Back to making posters after a long break painting my installation pieces for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Working on those big pieces was very rewarding. That said, I’m glad to be back, rockin’ and rollin’. I’m super happy to win Expressonbeans.com, Poster of the Week. Thanks everyone!
The Black Keys, Cage The Elephant, Council Bluffs, Iowa
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
30 x 22
Edition of 212
6 colors on archival cream paper
Sold Out – Thank You!
For this poster I used a font which evokes the kind of font used in the chrome names of cars, a clear reference to the automobile manufacturing industry that supports Akron, Ohio where the band is from. I’m from Dayton, Ohio so it’s a source of pride there that we build cars and car parts. Akron is a big manufacturer of tires. The font is saying, yep, The Black Keys built in Akron. You find a custom designed wallpaper specifically designed for The Black Keys. It’s similar to the kind of Edwardian wallpaper you encounter all over the heartland of Ohio (and coincidentally here in SF which has a rich Victorian era heritage). Wallpaper was one of the first industrial uses of silkscreen, and that’s why I use it from time to time – customizing designs specifically for each poster. The woman wears a sunflower in her hair, an obvious reference to the sun. I felt that the flood ravaged areas surrounding Council Bluffs were tired of hearing about the negatives surrounding the flood. I wanted to bring them an image that would bring a positive sun-drenched feeling to them. I’m sure that a lot of people who rocked out at the show were there to put their worries behind them. Rocking out to The Black Keys and a positive image like this one might be good medicine.
Deftones, Dillinger Escape Plan, Le Butcherettes at The Warfield, June 13, 2011
Firehouse Goldenvoice Poster Series No. 137
20 x 28
Edition of 125
3 colors on archival cream paper
Signed and Numbered
Sold Out – Thank You!
The Black Keys and Booker T Jones played White River State Park near Indianapolis, Indiana on Friday, June 10 to a record-setting audience of 8000 people (Park officials agreed to raise the capacity of the show for a one time event). I made this limited, signed and numbered, edition of 300 handmade silkscreen posters for this ridiculously cool event. The orange-brown color will be a copper-gold metallic blend and the blue is a blue-silver metallic. I was seeing a lot of portraiture of the band out there so I went for 70’s soul.
Above is a digital jpeg of the poster. Below are the actual photos with edition information below each.
The Black Keys & Booker T Jones, Indianapolis
Friday, June 10, 2011
4 colors on archival cream paper
15 x 35
Edition of 300
Signed and Numbered
Sold Out – Thank You!
The Black Keys & Booker T Jones, Indianapolis
Friday, June 10, 2011
4 colors on heavy textured stucco colored paper
15 x 35
Edition of 25
Signed and Numbered
Sold Out – Thank You!
The Black Keys & Booker T Jones, Indianapolis
Friday, June 10, 2011
4 colors on gold coated paper
15 x 35
Edition of 15
Signed and Numbered
Sold Out – Thank You!
Saint Everyone, 2011
11 feet by 9 feet
Acrylic and Silkscreen Appliqué on Canvas
I installed my 11 foot by 9 foot acrylic painting, “Saint Everyone,” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art yesterday. It will be on view at the SFMOMA’s Artists Gallery Windows on Minna Street from June 2011 through January 2012. There are florescent lights which are timed to go on at dusk until 2 am.
My large scale painting, “Saint Everyone” is figurative, a postmodern pastiche of Pop, Op and Rock Art. Its theme is inspired from the very recent spontaneous popular movements which have swept the world since January 2011. My iconic figure holds a lotus, it’s unfolding petals suggest the expansion of the soul. The growth of its pure beauty springs from the fertile mud of its origin and grows into a benign spiritual promise. The figure is a loose appropriation and is re-imagined by the artist from a rock poster created by The Big Five (Mouse, Wilson, Griffin, Kelley, and Moscoso) for the 20th anniversary of the Summer of Love in 1987. The Summer of Love in 1967 is the San Francisco analog of the change that is sweeping the world in 2011. This image was originally used on a poster I designed and printed for “American Artifact, The Rise of American Rock Art,” directed by Merle Becker. Appliqué disks employ elements of Op Art, inspired as they are from the work of Martin Sharpe, the British psychedelic artist. They are produced via silkscreen and applied – like a poster would on the street – in rhythmic patternization. The disks suggest decentralization or cell structure. I wanted to combine acrylic painting and silkscreen techniques in a seamless composition, and “Saint Everyone” is the result.
This painting was a year in planning and six weeks in execution. Renée de Cossio curated the project which involves me, Chris Shaw and Ron Donovan. Renee has been a constant source of support and inspiration and I thank her and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for making this show happen.
Make sure to check the websites of my collaborating artist friends Chris Shaw and Ron Donovan to see their paintings and art work. They will be posting pictures and more very soon!
The six weeks spent working in this resulted in scores of paint layers, many in florescent acrylic, silkscreen and painting processes. There are certainly at least 30 layers of paint on this and the depth shows. The red blue chroma literally stopped traffic yesterday when Chris Shaw and I were hanging these – someone driving down Minna Street actually skidded to a stop to look at our paintings and ask our names.
I have several process videos of the painting in progress. The first is a short montage of photos I took throughout the process:
Below are some of the more photogenic processes in timelapse. First, removing a mask I cut with an exacto knife to paint the gold Op Art patterns that surround the figure:
Next, I’m printing the appliqué optical patterns on very nice Japanese rice paper that resonates with and continues the motif painted in gold:
Here’s a timelapse video of me applying the rice paper op patterns to the canvas with gel medium under and gloss medium over to fully embed the rice paper to the painting surface:
Finally here are some beautiful photographs taken by my friend Stephen Abramson of the final reactive blue color getting layed down. Click to see larger:
Chuck Sperry lives in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where he’s made his particular style of rock poster designs for over 20 years. He operates Hangar 18, a silkscreen print studio, located in Oakland. Learn More…
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