David Cole - The Music Box

Thanks to Phil Bradford for this video taken in the Cleveland Institute of Art's Reinberger Galleries.

We ♥ Letterpress

Or maybe it should be a question like "Why love letterpress?"  I wanted to make a poster specifically for this exhibition because it featured letterpress printing (which is my occupation) and was being shown in Cleveland (which is my "home" city).  I ended up with two posters which will begin a series that I'll call "Heavy Machinery".

I started by taking photographs of my grandfather's tractors on his farm south of Wooster, Ohio. I was interested in the machines' surfaces, moving parts, hoses, electrical lines, signs, nameplates and labels, because I wanted to make a visual relationship with the printing presses I use everyday.

I think letterpress printers usually love what they do for a combination of reasons. Part of it is the end product, but part of it is the process: the problem solving and the satisfaction of making something either with your hands or with a machine which you can see the workings of.

Linotype: The Film

"Linotype: The Film" Official Trailer from Linotype: The Film on Vimeo.

Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives

Watch Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives [Part 1] in Entertainment | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Grain Belt Sign (Version 3) Red

On February 6, Creative Electric hosted a silent auction and art sale to raise money for Haiti. I scored this poster of the Grain Belt Beer sign by Adam Turman, who's series of cityscape prints capture the twin cities' iconic signs and architecture with a vibrancy and depth that I truly admire.

The New Land of Milk and Honey

Last night I attended a performance by the group The New Land of Milk And Honey at The Soap Factory. NLoM&H kind of made me think of DEVO's early videos, Danielson's concert performances and Andrea Zittel's desert installations. A profile of the group starts at 2 minutes in the video below, and is followed by more about The Soap Factory.

Soap Factory February 2010 from Soap Factory on Vimeo.

A Personal Geography

This month, since I was moving from Brooklyn to Minneapolis, I decided to use Google Maps to chart all the different places I've lived and the routes in between them, although I guess everything has a common point of origin being my hometown of Wooster, Ohio. Someday, I should make this trip as a circle.

Ray Johnson's House

I knew Ray Johnson was widely considered to be a great artist for his postcards and collages in the 60's, but until I saw How To Draw A Bunny I didn't know the mysterious and tragic circumstances of his death in 1995.

I had a job that took me out to Locust Valley once a week and I was able to figure out where Johnson's house was, as described in the film. It was only a short walk from where I was working, so one day I took a few photos of the house and the nearest post office as a sort of secret pilgrimage and tribute. I like imagining the reclusive pop artist routinely sending and receiving all this crazy stuff though this suburban small town post office and stockpiling this extraordinary archive inside his quiet little house on his quiet little street.

Mayflowers

This month's postcard is printed on leftover seed paper I found at work. The paper comes from Botanical Paper Works and you can find directions on how to use it here.

Clearing

Tonight I was fortunate enough to attend the opening for Ben Grasso's show at Thierry Goldberg Projects. There's not much I can say about Ben's fantastic paintings, although I can say I was thrilled to see so many former classmates there. Where have I been hanging out that I never see these people?

Exchanging Greetings

The Gap Pantone T-Shop

Thanks to Anne for this link.

This Week in Bad Design: CIA Expansion

I recently was made aware of a petition being distributed among students and alumni of the Cleveland Institute of Art regarding a large building proposal to expand one of the two buildings that currently make up its campus.

If you know me, then I don't need to tell you how much I love the city of Cleveland and value my education at CIA, but the more I learned about this building proposal, the more misguided is seemed. 

This is what I've pieced together in the past week: CIA unveiled an ambitious plan in October 2007  designed by Dutch architects MVRDV. Fast forward to November 2008, and its appears that the Dutch design had gotten too  expensive while the school made little progress in the fundraising department. So they re-present a new design with a new big concept: Banners!

The banners don't really seem to function as signage or an interactive public art space but as a cheap device to cover up the design underneath. But what is going on underneath there? The banners are not so bad in and of themselves, its the absence of anything beyond that.

We want to see ideas that will make CIA more environmentally progressive and community-oriented. We want the the inside of the school to be all about cutting-edge facilities and spaces that reflect the values of the institute. Obviously, I don't know a great deal about architecture and construction projects like this, but I do know that good design starts from the inside out, not the other way around. Thats something I learned at CIA. Now CIA needs to rethink that lesson for themselves.

Food Party at Monkeytown

My Morning Jacket at Madison Square Garden

Wood Type Rising

This article from the Rochester City Newspaper was published a few years ago when I was beginning my time in Syracuse. I always thought it was a pretty good introduction to letterpress printing.

New Year's Resolutions

I just got back from an excellent week in Ohio visiting friends and family. Each year for Christmas, my Mom's side of the family all gets together at her brother David's house and this year I noticed that the big barn behind it had been torn down. After dinner, when everyone was gathered to open our gifts, David explained that when he had cleared out the barn, he'd found a machine for welding that my Grandfather had bought in the 1950's. After initially thinking about selling the copper coils inside it as scrap metal, he decided to do something a little bit different... something for which they even ended up on the front page of our hometown newspaper, The Daily Record!

The whole thing was just a really nice tribute to our Grandfather, for his generosity and positive outlook that sees the value in what others consider disposable. Those are traits that I hope I emulate in my own life, and something to resolve towards in 2009. 

Santa Bill

This is a drawing I did for my friend Bill recently. I decided to post it just because he looks like Vermont's answer to Santa Claus.

The Winter Solstice

I decided I wanted to update my blog as a sort of half-effort for sending out Christmas cards. My banner is actually from the Christmas cards I bought last year and neglected to send out. 

This is better anyway, for those of us compulsively chained to a computer. I don't have any pictures of little kids and puppies in festive sweaters, or exotic travel photos of me riding a caribou or a newsletter with a month by month summary detailing how I got a half dozen promotions and bought a hummer... but I really enjoy hearing from loved ones old and new and I try to treat others as I'd like to be treated and stuff, so I'll try to make some posts here to give you a little slice of jasonyohness.

I have been so busy letterpress printing other people's Christmas stuff that Friday was the first day I was really able to stop and do Christmas stuff myself. We had a big snow storm that became freezing rain and slush throughout the day, which made walking in between the quaint little shops in Park Slope pretty hazardous, but fun. 

What is Beauty?

The title is a link to postcard project I learned about through a connection of mine at UArts.