Monday, December 21, 2009

Crossing Borders Show Opening January 1st


Crossing Borders, an exhibition featuring Mexican and American artists, opens January 1st at Art & Light.

Art & Light is open on the 1st Friday (6:00 - 9:00 pm) and 1st Saturday (10:00 am - 3:00 pm) and 2nd Saturday (9:00 am - 2:00 pm) of each month.

From the Art & Light Blog:

Wednesday greetings my art-loving friends! I'm taking a quick break today from the holiday chatter to tell you about a & l's exciting January event which will open on Friday, Jan. 1st (yep, New Year's day (night) -- gotta get 2010 kicked off on an artful note. Kellie LeGrande and I have been working on "Crossing Borders" since early summer and I am soooooooo excited that it's finally here. Mark your calendar and I promise to give you a few more sneak peeks between now and then.


Here is my piece, Los Perros de la Plaga. Hope you can make it!

Even More New Work




Been rocking the studio of late. Here is Mau Vais Sang.

Enjoy.

More New Work


Here are some new paintings, large and small.

This one is 4 feet by 4 feet.

Enjoy.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Other Music Awards of 2009


Favorite Songs of the Year – 2009 (in no particular order)

Islands – The XX (quiet slow burn from an album of quiet slow burns)

1901 – Phoenix (what a single should sound like)

Pieces – Dinosaur Jr. (infectious – thanks J. Mascis!)

Something Is Squeezing My Skull – Morrissey (best album opener of the year)

Think I Need It Too – Echo & the Bunnymen (top single – didn’t hear the album yet)

It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore – Morrissey (my fav Moz song of the decade)

My Lucky Day – Bruce Springsteen (a drive down the road with the sun shining)

60 Ft. Tall – The Dead Weather (New Queen of Rock takes her throne)

Primary Colours – The Horrors (my favorite song of the year)

The First Day of Spring – Noah and the Whale (best breakup song of the decade?)

Marlon JD – MSP (a blast of original punk rock)

Relator – Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johannsson (great lost single from 1958)

Quiet Little Voices - We Were Promised Jetpacks (throaty Scots mean it)

Magnificent – U2 (their best single since Beautiful Day)

Gentle Sons – The Pains of Being Pure At Heart (album closer of the year)

Angela – Jarvis Cocker (mod-rock single sounds like 1965 Kinks)

Daniel – Bat For Lashes (dark and mysterious, better with repeated listens)

I and Love and You – The Avett Brothers (thanks Pete for the head’s up)

Siren Song – Bat For Lashes (I LOVE this record)

Morning Light – Gliss (huge opener from a record that hung in my top ten all year)

Do You Remember – The Horrors (great song from the best album of the year)

Puzzles - The Mary Onettes (gorgeous opener from a gorgeous record)

Treat Me Like Your Mother – The Dead Weather (best rock song of the year)

Aeon – Antony & the Johnsons (the Letterman performance is a must see)

Mind Movies – Daniel Johnston (I love this man)

A Brief History of Love – The Big Pink (heartfelt and beautiful)

Zero – Yeah Yeah Yeahs (nickname nomination: Killer Karen O)

Dust On The Ground - Bombay Bicycle Club (I’d love to hear more from this band)


Single of the Year: Magnificent, U2.
Massive blunder on behalf of U2 to not have selected this as their lead single. I truly believe that if they had, they would have sold millions more copies than they did. Their biggest misstep since the giant lemon.

Runner Up: 1901 – Phoenix.


Album Cover of the Year: Journal For Plague Lovers, Manic Street Preachers.
British artstar Jenny Saville provided the most striking image of the year. Close Runner Up: Years of Refusal, Morrissey.

It seemed like this year was a year of relationships in music. And thusly, relationships are the theme to my lists:


The It’s Not Me, It’s You Award: Breakup of the Year

The Gallagher brothers split. For something that always seemed so inevitable, it felt so shocking when it actually came. Still don’t know how to feel about it.


The I Know You Have A Bad Reputation, But I Love You Anyway Award: Top Five Old Bands I Discovered/Totally Fell In Love With This Year

The Cramps
The Gun Club
X
Suicide
Richard Hell & the Voidoids

The I’ll Never Get Over You Award: Oh Richey, Where Art Thou?

The disappearance of Manic Street Preachers lyricist/rhythm guitarist Richey Edwards on February 1, 1995 is truly the greatest mystery in all of rock history. Journal For Plague Lovers, the album MSP recorded with the final lyrics left behind by Richey, proved to be a masterpiece - a fitting exhale for a band (and fans) still holding their breath. A beautiful, complex, and visceral wake. Simply magic.

The Feels Like the First Time Award: Five Old Bands That I’ve Always Loved That I Fell In Love With All Over Again
The Smiths - Complete psycho-over the top love fest with Hatful of Hollow and the bootleg Troy Tate Sessions. Felt all so new again. I feel like I’ve never heard Reel Around The Fountain and Handsome Devil before. Isn’t it thrilling when songs you have heard a million times suddenly evolve in your ears into something new and meaningful? Yeah, me too.


The Jesus & Mary Chain – I have been a fan since my junior year of high school when I bought Stoned & Dethroned from the used CD store on Bay Rd. because Hope Sandoval guested on it. But had Darklands come out this year, it would have been my album of the year, that’s how much I played it. So, so good.

Iggy Pop – The grand old man caught me again, with his twin 1977 masterpieces The Idiot and Lust For Life reaching maximum playtime. Always loved those two albums, but I reached an entirely sublime and intense understanding of The Idiot that I would play on repeat while working in the studio. I always wondered why Ian Curtis killed himself to this record – now I feel the subtle darkness hanging around the edges of each track like Sister Midnight and Gone Blue. Gives me shivers.

The Velvet Underground
– Isn’t it funny when one of your favorite bands of all time, who you have spent years of your life analyzing and obsessing over, suddenly seem fresh and new again?
Is it because you have changed? Perhaps you are in a different physical location - suddenly, unexpectedly, the music changes. Yeah, that was what happened with me and VU this year. Spent most of the summer driving the other members of my studio out with repeated listenings of Sister RaySister Ray and I are fused at this point.

The One That Got Away Award:
If I would have heard Saturdays = Youth by M83 before the deadline last year, it would definitely been in my top five. Oh well.


Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Top Ten Albums of 2009


OK folks, here it is, my Top Ten Albums of 2009.

10. The Mary Onettes, Islands. Reminiscent of all my fave early eighties bands, Echo & the Bunnymen/Cure. Mmmm….so good.

9. The Big Pink, A Brief History of Love. A truly odd record similar to MGMT, with some great singles.

8. The XX, The XX. A latecomer, but what an infecting record. Hypnotic and sexy.

7. Bat For Lashes, Two Suns. Very Kate Bush weirdness. Several phenomenal songs here – Glass, Daniel, Siren Song.

6. U2 – No Line On The Horizon. OK, so not as great as my initial 5-star review, but still pretty excellent.

5. The Dead Weather – Horehound. Rock and roll as it was meant to be. It seems that nobody else does this anymore but Jack. Detroit wins again.

4. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. Everytime I played this record it got better with multiple listenings.

3. Morrissey, Years of Refusal. From the spectacular opener Something Is Squeezing My Skull to closer I’m OK By Myself, Moz is settling scores. He appears to get stronger as the years go on.

2. Manic Street Preachers, Journal For Plague Lovers. Terrifying, moving, shockingly original. One of the best records of the decade. Period.

1. The Horrors, Primary Colours. I fell for every track on this record. Epic stuff.


Honorable Mention: Noah & The Whale – The First Days of Spring, Gliss – Devotion Implosion, Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz!, Dinosaur Jr. – Farm, Daniel Johnston – Is And Always Was


Totally Geeking Out Over Moleskine Monthly Planner



OK, everyone feel free to totally geek out over the Moleskine Monthly Planner. Holy wow... Must...get...one...soon...


London Calling Released 30 Years Ago Today


30 years ago today, The Clash's London Calling was released. London Calling is one of the top ten records ever made, and seems to only gets stronger with every passing year. The album sounds like a greatest hits collection, with every song being perfect.

From Wikipedia:

The album received positive reviews from critics, and has since become widely accepted as one of the greatest rock albums of all time. In 1987, London Calling was ranked number 14 on Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Best Albums of the Last Twenty Years". Rolling Stone also ranked London Calling at number one on its 1989 list of the 100 Best Albums of the Eighties despite its 1979 release.[37] In 1993, NME ranked the album at number six on its list of The Greatest Albums of the '70s.[38] Vibe magazine included the double album on its list of the 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century.[39] Q magazine ranked London Calling at number four on its 1999 list of the 100 Greatest British Albums,[40] and, in 2002, included the album in its list of the 100 Best Punk Albums.[41]

Robert Christgau described London Calling as "warm, angry, and thoughtful, confident, melodic, and hard-rocking" and called it "the best double-LP since Exile on Main Street".[42] Stephen Erlewine of Allmusic wrote that London Calling was "invigorating, rocking harder and with more purpose than most albums, let alone double albums" and called it "one of the greatest rock & roll albums ever recorded".[43]

Alternative Press included London Calling on its 2001 list of the 10 Essential '80s Albums.[44] Tom Carson of Rolling Stone said it "celebrates the romance of rock & roll rebellion in grand, epic terms"[45] and ranked London Calling number eight on its 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.[3] In the same year, Mojo magazine ranked the album at number twenty-two on its Top 50 Punk Albums.[46] London Calling was named album of the year by Stereo Review for 1980.

In 2004, Pitchfork Media reviewer Amanda Petrusich named "London Calling" the album's best song and wrote that "The Clash do not let go; each track builds on the last, pummeling and laughing and slapping us into dumb submission".[47] The website ranked the album at number two on its list of the Top 100 Albums of the 70s,[48] Sal Ciolfi of PopMatters called the album a "big, loud, beautiful collection of hurt, anger, restless thought, and above all hope" and wrote that "if released tomorrow would still seem relevant and vibrant",[49] and the College Music Journal ranked it at number three on its Top 20 Most-Played Albums of 1980.[50]

In 2007, London Calling was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, a collection of recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance.[51]

As an illustration of the album's lasting impact, on 2 December 2009 it was featured on the BBC Radio 1 Masterpieces Series, marking it as one of the most influential albums of all time, some thirty years after its original release.

Go out and buy it right now. Seriously, go buy it, not download it. The album cover is one of the top five ever, and the sleeve is classic. A must.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

The Plague Dogs Exhibit Opens


The 100 Show opened last night, and the house was packed. It is the first time that I've shown a new body of work, Les Chiens de Peste (The Plague Dogs).

I will post a bunch of these pieces very soon, but for now I wanted to post this piece that I traded to my friend Paul Flint.

Enjoy.

Music Video of the Week: Primal Scream



In 2001, Brit Indie stalwarts Primal Scream released the spectacular XTRMNTR. This album was a mishmash of Stooges/MC5 raw punk rawk energy mixed with techno-ish, ultra sped up dance beats. Movie samples intersperse the tracks, and a political rhetoric keeps the aggression high at all times. Such a bizarre concept for an album.

Anyway, here is an awesome video for Accelerator from XTRMNTR. Killer stuff, and not for the faint of heart.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Sleevage Breaks Down Years Of Refusal Cover Art



Sleevage is an awesome blog devoted to album cover art that I read very often. Recently they broke down the newly iconic Years of Refusal cover by Morrissey. Great stuff. Take a look here.

Hammerpress Rocks The Press


Hammerpress is a really good letterpress out of St. Louis, MO. Take a look at their great stuff here.

He Who Fights Monsters Now Open At Bang Salon


He Who Fights Monsters, a new exhibition of charcoal based-work on various surfaces - cardboard, antique book pages, watercolour paper - is now hanging at Bang. Bang is a great place filled with cool people, and is located at 1 Wade Hampton Blvd., Greenville, SC 29609. Take a look anytime during business hours.

There will be a closing reception, but that date has not been finalized as of yet. I will update this when I do.

Friday, November 27, 2009

RIP: Kodak Kills Kodachrome



Yep, it's true - Kodak has killed Kodachrome. Sorry Paul Simon, it's over...another sad day.

New Noah and the Whale Is Beautiful, Moving

The First Days of Spring Official Trailer from charlie fink on Vimeo.



The First Days of Spring
, the new album by Noah and the Whale is beautiful and moving. The song arrangements and production is absolutely perfect, sparkling and alive. Here is a "trailer" for the album, which is awesome too. Take a look.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

The 100 Show Opens Next Friday At The Art Bomb


Next Friday night - it is a First Friday event night - the 100 Show will open at the Art Bomb. Lots and lots of work for sale, everything under one hundred dollars. So stop into 1320 Pendleton St. on Friday night, December 4th and support some local artists. And maybe buy some Christmas presents too.

My Favorite Films of All Time: Dead Man


Back in the wild and wooly pre-internet days of the mid-nineties, I fell in love with Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. Dead Man is a bizarre, existentialist Western (yes, you heard that right) shot in spectacular black and white. Johnny Depp stars a William Blake, an accountant from Cleveland whom is mistaken for the poet/painter William Blake. There are many, many significant cameos in the like of Robert Mitchum (in his last screen performance), William Hurt, Gabriel Byrne, Iggy Pop (so funny), Michael Wincott, Crispin Glover, Billy Bob Thornton (hysterically funny), Jared Harris, and Alfred Molina to only name some of them. The film also features a haunting score provided by Neil Young.

The pacing is slow and deliberate, but hypnotic. My friend Seth and I watched the film over and over, taking apart all of the subtle nuances. This repeated viewing actually caused my friend Noack to walk home from my house once.

From The AV Club:

What gives Dead Man special resonance—and plenty of rewatch value—is that it can be appreciated on several different levels at once: for the stark surface wonders of Robby Müller's black-and-white cinematography and Neil Young's rumbling guitar score; for its philosophically loaded journey from life to death; for its boldly de-romanticized portrait of the American West in transition, as it's reshaped by the pitiless forces of violence and industry; and, finally, for its unusually sensitive and detailed acknowledgement of Native American culture, which goes far beyond what even sympathetic Westerns in the past had been able to muster. Jarmusch has never been the sort of director with an "epic" vision, and he goes out of his way to avoid gargantuan gestures here, but Dead Man is as close to a grand statement as he's made to date, and one that offers endless food for thought on poetry, philosophy, violence, cinema, and how the West was really won.

With the recent release on Blu-Ray, now is a great time to take a chance on a brilliant film. Give it a shot - you won't be sorry.

PS - More great information about the film to be found here.

Instax Shots from Atlanta and the Twin Cities


Recently I went to Minneapolis/St. Paul for a wedding, and took my new Fuji Instax Instant Camera. Over on my Flickr page I have posted some of those shots.

Enjoy.

New Paintings Hot Off the Press


Sorry for the lack of posts of late, but there has been a flurry of shows for me last/this/next months. This Saturday my show He Who Fights Monsters goes up at Bang (stay tuned for details of the closing reception), so I've been working like a madman towards it. Additionally, The 100 Show opens next Friday night, December 4th at Art Bomb - and I need to do a bunch of work for that too. So I've pretty much been living in the studio. Here is a taste of some new stuff - lots more to come as soon as I shoot it.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Music Video of the Week: Radiohead


Radiohead - Reckoner - by Clement Picon

radiohead | MySpace Music Videos


This video of the week is from the magnificent Radiohead. Reckoner comes from their best album in years, In Rainbows. Enjoy.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Goodbye To Nothing Is Nothing



Today my piece Nothing Is Nothing shipped off to NYC. I always feel a tinge of sadness when a piece sells and goes off into the world. It sounds cliche, but it really does feel like part of me going away. Enjoy it Digitas, enjoy.


Basquiat Interview: Another Tale of Wasted Youth



Too bad Jean-Michel, you were a bright star who burned out too soon...

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Johnny Marr Talks About The Smiths



Johnny Marr, guitarist and co-songwriter with one of the greatest bands of all time - The Smiths - recently sat down with the BBC to talk about his guitar inspirations. Wow, it is so amazing to have the opportunity to hear Johnny not only talk about, but to show how to play some of the biggest Smiths songs of all time.

What a treat - this is just awesome.

Wes Anderson's Top Ten Musical Moments Is Timely



With the new Wes Anderson film, The Fantastic Mr. Fox just around the corner, Spinner has compiled their Top Ten Wes Anderson Musical Moments. Awesome. Below I've included my favorite (from Rushmore, my favorite Wes Anderson film). The She Smiled Sweetly/Goodbye Ruby Tuesday by the Rolling Stones sequence in The Royal Tenenbaums is also one of my favorites.

What is yours? Let me know in the comments...

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Silent Giants Poster Are Amazing


Wow, these posters for the amazing Dead Weather by the amazing Silent Giants are amazing. Buy them here.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

51 Design Rules Go On The Firing Squad


The new book Never Use White Type on a Black Background explores 51 "ridiculous design rules". It looks pretty funny, and kind of true. Check it out here.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Graphic Design: The Movie


Over at the excellent Design Observer there is a piece which casts different actors as graphic designers. From Design Observer:

There's a great line in the Oscar-nominated film Juno in which the title character, contemplating the sort of family she'd like for her unborn child, resists the notion of "wholesome," telling her friend, Leah, that she was hoping for something a little edgier — like, say, a graphic designer. Truth be told, we did a little research and discovered that Canadian actress Ellen Page — who plays Juno — is, in fact, the child of a graphic designer. But still, it got us thinking: if graphic design's become so edgy as a profession that we're getting name-dropped in hit movies, maybe it's time to get serious about how we're really being portrayed. Herewith, our initial choices for some friends and likely suspects, appearing soon in Graphic Design: The Movie.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

My SX-70 Polaroid Rocks the Party That Rocks the Party



Totally pumped this week to get an old Polaroid SX-70. Very excited to explore the possibilities that this camera has to offer. I traded one of my 600 model Polaroids for it - thank you Andre Whiggins for the trade, I really appreciate it!

PS - Polaroid itself has teamed with the good, good people at the Impossible Project to create a new SX-70 camera kit for 2010. So cool, so, so cool.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Seven Days Does It Again


You have probably seen the great work of Seven Days somewhere online, like FFFound for example. I love this great design for an LP by Marina.

Check it out here - check out the other great stuff too.

Paul Buckley Design For Penguin Books Is Fabulous



Paul Buckley designs for Penguin books, and so you know he knows what he's doing! Enjoy his work here.

Inspiring.

Manhattan Tree House Project Is Superb


Saw this over at the excellent Build site - the Manhattan Tree House Project. From Build:

Constructed in the Armory Building of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the project is one of the main fixtures for the Microsoft Open House and launch of Windows Mobile 6.5. The 12-foot tall by 32-foot long tube enclosure sits ten feet in the air and rests between (4) 24-foot tall logs.

Built by the indispensible Wes Weaver, super-builder/motivator in conjunction with NYC teamsters. Teaming with Wes on the construction was Kevin Eckert who provided construction management sharp-shooting in addition to elbow grease on the project. Designed by Andrew van Leeuwen, BUILD LLC worked in conjunction with the creative direction of powerhouse Workbench Creative -thanks to Greg, Matt and John Wallis. The concept is the brainchild of Seattle based masterminds Wexley School for Girls. The tricky structural engineering was provided by Swenson Say Faget Structural Engineers -thanks to Paul.

You really have to read it to believe it. So cool, so, so cool.

Anything Art Chantry Related Is Awesome


As I've discussed in the past, Art Chantry is one of my favorite designers ever. Chantry has been speaking at various academic institutions of late, and though I haven't been able to attend any of them, I can watch from a distance with envious eye.

At left is a poster for another of these engagements, proving that when other designers attempt to work in his unique style, they can sometimes get it right (unlike David Carson).

Milton Glaser Talks About Drawing, While Drawing

MILTON GLASER DRAWS & LECTURES from C. Coy on Vimeo.



Spotted this over at Drawn! - stole their blogpost title too.

Bonus Music Video of the Week: Tom Fun Orchestra

Tom Fun Orchestra-Bottom of the River from trunk animation on Vimeo.



Wow, this is awesome. So awesome, I had to add a bonus Music Video of the Week. Enjoy.

Drawn! Totally Rocks the Illustration Blogs


With all the good will surrounding Where the Wild Things Are (which I am dieing to see) alot of emphasis has been placed on illustration in the design/art media. Drawn! is the best blog that I have found concerning illustration. Chock full of great stuff, like this.

Check it out here.

McKenna Makes Detroit Look Like It Does In My Mind



I've often looked at myself and my relationship with Michigan like James Joyce and Dublin. Joyce, having left Ireland for good, idealized Ireland, attaching romantic qualities to the dirty, soot covered backstreets and smoky, dive-bar-type pubs. And I guess I do the same thing - I find the grimy, rusting, post-industrial landscape poetic, apocalyptic, hopeful, beautiful, and kind of dreamy. The longer I stay away it seems, the more I feel like royalty in exile - Napoleon in Elba, staring out to sea, endlessly dreaming of home.

Michael McKenna
it seems, shoots Detroit not as it actually appears, rather how it appears in my mind. McKenna makes River Rouge - a post-apocalyptic nightmare or smoke and fire and ominous, gargantuan iron landscapes - look heavenly. Take a look at his work here, it is fabulous.

I love to look at his work here, on this Sunday morning, as I recover from yet another illness, dreaming of home.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Happy 400th Post To Speak A&D


This is my 400th post here at Speak A&D. Thanks to all the readers who support this blog - I truly appreciate it.

A couple of updates for you all. The comments are turned on, so please respond to anything that you might wish to. Also, I've reformatted the images for posts - horizontal, rectangular or square images fill the column space, while vertical images will remain the same size.

Thanks again to anyone who has read this blog over the past year.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Music Video of the Week: The National



This week's Music Video of the Week is from The National. The National are one of my favorite young bands, if not my very favorite. This video is for the song Fake Empire, which is in contention for the best song of the decade.

Enjoy.

Polaroid of the Week: The Spirit Room


Hey, nice signage!

Old School + Digital = Awesome


I love the marriage of digital and old school technologies when brought together. Here is a great example. All the red type is overprinted in linocut, the black and white is digital. Awesome.

Check out the process here.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Print Breaks Down Eno's Album Covers


Brian Eno rocks. Print Magazine rocks. Put the two together? Totally awesome - check it out here.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Radiator Heaven Blog Is Awesome


Radiator Heaven is a fantastic blog dedicated to film reviews. Always spot on, this is a superb blog that will soak up hours of you time. So many of the featured reviews are for films that I love. Try this post about one of the most underrated films of the 1980's, Rumble Fish.

Nothing but good stuff here.

Saturday, October 10, 2009

New Paintings In Progress
































Here is a couple of new paintings, still in the process of being worked . More to come...

The Worst of Etsy Is Funny, Sad




Etsy is a treacherous place, full of rip offs, forgery, and plagiarism. But it is also a realm of horrible, terrible art. Take a look at these - ugh. There is another entire site devoted to the bad work found there - regretsy.com. Too funny.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Boondock Saints II: Really? Why Not



One of the best B movies of the 2000's is Boondock Saints. Violent, funny, ridiculous, touching - it really is everything a B movie should be.

So here it is, the oft-discussed, never seen sequal, Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. OK, why not?

TED Sagmeister Talk Is Inspiring



TED is a great little thinktank for genius people to discuss their views and ideas. In the above video, genius Stefan Sagmeister talks about the importance of being idle. Inspiring.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Buy My Viva Hate T Shirt


The Viva Hate Tee. Offset 3-D type style, set in good ole Helvetica.

Buy one at my Skreened store here.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

New Penguin Series Is Incredible


I LOVE these...new Penguin series...awesome....check them all out here.

Christian Faur's Crayon Art Is Amazing




Wow...this is good stuff. Christian Faur is amazing. Check his site out too here.

From designboom:

american artist christian faur uses hand-cast wax crayons as pixels to create vivid images. faur arrived at the series through pushing the boundries of material limitations. rather than using the crayons to draw with, he uses the object itself as small points of colour like a pointillist painting. each work is composed of a small box filled with rows and rows of crayons. when viewed from up close the works appear to be a random collection of colours, but as the viewer distances themselves form the piece, the image depicted reveals itself more clearly. faur has also developed a method of representing the english alphabet through colours, which can be seen intermittently on some of the works.

Helvetica + Elvis = Helvistica


This is stupid...and kind of funny too.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Saturday, September 26, 2009

The Early Eighties Were A Simpler Time

























Ah, the 80's. The Afterschool Special on ABC. They don't make them like that anymore.

Take a look at the pic - life was so much simpler then.

Taming Light: Kubrick Inspired Art Exhibition


Taming Light is an exhibition in Dublin of art inspired by the films of Stanley Kubrick. Wish I could go!

More here.

PS - the poster is awesome - click it for a larger version.

Rushmore Academy Site Is the Coolest

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The Rushmore Academy
is the place where Wes Anderson fans can find information about all things Wes. It is also the place where you can purchase Team Zissou Adidas.

Amongst other cool things was a link to this painting, which is a spoof of Miguel Calderón’s artwork from The Royal Tenenbaums.

Everything about the new Anderson film, The Fantastic Mr. Fox is there, in all it's stop motion glory.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Buy My The Majestic T Shirt


Yes, there is an official T for The Majestic. If you buy one, I will laugh, and be very happy, all at the same time. I hope you enjoy it.

Buy one here.

You can select the size, color, style, etc.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Arial Vs. Helvetica Side By Side Comparison


Nice comparison of Arial (garbage) Versus Helvetica (brilliant) over at The RagBag.

Check it out here.

PS - Thanks Nubby.

Polaroid of the Week: the 80's Are Back and So Am I


For the first Polaroid of the Week, I've chosen one of me from back in the day. The early 80's were a good time - the Tigers won the World Series, The Clash were still together, the A-Team was on TV. On a side note, that couch in the background continues to live on in Madison, WI. though I have no idea where.

The title of this post is for you Jane!

Hello/Goodbye Old MCS

























My good friend Doc sent me this pic he found of my old studio (the MCS) back in Madison, WI. It seems like a hundred million years ago. So much of who I am as an artist was formed in that space. It will always hold a place in my heart.

Thanks Doc - for sending all those memories in one pic.