Browsing “Illustration”

My newest zine of some of my favorite things–Booze, Dudes & Bears, published by The Secret Headquarters in Silverlake, is now available online and at the store for $5 buckaroos.  The zine features 20  of some of my favorite drawings, all of which for some reason, involve booze, dudes & bears.  No false advertising here.  Hey, maybe they’re some of your favorite things as well.  Anyhow thanks for the support.

Buy a copy now!

HIGHLAND PARK, LOS ANGELES: There’s a huge upcoming group show THESE FRIENDS 3 coming Friday, February 24th at THISLOSANGELES gallery in Highland Park.  Too many talented artists to name, so make sure to take a peek and drop by.  They’ll also be giving away some tote bags that I designed to the first 100 folks who arrive.

Sneak peek of the weird hairy hunter guy I did for the tote.

So, yeah, last summer I was curating a few chunks of that huge skateboard art show in Paris called Public Domaine… This one.  Among other things, I was in charge of a deck exhibit downstairs under the moniker Agents Provocateurs -an anthology of offensive/controversial/political/message-charged skateboard graphics from then (1990-ish) to now. So that could have been that.

But the venue in question bares a souvenirs-type of shop, and I thought it’d be cool to pick a few of the graphics exhibited and make super high-quality silk-screen prints of them, just a run of 100 prints for each. The two chosen ones ended up being the Sean Cliver “Charles Manson Brown” done for 101 in 1993, and Todd Francis’ “Nature’s Revenge” deck for Julien Stranger out on Antihero.

To make sure this awesome art was going to be treated right, I really wanted to work with Anagraphis/Les Freres Lumineux, whose outstanding portfolio print work for legendary alternative cartoonists (Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton etc) is mind-blowing, albeit of course not cheap at all.

Prints were made, they looked great, a bunch sold at the show… But the leftover was pretty much promised to rot in the shop’s basement once it was over. It killed me to see it going to waste. So in broke-ass, yet super-hero-ish fashion, I went and salvaged the about 50 prints of each graphic left. The only thing I forgot is that I might not have at all the money for it but fuck it, I bought them all back -scooped them up American Pickers-style, minus the profit. And here they are now, available exclusively on Memory Screened!

I’m super excited to announce Booze, Dudes and Bears, a new zine of drawings, to be published with the help of the awesome folks at The Secret Headquarters. We’re going to debut it for the LA Zine Fest Feb. 19th alongside Nick Thorburn’s new zine What A Gas.

I’m really stoked on the Allister Lee x ATLAS decks.  Each of the two decks in this artist series is signed and numbered in an edition of 50 and comes with an original piece of art, shrink-wrapped with each deck.  Get them at Atlas Skateboarding in San Mateo and check-out the fine installation that Allister and the Atlas crew setup in their shop. Up until March 12, 2012.  Mahalo to Allister and to Ryen, Mike and Nick at ATLAS! 

ATLAS SKATEBOARDING
209 2nd Ave.
San Mateo, CA 94401
Tel: 650.401.7110

Decks are also available at Equal Dist., where you’ll find Allister Lee’s infamous 500 Marker Poster as well as original artwork inspired by his love and expertise in the dark-arts.

Talk about a well-curated skateboard shop…!  Allister Lee also designed the ATLAS shop-decks shown below. 

Fresh paint for 2012!
www.nonstndrd.com 

Fellow Mumbler, Don Pendleton did a series for Stereo that will be in shops soon. If you’re any sort of fan of Don or Stereo, you know how awesome these are. Nice one Don. Stereo’s full Spring ’12 catalog.

Dreamland, an Exhibition of Artworks by Claudio Kirac.

‘Dreamland’ revolves around two key themes; the thrill of travel and the longing for home. While ‘on the road’ for periods at a time, and mostly without the leisure one would assume with travel or ‘holidays’, Claudio grasps the moments around him; wholly embracing local cultures and traditions, venturing ‘off the beaten path’ and stepping outside the comforts of everyday life. While befriending strangers and capturing those special moments one only encounters on ‘the journey’, work and play blur into one. Soon comes the challenge of missing the familiarity of home, the everyday norm, the common voices of close friends and the touch of a loved one. But it is this that makes us appreciate the everyday and helps restore our balance and soon we are home again where we can reflect on the journey and the places that became home for those moments in time. The works of ‘Dreamland’ express and investigate many of these notions.

Feb 23rd – March 6th 2012
Comb Space Gallery
Kirra Point, 23 McLean St, Coolangatta, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.

I had loosely suspected it before. It became really obvious when I started working on curating the board exhibit for that one show in Paris last summer: in 2011, there aren’t that many skateboard graphics that have something to say. I mean, by “newer” artists -which immediately sets asides the Templetons, Eli Gesners, Mike Hills, Todd Francises, Clivers, McKees and Aly Moores of Droorstalgic times past.
Not to tout the expired stale fart trumpet again, but my theme being called Agents Provocateurs -a journey through offensive/political board graphics- I sadly only had a couple names in mind when time came not to make this an all-90s board exhibit.
Thanks lil’ Baby Jesus though, there’s still a handful of artists who still carry the maculate torch today. Among the Siebens, the Winston Tsengs (enjoi) and the Whoever-thinks-of-these-sick-Skatementals-concepts, Ben Horton has remained one of my personal faves since he launched $LAVE Skateboards.  The brilliance of it all, the video, Ben Raybourn : the guy behind it had to be a Midas of sorts, I thought.  Well, he is. But he’ll never admit it. Enjoy his interview over at Memory Screened.

On the rare and condemned practice of trying to suckle on one’s own tail

Here’s some new drawings I’ve done, some of which are inspired by ouroboros, some by saxophone playing, and some by well . . . I think you can figure that part out. 

Again on the forbidden and shunned practice of suckling on one’s own tail

A scene in which a merman practice the forbidden and shunned practice of reverse suckling