Stomping Grounds

New banner design now flying over my old stomping grounds.

Unfolding Shady Maples

I listen to a lot of music.  It gets me motivated, keeps me in the zone, and at times even inspires new work.  No surprise then that the album covers I've worked on rank amongst my favorite projects.  This time around I got to work with my long time friend Greg Peters and his super gifted cohort Owen Roberts on their combo effort Shady Maples. 

One of the best things about doing album covers is getting early release tracks.  I spent a lot of time listening to their Unfold album and the design is reflective of where my head was while I had it on repeat.  Shady Maples music is multi layered and each time through I picked up something new I didn't hear before.  It's expansive under the surface and that was the driving force for the art.  The paper cover seems to literally unfold and reveal a vast landscape. While I tend to opt for illustrated focal points, this album really warranted much more atmospheric elements so I chose to use a photo I took in the Fall of last year.  It encompassed how the music felt to me much better than anything I could have drawn by hand.  Props to the Owen and Greg for putting out a great album.

Listen and learn

Shady Maples on Facebook

Shady Maples blog

NJR X BLINDMAN

I've gotten used to quiet days alone in the wilderness.  In some regards it's a necessary part of the work I've been doing.  The pieces take shape without any sort of audience and I sometimes wonder what kind of reaction they get if and when anyone stumbles upon one.  As I walk away I am often struck by the intangibly odd and alien quality that these lone rocks have tucked into the wild corners of my backyard.  It's something that I fight to capture in my own photography, often leaving me frustrated because I am not the photographer I wish I was.

Every once in a while things just fall into place.  Turns out that my new neighbor Abe Blair  is an accomplished photographer and outdoorsman. Just the kind of guy I can trust to accompany me out there.  So we decided to team up on a recent mountain ramble.  We set up camp and with frozen fingers I worked in the setting sun.   The black of night settled in and we listened to the icy lakes groan and crack beneath our weight.  Abe is more than a photographer.  There is something about his understanding and manipulation of light that really makes him a painter.  With a deft hand and a keen eye he found ways to exploit qualities of my work that I knew where there but couldn't have hoped to capture by myself.

To learn more about Abe connect with him on Facebook.

12.12.12 begins

Needle Star - Four color stamped print

"What's with the triangles?"  That's what Amy asked me at the end of all this.  I didn't really know what she meant until I looked back at months of sketches and realized that something has happened in my head.  I guess I've been on some weird geometric trip in the last year and this first round of 12.12.12 is indicative of what I've been dwelling on.

 

One of the first drawings in my sketchbook from the last year is these pine needles.  There was something about the geometric patterns created by the natural world that I just dove into.  Long story short, I eventually refined and completed a second sketch from late 2011.

I drew pine needles onto two printing blocks and carved out the positive forms so the needles would be negative and leave a positive triangle.


 

I tested the stamps and then went into the first of the prints.

Pinkies out ladies and gentlemen, this is art.

 

There was definitely a rhythm that I fell into as things progressed.  I went through the entire Bad Brains catalog, the Black Keys new El Camino record a bunch of the Techniques, and a few listens of Bon Iver's new stuff.

I carved a new, more size appropriate, signature chop for this year.  Everything is signed and numbered and ready to ship.  Thanks again to all those who signed on for this goofy science experiment.  On to the next.

The North Coast

I love living in the mountains, but there is something about the California coast that I'll never quite shake.  It's a place of surreal beauty and if you find the right spot, can be deeply quiet.  I spent some time near the ocean recently and when I got back in the studio I wanted to build a piece evoking some of those fresh salt memories.  I attempted a rudimentary block print, but the prints were pretty disappointing honestly.  I kept the blocks themselves and tacked them on an piece of scrap.  Now it feels like I intended.  Head up the coast to the redwoods and you'll see what I mean.

Blood & Pollen

Bodhi and I spent a quiet day in the mountains as I used the last of the pollen I collected this spring.  We listened to the raven's wings beating through the thin air as we let our toes sink into the mud and fought off leeches.  

Ghost Rider

With Christmas right around the corner I decided it was time to fix up the old busted rocking horse that's been occupying space in the basement for the last year.  It originally belonged to my wife and was handed down by my in-laws so my guess is that it was built sometime in the mid seventies.  It started off buttery yellow with flowers and a broken neck, but I fixed it up and customized it for my son with a matte black body, silver dia de los muertos style pinlines, and the original Bontrager grips from my mountain bike.  No idea how long all the detailing will last once he gets on there and rides this thing to it's grave, so I'm glad I got a few shots first.  Merry Christmas Rayden.