Paper Planes

My former unit of illustrative compatriots, an organization know only as Friends of the Nib, has disbanded (alas). Looking back is for salt pillars though, and the future is full of promise! The new, reformed splinter organization (of which I’m now a part) is called Bureau of Drawers (I’ll give you a second) and it’s off to a rousing start. Check out our blog! (Did you get the joke? It’s a pun! Ha!)

All the best,

-C

The rag-tag gang of cartoonists and illustrators known only as Friends of the Nib are having an art show at the Vermillion wine bar and art gallery from February 11th to March 7th and the opening reception will be on February 11th from 6 to 10PM. The show will primarily feature original art for the upcoming Friends of the Nib playing card deck, but there’ll be a variety of other stuff too. I don’t have any new art in the show this time, but I will have my original card art (this one, remember?) on display. The actual deck should be available soon, (I’ll post details) but in the meantime this show ought to be good preview. Stop buy if you have a chance.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please mark your calendars: On the evening of Thursday, February 18th, at the famed Comet Tavern on Seattle’s storied Capitol Hill, my pal Sean Robinson’s band Landlord’s Daughter will debut their third studio album, entitled No One’s Looking, at 9 o’clock PM. I hold the tangential distinction of having produced the album’s artwork (some of which you can see in the last two posts) and I’d like to encourage folks to come to the concert and/or buy the album since it’s one of the coolest projects with which I’ve been associated.

Landlord’s Daughter has been carefully preparing this little sonic gem (you can hear four of the tracks online here) for about a year now, and it’s a nuanced listening pleasure. The album barrels out of the gates with the frantically manic “Srebrenitza of the Wolves”, but it’s not long before the flirtatious exuberance has slipped off, and the soundscapes of the later songs become much darker. There are moments of tenderness, humor, and joy throughout No One’s Looking, but nothing is as it seems and none of the thirteen tracks are far removed from a dreamlike sense of uncertainty. Landlord’s Daughter has some serious musical chops, (The better to eat you with, my dear!) and it’s alarming when you realize just how easily they’ve used these skills to charm you into the album’s more threatening material. It’s your childhood friend again with his dangerous schemes and ideas which somehow all became yours when it turned out that someone was watching – perhaps the album’s title is alluding to his dubious promise? And perhaps I’m making No One’s Looking sound overly devious, (make no mistake, it’s full of deception, threats, and sadistic twists) but like that childhood friend, it’s also fully capable of remorse, intimate confidence, and moments of unprompted compassion. Sometimes funny, sometimes wistful, on occasion cruel, No One’s Looking never forgets to include you in its schemes, and you’ll find yourself missing your accomplice when it’s all over.

Anyway, you should take a listen, attend the concert opening if you can, or maybe even buy the album when it becomes available (I’ll post). It’s terrific stuff.

My current unit of illustrative compatriots, the Friends of the Nib, are having a show for three days at the illustrious Howard House in Pioneer Square. The drawings you see this week will all be in the show, among many others done by fellow Nibsters. It should be a blast.

The gig opens on Thursday, December 3rd (6pm -9pm) and runs through December 5th. Although I won’t be in attendance opening night, I hear there will be food, fun, Bruce Bickford movies, and live drawing by real life cartoonists. Address and phone follow: Howard House, 604 2nd Ave Seattle, WA 98104; (206) 256-6399. Stop by if you’re in the neighborhood - it ought to be swell.

The Friends of the Nib Halloween Art show (entitled Lusus Naturae, or Freaks of Nature) opens tomorrow night (October 29th) at Cafe Racer up in Seattle’s fabled University District. The fun starts at 7:00 PM and goes until 11:00 PM, so if you’re in the neighborhood, please stop by. I understand there will be music, food, and zombie belly dancing. Above is the piece of art I have in the show, entitled ‘Calvary’. Bigger versions are available in my Flickr portfolio.

“Now we are all sons of bitches.” -Kenneth Bainbridge

Those who are interested may proceed to my Flickr photostream, where they will find the original art for my playing card, a larger version of the final image displayed here, and an all new panorama of my triptych Last Dream of the Gun Children.

The original art for this playing card (not to mention card art by other Friends of the Nib) will be part of a gallery show soon, details TBA.