Todd Schorr has many influences that go into his artwork ranging from boyhood memories to modern day cartoons. In this video he invites us into his large collection of ephemera that he has collected over the years that continue to inspire his work.

Todd Schorr: American Surreal is the first mid-career retrospective of the Los Angeles-based artist. Schorr is a leading figure in Southern California's cartoon-based movement, dubbed Pop Surrealism, which embraces low-brow culture and a ribald graphic style indebted to pop sources such as Mad magazine. Schorrs astonishing, highly polished realism, (inspired by Bosch, Brueghel and Dali), sets him apart from his best-known peers such as Camille Rose Garcia, Gary Baseman, and Mark Ryden. The exhibition, curated by SJMAs Senior Scholar and Curator of Collections Susan Landauer, is accompanied by a book published by Last Gasp, San Francisco.

Exhibition runs June 20 through September 16, 2009 at the San Jose Museum of Art