this year I...

- drove to both coasts and into Canada.
- started the Uptown Market, with help of friends.
- became a professional artist.
- loved the color purple.
- got my dream guitar.
- started writing songs.
- lost a grandma.
- began calling Minneapolis "home."
- rode a tandem, flew a kite, went to a monster truck show, roller skated.
- won a backyard kubb tournament.
- bought a blue bike.
- had many a drunken, beautiful nighttime rides on said bike.
- went to a lot of amazing concerts, including two in-studio performances (A. Bird & Metric).
- was constantly reminded of how great my friends are, new and old.
- watched movies on the side of a garage.
- made pizza on the grill.
- frequented the beach.
- met a neat guy, who makes me happy.
- found a new favorite author (Murakami).
- painted my face like a cat.
- saw a moose in the wild.
- tried something new, whenever I could.

Pic taken on my Portland road trip, in Gresham, OR.
Idea for this post by Sam, whom I don't really know, but probably should.

fox is the new owl

I've always been a fan of foxes, growing up with Disney's Robin Hood (oodelally!) and a name that lends itself to easy rhyme association. Maybe we have Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox to thank, but foxes seem to be cropping up more often in arts and crafts as a trendy subject matter. But I suppose they've been popular for a while; Threadless printed their "Foxy" shirt some years ago (which naturally I purchased). And Fuck You, Penguin has been ripping on foxes for some time, which helps their street cred. Anyway. Foxes are neat, and here are a few of my favorite recent images.


Pietari Posti's "Giants" series


Ashley G's Masquerade

Print by Pamela Michelle

And, for "awww" factor:

Books!

I rearranged my books. Kept the colour-coordination, but decided not to go true ROYGBIV. By adding a couple of floating shelves from IKEA, covering the exposed wall, I was able to place all my books in one spot, rather than on shelves in seperate rooms. Taste the rainbow. Sort of.

flora fauna

Mr. Paul Gardner knows how to make one snazzy gig poster- check out the entire collection (most available for purchase) at the flora fauna site. The designs are imaginative and uncluttered, with organic, naturalistic subject matter and color schemes. Not only can you show off your excellent taste in music and brag about the the live concerts you've attended, you can also obtain an actual piece of fine, handcrafted artwork. Maybe I'm a little biased as a friend, but I can't wait to hang some on my wall.

and more mugs... with mustaches!

mugs, mugs, mugs.

Been spending a lot of time in the studio making mugs. The ravens are custom order, using a method called scraffito, carving away a layer of black slip to create an image. The others are variations on my monster mugs theme.

books! art!

Mike Stilkey combines some of my favorite things in his work: books and art. Old, decrepit, books. Dark, whimsical, Tim Burton-esque drawings. Some even have cats and bikes; what's not to love?


I have been wanting to combine literature and painting for some time now and have sort of been struggling with the logistics. Tearing out pages of a book and painting over them is my thought, with patches of text showing through, but then do I need to worry about copyrights? Stilkey's solution to incorporating books is simple and the new canvas creates a wonderfully diverse starting point. He also does larger installation pieces, made up of hundreds or thousands of books. Here, he's coated a piano with book covers giving it a collage feel.