APATOW TRIBUTE TONIGHT!

Tonight is G1988's Judd Apatow Tribute group show, hosted by the man himself: Judd Apatow.  It's a great line up, and should be a great show.  Very excited for the opening.

My screenprint "Fogell" has been given a second chance at life and it's all thanks to Jensen and Katie at G1988.  Originally intended for a different (and significantly more disastrous) Apatow tribute show, my Superbad inspired piece will be on display at G1988 tonight and I couldn't be more stoked.

The print pays tribute to the greatest character in what may very well be my favorite Apatow movie of all time.  It is entitled "Fogell", is printed with 3 colors on cool gray Strathmore paper, and is available in an edition of only 20 prints, with the final print in the series for sale in frame.  Printed as always by yours truly, in my lovely garage.

"Fogell"

Edition of 20 prints, inspired by "Superbad"

FREESKIER

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  My ad in Freeskier magazine dropped yesterday and I'm pretty excited about how it turned out.  Armada skis has been doing a series of artist-based ads in conjunction with their 10-year anniversary and I was given the opportunity to customize an epic photo of freeskiing legend Tanner Hall in any way I chose.  For the most part the previous ads in the series were created by artists that have contributed to the visual history of Armada over the past ten years, so I was especially honored to be selected as I am a full-time employee of Armada and I've only been with the company for a little over a year so far!

I was given a vertical black and white photo of Tanner and we thought it would be cool to orient the ad vertically over the two page spread so that you have to rotate the magazine to view the piece.  All of the ads so far have been extremely colorful so I went with a decidedly unsaturated approach and decided to limit myself to a single color and focus more on the composition and typography.

 My first magazine ad that I've ever gotten to put my name on so I am quite stoked.  Happy 10 years to Armada skis, definitely watch the sick anniversary edit we just put out for a little insight into the company.  The video, which you can view right here, was created by my good friend and coworker, Corey Stanton.  He and I have worked together pretty closely to try and create more exciting graphical content for our videos.  Hopefully there will be much more to come!

Be sure to pick up a copy of the magazine and check it out for yourself.  Thanks for reading!

POSSESSED

Here's my second piece for Gallery 27's 'Are You Afraid of the Art?' group show, opening tomorrow night at Gallery 27 Chicago.  Inspired by one of the best/most demented cartoons of my childhood, 'Rocko's Modern Life'.

"Possessed"
Watercolor on lanaquarelle paper
8 x 10.25"

AGGRO CRAG

Here's one of my two pieces for Gallery 27's "Are You Afraid of the Art?" group show opening this Friday, 11/2.  The show pays tribute to classic Nickelodeon shows from the 90's, and it's going to be totally awesome.  I was really excited to depict the famous Aggro Crag from Global Guts for this piece.    I wanted to climb that thing so damn bad when I was a kid.

"Aggro Crag"
Watercolor on lanaquarelle paper, 8 x 10"

Here's a preview of my 2nd piece, (can you guess which show I picked?) which I will post later this week.  Be sure to check out the show at Gallery 27 on Friday if you happen to be in Chicago!

Thanks for reading.

Are You Afraid of the Art?

Too excited for this upcoming group show at Gallery 27 Chicago.  "Are You Afraid of the Art?" celebrates the classic Nickelodeon shows of the 90's, shows like "Rocko's Modern Life" and "Aaahh!!! Real Monsters" that many of us were raised on.  I was inspired and disturbed by many classic Nick shows as a kid.

 I immediately jumped at the opportunity to create a piece for the show, but couldn't decide on just one program to illustrate.. so I will have two pieces in the show.  Stay tuned to see which ones I picked.  "Are You Afraid of the Art" opens next Friday, November 2nd at Gallery 27 Chicago.

CENTIPEDE

Here's my piece for the upcoming 'Old School Video Games: Level 2" group show at G1988 Venice. An homage to one of the best/most frustrating games from my youth: Centipede.

Really wanted to participate in this show and nearly ran out of time, but pulled something together yesterday morning at the last minute.  Definitely the quickest piece I've ever done, but pretty satisfied with how it came out.

"Centipede"

8 x 8" 

Watercolor on lanaquarelle paper

Hope to see you at the opening next Friday, Oct 26th at Gallery1988 Venice!

Love the invite image by Scott Scheidly.  So trippy man.

Wax Seal

I stumbled upon this great tutorial for making your own wax seal a while ago and have been meaning to try it myself.  Wax seals are sweet, and not that hard to make.  All you really need is a dowel and carving tools.  

I used a 3/4" dowel, and sketched my design on the end after sanding it super flat.  In the tutorial, they use a wood burner to engrave their design, but I wanted a deeper, cleaner impression so I opted to carve out my design.  All I had in my apartment was an Exacto knife, so this step was pretty annoying/time consuming.  I strongly suggest picking a more simple design.

Once you're happy with your carving, you need to seal the wood so wax can't  get trapped in any of the nooks and crannies.  For this part you can use wood stain, polyurethane, resin--basically anything that will seal the wood off from moisture, etc.

1.  Sketch                      2.  Carve out                          3.  Seal

Once you let the sealed end cure, you're ready for the fun part.  You will need sealing wax, which seems like it would be difficult to find, but you can actually get it at Michaels in the wedding section.  It comes in a few colors and is pretty cheap.  They are just little sticks of wax that have a wick in the center.  All you do is light the wick and let the wax drip in one spot over your envelope until you have a pool about the same diameter as your dowel.

Now let the wax cool for about 15 seconds and while you're waiting, dip the end of your dowel in some oil to prevent it from sticking to the wax.  Blot most of the oil on a paper towel, and then press your seal firmly into the wax and let it sit while the wax dries fully.  Once the wax is cold again, wiggle your dowel gently until it parts from the seal.  Hurrah.

                                     

                                     

Gold looks purty.

New Business Card

Been waiting to get my new business cards in the mail for a few weeks, finally got em yesterday and they're just as beautiful as I hoped they would be:

I spent a while on this design and knew I wanted to have it letter pressed so I did some research and finally found The Cotton Paperie, which I can't recommend highly enough.  Not only did they have the most reasonable pricing I was able to find for letter press jobs, they also have the most options for paper and ink colors-- not to mention the fact that they did an incredible job on my cards.

The detail is perfect and the embossing is subtle and classy. Their standard paper stock is a thick double-ply which looks and feels great in your hand.  I am going to be giving these out with extreme discretion as I don't want to part with any of them!

NO SOLICITING

Solicitors totally suck.  You know it, and I know it.  When you work in office without a receptionist to fend them off, they end up coming straight to your desk, distracting you from your work and wasting your valuable time, trying to get you to sign or buy things before you can politely tell them to get lost.  This is even more obnoxious when you have a sign on door that says 'No Soliciting' which gets completely ignored time and time again.

I thought maybe if I created my own No Soliciting sign, something more bold and beautiful than the average type, it might be noticed and actually *gasp* heeded.  You can call it somewhat of a social design experiment.  Whether or not it works is yet to be determined, but at least we now have a nicer sign on the door.

Check it out and download the pdf in a size of your choosing below to print yourself and proudly display in your own office!  Solicitors Beware!!

download - NO SOLICITING (6 x 4.25")

download - NO SOLICITING (8 x 6.5")

download - NO SOLICITING (12 x 8.5")