13 Altars Pt. lll

Goodbye

Big Cakes

Blue Bedroom

2 Candles

Linda

13 Altars Pt. ll

Chloe

Interview

The Lam

Sadie/Sharon

Nova

New Old Friends: 13 Altars Pt. 1

Vague Ultimate Bedroom

Romance

Sleepwalking

Beer Fridge

Green Door


Hello:
I haven't posted anything in a long time.
Pretty much since my little girl was born 9 weeks ago.

I had a numerically crazy birthday: turning 44, born'66 on 10 10 10.

Been trying to figure out the next project. And trying to figure if I can do it and sleep.

I needed to make some room in my studio.
So I had a studio sale on my birthday.
It was nice.
Didn't clear enough room.

But I took stock.

Going to be posting older silkscreens.
For sale.

The first series is called 13 Altars from 2008-9. This series was the precursor to the work in the Hex Opera series-which I still haven't posted all together. Soon...

Anyway-
all these silkscreens are 12" x 18"
(except Blue Bedroom which is 12" x 16.5"
Limited editions ranging from 10 - 30 (most editions of 17)
$30 each, which includes US shipping & handling
Overseas, I gotta figure out still...
contact me @ colin.burns@gmail.com

There are 15 images in this series.
Gonna do consecutive posts.
And soon-hopefully-subsequent posts of older print series, linocut as well as silkscreen.

I think this is the last print of this series...I think...

Studio Ghosts

The Horror

It's looking a bit Italian horror in the studio lately.

La Gritona cd released

The La Gritona 2 cd set was released today. 41 tracks, all our studio recordings and some live material. Nice booklet filled with photos and old flyers.
Available at www.bluecollardistro.com/hydrahead/

Lindsay

The first thing I heard on the radio this morning was Lindsay Lohan showing up late to prison.
I did a number of pieces "starring" Lindsay.
Here are two from 2006:

Laguna Sunset silkscreen 18" x 24" edition of 50
text:
She was gonna be anything she wanted to be
The pretty song on a metal album

The other is Lindsay Memoir #1-9, which casts Lindsay as member of The Family
9 pieces
linocut and media mounted on masonite 9.5" x 12.5" each
text:
It all started with Charlie
God and Man, Father-Lover
Charlie was Love

There was a short period
Where we knew
What we were doing

I traded it for Jesus And
For Life
It was a Ride

Candy Process

Photography

About a year ago I started doing photo shoots with Katie. At first, solely as a resource for my printmaking. Now, I am beginning to look at some of the shots as photographs instead of studies.

I've been using a digital camera for the past few years to document work, take family portraits, and do the occasional landscapes and figure studies. I took it on all the Goldmine Shithouse trips, and I'd come home to 6 blurry shots of gallery chaos.
Not the most diligent keeper of records.
Anyway, I was becoming more and more dissatisfied with relying on found images as the major sources in my work, and I realized I had the capabilities to shoot my own material. All those sources remain as inspiration.

The first few shoots I did with Katie were for specific purposes. The very first was for the big lino.
My friend Jake was kind enough to show me a secluded spot bordering Elysian Park. It was perfect. Trees, hay, party remnants. Just the kind of spot it's perfectly natural to ask someone to pose in as a naked corpse. It wasn't before long that during that first shoot that Katie began predicting what I wanted. Which makes my job easier. And it was fun. And I was getting really good source material.

The Hex Opera prints have a transitory feel for a number of reasons. I won't get into all of those reasons. Yet.
About half the series is based on smaller multi-layered silkscreen collages I've been working on the past few years featuring images of Sadie Mae, Sharon Tate, Barbi Benton, Leila Wadell, John Holmes and some other random porn stars. Enlarged in size. And reduced (also for a number of reasons) to black and white.
The other half of the series is images based on photo shoots with Katie.
Though I'm actually working on a small series of silkscreens, Silent Water being the first, taken directly from Katie photo sessions, after each shoot I'd find a photo or two that I couldn't really think of an interesting or necessary way to turn into a print of some sort.
Other than a photograph.
The above shots were taken in my friend Tristan's car last Sunday. Parked outside. Natural light, streetlights and car interior light.
Now the shoots are more like collaboration. I usually go with an idea of what I want. And I get that. And I usually get more I didn't expect or foresee.
Thanks Katie

Silent Water

I had to take another break from the big lino.
These Carny Hands are nothing but little claws, lately.
And I wanted to see some tangible progress.
And I'm less likely to fall asleep screen printing than I am cutting the lino...

Silent Water is a 2 color silkscreen (dark blue over light silver blue)
Image size is 18" x 24" printed on 22" x 3o" paper
From a photoshoot I did last year in the Los Angeles River

Looking at the prints hanging behind me, the dark blue is darker than the above photo. It dried down some. It's more contrasty.

The title comes from a song by the band The Telescopes from the album As Approved By The Committee. It's one of those songs that I wish I had written. Or at least had an excuse to sing.

More than other cities I've lived, names and places here constantly evoke bits of song, dialogue or scenery from film. etc. If I'm downtown crossing the LA River, I invariably envision a young Emilio Estevez puking over the bridge in Repo Man. When I cross it on my way to work I hear the second verse from Some Other Time by X:

this midnight
i will
turn into a beer
i will
dream of you between nightmares and wars
and toss and turn
ain't you gonna take me for a ride
drink and drive
down to the l.a. river bed
i'll make no mistakes and
i'll behave

Another inspiration for this piece came from the cover of the soundtrack to You Light Up My Life, which my in-laws have displayed in their living room. We were back east recently, visiting family, and I fixated on the cover, especially the tasty duotone color scheme.

I've been revisiting Twin Peaks lately, as well.

Now it's back to the lino.

After Schongauer

Eduardo came over earlier this week and helped me print.

I'm trying to figure out various options for printing the big lino.
I've never printed linocuts onto canvas before.
Never liked canvas, much. Always preferred paper and wood...
I've been thinking about various lighter weight options-such as rice paper-
but I want materials sturdier than that as well.
The linen seems a likely candidate for the big lino.
But not the rice paper we used this time.

I'm not sure if the photo conveys it, but her face on the linocut itself,
after printing and cleaning,
is much softer.

I did a previous post about the image.
Martin Schongauer 1440-1491 A Foolish Virgin c. 1480-90

These Brittle Bones

These are photos of my old band La Gritona taken by Ryan Murphy at a club called Jacques in Boston in 1995, at the first Drags, Dicks & Dykes benefit.
A Los Angeles label, Tortuga, is releasing a 2 disc La Gritona retrospective? Discography? (it's everything we recorded) later this Summer.
We've been tweaking the booklet the past few weeks, and this series were in the last batch of photos Thos sent earlier this week from Boston. The horizontal shot was the last missing piece in the booklet.
I don't think I'd ever seen these shots.
Pretty bad ass.
The anger!
The red shorts!
I'm so old fashioned, I can hardly wait to be holding the package in my hands.
I'll do another post when it's release is imminent.

In the meantime, here is a video Ryan Murphy shot of the song +2 Charisma:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfwqbs1diDo

La Gritona was: Thos Niles, Dana Embrose, Andrew Donheiser and me. In the red shorts.

Wee Break For Carny Hands

I'm trying to figure out different options for printing the big lino.
I'm planning on rice paper.
But I wanted to try printing on other materials.
Starting with this linen.

The engraving, A Foolish Virgin, is by Martin Schongauer (c. 1440-1491). He was an influence on Albrecht Durer. With umlauts.
I came across it in a book called Great Prints & Printmakers-Herman J. Wechsler.
It struck me.
I did this lino last year.
I was working on a couple of additional layers that I stopped working on.
Sidetracked by the Big Lino.
The layers may or may not reoccur...depends, really...
What I like.
I'll do some of these on rice paper as well.

Manson Bus

This is one of my favorite LA omens.

I've been admiring this vehicle since we moved to this side of town.

Trying to remember locales where it was parked
helped me discover various scenic routes through the neighborhood,
and how mine and other neighborhoods connected.

I hadn't seen it for a while.
But spotted in 3 times in 3 different locations in the past couple weeks.

The last time, when this picture was taken,
I was picking my son up from school.

It wasn't there when I parked.
It was there when we returned minutes later.




And,
working on that big lino.