So there’s a lot of new stuff coming your way from Ex-Boyfriend. We finally got around to posting my two newest designs, Eight vs. Ate and Transylvania Is 4 Lovers. I’m hoping to get at least one or two more up by the end of the week; I know it’s been a bit quiet in that regard lately. Don’t worry, though. I’m on it!
I also put the finishing touches on a new site design this weekend. Still a few minor things to do before that goes up, but I’m hoping to have it up later this week as well. The pitfalls of running a business with just two people!
Anyway, here are the new designs:
And just so you don’t think this post is all about MY shizz, here’s a pretty cool art blog I discovered via Thrillist.com a couple weeks ago: It’s called Ten Paces and Draw, and the concept behind it is that the blog contributors come up with a conceptual theme and then invite artists to work collaboratively on a piece that reflects the given theme. One artist starts off and creates a sketch inspired by the theme, and then passes it off to another artist who completes it. It’s a very cool idea. One of my favorite recent pieces is this collaboration between Kyle Fewell and fellow Baltimore-based illustrator Ariyana Suvarnasuddhi. Check out their other stuff; it’s very good!
So after a quick diversion into the robotic realm last week, I thought I’d wrap up this two-part series about my recent European escapades!
Previously I posted some pics of the cool art to be seen in Oslo, Norway and the choicest selections from Berlin’s East Side Gallery. This week’s focus is a bit more on Berlin’s excellent street art scene.
This awesome Japanese woodcut-style portrait decorated the side of a hotel across the street from the East Side Gallery facing the Spree River. We really loved the economical use of color and elegant contours and just thought in general it was great art AND marketing for the hotel; it’s hard to miss AND hard to forget.
After a couple of mis-steps seeking out the cream of the art scene crop that we’d heard so much about before arriving in Berlin, we asked the proprietor of Big Brobot, a very cool book/toy/comic/t-shirt shop in the Friedrichshain section of the city, if he could recommend any good galleries that exhibited more street art and pop art (as opposed to the truly awful installations we’d seen up to that point.) He kindly pointed us in the direction of the NeuroTitan gallery and shop.
After a couple of missed turns, we finally were pointed in the direction of the correct alley leading to the gallery. Once we stepped into the alley, we were greeted with some really wonderful pieces of street art, from spray can art to traditional media to paste-ups.
The alley then led into a courtyard that featured this very cool steam-powered sculpture of a steampunk bat-creature with flapping wings, roving eyes, and flailing proboscis. I really wish I’d switched on my video camera to catch it in action!
Finally, to get to the NeuroTitan gallery, we had to climb a few flights of stairs to enter the shop area before checking out the exhibit. While the exhibit was pretty “meh”, the trip up the stairs was awesome, with the walls just COVERED in really cool graffiti and street art. One of our favorites was the “Fashion Chimp” ad paste-up, done in the style of a 1930s-40s women’s magazine. Who wouldn’t want a giant, life-sized “fashion chimp” for their home?
That pretty much wraps up our 2011 European adventure. Sad as we were not to be able to make it to Tokyo, it was an excellent diversion none the less, and hopefully the planet is done kicking Japan’s ass for a few years and we can make it over there soon.
In OTHER Ex-Boyfriend news—AT LEAST two new designs are going to be up by the end of this week. If you or someone you know is into vampires, kitties, and/or kawaii-style art, be sure to check back!
ALSO: Be sure to tune into The Daily Show on Comedy Central tonight at 11pm. Our good friend Jackson Galaxy from Animal Planet will be sporting our very own Fuzz Aldrin this evening during Aasif Mandvi’s segment! Woot! Be sure to spread the word!
UPDATE: The Daily Show segment featuring Jackson Galaxy wearing Fuzz Aldrin tonight has been postponed thanks to some big political news today, but I’ll keep you guys updated about when it really airs!
First things first: many thanks to awesome artist D. Billy for his help in getting this design done. I had a bit of a blockage when I started it, and was trying to force it to be something it wasn’t. He talked me off the ledge, and inadvertently inspired me to steal a bit of his style to take it in a different direction to complete it. You should really check out his work here.
Now, onto the shirt. Here’s a close-up of the art:
Check it out on an actual shirt!
Now, without further ado, on to the kittens! These tiny balls of adorable were guests of ours for a few weeks until they’d beefed up enough to get adopted out at the MD SPCA. Say hello to Heidi and her brood, Biff, Cali, Gorby, Gary & Pepper!
Have a great weekend, guys! And if any of you are in or are going to be in the Philadelphia area with some time to kill next Saturday or Sunday, stop by the Art Star Craft Bazaar at Penn’s Landing to meet me at my booth—I’d love to meet you guys!
In honor of today being Cinco de Mayo, I’ve created some free downloadable beer charms to help you keep your drinks straight as the night wears on (a tricky endeavor, to say the least.) Just click on over to my freebies page and download one (or all) of the three themed sets so your fiesta guests remain cootie-free this afternoon and evening! Each printable set includes six charms (perfect for that six-pack you’re picking up on the way home) featuring fun Ex-Boyfriend characters from my designs, including kawaii guys, cute critters, and adorable monsters!
One of my goals for Ex-Boyfriend this year was to in some way film myself working on a design and create a time-lapsed clip of it to post on YouTube. I finally got around to starting this project about a week and a half ago, and finished the editing last night. It features most of the process that my newest design required—I had some camcorder issues, so I apologize for not including the actual sketching of the design concept. Just as well, since most of that footage probably would have featured more of the top of my head than the actual paper.
I also have to thank my good friend Gary for permitting me to soundtrack the clip with his band The Outdoors’ song ‘I’m Just Drifting’. If you like the track, feel free to become a fan on Facebook and visit their website. Their EP is excellent (Amazing? Sure, that works.), and if you live on the west coast, check them out live—they’re currently on tour!
Anyway, this one is for you guys, the fans—I hope you enjoy it
So I’ve been working furiously for about a week and a half on a new design that was pretty ambitious. It features a lot of different elements, two conflicting styles of art, all for kind of a weird payoff. But I think it looks pretty cool:
It’s called Robo Retro Carnival, and it’s sort of a synthesis of two of my favorite art and cultural movements of the 20th century: art nouveau, and futurism. Art nouveau poster design from the 1890′s and 1900′s features some of the coolest illustration and painting, with very dense and detailed work. In contrast, the space-age futurism of the 1950′s and 1960′s is all about clean lines, primary colors, and space (both figurative and literal), much like art deco in the 1920′s and 1930′s, but depicting artistic visions of the future.
So what better way to combine the two than with a robotic carnival?
I also decided to record myself working on this design, and hopefully will wrap up editing today and be able to post the video tomorrow. You won’t see much of me besides the top of my head, but hopefully it’ll be cool to watch this whole thing come together!
Sometimes I miss certain coworkers from my previous jobs. While I am in no way suggesting that being a member of the workforce is in any way the same as fighting in a war (support our troops an’ all that), it can’t be denied that there is a bond formed when you go through particularly harrowing days or weeks at the office. I suspect that for most people, it’s that camaraderie that gets them to go back each day (that, and we all need to put food on our families. Cash rules everything around us, no?)
However, typically those work-comrades make up a pretty tiny percentage of the fools and trolls we have to put up with on a daily basis. The rest of them often fall into one of the the following six categories:
Post your most awful coworker anecdote in the comments section! Winner gets an “awww” and a cyber-pat-on-the-back from me!
So much new art to share with you today, you guys. First, there’s Whale Trip, a lysergic odyssey of large proportions. Then, there’s International Boozing; the globe, re-imagined for those of us who do most of our cultural explorations with our livers:
A new liquor store just opened in the neighborhood next to ours, and I of course had to scope out its beer selection. It was pretty impressive, and thankfully offered a different variety from the other stores in the area. I picked up two kinds, Allagash’s Tripel Ale (good, but not the best tripel I’ve had), and Dogfish Head’s Palo Santo Marron. The PSM was pretty awesome; classified as a brown ale, but man, is it dark. Almost stout-y. And far be it from me to dump on Guinness, but PSM is much smoother and more complex, with a strong vanilla nose and flavor to go along with the oak-iness. Just a lot going on (in a good way), and a nice choice if you don’t like stouts much. Watch out, though—at 12% ABV, it packs a creeping wallop.
Also wanted to let you guys know about a couple new designs that just went up in the last day or two: Luchador Luchador, and Pho-King Delicious. Check ‘em out!
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