illustration
Friendlies,
huzzah! Huzzah I say!
One of the images for Mrs. Vera’s Lookbook (forthcoming) was chosen for the American Illustration 41 Competition. This image was chosen from over 7,000 images submitted, being one of only 529 professional and 99 student images to receive at least 4 votes from the jury.
Many thanks to American Illustration and to the Jury!
Dear Friendlies,
to my delight I learned that the fandancer screenprint I created for the Michael project was accepted to be published in this year’s American Illustration Annual. Out of thousands of entries, 432 were chosen to be published, and this is one of them. This is such an honor. Thank you to the judges! Here’s a collection of all the images that won placement in the book or on the website.
Fan Dancer. April 2020. A memorial portrait of a fan dancer at the Trocadero Transfer in San Francisco, for the Michael Johnstone project. The subject of this image lost his eyesight due to retinitis/hiv. I pictured him with vision restored and back on the dancefloor. Two color screenprint.
Dear friendlies, here’s a self-directed board book project. Just for fun. Done with charcoal pencil and some old construction paper. Enjoy.
Hello Fiendlies!
Once in a while, a project comes along that will not be denied. This, ghoul-friends, is one of those projects.
Theater of Terror: Revenge of the Queers (get a copy here) is a collection of queer horror comics created by Zan Christensen and Justin Hall and is chock full of creepy goodness. I can’t wait to see the final printed comic, but it’s gonna be lovely. I created endpapers and interstitial pages (see below) that they had made into shirts as well as shower curtains.
Don’t be scared. DON’T BE SCARED!
x, m
:::: and now :::: :::: your moment of zen ::::
_RESOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATORS_
molly crabapple's 14 rules for creative success in the internet age
keri smith : how to start as an illustrator
new ways to market your illustration
david lowery on intellectual property rights. replace the word "songwriter" with the word "illustrator".
submitting work to the new yorker
_STUDIO RESOURCES_
printer resources for independent artists
making a seamless repeat pattern for spoonflower
_IMAGE SOURCES (THAT ARE NOT GOOGLE)_
NYPL scrap collections
pinterest
Library of Congress
Smithsonian Archive
LOC: American Memory
_IMAGES AND ARTISTS_
NYPL Public Domain Collections
422 free art books from the met
wayne white thrifts. mimi pond comics.
andy warhol screenprints, paints debbie harry on an amiga, eats a hamburger, says next to nothing.
_INSPIRATION_
lynda barry: keeping a visual diary. writing the unthinkable.
coming up with ideas for illustration projects.
a documentary about illustration
david lynch - where do great ideas come from?
ira glass' taste gap
woody guthrie's new years resolutions
fellow who built a traincar in his basement
disney's journey to mars : 1957
Lisa Hanawalt, Bojack Horseman
noah purifoy : joshua tree
Farewell - ETAOIN SHRDLU - 1978
don't hug me i'm scared : computers
dan stiles: you don't have to start with a good idea, you just have to finish with one
secrets of an undiscovered visionary artist
the (original) pee-wee herman show : 1981
_MUSICS_
essential video playlist from wertz
john cage. john cage. john cage. john cage.
the nomi song. nomi on tv party.
_AND_
the museum of jurassic technology
Huzzah Friendlies,
five of my pieces were selected for inclusion and will be published in the 3x3 Illustration Annual Number 15. Thank you to 3x3 and the Judges! The winning entries are below.
Friendlies,
it's always cool to get a phone call out of the blue from a record company. I got one of these calls a few weeks back from Oh Boy Records, John Prine's record label, out of Nashville, Tennessee. The fellow on the phone told me that Mr. Prine is touring for his new record The Tree of Forgiveness (get yourself a copy here), and he asked me to create an image for his upcoming show at the Warfield.
He said something about a tree in heaven that doubles as a bar. I was thinking about a recent trip to a friend's property close to the Sonoma Coast, where we sat under this lovely old oak tree. So I used her as the basis of the sketch.
Here's the final below. I'm pretty happy with it.
Here are some images of the printed poster courtesy End Hymns Printing Company.
I have a funny history with John Prine; I was asked to create a John Prine poster for a Fillmore show some years back, and our band covers one of his songs that he sings with Iris DeMent. See the video for that song below as well as a cool little film about the new record.
Honey, we're the big door prize. x
Huzzah!
Two of the prints I created in the last year have been chosen for inclusion in the 3 x 3 Illustration Annual. Here they are. Thank you to the judges!
They're in the shop. Fifty clams (since we only have a few left). UV-reactive inks. 3-color 18" x 24" posters. Edition of 80. Hand-pulled by Nat Swope at Bloom Press.
Good fun. Thanks to Peaches Christ for such a great gig.
xm
The release party for my new kids' book ABC Oakland is on April 29 at Oaklandish, 1444 Broadway (between 14th and 15th) from 5-7 pm.
ABC Oakland is a collaborative venture between myself, Heyday, and Oaklandish. The Book is itself a celebration of Oakland, its iconic monuments, and its storied history, that is fun for younger audiences and adults alike. ABC Oakland highlights everything from famous streets and boulevard such as Broadway Avenue, to Children's Fairyland and other icons, to the Ohlone people, who have lived in what is modern-day Oakland since before Spanish colonization. Michael, Heyday and Oaklandish all wanted to make this book a fully educational body that simultaneously celebrates the Town's history and people.
In order to make this book accessible to all of the Town's children, Oaklandish and Heyday are teaming up with the Oakland Unified School District to provide a copy of 'ABC Oakland' to every kindergarten classroom in the city!
In addition to the book's release, I am teaming up with Oaklandish on a t-shirt collaboration that will be in-store the day of the event.
So please join us from 5-7pm on the 29th to celebrate ABC Oakland, listen to live music by Special Ghosts, and pick up your own copy of ABC Oakland! Here's the book trailer (thank you to Andy for his patience and iphone skillz):
Also: Meet me at Children's Fairyland on Saturday May 6 for Turn the Page, a children's book festival featuring 25 local artists and illustrators! I will be on hand to sign books all day, from 10-4.
More ABC Oakland: A is for Aviary, a home for the birds; B is for Broadway, from College to Third. C is for Cranes standing tall in the sky; D is for Dogs, wagging tails, saying “hi!” On May 26 at 7 pm, I will be hosting a fun-filled PJ Party at Diesel Book’s Oakland location! Kids are encouraged to come ready to party in their PJs and excited for cookies and milk. Look for: Milk. Cookies. Drawing. Singing!
Even more ABC Oakland: Laurel Books has generously offered to host another ABC Oakland event at their lovely shop right on Broadway and 14th Street on May 27 at 2:00 pm (which is the day after the Diesel event)! I have a feeling we'll be attempting to draw their beautiful building. Maybe I'll bring a bunch of sketchpads and we can walk around the building. There will probably be: Lots more Drawing. Even more Singing!
See you at one (or more) of these events, and thanks!
xm
I ruv roo.
Exactly one year ago we adopted this 56-pound ball of pure energy named Blue. The photo on the left was taken by Amanda Jones about a week after we had adopted her (for a cover shoot for The Bark magazine), and we were still getting to know her. We still are. She is affectionate, exuberant, lovely, goofy, and frustrating. You know: a puppy. It's lots of work (naturally). Well, (as my dear Grandfather once said) Blue is two years old now. It's time that she get herself a job. Since she has no thumbs, she's going to have to get creative. To pay for her care and feeding (read: trail walks), I've started a redbubble shop featuring some of my designs. I've ordered a few of the products, and I'm happy to report that the quality is top-notch. Peep some samples below.
Friendlies: are you sitting comfortably? Good. Let me tell you a story.
Back in 2011 (my, how time flies), Jim Winters and I set out to make a follow-up book to his artists' book Queen for a Day. Jim Worked up a set of coats-of-arms, and I did portraits of my favorite queens. We hand printed the whole shebang at Inky Oxnard Studios on Rives BFK and trimmed and glued the prints into accordion-folded books. Behold.
On the left, my queens (interspersed with Jim's coats-of-arms) :
The B-52's. Siouxsie Sioux. Elizabeth Taylor from the movie Boom. Lynda Barry. Helen Lawson from the movie Valley of the Dolls. Pepper LaBeija. Rosalind Russell from Auntie Mame.
If you don't know who they are, then you haven't lived.
These are the colorful, talented, quirky, smart-as-a-whip ladies who inspire me to keep on making stuff every day.
My thanks.
Friendlies, come along on a weird trip to a planet without men!
If you know me at all, you know that I have a special place in my heart for Phillip R. Ford's epic drag queen space adventure Vegas in Space starring the ever-glamourous Doris Fish. You can imagine my thrill when I was asked by Peaches Christ herself to create a commemorative poster to celebrate the 25th anniversary of this sparkly gem of a movie. Nat Swope from Bloom Press and I decided that neon colors were a must (see below for the final print).
San Francisco is the city where New Wave will never die. Generations of inspired weirdoes flock here to hot glue things to other things at 3 am. If you listen close (even now) you can hear the neon ghosts on Market Street singing. Vegas in Space is truly a magical gem of a film, a sparkling time machine, an anarchic mishmash of glitter, glamour, and girlinium. Thanks to Peaches Christ for bringing it back to to the big screen, and for asking me to participate.
For the film’s 25th anniversary, Frameline, in association with Peaches Christ Productions and Troma Entertainment, is proud to present a fully fledged celebration of the movie that took us to the stars. Featuring an accompanying pre-show with Vegas in Space cast and crew in person, including director Phillip R. Ford, Miss X, Ramona Fischer, Lori Naslund, Timmy Spence, Kate Guthorn, Silvana Nova, and Connie Champagne! Get your tickets here.
This movie took nine years to complete. Phil Ford documented the entire production here.
I have a weird history with this film: in 2007, artist Jim Winters and myself made a set of prints of the legendary Doris Fish. The wood-frame screens (there were several!) were found in a box on the streets of San Francisco. I believe that Doris herself made the screens, and they found their way into Jim’s hands. With Philip Ford’s blessing, Jim and I created a set of prints using the screens and some spraypaint and donated a set of the prints and the screens to the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco.
Here they are:
Glamour first, Glamour last, Glamour always,
xm
A silence fell over Wertz's social media presence. For months.
What was it? What was happening?
What is the sound of one page turning?
It is a book. This book. ABC OAKLAND. A new kids' book for Heyday Books, written and illustrated by yours truly. It's been a long time in the making, and it's getting close to being finished.
Here's a sneaky peek at a few of the images. I'm excited about this.
More soon.
xx, m
(VAGUEBLOGGING) p.s. There's more big news on the way. I can't tell you yet. (/VAGUEBLOGGING)
Friendlies, Here's my contributions to this year's Post-It Show at Giant Robot in Los Angeles. Thanks to Isabel Samaras for the hook-up and Mark Todd for inviting me! the show opens December 5. All post-its sell for $25!
xm
Friendlies, I'm very excited. SomeWags has been printed, prepped, and hung on the walls of the oh-so-pink-and-pretty Glama-Rama Salon and Gallery in Oakland. The opening is this Saturday night, October 17, from 6-9 pm. The address is 6399 Telegraph Avenue near the corner of Alcatraz. It should be a hoot. I think there will be a short set of music by our band Special Ghosts (featuring AJ Pinecone and Isabel Samaras), as well as some uke and singing by my nephew Kellen Wertz. Punch and Pie! This is a show of new two-color screenprints created with paper stencils under a big tent on my back deck. PRINTING IN HEAT AND WIND CHALLENGE: ACCEPTED. To see some snaps of the work in progress, head over to m'Instergrahams to see #somewags in action.
See you there?
xm
This month's interview is with Nat Swope from Bloom Screen Printing in Oakland. Nat was kind enough to give us an interview (in between running his shop, teaching classes, and little league with his kid). Nat and I work on a few projects a year together for clients who need multiple prints, and he always does an amazing job. Q: Hi, Nat. How are you?
Doing fine, thanks.
Q: How did you first learn to screenprint?
My aunt Mary, who is an artist and art teacher, gave me a rudimentary introduction to it. I had already figured out stencils, cutting frisket, so screen printing made sense. A little bit later I got a job printing shirts. That's how I learned about production, on the clock. I didn't go to art school. I was into photography so exposing screens photographically was pretty exciting. This was the late '80's/early '90's so I caught the tail end of paste up before computers really came into play, which I always thought was helpful later on. Most art departments back then were still using copy cameras and rubylith. But the short answer is I learned how to screen print the same way you learn how to do anything: by doing it over and over again. The other thing that really accelerated the learning process was printing for other people. It led me down a lot of roads I would never have gone down had I only been doing my own work. Getting a glimpse into other people's processes has been invaluable.
Q: What about screenprinting gives you that special feeling inside?
Screen printing is a bit like assembling a puzzle and I like that. I like graphics and flat, clean color. I like paper. If things are going well it can be meditative and rhythmic. At this point though it's really about the people I'm working with. I've been lucky to work with a lot of people I genuinely admire.
Q: Can you tell me a few of your favorite clients?
Too many to name and I don't want to leave anyone out.
(book by Michael Bartalos)
Q: When a new client comes to you, what do you ask them?
Can I see a file before we talk about cost and deadlines?
Q: What's your favorite kind of job to print?
Again, it's the people I'm working with that matters the most. I like seeing what gets them excited. Often the client is responding to something I'm not really thinking about. My concerns are usually technical. I'm in problem solving mode and the artist is usually operating on a more emotional, gut level--do I like how it feels?
Q: Is there a kind of image that is _not_ served by being screenprinted?
Well, it has to be designed with the medium in mind. It's a flexible process but it can be unforgiving. If you don't understand spot color and key line you're going to have a hard time. Not everything has to be simple spot and trap, like a coloring book, but if you don't at least understand those things you're in for a rough ride. Less is more. It's also a fine line between surrendering to the process and being particular about certain things. Choose your battles. It's good to aim for perfect but perfection is unattainable. And boring.
Q: I know you used to have a machine-run press, but you gave it up to focus on hand work. What about doing all your prints by hand appeals to you?
Autos are great and there is nothing inherently better about things made by hand. Part of what I like about screen printing is that it is mechanical and I do not fetishize the hand made. The machine just kind of turned my studio into a factory and I just didn't really like it. I have more room to maneuver in my small space now.
**
Thanks again to Nat Swope. If you want to see some of the work in person (and take some goodies home as well), visit Bloom Press (2310 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland) on May 3 during First Friday.
(clockwise from upper left: Steven Harrington, Will Adler, Nat Russell, PoorNo Graphics/Homer Flynn)
Friendlies, Milkfed Press and Wertzateria Illustration are proud to offer "Home", a set of six beautifully letterpressed two-color blank greeting cards, suitable for sending or framing. Each set arrives to you signed and numbered with six folded blank cards on "Lettra" flourescent white paper and six printed envelopes. This is a limited edition of ninety-five sets. These six images are based on dogs who have lived at East Bay Animal Shelters. The cost is thirty dollars plus shipping. Get yours here.
From upper left: Home. Big Head. Dahlia. Olive. Bowie. Big Ears.
The full set.
All wrapped up.
Here's some video of the shenanigans whilst printing. The dream of the 90's is alive in the East Bay!
Victoria mixing the perfect red.
xm
