SUPERCHUNK + BULLY

Here's a new poster design, for this Friday's SUPERCHUNK show at Mercy Lounge with BULLY.

NOW AVAILABLE in my shop in an AP limited edition of 20 prints.

SPECTACULAR POSTER PRINTACULAR

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!

12 HOURS OF TERROR

I''m heading over to Kangaroo Press to whip up these screenprints for the Belcourt Theatre's second annual 12 HOURS OF TERROR, an all-day horror movie fest Saturday October 27th from noon 'til midnight. I'll be there selling these screenprints that afternoon, so come down, see some horror classics, and pick up a commemorative print to spooken up your bedroom until next October. Get tickets here including a special bundle that includes a screenprint. 

Oh and follow this tumblr for a taste of what's in store.

STONE FOX / NATURAL CHILD

Another poster for The Stone Fox, for a show next week featuring one of Nashville's best rock and roll bands, Natural Child. I'm going to try to do these as often as I can. If you're in Nashville, check out The Stone Fox!

LOGO

for The Stone Fox, West Nashville's next awesome bar/venue.

NASHVILLE FILM FEST

This poster I made for the 2012 Nashville Film Festival is available as an 18x24" screenprint, made locally at Kangaroo Press in a limited edition of 50 prints. Pick up yours at the Nashville Film Festival located in the Regal Green Hills Commons 16. If these go quickly I may have a few extras for sale.

Screening Monday night and Tuesday morning at the festival is ELENA, for which I designed the theatrical poster as well as a new screenprint that will be available through Zeitgeist Films very soon. Stay tuned for a process video and on-sale info.

The film fest poster design is also featured on the cover of this week's Nashville Scene, where you can find a handy guide to this year's most notable films:

See you at the fest!

NASHVILLE FILM FEST POSTER

I made this poster for this year's Nashville Film Festival which starts this weekend. Inspired by UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES. This poster isn't in print or for sale... just made to encourage people to check out the film and the festival in general.

TRISTEN

Out February 1st on American Myth is the full-length debut of Tristen, an incredible artist that I've been fortunate enough to play with on occasion in her band and with my 90's tribute supergroup My So-Called Band (you may have heard Tristen join us for "Lovefool" or "Criminal"). I don't have any samples to post, you're just going to have to trust me on this one. Get on iTunes or Amazon, listen to some samples and pre-order Charlatans at the Garden Gate, one of the finest releases to come out of Nashville these days. You can even download the single here for free. I really can't speak highly enough of Tristen. You won't be disappointed and you'll thank me when she's big and famous. And if you happen to be in Nashville tonight, see her release show at the Basement.

TIM & ERIC POSTER

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!"

SHOW!

For the month of December, a selection of my film poster art will be on display at the Gallery at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville. There will be a little opening on the evening of Thursday December 2nd coinciding with the village Art Walk. Select prints will be for sale in limited quantities. This is the first "show" I've ever had so stop by, have a glass of wine and say hello!

BEN FOLDS BENEFIT POSTER

These 18x24 offset prints will be for sale at the Ben Folds concert benefiting the Nashville Symphony and local volunteer firefighters Saturday November 27th at TPAC. All proceeds from sales of the poster will go to this cause in the wake of the Nashville Flood, which hit the basement of the Schermerhorn Center pretty hard. If you're in Nashville, grab a ticket, grab a poster, enjoy the show, and support a great cause and one of our city's treasures.

WILLIAM TYLER - BEHOLD THE SPIRIT

Coming November 23rd on LP and CD from Tompkins Square: William Tyler's Behold the Spirit. The above album cover photography is by Mike Vallera, and I had the honor of doing the overall layout and design for my dear friend William. This is his first record released under his own name (his last full-length was released as The Paper Hats) and as you would expect from any musical endeavor by Mr. Tyler (Lambchop, The Silver Jews, Kort) it is an essential title for your music library. Beautiful instrumental, guitar-centric compositions that you can hear for yourself for a limited time courtesy of NPR at this link. I'm so happy to be even marginally involved in the release of this wonderful record, a perfect soundtrack for the changing of the seasons and the coming winter. Check it out and support your local indie record store by picking up a copy. Enjoy!

CHAPLIN PRINT

This 18x24" 2-color screenprint will be available at Nashville's Belcourt Theatre from October 30th thru December 5th or while supplies last. I need to thank the folks at Criterion and Janus Films, as this doubles as a teaser for some of the package art for the upcoming MODERN TIMES DVD and Blu-ray. If you're in Nashville, make sure to check out these brand new prints of these Chaplin classics -- visit the Belcourt's site for the full schedule!

THE STORY OF HOUSE

A little over a year ago, Nashville's historic Belcourt Theatre treated a virgin midnight movie audience to the craziest movie they'd ever seen: Nobuhiko Obayashi's HOUSE. James Cathcart, a Belcourt staff member who was an important advocate in getting the film booked, had been hyping the movie up to me, and the Belcourt suggested I try designing a poster for it to sell at the screenings. I used the first idea that came to me after watching a screener of the film-- Blanche the cat's psycho-screaming mug-- and adapted it to stand alone as a symbol of the uncanny and over-the-top assault that our midnight movie audience was in for. One year, many more midnight screenings, and a nationwide theatrical tour later, HOUSE has arrived on DVD and Blu-ray, courtesy of Janus Films and the Criterion Collection.

Just after the Belcourt's hugely successful screenings, I came up with a game plan to try to impress the folks at Criterion (and encourage them to release the film) by designing 25 different HOUSE dvd covers. I didn't make it far with this plan (and thankfully it worked out), but I did have a little fun playing around with other ideas inspired by the film, like the above series of alternate posters as magazine covers. I also wanted to give Gorgeous, the film's protagonist, her own poster that matched the original and suggested a different tone, so I created this idea which ultimately ended up in a different form on the booklet cover:

Limited edition screenprints for the Belcourt's encore run of House,
in hot pink, electric blue and sour watermelon.

Getting the email from Janus Films that they wanted to use my poster for the nationwide tour of HOUSE was a dream come true. We worked out the upscaled design (I had designed the original Belcourt poster at only 12 x 18" and we we needed 27 x 40"), changed the text and the posters started going out with the prints. I immediately suggested the idea of doing a t-shirt too, just the cat face, which Eric Skillman put together for me. Months later, decals followed; Blanche had somehow become a miniature cult celebrity of her own. In those months, word of mouth was only getting stronger about this indescribably insane film, and Janus' newly-struck 35mm prints were a hot commodity. Somewhere along the line, a photo arrived in my inbox of Obayashi himself autographing one of the original Belcourt HOUSE posters. Marc Walkow, a mutual friend with Obayashi and Criterion and a producer on the DVD/BD release, kindly arranged for that poster to ultimately end up back in Nashville and it's now one of my most cherished possessions. If the story of HOUSE had ended there, it would have already been too good to be true.

When Criterion decided to induct Janus' Halloween goldmine into the pantheon of the collection, the cover had already been designed, but I was given the opportunity to have some fun with the rest of the package. I relished this chance to highlight the film's many, many gorgeous images that really don't get acknowledged often in reactions to HOUSE; for it is truly a beautiful film. I wanted to avoid any of the obvious images that get burned into your brain after watching HOUSE, and instead feature some less obvious (though nonetheless iconic) images that I've become so attached to as a massive fan of this film. With this approach I also didn't really have to worry about ruining any of the movie's best scares. There was plenty of great imagery to go around.

I also wanted to reframe the movie from the point of view of its characters-- specifically Auntie and Gorgeous-- and celebrate the great archetypal power of this story as Chuck Stephens (another Nashvillian on the HOUSE team) touches upon in his essay "The Housemaidens," contained in the booklet: "A coming-of-age story about a clique of teenage schoolgirls who will never grow old and a demon spirit in the guise of a spinster who was never young..." With a movie like HOUSE it's easy for reviewers and fans to harp on the genre elements and the film's overall craziness, but I've always felt that no one talks enough about how simply beautiful the film is, in both its aesthetic and its story. My approach to the booklet and overall package design for HOUSE was to counter that craziness (which the cover and poster, I think, do a decent enough job conveying on their own) with a tribute to HOUSE's beauty. I like to think that the package is one that would please this movie's biggest fans and most attentive students; the image on the Blu-ray disc, for example, is one that will probably only be recognizable to fans who have seen the film more than once. I also had fun designing the DVD menus:

What started as just another fun movie poster project became, rather quickly, a personal discovery of one of my favorite films. Seeing HOUSE with new midnight movie audiences, bringing new friends and family members to experience it for the first time, and now sharing it with even more people at home, this movie has grown so very dear to my heart. I'm so honored and grateful to have played even the smallest role in the story of HOUSE's North American release and success, and want to thank Toby, James and everyone else at the Belcourt, Mark Walkow, Sarah Finklea at Janus Films, Sarah Habibi at Criterion for getting in touch and really making my wildest dreams come true, and to everyone who was at all involved in bringing HOUSE to a whole new audiences in the United States this past year.

HOUSE is out today on Blu-ray and DVD from Criterion. Buy it, Netflix it, watch it, share it, tell everyone you know about it. Your life as a mortal moviegoer is about to change forever!

NEXT BIG NASHVILLE gig poster

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.

DUNGEN PRINT

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.

BLACK AND WHITE

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.

BREATHLESS

I did this quick design for a BREATHLESS poster with plans to make a screenprint for the Belcourt Theatre, but because of a couple different factors it won't be going to print this weekend. Maybe it will turn up in print in the future, but in the meantime I'll have some other Belcourt prints in the works for some upcoming midnight movies to be announced soon. Below is a new BREATHLESS poster illustrated by Yoko Komura for Film Forum (nearly ruined by some obviously flown-in digital type), followed by a great original French poster I'd say is my favorite for the film, and for fun, a surprisingly interesting poster for the Richard Gere remake.

COMING SOON

Photography by Michael Vallera, Design by Sam Smith

HOUSE COMING TO CRITERION

I'm very happy to (finally) announce that on October 26th, Nobuhiko Obayashi's HOUSE will join the pantheon of beloved films released on DVD and Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection! It's been killing me to not be able to talk publicly about this exciting news. This film has come to mean so much to me over the past year, beginning with the Belcourt Theatre's legendary midnight screenings of HOUSE last fall. Now, one year later, I'm working on the package and menus for the Criterion release and seeing my original Belcourt poster design as a Criterion cover. Truly unbelievable. I'm so honored to be involved with this release, which will be welcomed with good company; also coming to Criterion in this October batch are Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory, Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited, Ingmar Bergman's The Magician, and a new Blu-ray of Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. What a month! Stay tuned for more and get ready if you have yet to enter.... HOUSE.