Scraped Knee: The Art of Matt Leunig

Beirut is coming in town for 2 nights and I was able to work with them to create a print for their show at the 930 Club.  They are a band I got into early on and actually one of my early posters I worked on was for them back in 2006 at the Great American Hall in San Francisco.  I was a big fan of their 1st album that had just come out so I was excited for the show.  I think they were all 18 at the time or even younger and the show as a bit brutal.  Kinda sloppy and they were all very “young” and experiencing being on stage for the 1st time in front of huge crowds it seemed.  Kinda left me bummed.  A number of albums and time have passed and they are definitely on top of their game.

I noticed alot of the imagery used for this band (posters, shirts, whatever..) tended to be the same kind of vibe and I wanted to bring something drawing from their New Mexico background and mix in a bit of a trippy Hopi Indian-kachina doll look to it.  The colors on the final print came out looking great.

18′ x 24′, …… 4-color print……. 150 print run…  and is available in the store now.

The great KRS-One is releasing his 12th album, Just Like That on Jan. 4th 2012 and after months of delay has released a 1st video from the album, “Aztechnical“. The story goes, last year when I was living in Atlanta my friend Corey Ellis got the gig to do the video and what he was given was pretty bare-bones and essentially he had to create the video from scratch.

In typical KRS fashion the song is pretty dense, as it is 6-minutes long and sounds like someone reading a textbook. Not the easiest thing to create or keep interesting to a viewer. The gist of the song is that it is about Cortez taking advantage of the Aztecs and the end of Mayan calendar and possible the end of life as we know it. Pretty light stuff.

He asked if I could create some artwork for the video and I leapt at the chance, since Ive been a fan of KRS-One for a while. I created a bunch of Aztec & Mayan style line drawings to be used in the background and my girlfriend & her sister were employed to be Mayan women. To find the perfect jungle type setting we looked no further than our horrible unkept backyard. Torches were made out of rags covered in vaseline, the girls were painted up, proper lights were setup and Corey filmed. All the KRS-One stuff was green screened.

I said this was “behind-the-scenes” sort of because my inclusion was tiny and the real behind the scenes would be alot of Corey sitting at his computer essentially creating the whole video. In the end, I think it came out looking great.

For more of Corey Ellis’s work, check out his website, T-bolt Films.

Once again I have had the pleasure of working with one of my favorite bands, Ween.  In this case half of the band to be exact, for a show in their hometown New Hope, PA.  Gene Ween will be playing with fellow Ween’r Dave Dreiwitz on bass and there is talk of cello accompaniment.   This poster goes out to a special breed of person that knows that “Dragon’s Breath” is a kind of saving throw and has spent too much time reading of the exploits of Raistlin Majere.

This print is 18′ x 24′, …… 5-color print…….  and is available in the store now.

So break out your copy of “The Mollusk” and your 20-sided dice and nerd out until then.

I will be taking part in this years Screens n’ Suds event down in Richmond, VA.  Screens n’ Suds is a celebration of screenprinted artwork and beer… 2 things that always go together.  A number of artists including Alan Hynes, Brian Ewing, Doe-Eyed, etc.. …. have created beer themed prints which will be sold to help benefit the National MS Society.

This a 4-color print (16′ x 20′) with a limited run of 50 and is available in the store… RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!

It’s the first time I’m doing this show, so it should be interesting. There will be a gallery event displaying this years prints as well as a number of variants and art prints and the main event is the next night in which a number of artists including myself will have a table set up selling prints. Below are the events..

Thu Nov 3
S’n'S Print Series Debut
Mekong Restaurant

Fri Nov 4
S’n'S Original Print Show Opening
Gallery 5

Fri Nov 5
The Big Event
Capitol Ale House

There are other beer related events later in the week so check the Screens n’ Suds site for more info. Come swing by… have a beer and say “Hi”. Oh yeh… buy stuff too.

Here is the final print I did for the current Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers tour. It was a tiny run but think the 3 prints came out alright.  I worked with a new printer for these and was really happy with the work.  Props to Sara & Nick from The Half and Half printing down in Columbia, SC. As before this run was limited to about 75-80 prints.

I had heard that Bruce was a big basketball fan and wanted to have some fun w/ the last one and try and incorporate it in somehow. Plus Boston is a big bball town (the “bird” reference is obvious). I was told the Celts are not his team so I kept the “green” out of the picture. Below are a couple different color concepts. The design changed a bit and I had to simplify the colors a tad due to constraints but I like how the image came out. I’m toying w/ the idea of making an art print out of it w/ just the fence behind the bird and no text…. couple different ones to represent some NBA teams. If anyone thinks this is a good idea, lemme know. Also, which team colors you might want to see represented.

This is now available in the store for $25.

This the 2nd in a small run of prints for an Englewood, NJ (9/30) stop on the current Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers tour. Ahhhh hobos,… gotta love em’. This print is a 4-color, and had a limited run of about 75-80 prints.

The idea was to have the guy on the train kind of oblivious to his busy surroundings and have him gazing into a locket containing faces. Here is a closer look…

This is now available in the store for $25.

Yeah,… back on the Widespread Panic train,… (pun intended). Been a while since I did something w/ these guys but was happy to do a print for the Richmond, VA (Sept. 19-21 ..The National) stop of this tour.

The print will be 18′x 24′… 5-color… and I have a limited amount of artist prints which are available in the store now.

Below are some of the quick sketches & concepts for this one. Mr. Onion Head unfortunately did not make the cut.

UPDATE -  These are selling pretty fast so grab one before the price goes up.

Here is the first of a small run of Bruce Hornsby & the Noisemakers posters for his current tour. This is for 6 stops encompassing the whole California run of the tour (LA, Solano Beach, SF, Napa, Arcata & Saratoga)…. is 18′x 24′… 4 colors. Colors came out real bright and who doesn’t like a bear getting wasted on honey.

This is now available in the store for $25.

An interview I did with French website, Crewkoos Rock Artist was just put up so go check it out.  The site has a number of great print artists up and is a good read.

A couple months ago I designed a skateboard deck for a “Sk8 or Die: V” art show at the Youngblood Gallery in Atlanta. It recently was donated to Skater Aid, a charity started to help a young skateboarder Ian Wochatz who was diagnosed with brain cancer. After his passing it became a charity to help pediatric cancer and brain tumor research in minors. This year they are doing an online auction of designed decks with all proceeds going to Skater Aid.

So anyone interested in the “Wizard” deck,… it’s all yours. Bidding ends Sept. 24th. Check it out here along with the other decks here.

The auction will wrap up with a gallery show showing all the decks at the Brickstore Pub in Decatur, GA.

Skateboard.Art.Music Festival
Sunday, Sept. 25, 2-7pm
East Decatur Station
109 New Street, Decatur, GA