Staticalaska.

the set? Sort of?

2011-04-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
As promised, here's the set.
Sorry it's sloppy! I got school, you know?
Okay stay out of trouble, internet.

maybe an older type of poster

2011-04-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

Image! You've seen things like this before. but I thought this one was fun, so now you have it. It's sort of one of four. So next week will be the whole set!

the last CD cover

2011-04-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hey!
I think this will be the last installment of somewhat dated mix covers.
What will come next week, you might ask?
Same time next week, check in and you will have your questions answered!

another mix cover

2011-04-03T08:00:00.000-07:00

Internet people! This is the second of three mix covers I'm posting. Next week's is not so bad either, better than this one, I think, so stay tuned!
I hope that your new month is going pretty well. So far, the WHOLE MONTH IS WEEKEND.
so that can't really be so bad, can it?

colorful bears gracing a CD case

2011-03-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

So this was a cover for a set of three mix CDs I did a while ago.
But I didn't think you'd seen it yet, internet.
So now you have!

fish+face

2011-03-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

fishes and faces.
Sorry this one is pretty old.

a logo I did

2011-03-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

hey internet! Here's a logo I did a while ago for a resume.
and I'm outskis.

mnerals

2011-03-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

So this is a similar type treatment to what I posted last week. This one is more successful though! I think so anyway.
Grad school is fun!
Stay healthy, all you good people.

Faux Show

2011-02-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

This was a concept I did for a party that never quite happened. It still may, though! I'll keep you, my dearest internet friends, posted.

BlitzSpass Logo

2011-02-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a logo I did over winter break while in Arizona! The trip's purpose was to do a program analysis for a financial literacy program run by Catholic Charities. It was a great trip! Blitzspass means, literally, "lightening fun" in German. It's a reference to blitzkrieg, which is a cool word with terrible connotations.
I'm Out!

So What?

2011-02-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

I was playing with type lately. So these aren't the most polished images, but they're ideas anyway.

sailboat sailboat!

2010-07-06T10:07:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been out of commission; I have been making art lately though, so if you check back you might be surprised.
calc three is running my life, more or less, but I'm learning a lot and not yet failing.
okay, later everybody.
Charlie

the postcard series: 7

2010-04-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

End!

okay that's it everyone.
maybe I'll start updating this again and do more series.
No promises.
stay safe.
Charlie

the postcard series: 6

2010-03-30T19:41:00.000-07:00

alright everyone,
this is the second-to-last in the series!
The next one is dangerous and this one is just a little sad.
Charlie

the postcard series: 5

2010-03-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

shark!

the postcard series: 4

2010-03-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

antelope yo.

the postcard series: 3

2010-03-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

badgerrrrrrrrr.

the postcard series: 2

2010-03-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

it's a polar bear!

the postcard series:1

2010-03-20T19:17:00.000-07:00

I've got a few postcards I did out of construction paper. I figured I would stretch these out, but here's the first one.

we're just trying to make pretty things and have fun

2010-02-14T09:53:00.000-08:00

Hey Internet,
It's been a really long time since I posted, but here's one! It's a little more party anthem and a lot less principled than a lot of the posting I've done here. An exercise in manipulating type.
MEGA

purely satirical

2009-10-05T22:54:00.000-07:00

Do people do the whole satire thing anymore? I hope some of them do. I'm all about that. Here's a quick thing; I'm doing other stuff a lot lately.
Mega

Critical Mass Tacoma - September 2009

2009-09-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

It's Critical Mass time again! Come out (rain or shine) for a casual ride through the streets of Tacoma this Friday (Sept 25) at 6pm. We meet up at Jefferson Park in North Tacoma (about N 9th and Madison), and figure it all out from there. Hope to see you there!

Is there a large version of the poster available? Yes. As a lovely, hi-res, print-ready PDF!

But what is it? Why should I come?

Because it's fun! Join fellow bicyclists for a leisurely and spirited celebratory ride through Tacoma. The ride is on rain or shine! Decorated bicycles, trailers, signs, flags, noise-makers, ghetto-blasters, sound systems, drums, and wildly modified bicycles are all highly encouraged!

Celebrated around the world, Critical Mass is a grassroots reclamation of public space--on the last Friday of the month--which allows cyclists and other self-propelled people to move safely and comfortably through city streets in a car-free space. Non-polluting forms of transportation are promoted.

Since no one organizes the rides, the rides have no agreed agenda or demands. They aren't a protest. Instead, when we ride on Critical Mass, we're living the world we would like to see--filling the streets with bikes, laughter, human speed, clean air, engagement and life. At Critical Mass we can bike down the street safe from speeding cars, empowered by our numbers. Critical Mass is a celebration.

Critical Mass Tacoma July 2009

2009-07-23T12:03:00.001-07:00

Critical Mass July is on! Meet up at the corner N 9th St and N Madison St. on July 31 at 6pm. Not sure where to go? Check the magical Google Maps: link

But what is Critical Mass?

Critical Mass bike rides are spontaneous, leaderless rides that begin at specific times and locations in various cities around the world. Since no one organizes the rides, the rides have no agreed agenda or demands. They aren’t a protest. Instead, when we ride on Critical Mass, we’re living the world we would like to see–filling the streets with bikes, laughter, human speed, clean air, engagement and life. At Critical Mass, we can bike down the street safe from speeding cars–together–empowered by our numbers. Critical Mass is a celebration.

Critical Mass rides sometimes enrage car drivers because bike traffic competes with car traffic for space on the road. Cars have their critical mass 29 days of the month when bikes get crowded out. It’s called rush hour! Critical Mass is a single day when bike traffic briefly outnumbers car traffic. Maybe in 50 years, bikes will outnumber cars everyday. As concerns about global warming increase, people are searching for alternatives like bikes. A community of cyclists is developing–demanding respect and some space on the road.

Critical Mass Tacoma - June 2009

2009-06-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

Critical Mass in June is on! Meet up at the corner N 9th St and N Madison St. Not sure where to go? Check out the magical Google Maps: link

But what is Critical Mass?

Critical Mass bike rides are spontaneous, leaderless rides that begin at specific times and locations in various cities around the world. Since no one organizes the rides, the rides have no agreed agenda or demands. They aren’t a protest. Instead, when we ride on Critical Mass, we’re living the world we would like to see–filling the streets with bikes, laughter, human speed, clean air, engagement and life. At Critical Mass, we can bike down the street safe from speeding cars–together–empowered by our numbers. Critical Mass is a celebration.

Critical Mass rides sometimes enrage car drivers because bike traffic competes with car traffic for space on the road. Cars have their critical mass 29 days of the month when bikes get crowded out. It’s called rush hour! Critical Mass is a single day when bike traffic briefly outnumbers car traffic. Maybe in 50 years, bikes will outnumber cars everyday. As concerns about global warming increase, people are searching for alternatives like bikes. A community of cyclists is developing–demanding respect and some space on the road.

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T03:44:00.001-07:00

Sorry it has been a long hiatus here at staticalaska. There has been no scarcity of artwork here--I would say more than anything else it has been a lack of confidence on most of the new stuff. Anyway, I figured that we were just getting into Memorial Day here, so this would be fitting to put up. It's a sad holiday.

There's a lot of art that I am really excited about that will hopefully be getting put up here before too long. I have been trying new stuff and exploring different styles.
Stay safe, readers.
mega

Critical Mass Tacoma - May 2009

2009-05-06T15:52:00.000-07:00

[cross-posted from moink.net]

After last month's monstrous success (nearly one hundred riders!), Critical Mass in May is on! Meet up at the corner N 9th St and N Madison St. Not sure where to go? Check out the magical Google Maps: link

But what is Critical Mass?

Critical Mass bike rides are spontaneous, leaderless rides that begin at specific times and locations in various cities around the world. Since no one organizes the rides, the rides have no agreed agenda or demands. They aren’t a protest. Instead, when we ride on Critical Mass, we’re living the world we would like to see–filling the streets with bikes, laughter, human speed, clean air, engagement and life. At Critical Mass, we can bike down the street safe from speeding cars–together–empowered by our numbers. Critical Mass is a celebration.

Critical Mass rides sometimes enrage car drivers because bike traffic competes with car traffic for space on the road. Cars have their critical mass 29 days of the month when bikes get crowded out. It’s called rush hour! Critical Mass is a single day when bike traffic briefly outnumbers car traffic. Maybe in 50 years, bikes will outnumber cars everyday. As concerns about global warming increase, people are searching for alternatives like bikes. A community of cyclists is developing–demanding respect and some space on the road.

bears and hip-hop

2009-04-09T18:04:00.000-07:00

So lately this blog has had a lot of band posters up on it, but I guess this makes a fair amount of sense given the number of shows we've been playing lately. Here's another! It was initially going to be for chopping into thirds, but I think it works pretty well intact. I got my ink out again, so brush and inking yielded this bear which goofily presents a hip-hop show happening tomorrow night. This will be the first show Flock headlines, and it's with a bunch of other hip-hop kids, which I am excited about.

Critical Mass Tacoma - April 2009

2009-04-02T20:03:00.000-07:00

I've been quiet for so long, but I noticed the "nonsensical bike advocacy" and had to post that Friday, April 24 starting at 6pm is...

Critical Mass!

Meet up at the corner N 9th St and N Madison St. Not sure where to go? Check out the magical Google Maps: link

But what is Critical Mass?

Critical Mass bike rides are spontaneous, leaderless rides that begin at specific times and locations in various cities around the world. Since no one organizes the rides, the rides have no agreed agenda or demands. They aren't a protest. Instead, when we ride on Critical Mass, we're living the world we would like to see--filling the streets with bikes, laughter, human speed, clean air, engagement and life. At Critical Mass, we can bike down the street safe from speeding cars--together--empowered by our numbers. Critical Mass is a celebration.

Critical Mass rides sometimes enrage car drivers because bike traffic competes with car traffic for space on the road. Cars have their critical mass 29 days of the month when bikes get crowded out. It's called rush hour! Critical Mass is a single day when bike traffic briefly outnumbers car traffic. Maybe in 50 years, bikes will outnumber cars everyday. As concerns about global warming increase, people are searching for alternatives like bikes. A community of cyclists is developing--demanding respect and some space on the road.

Show on Monday

2009-03-29T00:00:00.000-07:00

This show is on Monday, and the rest of the details are all here on the posters!
I made three to compensate for the fact that they are just 8.5x11 black and white prints.
So here is the info on what I expect will be three great days to start off my pseudo spring break: today there is a party that Flock and $2000 Puma are both playing, then tomorrow I won tickets to Ratatat in Seattle, and then we have this show on Monday (plus all of the Lapelles are visiting, which will be a party in its own right).
I hope that everyone else is having comparably exciting times.
mega

Flock Rides Bikes

2009-03-28T00:00:00.000-07:00

Here's some more nonsensical bike advocacy coming out of staticalaska.
Flock: we ride bikes cause we and bikes are tight.
I think I mostly just like the phonetics of it. It was not thought out at all, and Eric was really not consulted. There are other images from when this picture was taken; something similar to this, but a little easier to take seriously, will likely be up in the coming weeks.
peace out, little planet

Don't Forget to Breathe

2009-03-13T00:00:00.000-07:00

Compared to the last post, this is some pretty good advice.
mega

you can always trust bears

2009-03-06T00:00:00.000-08:00

The title of this post is not a wise message, and is not true whatsoever.
That said, if you are looking to staticalaska for wisdom, you must be either desperate or misguided. Let me guide you somewhat: Kevin Nguyen and the folks at the bygone bureau might be more helpful in that regard (though wisdom might not always be the best word for it), and if you have some time for lectures, watching something on TED is generally about a twice a week occurrence for me.
Peace
megacat

So there's a show on Friday

2009-03-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

Have you heard? There is this show on Friday. In a rush for time, I put this poster together yesterday, and ended up scrapping several ideas before cutting back to an aesthetic I feel like I have a handle on pretty well. Here's what I got together; it might look sort of familiar (and the image is of Tokyo). To the bands: I do not know what order everyone is playing in. Once I had exported stuff to an uneditable format, I realized that the order of names is something I should have given more attention to. Also sorry on this image maybe being too big to fit on your screen, I'm at school so I'm just uploading the print size.
-mega

I'm still looking for freelance work!

radio radio.

2009-03-02T00:00:00.000-08:00

rumblepack has a radio show.
thursday nights.
9-10pm Pacific Time.
stream online @ www.kups.net
or listen at 90.fm in north tacoma, wa

the album is done

2009-02-16T20:54:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody,
This is brief: the Flock album is now released (as of Friday) and I am trying to fix the myspace (more like crapspace) for it. To that end, I have a wallpaper here that I redid from an earlier post, and I am posting the cover for it here, too.
the wallpaper:
as a png:

and as a .jpg:

and the cover!

Here's what the desktop looks like all tiled out (if you have all the same stuff on your desktop as I do).

don't let the haters get you down.
Oh and some of our music can be found here.
mega

Punching is the new Hugging

2009-01-13T14:02:00.000-08:00

Punching is the new hugging, and fronting is the new loving.
I think the style in the last couple posts on here is where I plan to go with my future illustration work. Long term, maybe I want to do a children's book, but I am pretty sure most of these images would kind of creep kids out.

mega

hats>clothing

2009-01-09T22:46:00.000-08:00

Here's a ridiculous new image.
I'd like to warn everyone against perfectionism and recommend Vonnegut, because he makes for some interesting reading. While we're on unrelated topics, I think Deltron 3030 is worth a close listen.
Anyone with work I can do should let me know, as I am currently underemployed yet reasonably agreeable. This offer may not last long! The employers are practically lining up trying to hire me, seriously. I am just trying to make up my mind. Not really, though. Hire me please!
megacat

ps I swear the contrast is higher on my computer.

carnivorous cloud concert poster

2009-01-08T20:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a crazy poster I made. Rumblepack and I will be in both Puma and Flock. You can see that the png, #1, has handled colors better than the crazy jpeg below it. Party!!!
-mega

toothawsandnyne!

2009-01-01T22:37:00.000-08:00

Dino Riders!? SDS!?

2008-12-16T14:01:00.000-08:00

How could I forget Dino Riders? These were some of my most fondly remembered toys, and I am certain that my parents had to endure endless negotiations about how my siblings and I could obtain more of them. Here's the highest fidelity image I could find online: maybe someone else thinks this is as awesome as I do. There were cartoons, which I don't remember at all, but there are a couple comics up at this site, under toys>comic inserts. plus there are desktop backgrounds like the one below. This is probably the coolest ever.
Megacat

also I found an old image I made well over a year ago and then never used. It is a line drawing for an idea I thought would work well for SDS recruitment. It is finals week, I should not be posting.

second attempt.

2008-12-12T13:34:00.000-08:00

tilt/shift.

2008-12-12T10:22:00.000-08:00

there is an interesting photography process i came across called "tilt shifting." the idea is that you can keep one area in focus while blurring the rest of the image to give the illusion that the entire scene appears to be a miniature. there are some great examples online. here is my first attempt. does it look like a miniature city?

visuals.

2008-12-12T09:58:00.000-08:00

i like the red horizontal boxes and the vertical blue boxes.

Squarepusher - Planet Gear from Warp Records on Vimeo.

purrformance art.

2008-12-12T00:40:00.000-08:00

thursday night check it out.

i <3 house music.

2008-12-08T14:40:00.000-08:00

this is crookers. they are a dj/production crew from italy.

its monday.

2008-12-08T11:32:00.000-08:00

so i have had two songs stuck in my head this monday morning: love lockdown by kanye west and tribulations by lcd soundsystem. my early morning printmaking class usually entails drawing for the first half of class and then scanning/photoshop/illustrator in the comp lab for the second half...

is this even real.

2008-12-07T20:26:00.000-08:00

on the topic of dinosaurs. this is all i have to share.

estemmenosuchus.

RUMBLEPACK IS BACK ON THE ATTACK!

2008-12-07T19:34:00.000-08:00

from months of slumber and deep hibernation rumblepack has returned to staticalaska. I have awoken. i happy to post art and such along with megacat and moink. i will also say that this morning sir megacat bet me $500 that I wouldn't post anything up here today. considering that i have in fact made a post today i have been searching for something that costs exactly $500. i have found the perfect thing - 19 VHS tapes of "Lets Learn to Dance" with Kathy Blake.

so not only is Megacat out $500, he's also gonna have to deal with the overwhelming jealously that will inevitably fall upon him when he sees me stepping some perfect Argentine tango.

anyway.

dinosaurs and graffiti maggots

2008-12-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

Sorry that this blog has been neglected for such a long time: college seems to have been taking a toll on my outside-of-college life. I have been managing to get through this semester and at this point, my graduation is inevitable, so I can relax a bit and post a bit again. Eric and I are both posting today, which carries with it an agreement that we will post a link to some info about our favorite dinosaurs. This is ridiculously childish, but I'm cool with that. I think I am pretty committed to parasaurolophus, with the whole group of armored dinosaurs coming in second. Parasaurolophus had a showy crest that also worked as a horn for making sound with.
Now that that is established, I can post the image. I drw a page of maggots a couple weeks ago, and over the last few days I have played around with photoshopping them onto the side of a building. Here's the result.

and a detail part:

I didn't really know we were rocking a purple background here at StaticAlaska lately, but I think I'm alright with it.
Eric and I both played in two shows yesterday--first with Flock and then with $2000 Puma. They went alright. There was a lot of feedback to deal with in the first one, and my keyboard wasn't working for the second one. So really, not that awesome, but getting back into the swing of performances is fun. Flock aims to have an album done for the new year, so don't hold your breath, but that is coming up. I think we're playing Harv's CD release show at Eclipse records in St Paul on January 2nd, and then releasing our own shortly after that. I'll try and keep you updated through this blog.
Megacat

Electoralism 2008

2008-10-29T15:25:00.000-07:00

[cross-posted from moink.net]

There is little purpose in writing extensively about how the United Stations electoral system, while providing the illusion of popular influence, is little more than a tool to manufacture an air of legitimacy where none exists. It is used to continue our domination, and that of the other oppressed classes. Instead I'll just point to Ray Cunningham's very brief If voting changed anything... it would be illegal.

No matter which candidate is elected, we are in for more of the same. More capitalism. More oppression. More war. More police. More violence. The presidential and vice-presidential candidates are not necessarily inherently bad people, but they do believe in capitalism, and electing the ones from either party will result in just about the same outcome. It is time to stop imagining that our votes make a difference, and begin organizing for real democracy.

Hint: for the most wheat-pasting fun (best quality), print on 11 by 17 inch paper with a printer that supports margins of no more than 0.3 inches... 0.18 is preferred; this may mean turning on "Edge-to-Edge Printing" for HP printers, or something else for printers made by others

To Pick Up a Thing

2008-10-19T12:58:00.000-07:00

Here's a guy picking up a thing.
I'm really into the pen work on this--I might watercolor it instead of this digital action, but here's its current state. I often lose interest in things over time, so it's kind of a now or never type of thing. I hope life's treating everyone well lately. Fall break is a battle with myself over what to put my time into--I'm rolling to the library right after this, but we'll see how well I apply myself there.

Ride til You Die: the Last Chapter (maybe)

2008-10-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

hey team,
Sorry that it has been a while, but school has been running my life a bit, as I guess is to be expected. I made another 'ride til you die' thing, probably the last one, but I kind of went off of Andrew's remix and incorporated some environmentalism into the concept. I have been thesis-writing a lot lately, so I'm getting my learn on a lot, and have spent more time in the library this semester than ever before. Now I am going to make some music and go to a party to see some friends play in a band.
Ethanol is a dumb idea. My economist friend is writing his thesis on it, and how stupid and inefficient it is. Oh well. Here's the new image.
Megacat

An Adorned Shell is a Symptom of Bourgeois Turtle Decadence that Must be Struggled Against

2008-10-01T18:36:00.001-07:00

[cross-posted from moink.net]

Megacat was recently approached by Kusikia to create a poster to advertise the release concert for their new album, "TURTLE WARS". Megacat got on that, and produced awesome turtles of doom. The project was then referred (sub-contracted?) to me, and I produced the text and layout, vectorized the graphics, did the colors, etc.

I have to admit that working with color is absolutely terrifying. I've only touched color in an art medium (other than as a single tone on white or black) once before, and it was a disaster. It still does not seem "just right" to me, and that's mostly because of the colors. If I was limited to black, white, and even two tones, it would be easier to comprehend. The high-contrast and simplicity of monotone work makes it extremely high-impact without the need to struggle with a color palette.

All this to say: color freaks me out, black and white are hella awesome. Hope you like the poster.

Also! Come to the show! Starting at Shakabra's (6th Ave & Oakes, in Tacoma) at 7:30pm, starring Teeath, Palo Verde, The Nextdoor Neighbors and, of course, Kusikia! Free! All ages! !!! !!!!!!!!! !

!

!!!!

The City, A Pile of Rubble

2008-10-01T17:05:00.000-07:00

[cross-posted from moink.net]

During my brief time in the San Francisco Bay Area, I was slightly overwhelmed by the city I could once call my home. It isn’t quite that I haven’t been there in a long time. I do know how to move around the town… even got the bus system down. Sometime still felt foreign. It was the people. I returned home to find so few people that I still knew and still cared about. It was tragic, and isolating.

The only exception was when I shared a wireless access point with a new neighbor and we had a long, impromptu chat. “Annie”, sorry I didn’t call you back. I fled California for Tacoma, WA. Anyway, I did a linocut in response to what I was feeling about my life, and the city in general. I don’t have the energy to explain further, today.

Fatalistic Plant Types

2008-09-14T01:45:00.000-07:00

I messed around with these for a while and I am thinking maybe I should have watercolored them. I guess I have grown attached to the infinite malleability of digital things. I can try things, making aesthetic decisions all I want, and not feel like I lose anything from it. Of course there are the countless hours that I've spent digitally manipulating things that could have been spent doing maybe more legitimate artistic endeavors, but what's done is done.
Most of these plants came from a sort of feeling like maybe I have been committing myself to pursuing all the wrong goals, like maybe I am a tomato plant aspiring to be an onion. Talking about myself as a plant is not meant literally, it is this college thing called metaphor. Really wild stuff. Sorry, I forget that keyboards can't express subtlety like sarcastic overtones can. But anyway, that is where "give up," and "I will never be an onion," and "no you aint awesome" came from. I think these type of shapes might make for good woodcuts later. The last one on the bottom is an attempt to counteract all the negativity in the others. Looking at them, I am actually pretty furious about how the colors turned out. It will be all gorgeous and saturated, and then saving it in a profile that is fit for the web mutes everything, so now the purple looks all whack and pastel, but it's not my fault completely, I swear.

Keep living,
megacat

Faster Pussycat! Pedal! Pedal!

2008-09-07T13:45:00.000-07:00

I loved Megacat's letters, so I got to work applying them in a context that made them make more sense to me. "Ride" is obviously referring to a bicycle, right? Or since I love my motorcycle, it must have been meant for motorcyclists. Or is Tupac just a serious roller coaster 'ridah', in addition to being a self-admitted rapist? In the end I decided it would make the most sense to use a bicycle, plus bicycles have the least to do with Tupac. And because bicycles are awesome.

The idea of being "hardcore" about some activity or another—so serious that you would die doing it—is hilarious to me. It implies the sort of extreme attitude that tends to produce outrageous absolutist statements. If we take a different approach to interpretation, however, and rather than "I will ride my bicycle and I will stop for nothing until I expire, panting down the road", we assume the meaning is "I will always be a bicyclist because it is wonderful. When I die, I hope that I will be able to look back at a life filled with bicycling", everything sounds much more rational. The people who, in my mind, most closely embody the (latter) implied relationship with their bicycle, however, are those in the radical community, anarchists and radical leftists in general love their bikes. They see it as a symbol of independence from consumerist commodities like gasoline, as well as a symbol of self-reliance. After all, in the absence of an engine, it is the rider that provides the locomotion.

Incidentally, I couldn't get this movie title out of my head today. It looks totally bizarre. And sorry if this post seemed mildly schizophrenic.

Ride til you Die

2008-09-07T01:18:00.001-07:00

This one might require some explanation. "Riding" is a pretty general verb, one that has a history in hip-hop music, going back in my memory to Tupac, with the track "Ambitionz az a Ridah." If he didn't start it, he popularized it.
Anyway, in Tacoma, in the UPS crowd I hang out with, I really got into the self-coined saying "no sleep til you die, work til you die" a couple semesters ago when SDS had seemingly endless projects constantly happening. It has a flow to it that really can't be communicated through this medium, so I understand if you don't get it. Regardless of why I thought that statement was good, "ride til you die" has better phonetics and can kind of apply to everything.
Obviously the top one is my favorite. I was doing some hand-lettering for this stuff, but it didn't quite work out as planned, and the font looks okay. As usual, they could use some more work, but getting them to this point has been pretty fun, and I just have more ideas than perfectionism.
Okay. Here are two goals.
1) start updating stuff that is almost entirely pen & ink based, plus maybe colors done digitally.
2) figure out how to give you my music in blog form. (This one is probably very feasible, but I'm working on feeling more comfortable with letting anyone hear it; that's probably what the blog would be best for).
The thesis and my other classes will be very demanding this semester, so I'm not making any promises, but I'll do my best.
megacat

Monocles & Moustaches

2008-08-31T02:04:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,
I am working on this illustration in pen turned into digital for coloring style, and it is very comics-looking. I could be perfectionistic, but that seems to be incompatible with fun, so I am opting for fun and flaws. Here is a big dude in a suit. Sorry to not be blogging so much, things are accelerating to get up to speed for school, and that I think means there won't be a whole lot of blog going down for a while. Thanks for reading!
Keep living.

love, megacat.

One of those reasons I can't sleep at night

2008-08-17T22:44:00.000-07:00

I have made a poster this week, found below. It is a day late, but it was pretty involved, so be chill. Last week was as involved as this week, but in the end, the comic strip I had done posted looking like trash, so I took it down. Ultimate frustration, but I think this week's looks pretty good. I wanted to try one with black instead of all the jarring blue linework , but attempting this crashed illustrator twice and I took the computer's word that that it would look bad. I am working on a new style portraying people as all uniform, with really restricted and forced positions. They are more iconic stand-ins than actual people, that's the point. It's an odd and different poster/style.

About the poster:
COINTELPRO stands for "counter intelligence program" and was initiated by J. Edgar Hoover when he was director of the FBI (a position he held from May 1924 until May 1972). I have been reading a book by Jack Olsen called Last Man Standing, which is essentially a biography of (former?) black panther Geronimo Pratt. The book documents some of the actions the FBI took against the targets of the program; anyone Hoover deemed "subversive." Techniques were underhanded and deceitful, unconstitutional and unethical. Their goals included breaking up marriages, encouraging gang warfare, disintegrating social organizations, falsely labelling activists as police informers and driving leaders (namely Martin Luther King Jr) to suicide. Needless to say, all of the specific objectives were not met, but the scale of these actions was enormous and the people that were unjustly targeted suffered a lot because of what happened. I blame COINTELPRO for a lot of the trouble the United States has with race, though I understand race is a difficult issue for many societies everywhere to negotiate. COINTELPRO is one of those examples of what humans are capable of doing to each other that leaves me dumbfounded and depressed. That being said, learning about these things humanity does to itself is essential in dispelling our naivete and insuring that we are not caught off guard by its capacity for those things we'd rather not think about. It makes us better citizens.

Do you frequent your local public library? When I studied abroad, I got a real appreciation for them, because all of Oman has only one public library, which is in the state-run mosque in the capitol. Use it or lose it, you know? Anyway, I hope that you are all well.

I just want to say I am thankful for the police sometimes, but that guns just scare me generally, so cops do, too, and the FBI and CIA have a pretty frightening history. But thank you to the police that are well directed in their application of force!

Megacat

I wish I knew how to indent paragraphs in these posts. That would be awesome.

Lac

2008-08-09T21:17:00.000-07:00

In 1958 my grandparents were spending their summer with their children in rural Idaho. The cabin they built on Lake Coeur d'Alene still stands today, and the families of their three children continue to use the cabin to this day! Early in July, 2008, I decided to try my hand at woodblock printing. I drew a contour image of the view from a front window at the cabin, divided the shapes into three colors, and then transferred the color-coded shapes onto three pieces of wood.

I didn't have the appropriate tools to be carving wood... instead I used a flat-head screwdriver and some kitchen tools. It was a struggle, but considering this is my first wood block carving, and my first multicolor print, I'm fairly proud of the result.

Party Time!

2008-08-03T00:00:00.002-07:00

Hello readers,
I was writing some rhymes with my friend Joey today, and we discovered that we both have blogs that we actually update regularly. He is doubtlessly a better and more focused writer, but I know that's not what you're coming here for anyway, so I am not exactly worried about the competition. Here's Joey's blog. He's a smart guy who writes about Twin Cities politics, and he's who I'm reading.

The new image is one that I hoped would be accompanied by some well thought-out political commentary, but the deadline is upon me, and I guess I hope that you will be held over with some links about campaign finance and an understanding of my frustration with both presidential candidates' plans if they are elected. I think I'm partial to some sort of IRV alternative to our current situation. Here's a goofy poster.

Good luck to everybody representing down at Tacoma's port, regardless of intimidation tactics and abuse from the police, I hope you all do alright and that nobody is injured.
Charlie

The Senior Senator from Alaska

2008-07-31T18:10:00.000-07:00

Hello, world. I'm Andrew, and have joined the Staticalaska blog. Don't ask me what that's going to mean, though. And speaking of Alaska, I hear Mr. "The Internet is a series of tubes" got pwned by the federal government. I wonder if they've finally decided he's no longer useful?

In other news, I have been hard at work in sunny California experimenting with printmaking, using rubber, linoleum and woods. In the spirit of the anti-G8 actions, resistance to war from within the military, as well as the upcoming RNC/DNC actions, included are some prints I did almost a month ago.

a brief thing.

2008-07-26T21:43:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone,
I am back in Minnesota on Monday, I played around with images much of the day (unsuccessfully), but I have decided I can't get anything looking better than this ink sketch I did early in the week. Hopefully there will be something elaborate next week. I love that you can kind of see the texture in the shadow I got overly excited about with a brush and ink.
Charlie

Ideas! Hit me with them!

2008-07-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

I have realized that this site might often come off as horrible self-promotion, which is not the intention. The thing is that I often want to play with script or illustrating or layout stuff, and my default subject matter often has to do with Flock (this week) or staticalaska itself (last week). So, anyway, I was thinking that I could do design for people in exchange for actually having something printed, or because we are friends, or for any other number of reasons. This blog is mostly an outlet for experiments with visual art stuff, but I would happily dedicate myself to some sort of project somebody wants help or input or collaboration on. I will design a poster for you if you'd like!
Okay, that started as an attempt to justify so much stuff on the site that seems like self-promotion, but ended up sounding like some pursuit of work. Sorry on that.
Anyway, this week I have been playing with pen and ink, and leafy lettering. Here is my first attempt at this sort of thing. I think the coloring on the letters might develop more in the future, but I guess we'll see.
Peace!

Oh, the background is a free texture shared from Lost and Taken, a key hookup for any of you photoshoppers.

random banners

2008-07-13T02:37:00.001-07:00

Hey all,
Music has been more of a focus for me lately than visual art stuff, but I played with some typography and banner layout stuff today. My learning curve I think has slowed down for the most part and now instead of it being entirely new concepts, illustrator has turned into establishing habits for efficiency. This means that it is sort of frustrating, but more and more concepts that I can think of I can actually execute now. It is kind of coming up with an on-the-fly order of operations for each step in an idea.
I'd like to work some on the site, so maybe eventually I will figure out how to design it more thoroughly. One of these banners might help serve in that capacity. Sorry about the formatting, it is getting late, and I made a couple mistakes in the order I did things, so I was already getting sort of tired.
I think I'm most excited about the one on the top right, because it is not flashy effects at all, and came more from experimenting than the others did.
stay positive,
Charlie

You Can Never Go Home

2008-07-06T01:30:00.000-07:00

There are a couple images here. They are the same thing, but I wanted to do a couple versions--what started as initially just doing a color remix ended up being a change in background, too, as the grid was hard to change, and I didn't want a solid color in the background. The darker fill in the type didn't stand well on a white ground, so the revamp got major. They are both supposed to fit on letter-sized paper in case somehow my posting this on the internet ends up with one of these hitting a printer.
I can't get my scanner (a gift from Andrew) to cooperate with my computer, but I don't know what more to do. Maybe later I will be able to post more pen & ink style stuff. For now I will keep my sketchbook to myself.
I will be better at responding to comments on here, from now on, I got blogspot emailing me about them (I think).
I hope this finds you well,
Charlie

Pretty much a Ware-house

2008-06-29T02:31:00.000-07:00

What up fam,
It's getting a bit late here in Tacoma, but I wanted to post this thing up before bedtime (which is as soon as possible). Converting this one to GIF format for the web changed the colors again, but for this image I was not very particular about them to begin with, so I didn't freak out about it this time. This image me hurriedly sort of aiming for Chris Ware style. He's so good! Martin, thank you for his stunning book.
The new job is cool, the youth are cool, no homework is cool, so life is pretty good lately, drawing and listening to TED lectures, rapping and making beats, researching earth science online so I can help teach. Mom, I am totally going to get your birthday present in the mail this week (I swear).
Charlie

corn in colors

2008-06-22T19:07:00.000-07:00

I have been working on coloring drawings in Photoshop, and despite the fact that the color profiles are the same between my different adobe programs, taking it from doing type layout in Illustrator to photoshop annihilates the colors. Then I save it for the web, as a GIF, which brings imageready into the mix, which twists the colors around again. So, whatever, here's a poster with different-than-originally-planned colors.

And here is a drawing of some men in hats
(If I don't post next weekend it is because my computer is contemplating breaking again)

not teeth. (larger than teeth)

2008-06-15T00:00:00.000-07:00

A comic! They are not teeth (which is feedback that I have gotten from a few people I've showed this to so far), they are a country and an international organization. This is pretty much goes out to the IPE majors out there.
Enjoy!

A lot of this comic is based on an article by Reed Lindsay from the Nation that came out on June 2nd. Here's a link, but I guess you only get to look at the start of the article if you don't subscribe. I read it at my local library. The article is called "Haiti on the Death Plan," the 'Death Plan' being many Haitians' name for the government's liberal economic policy.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080602/lindsay
Here are a few highlights from the article:

More than 4.5 million Haitians spend more than half their income on food, and there has been rioting and strong public response to the increase in food prices over the last year.(p 22)
Haiti is one of the most economically liberal countries in Latin America. (p 24)
Their newly elected president has promised more food aid and has gotten rice prices to drop, but does not seem to plan on changing the economic policy of keeping inflation low no matter what. (p 24)

Spring

2008-06-08T22:05:00.000-07:00

Hey team,
I have been moving and flying and experiencing the twin cities a lot lately, a lot of transitioning, and in the morning I am driving with my father to visit his parents. I love spending time with family, and having more time to have politically charged arguments for hours on end in a car never hurt a relationship, right? I am looking forward to it, then after Illinois we drive back and I head up to Ely, Minnesota for a visit. Then back to Tacoma via airplane, to start my job a couple days later.
Well I have to get up in less than seven hours and I want a snack, oral hygiene, then sleeping, so I got to post these now. I am not actually very happy with this poster (it is what scribbling on a computer looks like), and the desktop things don't line up perfectly, but I am learning and I figure if I waited for anything I was totally happy with, I would never post anything. The second two images are desktops. The middle image is the first tiling sort of thing I have tried to make with any level of complexity, and the last image is a picture of my desktop so you don't have to download it to see it in action. Once I get back to Tacoma and harness the power of the scanner Andrew gave me, expect a lot more ink and less digital: I have been getting sick of illustrator since I started trying to enter logo design contests online. And no, you will never see my submissions because I despise them. At least now I know I probably won't ever get a job doing this.
Peace,
Charlie

Newness

2008-05-31T22:31:00.000-07:00

My computer is fixed! Andrew is an incredible and awesome and skilled dude! I have been working on a lot of new things; here are a few of them:

I've got some ink stuff I'll be posting pretty soon, and I think my work in Illustrator is starting to pan out. I am changing houses for a few days now, so there will be no posts for a bit.
Hopefully, posts will be coming a lot more often now that I'm not taking classes.
Charlie

an update long overdue

2008-05-27T12:51:00.000-07:00

Hello blog readers,
It has been over a month since the last post, but life in general has been keeping me plenty busy, so there hasn't been much art going on. Actually, there hadn't been much art going on, but since summer has started properly, I have been doing little besides drawing, painting and reading (along with a bit of gardening). Graduation weekend was awesome, except for the fact that I was incapacitated by some mysterious illness for much of the weekend. The lack of updates can be attributed somewhat to the fact that my computer is dead right now, but also I guess it is just my irresponsibility and aversion to learning to edit pictures on the school computers' odd programs instead of the ones I am comfortable with.
Luckily for you, internet audience, I was driven to negotiate the strange and confusing depths of Photoshop Elements today when I wanted to change the color of this logo submission for BERT to UPS' institutional maroon. Hopefully I will be posting more regularly again, though this depends on a number of things including my employment status, whether my computer gets running again, and whether I can find someone with a digital camera to record my progress on some paintings I am starting. Alright, here is some stuff; the freshest images are not yet quite ready for the public, though I am about to go use the scanner so I will have them digitally.

Keep living,
Charlie

April is a rough month

2008-04-26T20:01:00.001-07:00

Hey everybody,
The lack of updates is reflective of the level of chaos going on here in Tacoma, we are down to the last couple weeks of classes and it's crazy. I hope that this short update finds you all well. I made a profile picture so I thought I would post it. It is the biggest illustrator file I have ever had on my computer, and I think it looks decent. It is a lot of pretty much tracing a photo with my mousepad thing on my laptop. I think if I draw this much on my computer I should really just buy a mouse. I will do this after summer break starts.
I think the picture is super creepy, actually, but it's what I've got, so now you've got it, too.
Also I tried to embed a song in the profile, but I'm not sure that that actually works, so you might need to head over to our myspace. Rio C. is on the track (titled Cold) along with me and Eric (you won't hear Eric's voice, he's just on production for this one). The beat is all through Reason and Protools, the piano we used is the one in my parents' house. Myspace is horrible, but I guess it's good at hosting music.

Cold.mp3
Don't forget to play outside now as it's springtime.
Charlie

album art submissions

2008-04-04T01:47:00.000-07:00

Hey Team,
We are not quite posting weekly, but I am trying to keep you filled in with the newness. I made a few logo concepts for Campus Music Network to go with my CD compilation submissions. They are very Illustrator, meaning the lines are at times just too clean, but I have just been learning it, so I am using it a lot, and hopefully it will just turn into another tool in the backpack next to the
sharpie and the crayons. So these are all sorta similar, but here they are.

They wanted some stuff for the back of the CD, so I threw these together quick at the end as something to put track titles on top of.

If anyone out there is in the Tacoma area, on this Saturday (April 5th), Eric and I (Flock) are playing in the Alder Art Walk. We'll probably be on around 10:00, playing at 3120 north 8th street. After us there are four other bands, including the always awesome Kusikia. The two other houses are sure to be a good time as well, and it is all free, so why not?
I am in a good mood and happily writing because I am pretty sure I totally aced my International Political Econ test today, and our radio show tonight was great and also fun.
Rock on, little planet.
Charlie

title remix.

2008-03-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

live from Bozeman, MT

2008-03-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

Hello, world!
I am sitting in Bozeman public library with Eric typing everything with my left hand. I tore up my right shoulder riding yesterday (I have an a/c separation?) so I spent last night drawing lions in sharpie with my left hand, and I am now slow at everything but reading, and I am maybe even slow at that when I am on my prescribed vicadin. Anyway, I wanted to post a couple random things.
The first is a couple-of-weeks old album cover submission for the Campus Music Network's
annual compilation CD. I have been working on a new one, but it is not submitted yet, so it is still in the works. I think that this older one still looks decent, though.

The second is a graf-style staticalaska sketch that I scanned into photoshop and colored. it looks 8bit old school (that is what Eric told me, and then he remixed it). I did the coloring and stuff on Wednesday night, I think. Eric's show what awesome feats he is capable of with photoshop. The thing is that his computer doesn't have it, so he can only work that magic through mine or something.
I played with Illustrator a fair amount over spring break. I've got one thing that is good to post, but I am working on a cool fish thing that should be good in the future. For now, you all get some more words work, and I have decided to throw a watercolor/ink llama scene, too. That should be enough to hold you over.

Peace.
Megacat

Kangaroo-type of animals

2008-03-12T14:38:00.000-07:00

Hey Everybody!
Sorry I have not posted in a while, I guess Eric and I have both fallen off the blog wagon lately. I do have some art, though, just not that much of it, and the school scanners are often uncooperative, as happened on Friday. Here are a couple of kangaroo things I did with gauche that my friend Jenny had while we were hanging out and making art a while ago.
In justification of my not sending digital art to all of you on the internet, I have been pretty busy lately. Besides school, this week is host to 2 CAIR meetings (one with Ron Thom), our semi-final intermural volleyball game (we lost but it's cool), 2 IPE professor candidate lectures, lunch with a professor candidate, attendance of a pretty much failed protest downtown and a couple hours of tutoring with a Lincoln High School student for WASL prep. Oo plus the radio show! Last week went really well, so hopefully this week goes comparably well. We might have a local Tacoma producer on. I ditched SDS this week, though, so that's kind of lame. Next week is spring break, so I'm super excited to do that. We are going to Montana! Greatgreatgreat.
Hopefully I'll post a bit more before we leave, I am kind of playing with this line-heavy illustration style with watercolors and there's a llama I painted a bit ago that maybe I'll post soonish.
Charlie

Flock posters

2008-02-21T19:57:00.000-08:00

Readers,

I want you to do me a favor. I want you to imagine that me and Eric are indie rock college kids to the max. I do not rap, and he does not make beats. No, we have never heard hip-hop and we wear tight pants exclusively. I don't really know what else we would do, and we probably make lots of fitting, indie-style music anyway, but whatever, the point is that these posters do not look at all hip hop. Hopefully, we will post some recorded music from the last couple weeks soon! In the meantime, you can catch live rapping from yours truly every Thursday on KUPS Tacoma during our radio show, Danger Metropolis, 10-11 PM. Link!
Charlie out
P.S. Maybe imagine these with ideal color settings. Somehow the colors got all messed up in converting them and getting them ready for posting online. Anyway, maybe you can just imagine them in their ideal, smooth, beautiful, vector forms, so even if they aren't great, pretend they are. (The last one is just an alternate crop)

v-day!

2008-02-14T00:46:00.000-08:00

Hey Everybody,
happy v-day! I drew a picture that I had had floating around in my head for a while, and my friend Andrew helped a lot in vectorizing it and cleaning it up, as well as making it scalable so it can be super big if it wants. We initially put a tiny sds logo at the bottom, but decided that then people would just vandalize it or not give it any consideration. After having been gone for a semester, I don't really know the politics surrounding sds' image on campus, so I figured I wouldn't make an argument for making this a PR campaign. You can read v-day like alluding to the military sense as well as the Eve Ensler sense, so that is kind of why I like it. You can read into this however you want though. It is scaled for letter-size printing!
megacat out

testrun

2008-02-11T16:28:00.000-08:00

Hey planet,

Here are a couple images: an orange thing from Photoshop and a steamroller from Illustrator.

Peace

colour info.

2008-02-07T23:00:00.000-08:00