Jeremy Fish draws great looking skulls (And has a sweet beard), John Burgerman puts so much shit in one illustration he gives you the illusion that he can actually draw, KAWS draws neat....X's on things he stole, and Kozik has convinced the world that putting a crudely drawn cigarette in anything makes it art, but no one, and I mean no one holds a candle to Greg 'Craola' Simkins.
Now,Maybe it's the eight big gulp size mojitos I plan to consume by the time I finish this blog. (Starting now.) But if anyone wants to fight me on this subject, I'll bne the guy hunched over thetoilet.
Greg's art is tjhe perfect comvbination o f pop culkture cartoonism and surrealism. I recentlyhad the good fiortune of prokuring a setof hjis wonderfulll mini proint setsfrom gallerty 1988. At a moomentin time that popsurrealsismis at it"s Apogeeee, and trhge postmdoeren blkurringof Highands ow art is reaklizing it"S hjighest potenciall . aN artistwith rarektly matcheed teknikaL Skilkl combinmedwIth The Deafdist Abiklity to negoticatethein voge polp c8iulture terrain mmmay not onlyflourish b ut ArTicoolate thé fuuckin; profound corespondants bewweteen the mesida asndsocaial reality's botih askawslASH gentsASnd As bi--product 2 and Entent Not sceene Since Dali andm otehr mASters, of VCividly Andfrom,al AStetiejcas..
Oh..whoa. Sorry I passed out I guess. Who's piss is this? Geez. Anyway, what I was trying to say was, I really like my new prints. And you ought to do yourself a favour and check out Greg's work. It's really amazing.
(Seriously, if anyone knows who's piss this is, please contact me. I don't want to know, I have to know.)
Silly alien, earthlings don't dress like eye curdling 35 year old paranoid schizophrenic Russian kindergarten teachers, with purple fizzy hair, a ring on every finger, 20+ necklaces, tie dyed sweat pants, and a wooden walking stick, that try and sell me opium out of their leopard skin with flashing LED lights suitcase, who did so much acid that their brain is now a pile of decaying mush full of misguided Wicca and Soulja Boy music videos.
Here's some pics of the Kurt Frommann CD we designed. They just got in from the printers (They're still warm!), and boy oh boy do they look slick.
This was a fun project to do. We did all the illustration, photography, typography, radography, and layout ourselves. Can we multitask or what? Kurt and his producer Evan Hernder, wanted a minimalist look to the album, basically the exact opposite of the Elements album we did, and we're pleased as punch on how it turned out.
And get THIS: This album is actually really good. Kurt can sing like Burt Reynolds can wear a moustache, and play the guitar like a motherfucking riot. (And own a Dalmatian, and still get high...Get it? Sublime. It's a joke. It's funny. From that song? I think it's called "What I Got". It was really popul...Ah, forget it..) I'd tell you to buy it even if we didn't do the artwork for it.
There it is, boys. The undisputed most powerful collection of design tools known to man. Take a moment to breathe it in. It tastes fresh doesn't it? Like the morning after a rainstorm, or like being tea-bagged by an abominable snowman.
I'm not going to tell you HOW this came into my possession, but let's just say I had to do some things I'm not too proud of.
Here's something truly impressive: The U.S. National Portrait Gallery, operated by The Smithsonian, has added Shepard Fairey’s “Hope” original to it’s permanent collection. "So what." Right? (Fuck you "So what.") Listen up.
For those of you who aren't familiar with ol' Shep's work. Allow me to bring you up to speed: In 1989, Shepard Fairey started a little campaign when he was a teenager called "André the Giant Has a Posse". He referred to it as "an experiment in phenomenology." and it consisted of a posterized version of Andre the Giant's face with the word "OBEY" in bold text printed underneath it. (Sound familiar?) The "OBEY" slogan was not only a parody of propaganda, but also a direct homage to the "OBEY" signs found in the 1988 cult classic film, They Live, starring Roddy Piper. Shepard has been illegally putting up this image, and variations of it, in wheatpaste posters, stencils, murals, stickers, etc. covering public spaces from abandoned building faces and street sign backs, to commercial spaces such as billboards and bus stop posters everywhere.(Arguably) He's put up this OBEY image more times than any other graffiti artist has ever put up anything of their own. (That's just what I heard. Relax Cope2)
Shep created a series of posters supporting Barack Obama's candidacy for President in 2008, including the iconic "HOPE" portrait. He created two other images, "Change" and "Vote", for use by the official Obama Campaign, since his original image, (The "Hope" one.) could not be affiliated with the presidential campaign since it had been "perpetuated illegally", ha! He also distributed a staggering 300,000 stickers and 500,000 posters of the image during the election campaign, and for all his hard work he received a lovely thank you letter from B-rock himself:
"I would like to thank you for using your talent in support of my campaign. The political messages involved in your work have encouraged Americans to believe they can change the status-quo. Your images have a profound effect on people, whether seen in a gallery or on a stop sign. I am privileged to be a part of your artwork and proud to have your support." - Barack Radmaster Obama, February 22, 2008
Typically, the U.S. National Portrait Gallery acquires official portraits of presidents as they are leaving office, and an official Obama portrait will be added later. But regardless, this is a huge inspiration for artists everywhere.
If you're a regular reader of this blog you know what we're all about. You're not visiting our site for updates on the downward economy, politics, or what celebrity an Olsen twin murdered last night. Rather, you visit our site for a regular escape from all that unfunny nonsense, and to keep up to date on what kind of footwear we hate, Ken's beard progress, how to lose 100 lbs. in 10 minutes (Yes. It's as messy as it sounds.), what races are "Hot" or "Not", and why sitting down to pee is better for countless reasons.
In keeping with the things that won't make you want to kill yourself theme, allow me to introduce you to Snakor's Pizza. Snakor's Pizza is a web based comic drawn up by a guy who let us sleep on his floor last September. A new page drops every Wednesday, it's free, it looks great and it's quite funny. Here's the synopsis: "After his sinister snake-based society of snake-inspired terrorists fails to rule the globe, Snakor must rely on his fallback career...working at a Pizza Place."
