Takashi Murakami

I was chatting with Keith at work the other day and we started talking about the novel I am reading at the moment, Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. When I mentioned Murakami's name, Keith started to tell me about a visual design artist named Takashi Murakami. I have just googled him, and have found him to be a fascinating artist. A Wired profile of him describes his work thusly:

Murakami... takes from the low and gives to the high, the low, and everything in between. He makes paintings, sculptures, videos, T-shirts, key chains, mousepads, plush dolls, cell phone caddies, and, last but not least, $5,000 limited-edition Louis Vuitton handbags.

If you are interested in pop-art, check out some of his work here.