NoRelevance.com

Vanishing Austin

Art — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:37:32 +0000

Has that beautifully beat-up old sign you’ve driven past for years suddenly disappeared with a cold, glass and steel tower rising in its place? Obviously, if you’re here at NoRelevance.com you’re not alone. But if you’re also in Austin, TX then you’ve got a last chance to see some of those lost treasures and can even help save future vanishings. Vanishing Austin is a website dedicated to, well, basically what the name says. More specifically website owner Jann Alexander’s photographs of “Austin in transition contrast the often-contradictory beauty of the old juxtaposed against the new.” As an archivist myself of beautiful things lost to “progress” I can only stand on my chair and applaud such efforts. Ms. Alexander has also recently unveiled a new poster featuring Austin’s “Endangered Species,” available on her website. Good stuff!

http://vanishingaustin.wordpress.com/

Alvin Lustig Book Covers (via FaceOut Books)

Art — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 19:46:28 +0000

Thanks to @brandi_duncan for turning me on to FaceOut Books and their inspiring blog, which features among others these wonderful book covers designed by Alvin Lustig. Reminiscent of Alexander Steinweiss’ covers for Columbia records, Lustig exploited the silhouette as design element and hand-drawn scripts to wonderfully tasteful heights. If you’ve read any of the books whose covers he designed for authors as varied as Franz Kafka to Henry James you will probably find that they were equally illustrative from a context standpoint. One can see resemblances to fellow modernist Paul Rand in the geometric and free-form shapes he used as well as his love for color. Check them out and be inspired.

Hand-Painted & Hand-Made Signs – Antigua BWI

Art — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 22:15:09 +0000

JUST UPLOADED: Feast your eyes on over 20 beautiful, ugly, tattered and torn, hand-painted & hand-made signs from Antigua BWI. Signs from St. John’s, English Harbor, Rotten Hill and beyond are here for your drooling pleasure. View the thumbnail gallery or the slide show. Enjoy!

Tony Fitzpatrick at Slugfest 11/4 – 12/14/2009

Art — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:38:30 +0000

Chicago-based artist Tony Fitzpatrick has presented a mesmerizing collection of print/collage works in No. 9, An Artist’s Journal currently on view at Slugfest Gallery in Austin, TX. Comprised of several pieces all roughly 7.5 inches wide by 10.5 inches tall, the collection tells stories of places traveled and people known (and lost) as revealed in the subtle clues embedded using symbolic imagery and collaged objects. The ephemeral quality of the works are the result of both the actual bits of precisely cut graphic images adhered to the surface as well as the melancholic nature of the pieces as a whole. Mr. Fitzpatrick stacks cutout handwritten words in columns within each image that form poems that possibly hint at the meanings of each piece or perhaps of a moment experienced in the “story.” He frames each work with three or four matchbook covers, one in each corner of the piece. These matchbooks, which appear to date anywhere from the 1940’s through the 1960’s, often hail from bars and restaurants in New Orleans, a richly storied city where Mr. Fitzpatrick has spent some time. In fact, you may have seen his work on the cover of the Neville Brothers classic 1989 album Yellow Moon, to which he attributes the initial boost to his career as a visual artist.

The works in No. 9 strongly resemble–and are possibly a subset of a larger series of–works previously exhibited in New Orleans during the Prospect 1 Biennial earlier this year. Those works were also of similar scale and composition as the ones in No. 9 and were possibly even more compelling shown in New Orleans. However, beyond their obvious cultural references, the thread that runs throughout No. 9 and is even part of the Slugfest exhibition’s namesake is a reference to a dear, departed friend of Mr. Fitzpatrick, who bears the tattoo “No. 9″ on his forearm as a memorial to his friend who would always say goodbye by reminding folks to be careful because “we’re already on our 9th life.”

Slugfest Printmaking Workshop and Gallery
Tony Fitzpatrick Official Website

No. 9

The Impossible Project Revives Beloved Polaroid

Art — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:45:42 +0000

Perhaps I was a bit harsh in that previous post regarding the $18 Polaroid prints. Perhaps not—you were still paying out the wazoo. But perhaps you’d not heard of Polapremium.com where you can (like I have) buy remainder stock of many different types of Polaroid film formats for what still seems like a reasonable price. And if perhaps, like me, you have that instant print itch that can only be scratched by the cha-ching of an SX-70 Land camera spitting out a $2 gamble then your prayers may have just been answered. The Impossible Project was founded “with the concrete aim to re-invent and re-start production of analog Integral Film for vintage Polaroid cameras.” And, in 2010, their limited edition films will launch and, get this, Polaroid will even introduce a new “classic analog camera” designed especially for their film stock. The Impossible Project managed to secure one of the Polaroid production facilities in Enschede, Netherlands and has begun production on pilot stocks of films. And, apparently, they were behind the limited edition Polaroid Camera/Film package I was slamming in my previous post. I guess it was both market research and a ballsy fund-raiser? Whatever it was it clearly inspired Polaroid to rethink having ditched Dr. Edwin Land’s amazing vision and return to the medium that made them an international icon. Hallelujah!

Polaroid Prints – Only $18 a Piece!

Art — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 19:42:20 +0000

Well, if you were one of the lucky idiots who paid $180 bucks (plus shipping) for the “Special Edition Polaroid One 600 Classic Camera & 779 Premium Film” package that Urban Outfitters was recently peddling then I hope you made every “say cheese” count. With only 10 prints per pack, as has always been the case, the Special Edition package pumped you for at minimum $18 buck a snap–thus quite possibly eliminating the joy and spontaneity that made Polaroid the camera of choice for party-goers and crap-shoot photographers alike. Anyone who has swung by their local thrift store, even if only to drop off that bag of last year’s clothes, has to have noticed the piles of perfectly good Polaroid 600 series cameras growing in the electronics section. I once picked up an SX-70 Land camera (think Warhol) for $3 bucks at a thrift store. Perhaps unbeknownst to their previous owners, film for these cameras does still exist–though mostly remainder stocks on eBay and Amazon.com. You can even find new “crack and peel” type film being made for those vintage bellowed 540/720 series cameras if you search online. A three dollar camera sure puts me back in joy and spontaneity mode.

Eckhardt Signwork, an Inspired Font

Art — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:26:12 +0000

Finally, the fruits of my labor are made apparent in the new and ever-relevant dingbat font designed by Jeff Levine called Eckhardt Signwork. An archivist of forgotten letterforms, Mr. Levine was inspired by many a sign photo found in the collections on this website as well as on Forgotten-NY.com, a terrific site I once blogged about years ago. As with many of his previous fonts Eckhardt Signwork reveals a caretaker’s handling of the tattered lettering that lay within these scratched and rusty relics. And while I’ve certainly received emails from all sorts of folks thanking me for the inspirations, I’ve only seen a few examples manifest like this. I can’t wait to see “YES” appear in print one day soon!

EricBelowSeaLevel: The Design of Erik Kiesewetter

Art — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:49:04 +0000

Peruse the portfolio of this New Orleans-based designer and try not to feel lazy! In addition to his commercial work, which is quite excellent, Mr. Kiesewetter has been busy working and collaborating on projects ranging from post/medium, an online artist/gallery portfolio management system for New Orleans artists, a screen-printed poster series for the historic 2nd-lining Nine Times Social & Pleasure Club and the Neighborhood Story Project, a book-making project based in New Orleans whose mission states “‘Our stories told by us,’ we work with writers in neighborhoods around New Orleans to create books about their communities.” Honestly, it’s difficult to tell which of Mr. Kiesewetter’s work is commercial or pro-bono as the level of quality and creativity remains consistently high. I recently purchased the first two issues of Constance, an art and literary magazine produced in New Orleans, which Mr. Kiesewetter collaborates on and is how I stumbled upon his work. You should take a look, yourself.

Cult of the Goat – Bock Beer Labels…

Art — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:34:05 +0000

From the permanent collection: Devilish goats rear their ugly heads in these sinister looking beer labels from the U.S. and around the world. I include more than a little bit of history on where this strange iconography came from. Enjoy the show!

Hand-Painted & Hand-Made Signs – Turkey

Art — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:48:36 +0000

Feast your eyes on over 60 beautiful, ugly, tattered and torn, hand-painted & hand-made signs from Turkey. Signs from Istanbul (not Constantinople), Izmir, Selcuk, Effes, Kabak and beyond are here for your drooling pleasure. View the thumbnail gallery or the slide show. Enjoy!