Strawberryluna

Flatstock Chicago & Pitchfork Music Fest: July 16-18, come say hi!

Artwork by Flatstock artists Landland.

For us, summer time means a lot of things, and one of them is what we like to call “carny season”. Yep. That’s right, I just called us carnies. We do a lot of craft shows and poster shows, aka Flatstocks all through the spring & summer and travel around the country to participate in them. And? We love it.

One of our favorite shows is coming up this weekend, hooray! It’s the Chicago Flatstock 26, which happens during the super dupes Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park, smack in the middle of Chicago. We’ll be there showing a giant new crop of posters and Test Prints as well as art prints and more. So please say hello when you drop by Flatstock! We love meeting new folks at shows, big time.

Pitchfork Fest’s line up is seriously kickass this year, and even cooler, Flatstock 26 Chicago is 3 days long now too running from Friday July 16th through Sunday July 18th. While the Flatstock Poster Show is free and wide open to the tens of thousands of Pitchfork Festival attendees, you do need a ticket to attend Pitchfork Fest.

AND! If you are going to be at Pitchfork, don’t forget to enter this FREE CONTEST to win a huge stack of posters from your favorite poster artists! For more info & to enter to win, simply click here! *Winner must be present to claim their prize.*

The Flatstock Poster Show series is presented by the American Poster Institute (API), of which all Flatstock artists are members. Flatstock is an ongoing series of exhibitions featuring the work of many of the most popular concert poster artists working today. Most posters and the rock poster artists who show at Flatstocks are working in the silkscreen mediums, often using hand printed techniques and are working for current bands and musical artists.

To learn more about Flatstock Poster Shows, click here!

Here are the rest of the main details for Flatstock 26 Chicago & Pitchfork Music Fest, 2010:

Dates: Friday, July 16 – Sunday, July 18, 2010
Times: Friday: 3pm- 10pm / Saturday + Sunday: 12pm – 10pm
Location: Union Park, 1501 W Randolph St, Chicago, IL 60607
(Corner of Lake St. and Ashland Ave.) Get map

Flatstock 26 Chicago Participating Poster Artists (subject to change):
  • Aesthetic Apparatus
  • Casey Burns
  • Clinton Reno
  • Crash Design (Mike King)
  • Cricket Press
  • Crosshair
  • David V. D’Andrea Illustration/Andrew Crawshaw-Broken Press (split)
  • Delicious Design League
  • Diana Sudyka
  • DKNG
  • Doublenaut
  • Furturtle Showprints
  • GIGART
  • Gigposters.com
  • Ground-Up
  • Hero Design Studio
  • Johnny Sampson/Ryan Duggan (split)
  • Josh Rickun/Kyle Baker (split)
  • Kevin Tong Illustration
  • Kill Hatsumomo Designs/Dead Meat Design (split)
  • Kollective Fusion
  • Landland
  • Lil’ Tuffy
  • Madpixel
  • Michael Michael Motorcycle
  • Mike Budai
  • Mile 44
  • Miss Amy Jo
  • My Associate Cornelius
  • Pink Slip Press
  • Popfuel
  • Sandusky Bay Poster Works
  • Screwball Press
  • Sonnenzimmer
  • strawberryluna
  • The Bird Machine
  • The Bubble Process
  • The Bungaloo
  • The Decoder Ring Design Concern
  • The Silent Giants
  • The Small Stakes
  • Tiny Media Empire
  • Vahalla Studios
  • Will Ruocco Art & Design

Etsy’s new Treasury East rocks!

Click to see this Treasury.

Hey, are you like me and you love the Treasuries at Etsy.com, but are frustrated with the stampede of trying to snag one? Be frustrated no more. Etsy has launched a new Treasury system that they are now Beta-testing, called Treasury East.

Gotta say, it ROCKS.

What’s a Treasury? Great question. In Etsy’s own words: “The Treasury is an ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery of handpicked items.” So, it’s sort of like a favorites list, or a collection put together by users based on themes, colors, craft type, a play on words, whatever the Treasury curator wishes. They’re often very lively and a great way to find new things and previously undiscovered shops on Etsy. And, there is always one treasury featured on the front page of Etsy, showing just a peek of the many hundreds of thousands

However, the last time that I tried to make a Treasury was probably in 2006, it was just too bothersome and hard to be at the very right place at the very right time with all of my selected ducks in a row. So, I didn’t even try for the past 4 years.

The way that the current / soon to be old Treasury system worked, there was a finite number of Treasuries and once one expired it was chaos with hundreds to thousands of Etsy users trying to get that next open spot at any given time.

Now, with Treasury East in Beta-testing, it’s wide open, and pretty awesome. So rad in fact, that I spent my Tuesday morning over coffee and making my very first Treasury featuring some of my favorite screenprinters, called “Inky Fingers: Screenprinted and Silk Screened Beauties” <— Click there to see ’em all.

There are some new features, such as no longer being Flash-based (hey! I can see Treasuries on my iPhone now, thanks),  and best (!) lists in Treasury East are not limited to a finite number nor do they currently have expiration dates. This means that anyone, at any time can curate and create a Treasury. Hooraay!

So go play with a Treasury East jimmy-jawn today. For all of the new features, rules, and most importantly, add your own suggestions & experiences, read over this thread on Etsy all about the new Treasury East. And, to find out if your shop is currently featured in a Treasury East list, check out this nifty tool from Craftopolis that will show you, Etsy East Hunt. (Note, you will need to have an active Google Analyitcs account linked to your Etsy shop to pull the info. Currently there isn’t a tool to see if your shop is featured on Treasury East yet via Etsy itself.)

Have you played around with making a new Treasury using Treasury East yet? I’d love to read any comments and see what other Etsy users think too.

To see my Treasury of Inky Fingers: Screenprinted Beauties, click either HERE or any of the images above. And don’t forget to comment on Treasuries that you like 🙂

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Shops & prints featured above in my “Inky Fingers: Screenprinted and Silk Screened Beauties” Treasury:

1. beethings – limited edition screenprint: “frog dog hog log bog”

2. standard – limited edition screenprint: “Hello Darkness, My Old Friend”

3. strawberryluna – limited edition screenprint “Let Love Grow”

4. Little Friends Of Printmaking – limited edition screenprint: “I Am Number One”

5. girlscantell – industrial felt, set of four coasters: “turntable diagram”

6. youngmonster – screenprinted gig poster:  “Why?”

7. Miss Amy Jo – screenprinted art print: “Kitty Cat”

8. Who Made Who TOOTH – screenprinted art print: “New Wave To The Grave”

9. DWITT – limited edition screenprint: “Magic”

10. Jetsah – limitee edition screenprint: “Arrival”

11. Hero Design Studio – limited edition screenprint: “I Heart My Bike”

12. Anne Benjamin Mok Duk – limited edition screenprint: “Bird In Hand”

13. cricket press – limited edition screenprint set: “Scorcher and Stingray Bike Set”

14. doctor pizzoli – limited edition screenprint: “Awooooga Elephant”

15. darling clementine – screenprinted canvas bag: “Monsieur Cabaret”

16. Jen Skelley – limited edition screenprint: “Beemazed”

Pitchfork Music Festival & Flatstock Poster show

Picture 3

Heeeeyyyy! It’s tour season, not just for bands but for poster artists too. And that means a new Flatstock Poster show! This next Flatstock is at Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago, IL inside Union Park.

Flatstock is a series of rock poster shows & conventions that happen currently 4 times a year in Austin, TX  (during SXSW), Chicago, IL (during Pitchfork Music Festival), Seattle, WA (during Bumbershoot Music Festival) and Hamburg, Germany (during the Reeperbahn Festival). The Flatstock shows provide the public with opportunities to see fine poster art in person and to meet the artists who’ve created it, while showcasing the breadth of individual styles they represent. Since beginning in 2003, Flatstock has presented 20 events in the U.S. and Europe and has become the epicenter of the current phenomenon in handmade poster art.

Myself and over 40 other national poster artists will be there at Flatstock selling prints, posters and more and talking with thousands of music and art fans. Come see us, say hi, and chat. We’re mostly super nice, and definitely geeky about art.

And, check out the map of Union Park, Pitchfork’s stages and Flatstock’s location in Union Park.

Meet your 2009 Flatstock Chicago exhibitors! The below is the official FS 21 lineup.

Gigposters.com
The Bird Machine
Decoder Ring
Matt Terich-Design Medicine
Hero Design Studio
Furturtle Printworks
Johnny Sampson
Kollective Fusion
Kevin Tong Illustration
Clinton Reno
Mile 44
Landland
Madpixel
Strawberry Luna
Daniel Danger
The Bubble Process
The Silent Giants
Justin Santora-Pink Slip Press
Lil’ Tuffy
The Small Stakes
Weathermaker Press
Mike Budai
Pedal Printing
Crosshair
Cricket Press
Aesthetic Apparatus
Crash Design
Josh Rickun
Alana Bailey
Gigart
DKNG
The Bungaloo
Delicious Design League
Spike Press
Mat Daly
Richie Bearden
Miss Amy Jo
Will Ruocco
Tom Stack-Stackmatic
Dan Grzeca-Ground Up
Diana Sudyka
Keith G. Herzik
Octophant
Doublenaut

FS-Map

Venus Magazine interview; Spotlight on women in rock posters

Miss Amy Jo

Miss Amy Jo's take on poster art & artists. (Click for a larer view.)

So, wow. When the extremely rad, Chicago-based Venus Magazine contacted me at the end of the winter about doing a feature on women in the rock poster scene, I was floored. But, also, in true strawberryluna fashion, pretty sure that not a whole lot would come of it. I mean, come on, Venus is a great magazine dedicated to women, art, music, culture and the places where they collide. It seemed too cool to be true.

Well, I was wrong. Happily. After talking on the phone with Christine Bejasa for about 45 minutes one very grey, dreary and cold Pittsburgh afternoon, I was pretty excited. And now, I can share my stokage.

Some things that I said about posters...

Some things that I said about posters...(Click for a larer view.)

Profiling Miss Amy Jo of Minneapolis, Judge from Chicago, and myself, strawberryluna, straight outta Pittsburgh, the article was a fun read and definitely sheds some light on not only what’s it’s like being a working rock poster artist, but in being part of a larger world of printmakers, illustrators and designers making a go of this weird life. For larger and easier to read images head over to my Flickr site here!

Th art & words of poster artist, Judge.

Th art & words of poster artist, Judge. (Click for a larer view.)

The article is on news stands now, in the summer 2009 issue of Venus Magazine. If you like it, and dig the issue, consider a subscription. I promise, this magazine never fails to be rad.

Thank you Venus Magazine! Keep rockin’ the awesome!

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!