60' Mural for Oakland Animal Services!

ABC Oakland at Diesel and Laurel Books this weekend!

Dear Friends, hi. Here's a thing we made and posted at the very last minute.

xm

SOMEWAGS at Glama-Rama Salon

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

Lil' Big Head & The Noodle

Friendlies, here's a few more dog drawings. I'm working on another project for Oakland Animal Services with Victoria from Milkfed Press: stand by for deets!

xm

Subscribe to the Wertzeen

Friendlies: I'm attempting a little experiment over here. We (the royal we) have created a monthly inbox zine called Wertzeen. If you sign up, it will arrive, like a magic mist, in your email inbox. Once a month, and no more than once a month. It is a zine without the paper: a zeen. We’ll keep you informed not just of our illustrative scribblings and meanderings but also of the happenings of the Bay Area creative community. It will be good fun, and it means you no harm. It is free and easy. If this interests you, click on over to this page.

I'm posting issue #001 tomorrow, and I can't wait.

xm

Montclair Mural: all done!

Dear Friendlies, I had the pleasure with working with Ron Rifkin at the Design Office and Daniel Swafford from the Montclair Village Association in creating street banners and this mural dedicated to sweet little Montclair Village in Oakland, California. Yesterday was the dedication ceremony. More about the mural (and the kind folks who made it happen) here.

Here's the completed illustration. This image was used for banners that were (and are!) flying over Montclair.

This is Pam Consear from Rare Bird and the Skyline High Art Club, who spent weeks and weeks painting the mural.

Ta-daa!

Guess who came to the Dedication Ceremony? That's Daniel, Ron, and I, plus Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and Councilmember Libby Schaff.

michael wertz at oakland's first friday

dear friendlies, i'm thrilled to announce my first show of artwork in a long while. nat swope at bloom press and i have been producing prints together for a few years, and this will be a showing of a few of the work we've produced together (among other things). the show will be at bloom press, 2310 telegraph avenue, in oakland, on may 3, from 6pm - 9pm sharp. i hope to see your shining faces there. the image below is a preview of one of the prints that will be available.

xm

See Wertz Pull Prints in Public!

My Darlings, my presence has been requested as part of the All of Us or None poster show at the Oakland Museum, and I'm eager (yet full of trepidation). A good friend recently pointed out that my current level of neurosis is rather high, and I think it's because I keep on making public appearances in very public places. Like, for instance, in museums and bookstores. And I don't just appear, darlings, I do things in public. Like sing, or, in this case, pull screenprints that will be given away to the gathered masses for free.

I usually spend a good deal of time by myself with just a pencil and some paper and my dog to talk to, so you understand. Things could go wrong. Terribly wrong. My good friend (and collaborator*) Jim Winters will be there to help out if we have to clean out a screen or extract a squeegee from my eye socket, so that's good.

I'll be pulling (about 50) prints in the gallery from 5:00-6:30 pm on Friday, April 27, 2012, in the galleries of the Oakland Museum. It's free, I think.

Here's the mantra for the evening : IMPERFECT = REAL. Write this on your hand with a sharpie, and come on down to the galleries to see me pull prints. Directly afterwards, I'll be signing the large Peace Sign OMCA Prints at the OMCA Store. See below.

Hope to see you there!

xm

Here's a preview of the print I'll be pulling:

Here's the OMCA Peace Sculpture Print:

Here's me mixing colors for the OMCA print:

* Plus the guy is an amazing artist, and got me on the road to silkscreen - I should be there supporting him, not the other way around.

Dog Dreams v.2 Opening at the Oakland Museum!

Kids (and those of you Kids with Kids), Dog Dreams is like The Little Kid's Book that Just Won't Go Away!

We're excited to invite you all to the re-grand-opening of Dog Dreams (v.2) brought to you by the kind folks at Gingko Press and The Oakland Museum. This is the second printing of Dog Dreams. The first printing was only 100 copies and those sold out, like, RIGHT AWAY, so I was more than thrilled when Gingko Press offered to do a second printing. This is the same book, mind you, we scanned in the letterpress prints and used those to construct the pages for the new book but this one was printed 175% larger (it's 7" x 7"!) and is has been pre-tested to work beautifully as both a board book and a chew toy.

Apparently, it tastes delicious.

Here's a sneak preview of the new version.

And a video of me talking about this thing:

You might ask: "Michael? Will you and Andy and Suki be getting up in front of the gathered to embarrass yourselves again with tiny drums and a ukelele and badly-sung novelty songs about dogs?"

The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind. And that answer is YUSSS.

What: Dog Dreams v.2 Opening! When: Sunday, December 4. Starts at 2pm, ends when my pen runs out of ink. Where: OMCA Gift Shop. The Museum is FREE that day. The address is 1000 Oak St. Oakland, CA 94607, and it's very close to Lake Merritt Bart. Who: YOU. Why: BECAUSE WE LIKE YOU.

So. Come see us, grab a book, laugh at us. We don't care. We like it. In fact, it's 'free day' at the museum, so you can just come and laugh at us without buying a book and the whole thing will cost you NOTHING. Hey, it's hard times! We understand! If we can momentarily distract you from the constant buzz of police helicopters overhead, then we'll be happy campers. If you're looking for a giftie for the holidays (I started to itch all over while typing that last bit), these puppies are priced to move. I will be signing books as well.

Another question: "Will this event be kid-friendly?" Yuppers. Most of my kid's book events thus far have been in the evening, when our precious little darlings turn into flesh-rendering wildebeasts, so here's your chance to bring 'em out when it's not dinnertime. Plus, you can take them to the museum and the cool gardens and let them run around. BONUS.

See you then?

x,m

A Curious Collection of Cats Launches!

(a hairball? no, not a hairball...) Friendlies,

we had such a marvelous time at the book launch for A Curious Collection of Cats. Many, many thanks to Diesel Books in Oakland, thanks to Abigail and Hayley at Tricycle, thanks to my sweetie who set three of the poems to music so we could sing 'em. There were about 60 people in attendance, and we sold out of books! If you want a book, call Diesel (510-653-9965). They are ordering more books (and doesn't it feel good to support the indie bookstore instead of the nameless behemoth bookstore?) and should have more copies soon.

For those of you who came to the Launch, thank you so much! If you couldn't make it, we're scheduling a few more "singings" for the book: Betsy Franco and I will be doing a talk and signing at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park on June 28th at 11:30. I am also scheduling a singing for San Francisco - stay tuned for that info!

In the meantime, here's some video my brother Tim took of us singing:

xm