through her cancer treatments.
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
We want to also make it accessible to people if they can’t afford like a big, big piece of our original pieces for, you know, a good amount of money. How nice would it be if they can, maybe, afford a pair of socks, of course, or, you know, whatever we have.
So, the socks are actually a very big hit. So, when you wear them, you see the image front and back. So, when you turn around, you see the image as well. We always say, “You see the image coming and going.” Both words are related to the image that says, “Silent and Strong.” People do like to express their opinion with us a lot. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, if you loved her, you know what she stands for. So, of course, we have a lot of women who love wearing the socks and show, “Hey, I’m with her.” So, it is a statement and that’s why a lot of our pieces are called, ‘statement pieces’.
This is a very popular one called, “The British Pound.” So, “pound”, you know, the currency, and then “pounding”. So again, we play with words.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
We’re creating thoughtful art and cool pop art pieces that have something to say.
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
It’s funny. It’s political. There’s some political ones.
((Grant Rosen
Artist))
There’s so many avenues that we can go with that. And commission pieces that make people cry or remember a loved one or mixed media artists that create pop art pieces with a very unique voice…
((Micha Kauechenhoff
Artist))
…on vintage canvases.
((NATS/MUSIC))