Ickarian Manifesto

Are you familiar with the myth of Ickarus?

Their father, Daedelus, crafted wings from feathers and wax for their escape from Crete and warned of the dangers of flying too close to the Sun. In an act of hubris, instinctual pride and self confidence in defiance of the gods, Ickarus soared high only to tumble to the sea below; becoming one with the waters which now bear their name.

Rise like the Phoenix, fly towards the Sun, disobey your fathers, and never behave.

CREEPS 4.5: Year of the Green Horse at Idiosyncrasy Art House

Back at the end of July, the Creeps Collective released our first top secret half issue, CREEPS 4.5, an ode to the original zine format of the inaugural Creeps Annual featuring a curated selection of invited virgin and veteran contributors from near and far.

The release coincided with a weeklong exhibition and launch party featuring readings by our contributors, three DJ sets, and two pop ups with our new friends at Idiosyncrasy Art House.

Get your copy of CREEPS 4.5 now via the Creeps Annual online shop: creepsannual.tictail.com

...and stay tuned for details on the approaching release of CREEPS V!

GIF Portrait by Ben Ross Davis

See more of his work at: http://www.benrossdavis.com

Neon Love

Vitaminwater® House at the Knitting Factory for the Northside Festival

I was commissioned by vitaminwater® to design a graphic to live screen print for their residency at the Knitting Factory in conjunction w/ the Northside Festival from June 13th through the 15th!

Each color variation was printed in a limited run of 100; a different color for each night of the residency.

Laura's House

 

Here are my two most recent spot illustrations for the upcoming issue of Instigatorzine for the short story Laura's House by Lisa Sofranko. Currently, these are digital, but I'm in the process of converting them into a silkscreen print to get a better handle on my transparency overlays. For these new pieces, I purposely limited myself in terms of imagery in an effort to broaden my symbolic visual vocabulary to reinterpret the story in a concise and different manner. Check it once its printed!

The CREEPS Annual Zine Release Party was excellent! The turn out and distribution was incredible and exciting. Check out the NEW website designed by fellow CREEPS Joseph DeDalto and Michael Maguire (who also made super cool Goosebump POG pins for all the collaborators) and stay tuned for information on where you can get your own copy of CREEPS Annual. Thanks again to Nina Carelli for letting me be involved and being the bomb.com!

 

By the way, if you're into cartoons, the retro, hoarding, collaging, etc. and finding yourself free these days go check out Kenny Scharf and Dearraindrop's collaborative show at The Hole: Hot Glue Hullabaloo. It was INCREDIBALLZ! Kenny's Cosmic Cavern was like experiencing my childhood rolled up into a ball and exploded onto the surrounding walls. Blew my mind and left me with a Sour Patch kids taste in my mouth...which is never a bad thing! Check out Flavorpill's review of the show HERE and check it out for yourself before December 4th.

Its been really difficult keeping up with updating since the loss of my Macbook (RIP), but hopefully my pockets will run deep enough soon to heal my heart with a replacement!

Totem Burger

I wanted to make sure I kept my promise to re-blog about a print I posted earlier during my school grind which ended up being the first illustration I got printed! (...or at least that I was proud of.)

Above is the original illustration I did for an early assignment in the fall semester of my portfolio class...back when I was intent on sticking to my weak watercoloring skills.

Once I had committed myself to printmaking I knew I wanted to revisit the Totem Burger project and it became clear that I'd complete it as a woodcut. My only regret is the omission of the beer can on top, but it did give me the opportunity to carve out more spaghetti. Mmm!

I ended up submitting the original print to the student run SVA publication Visual Opinion, which coincidentally was doing an issue focusing on food. I even got to share the spread with an awesomely talented fellow graduate, Keat Teoh! Check out his work! Its sweet!

I've yet to get a scan of the spreads, but Totem Burger was also printed for my feature in a zine created by some of my closest homies up at Wilkes University who make things good and call themselves the POWteam! You can preview their first issue here and friend them here on Facebook! They like friendz!

I always wanted to try digital coloring and have been looking for ways to incorporate it into my prints, so I gave it a shot with this. Could be a new direction to head in with my work, but I'll just stick to my instincts for now. There's always room for exploration!

Here's a treat! My first attempt at silk screening from the beginning of my junior year in the bookmaking class taught by the incredible David Sandlin. Thought it'd be fun to share!

More updates soon!

Wrasslin'

AH! School's almost over and its making me a little nervous now....mostly excited!

Also, mostly sexually frustrated, apparently. A lot of my recent work has featured men wrestling and/or fighting. Its the subject that keeps on giving!

This shirt was an assignment in Brian Smith's Type and Image class. I'm pretty psyched with the results. It was my first time experimenting using a waxy medium to make a separation for silkscreening in an effort to increase my use of texture.

Also, its going to be featured in the second issue of Spaghetti Suicide. Look out for it!

 

 

This is my first attempt at what I like to call digital printmaking. Lack of facilities is forcing me to find alternatives to printmaking for the future.

 

This is a color study in color pencil I did for my extensive final in-college project. I won't give too many details away yet, but expect an update soon...and some redecoration! This blog looks el teríble!