Kathleen Ryan @ & Pens

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Screens – A solo exhibition by Kathleen Ryan
Curated by Michelle Blade

Opens Friday, November 1, 2013

Kathleen Ryan’s installation based ceramic sculptures are three dimensional sketches of commonplace architecture; cinder block walls, steel stair railings, security gates. Made of lustrous glazed ceramic, the fragile material is pushed to transcend its physical limits, playing opposing roles simultaneously. As the sculptures hover above the ground or precariously upright, they also hover between utility and decoration, handmade and manufactured, glamour and grit, the banal and the sublime.

Kathleen Ryan is an artist living and working in her hometown Los Angeles. She is an MFA candidate at UCLA and will graduate in Spring 2014.

Sign Painters

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Coming to & Pens,
Saturday October 19, 2013 – 7-10 p.m.

Colt Bowden – How To Paint Signs and Influence People Vol. 3 – Script Lettering zine release party

Come see real hand painted signs and learn how to paint them… in a Zine!

For one night only Colt himself will be here to sign and sell copies of the newly released zine. Also on display will be many hand painted original signs and lettering examples from within the pages of the zine.

*Previous issues available here.

Heavy Rotation

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I finally got around to giving this record a whirl on the turntable a couple weeks ago and since then it’s been on heavy rotation. Saw Mill Man, Cast King of Old Sand Mountain Alabama contains 12 sombre country tracks performed by the semi-unknown musician and songwriter from Old Sand Mountain, Alabama – Joseph D. “Cast” King. King’s deep baritone vocals make this record sound almost as if they could have been sung by Johnny Cash himself, but under a fake name. Apparently back in the 1950s, King did actually do some recordings with Sam Phillips and the legendary Sun Records (the same label as Cash), but his career seemed to fizzle out after a couple years and he retreated back into his rural Alabama home where he faded into obscurity.

The story of this record makes listening to it all the better. Back in 2005 Matt Downer, discovered Cast King while doing field recordings of musicians in Georgia and Alabama (which he had been doing since 1998). This record was recorded and released shortly after. Cast was 79 at the time of these recordings.

Pour yourself a hot cup of coffee on a relaxing Sunday morning and this record will hit the spot. Enjoy!

*The record is available for purchase here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mp0Jf8RWwM&w=640&h=480][youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ywieFFl7f4&w=640&h=360]

Saturday = LOVE WARZ + ZARA THUSTRA + Special Guests

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& PENS PRESS presents a book release for

XARA THUSTRA‘s
Friendship Between Artists
is an Equation of Love and Survival

with musical performances by

LOVE WARZ
(Xara Thustra collaboration with Siobhan Aluualot)
plus

SPECIAL GUESTS

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2013
7:30 – 9:30 p.m.

* * FREE FOOD * *

INFO:
Names like Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, and Chris Johanson are credited as some of the key players in the San Francisco 1990’s art movement known as the “Mission School.” The history books teling the story of this art movement and bringing it into the mainstream have left behind a few artists that were and still are artistically trailblazing, often times alongside those that received greater acclaim.

The story of the “Mission School” is definitely not complete without XARA THUSTRA. Both an activist and artist, Thustra has been pushing the envelope socially and artistically for 15 plus years in San Francisco. Xara’s ever evolving creative medium has been graffiti, screen printed posters. calendars, murals, paintings, video, music, performance and protest. Socially, Xara has been responsible for anti-war actions, gay activism, feeding the hungry, anti-capitalist actions, squats like 949 Market, and so much more…

This beautiful 500 page book captures 15 plus years of Thustra’s work in one package through photos and imagery. Not to mention, there are also cameos contained within from Xylor Jane, Chris Johanson, Barry McGee, Emory Douglas, Erick Lyle, Kyle Ranson, Ivy Jean, Sy Loady, and a cast of other SF punks, artists, queers, and activists. Such fantastic stuff. Don’t miss this.

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“Feed the people! SF STOPS WARS. STOP MEN. Hard-working, self-schooled, tireless artist/activist Xara Thustra [rules] 2-D, performance, drums, video. Manhaters, Love Warz AND the annual Calendar. HEART 101. All for FREE! Unbelievable.” – Xylor Jane

“Thustra’s art fills me with a crazy unhinged joy. It makes you want to do something joyful and spectacular and very illegal. I would like to think that my heart looks something like this, and yours too.” – Michelle Tea

“I have always been inspired by the creativity of Xara. It is always 100 percent care. One of my favorite artists that I met in SF. Making things to make people think and with so much concern. This book about creative ritual and meditation toward making things better is a good gesture in the Left direction. A non text book, but in the school of life.” – Chris Johanson

“Like an invisible giant, silently stalking our city, converting it’s ever-more-boring facade into an impassioned, beautiful call to arms, revolution, and to love. Xara has created an incredible genre and gender busting body of work. This is the freak flag flying high.” – Bill Daniel

Amblings Near & Far: Interview with Sophie Roach

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When we first received Sophie Roach’s zine , Amblings #1, we fell in love. This beautiful Risograph printed  zine is made up of 22 packed pages of ornate and detailed drawings. The combination of her craft and design work feel like pure eye candy. I found my eyes excitedly wandering over the drawings, getting lots in little pockets and at the same time enjoying the textural feel of the paint.

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We liked the zine so much we couldn’t help be want to hear more about Sophie’s process. So here we are, interview # 3 on the Book Log.

&P: Let’s start with the basics, name and location?

SR: My name is Sophie Roach and I’m currently writing this at my hostel in southern Thailand, though my home base and soul-city is Austin, Texas.

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&P: Tell us about your practice and how long you’ve been working?

SR: I’m an artist and illustrator. I draw all the time and sometimes I hang the results on a wall and sometimes they’re applied to a product or, in one case, a double decker bus. I started doodling casually in my college classes about four years ago, but I didn’t take drawing very seriously until I hit a sweet spot in January of 2012. After six months of post-graduation floundering, I found my thing (my passion, or whatever) and a direction.

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&P: Your Amblings zine is beautiful. Will you walk us through your process or inspiration for it?

SR: Thank you! Amblings was inspired by the graphic novels that I’ve been getting into recently. I love the way that comics tell stories nonverbally and I wanted to appropriate that concept with my style in an abstract way.

I freehanded each page in black ink, separated the colors in Photoshop, then my generous friend printed them using a Risograph machine. This printing process, sort of a mix between screen printing and photocopying, is endearingly quirky and makes it so each zine is uniquely flawed.

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&P: What are you working on right now? And what do you have coming up in the future that you are looking forward to?

SR: I’m working on designing a variety of items and objects for a traveling pop-up shop later this year. It’s a great excuse for me to experiment with a variety of different surfaces and to visit with my far off friends. I’m also in the process of drawing my second and third zines. One of them is going to be called Real Things That Exist In This World and it’s going to be filled with more intentional drawings than usual.

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We can’t wait to see your next project. Thanks for your time Sophie and have fun in Thailand!

David King’s Secret Origins of the Crass Symbol

 

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& Pens presents,
A book release and exhibition for & Pens Press latest title,

Secret Origins of the Crass Symbol by Dave King

An exhibition featuring graphics from the book (including the Crass Symbol),
photographs and stencil pieces.

On display, September 14 – October 14, 2013

More info on the book here:

“Dave King was born in London not long after the Second World War, when there was still food and clothing rationing and children played in mysterious and hazardous bomb sites, between rows of bland and un- damaged terraced or semi-detached houses. It was a grey world which didn’t see much color until the economy finally improved in the Sixties, which were nothing if not colorful. To avoid a job as a bank clerk, King went to Art School (where he met Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher, later of Crass.) For the next ten years he worked as a graphic designer and art director before “retiring” to the communal house that eventually became home to the band. He then moved to New York and fell happily into the Downtown music scene of the late Seventies, joining the band Arsenal. He did illustrations for the Museum of Modern Art and the logo for downtown club Danceteria as well as graphics for many bands. His band then moved to San Francisco in the early Eighties (a very interesting time in the California punk scene), becoming Sleeping Dogs, which appeared (as did Arsenal) on Crass Records. Today Dave King still lives in San Francisco, still designs logos and works on his own graphic, photographic and film projects.” – Boing Boing