Saturday fun+ Etsy wishlist

This Saturday Monkey + Seal had the pleasure of heading out to SPACE gallery on Polk to check out a gallery event put on by SIR, a cutting-edge Japanese-living-in-SF show. If anything, you need to check out their website to hear some awesome music that plays when you load their site. We were super lucky that Seal got handed a flyer by Lavit Sea, who was on hand to display a painting and do some on-the-spot watercolor portraits. Also, one of Monkey's friends AKANE was there with some cool abstract pieces. The drinks were also tasty (although not as strong as Monkey might have liked), and Monkey + Seal had a great time overall.


Earlier in the day, Monkey got the chance to make a quick trip out to the Center for the Book's Roadworks, where Megan from Aviary Press was one of the featured artists. She's starting a new line of letterpressed cards based on strange sea creatures like this Southern Bobtail Squid. Awesome stuff! Monkey also got to run into friends Dutch Door and New Lights! Yay!


Additionally, Monkey was browsing Etsy and found this little gem (shown above) in one of the treasuries. ATHD, the creator of the piece, also has some amazing (and expensive) other pieces of jewelry. If Monkey + Seal were into jewelry (we're sorta minimalist on the jewelry), and had the cash, we'd totally be down with some of her stuff.

Last but not least, Monkey will be working in a collaboration with another designer to do a new screen-printed poster based on typography. We're thinking it'll be one color, edition of 50, perhaps with some color variants thrown in for good measure. More details when we're closer to printing!

More Zine Fest Recaps

Monkey got his goofy face photographed along with other great tablers over at http://alphabetilately.com/family/Zine-Fest-2009.html. Monkey + Seal got pegged as being on the more commercial than not (although I guess we are), but it's cool that our table was part of the recap!

There are also some cool pics of the other exhibitors that we had met last year (like fellow Zine Fest organizer Aaron Cohick of New Lights Press) and new faces like Joseph of Dent Comics, Tom of Two Fine Chaps, and Sean of Ashcan Magazine.

Also, Seal's awesome illustration got featured on Eyedapop! blog. Check it out for a cool review of the piece and the nice bit of convo that went on between the author and Seal.

Lastly, the Bad Date Zine got a hit here way back in January. Yay!

Monkey + Seal also finally got a Flickr account, so you can check out their photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/monkeyandseal/.

Free workshops and fee workshops

So Monkey + Seal both enjoy teaching arts and crafts to people. So much, in fact, that we are both teaching some workshops in the near future..for free!

The Freebies:
Seal's Gouache Demo - August 22 + 23
As I'm sure you saw, Seal is planning to have a big-ol' long gouache painting demonstration at the SF Zine Fest (Aug 22+23, SF Country Fair Building). She will be sitting at our table with in-process works, so you can see the various stages of her work, as well as finished pieces and you can watch her paint! Lots of insight on how to paint with gouache (unlike how they teach you at Academy of Art) and trick and tips with working with the medium.

Monkey's Bookbinding Workshop - August 22 + 23
Monkey is co-instructing the Book Binding Basics and Beyond Workshop at the SF Zine Fest. He's not 100% sure what day or time it'll be, but we'll let you know ASAP! He is teaching alongside the amazing printer/writer/book artist Aaron Cohick of New Lights Press and they'll be doing some single-sheet books, some pamphlet stiches, and stab binding.


Anyhoo, Monkey and Seal also will teach small workshops for you and your friends at the venue of your choice. Please check out the workshops page here!