Curry, wine, and laundry

Until about two weeks ago, I had still been using a nearly obsolete cellphone that I bought secondhand almost six years ago. It had gotten to be a bit of a novelty, actually. It was sort of amusing to watch internet access and high resolution flash photography become increasingly common on cellular phones, while my own phone bore the name of a service provider that no longer existed.
I finally bought a smart phone, and while the internet-on-your-cellphone thing seems to be more of a luxury than anything, I am wondering how I got on for so long without the ability to take reference photos for drawing at nearly any time. I took the photo to the left while walking through an alley near my apartment. I admittedly know next to nothing about photography, but I've always been something of a reference photo junkie when it comes to drawing and painting. Since I'm currently working on over a dozen new paintings/drawings for an upcoming exhibition, having a little camera in my pocket at all times has been rather helpful.
Since Flatstock 30 has ended, I've resumed work on a whole mess of new work for an exhibition with Jay Ryan in Hamburg, Germany. Jay and I will be showing a bunch of drawings and paintings at Feinkunst Krüger Gallery. The exhibition is called "Das Pferd aus Illinois," and there will be an opening reception on September 10th, 2011. Both Jay and I will be at the opening.
I will also be doing a joint poster art show with Senor Burns in Munich on September 15th, 2011 in Munich (Foyer Bürogemeinschaft Westermühlstraße 32, 80469 München)
Lots of other fun stuff on the way, including Flatstock Europe 6 and a rock poster exhibition in Leuven, Belgium. More info on that soon.

"It's Always Clouds and Houses with You."

Hello again. I'm drying off after a walk from the train to the studio in a shoe-soaking downpour. I'm about to get to work on some new paintings and drawings today, but I thought I'd post a little update here while I wait for some previously rolled Somerset paper to flatten out.

Flatstock 30 was over as quickly as it came, excessive heat and all. I got to meet Johanna Goldstein and Scout Shannon who are working on this documentary about gig posters. They've been following my friends, Kevin Tong and Daniel Danger around quite a bit lately, and they talked to and filmed a whole lot of us at Flatstock. This includes footage of me and Daniel talking to each other about art in our best roughneck voices (whether or not it's used in the film is anyone's guess). Also, there may or may not be synchronized swimming. Johanna and Scout are awesome folks, and you should expect this documentary to be really, really great. Check out the trailer here.

To the left is a poster I printed during a massive storm (ha, that wasn't even intentional) of poster jobs. I drew and printed seven gig posters in about five weeks, finishing them just in time to make some new business cards and prep for Flatstock 30. Today, I'm sitting down with the ink drawing from this Vaccines poster at my light table and doing a painted version of this composition.
In other news, I hear the rain has stopped, and I'm thinking about having panang curry with tofu for lunch.

Little League

Being a grown up is serious business. (Photo by Logan)

There's ink and cat hair on everything I own.

Above is some ink I was mixing for the first color of a Delta Spirit poster. It was a big old split fountain for a night sky. I put the last color down last night. I'll post a picture of the finished print when I get to the studio and can find some decent light to snap a photo. This lovely midwestern summer storm will make finding ideal lighting a bit difficult, however. Like anyone in this part of the country, I've grown up with aggressive, seemingly spontaneous summer storms. I remember being a kid and having to flee with my mom and brother to a family friend's house when the sky turned green because our home didn't have a basement. We were too young to really be scared, and it was kind of an adventure to wait it out in the laundry room while the sky attacked our fortress. I can recall riding my bike through the neighborhood the morning after such storms and having to navigate through all the fallen branches and puddles (though I often got a charge out of riding straight through those puddles as fast as I could, but I digress).
I was commissioned to do posters for a series of Lollapalooza aftershows at Chicago's Lincoln Hall and Schubas, so I've been working on seven or eight things at once for the past month and a half. I have two posters in the series left to print this week, and I'm going to do my best to do a Flatstock poster or a new art print in time for Flatstock 30 this weekend. Oh, and I need to make some business cards. So much to do!

And now for something completely different...

Hello! I've been hard at work on a whole mess of new gigposters, and I just finished printing some t shirts for the first time ever. Printing on shirts is actually very different from printing on paper, I've learned. I was asked to participate in Happy Fuggin' 8th of July; a huge party, rock show, and t shirt art exhibition (all in one!). Each artist will have hand printed t shirts on display at Fugscreens Studios tomorrow night (that's July 8th). Shirts will be for sale at the show. I have never printed shirts before, and I have no idea when I'm going to do this again. I've been seeing a lot of other artists' work around the shop this week, and there is definitely going to be some awesome stuff. The madness begins tomorrow, 7 PM at Fugscreens Studios (1735 N. Ashland Ave. Chicago, IL). Real talk.

I will be giving a talk at Harrington College of Design (200 West Madison Street, Chicago, IL) on July 21st. More info here. Also speaking will be Dan MacAdam (Crosshair) and Zissou Tasseff-Elenkoff (Fugscreens Studios).

And of course Flatstock 30 will be next weekend at Union Park in Chicago as part of Pitchfork Music Festival. Nadine from Sonnenzimmer has challenged me to a vegan ice cream eat down. I feel confident that I can still hold my own a year later. Results will be reported.

Lastly, I will be releasing recent posters I did for Ween and Iron and Wine tomorrow (July 8th). Both prints will be available on my site. Sorry for the lack of updates here. If you're in Chicago, come on out to any (or all) of the aforementioned events.