Nashvillians and wayfarers all! There's a Spectacular Poster Printacular coming to East Nashville's Barista Parlor this Saturday night, February 23rd. Festivities (posters and donuts) from 7-10pm. I'll be there, hiding somewhere amongst a who's-who of awesome printmakers from my beloved city: Isle of Printing, Kangaroo Press, Boss Construction, Grand Palace, plus work from artists Micah Smith, Alex Pearson and others. I'll have stuff to sell and stuff to see, so come say hi!
I made these over at Boss Construction yesterday for the Tim & Eric show in Nashville last night. For some reason the promoter said they couldn't sell the posters, which I'd never heard of happening with a gig poster before, but anyways now you can grab one from me at my shop. 2-color 18x24" hand-pulled, signed & numbered edition of 50, no two are alike, lots of crazy colors and you'll get a random print from the batch. I love Tim & Eric and it was a trip seeing their live show complete with Pusswhip Banggang live in concert and Dr. Steve Brule himself. So grab some "Jambalaya," "Come Over" and pick up a print... just "Don't Call Me Uncle!"
Next Big Nashville and Boss Construction asked me to pitch in on the official series of gig posters for our annual music festival and I came up with this for this Saturday night's show at Exit/In featuring the Protomen, Heypenny!, Kyle Andrews, Peelander-Z and Cheer Up Charlie Daniels. 18x24", printed at Boss Construction, and available at the show.
Updated: The above DUNGEN print is now available in my shop for those who weren't at the show or weren't able to get one there. Roughly 16x20", 3-color hand-pulled screenprint created at Boss Construction. Signed & numbered edition of 40 and there aren't many left. Just click the link above or the red tab at the top of the blog.
I drew this for an artist series of coffee cans being produced by Nashville's Bongo Java. The series theme was opposites, and I chose black and white. Other artists making cans for this series include my local printing buddies Andy Vastagh and Bryce McCloud. Click the image to enlarge, and look for it on a can of coffee beans near you sometime soon.
Tonight, Nashville becomes Trashville, as Harmony Korine's TRASH HUMPERS premieres at the Belcourt, after which about 400 Nashvillians won't be able to look at a curbside recycling bin the same way ever again. I was honored to create this screenprint celebrating tonight's event with the technical assistance of Andy Vastagh at Boss Construction. It's a two-color print, black and yellow, at 18x24, limited to an edition of 100. They'll be for sale at the Belcourt starting tonight. Here's the first screen down on paper:
We then experimented with yellow ink of varying opacity to create the right effect in the 2nd screen, which has the film's characters set into the background. I wanted them to just be barely visible, or at least not noticeable at first glance, but to still have a strong yellow tone for the central tape label. You can see a nice blueish reflection when looking at the print at an angle.
We ultimately went a little darker with it but I think the basic effect was achieved.
At the end of the run I threw some blue ink on the screen to see what happened:
Off to trim, sign and edition the prints now, then to get my humpin' face on for tonight! Check out the Nashville Scene's cover story on the film, and the video below featuring one of the humpers tracking down Jim "Riddler" Ridley.
I'm proud to announce this new print celebrating the new film from my old Nashville friend Harmony Korine. This print will be available for purchase at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville this Friday, May 28th at the regional premiere of TRASH HUMPERS. I'll be printing this at Boss Construction as always with the help of Andy Vastagh, tomorrow or Friday before the film. Check my Twitter for print process pics.
I was blown away by Harmony's latest work and its an honor to be involved tangentially in the local movement supporting it. It was extremely difficult designing a concept for this unique film experience. Ultimately, the only concept I felt confident about ended up being the idea of avoiding the imagery from the film almost completely and paying tribute to the aesthetic concept behind the film (saying "film" over and over about this project is beyond ironic). Thus the VHS tape pile; Harmony has described Trash Humpers as a kind of artifact, like something bizarre you would find in an old pile of discarded tapes in someone's basement. To create this collage, I went through some old boxes of VHS tapes -- taped TV programs, home movies, and school videos-- and took photos of the tapes and boxes, which was fun. Below are a couple of other abandoned concepts in rough draft form that I didn't feel were good enough to pursue to completion.
The Hurricane Poster Project began in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005-- an effort to raise money for Red Cross by bringing together poster artwork from artists and designers all across America. When Andy and I were brainstorming about our Rebuild This City poster, he pointed me towards these posters as inspiration (Andy contributed a poster to the project himself). Throughout history, poster art has played a major role in the healing and helping of nations, peoples, cities and countries in times of natural disaster... What happened in Nashville this past weekend did not compare to Katrina in terms of casualties, but the losses and devastation were nonetheless severe and widespread. I would love to see more artwork rise out of this tragedy in Nashville, or to see our poster inspire other artists to create their own for the cause. Here are a few posters that came out of the Hurricane Poster project:
As you know, Nashville was devastated by a historic storm this weekend that produced record floods downtown and in many towns and neighborhoods, took homes and took lives. Oh wait, you didn't know, because the national media has neglected to treat this disasters as more than a footnote in its newsfeeds. But one theme that has risen from this tragedy is that Nashville is already taking care of itself. One celebration for the cause will be tonight's Rebuild This City (with Rock and Roll): A Benefit for Nashville at Mercy Lounge-- a cover-free fundraiser for flood relief and victims with How I Became the Bomb, Paper Route and the Dozen Dimes on the bill among others.
Just yesterday morning I posted about my friend Andy Vastagh, and later that afternoon we found ourselves on iChat brainstorming ideas for a last minute poster we could collaborate on for this event. He channeled the basic concept, I illustrated the crying "Cyclops Batman Building," the surrounding city and landscape, and the Riverfront's four submerged flagpoles, and Andy wrapped it all up and laid out the type. As soon as we figure out how to print this thing without wasting gallons of now-precious water, it will be on its way to the Mercy Lounge for donors to take home as a gift for their contributions.
It feels really good to make my own contribution in this small way, through doing something that I love. My family and I have had some losses from this storm, but we are lucky to be alive, and I feel blessed to be able to help others in any way that I can. Let the rebuilding-- and the rocking-- begin.
UPDATE: Last night we quickly sold out of the 1st edition of 100 screenprints -- THANK YOU for the outpouring of support for these posters and the city of Nashville. We are fast-tracking a 2nd edition to ship on Monday, and all proceeds will continue to benefit Hands On Nashville's flood relief efforts. Tell your friends, donate to the cause, and hang one of these commemorative prints on your wall for a donation of $10. Don't make the poor Cyclops Batman Building cry! Visit BossConstruct.com to order yours. Nashville THANKS YOU!
Last fall, I emailed Andy Vastagh in an effort to see if any local screenprinters would be interested in helping me realize my dream of bringing screenprinted film posters to the Belcourt Theatre and beyond. Andy, who for the past several years has worked under the alias Boss Construction, was kind enough and willing to give me hand and show me the ropes in his East Nashville studio. He walked me through the screenprinting process, something I've wanted to know more intimately for a long time, and I finally was able to get my hands dirty with a squeegee and some ink (NOT paint... never call ink paint). Even cooler than Andy's generosity and attitude was the realization that the Boss is not just an amazing gig poster artist himself but he's a pretty well-known one at that; his work is featured in this book among others, a definitive who's who in the gig poster community). If you've been to Bonnaroo, South by Southwest, Flatstock, Next Big Nashville or any notable show at the Cannery/Mercy Lounge, chances are you've seen Andy's work and might even have one of his posters on your wall.
It's been a great and humbling learning experience working with Andy, experimenting and feeding off each others ideas, and we'll have more collaborations to come including a special new movie poster later this month. Here are some of my personal favorite pieces of Andy's. Be sure to visit Boss Construction's site and follow Andy on Twitter for more great poster art.
BONUS VID: This video makes me too happy not to share... Andy surprising his daughter Madee (also seen in the Clap Your Hands... poster above) with a trip to see the Jonas Brothers after he did a pair of posters for them.
