Zombie Tees

Over the holidays a friend of mine was painting and doodling some fun zombie designs I decided to turn a couple of them into screens and make a few t-shirts just for fun.  Who knows, this just might open up a whole new realm of textile printing for me!

These same friends are trying to raise money for Star Chicks, a fun web-series they are working on.  So, when you are done opening your hearts and pockets for Haiti, hop on over to Kickstarter.org and donate a few bucks to help support the arts.  I think a certain donor level will even get their very own zombie t-shirt printed by me!

Prints on Paper

My prints on wood are my signature product and (in my humble opinion) they are gorgeous.  The way the grain of the wood comes through the stains, merging with the design of the print makes each piece absolutely unique. However, before doing a print on wood I do a test on paper.  From some of these tests I came to realize that a few of my prints look pretty good on crisp white paper too.  I've also heard feedback that some of my price points are out of range of the average customer.  Who am I to deny anyone the right to original art.  Therefor I've added a section to my Skårtshop which includes some of my more popular designs on paper.  The paper I am using right now  is a heavy slightly textured, archival, cold pressed water color paper.  The prints look rich and vibrant.  The prints come rolled in a sturdy packing tube via a flat rate shipping.  I've been framing them in the Ikea Ribba frame.  Not a perfect fit, but very easy and looks good.  The color options are also pretty limitless.  Great for customizations to match your room.  As soon as it stops raining here in SoCal I will take pictures of a few more of the designs I have ready to go.  

click here to see more prints on paper

New Skårt: Tulips and Butterfly

I have a few new pieces of art to showcase.  This was a piece I created for my Mother in law for a Christmas present.  It is a little more grown up (as it was meant for her living room). 

Shown in Orange, this piece is customizable in a variety of colors.  click here to check it out in my shop.

It's also available on paper and looks great with Land of Nod's All a Flutter, butterfly crib bedding and decor.

Some Inspiration found in Pittsburgh

Happy New Year! Here's to a productive and prosperous 2010!

The holidays were nice, but I'm glad they are over.  I'm ready and raring to go.  Lots of plans for 2010.  

We just got back from a week in Pittsburgh with The Husband's family.   Very nice time (even with the snow and cold and freezing rain).  A highlight of the trip was finally making it to the Andy Warhol Museum.  Every year we say we are going to go, but every year we find reasons not to.  This year we went.  Andy Warhol was an interesting character, obsessed by fame and celebrities, but he was a true artist and an innovator and he took the art of screen printing to a new level.  I'm so happy we waited until this year because not only was it so appropriate now that I know so much more about the process of screen printing, but also they had an exhibit there of the work of Shepard Fairey.   For those of you not familar with the name you surely are familiar with his art work.  He created the iconic image of Obama that was everywhere during the campaign.

The exhibit featured the Obama print along with 20 years worth of other work including illustrations and screen prints. (and when I say 20 years, that's more impressive when you know he is only 39 years old!)  If you want to know more about him you can see his wikipedia page here.  What blew me away was a wall with 100 screen prints (laid out in four rows of 25).  They were all in black, white and red and they all had political undertones.  These were a few of my favorites:  

I love the way he incorporates the traditional patterns into his prints.  I also like the messages he conveys.  Another thing I noticed in the exhibit was that his prints weren't perfect. There were some prints where the ink blotched a little and other prints where the ink didn't pull through the screen all the way.  This happens to me and I get annoyed and think that I'm doing something wrong, or the piece is unsellable.  After seeing pieces up in a gallery I realized that this is the charm of the art form of screen printing, this is what makes each piece unique.  If every piece were to be perfect it would have to be done by a machine and it's no longer art.