art is the new religion

A Lady and A Gentleman from Boston

The final post in a series this week about some of the art that will soon be hung on the walls in my new home. Read the previous posts: first second third.

For my birthday this year, my friends Ben and Mena seemed especially excited about the gift they'd gotten for me.  When I picked up the wrapped gift, I could tell there were two frames inside it and my mind instantly raced about what kind of art they'd picked out.  Mena watched with a wry smile as I unwrapped, so I knew the gift would be amusing or entertaining in some way.

Here's what I discovered when the wrapping came off:

* Again, this was taken with my cameraphone, which does not do justice to the quality or colors in the art.

Out of all the Boston Terrier art you can find on Etsy, I love that they chose these two for me!  They are serious and ridiculous at the same time - high art with a sense of humor.  They make quite a pair together on the mantle in my living room. 

The artist who painted the originals behind these prints is Brian Rubenacker.  He sells a variety of art featuring dogs in his Etsy shop.  His style runs from the realism of the above prints to more exuberant caricatures, and he depicts a range of canine subjects, from Bostons to chihuahuas to Brussels griffons.

More examples of his work:


Check out Brian's blog and buy something from his Etsy store.

In his Etsy description, Brian links to a post featuring his art on the Dog Art Today blog.  (It probably goes without saying that I immediately added Dog Art Today to my feed reader.)

Bonus: my favorite Boston Terrier is Major.  He belongs to Brad.

Animals & Instruments

Continuing this week's theme of posts about some of the art that will soon be hung on the walls in my new home

If you read this blog, you'll know I'm obsessed with music.  And if you've ever seen my Vox blog, you'll know that I love dogs specifically and cute animals in general.  Susie Ghahremani combines animals and instruments in much of her art, so I was an instant fan.

Susie has a consistency in her vision that I love.  Many of her pieces are variations on a theme, often containing some or all of these elements: small animals (squirrels, raccoons, cats, terriers, owls, etc.), interesting patterns, a palette of gorgeous muted colors, bits from nature (trees, leaves, twigs, waves) and all manner of tools and instruments (boats, answering machines, pianos, typewriters and more).

I can't remember how I first found Susie's art, but I've been following her LiveJournal for a few years now.  I have bought a total of six pieces of original art from Susie, mostly from Giant Robot's online store following her exhibitions with them.  I bought one art piece from Susie herself, following a garage-sale type post to her LiveJournal.  It was a small original she did for a magazine of two women talking on the phone.  The rest of the pieces I own involve animals and instruments, from birds chirping into an answering machine to cats on a piano.

These are my two most recent purchases:

*Note: I took these photos with my phone, and they do not do justice to the detail and colors in the paintings!

In her Shop, Susie sells affordable, everyday items featuring her art like notepads, magnets, messenger bags and t-shirts.  Her original paintings seem to sell a little more quickly each time I see them online, which makes me happy for her because I want her to have a wonderful, rewarding career as an artist.  But it also makes me happy to feel I've invested in an artist whose career continues to get brighter.

Play

Continuing this week's theme of posts about some of the art that will soon be hung on the walls in my new home

When I started working at V2 Records in New York City back in the fall of 1999, we had a roster of talented artists but no clear superstars.  One of those artists was this electro guy named Moby, who supposedly had shopped his last record around and gotten rejected by almost every big label before Kate Hyman signed him to V2.

His album Play had been released the summer before I started working there, and by the end of the year it had started garnering some momentum with film and TV placements and critical acclaim.  He was definitely one of our priority artists, but the explosion of Play wouldn't happen until some time in 2000.  Moby was smart, funny and personable, and never threw around any attitude or ego when he came by the office. 

In December of '99, as a thank you/holiday gift to the record label staff, Moby drew a version of his character "the little idiot" for each one of us.  Most of the drawings looked pretty similar to each other, but he personalized mine and signed it with a heart.  I'd like to think he did that because I had a little extra bond with him, but who knows. 

Each staffer treated their drawing differently.  I saw one assistant in the radio department had hers tacked by a corner onto her corkboard, half obscured by a magazine photo of Derek Jeter.  I won't venture to guess what the execs did with theirs.  I had mine framed, partly because I knew it would be a nice reminder of that time of my life and I wanted to protect it from getting lost or destroyed.  And partly because it's always great to have someone I like and respect draw something just for me!

In the following months, someone at the label had the grand idea to remix the version of the song "South Side" that Moby had recorded with Gwen Stefani that hadn't made it onto the original record.  A pricey video was made and people loved it.  Play was re-released with that single, and almost 10 million copies of the record have sold worldwide to this date.

For a holiday gift the following year, after the explosion of his success in 2000, Moby gave us each a very nice bottle of champagne.  The champagne was great, but it's the drawing that will always stay with me.

Tree Stump Phonographs

One of the upsides of my new apartment is that I have plenty of empty wall space that's crying out for decoration.  This means I get to shop for art!  Meaning, I get to give talented artists some cold hard cash in exchange for being able to take one of their wonderful creations home with me.  This makes me extremely happy.  I'm dedicating this week's posts to some of the art that will soon be hung on the walls in my new home. 

Sunday afternoon brought another installment of the Capsule Design Festival to San Francisco.  With over 150 local artists and designers in attendance, it was an amazing opportunity to buy some unique clothing, art and accessories straight from the person who made them.

I commissioned two pieces of art from Wexford Girl.  You can purchase art from her through her Etsy shop or her online gallery.  Check out her style:

I also really had my eye on a few pieces on display by Cut Out Art Gallery.  I was captivated by Mark Fox's art in particular.  I have a thing for collecting pieces of art that feature musical instruments, and I especially love his tree stump phonographs. 

The more I think about it, what I'd really like to commission is a fully functional tree stump phonograph.  Surely someone out there could make me one?

Fire all of your guns at once

I woke up early this morning to get down to the DMV when it opened at 8am.  By 9am, I walked out with my motorcycle license. 

During that hour, I waited, chatted with a fellow future scooterist, failed my written test the first time, passed it the second time, and finally got to retake my California license photo.  The photo retake was a special highlight, considering I'd taken my original photo on the infamous day I call Black Thursday - the day when my car was impounded.  Worst license photo ever!  But let's talk about Black Thursday some other time.  Today is a day to rejoice!

Let's celebrate my accomplishment with a little something by the 'wolf:

That pleather planet shirt is out of this world!  The keyboardist's shirt, not so much.  It looks like a pajama top a toddler would wear.

Hey, amazon made a new widget.  Check it out:

VLOG

Meeting Marc Johns

This week I had the great fortune to meet one of my favorite artists in person for the first time.  I first came to know Marc Johns through my day job and struck up an online friendship with him, eventually commissioning him to create the illustration for this blog. 

Marc was in town for a conference for his day job, so we arranged for him to stop by the Six Apart offices to say hello.  Since one of Marc's specialties is Post-It note art, I have to admit I was tempted to have a stack of Post-Its and a pen just casually waiting on my desk, or even have them ready to thrust into his hand and beg for some impromptu drawings.  Then I realized that would be entirely too presumptuous and awkward, so I didn't do it. 

Much to my surprise and delight, a few minutes after Marc arrived he said "Oh I have something for you."  Turns out he had drawn some Post-It art on the plane for me (and for Vox)!  I was SO EXCITED.  Here are crappy scans of two of the drawings:

My favorite:

I love how his art tells a story, makes you pause and often just puts a simple smile on your face.  Marc's reputation and career have been growing steadily, with new press mentions and the possibility of a book looming in the future.  I wish him the best of luck and can't wait to see what's in store for him!

• Buy some art from Marc Johns
• Related reading:  art is the new religion's redesign

No Journey for you: embedding disabled by request

I walked to work this morning, listening to an old edition of The New Yorker's fiction podcast.  Once the podcast concluded, I still had about five minutes of walking time left so I cued up a few Journey songs to kick off the day right. 

I tried to find the video for "Separate Ways" on YouTube so I could share it with you, but both versions I found had "embedding disabled by request".  Will someone please explain to me the reasoning why you'd request for embedding to be disabled?  Why go to the trouble of uploading a video to the internets, to YouTube no less, and then forbid people from to sharing and showing it on their blogs and websites?  Do you not want your video to be watched?  Are music videos not made as a promotional tool?  In my experience, major record labels are the biggest offenders when it comes to disabling embedding.  What are they accomplishing with this??  Good for you, no one is discovering your video!

Embedding disabled by request is one of my biggest pet peeves.

So, instead of showing you the promotional music video for "Separate Ways", I'm sharing this video of one of the first live performances of the song.  Could someone figure out a way to time-travel me back to this concert?  Please and thanks.

Related reading:  My post entitled Meet the New Steve Perry gets more hits than any other I've written in this here blog.

• Buy Journey's Greatest Hits from Amazon.

We feel the water in our sinking shoes

One of my favorite bands here in San Francisco, Birds & Batteries, just had a video made for their song "Ocarina" off of I'll Never Sleep Again.

Let's watch!

• Buy Birds & Batteries I'll Never Sleep Again on mp3 from Amazon.

Kitchen Hacks

Garth Versus Peppermint Patty Dispenser from nick o'neill on Vimeo.

At first I thought the Peppermint Patty dispenser was created through the magic of video editing, but I just walked into the kitchen here in the office and experienced it for myself.   It actually works!  My coworkers crack me up.