illustration. dogs. liza. oakland.
dear friendlies,
i’m thrilled to announce my first show of artwork in a long while. nat swope at bloom press and i have been producing prints together for a few years, and this will be a showing of a few of the work we’ve produced together (among other things). the show will be at bloom press, 2310 telegraph avenue, in oakland, on may 3, from 6pm – 9pm sharp. i hope to see your shining faces there. the image below is a preview of one of the prints that will be available.
xm
Hubbo Frubbends,
I just updated the portfolio page with images (and posters) created for Camper Van Beethoven, FastFab, ALO, The Artisans Gallery, Papergirl SF, and the Hollywood Laundrette.
It’s been a busy time (what else is new?). I’m finishing up my first semester as a professor at the California College of the Arts. It’s been super challenging and fun ; the best assignment (so far) was a Harold and Maude poster I assigned my 20 Digital Tools students. We’ve had John Mattos, Beth Dean, and Jim Winters as speakers. We’ve covered Photoshop and Illustrator, and we’re finishing the class with InDesign. Looking forward to Spring Semester!
xm
p.s. Up next: the end-of-year poster for Camper Van and Cracker. And sleep. Possibly some sleep.
Friendlies:
so much is going on. So. Much. Is. Going. On.
First, there’s this: Mac @ ARCH Art Supplies asked me to design a poster for Papergirl SF, a “a community art project that distributes submitted art pieces by bicycle, freely and at random, to people in the streets of San Francisco, American paperboy style”.
Here’s a lovely little video of the poster getting printed. These posters will be distributed free this Friday night at the DeYoung Museum.
Monster Illustration has reared up its ugly (but lovable) head from a long slumber. See what Marcos, Hugh and I are up to here at the brand new Monsternosh : a site for Illustrational Inspirations.
I’m working on the new Camper Van Beethoven album packaging right now. The record is called La Costa Perdida. Have I heard the record? Yes, and it’s their best record since Key Lime Pie. I can’t wait for you guys to hear it. In the meantime, here’s “Camper Van Beethoven” and “La Costa Perdida” in Hebrew:
כמפר ון בטהובן
camper van beethoven
לה כוסתה פרדיטה
la costa perdida
Here’s this year’s Campout poster. It’ll be available on my site after the Campout.
This summer I worked with my friends Babs & Steve at Hard Boiled Industries to make an e-Book version of Dog Dreams. Get it on iTunes! You can have me read the book to you and say the word “hurtling” 100 times in a row. Fun! The post below (the video of me at the SFCB being goofy-looking) is included as part of the e-Book, so you can watch me pretend to make prints on the Vandercook again and again!
What else. Oh, it was a lovely, lovely summer. Spent the 4th of July weekend with our good friends Earl & Samuel in Port Costa. Stayed at this beautiful old hotel : these spots (without strip malls) are hard to come by in the Bay Area. Did the yearly family trip to Tahoe (this was our 24th year ; we’ve somehow managed not to kill one another), and prepared for my teaching gig at CCA. I’m teaching Digital Tools to 20 students in the Illustration department. There’s only been one class thus far, but so far, so good.
OH MAN. Also! In the “Cool Stuff I get in the Mail” department: Chris Rathman sent me a Plastic Bead version of the Space Bear from this year’s Campout Poster! Behold!
Thank you so much Chris!
xm
Dear Friendlies,
there’s a new Friendly in our midst. Lucy Sisman (who has an incredibly impressive roster of print clients) is working on a great literary blog called wwwword, and she asked if I’d like to be interviewed for their blog. The result? One of the nicest pieces of writing about my process to date, and an in-depth look at the creation of A Dazzling Display of Dogs.
Thank you, Lucy!
Friendlies,
I’m finally catching up with the work I’ve been doing in 2012. So TODAY! FOR YOU! there are four NEW! entries on the Wertzateria shop page. Work I’ve been designing (and printing) for the Oakland Museum of California, ALO, and the Camper Van / Cracker Family is all up now and purchasable through this lovely invention called PayPal. Have you heard of it? It’s sweeping the nation!
All of these were lovingly printed by hand (by me) at Bloom Press in Oakland. Go check ‘em out.
xxm
My Darlings,
my presence has been requested as part of the All of Us or None poster show at the Oakland Museum, and I’m eager (yet full of trepidation). A good friend recently pointed out that my current level of neurosis is rather high, and I think it’s because I keep on making public appearances in very public places. Like, for instance, in museums and bookstores. And I don’t just appear, darlings, I do things in public. Like sing, or, in this case, pull screenprints that will be given away to the gathered masses for free.
I usually spend a good deal of time by myself with just a pencil and some paper and my dog to talk to, so you understand. Things could go wrong. Terribly wrong. My good friend (and collaborator*) Jim Winters will be there to help out if we have to clean out a screen or extract a squeegee from my eye socket, so that’s good.
I’ll be pulling (about 50) prints in the gallery from 5:00-6:30 pm on Friday, April 27, 2012, in the galleries of the Oakland Museum. It’s free, I think.
Here’s the mantra for the evening : IMPERFECT = REAL. Write this on your hand with a sharpie, and come on down to the galleries to see me pull prints. Directly afterwards, I’ll be signing the large Peace Sign OMCA Prints at the OMCA Store. See below.
Hope to see you there!
xm
Here’s a preview of the print I’ll be pulling:
Here’s the OMCA Peace Sculpture Print:
Here’s how messy the process can be:
* Plus the guy is an amazing artist, and got me on the road to silkscreen – I should be there supporting him, not the other way around.
Hey Kittens,
we’ve got 15 of these (I think they sold 100 of them out at the Campout), and we’re not printing any more! That’s all! 15! So if you want one, grab one. Two colors, 16 x 21. Image size 13 x 19.
We had an amazing time at the Campout, and in Joshua Tree. Man, I love it there. It’s so incredibly special, and the Crumbs are lovely people and dedicated fans! I posted a bunch of snaps from the trip here.
xm
Hey kids,
It’s been a busy summer in the silkscreen studio, and finally I can share some of the work I’ve been producing. There’s a mess of new stuff to peruse on the shop page: the collaborative book by Mister Jim Winters and myself, Queen for Two Weeks, numbered and signed and packed up pretty in a cellophane wrapper. The super-tall-and super-fifties Sutro Tower screenprint. The longer-than tall Lake Merritt (featuring the also-longer-than-tall Lake Merritt Monster). There is also a photograph of an attractive young man modeling the t-shirt design (it looks just like the Sutro Tower print) I did for therethere.
xm
