Mas Seed Toss

More Seed Toss updates. As always, email me if you want to be on the mailing list.

"O Percutor Harmonico" by André Lemos (review)

Based on Sergio Leone's 1968 Western Once Upon a Time in the West and drawn in André Lemos' characteristic heavy-brush style, O Percutor Harmonico is a sort of translation of the opening scene of the film, though not at all a straight re-telling. There are no words - in the art alone Lemos skates on the surface of Leone's work, picking and plucking and placing images in an order that creates something new alongside the original story.



O Percutor Harmonico opens with a Lemos version of the Paramount logo making it clear that he's drawing from a film. Once Upon a Time in the West is famous for being full of references to other Westerns so it works well that Lemos is choosing his own motifs and references to play with. A train, dusters, a windmill and of course, cowboy hats. There's also, just once, a harmonica, something very important to the original film.



This way of translation reminds me of a song by "Mole" called "Monument Valley. The lyrics are lines pulled from (I think) John Ford's classic Western Fort Apache, but they are similarly plucked and reshaped to make something that is certainly of the original piece but something wholly new as well.



Lemos' art fits the gritty dirty subject well with his careening violent brushwork. The images don't clearly or easily tell the story, but they add up anyway. There's a slim thread of a narrative (a train arrives, some guys face off, a gunfight), but Lemos doesn't open a window for us to gape though - he re-edits the film in ways that don't always seem to make sense and gives us an experience that we find, one that we piece together. This is close to an Eisensteinian way of making comics - drawing not only from film's more obvious narrative capacity but also from it's mysterious juxtaposing power.



I'm not sure how one could get O Percutor Harmonico other than to email Lemos directly though his Opuntia Books site. Here's a review by Portuguese critic Pedro Moura. O Percutor Harmonico is published by AO Norte. All these sites are in Portuguese. I should add that since I can't read Portuguese, and the essay in the book is in Portuguese, I may be missing something critical about the whole project. I like being confused though, so this language barrier has not been a problem for me.

All images © André Lemos. "Monument Valley" is © Mole - if you are Mole and want me to take it down I will but I couldn't find you online anywhere to ask permission. I hope you're ok with me spreading your glory.

more Seed Toss updates

More postcards up here. I'm still back in ancient territory - these cards are from 2002! I'm still doing them though, so send me a mailing address if you want one.

Crabapple by Franklin Einspruch (review)

Crabapple, like many of Franklin Einspruch's other webcomics at themoonfellonme.com, is a sort of haiku - a freshly observed moment that unfolds and unfolds. He is a painter and it shows in both the beautiful handling of watercolor (the lively lines, the careful blending of colors, the spontaneously precise rendering) and in the observations the pieces are about. He sees things but finds them by making.

What isn't expected is his startling ways of making these images and words into comics. He is frequently subtle and sneaky in how he makes the pictures underscore the text and vice versa. In Crabapple, the first image is of a brown, almost crispy bush. No background, a line of brown (maybe dead rotten brown or maybe soil, sleeping, maybe waiting).



In the next image: the bush again, still brown but with green leaves, pink blossoms and a green carpet underneath. What amazes is the sky - this tree has blue sky all around and through it. The first tree was alone, separate, dead but this one is alive, penetrated and one with the world.



The final images in the piece, two similar pictures of flowers and leaves on branches take this theme further. The color of the leaves bleeds into the branch marking them as un-separate, as one. (The images I'm presenting here are out of context - the actual piece has a lovely side-scrolling motion, revealing itself as you look.)




His lettering also adds to the effect. In the first (all brown) text area the break of "down" where its ascender reaches up for the descender in the "P" of "pull" mirrors the image of the maybe-dead bush. The next text, after that beautiful tree image, is blue like the sky. The final text is green like the sprouted leaves.



This piece, like many others he has made, has such fresh observations and thoughtful, subtle ways of finding the world by making, is the best apology he could give.

All images © Franklin Einspruch

Seed Toss updates

Updates over at Seed Toss - more postcards and some street art from out San Diego trip.

NASCAR #5 paint scheme (review)

Over at Rowdy.com I posted a review of Mark Martin's #5 paint scheme. Yes, it's NASCAR!

Or Else 3 by K. Huizenga (review)

This book is a mix of new work and stories reprinted from earlier comics but somehow Huizenga makes them all seem parts of a whole. Part of this could be the craft - his drawings match his writing - seemingly casual but very careful and precise. It's easy to look at and read his work but he always keeps something there that doesn't allow a reader to merely skim by. In this book there's what seems to be standard slice-of-life poignant comics - his elderly neighbors, his mom's disease recurrence. We've read things like these before, but Huizenga adds something more, something that overarches all the stories in the book, something that ties together these seemingly disparate stories. He makes the non-fiction feel like fiction: artificial, non-mimetic and, somehow, more real.




I think the key is in an adaptation of an excerpt from Franz Kafka's diary where Huizenga draws a man encountering strange things on the street. The man seems amazed by it all, but separate from it, removed. He say to himself while watching two men fight "Stop fighting, gentleman." Huizenga repeats this panel later in the book, having the man and then a cartoon animal both say it. It's a thin strand but it seems to be a tiny fiber of a poem woven through the stories - "Stop fighting, gentlemen." The dying neighbor, the sick mother, the soul-sucking job: "Stop fighting, gentlemen."




PS I read this book in a crowded mini-van while being shuttled from home to my car which had been serviced. On a multi-lane sprawl street we all heard the droning monotone of some weird song from a car stuck next to us in traffic. One lady next to me giggled, then I did. I looked back down to the book and thought, "I should draw that in Huizenga's style."

4 years old!

and don't forget she has a blog.

Black Cat Skate show

I didn't blog this yet... Last December I had a piece in the "Broken Boards" show at Black Cat Skateshop here in Charlottsville. Andy, the owner, gave out broken skate decks and a bunch of folks made some art with them. Here's mine:



and some details:







I took the deck, painted it with thick gloppy house paint and then drew on it (and taped some stuff too).

Violet made one too:



Yes, that's pink paint, glitter and a pipe cleaner. So punk rock. Here's hers on the wall:



and the proud artist at the opening (and no, she didn't get any of the PBR Andy had for the party):



Oh, and here's mine on the wall:



I'm sorry I didn't get any shots of Sean Samoheyl's great piece all made from cardboard! There were lots of good things in this show... It's funny - I don't ride this kind of skateboard anymore - I have a, Earthwing SuperGlider longboard and a Gravity Ben Wei mini, both for hills and hard carving - what my old pal Marc always called "landsurfing."

Made in California

Made in California
Originally uploaded by wcraghead

Violet's morning art project.

some design

some design
Originally uploaded by wcraghead

I like how they used perspective to indicate which seat is which - Sorry
for the bad phone pic.

The Dot & The Line animated

In case you don't want to print and fold.

Speedy

Sarah at slang from chaos did a little post about my old old old Xeric-grant winning book Speedy. That picture above is by her... Thanks! It's weird to see that I'm still obsessed with the same things 13 years later - I should put it all online sometime...

Affordable Art Fair 2009

Look for my work this week at the Migration Gallery booth (C-204) at the Affordable Art Fair in New York. They have lots of pages from HOW TO BE EVERYWHERE, a few that are left from my piece in the Ghost Comics anthology (one seen above) and some new big (2 ft x 2 ft) ink drawings like this one:




Thanks Rob and Laura - hope you guys have fun!

ha ha

Made long long ago for usscatastrophe.

Seed Toss updates

See new trouble over at Seed Toss.

Everything

Everything
Originally uploaded by wcraghead

some puffs of smoke

Comics in medicine

Comics in medicine
Originally uploaded by wcraghead

Sorry for thebad phone pic. Found in Ginger's ear medicine packaging.

Books at Anteism

I'm glad to say that the folks at Anteism are including my little DIY PDF books in the book orders they send out - in fact I'm making special Anteism branded versions of several of the books just for them. So go buy their stuff!

This kind of thing is exactly why I make these books as PDFs with a creative commons license - to get the work out into the world. I'm excited for the same reason I was excited about the book that printed in C-VILLE, a local weekly here in Charlottesville - many many more people were going to see the weird things I make.

A writer whose work I like says that the problem with art in the internet age isn't piracy or not getting paid - it's not getting noticed through the seas and seas of other content out there. I'm copying him and others when I adopt a "dandelion" strategy for my works distribution - send all the seeds out I can in all the ways I can think of and I know that some, a tiny percentage maybe but still some, will grow.

Posted Its all over town

Posted Its all over town
Originally uploaded by wcraghead

One of many. I should googlemap all my drops.

Hurrah!

Hurrah!
Originally uploaded by wcraghead

Some waves

Some waves
Originally uploaded by wcraghead

Some shells

Some shells
Originally uploaded by wcraghead

I'm at the beach.

Einspruch on freedom

Franklin's talk. Amen.

reviews of IeD

We got two reviews for the show this week in Charlottesville's two weekly papers - in C-VILLE Erika Howsare wrote one and in The Hook Laura Parsons also wrote one. Thanks!

I'm really happy about the reviews (though there were a couple points I'd argue about!) There's another reception this Friday for the show and I'll be thee briefly to give a lil talk.

more Here, There, Everywhere

So here's a direct link to the article. Many thanks to Brendan Fitzgerald for the hard work and to Leah and Rob for the quotes. I didn't realize that "everywhere" aspect of my work until recently and it seems really right. I'm sure I'll have more reaction to the article and to others reactions as the week goes on.

The cover (see the last post) is from a 13-year-old comic strip I did and have archived online somewhere in here. It's "Chair-Boy" though I guess it looks like me too. Brendan looked through my site and picked it and an artist at C-Ville colored it.

Finally, the book. I'll post more about the DIY book (PRINTED IN THE MAGAZINE!!!! AAAAA!!!!) later, but I want to say how f$%^$#$ing excited I am to see one of these little foldy things in a paper that gets a wide and varied circulation. More on that and the content of the book later...

Thanks to everyone involved, especially Brendan, the editors and designers at C-Ville, tha artists in Impera et Divide and my co-schemer Pedro.

Here, there, everywhere

Here, there, everywhere
Originally uploaded by wcraghead

Feature article by Brendan Fitzgerald, cover and a little diy book
printed right in the magazine!

I'll make better links when I'm at my laptop but for now go see
www.c-ville.com.

Shown again for emphasis

Shown again for emphasis
Originally uploaded by wcraghead

I'll talk

image by Ilan Manaouch

Thursday I'll be giving a Curator's talk at the gallery as part of the Virginia Festival of the Book:

Festival of the Book at Second Street Gallery

Please join us on Thursday, March 19, at 6:00 pm for a talk by Warren Craghead III, as part of this year's Virginia Festival of the Book.

Warren, who is the co-curator of Second Street's current Dové Gallery exhibition Impera et Divide, will be discussing examples of art-comics by artists working around the world.

This talk is FREE and open to the public, with artwork and books available for sale.

We hope to see you there!

Catherine Barber
Associate Director, Second Street Gallery

I drew me

I drew me
Originally uploaded by wcraghead

visual trip diary

Wednesday 03.04.09

Two weeks ago Pedro Moura and André Lemos came to visit us for the opening of Impera et Divide. They stayed at our house and we had a great time, both working hard to get the show up and sitting around late at night drawing. They were the best guests and friends and Annie, Violet, Ginger and I still miss them.

So here's what might be an illegible log of what happened. That first image was of Wednesday where I worked with the gallery folks to hang the show all day, then drove up to Dulles to pick up the guys. We spent the 2-hour drive down talking and then passed out once we got home.


Thursday 03.05.09

Thursday we had both little girls with us as we went to the gallery to finalize everything. Pedro worked to organize the mountains of books and art we had there as André helped finishing the hanging. The preview opening that night was packed and we saw lots of folks. We ended up at a party at a board members house and then eventually at my house, drawing together on the kitchen table until late late late.


Friday 03.06.09

Friday we went back to the gallery for more organizing, went by the UVA Art Museum to see the Oliphant show, then hung out at my house until it was time for the opening. Again we went downtown and met more people - more artists at Friday's opening which was good (see the laurel leaves and strong sword arm of victory?). Afterwards we ended up going back home where the Portuguese boys cooked a tortilla and we ate and talked with Annie until late.


Saturday 03.07.09

Saturday André painted that crazy mural on The Bridge while Pedro hung out with mya family at the park and the gallery. Later he cooked fish for all of us and it was delicious. That night more talking then drawing until very late.


Sunday 03.08.09

Sunday we said goodbye to Cville and I drove the guys up to DC. We saw Obama's house and ended up at the Hirshhorn with Truly and Carol seeing the Bourgeois show, then a crappy comics show at the Native American Museum, then a great little Guston show at the National Gallery. I finally and sadly said "adeus" to the guys at Truly's house in Capitol Hill and drove home. They stayed there and flew out the next evening.

OB-0010: Charlottesville's Preliminary Black Blooming

This post stolen from André's website, but I think it's worth it - it's the book he made especially for Impera et Divide:

OB-0010: Charlottesville's Preliminary Black Blooming

Charlottesville's Preliminary Black Blooming

(An Amazing And Epic Journey Of A Portuguese

Artist Trying To Meet The Refreshing And Brand

New Dogwood Festival's Queen) by André Lemos

One-time, signed, numbered and limited edition of

50 copies.

Bookcover laser printed on 180 gr/m2 kind-of-salmon-colour paper.

Inside book laser printed on 80 gr/m2 Xerox Recycled paper.

Central page laser printed on 100 gr/m2 unknown white paper.

March 2009

28 pgs

A5

specially published for the exhibition Impera et Divide

at Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

March 6th - April 25th, 2009

pequeno vídeo do livro

small video of the book

Apenas 10 exemplares disponíveis!!

Only 10 copies available!!

------------------

Actually I think there's more than 10 left at the Gallery - contact me if you're in the US and want one.

UPDATE - He's all sold out except what the gallery has - so get one naow!

Drawn with André

Drawn with André
Originally uploaded by wcraghead

Lemos has a Dragonbrush.

Impera et Divide

I'm happy to announce IMPERA et DIVIDE, a group show I've curated with Pedro Moura at Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville Virginia, USA. The show will feature work and books from Frédéric Coché, Ae-Rim Lee, André Lemos, Ilan Manouach, Andrei Molotiu and Fåbio Zimbres. From the press release:

Six internationally renowned artists from Brazil, France, Germany, Greece, Portugal and South Korea will exhibit their selections of comics and sequential art in Second Street Gallery’s Dové Gallery. The show, curated by Pedro Moura and Warren Craghead III, reflects trends in sequential art to diverge from traditional comics and to employ “destabilizing and decentering strategies to offer rich, multivalent reading experiences.” Using ink, pencil, collage, etching, and digital media, these contemporary artists offer a fresh approach to comics.

The show is based on the show Divide et Impera that Moura curated for the 2007 Amadora Comics Festival near Lisbon, Portugal. In addition to the show Moura has published a book "Divide et Impera" that will be available at the show's blog.

-------------------------

IMPERA et DIVIDE
Frédéric Coché, Ae-Rim Lee, André Lemos, Ilan Manouach, Andrei Molotiu and Fåbio Zimbres.
Curated by Pedro Moura and Warren Craghead III
March 6 - April 25, 2009

Opening reception Friday March 6th, 6 - 8pm

Second Street Gallery
115 Second Street SE Charlottesville, VA 22902 USA
434.977.7284
Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 to 6
ssg@secondstreetgallery.org