Levi's Print Workshop Part 2

While I was creating the type poster detailed in the last entry about my Sunday afternoon at the Levi's free open print workshop on Valencia @ 17th here in San Francisco, I was able to have an illustration of mine made into a silk screen print: a two color version and a single color one.



The characters came from a mural that I did in Errol's room detailed in a previous blog entry. That mural unfortunately had to be painted over, so when this opportunity came up, I wanted to bring these guys back to life in another medium.

Also, I've been heavily inspired by the book "The Whimsical Works of David Weidman (and Also Some Serious Ones)" that I recently picked up at Green Apple Books, and I wanted to make some artwork based on his playful forms.
After making a list of phrases that would work best with the image, I chose one that Anila told me is a common quote used in the Jain community. Thought it fit just right!

The one sunny day this week and I'm indoors most of the day...but, hey, it was well worth it!


Since I had a two color max for the print, I submitted my artwork as two tranpsarencies, one for each color layer I wanted to use.
While doing the other project, Ed, this great, hard-working staff member over there at the workshop's silk-screen section, burned my transparencies onto the silk screen itself.


They were really booked with a bunch of folks doing t shirts, wedding programs, and other massive projects that day, so I couldn't try my hand at applying the paint. Ed was the only one who could do the printing.
A sheet of the printers paper I brought was placed on the decks, and Ed switched on a vacuum that would make the paper tight against the surface. He then ran a line of ink at the base of the screen and squeegee'd the ink over the artwork.


After an hour and some change, I was able to get the second color applied on top of the last color.
Easier for me to write about this than it was for Ed to work that big squeegee!
As a tip for his efforts, I made sure to leave him some cold bottles of PBR before I left with my finished prints.


While waiting the layers to dry, I took advantage of the great print & font books they had set up in the space. In a cozy sofa section of the workshop, folks were drawing and busy with prepping their artwork to use in the other presses they had available.


The best part of hanging out in the space was seeing the faces of random people excited in working on their own projects with type blocks or hand-cranking these massive printers.
Watching people's eyes light up like this was contagious...I'd rather get infected by the unbridled enthusiasm of strangers than by bird flu any day, folks!

Here again is a link to more info about the free workshops: http://workshops.levi.com/visit/

Folks in New York & Chicago, watch out for the Levi's workshops coming your way!

Levi's Print Workshop Part 1

Yesterday I took advantage of the free open workshop that Levi's has temporarily set up on Valencia @ 17th here in San Francisco.
Had a poster ready to get silk-screened, but while waiting for my turn, I put together a little poster from their collection of wood type.
Saw this quote in a scene in "Easter Parade," a 50's musical with Fred Astaire. A needlepoint artwork of this phrase hangs framed above a piano where Judy Garlands sings a tune.
After noticing this small sign as a background element in that film, I always wanted to reproduce it in a unique way.

After picking through their collection of type, I assembled the phrase within a "chaser" which is a metal frame that contains the type blocks.


Like a cross between Jenga and a jig-saw puzzle, I had to squeeze in wood blocks and small pieces of lead in between the letters & words to keep them tight within the chaser.
After about a half hour, with the tireless help of a great volunteer, I was able to get my blocks nice & tight within that metal frame, so that if you lifted the whole thing up, not one bit would fall out.


Here's the cool, ol' letter press that I used to make the print.
They inked up that big disk at the top & attached the chase sideways on the printer's side.
This ain't no Canon laser jet scanner/printer combo, I tell ya!


As part of lowering the lever, these big rollers collect ink from that big disk & then ink the type blocks. At the final push of the lever, the chase is pressed against the paper and that's what actually makes your print...cool, aint it?


Left out to dry for an hour or two, hoping that nobody in that huge crowd that's crammed in the workshop at that time absent-mindedly sets their Four Barrel latte on one of the prints!


Kinda blushed when one of the head print guys complimented my work & took a copy for their workshop.

I made it on the wall, folks!

Stop by and have a look before the end of August 'coz that's when Levi's closes shop and moves on to another temporary workshop in NYC. Though next time they're not doing print but photography...and in Chicago they're doing music workshops.
Here's a link to some info: http://workshops.levi.com/visit/

Garage sale flier!

Every little thing you make should have a little design thrown in...even a flier I made for our garage sale tomorrow!

Oil Spill Blues

Listening to Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air the other day, I heard the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is just plain wrecking the whole ecology of the wild life of that area...for a very long time!
Let alone all the folks who live there & depend on a living from working in the oceans.
So much to say...and to be done...about this catastrophe, so I was compelled to draw & design this:

On the date that I write this, the Deepwater Horizon leak is STILL pouring barrels into the ocean...what a world, what a world!

Hand-drawn sketches

Been wanting to post these for a while now, so I hope you enjoy...
Well, folks, whaddya'll think of them apples?

Wire sculptures

Inspired by a photo I saw of a wire sculpture of a male figure by Alexander Calder (pound-for-pound one of my favorite artists of all time!) I pulled out a spool of wire I used for a Filipino Christmas lantern and a trusty pair of needle-nose wire clippers to produce this:


Then, not too soon after, on my very fist visit to the San Francisco's Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park I saw this enormous sea bass affectionately called "Old Grumpy"
The face of the creature really affected me & I felt compelled to reproduce the scale of its head & the composition of its features in wire:

Ah, yet again another wonderful find!

Beauty...

Poster design

Here's my submission to a poster contest for the Asian Heritage Street Celebration in San Francisco this month.
Found out that I didn't win from seeing the bus ads of the final design around town!

Hands on heart, this is the Best!

One of my favorite things I've seen lately...since the last video I posted!

Believe it or not, that's really Pharrel Williams in the video (for my 40 & older readers, he's a member of the musical combo "The Neptunes" which is in the hip hop section of your local record store)

The director of the video is Mr. Oizo, who's a genial French man with a perchance for weird electronica. Here's a sample of his music on MySpace:
http://www.myspace.com/oizo3000

WHERE'S THE MONEY GEORGE ? from oizo mr on Vimeo.

Bless

No need for 3D glasses for this cartoon, folks!

Korla Pandit: "The Grandfather of Exotica"

The trick of holding down the keys with the right hand on the top keyboard so he can play a couple of notes on the lower one is just simply beautiful!



Supposedly he wasn't Indian but African American & he had the very first all music program on American TV in its infancy.

Komiks #4

Went dancing for the first time in ages last week...at the old Liquid on 16th & Capp here in San Fran...now it's been renamed Som (Portuguese for "song" from what I was told) and in between hearing some great new Brazilian dance music (there's a heck of a lot more than just samba out there, folks!), the image for this komik came to my head...

Komiks #3

"Kuya" in Tagalog means Older Brother...just in case y'all didn't know!

Komiks #2

Komiks!

Boys & girls, here's a new thing!
First in a series that I'm now posting entitled "Komiks" which is the Filipino way of spelling "Comics"
...also, if you don't know already, there's a really healthy genre of Filipino comic strips & books with an extensive history and a very vibrant current scene.
Feel free to share if you know of any good titles or artists!

One of the most bizarre films ever made...

Stills of this film have surfaced recently on design blogs like Ffffound.com
...and I've seen grainy stills in old film history books from the 70's.
So, it was with great anticipation when Netflix graciously sent it over in one piece to our apartment (we've received chipped Netflix DVD's in the past - hey, it's Ghettoflix, what else?) and Anila & I spent a cold Sunday afternoon underneath a warm blanket watching this epic hallucination known as "The Holy Mountain (La montaña sagrada)" (1973)
Directed by everyone's favorite eccentric Polish-Mexican director Alejandro Jodorowsky this movie was relentless in layering images that would make the throats of Sarah Palin fans parched from screaming "Sacrilege!"



Though I'm not a fan of "shock for shock's sake" since I do appreciate a good story more than fancy backdrops & effects, this film, however, just had the right amount of chutzpah to keep each scene interesting & well paced. It also had enough naked amputee midgets & frog/lizard explosions that would guarantee it never EVER being made in today's film market.
Hey, it was also financed by John Lennon & Yoko Ono, so they had a great budget to make these huge, incredible sets, hundreds of hand-made props and a thousand extras!

If you do see it, please write to me to let me know what you think.
I'll reply saying that it's actually a very meaningful film...

P.S. I read that the director is currently working on a big surreal gangster epic with Marilyn Manson as a 300 year old pope...how about them apples, eh?

Hidden San Francisco

Welcome to Twenty-Ten, y'all!
Since the mural is now resting nicely, I'm now continuing this blog endeavor with items that deserve your full attention.
Thusly I proceed...as I was walking thru Union Square this past weekend, there was that magical moment of when I happen to have a camera handy and I saw an image that was perfect for a shot.

Right in front of San Fran's other great meat palace (Tommy's Joynt is the other) that venerable institution known as Lefty O'Doul's happened to have their sidewalk delivery elevator open on O'Farrell and Powell.In all my years walking passed or even entering this joint I've never seen the elevator open. Not only do I really dig the signage (ya gotta love that tilting font!), but that hand-painted character is just great! How many hybrid chef/baseball players do YOU know?The character design & the line work is kinda "in" at the moment and there's just a bunch of copy-cats out there now (me included). But the mere fact that this is hidden underground most of the time and was hand-made by an anonymous artist just transcends all these concerns.