****Will Bryant conducted this rad interview last week while I was in SF, check it out****
Chad Kouri is a maker of fine things, a freelancing machine, and a dandy person. You can almost always find him blogging over at The Post Family, screen printing, letter pressing, doodling, and art directing! (He's the man behind Margin Detail). Just recently I had a cyber sit down with this cool fellow.
Keep on clicking and check out this bearded man's work & words...
Today I thought i'd give some blog love and help spread the word about some hot spots on the interwebz.
So here are a few of my favorite blogs (other than this one!) that are run by people I love and have had the privilege to meet in person (which makes reading their blog even better).
Each blog features a fairly diverse range of quality content.
The Post Family / Chicago, IL
If I had pick out my biggest inspiration at the moment, it would have to be the work of Christian and Rob Clayton. Their paintings contain all of my favorite things: insanely layered picture planes, high voltage color, sickly children, and biological imagery. I love how their paintings buzz with intricate systems of energy and powerful forces, yet the figures are so static and detached. Looking at their work makes me consider limitations - real and imagined, scientific and cultural – of living today.
Isomorphs is an amazing creation by the charming Kate Moross. Under the Isomorph brand she art directs packaging, merchandise, branding, and prints VINYL!
Iso has releases from Cutting Pink With Knives, Hearts Revolution, Midnight Juggernauts, and Apes & Androids. Recent tees have been designed for Telepathe and Simian Mobile Disco.
Check out the finger lickin' good packaging!!!
And gaze at these poppin' tee designs that would cover up my barren chest real nice....
You can snag these items in her shop. I wear a Medium and will gladly provide you with my mailing address, wink wink.
gocco print by peskimo.
here shop and gallery just celebrated their 5th anniversary, what better way to celebrate then by having a party with some talented people and the print gocco?
we feel that the accessibility of print gocco reflects our own DIY ethos in running a gallery, and so have chosen to celebrate our 5th anniversary with a group show of gocco based artwork. to accompany the exhibition, we will be releasing a portfolio of gocco prints, produced in a signed and numbered edition of 50, collected in a custom made presentation box.
we’ve selected artists who look beyond the limitations of the device, to show that it can also be used to produce fine art works. those involved are from a range of disciplines; textile design, fine art, illustration, graphic design, and animation.
the artists invited to take part and show their gocco talent are as follows: arctic circles, jill bliss, simon dovar, andrew groves, yellena james, xtina lamb, magic jelly, mark pawson, nigel peake, peskimo, aaron sewards, lucie sheridan, yee king tuit, jazmin velasco, julie west. the show will run through november first. see opening photos on flickr here and here.
gocco print by nigel peake.
gocco print by simon dovar.
gocco print by magic jelly.
gocco print by yellena james.
back in july, faythe levine met up w/ her friend monica canilao; the beyond talented doyenne we love. faythe took photos of monica's impressive headdresses. as i mentioned, the photos were taken back in july...around the time my mac shit the bed, so they have made rounds on the web...but for those of you who have not seen them, i figured i should post as they are gorgeous and totally inspiring. to see more of them, plus lovely faythe and monica load up monica's bb gun, go here.
i've raved long and often about ruby mag. if you still haven't signed up for their email list, then i am breaking up w/ you right now. cereal. this insanity has gone on long enough. run along and sign up! run don't walk. because if you do, you'll start seeing loads of great art. and if you like what you see here, then i promise you, you will like what you see in ruby. you'll discover such great collectives like team macho. i instanly fell for this five man group of artists. their humor is rife and wicked. just get a load of that group shot of them below, how could you not love them? the pieces i have here are from a recent show the boys so graciously sent over to me. ummm, baby dyke? team macho is killing me. keep an eye on their site, they should be updating in august.
when you canoe at night, you canoe w/ satan.
i love my books. especially my art books. i have them stacked nice and neat in plain site in my home. i love them. i like to believe they say a lot about who i am. how interesting i am. i think a lot of people think this way, there is a pride that surrounds book shelves. jane mount felt the same, and began painting books because she was inspired by how proud people were of displaying them. referring to books as 'rows of inspiration', she wanted to record the specific books that have shaped and inspired people's lives. check out her etsy store to purchase original paintings, or contact her to commission her for your own books.
recently, a new reader of my love for you, amanda erianson contacted me w/ a list of artists she thought i may enjoy. it's always so exciting getting emails from people that are excited about an artist enough to reach out and tell someone. amanda had an amazing list, all super good stuff. thanks amanda!
one of the artists she turned my eye toward is scott belcastro. i'm still really perplexed as to how i could have missed him as his work is AMAZING. beautifully rendered scenes of birch trees, snowy forests and well, children stuck in a hole. but really folks, it's the most beautiful painting you'll see of a child trapped w/in the earth. i kid you not. recently paper tiger released the above print, "as blue as my soul will go", w/ only a limited edition of 25. scott has a bunch of shows coming up, to be privvy to that info and current work, check out his blog.
i recently bought monica canilao's book this is home, which i will blog about next week. however until then, i just can't ever get enough of her work. i love her use of traditional craftsmanship w/in her work. seen here are two pieces of her's that are in the current show combine: a group show of cut paper, collage assemblage at BLVD gallery in seattle. to see more work of the other artists involved in the show check here for art work or here for opening photos. while you're there make sure you get a good gander at that aj fosik piece, it's sick.
dead in black and red.
john casey's superb line drawings of his alter egos pull me in completely. it's hard to not be taken w/ john's enormous talent and his characters. his lines are meticulously drawn and his subjects are oddly wonderful. john casey's installation picket fencing opens this friday at swarm gallery in oakland, california. john answered q&a's for me about his work and the inspiration behind it. i hope you guys dig it, i was stoked to read his thoughts. thanks john!
the phone call.
the reoccurring central theme in your drawings are male figures, often w/ some sort of malformed body part. where do these fellas you create come from?
the characters in my drawings are male simply because they are essentially self-portraits. the physical malformations my characters have are the result of biomorphology. my theory is if one could distort one's body based on one's emotion or psychological state, what would that look like? what if the body formed strange huge club-like limbs or a floating head on it's own, without the control of the owner? whether the figure is in control of that morphing, i'm not one hundred percent sure. i think it varies from work to work.
praying for takeoff.
your little guys have been described as monsters, you're not a fan of that word. how come?
i'm actually okay with the word if it is used in the complex sense of the concept as in mary shelley's frankenstein, a being who is ostracized from society but a being who also has complex emotions and a desire to belong, to be loved. the more simplistic idea of the monster being evil is what i reject. there is no such thing as pure evil.
rare find.
your mom saved drawings of your's from your childhood, is there a specific drawing that stands out most in your mind?
there is one figure that has that special, turtle look with a round body and flipper arms that kids draw when they make a person. the head featured these spinny, spyro-graphic eyes and sharp, pointy teeth. i made this when i was three so i obviously had an interest in the expressive crazy characters even at that young age.
ancestor.
i know you were a big fan of creature double feature as a kid, do you still watch monster flicks?
not specifically. i like movies that have characters struggling with moral dilemmas that often result in monstrous choices and behavior. i love sci-fi flicks. i'm not into slasher films. i can't stomach those movies anymore. i think i've seen just enough real violence in my life that i don't need to see the gratuitous stuff.
der golem.
what are some of your favorite movies? are there any specific movies that have influenced your work?
sure, i love cronenberg's naked lunch, julie taymor's titus has some truly mesmerizing surreal scenes, ken russell's altered states (talk about biomorphing), and anime movies like akira and sprited away. i saw der golem recently, the german expressionist film from 1920. the creature in that story inspired a specific drawing for me.
your work is so clean and refined, what do you draw w/?
i use micron pens, faber-castel pens and itoya pens on stonehenge print-making paper.
the prodigal son.
what was your earlier work at art school like?
pretty violent and expressive oil painting. i was an angst filled young man. now i am happily married and living a good life and appreciating it. hopefully, i am developing some restraint while still exploring strange psychological landscapes.
when looking at your work there is never any background, which is such a great backdrop for your subjects. it leaves so much to the imagination. is there a consistent running storyboard in your head when you draw? care to share what it is?
i abandoned specific backgrounds in my work around the time i started making sculpture. i decided to leave the narrative in the work pretty open to the viewer. eliminating backgrounds eliminated specific contexts and allowed me to fully focus on the figure development. my story takes place in a parallel universe where humans are not quite humans. the not-quite-humans are a lot like us but they have crazy powers of transformation (often unwanted transformation). they have the same emotions, similar clothing, and similar societal hierarchies. but they are not us and not bound by the same laws of physics.
hands off.
you also create radical little sculptural dudes, any plans to create a vinyl toy in the future?
i've thought about it and had a few folks approach me with the concept. i'm not adverse to it, but i wonder if the vinyl toy market is over-saturated at this point? would folks be into that? i'm not a vinyl collector so I don't know.
flopsy.
color is pretty massive right now in contemporary art. you don't often use a lot of it but you recently "collaborated" w/ cohen and his watercolors. how was it incorporating color into your drawings? will we see more of it?
maybe. but i like to keep things like materials super simple. i'm a creature of habit and changes in my work happen at a glacial pace so maybe only a few colors at any given time.
thief.
you've got an installation show "picket fencing" at swarm gallery at the end of the month can you tell us about your motivation and drive behind it?
a dad told me a story about his four young sons. the boys were playing in the back yard and when the father went out to check on them he found that they had torn pickets off the pristine picket fence and they were sword fighting with them. this story really made me laugh. probably, because i have two younger brothers close in age. we menaced our neighborhood at times and played war games (this was back in the days when kids were given toy guns to play with). the picket fence has so many powerful connotations and it reminds me of new england where i grew up. so i am reinterpreting this scenario using my characters in the form of large-scale wood cutouts that will wrap the walls in swarm's project space.
what else is coming up for you?
i'm working on a book of my drawings which i will be published by rowan morrison. i'm shooting for sometime this fall for a release date. there should be 70+ drawings in there. TAG will have my work at their booth at the affordable art fair in NYC June 12-15. i have some group shows brewing in LA and the bay area and a solo at swarm next march which should be pretty darn epic if i do say so myself.
thanks for the interview meighan!
john shipman is inspired by the theme of universal love and john denver. who could blame him? we all love love. add some of the late musician's music to the mix, and get this party bumpin. check out john's flickr page to see his amazing murals, installations and pencil drawings. if you'd like a print of your very own; blue flip art just released a new print by john, the comfort of water, a percentage of sales goes to george harrison's unicef fund.
the clay projects. if you can't make it, you can sit right here by me and look at her website and oooh and ahh. you bring the snacks and i'll show you her tents which first made me a big fan of clare's...it'll be fun, i promise!
kate bingaman-burt consumes, documents and makes. straight up. she keeps track of everything she buys through photography, prints, drawing and zines, just a few of the mediums she works in. i read her blog obsessive consumption often, allaying my own fears of what a total consumer i am and finding comfort in her conspicuous consumption. one of my favorite piece's of kate's has to be her chase october 2007 print for poketo, a perfect example of kate's unabashed sense of consumerism and sense of humor. kate 's latest zine, april 2008 what did you buy today (her purchases for april) is now available in her shop. peep her shop here.
