I WON A PEN!

I'm pretty sure that December ate a Mario star and then ran itself blinking through various dangerous obstacles to a much quicker end than originally anticipated. Good show!

In the spirit of the season I present you with Rocking Santa.
He is forever young (and always rocking cool jams).

I had all sorts of handmade gift plans this year, but I only managed to make these pretzel bags.
So it goes!

Happy Holidays to you.

COUNTING THE DAYS

Just got this calendar I ordered from Oddball Press in the mail!
It's perfectly small, letter pressed, and was very reasonably priced. Grade: A+

A VIEW FROM THE KITCHEN.

"You cursed brat! Look what you've done! I'm melting!"

A MOVIE ABOUT ROCK POSTERS.

I am excited to check out this documentary which is playing in Toronto this/next week! Maybe you are too?! It was directed by Eileen Yaghoobian and plays at The Royal Cinema on the following dates:

Friday November 14th @ 9:30pm
Saturday November 15th @ 2:30pm
Monday November 17th @ 9:15pm
Tuesday November 18th @ 9:15pm
Wednesday November 19th @ 7pm
Thursday November 20th @ 7pm

Died Young, Stayed Pretty is a candid look at the underground poster culture in North America. This unique documentary examines the creative spirit that drives these indie graphic artists. They pick through the dregs of America’s schizophrenic culture and piece them back together. What you end up with is a caricature of the black and bloated heart that pulses greed through the US economy. The artists push further into the pulp to grab the attention of passersby, plastering art that’s both vulgar and intensely visceral onto the gnarled surfaces of the urban landscape. The film gives us intimate look at some of the giants of this modern subculture. Outside of their own circle, they’re virtually unknown. But within their ranks they make up an army of bareknuckle brawlers, publicly arguing the aesthetic merits of octopus imagery and hairy 70s porn stars. They’ve created their own visual language for describing the spotty underbelly of western civilization and they're not shy about throwing it in the face of polite society. Along the way, they manage to create posters that are strikingly obscene, unflinchingly blasphemous and often quite beautiful. Yaghoobian shows these artists for what they are: the vivisectionists of America’s morbidly obese consumer culture.

Link to the trailer HERE!

I PUT A SPELL ON YOU.

A+

Castle learns how to screen print. What a total squeegee wrangler!

CD face for Animal Sense by Lunchmeat (December 08).
Design by Castle.

PILES OF PAPER.

Printing the first 150 copies of this CD was fun.
Printing the last 350 has been . . . taking me a while, ha.

Oh! A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of chatting with Jeff Garcia AKA Mangoepeeler's screen printing class about the pleasures and pain of screen printing at home. It was fun times! If your looking to get into screen printing, his class is a totally relaxed way to learn the process. He also makes good art stuffs to look at with your eyes. Click HERE.

FOOD OF CHAMPIONS.

2 of DW's favourite things . . .

I CONJURE THEE!

2 colour posters are an exercise in restraint!
This magician is conjuring the bands name from the depths of the darkest forest.
Inspired by levitation master magician Harry Kellar.
Drawing is fun.

BELATED BUT RELATED.

POSTER SHOW 2008

A Glance...

Sticky tack is not where it's at.

Matt King and his poster display matched. Impressive!

Jesjit and his fortress of visual delights.

One of Steph D's hot airbrushed t-shirts (so awesome that someone greedily stole this one right off the wall!).

POSTER SHOW III

Poster by: Fort Polio (show organizer)!

An upcoming event you might be interested in if you like good noisy music and poster art!
Third time's a charm!

Saturday September 13th at The Whippersnapper Gallery!
Aidswolf "Cities Of Glass" album release party.
W/ Indian Jewelry, Romo Roto and Thrashed Jeans

Posters by:
Seripop / Autodestrukt / Merchguy / Deadweight / Michal Majewski / Jeremy Wilson / Gavin Dee / Jesjit Gill / Michael Deforge / Doublenaut / Aaron Ber / John Kurmis / Haggard Beast / Adam Swinbourne / Steph Davidson / Tad Michalak / Leslie Predy / Thomas Del Balso / Alex Mackenzie / Matt King

6PM/$10

ZINE DREAM.

A few peeks at DW's table from Zine Dream this past weekend. This was my first zine/art fair experience and I was happy to see that my cat inspired paper goods got nicely fondled. Cats are total sluts.

It was an interesting learning experience for sure. I wish I would have had more cash to pick up all the amazing goods people had at their tables! There are some awesome art makers in this city - holy smokes.

Blowing Smoke!

TGB - Treading Water/Blowing Smoke EP - Popsick Records.
4 colours on white cardstock.

Front and back.

Inside.

These packages came unassembled which was SO great for printing!

Release show Thursday September 11th @ Sneaky Dee's
w/ The Stolen Minks, Brides, DJ(s) Deathhug!

Swimming Lessons.

What I've been working on lately = my bands new EP.
I'm going to start printing this soon and I am EXCITED.

Dream On.

I recently made these screen printed cards.
Experiments, yo!

I will be selling these, as well as posters and a few other things at an awesome upcoming event called ZINE DREAM!

ZINE DREAM INFO FROM THE PLANNERS:

Small press art fair, featuring over 40 local artists and zinesters!
All 3 rooms of the rooms of the tranzac, with music and
performances all day! Toronto Zine Library Open House,
come hang out and read zines! There will be a bake sale!!

SUN AUG 24 08 - TRANZAC, 292 Brunswick Ave. 12 to 6 pm

WITH MUSIC BY:
DADS
Peace Loving
Doctor Matthew Dunn
$100 lite
DJS Longhorn Grille + Orenda

PERFORMANCES BY:
Lou Calabro
Stephanie Wilkie
Chris Locke

PWYC

Contact laura (lauramclaura at gmail) or jesjit (jesjit at gmail) for more info
http://www.geocities.com/zine_dream1

Good lookin' poster for the event by Jesjit.

Has Anyone Ever Called You A Ham And Egger?

A couple pictures from a recent road trip to Pittsburgh.

Lovely yellow bridges.

PNC Park is a beautiful place to see a ballgame. Even when your team gets burned.

Fried chicken for breakfast is where it's at.

A Ticket To Ride.

This weekend was for poster printing!
6 colours on nice mustardy paper.

The poster for this show was designed to go with the CD which is being released (despite being completely different colours). Bring on the cohesiveness!

You've Got Air Mail.

Despite being nervous about printing on a glossy surface for the first time, these CD packages turned out exactly as I hoped they would! YES.

A Thing Of Beauty.

Photo: From the series of pictures called Melting Words by Kotama Boubane

(Found via Oh Joy).

I really like this! A LOT.

All Hands On Deck!

Just finished designing this CD for We Take Lovers. One of my loveliest lady friends is in this band, so it's a total pleasure on my part to be involved. Soon it'll be time for the screen printing. Glossy white cardboard packages, ahoy!

A piece of something else I've been working on . . . .

Dehydration Station.

Spent another Saturday in the studio. It's fitting that the distortion pedal I've been borrowing (pictured above) is called Jekyll and Hyde, as the recent hot weather has me feeling some . . . seasonal duality of character - ha!

Question: Can anyone really drink 8 glasses of water a day? I perpetually fail this hydration standard, badly! I wonder how many people I know truly achieve this level of healthy internal wetness.

Web crush: these modified vintage ceramics by Esther Coombs (via Poppytalk). Pretty!

Sleepytown Day One.

Sleepytown Studio is great.
Polaroids are fun.