Brooklyn Comics Fest + TINY too show!

Be sure to check out the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival coming up this Saturday!
I will have my new silkscreen mini accordions for sale at my table as well as tons of other goodies- some copies of "rainbow & i" and "pink lemonade", lots of prints and tote bags.



Where: Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church
On N 8th and Havemeyer st. in Wiliamsburg
When: December 4th, 12-9PM
free! to get in

I'll be the one eating asia dog all day long!



I have some new pieces in a one-day show at Gallery Meltdown, the space behind Meltdown Comics in LA. The show is called "TINY too" featuring artwork 3" x 3" and smaller!! So I did 3 teeny tiny paintings for it. They are titled "Lemon Drop", "Lemons in the Sky" and "Lemon Sea"

catch this show for one night only
@ Gallery Meltdown, 7522 W. Sunset Blvd. LA
December 11th, 6-9PM

Alternative Press Expo 2010

photo courtesy of giantrobotmag's flickr

I had a wonderful time this year at APE in San Francisco! I was there with Jon Vermilyea. We had a full 6 days in which we spent walking over the Golden Gate Bridge like last year, and sipped on some salted caramel hot cocoa at Ghirardelli Square, which has become sort of a tradition for us. We ate In-N-Out burger and Mexican burritos every single day. :)

The convention was very successful. I enjoyed talking to people about the silkscreen process (which is in itself a hard thing to explain). I had the privilege of meeting Anne Koyama of Koyama Press for the first time, she came all the way from Toronto and she is awesome! I got to hang out with the talented Cat Lauigan, and chatted briefly with Lisa Hanawalt (actually ended up running into her at the airport on our way back, boarding the same flight!).

Plenty of after parties and post hang outs ensued, Ryan threw his annual party which had a much bigger turn out this year than before. Had post drinks with some of the Canadian comics family at Elbo Room, and dinner the following night at Taste of Formosa with a bunch of rad folks, including Hellen Jo, Calvin Wong, and Aaron Mew. All in all, an amazing trip. :)

APE and Oakopolis art show

APE is bigger than ever this year! So big it moved its entrance to the other side of the exhibit hall, and the exhibitor list looks two times bigger than last year's and the year before! I found out my table placement and it looks like I have pretty much the same/similar table spot as last year, even with all the additional tables, which is great. :)

I'm in a show called "The Art of Comics" at Oakopolis Gallery in Oakland. The show will have two openings, October 1st and November 5th, part of the Oakland Art Murmur. They will have my "rainbow & i" books as well as the rainbow prints hung on their wall, revealing part of the process in making the books. This will be an interesting show, so if you are in the bay area, please check it out!

Here's what I did at the print shop today. Tomorrow I will be printing on tote bags for the very first time, wish me luck!

Today at the print shop...

my art in Aorta magazine + upcoming events

Some of my pieces from the "femme bot" painted series were printed in Aorta Magazine.

Aorta Magazine (when I met them last year at APE they were known as ArtXX) is a bi-annual publication based in San Francisco. They are a sex positive, politically charged publication that is inspired and supported by the SF gay community. I am happy and proud to be a part of
this 3rd issue, and if you are interested in this
limited edition issue, you can find out how to order one here.

Lately I've been working on drawing and color separations for a series of mini-accordion books that should be out by the time APE rolls around. (taking place Oct 16th and 17th this year in SF) I wanted to make something a little more on the affordable side, as far as hand-made, screen printed objects go. In addition, I will have many screen printed posters (old + new!) and my larger books available.

This weekend I will make an appearance at SPX, which I am totally excited about. I've also secured a half table for the upcoming, second annual Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. The Brooklyn Fest was so much fun last year that I'm extremely psyched to be able to exhibit this year.
Above photo displays a small sampling of separation work waiting to be printed, and a large tube of Kalles Kaviar, a Swedish delicacy that I am addicted to! You're supposed to spread this smoked roe delight on crackers but I just squeeze this stuff straight into my mouth, tasty! I am almost out of this stuff :( so hopefully I can make it back to Ikea to replenish for my addiction. I also love the Swedish pickled herring, there are six different kinds, I've only tried the jar with garlic sauce but I hope to try all of them!

Color separations for Dolphin spread

color separations for the inside spread/fold-out poster of my "rainbow & i" screen printed book.

process cyan

rocket red, diluted w/ transparency

transparent yellow mixture

transparent light tan

dark blue line

dark brown line

New silkscreen print for "Crazy 4 Cult" show in LA!

I make all of my color separations by hand. It's a lot more fun for me that way (also, I'm not too versed in the computer department) I like to work straight onto the Vellum and I usually use a combination of pens and oil markers to ensure opaque-ness. The top image is the white separation.













After I have all the color separations ready, I can get to my favorite part which is printing! Here we have the blue and pink colors printed, which, layering the two colors on top of each other with the right transparency ratio makes purple.

It gets better! Printing the transparent yellow layer will then bring out a whole slew of other colors, with beautiful green and orange and browns.


There's an endless amount of things to keep in mind in order to ensure quality printing. For every layer to be printed there is an elaborate process to it. Before shooting your image on the light machine you have to make sure that the coat of thin emulsion on your screen is absolutely dry. I found myself still having to fix my images after each and every shooting.

Here is what the final print looks like after the white and line work. The paper I've always used is the Rives BFK cream color and I love mixing my very own brown for the final line separation, which I think goes perfectly with the cream paper.

Something to keep in mind while printing the paint through the screen with the squeegee, make sure you are printing at a 90 degree angle. I've only recently been tipped off to do this, and it was challenging (on my back!) at first, but it can prevent things like a flooded image. The paint also needs to be the right consistency, like melted ice-cream. There is seriously so much to the process!

"Harold" inspired by the film "Harold and Maude"

"Another Dimension" opens this week!

Opening this Thursday at Gallery1988 in LA, "Another Dimension" featuring artwork inspired by the classic sci-fi TV series, "The Twilight Zone"

Opening Reception: May 20th, 7-10PM
7020 Melrose Ave,
Los Angeles, CA 90038


I spent a couple of days marathoning the original Twilight Zone series and painted two new pieces for the show, drawing influence from two specific episodes: "People Are Alike All Over" (S1, EP 25) and "The Lonely" (S1, EP 7)

Some of my other favorite Twilight Zone episodes are "Time Enough At Last", "A Stop at Willoughby", "The Invaders", "Long Live Walter Jameson", "Execution", "A Nice Place To Visit", "A World Of His Own"... and so many others!!

Here's one the pieces I painted for the show-

"the lonely" oil on Gessobord, 11"x14"

New comic in IKJK anthology!

I recently did a comic story for the newest installment of I Know Joe Kimpel (IKJK) 4- square anthology, "Future" which will make its debut at MoCCA festival!

It's been a while since I've done a B&W comic! My story is titled "Virtual Date." It's about two boys that encounter each other online, they then find themselves involved in hologram dates and interplanetary romance. :)

The newest, latest anthology also includes stories by José-Luis Olivares, Jason Overby, and Emily Wieja. You can check out previews and more here: http://www.iknowjoekimpel.com/blog/?p=327


As always, very excited to go to MOCCA, which is coming up so soon this year!
It's next weekend, April 10th and 11th, held at the Lexington ave. Armory in NYC.
You can find the "Future" 4-square comic at the IKJK table (G6). The image on the left is the cover but instead of the yellow it will be gold foil (nice!) so pick up a copy :) See you guys at MOCCA!

"Happy Ending" at Miss Scarlet in the Parlor

I have some new pieces in this show! (including the new silkscreens I've posted lately on this blog)

The show will remain on display until the 17th of this month, so if you're in LA be sure to check it out!

Miss Scarlet in the Parlor is also a nice shop and they are currently carrying some copies of my latest silkscreen book "rainbow & i"

Check out the video of the opening here!

Romance in color

The final prints is on nice Rives BFK cream color paper, the only kind I print on really. This took one night for separations and just a few hours at the print shop, basically a day's work. :)

silkscreen- drawing & color separations for Alice

drawing separation w/ sumi ink & oil markers

light process cyan

rocket red + magenta with transparency

halftone + cadmium yellow w/ transparency

custom mixed tan w/ transparency

white w/ transparency

"Night of the Nick-Nacks" opens this week!

art inspired by the movie Return to Oz
Opening Reception: Feb. 27, 2010 6-10PM
Gallery Meltdown, LA
http://gallerymeltdown.wordpress.com/

I actually have not seen this film until now! After I got invited to participate in this show, I went out to rent it right away. I watched it with my roommate and we really enjoyed it (we found it thoroughly amusing that Dorothy was pegged as a loony from the beginning) but anyway!

For this show, I did a portrait of Jack Pumpkinhead.

watercolor, brown india ink & acrylic on Rives BFK, 10"x12", framed