Et cetera
Archive for April 2010
Remote Explosion
When Sudafed, NyQuil, Emergen-C and the neti pot just don’t get the job done, you might resort to more drastic measures.
Don't try this at home, kids.
Canary Clay Finds His Wings
This weekend I stopped by the Stumptown Comics Fest to see my friends Graham, Stumptown Underground and of course the IPRC. As I was making my way through the participants I came across Atrox Comics and Beastlies, who make comics using 3D sculpted figures of the monstrously cute kind.
I bought one of the smallest figurines, dubbed him Canary Clay, and promptly took him on a walk around his new neighborhood.
Canary Clay surveys his new 'hood in appropriate protective tree-climbing headwear.
The neighbor's bird bath got some use.
Canary Clay makes a new friend, Rhonda the Flamingo. He invited her back to the bird bath but she would have none of it.
Canary Clay rests in some foliage and wonders how Mini Cooper got a hold of his proprietary color.
Mustache Finger Once Removed
In preparation for attending my friend Michael’s beard art show “Keep Portland Beard” at the Tribute Gallery, I created this little accessory so I would fit in. Michael writes the blog Beard Revue, so he was the perfect person to curate such a show. Portland is full of the hip sort that sport facial hair with varying levels of irony, so a take on the mustache finger was just what I needed to blend into the crowd!
I present you the mustache on a hand on a stick or "stick of irony".
How to be an ironic hipster and ironic at the same time.
Registration Print Process
Em Space, the local book arts center I’m involved with, put on their first anniversary show recently and asked members to submit a small printed piece so we could send a Petite Print Suite collection as a thank-you to people who had helped the organization in its first year. The theme was “print terminology” and I chose registration (basically, lining up two or more colors when printing, usually using a guide such as a X or dots to align colors). Little did I know that registration would be the least of my worries when producing 100 copies of the bar-4 card.
I chose to do a linoleum cut because 1) I am frugal, 2) I thought it would be easy, and 3) I had waited too long to get a plate made. I settled on my design and started carving away…
Carve your linoleum block backwards. It should take you two tries or less.
My linoleum had a dead spot in it, right around where Oregon should be.
To compensate for the dead spot (I like Oregon, it shouldn’t get the shaft because of some printing problems) I used torn newsprint to build up the area underneath the blank spot, so when the paper made contact with the linoleum block the surface receiving ink would be even, thus giving Oregon and the Western US its full due.
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Book Bot makes his first appearance in print
Stumptown Underground’s 8th Issue “Everybody Do the Robot” is in production, and Book Bot made the cut! Come to the release party Thursday, April 22nd at 8pm at The Fez. Book Bot’s evil cousin, shown here using his books for nefarious purposes, will NOT making be making an appearance. He had to stay home and polish his shoes, because he’s vain like that.
Year of the Tiger
To kick off 2010, my friend Jen Sbragia sent me this super cute card that she made with spraypaint. I tried some spraypainting the other day and it wasn’t that easy. I nearly spraypainted my dog Lucy and definitely got a dry eye out of the ordeal. I think I’ll stick to letterpress.
Turkey: 1, Mormon Boyfriend: 0
A while back my friend Jen from Under the Table was promoting an event called “It’s Not You, It’s Me: Stories from the Dark Side of Dating”. She asked some of her food loving friends to contribute their disastrous food-related dates…my submission unfolds as follows in a story I like to call: Turkey: 1, Mormon Boyfriend: 0.
Bringing your new boyfriend home to meet the parents is always a bit stressful…especially when said boyfriend is of the Mormon faith and your parents are of the faith where herpes, safe sex and religion in the Middle East are liberally discussed at dinner (maybe even at breakfast if the coffee is just right). Apart from anticipating the rousing and explicitly vulgar games of charades my family usually plays after dinner, I thought our first meal together would be a fairly stress free affair.
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Em Space Anniversary Celebration
A book arts center that I am part of is celebrating their one year anniversary this month – you should come check it out!
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Opening Night and Celebration:
Saturday, April 17th
7pm – Midnight407 SE Ivon Street
Portland, OR 97202—
Join the Em Space Book Arts Center as we celebrate our one-year anniversary and the opening of our second annual member show. The evening’s festivities will include a raffle, silent auction, a printing demonstration on one of our presses, and delicious refreshments. Show runs from April 17th – May 30th. (Fan Em Space on Facebook)
My Wacom pen can do a triple back flip on beam. Can yours?
Over the years my Wacom has endured some all terrain handling, and recently the rubber grip area fell off in protest. So I bought a pack of those foam pencil sleeves and upgraded my pen to Delux Wacom Pen Gripper Status. Only 1 and 1/3 pencil sleeves were needed to make this baby look like it was sponsored by a gymnastics team.
My landlord said I should blog about this.
Stumptown Underground Submission
Stumptown Underground sent out a call for submissions for their 8th issue, all about robots, and I answered. Book Bot had a few iterations but ended up in this get-up, which I equate in human terms to yellow tube socks and a strategically placed towel. He has his books, what more could he need?
