Too Little Too Late

I finished these tiny, little retirement plans for inclusion in the Teensy Tiniest Print Exchange. The deadline was supposed to be up. However, it seems like the holidays are slowing down shipments so we're happy to accept any prints that arrive before January 4th. If you're still hoping to participate, send something quickly.

Teensy

There's only about a week left to participate in the Teensy Tiniest Print Exchange.
http://littlestprintexchange.com/teensy/teensy.html

On Your Marks

I don't know what my problem is. Why do I need to do this to myself? My last embroidery project took me the better part of a year to complete and is now folded up in a box somewhere. So I decided to do another one. One which is more complicated, with many, many more stitches. No to mention that I have far fewer hours available each day for stitching. My current estimate says it will take me 3 years and 9 months to complete starting last Monday. Below you see one week's progress.

Three Star Elephant

There's a new set of songs by Kitchen Experiment on bandcamp. It's called Three Star Elephant Rides. Once again, I put together the artwork. They also have a t-shirt there that I designed. I didn't print it though. I did, however print some shirts this weekend for Chris Shoup, an artist who received a grant from the Audubon Society to raise awareness of energy consumption issues in the Kankakee area. So that's what the shirt was for. Jessica helped me with the printing.

Musicfest Recap

The Musicfest was a great success again this year. More people turned out than ever before and everyone was happy to be there. The weather cooperated with beautiful 84 degree temperatures and NO RAIN. Jessica and I were busy all day making shirts under our tent. The experiment with printing outdoors wasn't as perfectly successful as we might have hoped but we managed to make a lot of shirts and ended up not destroying any screens. We learned a lot about how to do it better next time. We were very happy to have family and friends stop by throughout the day to see how we were doing. An especially large "thank you" has to be given to Kristina who stayed late and helped us carry all of our heavy stuff to the car at the end of the night. And thanks to Bill and Allison and Michael and all the other organizers of the event. I wish I could have been more involved this year.

We do have a handful of shirts leftover. So if you came by our tent without any cash, now you can get a shirt online. Sizes are limited to what we already printed and there are really only one or two left of each one, so if you need to get a shirt, you'd better get it before someone else does. I'll ship it right to your door.

BUY ONE HERE

Merchant Street Musicfest

I'm getting ready to print some shirts in the bright, bright sun at Merchant Street Music Fest. There's fewer than two weeks to get everything together and be prepared for screen printing on a four color press without access to running water. Should be fun.

Pancake

I keep a folder on my desktop labeled "In Progress" where I keep a bunch of half-formed ideas for projects. I often return to that folder when I need something to keep me creatively busy. A lot of stuff in there, I'm sure, will never be used. So I decided to collect a handful of those ideas that will never be completed into a tiny, little book. Maybe I'll do this every year or two to clean out that folder.

A New Day

Even though I post updates here fairly regularly, it has been about two years since my official website has been updated. I was pretty happy with the layout and function of the old versions of the site but they were very limited when it came to adding new content. I spent the last week or so implementing a wordpress theme to the site and tweaking it to my specifications. It should be pretty easy to add documentation of any new work I might pull together. Now I just need to get cracking on a new body of work. I think I'll continue to use this blog as I have been while updating the website only with completed projects and current events.

So anyway, check out the site at goodfeets.com and see if it actually works. I've only tested it so far in Firefox, so there could still be some kinks to work out.

Littlest Prints Ahoy

Our friend (and print exchange fill-in hero) Pilar Nadal posted some nice unpacking photos of her Littlest Print Portfolio. I think this is the first review of the 2012 exchange. Pilar is pretty awesome. She's involved with a lot of print related activities here in Portland, not the least of which is her Tired Press, a bicycle outfitted with everything you need to run a tiny print shop. Look for her around town biking and printing postcards.

Littlest Print Exchange 2012

The 2012 Littlest Print Exchange wrapped up last week when the last of the portfolios went out with the post. As usual, it was an international affair with participating artists from twenty states and eight countries. The most represented state was Ohio with six submissions. The most represented country (other then the U.S.) was Canada, again with six. If you want to see how the portfolio came out, I have updated the exchange website with a gallery of all this year's prints. A lot of them are also available in the store for the ridiculously low price of only $10, shipping included. I'll be officially announcing another LPE side project sometime later this summer so be on the lookout for that.

Palimpsest

Here's the first image from a new collaborative art project I've just started. This five inch by five inch wood panel will travel through the mail from one artist to another. Each artist is asked to add his or her own work to the panel, either altering the previous image or covering it completely. Photos will be made to document each iteration. In case you don't know, "palimpsest" is the term used to define a parchment which has been scraped clean in order to be written on again. Over time, evidence of the original writing may reappear or be uncovered through the use of modern technology. Just as with these ancient manuscripts, the richness of our traveling palimpsest will grow with the addition of each layer of artwork. As photos of successive layers arrive they will be posted for viewing at passthepalimpsest.blogspot.com. Keep an eye out for the second layer soon, added to the panel by Jonathan Stewart in Texas.

Santa Vaca

No Press Print Exchange

A few months ago I participated in a print exchange which forbid the use of any kind of press. That was good for me since I don't currently have access to any kind of press. I think I posted my submission back then, but here's the portfolio that I received. These pressless prints were made by Anna Reser, Rachel Donnelly, Jaime Tillotson, Achim Nicklis, Ren Adams, Addison Eaton, and Daniel Stromberg.

Half Tony

Just a little stack of some prints I'm trying out. Hand printed with the back of a spoon from a laser engraved plywood block made for me by the helpful folks at Sawdust and Noise. Modern age and bronze age technology meet.

Easy Listening

After the last 57 Splits release, the conceptually unlistenable ode to record sales, All Time Best Sellers, I thought it might be a good idea to make something a little easier on the ears. This new release is made up mostly from easy listening, lounge music, AM pop, and light rock. I think it came out pretty good. I hope you like it and download it.

Stripes

I'm starting a new series of relief prints based on candid portraits taken of strangers in public. I'm not sure if I really want to hand carve all these tiny lines so if anyone has a connection with a cheap laser engraving service, I'd like to hear about it. I'm thinking about making a bunch of blocks and saving them up until I have access to a decent press on which to print them.

Littlest Print Exchange 2012

In addition to making my own prints for the Littlest Print Exchange, I've also been preparing packaging to house the portfolios and getting the website setup to add another gallery. Once this year's portfolio is completely finished, I'm going to announce another LPE side project like the Fixed Focus Exchange from earlier this year. The Teensy Tiniest Exchange will be a trade of ridiculously small, one inch prints open to anyone that wants to join in. The details are being worked out, so be on the lookout for an announcement in a few months. And keep your eyes peeled for updates on the 2012 LPE as we get closer to the May 1st deadline. There will be some great little artwork to see.

Half of One Percent

Now that I'm finished with my cross stitch, I'm spending some time putting together a submission for the Littlest Print Exchange. The due date is a little early this year, to make sure we can get the whole thing completed before we hit the road again. This one's a little hand-stitched packet similar to the one I made a couple of months ago for a different exchange.

Statistics

So I finished stitching the other day. I beat my most recently estimated end date by about a month and my original estimate by more than a year. I tacked the tapestry up on the wall to shoot this picture. I'm working on a method to stretch it like a canvas, removing all the wrinkles and making it appropriate for hanging. After that I'll hopefully be able to get some more professional photographs. Until then, here are a few statistics:

500 "pixels" x 500 "pixels" = 250,000 "pixels"
Each pixel is made of two crossed stitches so that makes half a million individual stitches or one million passes of the needle through the canvas.

- Begun: 7/15/2011
- Finished: 04/08/2012
- 268 days or about 9 months
- 1600 estimated man hours based on how many pixels I could complete in 1 hour.
- Estimated average of 5 hours, 58 minutes of work per day

- Approximately 8,333 feet of embroidery floss, which translates to 1.58 miles.
- Even though Jessica insists it is a worthless statistic, that is 0.0009875 miles of floss per hour.

97.6%

Only one more embroidery hoop's worth of stitching left to go. I thought I'd give you a small look at the back before the entire piece is revealed.

Leftovers at Wharepuke

The prints from last year's Leftover Print Exchange, organized by Amy Nack at Wingtip Press, have been shipped all the around the world to New Zealand for exhibition. If you happen to be in Northland over the next month, stop in at Wharepuke Gallery and Print Studio and check out the show.

95.36%

Whew. As I get closer to the end of this project, I'm spending more and more time working on it each day. The finish line is finally in sight and I'm desperate to cross it. Hopefully, I'll be done in fewer than 14 days. After all this work, I'm really going to need to find some place to exhibit the finished piece and, ideally, sell it for $30,000.

84.64%

76.48%

Last week I picked up a timer for my camera that allows me to do some time lapse photography. Since I'm working on this cross stitch project all the time anyway, I figured I should just point the camera at it as I go along to record some of my progress. So here we are 3 days and 6,123 photos later looking at about 30 hours worth of work time condensed down to 3 minutes and 28 seconds. Keep in mind this is just one hoop full of embroidery. The completed project should be somewhere around 45 hoops.

73.92%

Best Sellers

Even though I ran out of steam halfway through my "album every month" plan from last year, I'm still planning on putting together an audio project once in a while. With this one, All Time Best Sellers, I've created a set of sound collages by extrapolating audio from the raw digital information hidden within images of the cover art associated with the top twelve best selling albums of all time. I've done a lot of looping and multi-tracking to make the generated noise somehow structured, however, I really don't think you'll need to put on your dancing shoes.

Have a Look

When I was printing, cutting, and folding the colophon/portfolios for the Fixed Focus project, I took advantage of the unused edges of the paper to print these little ladies. They're made up of three different kinds of paper I had leftover from other projects hand-stitched together into packages. Inside is inserted a photo only 3/4 of an inch, square. Click the image to enlarge it if you want a better look. I'm intending to send these off to the 3rd annual Leftovers Print Exchange.

Ziggurat

This is my submission for the Fixed Focus exchange I've been posting about. I shot it while sitting on the toilet.

Fixed Focus Finale

After a nice lunch with Jessica, I spent most of the rest of the day putting together portfolios for my little photography exchange. I think they came out pretty good. I'm planning to get all of them shipped out this week. Soon all of the submitted photos will be available to view in a gallery on the Littlest Print Exchange website. I'm working on making that gallery tonight.

Took a Spill

I tripped on our lumpy sidewalk tonight and jacked my hands and knees up pretty good. A few weeks ago our neighbors tried to throw away some pillows and they've been laying on the curb ever since. I missed landing on them by about eight inches. I don't think that's technically ironic, but its surely something. I guess I won't be doing much cross stitchery for the next few days while I'm healing, but if you're interested, the project is a little more than 71% complete.

Fixed Focus

Just a few more days to get your photos sent in for this nice little exchange. Plus, just for you, a special discounted entry fee (or free if you include appropriate postage.)

Left Ledge

I took a little break over the holidays but I'm back at it now, stitching away on this project. 61.6% complete now.

Fixed Focus

My annual printmaking exchange (the Littlest Print Exchange) is in its fourth year now. A few months ago I decided the project should branch out to include photographic prints more prominently. To that end, I launched an LPE side project called Fixed Focus, an open exchange of photography. It is a pretty simple project. Each participating artists sends in an edition of 16 identical photos and, in return, receives a random portfolio consisting of photos by the other participants.


So if you want to participate, just make sixteen 4"x5" horizontal photos and send them to me by January 30th. Make sure to include your name and address, along with a website address so I can give you proper credit. I'll sort the prints out and send you back a nice package by the end of February. All of the sorted details are available at the Fixed Focus Website.