Some things to do on Feb 1

The Blanket Show at Cupcake Royale

Tomorrow is the opening for The Blanket Show. I've been busy getting things ready and will install the show tonight. It'd be great to see you if you're around tomorrow from 5-8pm. Hopefully parking won't be too bad on a Wednesday. 

Dori Rainey by NTG
LxWxH (xSA) launch at Vermillion

Around the corner at Vermillion it's the launch party from 6-9pm for LxWxH (xSA) - "SacredAnimals", with No Touching Ground, Baso Fibonacci, and writing by NKO.

Kurt Timmermeister reads at Elliott Bay Book Company

My friend Kurt Timmermeister will be doing a reading from the new paperback version of Growing a Farmer, over at Elliott Bay Book Company starting at 7pm.

Prince by Troy Gua

Prince by Troy Gua (click to animate)

I'm just in love with Troy Gua's Prince figurine. At 1/6 scale, it has a surprisingly amount of detail.

Prince by Troy Gua

The finishes such as his mirrored sunglasses, Cloud guitar, and Swarovski crystal cufflinks are all hand-made.

Prince by Troy Gua

 Check out Le Petit Prince in all his glory over here.

Recent paintings by Deborah Scott

Bitter Seduction by Deborah Scott
oil and mixed media on canvas, 40" x 24"

I just wanted to post a couple of new paintings by Deborah Scott. I love her modern takes on classic stories. In Bitter Seduction, Daniel Carrillo stands in for King Midas at a Starbucks.

Postnuptial by Deborah Scott
oil and mixed media on canvas, 40" x 24"

Here's one of me as Bluebeard, an aristocrat known for killing his wives. I've tried to draw this silk smoking jacket repeatedly and always abandon it. Of course, Deborah nailed it--in oil paint no less!

Path with Art Showcase / Henry Art Gallery

image via Henry Art Gallery

Path with Art is one of my favorite local organizations in Seattle. If you're unfamiliar with them, their mission is to give, "...marginalized adults the opportunity to engage in the creative process as a unique means to improve and rebuild their lives." But what ends up happening is so much bigger than just making art.

This Saturday from 2-4pm, The Henry will be hosting a showcase which, "...celebrates the energy and creative output of 40 Path with Art poetry, creative writing, and performance class participants." You should really check it out if you want to be inspired!

Seattle artists!

This is pretty awesome! Juxtapox is highlighting four local artists in an Eye on Seattle series! 

Orbital Emergence by Michelle Anderst, oil on canvas, 12" x 12"

Eye on Seattle: Michelle Anderst

"She Takes Him To The River (to bring in the the spring)" by Chris Sheridan
oil on canvas, 60" x 22

Eye on Seattle: Chris Sheridan

by Stacey Rozich

 Eye on Seattle: Stacey Rozich

"I didn't do anything" by Chris Crites, 15" x 13"

Eye on Seattle: Chris Crites

by Robert Hardgrave

And related, the art of Robert Hardgrave has been all over Booooooom lately!

ONN/OF "a light festival"

A festival of light sounds just about perfect this time of year! If you agree, head over to Ballard this weekend for ONN/OF "a light festival" curated by Jim Demetre, Susan Robb, and Sierra Stinson. They got lots of activities planned for the 2 day event, beginning with a sunset toast SATURDAY at 4:45. There will be workshops, installations, live music performances, a pop-up market, brunch and more! Check out the full schedule and list of participating artists for more information.

*Ack, I had incorrectly posted Friday. Sorry!

Jeremy Mangan

Dancefloor, 2011, by Jeremy Mangan
acrylic on panel, 18" x 24" (image via artist)

I've always really enjoyed Jeremy Mangan's work but I guess I haven't checked his website in a while because he's got all this new work up that I'm just loving.

Bonfire, 2010, by Jeremy Mangan
acrylic on panel, 12" x 16", (image via artist)

They still retain their Americana charm, but he's introduced more mystery/weirdness. I can't quit looking at them.

Notorious, 2010, by Jeremy Mangan
acrylic on canvas, 8" x 10" (image via artist)

He's included in Tacoma Art Museum's 10th Northwest Biennial that just opened up. I'm not sure which pieces are in the show. You can also check him out in the most recent Pacific Coast edition of New American Paintings. He'll also have a show at Linda Hodges this September November.

Moon Lantern (The End of the Beginning), 2010, by Jeremy Mangan
acrylic on panel, 9" x 12" (image via artist)

Workshop with Wynne Greenwood today

Wynne Greenwood (image via Henry Art Gallery)

Henry Art Gallery recently added Erwin Wurm's One Minute Sculptures to their collection.

This humorous and poignant video reveals the artist and others attempting to create sculptures using their bodies and a range of commonplace things. As they hold poses and become momentary objects, their actions stir up thoughts about the sculptural and performative properties of the everyday. The work also spurs viewers to think about the potential for sculpture to be a temporally-bound, instruction-based, or performance-oriented medium. (via)

To celebrate this addition, the Henry has turned their lobby into a laboratory of experimentation by inviting artists like Mike Pham, Cat Clifford, and Karn Junkinsmith to hold workshops on creating one minute sculptures. Today, multi-media artist Wynne Greenwood will be presenting her free workshop from 2-4pm. Participants are asked to bring the following: "... a working lamp with lightbulb, a dish of some sort (plate, bowl, cup, mug, etc), preferably one decorated with a pattern or image and a pillow with pillowcase or blanket. If you can't bring all of these objects, please bring what you can."

This sounds like a great way to spend a grey afternoon!

Sea-Cat 2

Sea-Cat 2

Sea-Cat 2 is officially out and chock full of goodness. You can read more about this great project by Matt Offenbacher, Wynne Greenwood, and Gretchen Bennett here.

Literary Book Bag by Mike Pham

I love these customizable Literary Book Bags by Mike Pham! $100 gets you a super cool/unique tote!

American Fag by JD Samson

Or how about JD Samson's American Fag hat ("Made of hat, tampon strings, and (in some cases) Rit dye. One size fits all." $150 and it's yours!

You can download the free version of Sea-Cat 2 here. I have 2 projects included: Blanket drawings and a not-yet created Owl Light. Sea-Cat 2 was also included in TAM's recent 10th Annual Northwest Biennial.

Swing by Hedreen Gallery on Tuesday, January 24 from 5-8pm for the Sea-Cat 2 opening.

The strange story behind Grizzly Adams

TV GUIDE, Jan 28, 1978

Yesterday, I was reminded about why everyone has such warm feelings for the tv show Grizzly Adams. The short answer is manipulation but longer answer is a fascinating read about a Mormon producer, computers, and extensive test-marketing.

Charles E. Sellier, Jr. was a Mormon producer with a predilection for family values. In 1971, he began developing an elaborate system which could test-market ideas/scenes for commercials, tv shows and films. His process was so successful that his, "...techniques enabled him to achieve a commanding 52% success ratio in the domestic theatrical market, during a time when the major studios only averaged one in seven."

image via SuperMag

Everything was test marketed, down to the type of bear (Grizzly), likeability of guest star faces, plot points and the frequency of humans.

“Our audience, Sellier says, "likes waterfalls, pretty vistas and high mountain ridges, preferably with actors and animals as part of the scene. They dislike snow, except at Christmas. What they like is eternal summer in the primeval, womanless wilderness.”

I had always just assumed that this amazingly tender show about nature, animals and kindness was an unavoidable result of the good energy of the 1970s, as if Americans needed this show so badly that our collective subconscious had willed it into existence. 

Even the real life character Grizzly Adams was based on needed some improving. (Actually, he sounds like a jerk and probably did need some 'softening'.)

“Our audience,” Sellier says, “dislikes animals being violent to humans and to other animals, and humans being violent to animals and other humans. They dislike hunting, either for sport for food—Grizzly can fish but he doesn't hunt and he doesn't eat meat. He's portrayed as one of the first vegetarians. He wears only homespun clothes, never any animals kins. It's not whim, it's all tested.”

Perfume Genius

Pitchfork posted the new video, Hood, by Perfume Genius this morning. Using gay porn star Arpad Miklos as a stand-in for his boyfriend, singer/songwriter Mike Hadreas explains that, "This is about when you feel like if someone really knew you, they would leave." It doesn't get sexy; it's all very sweet and tender. He wanted to use a big, burly man for the video because, "If I just got my boyfriend to be in there with me, people could just pass it off as cute because we're both boyish. I like the idea of not having things be so obvious." *

Learning by Perfume Genius

Hadreas talks a bit about each of the songs from the forthcoming album over at Matador Records. AWOL Marine sounds like a beautiful art piece.

"AWOL MARINE: This is from some unedited homemade basement porn I watched, with an old man and some hustlers. You can see or hear them doing drugs off camera. They leave the camera running before and about ten minutes after the "scenes", and I am sort of obsessed with watching the before and after. One guy told the cameraman he was just doing the video to get money for his wife's medicine. Then there is a close up of his face. The old man always explains that he will edit out the guys' faces but he never does."

They've been doing lots of touring this past year (including a recent segment with Beirut!). The new album, Put Your Back N 2 It comes out February 21. You can catch Perfume Genius at The Crocodile on April 19.

American Censorship Day

image via

Pretty much anytime the ACLU and the Tea Party are in agreement, it's serious business. We live in an amazing and important time. When I graduated high school, I don't think I had even heard of the internet (and I had a Commodore 64 at age 10, so it's not like I was always a grandpa.) and now 20+ years later I can't even imagine a life before it. I mean, I know there was life before the world wide web but it just seems so...barbarous*? Unfettered access to the weird, wide web is one of my favorite things on earth. I'd hate to see it get nipped in the bud before we even get to see its full potential. Many major websites like Wordpress, Wikipedia (their first protest since they started over 10+ years ago), Reddit, Boing Boing, and Seattle's own Cheezburger network, will be going black today in protest SOPA/PIPA legislation.

Jimmy Wales, the Wikipedia founder, justified the blackout by saying that “This is an extraordinary action for our community to take - and while we regret having to prevent the world from having access to Wikipedia for even a second, we simply cannot ignore the fact that SOPA and PIPA endanger free speech both in the United States and abroad, and set a frightening precedent of Internet censorship for the world." via

*not really barbarous, but I'm just saying--thank goodness the internet was invented! 

The Blanket Show / Joey Veltkamp

This past summer, I began a series of drawings about blankets. This near-automatic explosion resulted in over 125 blanket drawings, most approximately 8" x 10". This is by far the largest series of multiple objects I've done yet. Previous obsessions have included cows, flowers, cans of Pabst beer, owls, and ghosts.

Blanket #81 (Evel Knievel), 2011 by Joey Veltkamp
colored pencil on paper, 8" x 10"

For the Blanket Show (Feb. 1 - March 31), I'll be showing nearly 50 of drawings (including 4 new larges ones, 19" x 24") which pull from a cluster of sources such as expressions of comfort, childhood fears, ghosts, and transitory states. The show will evolve during the 2 months as purchased drawings are replaced with new ones. For you impatient types, you can take your art home as soon as you purchase it.

Blanket #77 (Tropical delft), 2011 by Joey Veltkamp
colored pencil on paper, 8" x 10"

This will be the first time I've shown at Cupcake Royale since they opened over 2.5 years ago. That was a fun show and I think this one should be a real good time, too. The reception is Wednesday, Feb. 1 from 5-8pm at their Capitol Hill location. If you visit between the show between 1st and the 14th, I highly recommend trying their newly reformulated Baby Deathcakes. So good...and if you're rich and/or collect art, pick up a blanket drawing (or 3) along with some Baby Deathcakes and you'll make your Valentine very happy! (Plus, I'll be super happy! It's a total win/win!)

Blanket #91 (Ghost Mountains), 2011, by Joey Veltkamp
colored pencil on paper, 8" x 10"

The Blanket Show

February 1 - March 31, 2012

Cupcake Royale, 1111 E Pike Street

Opening Reception: Wednesday, Feb 1 from 5-8pm

Snow in Seattle

Seattle, you are ridiculous! Your continued ability to surprise and confound us with mercurial weather patterns just might be one of my favorite things about you! 48 hours ago versus today...

David Scott Little

Julia Hensley

Jesse Higman & Motzo Bozic

Emily Glassman

JT Hooker

Kimberly Trowbridge

Jim Demetre

Marie Gagnon

Bran Thorngrave

Sharon Arnold

Marlow Harris

Robert Wade

Ryan Molenkamp

Dave Sundine

Jo David

Andy Burgess

Shannon Hickman

Gregory Moon

Annabelle Allen