Hey everybody! With the approaching Fall and the promise of cooler weather here in LA, we've decided to throw a 15% off sale on all our products! Including all our serigraph prints from artists like Ramsey Dau, Albert Reyes, Cleon Peterson, Mark Whalen, Deedee Cheriel and more. And all our notebooks and t-shirts are on sale too! Just go to our store and enter coupon code: FALL15 at checkout and you'll receive 15% off your entire order. Sale is for a short time only!
One of the great things about living in Los Angeles is the proximity of so many great artists' studios. We had a chance to drop in on the always beautiful Megan Whitmarsh this week and see what she has in the works.
Your backyard studio space is amazing! When did you build it and how as having such a great workspace affected your practice?
We bought our house in 2001 and started building the studio in 2009. It was finished in early 2010 I think. Rachel Allen, our architect, was really fantastic about working within our modest budget while trying to achieve our ambitious vision. Our house is a 1912 Arts & Crafts that we restored ourselves. We wanted a clean and modern feel for the workspace, but we loved the warmth of wood and the ease of built-ins, so we used the things we learned from restoring the house to inform the studio plans.
It has really changed my work to have so much space, and a space that is so sunshiney and feels so good to be in. I have always been really sensitive to environments and if I have a beautiful space to work in I work much more! Our house is tiny (785 sf) and we have 5 year-old twin daughters, so we had to decide between moving to a bigger house and having a studio in a garage or something, or staying in the tiny house and having a great workspace. We chose the latter. We love our tiny house and although sometimes it can feel like a puzzle to keep everything ordered, I actually like that it promotes minimalism and really choosing the things you possess. We are not big consumers and what we have we care for and try to make last a long time. I was brought up Quaker and one of the basic tenets is to live simply. This has always suited me and I feel good about continuing that tradition for my daughters – especially in this era of excess!
The girls have an area in the studio as well and it functions like a family studio in a way. I also love our neighborhood (Highland Park), know all my neighbors, and have some real friendships I have developed over the last 11 years of living here. We have a neighbor up the hill who is 65 and lives in the house he grew up in. He has amazing fruit trees and has taught my daughters to love all these special fruits – like pineapple guava and custard apples. My sister lives next door and my daughter's music teacher lives next door. It's really nice to have a community. I think people often think that LA is not community oriented but I think in the small, older neighborhoods there is a very strong sense of community, and I feel lucky to be a part of it. The fact that French restaurants, and coffee shops are nearby, and Scoops (my kids' favorite "restaurant") is coming to York Blvd. is just icing on the cake!
What projects are you working on right now?
I am working on some stuff for shows coming up in NY (fairs and group shows) with Jack Hanley Gallery. I'm also working on an animation with Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond) and Peter Glantz which is great. I have done my own stop action animation but never had my drawings animated, and I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out. Becky is an amazing talent and I am always delighted to work with her!
I am also making a book of my work with Spoonbill and Sugartown (booksellers in NY) and making some hand embroidered dresses and blouses and scarves for Grey Area in collaboration with JF and Sons (clothing designer in NY). Lots of other projects! Keeping busy!
For more on Megan's work, stop by her website here. Fecalface has some good articles here. There is also a great mini documentary on Megan at Creative Lives here. And This Gallery has a nice studio visit video here.
We've picked the winners of our "Win A Shepard Fairy Autographed CS Editions Notebook Contest." The lucky winners are Tiffany Jones (Los Angeles, CA), David Yao (University Heights, OH), Adam Oakman (Austin, TX), Tommy Roz (Bradley Beach, NJ) and Andrew Schmidt (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA). Thanks to everyone who participated, and if you'd like to pick up a non-signed copy of Shep's notebook, just head over to our store.
UPDATE: Contest has ended - we are picking winners now!
To commemorate the launch of our new Shepard Fairey collaboration, we are giving away 5 autographed notebooks! Shepard was kind enough to sign a handful of the new notebooks when we stopped by his studio the other day, so we're going to pass them on to 5 lucky fans. All you have to do is sign up for the CS Editions Newsletter by clicking here or the "Sign Up" Newsletter button in the upper right corner of our website. The contest runs from March 20th - 27th. Full contest rules below. And if you'd like to buy one of Shepard's (unsigned) notebooks, or any of our other artist collaborative notebooks, please stop in our online store or visit one of our retailers.
Contest Rules: By entering this contest, you are agreeing to these rules. Contestants enter by signing up for the CS Editions Newsletter (clicking the "sign up" button in our website header and entering their email). Contest is open to legal US residents only. One entry allowed per person. Contestants who enter with more than one email address will be disqualified. Contestants must sign up between March 20th and March 27, 2012. Entry cutoff is March 27 at 11:59 pm Pacific Time Zone. Five entrants will be picked at random to win one signed notebook each. Winners will be notified within two days from the contest cutoff via email. If winners do not respond within 7 days with a confirmed US mailing address, they will be disqualified and another winner will be picked. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply.
The wait is over! Shepard and Parra's new notebooks are now in stock and ready to ship. These two collaborations have been our most anticipated to date and we're super stoked on how they turned out. Stop my our store and pick some up!
We were out of town sliding some snow when this show went up, but getting to see Os Gemeos' Miss You mid-day with no one else around was pretty nice. The show is at Prism Gallery in West Hollywood from Feb 25 - Mar 24, 2012, so you've still got a couple weeks to see it if you're in town.
As we were leaving we ran into Pat from RVCA who was kind enough to point us in the direction of this nearby gemeos secret stash.
Apparently these sewn pieces were made by the twins' mother. Totally amazeballs!
One of our first collaborators, Cleon Peterson, has a new show opening this weekend at Guerrero Gallery in San Francisco. The opening reception for The Brinksman is March 10th from 7-10pm and will be up through April 7th.
Peterson's new works portray a dystopian future (or is it past?) where, as he puts it, "law breakers and law enforcers are one in the same; a world where ethics have been abandoned in favor of personal entitlement.”
If you're in the bay area, this should not be missed.
CS Editions' friend and contributor from the Great White North – Luke Ramsey – has an exhibition opening this Saturday (March 3rd - 17th : Night reception 7-10p.m, daytime 1-4p.m) at Madrona Gallery in Victoria, BC. If you happen to be in Canada, you should definitely check it out, eh.
