feather2pixels

To the piece of shit who tagged my art at CELLspace last Thursday night:

I couldn’t help but find myself wondering if you consider yourself some kind of artist.  If so, you have a lot to learn about personal standards.   I’m not sure if the stickers you planted all over my screen prints represent your strongest work, but they really weren’t ready for the garden show.

Or maybe felt tipped marker just isn’t your medium.  Either that or you need to cut down on the caffeine before you hit the studio–any cokehead can make neater lines than these.

Maybe I am wrong.  It could be that you are more into the ruining other people’s art angle.  On that count, you’ve come up pretty short too, and this is coming from a dude who’s 5’6”.  I mean, stickers?

Is everything you do this half-assed?

This pretty much says, “I wanted to be a badass who doesn’t give a fuck about the rules, but I didn’t quite have the balls to execute a proper tag.”  You should have just printed some business cards at Kinko’s and taped them to the door.

Anyway, the irony is that some good graffiti would have probably improved the art.  Instead we get this.

hat is that. My tenure as a CELLspace studio artist ended on a clear Halloween night, as Tommy helped me transport the last of my junk to the new studio four block away.

I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for CELL.  I learned to screenprint there and it’s a place where I met many great individuals.  And even if it is a place where people could take over your workspace if you went on vacation for too long or someone could accidentally schedule a roller skating party in the middle of your art show, I am glad I got to work here.  Thanks CELLspace.

Some highlights:

• I get my key (1/21/08)
• 2011 Open Studios (10/3/11)
• 2010 Open Studios (10/20/2010)
• 2009 Open Studios (10/19/2011)
• I Christen the members studio (3/24/2011)
• NV Surly guest DJ’s (1/29/2011)
• Valencia to Vermont printing wraps (1/26/2010)
• I screen print my first postcards (2/25/2007)

T

Next up: Cowboys and Indians at Spacecraft first Thursday.  My new pieces will be there in some form.

Spacecraft: Cowboys and Indians
November 3, 2011
CELLspace Gallery
2050 Bryant Street
7-Late

The theme of this November’s Spacecraft First Thursday show at CELLspace is Cowboys and Indians so I have been inspired to use the Italian comic book I bought in Venice last summer. It’s called “Tex” and it’s from 1977.

My first step was to photocopy the pages and sew them together in 3×3 foot paper quilts. More soon!

Well, I investigated another presentation for my Screen Prints on Trash series at the recent Spacecraft first Thursday show.  The theme of the show was “Unresolved,” and I decided to panel the Precita prints from the ceiling to the floor, inviting people to step on them.  Maybe this is laying it on a little thick, but as an experiment to reconsider the value of art, I liked the way this worked out.

Of course next time this idea needs to be taken much further.  I had visions of an entire art show that forced guests to navigate exclusively along a narrow walkway of art like the one I started here.  I was thinking maybe beds of nails could be laid out to prevent people from cheating.  Or lava or something.

Open Studios 2011 has come.  And Open Studios 2011 has gone.

Gone fast, I should add.  I forgot that the many interesting people and opportunities that pop up during the weekend make time fly.  I even got a little photo-op at Mission Local (not to be confused with Local Mission), thanks to blogger Molly Oleson.  Click to slide number 5.

My goal was to turn a humongous pile of scrap cardboard into an series of serious work that anyone who wanted could afford.  And if anyone didn’t look like they could afford it, I probably just gave the piece away.  I think that’s what Open Studios is best for.  Opening your studio to the public shouldn’t just be about self promotion, but also engagement.   As a screen printer, I am lucky enough to have the means to make this sort of thing work because I can make a shitload of prints.  So I hadn’t really thought of it exactly like this until now, but I guess my goal was to make the weekend an experiment less about promotion and sales and more about art as an act of engagement. I really want to explore this aspect of printmaking further.

Thanks to my new friends from Mexico City to City Hall to 22nd Street.  Special thanks to the old friends who showed up, Phanna, Serai, T-man, Michelle, and of course EB.  It’s nice to be supported.

Cellspace open studios 2011 (click to enlarge)

Prints on cardboard

Next up after Open Studios is Unresolved: a group show at CELLspace with lots of guest artists from the famous residency program at SF Dump.  I have a big one planned for this.

SF Open Studios is coming up.  I will be practically giving away selling a new limited edition of screen prints on trash.

…If I don’t spend all my time organizing the event and designing promotional materials.  Here’s the postcard:

CELLspace Open Studios

11-5:30PM | Sat-Sun October 1-2, 2011 | 2050 Bryant St

Hey, I inaugurated my newly assembled work space by completing an edition of 55 screen prints on old cardboard and then practically giving them away that night at CELLspace’s Spacecraft First Thursday show.

That was fun.  Thanks if you bought one.

Now I am going away for five weeks. See you soon!

If I had lots of money that I could spend on myself, one of my top priorities would definitely be to collect work made by colleague artists I know and admire.  I think this is a great idea because in the somewhat selfish process of amassing a collection of expensive goods, this pursuit would make me appear more altruistic and supportive to my friends.

Of course I do have a little money I can selfishly spend on myself  and recently CELLspace welder-in-chief Cory Best made me an offer that I couldn’t refuse: a very good price for one of his ruggedly elegant/elegantly rugged geometric steel sculptures.

It wouldn’t be cheap, so I took a few days to rationalize.  Suddenly the offer hit me as monumentally worth it.  Not only is this thing beautiful and going to last at least a thousand years and probably even longer than that, but I simultaneously get to help the most legitimate blacksmith I know pay his bills and continue welding.  From either the aesthetic or the moral perspective, why the hell am I spending money on anything else?

(By the way, I think of Cory’s abilities as a true blacksmith not just in terms of shaping metal but also in always having a beer to spare.   Thanks for everything, dude.)

Me, Cory, and the Sculpture in the CELL metal shop.

The surface takes on many moods in direct light.

Like the ephemeral San Francisco cherry blossom, the beautiful flower that is spring open studios has come and gone. And to the extent that the passing of the weekend reminds us of the many mysterious cycles and rhythms of nature, spring open studios reminds us of the very meaning of life itself.  Where some may find no meaning in sitting around a mostly empty art studio for 48 hours, waiting for a tide of  approval that may never come, others will find illumination.  Through it all, the one unchanging truth is that all shall find free wine.

CELLspace studio artists populated the gallery space and I took the opportunity to set up one of the walls with collected works from the Two Feather Press screenprinting co-op membership.   In my mind, our unofficial motto is screenprinting improves everything and maybe that’s why I thought this spread looked so great.

…And when I arrived at the studio on Sunday morning there was a not insignificant pile of cash under my door.  Apparently some anonymous early riser–bless your soul  whoever you are–indulged in a small shopping spree through our highly affordable offerings.

Thanks to all my friends who stopped by in support.  I really appreciate it.  After the wads of cash, your encouragement always makes it worth it.

Beau walks into the gallery

surprise packs for $2 sold like hotcakes at a hotcake stand with three hotcakes available.

I nearly forgot, I am in a show at CELLspace this weekend!  Actually, most of the new screenprinters at 2featherpress are involved.    We are displaying much of their fine work that has been chronicled in these pages over the last few months for Spring Open Studios run by Mission Artists United.

Download the guide

Saturday, April 16 and Sunday April 17, 2011
11am — 6pm.

Join us for the Mission-Wide Spring Open Studios where more than 200 emerging and established artists using all mediums open their doors to the public for a weekend of art, inspiration and collecting.

Stroll this exciting arts district from studio to studio following the red dots painted on the sidewalk. Admission is free.

Art is the MISSION.

Participating Group Studios

• 1890 Bryant St Studios (38 artists) — 1890 Bryant St
• ActivSpace (17 artists) — 3150 18th Street
• The Art Explosion 17th Street (22 artists) — 2425 17th Street
• The Art Explosion Alabama (26 artists) — 744 Alabama Street
• The Art Explosion Harrison (1 artist) — 2345 Harrison Street
• Art, Wine and Dine Artists (4 artists) — 614 Alabama Street
• The Blue Studio (16 artists) — 2111 Mission St
• CELLspace (8 artists) — 2050 Bryant St
• Developing Environments (13 artists) — 540 Alabama St
• Live Art Studios (4 artists) — 151 Potrero Avenue
• Project Artaud (14 artists) — 499 Alabama Street
• Red Brick Studio (4 artists) — 2111 Mission St – 3rd Floor
• Studio Valencia (4 artists) — 455a Valencia Street
• The SUB (1 artist) — 199 Capp St
• Workspace Limited (17 artists) — 2150 Folsom St

Yo!  I have scheduled my next screenprinting workshop at CELLspace.

In the off chance that you are not one of the three friends and/or family who follows this blog, a Nigerian hacker, or my biggest fan Googlebot (thanks for the 731 hits in April, dude), please feel free to check it out.   There is more info here.

Screenprint Intensive (4 Nights)
Date: Thursdays / May 5, 12, 19, 26
Time:7:00-9:30 PM
Cost: $95 + $20 Materials Fee
Instructor: Jon Fischer
To Register: go to http://www.2featherpress.org/2_feather_workshops.html

I have a few new artists joining my CELLspace screen printing studio this month.  Consequently , I thought it would be nice to set shop up with a proper sign, so I unpacked a piece of very special driftwood I have been saving and set to work ruining it with my art.  I found this wood at Mile Rock Beach in San Francisco five years ago and really, nothing I could print on it could ever improve it in an aesthetic sense.  But that has never stopped me before and I have been saving this for a special occasion so tonight I fired up the old t-shirt press and threw down a simple three layer print.  Then I screwed in on the door.  Took me less than an hour. (Click to enlarge)

The t-shirt press allows one to adjust the height of the screen on the platen.

I secured the wood to the platen with tape during the printing process.

At CELLspace nothing looks junky!