Mindzai View

I recently completed a three month internship for screen printing at an awesome local print shop called Mindzai Creative. I cleaned screens, coated screens, took out the trash and helped at the monthly art parties. I also learned about the whole process of screen printing t-shirts and something of the day to day operations at a print shop. It was a great experience and opportunity to meet an awesome community of artists and hustlers putting in the teamwork to make their dreams work. I didn’t know what to expect or where I thought learning about screen printing might take me, but I met some awesome people and learned some new things and also gave me something to do instead of worrying about getting a job.

I had a great time learning how to make something and even had the chance to take an idea for a t-shirt from concept in my mind to physical object in the real world.

Here’s number one from the pun line.

Fresh Off the Press

Did I mention the art parties?

Rockin’ art party with live music, live light show, live screen printing

The first Friday of every month the print shop space is converted into a gallery space where the Pabst flows like rum on a pirate ship and the art is mind blowing and local. Every month Zuzu Perkal curates the gallery and brings a diversity of art and people together. Each show has it’s own vibe and eclectic resonance.Every show has music, sometimes live, but the screen printing is always live.

Cody running the press

Bring a shirt, choose a design, watch as a blank t-shirt gets a face lift. Sean Amor, the in-house designer, creates most of the art for the live screen printing. Whether he created the design himself, or translated another artists work into screens, the finished product is always stellar.

Live painting coming together nicely

Here is a glimpse at some of the awesome art from the second party I attended.

If you happen to be in Austin on the first Friday of any month, swing by Mindzai Creative between 8-11pm and check out awesome art, free beer and great people. Say hi to Scott Weatherwax, the owner, and if you forget to bring a blank shirt for the free live prints, Vanessa can hook you up with Mindzai Merch!

Vanessa keeps people shirted and stickered

Because of July 4th, the ArTXeplosion party will be held on July 11th. It will be a digital showcase. I’ve crossed the line from intern to artist and will have art in the show, come check out one of the best pARTies in Austin.

Here’s a sneak peak of one of my pieces

Work In Progress

And We’re Back

It’s been a long, hot summer and my summer session was brutal but I managed to survive. Now my Photoshop skills are sharper, I’ve got three more pieces for my portfolio and I only have one class left to graduate. Autumn has officially started and as part of my class this semester I will be creating an online portfolio. I’m still in the process of building it but I will be sure to let everyone know when it goes live.

Now for some awesome art.

Orbit exhibit
When I first saw this article on Laughing Squid I thought it was a conceptual rendering of a proposed project but this is real. Venturing out on the net high above the ground and the other patrons must be breathtaking. The whole museum looks like a scene from the future.

Plant blueprints
Macoto Murayama painstakingly dissected a few plants and using photos, Photoshop and 3D modeling software he created these awesome blueprints.

New Van Gogh
I heard about this painting on the Science Friday podcast and it’s a fascinating story of a lost masterpiece which wasn’t really lost.

That’s all for this week folks.

In the interest of managing time and prioritizing the different aspects of my life I will only publish on Mondays with the possibility of a Thursday post if something extraordinary comes up.

Have a great week!

The Art World is the Whole World

Today I’ve got some awesome art to share.
First up is Peter Gric. His hand painted masterpieces will blow your mind. “Cortex” is one of my favorites. Some of his work seems directly influenced by H.R. Geiger, but I think the imaginary landscapes are his best work. Don’t miss this video.

Where Peter Gric is a master of the brush, Werner Hornung is a master of the pixel. Ironically, Hornung’s website is dismal, especially next to Gric’s, but the digital images he creates are amazing. I like “Going Through Life with a One Way Ticket” the best. The composition and the colors convey a sense of motion with the stages of life depicted as a moving circle.

And now for great art by my buddies.

I’ve watched Matt Morcher go from tagging around town to painting colorslposions on canvas. Recently he successfully morphed into a new style still rooted in color, like Jackson Pollock but more intentional.

Another artist whose growth from hobbyist to professional I’ve been privileged to witness is Tyler Ristow, or Pharo if he’s making music. Tyler creates unbelievable visionary landscapes and sometimes creates his masterpieces at live music shows.

For the full treatment, check Tyler on Facebook.

Hope y’all enjoy the art and I encourage everyone to go to a museum, scour the web, seek out amazing art.
Life is better with art.

Summertime!

As promised, here is the PDF of the book I made for the final project in Design Communication 1 – The Joy of Disc Golf

I cut and pasted images and text from the internet for filler, but I also created some of my own graphics, photos, and copy. I really enjoyed this project and I picked up some new insight into the process of putting a book together. I’ve had a love affair with books since before I can remember, but I never really thought about how hard it is to design a book from cover to cover.

I also finished up with Digital Publishing 2 which is focused on Adobe InDesign. One major project was broken up into sections throughout the semester and we built a publication about tea. The final step of the project turned the print publication into an ePub.

With the skills I learned from these two classes I feel confident I could create a book and get it on the web in a digital form, now if only I had a story…

My Friend Flickr

I was never much of a photog before when taking pictures meant having to lug around a camera. Now I have a camera in my pocket all the time and a different problem has arisen, too many photos. I use iCloud and Dropbox to store photos to free up memory on my phone. Problem solved. I spend a fair amount of time commuting on foot which provides ample opportunity to snap pictures of found art or graffiti. This is an artsy town so I started a Flickr account to store photos of graffiti I come across in my wanderings.
This link to my Flickr photo stream is a direct line to the graffiti I find around town. All of the pictures (except the one of Jimi Hendrix with a bushy afro) I took myself. I could elucidate more here, but I include fairly detailed descriptions of each photo on Flickr.
Save the URL from the link a above to check in from time to time as I’ll add more shots of art around town as I find it.
Or, here’s the RSS link if you’re into that sort of thing.

C’est Magnifique

I’ve never had a desire to know French until now. Jean Francois Rauzier is an artist who uses thousands of images to create what he calls ‘hyperphoto’. The images he creates are stunning, collage is not even in the same category with the blended image masterpieces created by this artist.

I’ve mentioned my bibliophilia before so it should be no surprise I particularly enjoyed the ideal libraries.

I endeavored to find more info about J.F. Rauzier but his whole web presence is in French which makes sense because he is from France but makes it hard for me to gather information. Chrome will translate the French for me but I don’t think it’s really conveying the message.

Fortunately for me his images are beautiful in any language and inspire me to hone my Photoshop skills.

SXSpring Break!

SXSW seems to trump Spring Break for those of us who stay in town during the annual madness. I’m not participating this year but maybe next year…

For this week I have a medley with a heavy dose of SXSW stuff.

If you’re not sure what SXSW is, here is a look at what it is now for technology.

For the pool sharks out there, OpenPool has a great new way to enjoy shooting pool in the dark. This is still in the development stage but they will show it off at SXSW.

I like Apple, I like Matt Groening, who knew they worked together!

Coolhunting has a great Link About It this week.

They couldn’t ignore south by, 30 under 30 for SXSW

My favorites from the list are:

Matt Groening for Apple. Pre-Simpsons, subversive creator of Life is Hell appealing to college kids to get on the computer bandwagon. Certainly doesn’t take as much convincing now.

And the NYC/IO which is a competition to design a modern version of a NYC pay phone. Some smart people came up with some excellent designs, but it all feels too much like 1984. Maybe our future landscape is covered in screens.

If you’re in Austin this week enjoy our city and eat at Z’Tejas, in the bar.

Keeping with the theme of beauty

Keeping with the theme of beauty, here are some things I find beautiful. (Beside my wife and daughter)

Living in Texas, the idea of anything built out of icicles seems far fetched, but in Colorado, anything goes I guess. Brent Christensen creates these amazing ice sculptures using icicles. Sometimes I’m jealous of the colder climes.

I’ve been a fairly avid reader since I learned to read and I do still own several full bookcases. Even as I pick up more and more titles on Kindle I prefer the paper for books with more than purely educational content. And of course no one can autograph the Kindle editions. So from a bibliophiles’ perspective, Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. They would have to track me down and drag me out of there or I would live there, and I don’t know Portuguese.

And finally, if pressed to pick a favorite movie on the spot, Caddyshack is my knee jerk response. Sometimes Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Evil Dead, or Psycho bubble up but Caddyshack seems to get more rotation. So I’ve got that goin’ for me, which is nice. Bill Murray is awesome in Caddyshack and every other movie he’s been in, even the movies I didn’t understand. (I’m looking at you, Lost in Translation)
Of course I’m not his only fan and some of his fans have made some great art in honor of the man himself.

These are just three of the things I found beautiful this past week, representing very different forms of beauty. Really beauty is everywhere, you can find it in the strangest of places if you look at it right.