Illustration celebration

I bought Jenna a Communication Arts subscription for Christmas, and it's safe to say I'm enjoying it at least as much as she is. Last week, my favorite issue arrived in the mail: the Illustration Annual! With my greasy grilled cheese held at a safe distance in my right hand, I eagerly paged through the magazine with my left, spotting great work from some illustrators I've heard of, and some that I haven't. For this post, I'm going all Drawn on ya and posting a few of my favorites.

Yuko Shimizu (work shown at left/above) is a name I'd swear I'd heard before, but nothing in her online portfolio really rang any bells, although it did cement my position as a fan of her work. A little rugged, a little raw, a little OMG NSFW!!

Marcos Chin (you know, the guy who did the Lavalife ads?) had some lovely art in the magazine, but I didn't find anything I liked nearly as much on his website. Here it is anyway! Get some of your new stuff on the online please, Mr. Chin.

Everyone is crazy about Gary Baseman. I like his work alright, I even went to see the man at Ox-Op earlier this year, but I just can't catch the fever. It's just as well, since my wife hates his style, so it's not like I'd be able to decorate our home with Baseman paraphernalia anyway! For some reason whenever I think of Baseman I also think of Jeff Soto, and that's a dude I could get on board with. But he wasn't in Communication Arts, and we'd be here all night if I started free-associating all the artists I like. So back to the issue at hand.

My favorite illustration of all is a half-page image of HMS Victory done by an artist named Kako. I had to dig a bit, but I managed to find it online! It is here, and now also featured on my desktop background.

When I first read about I am 8-bit, it sounded like pretty much the best idea ever. Art based on vintage video games, you say? It's about time, I say. Google around and you'll be sure to round up more images; I couldn't go to the show, but I heard about it on Wired and this Duck Hunter/Thompson mashup by Tim Tomkinson was one of my favorite pieces. Let's enjoy it with me.

I hope you don't asplode

Happy Fourth of July! Remember kids, fireworks kill four people in the US every year. This is almost as many people as are killed by bunk beds (five). Sleep tight!

Actually, I'd like to see a professional sparkler handler in action. What would they do differently? I like to draw my name in the air, maybe I could get some pointers on my technique.

BREAKING NEWS: Live TV coverage of the St. Paul Craftstravaganza is a possibility! More details as they come in to SPC HQ.

UPDATE: Maya Nishikawa from WCCO TV news will be filming live at the fair on Saturday morning. Together with the Indie Craft Documentary crew, that makes a lot of media attention for our show!

The Men of Craftstravaganza

Perhaps the surest sign that this is no ordinary old-lady craft fair is the fact that several of our vendors are, in fact, males. Whereas traditional "ducks in bonnets" style craftwork may be less appealing to men, the kind of art we looked for could be more or less appreciated by both genders. I counted, and out of 67 booth spaces, at least 12 include one or more dudes (some tables are shared by multiple vendors). That's like eighteen percent! Here are a few of my personal top picks.

It all starts with John Carlson, who is also the President of the Board at the Sibley Bike Depot. He paints Ukranian eggs, but there's not much online yet. Jaak assists with our scrapping operations at the shop, and keeps some choice parts for his sculpture work. He also makes some unique jewelry that I think could go over at the show. Finally, there's Nate's Custom Sewing, who made a custom saddle and grips for John's vintage 3-speed! The craft world and the bike world are both very small.

Lonny Unitus I must have mentioned before. He designs gig posters and I commissioned him to make our crazy giant-style poster for the show. We've been getting compliments on his work from lots of people already, so I think I made a good choice on that one. Withremote is Nate Nolting, another designer who makes band posters but also sells art prints, stickers and t-shirts. I am totally going to buy one of these shirts on July 8.

I am going to cut myself off after drawl graphic, even though that's less than half the talented guys who'll be at the Craftstravaganza. There are actually two guys in this studio (Chris and Adam (plus a girl, Lindsay)) and I like them both, but I'm partial to Adam's big cartoony style. Cool it, man. No, you cool it.

I wouldn't be so egoistical as to mention my own work again, oh no. Especially since I already posted about it twice.

Sunday morning cat blogging

We don't have a cat. This little buddy just showed up on our doorstep t'other day and meowed for food, so I brought him some of Lola's kibble, and he gobbled it up. The poor thing is bony and dirty and had no collar, so we assume he's a stray. I named him Euclid.

I'd like to keep him, but Jenna is advocating for a trip to the no-kill shelter. Money doesn't flow as fast and loose as it used to before the mortgage, and besides, we don't know that Lola would react favorably to another animal in the house. She's very jealous! I spent the morning giving Euclid some loving attention with a brush, and another serving of dog food. He devoured the food, but didn't care for the water. After a while, I went back inside the house and let him go his own way.

If he turns up again, is there anyone who'd like to adopt an adorable and very affectionate cat? He's got claws and I assume he's not spayed or neutered. I'm also only assuming he's a he, since I'm not a cat sexing expert or nothing. Won't you help a poor kitty from the streets?

Bob the Golfer

"Bob the Golfer" is a comic I drew that was printed in my high school and college newspapers. I refined my style significantly during the many years I drew the strip, and eventually moved it online. After shipping between various free hosting services, I finally bit the bullet and registered the (now defunct) bobthegolfer.net. By that time, I had standardized the size of the comic and moved to a full-color format. My output was three strips a week.

It ran online for a very short time (less than a year), but was critically acclaimed, with such webcomics luminaries as Tycho Brahe, Scott Kurtz, and R. Stevens conferring their blessings on the strip. I drew most of my best comics during that period, which ended with my trip to Japan. When I returned home, I drew a few more and then realized that I was done. Now, for the Craftstravaganza I designed and printed an ultra-limited run of FIVE hand-numbered comic booklets.

They're small, but they're high-quality prints and more than half the book is in full color. The cover image is a brand-new illustration made just for the book, and the strip on the back is appearing in color for the first time! Get 'em while they're hot!

Indiginous mushrooms of Marshall Ave

Coprinus comatus (Shaggy Mane)

I thought these little guys might make a tasty butter-sauteed snack, but this warning from Michael Kuo made me think twice.

Suddenly appearing in people's lawns--in troops or lines or rings--this mushroom is well known and relatively easily recognized. It is a well known and good edible, but probably not one for beginners, since it can bear a superficial resemblance to several poisonous mushrooms...and one should avoid any specimens growing on well traveled roadsides.

As a rank amateur who harvested these shrooms a foot away from our busy street, I'm handily disqualified from attempting to eat anything at this point. Thanks, MushroomExpert.com!

Visiting vendors from faraway lands

Of course we love all our vendors equally, but since this is my personal blog I'm going to highlight a few that I'm personally most excited to meet. Most of our artists are local, but a few brave souls are trekking across the country to attend this first-time, unproven, unknown event. This post is dedicated to those crafters who are coming from away to sell you handmade treasures on July 8.

First up, Jenny Harada. Early in the planning process, I decided it would be awesome to host workshops so that attendees could actually learn some craft skills of their own. I contacted Plush Rush to see if anyone there wanted to run a stuffed animal class, and Jenny volunteered! I was already a big fan of her creatures, so I was stoked to sign her up as both a workshop teacher and a vendor.

Also hailing from Ohio Detroit are the lovely ladies (and gentleman) of Tekkat, who sure know how to stage a photo. That page is the only functional one on their site at the moment, but they should have tons of great clothing items for sale at the Craftstravaganza.

Sweetie Pie Press is coming from Toronto. That is in Canada! This makes her our most international vendor, plus, she will be performing standup all weekend at Brave New Workshop, which is very admirable! She is the only one (I can think of right now) who is selling comics and zines, but there might be more. Also she will have "surprises" at her table, so you will just have to come to the fair to see what that is all about.

Heather Wells wins the prize for farthest vendor by coming to us all the way from North Attleboro, Massachusetts. Bright Lights Little City makes lamps out of cocktail umbrellas, and you really have to see that website to do them justice.

We have a few vendors coming from the Chicago/Milwaukee zone, which is great. I've sort of thought of them as local, especially when you compare that trip to one from Boston! I just want to tell you about one today, and that's the prodigious Faythe Levine. She manages the cute and fun Paper Boat Boutique, a retail shop for handmade goods in Milwaukee. She also organizes that city's alternative craft fair, Art vs. Craft. As such, I feel it was sort of a coup to have her come to our show, and we're delighted to have her. Not only will she be a vendor at the Craftstravaganza, she will also be filming footage for her latest project, the Indie Craft Documentary! And I thought we were busy...

On the importance of washing your fruit

Jenna plucked some ripe raspberries from our back yard bushes last night and instructed me to clean them. I ran some water on 'em and started tossing berries down my pie hole. After gorging myself for a few seconds, something got stuck back in the corner of my mouth. I tried tongueing it out, but whatever it was wouldn't budge, and it started to hurt. I stuck my finger into my throat and scraped out a little bee! I gave the rest of the raspberries a thorough rinsing after that.

Speaking of bees, remember when cars used to look awesome? (Photo is of a '71 Dodge Superbee, lest you question my transitional prowess.) Over 11,000 cars were registered in last weekend's Back to the 50's show, and one of them belonged to my father-in-law. He drives into the Cities every year, and he left home at 2:00 AM on Saturday to be among the first in line on Snelling Ave.

He always manages to get the same tree-shaded spot, so we like to sit with him for a few hours and grill burgers and drink beer. Sometimes we walk around the Fairgrounds to see what is going on. One of the vendors at this year's show was a working pinstriper by the name of Coop. And I thought, surely not THE Coop from LA, with the drawings of naked ladies (warning: naked ladies!). I knew he liked hot rods, but I didn't think he did striping. Sure enough, this Coop turned out to be Greg "Coop" Cooper from Lancaster, Ohio--but that didn't make it any less interesting to watch.

I interviewed myself

Mapaches and other forest creatures who would like to know more about the Daruma can read a Q&A on our SPC Crafter Showcase blog now. They look a lot better in this photo, but I really haven't gotten much work done on them in the past couple of days since I've been staying up late night after night to work on an Extra Secret Special Project that might be of interest to a handful of people that I know.

(once you're done reading my interview, you should go through the archives and see the rest--we have a fine group of vendors coming to this event and I'm mightily stoked to see them in person). I've been using the website and the SPC blog to promote the fair, and I'm talking it up on this blog too, of course. I try not to, but I can't--the Craftstravaganza is everything right now, and will be until it's over in less than two weeks.

So, I might spend every day between now and then talking about our vendors and why they're awesome. Be warned! After the fair maybe I'll really shut up about it finally. But probably not... I'm cramming months of preparation into a 7-hour event, so there's going to be a lot to unpack when it's done. But for now... vendor art!

I think I'm getting the hang of this MySpace thing

It still seems stupid, but it's helping to spread the word about our show. I've spent a few hours befriending local artists and crafty people who will hopefully enjoy the stuff we have to offer.

MySpace is kind of genius guerilla marketing. I'm not trying to sell you a product, I just want to be your friend! There's not much useful information on most peoples' pages but there's enough on some of them that statistics can be gathered and a market audience can be targeted for promotion. Authors are doing it now too. It takes some digging but if there's a niche for your product, you can find it.

It's more fun finding people for my own sake, though. The Craftstravaganza has gathered a burgeoning collection of friends that I might not have found except for this social networking experiment. Like John G, a stencil artist whose work I 'discovered' at the St. Paul Art Crawl without ever getting his name.

I was totally going to buy this painting, but it was like $300 or whatever.

BIOS ROM checksum error

Blowing my computer up has done wonders for my productivity, not to mention my blogging. The words got log-jammed and now they're pouring out. I only blog in the mornings after Jenna leaves for work or at night after she's gone to bed. I use her G5 which is wonderful and scary and I hate the tiny keyboard and I can't get used to this OS X interface even though I know it's supposed to be cool and all the kids are doing it.

When she's reading her bride forums I get kicked down to the basement and use the typewriter instead. The typewriter is for fiction and correspondence only. I wrote that short story over the weekend. It was very short (3 typewritten pages). It ended sooner than I thought. One of my characters turned out to be a real asshole. I thought he was going to play it cool, but he decided to make a scene, and then my main character hauled off and punched him in the jaw. It was a violent and sad tale.

I desire a digital camera of my own. Jenna's is too nice and I can't take it with me. I saw a pink moped today; it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

MPLSART's Art Forty Project

Forty-ounce bottles painted by local artists; full, chilled, and ready for drinking? Yes please! It's one of those ideas that I just wish I'd thought of first, but Robot Love has the local art connections to make it happen... maybe for next year's event we'll have our vendors illustrate alcoholic beverages.

There's a mixed beer and tequila concoction called Desperados that was sold in France in a limited series of illustrated bottles. It was a tough decision to leave my empties behind, because they were even prettier than the containers of wine that we drank on our Montparnasse apartment balcony. I don't even like tequila, but somehow that didn't stop me from loving this "tequila-flavored" beer. It tasted especially good in comparison to local favorite Kronenbourg, a forty that went unfinished in favor of other drinks.

Word on the streets is that Desperados is available in the US, but I've never seen it in Minnesota. Any local peeps got a lead?

Field Trip Tuesday

When I ordered posters for the St. Paul Craftstravaganza, I originally thought that 300 would be a good number. I settled for 150, but I worried, would that be enough? Now we've hung about a hundred, and we're struggling to find places for the rest.

I drove to Uptown and left posters and flyers at Intermedia Arts, ArtMaterials, Moxie, Frame It, Treehouse Records, Ink Lab, Alt Bikes & Boards, Bryant-Lake Bowl, TWO posters on the column outside the Wedge, flyers at Arise!, a poster at Penn Cycle, and big ups to whoever hung posters at Robot Love, St. Sabrina's and Uptown Tattoo, I dropped off flyers to keep them company, and hit Artscraps on my way back home.

Much love to Uptown, it's always a good trip. Of course I always forget my camera. Otherwise you might have been treated to a shot of the sexiest bike outfit ever that pulled together hotpants and torn fishnets. Or some nice graffiti, especially a piece behind Saint Sabrina's that might have been done by the same artist whose work is posted here. Instead here's the poster I swiped from Ink Lab and replaced with one of ours.

Craft attack: Daruma Army

We had an uncharacteristically productive weekend fixing plumbing painting the dining room getting fish postering for the SPC and then my car broke down on Sunday night and we were back and forth from the repair and rental places yesterday to get that sorted out. I talked to a reporter from the Star Tribune and she was very gracious but not optimistic about printing an article about the St. Paul Craftstravaganza on such short notice. I took the day off from work so I can drive to Uptown and hopefully hang the rest of our posters. I'll be dropping off stacks of flyers at places like Muddy Waters, Ink Lab, Robot Love, if they're open and I get there.

I'm working also on my crafts for the fair: Weebles repainted as Daruma. You can see a batch in various stages of completion here, plus their big brother who is made from an Easter candy package and jangles! I'm using the same design for all of them, but each one has its own personality. The completed Daruma will all have the mouths and gold kanji like he does. I'm going to have about 30 when I'm done, which should look respectable on our vendor table next to Jenna's cards/beads display and possibly... some copies of The Best of Bob the Golfer?

I am writing a story for you

Well the craft fair is coming up and I'm busy organizing and painting my crafts and my computer exploded but you don't want to hear excuses about not blogging. I posted on the BikePed blog about the 24-hour feature film challenge that's happening tonight/tomorrow. I thought about participating for about five minutes, but I decided not to do it because

a) I just found out about it
b) I don't have a video camera
c) I don't know anyone who'd be able to film it with me last-minute,

and plus what do I know about filmmaking and I didn't feel like going out to Minneapolis with the t-storm looming. I would have been destroyed, as it turns out, so good call on my part. But I liked the idea of the challenge and I thought one thing I could do was a personal 24-hour short story challenge. I haven't done any noteworthy writing in a while (not even blogging which is just stream of consciousness simple especially after a few cans of Black Label) so with my computer on the fritz I unpacked my Smith-Corona and loaded up the paper and started clacking away at those keys. The U still sticks but it works okay. One page down and no stopping till I've told a story to my satisfaction. I stumbled on novels because they're meant to be so long and I type through the action too quickly since my prose is fast and danger. For a short story, this works. Fisticuffs are about to ensue! I'll let you know how it goes.

We have issues to get off our chests

That's right, we have seven boxes of free BUST magazines for Craftstravaganza attendees to take home on July 8. We also have a load of Altar magazines and Radio K stickers. What else is going to be free at the SPC? Well, let's see... live music, facepainting, workshops... oh, and admission! It's all free, people!

We got the beaut

Grand Old Day is an annual event in our neighborhood that is happening this weekend. Their website is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, but the funniest one is on their main page, where they claim that "Monies colleted [sic] at the event go towards ... avenue beatification." Can an Ave. become a Saint? Maybe if it performs some miracles this year, then next year's revenue will go toward canonization! I guess it could be worse. "Saint Grand Avenue" would still be substantially less unwieldy than "Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard."

Science boy

Owning a home means, to me, that I now have a "home base" for learning about science and nature! Will Wright's upcoming game Spore has reignited my interest in natural sciences, from cellular biology on up to astronomy. As I get older, I'm learning that the stuff I thought was cool when I was a kid is still awesome. I've always had a fondness for those misunderstood and unappreciated creatures, the bugs. I found this little fellow lurking beneath a decorative pond that I've left partially unfinished for a couple of weeks now. Before he scuttled away, I got a good look at him and ran inside to consult What's That Bug? dot com. There, I learned that he is "a Sow Bug Killer, Dysdera crocota. They are one of the few predators that will eat sow bugs which have an unleasant taste." What a useful spider!

A Very British Weekend! The Lake Pepin 3-Speed Tour

The tour was a hoot. We did about 80 miles in two days and it sounds like a lot when you put it that way, but we biked slowly and stopped often. I got out of the weekend with nothing worse than a sore butt, although my dad felt a bit worse than that. Anyway, it was meant to be for fun, and we had our fun. Weather was superb; we got sprinkled a bit, but otherwise it was beautiful and sunny with a generous tailwind. Lots of big birds around there. I rode a '72 Raleigh Superbe, truly a deluxe model 3-speed bicycle. There was one other gentleman in attendance with the same bike in a '74 model, and they were really similar. Out of the other 47 people, there was an impressive array of different manufacturers and weird modifications for a vintage bike geek to drool over.


Here's my dad in proper "gentleman cyclist" period attire, before heading off on the route. We drove in to Red Wing, Minnesota to mass up and spent an hour or so admiring each other's bikes and making introductions. I recognized Matt from Two Cities Two Wheels but I didn't let on that I knew his secret identity. There's a photo of me having a good time in knickers here. Local bike industry legend Ron Storm was there, and hardcore Joanne who did the whole loop in a skirt and high heels. One participant was on an orange single-speed Bridgestone XO-1, which technically isn't a 3-speed at all, but still a very cool bike. Anyway, after announcements and giveaways, the group saddled up and crossed the bridge into Wisconsin, where we began our loop of Lake Pepin (a fat part of the Mississippi River). On Saturday we biked down the WI side and then crossed back into Wabasha, Minnesota for the night.


There was a strong showing from the Sibley Bike Depot contingent. Pictured here are President of the Board John Carlson and super-volunteer Terry Hanson. John was riding his nice Armstrong with custom leather seat & grips (done by Craftstravaganza vendor Nate of Nate's Custom Sewing!), and Terry rocked a homebrewed 3-speed monster with 700cc wheels. His bike required some moderate repairs later on, and I made some adjustments to my seat height, but otherwise it was a remarkably trouble-free weekend considering the age and condition of some of these worthy steeds. Volunteer Karl did blow out one of his skinny racing tires on a rough descent, but otherwise we coasted through the weekend with nary a breakdown.


The theme of the ride is, "we have all day to arrive at our destination so let's not spoil it by showing up early." Frequent rests were the order of the day. Besides historical markers and scenic overlooks, we made stops for drinks and treats at some cozy little places. I especially recommend the Smiling Pelican Bakery in Maiden Rock, WI. I ate a slice of Balinese Vanilla Bean Cheesecake and washed it down with Sprecher's root beer. That's energy food! The Wabasha Cycling Club feted us with free dinner on Saturday night, served with--what else?--English Ale. The lumpy motel mattress didn't do much to alleviate my saddle sores, but anything felt good compared to my vintage Brooks saddle. Maybe if I ride it throughout the year, it will be soft and broken-in in time for 3-Speed Tour 2007.


The second day was a bit more grueling than the first, but another rule of the Tour is "no complaining," so we maintained a stiff upper lip. I don't know if I'll really make it out to next year's ride, but it was a tremendous experience that reminded me how much fun it can be just to ride a bike. It's a lesson I forget easily, but I remember quickly every time I get back in the saddle. Hooray for cycling!

spring fever/cleaning

I haven't missed posting here that much, but my wife told me to update last night, and I always do what she says. To recap, we bought a house, I started a new job, and the Craftstravaganza is less than two months away. The past couple of weeks, we've been getting settled in our home. We have cable again, thus the blogging. Out-of-doors, there's a lovely garden that we are muddling with.

At the Depot, my new old 3-speed Raleigh is being repaired with the help of shop manager "downtown" Dave Blessing. It's a gorgeous bike with a dynohub on front, Sturmey-Archer '72 on rear, Brooks saddle, the works. I'll post photos for the vintage bike geeks when it's done. If all goes as planned, I will be riding this worthy steed at the Lake Pepin 3-Speed Tour with my dad next weekend.

I guess that's what I am most excited about right now. The usual rash of weddings this summer, baby stuff, &c... I should point out for the sake of my tomodachi in Japan that there's new Spore footage from E3, so bideo o mite kudasai. Domo. (update: long video featuring Robin Williams)