Oakland Pride Poster

in , , , , , , , , ,

.. and when I say LOVE you best believe I'm in LOVE L-U-V. A one-color poster design for the Oakland Museum and Oakland Pride. I'll be with the OMCA's "mobile unit", teaching folks how to screenprint their own take-away posters at the Pride festivities. We'll be close to the intersection of Broadway and 14th. Come say hi!

Oooh, Sheila E. Love her.

love_is_love_poster_final

xm

special ghosts at the burlington hotel

in , , , , , ,

friendlies, our little uke band special ghosts (it's andy, isabel, and yours truly) is playing the burlington hotel on july 18th. if you haven't been to port costa yet, it's time to treat yourself. be sure to have dinner at the bull valley roadhouse before the show.

here's a flyer, and some images of isabel and i screenprinting little stuffed ghost pillows for sale at the show. thanks to bloom press for hosting.

xm

The Elsewhere Philatelic Society (this weekend)

in , , ,

Friends, There is an Elsewhere Philatelic Society event happening in Oakland beginning this Saturday. It is at the Naming Gallery, which is located at 335 15th Street. The gallery will be showing the Elsewhere Philatelic Society's various creations during these times:

Saturday June 7th - 11am to 11pm Sunday June 8th - 11am to 4pm Wednesday June 11th - 11am to 6pm

Closing reception: Wednesday June 11th 6:03pm-8:30pm at least, perhaps longer.

Please no earlybirds.

As mentioned before, on Saturday there will be gold EPS logo silkscreening starting at noon and on the hour. Bring a shirt or paper or something else flat and big enough to accommodate the circular seal (13 1/2" x 14"). Black works well.

Bring your shiny thing of great import. If you do not know what that is, you probably do not have one. The nook will tell you more, once it is up (which should be rather soon).

Bring a quarter ($0.25). There is a quarter disposal receptacle on display at the gallery.

If you have a cellular telephone, make sure that it is fully charged. If you have headphones, that would also be beneficial.

See you then.

a blast from the past : when the studio was in the basement

in , , , ,

Friendlies, I unearthed these 2008 CVB posters a few weeks back and put them back up in the shop so I thought I'd unearth the video of me making them in the basement. In the most hoopty sweater-and-haircut combination possible. See also the final poster and the sketch for the Cracker record that inspired the poster. Enjoy.

cvb_poster_08

cracker_sketch

xm

the day lassie went to the moon poster : in the shop!

in , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dear Friends of Music, this is a project that I've been working on for a while now, and I'm glad to finally see it on paper. David Lowery from Camper Van Beethoven asked if I'd consider making the song The Day That Lassie Went to the Moon (one of my favorites) into a kid's book, and I thought it was a great idea for a poster as well as a book (the book is still to come!). Well, a bunch of hours of sketching, drawing, and printing later, here she is. Have a gander, and if you'd like, head over to the shop to buy yourself one. Printed with love by yours truly at Bloom Press in Oakland with the kind assistance of Nat Swope.

lassie_1

lassie_2

xm

Montclair Mural: all done!

in , , , , , ,

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.

Chris Rathman's Bead-A-Mation for La Costa Perdida

in , , , , , , , ,

Wow. I'm stunned. Chris Rathman has taken the cover art I created for Camper Van Beethoven's La Costa Perdida and has done stop-motion animation with plastic beads to create this super-groovy video. There's lots of great CVB in-jokes that whiz by. You'll have to see for yourself. Behold:

Peaches In The Summertime - Camper Van Beethoven (Full Bead-A-Mation) from Chris Rathman on Vimeo.

Apparently, this took Chris six months to complete. Stunning.

By the way, have you checked out the artwork I did for the new record? Here's a taste.

el_camino_real

xm

Beast of the Bay 2014

in , ,

Friendlies, our good friends at Bay Woof have awarded the Wertzateria the "Best Pet Artist" as part of the Beast of the Bay Awards. Arf!

BOBA14a

"You’ll recognize Oakland-based illustrator and printer, Michael’s work from last year’s Beast of the Bay Awards logo and winners’ issue cover, if not from his other high-visibility projects all across the Bay Area, including logos and posters for the Oakland Museum, SF MOMA, and the de Young. Perhaps inspired by his “vicious beast” Olive, animals appear in lots of his work. Visit the website to view many dazzling samples of his work and buy posters and picture books. Be sure to check out his fun and fabulous downloadable e-book, Dog Dreams. Michael uses silkscreen, computer graphics, whatever it takes to create his distinctive, bright, graphic art. Amazing!"

xm

25 Years of Argyll! TONIGHT!

in

Hey friendlies, we celebrate 25 years of the Argyll Adventure Tree TONIGHT! We're dragging out the crates and dusting off the vinyl.

You can bet your LAST CASH this will be a STONE GAS!

Listen: Thursday February 6, from 5-7 PM PST by pointing your glowing boxes towards 9th Floor Radio.

JAM

[update: you can listen to the archived show here, and see the playlist here. it was a beautiful night. thank you for listening!]

xm

argyll_25

2014 calendars in the shop

in , , , ,

Friendlies, the 2014 calendars are here & up for sale in the shop. This calendar is a collection of screenprints I've made since 2003. Also in the shop you'll find both the winter tour posters I just completed for the CVB/Cracker family. Enjoy!

Thank you and hugs: Carolee, Wayne, Isabel, Kristy, Nat Swope at Bloom Press. Big thanks to my sister Julie Wertz for making this happen every year, and to the fine folks at Lee Wood Press in San Francisco for the amazing printing job (as usual).

2014_calendar

2014_calendar_final_all

xm