feather2pixels

A few recent gifts (that I have pictures of):

Game

Watercolor

Needlepoint

Rap Video

[iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/53496463?badge=0″ width=”500″ height=”281″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/53496463″>Fischer and Erin Wedding Card (Rap Video) Version 2.0</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user4805707″>Nowell Valeri</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>]

Here’s the new Hillside logo, looking natural and at ease on the hips of chef Tony Ferarri‘s Vespa scooter.

Here is the photo dispatch from my first all-grain beer crafting experience, brewed on location in Vallejo with Sir Thomas.

Utilizing thirty pounds of grain and almost one pound of hops for a mere ten gallons of beer, this has to be one of the more triumphantly excessive beer recipes I will ever pursue.  That’s why I am writing it out here :

Grain Bill
22 lbs American two row malted barley
2 lbs Munich
1/2 lb Aromatic (what the hell is this?)
1 lbs 50-60 Brit.
1/2 lb Cara Muncih
1/4 lb Black Patent Chocolate Malt
1 lb Cara Pils
2 lbs 15L Crystal Malt
2 lbs 50L Crystal Malt

Hops Bill
2 oz Nothern Brewer (bittering)
2 oz Amarillo
2 oz Amarillo
8 oz Cascae (Dry Hopping)

Yeast
2 vials California 001 Ale Yeast

Laudered at 158°F, Preboil specific gravity: ~1.057

My just-completed voyage to the US easternlands resulted in some interesting artifact finds at home, as well as the creation of some new ones. Now I am back.

Some pictures of note:

And finally, a video of me and Danny dominating The Looper at Knoebels in Elysburg:

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Remember Michelle Chandra?

She’s the photographer that individually shot all thirty of my screenprints of three cones in the woods at thirty different times of day.

I got the chance to return the favor last Monday by male-modelling for her new project.  She’s been folding butterflies from translucent vellum and theatrically suspending them in a series of portraits she’s shooting at the SF City College studio.

Even though appearing happy and standing on my feet for extended periods are two personal weaknesses, I was happy to endure this four hour light-rigging nightmare freewheeling adventure that Michelle shot on black and white film and will assiduously hand develop.I think they worked out as well as photos of me could probably ever  work out.

Here’s the best one out of sixty. (Erin’s turned out way better)

There were eight people at my house not too long ago and we all fit around the kitchen table for breakfast.   That day a reoccurring thought was there have never been eight people in this apartment before.  And there have definitely never been eight people around this particular kitchen table.  I have had the apartment for three years and the table for ten.   So it was with no shred of hesitation that I blew half the strategic reserves of Polaroid peel-apart film (now made by Fuji).  These three snaps seemed compelling enough to archive via scanning machine.  EB took the best one, I thought, on top here.  It’s from the autoimmune death trail that is north Bernal Hill.

Yesterday I rented a fancy telephoto camera lens to photograph my recent series of prints on old cardboard.  The lens isn’t just fancy but incredible in its ability to make almost anything look good, shooting a razor thin depth of field that separates subject from a background that blurs into creamy oblivion.  But could it make my art look good?

After bringing the lens home in a car that is only a few times more valuable, I did some testing with CW’s new camera.  Just messing around without much idea of what I was doing opened up a new world of quality that I will probably never have access to again.   I guess I can sort of understand how photographers get obsessed with gear, although the idea is pretty unappealing.

Anyway my friend Michelle very generously donated her morning to hosting me and my cardboard at the City College SF Photo Lab, where there are two rules:

1. I don’t touch anything.
2. I don’t touch anything.

They must have been expecting me.

Michelle set up big, fake looking lights that made a pacifying sound when they flashed.  She showed me how to light my work without harsh reflections, and she did it all with a smile.  We shot all thirty-two pieces.  Overall, much ado for a bunch of trashed cardboard: here’s Three Cones in the Park on my Objects page.

Welcome to 2012. It was an exciting end of year season here around feather2pixel headquarters, with several visits from far flung colleagues and several more travels to distant shores. In the interests of moving things right along, here’s some artifacts and photos to recap.

Okay let’s get back to work.

On location at the Fox Theater:

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I finally got the chance to visit the home of Keith W in Sacramento.  This long overdue trip gave me the chance to check out Keith’s outstanding collection of Temporary Spaces, which is said to be the finest in the world. This long overdue trip also gave me the chance to check out the size of the embryo growing in his wife Tiffany. Needless to say, both art and kid are taking up a lot of space.  I didn’t pass up the chance for a photo-op with the former.  K.W., next time I hope you jump in there, too.

Sighted last weekend: my first California wild Tarantula.  Heather tells us all about it.

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To make up for full speed ramming me on skis in 2010 Because he admires my work, ex-sailor Tommy Stillwachs allowed me the honor of printing the open/closed sign for Arbor, a new taphouse cafe in Oakland he is involved with.  Owned and operated by Chris Marquez and Suzanne Stillwachs, Arbor opened last Saturday.   And that night it closed.  The next morning it opened and after precisely nine hours it closed yet again.

I would like to think my sign made all of this activity possible.

The sign was screen printed on some beautiful and seriously warped scrap wood.  Precision screen printing requires a very uniform separation between screen and substrate, so I was happy this wasn’t a precision job.    The final prints turned out appropriately sloppy.

Hi.  I have returned from a long satisfying voyage, visiting friends and family in Israel, Berlin, France, Slovenia, and Scotland.  I  have a lot of work to do on feather2pixels, but for now here are some pictures waiting for your tender mousecliks.

My friends like to pretend that I pass my summer days lazily collecting sand dollars and breaking the law, but I will have anyone who will listen know that I recently executed the largest continuous screenprint of my life.  This print makes up a floor and wall for the world of Down A Little Dirt Road, produced in my capacity as the play’s Set Designer.

How big is it?  The main floor sheet measures about 350 ft²–with a few extensions including a large piece that crawls up the upstage wall, the total is around 550 ft².

To produce this one serigraph to rule them all , we first purchased one large sheet of economy vinyl flooring from our local mega-home improvement garrison and then got to work on its backside.  After a coat of Cracked Pepper Black was loosely applied with paint rollers, we got down on hands and knees to apply the screen prints in pairs, one painful  square foot at a time.  One person held the screen steady while the other manned the squeegee.  After seven hours of this, the pattern was complete and the surface was protected with a polyurethane sealant known to the state of California to cause birth defects while wet.

Not too many days of artmaking have shortened my life expectancy like this one probably did.  But the floor looks great:

Backside of the flooring	After a quick coat of black	After screen printing
Applying the selant	The pattern

Installed in the venue, I was happy with way the prints transformed the space:

before

after

Unfortunately there was a heartbreaking amount of tearing when the flooring was unrolled in the venue.  The vinyl just kind of stuck to itself:

A small tear.

Find out how this problem was solved:  Down A Little Dirt Road opens June 9 and runs Thursdays through Sundays until July 3.  Tickets available at brown paper tickets. Thanks to Jonathan S., Erin B., Molly A., Louel S., and especially Maddie  for all the help making this happen.