Wylde Birthdaze!

I had to share these, they all make me feel so good! Above is a portrait of the beautiful Kanye that I made for Julia's birthday. Julia is a mad fan of the man which you will all son find out from her upcoming new mini comics.
Below are some awesome art people made me for my own birthday:) Bak made me this Wylde Birthdaze image that I unfortunately/fortunately (as it was my dream breakfast) got birthday breakfast grease on! It now proudly hangs on my fridge:) Below that are some collaborative cake doods Amy, Andrice, David Youngblood, Caroline smith, Bak & Theo all made me. I wish I could dnace with & slowly devour both of them! AAAAAAAND THEN! Below that is THE FUTURE! Theo said he fashioned this dood to represent all the stuff I love. I can safely say Theo that you captured all of the elements, you fashioned the perfect devotional knee slide pose, you got eyeballs, beast magic, most excellent explosive action vibes and of coarse a most magnificent keytar of synthaliciouse blastular proportions!!! He looks the way I feel about the members of my beloved Earth Wind & Fire:) One day Theo we may have to make a comic of creatures like this loosely based on EW&F & there soul core cosmic adventures in sound in our minds??? I would melt!

Thanks doods!

Brothers

My brother sent me this magic mix & Sci fi epic story he made with it about us & life. It brought a rainbow of light to my days! I hope you all can get rad on this too!

Thanks Brolordian!

Awesome, But YOU by Murf Murf

For Dylan & Emily

I've been feeling very worried, and a great deal of discomfort lately. When the tragic loss that came with my friend Dylan not being with us to guide us with his wisdom with love and a deep care for everything that is beautiful, I feel lost. I feel like I have to work harder now & I can only pull from him in memory & spirit. I cant take the bus to him & play show & tell to feel secure or learn about all of the wonderful things there are to see do and be and share feelings.

What I do know how to do is to come together and create a piece of beauty to hopefully inspire others to feel good, and lend yourself to those you love in support yourself to. Try to create beauty where beauty is fading in an effort to keep it alive because that is all that matters.

In a truly emotional & loving spectacle several friends of Dylan & myself gathered and poured ourselves into making something magic to help bring some love at this very difficult time for Emily who I and I know all of you love so much. Making this image for her was the best I have felt and made me so happy to see my friends working with the same joy passion and care for her. I don't know if it makes sense to create blog post about these things. But I guess what I'm trying to say from this experience is, please everyone come together for each other and try to create beautiful things & be there for each other & find those positive magic moments life has to offer when things are harder then you can have foresight of.

I love you all

Theo, Jennifer, Daria & Amy thank you so much for being there for me & for Emily and doing something beautiful.

Jennifer thank you for these photo's.

Reality Check!

I completed this just a few daze ago. This is a scanned version that is cropped off about a half inch from all sides at the capacity of my scanner. I feel real solid about this magic. It is what I am sending to San Fran for a Fantasy themed art show curated by Elf World creator Francoise Vignault. I am calling this piece "OKO ONO I see rainbows".
Also speaking of OKO, a very special art show opens tonight at the OKO gallery (2774 NW Thurman St. PDX, OR) by a very rad friend named Elizabeth Pusak. You must see it and party with it!!! If you cant make it tonight, the gallery keeps regular hours and is very magic! GO TO IT!!!
Fuck negativity!

Hey Kyle Its Yer Berfday!!!

Surfing on a Frizbee
http://www.mediafire.com/?a56m3fr5v8d0bc6

My Brother Kyle's Berfday is tomorrow!
On behalf of my one and only Blood Bro, I have made him this mix that you can download from the photo above or the link below. I Hope for my Bro to sit down on the beach, plop this mix digitally on his dome and get chill like the winds holding a frizbee in the Air, which is the visual metaphor I perceive my brother as.
Mega love Bro, Happy Birthday!!!
I'm telepathically glowing in my metaphysical form beside you and smiling with my face so close to yours that my breath moves your blond facial fuzz:)

Portland Zine Symposium 2011

The family Style & Tugboat press respectively

Virginia Payne of Milkyboots & Sparkplug comics

A Julia sun burst

Mega Bros Chris, Jason, & Tim Root!

I am currently in a post Portland Zine symposium mope. But This mope is different then the usual post PSZ mope. Regularly this event ends and I realize I have suddenly found myself alone and in what seems like immobile silence after spending nearly 3 days (including the Friday prior) going totally insane with friends both from & out of town, putting myself out there for people to judge, purchase, or pass all in the storm of a buzzing convention hall filled with the most stinky beings imaginable. So there is a crash. A lonesome crash, where you don't know what to do. You cant remember how to be alone or without crowd noise & you are not sure if you can or want to be. Its like a break up in a relationship. This time Is different. This time I broke up with PSZ. I found myself on the last day showing up uncharacteristically late and not enthusiastic. I was not excited to see anyone, and the previous day of selling only 2 books before the symposium began that was followed by no sales and no one even looking at my books let alone even engaging me aside from return venders that are friends, left me with little to look forward too. I had just made a new book I had hoped I would sell out of the extremely limited print run i made. It was full color so it needed to make its expenses back. Normally this would be a sure thing, I only made 20 copies which is a normal amount for me to run through at a convention. I also had a bunch of comics I made including "Dream Grant" which is only a few months old and not in a ton of Portland hands. But sure enough no one even batted an eye at any of it aside from the 5 or so out of town venders I only tend to see at these events. By the afternoon on Sunday this had taken its toll & I suddenly was wondering why I was even there. The people walking around purchasing things were only picking up the material that is the typical or even stereotypical fair that one would joke about all zinesters being made of. I suddenly realized, I am not a zinester. Zinesters came up asking for trades & I only did it a couple of times to find myself with material I would never pay attention to. This material seemed to only require a high school level of skill (which is not to say my writing skills are great) & was totally self absorbed. On top of that the "art work " inside was merely a bunch of cut out illustration from various sources used WITHOUT permission, which for me is totally a really offensive punch in the face. I was so mad, and I realized I had just been sitting there surrounded by this, and a bunch of bad vibes coming from my piers loosing money & wasting time that i could be spending making something that is actually rad, and have a rad time! The final blow was when one of my piers was gone from the table & a customer came to buy one of their books & i couldn't find a visible price anywhere (on top of the fact that on day one they said they'd rather not make a table price list to keep things organized). I sold the book for 2 dollars short on accident only to get scolded. I packed up tossed 2 dollars of my own in compensation & walked out of the loading dock after securing some luck & self esteem with the Sparkplug comics table who sells a lot of my books. I was bummed, and now broke from no sales & lots of PSZ partying. I don't want to do this again. This is not my crowd & I am not a salesmen. My self esteem was crushed, feeling like I make garbage that is invisible yet deterrent. My relationship with PSZ & Zines is done. BUT...................... Below is a Monster drawing I started just before leaving, that made me feel a little better!

Then I drew this one as soon as I was settled elsewhere!!! & then I made 2 more monsters!!! It felt good!!! Fuck IT! YEAH!!!

By 2 nights later I had watched BMX Bandits & started the image below for a super rad fantasy themed art show in San Fran that is coming up! IT FEELS GOOD!!!! FANTASY IS GOOD!!! Drawing is good!!!

Stay rad!!! Don't get lost in culture and don't let it bring you down!

Sean Christensen is not as "Beefy" as Suzette the intern had pictured

Below is a blog post for The Portland Mercury Blog....... Meta? Its loosely an interview and definitely a beautiful & creative Ad for Amy & I's Split show "Serious Mysterious". I feel very good about this format of illustrated conversation & an event.

Amy Kuttab, Sean Christensen and I All Have Different Opinions on Amelie

Posted by Suzette "the Intern" Smith on Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 1:58 PM

• Suzette Smith
• Sean Christensen not as "beefy" as pictured.

The Pony Club gallery is filled with ethereal acid house. Amy Kuttab is sitting, floor-haloed in hammers and nails like the patron saint of carpentry (that's Joseph, for those of you that didn't attend Catholic primary). Sean Christensen is trying to decide whether to label a painting "The Big One," or "I Don't Want to Label the Big One."

"Oh, I made this two-hour mixtape for us to hang the show to," Sean Christensen smiles. I snap-label him as the sort of man that makes mixtapes for specific events.

This can be held in comparison with my friend's mother, who always makes tapes labeled, "Cool ___ Vibe." Her reasoning is we could have a "Cool Chill Vibe," a "Cool River Vibe," or a "Cool Scraping Off Wallpaper Vibe" over and over. After today, as far as Sean Christensen is concerned, this mixtape is going to Carousel. (How many Logan's Run references can I make before my internship ends?)

"People love 808 drum machines," I say, trying, as always, to turn the conversation to hiphop. "I remember I thought 808 was an area code for some fancy neighborhood, but it turns out Kelis just loves her drum machine."

"There are a lot of bands with 808 in their name, but I think this was the first one," Christensen educates. Later Christensen and I get into a disagreement about the film Amelie. Amy Kuttab and I valiantly rally around Amelie's honor and I agree to watch Truffaut's Antoine Doinel series. Both Amy Kuttab and Sean Christensen present themselves as people who really know their stuff, but want to tell you about the things they love sweetly. I am not bullied into Truffaut.

With their new show, Serious Mysterious, Kuttab and Christensen open the pages of their very own storybook and present spirits not easily referenced.

"You can't look at it and say, 'That's a unicorn.' Or even, 'That's a crazy-looking unicorn.' Your fantastic creatures don't really have a point of reference," I observe.

"We had the idea and I sort of stuck to it this time," Sean says about his paintings of what may be persons made of black lava or river water or night camo.

Except for the naked women—naked women are something we can reference.

"Oh, good, it looks like they're hugging," I say of Amy Kuttab's painting arrangement.

"Cool, I want them to be hugging," she smiles.

Serious Mysterious will be hanging at Pony Club until August 27, but you should go to the opening tonight, August 4, 6-10 pm. Sounds like it's going to have good music too. Manny Lennox of Atole will be performing solo as Braincrush at 7:30 pm, and Sara Dyberg of Pikara unlocks her fiddle loops and musical hypnosis at 8:00 pm. Pony Club is a collective gallery in the Everett Station Lofts, 652 NW Everett, #105.