Strawberryluna

Monthly Archives: March 2010

F*ck Up! A Test Print Exhibit

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Just a few of the Test Prints in the exhibit.

FUCK UP :: A Test Print Exhibit

It’s a new gallery show that I’m in! And what a great name. I love it. I have a few Test Prints in this new show, opening on April 2nd, 2010 in Lincoln, NE  at
SCREEN INK  from 7:00pm – 11:00pm. If you have a Facebook account click here for the Event Page & all of the details. And also, for more information check out this article describing the show and the screenprinting process as well as a little info on Test Prints & why so many printers have them.

Test prints are by-products of the screen-printing process that contain a multitude of layers of color and shape from numerous different posters, resulting in (occasionally) beautiful, one-of-a-kind monoprints. Because the process is completely spontaneous and unplanned, imperfections and accidents are embraced rather than shunned. FUCK UP is an art show that illuminates this emerging art form with a collection of prints from numerous international artists, both celebrated and up-and-coming. Test prints are an intersection of art and design, individuality and mass production, inspiration and collection, planned and impromptu.

Check out this sneak peek of the promo poster for the FUCK UP show. 11 colors down, 6 more to go!

OPENING: April 2nd, 2010 in Lincoln, NE  at SCREEN INK  from 7:00pm – 11:00pm
Please join us at our First Friday opening reception for booze, classy hors d’oeuvres, shit-talking, and brown-nosing (not necessarily in that order). You’ll meet some of the artists and can badmouth the ones who didn’t show up. DJ set by Darren Keen from The Show Is The Rainbow!! The official after party will be located at the nearby YEE OLDE TAVENRE.

Featured Artists
The Bubble Process (Cleveland, OH and Brooklyn, NY) – http://www.thebubbleprocess.com
Delicious Design League (Chicago, IL) – http://deliciousdesignleague.com/
Doe Eyed (Lincoln, NE) – http://www.doe-eyed.com
Bennett Holzworth (Lincoln, NE) – http://www.bennettholzworth.com
Steady Print Shop Co (Minneapolis, MI) – http://www.steadyprintshop.com
Ron Liberti (Carrboro, NC) – http://www.gigposters.com/designer/18832_Ron_Liberti.html
Micah Max (Omaha, NE) – http://www.micahmax.com
Pat Oakes (Omaha, NE) – http://www.inktankmerch.com
Sidekick Design (Portland, OR) –http://www.gigposters.com/designer/43745_Sidekick_Design.html
The Silent Giants (Detroit, MI) – http://thesilentgiants.com/blog
Dan Stiles (Portland, OR) – http://www.danstiles.com
strawberryluna (Pittsburgh, PA) – http://www.strawberryluna.com
We Buy Your Kids (Sydney, Australia) – http://www.webuyyourkids.com
Workshop (Lincoln, NE) – http://www.workshopworkshop.com
Young Monster (Chattanooga, TN) – http://www.weareyoungmonster.com

One of my Test Prints, available for sale n my Etsy shop. (click for more info or to purchase)

Addendum! Here is a great review of the opening night of the Fuck Up Test Print show complete with an awesome video of the crowd and live test print tshirt printing and of course, tons of rad Test Prints on the walls. The video is HERE!

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“Rock Paper Show: Flatstock Vol. 1”, new poster book feature!

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Click for more info or to pre-order "Rock Paper Show, Flatstock Volume One"

Holy smokes, we’re super stoked on this. At SXSW & Flatstock Poster Show in Austin, TX just over a week ago, a brand new and bitchin’ book made it’s debut: Rock Paper Show: Flatstock Volume One. Published by Soundscreen Design, this book on the rock contemporary rock poster scene has more specific bent & focuses on the Flatstock shows and posters artists’ Flatstock posters, which are created specifically for these poster events.

Rock Paper Show is something of a visual history of the first 20 Flatstock festivals, (there have been 24 as the time of this writing, with 4 per year currently in Austin, TX, Chicago, IL, Seattle, WA and Hamburg, Germany) featuring interviews and essays by artists, collectors and bands, and a compilation of the posters created for the first 20 Flatstock poster shows. What is a Flatstock? Good question! The Flatstock Poster Show series is an ongoing series of exhibitions featuring the work of many of the most popular concert poster artists working today presented by the American Poster Institute (API). Flatstock shows provide the general public with an ongoing & unique series of opportunities to see fine poster art in person and to meet the artists who’ve created it — they provide the API with a way to present the poster artists collectively while showcasing the breadth of individual styles they represent.

Included in Rock Paper Show are our Flatstock 9, Flatstock 12, & Flatstock 14 posters (as seen below)

3 of my hand screenprinted Flatstock posters featured in "Rock Paper Show"

In addition to the standard edition of Rock Paper Show, the limited, Deluxe Edition (produced & limited to just 500 sets) comes enclosed in a collector’s case in which you will find a hand-screened, letterpressed, or stenciled 11″x17″ set of 20 artist prints made especially for Rock Paper Show. The prints feature the original posters commissioned for the book contained within a custom portfolio folder. We’re incredibly honored that we’re among the artists asked to do one of these 20 posters, which are also featured as the chapter headers for each of the 20 chapters of  Rock Paper Show. Here is a look at our poster below I will have a very limited number of these screenprinted posters for sale on my website later this spring.

Flatstock poster for the book about the first 20 Flatstocks, "Rock Paper Show".

Since its inception in 2002, Flatstock has evolved into the definitive showcase of the most talented poster artists working today. Rock Paper Show: Flatstock Volume One is an editorial and visual history of the first 20 Flatstocks, with contributions from the artists and studios that regularly attend the events and the bands who are often the subjects of the posters, as well as critics and collectors involved in this community. Rock Paper Show collects for the first time the original posters created for each Flatstock by the attending studios. Veteran poster-makers take the reader on behind-the-scenes looks at the studios, the artists, the regional scenes, and the personalities of this vibrant and varied community.

Curated by Geoff Peveto (president, American Poster Institute). Designed by Rumors (Brooklyn, NY). For a full list of editorial contributors and Studio Index, please click here.

Over 60 editorial contributors, including: Aesthetic Apparatus, Craig Finn (the Hold Steady), John Foster (author, Masters of Poster Design), Clay Hayes (gigposters.com), Jeff Kleinsmith (Patent Pending), Jay Ryan (the Bird Machine), and Paula Scher (Pentagram). Standard Edition – 312 pages. 566 color images. Hardcover.

You can pre-order either (or both) editions of Rock Paper Show today by clicking on this link! Orders will ship in early May.

Get a sneak peek at Rock Paper Show: Flatstock Volume One in the photo below where Soundscreen debuted at Flatstock 24 at SXSW Music Festival, or by clicking here. It’s a beauty.

Soundscreen's booth at Flatstock 24 (Austin, TX SXSW) debuting "Rock Paper Show" as well as the 20 original & exclusive limited edition posters produced just for the book. (Hey look! My poster is on the lower right!)

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New poster released: Moe. Snoe.down 2010

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My new screenprinted poster for Moe.'s Snoe.down 2010, 4-colors (click for more info or to buy)

This is our newest poster release all new and ready to go home with you:

It’s the good time winter fun fest of  Moe. and their huge Snoe.down Festival jam. We’re super excited to be working with Moe. When they contacted us, the mission was to mix things up from their previous posters and produce something fun, child-like and fresh. So, we Let loose & had a snowy good time with it for them. Wheee!

Snoe.down is the all-ages annual winter music festival hosted by moe. and not only features multiple sets by Moe., but in 2010 also playing are funk/soul group Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, jam-grass favorites Railroad Earth, Assembly of Dust, and Hot Day at the Zoo, southern rockers the Bridge, up-and-coming jam-rockers the McLovins, and the Heavy Pets plus Leroy Justice, Lynch, and Moon Alice.

This is my 4-color, hand screenprinted poster with snowy light blue, warm orange and black hand-mixed, non-toxic water based acrylic inks. Super secret magic: transparent baby blue & orange inks = light brown, magical overprints. (Overprints are when semi-transparent layers of ink combine and overlap to make another color.) I will have a very limited number of this poster for sale, as most of the edition was sold by the band during the Snoe.down festival. Size: 18w x 24h inches. Edition of 675. Paper: acid-free & archival Cougar 100 lb White, cover weight. $25

I design and hand screenprint all of my posters and prints. Let me know if you have any questions! Unless otherwise requested, all orders are shipped within 5 business days, though usually much sooner. I like stupid little toys, hopefully you do too because there will be one or two in your tube.

My new Moe. Snoe.down Festival poster is now available for purchase, click this link for my website or on the image above.

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Paper Cuts, The Art & Science of Rock Posters show

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Paper Cuts gallery show at Athenaeum (including my Dashboard Confessional poster, lower right side.)

I’m proud to be a part of a new poster  show called Paper Cuts: The Art and Science of Rock Posters that features Washington, DC area artists and venues posters. Paper Cuts will run from March 24 through April 25 at the Athenaeum in Old Town, Alexandria. Featuring a wide range of styles from a number of contemporary artists, the collection reflects the breadth and vitality of the DC Metropolitan area music scene.

My Dashboard Confessional poster (below) is among the posters featured in this DC-area posters art show.

My Dashboard Confessional poster, screenprinted, 4-colors, is in the Paper Cuts show. (clock for more info or to purchase)

To provide context to the art of these music posters, Paper Cuts will explore the science of the works by exhibiting artifacts from the process, including original drawings, sketches, studies, and printmaking ephemera. Additionally, the opening will feature live printmaking with Kristina Bilonick, where visitors can try their own hand at screenprinting!

Paper Cuts is organized by designer and printmaker Anthony Dihle, who also organized last year’s poster show Paper Jam at Civilian Art Projects, which surveyed the work of two dozen East Coast based poster artists.

Paper Cuts will feature the work of 16 poster artists including Hero Design Studio, Jay Ryan, John Foster, Marc Harkness, Zach Bryan, strawberryluna (that’s me!), Anthony Dihle, Todd Slater, Marq Spusta, Hatch Show Print, Dan Grzeca, Guy Burwell, Chris Cernoch, John Whitlock, Adam Saul, and Criminal Design

Show details:

Exhibition Dates: March 25–April 25, 2010.
Opening Reception: Sunday, March 28, 4–6 pm
Location: Athenaeum, 201 Prince Street, Alexandria, Va 22314

Hours: Regular gallery viewing hours are Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays from 12–4 pm and on  Saturdays from 1–4 pm.

If you are in the DC / Alexandria, VA area do check out the show!

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2 new art prints released: Lovebirds & Going To See My Baby Lavender

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New 7-color hand screenprinted art print, "Lovebirds" now available. (click for more info or to purchase!)

 

 

Ok! This is a quick post as I really should be packing my clothes for Flatstock & SXSW in Austin TX (see this previous post for more info), so I will keep this one short and sweet.

I jammed out two brand new art prints this past weekend in a marathon printing run. 2 days, 8 screens, 13 colors, 1,000+ pulls, 200+ prints =  2 new prints. BOOM!

The first print is above, and it’s called “Lovebirds”. When we were working on our poster for St. Vincent, we started playing around with the flower illustration and found that it made very cute little birdies, we added a heart and ta-da! Lovebirds.

The second new art print is below, and it’s a fresh new colorway of my very popular “Going To See My Baby” print, now in Lavender. I love that lemony cloud action. I have to say as well that it’s kinda funny that both new prints feature hearts and love and romance quite prominently. Spring is here!

New 6-color hand screenprinted art print, "Going To See My Baby Lavender" now available. (click for more info or to purchase!)

It’s been really awesome getting to work out of my new studio space, rockin’ out to music and watching movies too while printing. In fact, I did a little Twitter contest while printing “Lovebirds” and asked if anyone could name the movie that I was watching in the background of a Photoshop mock, and wouldn’t you know it? Someone (@kurometarikku) got it right on the money by identifying “The Great Race” from a terrible screenshot. Amazing! Check out the photo below:

The Great Race in the background. Goofy, yes. But Jack Lemmon never disappoints.

And here are a few process shots of each print, sorry that they are not up on Flickr yet, but they will be next week! Apologies for some of the greyed out light. I do live and work in Pittsburgh, PA afterall. The actual prints are on lovely & crisp white paper 🙂

1st color of my new hand screenprinted art print "Lovebirds". (click for more info or to purchase)

2nd color of my hand screenprinted new art print "Lovebirds". (click for more info or to purchase)

3rd & final color of my new hand screenprinted art print "Lovebirds" drying on the rack. (click for more info or to purchase)

1st, 2nd, & 3rd colors printed of my new colorway "Going To See My Baby Lavender" art print.

Colors 1,2, and 3 of my hand screenprinted art print, "Going To See My Baby Lavender, with color test smears of inks on the right. (click for more info or to purchase!)

4th color down (black) of my hand screenprinted art print, "Going To See My Baby Lavender". (click for more info or to purchase!)

All done! New hand screenprinted art print, "Going To See My Baby Lavender". (click for more info or to purchase!)

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Flatstock & SXSW: Here we come Austin, TX!

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The strawberryluna booth at SXSW Flatstock '09, so come see us this year too. (click for more info)

It’s really Spring! And for us that means the first Flatstock of the year, in Austin, TX during the HUGE music festival SXSW. We’ll be working part of the time and having a blast the other. Come on and see us and close to 100 (that’s right) poster artists from all over the world, showing our work and talking shop with music industry folks, poster art fans and the wide open general public.

We will be debuting new posters and new art prints as well as bringing a slew of Test Prints too, so it’s going to be rad.  Come say hi!

Co-presented by the American Poster Institute (API) and SXSW, Flatstock 24 will display the works of more than 100 artists from across North America and the globe. Posters representing decades of styles, colors and techniques will be on display and for sale as well as additional merchandise. Show up early and be ready to be overwhelmed with amazing posters. (You might want to bring some dough since you won’t want to leave empty handed!) The exhibition is free and open to the public. Check out this year’s exhibiting artists.

Big ol' fisheye view of a Flatstock in Austin, TX, photo Jen Soto. (click for more info)

The best concert posters have always captured both the essence of the music they promoted and the spirit of the time in which they were produced. Flatstock provides an ongoing series of opportunities to see fine poster art in person and to meet the artists who created it.

Making SXSW a true music collector’s paradise, don’t forget to set time aside for the Austin Record Convention in the same exhibit hall and the Texas Guitar Show in the adjacent hall.

The legendary Smokey Robinson will visit Flatstock 24 on Thursday afternoon following his keynote address to sell his limited edition prints designed by Shepard Fairey. Swing by to get your one-of-a-kind poster signed by both Smokey and Shepard.

Screenprinted art print of the legendary Smokey Robinson by Shepard Fairey.

The Important Details!

Schedule & Hours:

  • Thursday. 3/18  HOURS from 1:00pm – 6:00pm (includes Smokey Robinson & Shepard Fairey appearances.)
  • Friday. 3/19 and Saturday. 3/20 HOURS: from 10:00am – 6:00pm

Location:
Austin Convention Center Level 1, Exhibit Hall 1, on the Ground Floor.

About the API: The American Poster Institute is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to serving the poster artist community and promoting the art form. The Flatstock shows provide the American Poster Institute with a way to present poster artists collectively while showcasing the breadth of styles they represent.

About SXSW: The first South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival (SXSW) was held in 1987 in Austin, Texas. Despite the fact that Austin was not a Top 20 major market at the time, the background and character of the city made it a perfect location for the conference. SXSW’s original goal was to create an event that would act as a tool for creative people and the companies they work with to develop their careers, to bring together people from a wide area to meet and share ideas. That continues to be the goal today whether it is music, film or the internet. And Austin continues to be the perfect location.

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Vintage Japanese Industrial Expo posters

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Grand Exposition in Commemoration of the Imperial Coronation – Kyoto, 1928 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

One of my favorite thing about the interwebs is stumbling onto incredible things that I would otherwise never see. Recently I came across the Pink Tentacle’s fantastically beautiful blog post featuring Vintage Japanese posters produced for several different industrial expositions throughout the late 1930’s and into the early 1940’s.

I can’t gush adequately or explain my fascination with propaganda in general, let alone describe the thrill of looking at poster art such as these pieces. They are just stunning. I really love the ways that the themes and imagery run from incredibly dark, heavy serious (much like the word “industry” can conjure such connotations as well) such as the two examples below:

National Defense Science Exposition – Hyogo, 1941 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

The above being especially chilling given that the imagery evokes Japanese-American connection to each other and WWII via Pearl Harbor both in theme and the year of the Japanese National Defense Science  Exposition, 1941.

Japan-Manchuria Industrial Exhibition – Toyama, 1936 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

Or, a much ligher aspect of “industry” can be called forth, as in the Tourism Industry Expo poster seen here, where even a Buck might be enticed into playing tourist:

Tourism Industry Exhibition – Nara, 1933 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

And here is an interesting combination of both heavy, militaristic and mythologically represented industries in the form of a Sea & Air Expo:

Sea and Air Exhibition – Tokyo, 1930 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

Beyond the heavily represented military-based industries & expositions, of which there seem to have been numberous. Check out the poster  for an exhibition for the Second Sino-Japanese War below, which weirdly had only begun the year previous to this Expo’s poster and continued on for another 7 years:

Second Sino-Japanese War Exhibition – Osaka, 1938 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

There were also some really lovely commemorative exposition posters produced for potentially simpler and more peaceful (t0 a degree) endeavors like the new (at that time) Hakata port construction, an international gateway port for centuries in Japan:

Exposition Commemorating the Construction of Hakata Port – Fukuoka, 1936 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

And then finally, there are some posters whose lettering just really catches my eye. No, I read no Japanese and don’t know a thing of Kanji. Even so, I find the idea of reading letters a pretty amazing feat as they rarely formed the same way twice when rendered by hand or in different fonts and lettering style. When you stop & think about it, it’s practically a miracle that humans read really. Case in point, the lettering examples below are so stylized and almost wrought with objects and illustration or have parts of the illustration itself crossing into the formation of the letterforms, that even I can see how non-traditionally styled they are:

Nagoya Pan-Pacific Peace Exposition – Nagoya, 1937 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

The National Products Progress Exhibition – Kagoshima, 1931 (click to see more posters & for more information.)

Above all else, I am in love with the colors, opacity & transparencies and relationships of shapes in all of these posters. They are just phenomenal. Thanks to Pink Tentacle for posting so many and feeding my eyes. To see more posters, visit the always interesting Pink Tentacle blog here or click on any of the images above. And as always, feel free to comment!

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New art print released! “The Lady and The Wolf”

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My new 2 color, all hand screenprinted art print "The Lady & The Wolf" (Click for more info or to purchase.)

Been  busy busy busy printing like crazy lately! This is my newest art print and new release “The Lady & The Wolf”, a 2 color hand screenprinted re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood. But you know, for grown ups. Little Red Riding Hood here, is all grown up, but in no less danger.

This is the first print in an ongoing series of my interpretations of the folk & fairy tales I grew up reading, but for grown ups working with themes of sex, death, & the supernatural.

I’ve been fascinated and in love with folk & fairy tales my entire life. These days, many people know them best as tales for children, however many of our most loved fairy tales have much more brutal original tellings than you might imagine something fit for little kids. I read folk & fairy tales obsessively, the darker the roots of the tale, the more I love it. It’s super interesting how the same stories appear in similar versions and places for both children and (especially originally) for adults as well.

“The Lady & The Wolf” is my 2-color, all hand screen printed art print with scarlet blood red and semi-transparent midnight black hand mixed and non-toxic water based inks. Black over prints red in parts, blending the where the Lady ends and the Wolf begins. Edition of 75. Size: 16 x22 inches (39.4 cm x 55.9 cm.) Paper: acid free & archival Cougar, White 100lb cover weight.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. This limited edition screenprint is now available on my website HERE.

And, if you like process photographs, check out my Flickr account page here (or click the images below) with photos of the print being made! A few selections are below for you.

1st color (red) screen and films for registering for my screenprint "The Lady & The Wolf". (Click for more info or to see more photos.)

1st color printed for my new screenprint "The Lady & The Wolf". (Click for more info and to see more photos.)

2nd color ink (black) in the screen and ready to print. (Click to see more photos or for more info.)

All done! The screen has ink for the next print, ready to rock. (Click to see more photos or for more info.)

I hope that you dig. If you wish to purchase this limited edition print click here, or have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them or ask them.

Cool Fairy Tale & Folk Tale links for you:

Sur La Lune – An ever growing collection of Fairy & Folk tales from around the world, complete with classic illustrations.

Professor D.L. Ashliman’s fantastic Folklore  & Mythology Electronic Texts page –  I took as many of his classes as I could as an undergraduate at the Univ. of Pgh. He’s super.

A brief history of the Fairy Tale, including their not-neccessarily-for-children origins.

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