Chuck Sperry

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“Required Reading” at Gallery 1988, Los Angeles

The Odyssey of Homer

22 x 33

Edition of 50

5 color silkscreen

Printed on archival cream paper

Signed and Numbered

Poster will be made a available at Gallery 1988, on April 15, 2011 at the Opening Reception 7pm – 10pm. Online availability will be announced on OMG Posters at a future date.

Mitch Putnam and Rob Jones invited me to make a poster for their show, “Required Reading” at 1988 Gallery on April 15, 2011, 7 pm – 10 pm. I leapt at the chance, thanks Mitch and Rob!

I chose “The Odyssey” of Homer and dug into the book for another reading. I love this book! This time around, I was struck by the kind, friendly relationship between Odysseus, and goddess Athena. How much both inspire and move the action.

In Book VII of “The Odyssey” Athena reveals herself to Odysseus, who has been praying to her for help to get home throughout the entire book. Odysseus is finally home, and they meet face-to-face, the two prime movers of “The Odyssey.” It’s a great scene: Odysseus meets Athena who is disguised as a goatherd. He immediately unwinds a meandering deceit – telling Athena he’s from Crete, fearing to reveal his true self and meet the same fate as Agamemnon who came home only to be killed. The goddess Athena uses her disguise to learn Odysseus’ frame of mind. She’s impressed by his quick wits. All at once, Odysseus’ lie is revealed, Athena changes into her true aspect, and a mist she had lowered over the island of Ithaca lifts, and reveals to Odysseus that he is finally home.

This is the scene I chose to illustrate.

Therewith the goddess scattered the mist, and the land appeared. Then the steadfast goodly Odysseus was glad rejoicing in his own land, and he kissed the earth, the graingiver. And anon he prayed to the nymphs, and lifted up his hands, saying:

‘Ye Naiad nymphs, daughters of Zeus, never did I think to look on you again, but now be ye greeted in my loving prayers: yea, and gifts as aforetime I will give, if the daughter of Zeus, driver of the spoil, suffer me of her grace myself to live, and bring my dear son to manhood.’

Then the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, spake to him again: ‘Be of good courage, and let not thy heart be careful about these things. But come, let us straightway set thy goods in the secret place of the wondrous cave, that there they may abide for thee safe. And let us for ourselves advise us how all may be for the very best.’

Therewith the goddess plunged into the shadowy cave, searching out the chambers of the cavern. Meanwhile Odysseus brought up his treasure, the gold and the unyielding bronze and fair woven raiment, which the Phaeacians gave him. And these things he laid by with care, and Pallas Athene, daughter of Zeus, lord of the aegis, set a stone against the door of the cave. Then they twain sat down by the trunk of the sacred olive tree, and devised death for the froward wooers. And the goddess, grey-eyed Athene, spake first, saying:

‘Son of Laertes, of the seed of Zeus, Odysseus of many devices, advise thee how thou mayest stretch forth thine hands upon the shameless wooers…

After many poster tours, I have always related to Odysseus returning home only to find more trouble to deal with. Getting home from tour means getting back in the saddle and dealing with getting your life back. That’s the part of “The Odyssey” that never fails to come to my mind after tour.

Anyway, for this project, I went to research the island of Ithaca. I found this tiny picture of the Cave of The Sanctuary of The Naiads on Ithaca where Odysseus and Athena were said to have met. I wanted an authentic setting.

Then I started my first draft in pencil – from pictures I had seen of Ithaca – it looked to be very similar to Liguria in Italy where I spent a lot of time – so drew the hills, trees and harbor from memory:

Second pencil draft:

Ready to ink, I realized that the Island of Ithaca scene was going to be done in a terra cotta color to emphasize the distance and bring the figures in black to the front for emphasis – so I inked them separtely:

Details of Athena’s shield – the “Greek Key” design and Aegis (Head of Medusa) design – would also be in color and inked separely:

 

I hope you enjoyed my design process post. “Required Reading” looks like it’s going to be a great exhibition! Looking forward to it. One interesting fact I stumbled on while researching: The Greek word Odyssey translates to “Trouble.” I like that. That’s why I went to all the trouble to do as good a job on this as I could.

 

 

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Eric Drooker at Fivepoints Arthouse, Free University Art School Event

The Free University of San Francisco aims to make the highest level of education available, completely free, to any individual who wants it, regardless of color, creed, age, gender, nationality, religion or immigration status— a university free of money, taught for free. The only requirement for membership is a desire to teach and/or a desire to learn.

Eric Drooker, Free University Art School Event

Friday, April 15, 2011 – 7:30PM to 9PM

Fivepoints Arthouse

72 Tehama Street (one block south of Howard Street / off 2nd Street)

San Francisco, CA

Bio:
ERIC DROOKER is a painter and graphic novelist, born and raised on Manhattan Island. He’s the award-winning author of “Flood! A Novel in Pictures,” and “Blood Song.” He designed the animation for the recent film, “Howl,” a movie based on the epic poem by Allen Ginsberg, who collaborated with Drooker on the book “Illuminated Poems.” His paintings appear on covers of “The New Yorker,” and hang in numerous collections.

Slide Lecture Description:

Visual artist Eric Drooker will project hundreds of images and explore his early years as a street artist in New York City. Although he continues to create radical street posters, he’ll demonstrate how his images function in various popular mediums. He’ll trace the evolution of his graphic novels into animation–as in the recent hit film “Howl”–and discuss his experiences creating public art, covers for “The New Yorker,” and his slow infiltration of the mainstream.

Lecture will be accompanied by the artist on a variety of musical instruments.
Visit: www.Drooker.com

 

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Jon-Paul Bail at The Free University Art School

The Free University of San Francisco aims to make the highest level of education available, completely free, to any individual who wants it, regardless of color, creed, age, gender, nationality, religion or immigration status—a university free of money, taught for free. The only requirement for membership is a desire to teach and/or a desire to learn.

Jon-Paul Bail, Free University Art School Event

Sunday, April 3, 2011 – 2PM to 4PM

Viracocha

998 Valencia Street (at 21st Street)

San Francisco, CA

__________________________________________________

Course Description:

The Free University Art School is very proud to present Jon-Paul Bail prolific Bay Area artist who uses the streets of the world as his canvas. “JP” will present a poster show of his work, present a poster review of important street campaigns from the last two decades, and a slide show of his work including his world-wide “Fox News Media Blitz.”  The Media Blitz imagery is pure JP – humorous, satirical, timely, relevant – and don’t expect him  to be “fair and balanced” when it comes to Glenn Beck. JP will conclude the class with a street action / wheat paste demonstration.

Come early / limited room!

Bio:

Jon-Paul Bail (JP) founded Political Gridlock in 1991 and has been posting street art ever since.  JP’s work is branded by strong cohesive messages and relevant imagery, putting a funny and sometimes shocking spin on popular culture.  His work reference issues that are based in local, national and global communities.  His first company was called Reagan Wear and was co-founded with Ron Donovan from The Firehouse Kustom Rockart Company.  Having studied silk-screening with Malaquias Montoya at California College of the Arts from 1986 – 1989, JP graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1991.  His poster titled Inhail to the Chief , which depicts Barrack Obama smoking a blunt, was featured in rap artist E-40’s music video featuring Dem Boyz in 2010.  He has done print work for Winston Smith and Emory Douglas and has shown work in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Rome, Italy.  JP’s art is in the collections of the Legion of Honor, Oakland Museum, and Center for the Study of Political Graphics and has been published in four political art books (Yo! What Happened to Peace, Reproduce and Revolt and two editions of Paper Politics).

 

 

 

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Winston Smith at The Free University Art School

The Free University of San Francisco aims to make the highest level of education available, completely free, to any individual who wants it, regardless of color, creed, age, gender, nationality, religion or immigration status—a university free of money, taught for free. The only requirement for membership is a desire to teach and/or a desire to learn.

Winston Smith, Free University Art School Event

Sunday, March 27, 2011 – 2PM to 4PM

Viracocha

998 Valencia Street (at 21st Street)

San Francisco, CA

__________________________________________________

Course Description:

The Free University Art School is very proud to present Winston Smith, world famous punk artist. Winston Smith will speak about his life, his work, and share his insurgent punk collage art with the class. The second half of the class will be a collage workshop with Winston providing some cut-ups and clippings from his image library – the class is invited to make their own collaborative creation.

Come early / limited room!

Bio:

Winston Smith (born May 27, 1952) is an artist who primarily uses the medium of collage. He is probably best known for the artwork he has produced for the American punk rock group  Dead Kennedys.

Smith is particularly known for his collaborations with Jello Biafra and Alternative Tentacles for whom he has done numerous covers, inserts, advertisements, flyers, and logos. He is responsible for the famous Alternative Tentacles logo as well as the well-known Dead Kennedys logo and six of their record covers. One of his compositions, “God Told Me To Skin You Alive” was used as the cover of  Green Day’s album “Insomniac.”

His name is a reference to the character of the same name in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty Four. Smith left the U.S. in 1969 to study art in Italy and, struck by the profound social changes that had occurred during his absence from the U.S., adopted the name after returning to America in 1976.

In Italy, Smith attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence studying classical Renaissance Art and later won a scholarship to study Cinema at the International University of Art (Florence & Rome). For a few years he traveled throughout Italy, roadie-ing for well-known Italian jazz band Perigeo. Over the last 30 years, Winston has had numerous one-man shows in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, London, Antwerp, Berlin and Rome.

His work has been included in numerous books chronicling the punk rock era as well as having his work included in art text books plus several book covers, such as Greg Palast’s best-sellers “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy” and “Armed Madhouse”. In addition, Winston has designed over 50 record covers including covers and insert art for Jello Biafra, Burning Brides, George Carlin and Ben Harper.



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Free University Art School – Second Demonstration / Documentation

The Free University was very proud to host graffiti art innovator and originator, Blek le Rat, on Sunday, March 20, 2011. I will post more photos and videos here as they come in. So stay tuned to this post…

What follows is my introduction:

Long before there was “street art” as we now know it, there was Blek le Rat. He was one of the first graffiti writers in Europe; one of the first people to use stencils to make public art on the street; one of the first—if not the first—to break away from the dominance of New York graffiti style; and one of the first to use icons instead of writing his name. He has been an inspiration to artists all over the world, from JayBadbc to Oseas Duarte to Shepard Fairey to Banksy—whose work is often an homage to le Rat’s iconography.

– Jon Reiss, director of the documentary, “Bomb It”

The problem with galleries is that… 99% of urban artists use urban art as a stepping stone into the galleries. It’s a fatal error because in galleries they’re seen by 40 people, in museums they’re seen by 10 people, but in the streets they’re seen by 100,000 people. And that’s the integrity of an artist’s work: to be seen. Not be sold or to be recognized in a museum—but to be seen by the world.

– Blek le Rat, Swindle Magaize

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