Art Books with Rowan Morrison

Take A Trip

2011-10-25T13:47:00.000-07:00

A perfect convergence of the explosion of rock and roll music, psychedelic drugs, inspired typography, and promotional motivation created some of my favorite works of art... psychedelic rock posters. Thousands of individual designs were created and printed in limited quantities, starting originally in the San Francisco area (actually, the first was from Virginia City, Nevada) and soon enough the nation (and world) over.

The artistic freedom to create work with wild and impractical (for informational purposes) designs and lettering, combined with bright and contrasting colors and remarkable, possibly drug-fueled creativity created a bold visual cultural document. A beautiful mix of music, art, politics, and culture. Mostly music and art.

I own several books of psychedelic poster art, and without a doubt the masterpiece of the genre is The Art of Rock: Posters from Presley to Punk. This book covers rock and roll posters from the 1950 through the 1980s, with the lion's share going to 1960s psychedelic rock. Over 500 pages of poster that you know and love and ones you've never seen.

Each brightly colored page features anywhere from one large reproduction up to 12 small images. Thousands of posters, grouped by era, region, style, artist, band, or even specific events. I can, and have, stared at this book for hours.

Aside from being the most comprehensive and largest book of psychedelic rock art, it also features some of the best writings and text. Transcribed conversations with the musicians, artists, and promoters of the time give an amazing depth and insight to the works. Shorter texts give some context to the groups and venues of specific geographies. This book is pure gold!

This is the most complete visual and oral history of this art form that you will find. Released by Abbeville in 1987 and cost $85 then. Unfortunately, the book was abridged and re-released in a tiny 3.5 inch format in 1999, and one might purchase this micro (and worthless) edition accidental. That being said, it looks like Amazon has these listed for $45-55 New!
This book is about 14" tall and clocks in at almost 8 lbs. Far out.

Next up is the highly collectible High Art by Ted Owen.

Beautiful reproductions of some of the classic posters of the era, many in full page format. This book also has a good deal of work from British artists and venues (the author was a British music promoter of the era). The writings serve as a good introduction to the artists and their innovations.

This is a beautiful book but is long out-of-print and can cost upwards of $100. It's a little short, as there are just so many great posters I would have liked to have seen included, and I wish it was a hardcover edition. If you see it, get it, but don't break the bank.

The Art of the Fillmore 1966-1971 is another classic document of the entire run of Fillmore posters from Bill Graham's historic venues, with a forward from the legendary promoter himself.

All the posters from the Fillmore, Fillmore East, and other spots like the Berkeley Community Center and the Trips Festival are here. Plus handbills, tickets, and other ephemera from the venues. Printed large and in bold colors.

The posters are presented chronologically, with artist biographies and pictures appearing along with their images in the series as they arise. The most popular and well-known artists of the era all did work for Graham: Wes Wilson, Mouse & Kelley, and Rick Griffin (only two by Victor Moscoso), but some of my favorites are from under-recognized art pioneers like Bonnie MacLean, Lee Conklin, Randy Tuten, Greg Irons, and Mari Tepper.
The 1999 first edition is out of print now, and a 2nd edition (with Griffin cover, both from Thunder Mouth Press) from 2005 is apparently even more rare and expensive.

The final book of this mind expanding blog post is the more contemporary Art of Modern Rock, from Chronicle Books, 2004. Its similarity in size, shape, and page count make it an obviously intended companion to the original Art of Rock masterwork, while having no actual, publishing-biz relation to it, whatsoever. Does it match up, side-by-side on my bookshelf?

As you can likely see from the short-skirted devil girl on the cover, this book covers the wide-spanning yet often yawn-inducing medium of contemporary rock music poster art. It's the kind of book cover I'm embarrassed to have on my coffee table. Within there's plenty of coverage of Juxtapoz coverboys like Kozik, Coop, and Derek Hess, plus the countless derivative variations coming from others. It almost goes without saying the women artist are neglected throughout.

At almost 500 pages and 3-6 posters per page, there are a lot of artists, design companies, and styles on display. The artworks that are reproduced as a poster are originally created in a diverse set of mediums; from woodcuts to 100% digital to watercolors and everywhere in between. Overall, it makes the book feel like one of the Illustrator Directories rather than a document of an art movement. Sometimes a single band will be the only common thread between 8 posters of incredibly diverse aesthetics. I guess this could be seen as an asset for the book overall, or a liability.

However, there are some real gems of design, lettering, and concept in the mix. Like Mr. Reusch's halloween themed gouache poster, Mig Kokinda's stencil-and-spray posters, or Jason Munn's simple and powerful designs. I ended marking about a dozen pages or so with post-its.

Psychedelic poster art (and it's evolution into the now common use of poster illustration in conjunction with live music events) has an interesting history to go with it's eyeball-pleasing and brain twisting visuals. I'm glad to have books like these in my collection as another level to appreciate music. They are a way to learn about these artists and musicians that also inspirine me to work with creative typography and information design as fine art myself. They are innovative (especially when taken in context of there creation), creative, and very accessible. Collecting these posters can be very expensive, so books like these are a great way to get access to a huge quantities of psychedelic images.

There are other poster books out there, psychedelic or otherwise, as well as some of these poster artists having their own books.

I've really beenn enjoying published collections of advertising art, movie poster art, and rock poster books a lot lately, so please comment with other poster art books (or websites or artists) that you enjoy.

Who's Gonna Empty the Catbox???

2011-05-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

Who else to drag me out of my lackadaisical art book reviewing habits and lift the bleak bloggers-block the has befallen this once great website but the royal couple of independent art publishing: Mel Kadel and Travis Millard?

A new zine from either one of this pair would be enough to get the juices flowing, but when they collaborate on a project together, you best be there or be square.

Who's Gonna Empty The Catbox??? delivers the goods. 56 pages of quality drawings with many double-page spreads. Some art is from Travis (lots of smoke, hair, and grotesquery), some is from Mel (defiant ladies in their striped and textured environments). A couple of photos of the artists so you can get to know them a little better are in there as well, along with some scribbled musing from the waiting room.

But the real tasty treats are when Mook and Fudge (I know them so I can call them that) combine forces to construct gorgeous illustrated interactions. These people can draw, and they're creative, plus they have a sense of humor so you can actually have fun while looking at art.

The zine is mostly black and white, but there are some awesome color inserts, and the cover is a 2-color serigraph. 5.5 x 8.5". Although hand-made and hand numbered (edition of 220), the quality of this and all Millard/Kadel productions will make the rest of the zines in your collection want to burn themselves in shame.

Spoiler Alert: There doesn't seem to be any actual images of the titular catbox in this book.

You can order this and other great items direct from the Fudge Factory (real mature URL, Travis) here: www.fudgefactorycomics.com/. $15. Tell them RoMo sent you and you may get free stickers, no promises.

Open Studios Press: New American Paintings #91 Pacific Coast Edition

2011-01-05T10:32:00.001-08:00

The publication New American Paintings is a juried painting book/magazine that comes out six times a year, one issue for each major region in the United States. The current edition, December/January #91 Pacific Coast was juried by Berkeley Art Museum director Larry Rinder, and features a plethora of bay area painters. Among these painters are myself and Christopher Russell, who showed here at Rowan Morrison in 2008. Congratulations!

#91 is available on newsstands now and costs $20.00.

Christopher Russell

Narangkar Glover

Narangkar Glover

Found Paper Journals are back.

2010-09-23T09:40:00.000-07:00

I'm back blogging it up about my favorite art books and zines. While I've been away I've been collecting more art books, making art, and hoarding every scrap of interesting paper I can get my hands on for the latest edition of the Rowan Morrison Found Paper Journal which just became available today.

Now it's time for a confession. While, of course, I have one of the FPJs as a little sketchbook/notebook thing in the studio, I find it very difficult to write in. That's because the papers inside are so damn awesome on their own. Seriously, who would have thought that an assembly of random papers would be more aesthetically compelling than most abstract art and design out there today.

And this edition is even better than all previous editions because we got really obsessive with including really great papers. You have your usually excellent assortment of accounting ledgers and colored loose leaf and graph papers. But I also hunted out some amazing mimeographed worksheets, job applications, some of the free promotional pads that pharmaceutical companies give doctors, grade-school newsprint that is over 50 years old, and some of the most delicate onion skin typing paper imaginable.

Of course there are lots of awesome Braille pages, mostly harvested from issues of 1990s Rolling Stone Braille Edition magazine. There are some mental institution disciplinary forms in there (never can have too many of those), a few map pages, and even some deluxe watercolor paper. One FPJ even has some one's death certificate in there! No kidding.

Honestly, sometimes I get a little disappointed that a "blank book" like this sells far better than any art book or zine I could ever conceive. But I view these things are art books as well as blank books. It's rewarding to have an outlet for my collecting habits, and it seems like a lot of other crafty people have connected with this publication. And do I even have to mention that this is a "green" product. I didn't think so.

The Found Paper Journal is 7.5x5" and has about 128 pages. The embossed chipboard cover features an original scissors design by Narangkar Glover. Rounded corners and hand-stamped on the back. Bound with animal-free glue. Made entirely in Oakland, California. This edition is of about 500 books, with 50 of them with retro, first edition covers!

You can get more info or order yours in our online shop here. Still only $10!

And as a special bonus, if you post a comment on this blog you might get randomly selected to win a free Found Paper Journal of your own. Just leave a (positive) comment below (make sure to have it connected to your blogger account or url so we can track you down when you win) and we'll pick a random winner by mid-October. If all goes well, we'll have more art book give-aways coming up.

Please, don't let the prospect of winning a free journal discourage you from actually purchasing one.

Update: Congrats, Plinio! You'll be getting your Journal soon! Everybody feel free to continue to post comments about how great our products are.

Great to be back!

This Blog has a new URL

2010-06-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

Since our last blog entry, the good folks over at blogger have decided to discontinue the use of FTP uploading. Therefore, the URL of rowanmorrison.com/blog no longer works for posting new blog entries. Henceforth, we will be posting new blog entries (with great frequency and regularity) at our new blog wed address: artbooksblog.blogspot.com.

Bookmark it.
In the meanwhile, check out the new issue of Junk Pirate zine, available now.

Art Book Wishlist, January 2010

2010-01-23T15:09:00.000-08:00

Phillip Guston: Paintings 1947-1979
Hatje Cantz Publishers
Contributions by Michael Auping, Martin Hentschel, Christoph Schreier.
I've always admired and adored the work of Phillip Guston, but I still don't have a book! Unfortunately, according to D.A.P. this book is out of print.

A good alternative to the monograph would be this catalogue:
Phillip Guston Retrospective
Thames & Hudson, 2006Text by Michael Auping

I've been waiting for a good David Park monograph, and lo and behold, here it is finally:

David Park, Painter - Nothing Held Back
Helen Bigelow
Published by Hudson Hills Press, September 2009

"David Park, Painter: Nothing Held Back" chronicles the brief but remarkably prolific career of American painter David Park. In his 49 years, he became an integral part of the San Francisco Bay art community in the early 1930s, and is counted as one of the immensely gifted artists who were part of the Bay Area Figurative Painting movement in its nascent beginnings in the 1950s. Park, who was drawing in perspective by the time he was five years old, began his professional career before the age of twenty, apprenticing together with sculptor Gordon Newell for sculptor Ralph Stackpole's monumental columns that were being erected in front of the Pacific Stock Exchange in California. His work was widely exhibited during his lifetime at institutions such as the Whitney Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Art and the California Legion of Honor. In addition, Park was a faculty member of the San Francisco Art Institute and later the University of California, Berkeley. Together with the 100 paintings featured, this monograph shows an artist who possessed a life-long passion for painting.

The Horror

2009-11-28T16:40:00.000-08:00

My appreciation of art began not with "fine art" at all. It started with an appreciation for creative and aesthetic mediums outside from the gallery, museum, or other "fine art" outlets. As I believe is common with many artists and art fans my age, I was led to fine art through cartoons, comic books, and advertising design. Skateboard graphics, album covers, and even breakfast cereal boxes were vastly more engaging than anything framed on a white wall, and it was a love of movies and music videos that led to me art college in the mid-1990s.

These days, I'm saturated with fine art. Running a gallery, publishing art books, and being a working studio artist trying to keep abreast of the art world has me constantly inundated with high art and the lowbrow art that is currently high art. Frankly, I often feel uninspired and weighed down by the constant barrage of "fine art" and "fine artists". I even take steps to try to stay out of the incessant stream of art world opinions and discussions, but they seem to find me anyway.

So when I'm looking for inspiration or just something to get the creative stoke flowing again, I head back to the roots and look towards non-art artworks to refresh me. Luckily, between the internet and a healthy stream of compilation art books, there are plenty of archives to reference and appreciate.

Nosferatu 1922

One of my current favorites is Horror Poster Art, edited by Tony Nourman and Graham Marsh. It was published in 2004 by Aurum Press in the UK and part of a large series of movie poster books by Nourman and Marsh. This 12 x 9 inch book features neaqrly 200 pages of full color reproductions from over 80 years of horror film poster art. From early silent movies to B monster flicks to foreign cinema classics and even more, this book covers some film favorites and some great design work for less-than stellar movies.

Hӓxan (Heksen) 1922
The Invisible Man 1933

The design of movie posters seems to be a lost craft these days, where artistic creativity and bold designs are almost always tossed aside in favor of giant celebrity headshots or photos with digital manipulated backgrounds.

Some of the really interesting pieces come from the foreign versions of American horror films, such as the Czech Psycho poster by Zdenek Ziegler or the Polish Alien (Obcy) poster by Jakub Erol. Often the artists making these posters were given only a title and brief summary of the film to work from. The Eastern European posters are famous for their abstract and conceptual designs. Awesome stuff.

Along with the bold images of the posters in the book there is commentary on the artists, the style, or other commonalities within the film subgenres.

Another great movie poster art book I own is Who Goes There?. It features 1950's horror and sci-fi movie posters and lobby cards. This was just a great era for charming B horror and monster movies, and often the posters and artwork (as well as art direction for the films) is far superior to the acting and story within the films themselves.

And, finally, a while back I purchased Vintage Hollywood Posters III. Rather than an art book, this is an auction catalog for a sale in June of 2000. This catalog covers far more than just old horror films, and has the bonus of having the estimated values of the posters printed under each image (they go for anywhere between $500 and $10,000).

All three of these books costs around $20 when I got them (the Horror Poster Art book was £19), but it seems like all three are out of print now. I'm sure you can find them around the net used, or lots of other similar books.

I'm very happy that lots of design media that originally created for promotion or packaging is now being appreciated as art... and that publishers are compiling books like these for us to enjoy.

Dracula: Prince of Darkness 1965

Field Guide

2009-10-16T14:16:00.001-07:00

I found Field Guide, by Derek Stroup, at OK in Los Angeles, an excellent design store that has a well curated art book collection. I knew nothing about it, and after a little research I know not much more. All I really need to know is that I like it, visually, and I think I "get" it, conceptually. It is simply a collection of black and white photographs of television antennae on the tops of homes and buildings.

As a huge fan of antiquated objects (I think I'll call them antiquations), I am growing to love artwork that deals with these things that have had there original purposes disappear or lose enough popularity to have them be discontinued. Viewmaster 3-D viewers, Super8 film, mimeograph prints, even now Polaroids (although these may be coming back). Without their popular qualities or original purposes these objects take on new aesthetic qualities, either in the aesthetics they create (like rub-on letraset lettering), or in the look of the objects themselves (like old cabinet arcade games). I can hardly bring myself to think of it, but soon enough things as common as newspapers and 35mm film negatives might only be found amongst artists and nostalgic purists. And don't even get me started on vinyl records and analog video.

The television antenna fit along these artistc lines perfectly when the book was first published in 2002, and even more so now that the final switch to 100% digital broadcasting has rendered these objects completely without purpose. The context of this book being a "field guide" gives an even bigger impression of these objects becoming rare and hard to identify, perhaps even verging on extinction.

Derek Stroup has published other books from bodies of artworks, some of which are available at Printed Matter online. I purchased Field Guide for $16, but it looks like the price can get into the $24 range. It is 4 x 6 inches in size, with 164 pages, including a good essay, "The Antenna in Architecture", by Eric Fredericksen. It is a first edition (edition size unknown), signed by the artist. My particular copy has some pages of the essay bound out of order, but I don't know if that is just my copy or for all of them.

You can find contact info and other art projects from Derek Stroup on his website: www.derekstroup.com.

Now get out there and enjoy looking at the television antennae in your neighborhood, or even things like telephone poles and hand-painted signs, cause they just might not be around for much longer.

Live for Deth

2009-10-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

Bay Area artist and feline myth creator Deth P. Sun has recently released a new zine. You can always count on Deth to offer up a steady stream of quality art products (as well as ridiculous amounts of original artwork) on a regular basis. From giclee and serigraph prints to T-shirts, stickers, postcards, or beer cozies, Deth's signature characters are almost always available to be yours at a reasonable price. But my favorites have always been the zines.

Please Be Brave, which was released earlier this summer, is a self-published art zine is every sense of the word. Deth made the art, copied the pages, organized the production, and even hand trimmed the pages. It features a whole lot of images drawn from the deep, deep well of Deth's endless sketchbooks. It features impressive spontaneous renderings of both the world around us and Deth's popular mythical cat realm. With plenty of skulls, monsters, ghosts, mountains, junk food, swamps, swords, cameras, instruments, caves, cars, crystals, sea creatures, plant life, houses, toys, art supplies, head gear, birds, and just about everything including the kitchen sink.The pages are crammed with objects, and interspersed with the occasional epic scenario. And, for the first time I can remember, there are a few rabbits in there too. 24 pages, black and white.

You can order your copy direct from Deth, or at the Rowan Morrison online supermarket of art books, for $8.

This also seems like a good opportunity to celebrate some of the other great Deth P. Sun zines of the past. Let's start with one from about 5 or so years ago, called 40 Drawings.

With, you guessed it, 40 drawings of gods, monsters, cats, and other epic things, this zine is pretty slick for a handmade photocopied affair. I really don't know much about its production or stuff like that, but it is interesting to note that while the subject of Deth's artwork was similar then to what it continues to be, it is clear his style has evolved and gotten a bit more refined since 40 Drawings was made. The zine also features a lot of the "humans-in-animal- costumes" art, a theme which has become much less frequent in Deth's work.

Next up is the classic Oakland zine. Based on a map to his girlfriend's house party and originally drawn and made during Deth's brief time living in Los Angeles, Oakland highlights some clever cartographic skills along with a loving local view of the neighborhoods and shops of the East Bay through the artist's eyes. This zine has been a constant best seller and has been reprinted several times.

A little known fact is that there are, in fact, two different versions of the Oakland zine among its several reprints:

A reissue from 2007 features a bunch of images of photographed details from the city of Oakland reprinted from Deth's magnificent (and completely unknown) Polaroid collection. Deth has told me the he is not going to reprint this zine again, so you had better get yours while the getting is good.

And finally, A Knife In The Dark, which is as close to a complete Deth P. Sun hero's quest narrative as we are likely to ever get.

Epic landscapes, heroic battles, and momentous journeys are all told with a small narrative bit of text to go with each piece of art. This zine, like Oakland, is small in size but a real treat. Just to get a few tidbits of narrative text that isn't completely abstract and actually ties the images together in sequence is real nice. Now out of print, if you find one of these you should snatch it up because it is unique and very enjoyable.

And, finally, I would be a fool not to spend a bit of space here going over the merits of I See It All, the only full-on book of Deth's artwork currently available. Rowan Morrison published this book earlier this year and it was pretty successful right off the bat. This book faithfully reproduces 64 pages from a sketchbook made by Deth P. Sun in March of 2008. It features hundreds of sweet drawings, landscapes, and handmade typography. The roots of Deth's fine art evolve upon the page. I really love this book and am proud to have helped with its production. Here are just a few sample pages:

I See It All> is a real testament to how prolific and productive Deth is when it comes to drawing. He filled an entire sketchbook (including over 40 pages that weren't used for the book) in about 5 weeks! The man can draw it all, from landscapes to architecture to weapons to stylized lettering.

- 7" x 10"
- Limited 1st Edition of 500 copies
- Rounded Corners
- 64 single sided pages (128 pages total)
- 100% recycled paper, soy-based inks and perfect bound with animal-free glue

I See It All is available at Giant Robot stores and other fine art bookstores, or order your copy direct from Rowan Morrison and get some free Deth stickers or postcards with every book. Despite this book being published this year we are nearly sold out so get on it.

Order yours online here

I was stoked to see such variety in I See It All, and continued in his latest zine, Please Be Brave. An artist with talent and popularity like Deth's can be easily tempted to get a little too comfortable and slip into "giving the people what they want" and not challenging themselves. It is always great to get a little retrospective perspective to highlight some progression. I always look forward to see what Deth P. Sun will come up with next and hope he continues to push himself while staying on point and true to his epic vision.

You can always get a lot more of Deth's artwork from his website at www.dethpsun.com. Thanks for sticking through this long post. What can I say... Deth makes a lot of awesome zines.

Spring Lounge

2009-08-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, YES! Mel Kadel has recently self-published another amazing art book. Mel's first two art publications, Rough Cookie and Honey Pool, are two of the highlights of my ever stacking and sun-faded collection. Always top sellers for the few days our artist's bookstore has them in stock, Mel's artwork has a way of connecting to almost everybody and the craftsmanship that goes into her books is just astounding.

If you haven't already, you can read my review of Rough Cookie here and my review of Honey Pool here. I continue to stand by all my gushing comments for the artwork and the books themselves. Spring Lounge takes the bar that Mel has already set ridiculously high for herself and kicks it up a notch. All the things that made the previous books great is still here, but the artwork has slowly progressed. The work has gotten a bit more complex, yet somehow more accessible. The pacing of the images, from symbolic landscapes to figurative interactions to detailed patterning, is well managed. The colors are perhaps a little bolder, and the few more risks are taken.

The high point of the book comes with the two-page, 16-paneled storyboard piece that has just about everything you could ever want from a Mel Kadel illustration. I won't reproduce it here in the blog because it is just too damn good. It is a step up, or a step sideways, and I always admire an artist willing to push themselves and see where thing can go (even when the risks don't reap rewards). When the experiments do pay off, like we have here, it's pure gold.

Like the previous books, Spring Lounge is full-color inkjet printed onto coffee soaked paper. I hear each page is hand-soaked, hung to dry, and hand-fed into the printer one at a time by the artist herself. The printing is near perfect. The book smells like coffee. The cover is a 3color screenprint onto fancy printmaking stock. The book is 6" x 9" and has 40 pages. Hand signed, dated, and numbered from an edition of 100. Retail price of $24. Minds blown.

Frankly, these books, at these prices, with art this good, with art printed this well, in editions this limited, are starting to make all other small-time art publishing projects look like piles of garbage. Mine included. Spring Lounge is so awesome I really can't praise it enough (though I'm trying). You can see more images from the book and of Mel Kadel's artwork at melkadel.com. Spring Lounge is available for purchase direct from the "buy" section of Fudge Factory Comics, or we still have two copies available (as of August 8th) at Rowan Morrison Online Artists Bookstore. You should buy yours now or be an idiot and wait two years and buy it for several hundred dollars.

And, once again, I can't resist the crass plug for the limited edition Mel Kadel serigraph from Rowan Morrison Publishing. Only $20, signed by the artist, shipped flat, and we only have about 25 left.

Blackstock's Collections

2009-06-12T16:50:00.000-07:00

If you know me at all, you know I like art books. Another thing I like is collections of things (thus my own art series, Junk Pirate). I also like drawings. Put all these things together and you have the current favorite in my art book collection: Blackstock's Collections.

Published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2006, this book features a huge collection of Gregory Blackstock's drawings of collections of thing. All kinds of things. Divided into thirteen categories such as "Our Famous Birds", "The Noisemakers", "The Vehicles", and "Architectural Collection", then further divided into individual artworks based on specific collections within these categories. Each artwork features anywhere from two to several dozen items within the specific collection, articulately rendered and labeled in pen, pencil, crayon, and sharpie marker. Visual lists. All these objects, with their individual details and subtle differentiations, have been created from memory. Yes, from memory.

You see, Gregory Blackstock is a savant. Savant Syndrome is a remarkable condition in which a person with autism or another developmental disability has some extraordinary genius or ability that stands in stark contrast to their other limitations. Often, if not always, these amazing abilities as coupled with a photographic memory. Coupled with intense motivation and practice, and in Blackstock's case, a supportive family and art community, these amazing abilities have created a body of work that is an amazing document of the world around him, and all of us. From this work Blackstock has been labeled an "anthropologist of the everyday".

Unlike much "Outsider art", Blackstock's work lacks emotion and reveals nothing of an inner, personal world. Remarkably, his success in the art world has motivated him towards more work that is created with the intention of being showcased.

While it is hard to separate any work like this from the exceptional and rare memory talents and patience of its creator, I feel Blackstock's drawings have an appeal much beyond the 'freakshow' aspect. This art would be a nearly impossible thing to create from a normal mind (considering it was made without reference material), but that isn't what makes this work enjoyable. The talent feels genuine, and the drawings are compelling in and of themselves, an aspect I often find lacking in other Outsider art.

Blackstock's Collections has 144 pages in color, plus an essay on the discovery of the artist's work and his first exhibition and an excellent essay of Savant Syndrome as it applies to Blackstock's work. Both essays are enjoyable, educational, and easy to read (a rarity for art book writing these days). It is available at almost every bookstore (find it on Amazon here) with a retail price of $19.95. My own copy of the book is falling apart at the binding, but this is less a testament to shotty craftsmanship than to my own brutish handling of my art books.

LINKS: another good review of Blackstock's Collections at moleskinerie.com

an online article about Blackstock by Darold Treffert, MD, who wrote the essay in the book.

Garde Rail Gallery's artist page from Blackstock with other good links

I See It All by Deth P. Sun book signing event

2009-04-22T10:56:00.000-07:00

Friday, April 24th
6:00 - 8:30 pm

Giant Robot San Francisco Presents:

The Clouds Caught On Fire

2009-03-28T13:08:00.000-07:00

Recently self-published, The Clouds Caught On Fire features two years worth of collaborative drawings and paintings from San Francisco Bay Area artists Rich Jacobs and Billy Sprague. I have become aware Sprague's work through his zines and prints, and while I didn't initially recognize Jacob's name, his oval-headed dark-nosed head illustrations are very familiar. The works in the book were created as the artists continually exchanged individual pieces until one or other declared the art done. The art is very loose and unpretentious and the whole publication has the feeling of two artists friends having fun.

For the most part, the artwork looks like it is coming from one mind, which often isn't the case with many artistic collaborations where each artist's area of participation is easily recognizable. There are occasionally pieces where one artist's hand feels more dominant, but the results from page to page are remarkably cohesive.

The works are generally heavily layered mixed media abstractions. Loose patterning and hand-drawn textures are built using markers, opaque paints, washes, stencils, and photocopies. Sometimes a bilateral symmetry develops, other times more figurative works take form. These are often created upon found objects and used papers: braille, sheet music, maps, envelopes, even vinyl records.

The Clouds Caught On Fire is a full-color book, with 120 glossy pages. 8" x 10". Perfect bound. It is available in three edition: a softcover version for $35 (featured in photos), a hardcover for $60, and also a deluxe edition available only direct from the artists that features extra prints and stencils and stickers and stuff.

It was created in 2008 using the popular print-on-demand (POD) service blurb. If you aren't familiar with the several POD printer now online, here is a very quick primer: You upload your designed pages (or use their template) and using digital printing techniques they produce a relatively high quality full color book. You pay per book with no minimums, and there are price breaks for large quantities. Never before has low quantities of full color books been available so easily. These printers usually will sell your book online through their website, and some act as a "subsidiary publisher".

The advantage of POD is that it makes books like The Clouds Caught Fire possible. There is not a lot money that needs to go up front, and since books are printed as they sell, you won't get stuck with unsold inventory. "Color books in low quantities" makes doing a private edition for an exhibition or something possible.

The problems with POD is that, while it may be affordable to make a color book for yourself, the pricing allows very little room for profit. Certainly there is no room for wholesale discounts. That leaves an artist with the options to sell the book directly or through the POD website and even then these books can get expensive. And I won't begin to get into the whole ISBN issues or some of the insane contracts out there.

All added up, and then factoring in that I had to pay sales tax and shipping for one book, Clouds ended up costing me almost $50. In this case, it was worth it; It feels good to know your money is going direct to the artists, and I appreciate the potential to have some rare and valuable self-published works from artists I enjoy. Something you won't find in a bookstore. But these kinds of dollars are a gamble if you aren't familiar with the artist's work and can't see the book beforehand.

I am currently working on a more comprehensive blog that discusses POD printing and pricing. In the meanwhile, you can get this book direct from the artists or online at http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/514628. You can also find some of Billy Sprague's zines on the Rowan Morrison online artist's bookstore and zine emporium.

Damien Hirst: On The Way To Work

2009-03-04T14:41:00.000-08:00

Like it or not, Damien Hirst is on top. Currently in his mid 40s, he has well surpassed Jasper Johns as the wealthiest living artist, and any discussion about excesses in art in either content or collection revolves around him. Last year, Hirst and his business manager, Frank Dunphy, bypassed the gallery system (which already worked on only 10% commission for Hirst) by having their works sold directly to collectors through Sotheby's. Despite the economic downturn, the 223 "new" works (many of them were recreations of old favorites... 5 sharks in tanks and 83 new butterfly collages) sold for nearly $200,000,000 dollars, exceeding expectations. One piece, the Golden Calf, an animal with 18-carat gold horns preserved in formaldehyde, sold for 10.3 million pounds. Not dollars, pounds. And I'm not even going to go into the whole diamond encrusted skull thing.

On The Way To Work is a collection of 12 interviews between Hirst and longtime friend Gordon Burn, spanning the years 1992 to 2000. The words are raw and off the cuff, with plenty of cursing and drinking stories in the mix. Sprinkled throughout the text are beautiful images of Hirst's artwork (including his terrible early assemblages), and candid photos from his childhood in Leeds and student years at Goldsmiths, University of London. At over 200 pages, it still is a quick read. More so than almost any other text based art book I've come across.

The interviews are casual, which gives a look at a celebrity without his guard up. The topics cover fame, money, the use of the art scene as a participant in the work, his own rise with the help of collector Charles Saatchi, his obsession with death, the work of Francis Bacon (whom Hirst considers the greatest artist of the 20th century), how to get a shark, the young British artists, and all other topics along those lines. Hirst upholds his anti-intellectual persona, but still comes across as deathly serious about art and its place in society.

Sure, Hirst can often come across as an asshole, and contradicts himself on more than one occasion, but in the end these things help to present him as, above all else, fearless. To speak with passion and certainty in the face of the likelihood of proving yourself wrong is admirable. When it is mixed with a bit of barroom charm and a sincere passion for the subject it is hard to not be enthralled. Nobody likes an asshole, but it can be admirable to see someone who is not afraid of being an asshole when it comes to express his opinions.

The most interesting passages of the book are Hirst's discussion of his "color dot" paintings... more specifically how these paintings are made by others. When one of his many assistants wanted one of these paintings (that she had painted) as a gift, Hirst refused. His argument was that if she wanted the painting for its aesthetic value, she could paint one for herself. It was the fact that the painting was "a Hirst" that made her want it. She wanted the value of his signature, not the painting itself, which her own hand had created. The honesty and frankness in this discussion is refreshing. The issue of who is manufacturing the artwork of famous artists is rarely discussed, least of all by the artists themselves. And it is hard for Hirst not to look like an asshole in this situation, but he talks very openly about it. Fearless.

The book ends with the sale of Hymn, a giant bronze reproduction of an anatomical toy, which sold for a million pounds (and Hirst was later sued over). This is towards the beginning of his relationship with Frank Dunphy, which is a whole groundbreaking and heartbreaking saga in itself... One that is still being written. With the more recent sales of Hirst's restaurant decor as original works of art (a thing that, in the book, Hirst swore would not happen), and the continual upping of the ante with collectors, dealers, precious materials, and animal carcasses, it is clear that the timeline covered in On The Way To Work is just the beginning.

One The Way To Work is a fantastic read. It is insightful, unscripted, and fascinating. "Great art is when you come across an object and you have a fundamental, personal, one-to-one relationship with it, and you understand something you didn't already understand about what it means to be alive." I highly recommend this book for anybody into Hirst's work, or anybody who likes reading about artwork and the art business in general.

The book has a retail price of $50, and can be found online for a bit less with some looking. There are also several other books of Hirst's artwork out there.

I also encourage you to read more about the relationship of Hirst with Frank Dunphy in this article from the Wall Street Journal online: The Man Behind Damien Hirst.

Catalogue - "Sherie' Franssen: Driving Into the Ocean"

2009-01-27T14:54:00.000-08:00

So this'll be my last entry for catalogue fever. ...and your last chance to go see this show as it closes January 31.

"Sherie' Franssen: Driving Into the Ocean" at Dolby-Chadwick Gallery, San Fransisco is a remarkably straightforward painting show, and the accompanying catalogue is equally so. I've liked her work for a while now, and I'm impressed that she works in relative autonomy. She lives and works in Orange County, and enjoys success and attention, but isn't so overboard- hyped that it just gets annoying. She's got really great cadaver drawings on her website too.

The catalogue, 8.5" x 11", full color with a short forward, is of high quality and worth buying if you are a fan of painting. However be warned that it doesn't contain every work in the show. "Waist High", 2008 (77" x 81"), which isn't in the catalogue, was one of my personal picks, as it was a little bit of a departure (from her usual format of overall compositions) with a viscous, buttery blob of brushwork in the upper-center of the canvas. Even the size of the brush is a lot bigger, so it feels like more a bold decision, and offers sort of a resting place.

Sherie' Franssen, "Waist High", 2008, 77" x 81". Courtesy of Dolby Chadwick Gallery

Catalogue - "Abstract & Figurative - Highlights of Bay Area Painting"

2009-01-23T00:00:00.000-08:00

3rd entry in my catalogue fever installments...

"Abstract & Figurative - Highlights of Bay Area Painting", at John Berggruen until February 28, is a jaw-dropping collection of my all time favorite painters from the Bay Area, and maybe ever. There are a lot of paintings in the show from private collectors, and unless a museum (and it would probably have to be in California) organizes another mega exhibit, the paintings will probably go back into privacy for a while.

Familiarize yourself already. Fortunately, the catalogue for the exhibit will give you a leg up. It's a 10" x 10" softcover, and all artwork has been re-photographed just for the publication. No repeats, or archival images. Steven Nash wrote the introductory essay, and after that are just plates, plates, plates. Nice ones, too. My only qualm with the show is that Joan Brown is conspicuously absent, even though it's just because nothing of hers was available, and I was a little less moved by the inclusion of Wayne Theibaud just because his visual treatment is so different.

Contact the gallery for a copy and get yours now. $30 bucks.

David Park, "Figures in a Landscape", 1953, oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches, courtesy of John Berggruen Gallery

Catalogue - "Amy Sillman: Third Person Singular"

2009-01-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

2nd entry for catalogue fever.

"Amy Sillman - Third Person Singular" at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution.

Note: If, like me, you're on the west coast (and, like me, unable to have seen this particular exhibition of works), New York painter Amy Sillman is currently one of six contemporary painters in "Oranges and Sardines" at Hammer Museum. Go see it if you get the chance, it's up until February 8.

The catalogue for "Third Person Singular" is a 7" x 9" hardcover edition with full color plates, and contains an interview between the artist and Ian Berry, and an essay by Anne Ellegood. The reproduction and page quality is really nice.

Her paintings are honest, with little dogma, and a nice variation on the concerns of abstract expressionism. There is history, decision-making, and discovery. I just feel like looking at a painting should be a journey that takes the viewer through the various intellectual and physical processes of the artist. This is her expressing with paint what words cannot do.

Oddly enough, I'm glad I chose this one over the catalogue for "Oranges and Sardines". It just seemed like the better choice...
Check www.si.edu to get your copy.

Amy Sillman, "S", 2007, Courtesy Smithsonian Institute

Catalogue - "Gerhard Richter: Paintings from Private Collections"

2009-01-17T12:58:00.000-08:00

I'm becoming an exhibition catalogue fiend. I'm even starting to like them a little more than the big-fat monographs and surveys. In four upcoming blog entries I will talk about the catalogues (current and past) that I've scooped up recently:

"Gerhard Richter - Paintings From Private Collections", Hatje Cantz leans a little closer to being a monograph that accompanies an exhibition. There are over 80 works spanning 40 years of the artist's career. There are essays by Gotz Adriani and Dieter Schwartz. I don't think this exhibit (which judging from the catalogue looks remarkable) will travel to the US, but we should keep our eyes open (and please correct me if I'm wrong). Even though there are some Richter paintings that I am totally annoyed by, they are all valid in the realm of contemporary painting, and then there are enough that are absolutely fantastic! Hey, my opinion is based on my own criteria for liking a painting, so it's all open for discussion, and I do appreciate comments.

Hardcover, 7.5 x 11.25 in. / 184 pgs / 105 color / 14 b&w.
Distributed by D.A.P. Check your local artist bookstores and museum stores, or check back with us at Rowan Morrison, I'm thinking of ordering a few...

Cover image courtesy of D.A.P

Apenest Volume 2

2008-11-28T16:37:00.000-08:00

Apenest is an experimental publishing/printmaking project run by Cody Hoyt and Brian Willmont. They've published several print editions, as well two volumes of full color group art publications. The latest offering, Apenest Volume Two, is a tremendous compendium of contemporary artists and illustrators. Printed large (9.75" x 12"), thick (208 pages) and bright with lots of extras like stickers and postcard inserts, a slipcover, and a large offset print, Apenest is a steal with a retail price of $30. With a limited run of only 1000 copies, I contacted Mr. Willmont to find out just exactly what he knew that the rest of us didn't. It turns out that each artist involved donates an original to a portfolio that is then sold help cover the printing costs... an idea so simple and effective that I wish I had thought of it myself. Brian was nice enough to answer some questions for the Rowan Morrison Art Books blog.

Here is our interview:

How did Apenest get started? How much pre-planning and investment was involved and how much just evolved “organically”?

Cody and I were printmaking majors at MassArt together, we were already involved in a collective called “drawing club” with which we had done a small artist book with b+w and color photocopy and silkscreen. We got really into the book-making project so we decided to do something impossibly big (for us at least). It pretty much evolved organically from there, we really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but I think its better that way. It’s a lot of work and who knows if we would have done it if we had known, I hadn’t even heard of InDesign at that point! We actually started making T shirts at first because we thought we’d make enough money for printing!

What is up with the name “Apenest”?

I like the name a lot; I think it implies community, that we’re all in this together. We actually made a huge list of names and wrote them on a blackboard, then we called everyone we knew and asked them to vote, it was a democratic process and I think the best name won!

How are artists selected for the books and prints? Is there a submission process?

We hand select our artists, many are friends and the rest we’ve admired from afar. We’ve only accepted one submission so far, though we love getting artist submissions, we’re pretty particular.

The work in vol. 2 is pretty diverse... Are there any overall themes that were intended or later discovered? Are there types of art you are drawn to more than others?

We seem to gravitate toward graphic work in general, the types of pictures that can grab you immediately but don’t let go as they’re layers unravel.

Have you had any problems with any artists, legally or otherwise?

I think that with anything to do with art, you just have to believe in what you are doing 100% and you can’t let anything bring you down. We’ve had our share of people that we were relying on fuck us over, but we’ve been resourceful and everything has turned out better because of it. You have to roll with the punches, and if you want to get anything done you’ve got to do it yourself. Forgetting the problems helps too.

Where is the book printed and what was the process for finding a full color printer?

Our first book was printed by Thomson Press in India, we picked up a copy of “ZING Magazine” because we liked the look, I don’t remember if it had noted the printer or if we contacted them to find out. We ended up have ridiculous problems including strikes on the peir’s in India, customs holding up the book and then homeland security abducting it afterwards. It sucked.

The second book was Printed at ‘Shanghai Tenth Printing Factory Co. LTD.’ In China. My brother lives in Shanghai and hooked us up with his friend who is a print broker, this helped us a lot because he was willing to answer tons of questions and give us tons of quotes for all the different ideas we had.

It’s really important to shop around and get quotes from different companies, prices for different setups can vary a lot from printer to printer.

How has the project worked out financially? Is the selling of a portfolio to offset costs working thus far? Basically, how’s business?

The portfolio works great, it allows us to combine all of our resources and produce something way bigger and better and more affordable than we would be able to come close with otherwise. The portfolio for just the base price of printing, all of the import fees, taxes, posters and stickers that come with the book are paid for by a combination of proceeds from the first book (or in its case the proceeds from t shirts) and the design work we do. I'm not sure if we’re set up to make any money, our primary concern is making the next one way better and more involved that the previous. We’re still going and growing and we aren’t paying for it out of our own pockets anymore, that’s a good sign I think.

Is vol. 3 in the works or any other projects?

We just finished a Bill Dunlap print and an Apenest print that we’re really excited about. We have a couple of prints in the works and ideas for smaller books that might come before Vol. 3. We’re getting ready to begin Vol.3 and will be looking for new collectors who might be interested in the project.

We’re really excited about publishing prints, the whole idea behind making a book was the notion of the accessibility of art and I think that prints are the other side of the coin.

We curated our first gallery show this spring at Iceberger Gallery in San Francisco. It was a still life show called ‘Sunday Painting’, that was really fun and hopefully we’ll be doing more soon!

Any general (or specific) advice for folks looking to self-publish an art book? Any advice for artists wanted to get work published by others?

Find money, that’s the hardest part and without it you can’t do a whole lot, so don’t put something together and then go looking for money, it might take a while. Also a book can be anything, get resourceful and use a variety of printing methods to cut cost as well as increase the awesomeness of the book. Photocopy, silkscreen, digital printing, rubber stamps, stencils, and hand drawn elements are all great fun.

As far as getting published goes, I really don’t know. Be polite, don’t make anyone work to see your art, and don’t ask how to send a submission, just send it. People get a lot of email and have little patience so the best thing to do is get yourself a website, blog, or flicker and just introduce yourself, tell them you think they (they’re publication, gallery, whatever) are awesome and send a link.

If you could be any Star Wars character, who would you be and why?

I’ve got my own Jedi mind tricks….

----

Thanks to Brian for taking the time to answer my questions. If your burning thirst for more Apenest info has yet to be quenched, check out this awesome Apenest interview recently posted over at Beautiful / Decay.

Obviously, you can purchase Apenest Vol. 2 at the Rowan Morrison online bookstore. You can also get it right on tap over at apenest.com. They also have Volume 1, lots of prints, and even more info.

Oh yeah, I should probably at least list the artists who have work in Apenest Volume 2. Some of them even have little interviews or artist statements.

John Copeland, Denise Kupferschmidt, Justin B Williams, Sophia Dixon, Bill Dunlap, Corey Arnold, Andrew Schoultz, Joseph Hart, Cody Hoyt, Paul Wackers, Grimaldi Baez, Brian Willmont, Corey Corcoran, Fighting, Mark Chariker, Eddie Martinez, Jeremy + Claire Weiss, Anthony Sobiech, Elton Lovelace, Zac Scheinbaum, Deep Slumber Lake, Whitney Claflin, Eric Saline, Meghan Tomeo, Chris Wawrinofsky, Travis Neel, Rebecca Gordon, Suzy Coady, and Alex Lukas

Raymond Pettibon - The Pages That Contain Truth Are Blank

2008-11-12T16:33:00.000-08:00

Raymond Pettibon – The Pages Which Contain Truth Are Blank

review by Paul Sweitzer

I first encountered Raymond Pettibon’s art through Black Flag record covers and flyers for old LA punk shows, and was always a fan of these drawings. Its only been in the last few years I’ve started encountering a larger body of his work and have been getting pretty excited to learn more about him and the influences behind his drawings.

For anyone who has only seen a portion of his works, it is impressive to see what a range of styles he has and how prolific his work is outside of the context I was familiar with him in.

The work featured in this book shows off the entire range of Pettibon’s work, featuring his drawings of baseball, surfing, and trains in addition to his more classic dark comic-like drawings. Seeing all of these together gave me a bigger appreciation for how influential Pettibon’s vision was on the culture of the late 80s and early 90s music scenes, as many of the drawings embody the cynicism and black humor of Generation X.

One of my favorite parts of this book is that it features two different essays exploring the meanings and influences behind Pettibon’s art. Since this book was first published in Germany, the first essay is written with a big focus on explaining the references to southern Californian culture to an audience that didn’t grow up inundated by this vision. This perspective gives the work a really interesting distance, and it’s fascinating to see how Pettibon’s work is made relevant to a completely separate culture than the one it inundates.

The second essay, by Luca Beatrice offers a somewhat more familiar perspective on Pettibon’s work that focuses on his place related to pop artists. Beatrice links Pettibon with icons Andy Warhol, John Cage, and Kim Gordon as a visionary part of modern American art and culture.

Featuring 136 plates as well as two essays exploring themes in Pettibon’s work and his place in the art world and American underground icon. The Pages Which Contain Truth Are Blank offers an insightful analysis of Pettibon’s body of work and is great as both an introduction to his art and as a further analysis for people who are already fans.

The last copy of this book is currently available in the Rowan Morrison online artist's bookstore for $26 plus shipping costs. Click here.

You can check out the online review of Raymond Pettibon: the Books 1978-98 here.

Scarecrow

2008-10-27T23:04:00.000-07:00

Yes! After many months of talking and several more months of planning and a few trips to the printers shop to ask dumb questions and then only a few weeks of drawing but then a few more months designing and printing and here it is:

Scarecrow, the new artist's book from John Casey. 64 pages of unseen drawings from the center of the subconscious. Published right here at Rowan Morrison!

Casey’s drawings are a carnival of the grotesque, depicting human bodies deformed by their own inner emotions. Inspired by his own fascination with “fictitious human morphology” and the expression of his inner psyche, Casey’s work exists as a study of how we might look if our physical state reflected our emotional one.

John Casey’s work have been exhibited in the Bay Area in the DeYoung Collection, Swarm Gallery, SFMOMA Artist’s Gallery, and the di Rosa Preserve, as well as in Miami, Los Angeles, Nashville, Seattle and Berlin.

Scarecrow is printed with black and rust-red soy inks onto 100% recycled natural toned papers. There are also several secret "ghost" pages which are printed with silver ink on black papers that look just gorgeous. The book is 6" x 9", has an introductory essay by James Kaufmann, perfect binding (with animal-free adhesives), and is an edition of only 500 copies. Printed and bound at 1984.

It gets even better... each book is hand numbered and signed by the artist himself. And thanks to our powerful influence over the publishing industry, this bad boy is available at a reasonable retail price of only $20. Wholesale terms available.

Scarecrow gets unleashed on Devil's Night, October 30th, and to celebrate we are having a book release party right here at Rowan Morrison in Oakland and you are invited. John will be showcasing some original drawings from the book, as well as answering your oddball requests and signing books. That's 7-10pm at Rowan Morrison Gallery (330 40th St.) in Oakland, CA. As always, this event is free. There will be candy.

If you can't make it to the event, you should be ashamed, but you can still get your copy of Scarecrow on the Rowan Morrison website. Click the John Casey Scarecrow link here to get more info about the book, see more images, and order your copy (we are already taking pre-orders now).

John Casey's blog: bunnywax.com

Some recent press about Scarecrow on:

Book By Its Cover - The World's Best Ever - Little Paper Planes blog

Special Blend #14

2008-09-19T14:27:00.000-07:00

Long before he rocked my foundation with his amazing book of papercuts, my little Japanese pal, Ryohei Tanaka, has been making crazy art zines that can hardly contain his astronomical creative prowess. Dating back into the late 1990s, Ryohei has been self-publishing his comic strips, prints, poems, observations, sketches, found art, and writings as zines and editions. Luckily, I've been on his bandwagon from the day I met him and have been entertained by his artwork for half of my life.

During his final few years of art school in Northern California, Ryohei published a series of about 10 issues of Special Blend zine over the course of about 12 weeks. Each little zine was made from a single sheet of paper, cut and folded to make 8 action packed pages. If you ever see these anywhere, get them.

Following his graduation, he was able to snap off three more issues in the following 3 years, but these were much larger in size, page count, and ambition. These bigger issues of Special Blend featured the artwork of friends, lots of writing in both English and Japanese, and the never-ending torrent of sketches and comics coming from his own pen.

It all culminated in March of 2003 with the Special Blend art exhibit at Gallery AD in San Jose and the amazing issue #13. Then Ryohei moved back to Tokyo.

Ryohei continued his prolific creative output in Japan, release several new one-page-into-8-pages zines called Good Flat Communication and focusing on his papercut artwork and T-shirt printing. All was good.

Then, in August of 2008, Ryohei returned to the United States to participate in the epic You Only Excist Because of Us art show at Giant Robot in SF. During his two weeks preparing for the show and camping out in various couches and studios, Ryohei not only made more amazing artwork than I could in a year, he also dropped a special treat on us... Special Blend #14.

Special Blend #14 picks-up right where we left off with lots of artwork to make you jealous. There are papercuts that are even more amazing than the amazing ones from before (made even more outstanding once you have seen him cut one out in just a few minutes), caricatures from popular movies, excerpts from recent sketchbooks with drawings of family members and friends, lots of "Engrish" from Japanese packaging, and some rather twisted and disturbing comic strips involving defecation and superheros. Oh yeah, and, my personal favorite, pictures of things in the street that look life robot faces!

Ryohei only made 50 of these zines for release in the US. Most were given away or sold at the Giant Robot show, but there are still a few copies available while supplies last from us here at Rowan Morrison. Only 5 bucks. Signed by the artist. Special Blend is what zines are all about.

Click this link to purchase Special Blend #14 from Rowan Morrison

Click this link to check out Ryohei Tanaka's website

David Schnell, Tom McGrath & Dan McCarthy

2008-07-01T11:59:00.000-07:00

We apologize for the missing photos... we're working on finding them.

My name is Narangkar Glover and I am a painter in Oakland. I'm the one who's responsible for most of the painting books that we carry in our Art Books Store. In this entry I review three different catalogues by contemporary painters, and give you my response to each. It's hard for me as an artist to separate the "book" from the art within the book. What's more important? Or is the wholeness of it that should speak to the owner - the combined efforts of the images (the work), the writing, and the design? Personally, when I open an exhibition catalogue, I usually skip past all the art speak and get to the good stuff: the plates, so a big concern is whether the work has been well reproduced.

The catalogue for "Hover" by David Schnell is one of my favorites from the vast inventory of D.A.P. catalogues, and was published by Hatje Cantz.

It's a soft bound, glossy cover book that measures about 9.5" x 13". The first few pages of text consist of several rather concise essays in a variety of languages, or the same essay translated a few times (I can't really tell, but think is cool). Every essay is demarcated with a different fluorescent colored paper ... very design-y ... which I like. Then you get plate after plate of high quality reproductions of his paintings, which are sort of like colorfully abstracted exercises in linear perspective - and very well executed ones at that. Schnell is one of the Liepzig School, contemporary painting's forerunners in art today - and I think I recall seeing a bunch of the Leipzig painting at the Saatchi Gallery in '05. Painting students are going hog-wild for this style of work, and suffice to say, are deriving the shit out of it. Nonetheless, I can't even help but be influenced by Schnell's balance between finely measured and rendered linear perspective (but not in a literal or pictoral sense), and his loose, colorful, and dynamic paint handling, history and decision making. If you are a painter alive today, even if you want to reject his "system", I recommend this book.

Next up is "Tom McGrath: Paintings 2002-2007" published by the Zach Feuer Gallery.

It's a hard cover, cloth bound book measuring about 8" x 10" (landscape). The opening essay by Robert Hobbs, and Art Historian, is like eleven pages long and totally skip-worthy, unless you are a total whore for absorbing every iota of art writing (why?). Each page has one plate, very well reproduced, and no text. The accompanying list is at the back of the book with another, far more concise essay by artist Kevin Zucker, and it's more anecdotal, and therefore more fun to read. And that's about it, book-wise. McGrath's work is compelling in this catalogue. His paintings are painterly renderings of American landscapes taken from the POV of a car windsheild drenched in rain: abstracted surface, yet depicting or alluding to some pictoral scene. But then I'm thrown off by the last three night-time landscape paintings of city lights from atop a hill, which have nothing to do with the car series, and are not as good of reproductions either. But rather than try to make sense of it, I'll move on... Again, a good catalogue if you are a fan of contemporary painting.

... On to a book titled "Dan McCarthy", presented by Anton Kern Gallery and published by The Journal Books.

This is a thick and comprehensive monograph of McCarthy's work to date. Again, the plates are gorgeous reproductions. His paintings are loose and thinly layered washes depicting "statuesque" and often grotesque figures upon rather blank fields, and look to be at first glance, water media on vellum, but are indeed oil on canvas. I think he's expressing a pretty ubiquitus contemporary painting style, where the figure is illustrative and has an ironic hint, rather than expressive, gestural or personal. I think a lot of young painters today derive not only their working style from this formula, but their subject matter as well. There are some images I prefer, and these are in the category of "statuesque", like San Blas Commune (cover), Race, and North/East. All in all, not being a huge fan of "tongue-in-cheek", "nostalgia", or "symbolism", or the use of the phrase "not of this world", I withdraw from alot of the work after reading the accompanying essay by Nick Stillman. It's about eight pages long, consisting mostly of dropped references and quotes, which for me, is circumventing the REAL purpose at hand, which is what, I'm not sure - something along the lines of a commentary on hippie culture? I'm going to go ahead and pass this along to my friend Jacob Tillman, who was just here a minute ago.

We don't actually carry any of these books, but they can be found in a myriad of ways, most easily from the DAP website. Until then, go to our website for stuff we DO carry. I do hope to begin to carry DAP's Painting People: Figure Painting Today soon. Thanks for reading!

Paintings in Art Books; Paintings of Art Books

2008-06-14T13:32:00.000-07:00

I used to have a subscription to New American Paintings. For those not familiar, New American Paintings is a juried exhibition in book form, released bi-monthly, and published by Open Studios Press. Each issue is for a different US region and contains 3 works from about (or exactly) 40 artists. While mostly of paintings, other works of art such as drawings, prints, and installation images are also eligible. Each issue costs $20.

I say I "used to have a subscription" because after a few years I got bored with it. While each issue shows a very diverse set of works, I have come to realize that each issue shows the same diverse set of works. That is to say, you are going to get 10 abstract artists, 6 figurative artists, 4 installation artists, 5 illustrators, 2 people who paint landscapes, 1 textile artist, 1 Ed Ruscha wanna-be, and so on. The pattern was remarkably obvious and surprising considering each issue is juried be a different person. After a few years I let the subscription expire.

So one day, while needing to create shelf space, I decided to cut out all the artwork I really liked, put it in a binder, and give most of my New American Paintings collection away. The one issue I kept completely intact was 2004's Number 49, the Pacific Coast issue. The main reason I kept it was the work of Donald Bradford, a painter and professor at the University of California Extension, San Francisco.

Donald's acrylic and oil paintings in the book were delicately rendered images of... art books. Presented opened with foreshortened perspective, these paintings were some of the first I have seen to incorporate art publishing and its connection to artists and art history. The paintings are both clever, personal, and celebratory.

Donald has also done painting series of art book stacks, art books and cards, floral designs, and other ephemera from his studio bulletin board. I think it represents an artist's connection to not only the images that inspire them, but the actual, tangible vessels of these images... books, cards, and printed matter.

What I really liked was the statement to go with Donald Bradford's paintings:
"I recently drove from the Bay Area to Los Angeles to see a couple of major museum shows that featured two of my favorite artists. I found the work incredibly moving. But what excited me just as much was the thought of buying the two hard-bound catalogues and taking them back home where I could flip back and forth between the images and their detail shots and read about the artists' thoughts and processes. I love looking at books."

Donald Bradford's artwork can be found on his website: donaldbradfordart.com

Honey Pool

2008-05-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

I know I've said it before, but it really can't be said too many times... Mel Kadel is the bee's knees. And while the growing demand for her original works on paper are rapidly pricing her artwork out of our hands, you can still get your grubby mitts on some handmade Kadel goodness for less than a case of imported beer. But you had better get on it quick because the Mel bandwagon is getting pretty packed.

Honey Pool is the follow-up to last year's blockbuster, Rough Cookie, and much like The Empire Strikes Back to Star Wars, this sequel amazingly tops an already legendary original. Similar to Rough Cookie in many regards, Honey Pool features 40 pages of Mel Kadel's beautiful pen and ink artwork on coffee-soaked papers. Both figurative and decorative, this book is hand printed by the artist herself in full color on coffee-soaked paper, with a 4-color screenprinted cover. Each book is signed by the artist and limited to a first (and I believe only) edition of 100.

All of my glowing praise of Rough Cookie (read the review here), applies to Honey Pool, only even more so. The amount of labor that went into the construction of this book, not to mention the artwork it features, is just staggering. The fact that it is being sold for only $24 is ridiculous. I sincerely hope that Mel never wises-up and starts to charge and appropriate amount for her publications, cuz I'm hooked and I would surely pay whatever she asked.

You basically only have one chance to own this book, and that is right here and right now. We here at Rowan Morrison have been fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to sell about a fifth of the edition of Honey Pool... and we are just about sold out. We have, like, two copies left. So if you happen to be reading this and I haven't updated it to say, "Sorry, sold out", yet, then you are one lucky person. Click this link to own your copy of Honey Pool! $24 plus shipping. -Sorry, sold out-

And if you are a real Kadel fan and not just some poser, you will also want to own her limited edition serigraph, "Power Like A Flower", offered exclusively from Rowan Morrison. This is an edition of 100, signed and numbered by the artist. These won't be reprinted so get on it. $20 plus shipping, or buy 'em both from the Rowan Morrison online art bookstore and combine the shipping, yo!

Bad Asses

2008-04-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

I recently got a fat pack of books from the folks over at Blue-Q, a company mostly known for making bacon air-fresheners and magnets of cats' butts. They have launched a pretty wide line of small-in-size art and photography books that range in price from $4 to $8 each. Not bad. Just at a glance it was easy to see that Mark Todd's Bad Asses was the cream of the crop.

Originally self-published as photocopied, 14-page zines (called Bad Ass's), this 104-page masterpiece is printed in black with red and brown highlights and shadows. The only thing soft about this book is the cover. It features portraits of heavy dudes, chicks, and cars from television, film, comics, music, and sports (well, ok, pro wrestling). Each drawing is accompanied by a little bit of text somehow relating to the subject.

Quickly, off the top of your head, think of a Bad Ass...
Chuck Norris - he's here. Pam Grier - she's in there. Rambo - right there. Jo from the Facts of Life - no problem. Darth Vader - yup. Johnny Cash - page one, motherfucker.
Almost all of your favorites are here: Bigfoot (the monster truck, not the creature), Mr. T, Skeletor, Lita Ford, Robocop, the Batmobile, Bruce Lee, Wonder Woman, Miss Piggy, and the DeLorean from Back to the Future.

If you are looking for spot-on renderings and anatomical correctness, you should get as far away from this book as possible. Mark Todd has created a very successful illustration career from "drawing badly" and this book highlights the charm and hilarity created from crude likenesses. Strangely, the selections within "Bad Ass Rides" are pretty well drawn. I find cars hard to draw so this kinda surprised me a bit.

What sets this publication atop the huge, huge pile of crudely drawn artworks (so hot right now) is the little tidbits of writing to go with each Bad Ass. Sometime they are simple descriptions or quotes from the films that feature each characters, and other times they are little personal anecdotes from Mark Todd's interaction with the character. Such as the first time he heard a Blondie song (to go with Bad Ass Debbie Harry), or how he used the cape from his Darth Vader costume as a kid to dress up as Dracula the next year.
Even better are Mark's opinionated commentary on some of the featured characters, such as labelling the Flying Monkeys from the Wizard of Oz as "total assholes". Or writing of K.I.T.T. (the car from Knight Rider), "That voice was kind of annoying. So smug. 'Michael' this, 'Michael' that."

So, yeah, Mark Todd's book, Bad Asses, is, well, bad ass.

Links: Mark Todd's Website - order the original zines here - order the book on Amazon here

The Americans

2008-03-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

I really don't know how to judge a photograph beyond the instincts of "what I like" and "what I don't like". Though several Intro to Photography classes in both high school and college (as well as a degree in film/video) have given me a basic understanding of exposure, printing, contrast, and composition, I am still at a loss to explain what makes a good photo. I am even more puzzled when presented with what has been declared a great photograph that I just can't connect with. Certainly there is something more... more than subject matter, more than when things are printed correctly, or intentionally incorrectly. There is a connection that I cannot grasp that makes a photograph pleasing and provoking. And then there are images that are important (whether these qualifications lie within subject matter or technique or both is not for me to say). Things really get exciting when the importance of a photograph is in harmony with this unspeakable connection. It all feels right.

In 1955, fashion photographer and photojournalist Robert Frank received a grant from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to travel the US and photograph its citizen and society from all angles. With his wife and two children alongside for part of the journey, Frank traveled continuously for two years, capturing almost 30,000 pictures (83 of which made the exhibition and publication). Upon returning to New York in 1957, Frank befriended Beat writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who shared similar experiences of rambling travel across the United States and a unpolished presentation of the cultural American landscape.

Originally finding it difficult to get a publisher (it was published in Paris in 1958 before a US edition in 59), Frank's association with the Beats and Kerouac's introduction to the US edition helped the work gain widespread popularity despite harsh criticism of the work as "sloppy", "muddy", and "drunken". It has gone on to be considered a giant step forward in raw journalistic photography and has become the most popular photography book of all time.

The Americans has been reprinted in different editions many times, the latest being the deluxe 50th Anniversary Edition from publisher Gerhard Steidl. It uses modern scanning and tritone printing techniques. Some of the images are cropped a little wider in this edition as well. And, apparently, two images have been switched out entirely. The original Kerouac introduction is again presented. This book will be released in June in conjunction with the new tour of The Americans photo exhibit (coming to SFMOMA in mid-2009).

I must say that many of these images strike me visually and powerfully beyond their subjects and context. Often in much darkness and hazy focus, the architecture and portraits do seem truly American and offer a counterpoint to the antiseptic portrayal of Americans in the 1950s. While this sub-genre of "honest, ugly portraiture" has become the norm with contemporary young photographers, I can imagine how amazingly fresh and brutal this work seemed 50 years ago. The Kerouac essay is some classic Beat ramblings, which I enjoy. Like I've said, I don't really know why a photo works for me but this book definitely feels good without beeing "feel-good".

Special thanks to the folks at D.A.P. for flowing me a press copy of this edition for this review. There is a great essay on The Americans by Brian Appel over at artcritical.com. The images in this review were taken digitally by me from my copy of the book, so don't judge the photographs by them.

the Bloom Screenprinted Journal

2008-02-22T17:16:00.001-08:00

For me, the little details make a big difference. I can spot an offset print in a pile of Xeroxes a mile off. I immediately noticed when skate deck graphics started being applied with heat transfers instead of screenprinting (it was back around 2000), and I can tell the difference between super8, 16mm, and 35mm film (and video, of course) at a glance. And don't even get me started on optically printed vs authentically captured slow motion (am I alone on this one?!?). So when I first spied a box of these bad boys on the floor at Bloom Press in Oakland, I knew I'd struck gold.

Technically, this publication has no title. It occupies that foggy landscape between zine and journal and art book and book-as-art. It is only knowing that its creator, Nat Swope, encourages us to contribute to the book with our own images and writings that I designated it the Bloom Screenprinted Journal, although I don't think that title really does it justice.

What few constants there are in this publication are that it is 5.5" x 8.5", about 40 pages, saddle bound, with quality paper covers and a custom embossed Bloom logo. Within those boundaries, the content of each copy of the journal is a seemingly random mix of multi and single color screenprinted artwork, photocopied art, skateboard photos, found ledger and graph paper, vintage newspaper classified ads, various colors and textures of paper, portions of serigraph tests and misprints, political posters, completely blank pages, and other tasty treats. No two journals are even close to being the same.

Nat spent many years screenprinting the T-shirts for most of your favorite bands before he struck out on his own seven or so years ago to start a sticker, poster, and fine art screenprinting company, Bloom Press. Bloom is know for its service and proficient craftsmanship, so the quality of the journals surpasses many mass-produced papergoods. Nat also notices and cares about the details.

You are lucky to even get a silkscreen cover these days, so to have a book like this that features bold, multi colored, screenprinted artwork throughout is a real treat. It is hard to sum it up with just a few photos since each spread of each book is unlike another. Even the covers are unique.

The big finish is that the Bloom Screenprinted Journal is only five bucks. Only somebody running an awesome printing business could price these so low. You can order your copy from the Rowan Morrison online shop here. One will be sent at random and it may or may not feature some or none of the images in this blog, but they are all awesome. If you live in the Bay Area you can browse the batch of them in person in the gallery. Or, contact the master over at Bloom Press to order directly. I bought 3 of 'em.

Bad Teeth Books 5 - Draw Some More

2008-01-30T13:46:00.000-08:00

Glenn over at Bad Teeth Comics now has the esteemed distinction of being the first person to contact me about submitting an independent art book to the Rowan Morrison Art Books Blog and then actually following-up and sending me the book. This feat is made all the more impressive as it was originated halfway around the Earth from the marsupial producing country/continent of Australia. While I couldn't guarantee that I would like what was being sent to me, I have total support for anybody putting there work out there on their own. Like I've said, "Bad art is better than no art". And, I have even more respect for anybody willing to flow me some free goods.

Luckily, Draw Some More, the 5th book from Bad Teeth, is neither "bad art" or "no art" and is quite easy to enjoy. It presents a broad creative vision incorporating comic strips, pop-culture video stills, snapshot photographs, art installation views, graffiti photos, original fine art, skateboarding, and other tasty tidbits. While the mix of subjects and mediums might initially seem a bit disconnected from each other, the more time I spent with this book the more cohesive a vision it became. A portrait of an artist, his influences, and the subsequent expressions began to emerge. Most importantly, it was a vision I could relate to. I feel like I've been drawing from the same collected, popular influences... comic books, skateboarding, hipster art, video games, sarcasm, the movies of my youth (Nightmare on Elm Street, Robocop, Goonies...), partying, and junk food. This connection is all the more pleasing when I consider this artist and I have lived on opposite ends of the planet.

However much I might understand these inputs, I still feel this book presents an undeveloped statement. It has all the exciting rawness and excitement of a young artist, but it lacks the refined vision and thoughtful craftsmanship of experience. The artistic mediums represented in the book (street art, pop reference, party photos, comic strips) don't really support one another. Someone without a context of the wider scope of "hipster art" would get lost pretty fast. When any artist puts it ALL out there, the danger of being viewed as a "jack-of-all-trades, yet master of none" is present.

In my opinion, the weakest link in the book is the Hamburger Eyes-esque photographs. Maybe it is just me, but I've seen all these photos before. Someone puking... check. Someone tagging... check. Ugly old person in public... check. Tattooed hardcore singer on stage... check. I think the overall book would have been stronger without these, but maybe it's just me getting bored with that stuff.

The object itself is 5.5" x 8", 100 pages, perfect bound, black and white (with color cover), printed on various tinted papers, with most pages either being full-page or bisected into two images. Other than web links, there is no publication data or writing at all. I would have preferred straight-up white paper, and maybe an edition numbering, but that is just me nit-picking. My interweb research has come up with a retail price of $15, but I don't know if that is in US greenbacks or Oz-dollars (AKA dollaradoos), and what the difference would be either way.

In summary, Draw Some More stands tall in the world of art zines and is a fun and fascinating work from a young artist working in a lot of mediums. I look forward to seeing the evolution (and hopefully some refinement) in the Bad Teeth books series (the next one is already in the works and slated for a mid-2008 release). Unless it has a picture of some dude in a hotel room with a bunch of cash fanned out on the bed in front of him... in that case I'm over it. Let this book inspire you to stop waiting for whatever it is you are waiting for and put your art out there. Hell yeah.

Order your own copy of this and some other Bad Teeth books and products at the Bad Teeth web store.

other links for Bad Teeth Comics: website - myspace - blog

EC Horror part 2 - The Vault of Horror

2008-01-23T15:34:00.000-08:00

In 1977, with the debut of the Complete Weird Science, Russ Cochran began publishing a series of deluxe reprints of the entire EC Library of New Trend (Horror, Suspense, and Crime comics from 1950-1955) as well as New Direction (1955-56) and some of the Pre-Tend comic books. 29 Years later, in 2006, with the release of The Complete Picto-Fiction, the series was finally completed in 2006.

Every issue from every title was presented chronologically in 2 to 5 volumes of smyth-sewn bound hardcover editions. The volumes are all compiled in a handsome hardboard slip case with color printing. Gorgeous. Each page is reproduced directly from the original artwork when possible, which was often thanks to the extensive preservation and storage by Cochran's friend and partner, EC Publisher William Gains. The artwork was presented in oversized black and white, which reveals the details and nuances of the amazing line work of contrast of the art. The stories and editorial essays are printed on crisp art-quality paper stock with the covers for each issues in full color on glossy paper. Each set originally sold for around $100 each, I believe.

Ever the fan of the EC Horror comics (I had been buying the Gladstone and Russ Cochran Publishing newsstand reprints since I was 13 years old), I impulsively sprang on an online auction for a used set of the Complete EC Library edition of The Vault of Horror. No regrets at all on this one. A bit faded (especially volume 3) on the covers, the pages are pristine and for under $150 bucks.

Compiled in the set are all 29 issues (#12-40 (the numbering continued from the previously titled War Against Crime)) of the Vault of Horror, each with cover artwork and one story by Johnny Craig. All the EC Horror Ghoulunatic characters (aka the Cryptkeeper, etc.) are present, and the ultra-talented stable of EC artists are at the top the game. The books are durable for re-reading, and the narratives still pack a punch half a century after being first published. There are even adapted tales from author Ray Bradbury.

As bold and beautify as the black and white reproductions are, I can't help but miss the colors of the original comics. Apparently Russ Cochran agrees because he and Gemstone publishing are currently in the process of printing the hardcover EC Archives again, but this time in full color. My other beef is with the editorial essays from various comic historians. I found these to be a bit over-literate and abstract for my taste. Once again, the new EC Archive books being currently created feature writing from modern creative celebrities like Spielberg, John Carpenter, and George A Romero.

I really can't recommend the entire EC New Trend comics enough. Even the Science-Fiction ones are all right. You can find back issues of the 1990s newsstand reprints of most of these titles for as little as one or two bucks each. Many agree that they are one of the crowning achievements of the medium. And they are gory and violent as all hell.

Read On:
Russ Cochran interview about the new EC Archives
Details and ordering of the Complete EC Library ($700 for Vault!)
My previous Blog about the Tales From the Crypt Official Archives book and EC's history

EC Horror part 1 - Tales From the Crypt: the Official Archives

2008-01-09T15:59:00.000-08:00

For my money, the best comic books ever produced were the horror, crime, and suspense comics produced by EC (aka Entertaining Comics) in the 1950s. The art is just about the best ever and the stories are for the most part, gripping, suspenseful, and just plain entertaining. These comics have withstood the tests of time for over 50 years, being continually reproduced in different formats since the 1970s. Most recently a new series of full color, hardcover sets called the "EC Archives" were being published by Gemstone Publishing. There have been many original art auctions, oversized and "library" reproductions, not to mention the HBO television series and a couple of movies. But let us start at the beginning...

And the beginning, amazingly enough, is the beginning of all comic books. In 1933, Max Gains was a salesman for Eastern Color Printing, whose state of the art color presses printed the Sunday funnies for most of the East Coast's newspapers. Max published a 32-page booklet of newspaper comic reprints called "Funnies on Parade". These were offered as a premium with Ginger Ale, and eventually Max started printing comics to be sold in newsstands. Years later, with Harry Donenfeld, Max Gains would go on to publish the comics of Superman, Wonder Woman, and other Golden Age heroes until Gains sold his half of the company in 1945. He would immediately found Educational Comics and published sedate titles like Picture Stories from the Bible and Animal Fables.

In 1947, Max Gains unexpectedly died in a boating accident and his 25-year-old, recently divorced, goofball son, William, reluctantly took control the failing comic company. Despite it being a business he loathed, William Gains stuck it out and in 1948 he hired a brilliant young artist (with a knack for drawing voluptuous girls) named Al Feldstein. With a name change to Entertaining Comics, and a new direction towards, at first, romance, and then suspense, crime, science fiction, military fiction, and horror, EC comics was an industry leader within a year. In 1950, the comic books the Crypt of Terror (aka Tales from the Crypt), the Vault of Horror, and the Haunt of Fear all debuted as part of EC's New Trend series.

Amazing artwork accompanied four illustrated horror or crime stories in every issue. Each gruesome tale was bookended by a wise-cracking host to the horror comic, giving continuity to the unrelated events in each book. Most of the stories were originals written by Gaines and Feldstein. Gains, it has been told, concieved most of the stories while reading horror and sci-fi stories during his diet-pill-amphetamine induced insomnia. With four stories in each book, and two or three books coming out every month, this break-neck pace continued for over 3 years.

But in 1954, the publishing of the anti-comics study Seduction of the Innocent by Dr. Frederic Wertham and the resulting congressional hearings on juvenile delinquency effectively shut-down operation on all horror, crime, and violent comics.

After attempting to continue with "New Direction" comics like Piracy, Valor, and Psychoanalysis, then with Picto-Fiction illustrated stories, Gains and EC published their last comic in late 1954 and focused all their energy on their last profitable enterprise... MAD Magazine.

In 1996, St. Martin's Press published Tales From the Crypt: the Official Archives, by Digby Diehl, which features more details on the amazing rise and tragic witch-hunt fall of EC Horror comics. With great photographs from the era, court documents, artist profiles, cover artwork from every EC horror title, and four complete tales reproduced in color, this coffee-table sized book is a must have for fans of the comics like me. The 2nd half of the book is dedicated to the resurrection of Tales with the big-named produced HBO television series starting in 1989 and running for 7 seasons. The book also features collectibles from the comic and television-era Crypts as well as a touching tribute to Bill Gains, who died in 1992. The book also presents a complete, never-before-published story and artwork from Shock-Illustrated #4 with art by Jack Davis.

Next blog I'll explore one of the crown jewels in my art book collection, the complete hardcover Vault of Horror library edition reprint, with slipcover. Until then, you can feast on these links:
Tales From the Crypt: From Comic Books to Television Documentary DVD
Time magazine article on the Rise and Fall of EC Horror (2004)
Russ Cochran's EC Comic Art Auctions (next on is January 15th, 2008!)
Tales From the Crypt DVDs

How to Publish an Art Book

2007-12-21T12:59:00.000-08:00

A month ago we released our 2nd book from Rowan Morrison Publishing, Killer Cuts and Killing Shapes, by Ryohei Tanaka. You can check out all our publications (including the Found Paper Journal) at the Rowan Morrison Publishing webstore.

So, I figured now would be a good time to get blogging on a little "How-To" for publishing your own art book using Killer Cuts as an example. Of course, this is just how I went about it, and there are lots of ways to get a project like this done. Also, what I discuss here worked for this project, but is not necessarily applicable for other ideas such as a color or hardcover book.

There is a ton of info on self-publishing over at selfpublishing.com. They go in-depth into lots of specific topics like ISBNs, marketing, different types of printing, book conventions, and lots more. As with all advice, some of it is for you, some is best ignored so don't accept anything as gospel. They also offer affordable overseas printing.

Throughout this blog entry I'll be inserting images either to illustrate what I'm talking about or just to break up all the text with some images from Ryohei. Lots of his artwork was in glorious color but the book is in black-and-white (other stuff didn't make the final cut) so I'm using this opportunity to show off some of the original art.

Get ready for a lot of fun and excitement. Now, let's start.

The first thing you need is an idea of what you want to help you narrow your research down a bit. What size is the book, how many pages, what type of binding, what type of paper, and so on.
For this project, I was always inspired by the crazy papercut artwork of my pal Ryohei (pronounced "Yo-Hey") Tanaka and I thought it would translate into a book pretty well, so we started discussing a collaboration. Since Ryohei lives in Tokyo, it was agreed that he would supply the scans of his artwork, and I would handle the design of the book and the business of printing. Ryohei and I are pretty close, so we established an informal business arrangement: Basically, I, as publisher, would put up all the money for book production and then I would get all the product in the end, with Ryohei having the option to purchase as many books as he wanted at manufacturing cost. He retained the rights to the artwork, and each of us could sell the books however we wanted and keep whatever profits we made.

This is not the standard for business for this type of thing. Artists often get paid an advance up front and then a small (10% or so) portion of the profits once manufacturing costs are recouped by the publisher. Whatever your arrangement is, make sure it is established in advance and even get a contract written up to prevent problems down the road.

Now that I have my idea, it is time to do some research. Right away I planned to make this a small, affordable, black-and-white book, so I checked in with my favorite local printer to get some price quotes. While it may be cheaper to go overseas with printing (and in some cases with color printing, it may be the only affordable way), I totally recommend working with a local printer so you can easily check-in, inspect proofs in person, not worry about freight shipping, and support a local business. Print Access is a great resource to find all kinds of printers in your area. Call around and ask questions. It is never a bad idea to get price quotes from several spots to compare.

Thus far, I have exclusively worked with 1984 Printing in West Oakland. Richard and Amy can do one-color-at-a-time offset printing, cutting, collating, and perfect binding all in-house. They also take all the time I need to show me the machines, explain the process and all my options, and answer the many, many stupid questions I have.

So after some research with the good folks at 1984, I decided on creating a 5.5" x 4.25", 64-page book. I don't want to reveal the specific costs, but it was less than I expected for 500 copies, so, with approval from the artist, I was ready to go forward.
A thing to remember about book costs and retail pricing is that if you plan to sell your books through other outlets than yourself, you will be selling wholesale. This mean 50% of retail price. And most book distributors buy books at 40% retail cost. So your retail price should be at least 3 to 4 times the total costs of making the book. This is why color books can be difficult to work with in low quantities. If your book costs 20 bucks to manufacture (this includes marketing and shipping costs), then it needs to be able to retail for well over 60 bucks! This also generally eliminates most "vanity" or print-on-demand printers. Great for making 5 or 10 books to sell yourself, but totally to expensive to make a book to sell through retail outlets.

So - Now that I got my specs worked out and budget in place, it is time to actually design the book. For this project I simply used Photoshop, although In Design and other design programs are great as well. Check with your printer what works best for them before you start designing your book. You should also found out how much margin space they will need on all sides, plus any other limitations you should know about. Saving the printer the hassle of reformatting your artwork will save you time and money in the long run so get as much info as you can before hand.

For Killer Cuts, I received a fat CD from Ryohei with well over 300 images (way more than I anticipated), many in full color. Ryohei gave me creative control for the selection of what work goes into the book and how it is presented (with some stipulations). While his artwork is phenomenal, his digital images were mostly raw scans, and many of the images, while all high-res, were very small (2 to 3" tall). So a lot of my layout choices were limited by what images were big enough to take up an entire page.

Now I have my design guidelines (page size, format, number, etc.) and my raw artwork... let's get to work.

First, I reviewed all 300 plus images and took notes on their titles, complexity of image, general format (wide, skinny, square etc.), and a ranking on how much I wanted their inclusion in the book. Some images had to be in it, others were the first to get cut. These notes greatly helped me when it was time to decide on the order and layout of the book.

Next up is the tedious task of taking each of the remaining 200+ images that made the first cut and making them print-ready. This means turning the color images into grey scale, getting the contrast right, straightening and centering the images, resizing images when I could, and then cleaning up the many stray pixels and scanning imperfections. This was slow and detailed work and took some time. Here are some before and after pictures:

It may not seem like a lot of work, but doing it over 200 times was no picnic. Here is another example:

Some images took more work than others. Since it is easy to invert an images (switch black for white and vice-versa), I didn't worry about if an image would be with a black or white background yet. I left those decisions to the final layout process.

Once all the images were ready, it was time to layout the book. Each page was a separate EPS file, so I slowly assembled the book two pages (a spread) at a time. It takes some doing to make each page work with the one next to it, plus keep in mind the overall sequence of the pages, all while remembering how many images there are left to fit into the remaining spreads. This is where my images notes helped me out a great deal.

Definitely the hardest part is deciding what artwork doesn't make the cut. I ended up with a few more pages than I needed and had to rework images into previous spreads or eliminate the weak links. Some seriously awesome art didn't make it into this book, but you should always keep the final product in mind. I think a lot of artists, editors, and filmmakers would greatly benefit from an ability to "trim the fat". As we used to say in art school, "Don't be afraid to kill your babies."

Both of the previous examples of "cleaned" artwork made it into the book as 1/4 pages (the pages were more or less 1/4, 1/16th, or full page designs). Check 'em out:

As you can see (hopefully), these images were grouped in themes of "girls" and "plants".

Finally, after much labor and intense decision making, I had my 64 pages. This included a title page and introductions in both English and Japanese. I also designed a front inside-cover with all the publication info, and a decorative back inside-cover. A cover image was designed for the book by the artist, and I used a photograph of a lifesize papercut from my personal stash for the back cover (with room for the barcode and publisher's logo). I also designed the book's spine with the measurements my printer provided me based on my paper thickness and page numbers.

If you want more info on International Standard Book Numbers (ISBNs), the barcodes created from these numbers, the monopoly one company has on selling you those numbers, and why you should have one for every edition of every book you produce, check out the ISBN FAQ here. Long story short: an ISBN is the number connecting a book to a specific publisher, and all orders and info connected to the book go through this number. You want to control and own the ISBNs for your books.

After checking, re-checking, and re-re-checking all my pages, I burn a disc of the page files and deliver it to my printer. Half of the job is paid for up-front, I'm giving a time-frame of when I can expect proofs and the final product, and then it's time to play the waiting game.

Soon I get the proofs (in this case, it is digital proofs in PDF form) where I, once again, check for any mistakes. This is the last point to catch anything before the printing plates are made. Any errors that are in the digital proofs are my responsibility. Looks good. Thumbs up. Green light. Go!

And then, a few months later, after my job hits the press and final payments are made, I got a book! Now it is time to promote (but that's another story). I'm sure there are lots of pointers I'm missing, and, like I said, this way of doing things was good for this project but not every project. If there are any tips to walk away from with this, it is these:

Ask questions. The more you know before you get started, the more time and money you save yourself and everybody involved. Most folks are more than happy to share everything they know with you, but you have to ask. If a printer isn't giving you the time to answer your questions, go elsewhere.
Make your book affordable, but also make sure you can make your money back. Unless you have money to burn, you need to realistically estimate how many books you can sell and at what price. Don't print too many copies (you can always reprint), and don't get so fancy that your book will have to be priced ridiculously high just to break even.
Set realistic deadlines. Designing a book takes time and it is crucial to check and re-check for simple mistakes. Allow yourself, and your printer, some leeway. That being said...
Set a deadline for your printer about a month earlier than you need. Most printers seem to take a bit longer than they estimate so if you want your book by July, tell them you need it in June. Better to get your books early than late.
Do projects with meaning. You aren't likely to make much money with a small run art book, so make sure that having a copy of the book in your hands is a reward in itself. Like art in general, art books and zines are not a fast track to big cash, so you had better get self-satifaction out of the projects first. That being said, there is no reason you need to break the bank or even not see some tidy profits on you projects if you plan well and work hard.

It's that easy. With a little bit of inspiration, some artwork you believe in, and a grip of know-how, there is no reason you can't get your vision to the public without losing your shirt. Hope this was somewhat informative. Have fun, folks, and feel free to write me or comment with your own additions to the publishing adventure.

Oh yeah, for more info, images, and the option to purchase Killer Cuts & Killing Shapes ($8.00) click the cover image right here:

The Songs of Yesterday Selling the Cars of Tomorrow

2007-11-30T16:12:00.000-08:00

Michael Sieben continues his path of destruction with two new zines in the year two thousand and seven. These differ a bit from his earlier zine work (see review here). Both Smile Forever and The Songs of Yesterday $elling the Cars of Tomorrow (the "$" for the "S" is Sieben's doing, not mine) feature the illustrated monstrosities you know and love, but they also seem to contain a few drawings that are more quick and raw and less refined. This, along with lots of hip on-liners, a few bits other interesting, non-character-drawing kinds of stuff, and a photo or two, gives these zines a slightly rounder view of Sieben's skills and workings.

Smile Forever is like a well-scanned and edited Michael Sieben sketchbook. Featuring skulls, knives, lists, doodles, a photo of the sunset over Hooters, and other bits of wisdom, plus a two-color screen printed cover from Bloom, it ranks high on the list for zine quality.

The Songs of Yesterday... continues along these lines. It contains 24-pages of sketchbookings, semi-funny one liners and phrases the artist enjoys, some refined paintings, commercial illustrations, and the obligatory collaboration with Travis Millard and/or Mel Kadel and/or Mike Aho. The centerpiece of this effort is the back-and-forth email correspondent between Sieben and Prof. Barnes of Great Britain where Michael stands to gain 4.6 million in US funds. More good stuff from the master. Screenprinted cover? Oh hell yeah.

Each of these fine publications was created in an edition of 200, and the books are hand-numbered and signed by the artist. Smile Forever is forever sold-out, but The Songs of Yesterday... is still available in our delicious online art bookery for $12. If you're a fan of Sieben's art I highly recommend owning one of these. They don't necessarily break a lot of new ground, but they add depth to an ongoing storyline of really fun art. Gnome sane.

Halloween

2007-10-31T15:49:00.002-07:00

The Taschen Icons books certainly have their place in the world of art books, although they aren't really my favorites. If you are looking for something special, look elsewhere. But if you are looking for a compilation book for a good price, Taschen has got you covered. Their books are widely available, very affordable (especially the 25th Anniversary editions), full of color images, and cover just about every visual topic you could want. From food packaging to home design to vintage erotica to butterflies to impressionist painters... they got it all compiled and printed and ready to buy. The NY Times Book Review called them "... a fast-food, high-energy fix on the topic at hand."
These books are great for reference and for overviews of a certain topic, but they generally lack depth. I'd say they are the epitome of a mainstream art book, which isn't really a bad thing.

There are a few of these in my collection, mostly for reference purposes, but some just to look at. One of my favorites of these is the Halloween Vintage Holiday Graphics book. I love Halloween. The cartoony evil, the pagan-ness, the general celebration of devils and gore. Why else would you dress your children up as zombies? When else does the convenience store sell miniature blood fountains? What other event is decorated with skulls and spiders? From the orange and black to the witches and cats, Halloween is for me. And the candy!

You combine this holiday love with my fondness for vintage illustrations and ephemera (see Junk Pirate) and this book is a winner. It is 190 colorful pages of costumes, trick-or-treat bags, party decorations, advertisements, home photos, lanterns, and various illustrations. The images are what you would expect and demand from a Halloween book: skeletons, witches, devils, black cats, jack-o-lanterns, ghosts, candy, children in costumes, and lots of orange and black graphics.

You can pick up this book for $9.99 direct from the Taschen website.

Michael Sieben - zines 2003-2005

2007-10-26T13:12:00.001-07:00

I was introduced to Texas artist and illustrator Michael Sieben quite a few years back from various internet surfings. I found his skull-and-skateboard drawings immediately accessible. His work showed a sense of humility, humor, and wit that I totally identified with. His drawing talents were plentiful, but it was the simplicity and playfulness of his work that spoke to me.

Not long after my initial exposure to his artwork I began to see it popping up here and there in Thrasher skateboarding magazine. His work perfectly suits skateboarding illustration with plenty of humor, bold outlines, violence, monsters, beer, sarcasm, and anthropomorphic animals. To put it simply, he was making the art I wanted to make but lacked the talent to.

Sieben's artwork has grown more popular and wide-spread with every passing season. His characters adorn products from the likes of Toy Machine, Volcom, Crownfarmer, Bueno Skateboards (which he also is somehow invested in), Vox footwear, SxSW propaganda, and Thrasher (whom he writes articles for as well). I don't know how long he'll be able to hold out against mainstream apparel brands, but you know it's coming. He also co-owns Okay Mountain gallery in Austin, the sequel to Camp Fig.

Anyways, a few years back I did some zine swaps with Sieben and let it be known that he hooked a brother up. Let's take a look:

First up is 2003's From the Cubicle. This is a mini black-and-white xerox zine of Sieben's demented doodlings during his office job which, I assume, took place in a cubicle. It features his usuall assortment of misfit monsters and sins-against-nature, plus clever jabs at the executive working environment. I really love this zine. It is simple in content and style yet accurately encapsulates the need to secretly unleash artistic creativity in an unsupportive environment. Dare I say it is heroic.

Next up is Black and White Don't Pay the Bills. This zine features a smattering of Sieben's illustrations for various skate-related ventures in their original pen-and-ink form. All this work was published after being painstakingly colored with digital methods, so this zine shows the power of the original artwork. The drawings are bold and beautiful, looking almost like woodcut prints. They are the kind of drawings that make you want to start drawing. It is also a nice glimpse at some illustrations for local newspapers or limited run t-shirts that you weren't likely to come across on your own.

Sieben has created a boat-load of work in other collaborative publications like Hitten Switches, Pretty Deece, or the recent debut of Volcomics. He probably has lots of other self-published zines from this era as well, but these are the two I have. He is a pretty friendly guy so if you email him I bet he will write you back.

So, these are zines from my personal stash so you aren't going to be able to have 'em for yourself. But, if you stay tuned, the next Rowan Morrison blog will feature two new, deluxe Michael Sieben zines (one of them which you still have the possibility of owning)! In the meanwhile, you can procure your own copies of Hitten Switches (with Sieben and Travis Millard) here and the Pretty Deece collabo-zine here.

Links: Thrasher interview - mail-Michael-Sieben-sent-me website!!! - interview on fecalface.com - bloggity blog-blog with lots of photos by Sieben himself

Downy Bird Art Kingdom

2007-10-17T14:53:00.001-07:00

Downy Bird Art Kingdom falls firmly within the art book sub genre of "the Group Show book". What you get are 96 color pages featuring the work of 21 contemporary west coast artists. Each artist gets a 50-or-so word write-up from editor Matthew Bowers to go with 4 pages of images, both whole works and details. This book is the first of several future volumes.

In an opening essay by the editor, Downy Bird proclaims itself to be a look at the generation of artists following the "post-postmodern, neo-graffiti, Mission School, low-brow surrealism movements" of the 1990s. It also presents itself as a survey of these artists before art writers and art historians simplify and consolidate this movement into "tidy, exclusive piles" (like, say, neo-graffiti and low-brow surrealism).

Almost all the artwork is strictly from the "illustration as art" school of thought. You can call it Hipster art of Juxtapoz art or Postmodern Mixed-Media or whatever... If you find yourself checking fecalface.com more than once a week, you will love this book. As far as I know, the artists are all from only 3 cities: Oakland, San Francisco, and Portland. While this hardly makes the book a diverse survey, it still gives a solid look into the work of 21 emerging artists that are (almost) all worthy of getting familiar with.

With that in mind, Downy Bird benefits from the strengths and is hurt by the liabilities of all group shows (printed or otherwise): with so much work, you are bound to connect with something - yet - the overall show risks being dragged down by a few weak links. This book shows some real bright spots coming up from the emerging art horizon. Most notable are Catherine Ryan, Ferris Plock, and photographer Katy Zaugg. It also features several artists that help to emphasize the talent of those bright spots by means of comparison (if you get my drift).

All in all, Downy Bird is a great guide into an ever-emerging arts community. When I take into account the prospect of many future volumes, I can see a valuable document of young, contemporary, Bay Area (and Portland) artists. Kind of like New American Paintings, but with more focus. The printing quality (from Endeavor Printing) is very good, and the size (7.5"x7.5") and thickness (96 pages) are perfect for an ongoing series. The price, $20, is a bargain.

You can order Downy Bird Art Kingdom from downybird.com (which also features a complete list of artists with links) or get it direct from us here at the Rowan Morrison fine arts bookstore by hitting the button:

Teen Power

2007-10-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

Otsu began 5 years ago as a vegan-themed store in San Francisco. They sold animal free products like shoes and clothing along with papergoods, books, records, accessories, bags, and snack treats. In 2004 they launched their own publishing company, Little Otsu, with a line of calendars-planners and journals made with recycled or tree-free papers and soy inks. Soon they moved to a new space (which they share with the McSweeney's offices) with a new papergoods store (no more shoes) and a new focus on unique publishing collaborations with their favorite artists. They are constantly releasing new and original designs of stationery, greeting cards, journals, planners, datebooks, wall calendars, posters, and other paper goods.

Teen Power, by Joe Sayers, is Little Otsu's first step into a world of non-interactive art books. This book reproduces the hilarious self-published mini-comics Passing Periods and Absolute Power as a softcover edition. The book quality is exactly what you expect from Otsu: 100% recycled paper stock, high quality cover and binding with animal-free glue. Plus, the little touches, like the wide format and the blue-ink interior printing, come from L. Otsu's design experience and add the to quality of the publication.

The book's content features the fucked-up and awesome comic strips of Oakland cartoonist Joe Sayers. Each comic was conceived and drawn in under 5-minutes. The first half of the book is a collections of strips about teen issues entitled Passing Periods: Tackling Tough Topics for Today's Troubled Teens. These are, bar-none, the funniest comics I've read since Gary Larson retired the Far Side in 1995. Centered around drugs, sex, authority figures, and popularity, some of these comics are instant classics.

The second half of Teen Power is called Absolute Power and features Sayers' take on super heroes. These comics, which are mostly one-panel splash pages of various useless, yet super-human abilities, a silly and and funny but just not a raw as the ones in Passing Periods. Still, they are funnier than anything found in the New Yorker, and are all created in under 5 minutes, so I'm still impressed.

The drawing style is very simple and that only enhances the unexpected punchlines and clever twists in the work. Sometimes it is the drawings that make the work extra hilarious. This is a perfect book to keep you company in the bathroom, and I hope more work of Sayers gets compiled and published.

Check out Joe Sayers' regular comic strip, Thingpart, and his website and blog. It will make you chuckle.
Check out the full line of Little Otsu's projects at littleotsu.com.
Own your own copy of Teen Power by checking the online bookstore at Rowan Morrison or hitting this book-buyin'-button right here.

Rough Cookie

2007-09-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is the little things that make all the difference... Screenprinting instead of offset printing. The fact that a book is clearly handmade by an artist and not an overseas factory. Small editions that are hand numbered. Getting a handwritten "thank you" or some free stickers in your order. These are some of the small things an artist with little money can offer that big-time publishers simply won't find cost effective. I have nothing but love for art books of all types (even the ones I hate), but there are certain books you treat with extra care. Some books provide information (or, with most art books, images) and some books take the extra step towards becoming -for lack of a better term- a collectible, or a trophy. Some books are reproductions of art work, and some are artwork. Mel Kadel's Rough Cookie is one of those latter books that you hold dear.

Rough Cookie is 40 pages of Mel Kadel's delicate artwork, all printed in full color. 5.5" x 8.5" in size, 3 color screenprinted cover on printmaking paper, hand numbered and signed by Mook herself, an edition of 100. Most of the artwork is presented as 2-page spreads. The really topper for this book is that not only are the original works of art made on coffee-stained paper, the entire book is printed on coffee-stained paper. This gives the artwork (and publication altogether) an earthy, worn-in feeling. It even smells a just a tiny bit like coffee, which is about as comforting an aroma as I can think of.

The artwork itself is fragile and bold, decorative and narrative, colorful without being bright and glaring. The coffee-soaked paper pages bring the negative space tones down a notch and gives the color of the artwork a subtle impact. The imagery is often of women struggling within a decorative, sometimes textile, environment. The figures portray a strength and defiance, never submitting to the will of their environments, never accepting the label of victim. What could easily be dismissed as pretty patterns and line work is made dynamic and powerful by the figures interaction.

Rough Cookie stands out from other work I've seen of Mel Kadel's (mostly in collaborative zines) as a genuine voice. With her drawing skills and choice of subjects it would be easy for her work to become sarcastic, humorous, or pure illustration. But The art is feminine and strong, and in an art community that is all but dominated by men, this is no small accomplishment.

So, here is the deal. I only have a few copies of Rough Cookie available. I suggest you waste not a moment. Like I said, each book is full color, printed on coffee-soaked paper, screenprinted covers, hand signed and numbered (2nd edition of 100) by the artist. They cost only $20 (plus shipping) so get it now or regret it for the rest of your days.

For those who tried to order in the recent past only to find us sold out: we got a limited number of copies back in stock. Act now!

Ulysses: Andrew Schoultz

2007-09-18T16:12:00.000-07:00

Let's face it, there are a lot of Andrew Schoultz imitators out there these days. And while Andrew Schoultz may be the original Andrew Schoultz, his legacy is still damaged by the plethora of similar young visual artists, both legitimate and otherwise. The imagery he uses and, more importantly, his detailed line work style and mural techniques have almost become a common language nowadays. It takes a solid document like Ulysses: Departures, Journey, & Returns. The Artwork of Andrew Schoultz to clarify that we are, indeed, witnessing a master.

The book itself is impressive. It is 10.5 inches tall and 180 pages deep, full color, hard cover, and even has a double gatefold (where the pages are twice as large and can be unfolded. It has got everything you could want in an art book: large works, details, installations, murals, drawings, gallery exhibitions, collaborations, sketches, and photographs. It gets even better; there are no less than four essays about the work and the artists. All for only $30! I'd say my only complaints are that a few of the photos are slightly off-focus (one printed as a two-page spread), and the hardcover is white and can get grungy pretty quickly if you manhandle your books like I (and our customers) do.

Schoultz's work draws from a lexicon of images and icons that are used and reimagined in endless combinations. Pirate ships, tree stumps and branches, birdhouses, elephants, pyramids, eyeballs, Trojan horses, telephone poles, birds, bottles, and shacks are rendered in stylized textures of wood, brick, magma, ocean waves, clouds, and cyclones. The overall effect on some larger pieces can be visual overwhelming in its crowds of details, but the scope of the work is often breathtaking beyond the impressiveness of the massively repetitive detail renderings.

The book covers the past 10 years of Schoultz's artistic output, not including his graffiti persona, which he keeps completely separate from this work. While the large murals and seriously epic artworks are great, I find some of smaller, simpler works (that are often parts of larger installations) the most appealing and approachable. There is plenty of details to pour over, and many pages of black and white sketches which show even further exploration into the imagery. As cohesive as this large body of work is, the murals and the gallery installations and the works on paper and the sketches do stand apart from one another.

Alas, Schoultz's work does not often lend itself easily to 10x7" reproductions. I really don't think a better job could have been done trying to encapsulate works of this scale in a document like this, but the scope and size of some of the art simply does not come across as loud as it would in person. Still, without a book like this, how many of us would have seen his murals in Indonesia.

All in all, Ulysses is one fantastic art book. Andrew Schoultz's art is really fun to look at and the quality of the publication is just phenomenal. It was published in 2006 by Paper Museum Press in San Francisco. It is currently distributed by Ginko and Last Gasp, so it should be available at most quality artist's bookstores. Only 3000 copies of the 1st edition were printed so, for only $30, you would be a fool to not get yourself a copy.

Ulysses: Departures, Journeys, & Returns. The Artwork of Andrew Schoultz is available right now in the Rowan Morrison online fine art bookstore. Priority shipping with tracking is only $5.50 in the US.

Links:

Andrew Schoultz website - Andrew Schoultz interview

ANP Quarterly #8

2007-09-06T18:06:00.001-07:00

A few months ago, a buddy of mine was complaining how he had just recently had to pay for a subscription to the quarterly art publication, ANP Quarterly, because, like most popular free magazines, it was nearly impossible to find. "Maybe you guys could carry it," he said. I did a little research and found that no spots in Oakland currently distributed the magazine so I shot them an email inquiring what I needed to do to get the hook-up. I got no immediate response so I went into "resend" mode and kept shooting the same email request a few more times. Then, one day, I got a simple reply: "I'll send you a box." it said.

For months I didn't get anything and I just figured I'd gotten the brush-off. This happens a lot, and since the publication cost me nothing I really felt I shouldn't complain. I had just about forgotten about the whole affair when Fed Ex showed-up and dropped a fat package of ANP on me. So, without further ado, I present to you ANP Quarterly issue #8, available while supplies last at Rowan Morrison, the only distributor of ANP Quarterly in Oakland (although I notice we aren't listed in the dealer directory). One per customer.

Unlike other free magazines like Vice or Frank 151, ANP is completely advertising free. In fact, I am totally puzzled as to how they can print and ship (via Fed Ex, no less) this full color, oversized magazine with no basis for direct income. The publishers, RVCA (a clothing company or something - you probably know a lot more about it than I do) must be doing pretty well to fund this. I hear they opened a store on Haight & Ashbury in SF with a mural by Twist McGee that got buffed and they petitioned the city to fund a repaint.

Anyways, I gotta admit I was immediately impressed by the quality of the production of the magazine as well as the depth of the interviews and subjects covered. Aaron Rose (who concieved on of my favorite all time art books, Dysfunctional), "He-Man" Ed Templeton, and Bredan Fowler do it right. It's got a huge interview with classic 1970s performance artist (and currently working in freaky-huge sculpture) Chris "Breathe Water" Burden. Tons of full-page artwork from Rita Akerman (not my cup of tea but not a bad article), profiles of Scoops Ice Cream in LA, Comptior De L'Image Bookstore in Paris, and Workshop Houston in Texas, and then another huge interview, this time from Ian Svenonius of Nation of Ulysses fame.

There's more... an interview with Photography publisher Sophie Morner (featuring lots of great photographs featured in her magazine, Capricious), and article about the 1980s punk magazine No Mag, plus a photo-montage from Josh "Amaze" Lazcano. And some other bits I don't remember right now.

All in all, I am blown away by the quality of this magazine. I really expected a lot less thought and certainly lower quality paper and printing and now I totally understand why it is so hard to find. Thanks to all the RVCA and ANP guys who have figured out how to make this thing work.

Here are some links:
Official ANP website - ANP blog - myspace page

Oh yeah, ANP stands for Artist Network Program. Get issue #8 right now at that amazing fine arts bookstore in the East Bay, Rowan Morrison.

How Long Have I Been Dead?

2007-08-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

John Casey gave me this book for my birthday a few months ago and it is all fucked up. It contains page after page of artwork from Andrew James Jones. It is small in size (5.5" x 4.25") but portly in content (156 color pages) and has a squishy hardcover.

Now, I'm not the type to get freaked out by dirty or violent drawings. In fact, I'm one of those people that feels that images of genitals, blood, and fecal matter are generally overused now as an unintelligent attempt to shock and make art "cutting edge". I classify this stuff as "Boner Art" (feel free to use this term yourself): not shocking but very gratuitous and rarely thought provoking. Maybe it is a comment on our society that these images have lost there ability to horrify or invoke any genuine reaction at all. What I'm saying is, in the case of most Boner Art, it is not my morals or sensibility that is offended, it is my intelligence.

But this book has somehow gone beyond the stupid and heavy-handed imagery into genuinely frightening territory. The drawings are simple in both medium (ink and white-out with a few highlight colors on brown paper bags) and in content, yet twisted and unnerving. It is not necessarily the violence of the images or the monsterousness of the characters, but the subtle details that get my bile going.

It is the joyous or indifferent expressions on these tortured creatures that makes me uncomfortable. It is the interaction and often interconnectedness of deformity that makes me look away. It is the nonsensical but often provocative text. It is the white on black and serpentine dialogue balloons. It is the discarded quality of the creased brown paper canvases... This art feels authentically twisted and evil. The work involving elements of photo-collage into the drawings is even more fucked-up.

And then we have the sheer creativity expressed within this diabolical framework. Each page seems to delight in pushing the edges of taste. Each creature from this book seems to come from the same horrifying universe, but the interactions (and violations) are always new.

My emphasis here is one the feeling of this artwork being authentically fucked-up. It doesn't feel contrived or forced, which makes it all the more disturbing. John Casey told me that a split show between himself and Andrew James Jones has been met with nothing but rejection by local galleries and that doesn't surprise me. This vision is too twisted and real. I don't like it, but I'm very, very impressed with it.

Retinal Scans of the Entertainment Section

2007-08-15T18:03:00.000-07:00

I got this newspaper at the SFMOMA Museum Store in 2001. It is page after page of seemingly randomly drawn black lines that formed abstract shapes and formations. It iss the size of a broadsheet newspaper and printed on newsprint, and I just assumed it was some absurd, abstract publication. I looked for any information or indentification printed on the paper to clue me in as to its meaning and origins but there was only lots and lots of black lines. I don't remember how much it cost, but it couldn't have been more than five bucks.

It wasn't until a few months later that I was able to piece two and two together and figure out that the newspaper was created as part of a technology and art exhibit at the SFMOMA sponsored by Intel called 010101: Art in Technological Times. An artist who was part of this large group show, Jochem Hendricks, had been hooked up to retinal scanner as he read the entire Entertainment section of the San Jose Mercury News. From the data of where his eye was focused that was collected a new edition of this paper was created in the exact scale of the original. In this new version, Hendrick's thousands of recorded retinal movements were presented a black lines. While the specific words and information aren't printed, the patterns of eye movements are.

Clearly shown are the design patterns of a newspaper. You can see the headlines, the columns of text, the advertisements, and the photographs. You can see areas that are read in great detail and areas that are just scanned. The complexity of movents is amazing and the abstract designs are wonderful and detailed. This abstraction, when mixed with the familiarity of the size and the texture of the paper, as well as the recognizable structure of headlines, columns, and peripherial images, make this curious publication very aesthetically pleasing.

This is a really nice blend of performance art, conceptual art, and book art that was as enjoyable to me (although very different experience) without the context of the exhibit and how it was made as it is with that knowledge. Stangely enough, I came across another copy of this "newspaper" at a junk store ealier this year, so now I have two copies. If anybody would like to check this paper out (and you're in the Bay Area), please stop by our gallery bookstore and take a gander. And if anybody has any additional information about this "book", artist, or exhibit in general, please leave a comment.

A Field Guide To Weeds

2007-08-08T17:16:00.001-07:00

On my recent visit to New York, I made a special subway stop just to visit Printed Matter, Manhattan's famous self-published artist's bookstore and exhibition space. While there selection was impressive, the store was simply way to chock full of books. Thousands and thousands of books, on edge, most without printed spines (saddle-stitched), arranged alphabetically. While this may be great if you are looking for something specific, it was a nightmare to browse through. Add to this the classic "7 employees all to busy to acknowledge there is a customer" thing and I didn't stay very long.

But thank goodness I was there long enough to notice A Field Guide To Weeds, a new books from installation artist Kim Beck (published by Printed Matter). What appears to be a 19th-century pocket guide to weeds themselves (with embossed canvas cover and bound ribbon bookmark) is slowly taken over. Upon the blank pages various weeds (dandelion, pigweed, and poison ivy) spawn, grow, and multiply until, towards the final few pages, they have completely consumed each spread.

If this book were presented as, say, an animated flip-book, I wouldn't give it a second look. But the lush, 5-color printing (which involves both flat and overlapped-printing designs) and rounded page corners make this publication something magical. Slowly flipping through this publication is an immersive experience in wild natural growth told through book form. This book is a companion to a recent series of nationwide Kim Beck installations where weeds made of vinyl signs and paint grow on gallery walls, floors, and windows throughout the exhibition. I can say that A Field Guide To Weeds is the closest replication of an installation experience in printed form I have ever encountered.

Hopefully we'll get this book at Rowan Morrison soon, but in the meanwhile you can purchase it through the Printed Matter website for $25. You can check out images of Kim Beck's "Weeds" installations (plus lots of other work) at idealcities.com.

Wanderlust

2007-08-05T13:33:00.001-07:00

I just got back from a "business trip" to New York City where I spent about 48 hours actually in the City (most of which was occupied by figuring out where I was at and how to get to where I was going). I've never been flown and put-up on somebody else's dollar (who isn't family), so I actually enjoyed the "getting there" part of traveling a lot more than I think I otherwise would have. It is the little differences in travel that often go overlooked but are what often gives much more of an impression of a foreign place: how a toilet flushes, how to order a meal, the shape of public mailboxes, the colors of the street signs... the thousands of subtle differences in universal items.

Immediately upon my return home I reached for my copy of Wanderlust by Troy M. Litten. It is a wonderful travel-sized (4.5" x 6"), full-color collection of travel photography. But rather than being a bunch of pictures of iconic landscapes and postcard-esque buildings, Wanderlust is a document of the little things in traveling. (Example: Royale with Cheese).

The book is divided into six themes, and every individual photo is gorgeous on it's own. The layout switches between panels of several similar (yet unique to their locale) items and large details and spreads. With no text except that in the photos, the pictures do all the talking.

The first section is "Cruising Altitude", which covers all things in air travel: the view out the window of a plane, handpainted airport maps, plane tickets, airport lounges, safety card illustrations, and, of course, airplane meals (yum!).

The next chapter is "A Room for the Night". Beds, alarm clocks, hotel art, room phones, showers, mini-fridges, maid service cards, toilet paper rolls, and individually packages hand soaps are all documented and presented brilliantly. The colors are bright and the forms are bold. These are the details of the places between the destinations, and they often say more of a culture than the international monuments themselves.

The next group of photos are about "Sustenance". From a spread of 18 different cups of coffee to buffet pictures, all the excitement and anxiety of foreign and travel food is here. All the images more than just documents of what the author ate on his travels, but really great photos on their own. The details of grilled squids and Mexican handpainted breakfast menu signs are fantastic. And the compilation of empty ramen bowls just makes me flat-out hungry.

"Getting Around" is a chapter of ground transportation. It covers subway station seats and signs, photo booths, hand painted buses, train tickets, maps, ticket machines, and blurred views out train windows. These are aesthetic details I often missed in the bustle of getting from point A to point B.

The fifth section of images is "People You Meet". These include much more than just the usual "exotic locals carrying baskets on their heads" and "withered old woman in the doorway" pictures (although there are a couple of those). The faces we see and people we meet when traveling are found on currency, in hand-painted movie posters, peeing in the street, mannequins, and the myriad of styles of little guy on road signs.

The final chapter is "Sightseeing", but once again, these aren't your typical postcard pictures and tourist photos. Instead we are treated to compilations of tour buses, people taking pictures, welcome signs, and air mail stamps. Amazing details of postcard racks and "this is NOT a topless beach" signs are here as well. Plus a great image of a local boxing advertisement.

Clearly, the destination is not the point. Wanderlust is a unique and beautiful, and I feel incredibly accurate, portrayal of traveling. Since being published in 2004 by Chronicle books, it has been expanded to wide edition of papergoods: blank journals, stationery, postcards, travel logs, and address books. Sometimes we have Wanderlust goods at Rowan Morrison, but they usually sell-out pretty quickly. The book (which is 208 pages and costs $14.95) is available at chroniclebooks.com.

Almost the entire contents of the book are available for preview at creator Troy Litten's website troyland.com, along with lots of other info and exclusive travel photo prints. I highly, highly recommend checking Wanderlust out. It changed they way I see the world when I travel, and gave me a great appreciation for the little difference that make make the world diverse and beautiful and can even make the least enjoyable aspects of travel special.

Subway Art

2007-07-25T18:41:00.001-07:00

Graffiti books are so common these days it is hard for me to really understand what a break-out document Subway Art by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant was for its time. This, along with the 1983 PBS documentary Style Wars (by Chalfant and Tony Silver), give a thorough survey of graffiti art and culture in New York in the early 1980s.

Subway Art was first published by Henry Holt in 1984 and is currently in its 19th printing. It boasts 239 color photographs featuring the painted trains of the New York MTA lines, plus other photos of the writers themselves painting and hanging out. Laid out as panoramic whole cars from multiple photographs, plus details on tags and characters, this book lays the design groundwork that is repeated in just about every graffiti book and magazine unto this day.

This book greatly differs from (and in my opinion, is superior to) subsequent graffiti publications in several ways... aside from the fact that it is the original. The book features a lot of photos of the writers themselves (and none of them are covering their faces). It is also written with the layman audience in mind: Broad explanations of "style" and brief descriptions of "characters" and "going over" in graffiti culture abound. While this may make the written content of Subway Art quite trite and comical to graffiti fans of today, I actually find this type of writing preferable to the strictly ultra-insider vernacular employed within most modern graffiti literature.

The vocabulary section of the book demonstrates that the lingo of graffiti was already set in stone by 1984 (bite, bomb, buff, getting up, hit, piece, throw-up, toy, writer...). Except the train lingo (ding-dong, ridgy, lay-up...).

Much of the art is made by graffiti legends like Lee, Seen, Pink, Skeme, Kase 2, Dondi, Iz, and Blade, but the book is not broken down into sections by artist or crew like so many others, it is separated into subject chapters like History, Vocabulary, Techniques, Writers & Crews, Kings, and Opposition. Unlike Style Wars, this book does not cover the breadth of hip-hop culture (rocking the mic and rocking your body with breakdancing). Subway Art, as the title would suggest, is all about art on the subway trains. No attention is given to non-train graff at all.

This book is an essential component to any street art library. It is definitely the best document of 1980s NY graffiti, and the painting and stories that go with them are wonderful. Along with Style Wars, which is my favorite documentary of all time, this is a full and detailed portrait of an amazing but long gone era. King of the yakkity-yak yard!

You can watch Style Wars online right now.

You can order Subway Art from the Rowan Morrison online store for $22 plus shipping by clicking this link:

Swee(t)art issue # 7

2007-07-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

Obi Kaufmann created Swee(t)art zine in the late summer of 2006 as a way to contribute to the Bay Area contemporary art scene as more than an artist. The first issue featured interviews with Lexa Walsh (whose photo graced the cover), Jeff Riley, and the artwork of Alex Rosmarin, Dan Nelson, and other tidbits. Obi inkjet printed every page (many in color) and hand-distributed the 100 or so copies to various galleries in Oakland and San Francisco.

The plan was to self-publish the zine, featuring new contributing art articles, interviews, and illustrations, on a monthly basis. The fact that this schedule was kept through issue #4 is amazing, particularly when you consider the fact that Obi designed, printed, collated, and distributed each copy by hand from his apartment in Oakland, all at his own cost.

The first six issues featured interviews and art by the likes of Brian Caraway, Bert Bergen, Travis Browne, Carl Auge, Junk Pirate, Val Britton, Zefrey Throwall, Bob Jew of Front Gallery, Ezra Li Eismont, Tiffany Black, Crystal Morey, Queequeg, Jessica Serran, and Alex Kopps.
All this plus articles on Boontling Gallery, Swarm, collector Todd Hodes, and many show reviews (both brief and full-sized) from contributing writers.

By issue #6 (March 2007) it was clear Swee(t)art had found it's voice and rhythm, focusing almost exclusively on the emerging artists of Oakland and the spaces that exhibit them. Each issue brought the individual artistic process to the forefront within the artist and curator interviews, a position further expressed with the fact that each full-color cover featured not an image of art, but of a snapshot of the artist. Issue #6 coincided with a Swee(t)art group show at Red Ink Studios in SF, curated by Obi.
It is also noteworthy that Swee(t)art has done a decent job of giving equal space to both women and men, which (sadly) is exceptional in the contemporary art scene.

Only Friday, July 13th, Swee(t)art #7 made its official debut (although preview copies have been circulating for a week or so) with a launch party and the Obi Kaufmann solo exhibition "Spaceship" at Cricket Engine Gallery in Oakland. Without a doubt, this is the best issue of Swee(t)art thus far.

About twice as thick (36 pages) with double the printing (300), issue #7 (the West Oakland issue) features what you come to expect: interviews, illustrations, show reviews, and other images. With the exception of the covers, the entire issue if black & white, which doesn't hurt the overall quality as much as you might think. Contributing writers Lexa Walsh and Theo Auer produced articles on Sarah Filley, John Abduljaami, and Desiree Holman. A show review for Casey Jex Smith and interviews with Scott Oliver, John Casey, Deth P. Sun, Bruce Beasley, and Adam Hatch of Lobot keep this issue bursting with reading material. Michael Mellon's big-rig illustration are interspersed throughout the zine and add some breathing room to all the text. The zine also comes with a die-cut, full-color John Casey sticker.

Obi wisely has settled into a more realistic quarterly publishing schedule, which should keep the quality up while still having relatively current content. Swee(t)art is now officially about "Oakland California Visual Art", which, in my opinion, it always should have been. The color cover features artwork rather than an artist snapshot (at least for this issue) which makes it much more appealing at a glance. And even though the size is bigger, the price remains $3.00.

The Lobot interview, where very intelligent answers are given to relevant questions for this West Oakland warehouse art space, is top of the list. John Casey's interview is intelligent (expect no less from that guy), and the Deth interview personifies the artist perfectly. It is also very, very refreshing to see interviews and articles with artists outside of the "hipster" classification, like legendary Oakland sculptor Bruce Beasley. I hope this trend continues.

But it's not all sugar and sunshine for Swee(t)art #7. This issues, like many critique compilations (this blog included), heaps nothing but praise on everybody involved. I can understand the apprehension at publicly criticizing the folks nice enough to become writing subjects, but this issue is clearly promotional without any counterpoint. Past issues of Swee(t)art have at least featured many short show reviews that were opinionated and critical. I also feel that the color space which is at a premium (only the inside-covers and back cover) was squandered. Space that could have been used for Deth P. Sun's or Adbuljaami's artwork (which both would have looked great in color) was used to promote the Cricket Engine show and Obi's involvement with the Nest Home Design gallery. While I don't think these "advertisements" are necessarily inappropriate to the zine, I think they would have not suffered from being in black and white.

Launching with the premier of issue #7 is the Swee(t)art website (in theory... it still lacks content in every area). I'm anticipating it will eventually feature past Swee(t)art interviews, bonus reviews and art, lots of links, art reception pictures, and upcoming events.

To get the latest issue of Swee(t)art, or to contribute to future issues, contact Obi at sweetartmagazine@hotmail.com.

Acme Novelty Library #16 and #17

2007-07-07T15:30:00.000-07:00

Fantagraphics published the first issue of Chris Ware's comic series Acme Novelty Library (which was composed largely of collections of his weekly comic strip appearing in New City, an alternative free weekly newspaper in Chicagoin the winter of 1993-94. Issue #5 (1995) featured the beginning of the epic tale of Jimmy Corrigan, the smartest kid on Earth. This melancholy and partly autobiographical tale of family alienation was serialized through the following 9 issues of Acme Novelty Library, with a short break in issue #7, and then published in its entirety in 2000. The work is groundbreaking, mixing heavy doses of symbolism, an exceptional use of pacing, complex iconic diagrams (often completely void of text), and Ware's phenomenal draftsmanship. This work is widely considered to have pushed the possibilities of the comics medium in way not seen since the work of Winson McCay and Frank King created nearly a century earlier.

After a short break with Acme Novelty Library #15, which featured other Ware characters such as Big Tex, Rocket Sam, and Quimby the Mouse, the Acme Novelty Library started its next large-scale serialized graphic novel with issue #16 (2005): Rusty Brown. It is again a sad tale of a ill-functioning adult and his childhood counterpart.

In the story, Brown is shown as a young boy from Nebraska and an approaching-middle-age man, who has a lifelong obsession with the collection of action figures and similar pop culture detritus. Rusty Brown's only friend throughout his life is Chalky White. White is also a collector of action figures and the like, but gives up collecting as he grows up, gets married, and starts a family, unlike his friend Rusty, who remains locked in a permanent manchild state, always looking for elements of his lost childhood.

Much like Jimmy Corrigan, the Rusty Brown story follows the characters as both children and adults, with frequent side-stories of supporting characters. While the artwork remains amazing, and the books themselves (self-published by Ware himself starting with issue #16) are gorgeously hardbound and embossed, the story is a downer. I mean a big, big downer. In fact, while almost all of Ware's work circulates around themes of loss, alienation, depression, disappointment, and loneliness, the Rusty Brown story is just too depressing for me to handle. I really don't know if I will fork over another seventeen bucks when #18 comes out.

However, issue #16 of Acme Novelty Library ends with a fantastic addition to the Building Stories comic series by Ware (previously featured in Nest and the New York Times magazines). This features what truly excites me about Ware's work - the complete re imagining of how to tell a story visually. A mix of architecture, narrative comic panels, and informative diagram connects the residents of a 4-story building to their apartments, each other, their pasts, the flowers, and even a family of bees. And speaking of bees, issue #17 of Acme features several pages of the tales of Branford the Bee and his family.

In conclusion, I think that Ware's work should not be missed, but I don't recommend the current Acme Novelty books. You'd be far better off finding the oversized The Acme Novelty Library Annual Report to Shareholders (2005) or the Chris Ware book from Monographics(2004), which also features his toy and machine designs as well as comic work.

Some Chris Ware links:
An article in Time magazine, Chip Kidd's article in Print magazine, the Acme Novelty Archive

Artist's Guide to Making Money

2007-07-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

The Artist's Guide Volume 1: The Practicing Artists Guide to Making Money is the first of what may be many volumes of topical art books featuring the writings, drawings, and compilings of many a young artists. You might find some hard-hitting and practical, step-by-step advice to turn your creative passion into a lucrative profession. There might be lots of motivational insights and helpful worksheets to put you on the right track to make millions doing what you love. It could just be the most serious book you ever read about the finances for working artists ever made.

Then again, it might just be an awesome independently published image book with doodlings and essays about art and mighty dollar compiled by Matt Cassidy and Sam Spratlin.

Printed in vibrant black and green, this book does address the issues of money and the practice of art, often in a humorous and self-deprecating way. It compiles images from about 14 artists from around the country and England, a bunch of somewhat serious essays on the commodification of art, a few choice quotes about money and labor, and a poster by Dan Funderburgh (plus a bonus diagram of who makes who green with envy).

Most of the featured artists contributed groups of images that stick to the "making money" theme, though a few either submitted whatever they were doing, or I'm missing the connection. While I like grotesque monsters and skulls as much as the next guy, I think the work of Kate Bingaman, who meticulously draws her credit card statements and prices them for the minimum balance payments, brings together the often loaded topic of money and artistic integrity together in a creative and stunning way. I wish all the artists contributed towards this topic a little more directly.

My favorite artist of the pack is definitely Jessica Lynch. Her intricate and loose drawing style is a testament to the success of her "5 Ways To Make Money (maybe)":
1. Draw where you are.
2. Draw for your friends.
3. Draw what you want to know.
4. Draw what you love.
5. Draw what you want to see.
Plus, she gets bonus points for her sketch of Oakland's Hill Castle Apartment Hotel.

I really like how this book deals directly with the relationship of artist's books to the topic artists making money. It reprints high-end printer pricing quotes, mocks the notion of limited editions (on the page with the edition number), and the entire book cover was sold to sponsors. The entire project has enough sarcasm to make it fun, but not so much that it would disrespect the artists and viewers.

"The insight of such luminary minds cannot be quantified. However, using some sophisticated financial calculators we came up with the median of $16 each." Get your copy mailed to your home (or office) right now by clicking the paypal button below. You will be richer for doing so, as will I and the publishers of the book.

Art Book Stores

2007-06-29T15:03:00.000-07:00

The Rowan Morrison online art bookstore has been totally redesigned and updated. You can now search by product category, or browse our entire selection (even titles only available in the Oakland shop) alphabetically. I've added a whole gaggle of new books, created a shop policy and FAQ page, a mission statement, and hopefully made the whole online browsing experience easier and more informative. Take a look and let me know what you think. I suggest buying one copy of every book to see if there are any bugs.

Speaking of art book purveyors, yesterday I happened to stumble into the greatest art bookstore of all time, 871 Fine Arts Bookstore. It's on the 2nd floor of 49 Geary (where all them galleries is at) in downtown San Francisco, and I can't believe I did not know about this place until now. They have thousands of titles of all types of art books and artists, all in easily browse-able sections. They specialize in out-of-prints books and have a stunning collection show catalogs. Plus, just about any current title you would find in a museum bookstore is there. They also house a very clean gallery and poster collection (which is being exhibited in July).

Many of the titles are collectible and are priced as such, but you will never find such an amazing selection of art books for sale in one place. Adrienne Fish, the owner, knows her inventory and has gathered all these titles herself, so if you are looking for something specific, give them a visit. Definitely make it part of your SF Gallery Crawl agenda.

Fortunately for Rowan Morrison bookstore, most of the younger, self-published (aka "hipster street-low-brow-whatever") art publications are not featured in the bountiful shelves of 871, and they also steer clear of anything comic related or zine-esque. They also don't have a website yet.

To recap: if you are looking for the latest self-published John Copeland Journals catalog, check out the new Rowan Morrison online bookstore... if you are looking for a catalog of David Park's figurative work, mosey into 871 Fine Art's Bookstore in SF.

Sorry I don't have any photos to go with this entry. Today is my birthday.

Raymond Pettibon: the Books 1978-98

2007-06-20T19:59:00.000-07:00

Raymond Pettibon's real name is Raymond Ginn, younger brother of Greg Ginn, founder and guitarist of the monumentally influential punk group Black Flag. His father called him "Petit Bonne" ("Little" and "Good" in French), a moniker he would completely assume after graduating from UCLA with a degree in economics at the age of 19.

Pettibon, much to his dismay, will likely always be associated with the early 80s punk scene, thanks in no small part to the utilization of his artwork for countless flyers, album covers, and logos for the Southern California bands of that era. For many (myself included), Pettibon's monochromatic ink drawings forever interlocked with 80s American punk rock.

It wasn't until the mid-1990s that Pettibon's artwork began to get wider acclaim in the contemporary art community after his participation in the controversial 1992 Helter Skelter exhibition at the MOCA in LA and his major solo exhibitions in New York and LA in 1995. Pettibon received the prestigious Bucksbaum Award concurrent with his participation in the the 2004 Whitney Biennial. He is fast becoming known as a pioneer of contemporary figurative art and one of the most important artists of the past 50 years.

In 1978, during his brief career teaching mathematics in LA high schools, Pettibon self-published Captive Chains, a collection of 64 drawings. While not thematically (and certainly not narratively) bound together, the artwork still presented the cohesive "Pettibon style" and content he continues to express today: High contrast pen and ink drawings with small pieces of narration (often borrowed from traditional texts). Darkness, hopelessness, and criminal horrors pervade the works. The comparisons to film noir are unavoidable.

1981's follow-up, Tripping Corpse 1, featured 14 black and white drawings on colored paper and 10 pages of mimeographed text: the Psychedelic Translation of Allen Ginsberg's Howl. On the first page of this book Pettibon prints "Why is Pettibon, who's been associated with punk up until now, doing a magazine like this? In one word, money. M-O-N-E-Y. You see there are more hippies than punks. Indeed, marijuana is the biggest cash crop in California, my home state, and as we all know, hippies like to look at drawings while they hallucinate."
Despite the sarcastic nature of this proclamation, these books and their unsparing displays of a counterculture's self-deception (particularly that of the 1960s hippies) were aimed at an older and entirely new audience from his punk contemporaries.

Tripping Corpse, and the following 44 publications made in the next four years were distributed by SST (Greg Ginn's record label and distribution company (did you know SST stands for Solid State Transistors)), and anywhere from 50 to 500 copies were made of each. In the late 1980s about 400 copies of most issues were destroyed, making many of these original books extremely valuable.

In 1988, Pettibon assumed distribution of future titles (of which there are of 60) under various business names such as Superflux, Illiterati Press, and MDA Publishers. The books, which normally would feature 18 one-side-printed illustrations and a cover and cost 2 dollars, were printed in numbered editions of 75 or less.

Pettibon's work easily lends itself to book form. While specific themes are apparent in some books, like the Tripping Corpse 1-12, most of the publications are little more than random assemblies of unrelated drawings bracketed together with a title. It is a testament to the overall cohesiveness of his lifetime body of work that much, if not all, of his art can be successfully grouped together.

Which brings us to this monster: Raymond Pettibon: the Books 1978-98, an 800+ page hardcover featuring works from all 111 self-published books, 32 of which are reprinted in their entiretey. 2 of the books have never before published, and their is a huge introductory essay about the significance of these publications. This book is zine-sized (5.5" x 8.5") and about half as thick as it is tall. It was originally printed in a German language edition in Cologne, and then printed in a very limited quantity in English by D.A.P. (Distributed Arts Publishing) in 2000. Unopened copies of this book sell in the $800 range. Used copies sell in the $250 range. The original photocopies publications themselves fetch several thousand each.

Rowan Morrison currently has two of Pettibon's books for sale:

The Pages Which Contain Truth Are Blank
$26.00 plus shipping

Raymond Pettibon (Phaidon)
$39.95 plus shipping
This book contains a full-color reproduction of the mimeographed Psychedelic Translation of Allen Ginsberg's Howl from Tripping Corpse 1, which isn't featured in the Books 1978-98!

Just click on the image of the bookcover to purchase with Paypal. Supply is limited so only quantities of one of each title per order. International shipping in an addition $6.00 per book.

Junk Pirate #15

2007-06-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

I started Junk Pirate zine by basically just making photocopies of some of the more interesting images I would encounter at my job at an anonymous Oakland junk store. Rather than (or in addition to) hoarding all the original pieces, I would make photocopies on the administrator's office copier after work. In May of 2004, I compiled all these random bits (yearbook photos, game boards, children's book illustrations, vintage valentine's day cards, other people photos) into an 18-page zine, ran off about 30 copies after work, and gave 'em to my friends and co-workers.

The second issue soon followed, then the third, and within a few months developed a keen eye for finding the weird, nostalgic, tragic, ironic, and visually compelling imagery from the stacks of donations that constantly flooded the business. I made themed issues (other people's photos, the yearbook issue), step up the production to about 100 copies of each issue, and, after breaking the office copier, even legitimately paid for printing over at Copy Edge in Berkeley (2¢ black and whites!). A few online shops and zine stores (like Needles & Pens) started to carry it regularly, and around issue #8, Last Gasp in San Francisco started to distribute 'em around the globe.

Last year the greatest images of issues #1-12 were reprinted, along with extra tidbits, in one large volume: Junk Pirate volume one. The book is 170-pages, offset print with found endpapers, perfect bound, 100% recycled paper, soy-inks, made entirely in Oakland.
Someday soon I'll post a blog about my adventures in self-publishing, but in the meanwhile just know that in the Bay Area, 1984 Printing is the place to go for black and white offset printing and binding. They rule.

The book was released in December of 2006 to coincide with the reception for the spectacular Junk Pirate art Exhibition. This exhibit featured frames, shelves, and installations of several years worth of collected junk. There were a dozen Miss Scarlet cards from Clue, 78 Kool-Aid points, about 20 different video game controllers, lots of other people's photos, the evolution of Luke Skywalker action figures, Rambo vs. a Giant Ape illustrations, game cards, 200 different dice, and so much more. It was blogged about on FecalFace.com here. Lots of other images here.

Issue # 15 of Junk Pirate was recently completed and released. It features Russian children's workbook, instructions on how to make a police dog shadow puppet, "How the Mouse Trap Works" diagram, rowboat turning illustrations, Intellivision, "the most sensuous recordings ever made!", Star Wars grammar workbook, Rambo Black Flak bubble gum, El Borracho, magic tricks, Dreamers Doodle Pad for Men, photo comic panels, 1967 Panel of Judges, "When I Begin To Date" pamphlet, "Know Your USA" book cover, G.I.Joe from 1982, and a personal letter from President Richard M. Nixon! Plus about a hundred other things.
Full black and white, 18 pages, edition of 100.

Here is a color-stenciled promo flyer for issue #15. And for your viewing pleasure, I present "The Making of Junk Pirate #15" video. It's only 2 minutes long and you'll never wonder how such an amazing product is produced ever again.

Remember to check for Junk Pirate news, back issues, and color images at junkpirate.com!

Junk Pirate #15 is available through Last Gasp, fine zine shops nationwide, or you can own it now by ordering direct for only $1.00 per copy plus .75¢ shipping. Cheaper than a sack of nuts.

Hitten Switches

2007-06-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

In spite of the Oakland branch of the Post Office we recently got this package from Fudge Factory Comics head-honcho Travis Millard. Awww yeah, it's a fat stack of Hitten Switches, plus some bonus postcards and a satchel of stickers. The first round of this book we got from Travis back in December was swooped up before I even got a chance to stash away a copy for the personal archives... a mistake I don't plan on repeating.

Hitten Switches is a collaborative book featuring the drawings of pen pals Travis Millard in California and Michael Sieben in Texas. It was created when Travis and Sieben started working on a zine by sending uncompleted drawings back and forth through the mail. About 18 months later (in 2006), with some generous help from Volcom, this book was released with an international series of art shows.

The book comes sealed in a full-color printed envelope. So now you're faced with every fanboy's toughest choice, to keep it sealed forever in mint condition or tear that sucker open and enjoy the sweet fruits that lie within. Buy two and have it both ways.

What is really excellent about this publication is that the artists truly collaborated on each page, not just on the overall project. These are single drawings made by two artists. The similar styles, subject matter, and sense of humor shared by both Millard and Sieben make this book pretty seamless. Then add in the various notes, postcards, and arty envelopes to the mix and you're holding a winner.

The fact that Hitten Switches is printed with two colors, black and red, makes it pretty bold and puts it a big step above your typical black and white zine-esque art book. It's also bigger than small (but smaller than big) at 9"x 6" and about 40 or so pages. I also appreciate that it costs straight-up 20 bucks, none of this $19.95 shit.

Both artists are currently on tour with the Volcomics art shows. You can visit their websites at: msieben.com and fudgefactorycomics.com. Some other Travis Millard mini-books (super limited and signed by the artist!) are available from Rowan Morrison by clicking these links:

hello.
Comin' Around
Right Wing Conservatives Getting Racked v.1 & v.2

You can purchase (with paypal) a copy of Hitten Switches of your very own for the low price of $20 plus $5.50 for priority mail with tracking shipping (trust me, you want tracking when dealing with the Oakland USPS) by clicking the button. International shipping is more so send me us an email if you live outside the USA and we'll work it out. Free Fudge Factory stickers with every order!

Cursiv

2007-06-07T14:44:00.000-07:00

The latest chapter of this book-bloggin' Choe-a-thon is Cursiv: Giant Robot presents a book of dirty drawings by David Choe. Published in conjunction with the inaugural exhibition at GR2 in Los Angeles, Cursiv is a black and white book that focuses more on Dave's drawings. Like Bruised Fruit, this book also features a lot of hand-written commentary on the artwork, which gives insights to the artistic process and history to go with each page.

Many of the drawings are the "bones and skeletons" before Dave applies the "skin, muscles, and make-up" of paint. It is nice to see the original sketches, all of which look pretty spontaneous and expressive, of such popular paintings as the Korean Brothers and other recognizable pieces. The book also has a lot of images of drawings that would later find homes as posters, T-shirt designs, and printed illustrations. You may even recognize a few bits that ended up in other incarnations within the Bruised Fruit and Slow Jams books.

While lacking the amazing narrative of Slow Jams and the diversity of artwork of Bruised Fruit, Cursiv is a nice addition to the Choe catalog and an essential element of his overall catalog. It is rare to get to see the process of the creation of a body of work, which is such an important part of being an artist, so it is nice to have an accessible collection of drawings together in one publication. While David Choe might be well-known for his fuck-all antics and his no-holds-barred attitude, this book demonstrates that behind the character there lies a phenomenally talented and truly creative draftsman.

Oh yeah, and there are lots of pictures of naked ladies and curse words, too.

Cursiv is currently the only Dave Choe book in print and is quite affordable at only 12 bucks. You can get your copy right now from Rowan Morrison by clicking this button:
International orders: please email us shipping options.
Uh-oh... looks like we have sold out again, and, even worse, it may finally be out-of-print (I saw a copy sell for $45 bucks on ebay). Please check the Rowan Morrison online bookstore for updates or send me an email at info@rowanmorrison.com. Thanks.

Bruised Fruit

2007-06-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

Bruised Fruit has much of what I love in an art book: A diversity of artwork that covers many years, notes on the images from the artist, black and white as well as color pictures, personal photos and anecdotes mixed in, photos illustrating the "under paintings" of finished works, and bits of other artist's work thoughtfully thrown in. All this plus it is 100% self-published and was extremely affordable at just 20 bucks.

Slow Jams (see previous blog entry) helped launch David Choe into a larger strata of the art world. He started to get solo gallery shows, mural commissions, work on movie sets, and magazine cover illustrations. He gained 20 pounds (forcing him out of the category of "starving artist") and legitimately added a couple of zeros onto the prices of his original work. This essentially priced his art out of range for many of his fans. Bruised Fruit gave the world a deep dose of Choe for an affordable price. It also spotlighted the diversity of Dave's work and the depth of thought (or sometimes lack of) behind his art.

This book covers a lot of ground. It has straight up watercolors, portrait oil paintings illustration work that was previously only printed in black and white, samples of Dave's, abstract aerosol art that then turned into figurative oil paintings, and menu illustrations. Lots of photos of his handmade gorilla figurines, as well as other character toys and the drawings that inspired them. There are detailed pencil drawing from the sketchbook, some rare computer generated Choe art (uggh), mural photos from 5 Color Cowboy salon in San Jose and some restaurant, lots of adventure vacation video stills, dirty collages, and lots of refined paintings and illustrations.

The best part is that almost every image is accompanied by Dave's personal back story, anecdotes, opinions, and insider information. It makes the book very autobiographical as well as visual.

The book is bisected by a story by Dave called "Yoffee Toffee" about his adventures traveling in Gaza. Illustrated with photos and sketches, Dave's gift of storytelling comes blazing through here. I still don't know if the story is real or made-up, and neither situation would be a surprise. Re-reading this story makes me hope that Dave's tale of his time in a Tokyo prison (the greatest orally related story I have ever heard in my life) comes out some day in book form. I heard once that Barron Storey was illustrating that tale... I wonder what happened to that project.

Bruised Fruit predates the current flurry of biographical art books being published, and perhaps even inspired many artists to look towards art books as a legitimate presentation of their creative vision. Long since out-of-print, you can still find this book on eBay for about 40 bucks, and I suggest you place your bid now before collectors put "the book that was made to offer Dave Choe's art at an affordable price" is no longer affordable.

This is an image of the book cover and a flyer from the West Coast Book Release & Signing Tour in March of 2002.

Slow Jams

2007-05-30T19:01:00.000-07:00

David Choe hand-wrote the entire, 34-page story of what would become Slow Jams in 7 hours one night in 1996. It's a tale of love, dedication, obsession, redemption, sex, betrayal, and violence. A few years later Dave made some drawings to go with the story, painted a color cover, stole enough photocopies from Kinko's to make about 200 copies (with color covers) and gave them away for free or real cheap at the 98 San Diego Comic Con. Then some of the story was reprinted in Jordan Crane's compilation comic series, "Non".

In 1999, Dave applied for and received a $5,000 grant from the Xeric Foundation to self-publish Slow Jams as a graphic novel. Bookending the story in several color pages of paintings, full color oil painted comic shorts, writings, photos, quotes (many of which first appeared in All In The Mind zine (see my last blog)) and guest art from Ezra Li Eismont. The new cover painting was Dave's interpretation of the classic Toulouse-Lautrec Moulin Rouge interior painting. The back cover is the original painted cover of the "stolen Kinko's" edition, and the inside of the book features yet another alternative cover painting. Plus a painting that was recently used as a cover for Juxtapoz magazine (image here)

I think a thousand copies of Slow Jams were printed, many of which Dave gave away to his friends or sold for only a dollar. The cover price was 4 bucks. I remember when at Dave's exhibition at Double Rainbow (ice cream shop) in Los Angeles they were for sale on the honor system... just put your money in the cup and take one from the pile. Just recently a used copy of Slow Jams sold for $200 on eBay!

Slow Jams is not your typical graphic novel. Aside from completely unrelated art items in the beginning and end of the book, the story itself is told with typed text that is then cut and laid-out among sketches, paint splatters, handwritten notes, xerography art, and found images. There are very few panel to panel sequences and a lot of splash pages. And, of course, the spelling is terrible.

The unique graphic style combined with Dave's gift for storytelling makes this a book you simply can't put down. Dave has tried to apply this dirty comic style to popular characters like Batman and the X-Men, but let's just say that the comic industry at large wasn't quite ready for him. Dave recently told me he is going to focus less attention on fine art and more on comics and printed matter in the upcoming years and I hope that is the case.

Coming up next episode: Bruised Fruit

Dave Choe - the early years

2007-05-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

I first met Dave Choe a few days after I moved to Oakland to attend the California College of Arts and Crafts in September of 1995. We were both teenage freshmen living in the apartment style dorms, but while I was nervous, frightened, and generally cared only for finding skate spots in the neighborhood, Dave was out all night every night having semi-criminal art adventures. He was painting stoplights blue, stealing a meter maid's ransom in quarters, defacing billboards with traditional Roman portraits, and trying to ride his bike across the Bay Bridge. He had rooftop sword fights with fluorescent light bulbs, tossed giant televisions off buildings into the street, and used the dorm's only clothes washer as a drum kit. He was also making art and collecting comics at a furious pace. The dude lived.

Somewhere during our first year he produced a photocopied zine of his and other's artwork, as well as some favorite comic and literature bits and other criminal photographs and ephemera. It was called Pilgrimage and it was sloppy and dirty and free and just crammed with creativity. It was where I first saw Dan Clowes "Art School Confidential" comic strip, which is bar-none the most accurate depiction of art school ever. Too bad the movie was so awful.

I can't find my copy of that first issue of Pilgrimage but I remember it well. I did, however, recently unearth my copy of Pilgrimage issue#2. It is 8.5"x11"about 40 pages, black and white photocopied and stapled in the upper-left corner. It is a strange collection of artwork, photos, reviews, and clipped articles and comic bits that all add up to paint a portrait of a young Dave Choe: Reckless, creative, rebellious, intelligent, crude, entrepreneurial, and absolutely fearless. "Caution is nothing but the word of cowardice..."

Pilgrimage #2 reprints an essay titled "People I Loathe, Installment 1: Artsy Assh*les", advertising clips from Aquaman the Movie, Wesley Willis, Vanilla Ice, the Loompanics book catalog, news clips and literature from the Cacophony Society (who organize the drunken Santa party crashings among other things), Dave's own attempts to market Herbal Energy pills and bootleg copies of the Star Wars Holiday Special, a plug for my zine, Mr. Nice Guy, where Dave intentionally misspelled my name (he did this because I misspelled his name in my zine when crediting him with his "Interview with a Cop" article). And my favorite part of the zine is reprints of Dave's various citations and juvenile court reports where he signs with an "X".

I think #2 was the last issue of Pilgrimage.

But then, in November of 1997 Dave produced what I consider to be one of my favorite individual zine issues of all time: All In The Mind #1. "Alwayz Free! Tons of Artists Inside! Writers! Comix & Doodles! Burners $ Sketchz Up the Ass! Check It Fuk'n Out!"

I feel very fortunate to have attended CCAC with not only Dave, but dozens of other extremely talented and creative artists in the late 1990s. So many of these artists are going on to big fine art careers, and all of them are still working hard at their crafts. I only wish that I had recognized how special a time it was with all these folks working and living side-by-side. Well, I guess Dave saw it then because he spent the first few months of the 1997 fall semester "borrowing" sketchbooks and artwork (sometimes with permission, sometimes without) from the pool of genius and making photocopies. The result is a zine featuring an amazing roll-call of young artists including David Choe, Ezra Li Eismont (who did the cover), Alex "Emuse" Kopps, John Copeland, Ako Castuera, Oki Goto, Emily Counts, Ryohei Tanaka, Jesse Rose Vala, Alex Rosemarin, Jason Deamer, Rob Sato, Joe To, Extra Matt, Rhode Montijo, Fred Sundance, and Ryan Rogers. Plus stuff from non-art school folks . All made in the legendary Art's Crab Shak on Broadway.

Soon after All In The Mind came out Dave declared he was going to be one of the greatest living artists ever and dropped out of CCAC. He then received a grant to self-publish his first comic (Slow Jams), got a solo show at an ice cream shop in Los Angeles, and then spent the next 10 years taking over the world. He currently sells his fine art for more than you can afford, he has designed shoes, shirts, prints, art books, entire group shows, toys, and mannequins. No shit, he has his own line of mannequins. He's done illustration work for everybody and their grandmother, has his own travel show, "Thumbs Up", on Vice's online television network, does interviews for Juxtapoz magazine, and has a documentary coming out about him some day called "Dirty Hands". Like I said: The dude lives.

Here's a link to Dave's website.

Coming up next blog: Slow Jams

I'm With Stupid

2007-05-18T17:24:00.001-07:00

I'm With Stupid is a delightful collection of the bold and beautiful illustrations and fine art of San Francisco's Jeremy Fish. His art has crept into our brains via his graphics as an art director for Think Skateboards, owner and artist of the Unbelievers Skateboards, "the Big Stupid" comics in Slap Magazine, fine art shows throughout the globe, and other illustration gigs for Xbox, the SF Guardian (or one of those papers), and others. Or maybe you've had the good fortune of coming into contact with the gang he formed in 1994, the Silly Pink Bunnies. His work inspired many of his contemporaries and his pen paper style continues to evolve into sculptures and furniture installations.

The books is divided into four sections. The first consists of Fish's absurd drawings. Heavily outlined black and white creatures and scenarios mix a gigantic cast of animals, weapons, vehicles, machinery, foodstuffs, and familar buildings. A lot a cartoon tattoo imagery in vignetted spaces. Plus bonus portaits, self-portaits, and skulls a-plenty. These are objects and styles now very familiar with many artists, but don't fool yourself, Fish is the original.

The second section is some choice selection from the Big Stupid ( in full color), which was a two-page comic illustration Jeremy did monthly for Slap Magazine from 2001-2004. These were small, surreal narratives generally involving skateboarding. From a set of lungs kickflipping a cigarette over an ashtray to (my personal all-time favorite skate drawing) the f/s nose blunt spread in the "New Condiment Concave" episode. The final 7 episodes were collaborations between Fish and some heavyweight skateboard art legends like Pushead, Andy Howell, and Todd Bratrud.

The third section of I'm With Stupid is dedicated to skateboard graphics. Fish made did his first skateboard graphic with Think in 1999 and has since designed over 300 different decks for them, others, and his own the Unbelievers brand. Fish's work defined the Think brand for the new century (the post-Wade Speyer era), and he took everything a step further with the Unbelievers' graphics.

The final pages of this book are color reproductions of his fine art paintings and sculptures. These are much along the lines of his more graphic work, but with brighter colors, brushwork, textures, and layers of materials. The content is usually a blend of his characters within a layered environment or scenario. The sculptures are like Fish drawings come to life. The book ends with his work combining painting with skill-saw cut skatedecks. I remember first seeing some of those decks at Culture Cache gallery in SF (where Fish was working in exchange for a free apartment) and being excited that Jeremy was pushing his talents in new directions while still clearly working within his original framework. They were new and still unmistakable Fish.

His recent works have included several art and furniture installations (most recently at Fifty24 in SF), as well as a "get-in-the-van" art tour across the country for his 30th birthday. He has clothing and vinyl toys and even his own Nike shoe! He recently released a limited edition book from Ginko Press with Aesop Rock (with a 7" vinyl record") called "The Next Big Thing"... the book was so limited I never even got a copy of my own!

I'm With Stupid was published by Fifty24 and Upper Playground in early 2006. It's got full-color glossy pages (except the drawings section), 140 pages total, soft cover, and is amazingly affordable. Jeremy Fish currently lives and works in San Francisco, is an amazing skateboarder, has always been cool when I've met him, and is the big Don of the SPB so show some respect. Check Jeremy's website here for tons of new work, and check this blog on fecalface.com about Jeremy's trip through Germany. There are lots of blogs and photos of and by Fish on the internet so do some searching.

I'm With Stupid is available from Rowan Morrison right now (depends on when you read this) for only $19.95. You can check it out in the gallery, purchase it on our website, or buy it right now through Paypal by clicking on the "add to cart" link below (there is no link, now):

In The Night Kitchen

2007-05-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

This was probably one of the first picture books I really fell in love with. While the illustrations of Good Night Moon, the BFG, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, and (of course) Where The Wild Things Are all made an impact, I think Maurice Sendak's In The Night Kitchen was, and remains, my favorite children's picture book ever. Published in 1970, the story follows Sendak's popular formula from Wild Things of a rebellious child in a fantasy land.

A young boy named Mickey floats from his bed (in a very Little Nemo in Slumberland sequence), out of his clothes, and into the surreal dream world of the Night Kitchen. There he is nearly baked into the Morning Cake by three identical, singing bakers. After declairing that he is not the batter's milk, Mickey (now wearing a suit of batter) constructs a plane from dough and flies atop a giant bottle of milk. After diving in (and having his batter clothes dissolve) he gives milk to the bakers for the Morning Cake. After crowing like a rooster, Mickey slides down the milk bottle and miagically back into his bed.

Although it recieved a Caldecott Honor for children's book illustrations, it was also censored and even banned in several states, as Mickey is naked throughout much of the book. Some conservative librarians took to painting in a diaper on Mickey with correction fluid. Sendak claims his intentions for Mickey falling out of his clothes was simply to avoid the "mess" that might be created from falling into batter.

The illustrations in this book are just phenominal. I was (and am) enchanted in particular by the cityscape of the Night Kitchen being made from cooking ingredients and kitchen appliances. My mom used to sing as the Bakers when she read the story to me (which was frequently), "Milk In The Batter! Milk In The Batter! We Bake Cake! And Nothing's the Matter!". To this day I call coffeecake "Mickey-cake". The influence the pictures in this book have on me is tremendous. The creativity of both the story and the illustrations keep me inspired.

In The Night Kitchen is still available in both hardcover and paperback in almost every bookstore in America. The Sony Metreon in San Francisco featured a Night Kitchen restaraunt as part of it's Wild Things attraction, both of which closed in 2004. The Art of Maurice Sendak (published by Harry N. Abrams: $35) is a great art book that covers the entire span of this inspirational artist's career as an illustrator and set designer.

And, for the record, Sendack's 1985 follow-up, Outside Over There (featuring goblins who kidnap a baby and replace it was one made of ice that then melts), freaked me out. Gorgeous illustrations in the one as well, though.

Welcome.

2007-05-05T13:43:00.000-07:00

Hello there and welcome to the Art Books with Rowan Morrison blog. Rowan Morrison is a contemporary art gallery and artist's bookstore in Oakland, California. This blog will be an ongoing discussion on art books, self-publishing, zines, and other related topics. You'll find books reviews and images, interviews and discussions with artists, publishers, and other folks, my own experiences with art book publishing and selling, a couple of how-to articles, and other related topics. Plus, I plan on having links to artists and hopefully the opportunity to directly purchase books from the blog via Rowan Morrison's online bookstore.

I'm still getting the hang of blog designing, so stay tuned and I'll get more images and perma-links and all that fancy stuff coming at you soon. I hope to get lots of people in on the discussions, so if you have anything you would want to see reviewed or discussed here, post a comment or email me at info@rowanmorrison.com. In the meanwhile, feel free to check the ever-growing selection of fine art books, prints, and paper goods online at rowanmorrison.com. Or get out there into the real world and visit us in person at 330 40th St. in Oakland (Thurs-Sun 12-7).