A Letter of Resignation

Truffels, cat beds, leftovers, and Mexican printmakers

2012-02-14T22:29:00.003-06:00

Above is a snapshot of the keyline film for an art print I am working on right now. I just printed the eighth color late this afternoon, the keyline is up next (first thing tomorrow morning). I'm pretty excited to get this next color printed, but I have a feeling that I'll probably be going in and doing a tenth screen for some darker accents. More to come.

Hoist That Rag

2012-02-09T14:43:00.003-06:00

I was commissioned to do a small run of posters for a local (and online) 80's movie night. I had fun doing this illustration and working on something kind of different. I'm back in the saddle today printing a new art print. More to come, but in the meantime, check out this trailer for an upcoming documentary on poster art(ists) called Just Like Being There.

Shredding ten vegetables

2012-02-04T18:35:00.005-06:00

Hello! I've been working on some new drawings for an illustration and a poster, as well as films for new art prints. To the left is some pencil work (in progress at time of photo) that I used as a guide for an ink/acrylic-on-paper version of the drawing. The finished piece will be used for Community Records' Block Party 2012. I will also being doing posters for the event based on this image as well.

I recently answered a few questions for TEN x TEN, a print artist and musician collaboration that will be released later this year. Prints from this show will be on display at Expo 72 in Chicago (reception on March 2nd, 2012). The interview about my print for TEN x TEN is posted here.

And since I'm a skateboarder who doesn't eat meat or animal products, I've been featured on the very excellent Vegan Skate Blog. Check it out.

I just finished inking a new drawing for a poster that I'll be printing this coming week, so I'm going to get some food and head back to my apartment. Woo!

Newt Gingrich? More like Shit Romney!

2012-01-30T19:45:00.004-06:00

Greetings! Sorry for the lack of updates here. 2012 has been off to a really busy start. My girlfriend and I (and our cat) also moved to a new apartment, which we somehow managed to do in record time. Other than that, I've been hard at work on new posters and art prints, eating avocado rolls, and not shaving.
I was recently asked to do a second edition of the sold out "Wait For Me, Abby Bernstein" print for Gallery 1988 and this year's SF Sketchfest. I don't make it a habit of doing second editions, but I thought it would be cool to try this one in another colorway. It was kind of cool to dig out the old films and whip through these in blue ink. They're now available on my site.
I spent a good chunk of today packing up and shipping the last half of 2011's prints to send to subscribers. It went quite a bit faster than I thought it would, and they're now in the mail and on the way to their respective destinations. I was left with enough to time to finish a drawing for a new art print (and future beer label).
It's about 8 PM, and I've been working for a bit too long today. I'm stuck debating whether I should go home and eat dinner or go skate for a bit on this unseasonably mild January evening. I probably need to get some groceries, too.
Stay tuned, and I promise to be better about updating. 2012 should be a year full of printing, drawing, and new travels.

New posters available

2012-01-18T05:22:00.002-06:00

I recently did a series of posters for Chicago's Tomorrow Never Knows festival, and those posters are now available on my site. Each poster is 18x24", from an edition of 100, and (as always) entirely handmade. Complete sets of the TNK posters are also available in a limited quantity.
Okay, it's well after 5 AM, and my living room is pretty cold. I'm going back to sleep for a bit.

Remember

2012-01-16T11:51:00.000-06:00

“Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Government Cartoons

2012-01-12T12:51:00.005-06:00

I was hoping to have been a little more on top of blog posts for the end of 2011/beginning of 2012, but I ended up spending most of those days finishing off a huge print marathon, which included a set of four posters for Tomorrow Never Knows 2012, not taking a day off in over two weeks, and preparing to move to a new apartment. I have also done a second edition of an art print from last year (stay tuned to find out which one!) in a new colorway.
2012 is off to a busy start. I recently turned 28, and I'm doing my best keep the momentum generated last year in full swing. Today is full of lots of sketching, listening to Propagandhi, blowing my runny nose, playing with the cat, and probably eating vegetable sandwiches on bagels while I think about skateboarding.
Anyway, to the left is one of the Tomorrow Never Knows 2012 posters. I chose to do a sort of architectural portrait of each of the four Chicago venues at which TNK shows are being held. This one is of The Hideout. I rode my bike to each of the four venues (Metro, Schubas, Lincoln Hall, and the Hideout) and took several pictures of each. Then I sat down and did my best architect impression (meaning I used a ruler for a change) and drew each building. I had fun trying to keep all four of these posters only three colors, and I'm happy to say I actually had the foresight to mix enough of all the colors have chromatic uniformity. Anyway, they're available at the aforementioned venues for TNK, and they'll be posted for sale on my site, along with a (sort of) new art print early next week.

2012 Subscription and more!

2011-12-22T13:05:00.004-06:00

Hi! A few items for you today: First, I recently designed a shirt for the band Ween, which is available on their website. I had to scan the original drawing and complete a simplified color scheme in Photoshop, which for those of you who know how I work, was a bit challenging for me. Nevertheless, I seem to have used a computer correctly and their printer did an excellent job with them.

Also, about two years ago, I made an exclusive art print for Pandora's Prints. Due to a series of delays, it is just now available on their site. I drew and printed this while I was living in Montreal in the fall of 2009. Check it out here: http://www.pandorasprints.com/exclusives-c-38.html

The 2012 print subscription is now open. I have produced close to fifty different prints this year between rock posters and art prints, and I have every intention of continuing with a similar rate of output for 2012. Subscribers will receive (matching edition numbers of) one of everything I print from January 1st, 2012 through December 31st, 2012 along with other various extras like a one of a kind test print, an original sketch, and a closed special edition. Prints will be shipped out in a large mailing tube twice a year.

2012 SUBSCRIPTION PRICING
US & Canada : $475/year
International : $535/year (please note that price difference is only to cover overseas postage)

I am flexible on payment, and payment for the subscription can be made in installments. A personal check or money order is preferred, but paypal is also acceptable. If interested in becoming a subscriber, please get in touch with any questions or to reserve a spot.

Snow, candles, oatmeal, sweaters, old films, and one-eyed rats

2011-12-17T10:47:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, I rode my bike in below freezing weather, drew buildings for hours, went to a party where I hung out with some rad people who fed me cake, and met some adorable rodents.
Today, I'm eating grapes and hanging out with the cat as I wait for my friend Femi to come by so we can bundle up and go skateboarding under a bridge in Logan Square. I've known Femi since we were teenagers, and now he's a lawyer. When he started law school a few years ago, we used to joke about how he'd be a practicing attorney who still rides a skateboard. Adulthood is pretty much going better than I could have expected.

I've been contacted by a few people regarding a Secret Santa print exchange going on at expresso beans. To the right is a quick little drawing I did this week as a gift for someone from a subscriber of mine. I was asked to include something that is pertinent to Australia in some way, so I chose to try my hand at drawing a eucalyptus tree. They're pretty fun to draw, and I got to use my new brush pen for the branches. I still struggle with drawing trees, but it's getting a little easier. The house in this drawing is loosely based on a little structure right across the street from our apartment. I added the porch (front stairs going to nowhere seemed kind of silly).
One last little thing: before I finally announce details for the 2012 print subscription, feel free to contact me early to reserve a spot (or with any questions). Spots will officially be open next week.

Chips, salsa, hair dye, christmas trees, and sleepy cats

2011-12-08T18:12:00.005-06:00

Over the weekend, I finished printing my edition of prints for the TEN x TEN project. It's an edition of 200, all of which will be going to the TEN x TEN print sets. Subscribers from this year will be receiving prints from a hand-embellished A/P edition (pictured to the left).
It's a quiet evening here in Chicago. My girlfriend is hard at work on a final paper for grad school, and I'm eating chips and salsa and trying to come up with ideas for an upcoming series of posters.
This has been a pretty mellow week, as I've mostly just been working on a commissioned painting. The last half of this month should prove to be rather busy, so it's nice to take it relatively easy for a week. It feels great to work on a painting again, and I'm definitely hoping to do some more in the coming year.
It always seems like the last couple weeks of December are full of reflection and anticipation. Not that a numerical change to our calendars really affects much in our day to day lives, but for artists, it's kind of nice to use the new year as the start of a new body of work. 2011 has been an eventful year for me. I moved apartments three times, spent almost a month in Europe, discovered plantain enchiladas, learned how to use an auto press, and at one point I was drawing and printing so much that I was unable to coat screens without feeling a sharp pain in my wrist. The year's not over, though! I'm already looking forward to 2012.

New prints available

2011-12-05T11:02:00.003-06:00

Good morning! I just posted four new prints in the store on my site. Check it out if you feel so inclined.
Also, Art of Musical Maintenance 8 is open in Portland. Work from each artist can be viewed here.

Winter jackets, squash soup, inverted flags, and rescued kittens

2011-12-03T15:04:00.003-06:00

I cannot believe it's December already. With only four weeks to go in 2011, there's still plenty to work on. To the right are films for my contribution to the upcoming issue of TEN x TEN, a collaborative effort between various Chicago print artists and musicians organized through Spudnik Press. My contribution is a print based on a new song by Tomorrow Kings. Each print in the set will be ten inches by inches (hence the name), and printers are typically printing two at once and cutting them down to size after printing. Since none of my films are printed from a computer, I had to keep my seps pretty simple as to be able to cut the same color twice. I xeroxed the ink drawing twice and ran the two copies through a blueprint printer to make the keyplate. I was able to use little reference points in the keyplate to make sure the two are consistent with each other.
These prints will eventually be available through Spudnik Press as part of the complete TEN x TEN set. There will also be a special A/P edition for my print subscription.

Devil Town opened last night at Gallery 1988 in LA. The work can be viewed (and purchased) here. There are some truly amazing pieces in this show, and I'm really stoked to be a part of it. I unfortunately missed the opening last night, as I stayed back in Chicago to attend a couple of local art events, including a group print exhibition that I had prints in at Black Cloud Gallery. I opted to get to this opening (along with Crosshair's show at Saki Records) on my bike, which by the end of the day, put my accumulated riding distance at almost twenty-five miles (this is including my commute to and from the studio earlier, as well as a short grocery run and a detour up to the North Side to see some friends). This would explain why I was so hungry when I finally got home.

New poster for Gene Ween

2011-11-25T17:48:00.002-06:00

Just finished these today. I haven't signed them yet. Lots of split fountains.

Termites. There's yer problam!

2011-11-19T16:36:00.003-06:00

It's a pretty beautiful fall afternoon, and I'm at the studio working on sketches, eating bananas, and hand embellishing some A/P prints with acrylic paint. These prints (and the hand painted AP prints) will be part of Devil Town, an upcoming show at Gallery 1988 curated my friend Daniel Danger. I haven't painted since the summer, so it felt really good to lay some acrylic down again. I need to paint more.
Devil Town will be on display at Gallery 1988 Melrose from December 2nd through December 24th, 2011 (opening reception December 2nd at 7PM). I'm really excited to be a part of this show and included in the list of participating artists.
There will be five hand painted AP prints available through the gallery, as well as the rest of the (non embellished) edition, which is a fairly large nine color screen print.

For those interested, stay tuned for information about the 2012 print subscription. I will be announcing info/availability about that in the coming weeks.

Take this job and...

2011-11-17T17:15:00.000-06:00

Check it out. My friend (and excellent poster artist) Kevin Tong interviewed a bunch of other artists about old jobs we had before we started slinging ink. Up today is me and Rob Jones! Read it here.

Gravity

2011-11-12T13:59:00.003-06:00

A chilly apartment, a fresh pair of socks, and a slight headache. An afternoon in progress.
A glass of water, a plate of rice, and a best friend. A blur of a night that bleeds into today, bringing with it all feelings evoked.
I'm not really sure what I learned, but I still believe everything we do is political.

Roll

2011-11-11T09:49:00.006-06:00

Greetings from Milwaukee! I finished a whole mess of prints, shipping, and invoice writing over the weekend and earlier this week, so that we could take a little trip up here for a couple of days. I even had to recruit an assistant for the first time ever to pack and label orders while I was printing a new art print. Milwaukee's a fine city to visit. We had some outstanding sandwiches at the Riverwest Co-op, saw the art museum, ate espresso cake, wandered in the cold for a bit, and I had some drink called a Pink Lady.

To the left is me ollieing over a light fixture on the sidewalk outside the Milwaukee Art Museum. My girlfriend was nice enough to not only let me roll around and burn some energy for a few minutes, but to also take a few videos with her phone. I'm pretty surprised with the quality we were able to get by pausing the video at the right time and taking a screen shot. Cellphones!

I've always felt skateboarding was a pretty therapeutic part of my life, but this year I think I've come to realize that on an even deeper level. Skateboarding has been part of the equation for me since I was twelve years old, and it quite certainly dictated the paths I've chosen. I still remember how good it felt to get on my board after school to escape high school melodrama, skating in between classes in college, and finding solace in empty parking lots when I was nineteen and so many of my friends (and I) were changing. I'm almost twenty-eight. I have been skateboarding regularly for over fifteen years. Yet I'm still sometimes surprised at how much even just fifteen minutes on my skateboard can do to tame the ugliness and uncertainty of obsessive compulsive disorder, anxiety, and worry.
I hope you'll always be around.

New print available through Nevermind Gallery

2011-11-04T09:45:00.003-05:00

"Sometimes the Uncertainty of Everything Can Really Scare Me"
6 screens on white Cougar cover
24x18", edition of 75, signed.

Check it.

Doom Town

2011-10-29T09:04:00.004-05:00

I'm up a bit earlier than I thought I'd be this morning, which is not to say that I don't enjoy getting up at a decent hour--I've just been trying to catch up on rest lately. Either way, I couldn't be happier to be eating avocados, drinking soy milk, and listening to Tom Waits on this chilly autumn morning in Chicago.
My girlfriend and I ended up having a couple drinks too many and talking enthusiastically last night about everything from politics to our parents to our respective goals and progress in life. It's nice to occasionally have a reminder that not only am I doing what I want to do with my life (at least for moment), but I am with someone who is doing the same.
Seriously, I live for mornings like this. I've got a bunch of boring spreadsheet work to do, but it's totally cool.

Also, this is worth checking out: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/oct/18/occupy-protests-map-world

Inside the Rock Poster Frame Print Giveaway!

2011-10-21T11:54:00.003-05:00

So a few months ago, I made a print called "Riding into the Wind Without Looking Back" for a bike-themed art show put on by Poster Cabaret. It looks like this. I don't have any copies of it left, but Inside the Rock Poster Frame is doing a giveaway of that print. All you have to do is click here and leave a comment for a chance to win one. Pretty cool, eh?

Candles, stuffed peppers, and bathing cats

2011-10-17T23:39:00.003-05:00

Some new prints are available on my site today. Lots of new stuff on the way, too! I've also put a few previously-thought-to-be-sold-out prints back up. Stay tuned.

Look Homeward/Chicago's Calling

2011-10-02T03:47:00.008-05:00

I am in Leuven, Belgium right now. Today is the last day of the poster expo at Het Depot for the Orange Factory 14 year weekend. Het Depot is an old elementary school that has been converted into a music venue. Seriously. It's pretty amazing.
Gary Houston and I arrived in Leuven from Dresden (by way of a series of trains that stopped/changed in Frankfort, Koln, and Liege along the way). It was a bit of an ordeal that involved some pretty tight timing, which meant regular episodes of running with our poster cases and luggage to the next train with minutes before our departure. Somehow we made it to Leuven on time and as planned where we were greeted and picked up by our friend Benny and taken to the venue to set up.
The weekend has been good, and the people here have been incredibly welcoming and hospitable. Leuven is full of beautiful old buildings that I can't stop looking at whenever I walk past them.
I finally fly back to Chicago tomorrow after three and a half weeks of traveling around Germany and Belgium exhibiting art and posters. I got to see cities I'd never seen before, stare at shelves in a model ship store for an hour, eat a piece of chocolate cake with avocado filling, sign an autograph, navigate the public transportation system in three different cities, and get rid of nearly all the posters I brought over. Four grown men laughed like kids in church on our way to a museum in Oldenberg and harassed a bunch of a sheep with our bad impersonations of the noises they make. I sent postcards to my lovely girlfriend back in Chicago. I scribbled down thoughts and rough drawings in my sketchbook on trains, at venues, and at the kitchen table in a host's apartment. I engaged in multiple conversations about the cultural relevance of poster art in both North America and Europe, as well as self-employment as a career and the prospect of using that career to build a life for oneself.
For as great as the trip has been, I have been aching to get back home. I've got a whole mess of work to tackle this week, as well as other exciting things on the horizon. Returning home is always such a warm feeling. This time, I can't even wait to step off the plane.

Lack of sleep verses too much sleep

2011-09-29T18:37:00.003-05:00

Tonight, Colored Gigs Volume 3 opened in Dresden. The show will be on display again tomorrow night, minus me and Gary Houston, who will be in Leuven, Belgium for the 14 Years Orange Factory poster exhibition. Leuven is over 700 kilometers from Dresden, which means we're getting on a train at 5:50 AM and taking a whole mess of connections through Germany and into Beligum. I am taking a tram to Dresden's central station in about three hours. The last stretch of this trip should be interesting.

OCCUPY WALLSTREET

Mangos, soymilk, dental floss, and gendered nouns

2011-09-27T05:46:00.002-05:00

To the left is Dresden as seen from the Rathaus tower. From the circular balcony on eleventh floor, you can see the city from above and in every direction. It was unusually warm, and the clear and sunny weather made for excellent visibility.
Colored Gigs Volume 3 opens this Thursday, September 29th in Dresden and will feature the work (and presence) of rock poster artists from Holland, France, the USA, and Germany of course. I was featured in a writeup about the upcoming show in a German publication, so if you can read German, you can check it out here: Kunst durch Sieb gepresst
(tip: using an online translator is not effective)
In a couple of hours, I am heading to the gallery here in Dresden to meet up with a few people and to discuss some of the mechanics and details of the show (and probably just hang out a bit). The nature of the Colored Gigs shows is pretty punk rock, by which I mean I'm reminded of my days putting together independent punk/indie shows with my friends. With regard for the installation and hanging of artwork, there's a lot of collaborative effort to set up a big event for a couple of nights, and then it seems like it's over as quickly as it came. But as always, it's totally worth it. And just like in punk rock, you form friendships that will last the rest of your life.
The Douze family have gone to great lengths to accommodate the out of town artists and organize and promote this event. It is definitely people like these who are pushing poster culture and actively working to expand its profile in Europe. I look forward to seeing how the scene grows here in Germany and the rest Europe in the next few years.

Fin

2011-09-25T05:40:00.004-05:00

Flatstock Europe 6 came to a very tired (but happy) end last night. It was great to meet some of the newcomers to Flatstock, as well as see some familiar faces. Luke Drozd and Graham D. Pilling did subversive audio interviews with various artists and patrons of Flatstock Europe 6. This also featured a segment with me entitled "Justin Time For Cocktails," in which the three of us review fancy drinks we ordered from a bartender who wasn't particularly amused with us. We also renamed some popular drinks. If you're ever in Hamburg, make sure you order the "Sex on or Near the Bench" or a "Something About Cobras."
I'm off to Dresden this evening with a bunch of other artists for Colored Gigs Volume 3, which opens on the 29th. Unfortunately, I'll be cutting my stay in Dresden a bit short in order to make it to Leuven, Belgium for the Orange Factory show. Lots of fun up ahead before I return to Chicago next week.

"So 'lemon' means 'lime,' and 'lime' means nothing!?"

2011-09-23T04:23:00.004-05:00

Oh shit! Flatstock Europe 6 is already here! Yesterday was a long and busy (and incredibly fun) first day of this year's Euro Flatstock. Hilariously, it seems I have become something of a vegetarian food guide in the rock poster community, too. Veg(etari)ans have been asking me about where to get food in Hamburg, what restaurants to eat at, etc. I'm more than happy to help, of course. Come say hi to me at my Flatstock booth today; I'll tell you how to speak enough German to order a pizza without cheese but with a bunch of vegetables. Or maybe you're concerned there's butter or yogurt in that Indian dish? Come see me. I'll set the record straight.
I don't mean to make vegetarianism or veganism sound like a set of self imposed restrictions or a maniacal quest for purity. It's really about doing your best to live a life that extends consideration to our non-human roommates on this big old planet of ours. I think people get overwhelmed when traveling and trying to keep Kosher with a vegetarian diet, but it's not hard or unenjoyable. I've had some outstanding meals on this trip.

I'm back at my friend Henni's place in Hamburg with Dan MacAdam. We don't have to be at Flatstock until 3 PM, so we're hanging out and talking about the Minutemen (the excellent band, not the less-than-excellent xenophobic vigilante group) , VHS tapes, the US Postal Service, and bungalow houses.
I'm going to get out and wander this city for a bit. If you're in Hamburg, come witness the hooliganism. After Flatstock, I'm off to Dresden for the Colored Gigs Volume 3 poster show, followed by the Orange Factory poster exhibition in Belgium. Then I fly back to Chicago and begin/resume working on a bunch of fun new projects. Expect a whole mess of new prints this fall.

...

2011-09-18T15:15:00.005-05:00

I took a train today, which was followed by a short bus ride. I walked in the rain with a borrowed umbrella and passed through this cold iron gate. I tried to imagine what it must have been like when it was locked and constantly surveilled by guards. Today, it swings open with ease for people like me to walk in and tread lightly among the countless ghosts of some of the most intense and senseless suffering mankind has ever known.
The magnitude of it all could not ever leave the haunted, overgrown earth. It's in the stones underfoot, on stained walls, and in the growth rings of the moss-covered poplar trees. They never made it out of here.
We make a solemn pilgrimage to spectate and take pictures, and then we get to go back home. We quietly go about the rest of our lives. I try to make sense of it, but I cannot. I listen to casual and friendly chatter from tourists on a heated bus back through Dachau.

1933-1945

This is just a romantic concept

2011-09-15T02:57:00.005-05:00

I arrived in Munich yesterday after a long (but comfortable) train ride from Hamburg. I was greeted at the train station by my friend Bernd Hoffman, poster artist Senor Burns. Bernd and I have a gig poster show together here in Munich that opens tonight at Foyer der Bürogemeinschaft (more info here). We spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon hanging posters at the gallery, which is connected to an architecture office. I will try to get some photos of the full gallery tonight; this space is really cool.
I am staying with some new friends of mine, who are in a band called Candelilla. They are an artist on Bernd's record label, Red Can Records, and they have just returned from a little city called Chicago where they were recording a new album with Steve Albini. Last night we were given a preview of the album, and it's really, really good. Listening to the final mix of the album with them, hearing them talking about future plans for the band, upcoming shows, etc. makes me really miss playing music. So yeah, if anyone wants to start a mathrock band with me in Chicago, get at me.
Red Can Records' tenth anniversary show is this Friday in Munich, so I'll get to see Candelilla play (which I'm quite excited about), along with a bunch of other bands from the label.
Okay, time to find vegan food in Munich!

Note: Any orders that have been placed through my site since September 9th will unfortunately not be shipped until I return to the US on October 3rd. For those who have to wait an extra week or two for their orders to ship, I will be including some free stuff.

Slack Motherfucker

2011-09-14T01:11:00.003-05:00

You never offered me a job. Also, I never asked you for one. But you did threaten me. You tried to teach me a lesson about authority. Subordination. Obedience.
Instead, I'm on my second glass of wine, thousands of feet above the Atlantic. I wouldn't be here had I tried to impress you.

- notes from flight 437

Vee vee

2011-09-13T04:01:00.005-05:00

To the left is the view from the backseat of the car as we took a small ferry from what was previously West Germany to what was previously East Germany. Our hosts shared stories about what the border was like during the Cold War, and we were able to see the old lookout posts. I guess German citizens who lived in the vicinity of the border used to have to carry special identification. Now you can get across freely, and all you need is seven euros and the collapse of the Iron Curtain.
We took an incredibly pleasant tour of the German countryside out to Appleslounge, where a friend of ours makes his own line of cider and specialty wine. I got to try wine that was really like nothing I had ever tasted before, and we ate outstanding food and got to see how the whole process of making wine and cider works. It was really cool to learn about making wine and running a business from someone who is so passionate and knowledgeable about it. I've experienced some of the most amazing hospitality while in Europe.
It's hard to even explain how peaceful the countryside is. Tiny, two hundred year old farming villages with thatched roofs amidst incredibly green fields and slowly moving streams with swans in them; chickens, geese, cows, and goats grazing or nesting calmly; giant, power generating windmills; and plums and apples you can pick and eat right off the tree. There's something really comforting about walking past a tree and having each of us stop to eat something from it. This may sound utterly trite, but it's nice to be reminded of the fact that this planet has sustained life for millions of years without packaging, deep frying, artificial sweeteners, or mayonnaise.
I'm not really sure what the plan is today, but I know the next thing I do will be obliterating the emotional little point I just tried to make in the previous paragraph by buying food from a cafe around the corner. To be fair, though, it is going to be plant-based! Vegetable sandwiches on fresh bagels just sound a bit too delicious right now.

Bagels, data roaming, square toilets, and handsome dogs

2011-09-12T04:09:00.007-05:00

Greetings from Hamburg! Saturday night was the opening reception of Das Pferd aus Illinois in Feinkunst Kruger gallery. The reception went really well. Jay and I spoke broken French with each other, paintings and drawings were sold, and I popped the cork off a bottle of champagne for the first time ever.
Many pieces from the show have been sold, but there are still some available. If interested in seeing a full PDF with all the work in the show (and more) along with a complete price list, feel free to contact the gallery here, or email Ralf: info(at)feinkunst-krueger.de You can also contact me for the PDF, and I will send it to you, but all purchase inquiries are to be done through the gallery.
Yesterday, we went to the Horst Janssen museum in Oldenberg, which was pretty awesome. Jay and I drink chocolate milk and German fruit juice, respectively. I had a remarkable cheeseless pizza from an Italian restaurant, and Ralf showed us the new location for his gallery.
I am eating bananas right now, and I'm about to head over to the gallery to meet up with these hooligans so we can head out to the country and have apple cider.
Next stop is Munich for a joint poster show with Senor Burns, followed by Flatstock Europe 6 in Hamburg, Colored Gigs 3 in Dresden, and 14 Years Orange Factory in Leuven, Belgium. Stay tuned!

UPDATED: All work from "Das Pferd aus Illinois" can be viewed here. This includes a few extra originals that were not part of the show, as well.

You can't really make out to Silver Mount Zion

2011-09-07T00:55:00.004-05:00

Please excuse the utter lack of updates on my little sliver of the blogoscape. I'm leaving for Germany this Thursday, and I've had a rather offensive amount of loose ends to tie up before I head to the airport. One of these loose ends included printing and signing an edition of 1,075 tour posters for James Blake's upcoming US and Canada tour. To the left is the big stack of all 1,075 prints (as well as some AP's) that I spent a good chunk of my afternoon and evening signing and numbering. I was kept company in part by an excellent documentary called The Voice of Free Labor, which is about the Freie Arbeiter Stimme, a Yiddish anarchist publication. The movie focused on the Jewish labor movement (specifically anarchist sects therein) in the United States in the early part of the 20th century. Fascinating stuff.

I've been informed that all my new paintings and drawings have safely made it to the gallery in Hamburg, despite a brief delay in customs. Das Pferd aus Illinois will open this Saturday, September 10th at Feinkunst Kruger in Hamburg, Germany. As I've mentioned, this show will feature new (non screen printed) work from Jay Ryan and myself, and both of us will be at the reception.

I've got some packing to do, as well as a bit of shipping, email writing, invoice sending, and goodbye saying. Still a lot to take care of before I get on that plane.
Stay tuned for updates from overseas.

Gigposters: Volume 2

2011-08-18T18:25:00.004-05:00

My pal Clay Hayes of Gigposters.com is proud to announce the release of Gig Posters: Volume 2. The highly anticipated followup to the first Gig Posters book is available for pre-order now at GP and amazon.com. This anthology is 208 pages and will feature 700 posters by several poster artists/designers. Also included are 101 perforated ready-to-hang full page posters.
Gig Posters: Volume 2 features biographies, rock posters, and stories/commentary from several of today's current poster artists. I'm very excited to be a part of this book.
Pre-ordered copies of the book will received limited edition art prints by the very excellent Landland (while prints last, of course!).

If you feel so inclined, I've made the last of the Lollapalooza after show posters available on my site. Included in this batch are Fitz and the Tantrums, Smith Westerns, and The Vaccines.
I've got plenty to work on before I leave for Germany (in less than a month), but I'm going to find some time to post a new mystery tube sale in the not-so-distant future. Stay tuned!

The sky above me

2011-08-14T07:56:00.006-05:00

The last time I saw you, I was a bit of a wreck; I was actively resisting changes in my life when I should have been acclimating. It looked to me like you were taking on the world with grace and vigor. I envied you that.
You went back across the sea. I started working as an artist and moved to Montreal. Taking on the world with grace and vigor, just like you.
The earth kept turning when you left us. Maybe that's what makes something this permanent so difficult to fully comprehend. For whatever it's worth (and whatever it means), I hope you have found peace.
We all could go at any time, but most of us never think about it. Perhaps it's an adaptation to civilization that we put mortality out of our minds, making it a sobering thought when we finally are confronted with it. I just know I'm happy I knew you while you were here. Your kind nature, uniqueness, and zeal touched more people than I think you realized. I'm still inspired by your grace and vigor.

Das Pferd!

2011-08-12T19:19:00.002-05:00

I have spent the last three weeks finishing (and starting) brand new paintings and ink drawings for Das Pferd aus Illinois, which opens in Hamburg on September 10th. Above is one of the new pieces, which is an ink drawing/painting on paper. I've been doing a lot of work with thin, layered ink washes (with a bit of pencil work here and there). I also am putting the finishing touches on some new acrylic paintings. I laid all the work for this show out on the floor today, and it's kind of hard to believe I actually made as many pieces as I planned to make. Such seems to be the nature of working on several paintings at once; once things finally start coming together, it seems like everything falls into place at once. I've got maybe another hour or so of painting left on this whole body of work. Then I'll be packing them up and shipping them off to Germany.
I hope I still remember how to screen print.

Ink, airline tickets, mangos, and predawn cat feedings

2011-08-09T09:19:00.009-05:00

Oh, hi! Here in Chicago, Schubas and Lincoln Hall recently hosted six Lollapalooza after shows. The fine folks at the venues asked me to make posters for each of these events. I just put the three posters for the Lincoln Hall shows up for sale on my website.

In other news, I have been taking a small break from screenprinting and working hard on lots of new paintings and drawings for an upcoming show at Feinkunst Krueger with Jay Ryan. More info on that show can be found here. It opens September 10th in Hamburg, Germany.

Following Flatstock Europe 6, I will be heading to the country of Belgium for the first time to participate in 14 Years Orange Factory, which will showcase independent music, as well as rock posters by John Howard, Gary Houston, Malleus, and myself. I'm happy to report that this year's trip to Europe will feature my first ever direct transatlantic flight. I've always had at least one small layover (which I'm not complaining about; I got to briefly see Zurich last year), so having a flight straight back to Chicago will be nice.

I'm looking forward to getting back to Hamburg and eating at my favorite German vegetarian restaurant, Hin und Veg. I also can't wait to see what kind of rad vegan food I can find in Munich, Dusseldorf, and Leuven. Other than speculative future dining plans, I do have some new prints in the works. Expect new posters and art prints within the next month. That is, if expecting new posters and art prints is your thing.

Ice, potatoes, pencils, and air conditioning

2011-08-03T00:46:00.004-05:00

I set up shop in a new location this afternoon. Here's a camera phone picture of my temporary drawing setup in my girlfriend's living room. I spent a good chunk of the day at her apartment, helping her out with a sprained ankle. With plenty of work left to complete for the Hamburg show, I worked on some preliminary drawings for new pieces while she rested and applied ice to her injury.
I found a snapshot of a house under construction that I took months ago when I was at my parents' house. I'd more or less forgotten about the photograph, but it ended up making for a pretty cool sketch (we thought so, at least). The pencil drawing at the bottom left in the frame will be used as a guide for the final piece. I lay a sheet of rag paper down on the pencil drawing on my light table and do a series of layered ink washes. Because I have to let the sheet dry in between washes, I try to make sure I'm working on a few of these at once. Towards the end, I start to go in with a fine pencil and do small accents or light line work. Occasionally, I will add diluted white acrylic for highlights.
I'm also working on a bunch of new acrylic on panel paintings, which are fun to do again. I hadn't done any acrylic paintings since the fall, and it feels good to continue exploring the medium. I still feel very new to painting, but I enjoy the way screen printing has informed my approach to it. I feel more comfortable with paint now than I ever did in undergrad, but I still feel like I have a lot to learn. Still, I'm pretty excited about this new batch of work.

One last little note for subscribers: Subscription tubes with all prints for the first half of the year have been shipped out. True story.

Curry, wine, and laundry

2011-07-30T20:03:00.003-05:00

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."

2011-07-22T11:47:00.005-05:00

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

2011-07-13T01:01:00.003-05:00

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

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

2011-07-11T09:23:00.005-05:00

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...

2011-07-07T16:38:00.006-05:00

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.

If you should see one of these in Cafe Nervosa...

2011-06-30T10:14:00.005-05:00

I was recently contacted by the Seattle Stranger regarding the use of a recent print I did for the cover of the June 29th-July 5th issue. Check it. Thanks to Logan for snapping this high quality photo of the print. You can see the cover on the Stranger's website here.

I've been calling her "Krandal!"

2011-06-27T13:04:00.004-05:00

Oh, hi! I'm slicing up a cucumber with a box cutter and dipping it into hummus. Real classy, eh? Above is a freshly printed stack of Ween posters that I signed and shipped out this morning. They've begun their journey to Bend, Oregon for Ween's show at Les Schwab Amphitheater. Fun fact: for the past twenty-something years, I've been pronouncing the word, "amphitheater" with an L instead of that first H ("amplitheater"). I only recently learned the correct spelling and pronunciation of that word. It's kind of embarrassing, actually. Good thing I just posted it on the internet.

Expect Rain, Have Gin.

2011-06-11T13:09:00.006-05:00

Here's something I'm working on right now (amidst about a dozen other somethings I'm working on). I kind of want to do a painted version of this, too. True story.

"Camp Firewood" Opens Tonight at Gallery 1988 Venice

2011-06-10T08:59:00.005-05:00

Camp Firewood, Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of Wet Hot American Summer opens tonight at Gallery 1988 Venice. Above is my contribution to the show: a five color screen print referencing the scene where the character Victor crashes a van into a tree while singing Kenny Loggins.
I believe the work from this show will be available shortly on Gallery 1988's website. I will have the print for sale in the coming weeks, as well. I'll be here in rainy Chicago, but if you're in the area, the reception's tonight at Gallery 1988's Venice branch.
Opening Reception Friday, June 10th, 7-10PM Hosted by director / co-writer David Wain
Lots of new stuff on the way. It might seem kind of quiet right now, but I've been putting in all kinds of hours on new drawings for gig posters and new paintings for a show in September. More on that very soon!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

2011-06-04T01:10:00.003-05:00

It's 1:13 AM in Chicago, and I've been drawing for about fourteen hours. I am just about to leave the studio and ride my bike back to my apartment. I hope it didn't rain. Above is my messy light table with some ink studies and part of a drawing I'm working on for a gigposter.

Plaid to the Bone

2011-05-24T21:10:00.003-05:00

Here's something I've been wanting to try for about two years. For some reason, I either kept forgetting to try it or would put it off. I finally gave screen printing a plaid pattern a try on a new tour poster for Iron and Wine. I finished printing these the day before I left for a week vacation (that and packed/shipped two dozen mailing tubes).
Above you can see the film for the second color in progress. I spent quite a bit of time with a T-square, triangle, an X-Acto, and sheets of rubylith. Of course, I was finding bits of peeled rubylith stuck to my forearms all week, too.

Wagon Wheel

2011-05-20T21:58:00.007-05:00

On the coast of North Carolina, less than half a mile from the house we stayed in is a huge pier. You can see people fishing from the pier every day, and the local brown pelicans (like this handsome fellow) sometimes hang out to eat bait fish or wait to be fed the tiny fish that some people catch. Other wildlife cameos this week included appearances by laughing gulls, boat-tailed grackles, sanderlings, a stingray, and some dolphins.
It's been a rather relaxing week here on the coast. We swam in the ocean and got tossed around by big waves. We talked, played guitars, and laughed a whole lot. I did some concept sketches for paintings. We watched our good friend get married on the beach right behind the house we rented for the week.
The last time I was on the coast in North Carolina was when I was nineteen and on tour with my old band. Many of the people I spent this week with were connected to that band or that tour in some way. I remember staying with friends in Wilmington one night on that trip and wondering what it might be like to relocate to this area someday. My mind has begun wandering in similar directions the past couple of days, but I know that Chicago is still and will always be home to me.

Speaking of Chicago, if you're in the area, you should know that my friends in Sonnenzimmer have an exhibition of collaborative paintings with comic artist, Anders Nilsen. Being in North Carolina at the moment, I am missing the opening reception like a total wiener. Check it out, though. I'm definitely getting up there one day this week to have a look at the awesomeness.

Salt water, habanero peppers, pelicans, and out of tune guitars

2011-05-18T00:26:00.005-05:00

Greetings from North Carolina! I've been on vacation since Saturday and have been spending the week on the coast here in Wilmington, NC with about a dozen good friends. The house we're staying in has internet access, so I've been able to answer emails and tend to a few other work-related things. If you placed an order for a print (or prints) last week, it was shipped before I left.

In other news, my friends at Chicago Printmakers Collaborative are having their fourth annual $20 Cash 'N Carry Print and Poster Sale, which will feature tons of great prints from local printmakers, all for twenty dollars or less. No joke. It's opening this Saturday, May 21st (12-7PM) at CPC. More info here.

Also, Mike King and I will be the two featured artists at Peoples Art of Portland's Spring Show. The show opens May 21st at Peoples Art of Portland (Pioneer Place Mall, 700 SW 5th Ave 3rd Floor, Suite 4005) in Portland, OR. I will have a whole mess of art prints and posters on display, along with some original ink drawings.

I've got tons more stuff in store for the rest of the year, so I've got to hit the ground running the second I get back to Chicago. I'll be keeping you fine folks posted (nearly) every step of the way right here, so I hope you'll stay tuned.

Exactly as advertised

2011-05-08T10:15:00.002-05:00

When you're a small child, anything outside the scope of your tiny world can be pretty scary. In time, life becomes full of reasons to be paralyzed with fear, especially for an eleven-year-old who is afraid to go to school because of his anxiety disorder. Or a fourteen-year-old who has just broken his ankle skateboarding. Or a high school student without an idea what to do with the rest of his life. Or a nineteen-year-old whose father is having brain surgery. Or a young adult who realizes that the world is run by psychotic businessmen and murderers.
No matter how scary the world got, it's been easier with a mother to talk to. I'm grateful to have had my mom there for all the uncertainty and weirdness. Happy Mother's Day, moms.

And another thing!

2011-05-08T00:05:00.005-05:00

Poster Cabaret's Bicycle Print Show opened on May 5th in Austin, TX. To the left is my contribution, a five color screen print entitled, "Riding Into the Wind Without Looking Back." Pictures from the show have been posted here. There are many outstanding artists in this show, and I'm really happy to be participating. You can check out the prints in the show (and buy them) at Poster Cabaret.

I've been experimenting lately with multiple keyline films, which often means drawing certain components of a composition on separate sheets of paper. The aim is usually to achieve a sense of depth that would sometimes be missing when I printed one homogeneous line drawing on top of layered colors. For that reason, I used four keyline films in my print for Gallery 1988's Required Reading show. This print to the left has two; a dark gray for the houses and fence, while the cyclist and tall grass are printed in black. The shadow under the cyclist was also printed on the same screen as the lighter keyline. The idea was to create atmospheric perspective by varying the darkness of the ink with which each layer is printed. I think this is a bit more apparent in a closeup photo, which you can see by clicking here.

Anyhow, go have a look at the prints currently up in Poster Cabaret's Bicycle Print Show.
Lots more stuff on the way! I'll be posting some new posters, sketches, and process photos this week, too, so I hope you'll check back soon.

Dance of days

2011-05-07T20:55:00.004-05:00

Hi, all. I've had quite a bit going on lately, including shipping a bunch of posters, art prints, and original ink drawings out to Portland for this upcoming show:

http://poboyart.com/

Just a quick update/announcement for now. Also, for those of you attending Pitchfork Music Festival this year, make sure you stop by Flatstock 3o and say hi to me and my friends.
Check back soon, as I do have a bunch of process photos from some recent work that I have been meaning to post, as well as some other fun stuff. True story.

Who wants to start a mathrock band?

2011-04-24T10:56:00.012-05:00

Oh, look! Elephants! I drew and printed these guys for Block Party 2011, a multi-band event put on by Community Records. These friendly elephants are marching at the intersection of Carondelet and Clio Street in New Orleans. By coincidence, my initial sketch bore a close resemblance to the intersection at which this fest is being held. This was pointed out by the record label, and they supplied me with some snapshots of the intersection so I could draw it more precisely.
One of the headlining bands for Block Party 2011 was RX Bandits, who I've read are on their final tour. I saw RX Bandits in 1999 when they were still a ska band (yep). They took a lot stylistic twists and turns over the years and ended up being a totally different (but awesome) sounding band. It's pretty cool to do a poster for a band I listened to when I was kid. This poster is going to be available on my site shortly.
One last thing: If you're in Chicago, you should get over to Rotofugi sometime soon and check out Jay Ryan's new paintings. I rode my bike in some underestimated rain on Friday to attend the opening (even though I could have driven). Anyway, Jay's new work is awesome, so check out it.

Oh, hi Mark!

2011-04-19T20:10:00.009-05:00

It's raining in Chicago right now. I've finished work for the day and am contemplating what to eat for dinner. I spent a good chunk of the day working on some new paintings. It feels good to paint again. I'm pretty excited about these, too.
I was recently asked to participate in something for the 2011 Version Festival through my friends at Fillintheblank Gallery. The idea was to make a quick visual map of one's personal "art landscape." I had only a rough idea what I was going to do for this, so it mostly came together when I sat down and penciled this out. This was actually going to be a lot more cartoonish, but I ended up deciding against that. I had a lot of fun with this. It's going to be interesting to see what other people came up with.

For no apparent reason other than to procrastinate on making dinner, here are a few songs that have been feeding my ears today:
Rose Melberg - Each New Day
Jawbox - Sound On Sound (originally by Big Boys)
Fugazi - Furniture
Smashing Pumpkins - Try, Try, Try (alternate take)
Tiger Trap - Sour Grass

Gallery 1988's Required Reading goes live. Local man has tea and uses internet.

2011-04-17T12:37:00.012-05:00

Greetings from the coffee shop down the street from my apartment! I've just been handed my Earl Grey tea, and it has some sort of metal lid and a timer on top of it. I'm not familiar with this custom, but I sort of enjoy it. I speculate the timer is to indicate when the tea has steeped. I also like that they have soy milk next to the sugar and dairy milk. Not that I would add soy milk to a black tea (Can you do that? Would that be appropriate?).
Anyhow, I'm here writing this blog post because I've been without internet at my apartment for a couple of days, and it has been a bit too long since I've updated here.
To the left is my print in Gallery 1988's Required Reading. For this show, each artist picked a classic book about which to do either a poster or art print. I did an art print for Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. I chose to illustrate a passage in the book in which the character Dwayne Hoover is standing on top of the Holiday Inn he owns, staring out at the city and thinking, "Where Am I?" as he thinks of the many ways he is connected to this place and wonders how his life ended up as it has. The fact that Dwayne's mental state is beginning to deteriorate at this point makes this passage interesting, as well.
I think asking "Where am I?" of oneself in this context (minus the impending madness) is a pretty universal experience; to think of past events and experiences that lead you to the moment you have a bizarre but obvious re-realization that this is my life. Reflection of the self and one's surroundings sometimes occurs so infrequently in daily life that when it finally happens, it feels like it's been a few years and you're left wondering exactly when it was you moved into the apartment you're currently occupying (or the Holiday Inn on which you're currently standing).
Required Reading was curated by Mitch Putnam of OMGPosters! and poster artist, Rob Jones. There is a ton of excellent work in the show, which you can check out and/or purchase here. My print, pictured above/left is currently available here. Below are some detail shots.

This was probably the most involved print I've done so far, with the drawing alone taking somewhere in the 16-20 hour area. I completed the full composition in pencil, and I inked the drawing in four separate sections, so I could have four separate key line films (this was how I printed different parts of the city in different colors). The print ended up being nine screens, the final being a transparent layer of white for the glow around the Mildred Barry Memorial Center for the Arts (a stilted, spherical structure described in the book that I couldn't resist drawing).

In other news, Poster Cabaret's annual Bicycle Print Show opens May 5th in Austin, Texas. I just finished my print for the show last week and subsequently shipped it off to the gallery. Other upcoming poster fun will include work for Ween, James Blake, and a tour poster for Iron & Wine. Plus a whole slough of paintings later this year, but more on that later.

Quality of Armor

2011-03-29T08:54:00.003-05:00

Just a quick heads up before I finally eat some breakfast and start drawing elephants, bicycles, and various buildings: The Spring Mystery Tube is now on sale. There was a mistake in the store that has been rectified. If you tried to get one earlier and were unable to, it works now. These are going quickly.

Also available on my site is what's left of my Rural Alberta Advantage posters. The venue has informed me that these sold out at the show, so the last of these prints are up on my site now.

More to come!

Honey Badger Don't Care

2011-03-22T21:36:00.005-05:00

Just a quick update here. The blog has taken a serious back seat as I attempt to move without interrupting things too much on the art and freelance front. I've been living in Joliet, a city about thirty miles from Chicago, renting a portion of my friend's house. I've also been working here, having converted most of the basement into a home studio. I pulled the last screen here yesterday (the ninth and final color on a new art print for an upcoming group show at Gallery 1988). Today was spent taking things down, packing up prints, and preparing to move to Chicago. To the left is my homemade washout booth (thoroughly stained with lots of reclaimed QTX) as I began to disassemble it.

Going through stacks and stacks of printed paper, I've come across a whole slough of misprints, test prints, and forgotten line variants, along with original drawings and sketches while cleaning out my office area. This means a spring mystery tube is most certainly coming in the next few days. Check back soon for on sale information; these are going to be some really good mystery tubes. For reals.

I'm really excited to finally be living in Chicago proper. I've got a ton of stuff to get right to work on, as well as an essay I've been meaning to write and post on here, so you can expect to see more frequent updates very soon. I'm also looking forward to the (eventually) impending nice weather the resultant bicycle use.

Can I Ride

2011-03-08T22:37:00.003-06:00

Hi! Sorry for not being terribly bloggish as of late. I've been incredibly busy with a whole mess of other fun things, however. I put in between nine and ten hours of just drawing today. Below is my cramping hand as I rest it and apply ice. I'm not sure if ice actually helps this, but it certainly feels good. More to come!

Postcard process photos

2011-03-01T20:43:00.007-06:00

I was recently commissioned to design and print a small run of postcards for a German company. After getting the artwork approved, I inked two color separations on additional sheets of paper and headed off to the copy shop. I reduced each drawn layer to 50% of the original size and xeroxed them onto film. I decided to only print two to a sheet, as I knew the films would need some minor touching up and because the run size was small enough that I didn't need to print six or eight cards at a time. Below is the first color on the drying rack.
Then I put the film for the second two colors down on the first color to make sure everything would register and make any necessary touch ups.
The second color was a transparent peach sort of color. I used this only for the two figures.
And below, we have the finished product. After printing the keyline, I headed over to a local printing company to have them cut down to size. Tomorrow, I pack these up and send them out to Germany.

Today!

2011-02-16T09:16:00.006-06:00

Breakfast: a shake made of spinach, a banana, an apple, half a mango, grapes, blueberries, hemp seeds, and ice of course. Delicious.
Weapons of choice today:

Rubylith, cameras, drafting pencils, Germany, and an old bass guitar

2011-02-15T19:50:00.006-06:00

Hello! I spent a small chunk of this afternoon out in the cold taking reference photos for a poster I am working on. I enjoy setting out on small photo adventures, and I often end up collecting images that aren't necessarily related to the primary composition for which I'm taking pictures. I rarely ever get rid of reference photos like the one the sketch at the left is based on (I took a bunch of liberties with drawing that building, though). Something I used to always emphasize to students when I student taught high school art was to draw what you see, not what you think you see. I would sometime catch myself breaking my own rules, but I've found that having several visual reference sources are immeasurably helpful. When drawing, I often combine various elements from the different visual sources and/or add invented elements.
Okay! Other than some new illustration/poster/art print things, I will be participating in some group print shows (more info soon). There is some other really rad stuff in the works, too. Quite a bit to do!

Lastly, some remaining work from the Comb The Field show at Philadelphia Mausoleum of Contemporary Art is available for sale through their website. And! In Print opens this Saturday, February 19th at People's Art of Portland .

Playtime For Democracy

2011-02-11T14:01:00.003-06:00

I've been watching/listening to streaming coverage in Cairo today. A three-decade-long dictatorship has come to an end under the pressure of eighteen days of peaceful protest. Such a powerful mass display of authentic democracy is a truly awesome thing to behold, even if just modestly doing so through live streaming coverage on my small laptop screen. The battle is far from over for democracy in Egypt, but it's most certainly an exciting time.
A couple of quick sketches come to you via the print screen function and Al-Jazeera news this afternoon.

But Two More Will Take Its Place

2011-01-31T14:34:00.003-06:00

But Two More Will Take Its Place
5 screens on Wausau cover
18x24", edition of 50, signed.

I just finished printing these yesterday afternoon. Some of my fondest memories from childhood involve me building ramps in the garage and driveway at my parents' house. From the fall of 1996 through high school, countless homemade boxes, rails, and small ramps were built from whatever materials I would find in the shed or around town in dumpsters at construction sites. I remember dragging huge sheets of plywood across town with my friend Mike to build a quarterpipe in front of the house. When I got tired of one, it would be disassembled and remade into something new. I've never actually owned or built a backyard miniramp, though. I've been thinking about the experience of the backyard ramp lately and have wanted to do a print of one since my roommate and I went to skate a friend's ramp in Indiana just before it got all snowy and freezing here in the Midwest.
These will be for sale on my site tomorrow. I documented my process and posted a new thread over at gigposters.com. Check it out here.

Speaking Franckly

2011-01-27T10:30:00.002-06:00

Today's drawing comes from a photograph that was taken of my friend Franck in a recording studio just outside of Montreal. I'm assuming there's a cord on the right half of those headphones.
Well, I think the screens I coated this morning are just about dry. Time to get printing!

Maybe I shouldn't be butting in here, but you can catch the most with dead squirrels.

2011-01-26T10:46:00.003-06:00

Today's warm up drawing is brought to you by a picture I took in Vermont in the late spring of 2009. I had just temporarily moved to Montreal and upon discovering how expensive postage in Canada is, was on a mission into upstate New York to ship out a big batch of mailing tubes. I noticed that the Vermont border was only two miles away, so I stopped over and checked out Lake Champlain before driving back to my apartment in Montreal. This picture was taken from the bank of Lake Champlain. There's my trusty Toyota parked on the shoulder of a rural two-lane road.
Making the trip back into the US to ship posters was actually kind of fun the first time, but it got tedious rather quickly. I recall my old roommate walking into the kitchen one morning and saying, "I'm just waking up, and you've already been in two countries?!"
After this photo was taken, I turned around and headed back for the border. The home stretch through rural Quebec was always pretty relaxing.

Spaghetti for four

2011-01-21T15:00:00.006-06:00

There was a morning warm up drawing today, but it wasn't really that cool, and I had to get started on finishing a bunch of other things. I am quite enjoying doing those, however. Stay tuned for some more!

Better than that, however, is that Comb The Field opens tonight at 6:30 PM, 531 North 12th Street in Philadelphia.

Quick pencil drawing #2!

2011-01-20T10:46:00.002-06:00

Today's warm up drawing was from a picture I took during Boy Division's show on a boat in Hamburg, the rainy and cold afternoon after 2010's Euro Flatstock.

Unlimited Symmetry

2011-01-19T23:05:00.003-06:00

To the left is a quick little warm up drawing I did today while I was waiting for some freshly coated screens to dry. It is based on a picture I took in Hamburg at Flatstock this most recent fall. That's my pal Jeremy from Pop Fuel with a post-it note on his glasses that had read, "TOTAL RUBBISH!" I'm not sure what it was doing there, but I walked over to his booth in time to snap the photo on which this little sketch is based.
I've taken to starting days out with little practice drawings, giving special attention to contour lines and the darkest areas. Lately, I've felt a little overwhelmed when approaching certain compositions with ink, and I think going back to basics is helping me regain some of my comfort. I've just kind of been going through various photos on my camera's memory card and doing a quick drawing or two. Stay tuned for tomorrow's drawing, which should feature the singer from Boy Division during their post-Flatstock set on the boat.

Is anybody else as stoked as I am to hear that the Archers of Loaf played a reunion show this past weekend? Bummed I missed it (and that I was unaware of it and about 800 miles away), but rather excited at the (currently speculative) prospect of additional reunion shows.

justinsantora.com is not down!

2011-01-19T16:13:00.004-06:00

Hi! Just a quick little message before a more content-rich post that I am planning today:
justinsantora.com is not down. It is not currently showing up in search engines--rather, a temporary server is displaying in Google search results--but the entire website (store included) is up and 100% functional at justinsantora.com. The temporary server is now redirecting to the proper site, and everything's cool.

That is all. Free Palestine.

The 100th Blog Post Party Time Extravaganza!

2011-01-12T12:25:00.005-06:00

As was mentioned in that ridiculous post title, this is the one hundredth post on this blog. On a blog that's over two and a half years old, that probably means I should be posting more often. Perhaps I could cut back on the wistful rants about adolescence while I'm at it! Ha, but in all seriousness, I do plan on posting on this little page a lot more this year. I want to document my process and just the general workings of things a little more closely. I think that would be fun.
Above is a new ink/acrylic/graphite drawing that will be in Comb The Field, an upcoming joint exhibition between me, Mark Brabant, Punchgut, and Crystal Benoit. In addition to some older and current work, I will be showing five previously unreleased prints, as well as four new drawings. A poster promoting the show will also be available.

Package Thief

2010-12-31T15:20:00.006-06:00

To the left, is a new(ish) art print that will be available (along with two color variants) at an upcoming joint exhibition with Mark Brabant, Punchgut, and Crystal Benoit called Comb The Field. This print will also serve as the artwork for the Chicago band, Save the Clocktower's upcoming album.
You'll also notice my poor, dormant bicycle, which I put a good number of miles on this year. I'm very much looking forward to riding again, as soon as weather permits (ha, like it would any time soon).

I just signed my last stack of posters for 2010, a poster for the Comb The Field exhibition. I've printed close to 50 different items this year between art prints, gig posters, and one run of CD jackets. I met tons of amazing, friendly, talented, and generally rad people. I also discovered curry ketchup, sweet potato and kale burritos, fostered a couple of dogs, and ground the trucks on my skateboard into the axle.

It's been a blast, and I'd say I'm looking forward to 2011. Oh, how convenient! Here it comes.

You're not punk, and I'm telling everyone.

2010-12-25T10:05:00.012-06:00

Ten years ago, when I was sixteen, my brother gave me a CD for Christmas. It was Jawbreaker's 24 Hour Revenge Therapy, a purchase inspired no doubt by my incessant (but un-acted upon) declaration that I had to get more music by the band.
I first heard the opening track from Unfun--a well-known little number called "Want"--in '97 or '98 in a skate video we had. I didn't know anything about this band, much less that they had broken up at least a year before I'd ever hear them. But I specifically remember thinking something along the lines of, "I didn't know songs could be this good!"
I spent the next couple years getting more deeply acquainted with the world of punk rock, and while I would regularly watch that skate video (sometimes just to show that song to people or to hear it again myself), I wasn't able to find a copy of Unfun.
Anyway, in 2000, my brother surprised me with a copy of this album for Christmas, and I listened to it almost right away. Chris Bauermeister's thick, percussive bass playing in "The Boat Dreams From the Hill" had me hooked instantly. Blake Schwarzenbach's lyrics are punctuated by an honest introspection that lacked the crassness of those of some of the other bands I was listening to at the time. The music was punk rock (although Jawbreaker was never afraid to play slow), but the words were legitimate poetry. And I was just old enough to kind of understand it.
I enjoyed the critical perspectives taken in the songs, "Boxcar" and "Indictment." I could relate--especially as an adolescent who dealt with anxiety and mild depression--to some of the sentiments of despondence that adorn various parts of the record. I marveled at the provocative mood (not to mention the stunning instrumental conclusion) of "Condition Oakland." But at sixteen years old, I could never truly grasp the song's expression of distance and frustration.
When we were kids (even kids who were about five years late to the party), Jawbreaker just rocked, and they were different. That's why I liked them. I've held 24 Hour Revenge Therapy in my top five favorite albums of all time for the past decade, but as I've gotten older, I find myself appreciating the record for entirely new reasons.
I'm now the age that the guys in Jawbreaker were when they wrote many of the songs on this album. I was discussing this with a few friends recently. We all could say we loved this album since high school, but it wasn't until I got into my mid/late twenties that I really get an idea what a lot of these songs are saying.
On top of that, I've come to really appreciate the production quality of this album. The roughness is an important part of its honesty. It's an actual sonic documentation of moments in time, rather than a bunch of disingenuous studio magic like autotune, sample-replaced drums, and other shameful practices of total poseurs.
There remains a whole mess of excellent music out there, by both active and defunct bands. I continue to discover music that excites and interests me. While I have a growing list of bands to investigate further, I look forward to another ten years with 24 Hour Revenge Therapy.
Thank you again, Garret, for my favorite album and one of the best gifts I've ever received.

Blowing off the street like a leaf

2010-12-23T10:28:00.003-06:00

I'm sitting at the kitchen table, hanging out with my roommate's dogs while I make this post. Sorry for the sporadic updates here. I've been really busy getting a bunch of illustrations finished (including the one to the left, which will be one of two pieces from me for Save The Clocktower's upcoming album), as well as trying to get my new site finally up and running.

Speaking of the new website, it is now up (same URL and everything) as of this morning. It looks pretty much just like the old site, but some adjustments have been made, which should make the whole thing easier to navigate. And what's this? Why, it's a brand new webstore! Check out the new site: www.justinsantora.com

Lastly, there are still a small number of spots in the 2011 subscription, but it's filling up. Get in touch with me if you're interested in reserving a spot. Maybe you are interested but would like to know more about it. If only there was some sort of web-based conglomerate of text and images that neatly outline just what the 2011 print subscription would entail (along with slick navigation and a brand new webstore) that you could visit. Oh, wait. There is! Right here.

Soy nog should not be this hard to find.

2010-12-13T13:02:00.006-06:00

Lately, I've done a few art prints that have a much more "panoramic landscape" sort of composition. They can be quite fun. A portion of a relatively new print is depicted to the right. The original art for the two houses in this print were actually shrunk on a photocopier (rather than enlarged). A friend told me that this can make detailed drawing look tighter, and I was happy to try it out on this one. It's an especially nice technique to employ when drawing things like houses or other detailed structures that can be hard to render at a small scale (for me, at least).

In the wake of Art of Musical Maintenance 7, there are a few otherwise unavailable posters of mine now for sale at the Goodfoot website.
Click on an artist's name and see what's available! They've got the remaining copies of my Foals, Dinosaur Jr., Black Keys, and Flaming Tsunamis posters. And a couple of the those Appleseed Cast variants. Not bad, eh?
Also, stay tuned for a new and improved justinsantora.com! My pal Jaline is helping me out, and it should be up and running very soon. The new site will have a much more cohesive store along with some new (and old) items for sale, including prints from the recent Expeditions For Momentum show.

2011 Print Subscription is now open

2010-12-02T12:37:00.007-06:00

2011 Print Subscription
For the 2011 print subscription, subscribers will receive one of each print I produce for the entire year, which includes all art prints and gig posters. Subscribers will receive matching edition numbers, there will also be a small closed edition for subscribers only, and each subscriber will receive an original drawing and one of a kind test print.

Between art prints and gig posters, I have produced around 40 printed editions this year, with at least four new art prints on the way.
For 2011, I intend to produce a similar amount of work (an estimated 40-50 prints); and I hope to keep honing my skills, working with new bands, and constantly be dreaming up new ideas of art prints.

Pricing:
US & Canada, $450
International, $510
Please note that the difference in price is only to help cover the costs for overseas shipping. Payment can be made through Paypal or with a check/money order. Payment plans/flexibility is available, as well. Please contact me to reserve a spot or if you have any questions: justinsantora [at] gmail.com
http://www.justinsantora.com/subscription.html

Words and Smiles

2010-11-27T13:07:00.004-06:00

Greetings! I feel like I've kind of been missing in action, lately. I'm still here, doing quite a bit of drawing and printing, just not very much updating. I've also had a chance to dig into some piles of older work and put a whole slough of originals and test prints up in the gigposters.com classified section.

This Monday (November 29th), I will be putting a new mystery tube up for sale on my website. As always, I have lots of art prints and gigposters to include. I also found a bunch of imperfect/misprinted pieces from sold out editions, as well as five or six unreleased variants, all of which will be included in this batch of tubes. I will also be doing remarques or including original sketches with each order.

I will also be posting details for the 2011 print subscription this week. Check back here or on my site.

Lastly, I will have some work in a couple of shows coming up. I am participating in Art of Musical Maintenance 7 at the Goodfoot Gallery, which opens December 9th. Many of the posters in this show will be available on the gallery's website, including a few otherwise sold out posters of mine.
I will also be part of a joint show with Mark Brabant and Punchgut, which will open in Philadelphia in January. More information on that will be posted very soon!

Actually, John, We're Not Here to Plan a High Society Jewel Heist

2010-11-12T18:32:00.005-06:00

I was recently commissioned to produce an art print about Howard Hughes. Depicted here is the H-1 Racer in what I imagined would be the final stages of construction. The initial sketch was drawn while I was on an airplane, incidentally. The final drawing was completed at my light table with lots of reference photos of the Hughes H-1 Racer. On one of the films, I have a shadow cast by the plane. The original drawing and subsequent films were all drawn from a variety of reference images. I was unable to find any photographs of this plane in this particular position with a shadow being cast towards the viewer to the right like this. I had to envision what the shadow might look like, and I drew it in onto a blank film. I know I'm not dead on here, but I think the shadow adds quite a bit to the image.

Transcontinental
9 screens on Rolland cover
18x24", edition of 60

After signing these, I had to pack them up and drive to the post office where they began their journey to the United Kingdom.
Next up is a new art print and a gigposter amidst a bunch of illustration work.

Some left over Black Keys posters

2010-11-09T09:17:00.006-06:00

Hello, all!
Due to a slight mix up, there are a few copies of a poster I did for The Black Keys (9/27/10 at the Hollywood Palladium) available through the band on their website.
Regarding Expeditions For Momentum, the gallery currently does not take international orders. All remaining screen prints from the show will be available on my site in December for both domestic and international ordering. If any buyers from outside the US are interested in one of the remaining ink drawings or paintings (EDIT: All drawings and paintings have now sold), please contact me.

There are some new art prints in the works, as well as a new poster or two. I'm pretty excited about some of the ideas I've got kicking around.
I will also be working on getting a more cohesive "store" feature on my site by early next year. Any ideas and feedback regarding this matter would be awesome. If anyone has any recommendations for software or programs to create a coded webstore that can be integrated into a website, even better.
Lastly, in another week or so, I will announce details for the 2011 print subscription, which will be expanded to include a few more spots.

Okay, back to work!

Expeditions For Momentum goes live!

2010-11-07T13:07:00.004-06:00

The My Addiction Gallery webstore is now open, and the remaining work from Expeditions For Momentum is now available for purchase online.
Check it out.

Cut into the earth

2010-11-01T20:01:00.006-05:00

I was doing some long overdue cleaning of my workspace today, and I stumbled upon this interesting little composition in the tray on my light table. Small scraps of rubylith, paper, tape, and shavings of ink and acetate (from working subtractively on my films) sometimes accumulate in the tray. When I get really busy, the scraps can really begin to pile up.
Last week, I finished the last of the work for Expeditions For Momentum (the show opens this Friday at My Addiction Gallery), and spent an entire afternoon packing and shipping all the prints, drawings, and paintings. I immediately got to work printing a new poster for Lincoln Hall in Chicago. I subsequently ended up taking a full two-day weekend (my first in months).
Expeditions For Momentum opens Friday, November 6th at My Addiction Gallery in Tucson, AZ. For those in the Tucson area, there will be a reception from 6-10PM. All work in the show will be available for purchase through the My Addiction Gallery website on November 7th, at 12 PM EST.

Speaking of Arizona, remember SB 1070? Well, it turns out the controversial Arizona immigration law was heavily supported by, lobbied for, and drafted in conjunction with the private prison sector; proving that despite all the (disingenuous) rhetoric about "safe neighborhoods," the bill was about opportunism and profiteering at the expense of migrant families.
Check it: Prison Economics Help Drive Arizona Immigration Law

Oh, brother!

2010-10-20T21:08:00.002-05:00

I totally forgot about this video. Our friend James filmed my brother playing this song at a benefit for Haiti that was organized at The Inconvenience, a local artist/theater collective in Chicago.

Garret Santora

Crab, fight the worm!

2010-10-20T00:02:00.005-05:00

Do You Suppose Everyone Fucks the First One Up?
14.5x24", five screens on Wausau cover, 2010.

This is a new print that will be in the upcoming show at My Addiction Gallery in Tucson, AZ. The show opens November 6th, 2010. It will feature new and current paintings, drawings, and screen prints. The work will also be for sale online after the show opens. I'll be sure to make an announcement here and on my site when it goes live.

Ooh, do I love you

2010-10-16T18:04:00.008-05:00

To the left is part of a film I'm currently working on. It's an art print that will be in my upcoming show at My Addiction Gallery in Tucson, AZ. The show is called, Expeditions For Momentum and will feature other new and current prints, as well as new paintings and drawings.

Shifting gears of mammoth proportions, has anyone ever used that Wayback Machine website? It's an internet archive site that catalogs millions of pages from as far back as the mid 90's.
Today, I used it to search for defunct web pages of my friends' old bands, my first band (formed in 1999, yo), old web zines, etc. It has brought back a lot of memories. More specifically, the memory of the general feeling from certain periods of time. I suppose I'm using archived web pages from ten and eleven years ago in the same Pavlovian fashion in which one might listen to old songs from a previous time period. At the moment, I'm feeling rather nostalgic.

To be clear, I am not hung up on the past, and I'm not feeling old. The present happens to be pretty awesome, and twenty-six years is not old, dammit.
However, being twenty-six means that when I use a phrase like, "ten years ago," I am finally referencing a time in which I was kind of the person I am today. I have many of the same friends, interests, beliefs, and I still draw all the time. "Ten years," I've apparently decided, is some kind of temporal right of passage. Perhaps it just seems significantly longer than "eight years" or "nine years." Either way, it's a pretty long time.
It's rather amazing what a simple cue like seeing an archived web page can do for one's memory. I suppose it's the digital equivalent of looking at old photographs, show listings and setlists from bands I saw in high school. They're still in a box somewhere in my parents' attic. I remember shitty third-hand cars with stickers on the rear window, the sense of urgency when the Fireside Bowl announced upcoming shows, playing on playground forts as teenagers, and a brief stint of punk shows at a coffee house in my hometown.
I remember skateboarding in my friend's driveway and on the street in front of my house on homemade boxes and grind rails. I remember reading copies of Thrasher Magazine on the bus, happy to be out of school for the day. I remember piling into someone's car to drive to the Fireside Bowl and making it a total adventure without having to make any special effort or even really think about it. I remember me and my friends genuinely being exited about each others' bands and when cassette tapes were still a relevant format. I remember listening to a Texas is the Reason seven inch in my room with my first girlfriend. I remember when an impending summer was essentially winning the lottery.
I'm not bummed out about this. As I said, I'm pretty stoked on the present. It just kind of felt appropriate to try to articulate what I was feeling when I started to write this entry. By now, I'm starting to think about how I need to eat something before I head to the Hideout to see my friends in Aids Wolf play a show.

There's something wrong with my toast

2010-09-30T05:58:00.008-05:00

Colored Gigs Volume 2 opened last night in Dresden. The turnout was great, and the show went really well overall. I ate lots of great vegan food from a nearby restaurant, learned some new German words and phrases, and I found that my inability to be photographed (without looking ridiculous) seems to know no borders. Tonight is night two of the show, and with all the work already hung, we're left with lots of free time until this evening. The sun is finally out, and I'm looking forward to getting outside and seeing some more of the city today.
On Tuesday, my host, Lena, took us to see Dresden's contemporary art museum, the Semper Opera House, the Frauenkirche, and other various beautiful sights in the city.

I have been getting some emails about two recent posters I did for The Black Keys. If anyone is curious and happens to be reading this, they will be for sale on my site in the next few days, hopefully before I fly back to Chicago on Sunday (but definitely by Monday).

"...he sang the song that ended the earth."

2010-09-27T07:09:00.005-05:00

Hello from Dresden! I am staying in an apartment here as we prepare for Colored Gigs 2, a rock poster show that will take place this week. We (Guy, Gina, and I) rode here with the Douze crew last night after the traditional post-Flatstock Europe boat ride. Much fun was had on the boat despite the rain and cold. Boy Division regaled us with some of the most punk rock covers of an expansive and eclectic selection of music (complete with a stack of broken cymbals, matching sailor suits, megaphone vocals, and the occasional keytar lead). They must be the only band in the history of music to do a medley of "The Final Countdown" and the Cure's "Killing an Arab."
Flatstock Europe 5 was an excellent experience, as was the show at Feinkunst-Kruger Gallery. I made some new friends, and I saw many of the awesome people I met last year, particularly Luke and Graham, who kept me laughing for a good portion of Flatstock. I brought my skateboard this year, so I got to skate Flora, an entirely DIY concrete park built behind an abandoned theater. It was certainly one of the most challenging parks I've ever ridden, but it's not impossible. I've been told the locals can rip the place apart, but I never got to see them. In any case, it's one of the most ambitious and impressive DIY undertakings I currently know of. I also met a nice gentleman from the north of Germany, who took me to another bowl, "The Granny Pool." It is a traditional swimming pool style bowl constructed directly behind an old folks home (hence the name).

Okay, more updates are on the way (since I now have regular internet access), so stay tuned. Lots of excitement!

It's a long way back to Germany

2010-09-21T09:38:00.003-05:00

Leaving town for any length of time is always a kind of strange feeling. Not at first, I suppose, but I can remember being a kid and taking in all the familiar sights of our town as we got closer and closer to the house upon returning from a family vacation. I recall always being struck with a bizarre (albeit profoundly obvious) realization that everything back home had gone on completely unabated in my absence.

I'm at my friends' apartment in Chicago. This is the last time I will be in this building (as far as I know, at least). For the past three years, some good friends of mine have lived in the second and third floors of a building on the north side of Chicago, and they're moving out in a week. I'm leaving for Germany this afternoon. By the time I get back, a going away party will have come and gone, bags and boxes and backseats will be packed up and emptied elsewhere, and this apartment will be occupied by a bunch of strangers.

Thought I'd get away. You don't ask, so I don't say.

2010-09-19T18:25:00.004-05:00

My good friend and roommate, Joel has a new photography blog up now. Five and six years ago, Joel and I used to take skate photos all the time in Chicago and the surrounding areas. He and I went skateboarding today and got a few new photographs. Above is me doing a backside tailslide this afternoon. This photograph (and the moment documented therein) was brought to you entirely independently of any marketing firms, soccer moms, or rapacious sporting goods companies.

Check out Dogs Not Taxis.

Notes from gate N2

2010-09-07T18:57:00.004-05:00

I am at Sea-Tac Airport waiting for my flight to Chicago to board. Flatstock 27 has come and gone, but it was an excellent experience. Highlights for me included going out to eat at 50's style diner with Kevin Tong and Daniel Danger, searching Bumbershoot with Kevin Tong for delicious vegan food, kicking myself for not bringing my skateboard but still getting to ride an awesome park with Ben from Diesel Fuel Prints (who shared his board with me for our two-man session), making plans to come back and do even more skating next year, anonymous rubber band wars between fellow Flatstock vendors, and meeting lots of great people, and seeing the familiar faces of equally great people.
I also bought a collection of short stories by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie entitled, The Thing Around Your Neck. I have already started reading it. It may be difficult to complete the sketches I am supposed to be doing on my flight home.

Fall mystery tubes and other new stuff available here.

My Coffee With Niles

2010-09-03T11:46:00.008-05:00

Greetings from Seattle! I arrived last night, hungry and tired. I took the Light Rail, which is Seattle's (partially) elevated train system, into the city from the airport. I met up with a friend, checked into my room, and wandered the streets for a bit. In a stroke of luck, I walked past a hotdog vendor whose stand had a pleasant vegan surprise: tofu dogs!

With my concerns about finding something to eat at midnight in Seattle put to rest under a bed of onions, Dijon, peppers, and Sriracha sauce; I hung out for a bit with my old friend, Dan. Dan is an archeologist who moved to Seattle three or four years ago. We grew up in the same town. He told me about Seattle, we had a beer, and caught part of a small jazz/blues quintet's set.

Today, I'm enjoying some tea and orange slices and trying to figure out what to do with myself for the afternoon. Flatstock does not begin until tomorrow, so I'm going to do some exploring and see what other awesome (animal-friendly) food this city is hiding!

Hound two

2010-08-29T12:43:00.005-05:00

Hello. Above on the right is my new friend, T Rex. He used to race under the name, "Alkay's Easy Come." His name was shortened to Easy at the shelter, and I was informed that his new owners would be calling him "T Rex" or just "Rex." Rexy quickly mastered the art of climbing and descending stairs. He got along swimmingly with my roommates Chesapeake Bay retriever, and the two even played with each other. He was an absolute pleasure to foster. I took him to his forever home in Evanston yesterday, where he will live out many warm and friendly years with a great family.
To the left is one of two posters I printed this past week. I've got two more to print this week before I leave for Seattle on Thursday.

100% Tree

2010-08-21T14:45:00.006-05:00

Hello, blog patron. I hope today's post finds you well. I'm organizing my studio, and getting ready to print some posters. I'm also gearing up to head off to Seattle for the first time to participate in Flatstock 27, and I'm preparing for my new houseguest, Easy. Easy is a retired racing greyhound whom I will begin fostering tomorrow. He'll be hanging out with me for a week until he goes to live in Evanston with his new family.

I currently have a show on display at Fillintheblank Gallery called "A Walking Tour of Here." Yeah, yeah, that's old news, but here's the fun part: The gallery is offering free shipping on all domestic orders, as well as discounted international shipping. Check it out here: http://www.fillintheblankgallery.com/justin-santora/

Twelve roses

2010-08-15T15:05:00.007-05:00

The opening reception turned out great, despite Chicago's trademark summer humidity. Many friends and family came out, as well as lots of other great people. Art was debuted, good conversations had, pictures taken, hummus eaten, etc.
When I was still in undergrad, a professor of mine told me about the art website, Bad At Sports. They've interview a couple friends of mine, and they just do a lot of coverage of what's going on in Chicago. I was pretty flattered to see that they had listed the show as #2 on their Top 5 Weekend Picks this week.
Lastly, for those of you who are interested, Fillintheblank Gallery just posted high quality images of the work in the show, and you can even buy prints and paintings through their website. Check it out here: http://www.fillintheblankgallery.com/justin-santora/

Okay, that's it for now. I'm going to go ice my slightly injured shin. That's what I get for going skateboarding on a school night.

Been staring for a hundred hours...

2010-08-13T01:09:00.000-05:00

Friday!

2010-08-11T00:49:00.002-05:00

"A Walking Tour of Here" opening August 13th

2010-08-06T16:00:00.005-05:00

Well, hey! Check this out:

A Walking Tour of Here - Recent Screenprints and Paintings by Justin Santora
Fillintheblank Gallery 5038 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL
August 13-Sept 4, 2010. Opening reception Friday, August 13th. 7-11 PM

I signed four stacks of prints last night and have more or less put the finishing the touches on the last couple of paintings today. I'm off to be a groomsman in my good friends, Logan and Vija's wedding.

Monday evening, we start the installation at the gallery.

Thirsty Pixels

2010-08-05T17:29:00.005-05:00

Today, I heard the sad but inspiring story of Emily Henochowicz. Emily is a Jewish art student from the US who has Israeli citizenship. She was studying in Israel where she became involved in the movement for solidarity with (and justice for) Palestine. In one of the Israeli army's trademark uses of indiscriminate and unnecessary force, Emily lost her left eye when she was hit with a teargas canister*. Her outlook on life, art, justice, and the world is positive and absolutely worth sharing. Plus her drawings are just plain rad. Check out Thirsty Pixels, Emily's blog.

www.thirstypixels.blogspot.com

International Solidarity Movement (ISM)

* Incidentally, she had been attending a demonstration in response to the IDF boarding international aid ships bound for Gaza, killing 9 civilians.

The Sands've Turn'd Purple

2010-07-21T01:07:00.004-05:00

Flatstock 26 has come and gone. To the left is Dan from Landland with friend, Mark. I took this picture just after the three of us had to scramble to put the front cover on our tent when some heavy winds and rain struck on Sunday morning. Luckily, the rain did not last long.
Despite nearly unbearable heat; this weekend was filled to the brim with conversation, laughs, meeting/seeing many awesome people, talking shop, print trades, and vegan ice cream cones (my total by Sunday was nine).
It was excellent getting to show right next door to Landland, as I am a huge admirer of the work they do. I managed to get that empty swimming pool print (upper right in the photo, entitled "Summer Ghosts/Winter Pool Party") from Dan in a trade. The print is absolutely beautiful, and it reminds me of skateboarding.
I rounded off the weekend by seeing Cap'n Jazz play a reunion set at the Bottom Lounge with Dan and Mark. It was one of the best shows I've seen in quite a while.
A photographer from Chicago Magazine came by and took pictures of all the Chicago poster artists at this year's Flatstock. Check it out.

Flatstock 26!

2010-07-16T00:39:00.010-05:00

Oh hi! I've just returned from Cantankerous Hellfighter, a collaborative art show between Chicago's Delicious Design League and Aesthetic Apparatus (Minneapolis), and let me just say it's quite awesome. Like, big time awesome.
Speaking of awesome, Flatstock 26 begins tomorrow (July 16th) at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago. Come say hello.

I'll also be trying to keep track of how many vegan ice cream cones I eat over the course of the weekend. I'll post the final figure Sunday evening.

Monoprints! Flatstock! Et Cetera!!

2010-07-08T15:22:00.003-05:00

I just put a few mono prints up for sale in the gigposters.com classified section. These are one of a kind prints that are kept around my shop to test screens and check registration before starting a run. They're always a unique and fun record of what was being printed in a given time. This particular print (picture to the right) has elements from my print in the Crazy4Cult show at 1988 Gallery, a tour poster for Make Do And Mend, and some screens from a not-yet-finished art print.
As always, each print will come with a drawing or sketch or some bonus posters/prints.

So there's all kinds of Flatstock madness descending on various parts of the globe. This weekend is Flatstock 25 in San Francisco (which I will regrettably not be attending), Flatstock 26 in Chicago, Flatstock 27 in Seattle, and Flatstock Europe 5. You can keep track of all this awesomeness on the brand new FLATSTOCK BLOG.

I hope you're all doing well. I'm in the midst of a day filled with sketching, printing, and painting. Still so much to do! And there are all kinds of other fun things in the works, so as always, I hope you'll stay tuned.