I’ve contributed two pieces to the show, which will open this Saturday, March 5th from 6-9PM, and run through March 26th. Disjecta is located at 8371 N Interstate Ave, and the gallery is open Friday through Sunday 12–5pm. Here is a sneak peek of a curbside pony and recycled rain…
Finally, a chance to use all those hours I spent as a child drawing horses!What do 6 gluesticks and a Yellow Pages amount to? Lots of recycled rain.
Late last year I signed up for The Sketchbook Project so that I would have a fun extra-curricular activity to fill my spare hours with. The project is organized by Art House Co-Op, and the basic premise is as follows:
• you buy a blank sketchbook (anybody can participate)
• fill up your sketchbook according to the theme you chose when purchasing
• send the sketchbook back to Art House Co-Op
• all the sketchbooks that are sent in are taken on a national tour, after which…
• sketchbooks are placed in the Brooklyn Art Library where they can be checked out
As these things usually go, my spare hours dwindled and I was soon left with a looming deadline to fill an entire sketchbook in 2 weeks. From the 20 or so pre-set themes, I had chosen “adhere to me”. So I titled my sketchbook “Things That Stick” and got to work.
Sometimes you just feel like a Label Maker Head.Only a $5 ticket to get from Anthropologie to some foreboding mountains? Sign me up!It's the in-betweens that are a stickler.Grandma, get your gun!Kind of Tetris-y, but that's not the song *I'm* thinking about.Peanut butter Rorschach test. Mmmm, sticky.It's true, I hate this page and almost covered it up, but then I didn't.Ratty was followed by Ralph, Rufus, Rocky, and Rascal.There are few things better than leftover campfire smell.Boys and girls: wooden eyes and a fiery tongue. Getting closer to that one song.The guiltiest mosquito I ever did see.I'm more of a mint person, but this will do.Let's make this the new Rick Roll.I knew that cop had somewhere to be.I think this applies to everybody's experience of Junior High.Well, duh.I had to put my hand in traction after this page, and drink a tonic.You know how it feels.Thanks for reading "Things That Stick"!
After working so ardently on my sketchbook I was a little sad to see it go, but it was also a bit of a relief. I showed it to a few people who I thought would enjoy it before putting it in the mail, never to be seen again. It was a good exercise in doing something for the experience rather than the results.
Behind The Scenes & Making Of
Since I had procrastinated, the first order of business was to halve the number of pages in my Moleskin from 80 to 40 by doing a fake french-fold by double stick taping every other page together. After getting some basic pagination down, I had figured out that each left facing page would be found images from catalogs, stockbooks, etc., and the right facing pages would be accompanying text.
Tiny thumbnail pagination - good for helping keep all your thoughts in order.
Since I only had one sketchbook and therefore zero room for error, I sketched out most things before drawing or tracing it directly into the sketchbook. Some of the pages I like best (Grandma’s Gun, Boys & Girls, Dreams, A Good Book) were created on the fly with maybe just an outline of something that I then filled in without a plan. The sticky shadow page was inspired by a stint I spent filing at a previous job. After about 3 weeks, I felt like my own head had turned into the very same label maker I was using so diligently to organize an entire room’s worth of documents. I started drawing this poster in memory of what I called File-a-palooza, but never finished it. Here are few more in-progress sketches: Most of the stock books I had were from Veer or House Industries circa 2003. I used my Whale of a Punch to punch out circles from various pages. The cover circles are from a hand holding a diamond ring, and the back side of the sheet gave me the little pink house on the Dreams page.
Punch, punch, punch.
If you’re interested in checking out the sketchbook project, the tour dates are listed on their website.
Today is the final day of Free Wallpaper Week at the Bureau. “All The Future Is New” was created from cut letters folded up from their original sheet of paper to make shadows. I hope you’ve enjoyed the freebies and spread the wallpaper cheer across the screens of the internet and eternity.
Download “All The Future Is New” in the following sizes:
Please share these wallpapers following the guidelines of the Creative Commons “Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives” license. Basically, you can share the heck out of these, but always remember to attribute the source and please don’t alter or sell the art. Thanks!
Free Wallpaper Week at the Bureau continues! Today’s wallpaper is anti-cute in response to the previous saccharine submission. It’s kind of like chestnuts roasting on an open fire, but not. Don’t take this one too literally, and I hope you’ll help spread the wallpaper cheer!
Please share these wallpapers following the guidelines of the Creative Commons “Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives” license. Basically, you can share the heck out of these, but always remember to attribute the source and please don’t alter or sell the art. Thanks!
A personal project I’ve been working on this fall is finally complete! It’s wintry tale of smitten moose, fuzzy creatures and a house in the woods. Is it a drama, documentary, romantic comedy or porno flick? The verdict is still out.
Printed on a variety of colored papers using white flocking (fuzzy stuff, fun to touch), the poster is for sale in the newly constructed Bureau Shop. You can see more pictures and read about the process here.
With the chilly winter weather upon us, I decided it was time to take a look back at what was, and what will be again. I took a few liberties altering the copywriting for this vintage Catalina Island ad. Who doesn’t need a fine beach-ready man?
This year for Halloween I dressed up as Avant Garde French Toast. It was a subtle costume, and not exactly a crowd pleaser. There were a few French Toast embracers, but for the most part it was a flop. It wasn’t a pop culture reference, gory or scary, a knight or a princess. It wasn’t an outfit that had been “sexified” with skimpy college-era duds (although one person told me that “Sexy French Toast” would have been a better outfit). It didn’t fit into a category, and that doomed my Toastness to strange stares and obligatory “ah, haaaa, hmm, yeah OK, I get it”. I guess my outfit was more avant garde than I expected.
So, I figured I would make my first foray into creating moving pictures and shoot a short short about it. I even wrote a part for my dog Lucy, who turned out to be the consummate professional on set.
When Kate Bingaman Burt asked if I could come in and speak with her graphic design students at Portland State University, I said “Sure!”. Growing up in a one-horse town, I remember the excitement of having visitors come to tell us Real Life Stories of Grandeur from the World Out There.
Actually, nobody ever came to visit us in my one-horse town, but I wish they had. Which is why next March 10, 2011, I’ll be one of the many illustrious show-and-tell participants at PSU. It’s never too late to learn something new…I’m sure I will, come next March.
