feather2pixels

My work on the Rapha Cycle Club mural is complete.  To recap: the SF based design firm Rebar hired me to put this image on vertical wood beams.  Forty-five total beams, forty-five total square feet:

With screenprinting out of the question, I decided to get this done with large format digital prints on adhesive backed vinyl.  It’s the very expensive stuff used for permanent vehicle decals, and I learned way more about 3M ControlTac technology than anyone should have to.

My neighbor Fran who runs a printing business out of her Precita Avenue garage, did the printing.  EB and Tommy helped me out with the labor intensive application process, which took the three of us working together four hours to complete:

The grand opening of the parklet is 4pm on Friday November 16,2012.  I’ll be there warming up for happy hour.

By an extremely lucky twist of fate, this commemorative homebrew (brewed with Third Assistant Stillwachs on location in Vallejo) is being hand delivered to Matt Cain himself tomorrow.  Extreme thanks to Mike Strange.  How cool is that!

Here is the photo dispatch from my first all-grain beer crafting experience, brewed on location in Vallejo with Sir Thomas.

Utilizing thirty pounds of grain and almost one pound of hops for a mere ten gallons of beer, this has to be one of the more triumphantly excessive beer recipes I will ever pursue.  That’s why I am writing it out here :

Grain Bill
22 lbs American two row malted barley
2 lbs Munich
1/2 lb Aromatic (what the hell is this?)
1 lbs 50-60 Brit.
1/2 lb Cara Muncih
1/4 lb Black Patent Chocolate Malt
1 lb Cara Pils
2 lbs 15L Crystal Malt
2 lbs 50L Crystal Malt

Hops Bill
2 oz Nothern Brewer (bittering)
2 oz Amarillo
2 oz Amarillo
8 oz Cascae (Dry Hopping)

Yeast
2 vials California 001 Ale Yeast

Laudered at 158°F, Preboil specific gravity: ~1.057

hat is that. My tenure as a CELLspace studio artist ended on a clear Halloween night, as Tommy helped me transport the last of my junk to the new studio four block away.

I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for CELL.  I learned to screenprint there and it’s a place where I met many great individuals.  And even if it is a place where people could take over your workspace if you went on vacation for too long or someone could accidentally schedule a roller skating party in the middle of your art show, I am glad I got to work here.  Thanks CELLspace.

Some highlights:

• I get my key (1/21/08)
• 2011 Open Studios (10/3/11)
• 2010 Open Studios (10/20/2010)
• 2009 Open Studios (10/19/2011)
• I Christen the members studio (3/24/2011)
• NV Surly guest DJ’s (1/29/2011)
• Valencia to Vermont printing wraps (1/26/2010)
• I screen print my first postcards (2/25/2007)

T

To make up for full speed ramming me on skis in 2010 Because he admires my work, ex-sailor Tommy Stillwachs allowed me the honor of printing the open/closed sign for Arbor, a new taphouse cafe in Oakland he is involved with.  Owned and operated by Chris Marquez and Suzanne Stillwachs, Arbor opened last Saturday.   And that night it closed.  The next morning it opened and after precisely nine hours it closed yet again.

I would like to think my sign made all of this activity possible.

The sign was screen printed on some beautiful and seriously warped scrap wood.  Precision screen printing requires a very uniform separation between screen and substrate, so I was happy this wasn’t a precision job.    The final prints turned out appropriately sloppy.