Huey

I've had a ton of issues with getting my monitor to produce accurate color. This is a problem when working with digital images and photography, as I often do. I've spent hours editing and correcting the color of some photos only to find out that they look like junk when printed, or viewed on a properly calibrated monitor. It never really crossed my mind to get one of these calibration devices until I saw one pop up on Woot tonight. A pretty OK deal at $40, this thing is MSRPed at about $90 but you can get it right now at Amazon for $65. Anyway, if it works like it should, expect only accurately balanced pictures from me in the future.

Top Secret Movie Night

Now that Kuba's gone, it feels like a good time to have a secret movie night. I can't technically tell you where it'll be, but I can tell you that it will be projected onto a large, blank, white wall text Tuesday, the 24th around 7:30. I'm not supposed to tell you the name of the movie either but I'll tell you the options. I've narrowed down to these four choices:

American Movie
Mark Borchardt really wants to be a film director and he isn't going to let his lack of funding, actors, crew or equipment stop him. The American dream is totally possible.

To Catch a Thief
Reformed cat burglar, Carey Grant, is suspected of going back into his old business and has to track down the real thief to clear his name. Also Grace Kelly's in there looking glamorous.

In Bruges
Two British hit men are hiding out in Belgium after a big job. One of them is Brendan Gleeson and the other one is Colin Farrell who is usully pretty good when he isn't doing an American accent. I heard it's a comedy.

I'm Not There
A bunch of different actors portray Bob Dylan or some kind of character based on the life/mythology of Bob Dylan.

If you want to watch one of these movies, you should leave a vote for your favorite choice and if you don't know where this is happening, then you should call/email me and I'll tell you. Also if you have a love seat you want to get rid of for free, I'll take it.

2009 Illinois Community College Juried Art Exhibition

If you are (or if you know anyone that is) an art student at a community/junior college in Illinois you should check out this upcoming show. There are a bunch of prizes and it would be a pretty good thing for a young artist's resume. There is still time, to enter though the deadline for submissions is quickly approaching. I designed the poster, prospectus and postcards which feature details of artwork from my friend Michael and I think they look pretty good. Download Prospectus Here. For more information call (708) 534-4021 or visit gsuvisualartsgallery.blogspot.com or email artsgrad@govst.edu

Secret Project Continues

Counting the finished, white, porcelain heads today I came up with the surprising number 90. I thought I had many fewer. I only need a few more white ones before I switch the color to light grey. They look kind of menacing lined up there like that and in black and white. I used the camera on my phone to take the picture. It might be the first picture I've taken with my phone when it wasn't in my pocket. Most of those pictures look like this:

The Littlest Print Exchange

I've been wanting to organize a print exchange for a while now and I just finally came up with the idea for how to do it. I'll be inviting 50 artists to enter. Each will produce an edition of 50 prints. When everyone is finished, they'll mail their prints to me, after which, I will collate them and then return each artist a complete portfolio of all the prints. I know a 50 print edition can seem daunting to some, so I've lessened the pressure by making the print size only 3.5" x 3.5" square. If you're interested in taking part, please check out the the Littlest Print Blog where you can submit a portfolio for consideration.

Multiplicity

I've just received notification from the Union Street Gallery that I've been accepted into their juried art exhibition, Multiplicity. The show runs from March 13 through April 10. You're invited to the opening reception. I'm showing a small piece you've probably seen before, but that shouldn't stop you from coming and having a good time.

Juried artists include:
Scott Anderson, Cousandra Armstrong, Jenny Zoe Casey, Larry Chait, Christopher Clark, Morgan Cook, Michael Costanza, Claudia Craemer, Janet Gerske, Kathy Goodell, Karla Hackenmiller, Elena Karavodin, Maria Kazanskaya, Alexandra Lee, Marc Leone, Debra Lepage, David Levenson, David Marquez, Patty McWilliams, Lynne Medsker, Sylvia Mullen, David Orr, Roger Paris, Nick Pena, Shravan Rajagopal, Amy Richardson, Greg Sand, Brandon Sanderson, Virginia Saunders, Richard Schmidt, Margie Glass Sula, Laura Lein Svencner, Nathan Taves, Natalie Theis, Sherry Trachtman, Jessica Van Swol, Marydorsey Wanless, C. Dianne Williams, Everett C Williams, Carol Wisker

Eight Times Two Equals Sixteen

Take a peek at the color palette I spent the day working on. It is for the website I'm building. I know you're wondering how I could have spent the whole day just selecting eight colors. Well, I was also trying to figure out how to operate dreamweaver. I'm used to hand-coding web stuff, but figured I should probably learn how these design programs work. A little thing like centering content, which I know how to do by hand, took approximately 8.5 hours to get working and when it happened I couldn't figure out what I did to make it happen. I'm giving up on it for now, but I think I'm on the right track.

Tomorrow I'm working on some porcelain casting and then Saturday I think I'm going to start organizing The Littlest Print Exchange. Sound intriguing?

200 Lincolns

I've got a bunch of crap showing at The Chicago Art Department's 200 Lincolns Exhibition. The opening reception is Friday, February 13th, 6-10pm. I'm going to try to get there around 7:30. If you want a ride, let me know. Later, maybe you'll want to go see Euphone at the Empty Bottle. Maybe I'll go too. Maybe I'll go home and get some sleep.

Exhibiting Artists Include:
Lauri Apple, Ashley August, Dilik Ayed, Arlene F. Badillo, Alex Barone, Brian Barr, Jessica Bartlet, Will Bates, Joseph Belknap, Andrew Bieganski, Alejandro Blanco, Ryan Bockenfield, Bole, Amanda Bolger, John Bollo, Mike Bolsinga, Gen Bonadonna, Kristine Borcz, Milo Bosh, Sangini Brahmbhatt, Nicole Brewer, Carolyn Brisco, Carey Brown, Katie Brown, Terrance Brown, Alta Buden, Brittnae Brasfield, Edelweiss Cardenas, Daniel Cardillo, Erica Cassill, Amar R. Chadaga, Masha Chernyak, Christopher Clark, Thomas Coyle, Susanna Crum, Mary Davidson, Deal, Dulce Maria Diaz, Courtney Douglas, Makeba Kedem-DuBose, Megan Dunworth, Katie Dupree, Byron Durham, Alysha Ferry, Joshua Field, Marissa Finazzo, Andrea Fischer, Kerry Flaherty, Jori Foreman, Josh Ford, Rachel Foster, Gina Frazzini, Brian Galin, Tanya Galin, Lissette Garcia, Seth Gershberg, John Gibbs, Katie Gonzalez, Oleksandr Grechko, Jessica Greene, Peter Hagerty, Chris Hales, Dave Hasty, Billy Hayes, Melissa Higgs, Darren Houser, Corryn Jackson, Steve Jacobson, JaGoFF, Ryan Jana, Elisabeth Jarsen, Angie Johnson, Natash Johnson, Zach Kekelik, Sam Kirk, James Kline, Laura Kostovich, Sarah Koziol, Danielle Knoff, Art Kuyakanon, Jeff LaMorte, Kelly Leahy, Katy LeGrand, Lindsey Leyland, Carolyn Long, Lenore Lopez, Justine Light, Kelley Lindsey, JG Lugtu, Shannon Mangiameli, Chone Mangubat, Ann Marie, Kelda Martensen, Petra Maton, Jenna Rose Mayle, Kay McClain, Eleanor McCullough, Michael McDonough, Jason Meyer, Antonio Medina, Katherine A, Middleton, Mark Molitor, Amelia Moreno, Jason Moreno, Luke Muzyka, Haley Neale, Veronica Neverez, Pei San Ng, A.J. Nichols, Lisa Nitzkin, Mike Nourse, Colette Nowacki, Rich Obando, Bethany Orlowski, Joe Oslawski, Aaron Ozment, Hilesh Patel, Nathan Peck, Gene Pellegrene, Moses Perez, Stacy Peterson, Lauren Podogorak, Anne Prendergast, Chuck Przybyl, Laura Raymond, Jeremy Rhodes, Lauren Rice, Rachel Rlang, Rebeka Roberts, Jay Robinson, Elliot Robinson, Rachel Rodriguez, Kati Romanowski, Jen Rosenthal, Sylwia Rusin, David Sanchez, Mandy Schwanitz, Sarah Scott, Michelle Senase, Paul H. Siple, Sixty-Five, Randi Sluiter, Anna Sodziak, Nat Soti, Shanita Spearman, Terrah Spoolstra, Jacob Stempky, Taquin Stevens, Chance Stockman, Redonte Stone, Jeff Strong, Maya Swartz, Christine DiThomas, Robert Titus, Augusta Toppins, Mike Uher, Adam Velazquez, Joseph Vu, Valerie Wallace, Stacey Lee Webber, Caitlan Wicker, James Williams, Julie Wishmeyer, Brian Wolf, Chung Wu, Chris Zwirn.

Some Dogs

I've been pretty much totally non-productive lately, so I thought I'd dig through some older things I've made and see if any of it is worth looking at. Even though I keep tons of stuff laying around, I've never been much of a collector of my own creations. Most of that stuff, whether it was thrown away, given away, or just misplaced, has disappeared somehow. A lot of stuff I've worked on digitally has remained on my hard drive however. I found these dogs in my picture folder in a section dated by Microsoft as "a long time ago." That translates to about December of 2005 or January of 2006. I remember I printed these onto plastic deli containers and then shrunk them down in my oven. Then, for some reason, I made them into earrings that no one wanted. Later, I cut stencils of the same dog and made blank note cards with them. I still have a ton of those sitting around if anyone wants some.

The Board of Illinois

Here's that alternate color version I was talking about the other day. It is on a piece of particle board and, other than the screenprinting, it is comprised of some white spraypaint, a layer of glossy vs matte polyurethane and a rubber stamp that I hear Martha Stewart might come after me for using. Bring it on Martha.

Service Repair

Today the sky was bright and shiny.

The Illinois

Here's the print I broke my screen making. As a result the edition is only 9 or 10 prints. I did manage to get a single color variation done on a wood panel before the screen tore, and I think I like it better than the edition. I'm going to bring that panel with me to the 200 Lincolns show and see if they want to hang it. If I can, I'll get a picture of it.

A Door for Scale and How I Proved that I'm a Tough Guy

Here's a picture I took a while ago during my Land of Lincoln tour of Illinois. There is something about the cropping around the top of the door that keeps it from being a great picture but I still kind of like it and wanted to show it to someone. On that same trip, I took this other picture of a rundown business of some kind with pictures of Johnny Cash and John Wayne in the windows. The rest of the windows had other bad-ass Americans, like Willie Nelson, in them. The picture kind of sucks but the subject matter is pretty awesome.

Speaking of bad-asses, I was hard-core printing today and got so bad-ass with it that I tore my screen right off its frame. That's how serious I am about screen printing. And that's why the prints I was working on are going to be part of a very limited edition.

200 Lincolns

The Chicago Art Department, a gallery, art school and studio, is having a show in honor of Abraham Lincoln's 200th Birthday featuring 200 portraits of Lincoln. I'm expecting to have at least one or two pieces in this show since I've been using Lincoln as a recurring motif so much lately. The show is free to enter, and they are really interested in having artists of all skill levels show their work, so even if you don't think you could do it, you should make a portrait of Lincoln and enter it into the show. This Friday, the sixth, from six to ten, the CAD is hosting an art drop off party, but if you can't get your artwork done by then, they are also accepting work on Sunday from 12-5.

The official opening reception for the show is Friday the 13th. I'll be there and I hope you will be too.

Chicago Art Department
1837 S. Halsted
Chicago, IL 60608

The Illinois Prelim

I guess its all Lincoln all the time from now on. These are the components of a screenprint project that will be done by the day after tomorrow no matter what. So tune in late Thursday for a first look at the finished product...if you dare.