Beana Bern in Berlin (sort of)

Every now and again I get the chance to be in 2 places at once.  Tonight I am at home in Hong Kong while simultaneously gracing the street posts and dirty night club walls of Berlin.  Namosh radio’d in for an image I shot of him back at p.m.k.  Rock.

Namosh - Live in Berlin

Here’s one of my favorite shots from that show and, if inclined, you can see the rest right here…

Namosh @ p.m.k. - Innsbruck, Austria

Bear Hugs & Poster Art

Time to share some silk screened inspiration.  No paint here.  No tool box.  None of the color or accessories that lets me make my own pictures so Ill fill myself up with others…Bear hugs are on my mind…

Free Hugs - misnopalesart

Royal Panda - Alice Gabb

Things I Like - Richard Perez

Girl With Teddybear - Dolk

Bear on a Bike - linocutboy

Bear Hug - Matt Sewell

Tall Bike - Antonia Schulz

 

We Are the People We’ve Been Waiting For

…it must have been all those issues of 5 to 9 that got my juices flowing but tonight, as I caught this past sunday’s edition of This American Life I took to the photoshop with the notion of making a holiday card.  The result was not a holiday card but, instead, a moody and dark piece.  Not sad or melancholy but wintery and cold…kind of like Innsbruck tonight.

One of these days I’ll introduce myself to the silkscreen studio in town and throw my hat in the ring with a Beana Bern original I can feature in my next screenprint round up…

Guten Nacht…

5 to 9

I get lucky sometimes and stumble into things that end up making my day.  Graphic design and photography (when its good) has a way of taking me away and I just came across something that might take you away…This zine called 5 to 9 began in early 2007 and curates work that creatives make in thier free time.  What do you create when nobody’s watching or nobody’s paying?  Each issue has a theme and I ended up downloading all 12 issues and having my own little private gallery show.  If you have a little time, check it out.

Issue 11

I Love Poster Art! Part. II

It’s been some time since I shared some of my silkscreened inspirado with you all but I’m always on the lookout for posters that make my mouth water and hope that one day I have a loft space big enough where I can hang the ones I do own plus all the ones I find and make along the way. I have one UBER favorite in this bunch, I wonder if you can guess which one it is. Regardless, they are all interesting in their own right and if you want to learn more about any of the prints, click on it and it will take you to the artist’s or galleries page.

Patchwork by Eltono

The Hills Are Dead by Danny Sangra

My New York Neighborhood by

Track Record by mwedge

Sleeper by estasketch

untitled (blue) by David Corbett

Mondrivan by RYCA

Specimen 3. Globigerina/Merganser by wondercabinet

Bear in Mind by Luke Chueh

The Tube Station by Cyril Power

Far and Wide by Ann Tarantino

(This print is part of a very cool project run by Jen Bekman called 20×200. She has a cool gallery around the corner from my old flat on the LES and has found a way to make limited edition art available to peeps without a bankroll. $20, $200 and $2000 editions of some beautiful artwork. Check it out.)

Everyone We Have Ever Loved

Artwork & Photo By Sarah Gardner

I’ve featured this artist on 2bean before but tonight, as I said goodbye to one of my dearest friends in the Tirol, I came home to this sentiment from Sarah and it was absolutely perfect.  Its true, you know, we are everyone we have ever loved.  Just last night I was having a conversation about how I thought my own capacity for love (and beauty, for that matter) is infinite.  People come into your life and even when they leave are still with you.  I am gonna miss the hell out of Raquel and am already counting the days to a visit in her new home in Sao Paulo, Brazil….

i love you Raquel and you are already missed…only the sweetest things and success in Brazil. xo.

Poster Art Makes Me Happy

It’s been a little while since I have shared some of the latest and greatest poster art creations that have inspired me but just ’cause I’m not sharing doesn’t mean I haven’t found some new and amazing artwork. I am *so* excited to move this summer, out of corporate (but sweet!) housing and into my own little nest….if for no other reason than I will have an excuse to add to my delicious and sorely missed poster collection.

Sadly this beauty by Yoskay Yamamoto called “The Last Two” is already sold out over at APaperTiger

The Keep Calm Gallery has an interesting collection of rare limited edition prints from the 1968 Paris Rebellion.  This interesting print was originally made by the Faculty of Medicine protesting the anti-socialist propaganda of “law and order.”

I found this guy by accident and totally loved this print. Andy Smith’s work is funny and interesting and for sale, of course. If you have a little time, browse through his portfolio of illustrations and typography for some more inspirado.

Ilana Kohn was another happy accident and I totally fell in love with this print called “Puddle.” For such a childish image it feels grown-up to me and serious in a way the surprises me.  Sad, too, considering all the rainbows.

I have a heafty stash of artists, images and prints that make my mouth water and my eyes happy and I will make an effort to share them with you more regularly…I have been dabbling with a couple graphics since the WeenT 5.0 wrapped up and I have it in mind to introduce a club here in Innsbruck to the concept of limited edition posters. I would LOVE to have make another rock poster for an audience other than myself and 4 t-shirts…

X Marks the Spot

The energy I have spent over the years trying out photo websites and communities online that gather together creative people with the hopes of promoting new ideas, selling art, offering assistance and everything else under the sun hasn’t made me any money but it, on some occasions, has been worth the effort. Flickr would probably take the cake for most awesome online community but there have been other worthwhile ventures as well.

Tonight I stumbled across a new find called the Creative Index and it looks like an interesting (and new) take on the topic. Perhaps I can capitalize on my unique location to find some new opportunities for my free time…

Steps, Slips, Leaps, Slides, Falls and Flights

you know that saying, “be careful what you wish for”?

sometimes when what you want comes it changes everything and, even if you give it back, you find yourself forever altered. even when you cherish what you’ve received it is likely that things will never be the same again. i suppose that wishing for progress and comfort simultaneously is an exercise in futility but there must be some way to maintain balance. the progress and the comfort…the dare to risk and the good sense to hesitate.

i found myself sitting at my desk today looking at all the things i must do next week and also looking back at all the things i did that got me to that point. if it was a scene in a movie, the camera would have circled around me at my desk, blindly staring into my computer and into space. on the 3rd rotation we would see me, 7 years ago at my first day of work in new york city. fresh and young and fearless. insecure, unaware and overcompensating.

all the steps, slips, leaps, slides, falls and flights that have occurred between that day and today crept up on me in the form of a terrifying, 3 kilometer long spreadsheet. i was confused for a moment and thought that i was having anxiety over the work itself but, having stepped away, i realize that it’s not so. the reality is that i am exactly where i told myself i wanted to be those 7 years ago (metaphorically speaking, of course) and i am doing exactly the things that i dreamed i would be doing.

it doesn’t surprise me that i have achieved some of my goals at the tender age of 31 but what surprises me is the path i had to go down to get to this place. who would have thought that getting fired from a crappy waitressing gig would see my staring down the barrel of that massive, complicated spreadsheet? or that my divorce was the key to understanding how to be happy and secure with myself? or that going to business school would see me develop my photographic pursuits into something so fruitful? or that inserting an ocean between myself and most of the people i love would bring me closer to them?

i am both humbled and invigorated by the notion and power of CHOICE and how amazing it is to grow up and grow old on the planet earth. i am equally amazed at how those choices point you where you need to go and not necessarily where you want to go. the beauty resides in the realization that where you need to go is probably where you you ought to be…

“Choices 5”

By: Bryant Rousseau

i wouldn’t go backwards if i had a magic slide that made it possible but there was something comfortable about not having very fall to far if things turned south. there was also something comfortable about knowing that i was learning things for the first time. you know the, ‘fool me once it’s your fault…fool me twice it’s my fault” idea? making the same mistakes when i have learned them already (too many times) has a way of making me think about my approach. it makes me consider if i am learning or just spinning. seeing myself objectively for that split second this afternoon it occured to me that i have a much further way to fall than ever before (this is a good thing) and that, these days, i need to work a little harder at finding the balance between risk and hesitation (this is a necessary thing to preserve a good thing)….

}

“All the Spaces” Print By: Sarah Gardner

|

this print by Sarah hit a nerve the other day when i saw it and i couldn’t figure out why it moved me so much (aside from the fact that it’s beautiful). working out this realization that my arrow points forward and that there are places and times that i will never return to has made it clear why. i have found myself challenged by myself on all fronts. i am stretching for my job, my language, my relationships and my art. in the course of all this stretching i am learning some lessons more literally (or embarrassingly) than others and am bound to make some mistakes. one of the key learnings being that, mistakes are part of what brought me to where i am and will likely continue to point me in directions i am not expecting. i am a fan of the saying that “suffering builds character” and i guess the same is true for mistakes.

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”

~Mahatma Gandhi

Kunst Yourself

receiving my new painting and then stumbling across my friends blog and seeing a picture from berlin demanding that i ‘kunst myself’ had me pondering color and art and how happy they make me. what followed was some aimless wandering through cyberspace to find some new and delicious posters….to these i say, “yum!” it’s been a while since i have found some screenprints that move me enough to share but these 3 are remarkable in my humble opinion. it will be a beautiful day when i have a loft or barn to hang all my existing (and future) art in.

“A Modern Twist” – jp33.com

“cupped hands” – paulhutchinson.co.nz

 

“where are you, Fox” – krisblue on etsy

 

 

My Own Bare Walls

…got a little color.

No “case of the Mondays” for me today. Nope. I was bright eyed and bushy tailed for work today even though I only nabbed 3 hours of sleep before my alarm told me to get the show on the road. Even a slushy walk to work in the snow couldn’t get me down today…the near-disastaurous deletion of a 50 page word document was the only real problem i faced today and even that manged to sort itself out. It’s amazing what some good music, good company, good photography and (yes!) good poster art can do for this girl.

So I headed to Munich last night to see and photograph Arcade Fire at Tonhalle (many thanks to Mia and Amy for connecting the connection and inspiring the inspiration). Finding the venue, unlike last time, was easy and the show was amazing. It was a small room for all their production value and the photo pit was virtually empty which was a treat for me.

Here are a couple of my favorite shots from the night but I recommend that you check out the whole album right here.

Although I have days where I look at the snow-capped mountains and wonder what I’m doing so far away from everything I know, I also have days like yesterday where I find myself surround my all the things that I really, really enjoy and take comfort in…music and pictures and travel and familiar faces….It’s really not all that different a life than i was living in New York.

Throw on top of that #344/790 of a sweet, sweet signed screenprint for the band’s European tour and its the icing on the cake. I’ve been needing a little color in the apartment and now i have some. alles gut.