Secret Still

If you’re like me and the only way you can afford to buy actual paintings is to perform unspeakable acts in an alley behind the bus station, then you probably buy a lot of prints. Or hopefully visit your doctor very often. Print buyers rejoice, because this Saturday, January 23rd, Audrey Kawasaki will be selling two, count them two, different prints. Now, let’s break it down by the numbers. Each print sells for $100, but you can only buy one, not one of each, just one, so choose wisely. You can buy the print framed for $250. The sale starts at 3:00pm PST and goes until 4pm PST, and everyone that buys in that hour gets a print. The edition size is however many people that is. Show up with your money, get a signed Audrey Kawasaki print. If you’ve been around the block, you know that her prints usually sell out within minutes of being available. Now’s the time to seize an opportunity by the balls and squeeze until it begs you to stop like that guy behind the bus station. I’ve said too much. Go to http://www.audrey-kawasaki.com/sale/ at the right time on the right date to achieve a victory that might wash away your alleyway shame.

When thinking about moving back East (far in the future), I always end up with three or four towns as my finalists, and one of those towns is Austin. It’s got decent skate, art, and music communities, and, barring the overflow of SXSW every year, it maintains a nice, small town vibe. One of the things that most people probably overlook, but is pretty significant to me, is that Austin also has a really strong design community. In fact, it’s almost eerily solid on design in a way that even major cities can’t compete with. All they need now is for Jason Munn from The Small Stakes to relocate there, and that’s pretty much got the whole poster design market sewn up for Austin. Further cementing their dominance in this design field is Justin David Cox whose work is simple, clean and clever; everything that I want to see from a poster. Hell, it’s everything I want to see from a website. And, on top of that, he’s a helluva photographer. I’ve got to quit finding this kind of inspiration, otherwise “far in the future” is going to become “randomly in the middle of the night very soon”. Anyone got a couch in Austin I can crash on?

Justin David Cox

Got an e-mail this morning from long-standing Secret Still favorite Christopher David Ryan. It seems that he’s having a little sale on all his books and prints at his store My Little Underground; just trying to clear out some of the old stock, you know how it is. What does this mean to you? $5 books and $25-$35 prints, that’s what. Time to sell a little more blood, and bring some beauty into your life. I know you’re still dizzy from the last time, but we’re trying to make a better world here. Sure, you could just get a job to pay for things, but then you wouldn’t have any time to really enjoy all your new books and prints. Plus, you get a free cookie when you give blood. Cookies and art, it doesn’t get much better than that. Now roll up your sleeve.

Christopher David Ryan

The two driving forces in my day to day life are art and skateboarding. So when I find a design studio that is driven by those same two forces, it’s a safe bet I’m gonna love their work. Case in point: Morning Breath. 7 years strong (really 13 years), the design duo of Doug Cunningham and Jason Noto have achieved the perfect union of vintage style and modern madness. And somehow they manage it within a 3 or 4-color screenprint. Fuck inspiration, these dudes are role models.

Morning Breath

I was just informed that Jason Sho Green, the artist who is literally responsible for my interest in art in the first place, has been royally fucked by recession. Some of his major clients for this year went out of business, taking half of his yearly income with them. So now Jason is selling off as much of his art as possible to try and make ends meet. Not only should you want to buy his art for the rewards of altruism, but also because he’s a fantastic artist, and your life will be better for having one of his works around. Trust me on this. Snatch it up now before it’s all gone. Help a brotha out.

Jason Sho Green Emergency Art Sale

His paintings for sale

Prints (for those of you scrounging change from the couch)

Just a quick heads up that Secret Still fav Adam Haynes (previously mentioned) has a new print available through POVevolving. Unusually for art prints you can, you can get this one in two sizes: 7.5″ x 8″ or 16″ x 17″. You definitely won’t be disappointed with either size so it’s really just a matter of your available wall space and your available wallet space. The lil print is $35, but the big guy will run you $175. Yeah, that’s a lot of money, but you were just gonna pay your stupid rent with it anyway. Who gives a shit about rent? Not you…not you.

Adam Haynes “Kiddie Cars”

Ok, look. I tend to keep pretty up-to-date on art related whatnots. It’s one of the only things I give a crap about. What I’m wondering is how Slingshot Press can be in their 18th week of 50 prints by 50 artists (that’s one print per week) for $50 without my knowing about it. It takes Ryan Heshka sending out an e-mail about his new (and fucking fantastic) print released by Slingshot for me to uncover this ballin’ ass project? I don’t normally do this but let me break down a list of the artists that have already released prints: Ryan Heshka (natch), Glenn Barr, Esther Pearl Watson, Mitch O’ Connell, Chris Ryniak, Kendyl Lauzon, Rick Reese, Gary Taxali, Jason Limon, Lisa Petrucci, Melinda Beck, Matt Dangler, Jennifer Tong, Jordon Isip, Mark Fraunfelder, Paul Chatem, Kelly Vivianco, and Mark Todd. I mean, are you fucking kidding me? That is a badass list, man. There is a slim chance that I heard about this project and maybe ignored it because I don’t have $50 to sling on prints (I spend it on skateboarding), but I doubt it. I usually tell you about cool stuff, right? We talk about things? We’re still friends? I’m riddled with self-doubt now. Thanks for that, Slingshot Press. Damn you and you’re amazing prints.

Slingshot Press

I’m not gonna tell you again how much I love kid’s books and the styles of illustration that go along with them. You know. I will tell you that Mark Bodnar has a style reminiscent of the kid’s book style. Reminiscent because this is the kind of work that illustrations in kid’s books talk about after you’ve gone to bed. They sit around and mention to each other how great it would’ve been to be born as a Mark Bodnar piece. Each painting is beautifully rendered, with a light and shadow like something out of a Brueghel the Elder painting. It’s also obvious that he’s got a real understanding of cartoons as a medium, where the character’s body language and expression is so well understood that dialog is secondary. I am not even kidding, this guy is in my top ten, and has been for a long time. Fortunately for me, he’s got a new print out with Letter Pressed. There’s only 75 of them suckers, so try not to snatch ‘em all up before I can scrape together the requisite funding. And his blog mentions something about a cartoon with Cartoon Network (I think it’s Stan Bayou), but I haven’t seen hide nor hair of that one. Keep your eyes open, and focused directly on Mark. I mean, don’t stare him down or anything. That’s just rude.

Mark Bodnar

COSH Gallery in London and Wear It With Pride have put together a great show titled Now Showing that opened last Thursday. The show features current artists and illustrators displaying their take on classic movie posters. The list of participants is top shelf and so too are their offerings. Thankfully we can all experience the genius at work because there’s now a Flickr gallery of photos from the show and all the prints available to buy. All of them are editions of 25 and will run you about $250. That’s not cheap, but for the quality of the print and the work it’s small price to pay. I’m drooling pretty hard over the Pietari Posti Metropolis poster (pictured above). And that piece is pretty representative of all the work in the show. Check them out and part with your sweet HEMs (Hard Earned Money).

Now Showing

I’ve heard of Punchgut. I’ve seen plenty of his work. Why then have I not shared the genius with you? I don’t know. Why are you always asking me questions? How does that feel? I didn’t know that he was so close to The Drive-By Truckers, so that brings us a little closer since I was an Athens resident for so long. I’m not sayin’ I’m packing up to move to North Dakota to start a group shower with the guy, but we’ve got some shit in common. Another thing we have going for us is that I really like his crazy ass work as well as his not crazy ass work, and he really likes making it. Anything beyond that really doesn’t matter. Find out all you need to know about the art of rock on his site.

Punchgut