So is it really that Last Gasp time already? Let’s hope I have another weekend at least of art-time, but if not, I’ve been squeezing as many drawings out as the week allows. Here’s a composite Palo Alto shirt — the truck and palm from an abandoned lot on College Drive, with one of the archway arcades from Jordan Hall on Stanford’s Serra Drive. Done in the sauna of the past two days, I’m happy with the white on light turquoise. Medium t-shirt, up for sale on Etsy!
I rehabilitated two dead white t-shirts, one looser (the above one, with black print) and one with a spandex hug (below, with bright blue). Cut the sleeves, cut the collars, hem and repair! They feature Cem Karaca wrapped around them, with new black stretch collars. They’re Medium-Large size, easy to wear, plus mustache! On sale on Etsy now…
Another drawn shirt, Wednesday afternoon as I was going through an old backpack’s front pocket, these are all the things I discovered. The Turkmen Passport (thank you to Ilaman and Oraz for helping me hunt one down in an Ashgabat street market!), invitations to a Cyberpunk Apocalypse, Penn Future business card, Human Rights Center name tag, two Port Authority month passes, a seemingly large amount of Polish money, Fossil Free Fuel card, and some air mail stickers. Passport goes up front, naturally, as I continue my quest to do something important or strange enough to be awarded honorary Turkmen citizenship….
For now, it’s up for sale on Etsy, adult medium, cerulean blue!
Two drawn shirts from last autumn in Belfast — one drawn in Linen Hall Library’s cafe, the other Clements on Botanic Avenue. Thanks to Julia and Johanna’s Miriam for the shirt bases; the drawing was with a black fabric marker, set with heat. They are up for sale on Etsy now, with some sadness.
This week I am drawing book t-shirts. I got these great steel tipped squeeze bottles, loaded them up with screenprinting ink, and have been freehanding sketches. One day I will learn to be a planner and measurer, but not yet.
This one is The Reflective Practitioner, a Donald Schon book. I am sure there is a huge market for design-sociology academic texts! I have found my new boom-market. I took the tshirt out reflectively practitioning in the meantime….
From a recuperated t-shirt, brought back from the head, sliced apart, and re-collared with an old stocking — then printed up with a few lines of Pittsburgh buildings I drew.
Another drawn shirt from Oakland, a big old house that is not quite falling down. I used blue ink on a cotton/spandex women’s tank. Again, I chose to put on just one house around the front/side, with it barely reaching the back.
This is the first time I’ve worked on really stretch fabric, and even if it is a lot more time intensive, the way the drawing morphs with the body is a lot of fun. I know I need to take some shots of the shirts in action, on an actual human, maybe I will lure some friends into a base life of modeling.
One of my favorite little corners of Oakland — Oakland Avenue, off of Forbes, where “Absolutely No Ball Playing Allowed”. Also Featured — Uncle Sam’s Gourmet Subs, Joe Mama’s Diner, Sneakers thrown over the electrical wires, and that creepy Coca Cola mural lady…
I drew this over the course of one long afternoon in the Fall, and now finished it up as an actual shirt. I had taken a giant cotton tshirt, cut it up into a blouse pattern, and then used a former stocking for the collar/strap border. It’s a little swing shirt, hits right above the hips, and moves well. More Oakland shirts to come!
I love riding the PAT T through Beechview any time of the day, but especially when the rangy brick houses are lit up for December. The best parts are the mammoth porches, they are the big curious mouths to the house’s face — two second floor windows for eyes, a peak of tiles for some green hair, a long flight of stairs for the neck.
So I started drawing some of my favorite houses onto shirts — this shirt comes from Johanna, from Berlin, and it’s the nicest shirt I’ve drawn on — a finely stitched silk. I was a bit nervous to touch the pen to it, but a few cups of coffee later I could hardly stop.
I’m not sure whether I’m finished here yet, I’ll let this one sit and see if I want to add anything further. But I like the one house, most of it on the side of the shirt. It’s not too overwhelming, and the blue and the white play nicely together.
A Pierogie T-shirt, Drawn for Miriam!
