jason munn

Tomorrow is my birthday, but since I'm going to be spending it with my friends, my family decided to celebrate tonight. I'm making a post about it so I can discuss an amazing gift I got from my brother, "The Small Stakes: Music Posters" by Jason Munn.

I've always been a huge admirer of Munn's work. The images are simply yet brilliantly designed, it's truly amazing how dynamic his images are while using, for the most part, only two colors.

You can't look at a Munn print without knowing it's him. His subdued color use, simple compositions, and graphic lines are so distinctive. Every new page delights my eyes and makes me excited about great modern design. Not only is the content fantastic, but the printing quality of these books is rich and crisp and metallic details are included throughout. Basically, this book is an absolute treasure and I am more than delighted to add it to my growing collection.

If you want to own one, visit his shop. The book's a steal at 25 bucks, and check out his posters while you're there, also only 25 a pop! (I might have to buy myself a birthday present...)

edit

My business cards came in the mail today.

The cut isn't quite right on them and it's going to take a little repair on my part, but the image quality is pretty nice, and honestly, for the price I can't complain. Next time I'll just be sure to make a card not so dependent on extremely precise placement. That or find an awesome local printer which I probably should've done from the beginning.

As far as my little personal studio goes, everything's slowly falling into place. I just got paid for some print sales in May so I finally had cash to buy emulsion, stencil remover, ink and all that good stuff. Every time I think I've got everything I need I remember 3 more things. Like today for example, I started to make a list that started with modest things like a spray bottle and a scrub brush and eventually ended with 2 different sizes of squeegees, safelight bulbs, and a scoop coater. It sucks to have to totally blow a check as soon as you get it, but I know it'll pay off in the long run. Gotta spend money to make money, right? Right!?!

I'm getting excited about the prospect of finally getting some stuff up on etsy. I've got some fun ideas floating around in my head and hope to expand beyond just fine art prints, though that will probably always be my focus. Till I get to produce some new work, here is a print I finished late May when I still had a studio to work in.


Of course since I'm not able to make anything new (non digital anyway) I've been fixating on "mistakes" in the old stuff. This print was tricky to do with all the black and pretty small at 11" x 15." I'm pretty attached to the image and I think I can do it better so I'm considering redoing it as a full size print.

exit through the gift shop

This weekend I headed up to SC to deliver a piece to my friend Miranda. While I was there I took the opportunity to go see the new film Exit Through the Gift Shop with Miranda and her boyfriend Zane. When we arrived in the theatre we were (not surprisingly) alone aside from two blue haired ladies and an old man. Zane and I immediately started making bets on how soon into the documentary they would leave, I guessed 30 minutes under the opinion that they thought it was some kind of historical deal about a real gift shop. However, our cynicism melted away as our three fellow movie goers roared with laughter at the exact same times we did. Shame on us for believing age would inhibit taste. In fact, recovering from remorse over not speaking to them before we left, I suggested they might have been us from the future--reassuring us that age doesn't dilute art sense.

Now, about the film.


I almost immediately speculated that this was a mockumentary. The story was riveting enough, but something about it just didn't ring true with me. The title alone suggests a critique on the commercial art world. And while I realize that would be a lot of forward thinking and work to pull off, I can't help not believing it fully. But that aside, I found the film wildly entertaining. I smacked my face as a museum visitor quipped "what do you think of that American Gothic?" to the reply of "it's very gothic," and snickered at Banksy's numerous quips about Thierry's (aka Mr. Brainwash's) borrowed art styles.

It was also nice to see some other street artists besides the mega popular Banksy and Shepard Fairey at least briefly featured (like NeckFace, a personal favorite).


Anyway, get yer butts out to the film, yeah 10 dollars is a bloated amount (and especially when the film you're viewing is from a guy that denounces the commercialism of art, but that's a whole other can of worms), but it's worth it.

business card

I was recently browsing the craigslist art listings for my area to find out if there were any local shows I could be in/peruse and found a free booth space to sell work at a fundraising event. Of course I jumped at the opportunity and nabbed the spot.

I love that it's a combination of local music and art. Supporting all kinds of local art is important to me and this is the perfect venue for that. If you're in town you should definitely stop by, I'm sure it will be a fun time!

With the decision to take the booth space, my mind has been racing with more accessible ways to sell my work. So along with my growing lists of projects, I've added tote bags, t-shirts, and other fun things to the list of things to print. Luckily no design is too many, and I adore having this much art to mull over. But of course, in true Katy fashion, no project is too many, and I decided to make my very first business card. I'm not exaggerating when I say I had a ridiculous amount of fun making this thing. I did a search for business cards to get ideas and saw some amazingly clever and beautifully crafted cards like these from creative bits:

These cards are like mini pieces of art, and while I lack the funds to do something quite so nice, they definitely inspired me in working on my own business card. So now I'm anxiously waiting to get my card in the mail (oh please oh please oh please let them look right!!). And for a little sneak peak, here's the front:

threadless voting

My design on threadless is up for voting! If you like it please take the time to vote! Its much appreciated :)

8 tracks

I have a new obsession. A site called 8tracks. You basically put together 8 track playlists for other people to listen to. I've found some good mixes to listen to while working on designs, and its nice that 1. I wasn't the one that had to make it and 2. there are some new things mixed in with songs I already like. And since I'm a huge music nerd and have to download something new every day its a great way to discover new music without trying.

Here are a couple mixes I've made so far:

threadless

I'm working on a design for threadless. It's my first time trying to contribute and I have to say, its not easy at all. I'm really lacking a lot of the technology I need to do this (the major one being a tablet!!!) But nonetheless, thought I'd share my design:

fourth of july

Went to the fireworks show on the Cape Fear River in Wilmington, NC. Made a video. Posted it here for you to enjoy.

construction

New work will come soon hopefully. Now that I've had about a month and a half of summer under my belt I'm dying to make some art. Unfortunately before I can make it I have to set up a studio to work in. I'm lucky enough to have the perfect space to do it in (and it's air conditioned too!), but still need the exposure unit, squeegees, inks, scoop coats, clamps, so on and so forth...

The life of a printmaker I tells ya. What we do is not easy!

the zoo

My best friend Miranda and I have a new obsession with video making. So of course we had to document our trip to the zoo. 6 bucks for an afternoon of entertainment, totally worth it!

who spiked the bug spray?

Print done for the University of Wisconsin-Madison print exchange with the theme "Sweet Tooth." I drew inspiration from an incident in my childhood where I licked bug spray off my arm because it smelled like Fruit Loops and my uncle preceded to tell me, not that it was poison, but that I would turn into a fly. And I most definitely believed him.

The print is litho and silkscreen and was done on smoked paper.

roof over your head

this sentence will ruin your life

in case of emergency, smile

Self-portrait print done for a print exchange at Art House Co-op with the theme of "Danger."

the earth is flat

This image is a varied edition. The detail on the globe was pain-stakingly cut from flimsy old Life magazines. As terrible as the cutting process was, and trust me it was terrible, every tiny change in movement with the xacto knife made the paper want to shred, the worst part was adhering the collage pieces down. Spray adhesive + sticky fingers + impossibly tiny and intricate collage pieces = a big fat mess. But somehow, through many curses, prayers and pleads, I got it to work.

crazy in the coconut

I recently found some Life magazines from the 50s and 60s saved by my great grandmother and stashed in our garage after her passing. I swiped them of course and have been re-purposing them into collages. The images in these things can be extremely disturbing. The girl in this collage was from an article about mentally handicapped kids that were being given negative reinforcement in the form of yelling, slapping, etc. whenever they were "bad" and given positive reinforcement when they had "acceptable" behavior. This particular girl was on a floor that administered an electrical jolt whenever she misbehaved. Crazy stuff.

senior show

Got an exhibition at Hub-bub in Spartanburg, SC. It's a great space and I'm excited to be showing there with two other extremely talented ladies, Miranda Mims Sawyer and Jamie Tanner.

suburban sprawl

this country

"Our power doesn't run on nothing
It runs on blood,
and blood is easy to obtain when you have no shame"

Power Doesn't Run On Nothing, The Thermals

if you work very hard

as the sparrow

"To give life you must take life,
and as our grief falls flat and hollow
upon the billion-blooded sea
I pass upon serious inward-breaking shoals rimmed
with white-legged, white-bellied rotting creatures
lengthily dead and rioting against surrounding scenes.
Dear child, I only did to you what the sparrow
did to you; I am old when it is fashionable to be
young; I cry when it is fashionable to laugh.
I hated you when it would have taken less courage
to love."

As The Sparrow, Charles Bukowski

i don't know who you are

The print that started it all. The girl was borrowed from a vintage book about childcare. The diagram is illustrating the position of the lymph nodes, that or some really gruesome STD. Let's go with the former. This print was a lot of trial and error, I made a lot of stupid mistakes that resulted in making the print take longer than it should've/could've, but overall I'm happy with the outcome.