Strawberryluna

Arts & Crap Fair @ Univ. Of Pittsburgh

Yeah, that’s right. You heard me!

Schenley Quad on Pitts campus, home of the Art & Crap Fair.

Schenley Quad on Pitt's campus, home of the Arts & Crap Fair.

Big ol’ 1-dayer craft fair on Friday, April 17th on The University of Pittsburgh’s campus (my alma mater) called the Arts & Crap Fair. The Fair is in it’s 3rd year and promises to be the biggest one yet.

There will be a great mix of vendors from students to small local businesses selling things from crafts , vintage clothes, baked yummies like cupcakes and vegan rolls to handmade art work. I’ll be there with art prints, posters, tshirts, test prints and more, so stop by on your way to the Pitt bookstore, lunch, or the Student Union to check it all out and say hello! You didn’t really want to be studying anyway, right?

Rumor has it, WPTS will be kicking out the jams too. The Arts & Crap Fair is sponsored by The Original, a free arts & culture magazine fresh out of Pittsburgh since 2006.

The details: The Arts & Crap Fair will be in the Schenley Quad from 12pm – 5pm Friday, April 17, 2009

Be there or be square!

Doodle Time: Ginko edition

Sketch of upright green & yellow Ginko leaves and some unnaturally colored berries.

Sketch of upright green & yellow Ginko leaves and some unnaturally colored berries.

I’ve been obsessed with the shapes of Ginko leaves for about as long as I can remember, having grown up around them. The tree species was one of a great handful introduced to the United States via my hometown of Philadelphia by avid botanist and horticulturist named William Hamilton in 1784. Other than the admittedly terrible smell of the berries dropped by the female trees, they are simply incredible and beautiful.

Falling Ginko leaves and berries gathering on the ground.

Falling Ginko leaves and berries gathering on the ground.

Last week I started sketching and doodling with some variations on Ginko leaves, berries and textures. Here are a few of those doodles, designs, sketches, what have you, and I also put them all up on both my Flickr account and over in my Spoonflower portfolio as well. Feel free to comment and let me know which you like best, or, conversely, if you think they stink like a Ginko berry.

The further I went, the more it not only felt nice to be sketching, but it felt as though I was working on a textile pattern, perhaps bedding. Which, is extra nice. Sleeping is nice, and I’ve always been very interested in textiles, fabric, bed inens and their design. Odd, maybe. But true nonetheless. Still, it’s clear that I need to learn a good deal more about how to make repeating patterns. Even so, I figured sharing the designs might be fun.

Sort of a free-for-all in color, texture, and overprinty-ness.

Sort of a free-for-all in color, texture, and overprinty-ness.

The Ginko is an incredibily ancient species, with fossils dating back to the Permian period, some 270 million years ago. Amazingly, the Ginko’s loveliness  almost died out, only to persist in such small numbers that the species is listed as a living fossil. There is something very comforting and assuring to me about the lovely fact that something so beautiful could last for so long and throughout so many massive changes.

Yes, I am corny like that.

New poster released: Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin! (yay!)

Hand screenprinted poster for the neato Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

Hand screenprinted spring tour poster for the neato Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

Good grief, we loved Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin‘s music before they ever played Pittsburgh. And now, we like ’em even more. Smart sweethearts, every one of ’em. They might be the best band that not enough people have heard. For realsies, so go listen. Don’t fret, they will be out on tour again soon.

This hand screenprinted and emotional poster is my 2-color fella with sad blue and black inks. Edition of 150, with 100 copies going to the band. Size: 16w x 22h inches. Paper: acid-free & archival Cougar 100 lb White, cover weight. Available at my website here, and soon, at the SSLYBY’s Super Store, once they’re home from tour and it’s back up & running. And, as per my usual dweebyness, here are some process photos I took while printing their poster at AIR here for you on my Flickr page.

And here’s a photo of 2 SSLYBYs and 2 Drew Danburrys in the King’s Monroeville parking lot on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Horsing around.

Horsing around.

Fresh Del The Funky Homosapien & Sigur Ros coolness

Two cool and fresh things musically that you should be aware of this week:

Sigur Ros, performing in the small Parisian restuarant, la Closerie des Lilas

Sigur Ros, performing in the small Parisian restuarant, la Closerie des Lilas

1. The hauntingly excellent Sigur Ros‘ appearance on the Paris-based fantastic music + performance blog La Blogotheque‘s super dupes Les Concerts A Emporter, aka in English Takeaway Shows. If you are not familiar with the Takeaway Shows, well, here is your chance to get cozy with one of the most fun, creative and intimate things going on with current music. Filmmaker Vincent Moon shoots bands performing acoustically in an ever-changing array of impromptu and unexpected places from small Parisian alleys (Of Montreal vs Axe Riverboy), to hotel rooms (Tom Jones), to an abandoned turn-of-the-century exhibition hall (The Fleet Foxes) and in this case Sigur Ros sitting in booths and playing at the very small, very old, and exceptionally traditional Paris restaurant la Closerie des Lilas. Check out Sigur Ros’ Takeaway Show here.

Del The Funky Homosapiens stimulus package, Funk Man

Del The Funky Homosapien's stimulus package, Funk Man

2. Hell yes! Del The Funky Homosapien is making his new bag of tricks, Funk Man available for a free download. I’m listening to it now, and it is awesome. Click download, enter your email address and zippy little link for you to get your own free copy of funky stimulus is yours. Thanks Del! Get your Funk Man on here.

New poster released: The Fillmore presents Brett Dennen w/ Angus & Julia Stone!

And it’s my first Fillmore poster!

Poster for Brett Dennens 2 shows in San Franciscos legendary Fillmore Theater.

Poster for Brett Dennen's 2 shows in San Francisco's legendary Fillmore Auditorium.

Yes! THAT Fillmore. Indeed. And Mr. Brett Dennen and the siblings Angus & Julia Stone played there for a very special 2-night, back to back engagement on Friday & Saturday, March 20 & 21, 2009 at The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA

Happy happy little fellow freed himself from the bonds that held him.

The Fillmore is where it all started for rock poster art. Since 1966, Bill Graham and The Fillmore have been commissioning posters from artists all over the world to hand out at shows as a thank you for fans. Within that tradition grew the seeds of the modern rock poster movement. As you can imagine then, I’m so excited and honored to be working with the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco, and this was a fun poster to work on as my inauguration into that incredibly rich history of rock posters.

Being that this is a tradition Fillmore poster, it is an offset print, NOT screenprinted, and printed by The Fillmore for this show. It’s a 4-color, desgin with an edition of 1,000. Of that 1,000 given to the fans at the show and to the bands’ members, I have just 50 posters. Size: 13w x 19h inches. Paper: thick and heavy white stock.

For more infomation or to purchase a poster, please visit my website here.

Huge letterpress wood type collection for sale

I adore, love, and go weak at the knees for letterpress prints. It’s just a lovely printmaking process and produces gorgeous results. This massive set of wood type for sale caught my eye. This is an outstanding collection of antique and modern letterpress wood type, and to the best of my knowledge, still available. The below is copied and reposted from Steven Heller’s blog The Daily Heller.

Malcolm Dean spent many years assembling his incredible wood type collection, and it’s still a work in progress–or it can be, for some appreciative soul or institution.  “What I learned is that a collection, like any work of art, is alive, and grows and changes according to the attention you give it,” he says. “If I had the time, I’d cull some sections of the collection, and build others up, especially the strong simple faces I like best–the antiques, the gothics, the early Page fonts, and especially those of Vanderburgh & Wells. I’d gradually move the collection toward the goal I once had in mind: a thousand fonts that represent the designs I most love.” But he no longer has the time. Now, he’d like to find a good home for the collection with someone “who will appreciate it, and care for it, and carry it forward.”

He is looking for a buyer.

The collection as it stands now is about one third historic and fancy fonts, one third modern 20th century fonts, and one third gothics. It fills eleven cabinets, including three large Hamilton wood type cabinets, seven regular Hamilton cabinets, and one roll-top cabinet. Also included are two smaller collections, one of borders, catchwords, and ornaments, and one of sorts, as well as several wood type catalogs and books and a 36-inch wood type composing stick from the old print shop at St. Meinrad’s Abbey Press.

To obtain a PDF prospectus offering of his massive and impressive holdings contact Mr. Dean at malcolmdean@mac.com

Some friends  and cool places whose contemporary letterpress work & contributions that we adore here at strawberryluna:

Dirk Fowler

Anne Benjamin

Hatch Show Print

Hamilton Wood Type Printing Museum

New poster released: A.C. Newman & The Broken West!

Hand screenprinted 4-color poster for A.C. Newman & The Broken Wests show  in Pittsburgh. PA.

Hand screenprinted 4-color poster for A.C. Newman & The Broken West's show in Pittsburgh. PA.

Yeps! It was a great show, and sold out, did you go? The show was in the film theater of the Andy Warhol Museum, there was room for maybe about 150 people, so maybe you did and maybe you didn’t.  If you’re the latter, too bad. it was an awesome show, replete with jokes about dickery and private dressing rooms in one’s mind.

The above is my poster for the show, proudly a part of the A.C. Newman spring tour 2009 poster series for their show with The Broken West (they were lovely) on Saturday March 28th 2009 at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA. Getting to do a hand screenprinted poster for any show at the Warhol Museum is a thrill in an “extension of a legacy” sort of way. If you feel me.

Come closer, that’s it, just a step more…let me take your photo…

This swirling hypnotic psychedelia is my 4-color, all hand screenprinted poster with black, magenta & cyan inks. Overprint magic makes a pretty luscious violet. Edition of 150 Size: 16w x 22h inches. Paper: acid-free & archival Cougar 100 lb White, cover weight.

This poster was available on tour with the bands at the show and is now also available from my website here. And, if you enjoy geeking out as I do, there are some process photos of this poster on my Flickr page of this poster being printed.

Thank you Austin Texas!

Man, whew! I’m beyond tired. We had such a great time at this year’s SXSW Music Festival and Flatstock Poster Convention in good ol’ Austin, Texas.

Lots and lots to tell, but overall the show was really successful. I feel like we all got to talk to a lot of new folks, see some happily familiar faces and once again get people jazzed about posters and music and the art in between them. Such a great feeling. Especially since the Flatstock show was 4 days long this year, up from the former 3-day event.

Dan, from Crosshair Press, photo by Mary Sledd

Dan, cool cat from Crosshair, photo by Mary Sledd

The Austin Chronicle’s Audra Schroeder wrote up a very nice piece about Flatstock and it’s tradition with SXSW here with some super photographs accompanying the article by Mary Sledd, above and below.

Me, strawberryluna, doin my thing. Photo by Mary Sledd.

Me, strawberryluna, doin' my thing. Photo by Mary Sledd.

Dave Witt, being awesome. Photo by Mary Sledd.

Dave Witt, being awesome. Photo by Mary Sledd.

Flatstock is a really crazy mix of super hard work and high-energy talking, particularly the SXSW version and then…so much fun. We bunked up with our best pals from Hero Design Studio, as per usual, and the laughs seriously never stop. Just when you think it’s bedtime and you can’t take any more? BOOM. The North American Free Trade Agreement becomes the funniest thing to happen all week.

Studios we adored hanging out with afterhours and that you should check out: Mike Budai, Delicious Design League, Design Medicine, Doublenaut, DWITT, Hero Design Studio, Largemammal, Brian MercerMiss Amy Jo, Popfuel, and good ol’ Dan Stiles,

Places we ate, and so should you when in the Austin area: Juan in A Million, The Salt Lick, Rudy’s BBQ, Mama Fu’s (they delivered to us in the Convention Center, thank you forever!)

We loved Austin so much that we made a very special stop at Cavender’s Boot City in Austin (with the world’s loudest women’s rest room EVER) on the way to taking our good friends, the Doublenauts to the airport on our last full day in town. Check out the boots that I could not pass up.

Takin a little bit of Texas home with me.

Takin' a little bit of Texas home with me.

Hope to see you all next year!

Je ne suis pas Morrissey

So close, so handsome.

So close, so far away.

Because there is only one Morrissey. And, after 24 years, Pittsburgh finally gets their man at The Carnegie Music Hall.

What a great send off for SXSW & Flatstock. Thank you for a lovely show & a Happy St. Patrick’s Day.

morrissey-pgh2

New art print, “he likes to read books written for girls” released!

Books Written For Girls, what a softly brutal song by Camera Obscura.

3-color, hand screenprinted art print "He Likes To Read Books Written For Girls"

3-color, hand screenprinted art print "He Likes To Read Books Written For Girls"

So! Independent Record Store Day is quite a great little way to help support your local indepents. This print is part of a print exchange and show in conjunction with Independent Record Store Day on Saturday April 18, 2009. This particular print show will be up for viewing at 3 different indie record stores around the country: Signed & Numbered and Slowtrain Records in Salt Lake City, Size Records in Oklahoma City and 52.5 Records in Charleston, SC.

The theme for the show was to take a song lyric from a favorite band and translate that into a print for the show. I chose Camera Obscura’s “Books Written For Girls”, which is just a sweetly sad and devastating songhere combined with text from a classic book written for girls rife with odd gender roles and unfair treatment of one’s loves. Or so I think. And here they are, just about to have a heart or two broken.

Available now at my website here. And don’t forget to support your local independent record stores!

Flatstock floorplan

I’m just about packed, and getting super excited to head down to SXSW in Austin, TX for  the Flatstock rock poster show. I almost can’t sleep, it’s like Christmas. I figured that for anyone else thinking about checking Flatstock that I’d post a floorplan to help folks negotiate all of the awesome.

It’s a bit wide, so I’ve popped it up on my Flickr page here. If you come through Flatstock, definitely come say hello!

New art print, ‘Going To See My Baby Blue’ released!

Love love love! Everyone falls in love.

Going To See My Baby Blue

Going To See My Baby Blue

This screenprinted happy day is a new colorway of a very popular and quickly sold out print that I did in 2007, but in a super smaller edition, now returned in blue & periwinkle, just for you. Fresh off the press this weekend. Available at my website, and my Etsy shop.

Going To See My Baby Blue is my 5-color, all hand screen printed art print with sky blue, bright bike red, dark grey, black and transparent periwinkle hand mixed and non-toxic water based inks. And yes! The periwinkle cloud breaks the margin/border, just like a good cloud should.Tweet! Edition of 85. Size: 15.5 x22 inches (39.4 cm x 55.9 cm.) Paper: acid free & archival Cougar, White 100lb cover weight.

A printing progress photo of crazy screenprinting action is below, and there are (of course), more on my Flickr page here too.

Going To See My Baby Blue print, 2 of 5 colors printed.

Going To See My Baby Blue print, 2 of 5 colors printed.

Found Handmade, doing the work for you

Found Handmade Banner

Ever feel overwhelmed by the awesome amounts of handmade art? Perhaps a blog like found-handmade is your new BFF. Found-handmade’s motto is “Finding handmade good so you don’t have to.” and they really mean it. It’s a fully searchable blog that also culls great art and craft finds from big handmade product sites like Etsy, 1000 Markets, Art Fire, and Dawanda. With those finds they write articles and make small showcases based on a whimsical themes, or just colors that look rad together. They also offer very affordable advertising.

I just found out about this super helpful site via my 1000 Markets shop when Lumina Jewelry let me know that she’d written a spotlight on my alphabet prints called Small Delights and Delights for the Small

Small Delights and Delights for the Small showcase

Small Delights and Delights for the Small showcase

And now, no foolin’, I am totally in love with the cups and plate-ware of Catherine Reece of Village Clayworks now! So so cute. I’m considering the need to drink coffee from that bird mug. Thanks Lumina & found-handmade!

Flatstock, Part 1 The What Whats.

Part of my booth at Flatstock, SXSW in Austin, TX 2008

Part of my booth at Flatstock, SXSW in Austin, TX 2008, photo courtesy of Hero Design Studio

Sooooo, if you are a keen reader of this blog, you’ll notice that it’s been a few days since I’ve written a new post. Apologies about that. It’s not for lack of work or a spate of boredom though, trust me. This time of year, usually starting in mid-February right after the winter lulls, is what I like to call the “Pre-Flatstock Craze”. Just as new work starts rolling in as bands begin tour season, I’m starting to get ready for SXSW Flatstock by printing tons of new work, pulling, packing (safely! fingers crossed. yipe.) and shipping years worth of work down to Austin ahead of me. What is Flatstock you ask? Ahh yes. Let’s talk about that shall we?

Flatstock is an ongoing series of poster shows and events that happen at different music festivals throughout the year, starting with SXSW in Austin, TX In March, then during the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, Il in July, followed by Seattle, WA over Labor Day weekend during Bumbershoot, and then in September in Hamburg, Germany. Flatstock is part convention, part exhibition, part show, and a lot of tell where the top currently working poster artists from all over the world converge to show and talk about their work. All of the poster artists and studios involved in a Flatstock show are members of the the American Poster Institute (API), which helps produce Flatstocks, but is also a guild of sorts for the gigposter art industry.

Look for more Flatstock info coming over the next month. If you are in Austin or heading down to SXSW, come by Flatstock and say hello to your favorite poster artists! We don’t bite, unless you have a tasty breakfast burrito, that is.

Flatstock Schedule:

  • Thursday March 19 from 11:00 am – 6:00 pm.
  • Friday March 20 from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.
  • Saturday March 21 from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.
  • Sunday March 22 from 11:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Here is a list of exhibitors who will be selling their posters, prints, and talking with folks like you!

And here is a floorplan layout to help you find your must-see studios.

Flatstock in Austin, TX
Rows of rock’n’Roll goodness at Flatstock in Austin, TX

Doodle time

 

mice playing ball

mice playing ball

Continuing a “why not?” approach to working on small things in between other commissioned, rock poster, and other assorted “for a reason” sort of work, I’m trying to make quick time for doodles and sketches. I give myself a set amount of time and see what I can come up with. So, they are imperfect and flawed, unfinished. (Hint, look at the tails…)

Today’s is 3 mice, playing ball. Like the do. When you’re not watching. Against an old scanned zipatone background. Could be the basis for a future art print. Who knows!