Founded in 2012, we are Ants on a Melon, a Springfield, Oregon-based manufacturer of multi-color RGB LED flashlights (torches) and twist-on accessories such as flow prop toys and light painting tools. We work with performance artists, light painters, and high-tech fashion designers looking to enhance user experience, visual appeal, and 3D artistic displays.
A few years back, Ants on a Melon's founder, Joel Pinkham, came to the realization that Humans are not much different from our good friends we call Ants. Here's the story:
At a music festival near Nelson, British Columbia, Joel found himself collecting rocks in a nearby riverbed. As clouds started to roll in, he began the hike back to his campsite in the Kootenay Mountains. On his way, a new friend named Tyson approached him and commented on the beauty that surrounded them in that exact moment. Joel then gave Tyson one of the rocks he had found. They began walking together, and Tyson dropped the rock three times. After the third time, Tyson smiled and gave the rock back to Joel, explaining that this particular rock wanted stay with its original owner. Near where the rock fell the third time there was a watermelon broken into several pieces. They crouched down to have a closer look at the melon and noticed it was covered in little black ants. The ants appeared to be in a state of timelessness as they sucked on the sweet nectar of the melon. In that moment, Joel and Tyson exchanged smiles as they looked over the valley of the Kootenays that was rumbling from the bass of the music festival.
It was then that Joel realized that all of the beautiful people who were vibrating harmoniously with the frequencies of the music were no different than the beautiful ants near their feet, vibrating harmoniously with the frequency of the melon.
We're all just "Ants on a Melon"!
Ants on a Melon was founded in 2012 by our Master Toy Maker Joel Pinkham because he realized the world was in dire need of a high-end and feature-loaded, color-changing flashlight. Twelve years have passed since this realization, but the goal remains: Ants on a Melon will provide the highest quality, feature-loaded, color-changing flashlights found on Earth. In order to achieve this goal, we will continue to provide a nurturing and creative environment for our team of skilled and thoughtful employees. To ensure that all products are held to the highest standards, our in-house team of craftspeople hand-assemble and test our entire product line at our facility in Springfield, Oregon, USA.
I grew up under the starlight of rural Ontario, Canada, before moving to the big city: Toronto. I studied Visual Arts and Illustration at Sheridan College with the ultimate objective of apprenticeship in tattooing. Unfortunately, I sustained a serious neck injury that forced me to change my entire direction but found myself once again in the creative world of design, making custom props for theatre and film.
While struggling with my injury, I discovered dancing with a fiber optic whip called the Orbit BitWhip and immediately incorporated it as part of my healing and physiotherapy. Not long after that, I had the opportunity to extol my passion for AOAM more prominently when Joel Pinkham and I connected. Ultimately, I became the AOAM communications and media manager, connecting AOAM to the broadest ranges of the flow arts community.
When not chatting with all of you creative souls through our online platforms, I’m off traveling and engaging in all sorts of LED and fire performances. Or you can also find me hidden in my laboratory, making new LED costume designs to incorporate the latest and greatest AOAM products.
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