Ink + Paper

I've been busy lately. Today is Attack The Garden day, yesterday was Mt. Good Times, and Sunday was the Giant Gathering of Print Nerds. In Tacoma, at the radical King's Books!

Gargantuan amazing hand-carved linoleum blocks being inked in the sunshine:

SERIOUS SKILLS.

Local high school kids carved this one:

Crazy. And here's how it works:

That's right. A STEAMROLLER. Genius!

I'd love to do this in Olympia. There's a new cycle of State Arts Grants I'm looking into. I want to drive the steamroller! Apparently you don't need any fancy licensing. Though I think a jumpsuit and special hat should be required. And a cigar to chomp.

This has nothing to do with printmaking or steamrollers. But my old friend Dale just wrote it, and though I've heard the story many times, he manages to re-tell it with even more hilarity. Because he's British? Anyhow, its a great read.

ed. note: will someone PLEASE TEACH ME TO SEW and I will make us these incredible matching outfits.

We Mountaineeeeer

Sometimes (when the skies finally stop raining and raining and raining for 9 months straight) I feel like I need to pinch myself.. I live in paradise. Northwest paradise, specifically. Puget Sound/Salish Sea paradise.. Cascade Mountains in one direction, Olympics in the other. This is just a few hours away:

Mt. Rainier! 14,000 odd feet of majestic tectonic beauty. And today, an unbelievable 75-degree April day, seemed like a good time to put on these:

And channel my inner mountain goat.

Paradise! Hiked up, slid/stumbled down. I'm sunburnt and happy. This is the best song about mountaineering, ever!

FOREVER AND EVER AMEN.

Now I Want A Donut

I have a new guitar hero. Her name is Marissa Paternoster. She plays in the band Screaming Females. They shredded the downtown Olympia library last night!

Our library is sooooo cool. Seriously! Punk shows at libraries rule because you can multi-task:

Quote of the night: "There's a lot of B.O. in here" -- J. Trosper.

Difficult Emotions. Sometimes I have those!

OH, and I have a tip for all you long hairs out there.. behold the HAIR DONUT! There is an old (clean) sock up in there! Genius. Here is something for you to play while you transform your raggedy hair into a beautiful perfect donut.

Roman Enterprise

One of the best parts of printmaking: need something? a big arrow perhaps?? you can make it! As long as you have a scrap of linoleum and a little patience, you can build anything you desire.

Here's how the 4-color jam turned out:

Fortes fortuna adjuvat. But looking at the proof I made (below), I wonder if simplicity is always best? I have little self-control when it comes to 'less is more'. Need to work on that.

In any case, I'll be hanging out at Kings Books in Tacoma tomorrow for the Printmaking Nerd Convention Wayzgoose affair! These suckers will be available for a modest fee. And Kyle will be there with the amazing Type Truck.. check out her adventures here.

Gimme My Line Breaks You

Yesterday I showed up for Western Hymn practice (at 11 AM!!) and opened my case to find.. a guitar. What! This is what happens when you ask me to come to your house and play loud music in the morning. I will bring the wrong instrument. Luckily we share the basement with Survival Knife, and so I borrowed lovely Meg's super fancy Rickenbacker bass. These are things I quickly learned:

1. A real bass is very heavy.
2. A real bass sounds very good. Very 'bass-y'.
3. My bandmates would now like me to invest in some new equipment.

I've been borrowing JT's Univox Hi-Flyer 3/4-scale bass for the last couple of years. I love it! Plays just like a guitar, but with bigger strings. Perfect for my small, small hands. This was the bass that JT used in the Young Ginns!! But yeah, its kind-of a toy instrument. Which is part of the reason I love it.

So, Universe: I'm going to throw out to your infinite reaches that I am in the market for a bass, short-scale preferred. One that is neither too fancy nor too crappy, and preferably one with a lot of physical dings and whatnot. Can I be specific and ask for a Mustang?

...and apparently in honor of 4/20, the blogspot technicians decided to get ripped and write a new format that blows. It won't recognize my html line breaks, which is why everything in the post is all squished together. Aesthetic apologies to all.

ed note: just figured it out. pthbbbt, computers!

Projects

Man, I am really starting to freak out about this Surf Aid benefit! Its getting SERIOUS. The artists involved seem to be famous professional surfboard painters, and then there's little old me. Luckily, my awesome pal Mike C. hooked it up with local shaper Paul Jensen, he makes beautiful wooden surfboards. Museum quality!


I don't have a plan. Yet. I've been interviewing my northwest surf friends to see what they would want on a board. Definitely not a gaggle of baby Great Whites.


What else is newish? More wine from the delicious Deux Punx winos! These two paintings are for the 2012 summer release of the DP Grenache and Viognier. Excited to see the final results! Now: band practice and more letterpress action. Report to be filed later..

Youth Gets Wasted

I did it, I carved the teapot!


And I only cut myself once, miraculously. Besides breaking and misplacing things, I often slice my fingers open with various implements. Usually the night before a show, on my left index finger. This time on my left thumb, and I only have practice tomorrow! Hooray.


And look, my friend J. Hukee came to print today! We talked about my 20-year-old self's idea regarding 'tea cozy punks'. My youthful disdain for wholesome, craft-making, tea drinking fellow Olympians. BEFORE THE INTERNET it seemed like factions and sub-factions of punks were heavily divided in our little town, or at least to my naive way of seeing things. Drink tea? Boring! Drink coffee! Drink whiskey!


Finished the Runaways print. Tackling the 4-color jobby tomorrow.. off to find the chamomile now.

The Black Arts, Part II

Not a bad day to spend in dusty crusty Community Print, writing things backwards with wooden blocks. Not bad at all.


Spellcheck! Writing backwards is harder than you might think.

Mixing up ridiculously bright ink colors (subtlety has never been my strength)..


..and getting my hands all dirty. I love tactile activities.


(that's part one of a four-color jam. Found a giant stack of nice chipboard). Here is the lair:


Criminally under-used, but that's ok with me. I like to work alone.


Drawers and drawers and drawers of magic!


Working on some more Song Lyrics prints too.. and I haven't forgotten about the Tea Time With Henry project; I can't find my linoleum carving tool. Besides breaking things, I misplace everything all the time. A real absent-minded professor.

ed. note: The above type set using an uncouth method known simply as 'jazz style'.

Occupy Chair: Day 98

Its raining today.


Olive is still on her chair. Holding strong for the Occupy movement. Today, as per every day, she dreams of gravy being poured freely onto other foods. Cheeseburgers, sure. Why not?

Soundtrack for gravy dreams.

The Black Arts

A few years ago I had a vivid and hilarious dream: I was swimming at the local college pool with Henry Rollins. Just treading water, shooting the shit. I asked him what he'd been up to lately, and I got a very specific answer.


'I'm working on a kids' show for the Disney Channel. Its called Tea Time with Henry'. What do you do on the show? 'Just have a kid on, drink tea, talk about stuff'. Sounded very Dick Cavett to me, and the set I imagined was simple: Henry Rollins, muscle-y and pumped, perched on a tiny child-size chair, legs crossed, sipping chamomile with a youngster, talking quite seriously about life and its infinite joys/disappointments.


I keep meaning to letterpress this vision, and it looks like this is the week to do it. Wayzgoose is on the horizon! A pink teapot (must subvert hyper-masculinity) linocut w/ Black Flag bars, and lyrics to Rise Above printed on the second pass? I can do that.