Strawberryluna

AIR Super-Summer-Beach-Fun-Time-Party Saturday 6/27

It’s time! Tiki torches, sand to sink your feet into, small pools of cool water, the occasional head band and YOU!

Yinz Got posters, show at AIR October, 2007. Photo courtesy of gollygoshgees Nick Fredland.

The "Yinz Got Posters", show at AIR October, 2007. Photo courtesy of gollygoshgee's Nick Fredland.

This is the Artists Image Resource’s (aka AIR) summer benefit party, to raise funds for the city’s amazing, one of a kind resource for printmaking arts,  non-profit community print studio AIR. Which, happens to be where I print all of my work.

The Details:

Where: Artists Image Resource, at 518 Foreland Street, Pittsburgh, PA (on the city’s historic North Side), phone: 412-321-8664

When: This Saturday June 27th from 4 -11pm start your summer at AIR!!

Cost: $5 at the door (proceeds benefit this invaluable community print studio) getting you:

Large prints being hand pulled. Photo, courtesy of me.

Large prints being hand pulled. Photo, courtesy of me.

What – Music:

* Mike Budai is your DJ from 4:30-6pm – pulling from Air Supply to Slayer, Budai will eat you. And you thought Budai was just a great printmaker.

Dani & Margot from Alpaca Beretta at 7pm – Somewhere between the pickin’ strings and quaint country harmonies of the 1920’s and the mystical electronic wonderland of the 2020’s, you’ll find Alpaca Beretta. Their sometimes harmonious, sometimes dissonant dulcimer-uke-electro-rama tells stories of whiskey, barrooms, love, murder, farm living, paleontology, greek mythology, whiskey, bank robberies, springtime, and many other things that are essential to understanding our humanity.

Damara Rose Badila Moon at 8pm – Haunting awesomeness. Listen here.

DJ Thermos at 9pm – Currently working on translating his instrumental music into a live performance by banging on buttons, pads, levers, and knobs.
He’s also 1/2 of the rap group Therm&Soul, listen to more here.

Colin and the Shots at 9:45pm – They say swamp rock, we say the reason why you breathe. Always a good time!

Our Love Project at 10:45pm – “life from love, music from birth, death from love, music from ashes” hear a peep here.

What Food (!) :

Grilling by Craig ‘Dr. Grillenstein’ Seder working up veggies, hamburgers, hot dogs (vegetarian friendly versions available) for everyone from 5 – 9pm. there’s talk of a mountain of cole slaw too – think double dare minus the flag.

Drinks: Water, soda, lemonade = liquid summer PLUS the finest East End Brewery varieties on tap!

Proofs of the Seeing Red print porfolio hanging on the walls during production at AIR. Photo courtesy of gollysoshgees Nicholas Fredland.

Proofs of the Seeing Red print porfolio hanging on the walls during production at AIR. Photo courtesy of gollysoshgee's Nicholas Fredland.

What to DO:

Hands on screen printing of beach summer fun!! Bring your beach towels! bring your shirts! we’re printing big and small on paper and fabric from 4 to 8pm. We’ll also be screening early beach cinema classics big projection style.

On view in the galleries:

* ‘A Visual History of the George W. Bush Presidency’ – a traveling print portfolio of 15 different artists critical take on 15 different moments of the Bush Administration’s tenure.

* ‘ Seeing Red ‘– Selections from the ‘Seeing Red’ portfolio printed at Artists Image Resource in 2006.

* The AIR, artist submitted t-shirt raffle!! – View and win one of a kind transformed threads on display throughout the AIR gallery. raffle tickets for $1. Winners pulled at 10:45pm that night!

Hope to see you there!

Inks for screenprinting, mixed and ready to go. Photo, courtesy of me.

Inks for screenprinting, mixed and ready to go. Photo, courtesy of me.

New poster released: Wilco!

3-color

3-color hand screenprinted poster for Wilco at The Fox Theater in Pomona, CA on June 26th, 2009.

I’m super thrilled to be working with Wilco, one of the most supportive and pro-screenprinted poster bands around. This poster is for Wilco’s SOLD OUT show on Saturday, June 26th at The Fox Theater in Pomona, CA.

It’s a 3-color, all hand screenprinted poster with fire-truck red, sky-blue and midnight black inks. Edition of 200, with 180 copies going to the band on tour. NOTE: I only have 20 copies of this limited edition Wilco poster available, so they will be going fast. Size: 16x 22 inches (40.6 cm x 55.9 cm). Paper: acid-free & archival Cougar, 100lb White, cover weight.

For more info, or to purchase, visit my website here!

I also took a few photos of the printing process, with a few below and more are on my Flickr page too. Enjoy!

This is what 4 inches of posters looks like on press.

This is what 4 inches of posters looks like on press.

2nd color (red) flooded in the screen and ready to print.

2nd color (red) flooded in the screen and ready to print.

5 posters to a shelf, whew! 200+ Wilco posters printed and drying on the rack.

5 posters to a shelf, whew! 200+ Wilco posters printed and drying on the rack.

WYEP Summer Music Festival!

4-color, hand screenprinted poster for WYEP's Summer Music Festival

4-color, hand screenprinted poster for WYEP's Summer Music Festival

It’s full on summer time friends! And Pittsburgh’s fantastic independent radio station, WYEP 91.3 FM is hosting their 12th annual, amazing Summer Music Festival to help celebrate summer with 4 great bands. Kind of made a natural fit then for hand screenprinted posters right? When Brian of WYEP asked me if I would be interested, I was definitely excited to design and print a poster for them.

Show information:

What: The WYEP Summer Music Festival with Sam Roberts Band. Also appearing are Dar Williams, The Duhks, and Meeting of Important People.

Where: Schenely Plaza, in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. Grab a blanket and enjoy live music on the lawn at Schenley Plaza as WYEP kicks off the summer.

When: June 26, 2009 from 6pm-11pm

Cost: FREE! And open to the public.

Line-Up

6pm – Meeting of Important People
7:15pm – The Duhks
8:30pm – Dar Williams
9:40pm – Sam Roberts Band

The poster above will be available for purchase as a hand screenprinted, 4-color poster in an limited edition of only 100 posters. Proceeds to benefit WYEP. I will be there selling posters and chatting with fellow-summer-loving Pittsburghers and enjoying the line up of great bands on a pretty Friday night. Come say hi!

Below are a few process shots of me printing this poster at AIR print studios here in Pittsburgh, with more on my Flickr page too.

First color printed for WYEPs Summer Music Festival poster

First color printed for WYEP's Summer Music Festival poster

4th & final color printed, all done!

4th & final color printed, all done!

New poster released: The Detroit Cobras!

Don’t mess with these badass ladies. Just, effin’ don’t.

2-color, hand screenprinted poster for The Detroit Cobras.

2-color, hand screenprinted poster for The Detroit Cobras.

Yeah! Kitty kitty. This is my all hand screenprinted poster for the awesome, kickass band The Detroit Cobras‘ show with Dex Romweber Duo on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at Mr. Small’s Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA. I got to catch the show last night and they were fantastic! Even with singer Rachel Nagy admitting to feeling under the weather, the band was hot and ON. We loved it. Thank you Detroit Cobras! They are still on tour, so do catch a set if they are in your town.

So excited to once again do a poster for some of the most kickass ladies of ROCK, the awesome Detroit Cobras. This feline of a poster is a 2-color, multi-layered print with blood red and midnight black inks. The black is slightly transparent, allowing repetition of awesomeness to show through. See it? Yeah, that’s right pal. Edition of just 80. Size: 16w x 22h inches. Paper: acid-free & archival Cougar 100 lb White, cover weight.

Here are a few process photos of this poster as I printed, with more over on my Flickr page too.

1st color, red, flooded and ready to go.

1st color, red, flooded and ready to go.

First color red, bloody red, flooded in the screen and ready to print (pull). “Flooding” is a lighter pressure pass of ink with a squeegee across the stencil and is the way to get enough ink across the screen to fill the stencil and allow for one perfect print pull with the squeegee.

1st color, red red red, printed, down and done.

1st color, red red red, printed, down and done.

Below is a close up of a freshly printed Detroit Cobras poster showing the red underprinting a slightly transparent black, allowing the red to show through.

Close up and angular to show underprinting.

Close up and angular to show underprinting.

This limited edition Detroit Cobras poster is trimmed, editioned, signed and ready to go. Look for these (and many other awesome posters for the band) on the rest of their tour this summer, and also at my website here.

“Naïve: Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design”, aka I can’t believe I’m in this book (!)

This year is rich with books celebrating and exploring current graphic design, screenprinting and the vibrant hands-on design processes. The newest book that I’m beyond in love with is Naive:  Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design. And I am thrilled and honored to have a selection of my posters in this book with an amazing collection of ridiculously talented artists from around the globe.

Published by the German art & design publishing & curration house Gestalten, they describe this beautiful book best:

“Naïve documents the extraordinary renaissance of Classic Modernism, from the 1940s to 1960s, in contemporary graphic design. This compilation introduces a new wave of young designers who are rediscovering the stylistic elements reminiscent of classic graphic design such as silkscreen printing, classical typography, hand lettering, woodcutting and folk art and integrating them into their work. Inspired by 20th Century American legends such as Saul Bass, Charley Harper and Alexander Girard, the burgeoning designers and their work showcased this in this book are inspiring, ranging from illustrations, poster art, editorials, book covers and record sleeves to stationary and textiles.”

Naïve is a seriously stunning book filled with jaw-dropping illustration and design work at every turn of the page. No foolin’. Naïve is available at Gestalten’s website, or Amazon, and book sellers near you.

Venus Magazine interview; Spotlight on women in rock posters

Miss Amy Jo

Miss Amy Jo's take on poster art & artists. (Click for a larer view.)

So, wow. When the extremely rad, Chicago-based Venus Magazine contacted me at the end of the winter about doing a feature on women in the rock poster scene, I was floored. But, also, in true strawberryluna fashion, pretty sure that not a whole lot would come of it. I mean, come on, Venus is a great magazine dedicated to women, art, music, culture and the places where they collide. It seemed too cool to be true.

Well, I was wrong. Happily. After talking on the phone with Christine Bejasa for about 45 minutes one very grey, dreary and cold Pittsburgh afternoon, I was pretty excited. And now, I can share my stokage.

Some things that I said about posters...

Some things that I said about posters...(Click for a larer view.)

Profiling Miss Amy Jo of Minneapolis, Judge from Chicago, and myself, strawberryluna, straight outta Pittsburgh, the article was a fun read and definitely sheds some light on not only what’s it’s like being a working rock poster artist, but in being part of a larger world of printmakers, illustrators and designers making a go of this weird life. For larger and easier to read images head over to my Flickr site here!

Th art & words of poster artist, Judge.

Th art & words of poster artist, Judge. (Click for a larer view.)

The article is on news stands now, in the summer 2009 issue of Venus Magazine. If you like it, and dig the issue, consider a subscription. I promise, this magazine never fails to be rad.

Thank you Venus Magazine! Keep rockin’ the awesome!

Posters in the wild at the girlscantell office!

The super pretty girlscantell home offices, with posters.

The super pretty girlscantell home offices, with posters. Photo, courtesy of girlscantell.

One of my favorite people and one of my favorite blogs collided.

My friend Sarah, of girlscantell, the screenprinted housewares genius from my hometown of Philadelphia was featured this Thursday on the superblog Apartment Therapy for her beautifully appointed office space. Rocking color, warmth style, organization and personal touches, Sarah’s office looks amazing doesn’t it? I’m beyond flattered that she has chosen to add in not one, not two, but three of my posters into her already rad scheme. :blushes: I really love the vintage looking planter on her desk with the the aloe plant, it looks like a peaceful sea creature just hanging out on the desk, being awesome.

Not uh! 3 of my posters hanging out with Sarah at the girlscantell office.

Not uh! 3 of my posters hanging out with Sarah at the girlscantell office

Since I don’t hang and frame my own work at home, I never really get to see my prints and posters “in the wild” as it were. Sarah did a great job with these posters, I’m so honored. Thanks ladybug! And congratulations on the Apartment Therapy blog post too, extra cool.

Check out girlscantell’s Etsy shop, peruse girlscantell’s Flickr photos of her studio and her awesome work, and stop by the informative and super fun girlscantell blog here.

Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn, this weekend!

So go darn it!! RCF is in McCarren Park (but not in the pool this year) in lovely Brooklyn, NY.

Sadly, I won’t be attending or vending this year 🙁 due to other travel plans in June. And I’m so bummed because this year’s Renegade Craft Fair is the biggest and best looking offering of amazing handmade crafts, art to date. The offering of incredible work from the DIY and Handmade culture is just fantastic, and the Renegade Craft Fairs are the premiere shows loaded with international talent.

Seriously. I feel like a ghost and watching all of my crafty, arty friends are hanging out together. BooooOOOOoooo :rattleschanins:

So, since I can’t go, you go for me! Say hello to my friends below and spread the word. See you next year Brooklyn!

Some of my favorite artists and crafters whom you should check out & totally say HI! to for me:

Berkely Illustration – amazing animal and other illustrations.

Bossa Nova Baby – super fun hand screenprinted skirts, sewn embellishment and retro-cool accessories. (And one of the funniest people I know.)

Giant Dwarf – beautiful embellishments for your head, hair and heart.

Hero Design Studio – these guys are my stone cold BFFs. Amazing every which way, including loose.

Isle of Printing – quite possibly the best that there is out there. Ever.

Mat Daly – amazing printmaker and poster artist

Mogo – modern goods from scratch, and two of the coolest chicks ever.

Nina Dinoff – fantastic fresh modern jewelry

Orangyporangy – maker of the cutest skirts EVER.

Ragtrader Vintage – retro-awesome jewelry, and a Pittsburgher! This is her 2nd show ever, so be NICE damnit. 🙂

Seattle Show Posters – great prints and posters

Seibei – super fun shirts and a hoot of fella.

Tugboat – Huzzaah! Another fantastic Pittsburgh printshop. We’re loaded with ’em.

Twigs & Heather – incredible solid silver cast natural work. Unreal.

We Are Campfire – great dudes who make great threads.

The Who, What, Wheres:

This year’s event is taking place June 6 + 7 from 11am – 7pm, at McCarren Park. The full Artist list is up, so check it out and get a sneak peak at who will be there!