MEET THE ARTIST
Botjoy is the creation of Portland, Oregon artist Gary Hirsch. Gary painted his first Bot on the back of a domino in 2010. To date, he has painted over 64,000 domino Bots and created Botjoy murals in cities throughout the world: Madrid, New Orleans, Boulder, Portland, and others.
Gary is also the co-founder of On Your Feet and creative consultancy that uses interactive experience to help organizations such as Nike, Intel and Disney communicate, relate, and create with more joy and less fear
HOW IT BEGAN
As a young child, Gary would draw his nightmares and dreams. He and his father would stay up late and name these creatures. One evening his father invited him to erase his drawings leading his actual nightmares slowly diminishing and fading away. Gary has used art as a way to celebrate, recognize and help people ever since.
The Bots came about in 2010 when Gary created a sketch as a prompt (image on the right) in a co-creativity journal for On Your Feet. Weirdly tons of folks responded after receiving this drawing telling Gary all of the wonderful things that their invisible robot was telling them.
This led to making the Bots real (not just invisible and imaginary) by painting them on the back of dominoes so you could carry them around in your pocket.
The Bots are now an artistic vehicle for Gary to experiment with how art can support, recognize and celebrate others.
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Murals
Gary paints murals all over the world. Contact him to find out how a Bot mural can find a home in your neighborhood.
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Paintings
Gary regularly rates and exhibits painting and other non-robot related works. See what's available and where you can see them next.
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Bot Kits
Get everything you need to make your own Bots, all in one place direct from the artist.
BRAVEFORCE 1’s Nike X Botjoy
A special collaboration celebrating Nike AF-1’s 40th anniversary and World Mental Health day.
Gary is a frequent public speaker with talks about creativity and co-creation at TedX, Creative Mornings, CUSP Conference, and others.
Watch Gary’s Interview on the wildly popular Conspiracy of Goodness Podcast
