Dog Dreams and Whatnot at Paxton Gate Kids

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Friendlies,

the kind folks at Paxton Gate Curiosities for Kids asked me to show the original letterpress prints for Dog Dreams, so I've installed those prints plus a few extra in their front room. The show will be up through January 2014, so visit the Mission, grab some gifties, and check the shop out. It's a goody-goody. The framed prints (yes, the framed Dog Dreams prints are for sale) are priced to move! Paxton Gate Curiosities for Kids is located at 766 Valencia Street in lovely San Francisco, California.

Thank yous due to Carolee Wheeler for framing and Jim Winters for helping me hang the show.

Campout 9 Poster Design

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Hello Friendlies, Campout 9 is upon us. Here's the poster I just finished. Stay tuned for the printed version. This was a meditation on an upcoming birthday, on the death of the glaciers, on the old traditions and religions. Remember when rock and roll used to be dangerous? Apparently a 9 enneagram is "the peacemaker". That sounds good to me.

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xxm

winters & wertz at the dolores park cafe

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Dear Friendlies, Jim Winters and myself are having a show of screenprints at the Dolores Park Cafe, and we’d love it if you could come down for the opening. The opening party is Friday, August 2, from 6-8 pm, at the ever-lovely Dolores Park Cafe (501 Dolores St x 18th St) in ever-lovin' San Francisco.

There will be prints for sale, a set of music by the Argyll Adventure Tree, and snacks. Snacks.

You will see: vanitas, op art, cityscapes, bulls, dogs, our limited edition collaborative book entitled ‘Queen For Two Weeks’, and a few portraits.

See you there? The show runs through August.

xm

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michael wertz at oakland's first friday

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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

wertz illustration spring 2013 : what is the what

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Hey you all, greetings from the Land of Oaks! There's lots of things afoot here (I can't tell you about them quite yet - but soon), and I'm taking advantage of my Spring Break time to catch up and say hello.

First of all, I helped to produce a groovy set of snakey stamps for the Elsewhere Philatelic Society's Chinese New Year event..

.. and here's the gocco-printed postcard that went with the stamp.

Check this poster design I did for this sweet couple gettin' hitched this year.

A good deal of my time lately has been spent at my alma-mater, CCA. I've been teaching a Digital Tools class for the Illustration Department. I was asked to produce a Thank You card for visiting lecturers. I've had lots of great visitors to my class : Jim Winters, Beth Dean, John Mattos, and Gordon Studer have all dropped some wisdom in the student's heads. Here's what I came up with for the card:

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I drove up to Mendocino College to teach a screenprinting workshop for my dear friend Susan Gross' printmaking class: and the results were fantastic!

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And, finally, a cover illustration I did for Bay Woof magazine:

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Ok, my Peeps. Enjoy your Springtimes!

xxm

La Costa Perdida

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Friendlies, the new Camper Van Beethoven record is out today, and it is, indeed, a goody goody. The package design and illustrations were done by yours truly. You can stream the whole thing here, and you can buy yourself a copy here. I recommend getting a "hard copy" of the CD, since that will give you the full sensory experience of owning the record (as opposed to having these little pop gems lost in the "shuffle" of your playlists).

Go ahead, treat yourself. Buy the CD from your local music purveyor, wait for it to arrive, pour yourself a frosty beverage, put the CD on, find a comfortable place to sit and listen, and relax. Listen to each track carefully, noting your physical reaction to each song. You might get distracted. That's ok. Sit back down, and listen to the next track. And so on. See? Feels good, right?

Do you know Camper's older musics? You might start with Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty. This is a good collection. If you like that one, you're ready for Cigarettes and Carrot Juice, a box set of their early records. Key Lime Pie is another favorite. Listen, it's all great. Trust me.

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You'll find me at The Rickshaw Stop on February 16.

xm

Have a Scruffy Coffee Chrissmess

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The t-shirts and hoodies from the Santa Monica - Venice Xmas Run arrived. Cool, huh? Notice that I did not type the word "Christmas". That is because there's a War on Christmas in this country (as evidenced by the lights and baubles and wreaths and whatnot on every single street corner in every single town). Apparently Chrissmess turns me into Snarky Mike Snarkerson! xmas_run_sweater

Hope your Chrissmess is lovely and warm!

Thanks to Mick Hodgson and Ph.D, a Design Office.

xm

september 2012

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Friendlies: so much is going on. So. Much. Is. Going. On.

First, there's this: Mac @ ARCH Art Supplies asked me to design a poster for Papergirl SF, a "a community art project that distributes submitted art pieces by bicycle, freely and at random, to people in the streets of San Francisco, American paperboy style".

Here's a lovely little video of the poster getting printed. These posters will be distributed free this Friday night at the DeYoung Museum.

Making of the Michael Wertz Papergirl SF Poster from Papergirl SF on Vimeo.

I'm working on the new Camper Van Beethoven album packaging right now. The record is called La Costa Perdida. Have I heard the record? Yes, and it's their best record since Key Lime Pie. I can't wait for you guys to hear it. In the meantime, here's "Camper Van Beethoven" and "La Costa Perdida" in Hebrew:

כמפר ון בטהובן camper van beethoven

לה כוסתה פרדיטה la costa perdida

Here's this year's Campout poster. It'll be available on my site after the Campout.

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camput_2012

This summer I worked with my friends Babs & Steve at Hard Boiled Industries to make an e-Book version of Dog Dreams. Get it on iTunes! You can have me read the book to you and say the word "hurtling" 100 times in a row. Fun! The post below (the video of me at the SFCB being goofy-looking) is included as part of the e-Book, so you can watch me pretend to make prints on the Vandercook again and again!

What else. Oh, it was a lovely, lovely summer. Spent the 4th of July weekend with our good friends Earl & Samuel in Port Costa. Stayed at this beautiful old hotel : these spots (without strip malls) are hard to come by in the Bay Area. Did the yearly family trip to Tahoe (this was our 24th year ; we've somehow managed not to kill one another), and prepared for my teaching gig at CCA. I'm teaching Digital Tools to 20 students in the Illustration department. There's only been one class thus far, but so far, so good.

OH MAN. Also! In the "Cool Stuff I get in the Mail" department: Chris Rathman sent me a Plastic Bead version of the Space Bear from this year's Campout Poster! Behold!

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space_BEAR

Thank you so much Chris!

xm

wertz on wwword

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Dear Friendlies, there's a new Friendly in our midst. Lucy Sisman (who has an incredibly impressive roster of print clients) is working on a great literary blog called wwwword, and she asked if I'd like to be interviewed for their blog. The result? One of the nicest pieces of writing about my process to date, and an in-depth look at the creation of A Dazzling Display of Dogs.

See for yourself.

Thank you, Lucy!

4 New Posters

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Friendlies, I'm finally catching up with the work I've been doing in 2012. So TODAY! FOR YOU! there are four NEW! entries on the Wertzateria shop page. Work I've been designing (and printing) for the Oakland Museum of California, ALO, and the Camper Van / Cracker Family is all up now and purchasable through this lovely invention called PayPal. Have you heard of it? It's sweeping the nation!

All of these were lovingly printed by hand (by me) at Bloom Press in Oakland. Go check 'em out.

xxm

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