I’ve going to be participating in two gallery shows coming up later this month. The first is a solo show at LAND, a gallery and retail space in Portland OR run by my old friends at BuyOlympia.com, and the second is a group show in Marfa Texas.

At LAND I’ll be doing an exhibit of the Modular Project where I’ll have an installation of the objects I made for the project, and showing a series of large format photographs of the machine within different landscapes.

The Opening is on March 25th at 6PM and the show will be running until April 17th at LAND 3925 North Mississippi Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97227.

The group show in Marfa Texas is at Fancy Pony Land and has a theme of personal flags. All of the participating artists will be creating flags for themselves or to represent other ideas. Mine isn’t quite ready to show yet, but I’ll get some images and more info posted up here soon. The opening for that show is on Saturday March 19th at Fancy Pony Land 203 E. San Antonio St. Marfa, TX 79843

by Nate Manny in Uncategorized
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Often when I’m working on a project, and am getting immersed in whatever the process is of that particular thing, I’ll end up going down some creative rabbit holes that are tangents on that theme. I’ll experiment with different elements, and type treatments along the way, or I’ll come across images or ideas that I want to use but that don’t apply directly to the work I’m doing. A kind of creative refuse, or bi-product, that sometimes ends up in the trash bin, and other times can have its own merits. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on a 7″ cover for a band called, “Eugene Wendell & the Demon Rind” and along the way I’ve had some interesting results.

I wanted to have a hands on feel for this piece, and take advantage of the opportunity to work outside of the computer. I scoured old magazines looking for different images and type, specifically looking for things that I could grossly enlarge to make visible the fast and dirty printing of these older magazines. A lot of the images are out of register and the resulting colors and patterns are something I find really interesting. Along the way I found a handful of images that I liked, and ended up doing some collages as side projects. Here’s some of the different pieces I put together, as well as the final images for the 7″ cover.

Hi resolution images can be seen on my Flickr page here.

full article

by Nate Manny in Design, Process
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A little while back I worked on a few choice items for the local Seattle bar, Hazlewood. A highlight of which was a poster called, “A Guide to Social Conduct & General Good Living.” The premise being, what kind of advice would you get about life from a bunch of Victorian era dandies? The answer is, “Terrible of course.” The poster covers a pretty wide spectrum of possible encounters, tips for climbing the social ladder, and a “Compendium of Ne’er-do-wells and Rapscallions” that functions as a quick reference for some of the nasty scoundrels you may want to avoid along the way. Big thanks to my friend Scott Dierdorf for helping out with some of the copywriting, he’s a gentleman and a master of the Olde-Tymey wordsmithing.

Below are some highlights and excerpts from the project:

On Regaining Position After a Humiliating Defeat
For the Gentleman who has suffered a humiliating loss of a pistola duel and, as a side-effect, an eyeball and social stature, one way to regain his position and the favor of the more discerning Ladies is to fill the vacant socket with ampules of spirit-lifting medickal tonicks and powders. A tight fitting leather eye-patch can be a dignified accessory as well as a metaphorical wink to those-in-the-know that behind this curtain of horrors is stuffed a vast collection of exquisite pleasures.

The LEVITATION of VAGRANTS
To impress your significance among your peers and companions there are few acts of wonderment more spectacular than the levitation of unconscious inebriates and the corpses of vagrants. This incredible talent can also be employed to remove this human refuse from the walking course of an amorous conquest, or to hurtle an obstacle into the path of thieves or rapists who have given into chase with the intent to do you bodily harm.

From the “Compendium of Ne’er-do-wells and Rapscallions” we have:

The EXHIBITIONIST
The Exhibitionist requires only the flimsiest pretense to strip off his over-coat, top-coat, jacket, waist-coat, dickie, blouse, under-shirt, trousers, under-trousers and sub-under-trousers and display his enviable physique. Many a young Woman has been tempted by his gleaming, hairless chest. Beware, ladies! Those who succumb to their base instincts soon find themselves face to face with the D—l himself! That, and the Exhibitionist’s enormous penis.

The MATRON
Beyond her years of maternal value, the Matron prowls the nights like a jungle cat seeking the Life-essence of any young Gentleman her withered paws can grasp. Her lustful vengeance of lost youth is merciless and depleting but undeniably skilled. Beware the roving pack of Matrons, as their powers are amplified exponentially by their numbers.

The WANDERER
The wanderer is a slovenly scoundrel, generally revolting in appearance and utterly inept in regards to personal hygiene, they are often quite gifted in music and the arts. His greatest talent, or curse, depending on your preference, lurks wrapped in his filthy swaddling pants: the trunk-like “brush” with which he is an undeniable master.

Hazlewood is most definitely “The Paris of Ballard.” Well done chums.

by Nate Manny in Design
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We had an early snow storm here last week, and in traditional Seattle fashion the city went completely nuts. I don’t know what it is about this place, but if there is even a light dusting of snow on the roads it’s practially the apocalypse around here. Cars are abandoned on the streets, all work stops, nobody is outdoors after dark … People might as well start looting stores, and starting fires. You would think that a place with such a rugged history, and that prides itself on its connection to nature, would be a bit more capable of handling the elements. Sure, there are a lot of hills here, and they ice up pretty quick, but it’s the widespread panic and the instant and total surrender that surprises me.

While taking the chains off our car for our Thanksgiving trip to Portland, I found a set of bejeweled metal teeth in the muddy, oil soaked slush at a gas station. I can only imagine that 17° wind blasting onto your grill doesn’t make your teeth feel too great. Pop those suckers out man! You don’t need bling in a blizzard, are you completely nuts?!

Personally, I love it when it snows, and in a way, I like the effect it has on the city. It creates a mandatory pause, and people seem to pull out of themselves and are forced to live in the moment. We have to stop and accept things as they are, not be thinking two hours ahead at all times, but actually be right there inside ourselves, literally taking each step at a time. The thing of it is that it never lasts, we’re always back to our busy lives within a couple days as if it never happened, but that’s all the more reason to just settle in and allow it to be. Enjoy your family and friends, and revel in it. It’s a rare opportunity to focus on what what is fleeting.

by Nate Manny in Fantastic Trash, Looking Up
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This week I’m sending out a set of self promotion packages and I needed to make some new mailing labels. This seemed like a great opportunity to break out a set of vintage wood type I’ve been waiting to use and get my hands a little dirty. I designed the labels in Illustrator leaving a space for the woodblock print which I placed by hand.

Here’s the stack of finished labels cut to size.

by Nate Manny in Design
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Among some of the different things I discovered was a strange set of tools. They were familiar in form but unlike anything I had seen before. Brushes of some kind, but strangely blunt and unforgiving, or impossibly thin and wispy. An object that was similar to a painters palette, but instead of paint covered wood it was a board complete with ergonomic straps for holding like a palette and covered in a soft leather. At one end was a vellum box that folded down flat when stored in its black fabric bag. Also included in the set were a couple of what appeared to be palette knives, but even these were different than tools that I’ve worked with. Nobody in the family had a clear idea of what they were for. The documentation that we found from my Grandmother explained that they were tools used by her uncle who was a sign painter. The tools were well used but not covered in paint and it was hard to imagine being able to use them as paint brushes. We all chalked it up as an old-tymey mystery and I put them in my box to take home as a keepsake.

I didn’t think much more about it until I saw this video about a traditional english sign painter and glass embosser named David A Smith. It turns out he uses similar tools to apply gold leaf in his work. If you are a fan at all of lettering or sign painting this video is definitely worth the time to watch.

David A Smith – Sign Artist from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.

I am so excited to discover what these tools are and to have a better understanding of the history of their use. It also turned out that I had brought home a few thick packets of gold and silver leaf material that came from a completely different part of the house. In the next couple of weeks I’m going to head over to the sign painting shop and try to get a few supplies to try this out. I’m curious to see how it goes.

I’ve posted a set of photos of all the other documents and objects I brought back on my flickr page. Type nerds and ephemera fans may be particularly interested.

by Nate Manny in Craft, Design, Life
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There’s an old saying in New York that goes, “Only tourists look up.” I think it’s meant to be a condescending comment that knickerbockers use to poke fun at visitors and hapless rubes who aren’t in the know, gawking at the spectacle of the city. When I think about this saying I question its sentiment and bitter callousness because I interpret it to mean something almost totally the opposite of its intended purpose, something that in my mind is more troubling than the undiscriminating contempt and mockery of outsiders — That if you live anywhere, or do anything long enough, you stop taking the time to see the world around you.

To me this is tragic, because seeing and observing is vital, it is the most immediate and visceral way that I connect to my surroundings and my life. It’s not just literally seeing, it’s an attitude and a world view. It’s about recognizing and enjoying the simple things in life — real life — the life that is actually around you, and that you are actually a part of. Having the ability to be genuinely engaged, and having the capacity to remain constantly curious within the patterns of your every day life.

In today’s modern world, with a constant influx of information and visual stimulation it’s becoming harder and harder to have the patience to observe. We are being subjected to a never ending onslaught of media, noise and jargon. Ipods, blackberries, computers, and omnipresent televisions make it more difficult to spend time with our own thoughts and feel actually connected to our surroundings. All of these things are distractions, and they’ve become such a part of our life that it’s easy to feel like if they are not there, there is nothing to see or do. We become bored. We’ve become conditioned to be stimulated by external sources, fed information, and constantly entertained as opposed to being curious and seeking out, finding, seeing and experiencing.

We are no longer hunters and gatherers, we are consumers, and consumption is passive.

To me, being bored means you’re not paying close enough attention, and that you’re not actively engaging with your surroundings. Granted, sometimes things can be boring … like Vin Diesel, but even in the barren wasteland that is Vin Diesel, with a laser like focus, there is joy to be found. When people stop paying attention accidents happen; cars crash, fingers get cut off, terrible leaders are elected, Vin Diesel makes movies, and things can slide out of control.

This blog is an effort on my behalf to be more engaged with my life, and to give myself a venue for passing thoughts and observations without needing a larger context in which to connect them. The only constant thread or theme to any of this is that I’ve seen something, thought it was interesting, and taking that observation and trying to communicate it to others, is fun. Even just having this blog as an outlet is a good excuse to pay attention to things in a different way, for a different reason. I hope I can keep it up.

Complacency —> Boredom —> Apathy —> DANGER!

Observation —> Curiosity —> Discovery —> EXCITEMENT!

by Nate Manny in Ethos, Life, Looking Up
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